Bruce Springsteen resumed denouncing Donald Trump from the stage of his Land of Hopes and Dreams Tour Saturday night (May 17) in Manchester, England.

The Los Angeles Times reports the Boss didn’t back down from his stance on Trump this weekend, after the U.S. president called Springsteen “highly overrated,” “dumb as a rock” and a “dried out ‘prune’ of a rocker (his skin is all atrophied!)” in a post on Truth Social. The rant was Trump’s reaction to the musician calling out the president’s “corrupt, incompetent and treasonous administration” at his tour opener earlier in the week.

“Things are happening right now that are altering the very nature of our country’s democracy, and they’re too important to ignore,” Springsteen said to the crowd in a three-minute speech on Manchester’s Co-op Live stage on Saturday, as heard in a video posted by the L.A. Times.

“In my home, they’re persecuting people for their right to free speech and voicing their dissent. That’s happening now,” Springsteen said, echoing what he’d spoken about at his May 14 show. “In America, the richest men are taking satisfaction in abandoning the world’s poorest children to sickness and death. That’s happening now. In my country, they’re taking sadistic pleasure in the pain they inflict on loyal American workers.”

Springsteen continued, “They are removing residents off American streets without due process of law and deploying them to foreign detention centers as prisoners. That’s happening now. The majority of our elected representatives have utterly failed to protect the American people from the abuses of an unfit president and a rogue government. They have no concern or idea of what it means to be deeply American.”

On a note of optimism that quoted novelist and civil rights activist James Baldwin, he added, “The America I’ve sung to you about for 50 years is real, and regardless of its many faults, it’s a great country with a great people, and we will survive this moment. Well, I have hope, because I believe in the truth of what the great American writer James Baldwin said. He said, ‘In this world, there isn’t as much humanity as one would like, but there’s enough.’”

On Friday, after Springsteen had shared similar thoughts from the stage on opening night of his tour, Trump responded on Truth Social, writing: “I see that Highly Overrated Bruce Springsteen goes to a Foreign Country to speak badly about the President of the United States. Never liked him, never liked his music, or his Radical Left Politics and, importantly, he’s not a talented guy — Just a pushy, obnoxious JERK, who fervently supported Crooked Joe Biden, a mentally incompetent FOOL, and our WORST EVER President, who came close to destroying our Country. Sleepy Joe didn’t have a clue as to what he was doing, but Springsteen is ‘dumb as a rock,’ and couldn’t see what was going on, or could he (which is even worse!)? This dried out ‘prune’ of a rocker (his skin is all atrophied!) ought to KEEP HIS MOUTH SHUT until he gets back into the Country, that’s just ‘standard fare.’ Then we’ll all see how it goes for him!”

The “Born in the U.S.A.” singer, who’s performing across the U.K., France, Spain, Germany and Italy from now through early July, endorsed Trump’s opponent Kamala Harris in the 2024 election.

Classically trained countertenor JJ of Austria is the 2025 Eurovision Song Contest winner with “Wasted Love,” a song that combines operatic, multi-octave vocals with a techno twist. JJ beat 25 other competitors during Saturday’s (May 17) grand final in the Swiss city of Basel.

Israel’s Yuval Raphael came second at an exuberant celebration of music and unity that was shadowed by the Gaza war and ruffled by discord over Israel’s participation.

JJ, whose full name is Johannes Pietsch, was Austria’s first winner since bearded drag queen Conchita Wurst in 2014. JJ, who sings with the Vienna State Opera, has called Wurst a mentor. It was Austria’s third victory overall in Eurovision.

“This is beyond my wildest dreams. It’s crazy,” said the singer after being handed the microphone-shaped glass Eurovision trophy.

JJ won after a nail-biting final that saw Raphael scoop up a massive public vote from her many fans for her anthemic “New Day Will Rise.” But she also faced protests from pro-Palestinian demonstrators calling for Israel to be kicked out of the contest over its conduct of the war against Hamas in Gaza.

Estonia’s Tommy Cash came third with “Espresso Macchiato,” and Swedish entry KAJ, who had been favorite to win with jaunty sauna ode “Bara Bada Bastu,” came fourth.

The world’s largest live music event reached its glitter-drenched conclusion with a grand final in Basel, Switzerland, that offered pounding electropop, quirky rock and outrageous divas.

Acts from 26 countries — trimmed from 37 entrants through two elimination semifinals — performed to some 160 million viewers for the continent’s pop crown. No smoke machine, jet of flame or dizzying light display was spared by musicians who had three minutes to win over millions of viewers who, along with national juries of music professionals, pick the winner.

The show offered a celebration of Europe’s eclectic, and sometimes baffling, musical tastes. Lithuanian band Katarsis delivered grunge rock, while Ukraine’s Ziferblat channeled prog rock and the U.K.’s Remember Monday offered country pop.

Italy’s Lucio Corsi evoked 1970s glam rock, while Icelandic duo VAEB rapped about rowing and Latvia’s six-woman Tautumeitas offered gorgeous, intertwined harmonies.

There were divas aplenty, including Spain’s Melody, Poland‘s Justyna Steczkowska — participating in Eurovision for a second time after a 30-year gap, with “GAJA” — and Malta’s outrageous Miriana Conte, who performed “Serving,” a song whose previous suggestive title and lyrics were changed on the orders of contest organizers, on a set including a glitter ball and giant lips.

Dean Vuletic, an expert on the history of Eurovision, said the competition has become more diverse over the years, both musically and linguistically. There are songs in 20 languages this year, including Ukrainian, Icelandic, Albanian, Latvian and Maltese.

“In the past it was about having a catchy, innocuous pop song, usually in English,” he said. But “in recent years the formulaic approach to a Eurovision entry hasn’t succeeded.”

“An entry needs to be memorable and it needs to be authentic in order to succeed these days,” said Vuletic.

This year’s contest was roiled for a second year by disputes over Israel’s participation. Dozens of former participants, including Switzerland’s Nemo, have called for Israel to be excluded, and several of the broadcasters that fund Eurovision sought a review of the country’s participation.

Pro-Palestinian and pro-Israel protests both took place in Basel, though on a much smaller scale than at last year’s event in Sweden, where tensions spilled over backstage and Dutch competitor Joost Klein was expelled over an alleged altercation with a crew member.

Hundreds of people marched through Basel just before the competition, waving Palestinian flags and chanting “Boycott Israel.”

Earlier, a group of Israel supporters gathered in Basel’s cathedral square to root for Raphael and to show that “Jews belong in public spaces in Switzerland,” Zurich resident Rebecca Laes-Kushner said.

She said that “it would be such a strong statement against antisemitism,” if Raphael won.

“This is supposed to be about music, not about hate,” she said.

The European Broadcasting Union, or EBU, which runs Eurovision, tightened the contest’s code of conduct this year, calling on participants to respect Eurovision’s values of “universality, diversity, equality and inclusivity” and its political neutrality.

After a controversial ban in 2024 on flags, apart from national ones, being waved in the arena, this year audience members can bring Palestinian flags or any others, as long as they are legal under Swiss law. Performers, though, can only wave their own country’s flag.

Eurovision director Martin Green told reporters that the organizers’ goal was to ”re-establish a sense of unity, calm and togetherness this year in a difficult world.”

“All 37 delegations, in difficult times, have behaved impeccably,” he said.

Fans were in luck at Dua Lipa’s show in Lyon, France, on Friday (May 16).

During the second of two nights at the city’s LDLC Arena, the 29-year-old pop star delivered a fiery cover of Daft Punk’s 2013 hit “Get Lucky.”

Wearing a lacy red bodysuit, Lipa brought energy and flair to the funky track, which peaked at No. 2 on the Billboard Hot 100 and became Daft Punk’s first top 5 hit. The original version, from the duo’s fourth album Random Access Memories, features Pharrell Williams on vocals and Nile Rodgers on guitar.

The cover carried extra significance, as Daft Punk’s Guy-Manuel de Homem-Christo and Thomas Bangalter are both French natives.

This wasn’t the first surprise of her tour. At the opening show of the European leg in Madrid on May 11, Lipa performed a Spanish-language cover of Enrique Iglesias’ 2001 ballad “Hero,” delighting fans at the Movistar Arena.

The “Levitating” singer continues her Radical Optimism World Tour across Europe through May and June, with stops in Germany, France, the Czech Republic, the Netherlands, Italy, Belgium and the United Kingdom. She’ll also return to Pristina, Kosovo — her family’s homeland — in early August to headline her Sunny Hill Festival.

Lipa then heads to North America this fall, starting with two nights in Toronto on Sept. 1–2. She’ll tour across the U.S. through September and October, wrapping the North American leg with a second show at Seattle’s Climate Pledge Arena on Oct. 16. South America and Mexico follow in the winter.

Lipa is touring in support of her third studio album, Radical Optimism, which debuted at No. 2 on the Billboard 200 in May 2024.

Sean “Diddy” Combs’ ex-girlfriend, Cassie Ventura, faced probing questions about her financial motivations on her last day of testimony in the rapper’s sex-trafficking trial on Friday (May 16), while Danity Kane alum Dawn Richard also took the stand and said she witnessed Combs abusing Ventura.

Richard’s testimony closed out the first week of Combs’ much-awaited criminal trial, in which the music mogul is accused of coercing Ventura and other women into participating in drug-fueled sex shows known as “freak-offs.” R&B singer Ventura, the prosecution’s star witness, spent four days on the stand detailing how Combs allegedly controlled and physically abused her during their 11-year relationship.

Ventura faced her second and final day of cross-examination on Friday from Combs’ attorney Anna Estevao, according to the Associated Press and the New York Times. Defense lawyers had previously suggested they may want to keep questioning Ventura next week, but backed off the request after prosecutors flagged concerns that the very pregnant Ventura might go into labor over the weekend.   

Continuing a strategy from the first day of cross-examination, Estevao confronted Ventura with more seemingly loving text messages between her and Combs. Some appeared to support the defense’s theory that the pair’s sex life, while unconventional, was consensual.

“I don’t want to freak off for the last time,” Ventura wrote in one such text to Combs. “I want it to be the first time for the rest of our lives.”

Estevao also tried to imply that Ventura is motivated by money to lie about her experience with Combs, getting the witness to reveal for the first time that she’s getting a $10 million settlement from the Intercontinental Hotel in Los Angeles, where Combs was seen beating Ventura in infamous video footage from 2016.

The newly-revealed $10 million settlement is on top of a $20 million civil payout Ventura got from Combs himself after she sued the rapper in 2023. Estevao noted Friday that Ventura canceled an upcoming concert tour soon after inking that settlement.

“As soon as you saw that you were going to get the $20 million, you canceled the tour because you didn’t need it anymore, right?” Estevao asked Ventura.

“That wasn’t the reason why,” Ventura replied.

When prosecutors got another chance to question Ventura on re-direct examination later on Friday, she explained that she would give the money back if she could reverse Combs’ abuse. “If I never had to have freak-offs I would have agency and autonomy,” Ventura said.

After Ventura completed her testimony, her attorney, Douglas Wigdor, shared a statement from the singer: “This week has been extremely challenging, but also remarkably empowering and healing for me,” Ventura wrote. “I hope that my testimony has given strength and a voice to other survivors, and can help others who have suffered to speak up and also heal from abuse and fear.  For me, the more I heal, the more I can remember, and the more I can remember, the more I will never forget.”

Another figure in the music world took the witness stand after Ventura departed Friday: Dawn Richard, whose girl group Danity Kane was launched by Combs’ MTV reality show Making the Band.

Richard has a pending civil lawsuit against Combs, in which she alleges he harassed and assaulted her during “years of inhumane working conditions.” But those claims aren’t part of the criminal trial; instead, Richard served as a corroborating witness for Ventura.

During her brief testimony, Richard told the jury she witnessed Combs physically assault Ventura on multiple occasions. In one 2009 encounter, Richard said she saw Combs punch, kick, drag and even try to hit Ventura on the head with a cooking skillet.

The trial is expected to pick up Monday (May 19) with testimony from Ventura’s longtime friend Kerry Morgan, followed by other alleged victims of Combs’ freak-offs. The jury could hear evidence for up to two months total.