Dolly Parton helped fund Moderna's COVID vaccine, has a new memoir, Netflix holiday movie, more

Dolly Parton is everywhere lately, including places you might not expect. Back in April she made a $1 million donation to the Vanderbilt University Medical Center to help fund their efforts to combat the coronavirus pandemic, and part of the University’s work was Moderna’s research and trial of their vaccine. On Monday, Moderna announced that its vaccine is “more than 94% effective in preventing Covid-19.” In The New England Journal of Medicine‘s announcement about the results, “The Dolly Parton Covid-19 Research Fund” was listed as one of its supporters.

There’s lots more Dolly news. Today, she released her new memoir, Songteller: My Life in Lyrics (Chronicle Books), which explores her lengthy, sometimes tumultuous career through 175 of her songs. It contains personal stories behind the lyrics, in addition to never-before-seen photographs and memorabilia, giving fans (such as rising Afropop star, Amaarae, who recently listed Dolly as an influence) an intimate look into Dolly’s life.

Promoting the album, Dolly was on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert last month, telling a story about how her mother used to sing her folk songs, like “Bury Me Beneath the Willow,” which she sang a bit of and brought Stephen to tears:

In conjunction with her memoir, Dolly recently launched Songteller Radio, her new artist channel on Sonos’ new HD radio service, where she plays some of her favorite songs (both her own and by others) and shares commentary, memories and anecdotes. Learn more about that here.

Dolly also released a new Christmas album in October, A Holly Dolly Christmas (Butterfly Records), featuring collaborators Miley Cyrus and her dad Billy Ray, as well as Jimmy Fallon, Michael Bublé, and others. You can watch the animated music video for “Cuddle Up, Cozy Down Christmas” (ft. Michael Bublé), and listen to the album, below

There’s also new Netflix musical film Dolly Parton’s Christmas on The Square, which stars Christine Baranski, is directed by Debbie Allen and features 14 Dolly songs. Here’s the synopsis: “Christmas On The Square follows small town ‘Scrooge’ Regina Fuller (Christine Baranski) as she’s visited by a rhinestone-bedazzled angel (Dolly) who guides her on a musical journey of redemption. Will this stingy property owner evict the entire town of Fullerville on Christmas Eve, or will her greed give way to the Christmas spirit?” We’re gonna guess the latter, but you’ll have to wait until November 22 to watch and find out for sure. You can watch the trailer below.

There’s still more: Dolly is also on Barry Gibb’s star-studded new solo album (as are Jason Isbell, Sheryl Crow, Alison Krauss, Miranda Lambert, Brandi Carlile, Gillian Welch and more), and you can catch her as part of this year’s virtual Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade which airs November 28 from 9 AM – noon on NBC.

At the rate Dolly’s going, there’s likely to be more news soon. Stay tuned.