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Music

<p>Pro-Palestine protesters march outside the arena in Basel, Switzerland, at Eurovision 2025</p>

Comment

As Israel is set to compete, Eurovision’s future hangs in the balance

The European Broadcasting Union will allow Israel to compete at next year’s contest, a decision that has prompted four countries to boycott the event. Roisin O’Connor asks whether Eurovision can ever get back to the joyful celebration it once was

<p>Music and moral agency are inseparable for Aurora</p>

Interview

Aurora: ‘We’re more scared of activists than the world dying or war’

<p>Faith will move mountains – and music charts, apparently</p>

state of the arts

The Vatican gives Rosalía its blessing – is papal finger-wagging over?

<p>Jimmy Cliff, who has died aged 81, pictured in Tokyo, Japan in March 1978</p>

Tribute

Jimmy Cliff was so much more than the sweetest voice in reggae

Interviews

<p>Celeste: ‘You don’t really have much of a choice not to give all of yourself to your music and to your performance’</p>

Interview

Celeste: ‘It can be exhausting, fighting for yourself to be heard’

<p>Luke Hemmings, Michael Clifford, Calum Hood and Ashton Irwin: a boyband all grown up </p>

Interview

5SOS: ‘The boyband label was emasculating. How could we grow up?’

<p>Jon Bon Jovi: ‘I’m only half-joking when I say, lemme just get my feet wet’</p>

Interview

Jon Bon Jovi: ‘There have been days where I thought I was done’

<p>Mike Joyce: “What would I have said to Morrissey? ‘How are you doing?’”</p>

Interview

The Smiths’ Mike Joyce: ‘I’m not on Morrissey’s Christmas card list’

Roisin O’Connor’s Good Vibrations podcast

Ella Eyre is a guest on Roisin O'Connor's Good Vibrations podcast

Ella Eyre: ‘I’ve had to unlearn what I was shown early in my career’

Bon Jovi

Jon Bon Jovi: ‘There have been days where I thought I was done’

Zara Larsson is the latest guest on Roisin O'Connor's Good Vibrations podcast

Zara Larsson ‘didn’t expect’ reaction to support slot for Tate McRae

Roisin O'Connor's Good Vibrations with Bret McKenzie

Bret McKenzie reveals Ian McKellen got up to mischief on The Hobbit

Latest features

<p>The arena fills with their harmonies, each aspect of every song a crucial element in the band’s equilibrium</p>

Radiohead’s music makes feeling alienated feel less alienating

<p>Parton is a country music trailblazer, business genius and, to many, fairy godmother</p>

the reading list

Star of the Show: Is Dolly Parton having the final say on her career?

<p>Bad Bunny, pictured at the New York premiere of 'Caught Stealing' in August 2025, has made Grammy history with a string of nominations for his latest Spanish-language album</p>

In Focus

After his Grammys triumph, a look at Bad Bunny’s unstoppable rise

<p>Joan Baez has composed an acerbic new poem titled ‘Cranberry Sauce’ </p>

Poetry

Joan Baez ponders lifelong pacifism in Trump-inspired poem

<p>Everything but the kitchen sink: Lily Allen is unsparing in the way she unpacks the highs and lows of her life in her music</p>

Comment

Lily Allen’s West End Girl is a perfect exercise in unsparing honesty

<p>‘I ain’t dead yet’: Dolly Parton eases concern over her health in social media video</p>

state of the arts

Dolly Parton’s health scare was a spectacle that we should learn from

<p>Joan Baez has composed an acerbic new poem titled ‘Cranberry Sauce’ </p>

Poetry

Joan Baez ponders lifelong pacifism in Trump-inspired poem

<p>Everything but the kitchen sink: Lily Allen is unsparing in the way she unpacks the highs and lows of her life in her music</p>

Comment

Lily Allen’s West End Girl is a perfect exercise in unsparing honesty

<p>‘I ain’t dead yet’: Dolly Parton eases concern over her health in social media video</p>

state of the arts

Dolly Parton’s health scare was a spectacle that we should learn from

New Sensations

<p>Stephen Wilson Jr: ‘I spent four years making this record about my deceased father, and I went through hell doing it, so it’s really profound for me to see the effect it’s had on people’</p>

Interview

Country music newcomer Stephen Wilson Jr on grief, loss and redemption

<p>‘Everybody has a very similar social media personality and when I joined social media for the first time it was very obvious to me,’ remarks Sofia Isella</p>

Interview

Singer-songwriter Sofia Isella: ‘I got called demonic the other day’

<p>Star power: ‘Justin Bieber called me the other day to tell me that he is so grateful to know me, like saying, ‘I’m so proud of you’</p>

Interview

Jensen McRae: ‘Justin Bieber is like a big brother to me’

<p>Samia: ‘What I’m reaching for is self-certainty’</p>

Interview

Singer-songwriter Samia: ‘It’s easier to be an idea than a person’

Music Box

<p></p>

Samantha Crain is mesmerising in Music Box performance of ‘Gumshoe’

Watch Sam Ryder’s brilliant pared-back performance of single ‘OH OK’

<p>Annie DiRusso performs during a Music Box session</p>

Watch rising star Annie DiRusso’s electrifying pared-back session

Reviews

<p>Celeste</p>

Celeste offers raw declarations of selfhood on Woman of Faces

<p>Orchestral grandeur: Rosalia reaches new heights with her ambitious fourth album</p>

Rosalía’s Lux is a masterpiece ruminating on sainthood and longing

Live music

<p>Lorde has always zig-zagged between self-reflective, seen-it-all gloom and a primal, perma-adolescent urge to freak out and dance</p>

Lorde’s O2 gig had energy, cringe and teens pining for Melodrama cuts

<p>Thom Yorke performs during the first night of Radiohead’s 2025 tour in Madrid, Spain, Tuesday 4 November</p>

In Madrid, Radiohead deliver a transcendent return to live shows

<p>Ethel Cain performing at London’s Eventim Apollo</p>

Ethel Cain at London’s Apollo was an evening of doom-laden anti-pop

<p>Lady Gaga performs during her Mayhem Ball tour at the O2 Arena in London</p>

Lady Gaga’s Mayhem Ball is the concert of the year

<p>Liam and Noel Gallagher hug during a Wembley Stadium show for the Oasis reunion tour</p>

Oasis summon a euphoric and almost sad last hurrah at Wembley Stadium

<p>Get Your Brits Out: Kneecap are a cause as much as they are a wild night out</p>

Kneecap triple down on Starmer and Palestine at pounding Wembley show

Retrospectives

<p>Bruce Springsteen photographed for the release of his album 'Nebraska' in 1982</p>

Tragic history behind dark Springsteen album that inspired new biopic

<p>Bob Dylan followed reports on the case of Hattie Carroll, who died after being attacked by farm owner William Zantzinger</p>

The story behind Bob Dylan’s ‘The Lonesome Death of Hattie Carroll’

<p>Back-to-back: Bruce Springsteen insisted that his longtime bandmate and friend, Clarence Clemons, be included in the shot</p>

Bruce Springsteen’s Born to Run cover could’ve looked very different

<p>Mirror image: Grapefruit were another Fab Four on the Sixties scene</p>

The strange story behind one of John Lennon’s favourite bands

News