Chip Taylor, the songwriter behind the Troggs’ rock hit “Wild Thing” and actor Angelina Jolie’s uncle, has died. He was 86.
Taylor died Monday in hospice care, according to Page Six, citing Taylor’s longtime friend, producer Billy Vera.
Taylor, born James Wesley Voight in Yonkers, N.Y., in 1940, was actor Jon Voight’s brother, but built a formidable music career outside of his famous sibling’s shadow.
As a teen guitarist, he joined the band Town & Country Brothers, which toured with Neil Sedaka. His songwriting submissions to RCA Records impressed the artist Chet Atkins, who championed his tunes in the country music scene. Taylor also wrote out of the same 1650 Broadway building in New York where Gerry Goffin and Carole King were based.
In 1966, Taylor penned “Wild Thing” for the garage-rock band the Troggs, which rocketed to No. 1 and kicked off a new mode for rock ’n’ roll that favored grungier musicianship and more overt sexuality. “That upstrum, there? You wouldn’t play that if you were properly schooled,” he told the Independent in 2023. “I did it because I didn’t know any better. I ended up with this innocent energy. It came out of me looser that way, the feeling just flew out of me.”
Jimi Hendrix famously performed the song at Monterey Pop in 1967 in a fever of sexual tension (it featured in the 1968 concert documentary), making it an era-defining rock hit and Taylor’s most famous tune. He also wrote “Angel of the Morning,” popularized by Juice Newton and Merrilee Rush, and penned songs performed by Willie Nelson, Linda Ronstadt, Johnny Cash and Janis Joplin, among many others.
Taylor’s career pivoted in the ’80s, when he became a professional gambler and a rogue on the Atlantic City casino strip. Yet he had a later career resurgence in the 2000s, after he met fiddle player Carrie Rodriguez at the South by Southwest Music Conference in Austin, Texas. The pair released several acclaimed alt-country albums together. Taylor’s 2012 single “F— All the Perfect People” prominently featured on the soundtrack for the hit Netflix series “Sex Education.”
Taylor said the song was inspired by performing concerts for prisoners, some of his favorite gigs. “I’ve always liked talking to prisoners because, for the most part, they’re extremely honest,” he said. “I never met a prisoner I didn’t have empathy for. I wrote that at 6 a.m. one morning when I realized I had some shows for prisoners coming up and I wanted to write something that was just for them.”
Taylor’s final album was 2025’s “The Truth and Other Things.” He is survived by several children and grandchildren. His wife, Joan Carole Frey, died in 2025.
The French Canadian singer may be making her return to concert performances this fall, according to Variety. In 2022, Dion canceled her North American tour due to muscle spasms and later revealed that her diagnosis with stiff-person syndrome, an autoimmune neurological disorder, would prevent her from performing.
Montreal newspaper La Presse reported that fans were speculating Dion would return to the stage, after Parisians spotted posters referencing titles of Dion’s songs like “Power of Love” and “Pour Que tu M’aimes Encore” throughout the city. La Presse also reported that Dion will likely perform two concerts a week throughout September and October at the Paris La Défense Arena, a venue that seats 40,000 spectators.
Dion has not headlined her own show since her Courage World Tour in 2020, which was postponed and then canceled due to her health issues. She sang an emotional cover of Édith Piaf’s “Hymne à l’amour” during the closing ceremony of the 2024 Olympics. Last November, she performed her songs “I’m Alive” and “The Power of Love” during the 1001 Seasons of Elie Saab fashion show in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.
The singer publicized her battle with SPS in her 2024 documentary, “I Am: Celine Dion.” In the film, Dion discussed how she’d been experiencing health issues for 17 years before her diagnosis. SPS affected Dion’s ability to sing by causing a strain on her vocal cords, making her voice sound more nasal.
“Sometimes I would point my microphone towards the audience and I would make them sing it. There’s moments where I cheated and I tapped on the microphone, like it was the microphone’s fault,” Dion explained in her documentary.
Even with her diagnosis, the singer made it clear in her documentary that she intended to continue pursuing her love of music.
“If I can’t run, I’ll walk. If I can’t walk, I’ll crawl, but I won’t stop.”
Dion’s representatives did not immediately respond to a request for comment. La Défense Arena declined to comment.
Afroman has emerged victorious from an invasion of privacy and defamation case filed against him by seven members of Ohio’s Adams County Sheriff’s Office over mocking videos and social media posts the rapper put out after a failed 2022 raid on his home.
“We did it, America! Yeah, we did it! Freedom of speech! Right on! Right on! Yeah! God bless America!” the 51-year-old rapper, born Joseph Foreman, shouted outside the courthouse after the Wednesday evening verdict as supporters rallied behind him. In the clip, under a white fur coat, he was rocking the same American flag shades and red, white and blue suit and tie he had worn on the stand Tuesday.
Four deputies, two sergeants and a detective with the Adams County sheriff filed the lawsuit in March 2023, seeking to reclaim any money the rapper made from what they said was unauthorized use of their likenesses. The group wanted nearly $4 million in damages. Foreman used footage from the raid in videos for songs including “Lemon Pound Cake” to make money to pay for the damage done to his home during the raid, when his front gate was broken down and his front door smashed in.
The plaintiffs said in their lawsuit that the posts and videos caused them “humiliation, ridicule, mental distress, embarrassment and loss of reputation” and made it difficult to do their law enforcement work.
At trial, all seven plaintiffs testified about the harassment they had suffered because of the rapper’s music and videos. One, Deputy Lisa Phillips, had her gender identity called into question in Foreman’s videos and social media posts. She cried on the stand as a video suggesting she enjoyed sex with other women was played for the court.
The jury apparently agreed with the argument that the sheriff’s officers were acting in a public capacity during the raid and therefore were not shielded from criticism of their behavior.
“No reasonable person would expect a police officer not to be criticized. They’ve been called names before,” defense lawyer David Osborne said in closing arguments for the rapper and comedian, known for his breakout 2000 hit, “Because I Got High.”
In 2022, the sheriff’s team was acting on a warrant showing probable cause that drugs and drug paraphernalia would be found on the property and alleging that trafficking and kidnapping had happened there. No evidence of a crime was found, and no charges were filed.
Foreman wasn’t home during the raid but was able to see at least part of it via a video recorded by his ex-wife and footage captured on his home security system before law enforcement turned off those cameras. He said on the stand that the raid traumatized his children, who were 10 and 12 at the time.
“The whole raid was a mistake. All of this is their fault,” Foreman testified Tuesday. “If they hadn’t wrongly raided my house, there would be no lawsuit, I would not know their names, they wouldn’t be on my home surveillance system, and there would be no songs, nothing.”
Foreman also defended his right to use the raid footage as fodder for his work.
“After they left, I had the right to kick the can and to do what I had to do to repair the damage they brought to my house. Yes, I did,” he testified. “I have freedom of speech. I’m a rapper. I entertain.”
Foreman discussed his reaction to the lawsuit with local station WCPO Channel 9 in 2023. “From the first 10 seconds, I was offended. I was appalled. I was like ‘What?’ Then I started laughing,” he said. “These guys with their rifles are crying about my comedy songs.”
Meanwhile, as the jury deliberated Wednesday, an entirely different Adams County Sheriff’s Office was feeling online heat linked to the trial: the office in Colorado’s Adams County.
“The Adams County Sheriff’s Office has received a flood of social media comments, DMs, and phone calls about the #Afroman defamation trial,” the Colorado department said on X. “It’s clear this is important to a lot of people. There’s just one small issue: that’s the ACSO in Ohio. We are the ACSO in #Colorado. Different states, same name.”
Afroman testified Tuesday in a civil lawsuit brought by seven members of an Ohio sheriff’s office who allege he used their likenesses without permission in music videos and on merchandise and spread lies about them after they raided his home in August 2022.
The 51-year-old, whose real name is Joseph Edgar Foreman, said on the stand Tuesday that he was in the right, according to local station WCPO Channel 9 in Cincinnati.
“The whole raid was a mistake. All of this is their fault,” Foreman testified, taking the stand wearing sunglasses with American flag lenses and a red, white and blue suit and matching tie made of fabric recalling the American flag. “If they hadn’t wrongly raided my house, there would be no lawsuit, I would not know their names, they wouldn’t be on my home surveillance system, and there would be no songs, nothing.”
Officers were acting in 2022 on a warrant showing probable cause that drugs and drug paraphernalia would be found on the property. The warrant also alleged that trafficking and kidnapping had happened there. No evidence of a crime was found, and no charges were filed. Foreman wasn’t home during the raid but was able to see at least part of it via a video recorded by his ex-wife and footage captured on his home security system before law enforcement turned off those cameras.
It was that footage that was used in the various videos the rapper subsequently posted, including a music video for the song “Lemon Pound Cake,” which he wrote about the raid.
Officers tore down his door, he said, and damaged his house, taking money, vape pens and a small amount of marijuana. There was a discrepancy about the amount of money taken and returned to the rapper, which seemed to be a point of contention linked to whether he was misrepresenting what the deputies did during the raid.
“After they left, I had the right to kick the can and to do what I had to do to repair the damage they brought to my house. Yes, I did,” Foreman said. “I have freedom of speech. I’m a rapper. I entertain.”
His testimony came on the second day of the trial, after the deputies took the stand the first day and testified that though the raid wasn’t perfect, Foreman had been spreading lies about them for years since it occurred. Deputy Lisa Phillips, whose gender identity had been called into question in Foreman’s videos and social media posts, cried on the stand as some of those videos were played for the court.
Footage with a song called “Licc’em Low Lisa” showed Foreman saying he thought he would “crack some musical jokes” in the wake of the raid, then going to comfort a crying actor who resembled Phillips. “I didn’t know they hurt you that bad. … I was just having fun with a bad situation.” The same video showed the actor engaging in sexual activity with another woman.
In their lawsuit, WCPO said, the deputies said the posts and videos caused them “humiliation, ridicule, mental distress, embarrassment and loss of reputation” and made it difficult to do their law enforcement work.
In an amicus brief, however, the ACLU argued that the deputies’ lawsuit was a “classic entry into the SLAPP suit genre,” referring to a type of lawsuit that seeks to discourage criticism of public officials.
Here’s a hot take: South by Southwest is a Latin music festival.
When the De Los team headed to Austin, Texas, in 2024 to cover the event for the first time, approximately 60 acts that fell under the expansive Latin music genre umbrella had been invited to perform. Two years later, that number has more than doubled, with more than 150 Latin music acts featured at the iconic festival, now in its 40th year.
“Latin music has seen incredible growth at SXSW in recent years, reflecting its rise across the global music industry,” said Evelyn Gómez Rivera, associate programmer for Latin music. “2026 is shaping up to be our biggest year for the genre in over a decade, with several major labels showcasing their newest and most exciting Latin talent here.”
Ahead of the festival, which kicks off Thursday, the De Los team has assembled a list of acts that have caught our attention. And before you blow up our inboxes asking why the big acts (Fuerza Regida and Junior H are also slated to perform) weren’t included, keep in mind that what makes SXSW unique is that it’s a chance for attendees to see the next big thing before they blow up. In that spirit of discovery, our list is made up of acts you might not have heard of.
Big Soto
“Terminé siendo rapero cuando quería ser doctor,” Gustavo Rafael Guerrero Soto, better known as Big Soto, confesses in his pandemic-era collaborative session with Argentine mega-producer Bizarrap. It’s safe to say that he made the right career move. The 29-year-old from Venezuela (he now lives in Mexico) is signed to Rimas Entertainment and has been at the forefront of the Latin trap movement. — Fidel Martinez
Mariangela
Mexican-born singer Mariangela started off as a tender pop darling when she first uploaded covers to her YouTube channel in 2019, drawing inspiration from indie-pop singers like Carla Morrison and Mazzy Star’s Hope Sandoval before releasing her alt-pop debut album “Sensible” under Sony Music Latin in 2024. Now the Texas-based artist is taking her musical stylings in a new direction, drawing from her Monterrey roots with the release of her latest “Cuando Una Mujer,” a cumbia norteña about fierce female empowerment. — Andrea Flores
Esty
First-generation Dominican American singer Esty doesn’t like to be boxed in. From one track to the next, she’ll shift from a mix of dembow and alternative rock to bachata and pop, as seen in her recent single “V3n3n0,” from her upcoming album, “Domi Star.” — Cat Cardenas
Marilina Bertoldi
De Los contributor Ernesto Lechner is 100% responsible for this entry — he included the avant-garde alt rocker from Buenos Aires in his 2025 list of indie artists who deserved to win a Latin Grammy, calling her “the resident hurricane of Argentine rock, blessed with a corrosive sense of the absurd, a knack for pop-punk melodies, and attitude to spare.” How could you not want to see that? — FM
Ruido Selecto
Hailing from Medellín, Colombia, Ruido Selecto drives forward the Caribbean rhythms of cumbia, salsa, electronic dub and Afro-diasporic styles that have been traditionally transmitted through Picós, hand-painted sound systems popular throughout the country’s coast. His hybrid mixes also include elements of sonideros, most audible in tracks like “Lo Que Esconde.” I’m fascinated by his attention to detail in his project “Los 14 Cañonazos Bailables,” where he created experimental and contemporary tropical mixes using archives from Discos Fuentes, a Cartagena record label largely responsible for disseminating 1960s Caribbean sound across the coast of Colombia. — AF
Delilah
The Mexican American singer got her start in mariachi, eventually learning piano, guitar, violin and vihuela. At just 17 years old, her impressive vocals and ability to mix traditional and contemporary Mexican music have already gotten the attention of artists like Becky G and Iván Cornejo. — CC
Danny Felix
Among the biggest feathers in Danny Felix’s hat is being the producer behind the “Soy el Diablo (Remix),” a Natanael Cano track that also doubled as Bad Bunny’s first venture into the world of música mexicana. The Phoenix-based multihyphenate (in addition to producing, he is also a multiinstrumentalist and singer) has played a major role in shaping the current sound of corridos tumbados and will be repping the subgenre in Austin. — FM
60 Juno
Originating from Merced, Calif., this Central Valley post-punk band radiates a hazy, dreamlike sound, so much that one of their most popular tracks is titled “zzz.” While 60 Juno initially began as a solo project led by Jericho Tejeda in his bedroom during the pandemic, it has now expanded to include three additional members from Whittier, Calif. There’s a bit of everything in this band, mellowed surf-rock wading into punk territory that can be heard in songs like the upbeat “Enjoy the Sunset” and their most popular, hypnotic track to date, “J Song.” — AF
RIA
Before she stepped into the spotlight, Ria was writing songs for other artists. Now, she’s combining her knack for emotional lyricism with her soulful voice, recently opening for Tito Double P in Mexico, and breaking out with her recent single, “Pagana.” — CC
Sebaxxss
Sebaxxss is the on-tour DJ for Feid, the pop reggaeton singer and fellow Colombian. I’m interested to see how his set translates into a smaller, more intimate venue. — FM
Diles que no me maten
Diles que no me maten is an experimental, psychedelic rock band from Mexico City named after the famous short story by Mexican author Juan Rulfo about a man who pleads for his life after being captured for killing his neighbor decades earlier. If listeners didn’t know any better, they would think this band started in the late 1980s during the rise of homegrown rock, with its untouched vocals in songs like “Outro.” Tracks like “El Circo” sound like a gentle birth, while “(Radio Sonora Edit)” presents itself as a ghostly acoustic jazz ballad. — AF
Eydrey
Since competing on Netflix’s Latin music competition show, “La Firma,” in 2023, Eydrey has landed a record deal and released a steady stream of R&B, Mexican and reggaeton-infused tracks. Her borderland upbringing in El Paso has also shaped her Spanglish lyrics. — CC
Lena Dardelet
Hailing from Cabarete, Dominican Republic — the same beach resort town is home to the Bachata Academy, the only bachata school in the world — Lena Dardelet fuses pop with various Caribbean genres, including— yep, you guessed it — bachata. — FM
Mosmo
Signed with Rimas Entertainment, Hermosillo singer Mosmo is bringing his own crooning element to the corrido world. The rising singer first came into the spotlight in 2022 on Netflix’s “La Firma,” a competition looking to find the next Latin urban music star. Mosmo’s raw, drawled vocals can be heard in the romantic bélico “Modo B” and the agonizing “Terapia” that implores a past lover for their return. Mosmo also incorporates elements of trap and reggaeton in songs like “Dimensiones,” as well as pop in the bilingual track “Siempre Tú.” — AF
Selines
Inspired by artists like Natalia Lafourcade, singer-songwriter Selines’ guitar-based songs draw on the traditions of boleros, classical music and jazz, bringing a warm nostalgia and romance to her sound. — CC
For the third year in a row, De Los, the Latino-centric vertical of the Los Angeles Times, will be returning to South by Southwest in Austin, Texas, and things are a little different this time around. While the music portion of the festival has typically been given its own weekend to shine, in 2026, it’ll be “folded into” a week-long event alongside film, TV and interactive programming.
But despite these changes, one thing is clear: After a banner year for Latin music at SXSW in 2025, it seems like everyone’s doubled down in 2026, with the festival welcoming a historic number of Latin artists to Austin. That includes the De Los showcase.
If our 2024 event was more of an intimate kickback, 2025 was an all-out party. Thanks to energetic sets from acts like trap corrido pioneers Arsenal Efectivo and the clashing cumbia punk stylings of Sultanes del Yonke, the crowd was up on their feet dancing, twirling and even forming a mosh pit at one point — all into the early hours of the morning. We hope to bring those same vibes back to SXSW this year.
If you’re in Austin for the festival, join us at Mala Fama, located at 422 E. 6th St., Austin, on Sunday, March 15 starting at 8 p.m. As always, the festival is a great opportunity to discover new artists and exciting new sounds, so whether or not you’ll be joining us in Texas, we hope this lineup might inspire you to find a new favorite artist, song or band.
Here’s who’s playing at the 2026 De Los showcase.
Hermanos Espinoza
With their South Texas upbringing (Puro 956!), it shouldn’t come as a surprise that this duo’s Norteño sound has plenty of Tejano flair too. Hailing from Edinburg, brothers Joel and Leonel Espinoza broke out not long after making their debut in 2022, when their song “Prueba de Fuego” hit more than 100 million streams. Their lively, accordion-rich music feels classic enough to be right at home on the playlist for your next carne asada.
Noteworthy track: “Dios por Delante”
Vanita Leo
Music is in Vanita Leo’s DNA. Born and raised in San Antonio, the singer’s father and aunt are both Tejano musicians who inspired Leo to take up the family mantle and put her own spin on the genre. With a love for the old-school sound of the 1990s, Leo manages to weave together her flirty, unserious humor with vintage romance, writing songs that’ll either validate your heartbreak over a bad ex or have you ready to dance it off and forget they ever existed.
Noteworthy track: “Caballito”
Tropa Magica
The second sibling duo on our lineup, Tropa Magica is the brainchild of brothers David and Rene Pacheco. Their signature sound, much like the East L.A. neighborhood they grew up in, is a melting pot of influences, combining old-school cumbias, ’90s grunge, and psychedelic rock into something completely unique to them. Since coming onto the scene in 2018, the band has gotten the stamp of approval from established acts like Bomba Estéreo, Los Tigres Del Norte and Chicano Batman.
Noteworthy track: “Ojos de Lágrimas”
Eddy
This is set to be Eddy’s year. Born Eduardo Hernández Payán, Eddy first made waves when he was discovered by corridos singer-songwriter Diego Millán (Calle 24) and signed to his Ondeados Mafia label. Last year, he built up a reputation for being an artist to watch in the Regional Mexican space thanks to collaborations with Gabito Ballesteros and Ed Maverick. Now, Eddy is prepping for the release of his debut album, “Náufrago,” later this month.
Noteworthy track: “Ultimo Cigarro”
Nezza
Many of you might know Nezza from her viral moment last summer, when she went viral for singing the national anthem in Spanish at Dodger Stadium — her form of protest against the immigration raids that had been taking place all over L.A. But just take a listen to the Dominican-Colombian singer’s original music, and you’ll see that she’s much more than a viral moment. With her Spanglish lyrics, soulful vocals and glittery production, Nezza has her sights set on international pop stardom.
Bruce Johnston, a six-decade member of the Beach Boys’ live band, announced he will step away from the group.
The 82-year-old Johnston told Rolling Stone that “It’s time for part three of my lengthy musical career! I can write songs forever and wait until you hear what’s coming! As my major talent beyond singing is songwriting, now is the time to get serious again.”
The Beach Boys’ Mike Love also said in a statement that “Bruce Johnston is one of the greatest songwriters, vocalists, and keyboardists of our time. We’ve had the honor of his performance and participation for many many years with the Beach Boys. Change is always promised in life; today we find ourselves in a chapter of change, but not an end.”
Johnston originally joined the group in 1965, filling in as a live vocalist in place of frontman Brian Wilson, and earning a vocal credit on “California Girls.” He left the band in 1972 to pursue solo work, and penned Barry Manilow’s hit “I Write The Songs.”
Johnston returned to the Beach Boys in 1978, and continued to tour as the only member besides Love from the band’s original era. He also wrote several songs for the group, including “Disney Girls (1957),” “Deirdre” and “Tears in the Morning.” Johnston will be replaced by Chris Cron, vocalist for the Beach Boys tribute band Pet Sounds Live.
After Wilson’s death last year, Beach Boys fans still have several occasions to hear the catalog live. Love’s long-running edition of the Beach Boys will play three nights at the Hollywood Bowl over July 4 weekend (which Johnston said he’ll sit in on). Founding member Al Jardine is touring with Brian Wilson’s former backing ensemble, now called the Pet Sounds Band, with a set focused on the1977 LP “The Beach Boys Love You.”
Four hours before Sienna Spiro is due to launch her first U.S. headlining tour, the 20-year-old singer and songwriter from London sits upstairs in the Troubadour’s empty balcony, peering down as several crew members wheel a grand piano onstage.
“The fact that I’m 11-and-a-half hours from home and that this room is gonna be filled with people that have never met me and that I’ve never seen before — that’s just crazy,” she says. “I’m kind of scared.”
The song that brought Spiro to West Hollywood this past Tuesday is “Die on This Hill,” a showstopping pop-soul ballad about staying in a toxic relationship — “I’ll take my pride, stand here for you,” she sings, “I’m not blind, just seeing it through” — that’s been streamed more than 300 million times on YouTube and Spotify since it came out in October. Built around tolling piano chords and Spiro’s titanic vocal, the song hit No. 9 in the U.K. and broke into the Top 20 of Billboard’s Hot 100; last month, Spiro — whose famous admirers include SZA, Mark Ronson and Alex Warren — was nominated for the Critics’ Choice prize at England’s annual BRIT Awards.
With its unabashed emotion and its throwback feel, “Die on This Hill” can be heard as the latest in a long line of melodramatic ballads by young Brits such as Amy Winehouse, Duffy, Lewis Capaldi and Olivia Dean, the last of whom was just named best new artist at the Grammys. Yet Spiro’s voice stands out: Rich and pulpy, with a crack she knows how to deploy for maximum heartbreak, it might be the most impressive instrument to come out of England since Adele emerged nearly two decades ago.
“Sienna is a true artist with the voice of a generation,” says Sam Smith, one more English singer (and former best new artist winner) with a flair for ugly-cry theatrics. Late last year, Smith, who identifies as nonbinary, invited Spiro to join them onstage in New York for a performance of Smith’s song “Lay Me Down.” Spiro, Smith recalls, “blew the room away” — one reason they brought her out again Wednesday night at San Francisco’s Castro Theatre, this time to sing “Die on This Hill” together.
Says Smith of the younger artist: “The world is at her feet.”
At the Troubadour, where she’ll follow Tuesday’s sold-out concert with an encore appearance Friday night, Spiro describes singing as a life calling. “I’ve known what I wanted to do since — honestly, since I’ve been a conscious human being,” she says. Dressed in a black-and-white-striped turtleneck, she has her legs folded beneath her on a wooden bench; her dark hair hangs loose around her face, yet to be styled into the ’60s-inspired do she’ll wear come showtime.
“I always felt a bit invisible,” she adds, whether at school with friends or at home as a middle child. “Not in a victimized way. But I always struggled with that existentialism. Music is the only thing that’s made me feel real.”
Are we to believe that one of pop’s bright new stars was once … kind of a bummer?
“In my own way, yeah,” she says with a laugh. “It’s OK. It happened. Character building.”
Spiro grew up privileged in London, one of four children of Glenn Spiro, a prominent jeweler who counts Jay-Z as a client and pal. Her dad turned her onto Frank Sinatra and Nina Simone and the Italian film “Profumo di donna” when she was little; by age 10 she’d written her first song (“Lady in the Mirror,” it was called) and played her first gig (at a pub not far from Heathrow Airport).
At 16 she enrolled at East London Arts and Music, a performing arts academy she describes as “the up-and-coming version” of London’s prestigious BRIT School, whose alumni include Adele and Winehouse. Her academic career didn’t last long, though: On her first day of classes she posted a TikTok of herself covering Finneas’ song “Break My Heart Again” that triggered a wave of interest from various record-industry types; soon she dropped out and began regularly traveling to Los Angeles to work on music.
Today Spiro says she has a “love-hate relationship” with the town where she estimates she spends half her time. “I’m very English, and I think something about English people is our honesty — you don’t really have to guess what people are saying. What was shocking to me when I came here was that people didn’t say what they meant.
“I was very, very lonely, and it was hard to make music when you feel that,” she adds. “I make sad music, but it’s hard to be a teenager and be away from your family and your friends and be in a place where you kind of have to play pretend being an adult.”
Did suffering among the two-faced liars of L.A. ever lead her to question her commitment to music?
“No. It just made me question how I was doing it. And not everyone’s a two-faced liar. There are some good ones out there.”
Was she ever at risk of becoming a two-faced liar herself?
“Oh, I’m too English for that,” she says. “If I did that, I’d get a slap.”
Sienna Spiro performs this week at the Troubadour in West Hollywood.
(Ariana Drehsler / For The Times)
Spiro started releasing singles in 2024 and quickly signed a deal with Capitol Records; last year she opened for Teddy Swims on the road and turned heads with “You Stole the Show,” a luxuriously gloomy slow jam with echoes of Adele’s “Skyfall.”
For “Die on This Hill,” which she wrote with Michael Pollack and Omer Fedi (both of whom went on to produce the song with Blake Slatkin), Spiro wanted to capture the feeling of “when you go above and beyond just to feel something reciprocated back from someone,” she says. But if the writing came quickly, the recording didn’t: Spiro jokes that she cut “900 different versions” of the song, including one she says sounded like Silk Sonic and another that sounded like Lauryn Hill.
“I was desperate for something up-tempo,” she says, given that virtually everything she’d dropped so far had been a ballad. Yet Fedi pushed her to cut the tune live with just her on vocals and Pollack on piano. They did four takes, according to the producer, one of which forms the basis of the record that eventually came out.
“Very old-school, very human,” Fedi says of the process. “Maybe I’m corny but with Sienna, less is really more. Her voice is so special, so big and upfront, that you just want to put a giant flashlight on it and let it shine.”
In early January, Spiro gave a bravura performance of “Die on This Hill” on Jimmy Fallon’s late-night show; one clip on TikTok has been viewed more than 70 million times. For that appearance, she wore a retro mini dress printed with an old photo of Johnny Carson behind his desk; for a recent performance in the BBC’s Live Lounge, she wore a different dress showing the faces of the four Beatles.
On stage at the Troubadour, her dress features images of the Chateau Marmont and the Capitol Records tower — a bit of setup, she says, for her next single, “The Visitor,” which is due March 13. Spiro has been slowly assembling her debut album for the past two years, but with headlining concerts to play, she’s reaching back for some of her oldies from 2024.
Some, not all.
“To be real with you, some of my early stuff wasn’t the most authentic,” she says as her drummer starts thwacking a snare during sound check . “I was trying to be someone else because I really wasn’t comfortable with myself.”
Can she point to an example?
“‘Back to Blonde,’” she says, referring to a vaguely Lana Del Rey-ish number about a woman who dyes her hair after killing a no-good lover. “I put it out for all the wrong reasons. It was a mistake — an inauthentic move that I regret making.”
What were the wrong reasons?
“It’s a long story, and it’s not very interesting. I didn’t do it because I loved the song — that’s what I’ll say. But at the end of the day it’s my name and I have to stand by it.”
Which is why she’s taking her time on the LP. Some artists her age don’t care much about the album format but Spiro is a true believer. Among her faves: Sinatra’s “In the Wee Small Hours,” Stevie Wonder’s “Songs in the Key of Life,” Adele’s “21” — “a perfect album,” she says — and Billie Eilish’s “Hit Me Hard and Soft.”
“I love an album where you don’t ever question why a song’s on there,” she says. “Where everything feels intentional.”
She doesn’t want to divulge too much about the work in progress. “The problem with me is I have a huge mouth and I give everything away,” she says, which — hey, great.
“No, I know it is for you,” she adds with a laugh. “But not for me, because then when I actually want to do the big reveal, I’ve got nothing because I’ve said it all.”
She will allow one detail: “It won’t be 12 ballads, I’ll tell you that.” She looks toward the ceiling, jiggling her head slightly, as though she’s doing some mental math regarding the track list.
“I mean, there’s a lot of ballads,” she says. “I just love a ballad — I can’t help it.”
New animated sequences of songs from “Encanto,” “Frozen 2” and “Moana 2” are headed to Disney+.
Disney Animation announced Wednesday that “Songs in Sign Language,” comprised of three musical numbers from recent Disney movies newly reimagined in American Sign Language, will debut April 27 in honor of National Deaf History Month.
Directed by veteran Disney animator Hyrum Osmond, “Songs in Sign Language” will feature fresh animation for “Encanto’s” chart-topper “We Don’t Talk About Bruno,” “Frozen 2’s” poignant ballad “The Next Right Thing” and “Moana 2’s” anthem “Beyond.” Produced by Heather Blodget and Christina Chen, the new versions of these songs were created in collaboration with L.A.-based theater company Deaf West Theatre.
“In the majority of cases, we created entirely new animation,” Osmond said in a press statement. “There were a lot of adjustments that we had to do within the animation to be true to the original intention.”
Deaf West Theatre artistic director DJ Kurs, sign language reference choreographer Catalene Sacchetti and a group of eight performers from Deaf West worked together to craft and choreograph the ASL version of the musical numbers for “Songs in Sign Language.” The creatives focused on being true to the concepts and emotion of the songs rather than direct translations of the lyrics.
Kurs said his team jumped at the chance to collaborate and integrate ASL into “the fabric of Disney storytelling.”
“Disney stories are the universal language of childhood,” Kurs said in a statement. “The chance to bring our language into that world was a historic opportunity to reach a global audience. Working on this project was very emotional. For so long, we have known and loved the artistic medium of Disney Animation. Here, the art form was adapting to us. I hope this unlocks possibilities in the minds and hearts of Deaf children, and that this all leads to more down the road.”
Osmond, who led a team of more than 20 animators on this project, said animation was the perfect medium to showcase sign language, which he described as “one of the most beautiful ways of communication on Earth.” The director, whose father is deaf, also saw this project as an opportunity to connect with the Deaf community.
“Growing up, I never learned sign language, and that barrier prevented me from really connecting with my dad,” Osmond said. “This reimagining of Disney Animation musical numbers helps bring down barriers and allows us to connect in a special way with our audiences in the Deaf community. I’m grateful that the Studio got behind making something so impactful.”
