On Friday, the Telegraph reported that RiRi might have scheduled a six-night residency at The London Stadium, starting on July 4 – five days after Glastonbury finishes. The residency is yet to be confirmed, but the Telegraph claims that a “senior concert industry source” says the shows are at an advanced planning stage.

The ‘Work’ hitmaker was thought to be headlining the Worthy Farm festival in 2023, only to have to pull out due to her pregnancy, being replaced by Guns N’ Roses. Speculation of her joining the Glastonbury 2025 lineup has been around since last year.

So far, Glastonbury has only confirmed one headliner for 2025, that being Neil Young. Rod Stewart has been confirmed for the Sunday afternoon ‘Legends Slot, and Nile Rodgers & Chic accidentally confirmed their booking at an awards show in November. Other rumoured performers include Noah Kahan, Sabrina Carpenter, Olivia Rodrigo, Stevie Wonder and Alanis Morissette.

It’s been nearly a decade since Rihanna last hit the road on her ‘ANTI’ tour in 2016, for her album of the same name. Her most recent public performance came in 2023 at the Super Bowl Halftime Show. Her last release was on ‘Lift Me Up’, a graceful ballad on the soundtrack for Black Panther: Wakanda Forever in 2022. Fans have been eagerly waiting for her rumoured ‘R9′ album for years – in a recent interview with Harper’s BAZAAR, she promised: “I’ve been in the studio the whole eight years. I know it’s not going to be anything that anybody expects. And it’s not going to be commercial or radio digestible… I feel like I’ve finally cracked it, girl!”

Nowadays, she’s been more active within the beauty industry, with her Fenty Beauty cosmetics company becoming a remarkable success. It’s said that her pivot into beauty products is largely responsible for her becoming a billionaire.

Rihanna launched Fenty Beauty in 2017, partnering with luxury goods company LVMH (Moët Hennessy Louis Vuitton). She’s said that the aim of Fenty was to appeal to “every type of women” with “all skin tones”. Fenty foundation is available in 50 different shades, and its success led to the so-called “Fenty effect”, where other cosmetic companies widened the range of shades in their make-up products.

Re-sale tickets for Glastonbury 2025 will go on sale in the spring. The first round of tickets sold out after only half an hour of going on sale in November. It’s been found that the festival’s profits have more than doubled since 2023. More details can be found on the official Glasto website here.

Donald Trump has been using songs like, You Can’t Always Get What You Want at his rallies since 2016, including using it at his recent rally in Tulsa. In 2016, The Rolling Stones spoke out about the campaigns use of their music at the Republican Convention.

View this post on Instagram

Just in case you missed it! #TogetherAtHome

A post shared by The Rolling Stones (@therollingstones) on Apr 20, 2020 at 10:26am PDT

Political rallies often include music to hype up the crowd. It is not necessary for the Trump campaign to gain permission from the artist as the arenas they are held in have Public Performance Licenses, which gives them the right to over 15 million musical works from the BMI’s collection.

The BMI have stepped in to assist the Rolling Stones in stopping the campaign from using their work. Speaking to Deadline, a spokesperson for BMI has said; “There is a provision, however, that allows BMI to exclude musical works from the license if a songwriter or publisher objects to its use by a campaign. BMI has received such an objection and sent a letter notifying the Trump campaign that the Rolling Stones’ works have been removed from the campaign license, and advising the campaign that any future use of these musical compositions will be in breach of its license agreement with BMI.”

Many other artists have spoken out about the Trump campaign’s use of their music, in order to make it clear that they do not support him and didn’t give permission for their music to be played. This list includes: Adele, George Harrison’s estate, Rihanna, Aerosmith, Queen and Panic! at the Disco. In 2015 Elton John asked for Donald Trump to stop using his song Rocketman, which was famously the inspiration for Trump’s nickname for North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un, as he didn’t feel comfortable with his music being used in American elections.

Dear Everyone Else,

Donald Trump represents nothing we stand for. The highest hope we have is voting this monster out in November.

Please do your part: https://t.co/JX8GynZduq

— Brendon Urie (@brendonurie) June 24, 2020

While these artists can ask for their music not to be used, unless Trump agrees or they can sort it out with him privately, there is no legal need for him to stop using their music.

Donald Trump has always had a lot of push back from celebrities. When you compare how many artists have performed for Obama over his presidency, Trump’s list is almost non-existent, especially with all of the artists who refused to perform at the inauguration ball such as Charlotte Church and Bruce Springsteen.

The band also recently played Citadel Festival on July 15, which caused outrage amongst fans after hundreds were left stranded in London after the event.

The tour will see the group hit up many of the UK and Ireland’s major cities, throughout February 2019. Proceedings kick off at London’s Alexandra Palace, before wrapping up at the Dublin Olympia two weeks later. The tour also sees a homecoming visit to their native Glasgow, at the SSE Hydro, on February 16.

Last month, Chvrches covered Rihanna’s ‘Stay’ for Spotify’s ongoing Singles series. The band have some history for this, having covered the Barbadian singer’s collaboration with superstar DJ Calvin Harris for Radio 1’s Live Lounge back in 2016.

07/02/2019- Alexandra Palace- London
09/02- O2 Academy- Birmingham
12/02- O2 Academy- Bournemouth
14/02- Victoria Warehouse- Manchester
16/02- The SSE Hydro- Glasgow
18/02- O2 Academy- Newcastle
19/02- Ulster Hall- Belfast
21/02- Olympia- Dublin

WPTV are reporting that Brown was booked into Palm Beach County jail, following a warrant for felony battery, issued by the Hillsborough County Sheriff’s Office. Brown has since been released after paying a $2000 (£1512) bond.

Following his release, Brown posted on Instagram, showing him performing onstage, simply captioned ‘what’s new?’  and featured the eye-rolling emoji. He has since continued his ‘Heartbreak On A Full Moon’ tour in neighbouring Tampa.

Brown has something of a chequered past with the law, first beginning in 2009 when he brutally assaulted then-girlfriend Rihanna at a pre-Grammys party. He was convicted and sentenced to community service following the incident.

In March 2018, Rihanna herself hit out at social media titan Snapchat, after they posted a poll encouraging users to choose to either ‘Slap Rihanna’ or ‘Punch Chris Brown’.Rihanna targeted Snapchat admins directly, for “[spending] money to animate something that would intentionally bring shame to domestic violence victims.” The Guardian reported after the controversy that Snapchat’s insensitivity towards domestic violence had wiped nearly $1 billion from the company’s overall value

Brown has also had alleged violent incidents with Drake, Frank Ocean, and ex-girlfriend Karrueche Tan, who in February 2017 was granted a five year restraining order against the singer, after claiming that he had threatened to kill her.

DAMN. by Kendrick Lamar. pic.twitter.com/ucQcg0PuzG

— Kendrick Lamar (@kendricklamar) April 11, 2017

Surprisingly, the features list for Damn is very sparse, featuring only two guest spots on the entire album. However, the names involved are big ones, with Kendrick calling in the services of both Rihanna, appearing on the track ‘Loyalty’ and stadium rock giants U2, who guest on the song ‘XXX’. You can read the full track list below.

‘Blood’
‘DNA’
‘Yah’
‘Element’
‘Feel’
‘Loyalty’ feat. Rihanna
‘Pride’
‘Humble’
‘Lust’
‘Love’
‘XXX’ feat. U2
‘Fear’
‘God’
‘Duckworth’

Fans have been eagerly anticipating news of K-Dot’s next project, after he dropped ‘The Heart part IV’ and an incendiary video for ‘Humble’ in recent weeks, with many speculating a lot about the subject of some of his lyrical jabs.

Lamar’s current iTunes page lists the release date of Damn to be April 14- this Friday. After the final lyric on ‘The Heart Part IV’, many had thought that the release would come on April 7, but this supposed deadline has already been missed.

Though usually interview-shy, Kendrick did describe Damn as “very urgent” in an interview with the New York Times at the beginning of March, expressing a desire to return to “addressing the problem”

“I think now, how wayward things have gone within the past few months, my focus is ultimately going back to my community and the other communities around the world where they’re doing the groundwork,” Lamar said in the interview.

“I’m in a space now where I’m not addressing the problem anymore. We’re in a time where we exclude one major component out of this whole thing called life: God. Nobody speaks on it because it’s almost in conflict with what’s going on in the world when you talk about politics and government and the system.”

This was the second weekend performance of Desert Trip, a classic rock festival organised by the same team behind Coachella, and taking place at the same location in Indio, California. The festival’s bill also featured musical royalty of the likes of Neil Young, The Rolling Stones, Pink Floyd’s Roger Waters, The Who and, and recent Nobel Prize winner Bob Dylan.

The age of the festival’s line-up has led to many renaming the festival ‘Oldchella,’ a sentiment recognised by Sir Paul himself, joking that “we finally found someone under the age of 50″ as the 28-year-old Rihanna made her way offstage.  Seeming to anticipate the older audience’s potential unfamiliarity with the song, McCartney also had the song’s lyrics emblazoned across the massive screen behind him, so that the audience could sing along.  Neil Young also joined the former Beatle onstage to perform a medley, including “A Day in The Life”, as well as John Lennon’s “Give Peace a Chance.”

McCartney’s headline performance at Desert Trip follows a surprise gig at Pappy & Harriet’s, a local venue close to the festival’s California site, on October 13. McCartney played an intimate set to just 300 fans, who rushed to get the tickets on a first come, first served basis. McCartney enthused about the gig on his Instagram page, as seen below.

We loved rocking at the Roadhouse! Small surprise gig in the desert (Pioneertown) #PaulMcCartney #OneOnOne #DesertTrip @pappyandharriets

A photo posted by Paul McCartney (@paulmccartney) on Oct 14, 2016 at 1:04am PDT

Ticket distributor Livenation released a statement saying:

Due to unforeseen changes with upcoming projects, The Weeknd will no longer be joining Rihanna on her upcoming international “Anti” World Tour.

Despite rappers Travi$ Scott and Big Sean also lending support to Rihanna’s anticipated world tour, it has not yet been confirmed whether or not a replacement for The Weeknd will be added to the bill. The Anti World Tour kicked off on Saturday 12th March in Jacksonville, Florida – and sadly for UK fans, The Weeknd’s departure applies to all of Rihanna’s dates when her tour hits the UK this summer. Full list below:

21/06 – Dublin, Ireland – Aviva Stadium

24/06 – London, England – Wembley Stadium

25/06 – Coventry, England – Ricoh Arena

27/06 – Glasgow, Scotland – Hampden Park

29/06 – Manchester, England – Emirates Old Trafford Stadium

Anti is the eighth studio album from Rihanna, released earlier this year on January 28th, with the album’s lead single Work debuting at number one on both the US digital songs chart and the R&B chart, and peaking at number four in the UK singles chart. Work, which features Drake, was Rihanna’s 27th top ten hit, tying her with Elton John, Mariah Carey and Janet Jackson as having the fifth most top ten singles.

The few days surrounding the delivery have seen a media flurry surely unparalleled by any event in recent memory. Every television network had a reporter camped outside the hospital, every newspaper flooded with the tiniest updates. Bookies nationwide exploded with punters hitching a flutter on the gender, the weight, the name. And indeed, music journalism is not, as one might have thought, an outlet free from discussion of the kids anticipated arrival, as musical figures throughout the land reacted via Twitter to the event.

Responses thus far have varied widely, showcasing the intriguing range of opinion among modern musicians as to the relevance of the Royals in modern society.

On the one end, there is Ellie Goulding, who performed at the Royal Wedding in 2011, who tweeted her heartfelt wishes to the couple, enthusing, ‘Congratulations to two of the loveliest people in the whole world on their baby boy. I am so happy for them.’, while Cheryl Cole echoed with a tweet stating her congratulations, and Rihanna, ever a master wordsmith, simply posted, ‘Kate Middleton’s Baby, Congratulations’.

There were some less-rosey reactions to the birth from the music industry, however, with Frankie Francis of indie outfit Frankie and the Heartstrings tweeting, ‘Well, I’m really looking forward to paying for this little guy to live a privileged life’ and a downright bizarre message from Palma Violets stating, ‘We must sacrifice him to the Lord of Light.’

Some more light-hearted remarks came from Professor Green, who hoped that ‘the royal baby is a rebel. Harry’s all alone out ‘ere’, ‘Can’t wait to see what type of scandals this one gets up to’, while Foals drummer Jack Bevan joked, ‘Breaking news, the royal baby has been named Kong.’