New Music Friday August 21: Reba, Sam Smith, Weezer, Dan + Shay, BIGBANG, paris jackson, Stella Lefty & More

Happy New Music Friday! The weekend is here, which means more streaming, new playlists and the best that music has to offer — and ET has you covered for everything in between.

Nominations for the 2026 MTV Video Music Awards have been announced with Madonna and Taylor Swift leading as the top nominees. Madonna leads with 11 nominations, Taylor Swift has 9, hoping to add to her 30 Moon Persons. Other top contenders include Ariana Grande and Sabrina Carpenter (7 each), Bruno Mars, PinkPantheress and Zara Larsson (5 each), LISA (4), Shakira and Tate McRae (3 each). First time nominees include GENER8ION and Yung Lean, CORTIS, Stella Left, Don Toliver, Kali Uchis, Noah Kahan, Olivia Dean, Sienna Spiro, and Tucker Wetmore. The Best Dance category returns for the first time in seven years. The VMAs will broadcast live from Los Angeles on CBS, MTV and stream on Paramount+ on September 27.

Shakira visited Chocó and has announced a commitment to rebuild schools and stand alongside communities affected by the recent disaster. She is working together with Fundación Pies Descalzos and local and international partners for relief and rebuilding efforts. Nearly 200 schools were damaged, 40 were completely destroyed, leaving thousands of children without anywhere to study. As part of the emergency response, Shakira announced that Global Citizen has pledged $500,000 dollars toward rebuilding the affected schools, and Live Nation also donated another $500,000 bringing the initial fund to $1 million. Shakira said, “To the parents who lost their children, words are not enough. All I can offer is my heart, and the promise that their pain will never be forgotten.”

Phraa

Miranda Lambert was announced as the first performer to grace the stage at Nashville’s new music venue, The Truth. Miranda will headline its inaugural performance on October 1, opening Nashville’s new 4,400-capacity venue in Wedgewood-Houston. Presented as Miranda Lambert: One Night Only, the opening night performance will feature a 12-piece string section as her performs her hits and previews songs off her upcoming new album, Crisco. Miranda shared, “It was magical to hear the way strings can transform a song when we were in the studio creating this record, and I can’t wait to bring that to life in an even bigger way with our full setlist. We’ve never gotten to play that way on stage, and to have the opportunity to do it for the first time at the opening of a beautiful new venue right here in Nashville is going to be really special.”

The Academy of Country Music celebrated the honorees of the 19th Academy of Country Music Honors at The Pinnacle in Nashville on August 19. Hosted by Carly Pearce and Parker McCollum, the evening celebrated Country Music artists, songwriters, industry leaders and advocates whose contributions have helped shape and advance the genre. Special honorees included Bill Anderson, Brett James, C2C: Country to Country, The Carter Family, Dolly Parton, Eric Church, Kacey Musgraves, Paramount+ series “Landman,” Leslie Fram, Mike Curb, and Scott Zolke. The ceremony also celebrated previously announced ACM Artist-Songwriter of the Year Ella Langley, ACM Songwriter of the Year Jessie Jo Dillon and ACM Studio Recording Award and Industry Award winners. ACM Lifting Lives raised over $65,000 at the event.

Getty Images Courtesy of the Academy of Country Music

Dolly Parton was honored with the ACM Poet’s Award recognizing her extraordinary, decades-long impact as one of Country Music’s most gifted and influential songwriters. She accepted the honor via a special video message and shared, “I’ve been able to do many things throughout my life, but at my core, songwriting has always been the most important part of who I am creatively. Every dream I ever had and all the dreams that I’ve been able to see come true in life, well they all started with a song. Songwriting has been my therapy, songwriting has been my release, my joy. Songwriting has been a gift from God that has allowed me to touch people with words and music. So thank you God, and thank you fans around the world and everyone at ACM for giving me this very special award.”

Jason Aldean celebrated a career milestone backstage at his sold-out Double Down Tour date in Washington, D.C., where two of his biggest hits “You Make It Easy” and “Dirt Road Anthem” were honored with official RIAA Diamond certifications. This was an official career first for Jason and comes on the heels of a run of new RIAA certifications as earlier this month, twelve of his albums and singles received new Platinum certifications.

Justin Mrusek

Diane Warren has written a new original song, “By Any Means” for the feature film, “By Any Means” starring Yahya Abdul-Mateen II and Mark Wahlberg. The song is performed by David Kushner and The Isley Brothers and will be on the By Any Means, The Album soundtrack out on September 18. Diane shared her inspiration in writing the song, “I wanted to write a song that captured the spirit of the film which is about those who go beyond the rules to do what is necessary. My idea was to take an iconic artist who came from that era and pair them with an artist from this current era.”

Cara Delevingne released a new single “Crazy, Baby” which she co-wrote and co-produced. Alongside the release, she premiered the video which stars Samara Weaving. Cara also announced that her debut album, Not Normal, will be out on September 25.

Plus, new music from Reba, William Shatner, Sam Smith, Weezer, Dan + Shay, BIGBANG, paris jackson, Stella Lefty, Cruz Beckham, ENHYPEN, Lucky Daye & Leon Thomas, Miles Caton and more.

TOURIST – EP – Reba McEntire