分类： entertainment

In a decision that marks the latest in a string of performance cancellations for controversial rapper Kanye West (now legally known as Ye), Italian authorities have blocked two scheduled July concerts headlined by West and fellow rapper Travis Scott in the northern city of Reggio Emilia, citing urgent public order and safety concerns.

The announcement came Friday from Prefect Salvatore Angieri, following a formal request from Reggio Emilia’s local Jewish community to scrap West’s planned appearance. Community leader Nicoletta Uzzielli had pushed local officials to scrap the event and replace it with a performance that would center music as a unifying, inclusive force for all people.

West has sparked global outrage over the past three years for a repeated pattern of antisemitic, racist, and openly pro-Nazi rhetoric, a controversy that already led to the UK government barring him from entering the country earlier this year. The two cancelled Reggio Emilia shows, scheduled for July 17 and 18 at the city’s RFC Arena, were set to feature West and Scott alongside a roster of major A-list acts including The Chainsmokers, Rita Ora, and Swedish House Mafia.

In an official statement, the regional prefecture outlined the multiple factors that guided its final call. Among the top considerations were the wave of concert cancellations for West already implemented across other nations, and the very real threat of large-scale counter-demonstrations targeting the event. Officials also noted that the close scheduling of the two back-to-back events, combined with projections of massive crowds gathering at the venue, created additional unmanageable public safety risks.

Travis Scott, the co-headliner of the events, has also faced ongoing intense scrutiny over his role in the 2021 Astroworld Festival tragedy in Houston, Texas, where a crowd surge during Scott’s headline set left 10 attendees dead between the ages of 9 and 27, and injured thousands more when panic spread through the over-capacity crowd pressed against the stage.

The Italian cancellation is just the latest domino to fall in a series of scrapped shows for West this year. Last month, London’s high-profile Wireless Festival was called off entirely after West, the announced headline act, was denied entry to the UK amid widespread public backlash over his inflammatory remarks. West’s pattern of problematic comments dates back to 2022, when he posted on social media that he would go “death con 3 On Jewish people”, and in May 2023 he released a track titled *Heil Hitler* and sold merchandise emblazoned with swastikas.

Following the UK entry ban, cancellations quickly spread across mainland Europe. In mid-April, West announced the Marseille stop on his European tour would be postponed “until further notice”, with French media reporting at the time that Interior Minister Laurent Nuñez was actively moving to ban the scheduled June 11 show. That same month, a planned June 19 concert at Poland’s Silesian Stadium in Chorzów was also cancelled, with venue officials citing unspecified “formal and legal reasons”.

West has made recent attempts to rebuild his standing in mainstream entertainment after stepping back from public view. In January, he published a lengthy apology in *The Wall Street Journal*, claiming “I am not a Nazi or an antisemite” and asserting “I love Jewish people”. He also attributed his past harmful comments to his bipolar disorder diagnosis, writing that he had “lost touch with reality” during the period when the remarks were made.

For years, British singer-songwriter Samuel Smith crafted original Americana music with a guitar permanently in his hands. But after a 2020 Parkinson’s disease diagnosis left him unable to play his instrument consistently due to the neurological disorder’s progressive symptoms, he turned to a surprising tool: generative artificial intelligence, to keep his creative practice alive. Now, with the release of his second full-length album *The Art of Letting Go*, Smith is opening up about how AI has unlocked new possibilities for artists living with disabilities — even as it remains one of the most divisive issues in the modern music industry.

Parkinson’s disease, which causes progressive nerve damage, commonly leads to muscle tremors, stiffness and chronic fatigue that erode fine motor control, skills critical for playing string instruments like guitar. By the time Smith began work on his 8-track album more than a year before its release, his ability to play had deteriorated significantly. Faced with the choice of abandoning songwriting entirely or adapting to his new physical limitations, he chose to adapt.

For his instrumental track *Horizon*, Smith leaned on popular AI music generation platforms Suno and Udio to translate his creative vision into shareable demos for the session musicians recording the final studio track. His process begins with humming rough melodic ideas into his smartphone, then uploading those recordings to the AI tools alongside text prompts that detail the track’s desired instrumentation, mood and musical style. He stressed that the AI-generated demos are never used in the final master of his songs; instead, they act as a communication tool to show professional players exactly what he hears in his head, when he can no longer demonstrate it on guitar. Producing a demo that matches his distinct artistic voice often takes dozens of attempts and extensive manual editing, Smith explained.

Unlike the narrative of AI replacing human creators that dominates much industry debate, Smith frames the technology as an enabling tool, not a replacement. “AI is not replacing anything for me. It’s unlocking, it’s enabling. It’s allowing me to keep writing. I upload my lyrics; AI doesn’t create my lyrics. I upload my music; AI does not create my music,” he said. “It then brings it to life in a way that I can play to session players and say, ‘Here, that’s what I’m thinking, that is what I’m hearing.’”

The album, recorded in Nashville with a roster of award-winning roots and bluegrass musicians including 16-time Grammy winner Jerry Douglas, banjo artist Alison Brown and Grammy-nominated guitarist Julian Lage, includes one particularly poignant moment: a guitar duet between Smith and Lage on *Horizon*. After months of being unable to play, Smith had a 10-minute window of reduced symptoms in the studio that let him record his part, a moment he calls the “last breath of my guitar playing.” Working alongside musicians he has admired for decades, he said, was an extraordinary, career-defining experience. Smith released his debut album *In the Springtime* in 2023, in part to create a tangible musical legacy for his two young sons that would preserve his creative voice even as his disease progresses.

Generative AI has split the global music industry in recent years. Major record labels including Sony Music Entertainment, Universal Music Group and Warner Records sued Suno and Udio in June 2024, arguing the platforms illegally used copyrighted recorded music to train their AI models. Since the lawsuit, Universal has reached a settlement and partnership deal with Udio, and Warner has done the same with Suno. Much of the public debate has centered on copyright disputes and artist displacement, but experts say Smith’s experience highlights a less discussed, potentially transformative use case for the technology: expanding creative access for musicians living with disabilities and chronic illness.

Ruaidhri Mannion, a composer and music technology scholar at Brunel University of London, noted that affordable digital recording tools democratized music creation over the past few decades, and AI could follow the same path by lowering barriers for creators with physical limitations. “If these tools are able to enable people to be able to participate with other creative groups and encourage more people to feel confident to be able to reach out to an ensemble or an orchestra or something, then I think that is all for the better,” Mannion said. He added a caveat, however: overreliance on AI could erase the messy, iterative process of trial, error and collaborative synergy that shapes artistic development. “What makes a lot of music-making meaningful is the collaborative element. There’s a lot of experimentation and development and failure that’s part of musical discovery,” he explained.

Critics of unregulated generative AI in music, including a group of independent artists who signed an open letter titled “Say no to Suno” earlier this year, argue that the technology erodes artist royalties and enables creative fraud when it scrapes existing copyrighted work without permission. The letter acknowledged that responsible AI use can benefit creators, but called for clearer protections for working artists. Both Suno and Udio have denied copyright infringement claims and stated they are committed to collaborating with the music industry, rather than operating against it.

Smith believes his experience makes the case for responsible, targeted AI development that benefits marginalized creators. His message to AI music platforms is clear: “if these companies want to show they’ve got a place, a role in society, then step up. Engage with health professionals, engage with music therapists, engage with society and show us what you can do.” In May 2024, Smith partnered with the Berklee Music and Health Institute for a New York event bringing together industry leaders, clinicians and researchers to explore how music and technology can support people living with neurological conditions. For Smith, continuing to create music is about more than art: it is about refusing to let Parkinson’s define his identity or the legacy he leaves for his children. “My 4-year-old is probably never going to remember me playing, and it’s heartbreaking,” he said. “But I’ve been able to pull this into something and refuse to be defined by this disease.”

In a quiet unemployment office in 1990s London, a chance encounter between civil servant Sue Tilley and legendary portrait painter Lucian Freud reshaped the course of both art history and Tilley’s life. This June, one of the most celebrated works born from that collaboration is set to hit the auction block, carrying a staggering pre-sale valuation that could cement its place among the most valuable modern art pieces ever sold.

Titled *Sleeping by the Lion Carpet*, the 1996 work is the final of four large-scale reclining portraits Freud painted of Tilley. Sotheby’s will offer the 2.3-meter-tall nude piece at auction on June 24, with experts projecting it will sell for between £25 million and £35 million (equal to $33 million to $47 million). For 69-year-old Tilley, who never profited from the multi-million-dollar auction sales of the other portraits Freud made of her, the moment is not about regret—it is about the quiet thrill of earning an unplanned place in art history.

Grandson of pioneering psychoanalyst Sigmund Freud, Lucian Freud built his legacy as the 20th century’s most acclaimed British portrait painter, celebrated for his thick, textured application of oil paint that captured unflinching, yet warm, depictions of his subjects’ textured skin tones. Over a decades-long career, he painted everyone from Queen Elizabeth II to close friends, family, and fellow creatives, favoring intimate, revealing portraits of people in his personal circle. His reputation has only grown in the years following his 2011 death at age 88, with his works consistently breaking auction records. In 2008, an earlier Freud portrait of Tilley, *Benefits Supervisor Sleeping*, sold for $33.6 million—a then-record price for a work by a living artist. A second Tilley portrait, *Benefits Supervisor Resting*, fetched $56.2 million at auction in 2015, and another of Freud’s works sold for $86 million in 2022.

Tilley first crossed paths with Freud through her friend, the late Australian performance artist Leigh Bowery, who already modeled regularly for the painter. She recalled the casual rhythm of the sitting process in Freud’s cluttered London studio: long sessions stretched over months, punctuated by endless cups of tea, lively chitchat about the artist’s wild bohemian youth, and leisurely midday lunches. Even Freud’s unorthodox habit of stirring drinks with a used paintbrush, which left flecks of oil on Tilley’s clothes and skin, became a beloved part of the experience.

Of the four portraits, *Sleeping by the Lion Carpet* holds a special place for Tilley: unlike the other works that required her to lie flat for hours (a position that grew increasingly painful over time), this piece saw her seated upright in a chair, making for a far more comfortable sitting experience. The unapologetically raw depiction of her body has never troubled her, either. “I’m not really vain,” Tilley shared during an interview at Sotheby’s showroom, standing before the towering canvas. “Sometimes I get out of bed in the morning, and I look at my legs and go, ‘Oh, they look just like that painting.’”

Today, the portrait is part of the collection of British billionaire Joe Lewis, majority owner of Premier League club Tottenham Hotspur, and it is one of dozens of high-value works in Lewis’ collection going up for sale. The entire auction of Lewis’ collection, which also includes iconic pieces by Henri Matisse, Gustav Klimt, and Egon Schiele, is valued at more than £150 million ($201 million). Oliver Barker, chairman of Sotheby’s Europe, calls *Sleeping by the Lion Carpet* Freud’s magnum opus, noting the artist himself viewed the work as the peak of his creative achievement. “The market knows, and it’s very savvy, it wants to go for the best of the best — and this is it,” Barker said.

While Tilley never received a share of the millions these portraits have generated at auction, and Freud only gifted her a small set of etchings (which she sold to fund a holiday), she holds no resentment. Now retired and living on England’s south coast, she says the greatest reward is the permanent place she has earned in art history. As a young woman, she spent hours poring over art books, fascinated by the interconnected bohemian circles of pre-Raphaelites and Impressionists. Only recently has she realized she now belongs to that same world. “That’s thrilling for me that I’ve achieved my ambition without really knowing it,” she said.