The singer will reunite with her Wicked co-star in a revival of the musical inspired by artist Georges Seurat in summer 2027
Wicked co-stars Ariana Grande and Jonathan Bailey are to reunite on stage in Stephen Sondheim’s Pulitzer prize-winning musical Sunday in the Park With George. The production, hotly rumoured and finally announced on Wednesday, will run at the Barbican Centre, London, in summer 2027.
Sunday in the Park With George, which has a book by Sondheim’s long-term collaborator James Lapine, is a tale of two artists. One is inspired by the pointillist Georges Seurat and the other is the character’s great-grandson. On Wednesday, Bailey and Grande shared a photo on Instagram of them sitting in front of the Seurat painting that inspired the production, A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte, which is on display in the Art Institute of Chicago.
In 1994 the singer and Brian Eno spent a day with ‘outsider’ artists. Intimate photographs, showing in Australia for the first time, reveal the effect it had
From the Thin White Duke to Ziggy Stardust, the Berlin recluse to the late-career elegist, David Bowie’s oeuvre is defined by reinvention. As an artist he was relentlessly attuned to the conditions that might provoke the next creative rupture. One defining moment, however, has largely slipped from the popular imagination: a day spent inside a psychiatric hospital on the outskirts of Vienna – one that would prove unexpectedly formative.
In September 1994, Bowie and Brian Eno – who had reunited to develop new music – accepted an invitation from the Austrian artist André Heller to visit the Maria Gugging psychiatric clinic. The site’s Haus der Künstler, established in 1981 as a communal home and studio, is known internationally as a centre for Art Brut – or “Outsider Art” – produced by residents, many living with schizophrenia and other psychiatric disorders.
The comeback, estimated to generate more than $1bn in revenue, will mark the K-pop boyband’s first full tour since before Covid-19 disrupted the live music industry worldwide, Shahana Yasmin reports
Grammy-nominated musician John Forté, celebrated for his work with the Fugees and Refugee Camp All-Stars, has died at the age of 50. He was found dead at his home in Chilmark, Massachusetts, on Monday afternoon, police confirmed.
Shazam has published its annual Fast Forward list, and an accompanying Apple Music playlist. The list takes a look ahead at some of the most exciting music artists who are being discovered through the song identification tool. 2026's list features more than 60 music artists who are poised to have a breakthrough year.
Here is how Apple describes this year's playlist:
Every day, Shazam gets millions of requests from users around the world who are curious about the artist behind a song. These requests come from all over-TikTok videos, car commercials, overhearing something in the wild-which makes it a powerful tool for predicting tomorrow's heavy hitters. For 2026, we've assembled a playlist featuring over 60 artists-based on Shazam data and reviewed by our editors-that are poised to have a breakthrough year. From K-pop group CORTIS to Alabama country crooner Kashus Culpepper to Irish rock band Florence Road, it's a remarkably diverse group of artists hailing from all corners of the globe. Have a listen and add the ones you love to your library before the world catches on.
Some well-known music artists, including Benson Boone, Ice Spice, and Ayra Starr, were featured in Shazam's previous Fast Forward lists.
Apple acquired Shazam in 2018, and the tool is deeply integrated across its platforms.
A murderous Clockwork-Orangey gang take on the zombies in this gruesome and energised fourquel. It’s the finest of the 28 franchise by a blood-curdling mile
It’s very rare for a fourquel to be the best film in a franchise, but that’s how things stand with the chequered 28 Days Later series. In this one, which follows immediately on from the previous episode, 28 Years Later, Ralph Fiennes and Jack O’Connell bring pure death-metal craziness. There is real energy and drama in this latest iteration of the post-apocalyptic zombie horror-thriller saga, created by director Danny Boyle and screenwriter Alex Garland back in 2003, with Nia DaCosta taking over directing duties for this film. Fiennes’s dance to Iron Maiden’s The Number of the Beast is basically one of the most extraordinary moments of his career. At the screening I attended, we were on our feet, looking for a speaker bin to headbang into. The band surely has to rerelease this track with Fiennes’s performance as a new official video. His Voldemort was never so freaky.
It is just so exhilarating to see this intergenerational face-off between such superb actors as Fiennes and O’Connell. That brings us to the point of my agnosticism about this whole franchise; Bone Temple is the best for an interesting reason – because the zombies are almost entirely irrelevant and are at a minimum. The always slightly dull business of zombieism is de-emphasised, and what counts is the conflict between sentient human beings. Even the one important zombie here is interesting because he is being transformed into something else.
Apple today announced that 2025 was a "record-breaking year" for many of its services, including the App Store, Apple Music, Apple TV, and Apple Podcasts.
"Apple services had a banner year, rolling out game-changing features for customers while shattering records," said Apple's services chief Eddy Cue, in a press release. "The numbers reflect the incredible enthusiasm of our customers, whether it's downloading an exciting new app or game, watching the hottest new show with family and friends, listening to their favorite songs, or shopping with peace of mind."
Here are some of the 2025 statistics shared in Apple's announcement:
App Store had over 850 million average weekly users across 175 countries and regions, and it set a new annual record for U.S. visitors.
App Store had a record number of visitors between Christmas Eve and New Year's Day.
Apple TV set a new record for monthly engagement in December, with total hours of content viewed on the streaming service up 36% on a year-over-year basis. This increase was driven by hits such as F1: The Movie and Pluribus.
Apple Music had its best year ever, breaking records for listenership and new subscribers.
Shazam generated over 1 billion recognitions per month.
Apple Pay is now available in 89 markets, and Apple says the payment service eliminated well over $1 billion in fraud globally.
Eddy Cue, vice-président des services d’Apple, qualifie 2025 d’année record pour l’écosystème de la marque. Dans un bilan, le dirigeant souligne une croissance marquée par une expansion mondiale et une innovation continue, allant des divertissements comme Apple TV et Apple Music aux outils du quotidien comme iCloud et Apple Pay. Des chiffres d’engagement inédits pour […]
Eddy Cue, vice-président des services d’Apple, qualifie 2025 d’année record pour l’écosystème de la marque. Dans un bilan, le dirigeant souligne une croissance marquée par une expansion mondiale et une innovation continue, allant des divertissements comme Apple TV et Apple Music aux outils du quotidien comme iCloud et Apple Pay. Des chiffres d’engagement inédits pour […]
From 46-minute jams to MTV video hits, here are the freedom-loving Dead guitarist and singer’s finest songs about ‘rainbows of sound’ and ‘enjoying the ride’
The Dead’s love for the road is in evidence on this segment from That’s It for the Other One, the four-part opening track of their second LP, Anthem of the Sun. A rare Bob Weir-penned lyric details the Dead’s youngest member being busted by the cops “for smiling on a cloudy day” – referencing a real-life incident when Weir pelted police with water balloons as they conducted what he took to be illegal searches outside the group’s Haight-Ashbury hangout. It then connects with the band’s spiritual forebears the Merry Pranksters by referencing Neal Cassady, driver of “a bus to never-ever land”. The song later evolved into The Other One, one of the Dead’s most played tunes and a launchpad for their exploratory jams – as in this languid, brilliant version at San Francisco’s Winterland in 1974.
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