With Christmas just days away, PPL and PRS for Music, organizations that are responsible for collecting royalties for performers and music creators, have revealed the top Christmas songs that have been played the most during the last ten years. The chart is topped by Mariah Carey’s classic version of “All I Want For Christmas” that was released in 1994. The song was written by Walter Afanasieff and Mariah Carey. In the second spot is “Fairytale of New York” by the Pogues from 1987. The song was written by Jem Finer and Shane MacGowan and features the deceased Kristy MacColl.

Daughtry and Jennifer Lopez will be performing live at Times Square for “Dick Clark’s New Year’s Rockin’ Eve” 38th consecutive year show. The show’s official name is “Dick Clark’s New Year’s Rockin’ Eve with Ryan Seacrest 2010” will also be featuring The Black Eyed Peas who will be performing live in Las Vegas at City Center’s Aria. The celebration in Las Vegas will be hosted by Fergie and will also feature performances from Robin Thicke, Orianthi, Colbie Caillat, Keri Hilson, Justin Bieber and Selena Gomez.

On Tuesday it was announced that among the super stars set to perform in Los Angeles at the Grammy Awards on January 31 are Taylor Swift, Beyonce and the Black Eyed Peas. An inside source revealed to People Magazine on Tuesday that Swift, the country cutie, will be a presenter for the show. Beyonce is the leading nominee with 10 nominations and Swift is second with eight.

Well it’s official. 2009 is days away from coming to a close so it’s time to pull out all of those best of the decade lists. They are exhaustive, tedious and largely subjective, but this one is interesting. Pollstar has released a list of the most successful touring artists over the past decade judged by box office receipts. The touring machine that is Dave Matthews Band took top honors pulling in $529.1 million on 11.6 million tickets sold. Celine Dion, Kenny Chesney, Bruce Springsteen and the Rolling Stones round out the top 5 with James Taylor sliding into the number 50 slot. $116.3 million still isn’t a bad haul for a man long past his prime. There aren’t too many surprises snuck in here. Most of your arena bands are represented. Who will be the topping the charts when we look back in 2019? Only time will tell.

The Country Thunder concerts next year in Wisconsin and Arizona will be featuring headliners Kenny Chesney and Keith Urban, according to the website for the event.

The Florence, AZ event will take place April 14-17. Featured headliners will be Willie Nelson, Miranda Lambert, Kid Rock and Keith Urban. Lambert will be headlining on Thursday April15 with Collin Raye, Jo Dee Messina and Gary Allan supporting. Keith Urban will headline Friday April 16. Kevin Costner and Modern West will provide support. The last “Country Thunder” night in Arizona will feature Willie Nelson and Kid Rock.

The alt-rock group 311 have mapped out a late winter trek covering the West Coast. The band continues to support “Uplifter,” their latest album released last summer. Their latest set of shows will be kicking off in Santa Cruz on February 23, followed by two additional stops in California. The outing of 11 cities will include opening support from The Wailers for five of their shows and wrap up things with a “311 Day” special concert at Mandalay Bay in Las Vegas on March 11.

Carrie Underwood, country music superstar, is now engaged to Mike Fisher, hockey player, according to Underwood’s spokesperson. Jessie Schmidt said, Carrie Underwood is now engaged with Mike Fisher, I am very happy to confirm. The couple could not be any happier. At this time, a wedding has not been set.

Most Sade fans have long given up on the bleak prospect of getting a new Sade album. Shoot Prince himself said the primary reason he recorded the Elixer disc (the third disc from his latest “LotusFlow3r” release) was because he’d grown tired that Sade would never release another album. Well the long awaited effort is barreling down the tracks for a February 9th release date.

It’s hard to image as winter gets a firm foothold, but the sultry, spring New Orleans Jazz Festival is just around the corner. The festival is headlined by heavyweight music acts like Pearl Jam, Van Morrison, Widespread Panic, The Black Crowes and My Morning Jacket. The 2010 edition of the New Orleans Jazz Festival marks the 41st running of the classic music event that features an eclectic blend of musical genres from rock and pop to gospel and blues.

Adam Lambert told Entertainment Weekly that he has started to plan a tour. It will probably begin Spring 2010. Lambert said, I think it will probably be in the springtime most likely. I have started to talk with management about us putting together something. I don’t think it will be one of those standard arena tours. We want to do something a little big different than that.