Olivia Dean tops the winners list with four, while Sam Fender bags two – see all the category winners here
• News: Olivia Dean sweeps the board at 2026 Brit awards, winning four including artist, song and album of the year
• Alexis Petridis: This year’s Brit awards found a flicker of chaos – but the winners were never in doubt
Olivia Dean
Continue reading...With big numbers for Bad Bunny, Leon Thomas and more, check out the nominated artists this year
Bad Bunny – DtMF
Sabrina Carpenter – Manchild
Doechii – Anxiety
Billie Eilish – Wildflower
Lady Gaga – Abracadabra
Kendrick Lamar with SZA – Luther
Chappell Roan – The Subway
Rosé & Bruno Mars – APT.
Namewee detained after Hsieh Yu-hsin found dead in a Kuala Lumpur hotel room on 22 October
A well-known Malaysian rapper and film-maker, Namewee, has been arrested in relation to the alleged murder of a Taiwanese woman in Kuala Lumpur.
Hsieh Yu-hsin, 31, a former nurse turned internet celebrity who posted under the name Nurse Goddess, was found dead in a hotel room on 22 October. Police this week reclassified her death as murder, after unspecified new evidence emerged.
Continue reading...Geordie singer-songwriter’s album reached No 1 on the UK album chart and led to a series of stadium-sized concerts this summer
Sam Fender is the winner of the 2025 Mercury prize, for his chart-topping album People Watching.
Announcing the award, Sian Eleri, BBC radio DJ and one of the judges on the judging panel, said the album was characterised by “cohesion, character and ambition. It felt like a classic album, one that will take pride of place in record collections for years to come.”
Continue reading...Police say musician charged at them when they confronted him for walking naked down an LA street last week
Lil Nas X was charged on Monday with four felonies after police say he charged at them when they confronted him for walking naked down a Los Angeles street last week.
Prosecutors charged the musician, whose legal name is Montero Lamar Hill, with three counts of battery with injury on a police officer and one felony count of resisting an executive officer, the district attorney’s office said. He was initially booked on suspicion of misdemeanor obstructing an officer on Friday.
Continue reading...The 26-year-old rapper and singer was seen walking down the street in his underwear Thursday morning in LA
Lil Nas X has been arrested after an altercation with police, according to reports.
Officials confirmed to NBC that the 26-year-old rapper and singer was booked on suspicion of misdemeanour battery after he was confronted while walking down the street in his underwear.
Continue reading...Warnindhilyagwa singer also wins film clip of the year, while Malyangapa Barkindji rapper Barkaa wins album of the year
Emily Wurramara expressed solidarity with the people of Palestine and “all Indigenous peoples around the world” experiencing oppression as she accepted the artist of the year award at the 21st National Indigenous Music awards at the Nimas in Garramilla/Darwin on Saturday night.
“There’s nothing like coming back home and being here and playing for mob and playing for the people,” the Garramilla-born Warnindhilyagwa singer said. “Because the music is about the people. The music is freedom. Free Palestine, free Congo and free all Indigenous peoples around the world from their oppressors. It always was, always will be Indigenous land.”
Continue reading...High-profile case enters its final stage after more than a month of testimony from 34 witnesses
Closing arguments began on Thursday morning in the federal sex-trafficking trial of Sean “Diddy” Combs, signaling the final stage of the high-profile case.
Assistant US attorney Christy Slavik began her closing argument by describing Combs as the “leader of a criminal enterprise” who “doesn’t take no for an answer”.
Continue reading...The rapper is booked to headline the Rubicon festival in Bratislava, which protesters have called ‘a debasement of all victims of the Nazi regime’
A petition has been launched calling on the mayor of Bratislava to prevent Kanye West – legally known as Ye – from headlining a festival in Bratislava, calling the planned appearance “an insult to historic memory, a glorification of wartime violence and debasement of all victims of the Nazi regime”.
The Rubicon festival in the Slovakian capital claimed that they had secured an exclusive performance by the “hip-hop visionary, cultural icon and controversial genius” for mid-July.
Continue reading...After music, publishing, sports and philanthropy, rapper expands into film-making with lead role in Big Man, a short film premiering on YouTube
After conquering the charts, Glastonbury’s Pyramid stage and launching his own publishing imprint, Stormzy is taking his first steps into the world of movies with starring in a short film about the travails of an ex-rapper.
Big Man will be made by the rap star’s own production company Merky Films in association with Apple, and feature Stormzy – in a sizable wig – as the lead character Tenzman, “a former rap star now navigating a restless and uncertain chapter of his life”.
Continue reading...Music mogul warned to desist from looking and nodding at jury during sex-trafficking and racketeering conspiracy trial
The judge in the federal sex-trafficking and racketeering conspiracy trial of Sean “Diddy” Combs threatened to remove the music mogul from court for looking and nodding at the jury during testimony on Thursday.
The court also heard from a woman, under the pseudonym “Jane” and who previously dated Combs, as she began testifying about their relationship and the drug-fueled sexual marathons that she said Combs orchestrated.
Continue reading...Music mogul’s former girlfriend describes physical abuse, control and violence at trial in New York City
Singer Casandra “Cassie” Ventura, a former girlfriend of Sean “Diddy” Combs and a key witness in the federal sex-trafficking and racketeering trial of the music mogul, returned to the witness stand in New York City on Wednesday morning and testified that Combs raped her, assaulted one of his employees, and detailed abuse she says occurred in their over decade-long relationship.
Ventura, who is eight and a half months pregnant, began her second day of testimony by revisiting the hotel surveillance footage of her 2016 assault by Combs. She said Combs was yelling at her and then threw a vase at her in the elevator lobby.
In the US, the domestic violence hotline is 1-800-799-SAFE (7233). In the UK, call the national domestic abuse helpline on 0808 2000 247, or visit Women’s Aid. In Australia, the national family violence counselling service is on 1800 737 732. Other international helplines may be found via www.befrienders.org.
Continue reading...Singer said on the stand there were ‘violent arguments’ and ‘dragging’ in former relationship with the hip-hop mogul
The singer Casandra “Cassie” Ventura, a former girlfriend of Sean “Diddy” Combs and central character in the case against him, took the stand on Tuesday as the high-profile federal trial of Combs enters its second day in lower Manhattan.
She is expected to testify against her former partner for several days.
Continue reading...Irish language group uses Coachella gig to denounce Gaza attacks, saying ‘Palestinians have nowhere to go’
Sharon Osbourne has urged US authorities to revoke work visas for Kneecap after the Irish language rap group used a performance at Coachella to denounce Israeli attacks on Gaza.
The TV presenter accused the band of hate speech and supporting terrorist organisations and said it should not be allowed to perform in the US. “I urge you to join me in advocating for the revocation of Kneecap’s work visa,” she exhorted followers on X on Tuesday.
Continue reading...Drake’s attorneys accuse Universal of being ‘a greedy company’ that is ‘finally being held responsible for profiting from dangerous misinformation’.
Universal Music Group have moved to dismiss Drake’s defamation suit, characterising it as “a misguided attempt” by the Canadian rapper to “salve his wounds” after he “lost a rap battle” with rival Kendrick Lamar.
In the motion, filed on Monday in the US district court for the southern district of New York, Universal Music Group (UMG), which represents both artists, claimed that Drake “lost a rap battle that he provoked and in which he willingly participated.
Continue reading...There are two awards apiece for the UK artists, while Nigerian singer Ayra Starr also wins two at Newcastle-hosted ceremony for Black musical excellence
Seventeen years since his debut single, British rapper Bashy has capped his long-awaited return to music with two wins at the 2025 Mobo awards, given each year to the best music of Black origin in the UK and overseas.
The 40-year-old vocalist and actor, born Ashley Thomas, won best hip-hop act as well as album of the year for Being Poor Is Expensive. While it didn’t make the UK charts, the album earned critical acclaim and a dedicated audience on streaming, drawn to its examination of race, mental health and working-class life in north-west London.
Continue reading...Rapper alleges assault, false arrest and more when he was detained shortly after winning three awards at 2024 ceremony
Killer Mike, the hip-hop artist known for his solo work as well as the duo Run the Jewels, has sued a private security company after he was arrested at last year’s Grammys.
The rapper, real name Michael Render, won three awards at the ceremony, for best rap album, best rap song and best rap performance. But shortly after his wins, as he moved backstage towards the red carpet area, he was arrested and detained after an altercation with what Render later described as “an overzealous security guard”.
Continue reading...Parents of murdered schoolboy say prison rehabilitation does not seem to have made any difference to Jake Fahri
The parents of murdered schoolboy Jimmy Mizen have said prison does not “seem to have made a blind bit of difference” to their son’s killer, who is reportedly now a rapper whose songs have been promoted by the BBC.
Jake Fahri, then 19, was given a life sentence in 2009 with a minimum term of 14 years for killing Mizen by throwing an oven dish at him. The glass dish shattered and severed blood vessels in the 16-year-old’s neck in a south London bakery.
Continue reading...Drake had alleged Universal Music Group and Spotify each manipulated the popularity of Lamar’s track Not Like Us
Drake has withdrawn a legal challenge he made against his own label, Universal Music Group (UMG), and Spotify, alleging they artificially inflated the popularity of a Kendrick Lamar diss track about him.
UMG and Spotify were accused of trying to “manipulate and saturate the streaming services and airwaves”. Lawyers for the rapper had claimed that UMG paid influencers and radio stations to play the track, Not Like Us, which topped the US charts and proved to be the hammer blow in the Drake-Lamar feud between March and May last year.
Continue reading...The 1990 protest track ‘has nothing to do with families losing everything they have’ says the rapper, hitting out at TikTok and Instagram videos
Public Enemy’s Chuck D has asked people to stop using the rap group’s song Burn Hollywood Burn as a soundtrack on videos of the California wildfires, saying it has “nothing to do with families losing everything they have”.
The rapper issued the statement on the weekend in response to several videos uploaded to TikTok and Instagram that use the 1990 Public Enemy song over footage of the wildfires, which have killed at least 24 people, destroyed more than 12,300 buildings and displaced more than 200,000 people so far.
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