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Dave Chappelle and Killer Mike are hitting the road together. Blending the worlds of comedy and rap, the duo announced the Talkin That S–t Tour on Wednesday (Oct. 23). Explore See latest videos, charts and news See latest videos, charts and news The comedic legend and Grammy-winning rapper along with the Mighty Midnight Revival will […]
Achille Lauro has had many different lives: that of a “street boy” in the Roman crew Quarto Blocco, then as protagonist of the Sanremo Festival and Eurovision Song Contest, a performer in sold-out arenas, entrepreneur and now a judge on The X Factor Italy. He is a person with solid, sincere and passionate convictions, who put their idea of an artist at the center of attention, capable of overlooking everything but never their own abilities and determination. Meeting Achille Lauro for this interview on a nice afternoon in Milan — after the release of his latest single “Amore Disperato,” with the delicate sound of a piano lesson in the background — was just the confirmation of all this.
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As an artist, but not only, you reinvented yourself several times. You are like a cat: you have nine lives.
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I hope, so I still have some to spend! For me, life is always full of opportunities for change. I don’t think I’m the only one. There are people who live just like this, changing their skin and their lives, chasing an idea, aiming for an increasingly distant goal. My curse, but also my blessing, is all of this. I often feel so projected toward the future that I can’t live well in the present. However, this is also my strength: being beyond the contemporary. The worst thing they wrote about me was that I always tried to amaze people, but instead I just tried to surpass myself, often ending up in territories I didn’t know. I don’t want my job to turn into an assembly line.
After all, you are artistically omnivorous and have nothing to defend other than your talent.
I like “omnivorous,” but I believe that talent is ultimately not enough. Dedication toward what you love and extreme commitment count. In the end, all this leads to great results, as well as always seeking innovation. It’s true, I’ve never been afraid of losing anything. Each of my albums is always different from the previous one, because I am looking for a new universe to immerse myself in. I think it was harder initially for a listener to understand my direction. But I’m not reassuring, I don’t want to bring you into a comfort zone by always doing the same thing.
You’ve been on the scene for 10 years, and in this decade, everything has happened musically in Italy: a real generational revolution in the charts, but also the renewal of Sanremo – and you have been the protagonist of the festival several times.
They have been 10 intense years because there has been a great evolution of our music scene, especially thanks to younger artists. Many of them have understood that the more unique and particular they make themselves, the more they strike the chords of the public’s feelings. I’m not even completely convinced that Auto-Tune was the stylistic hallmark of this era. Already in the ’70s funk bands used the Vocoder, then there were Daft Punk in the ’90s…. When I started, it was the era of street rap, in which you had to say certain things and maybe you were ashamed to show your feelings, your weaknesses. Today, however, there is room for emotions, which is very important for me. However, there has been a great evolution in the trap and urban scene. We went from a very dark production to something lighter. Above all, those kids who come from the suburbs didn’t ape the Americans but chose their own narrative path, going much higher in quality. They tell of miserable realities that are in contrast with the luxury that glitters 15 minutes away from them. Milan is the place par excellence to describe this discrepancy. For them, as for me, music is a path to redemption and redemption. Then it’s nice that pop is no longer considered synonymous with poor music, and this allows many young artists to try their hand at this genre without fear.
Achille Lauro
Marcello Junior Dino/Billboard Italy
What do you think about the fact that electronic dance music is connecting more and more with pop? It is a process that began many years ago but continues at a mainstream level in Italy, too.
True. I would like to open the top 50 and hear globally competitive productions and also an acceleration toward the contamination between dance and what really characterizes one’s culture, one’s country. Look at what is happening in Spain with Rosalía or C. Tangana, who take their tradition and mix it with something new.
What are you finding as a judge of The X Factor?
I’m trying to find something strong in identity in my team. My final three choices are slightly unconventional talents. I’m delighted to be able to try to do something different for the program. In the end, in Italy, only The X Factor and Sanremo are left to give great motivation to kids, to new talents…. Only in these contexts does something different and important really happen.
And you know a lot about Sanremo.
Let’s say that I was part of a change for the better. The festival was more permeable to the innovations seen in our music scene. It approached very distant worlds that never paid attention to before. Standing on stage with 10 million people watching you is an opportunity that I have always taken advantage of, even when I made mistakes.
Now, after four times at the festival, would you like to do Sanremo more as a guest or as a competitor?
If I have the right song I would go as a contestant. I love what I do and I want to take it to the top, but not in a grimly economic sense. I’ve always found my way, now I’m also an entrepreneur, I’ve opened a real estate company, so I’m not thinking about Sanremo for an economic question. But I’m ambitious: Sanremo is like the Champions League for a footballer. If you go there, you do it not only to participate but to win.
In your movie Ragazzi Madre: L’Iliade there is a passage where you reveal your great love for ballads, and the new single “Amore Disperato” is an intimate song, with acoustic sounds and a melancholic flavor.
I love ballads because they allow me to talk about my personal stories, to tell my experience, without inventing details to embellish them or make them more authentic. It’s all in that song. I want to maintain a certain simplicity, which for me goes hand in hand with authenticity. “Amore Disperato” is about a true story, so it was very easy for me to make it.
You recently went to the United States and talked about a future collaboration with Arturo Fratini, aka Lester Nowhere. We know he worked with Kanye West after giving him a CD with his phone number.
We did some things together during my work trip to Los Angeles, which was a very interesting and profitable period for me. Lester Nowhere is a very interesting artist and another demonstration that between obsession and attraction something incredible can happen. As in his case: meeting and then working with a great artist like Kanye West.
Achille Lauro
Marcello Junior Dino/Billboard Italy
When people think about love, they frequently focus on expensive weddings, flowery poetry or heavy kissing sessions. But the ultimate act of love is arguably less romantic: paperwork.
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Making out a will, filling out the beneficiary lines on insurance forms or assigning someone for that “Payable on Death” section of a checking account are boring details that require uncomfortable thoughts about dying. But those actions smooth the passage of assets and can simplify life for survivors at a time when they’re torn by grief. Few things say “I love you” more than demonstrating it when the recipient can’t show appreciation.
“My wife says to me all the time, ‘If something ever happens to me, please be sure the boys know how much their mom loved them,’” Chris Lane says. “I’m like, ‘Honey, please do not ever say that to me again.’ I can’t even bear the thought of that.”
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Lane’s newest release — “If I Die Before You,” which Red Street issued to digital service providers on Oct. 11 — re-creates that kind of conversation with the singer contemplating his own passage. It’s similar to the approach in two high-impact predecessors, Garth Brooks’ “If Tomorrow Never Comes” and The Band Perry’s “If I Die Young,” but leans even closer to those awkward discussions about estates and advance directives. And it manages to transform a difficult moment into an ascendant one.
“I’ve never heard this topic talked about in a song before,” Lane says. “It felt like a really fresh and really cool idea, and they did it in a very emotional way.”
“They” are songwriters Emily Weisband (“Looking for You,” “Dance Like No One’s Watching”), James McNair (“Guy for That,” “Lovin’ On You”) and Seth Mosley (“Make You Mine,” “Build a Boat”). The three met at a second-floor office Mosley was renting at the Starstruck building on Nashville’s Music Row in 2022.
McNair brought up the title, “If I Die Before You,” which he had recently logged into his phone, most likely after hearing the phrase on a TV show. He didn’t know what kind of story it might create, but it led them to acknowledge that they’ve all had conversations with their spouses about how to handle an unexpected passing. “It’s the worst conversation in the world,” Weisband says.
But it had some powerful possibilities, too, if they could find the right balance, even with the word “die” in the hook. “You have to write it just completely bare and honest,” McNair says. “You can’t be cheesy, and it can’t be too morbid. It’s definitely delicate when you have that word in the title.”
They launched with the title in the opening line — “If I die before you/I hope you buy that Mustang” — with Weisband, who had a pop recording deal, leading the melodic charge. They toggled between the verses and chorus as they proceeded, Mosley girding the top line with more minor chords and sevenths than typically emerge in Nashville writing rooms.
“It’s not like a jazz record or anything,” Mosley says. “There are far more complicated songs and chord progressions out there, but I think as Nashville writers often forget, there are other options. And so if I can be a small part of helping just create stuff that’s slightly different, that’s something I like to do.”
The chorus lived primarily in unresolved chordal territory, creating a sweet tension as it recognized that “all our names end up on a rock.” Near the end, it almost came to a halt, imagining that God takes the singer first. “Baby, forgive Him,” the text read, “and keep living if I die before you.”
Imagining Weisband’s future family, verse two referenced “our hypothetical kids” as the weighty conversation continued. By the time they reached the bridge, the song eased into conversational syncopation, the story’s couple refocusing on the current moment. And on a bottle.
“We tried to lighten it up, in that sense of where it was kind of like a couch conversation over wine,” McNair says, “which I think helps it, you know. They weren’t in the lawyer’s office or something like that.”They wrote it in a scant two hours, prioritizing the song itself rather than how it might be received in the marketplace. Mosley produced a demo with an airy tone, Weisband singing lead.
“It was very low pressure,” she says. “It was not the typical Nashville grind it out till every word is perfect and every melody’s a smash-sounding melody. It’s just like, ‘Let’s let the song write itself, and we’re just kind of here to help birth it,’ if you will. We were the song’s midwives.”
Lane heard “If I Die Before You” when a publisher sent him a batch of songs. He was particularly curious about the title and made it one of the first he played from that group. He took the opening “mustang” reference to mean a horse, which fit his wife’s interests, and the rest of the song worked, too. He wanted it.
“I’m not a super-emotional guy at all, nor do I really love slow songs,” he says. “But when I heard this song, it struck an emotional chord in me — probably because I’m married and have kids now, so I look at life differently.”
He responded to the publisher, who apologized: Another artist — Jordan Davis, it turned out — had the song, and Lane shouldn’t have heard it. While Davis debated whether to release it, McNair played it for Luke Combs, who pressured Davis to put it out or let it go. Combs toyed with it, too, but decided it didn’t fit the project he was recording and passed. “We just kept laughing that for how pop-girl of a demo this was, all these guys were wanting to cut it,” Weisband says.
Ultimately, Lane checked in every few months about it, and his persistence won the day. He so revered it that he insisted on using two of the song’s writers — he got Mosley to produce it and asked Weisband to sing harmonies. And Lane was present for almost all the work as Mosley cut new parts — played primarily by multi-instrumentalist Jonny Fung and drummer Phil Lawson — over pieces of the original demo, shifting it to a country production.
Lane made one lyrical change: “Our hypothetical kids” became “our crazy, beautiful kids,” acknowledging his two boys. He worked tirelessly on his lead vocal, singing perhaps 20 or 30 takes to get every part right.
Mosley called on Gideon Klein and Carl Larson to overdub a string section. “I make string arrangements that are just me singing into a mic,” Mosley says, “and I’ll do 10, 15 tracks of me just humming parts, like, ‘This is a cello, part one,’ ‘Cello, part two,’ and then I’ll pass it off to Gideon. He’ll put it on sheet music so it actually makes sense. But then we go in and just stack it a bunch of times.”
Red Street continues to work Lane’s current single, “Find Another Bar,” currently at No. 28 on Country Airplay after 51 weeks. But “If I Die Before You” is the likely follow-up, assuming it generates the reaction they expect.
“Everything in my gut tells me that this is a career song,” Lane says. “I’m praying and hoping that people react to it in the same way that I did, and if they do, then it feels like the next one up.”
Less than two months since Wonho was discharged after his mandatory Korean military service, the star is set to make an anticipated return to the U.S. with his first-ever fan meeting tour as a soloist specifically for his longtime loyal fans, known affectionately as WENEE. Explore Explore See latest videos, charts and news See latest […]
On today’s (Oct. 23) episode of the Greatest Pop Stars of the 21st Century podcast, we reach No. 8 of our list with a teen-pop phenom who created absolute pandemonium among young fans at the turn of the 2010s — and then grew with his fanbase into adult pop stardom in the decade that followed. […]
Yeezy season has returned for a third time in 2024. Following a pair of Vultures installments with Ty Dolla $ign, Ye — formerly known as Kanye West — has turned his attention from the joint projects to his forthcoming solo album titled Bully.
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The rapper revealed the cover art for Bully on Instagram Wednesday (Oct. 23). Shot by Daidō Moriyama, the artwork features a black-and-white photo of someone grinning ear to ear, possibly showcasing Ye’s titanium grill.
Outpump speculates that the cover relates to “ohaguro,” which is an ancient Japanese tradition involving dyeing one’s teeth black as a symbol before exploring adulthood, as well as after marriage and for beauty.
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It’s been a busy year for Ye fans, and they’re welcoming the idea of more music to close out the year. “This album is about to be insane,” one person wrote in the post’s comment section. Another chimed in, “Three albums in one year. Amazing.”
According to journalist Touré, Kanye relocated to Tokyo and has repeatedly been spotted in Japan over the course of the last month. He even stepped out with wife Bianca Censori earlier this week to shut down rumors of their split. “Kanye is now living in Tokyo and living in a hotel hard at work on his next album Bully,” said Touré in an Oct. 11 IG post. “He’s recording the album in the hotel room. Like, all the machines are set up in the hotel room.”
He added: “It’s a concept album and he plans to be the only producer on it. Traditionally, Kanye is the product of a team, there are producers helping him, there are writers helping him, he comes with the big ideas but there’s others in. Not this time. This time, Kanye is gonna make this pretty much by himself. A fresh chapter in his life because in Tokyo he can be who he wants to be.”
Yeezy debuted “Beauty and the Beast” during his China shows, and that appears to be what he’s tapped as a lead single heading into Bully. The 47-year-old released a dreamy visual for the track on his Yeezy website last week.
Vultures 1 arrived in February and debuted atop the Billboard 200. Ye earned another No. 1 hit with “Carnival” featuring Playboi Carti and Rich the Kid topping the Billboard Hot 100 in March. Vultures 2 was released in August, and the project hit No. 1 on the Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums chart.
There still isn’t a release date attached to Bully. Find the cover art below.
On Easter Monday morning, 1964, 14-year-old Marcia Griffiths stepped onto a stage for the very first time. The occasion was an annual concert held at the Carib Theater in Kingston, Jamaica. The late Philip James of vocal duo the Blues Busters, who discovered Marcia, pleaded with the concert’s promoter Byron Lee to include her in the lineup; Lee eventually agreed to let her sing one song. She rehearsed a rendition of Carla Thomas’ raw soul ballad “I’ve Got No Time to Lose” with Lee’s band The Dragonaires; some of the musicians, however, were unhappy backing an inexperienced teenager.
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Taking her place onstage, Griffiths nervously awaited the song’s jangly guitar intro. As the audience grew restless, she turned around and saw the band members laughing. “Although I was a little girl, I recognized sabotage,” Griffiths reminisces, “but it must have been the voice of God inside me that said, ‘little girl, start to sing.’ So, I did, and the musicians started following me. If you closed your eyes, you would think it was Carla Thomas. Every time I made a slur like Carla did on the original song, the place went up like the roof was going lift off; when I finished, the audience chanted, ‘bring her back, bring her back,’ but I only performed one song.”
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Fast forward 60 years to the second annual Caribbean Music Awards, held on Aug. 29 at Kings Theater, Brooklyn. Marcia Griffiths, elegantly attired in a shimmering purple dress with a gilded headwrap, strode onstage to a recording of her 1968 single “Melody Life.” Presented with a lifetime achievement award by Shaggy, who called the legendary singer “a timeless symbol of love, the very essence of reggae,” Griffiths reflected on her 1964 career-launching performance, which led to a Jamaican label bidding war and her first recording contract with Studio One, Jamaica’s Motown.
“When I walked onstage in 1964, no one could have told me that I would be standing here this evening,” said Griffiths, best known to international audiences for her 1989 single “Electric Boogie,” which spawned the Electric Slide dance, and as one of the I-Three alongside Rita Marley, Bob’s wife, and Judy Mowatt, who sang background vocals for Bob Marley. Griffiths thanked God for preserving her and concluded by reciting the refrain from her 1993 track that summarizes her ongoing commitment to her craft: “I shall sing as long as I live.”
There isn’t another Jamaican female artist who can claim the professional longevity Marcia Griffiths, 74, still enjoys. Griffiths was the headliner at the Oracabessa Festival in Queens, New York City, on Sept. 1; she then traveled to Brazil to perform two shows and in December she is one of the marquee acts performing aboard Damian Marley’s annual Welcome to Jamrock reggae cruise. Currently, the Kingston-born legend is in Jamaica preparing for her 60-year retrospective concert, Marcia Griffiths and Friends, to be held at Hope Gardens, Kingston, on Nov. 3. “I have collaborated with over 50 artists, singers and deejays (Jamaican patois rappers) so I’ll be performing with one or two of my collaborators from each decade,” Griffiths tells Billboard via Zoom. The lineup includes Shaggy, Tessanne Chin (season 5 winner of NBC’s The Voice), Tanya Stephens, deejays Busy Signal and Cutty Ranks and many surprise guest artists spanning different generations of Jamaican music. The program will include a tribute to the I-Three, with Shuga and Yashemabeth McGregor (daughter of Judy Mowatt and Freddie McGregor) singing alongside Marcia. All artists will be backed by an orchestra under the musical direction of celebrated Jamaican saxophonist Dean Fraser. “I will only see my 60th anniversary once, so I want to make the best of it,” declares Marcia.
Shaggy and Marcia Griffiths onstage at the Caribbean Music Awards on Aug 29, 2024.
Steve James
The undisputed queen of reggae’s vocals sound as pristine, controlled and soulfully eloquent today as they did on her 1960s recordings for Studio One, the recording studio/record label founded by the late Seymour Clement “Sir Coxsone” Dodd. Regarded as Jamaica’s Motown because so many Jamaican luminaries recorded their initial hits there, including Burning Spear, The Heptones and The Wailers, Studio One is where Griffiths met two men who would have profound importance in her life: Bob Marley and Bob Andy (born Keith Anderson). Marcia and Bob Marley initially collaborated on the mid-60s R&B nugget “Oh My Darling.” However, it was the other Bob, not as well-known as Marley yet considered one of Jamaica’s greatest songwriters, who wrote most of Marcia’s biggest hits at Studio One, including “Truly,” “Feel Like Jumping” and “Melody Life,” all staples in her concerts to this day.
Bob Andy and Marcia’s personal relationship, as conveyed in their charming duet, “Always Together,” a gorgeous melding of Bob’s warm, expressive tone with Marcia’s exquisite timbre, shielded Marcia from lurking exploiters. “It wasn’t easy in a male dominated industry. God placed Bob Andy so that I met him at a young stage of my life, and we became intimate friends,” she explains. “Bob was at every stage show, always in the studio. He protected and advised me, saving me from many things.”
Like other hitmakers at Studio One, Bob Andy and Marcia Griffiths enjoyed their time there, despite being paid pittances, if they were paid at all. Moving over to producer Harry Johnson a.k.a. Harry J, Bob and Marcia continued recording as a duo, comparable to Motown’s Marvin Gaye and Tammi Terrell. Their reggae covers of Nina Simone’s “Young, Gifted and Black” and The Changin’ Times’ “Pied Piper,” released by Trojan Records in the U.K. (Trojan overdubbed the Jamaican recordings with strings and lush orchestral arrangements), spent 25 weeks on the British national charts between 1970 and 1971, peaking at Nos. 5 and 11, respectively, which significantly elevated reggae’s presence in the U.K. mainstream. Yet Bob and Marcia didn’t receive any financial returns. “We were signed to Trojan, but we recorded the songs for Harry J. When we asked Trojan ‘where are our royalties?’ they referred us to Harry J, and Harry J referred us back to Trojan. One day we were at Harry J’s studio, Harry had just bought a Mercedes Benz; jokingly, one of the artists asked Bob Andy, ‘brother Bob, is that your Benz?’ Bob answered, ‘well, my money buy it, but it’s not mine,’” Marcia shares with a sigh, “so we never got anything.” Bob and Marcia’s careers took separate paths as the 1970s progressed, but they reunited for performances over the ensuing years and remained close friends until Bob Andy’s death on March 27, 2020. Bob Andy will be singing alongside Griffiths, via a video appearance, at her 60th anniversary concert.
In 1973, Coxsone Dodd asked Griffiths and Rita Marley to provide harmonies alongside Judy Mowatt on a record by singer Horace Andy. Marcia had an upcoming three-night engagement in Kingston, and she invited Rita and Judy to sing backup; together they performed a few songs by The Sweet Inspirations, an American R&B vocal group. The audience’s overwhelming response to their vocal synchronizations convinced them to form a trio, which Griffiths named I-Three. “When I named the group, I said, ‘Let’s call ourselves I-Three.’ Rita said, ‘I-Three?’ And I said, ‘It’s like we three, but instead, I-Three because of the Rasta consciousness.’ A lot of people refer to us as the I-Threes, but it is really I-Three.”
Meanwhile, with the recent departure of Bunny Wailer and Peter Tosh from The Wailers, Bob Marley recruited the I-Three to provide harmonies, commencing with his Natty Dread album in 1974 and concluding with 1983’s posthumously issued Confrontation. However, it’s primarily Marcia’s supporting vocals that are heard on Marley’s Exodus (1977) and Kaya (1978), both recorded in London. In addition to their soaring, gospel-tinged voices, the I-Three’s regal attire and graceful choreography added a stunning visual element to Marley’s concerts. The trio toured the world with Marley until his final performance in Pittsburgh, Penn., on Sept. 23, 1980, just eight months before his passing on May 11, 1981.
Griffiths expresses profound gratitude for the life-changing insights she gained working with Marley, which impacted her approach to music making and, ultimately, her understanding of the music business. “Bob Marley was truly sent by the Almighty God. He was on a mission to get his messages out to the world. That’s when I realized your utterances in songs take on an energy that manifests,” Griffiths proclaims. “When I saw how seriously Bob took his music, I started to look deeply at the business part of the industry, which I had ignored. I realized the publishing for the biggest song I wrote, ‘Steppin’ Out of Babylon’ [from her acclaimed 1979 album Steppin’] was registered to someone else.” For many years Griffiths didn’t receive any royalties for “Electric Boogie,” which reached No. 51 on the Hot 100 and remains the best-selling single by a Jamaican female reggae artist. Bunny Wailer wrote the song, but the beat was created on a rhythm box Marcia purchased in Canada. “Bunny said he told the record company to give me 50% of the publishing because the music is mine, but he claimed 100%,” Griffiths says. “I have since reclaimed these songs, but I should have been capitalizing on them when they were really selling.”
Griffiths enjoyed the recent biopic Bob Marley: One Love, which spans the Dec. 3, 1976, assassination attempt on Marley’s life, his subsequent 14-month self-imposed exile period in England and his triumphant return to Jamaica, headlining the One Love Peace Concert on April 22, 1978. However, she had hoped to see a greater representation of “things that Bob did to teach, educate and unite us all, there were many other things that could have been shown.”
Griffiths was pleased with Jamaican vocalist Naomi Cowan’s portrayal of her in the film. Naomi says Jamaica’s long-reigning first lady of song continues to inspire the island’s young female vocalists. “When I started my reggae career, I pulled inspiration from Marcia, and covered her songs in my set,” Cowan explained. “Marcia has transitioned through many time periods and she’s still working. I can’t think of one female singer in our space who doesn’t see her as the prototype; she has cemented herself as a living legend.”
Griffiths’ storied association with Bob Marley has somewhat overshadowed her exceptional solo work throughout the 1970s. Her 1978 album Naturally is widely considered a masterpiece of Jamaica’s roots reggae golden era, with her flawlessly executed, poignant vocals supported by The Revolutionaries’ indelible reggae grooves and Sonia Pottinger’s sparkling production. Standout tracks include “Dreamland,” an idyllic interpretation of American group the El Tempos’ 1963 original “My Dream Island”; an R&B-tinged remake of Bob Andy’s rocksteady repatriation anthem “I’ve Got to Go Back Home”; and the album’s most striking cut, “Survival (Is the Game),” on which Griffiths compassionately imparts words of solace to women in abusive relationships. “The song’s lyrics [written by Brent Dowe of the Jamaican rocksteady trio The Melodians] say, ‘You push me ’round like I’m just a clown/you wanna see me suffer…but I’ll get on my feet again.’ I was really going through some changes and many sisters went through the same thing. I’ve seen men abuse women, whether verbal or physical, so that song is a tribute to my sisters, and they love it so much,” she shares.
Griffiths is one of the few artists of the pioneering reggae generation who made a successful transition into the computerized dancehall era. With the burgeoning digital technology of the 1990s, Penthouse Records owner/producer Donovan Germain reworked classic reggae riddims and paired her silky vocals with the period’s most popular deejays, including Tony Rebel (“Ready to Go”), Cutty Ranks (“Half Idiot”), Buju Banton (“Closer”) and singer Beres Hammond (“Live On”), in addition to Marcia’s solo recordings, such as the enchanting “Land of Love.”
Griffiths has also recorded with numerous Jamaican artists who’ve made their mark in the 21st century including singer Da’Ville (“All My Life”), Busy Signal (“Automatic (Keeping It Real)”) and sing-jay Queen Ifrica (“Round and Round”). Plus, Chronixx wrote Marcia’s 2018 single, “Queen of Paradise,” produced by Sly & Robbie. Griffiths’ multigenerational appeal is one of the most treasured aspects of her illustrious career — or as she calls it, her divine journey. “God has blessed me because since I started, there isn’t a year that I’m not busy traveling, performing and releasing songs,” says Griffiths, who is currently working on two albums. “I may not have gotten my financial rewards but to cut across age barriers and inspire 90% of the women in the business today brings a spiritual satisfaction that is priceless.”
DJ Cassidy and Marcia Griffiths at the Caribbean Music Awards on Aug 29, 2024.
Steve James
Dua Lipa performed a special one-off show at London’s historic Royal Albert Hall on Oct. 17, with the British-Albanian artist and her band joined by a 53-piece orchestra, 14 choristers and, most memorably, Sir Elton John for a performance of “Cold Heart,” the pair’s 2021 smash hit. And now, fans who didn’t get to attend will get to watch it from home.
The show was filmed for a TV concert program set to air later this year. Writing on her Instagram, Dua revealed that the concert will air on CBS in the U.S. and on ITV in the U.K., adding, “I wanted to remember this show forever so we captured it to share with you too”.
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An Evening with Dua Lipa — featuring performances of some of her greatest hits — is set to premiere Dec. 15, and is produced by Fulwell 73 Productions and Radical22. Executive producers for the special include Ben Winston and Sally Wood (Fulwell 73), and Dua Lipa, Dukagjin Lipa and Peter Abbott (Radical22). The concert was commissioned for ITV by Lily Wilson.
During the concert, Dua performed her 2024 album Radical Optimism in full with new arrangements provided by The Heritage Orchestra, conducted by Ben Foster. The show saw live debuts for songs such as “End of n Era” and “French Exit,” as well as singles “Houdini” and “Training Season.” Her entry to the Barbie soundtrack, “Dance Rhe Night,” also got its first live airing.
The setlist also contained performances of “Don’t Start Now” and “Levitating” from her 2020 album Future Nostalgia, and “Be The One” from her 2017 self-titled debut. In the show’s encore, Sir Elton John appeared to duet with Dua on “Cold Heart” to a rapturous response.
Alongside the performance, the show will also include interviews with Dua reflecting on her career and 2024 to date.
This past weekend, Dua performed with musical icon Cher at the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame ceremony in Cleveland, Ohio. The pair sang “Believe” on the night when Cher was inducted by actress Zendaya, who called her “so iconic, she only needs one name.”
Dua Lipa will head to Asia in November to continue her Radical Optimism tour before it hits the U.S. and Europe next summer.
See Dua Lipa’s announcement and the trailer for An Evening With Dua Lipa below:
Justin Timberlake rescheduled the next week of shows on his Forget Tomorrow World Tour on Tuesday (Oct. 22) after revealing to fans that he’s been battling a couple of nagging ailments. “Hey guys – I haven’t been feeling great the last few shows and turns out I have bronchitis and laryngitis,” the singer wrote on […]
Jason Kelce is setting the record straight after the internet teased him for supposedly taking a snooze during Taylor Swift‘s Eras Tour show in Miami, which the retired Philadelphia Eagles center attended sans Travis Kelce over the weekend.
On the latest episode of New Heights posted Wednesday (Oct. 23) — five days after Jason and his family caught the pop star’s first of three performances in Florida — the elder Kelce brother cleared his name when discussing a viral photo of him sitting down during the show, his eyes closed. “What is that all about?” Travis teased at first. “The show is absolutely electric. It’s the greatest show that’s ever been on stage, and you’re over here falling asleep?”
“Travis, you know I didn’t take a nap,” Jason responded, explaining that he’d actually been fully entranced by Swift’s music when the photo was taken. “I’m just sitting here, and I’m just, like, feeling it. I’m tapping my thigh, in the moment, listening to the song. Then, all of a sudden, I go on Twitter and I see this f–king picture. I’m like, ‘What the f–k! I’m not even sleeping!’”
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To further prove his point, the Monday Night Countdown anchor emphasized that the “Anti-Hero” singer’s concerts would have been nearly impossible to sleep through. “This Miami show was incredible,” he told Travis. “It was on another level. I texted you halfway through it like, ‘Dude, this rain. Tay is killing it.’”
“When Reputation came on and she came out in the new outfit and the rain was coming down, the place could’ve f–king erupted,” Jason continued. “I mean, it did. The amount of energy was insane.”
“I had all of the FOMO in the world with the entire family and a lot of our friends being there,” added Travis, who was busy helping the Kansas City Chiefs defeat the San Francisco 49ers over the weekend. “I had a lot of friends that were also down by the stage … they were saying the same thing that you’re saying, that the Miami stadium was just incredible. I wish I was there.”
As mentioned by the brothers, Swift’s shows at Hard Rock Stadium were indeed memorable. Her first and third performances were made more intense by heavy rain falling on the venue — “Shout out to Tay Tay for powering through a few rain shows there,” Travis gushed on the podcast — and fans went wild when the 14-time Grammy winner debuted a brand new Reputation outfit for the first time in the Eras trek’s nearly two-year run.
“I knew I was going to be savoring every moment up on that stage but the bewildering passion of those crowds really blew my mind,” Swift reflected of the shows on Instagram Oct. 22. “I got some new outfits, and it’s always nice when the crowd notices that 😁 You guys are just the best.”
Watch the Kelce brothers discuss Swift’s Miami Eras Tour shows above.