Music

The iconic song, often adorned as the 'epitome of Britishness' has set a new chart record. It has continuously been in the UK's top 100 for an impressive 260 weeks - or a full 5 years.

Despite being 18 years old, the song is streamed an average of 1.2 million times a week. Since it's first release in 2003, it has sold 3.52 million copies. It also features on 20,200 individual Spotify playlists.

The successful South Korean supergroup BTS has openly spoken out against racism towards people of Asian descent.

On their official Twitter they stated that "What is happening right now cannot be dissociated from our identity as Asians. It required considerable time for us to discuss this carefully and we contemplated deeply on how we should voice our message.

But what our voice must convey is clear.

We stand against racial discrimination:

We condemn violence.

You, I and we all have the right to be respected. We will stand together."

The 63rd annual Grammy Awards aired on Sunday, hosted by Trevor Noah. Billie Eilish's "Everything I Wanted" took home Record of The Year while Taylor Swift's "Folklore" won Album of The Year.

Other winners were: Megan Thee Stallion (Best New Artist), “I Can’t Breathe” by Dernst Emile II, HER & Tiara Thomas (Song of the Year), “Watermelon Sugar” by Harry Styles (Best Pop Solo Performance), “Black Parade” by Beyoncé (Best R&B Performance) and Dua Lipa (Best Pop Vocal Album).

Audio streaming application Spotify is rolling out a new feature that will let users filter their liked songs by mood and genre. The feature will be introduced only in its mobile apps, with no desktop version at this stage.

These filters will change as users like new songs. For now, the feature will only be rolling out to English-speaking markets, including the US, Canada, and the UK. It will be rolled out over the coming weeks to Free and Premium listeners on Android and IOS devices.

Daft Punk has announced their end - with a YouTube video they released on Monday afternoon, appropriately titled "Epilogue". Featuring footage from their film "Electroma", the electronic duo are saying goodbye to their fans after 28 years. When asked by the music website Pitchfork, the musicians' long-time press agent confirmed the news but did not give any reasons for the split.

The Netherlands is planning test events to determine whether live events with audiences can be held safely. The test also includes two outdoor festivals.

Data and information on the risk of contamination at large events will also be collected. The events include soccer matches, a cabaret show and a conference, as well as two outdoor festivals.

Each of the festivals will feature 1500 visitors, who will have to show a negative Corona test beforehand. At the entrance, body temperature will be measured and a portion of the ravers will be randomly subjected to a Corona quick test.

Everyone will also receive a lanyard with a special tag that will make it possible to record contacts with others and their duration. Apart from that and the pre-festival procedure, as well as the use of mouth-nose protection, the festival is supposed to proceed like a "normal" festival. On the site you can move freely and there are several stages.

Defqon.1 has to pause for another year. After the World Club Dome Winter Edition, the Ultra Miami and the Coachella 2021 Corona had to be canceled due to Covdid-19, now the first Dutch major event follows suit. The Defqon.1 Festival in Biddinghuizen has been affected.

The gigantic festival, which annually attracts hardstyle fans from all over the world, was planned for June 25-27 and was to take place under the motto "Primal Energy".

As a study from London's Imperial College revealed that Covid-19 cases in England are "not falling," despite a third lockdown, the Glastonbury music festival has been cancelled once again, festival organizers announced on Thursday.

2021 will mark the second summer in a row where the international festival was not held after the 2020 event was cancelled last March.

"In spite of our efforts to move Heaven & Earth, it has become clear that we simply will not be able to make the Festival happen this year," organizers Michael and Emily Eavis said in a joint statement on Thursday.

Glastonbury has been headlined by a glittering array of British and global stars since its first date in 1970, including David Bowie, the Rolling Stones, Oasis, U2 and Beyoncé.

Spector, who transformed pop with his "wall of sound" recordings, worked with the Beatles, the Righteous Brothers and Ike and Tina Turner. "California Health Care Facility inmate Phillip Spector was pronounced deceased of natural causes at 6:35 p.m. on Saturday, January 16, 2021, at an outside hospital. In February 2003, actress Lana Clarkson was found dead at his house in Alhambra, California with a bullet wound to her head.

The 2021 Grammy Awards, initially scheduled for January 31, have been postponed until March due to a steady rise of Covid-19 infections in California.

"The deteriorating COVID situation in Los Angeles, with hospital services being overwhelmed, ICUs having reached capacity, and new guidance from state and local governments have all led us to conclude that postponing our show was the right thing to do," so the Recording Academy and CBS in a statement. "Nothing is more important than the health and safety of those in our music community and the hundreds of people who work tirelessly on producing the show. We want to thank all of the talented artists, the staff, our vendors and especially this year’s nominees for their understanding, patience and willingness to work with us as we navigate these unprecedented times."

ROLLING STONE magazine's Top 10 of the year 2020 are:

01. Bob Dylan: Rough and Rowdy Ways

02. Fiona Apple: Fetch The Bolt Cutters

03. Phoebe Bridgers: Punisher

04. Laura Marling: Song For Our Daughter

05. Taylor Swift: Folklore

06. Bill Callahan: Gold Record

07. Haim: Women In Music, Pt. III

08. Run The Jewels: RTJ4

09. Sault: "Untitled (Rise)"

10. Adrianne Lenker: Songs

With the global Covid-19 pandemic leading to the cancellation of the summer and winter editions of the Tomorrowland festival, the organziers host a digital edition of the festival on New Years Eve with a paid livestream for fans. Over than 25 world-class can be seen on digital stages playing various genres of electronic music.

According to JA Bayona, who is directing the new Amazon-exclusive series playing in the Lord of the Rings universe, the production has wrapped up filming in New Zealand. He posted on Instagram that "this is my last photo in New Zealand" but added that his "heart feels a little kiwi no" and that he "can't wait to be back" while also thanking "this extraordinary land and its beautiful people for taking me in".

There is no release date for the series as of yet.

After a surprise announcement on Thursday, Taylor Swift has released her second studio album in 2020 called "Evermore".

"We just couldn't stop writing songs," Swift explains the quick succession in a posting on Instagram. The escapism of her last album had done her so much good that she wanted to continue writing stories about dream landscapes and tragedies, as she did with "Folklore" together with Aaron Dessner from the indie band The National.

Bob Dylan has sold his entire catalogue of music, which encompasses over 600 songs, to Universal Music Publishing Group in the biggest music publishing deal in decades. Financial terms have not been disclosed, but the New York Times estimates that it was worth more than $300 million.

A collection of Bob Dylan documents have sold at an auction for $495,000. The collection previously belonged to late American blues musician Tony Glover and included unpublished lyrics written by the singer and letters between Glover and Dylan.

The US rock band Guns N' Roses plans to perform in a stadium tour in a year's time. In May, the group around the founding members Axl Rose, Slash and Duff McKagan had to cancel their European tour planned for early summer 2020 at short notice. Now they have announced a statium tour for Australia and New Zealand in November 2021. Tickets go on presale on November 23rd.

In a tweet, the musician The Weeknd has announced that he'll perform at the 2021 Super Bowl Half Time show. The date for the 2021 Super Bowl is set to the 7th of February 2021.

Kanye West, a candidate for the presidency of the United States in the current elections, admitted defeat through social networks, last night. However, he has already launched a campaign for the election in 2024

The German Federal Fiscal Court (BFH) has ruled in favour of clubs. The availability of the reduced tax rate bonus does not depend on whether instrumentalists or singers are on stage, but rather on whether the music represents the actual purpose of the event from the perspective of an "average visitor". If so, turntables, mixing desks and CD players can also be regarded as instruments, at least if they are "used to perform the piece of music and not just to play a sound carrier".

The singer of the band The Wanted, Tom Parker, age 32, has announced on his Instagram that he has been diagnosed with an inoperable brain tumor.

He stated that "There’s no easy way to say this but I’ve sadly been diagnosed with a Brain Tumour and I’m already undergoing treatment". In an interview, he said that he has started radiotherapy and chemotherapy treatment to prolong his life.

Eddie Van Halen, virtuoso guitarist and co-founder of the popular rock band Van Halen, has died Tuesday at the age of 65. The musician had been undergoing treatment for throat cancer.

Celebrity news website TMZ, which first broke the news of his death, said Van Halen died at St Johns Hospital in Santa Monica on Tuesday surrounded by his family.

Eddie's son, Wolfgang, wrote on Twitter: "I can’t believe I’m having to write this, but my father, Edward Lodewijk Van Halen, has lost his long and arduous battle with cancer this morning."

Spotify has implemented a new feature for iOS and Android phones. Users can now search for song lyrics and Spotify will automatically show the matching songs. The new feature is called "Lyrics match" and according to Spotify designer Lin Wang has been shipped to the phones already.

Famous Indian singer SP Balasubrahmanyam died on Friday after being in intensive care following a Coronavirus infection. He was 74.

Balasubrahmanyam recorded over 40,000 songs in his 50-year-long career, for which he held a Guinness world record. He later become the singing voice for Bollywood superstars.

Epic Games has announced that the choreopgraphy video for the single "Dynamite" by the K-pop group BTS will be first shown in the online game Fortnite.

On September 25th players will be able to see the video ingfame on Fortnite’s party royale island. In addition, two new ingame emotes that were "choreographed by BTS" will go on sale starting September 23rd.

The US musician Lady Gaga won a total of five awards at the MTV Video Music Awards in her hometown New York on Monday night. For her Artist*of the Year win she received a special Tricon Award to honor her commitment as an activist as well as her artistic work.

Jack Sherman has died on August 20 at the age of 64. His cause of death has not been disclosed as of yet.

"We of the RHCP family would like to wish Jack Sherman smooth sailing into the worlds beyond, for he has passed. Jack played on our debut album as well as our first tour of the USA. He was a unique dude and we thank him for all times good, bad and in between. Peace on the boogie platform," the band said in a post to Instagram.

Sherman was the guitarist of the Red Hot Chili Peppers from 1983 to 1984 and co-wrote much of the band's second album "Freaky Styley".

According to Marc Geiger, one of the founders of the renowned music and art festival Lollapalooza, has stated in the Bob Lefsetz Podcast that he believes festivals and concerts will return "late 21, more likely 22".

He added that "super-spreader events" such as a music festival would not be a good idea during the Covid-19 pandemic as "the world has a very long, forced timeout".

Lollapalooza has announced to host an online festival as a replacement for the cancelled version this year.

Neil Young has filed a claim in US federal court in the Southern District of New York against Donald Trump for copyright infringement over the use of his music at Trump's campaign rallies, which the artist refers to as a "campaign of ignorance and hate". The lawsuit further names two songs specifically: "Rockin' In The Free World" and "Devil's Sidewalk" that both have been used "numerous times at rallies and political events for the entertainment and amusement of those attending those rallies and political events."

"This complaint is not intended to disrespect the rights and opinions of American citizens, who are free to support the candidate of their choosing. However, [Young] in good conscience cannot allow his music to be used as a ‘theme song’ for a divisive, un-American campaign of ignorance and hate," so the complaint.

Peter Green has died "peacefully in his sleep" at age 73. Green, who was an English blues rock singer-songwriter and guitarist, co-founded Fleetwood Mac with drummer Mick Fleetwood in 1967. He left the band four years later, though Mick Fleetwood told the Associated Press in 2017, that Green deserved the "lion’s share of the credit for the band’s success."