Main image: Gym’ll fix it … Olivia Newton-John and friends get Physical. Photograph: Sipa/Rex/Shutterstock 20. Heaven 17 (We Don’t Need This) Fascist Groove Thang (1981) A nervy BBC banned the Human League splinter group’s funky debut single for pot...
On a neon-lit jetty overlooking the River Nile, a young Tanzanian DJ called Sisso is playing a bracing barrage of blips, bells and breakneck beats that could blast apart a heart-rate monitor. We are at Nyege Nyege, a pan-African festival in Uganda t...
A TV network in Japan has cancelled an appearance by the popular K-pop band BTS, after a photo emerged of one of its members wearing a T-shirt that appeared to celebrate the atomic bombing of Hiroshima. The seven-member boy band, who have built a hu...
Pharrell Williams has ordered Donald Trump to stop playing his music at rallies, after his upbeat song Happy was played at a Trump event in Indiana just hours after a mass shooting at a Pittsburgh synagogue. “Pharrell has not, and will not, grant yo...
Johnny Hallyday, the leather-trousered “French Elvis” who died last year, didn’t believe in resurrection. But from beyond the grave, the musician has managed to miraculously restore life to a dying record and CD industry. Almost a year after hundred...
Emmanuel Macron has visited a nightclub founded by legendary Nigerian Afrobeat star Fela Kuti, which has a reputation as a hedonistic haven filled with frenetic music, scantily clad dancers and the smell of marijuana. The French president arrived at...
The funeral of the Swedish DJ and music producer Avicii, one of the biggest stars in electronic dance music, took place in a private ceremony in Stockholm last week, his publicist has said. The musician, whose real name was Tim Bergling, “was buried...
Kanye West has said that 400 years of slavery is “a choice” in a TMZ interview that resulted in a confrontation. The rapper, who has been tweeting out support for Donald Trump in recent weeks, was talking about the president, free thinking and labe...
South Korea has said it will send K-pop singers to perform in North Korea for the first time in more than a decade. More than 150 artists, including K-pop stars, are to visit Pyongyang from 31 March, Seoul said on Tuesday, in what will be a reciproc...
The singer Bono has apologised after claims were made that workers at a charity he co-founded were subjected to a culture of bullying and abuse. The U2 singer, 57, said he was left furious after the allegations surfaced in November last year. He adm...
Missy Elliott, Sean “Diddy” Combs and Snoop Dogg are among stars urging fans to “pray” for the rapper Rick Ross, who has reportedly been hospitalised. According to reports from outlets including TMZ and People magazine, Ross, 42, was found “unrespon...