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Macklemore continued his support for the Palestinian people over the weekend when he dropped “Hind’s Hall 2,” the sequel to his May song of the same name whose proceeds are aimed at the United Nations Relief and Words Agency (UNRWA), which provides assistance to Palestinian refugees. He also shouted a provocative slogan calling out the United States during a hometown Seattle show on Saturday at the Palestine Will Live Forever Festival.
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The original song expressing solidarity with the Palestinian people has been updated with new vocals from Gaza-bred rapper MC Abdul, Palestinian-American singer Anees, author Amer Zahr the L.A. Palestinian Kids Choir, Tiffany Wilson and friends and the Lifted! Youth Gospel Choir. In the final verse, the rapper drops a caustic couplet taking aim at Israel’s nearly year-long war in Gaza sparked by the Oct. 7 raid by Hamas militants on Israel that resulted in the killing of more than 1,200 and the kidnapping of more than 250 men, women and children.
“Long live the resistance if there’s something to resist/ Had enough of you motherf–kers murdering little kids/ PC for a minute, I was tryna be a bridge,” the “Thrift Shop” MC raps before lashing out at Democratic presidential candidate and current VP Kamala Harris with a warning about potentially losing the large Arab-American/Muslim vote in Michigan if she continues to administration’s support for Israel.
“But there’ll never be freedom by pleading with Zionists/ World screaming Free Palestine/ We see the manual, we know how you colonized… Hey Kamala, I don’t know if you’re listening/ But stop sending money and weapons, or you ain’t winning in Michigan/ We uncommitted, and hell no we ain’t switching positions/ Because the whole world turned Palestinian,” he raps.
The song also features the antisemitic chant “from the river to the sea/ Palestine will be free,” a phrase the American Jewish Committee says has been a “rallying cry for terrorist groups and their sympathizers… [as well as] a common call-to-arms for pro-Palestinian activists, especially student activists on college campuses. It calls for the establishment of a State of Palestine from the Jordan River to the Mediterranean Sea, erasing the State of Israel and its people.”
Macklemore took to the stage with his message of solidarity with the Palestinian people and disdain for current American policy in support of Israel’s war against militant group Hamas during the debut performance of “Hind’s Hall 2” at the Palestine Will Live Forever Festival at Seward Park Amphitheatre in his hometown over the weekend.
“Straight up, say it, I’m not gonna stop you,” Macklemore, 41, says in fan video from the show after the crowd shouts unheard slogans at him. “I’m not gonna stop you… yeah, f–k America,” he adds to loud cheers from the audience, later adding “it’s a genocide and it has been since 1948” in reference to the year the state of Israel was established. The original “Hind’s Hall” and its sequel were named in honor of a young girl named Hind Rajab who was killed in Gaza in a shooting Palestinians have blamed on Israeli forces.
At press time a spokesperson for Macklemore had not returned Billboard‘s request for comment on his statement at the Seattle show.
Last month, the rapper canceled a planned show in Dubai on Oct. 4 over the UAE’s role in support of the RSF, one of the warring parties in the country’s devastating civil war.
Listen to “Hind’s Hall 2” below.
The Save The Music Foundation is proudly partnering with Billboard to expand funding of its grants for Latin music programs. This announcement was made ahead of 2024 Billboard Latin Music Week.
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Save The Music team members will be attending Latin Music Week on October 14-18 to spread awareness about their program, along with 24 of their participating students, educators and local partners via Young Musicians Unite. Additionally, the organization is auctioning off fan experiences in conjunction with CharityBuzz for the week-long takeover to raise funding. The auction, which went live on Monday, September 23, includes prizes like industry credentials to the event, signed merchandise and M&G experiences with Grupo Frontera, Saiko, Omar Courtz and Dei V.
If that wasn’t enough, Billboard will also host a fundraiser via Instagram to help support Save The Music’s mission of creating culturally rich music programs for public schools through their Miami Music Saves project.
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“Billboard is proud to support the next generation of musicians and music lovers through its ongoing partnership with Save The Music,” Sara Katzki, Head of Billboard’s Brand Studio, said in a statement. “Our shared goal is to provide students with unforgettable experiences, and spotlight unique music career pathways both on and off the stage. Save The Music does incredible work bringing music education into schools across the country, and we’re thrilled to amplify the Miami Music Saves project at Latin Music Week.”
For over 25 years, the Save The Music Foundation has worked diligently with local community partners, school districts, funders, and artists to create sustainable music education programs that align with a community’s specific needs. The organization has worked to address the systemic inequities within public education by investing in culturally rich communities to ensure that students have access to quality music education.
While Billboard showcases Latin American artists and cultural icons, Save The Music funds programs to inspire artists of the future. Together, these institutions have been creating engaging programs for future musicians across the United States.
In fact, since partnering with Miami Dade Public Schools in 2017, Save The Music has been able to serve over 32,000 students by delivering over 8,700 instruments to public schools along with updated technology and new music programs. Because of its rich music history, Miami has been a priority for the organization in its efforts to rebuild and jumpstart new music programs for students K-12. This provides them opportunities to learn firsthand about south Florida’s musical legacy, as well as pave their own way as future artists.
With Save The Music, a K-8 school in the Miami area is teaming up with The Mexican American Council to develop a brand new mariachi program for their students. In the last few years, mariachi grants and programs have been provided to schools in California, New Jersey, Nevada and Oklahoma. As more schools receive funding for engaging and culturally relevant programming, Save The Music is expanding beyond mariachi programming to include other Latin music programs.
If that guy on stage at Dino’s Lounge in Las Vegas singing karaoke sounded a bit better than the average drunk piker from Minnesota, it’s because he did. Coldplay singer Chris Martin took a break from his band’s Music of the Spheres global juggernaut tour to have some fun in Sin City this weekend when […]
Call it the “Three Faces of Bey.” Beyoncé tries on a trio of distinctive looks in a new promo video for her SirDavis American Whisky brand. The nearly two-minute ad cued to Betty Davis’ 1974 soul funk classic “They Say I’m Different” opens with the singer in a long platinum wig and black cocktail dress […]
It was the Boss set you were kicking yourself for missing. After a world tour in which they largely hewed to a familiar set list, Bruce Springsteen & the E Street Band ripped up the playbook last weekend during their Sept. 15 headlining slot at the Sea.Hear.Now Festival in Springsteen’s old Asbury Park stomping grounds in his native New Jersey.
At his final scheduled show in the U.S. for now, Springsteen looked out at the huge crowd spread out along the beach and ripped off an instant-classic three-hour-plus show full of hometown stories and some of the beloved (and deep cut) tracks fans yearn for. Now, whether you were there and can’t stop thinking about it, or couldn’t make it, the whole set is available on CD and as a stream via nugs.net.
According to the show notes, the Sea.Hear set included the tour premieres of the songs “Blinded By the Light,” “Does This Bus Stop at 82nd Street?,” “Thundercrack,” “4th of July, Asbury Park (Sandy)” and “Meeting Across the River,” as well as the returns of “Local Hero,” “Jungleland” and “Jersey Girl.” The set also marked the return of backup singer Patti Scialfa during “Tougher Than the Rest” after she’d sat out a number of shows over the past year while battling the blood cancer multiple myeloma; Scialfa revealed her diagnosis in the recent documentary Road Diary: Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band.
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Springsteen posted a video recap of the Sea. Hear set on his Instagram over the weekend with highlights from the triumphant gig.
In addition to the above, the set also included: “Hungry Heart,” “Racing in the Street,” “Wrecking Ball,” “Thunder Road,” “Born to Run,” “Rosalita (Come Out Tonight)” and “Tenth Avenue Freeze-Out,” among others. The Sea.Hear set joins more than two dozen live album streams Nugs.net has available from the tour, including shows at Nationals Park in Washington, D.C., as well as gigs in Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, London, Stockholm, Helsinki and Barcelona, and many more.
Also, just in time for the sprint to the Nov. 5 presidential election, Springsteen released the 15-track live collection The Live Series: Songs of Conscience over the weekend. The collection of live performances recorded between 1981-2023 features songs that ask hard questions about where we are, where we’ve been and where we’re going, including “This Land Is Your Land,” “The Promised Land,” “Born in the U.S.A.,” “57 Channels (And Nothin’ On),” “Souls of the Departed,” “Long Walk Home,” “The Rising,” “Sun City” and “Last Man Standing,” among others.
Listen to Songs of Conscience here.
2024 has been a massive year for Fontaines D.C. In June they played a well-received set at Glastonbury and followed it up with another at Reading & Leeds Festival last month. Their fourth album Romance landed at No.2 on the Official Album Charts in the U.K. and was a critical smash.
Now, they’ve got the thumbs up from Elton John who has shared his love for the band in a new interview on his Rocket Hour radio show on Apple Music.
Speaking to Fontaines D.C.’s frontman Grian Chatten, the icon was effusive with praise: “For me, you’re the best band out there at the moment,” he said when introducing his guest onto the show. You can watch the full clip below.
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“Having watched you at Glastonbury, having heard the new album, you’ve just grown every album,” John told Chatten. “You seem to have found your feet with this album in such a big way… it’s a brilliant record.”
John, who has used his Rocket Hour show to spotlight emerging talent, continued: “I think this album takes you – and I’ve been around for a long time – to a different level, and it’s going to stay around for a long, long time. But what’s more important about it: the music is really, really, really special. Congratulations on everything, Grian. It’s bloody wonderful.”
The praise is at odds with Liam Gallagher’s feelings on the band, who clapped back at the band following an interview where Fontaines said that the Oasis reunion didn’t excite them. ““F–k them little spunkbubbles I’ve seen better dressed ROADIES,” Gallagher wrote in one tweet. “They look like a sh-t EMF,”
The Irish band have released four albums, Dogrel (2019), A Hero’s Death (2022), Skinty Fia (2022) and Romance (2024), all of which landed in the Top 10 of the U.K. Album Charts and in their native Ireland. Romance, released in August, was their first on their new label home of XL Records, whose roster includes Radiohead, The Prodigy and more.
Fontaines were recently forced to cancel a handful of gigs in the US due to vocal injury to Chatten. The band pulled shows in Portland, Seattle and Vancouver this past weekend, and the tour is scheduled to resume in San Francisco tomorrow evening (September 24).
They’ll then head to Europe and the U.K. and Ireland for some of their biggest gigs to date in October and November. Perhaps John will be down the front…
Jay-Z and Roc Nation teamed up with SL Green and Caesar Entertainment in late 2022 to launch a bid to open New York City’s first full-scale casino in Times Square. With a finite amount of licenses expected to be granted by New York State in 2025, Roc Nation is looking to improve their bid’s attractiveness […]
Chappell Roan hasn’t endorsed Democratic nominee Kamala Harris for president, despite the pop star’s longtime advocacy for trans rights and the LGBTQ+ community.
The “Good Luck, Babe!” singer-songwriter weighed in on the 2024 election in a profile published by The Guardian on Saturday (Sept. 21).
“I have so many issues with our government in every way. There are so many things that I would want to change. So I don’t feel pressured to endorse someone. There’s problems on both sides,” Roan explained.
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She added, “I encourage people to use your critical thinking skills, use your vote — vote small, vote for what’s going on in your city.”
She says she most wants to see a change in trans rights in the U.S. “They cannot have cis people making decisions for trans people, period,” said Roan.
While Roan’s quote to The Guardian resulted in backlash on social media from fans who expect her to publicly endorse Harris over Donald Trump, given Harris’ pro-LGBTQ+ stance, the quote alone can easily be taken out of context. Roan has been clear about her values in words, performance and actions.
On tour, Roan invites local drag artists to be her supporting act, and as The Guardian reports, “For every U.K. tour ticket sold, £1 goes to the LGBTQ+ rights charity Kaleidoscope Trust, and at the merch stand in Manchester there are signed risograph prints selling for £100, with proceeds going towards aid for Palestine.”
Over the summer she declined an invitation from the White House to perform for a Pride event. She actually wanted to show up and protest the Biden administration’s involvement in Israel’s attacks on Gaza instead of being paraded as a performer, she told Rolling Stone. Her publicist, concerned for her client’s safety, talked her out of it: “You f— with the president and the government, your security is not the same, and neither is your family’s.”
At Gov Ball she dedicated her song “My Kink Is Karma” to the administration. “We want liberty, freedom and justice for all,” she said. “When you do that, that’s when I’ll come.”
In August Roan urged people to make their voices heard, telling Rolling Stone, “Right now, it’s more important than ever to use your vote, and I will do whatever it takes to protect people’s civil rights, especially the LGBTQ+ community. My ethics and values will always align with that, and that hasn’t changed with a different nominee.”
“I feel lucky to be alive during an incredibly historic time period when a woman of color is a presidential nominee,” she added. Harris, meanwhile, has featured the Roan’s music in her campaign, including the song “Femininomenon.”
Stars including Taylor Swift, Billie Eilish,
Tens of thousands of Brazilians gathered at Rio de Janeiro’s mega-festival Rock in Rio on Friday (Sept. 20), with many staking out spots of artificial grass all day to hear the headliner, Katy Perry. As her music keyed up, the enormous screens around the stage showed someone else in their bottom corners — a sign language interpreter.
The red-haired woman — with a chunky chain belt and a gem between her eyebrows — snapped her fingers and swayed, then pumped her arms as the beat gathered force.
“It seems like I’m on stage with her, in front of everyone,” the interpreter, Laísa Martins, told the Associated Press afterward. And as Katy Perry belted out her first verse, Martins started signing.
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Rock in Rio is featuring sign language interpreters on its big screens for the first time in its 40-year history. It’s one of Latin America’s biggest festivals, drawing 100,000 people a day over seven days, and Sunday is its last day.
Inside a container backstage, interpreters sign in front of a green screen, with their images appearing above the stage to ensure deaf people across the thronging crowd can follow. Organizers also invite dozens of deaf people and their companions into a VIP area, right by the stage and close enough to speakers to feel the music pulsing through their bodies.
How a 2015 law helped Brazil start championing accessibility
Interpreters have started popping up at festivals and concerts across Brazil in recent years. Their sudden ubiquity stems from Brazil’s ambitious 2015 inclusion law that sought to put the country at the global forefront of accessibility and, among other things, established that people with disabilities have the right to access cultural events while guaranteeing organizers provide means of doing so.
Some interpreters have drawn the spotlight themselves with their flair and flashy dress, gaining thousands of social media followers. Demand for them is surging so much that many start working before even finishing their education, said Lenildo Souza, president of the nationwide federation of sign language interpreters’ associations.
In Brazil, 2.3 million people are partially or completely deaf, according to the national statistics institute. But fewer than two-thirds of those who are completely deaf know how to use Brazilian sign language, and far less among those with some hearing. That’s because people opt for cochlear implants, learn only lip-reading, or go deaf later in life, said Souza.
As such, subtitles could be more effective at transmitting lyrics; Colombian singer Karol G sang so quickly at times Friday night that some words were lost on Amorim, who isn’t fluent in Spanish. But Amorim said interpreters convey more than just lyrics of songs, which they study intensively ahead of the show. They dance to the rhythm and pull faces to transmit the music’s energy and emotion — be it euphoria, rage, mystery or sensuality. That pumps up the crowd, deaf and hearing people alike.
“We express the whole idea of the song with our expressions, with our body. We want to express the entire musical context and use literally our entire body,” said Amorim, whose older sister is deaf. “Our feet are cut off there [on the screen], but during samba songs, we’re dancing samba. It’s just like that.”
Putting deaf people up front
Rock in Rio is already one of the most accessible festivals for deaf people in the world, said Thiago Amaral, coordenador de pluralidade (diversity coordinator). Still, his team is working to innovate, and future editions could include vibrating platforms or a product similar to the vibrating vests they tested last year, he said. This year was also the first that Rock in Rio offered audio description earpieces for those with limited vision.
One of the deaf people at Rock in Rio on Friday was Henrique Miranda Martins, 24. His whole family is big into music, especially samba — his uncles play the four-string cavaquinho and pandeiro, a handheld frame drum — and he was always around it growing up. But Martins can hear little from his right ear and nothing from his left, so could never fully connect or participate.
Last year, he went to his first-ever concert with sign language interpreters, Coldplay, and it became his favorite band — even before its single whose official video features people signing. Then Martins went to the Lollapalooza festival in São Paulo. And last week he traveled from São Paulo to party with his parents at Rock in Rio.
He was most hyped to see Brazilian singer Iza on Friday, and waited to enter the special section by the stage. Iza started playing, just off to his left, but he faced the opposite direction, watching her on the screen with an interpreter in its corner. He danced and signed along with the interpreter, often in synchrony.
“I can follow the interpreter and I’m very happy to be able to feel the music and live this experience,” Martins said, speaking through an interpreter. “For deaf people, it’s very important. We can’t be outside this here. We need to be inside, with accessibility, together with everyone participating in everything. I’m very happy.”
Rock in Rio’s camera scanning the crowd found Martins vibing and locked in. For a few seconds, he was up on the big screen for everyone to see, smiling wide with his head thrown back and shaking both hands in the air — the sign for applause.
Why did Usher delete his entire X (formerly Twitter) feed? Well, apparently he didn’t — even though the topic was a trending conversation on the social media platform on Sunday (Sept. 22). “Account got hacked and damn y’all ran with it!” Usher wrote on X at 6:13 p.m. ET on Sunday, after commentary and theories […]
