All posts tagged: Song

Eurovision song contest launches first-ever Asian edition in Bangkok

Eurovision song contest launches first-ever Asian edition in Bangkok

Published by Daniella Wilson

Get the latest entertainment news, reviews and star-studded interviews with our Independent Culture email Get the latest entertainment news with our free Culture newsletter Get the latest entertainment news with our free Culture newsletter The iconic music spectacle Eurovision is set to launch its inaugural Asian edition in Bangkok later this year, marking a significant expansion for the long-running song contest. The Eurovision Song Contest Asia 2026 has already confirmed participants from at least 10 nations across the continent, including Thailand, South Korea, the Philippines, Vietnam, Malaysia, Cambodia, Laos, Bangladesh, Nepal, and Bhutan, with more expected to join ahead of the November finale. Martin Green, the contest’s director, highlighted the historical significance of the move in a recent announcement. “As we mark the 70th anniversary of the Eurovision Song Contest, it feels especially meaningful to open this next chapter with Asia, a region rich in culture, creativity and talent,” he stated. Bangkok has been lauded as the ideal host city, with Chuwit Sirivajjakul, a representative of the Thailand Tourism Authority, noting that it “has always …

How Kraftwerk’s 22-Minute Song “Autobahn” Became an Early Masterpiece in Electronic Music (1975)

How Kraftwerk’s 22-Minute Song “Autobahn” Became an Early Masterpiece in Electronic Music (1975)

Published by José Betancourt

It takes about five hours to dri­ve from Düs­sel­dorf to Ham­burg on the Auto­bahn. Dur­ing that stretch, you can lis­ten to Kraftwerk’s album Auto­bahn sev­en times — or if you pre­fer, you can loop its epony­mous open­ing song thir­teen times. For it was “Auto­bahn,” more so than Auto­bahn, that changed the sound of music around the world in ways we still hear today. “Ger­many was sud­den­ly on the musi­cal map,” writes the Guardian’s Tim Jonze. “David Bowie – who used to ride the auto­bahn while lis­ten­ing to the record – moved to Berlin and went on to make the elec­tron­i­cal­ly influ­enced Low, “Heroes” and Lodger. Bri­an Eno relo­cat­ed to the rur­al vil­lage of Forst to record with the influ­en­tial avant-garde band Har­mo­nia.” Soon would come the elec­tron­ic pop of Ultra­vox, DAF and the Eury­th­mics, fol­lowed by Don­na Sum­mer and Gior­gio Moroder’s flood­gate-open­ing “I Feel Love”. Not a bad pop-cul­tur­al coup for, as Jonze puts it, “a 22-minute 43-sec­ond song about the Ger­man road net­work.” At the time of its release in ear­ly 1975, Kraftwerk had put out three …

I thought I’d been coping with my sister’s death – a Taylor Swift song showed me I hadn’t | Taylor Swift

I thought I’d been coping with my sister’s death – a Taylor Swift song showed me I hadn’t | Taylor Swift

Published by Sam Flores

When the pandemic hit in 2020, it had been five years since my sister, Emily, had died. She had lived with cystic fibrosis her whole life, yet we were a close, tactile family. We laughed, hugged and sang often. When Emily died, relatively suddenly, aged 30 (I was 27), I coped with it as well as anyone could. In fact, I prided myself on how outwardly resilient I seemed: I spoke to a therapist, started a new job. I poured myself into a packed diary and a big city. It wasn’t until time stopped, in a way, in 2020, that I really sat with my grief. I was forced to – made redundant like so many others that summer, my days had no shape. Like many people living in city flatshares, my one little freedom was a daily walk. Taylor Swift’s Evermore album came out that December and, like its predecessor, Folklore, was quickly on heavy rotation as I strolled about my south London neighbourhood, waiting for something to change. I walked mainly around Tooting Common, taking the same …

BYD launches the Song Ultra EV as orders top 21,500 in 20 days

BYD launches the Song Ultra EV as orders top 21,500 in 20 days

Published by skeptic

BYD launched the Song Ultra EV in China, starting at just under $22,000. The new EV is one of the first to be equipped with its Blade Battery and Flash Charging, enabling recharge times in as little as 5 minutes. BYD launches the Song Ultra EV with Flash Charging Since opening pre-orders for the Song Ultra EV on March 6, BYD said the new electric SUV has secured 21,586 orders in just 20 days. BYD officially launched the Song Ultra EV in China on Thursday, starting at 151,900 yuan ($22,000). That’s far lower than the expected 220,000 yuan ($31,900) starting price, and the 155,000 yuan ($22,500) pre-sale price. It’s available in four trims with prices ranging up to 179,900 yuan ($26,000). All variants will be powered by BYD’s new Blade Battery 2.0, with two battery pack options: 68.4 kWh and 82.7 kWh, providing CLTC ranges of 605 km and 710 km. Advertisement – scroll for more content With BYD’s Flash Charging tech, the Song Ultra EV can charge from 10% to 70% in 5 minutes. …

Band behind ‘best song ever written’ returns to the charts almost 30 years later

Band behind ‘best song ever written’ returns to the charts almost 30 years later

Published by Sam Flores

It might have been nearly three decades since American rock band the Goo Goo Dolls released one of the most popular anthems of the ’90s, but Iris is well and truly having a resurgence in 2026. Taylor Swift once praised the track, which spent 92 weeks in the UK top 100 charts and has been used to soundtrack countless movies and TV shows, as “the best song ever written”. Now, the hit has reached a whole new generation as it climbs its way back up the charts almost 28 years later. As of 26 March, the track is back on the UK top 100 single chart at number 48 after making the rounds on social media for a popular TikTok trend. Hollywood icons like Drew Barrymore, Kevin Bacon and Courteney Cox have all used the Goo Goo Dolls song for throwback video montages reminiscing on what they were like in the ’90s. With Iris getting more love than ever, what is the band behind the hit up to? Read on to see where The Goo …

Moby slammed by Dave Davies for calling The Kinks’ song Lola ‘transphobic’

Moby slammed by Dave Davies for calling The Kinks’ song Lola ‘transphobic’

Published by Daniella Wilson

Get the inside track from Roisin O’Connor with our free weekly music newsletter Now Hear This Get our free music newsletter Now Hear This Get our free music newsletter Now Hear This The Kinks’ Dave Davies has suggested Moby should be “careful what he says” after the fellow musician slammed his band’s classic song, “Lola”. The American artist name-checked the single by the British rock band in a Q&A about his “honest playlist”, in which he chose songs for certain moods or situations. Asked by The Guardian about the song he could “no longer listen to”, he named “Lola” after it came up on a Spotify playlist: “I thought the lyrics were gross and transphobic,” he said. “I like their early music, but I was really taken aback at how unevolved the lyrics are.” Responding on X, Davies, 79, wrote: “I don’t wanna show the guy up, but Moby should be careful what he says.” He recalled The Cockettes, an LGBTQ+ theatre community formed in San Francisco, following the band around on tour: “We appreciated …

‘It Wasn’t Me’ singer Shaggy now 26 years after famous song topped the charts as he makes latest comeback

‘It Wasn’t Me’ singer Shaggy now 26 years after famous song topped the charts as he makes latest comeback

Published by Daniella Wilson

’90s singer Shaggy is making a major comeback with his brand-new album on the way, as well as a role in the smash-hit musical The Last Ship, which was written and composed by Sting. The 57-year-old rose to fame for the chart-topping song “It Wasn’t Me” in 2000, and enjoyed success with other hits like “Angel” and “Boombastic”. The new record, Lottery, promises a mix of genres and a return to his iconic sound, as he told Page Six. “You can dance to it, you can cry to it, you can get ready to it. You know what I mean?” he explained. “I don’t like cookie-cutting. So it’s that Shaggy sound that you’re used to, which is fun. You know, it brings joy, it makes you smile, and it’s got that reggae beat, and it’s got that fusion beat. Hybrids are what I’m into. I’m the king of hybrids.” © Getty Images Shaggy’s return Shaggy later told 7 News about the A-list collaborators he welcomed on the album, including singer Robin Thicke. “A full-length album, …

Niall Horan says new song is inspired by bandmate Liam Payne’s death

Niall Horan says new song is inspired by bandmate Liam Payne’s death

Published by Daniella Wilson

Get the inside track from Roisin O’Connor with our free weekly music newsletter Now Hear This Get our free music newsletter Now Hear This Get our free music newsletter Now Hear This Niall Horan’s new album includes a song about the death of his former One Direction bandmate Liam Payne. The Irish singer, 32, said he wrote “End of an Era” about the moment he learned that Payne had died after falling from a third-floor hotel balcony in Buenos Aires, Argentina in October 2024. Payne was 31. “I just remember getting a message, and I was just like, What?” Horan recalled to GQ Hype in an interview published Thursday. “I just didn’t think it was real.” Payne’s sudden death came two weeks after he and Horan had spent time together, which Horan said contributed to his shock. “Someone so young, you’re not expecting to hear that they’ve passed, especially someone that you’ve just seen,” Horan told the outlet. “I just went back from shock to sadness to anger.” Niall Horan (left) has written a song …

Niall Horan Pays Tribute To Liam Payne On Heartbreaking New Song

Niall Horan Pays Tribute To Liam Payne On Heartbreaking New Song

Published by Sam Flores

Niall Horan is opening up about his former bandmate Liam Payne’s death. The ex-One Direction star recently sat down for an interview with GQ Hype, where the subject of Liam came up during the course of the conversation. Liam died in October 2024 at the age of 31, after falling from a balcony in Argentina while under the influence of numerous substances. Shortly before his death, he attended Niall’s concert in Buenos Aires, with the two also catching up while they were both in South America. “It was great,” the Slow Hands singer recalled, claiming the two quickly fell “back in like it was 10 years ago” when they met up. “[Liam] seemed in good form and we had a good laugh, good reminisce.” Liam Payne and Niall Horan with One Direction bandmates Louis Tomlinson, Zayn Malik and Harry Styles in 2014 Niall later got the message that Liam had died, admitting: “I just didn’t think it was real. Someone so young, you’re not expecting to hear that they’ve passed, especially someone that you’ve just …