Music News with Ashanti and Leslie Odom Jr

ASHANTI TO STAR IN ‘CHRISTMAS WINTER SONG’ FOR LIFETIME: Ashanti is set to star in and executive produce the Lifetime holiday movie, A Christmas Winter Song. Also featuring Stan Shaw and Sashani Nichole, the film will debut December 14th. “Clio, a Christmas shop owner, forms a special musical bond with Fred, a former jazz singer down on his luck,” a synopsis said. “Having just lost her own father, Clio helps Fred reconnect with his own daughter and grandchildren, just in time for the town’s annual Christmas concert.” A Christmas Winter Song will be part of the cable network’s “It’s a Wonderful Lifetime” slate of holiday programming, set to begin October 25th.

LESLIE ODOM JR. RELEASES 3 NEW SINGLES: Leslie Odom, Jr., released three new singles, “Go Crazy,” “u r my everything” and “Standards,” on Friday. The trio of singles appears on Odom’s forthcoming album Mr, set for release November 8th. The album features 10 other songs, including the single “Under Pressure.” “new songs are out,” Odom tweeted Friday. Odom will perform “Go Crazy” October 24th on The Late Late Show with James Corden and November 5th on Today. Odom wrote and recorded Mr over the past two years. The album is his first album of all-original material and features elements of soul, R&B, jazz and pop.

SUPERM’S ‘1ST MINI ALBUM’ TOPS U.S. ALBUM CHART: K-pop boy band SuperM’s The 1st Mini Album is No. 1 on the U.S. album chart. Coming in at No. 2 on the Billboard 200 roster dated Saturday is Summer Walker’s Over It, followed by Post Malone’s Hollywood’s Bleeding at No. 3, DaBaby’s Kirk at No. 4 and Taylor Swift’s Lover at No. 5. SuperM’s upcoming 10-date North American arena tour, launching November 11th, also includes a concert ticket/album sale redemption offer, where a CD copy of the album was bundled into the purchase price of the ticket. Customers could choose to redeem the album and have it mailed to them, but only those redeemed albums could count towards the charts. When the album was released on October 4th, SuperM celebrated by hosting a week-long, wildly popular pop-up shop in Los Angeles during street week, right next to the Hollywood Walk of Fame, where fans could purchase the CD. The same week, SuperM held hyper-efficient album signings at record stores in the Los Angeles area, where only one band member signed each customer’s CD to avoid bottlenecking – instead of having the entire group sign a disc.

IDINA MENZEL & ARIANA GRANDE SALUTES SANTA’S WIFE IN ‘A HAND FOR MRS. CLAUS’: Former Wicked star Idina Menzel and Wicked super fan Ariana Grande have teamed up for a fun duet on Idina’s new holiday album Christmas: A Season of Love, out now. The song, “A Hand for Mrs. Claus,” was written by Frozen composers Kristen Anderson-Lopez and Robert Lopez. In the humorous song, Idina and Ariana trade verses about Santa’s wife, who gets no respect despite the fact that Santa couldn’t do it without her. Ariana also appears on For the Girls, the new album from Idina’s Wicked co-star, Kristin Chenoweth. Christmas: A Season of Love also features Idina teaming up with Emmy-winning Pose star Billy Porter for “I Got My Love to Keep Me Warm,” her Frozen co-star Josh Gad on “We Wish You the Merriest,” and her husband Aaron Lohr on “I’ll Be Home for Christmas.” There’s also a solo holiday version of the signature song from the show Rent, “Seasons of Love,” as well as a tribute to Idina’s Jewish heritage with “Ocho Kandelikas,” a Hanukkah song she sings in Ladino, the ancient language of Sephardic Jews.