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How Nicki Minaj went from Queen of Rap to Trump cheerleader

Once the unassailable ‘Queen of Rap,’ Nicki Minaj has grown increasingly estranged from the music industry — and embraced by conservatives — culminating in a public show of support for Donald Trump that stunned fans. Carsen Holaday traces the controversies, feuds and fan backlash that reshaped her career

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‘I’m loving this era I’ve been thrust into’: Denise Welch on depression, daytime TV and her dramatic renaissance

She’s gone from ‘queen of the soaps’ to Loose Woman known for her outspoken opinions and rockstar son Matty Healy. Now sober, she is enjoying another reinvention

Denise Welch doesn’t seem the kind of woman who would turn up with an entourage. But here she is having her hair primped in a makeshift changing room by two people. One tickling her fringe, the other tweaking her tufts. Blimey, I say, have you got two assistants? She grins. “No. There are three.” And now it turns out she’s got a fourth. I offer to make her a cup of coffee. She warns me she’s fussy. “Three teaspoons of Coffee-Mate, please.”

Welch is having a moment. She calls it, with a fabulously camp flourish, her renaissance. The actor and Loose Women regular has hardly been invisible in recent years. But this is on another level. For most of the 2000s, she has been best known for dishing out blithe opinions about anything and everything, and being the mother of the 1975’s frontman, Matty Healy. Now, though, it’s the acting that’s getting the attention. Earlier this month, she returned to the drama series Waterloo Road as the hopeless French teacher Steph Haydock after a 15‑year absence. This time around, she’s a supply teacher and is even more hopeless. Welch has also got parts in the new Russell T Davies drama series Tip Toe, the Josh Pugh sitcom Stepping Up, both on Channel 4, and the adaptation of Graham Norton’s novel Forever Home.

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© Photograph: David Titlow/The Guardian

© Photograph: David Titlow/The Guardian

© Photograph: David Titlow/The Guardian

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Ed Sheeran review: pyrotechnics and technical hiccups in an ambitious, looping one-man show

Optus Stadium, Perth

Premiering his new Loop tour in Australia, the crowd-pleasing British singer-songwriter navigates a few teething issues in an otherwise assured stadium outing

Before Ed Sheeran sets foot on stage, his origin story is already rolling. A pre-recorded video looms across the giant screen, as he narrates his own ascent: “I just pushed and pushed. I was so focused on seeing how far I could take being an acoustic singer-songwriter from Suffolk.”

Then the screen cuts. A hidden platform rises from the centre of the audience and Sheeran appears, charging into his 2011 track You Need Me, I Don’t Need You.

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© Photograph: Mark Surridge/Frontier Touring

© Photograph: Mark Surridge/Frontier Touring

© Photograph: Mark Surridge/Frontier Touring

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