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Ezra Collective have teamed up with British-Colombian singer-songwriter Sasha Keable on new single “Body Language,” marking their first release of 2025.
The track, which contains elements of cumbia music and celebrates movement and Latin American culture, arrives off the back of a stellar year for the contemporary jazz group. In October, they broke the top 10 of the Official U.K. Albums Chart for the first time with their third LP, Dance, No One’s Watching. The following month, they performed their biggest headline show to date at London’s 12,500-capacity OVO Wembley Arena.
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“‘Body Language’ is a tribute to the Latin American communities of London that deeply inspire us,” the band said in a press release. “A collaboration with a friend who has been part of the EZ family for years. The language of the body is dancing and this song is a celebration of this.”
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Keable added, “I’m so happy to be coming full circle with the boys on this collab after touring years ago together. It feels like the timing couldn’t be better as we get ready to road test ‘Body Language’ in Latin America, my motherland. This record holds a special place in my heart on so many levels.”
Ezra Collective have also gone on to receive four nominations for this year’s BRIT Awards, including a nod for album of the year. They also crop up in the group of the year, best new artist and alternative/rock act categories.
“Our BRITs nominations for 2025 are a celebration of a 12-year journey — starting out playing at pubs to our friends and family, to loads of special firsts along the way,” the band posted to social media upon announcement of the news. “We’re beyond grateful for the support and encouragement at every step of the journey.”
The five-piece first rose to mainstream prominence through winning the Mercury Prize 2023 with their album Where I’m Meant To Be, becoming the first jazz act in history to do so. They have since released three albums and collaborated with Loyle Carner, Jorja Smith, Kojey Radical and rising British pop star Olivia Dean.
The band — comprising drummer and bandleader Femi Koleoso, bassist TJ Koleoso, keyboardist Joe Armon-Jones, trumpeter Ife Ogunjobi, and saxophonist James Mollison — met at the London jazz youth programme Tomorrow’s Warriors as teenagers. They have since spoken about the importance of ensuring that musical education remains accessible for those from working-class backgrounds across the country.
“You’re investing into the community and people around you,” said Femi of the band’s mission statement when speaking to Billboard last October. “That’s what the Ezra Collective is all about, and that’s why I’m so proud to be considered a part of the U.K. jazz scene because it’s such a beautiful community.”
Listen to “Body Language” below.
Post Malone has announced that his Big Ass Tour will head to the United Kingdom later this summer as part of a new European leg of shows.
The Texas-raised star will perform at London’s Tottenham Hotspur Stadium on Sep. 7, his largest-ever show in the U.K.
The Big A– Tour kicks off in North America on Apr. 29 at Salt Lake City’s Rice-Eccles Stadium, before heading through major stadiums in Dallas, New York, Chicago, Philadelphia, Miami and concluding at San Francisco’s Oracle Park on July 1. In April he’ll headline California’s Coachella Festival for the first time alongside Lady Gaga and Green Day.
Posty’s European tour dates will kick off in Cluj-Napoca, Romania, at Untold Festival on Aug. 8, the first of many festival appearances scattered among his own headline shows. There’ll also be shows in Berlin, Paris, Barcelona and Milan, alongside his appearance in London.
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Tickets for the tour and the London show go on sale at 12 p.m. (GMT) from Live Nation’s website. Support throughout the tour will come from Jelly Roll and Sierra Farrell, though Jelly Roll will not appear at his London show. See the full dates below.
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F-1 Trillion, his sixth studio LP, hit No. 1 on the Billboard 200 upon release in August 2024 and on the U.K. Albums Chart. Lead single “I Had Some Help” earned six non-consecutive weeks at the summit of the Hot 100, and the album was nominated for best country album at the 2025 Grammys.
Post Malone last performed in the U.K. in 2023 during an arena tour with stops in London, Manchester, Birmingham and Glasgow. He also headlined Reading & Leeds Festivals in 2019 and 2021.
Post Malone Big Ass World Tour 2025 dates:
Aug. 8: Cluj-Napoca, Romania (Untold Festival)Aug. 10: Budapest, Hungary (Sziget Festival)Aug. 12: Prague, Czech Republic (Airport Letnany)Aug. 13: St. Pölten, Austria (Frequency Festival)Aug. 15: Poznań, Poland (Bittersweet Festival)Aug. 16: Bratislava, Slovakia (Lovestream Festival)Aug. 18: Berlin (Parkbühne Wuhlheide)Aug. 21: Kaunas, Lithuania (Darius and Girenas Stadium)Aug. 23: Horsens, Denmark (Horsens & Friends at Nordstern Arena)Aug. 27: Milan, Italy (IDays Milano)Aug. 29: Zürich, Switzerland (Zürich Openair)Aug. 30: Munich (Superbloom)Sep. 3: Paris (Paris La Défense Arena)Sep. 5: Hanover, Germany (Heinz von Heiden Arena)Sep. 7: London (Tottenham Hotspur Stadium)Sep. 9: Arnhem, Netherlands (GelreDome)Sep. 12: Barcelona (Estadi Olímpic Lluís Companys)Sep. 14: Lisbon, Portugal (Estadio do Restelo)
Taylor Swift has made history by surpassing Madonna to become the female artist with the most No. 1 albums in U.K. chart history (Feb. 14). Swift claims her 13th chart-topper on the Official Albums Chart with Lover (Live In Paris), a live album first released in 2023 and recently reissued on special heart-shaped double-vinyl released […]
Lola Young‘s “Messy” has bagged a fourth week at No. 1 on the U.K. Singles Chart (Feb. 14). The song first claimed the top spot in January, dethroning Gracie Abrams’ “That’s So True,” which held the No. 1 position for eight non-consecutive weeks.
By earning her fourth week at No. 1, Young is now the longest-running British female artist to be at the top spot since Adele’s “Easy on Me” in 2021. It breaks a tie with Kate Bush’s “Running Up That Hill,” (2022) and Kenya Grace’s “Strangers” (2023), which both had three-week stints at the top.
This achievement also coincides with Young’s continued success on the Billboard Hot 100, where “Messy” currently sits No. 19, a slight fall of five places week-on-week. “Messy” is featured on her sophomore studio album, This Wasn’t Meant for You Anyway, which was released in May 2024; the song has now crossed 300 million streams on Spotify.
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In March, Young will compete for a BRIT Award in the pop act category against Charli XCX, Dua Lipa, Jade Thirlwall and Myles Smith. She also appeared on Tyler, the Creator’s Chromakopia as a guest vocalist on “Like Him.”
Speaking to Billboard U.K., Young discussed the success of “Messy” and why the message of self-acceptance had resonated with fans. “For a long time, I wanted to represent this ideal of Westernized beauty – but then I realized I’m not that,” she said. “I now choose to give realness and truth. I’ve got a bit of a belly out, I f–king swear a bunch and I have fun. And that’s what people are resonating with.”
Following his Super Bowl Halftime Show performance, Kendrick Lamar’s “Not Like Us” finishes the week at No. 2 and gives the Compton rapper his highest ever placing on the U.K. Singles Chart; the song initially landed at No. 6 upon release last year.
Lady Gaga’s “Abracadabra” rises three spots to No. 3, while Chappell Roan’s “Pink Pony Club” makes moves up to No. 4. Chrystal’s “The Days” rounds out the week at No. 5, and there’s post-Grammys boosts for Benson Boone (“Beautiful Things,” No. 6) and Doechii (“Denial Is a River,” No. 9).
Ed Sheeran has seemingly just revealed the name of his upcoming LP in a social media comment. The Suffolk-based pop star has been teasing his return for 2025 and shared a few hints about what the record may sound like.
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Now, in a comment on an Instagram post, Sheeran appeared to reveal that the record would be called Play.
The “Shape of You” singer was responding to a post on the page of @memezar, which noted that Sheeran had changed his profile picture in anticipation of the return. “Ed Sheeran recently changed his profile picture guys! What math is he gonna do next?” a fan wrote. This referred to the Sheeran’s Mathematics album series, which included five studio records: + (2011), x (2014), ÷ (2017), = (2021) and – (2023).
In response, Sheeran wrote: “Irony is if you ask me anything maths related I would fail the question, I never finished high school.” He then signed off by appearing to reveal the title of his next LP. “Play coming soon though,” he added.
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In another comment to a fan who wrote theorised that the next series of records would be called “Play, Pause, Stop, Rewind, Skip,” Sheeran responded: “might skip Skip tbf.”
It’s not the first time he’s referred to the title. In 2023, Sheeran posted: “See you sometime next year when we press Play again on pop, and have a good holiday season x.” In 2022, he confirmed that he would be making “10 symbol records,” but said that “the next five won’t be maths.” Billboard U.K. has reached out to Sheeran’s representatives for comment.
His upcoming record would be Sheeran’s eighth studio LP, and would follow 2023’s Autumn Variations. In December, Sheeran teased that his new album would be a return to bigger sounds. “It feels like I’m getting back into big pop for the first time in a long time,” he told Variety. “It’s quite exciting.”
Earlier this week an impromptu performance by Sheeran was shut down by police in Bengaluru, India due to an alleged lack of permissions. In footage of the incident police can be seen interrupting Sheeran’s performance of “Shape of You” and unplugging his instruments. “We have permission to be here, but this policeman is shutting it down,” Sheeran can be heard telling the crowd. “See you later!”
Sheeran is in the midst of his Mathematics tour and will perform on Saturday (Feb. 15) in Delhi before a run of dates in China.
Sam Fender has extended his 2025 U.K. summer tour with the addition of three new dates. The announcement arrives ahead of the North Shields songwriter’s third LP People Watching, due next Friday (Feb. 21) via Polydor. The record marks Fender’s first full-length release since 2021’s Mercury Prize-nominated Seventeen Going Under. The first of the new […]
AJ Tracey and Jorja Smith have linked up once again for an absolute banger. The pair started promoting the Rhythm & Grime song earlier this week with a clip on social media, with Jorja rapping her verse in a driveway with a beautiful money-green BMW E30 and AJ Tracey dipped in a pink Palace and […]
Central Cee has shared his love of Billie Eilish’s “Birds of a Feather” in a new interview.
On the west London rapper’s four-part CRG Radio show, which is available via Apple Music 1, Cench — born Oakley Neil Caesar-Su — discussed his all-time favorite artists, past and present. In addition to praising Lil Durk, Drake, Damian Marley, Amy Winehouse and dancehall artist Vybz Kartel, he spoke about playing Eilish’s music on repeat.
“You see me, I don’t know lyrics. I was saying I know ‘Juicy’ by Biggie Smalls just about off by heart and that’s the only song,” he began. “And then, after listening to it maybe a thousand times, I know Billie Eilish’s ‘Birds of a Feather.’”
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“I need to listen to something for time to hear [song] lyrics,” he continued, before describing his attraction to Eilish in the “Birds of a Feather” music video. “I think I fancied her first. I was looking at her, I was just watching the video to look at her and then I started thinking, ‘Yeah, no, this [song is] actually cold. And now I don’t know if it’s ‘mind games’; I’ve just heard it so much, but I love it. I just love the music now. It’s not even about [Eilish] anymore.”
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He added: “I’ve just been told that [‘Birds of a Feather’] was one of the biggest songs of last year, and it kind of makes me think that when something’s so popular — I know people do it with my music — that I’m not actually as unique as I think I am for liking that song. But I am in my circle!”
The latest episode of CRG Radio will also be the last. Previous installments of the series have seen the 26-year-old speak with U.K. rappers Headie One, Blade Brown and Nemzzz, while there has also been an appearance from England midfielder Cole Palmer.
On Jan. 31, meanwhile, Cench beat competition from Teddy Swims to top the Official U.K. Albums Chart with his debut LP, Can’t Rush Greatness. He will support the record with a 39-date world arena tour through the spring, kicking off in Oslo on April 1.
Cench also recently scooped a trio of nominations for the 2025 BRIT Awards; the ceremony will be held March 1. He is up for best U.K. artist, best song (“Band4Band”) and best hip-hop and grime.
Little Simz has been announced as the curator of Meltdown Festival for 2025.The event, which is held at London’s Southbank Centre, is now in its 30th edition and will see the rapper crafting an eclectic bill of music, art and workshops across eleven nights June 12-22. The full lineup is expected to arrive in the spring.
Simz joins a prestigious list of previous curators including the likes of The Cure’s Robert Smith, David Byrne, Grace Jones, Nick Cave, Jarvis Cocker and most recently, Chaka Khan.“I’m super excited to be the 2025 Meltdown festival curator! My team and I are preparing 10 days of art, music, workshops and more,” Simz said in a statement. “So many incredible artists have curated this festival, so it’s a true honor to be a part of it.“Thank you to the Southbank Centre for having me. Meltdown 2025 the Simz way is going to be epic.”Jane Beese, Head of Contemporary Music, Southbank Centre said: “Little Simz’s ability to forge new genre-defying ideas and her ambition to inspire the next generation of creators aligns with what the Southbank Centre’s artistic program and vision stands for. We’re incredibly excited to witness the lineup she’ll curate and for the power of her great art, leadership and culture to bring people together onsite for our 30th year.”The festival has forged a reputation for staging unique one-off performances over the years. Patti Smith performed her album Horses in full for her curation of Meltdown in 2005, while Rahim Redcar — fka Christine and the Queens — delivered a two-hour rock-opera show in celebration of his Paranoïa, Angels, True Love LP in 2023.Simz’s new role, meanwhile, follows an illustrious few years in her career. Last summer, the 30-year-old performed on Glastonbury’s Pyramid Stage to glowing reviews, while she won the Mercury Prize for 2021’s Sometimes I Might Be Introvert. Outside of music, she has starred in the acclaimed Netflix series Top Boy.Her most recent full-length release, 2022’s No Thank You, was accompanied by a short film directed by Gabriel Moses, the designer of the 2025 BRIT Awards trophy.
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Sabrina Carpenter is the latest act to join the list of performers at the upcoming BRIT Awards (March 1), and will collect the global success award on the night. The “Espresso” singer will head to The O2 Arena in London to perform during the ceremony. She joins JADE, Myles Smith, Shaboozey, Teddy Swims and The […]