Category Archives: Music

Megan Thee Stallion granted restraining order against rapper Tory Lanez

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Grammy-winning musician alleged the imprisoned rapper is harassing her through surrogates after he shot her in 2020

Megan Thee Stallion has been granted a restraining order from the imprisoned rapper Tory Lanez until early 2030.

The Los Angeles superior court judge Richard Bloom has granted Megan’s request for a protective order after the hip-hop star alleged that Lanez was harassing her from prison through surrogates as he serves a 10-year sentence for shooting her in the feet.

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UK music industry hails proposals to crack down on ticket touting

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Resale prices could be capped at 30% over face value, while resale websites face greater legal obligations

The price at which tickets for live events can be resold is to be capped under “gamechanging” proposals put forward by the government to crack down on touting in the sector.

In a move hailed by music industry figures, the culture minister, Lisa Nandy, has launched a consultation that she said would end the “misery” of fans being exploited by touts, some of whom have made huge profits by selling hundreds of tickets a year.

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Wales trails behind most European countries in arts and sports funding, report finds

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Cross-party Senedd report finds Wales is third from bottom in spending on culture and sports, with Iceland biggest spender

It is known as the land of song and as one of the world’s most passionate sporting nations.

But a report has concluded that despite its proud heritage, Wales is languishing behind almost all other European countries in terms of spending on recreational, sporting and cultural services.

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Rapper convicted of posting ‘menacing’ video directed at Tommy Robinson

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Birmingham-based drill musician known as Twista Cheese made gun gesture in video and shouted ‘pow, pow, pow’

A rapper has been convicted of posting a “menacing” video on social media directed towards Tommy Robinson, in which he mentioned artillery and made a gun gesture while shouting “pow, pow, pow”.

Omar Abdirizak, a 31-year-old Birmingham-based rapper known as Twista Cheese, posted the minute-long TikTok video in August last year.

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Soul singer Brenton Wood, behind the 1967 hit Oogum Boogum Song, dies aged 83

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Born Alfred Jesse Smith, his smash title has repeatedly been used in film and television shows

Soul singer Brenton Wood has died at the age of 83, TMZ and Variety reported. Wood’s manager Manny Gallegos confirmed the news.

Woods, born Alfred Jesse Smith, is best known for his 1967 hit The Oogum Boogum Song which has repeatedly been used across film, television and in commercial campaigns. He died at his home in Moreno Valley, 63 miles east of Los Angeles, his manager Manny Gallegos told the publications.

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Dark web dealer who stole unreleased Coldplay music gets suspended sentence

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Skylar Dalziel’s hard drives showed access to about 290,000 tracks from artists also including Shawn Mendes, police say

A dark web dealer who stole unreleased music from the likes of Coldplay, Shawn Mendes and Bebe Rexha has been given a suspended 21-month jail sentence.

Skylar Dalziel, 22, made tens of thousands of pounds after accessing the copyrighted tracks by illegally accessing cloud storage accounts linked to the artists.

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Top Venezuelan pianist urges music world to snub youth orchestra linked to Maduro

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Gabriela Montero asks promoters to cut ties with El Sistema on 2025 Europe tour, after alleged theft of election

One of Venezuela’s most celebrated musicians, the pianist Gabriela Montero, has called on concert halls and music promoters to cut ties with her country’s world-renowned youth orchestra as a result of Nicolás Maduro’s alleged theft of this year’s presidential election.

The Simón Bolívar Symphony Orchestra of Venezuela (SBSOV), which has close ties to Maduro’s administration, is scheduled to perform at some of Europe’s most prestigious classical music venues in January to mark the 50th anniversary of Venezuela’s world-famous music training programme, El Sistema.

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Live Aid campaigner Bob Geldof was ‘scathing about African leaders’, files reveal

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Singer urged Tony Blair not to appoint African co-chair to commission on aid, UK government papers show

The Live Aid campaigner Bob Geldof urged Tony Blair not to appoint an African co-chair to the UK-led organisation working to overhaul international aid to the continent because he thought African leadership was “very weak” on the issue, newly released government documents suggest.

The singer was “scathing about the ability and worthiness of virtually all African leaders” before the establishment in 2004 of Blair’s Commission for Africa, which would produce a report, Our Common Interest, and prompt a landmark pledge by rich nations to boost aid and write off debt.

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DJ Alfredo, icon of Ibiza’s dance music scene, dies aged 71

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DJ whose anything-goes spirit had a huge influence on British club culture had suffered a stroke in 2021

DJ Alfredo, who had a significant influence on Ibiza becoming a global centre for dance music culture, has died aged 71.

Amnesia, the club where he held a residency during the 1980s, announced the news, writing on Instagram: “Thank you for the nights and beats we shared together. Your music and vision shaped the sound of Balearic Beat and the soul of Amnesia. So many memories were made through your energy, your legacy will live on our dancefloor forever. You will never be forgotten.”

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Australian Music prize: 80-year-old Kankawa Nagarra wins over Nick Cave and Amyl and the Sniffers

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Walmatjarri elder and blues musician wins $50,000 prize for Wirlmarni, saying she hopes it will bring pride to her community in Wangkatjungka

The Walmatjarri elder and blues musician Kankawa Nagarra has won the $50,000 Australian Music prize (AMP) for her debut album Wirlmarni, seeing off competition from Nick Cave, the Dirty Three and Amyl and the Sniffers.

Inspired by the UK’s Mercury prize, the AMP focuses “entirely on artistic merit” and aims to “financially reward and increase exposure” for Australian musicians who release the best album in a calendar year.

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Australian father calls out Spotify for allegedly playing Sportsbet ads during Frozen and Bluey songs

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Man says gambling ads ‘potentially damaging’ for his children who regularly listen to Disney and the Wiggles on his account on music streaming app

The Australian gambling agency Sportsbet has paused advertising with the music streaming company Spotify, after its content was allegedly played between children’s songs.

The pause comes after Guardian Australia reported on a complaint by a father who alleged the “potentially damaging” ads were inserted between Disney songs.

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Bob Bryar, former My Chemical Romance drummer, dies aged 44

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Longest-standing drummer of pop-punk band said to have influenced emo movement was found dead in Tennessee

Bob Bryar, the former drummer of the US pop-punk band My Chemical Romance which was said to have influenced the youth culture movement emo, has died aged 44.

Bryar’s body was found in his home in Tennessee last week. The entertainment news outlet TMZ, which was the first to report his death, said that according to police no foul play was suspected as his possessions, including musical equipment and weapons, were untouched.

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Band Aid 40 fails to reach UK Top 40 in opening week

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All-star version of Do They Know It’s Christmas?, spliced together from previous versions, falls short of the No 1 success of those earlier hits

The 40th anniversary version of Band Aid’s Do They Know It’s Christmas? has failed to enter this week’s Top 40, reaching No 45.

The new version of the song was made up of performances spliced together from three previous versions, in an arrangement by producer Trevor Horn. But despite featuring the unusual A-list juxtaposition of George Michael, Sinead O’Connor, Chris Martin, One Direction and more, the new version has not yet matched the success of its predecessors, which each went straight to No 1 in 1984, 2004 and 2014.

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Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs denied bail for a third time over ‘serious risk’ of witness tampering

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Judge rules that the court ‘doubts the sufficiency of any conditions’ that place trust in Combs to follow bail rules

Sean “Diddy” Combs has been denied bail for the third time by a judge in New York City who described him as a “serious risk” for witness tampering.

Prosecutors had previously accused Combs of trying to contact prospective witnesses from jail in an attempt to create “narratives” to influence public opinion as well as potential jurors for his impending sex trafficking trial.

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Drake claims UMG and Spotify ‘artificially inflated’ Kendrick Lamar’s diss track Not Like Us

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Feud escalates as rapper’s lawyers file two petitions alleging Universal Music Group and streaming giant conspired while also accusing them of defamation

Drake has launched two legal actions against Universal Music Group and Spotify, alleging they conspired to artificially inflate interest in Kendrick Lamar’s diss track about him, Not Like Us, while suppressing his own music, as well as accusing them of defamation.

In a petition filed to the New York supreme court on Monday, attorneys for Drake’s company Frozen Moments LLC accused UMG and the streaming service of having “launched a campaign to manipulate and saturate the streaming services and airwaves”, using various tactics to make Lamar’s song more popular.

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‘Opera should be an unstoppable art form’: Royal Opera announce Netia Jones as associate director

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The Royal Ballet and Opera have created a new role, allowing Jones to drive development and new commissions

The Royal Ballet and Opera today announces that Netia Jones has been appointed to the newly created position of associate director of The Royal Opera.

Over the past two decades the British-born Jones has carved a career spanning opera, theatre, concerts and immersive installation projects as a director, designer and video artist. Recently she directed the Royal Opera’s first ever virtual reality opera Current, Rising, and her staging – as director and designer – of Britten’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream for Garsington Opera this summer was hailed as “stylish and very funny”.

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As Band Aid marks 40th anniversary critics take aim at Africa stereotypes

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Latest version of Do They Know It’s Christmas fundraiser reignites debate about ‘problematic’ lyrics and imagery

Forty years ago this week, a group of pop stars gathered at a west London studio to record a single that would raise millions, inspire further starry projects, and ultimately change charity fundraising in the UK.

Do They Know It’s Christmas, Bob Geldof and Midge Ure’s festive charity behemoth, would go on to raise almost £150m for famine relief and development in Ethiopia and elsewhere in Africa. To mark the anniversary, on Monday a new version of the single – its fifth – will be released under the name Band Aid 40.

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Malian singer Rokia Traoré to be extradited from Italy to Belgium

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Italy’s highest court rejects musician’s appeal after she was arrested in Rome in June over child custody dispute

Malian musician Rokia Traoré, who was arrested in Rome last June over an international child custody dispute, will be handed over to Belgium in the coming days after Italy’s highest court rejected her appeal, her lawyer said on Wednesday.

Traoré, 50, a former goodwill ambassador for the United Nations’ refugee agency UNHCR, was arrested on 20 June at Rome’s Fiumicino airport under a European arrest warrant.

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Coachella 2025 lineup: Lady Gaga, Green Day, Post Malone and Travis Scott to headline in April

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Other acts include Charli xcx, Megan Thee Stallion, Missy Elliott, Shaboozey and Blackpink members Jennie and Lisa

Lady Gaga, Green Day, Post Malone and Travis Scott will headline Coachella 2025.

Scott, whose prominent billing comes with the description “designs the desert”, will reportedly design an immersive experience called CatcusCon, Rolling Stone reported, and will perform after Green Day’s set on the Saturday nights.

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