Category Archives: Music

Dua Lipa ‘feeling grateful’ after Kosovan president grants her citizenship

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Singer of hits such as Houdini, One Kiss and Training Season was born in London to Kosovan-Albanian parents

Singer Dua Lipa has said she is “feeling grateful” after being awarded citizenship of Kosovo by the country’s president.

The 29-year-old was born in London to Kosovan-Albanian parents, Anesa and Dukagjin Lipa, and moved to the country’s capital of Pristina aged 11, when her family returned after Kosovo gained its independence in 2008, before moving back to London aged 15.

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Germany’s ‘oldest and biggest’ gay nightclub declares bankruptcy

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SchwuZ, a 50-year-old dance hotspot, falls victim to inflation and rising rents threatening Berlin’s club scene

Germany’s “oldest and biggest” gay dance club has declared itself bankrupt after nearly half a century in business, falling victim to inflation and an evolving party culture threatening Berlin’s nightlife.

Management troubles and dating apps were among the factors putting SchwuZ on the ropes last year and in May the club shortened its opening hours, laid off staff and asked regulars for help to plug a growing shortfall, to little avail.

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Tom Lehrer, acclaimed musical satirist of cold war era, dies aged 97

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A child prodigy in mathematics who graduated Harvard at just 19, his darkly prophetic and cynical show tunes won him a cult following in the 50s and 60s

Tom Lehrer, the acclaimed humorist and pianist whose satirical songs made him one of America’s favorite prophets of doom before he retreated to academia, has died, US media reported on Sunday. He was 97.

The singer-songwriter died on Saturday at his home in Cambridge, Massachusetts, his friend David Herder said, according to the New York Times.

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Triple J Hottest 100: Never Tear Us Apart by INXS voted best Australian song ever

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More than 2.6m people voted in radio poll to find the most loved homegrown hits of all time

Never Tear Us Apart by INXS has been named the best Australian song of all time in Triple J’s poll of the country’s favourite homegrown hits.

The 1987 song topped the Hottest 100 of Australian Songs, a spin-off of Triple J’s annual poll of the year’s most popular tracks. The poll, which aired on Saturday, was open to Australian releases from any time in history.

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Tech CEO caught with company’s HR head on Coldplay kiss cam resigns

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Andy Byron leaves startup Astronomer after he and Kristin Cabot were placed on leave over Jumbotron incident

The married CEO who was filmed at a Coldplay concert in the US with his arms around his company’s HR head in a video that went viral has now resigned, the company Astronomer said on Saturday.

In a post on Linkedin, the software startup said: “Andy Byron has tendered his resignation, and the Board of Directors has accepted.”

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Jeff Lynne cancels final live show over health concerns

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Electric Light Orchestra frontman withdraws from BST Hyde Park festival owing to a ‘systemic infection’

Electric Light Orchestra (ELO) frontman Jeff Lynne has cancelled what had been billed as his final ever performance, owing to ill health.

Lynne was due to appear at the BST Hyde Park festival series on Sunday night, closing what had been the band’s farewell “Over and Out” tour, 55 years since the band formed.

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Slovakia festival hosting Kanye West cancelled after thousands sign petition condemning Heil Hitler rapper

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Rubicon hip-hop gathering in Bratislava, due to be held on 20 July, says several performers and partners withdrew

The Slovakia festival due to welcome Kanye West next week has been called off after the uproar over the US rapper’s May release of a song glorifying the Nazi leader Adolf Hitler.

Before the 20 July gig was cancelled, Bratislava’s Rubicon hip-hop festival was set to be West’s only confirmed live performance in Europe this year.

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Bob Vylan frontman warns ‘you’ll get me in trouble’ after further IDF chants

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Crowd at sold-out London gig told ‘every other chant is fine’ amid police investigation into Glastonbury performance

The frontman of Bob Vylan warned his fans to stop chanting against the Israeli military during the duo’s first UK gig since the band’s Glastonbury festival performance.

Pascal Robinson-Foster, who goes by the name Bobby Vylan, told fans at a sold-out surprise gig in London on Wednesday night they could get him in “trouble” after police launched an investigation into the group over comments he made at Glastonbury.

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‘Shorts and flip-flops are not allowed’: La Scala enforces opera dress code ban

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Management ask visitors to ‘choose clothing in keeping with the decorum of the theatre’ after complaints

Operagoers have been warned they will be banned from entering Milan’s prestigious La Scala theatre if they turn up wearing shorts, tank tops or flip-flops. Kimonos, however, are acceptable.

The venue’s management team reminded people how not to dress for an opera after complaints that some spectators were donning attire more suitable for the beach.

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Ibiza’s ambulance service risks collapse due to callouts to clubs, says union

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A third of emergency responses are to clubs, largely to attend to people having bad experiences with drugs

The ambulance service on the Spanish island of Ibiza says it is at risk of collapse because of frequent callouts to attend to clubbers having bad experiences with recreational drugs.

The local ambulance union says up to a third of emergency calls are to clubs, the largest of which has a capacity of as many as 10,000 partygoers, and are largely drug-related. It is calling on club owners to contract private ambulance services.

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Black Sabbath and Ozzy Osbourne’s final gig – follow it live!

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The Birmingham band are back together for one last concert at Villa Park, entitled Back to the Beginning – joined by the cream of heavy metal, from Mastodon to Anthrax – plus a host of special guests. Follow every song here

You’ll be thinking: show me photos of all these starry metal shenanigans! I’m really sorry but Live Nation have told me there won’t be any photos available until the end of the gig, and the livestream doesn’t allow screengrabs. Use the power of your mind, I guess.

There are a notable number of empty seats there, but remember this was all going on two hours ago which is quite an early start for a massive stadium show. “Stadium really pretty full from the beginning – testament to the depth of the line up,” Michael says. “Maiden a fortnight ago had a higher proportion of battle jackets though.”

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‘Liam hasn’t sounded that good since the 90s’: fans react to the first night of the Oasis reunion tour

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Oasis fans were overjoyed by the performance of the reunited band, a ‘non-stop wild’ set that brought back fond memories

The atmosphere on the concourses in Cardiff after the first Oasis gig of their long-awaited reunion tour was one of speechlessness that the once-estranged Gallagher brothers had pulled it off.

Leigh, from Cardiff, could hardly find the words to describe the two and a half hours he had just witnessed. “They were quiet at the beginning, then the crescendos went wild, then they were non-stop wild,” he said. “It went supernova – crazy. I couldn’t believe it. I don’t know what to say – I was 18 again.”

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Oasis kick off reunion tour in Cardiff with triumphant, nostalgic gig

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Focusing heavily on their 1990s output with only one song from their last four albums, Liam and Noel Gallagher performed together for the first time since 2009

Swaggering, cocksure and incredibly loud, Oasis burst back on to the live music scene on Friday night with an accomplished – if ever so slightly distanced – debut gig on their reunion world tour.

Playing Cardiff’s Principality Stadium, the six-piece impressed at the start of what is arguably the most anticipated tour of the century, focusing overwhelmingly on songs from their 1990s heyday – only one song, Little By Little, was taken from their final four albums.

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Oasis setlist: all the songs played at Cardiff’s Principality Stadium

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With a heavy emphasis on their 1990s heyday, here is every song that Oasis and their support acts played on the first night of their tour

Hello
Acquiesce
Morning Glory
Some Might Say
Bring It on Down
Cigarettes & Alcohol
Fade Away
Supersonic
Roll With It
Talk Tonight (sung by Noel)
Half the World Away (sung by Noel)
Little By Little (sung by Noel)
D’You Know What I Mean?
Stand By Me
Cast No Shadow
Slide Away
Whatever
Live Forever
Rock ’n’ Roll Star

Encore
The Masterplan (sung by Noel)
Don’t Look Back in Anger (sung by Noel)
Wonderwall
Champagne Supernova

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Oasis in row with photo agencies over pictures from reunion shows

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Exclusive: Band’s management tell agencies and publishers they can only use shots of first gig in Cardiff for a year

A row has broken out over restrictions imposed on how newspapers, magazines, TV broadcasters and digital publishers can use pictures taken at Oasis reunion gigs, as the band prepare to play the first night of what is expected to be the most profitable tour in UK history.

Photo agencies and publishers have been told they can use shots of the first concert, which takes place in Cardiff on Friday, for one year and then the rights revert back to the band and management.

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‘A plea for connection’: Gaza musicians perform at Sydney Opera House as cultural institutions destroyed at home

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Israel’s bombardment of Gaza is ‘destroying heritage and history and culture’, says curator Ayşe Göknur Shanal. Her show is ‘trying to protect and preserve’

As long as you can hear a beat or someone singing, you can dabke.

“The official definition, if there is one for dabke, is when a group of people dance together, usually in a synchronised way,” Derek Halawa says.

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Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs found guilty on two of five counts as lawyers call verdict ‘great victory’

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Jury finds music mogul not guilty on most serious charges but judge denies request for bail

A New York Jury has found Sean “Diddy” Combs guilty of two counts and not guilty on three counts, following a closely watched seven-week federal trial marked by emotional and graphic testimony.

The mixed verdict saw Combs being found not guilty of the biggest charge, racketeering conspiracy, not guilty of the sex trafficking of Casandra Ventura or the sex trafficking of “Jane”, and guilty of both the transportation to engage in prostitution related to Casandra Ventura and the transportation to engage in prostitution related to “Jane”.

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Kanye West barred from entering Australia over Hitler song, Tony Burke says

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Home affairs minister says decision to revoke rapper’s visa came after widely condemned track released in May

The US rapper and artist Kanye West has been barred from travelling to Australia after the release of his widely condemned song Heil Hitler, which has been banned on Apple Music, Spotify and YouTube.

The home affairs minister, Tony Burke, disclosed on Wednesday that the government had revoked the rapper’s visa after his song referencing the Nazi leader Adolf Hitler was released independently in May.

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‘Tiny melodies’: musician uses moths’ flight data to compose piece about their decline

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Ellie Wilson’s piece titled Moth x Human assigns different sounds to the species on Parsonage Down in Salisbury

They are vital pollinators who come out at night, but now moths have emerged into the bright light of day as co-creators of a new piece of music – composed using the insects’ own flight data.

Ellie Wilson composed Moth x Human in a protected habitat on Parsonage Down in Salisbury, Wiltshire. She assigned each of the 80 resident moth species a different sound, which was triggered when it landed on her monitor.

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Jurors in Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs’s sex-trafficking trial begin deliberations

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Twelve-member jury in New York starts to deliberate following closing arguments from both sides

After seven weeks of testimony from more than 30 witnesses, jurors in the high-profile federal sex-trafficking and racketeering conspiracy trial of Sean “Diddy” Combs have begun deliberations, but ended their day with no verdict.

The 12-member jury – made up of eight men and four women – began deliberating on Monday, following closing arguments from both sides that concluded on Friday and lengthy instructions from the judge.

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