Events in Music
Music Premiere
Dec 1 Musical "The Color Purple" based on the book by Alice Walker opens on Broadway produced by Oprah Whitney starring LaChanze (Tony Award Best Actress in a Musical)
Album Release
Dec 20 "The Breakthrough" 7th studio album by Mary J. Blige is released
- Dec 21 Civil Partnership Act comes into force in the UK, with singer Elton John and David Furnish one of the first couples to form a same-sex civil union
Weddings in Music
- Dec 3 American rock singer Marilyn Manson [Brian Warner] (36) weds burlesque performer Dita Von Teese (33) at Castle Gurteen in County Tipperary, Ireland
- Dec 10 "Audioslave" drummer Brad Wilk (37) weds "Seven Year Bitch" former lead vocalist Selene Vigil near the frozen waters of Emerald Bay in Lake Tahoe
Wedding of Interest
Dec 10 Country music artist Garth Brooks (43) weds singer Trisha Yearwood (41) in Claremore, Oklahoma
- Dec 17 "Modern Day Drifter" country singer Dierks Bentley (30) weds Cassidy Black in Mexico
- Dec 17 Australian country singer Kasey Chambers (29) weds singer-songwriter Shane Nicholson in Avoca, New South Wales
- Dec 23 Brazilian soccer player Kaká (23) weds Brazilian singer Caroline Celico (18) at Igreja Renascer em Cristo in Sao Paulo, Brazil; divorce in 2015
Laura Dern
Dec 23 American "Jurassic Park" actress Laura Dern (38) weds musician Ben Harper (36) in Los Angeles, California; divorce in 2013
- Dec 31 "One Tree Hill" actress Bethany Joy Lenz (24) weds "Enation" musician Michael Galeotti in Hillsboro, Oregon
Divorces in Music
Jessica Simpson
Dec 16 American singer-songwriter and TV personality Jessica Simpson (25) divorces singer-songwriter Nick Lachey (31) due to irreconcilable differences
Renée Zellweger
Dec 20 Actress Renée Zellweger (36) annuls her marriage to country-music singer Kenny Chesney (37) citing fraud, after 4 months of marriage
Deaths in Music
- Dec 4 Gloria Lasso [Rosa Montserrat Coscolín], French-Spanish n canción melódica singer ("Etranger au paradis"; "Buenas noches mi amor"), dies of a heart attack at 83
- Dec 5 Danny Williams, British pop singer, known as "Britain's Johnny Mathis" ("Moon River"; "White on White"), dies of lung cancer at 63
- Dec 6 Danny Williams, South African-born singer (b. 1942)
- Dec 9 György Sándor, Hungarian pianist, dies at 93
- Dec 13 Timothy Jordan II, American pop-rock musician (The All American Rejects; Jonezetta), takes his own life at 24
- Dec 16 Enzo Stuarti [Scapone], Italian-American pop tenor (That's A'Nice!), dies at 86
- Dec 25 Derek Bailey, English guitar virtuoso (b. 1930)
- Dec 25 (Märta) Birgit Nilsson, Swedish operatic soprano (Elektra, Salome), dies at 87
- Dec 26 Muriel Costa-Greenspon, American mezzo-soprano (b. 1937)
- Dec 31 Enrico di Giuseppe, American tenor, dies of cancer at 73