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Sometimes, even a young artist can carry the weight of time, of life lived, in their vocals. Lila Forde showed the world those talents when she stopped by NBC‘s The Voice on Monday night (Oct. 9) for her Blind Audition. Performing at the keys, Forde has a vintage voice. It’s fused at the hip with soul and soil and a touch of country, the type we’ve all heard speaking to us from the radio over the years, wondering where on earth that came from. For the younger generation, think Florence Welch and Freya Ridings. And some of us older fogies, Joni Mitchell and Carole King.Like a hawk, Gwen Stefani swooped fast on that buzzer. John Legend turned next, then Reba McEntire and Niall Horan finished fourth, smacking that thing with his fist.Following her performance of Blind Faith’s “Can’t Find My Way Home,” and her four-chair turn, Forde gave a wide smile. For a moment, it looked as though emotion had sucked the wind from her sails.“That song could not have been more perfect if you tried,” Niall Horan remarked. “You looked so comfortable up there at the piano. Your tone has so many parts to it.”It was a performance “that reminded me of everything I love about music.” And then, yes, the first sales pitch. Stefani stepped up her game by taking off her shoes, walking towards the contestant, and delivering her own pitch. “What the world needs, we want a singer-songwriter with a true point of view, that’s original, unique, that’s not trying to be anyone else,” she enthused. “And the way you performed it, the confidence, it’s everything I love. It was so good, so beautiful.”The cover “was magical,” reckoned Legend, “what I heard was wisdom, you understood everything you were saying, every nuance…everything felt completely under your control.”Speaking last, McEntire remarked, “you are an old soul. You’re mature beyond your years.”Hailing from Seattle, the daughter of a musical mom, Forde plies her trade on the Los Angeles gig circuit. With four Voice judges beckoning her, begging for her, the choice was all Forde’s to make. And she selected Team Legend. Watch below.
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After being denied by Doja Cat on several occasions, Kenya Grace appears ready for her coronation on the U.K. singles chart.
The South Africa-born, U.K.-raised artist leads the midweek chart with “Strangers” (FFRR), her major label debut and first trans-Atlantic hit.
Also contending for the crown is Casso, RAYE, D-Block Europe’s “Prada” (Ministry of Sound) up 4-2 on the Official Chart Update, and Tate McRae’s “Greedy” (Ministry of Sound), up 5-3.
It’s tightly bunched at the top. Fewer than 600 chart units separated the top three, based on sales and streaming data for the first 48 hours of the chart week, published by the Official Charts Company.
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Drake’s new release For All The Dogs (via OVO/Republic Records) is flying high on the midweek U.K. albums survey, and is likely to earn the Canadian hip-hop star his sixth No. 1. The impact of For All The Dogs can also be felt on the midweek U.K. singles survey, as album tracks “First Person Shooter” featuring J. Cole (at No. 4), “Virginia Beach” (No. 5) and “IDGAF” featuring Yeat (No. 6) are predicted to crash the top 10. If that trio of tracks hold firm, Drake will boast 44 U.K. top 10s when the weekly chart is published late Friday, Oct. 13.
Meanwhile, Doja Cat’s five-week reign is set to end, as “Paint the Town Red” (Ministry of Sound) tumbles 1-12 on the chart blast.
Brighton, England formed alt-pop band Lovejoy should snag a second U.K. top 40 single with “Normal People Things” (Anvil Cat/AWAL), new at No. 22 on the chart blast. It’s the followup to “Call Me What You Like” which peaked at No. 32 in February of this year.
Finally, BlackPink’s Jennie is eyeing a maiden solo top 40 appearance with “You & Me” (Interscope). It’s new at No. 27 on the U.K. chart blast. Jennie does have an earlier appearance on the Official Singles Chart, with 2018’s “Solo,” which topped out at No. 73.
Drake is off to the races in the U.K. with For All The Dogs (via OVO/Republic Records).
The Canadian hip-hop giant leads the midweek chart, and appears set to score his sixth U.K. No. 1 — and second in less than a year, following 2022’s collaborative effort Her Loss with 21 Savage.
Drizzy’s delayed eighth solo studio dropped at 6am ET last Friday, Oct. 6, the culmination of nearly 10 months of teasing and delays.
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Spread across 23 songs, the LP features assists from SZA, J. Cole, Chief Keef, Sexyy Red, Snoop Dogg, Sade, Teezo Touchdown, Bad Bunny, Yeat, 21 Savage, Lil Yachty and PARTYNEXTDOOR. His U.K. albums chart leaders to date include Views (2016), Scorpion (2018), Dark Lane Demo Tapes (2020) and Certified Lover Boy (2021); his last solo full-length recording, Honestly, Nevermind, peaked at No. 2 on the Official U.K. Albums Chart in June 2022.
Eyeing a No. 2 debut on the national survey is Nines with Crop Circle 3 (Zino). If it holds its course, Crop Circle 3 would become the British rapper’s second top 10 album in less than six months, after Crop Circle 2 hit No. 2 in May.
Roger Waters’ Dark Side of the Moon Redux (Cooking Vinyl) has come into view on the midweek chart, and is set to spin in at No. 3. The reissue celebrates the legacy of Pink Floyd’s masterpiece Dark Side Of The Moon from 1973, which has logged 560 weeks on national chart and is recognized as one of the most successful British albums of all time.
Pink Floyd has six U.K. No. 1 albums, though Dark Side isn’t one of them; it peaked at No. 2 in 1973.
Completing an all-new top four on the Official Chart Update is Sufjan Stevens’ Javelin (Asthmatic Kitty). If Javelin flies in at No. 4, it would give the veteran U.S. indie singer and songwriter his career best chart position in the U.K., bettering the No. 6 for 2015’s Carrie & Lowell.
Finally, Joel Corry‘s Another Friday Night (Atlantic) is set for a new peak position, up 45-6 on the chart blast, while new releases from Stornoway (Dig The Mountain! at No. 14 via Cooking Vinyl), MC Slim (Still Working 2 at No. 16 via Warner Records) and Joe Bonamassa (Blues Deluxe: Volume 2 at No. 19 via Provogue) should land U.K. top 40 debuts.
All will be revealed when the Official U.K. Albums Chart is published late Friday, Oct. 13.
Banjo player and guitarist Buck Trent, a two-time CMA instrumental group of the year winner and a prominent member of the cast of the variety show Hee Haw, died on Monday (Oct. 9) at age 85.
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Trent was born in Spartanburg, South Carolina on Feb. 17, 1938, and moved to Nashville in 1959. In 1962, he joined Porter Wagoner’s Wagonmasters, performing with the group for approximately a decade.
Trent’s star rose through his work as a member of the cast of the variety show Hee Haw from 1974 to 1982. Those performances were regularly punctuated by Trent shouting what became his signature phrase, “Oh yeah!” In 2018, Trent was part of a “Kornfield Friends” reunion tour which also featured his fellow Hee Haw alums Jana Jae, Lulu Roman and Misty Rowe.
During his career, Trent also made appearances on The Marty Stuart Show and The Porter Wagoner Show, among others.
In 1975, Trent and fellow country music entertainer and banjoist Roy Clark earned a Billboard Top Country Albums hit with their collaborative project A Pair of Fives (Banjos, That Is), peaking at No. 9. Three other Trent titles impacted the tally: 1968’s Give Me Five (No. 40), 1976’s Bionic Banjo (No. 43) 1978’s Banjo Bandits with Clark (No. 45).
In 1975 and 1976, Trent and Clark won consecutive CMA Awards for instrumental group of the year. Also in 1976, Trent joined Clark and The Oak Ridge Boys for a concert tour behind the Iron Curtain in the Soviet Union. Two years later, Trent and Clark released the project Banjo Bandits, which would earn a Grammy nomination for best country instrumental performance.
In addition to his own recordings, Trent contributed guitar and/or banjo on enduring recordings by Roy Acuff, Wagoner, Clark, Stuart and Dolly Parton, including Parton’s “I Will Always Love You” and “Jolene.” His contributions to music also proved innovative, as the creator of the electric banjo.
In the 1980s, after traveling to Branson, Trent began performing and would become a longtime performer in the town. In 2004, Trent also appeared as a Branson performer in the movie Gordy. Later, in 2012, Trent played on two songs for Marty Stuart’s album Nashville Volume 1: Tear the Woodpile Down.
Trent was previously named as one of this year’s American Banjo Museum Hall of Fame honorees; the celebration is slated for Oct. 12-14 in Oklahoma City.
Trent’s wife, Jean Trent, said in a statement, “It is with great sorrow and a broken heart to say my husband, my love, Buck Trent, went to be with Jesus this morning. I lost my best friend, and the world lost a Master Musician and Country Music Legend. Oh Yeah!”
Jim Halsey, longtime manager for Country Music Hall of Fame group The Oak Ridge Boys and the late Clark, described Trent as “one of my very favorite people in the world.” He added in a statement, “I worked with him for years as a partner with the Roy Clark Show. Buck Trent is one of the greatest banjo players ever. We will all miss him. Thank you, Buck Trent, for being in all our lives.”
Roman added in a statement, “Buck was like a brother to me after all of these years. We’ve shared tons of laughs and some tears along the way, but we never left each other’s side. We had a bond like no other. I’ll miss the man, but cherish the memories from our 50+ year friendship. My heart breaks for his precious wife, Jean, his family, friends, and fans. There will never be another like Buck Trent. Oh Yea!”
The Oak Ridge Boys member Joe Bonsall added, “We lost a dear long-time friend today in Buck Trent. Buck toured the Soviet Union with us and Roy Clark in 1976 and we have been close ever since. Buck was one of the greatest banjo players of all time and a very funny man. We will miss Buck!”
An attack took place Saturday, Oct. 7, at the psytrance festival Universo Paralello near the Gaza Strip amid fighting between Hamas and Israel. Tetris Kelly:An attack on an electronic music festival in Israel and the country as a whole has left the region in chaos. At least 260 people are dead after a Hamas attack […]
The AI genie is out of the bottle. It’s not going back, so buckle in and get on board.
Artificial intelligence was a hot button topic as music professionals gathered in Singapore last month for the All That Matters conference to learn, meet, greet and get business done.
Music Matters is one of seven streams under the All That Matters banner. Singapore, the dynamic, constantly-evolving city state, once again hosted the event, its music component recognized as the most important of its kind in Asia.
At 18 years of age, ATM is all grown up. This time, almost 2,000 attendees gathered from across the music, sports, gaming, media and entertainment industries, its conclusion the starting point for the Singapore Formula 1 Grand Prix.
Guest speakers at the Sept. 11-13 confab included Jonathan Dworkin, Universal Music Group’s executive VP, digital business development & strategy; Troy Carter, CEO and founder Venice Music; Hazel Savage, VP music intelligence, SoundCloud; Meng Ru Kuok, CEO & co-founder of BandLab; Denis Ladegaillerie, founder & CEO of Believe; Spotify’s Kossy Ng (head of music, Asia) and Joe Hadley (global head of artists and audience partnerships); and Pieter van Rijn, president Downtown Music.
Billboard selected five notable takeaways from this year’s program:
Glocalisation is the way forward
Glocalisation is more than a buzzword. It’s a growing, measurable business as more local language music gains traction on DSPs. Building a business to support that doesn’t happen by accident. “At some point you have a certain ambition,” explained Pieter van Rijn, president Downtown Music, during a day one presentation. “It’s very important for us to be close to our clients,” noted the New York-based Dutchman, whose company has label services staff across the region, including South Korea, Philippines and Japan and elsewhere. Glocalisation is “to think local but act global, the success that we’re seeing there is a trend of local artist having local success and not just English language content driving the charts. You can see that in many countries, it’s another great symptom of how the industry has evolved itself.”
Luminate’s Music 360 research reinforces it, with data showing that 40% of U.S. listeners were found to tune-into music in a non-English language in the second quarter of 2023. At the same time, the share of English-language content is down.
Peter van Rijn photographed on October 19, 2022 at Downtown Music in New York City.
Wesley Mann
Moving forward with AI, and a plan
Believe this year celebrates its 10th anniversary in APAC, a business that started in Indonesia, was built from the ground up, and now represents over 10,000 labels and artist. Some €700 million has been generated in revenue to labels and artists in that decade. Believe is a big believer on Glocalisation, and its future includes the adoption of AI.
“It’s going to come very quickly,” explained Believe CEO Denis Ladegaillerie, during a day-three morning session which also included Sylvain Delange, Believe managing director for APAC. “We expect some products to come into the market very soon, in the next three to six months.” The response needs to be a responsible one. That includes Believe’s own set of principles, drawn up with YouTube, around the four pillars of consent, control, compensation and transparency. A new survey by Believe and TuneCore of 1,558 found that 50% of musicians are willing to make their music available for machine learning while also believing in a responsible approach.
Believe founder and CEO Denis Ladegaillerie
Anis Martin
Streaming fraud is a $500 million problem. At least
For artists, cutting through the noise in the streaming world is a major challenge, and it’s not getting any easier. In the U.S., streams have grown 400% over the last four years, UMG’s Dworkin explained during his keynote presentation, while at the same time, on-platform new music discovery has fallen by 45% (with on-platform music discovery representing just 15% of how fans discover music). If you think that’s bad, streaming fraud takes the cake. Fraud, at the low end of estimations, is a $500 million problem.
“And it could be triple that,” he says. “Security should be a basic matter of hygiene for platforms and for distributors.” Music and artists that connect with consumers should be rewarded in the streaming game. “If a piece of content is riding along on a platform and not connecting with consumers, it will simply be downgraded,” he says, citing Deezer’s novel formulation. “We at Universal are ready for everyone to be held to the same standard. Including us. Let us all compete on the basis of the value created for fans. And not by counting streams as they sleep.“ It’s time to “change the model so the business can be more resilient for the next stage of growth.” He concludes, “there’s a lot more work to do, and the solutions are going to continue to evolve.”
Robbie Williams is coming to entertain you
Thanks to Rocketman and Bohemian Rhapsody, rockumentaries have been a box office boom in recent years. Robbie Williams sings when he’s winning, and he might be singing a lot in the near future with his very own projects.
Before Williams’ headline performance at the F1 Grand Prix, the Brit’s manager Stephen O’Reilly, managing director at ie: ventures and a director of ie: music, sat for a chat about Robbie’s busy schedule.
The former Take That star is the subject of a four-part documentary series, set to air from early November on Netflix. Robbie Williams is a project of Ridley Scott Associates and director Joe Pearlman (Lewis Capaldi: How I’m Feeling Now) and executive produced by Asif Kapadia (Amy). Also, filming is completed on the previously-announced Better Man, which should arrive at cinemas next year.
The context was to “go out of our comfort zones to do things we’ve never done before,” say O’Reilly of Better Man, which has been described as a satirical musical based on the singer’s own life. It’s helmed by Australian filmmaker Michael Gracy whose debut film The Greatest Showman grossed more than $425 million worldwide. New Zealand’s Weta Digital is creating the visual effects for what O’Reilly describes as a “groundbreaking” film, which opens up a new “world of immersive entertainment, with great music and great story.” Robbie’s solo career is now 25 years deep, and has taken him to the very top of the tree in the U.K. (where he has 14 solo No. 1 albums), Europe and Australia. The U.S., however, has stubbornly resisted his cheeky-chappy charms. Will the new projects change that? Wait and see.
Robbie Williams performs at Hits Radio Live 2019 at Manchester Arena on Nov. 17, 2019 in Manchester, England.
Carla Speight/Getty Images for Bauer Media
Russell Simmons talks Hip-Hop, Drugs and Donald Trump
Russell Simmons had the last word at All That Matters, with a free-flowing final session which covered all the topics you’d hoped for, and some you didn’t expect. The Def Jam co-founder regaled with tales on Will Smith, the 50-year history of hip-hop, the epicenter of art that was, and still is, New York City, Run-DMC, drugs and Donald Trump. Simmons and Trump used to hang in the 1990s and they traveled the world together. “I don’t dislike Donald,” he remarked. “We had a lot in common, a lot we didn’t have in common. We laughed about a lot of s—.” Becoming the POTUS, well that’s another thing. “When he became president,” he remarked, “it was obviously not a good thing for America.”
Earlier this year, the Singapore subsidiary of Nodwin acquired a 51% stake in Branded, bringing the confab and showcase event into the Nodwin Gaming family.
BTS star Jung Kook bags the top debut on the U.K. singles chart, and with it, a piece of history.
Jung Kook’s “3D” (via BigHit Entertainment) with Jack Harlow bows at No. 5 on the Official U.K. Singles Chart, published Friday, Oct. 6, behind the weeks-long leader, Doja Cat‘s “Paint The Town Red” (Ministry of Sound).
With that strong start for “3D,” Jung Kook becomes the first Korean solo act to score two top 5 singles in the U.K.; his debut solo single, “Seven,” featuring Latto, debuted at No. 3 earlier this year, setting a chart record.
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Both tracks will appear on the K-pop artist’s first solo album GOLDEN, due out Nov. 3.
As a group, BTS has landed four singles in the U.K. top 10, including three No. 3s — for 2020’s “Dynamite,” “Butter” and Coldplay collaboration “My Universe” (both from 2021). All seven members of the K-pop phenomenon – Jin, Jimin, Suga, Jung Kook, RM, V and J-Hope – have shared solo material, with Jimin setting the bar with a first top 10 for “Like Crazy” (peaking at No. 8) in March; he separately secured a top 40 appearance with “Set Me Free Pt. 2,” hitting No. 30.
J-Hope was the first member of BTS to bag a U.K. top 40 single, thanks to his J. Cole collaboration “On The Street” peaking at No. 37.
Historically, the only other Korean solo artist to have bagged two U.K. top 10 singles is PSY, with 2012’s “Gangnam Style” (No. 1) and 2013’s “Gentleman” (No. 10).
Meanwhile, Doja Cat checks in for a fifth straight week at No. 1 with “Paint The Town Red,” which holds off a feisty challenge from Kenya Grace’s “Strangers” (FFRR), unchanged at No. 2, and Tate McCrae’s “Greedy” (Ministry of Sound), up 5-3 for a new peak position.
South African singer Tyla enjoys her first U.K. top 10 as “Water” (RCA) rises 16-10, while Nigeria-born Afrobeats star Burna Boy is moving on up with “City Boys” (Atlantic), his 13th top 40. “City Boy” improves 17-14.
U.S. singer and songwriter Mitski is close behind and climbing fast with “My Love Mine All Mine” (Dead Oceans), rocketing 34-15 for a new peak.
Finally, Ed Sheeran has his 62nd U.K. top 40 hit with “American Town” (Gingerbread Man), new at No. 27. It’s lifted from his seventh and latest studio album Autumn Variations, the current U.K. No. 1 LP.
Ed Sheeran extends his perfect U.K. albums chart record as Autumn Variations (via Gingerbread Man) debuts at No. 1.
Produced with the National’s Aaron Dessner, Autumn Variations bows at the summit of the Official U.K. Albums Chart, published Friday, Oct. 6, for the Brit’s seventh straight leader.
The leader at the halfway stage, when it dominated its nearest competitor by more than two-combined-sales-to-one, Autumn Variations is Sheeran’s second leader this year. It finishes the U.K. chart week as the best-seller on wax, and follows national No. 1s with his 2011 debut + (plus), 2014’s x (multiply), 2017’s ÷ (divide), 2019’s No. 6 Collaborations Project, 2021’s = (equals) and 2023’s – (subtract).
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Olivia Rodrigo’s sophomore LP Guts (Geffen) holds at No. 2 for a third consecutive week, while Jorja Smith enjoys a podium finish with her second studio album Falling Or Flying (FAMM), new at No. 3. Smith, the 2018 BRITs Critics Choice award winner, has now landed three titles in the U.K. top 10, a tally that includes her 2018 debut Lost & Found (No. 3) and 2021 EP Be Right Back (No. 9).
Also new to the top tier is The Harmony Codex (SW Records), the third solo album from Porcupine Tree‘s Steven Wilson. It’s new at No. 4 on the U.K. chart, matching the peak of his previous effort, 2021’s The Future Bites (2017’s To the Bone reached No. 3).
Meanwhile, U.S. rock act Black Stone Cherry nabs a fourth U.K. top 10 album with Screamin’ at the Sky (Mascot), new at No. 6.
Further down the list, British synth-wave outfit Gunship rides to a new career peak position with Unicorn (Horsie In The Hedge), bowing at No. 26; U.K. Eurovision 2023 rep Mae Muller scores her first U.K. top 40 album with Sorry I’m Late (Capitol), arriving at No. 33, and British soul veteran Beverley Knight nabs an eighth with The Fifth Chapter (Tag8), starting at No. 39.
An artist manager who had several acts scheduled to play the Paralello Universo festival in Re’im, Israel, near the Gaza Strip, and who was there during the attack on the festival, describes a scene of chaos and terror.
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Raz Gaster had multiple artists playing the electronic music festival, where at least 260 people were killed and others were abducted amid an attack by Hamas operatives Saturday (Oct. 7).
Gaster arrived on site at the festival event at approximately 5:30 a.m. on Saturday, with the party — which had started the night prior — meant to go until approximately 5 p.m. Saturday evening. An offshoot of the Paralello Universo festival brand started in Brazil nearly 20 years ago; the Israel event was called Supernova Sukkot Gathering after the Jewish holiday and was hosting several thousand attendees in a rural location near the Gaza Strip, with a lineup focused on the electronic psytrance genre.
Everything changed, though, when rockets and missiles launched from the Gaza Strip by Hamas starting landing on the site an hour later, part of a widespread attack on Israel.
“Around 6:30 in the morning we started hearing explosions,” Gaster says. “We went out of the backstage and we saw a full bombardment everywhere. It was hundreds of rockets and mortars flying from everywhere and explosions all around us.”
Gaster says that at this point, festival security advised everyone to get down on the floor and put their hands above their heads for protection. But after 5-10 minutes, Gaster says, “the policemen shouted in the microphones, ‘Okay, get in your cars and go.’”
“The moment the policemen said ‘go now,’ I ran,” Gaster recalls. “I didn’t wait, because we know it’s a rocket attack. You need to act quick.”
Because his car was parked near the stage very close to where he was standing, Gaster and three other men — including Universo Paralello co-founder Juarez Petrillo — were able to immediately get in Gaster’s car and drive out minutes later, after Gaster made sure the artists he works with were also in vehicles fleeing the site.
Gaster says he was “driving super fast, not stopping for anything, even when missiles are coming down. My instinct told me don’t stop for shelter, just drive… We drove so fast we didn’t even know what was happening.”
By the time Gaster and the others made it to a villa rented by the production team, located approximately 30 kilometers away from the festival, they had started getting texts and phone calls telling them that minutes after they drove away from the site, Hamas fighters had arrived “with machine guns, with RPGs, with grenades, and just slaughtered whoever they could.”
He says that these attackers arrived by motorcycles, quads and trucks approximately 20 minutes after missiles started landing.
Gaster and those he was with turned the villa into a command center, contacting IDF, other Israeli security services and “all of our friends that we know personally that have firearms that have connections that can go there.”
During this time he and the others were receiving messages from friends and colleagues still on site, who reported that the attackers were shooting attendees in their cars as they attempted to drive away. A friend of Gaster’s messaged to say that the driver of her car had been shot and that she and another friend were pretending to be dead to avoid being killed. He says these women ultimately played dead for five hours before being rescued. As of Sunday (Oct. 8), Israeli rescue service Zaka has reported at least 260 bodies at the site.
“People were hiding in ditches, hiding in bushes, hiding in the woods, hiding wherever you can think of,” says Gaster. “We were getting horrible messages from friends saying, ‘Please help us, they are shooting people next to us.’”
Gaster says it took IDF and special forces a few hours to arrive on site, with those who were there attempting to defend themselves in the meantime.
“At the party there was already a police force, like any licensed party,” Gaster says, “and they were the first ones to try to give assistance by fighting… We are Israelites, so most of us have military experience, and a few from the production managed to kill some terrorists with their bare hands and their weapons.”
Gaster says that the owner of the production company behind the festival, Nova Tribe, killed two of the attackers after taking their guns. Gaster says he and the team at the production villa were being sent on-site locations from various attendees and then sending these locations to the owner, who then went to help these attendees.
“It was 24 hours of working to find as many people as we could and get as many signs of life as we could,” says Gaster.
Universo Paralello was not origintally intended to take place at the Re’im site, with organizers moving it to this location only two days before it started, when another site in southern Israel fell through. The new site at Re’im featured a pair of stages, with the Israeli producer Artifex playing the mainstage when the attack started. Gaster was told that the attackers closed the road into the festival from both sides so attendees could not escape.
Other festival attendees have been abducted by Hamas. As a group of between 15-20 people gathered at the production villa, they, says Gaster, “started seeing videos on social media of hostages and people we know that are kidnapped and bodies we could recognize [as] our friends. Many friends are still missing, and we still don’t know where they are.”
He approximates that there are still 600-700 people missing from the party. All but one artist on the festival lineup has left Israel, with Gaster and others putting artists on any available flight into Europe as airlines canceled flights amid the attacks.
While Gaster had just arrived to his home in the north of Israel when Billboard spoke with him at around 1 a.m. local Israeli time (he says the IDF controls most of the area between where he was and where he lives, so he felt safe to drive home), he says that amid the chaos they are all “still trying to find any signs of life.”
“We are a peaceful community, we are a musical community, we do it for the creation of fun,” says Gaster. “We only wanted to dance and have a good time and enjoy music together, and it turned into a nightmare.”
At least 260 people are dead after a Hamas attack at an outdoor electronic music festival in Israel near the Gaza Strip, according to CNN. An unknown number of attendees also seem to have been abducted by Hamas operatives.
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The attack happened on Saturday (Oct. 7) at the Universo Paralello Festival in Re’im, Israel, a rural area located near the border of the Gaza Strip. CNN says the Israeli rescue service Zaka has reported at least 260 bodies at the site.
The rocket attacks began at 6:30 a.m. Saturday morning, with Hamas operatives attacking festivalgoers roughly 30 minutes later. CNN reports that several attendees were taken hostage, with those reports corroborated in a statement by the festival itself. There has been intense fighting throughout Israel since Saturday morning, when Hamas began firing rockets into the country and an invasion followed.
Universo Paralello, which took place Oct. 6-7, is a festival that originated in the Brazilian state of Bahia and is focused on psytrance, a high-BPM form of trance music that has long been one of the most popular forms of electronic music in Israel.
The Israeli version of Paralello Universo, called Supernova Sukkot Gathering after the Jewish holiday, released this statement on Instagram earlier on Sunday (Oct. 8): “The Nova tribe is shocked and pained. We support and participate in the grief of the families of the missing and murdered. We are doing everything we can to assist the security forces, standing by. They are in continuous contact and are located in the field during scans and searches in order to locate the missing.”
The statement says that festival organizers will pass information about missing people to relevant parties, including the IDF.
“We are full of hope and pray that good news will come to us and to you soon,” continues the statement, which was written in Hebrew. “In moments like these, it is important that we be strong and united, full faith, we will support each other and be there for anyone who needs it.” The event has since made its Instagram page private and did not immediately respond to Billboard‘s request for comment.
The lineup featured psytrance producers from countries including Brazil, Spain, Japan and Mexico, with performers Aladin, Artifex, Astral Projection, Flare Jackalon, Jumpstreet, Kido, LIbra, Man With No Name, Noface, Protanica, Rocky Tilbor, Shove, Spectra Sonics, Swarup, Wegha. Billboard reached out for comment from multiple DJs on the lineup but did not immediately receive responses.
Universo Paralello has been happening in Brazil for nearly two decades. The festival was co-founded by Juarez Petrillo, a longstanding producer and promoter and the father of the globally known producer Alok.
Earlier on Sunday, Alok released a statement regarding his father’s presence at the Israeli event. Petrillo was on the lineup performing under his DJ name, Swarup.
“As many of you know, my father was in one of the invaded locations, and concerning his involvement in the event, he is not the organizer,” Alok’s statement reads. “My father was HIRED to perform at an event that licensed the rights to use the festival’s name, as has happened in several other countries before. The Israeli producer licensed the use of the brand and independently organized the event, with my father being one of the attractions.”