RAYE collected an Ivors Academy Honour at a ceremony in London on Thursday night (Oct. 2) in recognition of her songwriting advocacy.

The 27-year-old musician has fought for fairer representation and pay for songwriters in the music industry. She was a leading voice in a campaign that resulted in U.K. major labels committing to introducing a per diem and cover expenses for songwriters attending their writing sessions, marking the first time such an initiative has been brought up anywhere in the world.

Speaking from the stage at the Intercontinental London, RAYE said, “Being a songwriter is also one of the greatest privileges, and I think it’s something that should be about grafting and talent, not about how rich you are, or to be in a good situation financially to be a songwriter. It shouldn’t be about that.”

She continued to ask for more changes in the way that songwriters are compensated. She called for “points on the master” in reference to royalty splits, and acknowledged that she might be “pissing people off” but that the fact songwriters aren’t recognized “doesn’t make any sense to me.”

RAYE added, “Songwriters, I want to encourage us to talk in the songwriter split conversations. This industry has become exceptional at dividing us and pitting us against each other. We get told ‘if you don’t approve this songwriter split the song won’t get released, if you don’t approve we’re never using you again’. Those lies and manipulation tactics need to be over. Eliminate the grey areas, eliminate us fighting against each other and let’s work together to lead the fight to the labels to make them understand that we’re not going to stop until songwriters are correctly compensated for their songs.”

RAYE began writing songs for other artists in 2015, and over the years has amassed credits on work by Charli XCX (“After the Afterparty,” 2016), John Legend (“A Good Night,” 2018) and Beyoncé (“Bigger,” 2019 & “Riiverdance,” 2024) among others. Following a dispute with her record label, Polydor, she left the major label system to release her debut album 21st Century Blues (2023), which peaked at No. 2 on the U.K. Albums Chart. 

A year later in 2024 she collected six BRIT awards, using one of her speeches to advocate for better conditions for songwriters and bring the conversation into mainstream spaces. “British music industry, please – I want to have a lovely, brief conversation about normalizing [business by] giving songwriters master royalty points,” she said. “It means if the songs win big, the writers get to win too. Please allow that to happen, please.” 

RAYE also received a Grammy nomination for best new artist at the ceremony in February.

RAYE is set to release her second studio LP next year, and will play six nights at The O2 in London as part of a global arena tour. “Where Is My Husband!”, the LP’s lead single, was released in September and debuted at No. 4 on the U.K.’s Official Singles Chart.

Kae Tempest was also recognised for his work as a songwriter and lyricist. Tempest has been nominated for the Mercury Prize twice (2014, 2016) and recently released his new album, Self Titled. In August 2020, Tempest came out as non-binary and in 2023 a BBC documentary showed Tempest’s experiences having top surgery and beginning to take testosterone, as well as his mental health struggles while being a musician. In 2025, Tempest shared that he now used he/him pronouns. 

During his speech, Tempest performed an a capella version of his song “I Stand on the Line” which celebrates his identity: “With all the problems that we have to contend with/ Why are trans bodies always on the agenda?”

A number of key industry executives were also honored at the ceremony which celebrates advocates and innovators who champion songwriters and composers: including Sir Richard Branson, founder of Virgin Group; Sir Chris Bryant MP, Minister of State at the Department for Business and Trade; Kanya King CBE, chief executive and founder of the MOBO Group; Jon Platt, chairman and CEO of Sony Music Publishing; and Catherine Manners, founder of music publishing and creative services firm Manners McDade.

The night also featured a posthumous honor for the late John Sweeney, VP international of SESAC, who died in June 2025.

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*NYSNC were in a reflective mood this week as they looked back with love at the 30th anniversary of their formation. In a nostalgic Instagram post on Wednesday (Oct. 1), the band formed by Justin Timberlake, J.C. Chasez, Joey Fatone, Chris Kirkpatrick and Lance Bass on Oct. 1, 1995 shared a compilation of videos in which the singers reflect on their deep bond with their fans, and each other.

“30 years. ✨ October 1, 1995 feels like yesterday… and somehow a lifetime ago. Five guys chasing a dream turned into something bigger than we ever imagined,” the post began, alluding to the day that Bass officially joined the group that would go on to global superstardom. “The music. The shows. The memories. An unbreakable bond: with each other, and with all of you. Through every high and low, your love has carried us. Forever grateful. 💙 Here’s to three decades of *NSYNC.”

The accompanying video counts down from 2025 to 1995 with a flip-book of performance footage from throughout the years, as well as a compilation of the different fonts used to spell out the band’s name before tossing to a throwback series of shots of the five men from their earliest days together.

From there it takes fans through a short history of the band’s rapid rise to megastardom in the late 1990s and early 2000s, peaking with 2000’s No Strings Attached LP, which sold more than one million copies on day one and over 2.4 million copies in its first week. In a clip from their Hollywood Walk of Fame ceremony, Bass says, “the best days of my life were in this group,” adding that the thing he’s most thankful for is the “brotherhood” with his bandmates.

In his own post, Bass shared a roll of pics and videos from over the years, writing, “30 years of *NSYNC… Feels like just yesterday we were learning choreography in an airplane hangar in Orlando, hoping our frosted tips would help us stand out. (They didn’t, but we committed!) What an amazing 30 years it’s been. From stadiums to TRL to TikTok- it’s wild to think we’ve grown up with you right there beside us. Thank you for riding with us through every era, every outfit, every questionable video. And to my brothers- thank you for the laughs and the memories I’ll never forget.”

In the anniversary video, Timberlake refers to the group as a “family,” saying he “can’t put into words how much the four of you mean to me,” as the clip ends with a supercut of the men talking about how they could have never dreamed of the heights they reached together. “I’d like to thank you gentlemen for making my dreams come true,” Chasez is seen saying at the Walk of Fame ceremony.

From 1995 until their hiatus in 2002, *NSYNC released four albums and scored an epic run of chart hits, including the 2000 Billboard Hot 100 No. 1 “It’s Gonna Be Me,” as well as the 1999 No. 2 hit “Music of My Heart” with Gloria Estefan, the No. 4 smash “Bye Bye Bye” and a pair of No. 5 singles with “Girlfriend” and “This I Promise You.”

While Timberlake went on to a huge solo career, the other band members have stayed busy with their own solo projects in music, TV and film, with the quintet reuniting for a performance at the 2013 MTV VMAs and for their 2018 Hollywood Walk of Fame ceremony and in 2023 to release the song “Better Place” from the Trolls Band Together animated movie. They also reformed in the studio for the song “Paradise” from Timberlake’s sixth solo album, 2024’s Everything I Thought It Was.

While Swifties were busy digging for all the Easter Eggs on Taylor Swift‘s just-released 12th studio album, The Life of a Showgirl, on Friday morning (Oct. 3), the singer dropped by the U.K.’s Graham Norton Show to chat up the LP, and, of course, her summer engagement to Travis Kelce.

In her first TV appearance since the August proposal heard ’round the world, Swift, 35, told Norton that Chiefs tight end Kelce, “really crushed it in surprising me,” in speaking of the instantly iconic special moment caught in a photo of the NFL star down on his knee asking for Taylor’s hand in the middle of a forest of flowers.

According to People, Swift — wearing a black mini dress with a bejeweled halter neckline — told Norton that while the couple were chatting on Kelce’s New Heights podcast, the baller “had a complete garden built out the back of his house to propose in.” And, not for nothing, Swift said that Kelce’s proposal was a big swing that totally landed. “He went all out — 10 out of 10” she said, subtly flashing the impressive engagement ring during the taping where she appeared alongside actors Cillian Murphy, Greta Lee, Jodie Turner-Smith and Domhnall Gleeson and fellow singer Lewis Capaldi.

Cagey as ever, Swift kept any wedding plans close to the vest, saying “you’ll know,” when she has something to say about the blessed event. “I want to do the album stuff first, and the wedding is what happens after in terms of planning. I think it will be fun to plan,” she said, with People describing her vintage-style ring as having a “massive old mine brilliant cut diamond, a rectangle-cut diamond,” which is estimated by one expert to be around 7-10 carats in a bezel setting.

As she noted on Kelce’s New Heights earlier this summer, Swift reiterated that recording Showgirl in the midst of her grueling, record-setting Eras Tour was a way to keep her inspired. “I was physically exhausted — sick and worn down — so to spark me up, I had the album as a secret passion project behind the scenes,” Swift said of her off-tour flights to work with producers Max Martin and Shellback during the European leg of her summer 2024 tour. “It stopped me hitting a wall.”

Swift also told Norton that the new album is not as introspective as her recent LPs, saying that in recent years she’s had a “different perspective and like storytelling at a little bit of a distance, so it isn’t like doing a complete autopsy of myself.” Alluding to some growth as an artist, the singer added that her “wheelhouse is bigger now… I feel I can do anything now while running in heels. I am confident to write higher choruses, jump an octave, and do falsetto stuff. I have more confidence after the tour.”

Swift will be back on TV on Monday night (Oct. 6) when she stops by The Tonight Show and then again on Wednesday night (Oct. 8), when she’ll be the only guest on Late Night with Seth Meyers.

It’s showtime! Taylor Swift‘s The Life of a Showgirl has finally arrived after months of buildup, complete with 12 new songs.

Released on Friday (Oct. 3) and produced entirely by the pop star, Max Martin and Shellback, the album finds Swift looking back on her past two years of life — which she largely spent on the road on her global Eras Tour. On “Father Figure,” she interpolates George Michael’s 1987 hit of the same name, and on title track “The Life of a Showgirl,” Sabrina Carpenter joins her for their first official duet since touring together last year.

“The Fate of Ophelia” serves as the LP’s lead single, with Swift premiering a music video for the track in her The Official Release Party of a Showgirl event that will run in theaters all weekend.

Arriving about 18 months after 17-week Billboard 200-topper The Tortured Poets Department, the 14-time Grammy winner’s newest full length almost feels like a complete 180 for her. Following the black-and-white aesthetics and melancholy lyricism of TTPD, the high saturation and sparkles associated with Showgirl — which is comprised of flashy pop bangers — feel even more vibrant.

Leading up to the release of Showgirl, Swift kept fans guessing about the project through a number of methods. Teaming up with Spotify, the singer dropped a handful of lyrics through a pop-up immersive experience in New York City, and with Apple Music, Swift revealed even more snippets by capitalizing “random” letters in her lyrics.

On Friday night, Swift will appear on The Graham Norton Show to promote the album. In the coming days, she’ll do the same on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon and Late Night With Seth Meyers.

Listen to Swift’s new album The Life of a Showgirl below.