music

When CBS ended “The Late Show With Stephen Colbert” earlier this year, it also shuttered the program’s robust music offerings — a major blow for artists whose television platform was already dwindling.

Performing on late-night has historically been a unique avenue for musicians hoping to access new audiences — think of a rising Chappell Roan on “The Late Show” or even The Beatles on “The Ed Sullivan Show.” But when James Corden left CBS’ “The Late Late Show” in 2023, his program — and its coveted performance space — was never revived. NBC’s “Late Night With Seth Meyers” has cut back on live music, while ABC’s “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” reduced performances to twice a week. As it stands, only NBC’s “The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon” consistently books live performances.

Emerging artists still see incredible value in these performances — and are hopeful that nascent online programming will offer a new alternative.

Breaking through on late-night

March 3, 2014, was the day that changed everything for rock band Future Islands. The synth-pop group was a stalwart of America’s underground music scene due in no small part to charismatic frontman Samuel T. Herring and his idiosyncratic voice, somewhere between Tom Waits and Rammstein’s Till Lindemann. That day, they performed on “Late Show with David Letterman,” and the host was transfixed. “I’ll take all of that you got!” Letterman cheered, and the DIY band was cast into true virality.

“At the time that we played Letterman, we were in a transitory period for the band,” said bassist William Cashion. They’d signed to the larger indie label 4AD Records, hired management and were promised a late-night TV spot but never thought it would pan out. “Our team, they told us, ‘It’ll be good for your fans and your friends and family, but it’s not really going to move the needle. These things don’t really do what they used to,’” he recalls.

But that wasn’t the case.

“All the festivals that initially turned us down all of a sudden wanted us to come play. Everything kind of shifted after that moment,” he said. “It was definitely a huge turning point and gave the band much greater exposure.”

A dearth of late-night spots particularly affects independent acts — the kind that could really benefit from the exposure, just like Future Islands. Representatives for CBS, NBC and ABC did not return The Associated Press’ requests for comment.

Chloë Walsh, co-founder of publicity firm The Oriel, points to the music bookers behind the scenes. “Of course, they have to book all the biggest things in the world, but they also have things that they want to champion,” she says. Fewer slots means developing artists are competing with big names for dwindling opportunities.

But there are other avenues to discovery.

“We’re kind of an anomaly in the way that our song and that performance took off,” says Cashion. “But we’ve seen other bands have TikTok viral hits and stuff like that.”

There are many examples of artists cracking the code online: Singer-songwriter Gigi Perez’s career was launched with the TikTok smash “Sailor Song,” as was Malcolm Todd’s with a few viral hits, landing him a major label deal with Columbia Records. Indie band Beach Bunny saw their punky-pop go viral with “Prom Queen” just ahead of the pandemic, leading to performances on Kimmel and Fallon.

Even legacy artists are experiencing second winds of music discovery: Weezer’s 2010s power-pop track “Go Away,” featuring Best Coast’s Bethany Cosentino, recently made the rounds on TikTok and became a top song for both on Spotify.

“It seems like a lot of different aspects of the album cycle have kind of been replaced with short-form content,” Beach Bunny singer Lili Trifilio explained. “And it is a bummer because late-night is a service to musicians in such a major way. You are helping people reach new fans.”

“And I think now a lot of the responsibility of advertising is falling on the artists to be their own late-night special on TikTok or whatever,” she continued. “I don’t think that these 30-second, one-minute self-made clips hold the same value.”

Internet creators reimagine traditional formats

“The media landscape is always changing. Sometimes that’s good for music and sometimes it’s bad for music,” says Walsh. “There’s a whole breed of young creators at the moment doing really interesting stuff. … Hopefully there will be more opportunities out there and we don’t have to rely on the networks.”

She points to “Track Star(asterisk),” the online music trivia series, which has begun hosting live performances, and to Julian Shapiro-Barnum of “Recess Therapy,” who has launched a late-night YouTube show, “Outside Tonight,” that features live performances.

Shapiro-Barnum says “Outside Tonight” was born out of necessity. “We know that the entertainment industry is hard to break into. And so, what’s been so cool about digital media is that it’s circumvented that,” he says.

“How can we do late night, but different?” was his approach. The show takes place outdoors, bypassing a traditional studio. The musical bookings also lean independent. Recent performers include rapper Erick the Architect, indie rock soloist Annie DiRusso and the multi-instrumentalist and experimentalist L’Rain.

“There was no version of the show that didn’t have music,” he says. “To me, it feels like a staple.”

Beach Bunny performed during the first “Outside Tonight” episode.

“It’s so cool to see people that are like movers and makers be like, ‘Hey, this is a gap I’m seeing. Late-night is being placed on the back burner. We need to revive this; I’m gonna figure it out,’” Trifilio said. “I hope that it inspires other people to step up.”

She sees it as part of a larger YouTube renaissance, shifting away from prioritizing short-form content.

“I think that people are yearning for some longer-format stuff,” she says.

The power for live performance is exposure — not sales

In traditional late-night TV spots, artists benefit from exposure — but that doesn’t necessarily mean a jump in sales. Ideally, that will also translate to these new media spaces.

“It’s a showcase for touring. And that’s really where artists make their money,” says Walsh. “People say, ‘It doesn’t really give you a bump if you’re on a late-night TV show.’ They’re looking at the sales, they’re not looking at a promoter in Minneapolis going, ‘Oh my god, I want that,’ or a radio playlist director saying, ‘Oh that was fantastic, we should add that.’”

“Every musical guest who’s come on ‘Outside Tonight,’ everyone in the crew, everyone in the audience, has not stopped listening,” says Shapiro-Barnum. “In real time, it spreads and creates all these fans. So, I have to imagine that happens online as well.”

But for many, landing a late-night TV performance is still the north star of a press run.

“For a lot of people — especially international artists that are coming to slog it out across the U.S. in some club shows they may not even be headlining — if you could get on ‘Jimmy Kimmel,’ it’s like we’ve cracked it,” says Walsh. “The whole thing was worth it. And that’s huge.”

Sherman writes for the Associated Press.

Over the weekend, the Inland Empire radio station, KCAL-FM 96.7, started playing music without any on-air staff.

The Redlands-based radio station laid off all of its radio personalities last week and transitioned into an “All Music, All the Time” classic rock format.

“96.7 KCAL Rocks is turning the page today. Thank you to every listener who made the last chapter what it was,” the station’s staff wrote in a social media post. “Classic rock. Nothing but music. All day across the Inland Empire.”

The station’s veteran radio hosts, part-time and weekend fill-ins, were all cut from the rock station, including Daryl Norsell, who worked at the station for 42 years; Patrick Tish, who said he worked at the station for 15 years and Nikki Preston. John DeSantis, the evening host and program director for the past six years, confirmed the layoffs in a social media post.

“They will be moving to an automated, human-less format. To say this is shocking is an understatement. I have a lot to process, and will be saying more shortly,” DeSantis wrote. “But for right now, I just want to thank all of you for letting me be part of the KCAL family. It has been a radio dream come true. You will always rock.”

The radio station has served the Inland Empire ever since first hitting the airwaves in 1965. KCAL is owned by Anaheim Broadcasting Corporation, which also operates the area’s classic hits radio station, KOLA 99.9FM. Together, the two stations reach over 800,000 weekly listeners in the Riverside-San Bernardino market, according to Anaheim Broadcasting. The company could not be reached directly for a comment on the layoffs.

“We rebuilt KCAL around the music our listeners grew up on, the songs and the artists that made classic rock,” Kelly Sanders, the chief operating officer of Anaheim Broadcasting Corporation, said in a news release to the Southern California News Group “KCAL will deliver a focused, consistent listening experience with broader appeal for both our audience and advertising partners.”

The release also noted that the change “expands the station’s musical focus and will have fewer interruptions and more music throughout the day” and did not address the layoffs, according to a report from the OC Register.

This is the second major blow to the Inland Empire’s broadcast community this summer. In June, the last local on-air hosts at Riverside-based KGGI-FM were laid off, in iHeartMedia’s latest round of national job cuts. In an internal memo, the media giant said the cuts were meant to restructure its radio programming to better “leverage” the company’s technology.

Steve “Razz” Brazill started working at KCAL FM in 1987, as the station’s resident concert photographer and radio personality. In a social media post, he called KCAL his “home” and reminisced about hosting live events at the now-closed Whiskey Creek restaurant in Redlands.

“KCAL has been a part of my identity. And I’m so happy to say I never really had coworkers, I had friends and family, and memories I’ll cherish forever,” wrote Brazill. “Being a part of KCAL ended for all of us today, but those relationships won’t. I’ll miss seeing you all at the studio, but I look forward to seeing you in real life.”

Semenyo joined City from Bournemouth for £65m in the January transfer window, with Guardiola fighting off competition from rivals Manchester United, Liverpool, Tottenham and Chelsea for his signature.

The player says interest first came in early December with “a lot of talks” taking place, before he made the decision the following month that he wanted to join City.

“I owe them everything to be honest,” Semenyo said of former club Bournemouth. “They helped my Premier League career flourish and obviously the management, the staff behind the scenes, they were all amazing, they made everything so smooth.”

Semenyo scored a total of 21 goals for club and country last season, netting the winning goal in the FA Cup final win over Chelsea which he called a “dream come true”, as well as lifting the Carabao Cup.

Speaking at Ahmad Tea’s Preparation is Everything event in Hong Kong, he added: “I think for me, I just wanted the next step to be the big one and Manchester City was the option. Pep spoke to me beforehand and he said, ‘look, when you come, I am going to make you a better player’.

“You want to get better, you want to improve every season and he definitely helped me with that in the first five months, but obviously sad for him to leave.”

As the threat of artificial intelligence continues to creep into the music industry, major record labels are proposing new guidelines for how music generated by artificial intelligence should be treated on the charts.

The coalition of labels, which includes the industry’s biggest players like Sony Music, Universal Music Group and Warner Music Group, as well as some smaller independent labels like BMG and Concord, is trying to establish a new framework for official charts that better separates human creativity from purely synthetic and unauthorized AI creations.

The proposed guidelines unveiled Wednesday say that AI music would qualify for the charts if the AI service used to create it is “properly authorized and lawful” and if it doesn’t violate any copyright laws. The track also has to be “substantially human-made,” and it shouldn’t raise concerns about stream or chart manipulation.

“The principles are intended to provide a unified roadmap for the consideration of official chart compilers, industry bodies and affiliated stakeholders worldwide,” wrote the coalition. “Together, the organizations proposing these principles stand ready to work with charts and industry bodies around the world to discuss these principles and support implementation of these important safeguards for human creativity by charts and industry bodies.”

The labels are hoping that official charts can both “accommodate appropriate use of AI” and maintain “an authentic celebration of human artistry.”

AI-generated tracks are becoming increasingly prevalent on streaming platforms.

Recently, Spotify added a verification badge to distinguish human artists from AI, and Tidal banned AI-generated music from receiving royalties on its platform. Deezer, a French streaming platform, was the first to detect, tag and exclude AI-generated music from algorithmic recommendations.

The company recently disclosed that up to 90,000 AI tracks are being uploaded to the platform daily, representing more than 50% of its new music uploads.

Despite the coalition’s effort to introduce AI guardrails, some labels involved have already inked partnerships with AI companies such as Suno, Udio and Nvidia. Several music advocacy groups have previously raised concerns about artists facing “non-negotiable AI usage clauses.”

The K-pop megastars BTS will not submit music for next year’s Grammys. The news comes despite — or perhaps because of — a new category specifically designed to honor Asian pop.

The seven members of BTS — RM, Suga, Jin, J-Hope, Jungkook, V and Jimin — each shared the same message across their social media Wednesday, announcing the news and saying, “We hope our music can be heard and loved for what it is, rather than being divided by region or language. We thank Army and everyone who has always stood by us.”

The Grammys’ new Best Asian Pop Music Performance category “recognizes artistic excellence in Asian pop music performances originating from or widely recognized within Asian markets, including but not limited to K-pop, J-pop and C-pop, with meaningful use of one or more Asian languages. Awards are presented to the performing artist(s).”

BTS’ comeback album “Arirang,” its first after the band members’ mandatory South Korean military service, was widely expected to compete for the award. The new category came as part of a bevy of added or tweaked awards and nominating rules that will debut at next year’s ceremony on Feb. 7.

BTS has a mercurial relationship with the Grammys, having been nominated five times in various categories since becoming the first K-pop group nominated in 2019, and performing for the live telecast. They have never won.

The band joins the Weeknd and Drake as high-profile artists who, at least for some time, declined to submit their music to the Recording Academy in protest of its policies or nominating processes.

Emmy-nominated composer Bear McCreary has taken a reverse road to symphonic rock. Prog rockers have traditionally integrated symphonic elements; other rock bands have done orchestral versions of their songs. McCreary began creating television and film scores, discovered his inner metalhead, and has since bridged those worlds with his “Singularity” project. It all adds up to a different take on that time-honored formula.

The second of the two albums, “The Singularity: Ekleipsis,” is out Friday and features contributions from guitarist Steve Vai, Coheed and Cambria frontman Claudio Sanchez, Fall Out Boy frontman Patrick Stump and McCreary’s younger brother Brendan, who sings on half the tracks. The multifaceted album feels like “I am Bear, hear me roar.”

“I love that quote,” he says, laughing, during his two-hour interview with The Times. “I want to put that on the posters. I feel like ‘The Singularity’ is a temper tantrum of a record from someone who had been writing music for other people for 20 years, then all these ideas exploded out.” Two years after the release of the first “Singularity” album, “Ekleipsis” feels more focused and personal to him.

From Anthrax dinners to sessions with Slash, Stewart Copeland and Bulgarian choirs, McCreary’s restless curiosity drives genre-bending songs that wrestle with identity, diaspora and the world listeners are trying to survive.

(Allen J. Schaben / Los Angeles Times)

The first “Singularity” double album — which featured guests like Serj Tankian, Corey Taylor, Rufus Wainwright and Joe Satriani — tied into a graphic novel about a man who repeatedly experiences loss and death at the hands of a villainous character in his every life across their multiverse. This leads to a major revelation at the end. Although McCreary says that “Ekleipsis” is not disconnected from that universe, it is not strictly tied to a narrative.

“I wasn’t setting out to write a concept album again,” McCreary admits, “but there’s something immediate in all the lyrics. Half of them are specifically talking about the world that we all find ourselves living in and trying to overcome in some way.”

McCreary’s sonic diversity continues with “Ekleipsis.” Gojira frontman Joe Duplantier collaborated with the McCreary brothers and the Mystery of the Bulgarian Voices choir on “Black Box” to create a work of dissonant majesty. The composer improvised his way through the initial stages of “Pray for a Storm,” his high-energy collaboration with famed drummer Stewart Copeland.

“Let’s all go into your studio with nothing,” McCreary recalls telling the irrepressible percussionist. “I’m not even going to bring an idea. We’ll plug in our instruments, set the mics up and play. I want to capture your ideas and your energy, then shape it into a song based on the pieces that I get.”

McCreary sees new endeavors as a learning experience. He meets his collaborators in the way they like to work. He was awed while writing with Guns N’ Roses bassist Duff McKagan and Red Hot Chili Peppers drummer Chad Smith on the anthemic “Cool Kids.”

“Those guys are true songsmiths,” the composer declares. “I think they’re unrecognized as songwriters. They wrote for Ozzy Osbourne. They’re focused on hammering down a riff until it works. We walked into a studio with a riff that Duff had written and walked out with this song that we brought Slash onto. We got that band experience [with them].”

McCreary is best known for scoring series like “Battlestar Galactica,” “The Walking Dead” and “The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power,” along with movies such as “Godzilla: King of the Monsters” and the “God of War” video game franchise. He gained entry into metal through a dinner with Anthrax guitarist and “Battlestar” fan Scott Ian two decades ago.

“‘I know you. You’re a guy who loves Sepultura,’” Ian told him, invoking a musical link for the composer. Intrigued, McCreary listened to Sepultura’s folk-infused Brazilian death metal and loved it. His metal journey began.

Ever since, McCreary has been itching to dive into that arena. He has an important collaborator in that quest.

“My brother’s my secret weapon when it comes to rock,” McCreary says. “His body of [rock] knowledge makes up for mine. Our emphasis is in a different place. He is a fantastic producer because he’s got a really good radar for when things are useless, when a part of a song isn’t pulling its weight. It’s a very good influence to have someone like that. He’s got a great lyrical sense and an incredible voice.”

McCreary says Brendan is often the driving force of their lyrical efforts, and “sometimes we co-write with other people. Claudio Sanchez wrote all the lyrics on ‘Sweet Misery.’ It just depends.”

The younger McCreary was the propelling wordsmith on “One Fine Day.” “It’s about our experience as being in the Armenian diaspora and exploring what that means to us,” McCreary elaborates. “All the songs are very personal, which is another thing that sets this record apart from the last record. Many of them were personal, but I also had a weird song about an automaton that fell in love.”

Mentored at USC by Elmer Bernstein, McCreary now leaps from “God of War” themes to a Higgs boson rock musical and a roaring Singularity tour that hits L.A. on Sept. 17.

(Allen J. Schaben / Los Angeles Times)

Before he jammed with rock icons, McCreary was mentored by the late, iconic Elmer Bernstein for nearly the last decade of his life. The burgeoning young composer organized Bernstein’s music archives, sat in on recording sessions and audited his senior-level classes for three years while studying at the Thornton School of Music at USC. McCreary says that Bernstein “really set me on the path that I am now on, not because I learned how to orchestrate or how to write music from him. But he showed me the life that I could envision myself having when I was 15 or 16, that crucial time when you’re really setting the rudder for where you’re going to go in life.”

That rudder has steered him to many shores. McCreary has been co-writing the musical “Particle Fever” with Zoe Sarnak (“Galileo).” Pulitzer Prize finalist and Tony winner David Henry Hwang (“M. Butterfly)” wrote the book, and Tony nominee Leigh Silverman (“Suffs”) is its director. It is based on the documentary of the same name about the discovery of the Higgs boson — the “God particle” — at the Large Hadron Collider in CERN. It will debut at the La Jolla Playhouse in February 2027.

“It is a really kick-ass, earnest rock musical about a really ambitious discovery,” McCreary says. “My hope is that it actually has some of the swagger and fun that people found in ‘Hamilton,’ which also was a very dry subject that you learned about in eighth grade.”

The 47-year-old composer exudes an infectiously upbeat energy. He loves challenges and says he learned that charisma and charm are valuable assets to get in the door to prove one’s talents.

“I’m wired to be very positive and collaborative,” he concedes. “But I got so oppressively excited in my 20s that I started annoying people. My lesson was walk it back.”

His creative energy continues unabated. He’s even scored shorts for filmmakers he met through Twitter. (“I’m down to work.”) He has been blogging about his musical life for 20 years for a core group of followers. (“In hindsight, if Jerry Goldsmith had done that in the ‘80s, my God, my life would be different.”)

McCreary started as a high school keyboardist, then found the accordion in college, an instrument that gave him greater stage motion and which he later used to great effect in his music for the “Outlander” series. He loves to headbang while playing the hurdy-gurdy, an instrument he picked up in 2010 and later employed in the “Black Sails” show and “God of War: Ragnarok” video game. He learned guitar to play rhythm during his 2025 shows.

Those riffs will be on display at the Wacken Open Air festival on Friday and during McCreary’s eight-date September “Singularity” tour of the West Coast that hits L.A. on Sept. 17. McCreary has performed his symphonic scores in Europe and America with orchestras, but now he also loves to rock out (loud).

A big secret of the ambitious McCreary’s success harks back to lessons of simplicity that Bernstein taught him.

“The giant theme that I wrote for ‘God of War’ can be played with one finger on a piano,” McCreary reveals. “That is the thing that it boils down to, and that is what I listen for in music. Most of the time it means there’s a melody in there that sticks with you, and it doesn’t matter how well it is produced or how epic it is or how loud it is. A good song is a good song is a good song, and it really doesn’t matter how good a band performs. If the song is good, it will connect with people.”

JULY 23, 2011, was one of those days when most of us remember where we were.

It was the day Amy Winehouse died.

In my case, it was a music festival in Gateshead on the banks of the river Tyne.

The tragic news spread through the crowd like wildfire that balmy late Saturday afternoon.

The initial reaction was a combination of shock and dismay at the loss of Britain’s finest female singer.

But, for me and for those I spoke to that day, there was also an air of inevitability about Amy’s death at 27, joining an unwanted “club” with Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin, Jim Morrison and Kurt Cobain.

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She was a shooting star, burning bright for a fleeting moment and then she was gone.

Fifteen years on from her passing, the love for Amy and her music only gets stronger and deeper.

She had the voice, the image, the songs, the wit, the heart and the soul — but the story she told through her music was also filled with pain.

Her second album Back To Black charted in unflinching detail her turbulent relationship with Blake Fielder-Civil as well as her persistent problems with alcohol.

Of course, it scored an emotional bullseye with her listeners, becoming a ­Grammy-grabbing chart-topping sensation.

Rehab, You Know I’m No Good, Love Is A Losing Game, Tears Dry On Their Own and the title track are all indelibly etched into our collective consciousness.

Though she drew comparisons with some of the greatest soul/jazz voices — Billie Holiday, Sarah Vaughan and Etta James — there has been nothing quite like Back To Black before or since.

With that rich expressive contralto, she could hold us in the palms of her outstretched hands.

In 2004, the year after she released her debut album Frank, Amy, then 20, was asked by Jonathan Ross if music industry types had told her to change the way she looked or spoke or behaved.

“Yeah, one of them tried to mould me into a big triangle shape,” she replied, laughing and forming a triangle with her ­fingers. “And I went, ‘Nooo’.

“I’ve got my own style and I write my own songs. If someone has so much of something al­ready, there’s very little you can add.”

When she chatted to my SFTW colleague Jacqui Swift to mark Back To Black’s release, Amy, 23 by then, opened up about her inspirations while also displaying more of a fiercely independent nature.

She described reaching her lowest ebb and being begged by management to go into rehab, to which she famously responded “No, no, no!”

“Rehab is like Butlin’s — it’s a holiday camp,” she said. “It’s an everyday thing for some people, like going to Tesco’s.”

She elaborated further: “I was having a particularly nasty time with things and just drinking and drinking.

“My management decided to stop buying for me and said they were taking me to rehab. I asked my dad (Mitch) if he thought I needed to go. He said: ‘No, but give it a try.’

“So I did, for 15 minutes. I went in, said hello, and explained that I drink because I am in love and have f***ed up a relationship. Then I walked out. I didn’t need help because, if I can’t help myself, I can’t be helped.”

Five years after she aired those feelings, Amy lost her life at her house in Camden, North London, the coroner recording a verdict of “death by misadventure”, an unintended consequence of heavy drinking after a period of sobriety.

The tragedy led to acrimony and blame games around why she wasn’t given enough support.

Blake, her family and record company execs were all in the firing line at various times.

Some believed it was her own self-destructive nature — but it is Amy’s voice and songs that define her legacy.

Musically, she and legendary “Godmother Of Punk” Patti Smith had little in common apart from their raw, honest approach and unbridled spirit.

But soon after Amy died, Patti recorded a heartfelt tribute in the form of a poem set to music, beginning with the lines, “This is the girl for whom all tears fall”.

During a trip to London, she told me: “I’m heartbroken as a fan and as a human being.

“What Amy did was magnificent and I had been looking forward to see how she would evolve. It would have been wonderful to go through life hearing what Amy did next.”

Though Patti vividly remembered herself at Amy’s age, wild and impulsive, This Is The Girl came from a different perspective.

“I actually looked at Amy in a maternal way, she was a similar age to my kids,” she said. “I was very concerned about how things were managed around her.”

What to her, I asked, was so special about Amy’s music?

“I loved Joan Baez when I was young and Darlene Love and all the R&B singers,” said Patti. “I really love Adele’s voice but Amy was a cut above us all I think.

“She had a gift you seldom hear. There was an authenticity to her voice. She understood R&B and jazz from the deepest part of her. It was organic.

“Not only did Amy have that thing from the Forties, Fifties and Sixties but she was modern. When she sang Rehab or Back To Black, she wasn’t stuck in the past or nostalgic.”

In 2026, Amy’s legacy is plain to witness through those who followed in her wake, including fellow BRIT School alumni Raye and current chart favourite Olivia Dean.

Just as she was breaking through, Olivia paid this tribute to her fellow Londoner: “I don’t think Amy had any interest in being a pop star — she just wanted to be herself.

“It was clear in her music that she was using it as a form of therapy and then we just so happened to be hearing it. It was so personal.”

Of Back To Black, she added: “My interpretation of the lyrics is that you can’t have all of her. Amy was a free spirit. We were very lucky to have her.”

Another BRIT School success story, Adele, had this to say: “Amy paved the way for artists like me. She made people excited about British music again.

“I don’t think she ever realised just how brilliant she was and how important she is.”

From the States, where Back To Black was equally huge, Lady Gaga gave a typically singular view: “I don’t believe what I do is very digestible and somehow Amy was the flu for pop music.

“Everybody got a little bit of the flu — and fell in love with Amy Winehouse. And now, when more flu comes along, it’s not so unbearable.”

Lana Del Rey, a singer like Amy known for her retro styling, said: “I believe in Amy Winehouse. I know she’s not with us any more but I believe in who she was, and, in that way, she got it right.”

As if to prove that Amy’s flame burns as bright as ever, the Rolling Stones recorded her You Know I’m No Good for their recent No1 album Foreign Tongues.

Guitarist Ronnie Wood told me that he, Mick Jagger and Keith Richards jumped at the chance to pay their respects.

“Amy was such a jewel,” he told me last month. “A very lost jewel in a jewell­ery box but she was ­wonderful.”

Ronnie remembered how he had provided a shoulder to cry on “shortly before she died”.

“She was asking me, ‘Oh Ron, what am I going to do? And I was going, ‘Don’t worry because everyone knows you’ve got vodka in your water bottle. Just don’t hide it and try to go on stage tonight’.

“Amy needed a carer or else she went off the rails.”

But Ronnie also recognised her stellar talent and added: “She was like Billie Holiday. She had that once-in-a-lifetime deep blues.”

Back To Black co-producer Mark Ronson told SFTW: “Amy was an incredible singer. She had so much power in that tiny frame.

“I was so spoilt because everything she was coming out with was so spectacular.”

Salaam Remi, who worked on both of her studio albums, gave us a wonderful insight into Amy’s playful character.

He said: “She was one of those people who could make you cry with laughter — or say something deep. Her character was a big part of her talent.

“She cleaned my kitchen one time and it was better than any cleaning lady.

“It was three or four shades whiter when she’d finished. She said, ‘I’m meant to be a Jewish mum, of course it’s sparkling.’ ”

One of Amy’s final recordings was with the last of the legendary crooners, Tony Bennett.

She was so nervous that there were several false starts before they nailed the sultry jazz standard Body And Soul.

It was typical of Bennett’s kind manner that he was able to put his duet partner at ease.

He said afterwards: “People think that anyone can sing jazz, but it’s a spirit you’re born with . . . or not. Amy was born with that spirit.”

It’s also important to salute Amy’s striking image, developed during the Back To Black era in step with her Sixties girlband influences such as The Shangri-Las — her sky-high bee­hive, that winged cat-eye make-up and those daring halterneck minidresses.

She once said: “I’ve always had my own style. I’ve always been different.

“I don’t like to wear anything that anyone else is wearing because it’s very important for me to make a statement.”

In her short life Amy made a statement — and then some.

The last words are with Dale Davis, her bass guitarist and musical director who still leads The Amy Winehouse Band on its frequent tours.

He told me: “For a long time I was her favourite person to go anywhere with — then I was second after Blake. After they split up, I was back to being her favourite person.

“If she liked you, she really liked you. If she loved you, she loved you hard.

“She was a warm, beautiful, generous person who made me feel special right from the off.”

Dale estimated they played around 170 shows together, the last being a desperate performance at an outdoor venue in Belgrade in June 2011.

“That final one was my most difficult night on stage,” he said. “To this day, I can’t believe we played for an hour and 20 minutes.

“It was a funny thing with Amy because I thought she only needed to take one step to be happy, but that step was too difficult. She was never far from being OK.”

Amy and Dale’s final conversation took place by phone on the night she died at her Camden townhouse.

Clearly finding the memory painful, he recalled: “I talked to her at 11.30pm, three hours before she went to bed. She was on good form.

“She said, ‘Dale, I’ve just been watching myself on YouTube and I can sing, can’t I?’.

“I replied, ‘Of course you can sing. You’re the best’.”

In the Mid-City neighborhood where Syd grew up, lots of people now refer to this 34-year-old musician as the mayor.

“During COVID, I’d spend all day on the grass waving at everybody,” she says with a laugh. More recently, a bunch of “unruly teenagers,” as Syd describes them, have been doing doughnuts in the street near her parents’ house.

“I’m out there talking about, ‘Hey! Stop!’ I had one of my trucks parked in front, so I was like, ‘Y’all ain’t finna mess my s— up.’ But also they were hanging out the window — it was really dangerous.” She laughs again.

“I’m an old head when it comes to safety.”

Syd’s new album happily embraces a sense of maturity — of “feeling more sure of myself than I ever have,” she says. Released last week, “Beard” — the title was inspired by Syd’s wife’s request that she maintain the peach fuzz on her upper lip — sets thoughts of romantic commitment and professional achievement against gleaming R&B grooves that occasionally nod toward Afrobeats or bossa nova. It’s Syd’s third solo LP since she emerged nearly two decades ago as a member of the Los Angeles hip-hop collective Odd Future; it also comes eight years after her most recent album with the Internet, the Grammy-nominated soul-music combo she shares with Matt Martians and Steve Lacy (the latter of whom dropped his new “Oh Yeah?” on the same day Syd dropped “Beard”).

Yet for all the growing up she’s done, “ironically, I feel younger than I’ve ever felt,” Syd says. “Beard’s” blurry cover photo, which shows her shaved head and slightly doleful eyes, “captures exactly what I was trying to portray with the music,” she adds. “It’s kind of this nonbinary image, where if you’re looking at it and you don’t know who I am, you might wonder: Is that a 12-year-old boy?”

Syd and I are talking over coffee at a crowded spot on Jefferson Boulevard that she says she visits every day. (So many people say hi to her that I’m inclined to believe it.) The restaurant isn’t far from her house, which itself is just an eight-minute drive from her folks’ place; eventually, she says, her parents plan to swap homes with Syd and her wife, the model Simone Clay, so that the couple can fulfill their dream of becoming foster moms in the larger house.

“With all my privilege and with all the peace I’ve been able to create for myself, I would love to spread that,” says Syd, whose full name is Sydney Bennett and whose younger brother Travis (known as Taco) also came up through Odd Future before finding success as an actor.

Syd recorded “Beard” between a studio she built at her parents’ place and a studio in North Hollywood owned by Raphael Saadiq, the veteran R&B star whom Syd counts as something of a mentor. The singer says she can relate to the way Saadiq moves between making solo records, working in a band (in his case Tony! Toni! Toné!) and writing and producing for other artists, as Syd did on Beyoncé’s 2022 “Renaissance” album.

“Syd is just looking for things in music that are breathing,” says Saadiq, who plays bass and co-produced several cuts on “Beard.” “She keeps developing, and she’s not developing to be relevant — she’s developed because she loves doing it. People like Syd and myself, we’ve been at this since we were kids. We were the ones in the neighborhood who’d walk outside and say, ‘Anybody want to get on this track? Anybody want to play?’”

Songs on “Beard” like “Closet” and “My Love” reflect recent changes in Syd’s life, not least her decision to get hitched last year, which she attributes in part to an uncertainty about how long same-sex marriage will remain legal in the United States.

“You know the Supreme Court,” she says with a shrug.

She also quit drinking after realizing that she was waking up more often than not with a hangover. “People around me weren’t like, ‘She be drinking,’” Syd says. “But it was every day, and it was just at the crib. Everybody has a different relationship to it, and I found that mine was tied to boredom, which I think is probably better than it being tied to sadness. But that’s also what made it a little bit harder to call it a problem, you know what I mean? I had to realize: OK, this might not be a problem for someone else, but it’s not serving me.”

So two and a half years ago, she stopped — and on a holiday some can’t imagine without booze.

Says Syd: “I raw-dogged New Year’s Eve, bro.”

“Ironically, I feel younger than I’ve ever felt,” Syd says.

(Nabil)

“Beard” encompasses shifts in Syd’s business too. After fulfilling her contract with the Columbia label, the singer signed last year to Warner Records, where an old high school pal, Tim Hinshaw, oversees a boutique label called Free Lunch. The new deal inspired her to mix up her creative process and hold a songwriting camp with an assortment of writers and producers, among them the duo Nova Wav, who’ve also worked with Beyoncé; on “Beard,” the duo co-wrote and co-produced the hooky “Callin” and “Jasmin 17,” a lusty boudoir jam titled after the unisex fragrance. (Additional collaborators on the album include James Fauntleroy, Van Hunt, Rodney Jerkins, Big Sean and Jordan Ward.)

Given her high-profile gig writing and producing Beyoncé’s “Plastic Off the Sofa” — a sensual retro-soul number that went on to win a Grammy — I tell Syd that I assume the offers came rolling in immediately afterward to join other A-list acts in the studio.

“To be honest, that opportunity didn’t give me any more producing opportunities,” she answers, to my surprise. “Nobody was reaching out — like, ‘Hey, can I get beats?’” She’s not bothered, though, since what the experience did do was “give me the confidence to produce this album for myself.”

And anyway, she’s got a solo tour coming up, not to mention a long-awaited Internet LP to finish. The band has been recording intermittently at her place, and last month she spent a week working at Martians’ studio in rural Georgia.

“We’re closer than we’ve probably ever been,” Syd says of the band, whose drummer, Christoper Smith, put out yet another solo record on the same day as “Beard” and Lacy. Syd doesn’t want to reveal too much about the Internet’s new music. But she will say that so far the group has avoided using Auto-Tune, the vocal-processing software that she feels has become sadly ubiquitous.

“I want nuance, I want texture, I want the lack of perfection,” she says. “I’d rather mess up naturally than not mess up unnaturally.”

Tony Thorpe, the guitarist for the English glam-rock combo the Rubettes, has died. He was 80.

“It is with great sadness that we officially announce the passing of Anthony John Thorpe. He was a father to Clay, a husband to Shirle, a friend to many, and a mentor to countless musicians young and old,” read a statement posted to his Facebook page. “His recently failing health did little to diminish his fierce intellect and sharp sense of humour. He will leave an unfillable hole in the lives of all who knew him, or his music.”

The Rubettes formed in 1973 after a session-musician team cut several doo-wop inspired tracks including the single “Sugar Baby Love.” The song hit number one on the UK charts in 1974 when the band, known for its uniform of white suits, performed on Top of the Pops. The single also charted in the U.S. top 40 and became their best-known song, along with European hits including “Tonight,” “Juke Box Jive,” “I Can Do It.”

The band sold millions of singles, primarily in Europe, over its career. Thorpe sang lead on several songs in the band’s catalog, including the country-influenced single “Baby I Know.” He left the group in 1979, and the Rubettes continued to perform and record in various incarnations.

The Rubettes classic-lineup singer, Alan Williams, posted on the band’s official Facebook page, saying Thorpe was “Mercifully now at peace.”

“Dear Tony, our paths having crossed but fleetingly during which time was conceived wondrous music and often hilariously memorable moments. Your brilliance with the axe and the pen cannot be denied and remains with us, never forgotten. Rest now Cowboy.”

The Broad’s “Yoko Ono: Music of the Mind” is more mind than music. She opens your mind; you make the music. Look into an empty “Box of Smile” and maybe you will. “Give Peace a Chance” — of course.

She breaks, and she mends, and not just your mind. Something tells me the Broad won’t go along with Ono’s “Collecting Piece II” from 1963, which has the following instructions: “Break a contemporary museum into pieces with the means you have chosen. Collect the pieces and put it together with glue.”

That’s a smile piece, too, although Ono looks all business holding a crystalline hammer on the catalog cover photo. I still smile when I recall how her piece for an orchestra that asks the players to bang their heads against a stage wall utterly delighted an audience and musicians at a performance in New York. Only Ono remained deadpan.

There were more smiles Saturday evening when The Broad, in collaboration with REDCAT across the street, presented a program of two Ono performance pieces. It began with six members of the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra playing Boccherini’s First Sextet. This happens to be the first work ever written for pairs of violins, violas and cellos, as an expression of freedom that, in 1776, felt revolutionary.

Perhaps that is why LACO chose the Italian composer to represent a contemporary revolutionary artist in the wake of our 250th July 4. The actual piece being performed was Ono’s “Sky Piece for Jesus Christ,” in which she instructs an orchestra, whatever size (although she tended to like something larger than a sextet), to begin by playing a work, say, by Mozart.

It doesn’t much matter what is chosen, because at the premiere in a 1965 Fluxus concert at Carnegie Recital Hall, Ono and a couple of colleagues crept on stage and began wrapping the musicians in gauze. After a few minutes, they could no longer play.

Amusing, yes, but this is also an act of silencing, maybe even passive-aggressive violence. You smile (and a player or two at REDCAT couldn’t suppress a smile), but you don’t feel so hot doing so.

Members of the L.A. Chamber Orchestra covered in gauze while performing Yoko Ono’s “Sky Piece to Jesus Christ” at REDCAT.

(Gina Ferazzi / Los Angeles Times)

There is, in fact, more to this “Sky Piece” than meets the smile. Ono meant Jesus Christ to stand for John Cage. Cage was a key inspiration for Ono’s art. When the Beatles broke up and Ono and John Lennon moved to New York in the late 1960s, they first wanted to be as far from the limelight as possible, Ono having been demonized in the popular press over supposedly breaking up the Beatles (she didn’t!!!!). Cage found them a small two-bedroom apartment next door to him and his partner, Merce Cunningham, in their modest West Village building (a significant fact curiously ignored in the otherwise illuminating new documentary “One to One: John and Yoko” about the couple’s new New York life there).

Ono and Cage had a long, meaningful but not always easy relationship. Cage, who wrote music to suppress his ego, had a problem with Ono’s exhibitionism. In 1962, he dedicated a piece to Ono titled “0’00” (4’33” No. 2),” an Ono-like composition with a single sentence of instruction: “In a situation provided with maximum amplification (no feedback) perform a disciplined action.”

Cage later added other qualifications. One insistence is that the action should fulfill an obligation to others. However much Ono’s “Sky Piece” comes across as a playful Cage rejoinder, Ono did, the year before in Kyoto, create what could be called a version of “0’00”,” although an actual silent piece.

This is her famous “Cut Piece,” which the performance artist known as MPA performed at REDCAT following “Sky Piece.” It was clearly the draw that caused the program to be sold out months in advance.

There are many meanings that have been inscribed to “Cut Piece,” in which Ono invited the audience to come on stage and, with a pair scissors, cut off a small piece of her dress. Along with questioning social and sexual taboos, feminism and acts of aggression, Ono also confronts her own issues with ego from a Buddhist perspective, just as Cage had.

“Cut Piece” has a central place in Ono’s work as do film clips of her performing it in the Broad exhibition. Ono sits without a trace of emotion as she is stripped bare. Attention is directed away from her to the cutters. But the action is nullified by the fact that Ono assumes the stoic posture of the Buddhist monks seen in the news at the time setting themselves aflame in protest of the Vietnam War.

War had, indeed, inspired Ono in her shocking, exhibitionist (however ego-denying) disciplined action. It’s fulfillment of an obligation to others is, like so much in Ono, a two-edged sword forcing us — be we active cutters or passive observers — into contemplation of violence.

MPA’s performance was extraordinary. She introduced “Cut Piece” by noting that in Ono’s six performances over a half-century, the last in 2003 in response to the Gulf War, anger had turned into something more gracious. It was her way of saying to a new generation, give peace a chance.

To begin her own performance, MPA announced that she has retained Ono’s intent to perform “Cut Piece” in time of war. She said take the square of clothing and honor it, let it mean something to you.

At the few performances I’ve seen of “Cut Piece,” there has typically been audience hesitation at first. Not this time. What looked like almost half the full house immediately walked on stage and lined up. In the age of Instagram, everyone’s 15 minutes of fame has turned into an eternity. The cut piece of fabric — a custom garment designed by Victor Barragá — becomes proof of not missing out.

Most cutters approached MPA self-consciously as if walking to a casket at a funeral, although a few acted more like performers themselves wanting to be seen. Through it all, some 40 minutes, MPA didn’t move a muscle. It was as if she had abstracted herself from scissors and spectators, projecting not so much courage as strength. She inspired silence.

An evening that had begun as silencing a smiling sextet ended in a sublime effort to open the mind beyond body and music to give peace a chance.

The first ever FIFA World Cup halftime show attracted a mixed reaction from sports fans – with Wayne Rooney declaring the best part was when it ended, despite Madonna, Justin Bieber and more taking part

The 2026 FIFA World Cup final halftime show has been brutally panned despite including performances from the biggest names in music. On Sunday night, Argentina faced off against Spain to fight for the official World Cup trophy, which was delivered to the pitch at the beginning of the match inside a Louis Vuitton case.

But the footballers were not the only major stars to appear on the pitch as a host of big names lined up to perform during the halftime interval. Anticipation was high as the musicians prepared to take centre stage in the first halftime show of its kind in the FIFA tournament’s history.

Pop music legend Madonna kicked off the celebrations with a lively performance of her 2000 single Music – weaving in elements of her recent hit, Bring Your Love. While Bring Your Love duet partner Sabrina Carpenter was nowhere to be seen during her performance, Madge had other major stars at her side to give her appearance an extra punch.

She sat in a pink jeep with Brazilian football legends Ronaldo and Ronaldinho at the wheel as they drove into the stadium and took a bow after the chart superstar repeated her infectious chorus, “Music brings the people together.” Cameras then cut to members of The Muppets on stage performing an instrumental version of the White Stripes’ classic song “Seven Nation Army,” with help from Gustavo Dudamel.

Korean pop kings BTS then took over the spectacle, belting out their song Dynamite – before cameras cut to Jason Sudeikis and Brendan Hunt in character as Ted Lasso and Coach Beard. The duo then introduced Canadian pop prince Justin Bieber, who took to the field to strum out his single, EVERYTHING HALLELUJAH.

As the halftime show continued, Shakira took to the centre of the stage alongside Burna Boy and an army of backing dancers to belt out Dai Dai – the official song of the 2026 FIFA World Cup. This was then followed by Coldplay and PS22 Chorus, who sang the uplifting track We Believe in Love – before all the performers and dancers took their final bow.

While no one can dispute that the halftime show was packed with major stars, some felt that the show was a disjointed mess – and they made their feelings very clear.

Wayne Rooney was among those to put the boot in. Asked what his favourite part of the show was, he deadpanned: “Mine was when it finished.”

He added: “I like a lot of those artists but I thought it was crap. I did, honestly, it just didn’t get me going, I wanted the football to come back on.” He later explained that he believed Justin Bieber’s performance was “flat”. He fumed: “I liked Burna Boy, I like Bieber, I like Shakira, but that was too flat.”

Liam Gallagher also shared his thoughts, wading in to praise Justin Bieber for his performance of Everything Hallelujah – but hinted he didn’t fully enjoy it. While he said Justin “rules”, he added: “This is like a bad trip… It’s a good job I’ve got my spiritual socks on or that halftime entertainment could have tipped me over the edge.”

However, many fans were thrilled by the halftime show, with one on X, formerly known as Twitter, remarking that the entrance of Madonna alongside Ronaldo and Ronaldinho was “Iconic”.

There was more music before kickoff, with a fun-filled closing ceremony show. IShowSpeed took to the stage to sing their song, Champions. And Post Malone thrilled fans with a trio of hits; Chrome Heartbreaker, Wow., and the song Sunflower – featuring Swae Lee.

As the kick-off grew closer, Jennifer Hudson appeared to give a powerful performance of the United States National Anthem, the Star-Spangled Banner, while Spanish Brass performed La Marcha Real and Maria Becerra belted out the Argentinian national anthem. And amid all the celebrations, there was even time for Robbie Williams to join Laura Pausini and Nicole Scherzinger to sing the Fifa song, Desire.

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While many are eagerly awaiting what the halftime show will bring, it’s not the same thoughts everywhwere.

The Cure star Robert Smith has furiously hit out at the upcoming FIFA World Cup 2026 halftime performance line-up curated by Coldplay’s Chris Martin

Robert Smith took to social media to share his blunt reaction and took aim at FIFA President Gianni Infantino.

He berated: “The half-time show, which has been curated by Coldplay’s Chris Martin, will feature Madonna, Justin Bieber, Shakira and the K‑pop boyband BTS. Fifa’s president, Gianni Infantosser, has described the half-time show as ‘groundbreaking spectacle’ that will ‘celebrate football, music and our shared values, ensuring a legacy that transcends the final whistle’.”

Read more.

The 2026 World Cup final will feature two live performances: one before kickoff and another at half-time.

The match will be played at MetLife Stadium in New Jersey on Sunday, July 19, with some of the world’s biggest musicians taking the stage as part of the celebrations.

Here is what to know:

When is the World Cup 2026 final?

The World Cup final between Spain and Argentina will take place on Sunday, July 19.

Kickoff is scheduled for 3pm local time in East Rutherford, New Jersey, which is 19:00 GMT.

The match will be played at MetLife Stadium, home of the NFL’s New York Giants and New York Jets. During the tournament, the venue has been temporarily renamed New York-New Jersey Stadium.

The multipurpose stadium can hold up to 82,500 spectators for football matches. It also hosted the 2025 FIFA Club World Cup final and both semifinals.

What time does the World Cup closing ceremony start?

The World Cup closing ceremony will begin at 1:30pm local time (17:30 GMT) in New Jersey on Sunday, July 19.

Jennifer Hudson will also perform the United States national anthem before kickoff.

The ceremony will celebrate the 48 teams that competed across the three host countries and 16 host cities during the tournament.

When does the half-time show start?

Unlike the closing ceremony, which takes place before kickoff, the half-time show will be staged during the interval between the first and second halves. With kickoff at 3pm local time (19:00 GMT), it is expected to begin just after 3:45pm local time (19:45 GMT), depending on stoppage time.

The half-time performance is expected to last about 11 minutes, although FIFA has not officially confirmed the length of the interval. Reports suggest the break could be extended beyond the standard 15 minutes to between 20 and 25 minutes to allow time for the stage to be installed and removed.

Under the Laws of the Game set by the International Football Association Board (IFAB), half-time should not exceed 15 minutes. However, competition rules can allow a longer interval with the referee’s approval, and FIFA has not explained how the extended break will be implemented.

Although this will be the first half-time show in a World Cup final, FIFA tested the concept at last year’s Club World Cup final at MetLife Stadium. That performance took place on a stage above the stands and the interval lasted just over 24 minutes.

Unlike the Club World Cup final, Sunday’s stage will be built directly on the pitch before being removed ahead of the second half. Organisers say it has been designed to be assembled and dismantled within minutes.

Longer half-time breaks are not unusual in major sporting events. Shakira’s performance at the 2024 Copa America final delayed the restart by about 26 minutes.

Who is performing at the World Cup closing ceremony?

On Wednesday, football’s governing body said American rapper-singer Post Malone will headline the ceremony.

The World Cup closing ceremony will also feature performances by Italian singer Laura Pausini, American singer Nicole Scherzinger, British pop star Robbie Williams and YouTube creator IShowSpeed. Actor Tom Cruise is also set to make a special appearance.

Produced by Balich Wonder Studio, the ceremony is designed to celebrate the tournament’s defining moments and the global appeal of football after a month of competition across the United States, Canada and Mexico.

FIFA has said additional performers and special guests will be announced closer to the final.

“Echoing the spirit of the opening ceremonies, which welcomed the world to the greatest stage in Canada, Mexico and the US, the closing ceremony will bring the FIFA World Cup 2026 full circle through music, culture and football, before we kick off the highly anticipated match that will crown the champions of this groundbreaking tournament,” said Heimo Schirgi, chief operating officer.

Who is performing at the half-time show?

Justin Bieber will join Madonna, Shakira and BTS as headliners of Sunday’s halftime show.

They will be joined by Nigerian singer Burna Boy, Venezuelan conductor Gustavo Dudamel and New York’s PS22 Chorus, with the performance curated by Coldplay frontman Chris Martin.

The show will support the FIFA Global Citizen Education Fund, which aims to raise $100m to expand access to education for children.

“The FIFA World Cup brings the world together in a way nothing else can,” Bieber said in a statement. “I’m grateful to be part of this half-time show, and even more grateful knowing it’s already helping expand access to education for children around the world.”

Burna Boy, who collaborated with Shakira on the tournament’s official song, Dai Dai, said performing at the final was “a privilege and a responsibility” and an opportunity to represent Africa on the global stage.

How can I watch the World Cup final and shows?

In the US, the match will air in English on FOX and in Spanish on Telemundo and Universo, with streaming available through the FOX Sports app, FOX One and Peacock.

In Canada, viewers can watch on CTV and TSN, while audiences in Mexico can tune in through TelevisaUnivision, TV Azteca and ViX.

Across the Middle East and North Africa, the match will be broadcast live on beIN Sports.

Not many people would even think of getting a chance to come face to face with Madonna, but for singer and activist Emmanuel Kelly, he will be one of the very few sharing the stage with her at the first of its kind World Cup Half Time Show.

Alongside the Confessions singer, Justin Bieber, Shakira, BTS, Burna Boy and more, in a special show curated by Coldplay’s Chris Martin, Emmanuel will join some of his musical heroes for the performance of a lifetime.

As he prepares to meet Madonna – whom he describes as an artist who has created a whole “generation of music” – he just has one question on his mind. “I’m just going to embrace the moment. I’m going to ask every one of them, ‘Hey, listen, can you please just put me on your songs?'” he tells us in an exclusive chat ahead of the Half Time show.

Just four weeks ago, Emmanuel heard from Chris with an offer he couldn’t refuse. The pair have been friends for some time now, with Emmanuel having joined the band of their iconic Music of the Spheres World Tour. He was also part of the Club World Cup Half Time show last year, curated by Chris too – but having starred in the other, he didn’t think there would be any chance of doing this one too.

“About four weeks ago, it wasn’t even gonna happen. I sent Chris a text and said, ‘Hey, congratulations.’ And he wrote back saying, ‘Do you wanna join?’ I didn’t tell anyone but my partner and then suddenly we got this email from FIFA and Global Citizen confirming it all, as if it was planned all along,” he recalls.

Emmanuel’s current predicament is a far cry from the start of his life. He had a devastating and tough childhood, being found as an infant, abandoned on a battlefield in Iraq, before being taken in by those at Mother Teresa Orphanage in Baghdad where he met his now-brother Ahmed. Because of his birth mother’s exposure to chemical warfare, he was born with underdeveloped limbs.

When found by his future adoptive mother, Australian humanitarian Moira Kelly, in 1998, him and Ahmed moved to Australia two years later and following surgery, which allowed him to be fitted with prosthetic limbs, he became a citizen of Australia in 2009.

A viral appearance on Australia’s X Factor in 2011, where he was voted off before getting into the top 24, and it wasn’t long after that he came to meet the Coldplay star. They were introduced several years ago through a mutual friend, with Chris quickly giving Emmanuel the nickname “natural antidepressant”. The pair’s bond has only grown over the years, with Emmanuel describing his friend as more like a “brother”.

“I grew up in Iraq and I was a brother to a lot of people in that orphanage where I had to take care of these kids. I always say the only thing thicker than blood is love,” he tells us,

“In an entertainment industry that sometimes focuses too much on the superficial, Chris was there for me. For the first time in a long time, I was in a very dark place. It was then I met Chris.

“He became a brother to me. He became a mentor. He became a guide. He became the shining light. He feels his purpose is spreading love and happiness and joy and he has been doing that for so many years. He gave love and joy to me in a time of darkness and in a time I really needed it.”

As Emmanuel’s fiancé Joanne so wonderfully puts it: “In Chris’s mind, Emmanuel just has the secret to joy. He values him as someone that, despite everything he’s gone through, he approaches everything from a perspective of joy.”

Summing up the half time show for us in just a few sentences, Emmanuel didn’t want to give anything away but he did tell us the focus was on unity and love.

“There’s more good in this world than there is bad. We see the bad more so we just need to start focusing on the good more. Focus on the good, love yourself and global unity. That’s the message of the show.”

As well as his musical endeavours, Emmanuel co-founded 0utlyer, which has a mission to employ 1,200 differently abled people in the entertainment industry across film and television production and music and live events curation company.

“Our goal as a company is to help the world and reshape the question. It’s not about what this community needs or necessarily what can we do for this community; but it’s how do we repay the favour of what the community’s already done. There’s two billion people that have already done, but done it in the shadows and we need to shine a light of what this community is actually doing,” he says.

Emmanuel has also just released a new song called Hello. “Hello just sends a message about loving yourself. When things are down and out, just smile to yourself. Smile in the mirror. Tell yourself you love yourself.

“Go up to some random individual on the street and just say hello to them. It brings joy. Sometimes the simple thing of just saying hello to somebody, you don’t know what that does to that person.”

*In further news Kelly has now signed with UK-based Champions Speakers the UK and Europe’s leading keynote speaker agency , and will share his story via a series of inspirational public speaking events, bringing his message of resilience and inclusion to audiences across business, education and beyond.

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Hardly anyone walking up Peppertree Lane notices the Hollywood Bowl Museum on the way to the amphitheater entrance. The overlooked museum, however, has been refreshed with an enchanting new exhibition. Well-timed, it provides an excellent primer on changing L.A. mores seen through the history of the Bowl over the past century.

Change is again upon us. As Angelenos have evolved, so have our ideas about the Bowl. A concert was a concert and audiences of yore dressed for the Los Angeles Philharmonic, indoors or out. Men wore coats, ties and fedoras. I have a photo of my mother at the Bowl on a chilly 1940s evening sporting, like other ladies around her in the inexpensive bleachers, her mink stole.

The Bowl was said to boast, before the construction of the Hollywood Freeway, a natural acoustical, well, bowl. Even so, sonic adventurers, beginning with Leopold Stokowski in the 1930s, experimented with amplification in an obsessive, seemingly quixotic effort to locate a mythical sonic grail on the Cahuenga Pass. Boys with their toys, thought The Times’ feisty critic Isabelle Morse Jones.

We now have it with a spectacular new sound system along with the old caveat: Beware of what you wish for.

The Bowl, of course, remains the Bowl. Last week when the Los Angeles Philharmonic opened its summer season in the venue it built and has managed for over a century, there were all the familiar alfresco and musical pleasures: convivial picnicking, fine weather, inimitable atmosphere, a white-jacketed orchestra on an iconic stage. The museum’s panorama of ageless ambience is this summer enhanced by increased yet snappy security and a handsome “John Williams Stage” plaque honoring L.A.’s beloved composer.

The newly designed white French loudspeakers suspended over the Bowl stage along with ground-level white cubes of super-effective subwoofers have clean, unobtrusive lines that well fit the shell. Their unobtrusive placement complements their immersive musicality, hitherto only possible outdoors with high-end earphones or headphones connected to sophisticated digital acoustic conversion equipment costing a bundle. For the first time, a dollar seat (there are still a few for the L.A. Phil) strives for such sonic bliss.

It feels miraculous. You are in an excellent concert hall-like acoustical environment while in the great outdoors. Our earbuds have already trained us to think of music as a private escape from reality. Even so, to be in that environmentally exclusive sonic world while sharing music with thousands of others in a special setting, ironically begins to feel more artificially escapist than a crummy sound system that reminds you of where you are.

Will we — should we — learn to love it and find anything less artificial? Car audio systems creating concert hall conditions suggest we will. Audiophiles well know that you get used to new equipment, no matter how revelatory it first sounds, very quickly.

A few years ago, when I heard a demonstration of a souped-up, hi-res recording in surround Dolby Atmos of excerpts from Wagner’s “Die Walküre” on a 32-speaker Burmester audio system crammed into a fancy Mercedes SUV, I was scared out of my wits. “Apocalypse Now” on the 405 is not for the faint of heart.

Yet I’ve spared no expense on what I find a more refined sound system in my Volvo, which I now use more and more for audio books than music. The richer, more human quality of a recorded voice is like having a virtual companion reading to you. I’m less in a hurry. It’s nice to have a pal at rush hour.

It is far too soon to say what ways the fabulous new Bowl sound system, which happens to be AI-endowed, might become friend and/or foe. In the first two L.A. Phil classical concerts, the white speakers brought out wonders and caused problems. But the minimal Bowl rehearsal time allows little opportunity to fine-tune.

One big change in Bowl priorities has been the rise of pop as king. Not that long ago, the L.A. Phil’s opening night was the Bowl opening night, suitable for conspicuous socialite picnicking. Not only has the Bowl opener been turned over to star pop performers (who bring in bigger bucks), this year there wasn’t even a first L.A. Phil Tuesday. That date became yet another money-maker with private event — a screening of “Moana” with live orchestra, luckily before the disappointing reviews and box office performance. The first L.A. Phil concert of the season was moved to Wednesday and poorly attended.

The back-to-back Wednesday and Thursday night programs featured music composed and performed by Americans. Each included a short new work commissioned by the L.A. Phil. On Wednesday, moonlighting Hollywood Bowl Orchestra music director Thomas Wilkins led the premiere of Shaina Taub’s “Suffs” Song Cycle — orchestrations of four songs from her recent musical about women’s suffrage that played just down the road at the Pantages last year. The next evening, Tito Muñoz made a strong L.A. Phil debut in a program that included the premiere of “The Art of the Goal,” celebrating Los Angeles Football Club, and that was credited jointly to filmmaker Josh Kahn and composer Adam Schoenberg.

Both premieres were reminders that the sound system will have many purposes. In “Suffs,” stalwart amplification emphasized the predictability of forthright lyrics and score. AI is supposed to make voices stand out, but it is not helpful to singers’ limitations. On the other hand, is brought out the sumptuous quality Alex Newell’s voice potently making the adamant “Keep Marching” keep marching.

Muñoz’s program was titled “The Classical World Cup,” with music by Argentine composer Alberto Ginastera, Mexican composer Silvestre Revueltas and U.S. composers Samuel Barber and Aaron Copland along with Schoenberg. As it turned out, Mexico and the U.S. were already out of World Cup competition, and “Art of the Goal” came across as an eight-minute advertisement for the L.A. footballers. They’re in the dressing room revving up and, on the field, revved up, sped up, cut up with music that excites and far too many shots of a soccer field lined with advertisements, just the kind of branding we hope to escape at the Bowl.

Then again, even though “Goal” was shown only on video monitors, the Bowl with its new sound system worked brilliantly as the grandest cinema on the planet. Hollywood may be hurting, but let the Bowl now save the day by inspiring Hollywood to reinvent, in its backyard, film with live music.

As for regular orchestral music, the sound system was hit and miss. On Wilkins’ program, Valerie Coleman’s dark “Fanfare for Uncommon Times” brought a listener inside brass and percussion. Leonard Bernstein’s lavish orchestrations of his “Three Dances from ‘On the Town’” and Ellington’s “Harlem” benefited from Wilkins’ low-key conducting, offering ease and freedom to the players.

Muñoz’s program was bookended by dance scores — Ginastera’s “Four Dances from ‘Estancia’” and Copland’s ballet “Billy the Kid” — that evoke the prairie and the people in it in both viscerally and spiritually. The new sound system and eager performances made the prairie feel close. In between, violinist Randall Goosby brought richness to Barber’s Violin Concerto and the L.A. went in for gripping weirdness in “Sensemayá.”

But who did what? Were balances the conductors’, the sound engineers’, AI’s? While the amplified soundstage is now as huge as the Bowl, attention was increasingly drawn to individuals, heightened by video closeups. A horn flub (and horns flub) stands out. The sound is not just big and bold, but scrubbed clean by AI with the goal of maddening perfection. Will such scrutiny, in the end, make players uptight or liberate them? It’s well to remember that in the early days of synthesizing instruments, violins with perfect vibrato sounded especially fake, until tiny errors generated by chance were added to the sine waves.

The Hollywood Bowl has created a beast. If humanized, the Bowl could serve as antidote to a worrisome AI future. But the question remains whether we can change AI or the newly potent sound waves only make matters worse.

CHARLI XCX is never one to shy away from being filmed or photographed.

But this time, the Brat hitmaker was mostly behind the lens as she played a director in her music video for new track Camera.

It is from her upcoming seventh album Music, Fashion, Film, which is set for release on Friday.

Dressed in a plunging blue shirt, Charli sat in the director’s chair as she instructed French actor Vincent Cassel in what appeared to be a desert.

The action-packed scene, filmed in a Kent quarry, showed ­Vincent’s character with a gunshot wound to his chest.

In scenes that could rival a Hollywood blockbuster, Charli stood in front of an overturned grey car that had ploughed into a sand dune, and was also seen crawling on all fours.

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The singer took over London’s Scala nightclub on Tuesday for an intimate performance of tracks from her forthcoming album, including Camera.

In the lyrics, she sings: “It makes me question what I’m doing.

“Do I wanna make music? Am I being f*****g stupid. If I try to be a girl on the screen when I’m turning thirty-four?”

She also appears to reference the gunshot in the line: “’Cause that look, it’s a bullet.”

The film set then transformed into a photoshoot for Charli as she put one a white shirt and black knickers while proudly holding up the new album.

Charli also turned up the heat as she posed, lying on her back in the sand — though notably missing one of her black shoes.

Her 11-track album cover features three legends from the music, fashion and film industry as a nod to the themes in the record.

American filmmaker Martin Scorsese, fashion designer Marc Jacobs and Welsh musician John Cale grace the black-and-white sleeve.

The artwork was set in a kitchen and shot by Scottish photographer Aidan Zamiri.

It comes after Charli worked with John on the track House, which formed the soundtrack of Emerald Fennell’s film Wuthering Heights starring Margot Robbie and Jacob Elordi.

Of Charli, John previously told British Vogue: “I think we both have an unfaltering commitment to being true to oneself, no matter the cost, no matter who’s buzzing in your ear.

“Charli is fearless, stands her ground, takes no prisoners and is a real sweetheart.

“Her mind is made up, her tenacity ferocious.”

She declared the end of Brat Summer “forever” in September following the global phenomenon, named after her sixth album, which promoted a messy and party-loving aesthetic.

Now Charli is back in the driving seat and I am here for this new, chaotic ride.

ACTRESS Scarlett Thomas has revealed she is a December 10 fan.

The teenage daughter of former Corrie actors Ryan Thomas and Tina O’Brien, was spotted at the band’s sold-out O2 Shepherd’s Bush Empire show in west London on Friday night.

It came as their debut EP On Your Side entered the UK Official Albums Chart at number five.

The band, comprising Cruz, Hendrik, Sean, Danny, Josh, John and Nicolas, was put together last year by music mogul Simon Cowell.

Netflix reality series The Next Act charted their emergence.

Sharing their top 10 award on Instagram, they wrote: “We’re just seven young lads with a dream and seven months ago we couldn’t have imagined this.”

BOSS AXED IN SAM REVAMP

SAM SMITH has split from their management as the Too Good At Goodbyes ­hitmaker undergoes a huge rebrand.

Sam has parted ways from Jack Street, who founded Method Music.

A source said: “Sam is looking to overhaul their brand and is hoping new management will bring a new direction.”

The singer has also trademarked Sam Served following the success of their foodie Instagram page, which has garnered 309,000 followers.

It comes as Sam has announced ten UK headline shows this autumn in ­Manchester and London.

The gigs will support the release of the singer’s fifth studio album, Hazel Eyes, which is set to drop on August 21.

Sounds like Sam has quite a busy few months ahead.

MODEL Jodie Kidd has hinted she could get behind the wheel again for the new Top Gear series.

She set a lap time of 1 minute, 48 seconds in the “Star in a Reasonably Priced Car” segment in 2003.

The BBC show is set to return, four years after Freddie Flintoff’s horror crash halted filming.

Asked if Top Gear bosses had approached her, Jodie told Biz on Sunday’s Emily at a fashion event at Silverstone: “I am not saying a word. That was big news.”

She said of former hosts Jeremy Clarkson, James May and Richard Hammond: “Their chemistry was extraordinary.”

Jodie is an ambassador for M&S which has partnered with Silverstone Circuit for the Formula 1 Pirelli British Grand Prix.

Music sensation – and I’m A Celeb star – Aitch will feature in a huge new Netflix documentary later this month. The show follows the star as he undertakes a monumental challenge for charity.

Rap sensation Aitch will star in a new Netflix documentary, chronicling his gruelling quest to climb Mount Kilimanjaro. The 26-year-old rapper – real name Harrison James Armstrong – took on the challenge last year with the special doc streaming later this month.

Aitch rose to fame in 2018 with his hit track Straight Rhymez – and went on to unleash his number 2 album Close to Home in 2022. While reality TV fans will recognise the rapper from Manchester thanks to his star turn in the 2025 season of ITV’s I’m a Celebrity…Get Me Out of Here! – where he finished in fourth place.

Fans will soon have a chance to see Aitch endure a trial more challenging than anything he faced in the jungle – by climbing the biggest mountain in Africa. The task was not just for fun, however; he also raised a substantial amount of money for charity in the process.

The musician took on Mount Kilimanjaro alongside his closest friends, family members, and team, and the climb was recorded on film as they undertook the monumental task. The resulting footage has been edited into a brand-new Netflix documentary titled Aitch: Don’t Be Afraid.

Directed by Aaron Fitzmaurice and Harry Tatem, the BRIT Award-winning star is shown taking on the unforgiving conditions as he makes his way up the huge mountain, which stands 19,341 feet above sea level. The Taste (Make It Shake) rapper raised over £160,000 following his challenge, with the funds going to the Down’s Syndrome Association, for which he is an ambassador.

The documentary promises emotional scenes as cameras captured every moment of the challenge. Fans will see “the physical and emotional realities of the journey”, a press release about the special stats.

“As the altitude rises and the conditions become increasingly unforgiving, viewers witness the determination, vulnerability and camaraderie that carry the group towards the summit,” it continues.

“Through candid moments on and off the mountain, the documentary explores the motivation behind the challenge, highlighting the strength of family, resilience, and the importance of raising greater awareness and creating opportunities for people with Down syndrome. More than a story of endurance, Aitch: Don’t Be Afraid, which was shot last year, shines a light on a cause deeply personal to Aitch, celebrating his younger sister Gracie’s impact on his life while encouraging audiences to support the Down’s Syndrome Association and the work it does for individuals with Down’s syndrome and their families across the UK.”

Aitch’s 16-year-old sister, Gracie, frequently features in his social media output – and his 2022 song, My G, featuring Ed Sheeran, is dedicated to her. The star has opened up about his special relationship with his younger sibling – and has previously stated he makes music to support both Gracie and her twin sister Hattie.

Opening up about their relationship at the Pride of Britain Awards last year, he said: “Gracie is my hero because she’s just an absolute soldier. Just what she’s been through and all that. She just lights up every room she walks in.”

And heaping praise on Hattie, whom he branded “the superstar in my family”, he added: “Them two are my heroes, even though they do my head in sometimes.”

Fans were touched to hear the singer open up about his sisters while in the I’m A Celeb camp last year. He gushed to fellow contestants – including Shona McGarty and Jack Osbourne: “My baby girls, my two sisters, everything I do is for them two… Bottom line, I’m on this show for them two. I make music for them two. I try to make a living for them two. Yeah, they’re my girls.”

And during a previous appearance on Made In Chelsea star Jamie Laing’s podcast, Aitch explained how Gracie had helped shape his life. He said: “I wouldn’t even be half the person I am if [Gracie] wasn’t here.

“She actually teaches you lessons that you don’t realise till after. It’s taught me, and this sounds bad, but it taught me more to treat everyone the same. And to understand that everyone is a human.”

Aitch: Don’t Be Afraid will be available to stream via Netflix from Sunday, 26 July.

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PETE Tong has hit back at a rival DJ as they are embroiled in a row over a music collaboration gone wrong.

American DJ John Summit took to X in a rant where he claimed that the Radio 1 star had ‘promised’ to release his music together, but then decided to work with Dutch DJ Franky Rizardo instead and “jacked” John’s remix.

Fans of Pete and Franky were excited when the DJs revealed they were releasing a new remix of Everything But The Girl’s Missing earlier this year, but ran into controversy when John made the public claims that he was meant to be involved too.

John wrote online: “hey @petetong thanks for promising to release my missing remix with u (while doing nothing in terms of production)

“Then jacking my remix to release with franky rizardo release class act you are. to think i actually looked up to u too.”

John then went on to claim that there was ‘proof’ and said: “Also i ended up doing the whole orchestral version myself which im premiering this weekend, thanks for the zero help”.

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Pete hit back in a video, as he claimed discussions of working with John were simply that and never came to fruition, and that the project with Franky was an ‘independent’ one.

In a video, Pete said: “I’m disappointed. I don’t like being accused of things that aren’t true. If you’ve got a problem, pick up the phone – that’s certainly what I would preach.”

Going on to say that he had tried to call and text John with no avail, Pete claimed: “I think we acted correctly, we laid out the scenario to his team, for one reason or another, it wasn’t to be.

“They never got back to us, we carried on making the other version with Franky. And that’s it.”

Pete later explained: “We had positive conversations on text about doing a new version of his remix and at the same time I was talking to Franky.

“It’s quite normal when releasing a song to have different versions of the same song.

“I started the conversation with both of them, I got into it with John because he was particularly interested in the orchestra because he wanted to perform the song with an orchestra himself.”

Pete then said his management took over communication and told John they were also working on a version with Franky.

He claimed how his team then failed to hear back from John and chased him “multiple times” but never heard back.

Pete did hear back from Franky, he says, and they continued to work on their planned track.

Following John’s very public claims, Franky announced he was withdrawing from the release – saying it “no longer feels right”.

Two new stars will be joining the latest Celebrity Gogglebox line-up as they showcase their TV opinions on the popular Channel 4 show

Rock stars and longtime friends are joining the Celebrity Gogglebox sofa this week.

Making their debut on the show, Jake Shears and Josh Homme will give their opinions on the week’s biggest TV moments, combining their close friendship with their signature wit.

Best known for fronting Scissor Sisters and Queens of the Stone Age, Jake and Josh have spent years performing to huge crowds around the world and building careers that have sold millions of records.

This time, they’ll be watching from the comfort of the sofa, sharing their candid, entertaining reactions to the programmes that have everyone talking.

Talking about his appearance, Jake said: “Josh and I have spent years making noise for a living, so sitting on a sofa and talking over the television felt surprisingly natural. We laughed far more than we probably should have and somehow got away with calling it work. It was a longtime dream to be part of Celebrity Gogglebox.”

Meanwhile, Josh said: “You’ve never watched anyone watch TV until you’ve watched Josh and Jake watching TV. And then you know you’ve watched it. So set your watch for 9pm on Friday. We are breaking ground that should largely have gone unbroken.”

It’s a busy week for Queens of the Stone Age frontman Josh, as the band has unveiled plans for their new album, Everything Under The Sun.

The upcoming release marks the American rock group’s first studio album in three years. They also dropped the lead single, Easy Street, on Tuesday, featuring guest vocals from Nikki Lane.

Fans may already recognise the song after it made its live debut during the band’s Catacombs tour last year.

Elsewhere in the new series of Celebrity Gogglebox, singer Mollie King will be joined on the sofa by her partner, former England cricketer Stuart Broad.

Olivia Attwood has been taking part in the latest series alongside her mum, while her partner Pete Wicks has been appearing separately with his close friend Vicky Pattison.

The new season has also welcomed back a host of familiar faces, including Vernon Kay and Paddy McGuinness, Bez and Shaun, Roman and Martin Kemp, Ashley Banjo and Perri Kiely, Nick Grimshaw with his niece Liv, the Mangans, and Rylan, who once again joins his mum Linda on the sofa.

Celebrity Gogglebox airs this Friday at 9pm on Channel 4.

A BRIT R&B singer has quietly welcomed her second child with her music producer husband.

Cleo Sol, 38, surprised fans when she revealed she had given birth to another baby, after keeping her pregnancy a secret.

The singer revealed that she and her record producer husband Inflo, real name Dean Josiah Cover, are now settling into life again as parents with a newborn.

Cleo, who shot to fame in the noughties, revealed her happy news on Instagram.

She posted a slew of photos which started with her pregnancy bump, and ended with her holding her newborn baby.

Cleo captioned the sweet snaps with: “Out of words right now, but grateful.”

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The star’s fans rushed to share their joy at her happy news, with one writing: “Congratulations Angel!!”

Another said: “Happy for you sista!! Blessings to your beloved family!!”

A third commented: “Omg omg! Congratulations the family is growing!”

The singer and husband Inflo first became parents in 2021, when they welcomed their first baby.

Cleo shot into the spotlight in the noughties, and was known for hits like When I’m In Your Arms, Promises, Why Don’t You, and Life Will Be.

Before finding fame, the singer would upload her music to MySpace.

In 2008, Cleo got her big break when Tinie Tempah asked her to sing the chorus on his song Tears

Following this, she got a record deal and started making music of her own.

However, by 2013, Cleo decided she no longer wanted to be in the spotlight and retreated from fame.

“I wasn’t happy,” she admitted in an interview in 2019, when she returned to music.

“And I was attaching my happiness to my music, so I wanted to quit music completely.

“Which still makes me sad when I think about it.” For four years, she retired from music entirely.

“I wasn’t being true to myself, and I was listening to everyone else’s advice on my career other than myself.

“I had lost faith in myself. I didn’t know how to pick myself up again.”

However, after returning to the R&B scene seven years ago, Cleo continues to make music with her husband and also perform.

Activists say Moroccan authorities are intensifying repression of critical voices and the Gen Z protest movement.

Politically outspoken Moroccan artist, rapper, and filmmaker Mehdi El Youbi has been arrested in Casablanca, days after being barred from returning to France, where he has been based since 2017.

El Youbi, better known by his stage name Mehdi Black Wind, was detained on Monday night after being questioned by Morocco’s National Brigade of Judicial Police in Casablanca, according to a statement from a group of his friends and supporters.

“After a day of questioning, his family were informed at around 9pm that he had been taken into police custody and was due to appear before the public prosecutor on Wednesday”, the statement said. “According to the latest information, his arrest is believed to be linked to his artistic views and posts on social media.”

El Youbi, born in 1992, is widely known in Morocco and across North Africa for his rap songs heavily influenced by US hip-hop. He rose to prominence in the early 2010s, at the same time as the Arab Spring, with songs that caught the attention of the authorities for their politically engaged lyrics.

“When I return home, I’m afraid of being arrested or banned from the country,” El Youbi told French music magazine Mosaique Magazine in December 2025. “Many people try to depoliticise art or sport, but I believe that every committed artist, every activist, or anyone who takes risks lives between boldness and fear.”

El Youbi is “the best rapper in North Africa and it’s not close”, Algerian journalist Maher Mezahi said on X.

Omar Radi, a Moroccan investigative journalist and human rights activist who was previously jailed in Morocco for criticising a judge, told Al Jazeera that El Youbi is “the most outspoken and politically direct Moroccan rapper”.

“There is a deliberate attempt to stamp out any possibility of criticism of the government or police methods, whether within civil society and the press, or in artistic circles or amongst football supporters,” Radi said.

El Youbi’s detention comes a day after the arrest of Moroccan journalist Ali Lmrabet, which was condemned by the Committee to Protect Journalists, and two weeks after Zineb Kharroubi, a leading figure in the Gen Z 212 activist movement, was given a six-month suspended prison sentence after being found guilty of “incitement to commit crimes or offences by electronic means”.

A supporter of El Youbi said that these developments reflect “intensified repression linked to the Gen Z movement”, referring to the youth-led protest movement that emerged last year in Morocco demanding better health services and education reforms.

El Youbi is due to appear before the public prosecutor on Wednesday morning. His supporters said they were concerned that he may have to appear without a lawyer, as lawyers in Morocco are currently on strike.

Thinking back on the last two years of his life full of album releases, filming schedules and tour dates, Finn Wolfhard requires squint-inducing concentration to keep it all straight.

“Jesus, a lot has happened,” he says, looking surprised. That’s an understatement.

In that time, the 23-year-old not only finished filming the Netflix hit show “Stranger Things,” which catapulted him to global stardom, and promoted the final season upon its premiere. He also released his feature film directorial debut (“Hell of a Summer,” co-directed with Billy Bryk, which hit theaters in April 2025). Then, he starred in another movie (A24’s creature feature “The Legend of Ochi”), directed a posthumous George Harrison stop-motion music video, wrote, recorded and put out his first solo album (“Happy Birthday”), and embarked on a 22-date tour before recording a new album.

On a video call from his family home in Vancouver, Canada, where he lives with his parents and older brother, he’s chatting about the release of that record, the eclectic, guitar-driven “Fire From the Hip,” which dropped Friday.

“I think it’s a nice day?” he offers when I ask what’s happening in Vancouver. “I don’t know. I’ve been in my basement studio all day, so I don’t … I think it’s nice.”

He’s been down in the basement doing press calls like this, he explains, undoubtedly a familiar routine after so many years in the limelight. He wears a baseball cap and an oversize brown sweater, tugging on the sleeves while he ponders.

Even if Wolfhard is exhausted by the press marathon, he doesn’t show it. He’s excited for the chance to be known on his own terms. He never fails to express gratitude for the projects that afforded him recognition and opportunity, but he’s ready to “take control of the narrative.”

“I spent my whole childhood standing on marks that other people told me to stand on and saying lines that other people told me to say,” he says. “Why wouldn’t I want to make my own stuff?”

Being in control also means being the face of the operation. Before “Happy Birthday” and “Fire From the Hip,” Wolfhard released a total of two records and an EP, plus a whole bunch of singles, with his previous bands, Calpurnia and the Aubreys. Being in a band was a natural fit for Wolfhard, who thrives in an ensemble where he can “hide behind the band name.”

Touring last year was his first time seeing his own name on the marquee.

“It’s just straight up me, and if I suck, I suck,” he laughs. “It’s not like I can be like, ‘Oh, man, we’re having disagreements in the band.’ It’s like, no, that’s you. So there was a little more pressure early on.”

Finn Wolfhard released “Fire From the Hip” on Friday.

(Victoria Stevens)

Stepping into the spotlight required Wolfhard, who admits he shies away from conflict, to own both the pressure and the power of being the one audiences came to hear.

When he got sick and had to cancel a show in Portland, Ore., he remembers feeling crushingly sad “letting down” his fans and bandmates — who, of course, assured him it was outside of his control and urged him not to be so hard on himself.

Wolfhard introduced many of the songs that ended up becoming “Fire From the Hip” to his bandmates while they were still on tour, and he says playing them live “cultivated the spirit” of the eventual recordings. Despite his collaborative ethos, there was a moment during the process where he had to learn how to put his foot down in real time.

“I remember suggesting something and people being like, ‘Ah, I don’t know if I want to do that.’ And I was like, ‘No, you don’t get to do that to me. It’s my record,’” he remembers. “It was very innocent — I don’t think there was much ego on either side. But I think I maybe set up too collaborative of an experience that day.”

“I think I sometimes make it feel like a democracy, which it is in a lot of ways,” he adds. “But also, in the end, it is up to me.”

That thought is echoed in the album’s cover art, an image of two miniature Finn Wolfhards facing off, donning colonial garb and brandishing weapons. It’s meant to represent dueling impulses inside of him, he explains.

Wolfhard, a true-blue music nerd, has been described online as an archetypical example of the “child of a Gen X cool dad,” in the same vein as Olivia Rodrigo. (His dad, a former screenwriter turned lawyer and Indigenous rights researcher, does sound cool, but it was his mom who first introduced him to the Beatles. His parents apparently met over a Stone Roses record.)

That sensibility is evident in his musical influences — “I wanted everything [on drums] to sound like the first two Wilco records,” he says — and in his approach to recording. “Happy Birthday” was recorded almost entirely on four-track cassette tapes, while “Fire From the Hip” uses 24-track reel-to-reel.

The album runs the gamut from its cheeky, surf-rock opener “I’ll Let You Finish” (yes, that is a reference to Kanye West’s infamous speech at the 2009 VMAs) to more ’90s alt-inspired tunes to a surprising dose of straightforward country-folk.

Lyrically, Wolfhard divides his songs into two categories: the “very personal” and the story songs written around books he was reading (“Knockemstiff” by Donald Ray Pollock) or quotes that made him laugh. The personal themes he explores are exactly what you would expect from an early-20s rocker raised in the public eye — namely, relationship expectations and existential fears about the future.

On the nostalgic piano ballad “Good Morning,” he imagines what it might be like to settle down somewhere “with a dog and a wife.”

“I haven’t lived that part of my life yet,” he says now. “So I can really easily get lost in thinking about what that looks like.”

When it comes to sharing his music, especially the more vulnerable tracks, Wolfhard knows his “Stranger Things” fame is the elephant in the room. Anything he sings can and might be used against him in the court of public opinion.

“I could either kind of say nothing and be totally private, because it is scary knowing that everything I say, at least one person will take it a certain way that I wouldn’t want them to. But I just don’t have the control,” he says.

“So if I don’t have the control, then there’s nothing really that I can do, other than try to be as truthful and passionate and well-meaning as I possibly can, you know?”

The double-edged sword of fandom hasn’t stopped Wolfhard or his musically-inclined “Stranger Things” co-stars from pursuing this path. Fellow Hawkins alums Joe Keery (who releases music under the moniker Djo) and Maya Hawke are indie darlings in their own right, and Wolfhard has previously referred to Keery as a mentor. None of them face the unique challenge of relatability in quite the same way, however.

“I’m aware that my specific problems are maybe not as relatable because of how specific of a life I have,” he said. “The only thing I can hope for is that some other person out there listens to it and relates to the same things that I do.”

Sometimes an air of wistfulness accompanies these admissions. When asked about how he feels about Los Angeles, he tells me that it’s complicated: “I think if I wasn’t a young actor, it would be a very different situation.” His favorite parts of the city are its repertory cinemas and lush neighborhoods like Mount Washington, where his godfather resides, because they look the most like Vancouver.

That said, he’s not through with Hollywood. He’ll be back in L.A. for an Oct. 13 show at the Fonda Theatre, and acting and directing are still on the agenda. He would like his next film project — other than the Matt Johnson and Bong Joon Ho projects he’s already committed to, of course — to be something more “personal.”

For now, though, the focus is music. Wolfhard launches a new tour this month, and he’s most looking forward to “doing dumb s—” with his friends.

He tells a quick story to illustrate: When he and the band last toured in Glasgow, Scotland, he was trying to leave the venue without being noticed. (“I have a hard time dealing with fan interaction,” he says.)

“We kind of made it into this joke thing, knowing it wouldn’t work, where me and Rand, my guitarist, were like, ‘let’s switch clothes.’ Rand pretended to be me and I pretended to be Rand,” he says. Miraculously, it worked up until the “very last second” before they stepped on the bus.

“I couldn’t help myself,” he says: He instinctively made eye contact with someone in the crowd. “They did a double take, like, ‘Wait, what?’”

It sounds like a scene straight out of “A Hard Day’s Night” — or maybe inspiration for his next film.

“I’m pretty in my head about things and want them to be a certain way,” he says. “The thing that I have to remind myself all the time is that, like, dude, you’re with your friends, you’re playing music — it’s the best.”