RAYE Announces Biggest-Ever Show at London’s All Points East Festival

RAYE has announced her largest-ever concert at London’s All Points East Festival next summer. The genre-spanning musician will headline the 50,000-capacity Victoria Park on Aug. 23, 2025 and joins The Maccabees and Barry Can’t Swim as headliners for the annual music event.

Writing on her Instagram Stories, RAYE said: “We are going to be bringing you a beautiful show full of passion and incredible musicians to Victoria Park. I’m going to work hard to make it the most beautiful show we are capable of.”

Tickets for the event go on general sale Friday (Nov. 15) at 10 a.m. GMT via the festival’s official website. A full lineup for the event will be announced soon.

It’s the latest announcement for what’s shaping up to be another massive summer of live music in the capital. Breakout dance star Barry Can’t Swim was recently announced to headline All Points East on Aug. 22, while indie heroes The Maccabees shared that they would be reuniting for their first show in 8 years on Aug. 24 as part of the festival’s programme.

Elsewhere, BST Hyde Park, which takes place in June and July, has announced headliners including Olivia Rodrigo, Zach Bryan, Noah Kahan and Jeff Lynne’s ELO. 

The announcement follows news last week that RAYE had been nominated in three Grammys categories – best new artist; songwriter, non-classical; engineered album, non-classical. The singer-songwriter, who fuses elements of pop, jazz, R&B and more, independently released her debut album My 21st Century Blues in 2023 following a protracted production while signed to Polydor Records. 

Her song “Escapism” charted at No.1 on the U.K. Official Singles Chart in 2022 and peaked at No.22 on the Billboard Hot 100. Earlier this year, RAYE won in isx categories at the 2024 BRIT Awards, a new record for an artist on a single night.

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Paul Weller, Kneecap, Primal Scream and More to Play Palestine Fundraiser Gig in London

Paul Weller, Kneecap, Primal Scream, and Liam Bailey will be among the performers at a benefit event in support of humanitarian charities in Palestine at London’s O2 Academy Brixton on Dec. 13. 

The show curated by Weller, which is titled Gig For Gaza, will also feature guest speakers and short films. All proceeds from the night will go to MAP (Medical Aid For Palestine) and Gaza Forever. Tickets will be available on Friday (Nov. 15) at 9 a.m. GMT via Ticketmaster. The official artwork was designed by Robert Del Naja of Massive Attack.

During recent performances, Weller discussed the ongoing conflict between Israel and Hamas. Speaking on stage at a gig in Glasgow, Scotland last month, the songwriter explained that he didn’t want to subject audience members to “a political rant,” but felt as though it was important to speak his mind.

“I would like to dedicate that last song to all the tens of thousands of women, children, babies, men, civilians in Palestine and Gaza,” Weller told the crowd at the city’s Barrowlands venue. “I would ask you one question. It’s really simple. There is no grey area. Are you for genocide, or are you against it? It’s a f–-king yes or no question…”

The war was sparked by the Oct. 7, 2023 attacks, during which more than 1,200 Israeli civilians were killed by Hamas fighters who also took more than 250 hostages. In the year that has followed, Israeli forces have reportedly killed more than 42,000 Palestinians according to Palestinian authorities, as well as launching recent airstrikes in Iran and Lebanon.

Having previously fronted and supported left-wing movements (including organizing the pro-Labour party Red Wedge collective in the 1980s), Weller has a storied history of activism. He recently wrapped up a headline tour across the U.K. in support of his latest LP 66, which reached No.4 in the Official U.K. Albums Chart in June.

Irish rappers Kneecap, meanwhile, unveiled their debut album Fine Art earlier this year, which was supported by the release of their eponymous biopic starring the trio themselves alongside actor Michael Fassbender. Following Gig For Gaza, they will play their biggest headline show to date at Belfast’s 11,000-capacity SSE Arena on Dec. 21.

In March, Kneecap withdrew from performing at this year’s SXSW Festival in Austin, Texas, after it was revealed that the U.S. Army was a “super sponsor” of the event as well as defense contractor RTX Corporation. “It is done in solidarity with the people of Palestine and to highlight the unacceptable deep links the festival has to weapons companies,” the group explained of their decision via Instagram. “This will have a significant financial impact on Kneecap… but it isn’t an iota of hardship when compared with the suffering being inflicted on the people of Gaza.”

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Ella Jenkins, ‘The First Lady of Children’s Folk Song,’ Dies at 100

Ella Louise Jenkins, celebrated as the “First Lady of the Children’s Folk Song,” passed away on Nov. 9 at the age of 100.

A visionary in children’s music, Jenkins revolutionized the genre, introducing young audiences to a wealth of global musical traditions and promoting inclusivity through her songs.

Jenkins, born on August 6, 1924, in St. Louis and raised on Chicago’s South Side, grew up immersed in the sounds of blues, gospel, and local singing games that would inspire her groundbreaking work in children’s music.

Introduced to the harmonica and blues by her uncle and captivated by gospel music from neighborhood churches and performances by artists like Cab Calloway, Jenkins developed a passion for diverse musical expressions early on.

Speaking of her early love for music to Smithsonian Mag in 2012, Jenkins said: “I’ve always liked music. Even when I was a child in our neighborhood, we sang and made up rhymes. It was very important to be able to carry a tune and to learn songs.”

“In the neighborhood I grew up in [in Chicago] there was the Regal Theater, which had live entertainment. There were singers and tap dancers — tap dancing really intrigued me. Pretty soon I asked my mother if I could go to one of the centers and learn how to tap dance,” she said, adding that she enjoyed listening to the popular singers of the day.

In the early 1950s, Jenkins started as a YWCA program director before dedicating herself fully to music for young audiences. Her 1957 debut album, Call-And-Response: Rhythmic Group Singing, released through Folkways Records, featured call-and-response chants from the United States and Africa, specially adapted for young children.

Throughout her career, Jenkins released 39 albums, including Multicultural Children’s Songs (1995), which remains the most popular release in the history of Smithsonian Folkways Recordings. She performed across all seven continents, sharing and learning about various musical cultures.

Jenkins introduced children to diverse rhythms and languages through songs like “You’ll Sing a Song and I’ll Sing a Song,” now preserved in the Library of Congress’s National Recording Registry. Her approach exemplified a gentle, inclusive way to address subjects like self-worth and acceptance.

Her televised appearances, including on Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood, Barney & Friends and Sesame Street extended her reach to millions of children and families. In 2004, Jenkins received a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award.

Jenkins’s influence extended beyond her Grammy nominations and record-breaking sales; she inspired generations of educators, musicians, and families to embrace diversity through music. She passed away peacefully at the Harbors at The Admiral at the Lake, a senior facility in Chicago.

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NCT DREAM’s ‘DREAMSCAPE’: All 11 Songs Ranked

Earlier this year, NCT DREAM opened up to Billboard exclusively about how DREAM( )SCAPE — the group’s March EP that’s pronounced as “Dream Escape” — represented some of the darker, more mature topics the septet was eager to tackle in their music.

From pushing past anxiety, yearning for freedom, and turning hardship into encouragement, the EP included “the message that we’ve always wanted to deliver to our audiences,” leader Mark explained. Facing the dark side head-on ultimately paved the way for the just-released, euphoric full-length DREAMSCAPE.

NCT DREAM’s new LP invites listeners into an expansive soundscape that’s nostalgic, escapist, and emotionally charged. Taking the introspective narrative of DREAM( )SCAPE, these 11 songs embody a generally lighter, more peaceful musical world. Seamlessly melding pop, house music, hyper-pop, R&B, and throwback hip-hop, NCT DREAM uses DREAMSCAPE to explore themes of love, dreams and childlike wonder, giving fans fresh and familiar sounds that sound specifically catered to Mark, Jeno, Renjun, Haechan, Jaemin, Chenle and Jisung.

Joining DREAM’s previously released English single “Rains in Heaven” from August and the pre-released buzz track “Flying Kiss,” the album centers around the uplifting, vintage synthesizer–driven single “When I’m With You.” NCT DREAM will likely bring the new singles to life during their upcoming performances on the iHeartRadio Jingle Ball Tour in Los Angeles, Chicago, Detroit, and New York, alongside the likes of Katy Perry, Jason Derulo, Twenty-One Pilots, SZA, The Kid LAROI, Saweetie and more.

From the singles “Rains in Heaven,” “Flying Kiss,” and “When I’m With You” to the tracks written entirely by the members, as well as the soon-to-become-fan-favorite album cuts, here is our ranking of the 11 songs on NCT DREAM’s fourth full-length album, DREAMSCAPE.

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Noel Gallagher Has Created a Six-Hour Version of ‘Champagne Supernova’

It’s already famous as one of English rock veterans Oasis’ longest songs, but now founding member Noel Gallagher has far exceeded that record with the creation of a six-hour version of “Champagne Supernova”.

According to The Independent, Gallagher has created the new version of the enduring song as an ambient mixed track for a new exhibition at London’s National Portrait Gallery.

The Legends exhibition will open on Nov. 29 and run until Mar. 2, featuring more than 100 portraits of figures from the worlds of art, fashion, business, and entertainment taken by photographer Zoë Law.

Alongside images of England World Cup winner Sir Bobby Charlton, the exhibition will also feature images of actress Kim Cattrall, actor Orlando Bloon, and Gallagher himself. It also features a portrait of Sienna Miller who is seen holding the 1967 Epiphone guitar which Gallgher used during the writing of “Champagne Supernova”.

Originally released in 1995 as the closing track to Oasis’ (What’s the Story) Morning Glory? album, “Champagne Supernova” was issued as the record’s sixth and final single, ultimately spending five weeks atop the Alternative Airplay chart in April and May 1996.

News of the extended ambient version of the track is the latest in a year filled with Oasis headlines, largely thanks to the British group’s unexpected reunion earlier this year.

Announcing a series of 2025 shows across the U.K. which sold out instantly, the band revealed five tour dates across North America on Sept. 30, with shows planned for Chicago, New Jersey, and California in August and September 2025. “America. Oasis is coming,” the band said at the time. “You have one last chance to prove that you loved us all along.”

Despite the level of international excitement the reunion has inspired, Oasis’ upcoming tour dates have also made headlines for the wrong reasons, namely due to the usage of the controversial dynamic pricing practice.

Backlash from U.K fans was so intense that upon the announcement of their U.S tour dates, Oasis issued a statement noting the practice would not be used for their North American dates.

“It is widely accepted that dynamic pricing remains a useful tool to combat ticket touting and keep prices for a significant proportion of fans lower than the market rate and thus more affordable,” they said in a statement.

“But, when unprecedented ticket demand (where the entire tour could be sold many times over at the moment tickets go on sale) is combined with technology that cannot cope with that demand, it becomes less effective and can lead to an unacceptable experience for fans.”

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T-Pain Honored as Tallahassee Street Renamed T-Pain Lane

Florida musician T-Pain has well and truly put his hometown on the map, and now the city of Tallahassee have returned the favor.

In a ceremony held on Sunday (Nov. 10), Tallahassee Mayor John Dailey awarded T-Pain (whose stage name is derived from the phrase “Tallahassee Pain”) with both the Keys to the City, and cemented the musician’s status as one of the city favorite’s songs with a street dedication.

As part of the ceremony, Pasco Street – a portion of road which the Tallahassee Democrat notes he walked as a child from Nims Middle School to the Walker Ford Community Center – has officially been renamed T-Pain Lane.

“Today, I had the incredible honor of presenting @TPain with the Key to the City in recognition of his contributions to music and his ongoing commitment to this community,” Dailey wrote on X (formerly Twitter). “As a hometown hero, T-Pain has inspired countless fans and artists worldwide, and we’re proud to call him one of our own.

“To further celebrate his legacy, we named ‘T-Pain Lane’ in his honor. Thank you, T-Pain for making us #TallahasseeProud!”

Hours after the ceremony, T-Pain also took part in a performance at the Adderley Amphitheater for the Tallahassee bicentennial celebration, where he showcased tracks from his decades-long career.

“Everything that went on today was just a dream come true,” T-Pain told the gathered crowd.

Recently, T-Pain was also announced as one of the many performers set to appear at the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade in New York on Thursday, Nov. 28.

Appearing as part of the event’s 98th anniversary, the parade will also feature the likes of Jimmy Fallon & The Roots, Chlöe and The War and Treaty as those performing this year, with the lineup also featuring Bishop Briggs, Kylie Cantrall, Dan + Shay, Dasha, Coco Jones, Walker Hayes, Ariana Madix, Joey McIntyre, Idina Menzel, Natti Natasha, Rachel Platten, Lea Salonga, The Temptations, Alex Warren, Sebastián Yatra, Charli D’Amelio and Tiler Peck and Roman Mejia.

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Pitchfork Music Festival Will Not Return in 2025

After two decades spent as one of the most acclaimed music festivals in North America, the Pitchfork Music Festival will not be returning to Chicago in 2025, organizers have revealed.

The news was shared on both the festival’s website and social media accounts, explaining that, “as the music festival landscape continues to evolve rapidly, we have made the difficult decision not to host Pitchfork Music Festival in Chicago in 2025”.

“This decision was not made lightly,” the statement continued. “For 19 years, Pitchfork Music Festival has been a celebration of music, art, and community—a space where memories were made, voices were amplified, and the shared love of music brought us all together. The Festival, while aligned with the taste of the Pitchfork editorial team, has always been a collaborative effort, taking on a life of its own as a vital pillar of the Chicago arts scene.

“We are deeply grateful to the City of Chicago for being our Festival’s home for nearly two decades, to the artists who graced our stages with unforgettable performances, and to the fans who brought unmatched energy year after year. Thank you to At Pluto and the rest of the hardworking Festival team whose dedication and creativity were the backbone of every event, and to the broader community whose spirit and support made the Festival a truly unique experience. And thank you to Mike Reed for founding the Festival and for your inspiring vision.”

“Pitchfork will continue to produce events in 2025 and beyond,” they concluded. “We look forward to continuing to create spaces where music, culture, and community intersect in uplifting ways—and we hope to see you there.”

The Pitchfork Music Festival has its origins in 2005’s Intonation Music Festival, which saw local promoters Skyline Chicago recruit Pitchfork Media to curate their inaugural event at Chicago’s Union Park. Though Intonation would return in 2006, Pitchfork Media split to create their own event under the Pitchfork Music Festival name.

Over the years, the festival has featured a raft of celebrated headliners, including Animal Collective, Godspeed You! Black Emperor, Slint, Björk, Wilco, A Tribe Called Quest, the Isley Brothers, and more. Though their 2020 event was cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic, it returned in earnest in 2021, with this year’s event taking place in July and featuring Jamie xx, Alanis Morissette, and Black Pumas as headliners.

The festival also expanded outside of its Union Park home, holding international events in Paris between 2011 and 2022; in London from 2021 to 2023; Berlin in 2020 and 2022; and a lone event in Mexico City this year.

The news of Pitchfork Music Festival’s demise arrives months after Condé Nast announced in January that staff layoffs would take place as the website was absorbed by another Condé title, men’s magazine GQ. 

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Sting Says Diddy Sample Hasn’t Tainted ‘Every Breath You Take’: ‘It’s Still My Song’

Sting isn’t worried about the legacy of “Every Breath You Take,” even if it is somewhat tied to Sean “Diddy” Combs forever.

In a new interview with the Los Angeles Times published Monday (Nov. 11), the Police frontman was asked whether his feelings toward his band’s iconic 1983 hit — which the disgraced Bad Boy Records founder famously sampled in his own “I’ll Be Missing You” — now that Combs is facing trial for numerous allegations of sexual abuse, racketeering and more.

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“No,” Sting began. “I mean, I don’t know what went on [with Diddy]. But it doesn’t taint the song at all for me. It’s still my song.”

The original “Every Breath You Take” spent eight weeks atop the Billboard Hot 100 the year it came out, and it remains The Police’s only No. 1 hit on the chart. Fourteen years later, Diddy released “I’ll Be Missing You” as a tribute to the late Notorious B.I.G. with Faith Evans and 112, featuring an interpolation of Sting’s classic; it spent 11 weeks at No. 1.

Diddy was arrested Sept. 16 on charges of abuse, sex trafficking, forced labor, kidnapping, arson and bribery, after which he was immediately taken into custody and denied bail multiple times as he awaits trial on May 5, 2025. The most recent update in his case came Friday (Nov. 8), when a judge rejected his “unprecedented” and “unwarranted” request that a gag order be issued against his alleged victims and their lawyers on the grounds that they were making “inflammatory extrajudicial statements aimed at assassinating Mr. Combs’s character in the press.”

“The court has an affirmative constitutional duty to ensure that Combs receives a fair trial,” the judge wrote. “But this essential … requirement must be balanced with the protections the First Amendment affords to those claiming to be Combs’s victims.”

Meanwhile, Sting has been touring once again as part of a trio with guitarist Dominic Miller and drummer Chris Maas, a setup not unlike his three-person lineup with The Police’s Andy Summers and Stewart Copeland — and the “We’ll Be Together” singer is aware of the irony. “I never left the Police,” he said while speaking to the Times. “I’m not sure what I did. I just made a record — as the others had done — and enjoyed it more than I did being in a band.

“And here I am again,” he continued of his return to form. “My whole modus is surprise. I don’t want people to be entirely confident about what I’m going to do next. That’s the essence of music for me. And no one expected a trio at this point.”

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A Timeline of Zach Bryan & Brianna Chickenfry’s Relationship

After more than a year of dating, country singer Zach Bryan and Barstool Sports personality Brianna LaPaglia (known as Brianna Chickenfry) have broken up.

On Oct 22, the “Something in the Orange” singer took to his Instagram Stories to reveal that the couple have parted ways. “Brianna and me have broken up with each other and I respect and love her with every ounce of my heart,” he wrote. “She has loved me unconditionally for a very long time and for that I’ll always thank her. I have had an incredibly hard year personally and struggled through some pretty severe things. I thought it would be beneficial for both of us to go our different ways. I am not perfect and I never will be.”

Despite what seemed like an amicable statement, LaPaglia went on to reveal on her Stories that she was “blindsided” by his announcement, and explained in a follow-up YouTube video, “I wasn’t ready to do anything publicly and now I’m just getting a bajillion freakin’ texts and s—. I just wanted to handle this as a human first and now it’s not that. I’m just asking if you could please respect my privacy right now and when I’m ready to talk about everything that happened, I will.”

She did so on the BFFs Podcast, which LaPaglia co-hosts with Dave Portnoy and Josh Richards. During the episode, she made a series of bombshell claims, including accusing Bryan of “emotional abuse” during their relationship and claiming she was offered $12 million and a New York apartment to sign a non-disclosure agreement (NDA) about their relationship, which she said she refused.

As information surrounding the breakup continues to unfold, we’ve compiled a full timeline of Zach Bryan and Brianna Chickenfry’s relationship. See it below.

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Jung Kook’s Talent Shines at ‘GOLDEN: The Moments’ Exhibition | All Access | Billboard News

Jung Kook brought his sparkling talent to his ‘GOLDEN: The Moments’ Exhibition, where fans can walk through the golden moments that helped shape his career. Keep watching for an exclusive look inside!

Tetris Kelly:

Holy Jung Kook!

Guest 1:

Um, I just like to look at him.

Tetris Kelly:

Hey, what’s up? It’s Tetris with Billboard News, and we’re at Jung Kook’s ‘GOLDEN: The Moments’ solo exhibition, and we’re talking to fans, going through the exhibit and finding out what’s your favorite Jung Kooksong. We take you there in Billboard All Access. The exclusive pop-up, running until November 17th in LA, has everything you need if you’re a fan of Jung Kook’s iconic album ‘GOLDEN.’ All right. So what’s been your favorite part about the exhibition today?

Guest 1:

Probably listening to the stem files. The raw vocals are amazing. He’s one of my favorite singers ever. 

Guest 2:

I think my favorite part of the exhibition was the never-seen pictures. I think most of the pictures that we have seen online. There are some new ones, and he’s looking so cute and sexy in one of them. 

Tetris Kelly:

Yeah, he’s very adorable! 

Guest 3:

A lot of different things, basically all his different styles and everything, from the different music videos, all the intricate designs and everything. So I’m excited to check out everything. 

Tetris Kelly:

I mean, his music videos are pretty epic.

Guest 3:

They are. They are. ‘Standing Next to You’ is one of my favorite ones and a little bit of Michael Jackson.

Tetris Kelly:

And the pop-up delivered. The trophy room has all his awards. Hey, look, it’s us! There were photo moments for fans to create. I had to take advantage. You could marvel at his amazing fashion, and fans could even leave the K-Pop King a handwritten message. 

Keep watching for more!

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