Elizabeth Aubrey

Janelle Monáe’s Castlefield Bowl extravaganza is sure to be a highlight of MIF19. Elizabeth Aubrey takes a look at what to expect for The Guardian's Guide to The Manchester International Festival.

Brooklyn-based dancer Reggie “Regg Roc” Gray never imagined that a street dance style he invented during his lunchtimes at school would go on to become a global craze. Used by Madonna, Beyoncé, Jay-Z and Nicki Minaj, to name a few, Gray’s “flexing” dance became a phenomenon thanks to the audacity of its moves – many of which look physically impossible – and its powerful political comment.

It’s one of the most extraordinary stories of Radiohead’s career. In early June, fans started talking about the theft of scores of the band’s private 1995-1998 recordings, many of which ended up on 1997’s classic ‘OK Computer’. Not only that, the thieves were demanding $150,000 for the recordings to be returned...

Coming 36 years after her self-titled debut, Madonna’s Madame X might just be one of the most exciting, baffling and bold albums of her career. Influenced by her life in Lisbon, London, New York and LA, Madame X is dizzying in its range of influences. There’s Latin pop, house, disco, reggaeton, trap, even classical snatches of Tchaikovsky. Many moments impress, mostly because of how much they surprise: Madonna, below, revels, as always, in being unpredictable...

Like her two previous Mercury-nominated albums, ‘The Book of Traps and Lessons’ sees Kate Tempest cast a critical eye over modern Britain, exploring the detrimental effects of our current political narrative and how, together with the isolation and anxiety that social media brings, we are a society broken...

Following on from her Jack White-endorsed eponymous debut in 2017, Mattiel returns with ‘Satis Factory’, a more experimental second offering. Putting “weird keyboards though amps,” as guitarist Jonah Swilley puts it, Mattiel Brown and band have modernised the sound of their ’60s rock’n’roll-indebted debut...

BTS-mania hit London on Saturday as the K-pop marvels performed the first of two sold-out Wembley Stadium gigs. Screams from the teenage BTS Army reverberated throughout in this no-expense-spared show. The septet nod to all the great boybands of yesteryear, yet their style transcends the past. Segueing pop, rap, EDM and hip-hop with ease, theirs is a genreless approach with mass appeal — even singing in their native language proves no barrier to fans who sang in Korean all evening. All seven m

The setting for Carly Rae Jepsen’s first headline London show in four years could hardly have been more intimate as she played the 800-capacity XOYO in Shoreditch last night. For her cult fan following, the opportunity to see Jepsen up close was as joyous as the reception she received on opener No Drug Like Me, taken from her recent fourth studio album, Dedicate. Her delivery was both understated and confident — a delicate balance that the former Canadian Idol star has perfected over the course

Ryan Bingham is just hours away from playing a sold-out, headline slot at London’s Union Chapel. “It’s certainly been a hell of a ride getting here,” he laughs, reflecting on how special the venue is to him: he says he feels “lucky” and “astounded” to be playing here. Bingham has won an Oscar, a Golden Globe and a Grammy for his song "The Weary Kind" from Crazy Heart and has had multiple, critically acclaimed albums: isn’t he used to playing such iconic venues by now? “I guess I’m still humbled...

The last episode of Game of Thrones has aired and reactions are coming in to what has proven a divisive final episode for many. Earlier in the evening, cast members were bidding farewell to the show on social media whilst fans around the world spent the hours leading up to the final anticipating what would happen. The result, for many viewers, proved an unexpected surprise and continued the mixed reactions to the final episodes of the long-running show which has so far seen over 1 million peop

What's so great about Britain?” slowthai snarls on the title track of his provocative debut. Via candid anecdotes and evocative storytelling, he explores the division and deprivation of Brexit Britain through a highly critical lens. The Northamptonian’s sound is uniquely ambiguous: not quite punk, rap or grime, he creates an idiosyncratic sound somewhere between Sleaford Mods, Skepta and the Sex Pistols. Over minimalistic strings and synths, his message and sound are dystopian, yet there are brief moments of hope and humanity too...

As statements of intent go, “Hell Song” is fierce and dives, Faustian like, into an immediate exploration of desire at odds with the protagonist’s faith. “That was just super, super, vulnerable sexually,” Collard tells me of the song, a track which explores sexual liberation whilst knotted with guilt. “I just wanted to hit people in the face, straight up, with what I was about...”

Jamie Lou Stenzel greets me enthusiastically in the boardroom of her record label, a lightbulb smile beaming ear-to-ear. At 16-years-old, Au/Ra , as Stenzel is known professionally, is one of the youngest on the label’s roster. We’re surrounded by images of global pop superstars who were signed at a similar age and with her debut single, "Concrete Jungle" receiving over 15 million streams globally, you can’t help but feel Au/Ra’s image will be up alongside the others soon...

When Bazil Meade MBE founded the London Community Gospel Choir (LCGC) with three other people in 1982, he had no idea how popular the choir would become – nor did he expect LCGC would one day be celebrating its 35th anniversary – especially after their original plan was for the choir to do just a single, one-off performance. Fast forward 35-years, and the choir has travelled far. They’ve graced the stage at The Brits, Glastonbury and The Grammy Awards...

Cinema’s fascination with pop music resulted in high-profile Oscar wins for A Star is Born and Bohemian Rhapsody earlier this year – and the fascination certainly shows no signs of slowing. More music biopics are expected – Rocketman is released later this month – and hitting screens today is another: Brady Corbet’s fascinating Vox Lux. A fictional story of popstar 'Celeste', few recent films have presented pop as much as a monster as this. Within weeks of surviving a school shooting, Celeste...

With a vocal style once described as “the voice of a saint trapped in a glass harp”, Dolores O’Riordan tore through boundaries for women in rock music in the 90s. News of her tragic death in January 2018 left the band with an unenviable quandary: should they go on and complete the final Cranberries album, which O’Riordan had worked on extensively, or leave their legacy well alone?

For many seasoned actors, a major role in a film or television series usually results in intense preparation, with work often spanning many weeks or even months. Yet for teenager Esmé Creed-Miles, preparation for her titular role in Amazon Video’s major new series, Hanna, was minimal: instinct, rather than rehearsal, drove her process.

Brighton rockers Black Honey are a band of dandy dreamers living the DIY dream on a shoestring – but the album they’re working on, with strings and horns and ‘Parisian noir’ inspiration – sees them reaching for the sky. As they play NME’s Girls To The Front, Elizabeth Aubrey meets them to hear how ADHD, Billie Eilish and a hatred of the pop world forged their sound and fuels their work. PICTURES: Chloe Hashemi Izzy Baxter-Phillips is shouting in the basement of London’s Shacklewell Arms, an hou

Actor Jessie Buckley wasn’t a country fan before Wild Rose, the film in which she plays 23-year-old Rose-Lynn, a Glaswegian single mum with a dream of being Nashville’s next big country star...

After 27 years and six No 1 albums, you don’t necessarily expect dance duo The Chemical Brothers to shake things up. Nevertheless, their ninth record sounds like a reconnection with clubland as they dispense with the big-name vocalists and focus on momentous beats and a new-found manic energy. Pummelling tunes like Free Yourself, Got to Keep On, and MAH (Mad as Hell) were road-tested at Alexandra Palace last year and seem primed to become live fixtures. While there are fruitful collaborations w