Bruno Mars' Spotify Record, 2025 Sundance, And John Mulaney's Live Netflix Talk Show

Happy Friday, folks!

We finally made it here. Thank so much for joining me on this first issue of The Frosted Letter. I’m pumped to be bringing you the latest and greatest of what’s happening every week in music, film, television, and all things pop culture.

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Thank you for being here - now let’s get into it!

—Stephen Frost

🎵 How Bruno Mars Topped 150M+ Monthly Listeners Without A New Solo Album In Over 8 Years

Bruno Mars has landed another exceptionally impressive feat this week! The global superstar broke a Spotify record by notching 150 million monthly listeners, the most of any artist ever in the history of the platform. And still, since the news on Monday (as of this writing), he’s the number-one artist on Spotify (just behind him is The Weeknd at #2 and Lady Gaga at #3).

How did he manage to land this impressive title? He has his collaborators Lady Gaga and ROSÉ to thank. First, in August last year, his song with the Disease singer, Die With A Smile, became the fastest song to reach a billion listens (it’s also currently Grammy nominated for Song of the Year at this Sunday’s ceremony). Then two months later, he featured on K-pop superstar ROSE’s song APT, which also managed to reach a billion streams in a similarly short amount of time.

Another important factor…his catalog has only become more iconic, streamable, and popular as the years go by. According to Spotify, he now has 17 songs that have reached 1 billion streams including “That’s What I Like,” “Locked Out of Heaven,” and “Just the Way You Are.”

A third factor that also ties back to his Spotify record is how he has managed to stay relevant this past year. He’s spent a good chunk of last year playing shows at his residency in Vegas and touring around the world, opening his club The Pinky Ring in Vegas, and partnering with brands like Hello, Kitty when he’s not releasing music.

But if you’re like me, you may be asking yourself…and he still hasn’t put out his own album since 2016’s 24K Magic? Why yes, that’s sadly the case, but hopefully fans won’t have to wait much longer. Just this past week, he released the R-rated track “Fat Juicy & Wet” with rapper Sexxy Red that could very well break similar records on Spotify like the aforementioned singles released last year. Fingers crossed this is the year we finally get BM4!

🍿 2025 Sundance Film Premieres And Its Final Year In Park City

The 2025 Sundance Film Festival, which kicked off last Thursday and runs through this Sunday, will wrap its historic run in Park City, Utah before relocating to a new city next year (in the running currently are Salt Lake City, Boulder, and Cincinnati). This year’s festival is premiering 88 feature films and 57 short films, most of which are looking for major studio distribution if they don’t have one already.

Like many of the other leading film festivals like TIFF, Tribeca, and Telluride, Sundance has premiered dozens of both fan and critically favored films that have become mainstays in cinema circles across the world. Notable Sundance premieres from years past include Napoleon Dynamite, Little Miss Sunshine, American Psycho, 500 Days of Summer, Palm Springs, and the current 2x Oscar-nominated film A Real Pain to name a few.

This year’s lineup has plenty of exciting flicks I’m sure we’re all going to be talking about a ton come awards season again at the end of this year. Based on recent critic reviews along with the cast and crew involved, here are five exciting new titles to be excited about and keep an eye on throughout 2025,

5 New Films To Be Anticipating Post-Sundace:

If I Had Legs I’d Kick You

• Director: Mary Bornstein

• Cast: Rose Byrne, Delaney Quinn, A$AP Rocky, Conan O’Brien

• Logline: With her life crashing down around her, Linda attempts to navigate her child’s mysterious illness, her absent husband, a missing person, and an increasingly hostile relationship with her therapist.

It’s Never Over, Jeff Buckley

• Director: Amy J. Berg

• Cast: Jeff Buckley

• Logline: Rising musician Jeff Buckley had only released one album when he died suddenly in 1997. Now, never-before-seen footage, exclusive voice messages, and accounts from those closest to him offer a portrait of the captivating singer.

Sly Lives! (aka the Burden of Black Genius)

• Director: Questlove

• Cast: Sly Stone, Andre 3000

• Logline: An examination of the life and legacy of Sly & The Family Stone - the groundbreaking band led by the charismatic Sly Stone - that captures the band’s reign while shedding light on the burden that comes with success for Black artists in America.

Kiss of the Spider Woman

• Director: Bill Condon

• Cast: Diego Luna, Jennifer Lopez

• Logline: Valentín, a political prisoner, shares a cell with Molina, a window dresser convicted of public indecency. The two form an unlikely bond as Molina recounts the plot of a Hollywood musical starring his favorite silver screen diva, Ingrid Luna.

Rebuilding

• Director: Max Walker-Silverman

• Cast: Josh O’Connor, Lily LaTorre, Meghann Fahey, Kali Reis

• Logline: After a wildfire takes the family farm, a rancher seeks a way forward.

📺 John Mulaney Plots Netflix Return With Live Talk Show ‘Everybody’s Live’ This March

John Mulaney’s newest live talk show, Everybody’s Live with John Mulaney, has announced a March 12th premiere date on Netflix. The new show will run for 12 weeks and marks the follow-up to the Baby J comedian’s perfectly chaotic, weird, and hysterical limited series Everybody’s In LA, which aired last year during Netflix Is A Joke Fest.

Mulaney announced Everybody’s Live on stage at the streaming service’s Next on Netflix event this past Wednesday in L.A., where he joked and teased what’s to come with this next iteration of his live series. And if Everybody’s In LA was any indication of how disruptive the program was to the talk show space, he’s planning on doubling down even more hilariously with Everybody’s Live.

What Mulaney is saying about Everybody’s Live: “We will be live globally with no delay. We will never be relevant. We will never be your source for news. We will always be reckless. Netflix will always provide us with data that we will ignore. This is the one place where you can see Arnold Schwarzenegger sitting next to Nikki Glaser, sitting next to a family therapist with music by Mannequin Pussy — that’s just an example; we don’t know if we can lock in Mannequin Pussy. This is a really fun experiment. Not since Harry and Meghan has Netflix given more money to someone without a specific plan.”

In addition to his show, Netflix announced dozens of more new shows and films premiering throughout the rest of 2025 including Tina Fey’s The Four Seasons, season 2 of Shane Gillis’ Tires, a new Eddie Murphy documentary, Adam Sandler’s anticipated Happy Gilmore sequel, the third Knives Out film Wake Up Dead Man, and tons more.

That’s it for this week folks. We hope you enjoyed this first go-around at The Frosted Letter. If you have any feedback or comments on what’d you like to see in this newsletter, feel free to reply to me on this email.

We’ll see you back again next Friday & have a great weekend!

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