Working For The Weekday highlights some of the top music stories from the previous weekend. Today, we’re covering Dijon’s recent SNL performance, why Gene Simmons still sucks, Miley Cyrus’ fear of paper, and more.
Dijon performs on Saturday Night Live
Earlier this year, we gave Dijon’s Baby a Perfect 10. I stand by my review, and it was excellent getting to hear him play a few songs from that project—“Higher!” and “Another Baby!”—on SNL last weekend. He brought a 12-person band along for the performances, and the ensemble featured Amber Coffman, Nick Hackim, and Bon Iver’s Justin Vernon. I saw folks online calling it the best SNL performance of the 2020s so far. It’s definitely up there, though I would still give the top prize to Jack White’s last-minute performance during COVID in 2020. But out of all of the Season 51 musical guests—Sombr, Sabrina Carpenter, Olivia Dean, and Doja Cat, to name a few—his songs certainly stand up best, rivaled only by Carpenter’s bedtime rendition of “Manchild.”
The SNL studio is infamously difficult to sound great in. In fact, a good way to test your own mettle is by performing there. Chappell Roan made good use of the space last season, but Dijon’s hammy, stripped-down, and freewheeling post-R&B style is a perfect vessel for a room’s less-than-stellar sound setup. It felt like I was in the room with him, which is the best compliment I can give out. Dijon’s US tour is over, but he’ll be taking Baby to Europe starting in January.
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Surprise! Gene Simmons is still an asshole
In October, KISS guitarist Ace Frehley passed away at age 74 after sustaining a skull fracture, subdural hematoma, and stroke after a fall. His old bandmate Gene Simmons, a year-round guest at rock and roll’s table of bastards, spoke about Frehley’s death in a New York Post interview before the band’s forthcoming Kennedy Center Honors, claiming that “bad decisions” led to the fall. “He refused [advice] from people that cared about him—to try to change his lifestyle,” Simmons said. “In and out of bad decisions. Falling down the stairs—I’m not a doctor—doesn’t kill you. There may have been other issues, and it breaks my heart. The saddest thing—you reap what you shall sow unfortunately.”
I don’t take many rock musicians at their word, but Frehley himself shared in 2024 that he had been sober for 18 years. Not only is Simmons the guy who beamed about being “the guy who says ‘Jump!’ when there’s a guy on top of a building who says, ‘That’s it, I can’t take it anymore, I’m going to jump,’” but Frehley did accuse him of groping his wife, calling him an “asshole and a sex addict.” I know Simmons’ tongue is the size of an arm, but surely he could keep his mouth shut just this once?
Israel to compete in Eurovision 2026, other countries boycott competition
Before the weekend, it was revealed that Israel will be allowed to participate in the international song competition Eurovision. In a statement, the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) announced that all countries that “wish to participate in the Eurovision Song Contest 2026 and agree to comply with the new rules” are eligible to do so. Spain, Ireland, the Netherlands, and Slovenia have all chosen to withdraw from the competition, and reports suggest that Iceland will withdraw soon, too.
Spain’s RTVE revealed in a press release that its directors board “agreed last September that Spain would withdraw from Eurovision if Israel participated.” A vote on Israel’s suspension was requested, but not approved. Ireland echoed Spain’s statement, writing that Israel’s “participation remains unconscionable given the appalling loss of lives in Gaza and the humanitarian crisis there which continues to put the lives of so many civilians at risk.”
Though Israel is not a European country, its public broadcaster, KAN, is a member of the EBU, which allows the country to compete in Eurovision. Israel has won the competition four times since 1973. Since the Israel-Hamas war began on October 7, 2023, the Palestinian death toll has risen to over 70,000. Despite its genocide of Palestinian people, Israel was allowed to compete in Eurovision in 2024 and 2025.
Miley Cyrus is afraid of paper
In a recent appearance on Jimmy Kimmel Live!, Miley Cyrus revealed that she has papyrophobia, a fear of paper. The Something Beautiful singer recently became engaged to Maxx Morando, which Kimmel congratulated her on, guessing that the proposal would be a tough Christmas gift to beat. Cyrus rejected his idea, calling herself a “grinch” around Christmas and elaborating that “the real problem for me with paper is when people have dry hands and they touch paper. And then it’s Christmas, it’s cold, and everyone’s hands are dry and they’re all touching paper!” I feel the same way about styrofoam.
It became obvious that Cyrus wasn’t doing a bit. She really hates dry paper, revealing that she only reads books on a Kindle or iPad, can barely stand to read cue cards, and won’t open letter mail. But the problem is just dry paper. Wax and rolling papers are OK, though. Cardboard? Forget about it. Cyrus even opened up about her childhood traumas around her phobia. “My Mom would be driving and it would be complete chaos, because all of us would fight for the entire 14 hours, and then to really torture me, [my brothers] would rub paper together while I was in the backseat.” She also noted that the older she gets the worse her phobia becomes. But she wants to get help. “There does need to be some sort of intervention,” she told Kimmel. “I am going to look into some EMDR, being hypnotized about it, because it is affecting my everyday life.”
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Billy McFarland put on another music festival… sort of
Remember Fyre Festival? Remember Fyre Festival 2.0? Billy McFarland has proven himself to be something of a cursed music festival promoter. In Honduras on Saturday night, however, he put on an actualmusic festival, PHNX, that had actual artists there. And there were crowds! Sure, it was only a few hundred people who came, if that. But considering how McFarland famously spent four years in prison after a $24.7 million fraud conviction linked to Fyre Festival’s first iteration, I’d say getting even one person to buy into his event should be a personal victory for the disgraced businessman. French Montana and Bobby Shmurda headlined PHNX, which was live-streamed for a $6.99 fee.
In Consequence’s report, they never witnessed the viewer count rise very far above 100 people. There were apparently technical issues, power outages, and a one-legged man getting on stage. But hey! The show must go on and it did. Maybe not being able to call it Fyre Festival 3.0 was the saving grace for McFarland this time (I still find it funny that he was disappointed when the auction of the Fyre brand sold for “only” $245,000 on eBay in July). Congrats to him for promoting a music festival and actually following through on it, even if he absolutely did lose thousands of dollars doing so.
@machetephil PHNX Festival with DOZENS in attendance! #PHNX #fyrefestival #billymcfarland ♬ original sound – MachetePhil
