Fans evacuated from sold-out open-air show as organisers promise full refunds
An open-air show by the Puerto Rican music star Bad Bunny was abandoned in Italy on Saturday night because of a violent hailstorm, but the organiser said ticketholders would be reimbursed.
Videos posted on social media showed large hailstones hitting people at the sold-out show, along with strong winds and driving rain, after the star began his set at Milan’s Snai La Maura Hippodrome.
Continue reading...Josh Fawaz’s song, a cover of Like a Prayer, has raised questions about how generative AI is being used in music and whether it should be declared
An Australian producer has gone from little-known artist to viral sensation in a matter of months, with his hit song catapulting on to global charts and receiving thousands of radio spins.
There’s just one problem: music experts and other musicians are questioning whether he produced it. They claim Josh Fawaz’s most popular song, a cover of Madonna’s Like a Prayer which reached the No 1 spot on the National Radio Airplay chart, could have been made using AI.
Continue reading...McCartney reportedly played Beatles No 1 hit at star-studded reception at Madison Square Garden
Paul McCartney performed the beloved Beatles No 1 hit I Want to Hold Your Hand for the first time in 60 years at Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce’s wedding.
McCartney performed the number at the star-studded reception at Madison Square Garden in New York on Friday, People magazine reported. The track was the Beatles’ first American No 1 hit, sparking Beatlemania in the US and the wave of British bands’ success nicknamed “the British invasion”.
Continue reading...People gather outside Madison Square Garden despite security keeping them from seeing anything noteworthy
Taylor Swift’s fans gathered in the heat outside New York’s Madison Square Garden on Friday for her wedding – or at least the celebration of it – to Travis Kelce, and the sense of being close to the superstar singer-songwriter and her NFL champion groom on their big day.
Whether or not Swift and Kelce have already tied the knot, which has been at the center of contradictory reports, fans said they were thrilled at the union – and the location.
Continue reading...Singer and fiance Travis Kelce have been coy but festivities are getting under way at Madison Square Garden
The streets of New York City and the first-class lounges of Heathrow and JFK airports were crawling on Friday with celebrities on their way to attend the wedding of the year.
Taylor Swift had kept fans guessing about whether it was her nuptials that had caused the closure of 11 streets in midtown Manhattan and the endless deliveries of flowers, food and decorations to the huge Madison Square Garden arena.
Continue reading...Free choice of repertoire and an increased upper age limit part of the changes in a competition that will emphasise individuality and imagination
The Leeds International Piano Competition is to be relaunched under the artistic direction of Sir Stephen Hough. The pianist is leading significant reforms to the triennial contest that first began in 1963. He will also chair an international jury that includes fellow pianists Piotr Anderszewski, Lucas Debargue, Yeol Eum Son, Kathryn Stott and Master of the King’s Music, composer Errollyn Wallen.
The 2027 competition will have its upper age limit increased to 35, and competitors will have complete free choice over the music they perform, be it Couperin or Copland, Boulez or Busoni.
Continue reading...Country is first to join since Australia in 2015 as event director says it ‘continues to welcome the world’
Canada will join the Eurovision song contest in 2027, becoming the first new participant since Australia in 2015, organisers have announced.
Participation is not limited to countries in geographic Europe and instead is open to all members of the European Broadcasting Union (EBU), which Canada joined last week. Australia is an associate member.
Continue reading...In the space of a week, two major musicals, Waitress and Beetlejuice, and a $20m opera were forced to cancel shows amid skyrocketing costs, putting hundreds out of work
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Australia’s theatre industry is in desperate need of tax reform to keep it alive, experts have warned the federal government, after two major touring musicals and a $20m opera cancelled shows in the space of a week, citing skyrocketing costs and soft box office sales.
Broadway musical Waitress, starring Rob Mills and Natalie Bassingthwaighte, announced on Sunday that it would end in Melbourne on 19 July and will not tour to Sydney in August as planned.
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Continue reading...Speaking on Desert Island Discs, the Grammy-nominated musician referred to his alcoholism as a parasite
Fatboy Slim has said he felt paralysed and “rigid with fear” at the prospect of DJing sober after spending time in rehab to deal with his alcohol addiction.
The artist, whose real name is Norman Cook, referred to his alcoholism as a parasite and said getting sober was “probably the hardest thing I’ve ever done” during an appearance on Radio 4’s Desert Island Discs with Lauren Laverne.
Continue reading...‘It’s all just rendered useless’, Something For Kate’s Paul Dempsey says as AI scrapes millions of songs to learn how to make music
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Paul Dempsey and Bernard Fanning are among big-name Australian musicians upset that their original songs have been found in datasets used to train artificial intelligence.
A dataset search tool recently created by US publication The Atlantic reveals millions of creative works have been scraped from the internet to train the disruptive technology.
Continue reading...Two orchestra members from the Sydney performance allege tensions behind the scenes were the cause of pianist failing to appear after intermission
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When an audience member stepped in for a pianist at a Sydney performance of La La Land in Concert last month it made global headlines.
During the intermission of the concert at Darling Harbour Theatre on 30 May, the two-time Oscar-winning composer and conductor Justin Hurwitz appealed to the 2,000-strong crowd for an “amazing sight-reader”, saying one of his two keyboardists had fallen ill.
Continue reading...Musicians and production team understood to be facing same punishment after livestream of patriotic song
The Iranian singer Parastoo Ahmadi and eight members of a production team, including musicians, have been reportedly sentenced to 74 lashes for performing in a concert livestreamed on Ahmadi’s YouTube channel in 2024.
According to court documents, the criminal court of Qom province sentenced the artists to flogging, a two-year ban on leaving the country and a two-year ban on engaging in artistic activities on charges that include offending public decency through the production and publication of “vulgar and immoral content” online.
Continue reading...The accomplished musician, who recorded over 70 albums in his career, died peacefully in Germany after a short illness
South African jazz composer and pianist Abdullah Ibrahim has died at the age of 91.
His family announced his death in a statement released Monday.
Continue reading...Other western acts have attempted to crack country’s music scene since singer’s breakout success in 2018
One week after announcing she was “cancer free”, the British pop star Jessie J did what any recovering patient would do and travelled thousands of miles around the world to perform for an audience of more than a billion people.
On 29 May, the singer-songwriter, whose real name is Jessica Cornish, belted out a stage-rattling rendition of Frank Sinatra’s My Way on the stage of Singer, a hugely popular Chinese singing competition similar to The Voice. She also performed her new song, California, briefly adapting the lyrics to change California to Changsha, the Chinese city where Singer is hosted.
Continue reading...Singer and actor has denied all charges after more than 20 women made allegations against him dating back to 1990s
The French singer Patrick Bruel has been charged with rape and sexual assault in one of the biggest #MeToo cases in the French music industry.
The 67-year-old, a major figure in French pop culture, was placed under formal investigation over four cases that included alleged rape, attempted rape, sexual assault and sexual harassment.
Continue reading...Two new rape complaints have been filed against the 67-year-old singer and actor, who denies the claims
French singer and actor Patrick Bruel, facing sexual assault allegations from multiple women, was taken into police custody on Monday, as two new rape complaints were filed against him.
The 67-year-old, a major figure in French pop culture with multiple top-selling albums and more than 40 film appearances, is being questioned about 13 victims, the prosecutor’s office in the western Paris suburb of Nanterre said in a statement.
Agence France-Presse contributed to this report
Continue reading...Musician donates to USC to help create endowed chair to recognize Dr Joseph Sugerman, who treated her for years
Legendary singer-songwriter Stevie Nicks has given $3m to the University of Southern California’s medical school to recognize the physician who has helped care for her voice throughout much of her career.
The major donation supports the creation of an endowed chair in otolaryngology at USC’s Keck School of Medicine in honor of Dr Joseph Sugerman, an ear, nose and throat specialist from Beverly Hills who has treated the singer – along with other performers and patients – for many years.
Continue reading...Average tour earnings down 45%, with nearly three-fifths of musicians saying touring in Europe is no longer viable
More than a quarter of British musicians have lost all their work in the European Union since 2021, according to new research.
The report by European Movement UK, a cross-party campaign group advocating closer UK-EU relations, found that nearly half of British musicians had experienced a reduced amount of work in the EU since 2021, while more than a quarter had stopped working there altogether.
Continue reading...Research for Roundhouse in London shows 87% of 18- to 30-year-olds believe they have fewer artistic opportunities
Rising costs, the disappearance of third spaces and reduced access to artistic opportunities are causing young people to feel “disconnected, isolated and locked out of creativity”, according to research commissioned by a youth arts charity.
The Roundhouse, a multi-arts venue in north London that reopened in 2006 with a focus on running youth programmes, has released the findings to coincide with the publication of its 20-year impact report on Monday.
Continue reading...There is hope that a change to building regulations could resurrect music clubs, which have been hit by rising rents, social shifts and noise disputes
A move by the German government to reclassify nightclubs to distinguish them from amusement and adult entertainment facilities could give a much-needed boost to the country’s struggling nightlife, industry advocates say.
Under a fundamental change to building regulations approved by Friedrich Merz’s cabinet last week, nightclubs will be formally recognised as providing cultural and artistic value, making it more difficult for developers to evict venue operators in favour of new construction.
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