分类： entertainment

Just moments before iconic musician Lauryn Hill joined an interview with The Associated Press, she and Fugees bandmate Wyclef Jean found themselves surrounded by fans in the heart of London’s Piccadilly Circus. Hanging above the crowd on the giant bright LED display of the Piccadilly Lights was a vivid, animated short film: a vibrant collage celebrating the heroes and cultural symbols of the global African diaspora, curated by Hill and created by Los Angeles-based artist Lauren Halsey.

The core message of the public art installation was unmissable: it is a joyful tribute to shared community, interconnected culture, and the intersecting worlds of music and visual art. “The crowd was captivated,” Hill shared during the interview. Jean interjected, describing the moment as surreal. “The love was felt. It was amazing,” he said.

This surprise public showcase served as a teaser for a far larger milestone: this week marks the first time Hill’s beloved Diaspora Calling! festival will land in the United Kingdom, 10 years after the event made its debut in Brooklyn, New York.

Hosted by acclaimed comedian Dave Chappelle and featuring a stacked lineup of performers including Grammy-winning R&B icon Erykah Badu, rapper Giggs, Afrobeats star Fireboy DML, and reggae artists YG Marley and Zion Marley, the festival will take place at Milton Keynes’ iconic National Bowl venue. At the heart of the weekend’s programming, Hill and Jean — two-thirds of the legendary hip-hop trio Fugees — will perform their game-changing 1996 landmark album *The Score* in its entirety, to mark the record’s 30th anniversary.

In an edited interview with the AP, Hill and Jean opened up about the festival’s origins, the enduring legacy of *The Score*, and how they hope to honor the late, influential musician D’Angelo nearly one year after his passing.

When asked what drew the pair to bring Diaspora Calling! to the UK for the first time, Hill explained that the opportunity came organically through long-time industry partners. “We were given an opportunity by the promoters — the same promoters that do Reggae Land. He gave me the venue. And I said, ‘This is what I want to do.’ We’re basically blessed to have the opportunity. And, you know, ‘tis the season to bring people together in the name of growth, healing and pushing forward,” she said.

Hill also confirmed that the UK stop will not be the only international edition of the festival, with more global stops firmly on the table for the future: “Absolutely, absolutely, absolutely,” she said when asked about expanding the event beyond the US and UK.

Reflecting on how the festival’s core concept has evolved since its first Brooklyn gathering in 2016, Hill traced its origins back to a life-changing trip to Ghana early in her career. The connection she built on that trip planted the seed for a cross-continental gathering of the global African diaspora. Over decades of building community both together and separately, even when the Fugees were not actively performing or recording as a group, Hill and Jean built deep connections across diaspora communities worldwide — making now the perfect time to bring those communities together in one space, she explained.

When it comes to curating the festival’s dynamic, cross-genre lineup, Hill says the process has been driven by respect and mutual excitement. “We put a call out to the people that we know, love and respect. And I’ve gotten so much positivity — an abundance of responses, in terms of the creative community out here wanting to participate. So that’s huge,” she said.

The festival’s centerpiece performance, a full play-through of *The Score* for its 30th anniversary, finds the two musicians engaging with the album in a whole new way decades after its release. Both agree the record has lost none of its power or cultural resonance over 30 years, earning its place among other iconic timeless albums that shaped music globally.

“Absolutely. That’s a timeless piece of work for us as well. Timeless. How do you feel about it, Wyclef?” Hill asked, prompting Jean to draw a parallel between *The Score* and other legendary albums that have stood the test of time, from Bob Marley’s *Exodus* to Pink Floyd’s *The Wall* and Bob Dylan’s early studio records. “That’s forever,” Jean said.

Hill added that every performance of the decades-old record brings new energy and new meaning. “I think what is powerful about the album was that, you know, I’m a big fan of what Wyclef does. And I think he’s appreciative of what I do. So, we engage with each other’s art. And every time we perform it, even though (it’s) singing older lyrics, there’s a new energy, a new spirit. There’s a timelessness. I almost feel like we’re reclaiming timelines, healing timelines, so to speak, every time we’re performing,” she explained. Jean echoed that sentiment, noting that even after 30 years, performing the album still feels as fresh and exciting as it did the first time. “It doesn’t feel old,” Hill added.

For Hill, performing the record at Diaspora Calling! is the perfect alignment of the album’s core ethos and the festival’s mission. “It’s kind of the pinnacle of what the Fugees were all about. Our makeup is diaspora calls. I think we were a call to a particular unity, a particular kind of reflection and a particular kind of resistance to certain ideas that we knew better than. And we wanted to channel that outside and have other people feel what we were certain about, which is that there was being and resourcefulness and incredible brilliance throughout diaspora. And that division was not really an option,” she said.

Towards the end of the conversation, Hill reflected on the upcoming one-year anniversary of D’Angelo’s passing, after she paid tribute to the late artist alongside Roberta Flack earlier this year at the Grammys. Remembering D’Angelo as another timeless, irreplaceable creative soul, Hill said she hopes the world continues to lift up his extraordinary musical legacy, while protecting the privacy of his family. “He was good — without question,” she said.

In the medieval ruins-turned-arts space of Burchardi Church in Halberstadt, eastern Germany, an extraordinary experimental art project that redefines the boundaries of musical performance continues its glacial journey. Nearly 25 years after the first note resonated through the stone walls, the world’s slowest ongoing concert has hit a rare milestone: a manual chord change that brings the 639-year performance to roughly 4% completion.

The ambitious initiative, known as the John Cage Organ Project Halberstadt, stages John Cage’s iconic experimental composition *ORGAN²/ASLSP (As SLow aS Possible)*, a work that demands the piece be played as slowly and softly as the interpreters choose. While project planning began in 2000, the performance officially launched on September 5, 2001, what would have been the avant-garde American composer’s 89th birthday, opening with a 17-month silent pause that stretched all the way to February 5, 2003, when the first chord finally echoed through the church. This week’s chord shift, which added an A4 pipe to expand the harmony from seven notes to eight, marks only the 17th sound adjustment in the work’s more than two-decade history. The next change is already scheduled for October 5, 2027, when an E4 pipe will be removed to alter the chord once again.

The 639-year timeline, set to conclude on September 4, 2640, was not chosen arbitrarily. According to Anneli Borgmann, chair of the project’s board of trustees, the duration was selected as a tribute to the world’s oldest playable historic organ, which was constructed in Halberstadt in 1361 — exactly 639 years before the project was first organized in 2000. The organ itself, powered by a continuous electric blower system to sustain unbroken sound, has been engineered for extreme longevity. Master organ builder Johannes Hüfken, who crafted the new A4 pipe installed this month, confirms that all components are built to survive at least another 500 years, ensuring the performance can outlive multiple generations of stewards.

What began as a radical experimental art concept has also reshaped the Burchardi Church itself. Before the project launched, the structure sat largely in ruins, but funds raised for the initiative paid for a new roof and critical structural repairs, saving the historic site for future generations. For visitors, the experience is unlike any traditional concert: the sustained chord resonates through the entire empty stone sanctuary, and shifting just a few feet dramatically alters how the sound is perceived, leading Jeffrey Lependorf, executive director of the New York-based John Cage Trust, to observe: “I think it really is the organ playing the church and not the other way around.” Lependorf, who has followed the project for years, says the deep, sustained vibrations of the organ are felt across the entire body, creating an immersive experience that cannot be replicated in modern performance settings.

Beyond its artistic innovation, the project acts as a provocative meditation on intergenerational responsibility and long-term thinking, a reminder to plan for futures far beyond any single person’s lifetime. “This John Cage project is a good example of thinking ahead for the next generation — thinking outside the box, beyond the completely normal and traditional,” Hüfken noted. Curators and stewards regularly grapple with questions that stretch centuries into the future: Will the church still stand when the final chord sounds in 2640? Will Halberstadt, a city that has already survived two world wars, endure the accelerating impacts of climate change? To lock in access for the final performance, the project has already begun selling inheritable “final tickets” for the 2640 closing event, priced at 2,640 euros (approximately $3,045) apiece, that can be passed down through families for more than six centuries.

LONDON – Buckingham Palace has announced joyous royal family news: Britain’s Princess Eugenie has welcomed her third child, a baby girl, marking the first daughter for the princess and her husband Jack Brooksbank.

Eugenie, the youngest child of disgraced former Prince Andrew (now known as Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor) and his ex-wife Sarah Ferguson, confirmed the baby was delivered naturally on Monday at a hospital in Lisbon, Portugal. The newborn weighed in at 6 pounds 9 ounces, approximately 3 kilograms, and as of Tuesday’s public announcement, the couple had not yet shared their daughter’s chosen name with the public.

The princess and Brooksbank already share two young sons: five-year-old August and three-year-old Ernest. The addition of a baby girl expands the couple’s growing family and brings a new female member to the extended British royal lineage.

As the niece of reigning King Charles III, Eugenie holds a place in the extended royal family, and the palace confirmed that senior members of the monarchy have already reacted positively to the news. “Their majesties the King and Queen and other members of the royal family were delighted to be informed of the news,” a palace spokesperson shared in an official statement Tuesday.

The Irish and global music communities are mourning the sudden passing of 56-year-old Glen Hansard, the Oscar-winning singer-songwriter and former frontman of iconic Irish rock band The Frames, who died last week in a motorcycle accident in Dublin. His funeral is scheduled to take place Tuesday at Dublin’s St Patrick’s Cathedral, following a well-attended public wake held in the city Monday that drew thousands of grieving fans and loved ones.

Hansard first emerged into the public eye in 1991, when he landed a role in the hit musical comedy film *The Commitments* — a breakthrough that came just one year after he founded The Frames, the band that would cement his status as a cornerstone of Irish alternative rock. Over the course of three decades, the band released six full-length studio albums, including the 2004 Irish chart-topper *Burn The Maps* and fan favorites *Dance The Devil* and *For The Birds*. The group even earned a slot performing at the Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival in 2007, introducing Hansard’s work to a massive new global audience.

His most high-profile career milestone came in 2008, when he and collaborator Marketa Irglova won the Academy Award for Best Original Song for “Falling Slowly,” the lead track from the low-budget indie musical romance *Once*. The pair went on to release three studio albums as the folk duo The Swell Season, while Hansard also built a successful solo career. His 2016 solo release *Didn’t He Ramble* earned a Grammy Award nomination, and he dropped his fifth and final solo record, *All That Was East Is West Of Me*, in 2023. Just days before his death, Hansard was still doing what he loved most: performing in an intimate traditional Irish music session, capping a lifelong relationship with music that began when he first picked up a guitar as a teenager.

Beyond his recording and performance career, Hansard was widely celebrated for his philanthropic work, particularly his advocacy for unhoused communities in Ireland. In 2010, he launched an annual Christmas Eve busking event in central Dublin that drew A-list Irish music stars including Sinéad O’Connor and Shane McGowan, growing into a beloved seasonal tradition that raised hundreds of thousands of euros for homeless services. Colin Davidson, a close friend of Hansard, hailed the event as “an international Irish institution in its own right.”

News of Hansard’s unexpected death sent shockwaves through the global music industry, with tributes pouring in from some of the world’s biggest artists, including Ed Sheeran, U2’s Bono, and Bruce Springsteen — who shared that he was “heartbroken” over the loss. In the days since his passing, fans have gathered across Dublin to honor his legacy: tributes, candles, and flowers have been laid at a memorial in Dublin’s famous Temple Bar district, where thousands of people have signed an official book of condolence. Fans who attended Monday’s public wake shared personal stories of Hansard’s impact, with many recalling first encountering him busking on Dublin’s Grafton Street decades earlier. Chris James, a fan who first saw Hansard perform on Grafton Street 25 years ago, said the encounter inspired him to pick up the guitar himself, calling the experience one of the coolest moments of his life. Another fan, Danni Rohde, a long-time follower of The Frames, shared that the news of his death still “doesn’t feel real,” echoing the widespread sentiment that Hansard’s passing is an incalculable loss for Irish culture and the global music community.

The Irish music community and fans from across the globe are gathering in Dublin this week to mourn the sudden passing of legendary Oscar-winning singer-songwriter Glen Hansard, who died last week in a tragic single-vehicle motorcycle crash. A public wake, open to all who wish to pay their respects, is being held on Monday at the Baroque Chapel of the Irish Museum of Modern Art (IMMA) in Dublin’s Kilmainham neighborhood, one day ahead of Hansard’s formal funeral service.

By early Monday morning, a queue of hundreds of mourners already stretched around the IMMA grounds, with organizers projecting thousands of attendees will pass through the venue over the course of the day. Though the line moved steadily, new visitors continued to arrive through the morning, each coming to honor the musician who left an indelible mark on Irish music and culture.

For many attendees, Hansard’s music was woven into the most meaningful chapters of their lives. Ronan Buckley, who attended the wake with his wife Rebecca and their two children, Leah and Lily, explained why the whole family made the trip to pay their respects. “I’ve been to dozens of his concerts, his music was extraordinary, and his perspective on life was truly brilliant,” Buckley said. Rebecca Buckley added that the children had grown into fans through their parents’ love of Hansard’s work, calling his death “a massive loss for Ireland.”

Danni Rohde, a lifelong fan of Hansard’s long-running band The Frames, has attended roughly 50 of the group’s live shows, including one of Hansard’s final public performances at Dublin’s Trinity College on July 3. For Rohde, the band’s music shaped her formative young adult years. “That whole era of my late teens and early 20s is completely tied to Frames gigs, when they played almost every weekend,” she told reporters. “It still doesn’t feel real that he’s gone.” She attended the wake alongside her mother, Miriam Rohde Joyce, who said they felt compelled to come honor Hansard’s legacy.

Longtime fan Chris James shared his own story of connection to the musician, recalling first seeing Hansard busk on Dublin’s iconic Grafton Street 25 years ago. Waiting near the front of the queue after roughly 30 minutes in line, James said that encounter changed the course of his life. “It was one of the most incredible things I’d ever seen, and it’s one of the main reasons I picked up the guitar and started playing,” he explained. “I met him a couple of times over the years, and he was just such a lovely, totally unassuming man. He cared deeply about people, recognized how much hardship so many face, and instead of complaining about it, he just brought people together through his music.”

Hansard’s funeral service will be held Tuesday afternoon at 1:30 p.m. local time at Dublin’s St Patrick’s Cathedral. News of the musician’s sudden death sent shockwaves through the global music industry, triggering an outpouring of tributes from artists across generations. Global music stars including Ed Sheeran and Bruce Springsteen have shared their grief, with Springsteen saying he was “heartbroken” by the loss.

Over a three-decade career, Hansard built a reputation as one of Ireland’s most beloved and authentic musical voices. His most notable career milestone came in 2008, when he and collaborator Marketa Irglova won the Academy Award for Best Original Song for the hit track “Falling Slowly” from the low-budget romantic musical film *Once*. The pair went on to release three full-length albums together as the duo The Swell Season, while Hansard also found critical acclaim as a solo artist. His 2016 solo record *Didn’t He Ramble* earned a Grammy Award nomination, cementing his status as a leading figure in global folk and rock music.