What happened

Beyoncé won album of the year, best country album and best country duo/group performance at last night's Grammy Awards, while Kendrick Lamar's diss track "Not Like Us" took five Grammys, including song of the year and record of the year.

Who said what

Beyoncé's "high-concept, multigenre" album "Cowboy Carter" finally won her the top prize after "four conspicuous losses" in the category, The New York Times said. And Lamar's "vicious takedown" of Drake was a "notable double victory for any song and a rare win for rap in the Grammys' two most prestigious song categories."

Beyoncé, already "both the most awarded and nominated artist in Grammys history," was the first Black woman to win album of the year since Lauryn Hill in 1999, as well as the first Black artist ever to win best country album, The Associated Press said. She was presented the top album Grammy by members of the Los Angeles Fire Department, "one of several times the show reflected the recent wildfires" that ravaged LA. Chappell Roan was named best new artist, while Sabrina Carpenter won best pop solo performance and best pop vocal album for "Short n' Sweet." The Beatles song "Now and Then," resurrected with AI technology, won best rock performance.

What next?

Grammys host Trevor Noah said viewers donated at least $7 million to wildfire relief efforts.

Beyoncé's first Album of the Year Grammy is not only a "long-overdue recognition" but also addresses "the elephant in the room" that's been "lingering" over the Grammys for years, said Saeed Saeed in The National.

The singer scooped the award last night for her genre-bending album "Cowboy Carter", which explores the Black roots of country music, and it "should help atone for past perceived snubs".

Beyoncé was already the most-awarded artist in Grammys history, and she now becomes the first Black woman to be awarded the Album of the Year this century. The win "finally" ends Beyoncé's dubious honour of being the most-nominated female artist without a win in this category, said The Hollywood Reporter.

'Rightful throne in music'

"Making history is nothing new for Beyoncé" and, with her long-denied Album of the Year win, she continues to "claim her rightful throne in music".

"Cowboy Carter" has also put a spotlight on a host of other Black artists in the country music space, both past and present. The album, released in March, is a "paean to a panoply of traditions" that define the African-American experience, taking in genres "from folk to roots to country to rock to hip-hop", said Michael Patrick F. Smith in The New York Times. This is not merely a "tourist's trip into country music" but a "symphony" of cultures and genres.

Those who think that Taylor Swift was robbed of the album award this year are simply wrong, said Neil McCormick in The Telegraph. Beyoncé is an innovative artist who "keeps getting better and bolder with age", and her "fantastic country hybrid" project was clearly "head and shoulders" above the rest of the field.

'Glass ceiling'

The Grammys have been "crazy in love" with Beyoncé since she first burst onto the scene in 1999 as a member of Destiny's Child, said the New York Post. Her success since has been "staggering", with 99 nominations – the most of any artist in Grammys history. Yet, until last night, she has been routinely forced to perfect the "beauty-queen smile-and-clap routine" after four nominations for Album of the Year without a win.

Despite Beyoncé long being at the "absolute pinnacle of Black excellence", the time it has taken for her to win this award speaks of a "glass ceiling" for Black female artists, said Leah Sinclair in Stylist in 2023.

After such a "historic sense of grievance", this win is hugely symbolic as well as personal, said McCormick. While last night's gong may be, in effect, a "mid-career lifetime achievement award" for Beyoncé, it is, for the Grammys, a "much-needed course correction", said Saeed in The National.

Pop

In a vintage year for the giants of contemporary American pop – a field now dominated by young women – 23-year-old Billie Eilish triumphed with an "artistic coming of age", said Neil McCormick in The Daily Telegraph. Her "Hit Me Hard and Soft" is a "heartbreak masterpiece", ranking alongside Joni Mitchell's "Blue" as one of "the all-time great breakup albums".

Sabrina Carpenter's "Espresso" was the "song of the summer", said Helen Brown in The Independent. Her delicious collection "Short n' Sweet" confirmed her as a major talent, confidently flipping between "TikTok pop, yacht rock, country and R&B".

On Taylor Swift's ballad-heavy "The Tortured Poets Department", there were many "great moments", said Lindsay Zoladz in The New York Times. But at 31 tracks, Swift's poetry needed an editor.

When it comes to British artists, none made more impact than Charli XCX. Her album inspired the global pop-culture phenomenon of the year: the party-girl "Brat summer". Charli XCX records are always filled with euphoric bangers, said Brittany Spanos in Rolling Stone, but on this "confessional" collection she "stays out later and goes harder than ever before".

Although her debut, "The Rise and Fall of a Midwest Princess", was actually released late last year, 26-year-old Missouri-born Chappell Roan was "one of the biggest breakout pop stars" of 2024, said The New York Times. The album offers "grand-scale, 1980s-influenced pop", with a campy drag-queen aesthetic.

Singer-songwriters

At the folky, contemplative end of the spectrum, Laura Marling released the beautiful "Patterns in Repeat", said Fiona Shepherd in The Scotsman – a "tender pacifier" of an album inspired by childbirth and motherhood. Portishead's lead singer Beth Gibbons produced a "singular, astonishing" solo debut, 16 years after her band's most recent album, said Alexis Petridis in The Guardian. "A dispatch from the darker moments of middle age", "Lives Outgrown" is "frequently beautiful and invariably gripping".

Michael Kiwanuka's "Small Changes" marked the "exquisite return" of the Mercury Prize-winner – a real talent "at his creative peak", said Damien Morris in The Observer. The last song, "Four Long Years", is "a stunning ballad that beautifully answers the question: What if Bill Withers covered Radiohead?".

MJ Lenderman is a folk-rock songwriter in the tradition of Neil Young or Jason Molina, said Pitchfork. In his "outstanding" fourth album, "Manning Fireworks", he writes with wit and sincerity about losers and mystics in small Southern towns.

Rap, crossover and jazz

The once rage-fuelled rap of Tyler, The Creator continued to mellow and deepen in fascinating ways on "Chromakopia", said Thomas Hobbs in The Daily Telegraph, combining introspective lyrics with banging tunes. Released without warning last month, Kendrick Lamar's "GNX" is a "meticulous, versatile, hard-hitting masterpiece", dripping with wit and menace, said Peter A. Berry in Variety. It "immediately eclipsed every rap release this year".

The reigning queen of R&B, Beyoncé, took an unexpected turn with the "clever, sexy, angry, soulful" country crossover album "Cowboy Carter", said Neil McCormick in The Telegraph. What holds this sprawling "masterpiece" together is that it honours the black roots of country music, while aiming a "folk-rock hip-hop broadside" at its conservatism. Another class act out to break down genre boundaries was British duo Bob Vylan, said Aliya Chaudhry on NME. "Humble as the Sun" was "electrifying" and "empowering", gloriously blending hip-hop, rock, grime, punk, rap and trap.

Jazz saxophonist Kamasi Washington, an auteur with a long-standing "disregard for divisions between genres", released the virtuosic "Fearless Movement", said Ludovic Hunter-Tilney in the FT. On "Perceive Its Beauty, Acknowledge Its Grace", British jazz colossus Shabaka Hutchings swapped his sax for the flute, said John Mulvey in Mojo, and "breathed new life into the New Age".

Electro and dance

A.G. Cook's "Britpop" is a three-disc odyssey through cutting-edge dance and pop, said Tilly Foulkes on NME. "For every track you can imagine blacking out to in a bizarre underground club, there's a more celestial one just around the corner."

Ezra Collective's "Dance, No One's Watching" edges the jazz-led Londoners further towards "hard funk, dub, neo-soul, Afrobeat and highlife", said Ben Lee, also on NME. Confidence Man's "3AM (La La La)", saw the Australian electro-pop band fully embrace dance, said Will Richards in Rolling Stone. It is "the most fun you'll have all year".

Rock and indie

It was a year of sensational comebacks for some elder statesmen of British rock and indie. The Cure's "Songs of a Lost World" was the band's first album for 16 years – and their best since the 1980s, said Alexis Petridis in The Guardian. The record is the "most straightforwardly personal" that Robert Smith has ever written – infused with grief, powerful, and "possessed of a dark beauty". Peter Gabriel left even longer between albums – 21 years, said Helen Brown in The Independent. His "i/o", a celebration of the natural world, proved a "sublime" triumph, full of "gut-churningly hypnotic" basslines and "bombastic bangers".

Another veteran prog rocker, David Gilmour (four years Gabriel's senior at 78) returned with the ruminative and melodious "Luck and Strange". The Pink Floyd star's first album for nine years proved he can "still drip hi-def liquid mercury from his fretboard", said Brown. Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds were also on great form: "Wild God" was a "widescreen, uplifting" collection, said Will Hodgkinson in The Times – nine "rich and involving" songs with shades of Bob Dylan and Leonard Cohen.

Two exceptional young British groups announced themselves with stunning debuts. The London-based all-female quintet The Last Dinner Party – "hailed as the heirs to everyone from Kate Bush to Sparks to Roxy Music" – delivered on their vast promise with a smart but fun collection, "Prelude to Ecstasy", said Poppie Platt in The Daily Telegraph. All "curtsy to the new queens of pop". Also staking a claim to future greatness were the Leeds four-piece English Teacher, led by frontwoman Lily Fontaine. "This Could Be Texas" was "everything you could want from a debut", said Andrew Trendell on NME. Melding post-punk, indie rock and witty pop, it was a "truly original effort from start to finish".

"Romance", the fourth album from Dublin rockers Fontaines D.C., had a melodic and lush feel while sacrificing none of the band's potency, said The Irish Times. An "incredibly compelling" collection, it should propel them to "arena-sized" success.

"What a Devastating Turn of Events" was an irresistible debut from London's Rachel Chinouriri, said Damien Morris in The Observer. She sings in a "hushed, husky voice" originally developed so as not to disturb her Zimbabwean parents; and "ideas spill out of every crammed corner of this collection". The new wave "indie queen" promises even greater things to come.

Brittany Howard, of Alabama Shakes, returned with "What Now", her "outrageously great" second album, said Kitty Empire in The Observer. She mixes "dancefloor bangers" with vintage soul and funk on a record that "never puts a foot wrong".

Classical

Aged just 20, South Korea's Yunchan Lim is a "prodigiously gifted" pianist, said Andrew Clements in The Guardian. Lim's debut studio recording offered breathtakingly brilliant accounts of Chopin's "Études".

His technique is "dazzlingly immaculate" and his musical impulses are "startlingly original". In the autumn of an illustrious career, Simon Rattle has delivered a "deeply impressive" recording of Mahler's "harrowing" "Sixth Symphony" with the Bavarian RSO, said Edward Seckerson in Gramophone. This is "plainly the product of journeying with it over many decades": a work of vision and "extraordinary artistry".

The youthful cantatas written by Handel in Rome proved a glorious showcase for the young British soprano Nardus Williams, a "shining star", said Geoff Brown in The Times. Singing these solos is "not for the fainthearted", but Williams "sails through" them with "thrilling aplomb".

Black artists have long been a part of the country music industry, lending some of their cultural influences to arguably one of the most American of music genres. However, they have often faded into the background of an industry that is stereotypically attributed to white patriotic, conservative and rural communities. Beyoncé's formal entry into the genre in 2024 demanded attention from fans and critics for herself and also a bevy of contemporary Black country artists already inhabiting the space.

The Beyoncé effect

In another surprise drop, Beyoncé followed up her "Renaissance: Act I" album with Act II, a country music album called "Cowboy Carter." The Houston-born singer featured two singles off the album during a Super Bowl commercial rollout, in which she announced the album that dropped in March. "Texas Hold 'Em," one of those two singles, helped Beyoncé become the first Black woman ever to reach No. 1 on Billboard's Hot Country Songs chart. Her other single, "16 Carriages," debuted at No. 9. One week later, it topped the Hot 100, "even though some country radio stations initially hesitated to play it," said Business Insider. The album was inspired by an experience five years ago during which Beyoncé "did not feel welcomed," she said on Instagram. Some have speculated that it was her 2016 CMA Award performance of "Daddy Lessons" with The Chicks, known at the time as The Dixie Chicks.

Like "Renaissance," which "paid homage to the pioneers of house, ballroom and club music," the new album carried "sociopolitical implications," Business Insider added. "Cowboy Carter" was "widely interpreted as an act of reclamation — a deliberate move to recoup space in a genre indebted to Black people" but "whose audience and public perception have been whitewashed over time."

Still, it may be a "stretch to suggest Beyoncé can single-handedly reclaim country music for Black people," said Business Insider. That would imply that "Black people have been absent" from country music, and "that is not the case," Billboard's Kyle Denis said. Still, after Beyoncé's official country debut, many contemporary Black country artists saw a boost in streaming numbers. A few of them, like Tanner Adell, Reyna Roberts and Rhiannon Giddens, were featured on "Cowboy Carter."

The boost in attention and newfound country fans helped, whether it was intended that way or not," country music singer-songwriter Ernest said to The New York Times. "The needle has been moved so far this way that it'll never swing back as far as it was."

The Shaboozey storm

Rapper and country singer Shaboozey, another artist featured on "Cowboy Carter," had a breakout year of his own. His "A Bar Song (Tipsy)," a "seamless and savvy hybrid of country and hip-hop" built around the 2004 hip-hop hit "Tipsy" by J-Kwon, was rewarded with a "record-tying 19 weeks at the top of the Billboard Hot 100," the Times said. He shares the record with Lil Nas X's "Old Town Road," which featured Billy Ray Cyrus. The feat earned Shaboozey a performance spot and two nominations for this year's CMA Awards.

He is one of only a few Black artists nominated for New Artist of the Year, but he walked away from the awards empty-handed. Multiple people mentioned his name off-handedly throughout the night. When Cody Johnson took the stage to accept the Album of the Year trophy, his producer Trent Willmon quipped into the microphone: "I got to tell you, this is for this cowboy who's been kicking Shaboozey for a lot of years." The joke was criticized as a microaggression, made even more glaring by the artist's loss at the awards. His first year at the show "should have opened the door for him to be welcomed," said Rolling Stone. It was "arguably slammed in his face" instead.

The CMA shuns cannot detract from what has been a good year for Shaboozey. On top of having one of 2024's stand-out songs, he racked up six Grammy nominations, including nods for Best New Artist and his feature on "Spaghettii," one of the two songs he recorded for "Cowboy Carter." The song also featured country legend Linda Martell. "That's my show opener every show, night after night," he said to Variety. "And now it's nominated for a Grammy. It's beautiful."

What happened

Taylor Swift won video of the year and six other awards at last night's MTV Video Music Awards, leaving her with 30 total VMA trophies, tied with Beyoncé's as MTV's most-awarded artist. Sabrina Carpenter won song of the year for "Espresso," Katy Perry received the Video Vanguard Award and Chappell Roan was named best new artist. 

Who said what

Swift used her first acceptance speech to commemorate the 23rd anniversary of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, saying honoring "everyone that we lost" is "the most important thing about today. And everything that happens tonight falls behind that." She also thanked her fans for voting for her and called on those 18 and older to "please register to vote for something else that's very important," the 2024 presidential election.

Swift did not mention Kamala Harris, whom she endorsed after Tuesday night's debate. But "in a political landscape with countless celebrity endorsements that do little to prompt would-be voters into action," The New York Times said, Swift's support "stands out as among the most meaningful." Donald Trump told Fox News yesterday morning he "was not a Taylor Swift fan" and "she'll probably pay a price for it in the marketplace" for endorsing his rival.

What next?

The U.S. General Services Administration said that by Wednesday afternoon, Vote.gov had received 337,826 visitors "referred from the custom URL created and shared by Ms. Swift" in her Instagram message endorsing Harris. The nonprofit voter-registration site Vote.org told CNN that its traffic had jumped 585% during the debate and in the hours afterward. "Taylor Swift's impact on voter engagement is undeniable," said Vote.org CEO Andrea Hailey.

'9/11 victims deserve transparency. Not a plea deal with terrorists.'

Troy G. Rosasco at USA Today

The "entire 9/11 community deserves full transparency and to be involved in the conversation regarding any plea deals" for the 9/11 plotters, says Troy G. Rosasco. The "handling of the case behind closed doors is nothing less than a stain on the memory of all the victims and an insult to those suffering today," and "both presidential nominees should state their positions on plea negotiations with the 9/11 terrorists."

Read more

'How Harris roped a dope'

David Frum at The Atlantic

Trump "was pushed into broken-sentence monologues," during the debate, while Harris' "debate prep seemed to have concentrated on psychology as much as on policy," says David Frum. Harris "drove Trump and trapped him and baited him — and it worked every time." The debate "will put an end to the Trump claim that Harris is a witless nonentity unqualified to engage in debate," as Harris "dominated and crushed him, using as her principal tools her self-command and her shrewd insight."

Read more

'Tucker Carlson's history lessons'

The Wall Street Journal editorial board

Holocaust rationalization is "false history, and dangerous to the extent it might influence the young and uneducated to believe it," and "critics of Mr. Carlson's interview are rebutting his nonsense, not canceling him," says The Wall Street Journal editorial board. Carlson "can't spread bad history and expect it to go unchallenged." The "rise of social media has made bad ideas and demagoguery easier to spread, especially when promoted by prominent media or political figures."

Read more

'What Beyoncé's snub at the CMAs says about country music's dangerous hierarchy'

Taylor Crumpton at Time

If "country music is one big happy family, Black women are its bastard daughters," says Taylor Crumpton. Beyoncé not receiving a CMA nomination means the "message is clear: If country music is the music of America, then everyone who is not straight, male, and white isn't legitimate." Whether "country music grants them legitimacy or not, Black women will continue on without it," and they "do not need to seek validation from the institutions that dehumanize them."

Read more

Black country, folk and blues musicians have always been vital to the genres' very American, very long legacies. The all-powerful Beyoncé, with her latest album, "Cowboy Carter," has shined a sharp spotlight on some of those artists. But there are boundless musicians from these genres worth celebrating. Here are a few, from the mid-20th century to today. 

Shemekia Copeland

Copeland's voice is legendary. She can wail about love gone sideways like few others. But the daughter of blues musician Johnny Copeland also applies the blues to a broad swath of topics, solidifying her musical prowess. On her 2020 album, "Uncivil War," she "is not content to merely sing blues fodder about love gone wrong: 'Clotilda's On Fire' chronicles the horrors — and lasting impact — of slavery; 'Walk Until I Ride' is a contemporary civil rights manifesto … and 'Money Makes You Ugly' is a protest song for environmentalists," said DownBeat.

Dom Flemons

A one-time member of the Carolina Chocolate Drops with Rhiannon Giddens, Flemons plays a battery of instruments from the folk and country genres. He is also a folk archivist and music historian who enjoys collaborating with other musicians. His 2023 album, "Traveling Wildfire," continues to "honor the past while underscoring its relevance to the present — and keeping an unflinching eye on the future," said the roots-music resource No Depression.

Linda Martell

The country music industry was not ready for Linda Martell when she debuted her country album, "Color Me Country," in 1970. The single "Color Me Father" was a hit. But when Martell played the Grand Ole Opry — the first Black woman to do so — she was heckled and called the n-word. Still, she remembers the era with wistful fondness. "That was a time and a half," she said to Rolling Stone in 2020, years before Beyoncé gave Martell her flowers multiple times on "Cowboy Carter." "Don't get me wrong. There were some beautiful people. And some not that beautiful."

The Pointer Sisters

You may know The Pointer Sisters from their R&B blockbusters such as "I'm So Excited" and "Neutron Dance" during the early 1980s. Well, before they crested the charts, they had a country hit with "Fairytale." Then a "Grand Ole Opry appearance, the first by a Black vocal group, followed despite a hate-fueled protest outside the Ryman Auditorium," said Wide Open Country. The song won the group a Grammy. 

Precious Bryant

"Listening to Bryant's music, you'll hear a blend of the traditional fingerpicking that has come to be associated with musicians from the Piedmont region mixed with the electric sounds of Mississippi artists like Elmore James, Jimmy Reed and Muddy Waters," said Valerie Turner in Acoustic Guitar. Bryant was born in Georgia in the 1940s and, as Turner noted, her influences were broad. She knew how to work a crowd. See her rope 'em in with "Fool Me Good."

Fantastic Negrito

"Rolling Through California" is a prime example of the way this West Coast-born musician engages with his world. "Someone said it's the happiest climate change song ever," Fantastic Negrito said to KQED. "I thought that it was really appropriate to be celebratory, and to be optimistic about the challenges that we have to face, because at least we're alive here and hopefully healthy to face them." His music runs across genres, from blues to funk to hip-hop, and his fondness for his home base of Oakland, California, is infectious.

Rhiannon Giddens

Opera singer; violist; fiddle and banjo player; actor; ballet and opera composer: Giddens has her fingers all over contemporary American culture. One example of her admirable swerves: She played Hallie Jordan in the TV series "Nashville" in 2017 and 2018; a few years later she won the Pulitzer Prize for the opera "Omar" she wrote with Michael Abels. Her "versatility suits her wide-ranging interest in U.S. history — the treatment of enslaved and indigenous peoples, the culture of immigrant communities, civil rights — as she seeks to challenge its present," said the Financial Times.

Reyna Roberts

"I was worried about the stigma of being a black woman in country," Roberts said in a 2020 interview with Rolling Stone. "But after thinking about it, and having the encouragement of my parents, and others, I realized that I need to go after what I love: country music." And oh, has she, appearing on Monday Night Football multiple times and enlisting the praise of singers like Carrie Underwood.

Movie musicals are a tricky genre. The big screen captures grandness well, and musicals are full of grand gestures. Still, there is an electricity that can be lost when the live element is stripped away. These eight musicals keep the spark and show just what the genre can do. 

'Sweet Charity' (1969)

The number 'Big Spender' from this 1969 movie is a perfect microcosm of the musical's magic: raucous, precise, tender, broken, stylish-as-all-get-out, "endlessly inventive and borders on genius," said Le Cinema Dreams. Often described as the story of a hooker with a heart of gold, 'Sweet Charity,' in director-choreographer Bob Fosse's hands, is an everyman tale of how we survive in a world sometimes stacked against us.

'Cabaret' (1972)

The specter of the Nazis has always played a central role in 'Cabaret.' Somehow in the film version of the musical, which goes "right to the bleak heart of the material," said Roger Ebert, the imminence of that evil feels almost corporeal. The stellar performances from Liza Minnelli, as wanna-be chanteuse Sally Bowles, and Joel Grey, as the menacing Emcee, are a pleasant distraction from the creeping danger. Until you realize they might be in on it by doing nothing to prevent it. 

'Grease' (1978)

No one believed for a greased nanosecond that anyone in this cast was a high schooler. But! What a romp this celluloid adaptation of "Grease" is. It works because of its "youthful vitality, the tremendous energy and imagination expended on its virtually wall-to-wall song and dance number," said The Hollywood Reporter. Often, songs written specifically for screen versions of Broadway musicals feel shoehorned. "Hopelessly Devoted to You" and "You're the One That I Want," though, are stellar pop fun, even if they are more '80s tunes than '60s ones.

'Little Shop of Horrors' (1986)

The insouciance of this 1986 adaptation of Alan Menken and Howard Ashman's musical is irresistible. Steve Martin inhaling the scenery as Orin Scrivello, the sadistic dentist? Rick Moranis dweebing his way through the movie as lovesick Seymour? Ellen Green reprising her celebrated turn as the put-upon Audrey? Marvels, all. "'Little Shop' is a love story," said Jessica Hopkins in The Guardian. "It's also a story about conquering your demons and discovering the best you can be — even if it takes a blood-guzzling talking plant to get you there."

'Chicago' (2002)

A common, albeit misguided, gripe about movie musicals is that no one bursts into song in real life. As if there is anything real about a medium in which cameras capture actors performing. In this adaptation of Kander and Ebb's 1975 musical, director Rob Marshall circumvents that complaint by having the musical numbers occur in the characters' heads. More important, 'Chicago' is cheeky and sexy, "flashing more thigh than Kentucky Fried Chicken, generating excitement with bullet-timed editing and brassy, hip-shaking musical numbers," said Elvis Mitchell in The New York Times.

'Dreamgirls' (2006)

The film did not quite make the screen star of Beyoncé that everyone — but probably especially Beyoncé — was hoping. Still, Bill Condon's adaptation of the 1981 musical, "one timeless, tuneful fable of glory, greed, heartbreak," said Empire, did a bang-up job conveying the enthusiasm and tension of a 1960s girl group trying to find their way as a collective and as individuals. "Dreamgirls" sure did make a star of Jennifer Hudson, playing Effie White. 

'Tick, Tick… Boom!' (2021)

A cult hit if there ever was one, "Tick, Tick… Boom" was one of "Rent" composer Jonathan Larson's first musicals. It is full of youthful fervor, in all the good and less-good ways you can think of. And Lin-Manuel Miranda, that consummate theater nerd, directed this film adaptation with a like-souled intensity. His work "unspools as an exuberant ode to Larson and a tribute to anyone, especially those in the arts, who might be chasing big dreams," said Entertainment Weekly. Witness the number "Sunday," an homage to Sondheim's faultless musical "Sunday in the Park with George." In Miranda's imagining, the song becomes a theater-history phantasmagoria, with an endless parade of Broadway stars appearing as extras. 

'West Side Story' (2021)

Blasphemy alert: The 2021 Spielberg remake of Leonard Bernstein and Stephen Sondheim's classic just might be better than the 1961 original. It feels fresh without being forced; the color palette grants the story bite; aside from fumbling Ansel Elgort as Tony, the performances are sublime. Ariana DeBose, deservedly, won an Oscar for her performance as Anita. "There are scenes in Spielberg’s version that will melt you, scenes that will make your pulse race, and scenes where you simply sit back and revel in the big-spirited grandeur of it all," said Owen Glieberman in Variety.

Taylor Swift's iconic hit "Shake It Off" is rarely mentioned in the same breath as the Russian national anthem but both have fallen foul of a new ruling on music in Chechnya. 

The Russian republic has announced a ban on music that the regime considers too fast or slow, ruling that all songs and compositions should "correspond to a tempo of 80 to 116 beats per minute", said Sky News.

The Chechen 'mentality'

The country's leader Ramzan Kadyrov told culture minister Musa Dadayev to make its music "conform to the Chechen mentality", said The Moscow Times. Announcing the ban, Dadayev said: "Chechen musical culture has always been diverse in tempo and methodology. We must pass on our cultural heritage to our children: the customs, traditions, our adats [traditional laws], nokhchalla [code of honour] – features of the Chechen character, which includes the entire spectrum of moral and ethical standards of life of the Chechens." 

Artists have been given until 1 June to rewrite any material that doesn't meet the criteria and if their music isn't reworked they won't be allowed to perform it in public. The new tempo is "relatively slow" compared to a lot of modern pop music, said Sky News, and "would rule out a number of western genres from being played publicly in the conservative Islamic society".

Politico lists some of the songs that are banned under the rule. "Coming in hot at 160 BPM", Taylor Swift's "Shake It Off" is "definitely out", and Beyoncé's "Single Ladies" doesn't "make the cut" at 193bpm. "Girls Just Want to Have Fun" by Cyndi Lauper and "Hot Stuff" by Donna Summer are also out of the question.

But "embarrassingly for Kadyrov", who is a "slavish supporter" of Vladimir Putin, the Russian national anthem also flouts the new rule, said The Times. The hymn, a "solemn ode to the motherland composed during the Soviet era", is only 76bpm.

'Vicious cancer'

Many regimes have sought to restrict Western music and cultural influences. After the Islamic Revolution in 1979, Western music was banned in Iran, said Euronews. Many pop songs were forbidden, record shops "vanished" and concert halls "fell silent", said the news site, and anyone caught with music deemed "un-Islamic" could be fined, lashed or imprisoned for "causing corruption on earth".

All music, except party propaganda, was banned in Cambodia during the rule of the Khmer Rouge in the 1970s, said The Economist, and last summer, the Taliban burned musical instruments in Afghanistan, claiming music "causes moral corruption". Since returning to power in 2021, the Taliban has imposed "numerous restrictions", including on playing music in public, said the BBC.

In North Korea, outside music is banned and Kim Jong-un has publicly condemned K-Pop (pop music originating in South Korea) as a "vicious cancer" permeating North Korean society, said Sarah A. Son, from the University of Sheffield, on The Conversation. In Malaysia, local laws ban radio stations from playing songs that are "offensive to public feeling" or "violate good taste and decency".

The UK has had its own moments of musical censorship, said Vice. It said the "needlessly discriminatory" Section 63 of the 1994 Criminal Justice Act gave police the power to shut down events featuring music that was "characterised by the emission of a succession of repetitive beats".

There is little question that Beyoncé Knowles-Carter is one of the biggest superstars on the planet right now. She resides in the lofty echelons of fame wherein her projects are treated not simply as new releases, but culturally significant events. It should be no surprise then that "Texas Hold 'Em," the first single off Beyoncé's brand-new "Cowboy Carter" album, has spent more than six weeks atop Billboard's "Hot Country Songs" chart. This makes Beyoncé the "first Black woman with the number one single" on that particular listing, as she noted in an Instagram post thanking her fans for the achievement. 

The accomplishment, however, has been accompanied by a contentious debate over whether Beyoncé is indeed a country artist, along with broader questions of how one of popular music's biggest genres defines and limits participation. Just days after Beyoncé announced "Cowboy Carter" during the 2024 Super Bowl, a country music radio station in Oklahoma refused a listener request to play the album's single because, as the station manager wrote in an email, "we do not play Beyoncé at KYKC as we are a country music station." The rejection was quickly reversed after a massive outcry and allegations of racism. 

With "Cowboy Carter" set for a March 28 release, the discourse over who is — and perhaps more important who gets to define — a country artist is likely to intensify. 

'A classic case of cultural appropriation'

Criticism of Beyoncé's country turn with claims that she should "stay in [her] lane" or "Well, that's not real country" are couched examples of racism, Grammy award winning folk and Americana artist Rhiannon Giddons said to ABC. Exclusionary critics "don't wanna say it's because she Black" and use "coded terms" instead. Giddons, who is Black and plays banjo on "Cowboy Carter," pointed out that "nobody's askin' Lana Del Rey, 'What right do you have to make a country record?'" while stressing that with this album Beyoncé is only exploring her roots. 

That exploration comes amidst a broad conception that country music is "a genre made by and for white people," Forbes said. It is a notion that is "empirically false" given the genre's roots that were influenced by "Black music and shaped by Black traditions." Given those "historical origins," denying Beyoncé's work as sufficiently country is "not merely exclusionary; it is a classic case of cultural appropriation." Historical precedence aside, this gatekeeping "ignores the fact that [Beyoncé is] from Texas and the country aesthetic is a cultural silhouette of her identity." Beyoncé's music has long featured a "proud and overt appreciation for her Southern roots," The Harvard Crimson said, contrasting the Texas native with genre stars like Keith Urban and Shania Twain who are "not from America and have no heritage connected to the American South, yet they face no backlash for their country music."

'More elasticity' with genre-hopping

In particular, the debate over Beyoncé's country-ness exists largely in the realm of radio, where country stations "still retain a significant gatekeeping power, elevating favored performers and mediating the genre's metes and bounds for audiences and the industry," The New York Times said. That "Texas Hold 'Em" hit #1 on the Billboard Hot Country chart is a "combination of streaming, sales and airplay data" with just "modest" radio airplay. While some major country stations have welcomed the song, the industry at-large can be punishing to "those perceived as outsiders or dilettantes," and "programmers may be scanning for signals from their audience before pushing further." As one major format programmer explained to The Times, the questions posed are often "How committed is the artist is to the format?" and are they are going to be a "one-time wonder, or is there going to be more?"

Conversely, transitioning from one genre to country — even in radio — "might actually be easier now than ever before for multiple reasons," Billboard argued. Not only has the genre itself become "much more flexible," but Taylor Swift's "reverse transition" from country to pop music has "made genre-hopping more acceptable." At the same time "radio programmers are operating differently" than even a few years earlier. Increasingly, station program directors "came into country from other formats" and "view country's boundaries with more elasticity."

When Beyoncé became the first black woman to top the Billboard Hot Country chart, it was hailed as a breakthrough moment for country music.

"Texas Hold 'Em", one of two new songs released by the Houston-born singer in a Super Bowl commercial as part of her upcoming album "Renaissance: Act II", is "not her first rodeo", so to speak, said Glamour, having previously elicited a "swift – and explicitly racist – backlash" for her 2016 performance of "Daddy Lessons" with The Chicks at the 2016 Country Music Academy (CMA) awards.

It is, however, her "most successful and controversial" foray into the genre, William Nash, Professor of American Studies and English and American Literatures, Middlebury College, Vermont, wrote on The Conversation.

Many "stereotype country music as being white, politically conservative, militantly patriotic and rural", said Nash. "But the story of country has always been more complicated, and debates about race and authenticity in country are nothing new; they've plagued country artists, record companies and listeners for over a century."

'No Beyoncé on a country music station'

While some country singers – such as the legendary Dolly Parton – have been "willing to welcome Beyoncé with open arms, that isn't necessarily true of the country establishment as a whole", said Mary Kate Carr for AV Club.

"The fact that she's the first woman to accomplish these chart records is demonstrative of not just the way country music as a whole has been siloed from pop music, but of the way that Black artists, and particularly Black female artists, have struggled for acceptance in the genre," Carr added.

By studying over 11,000 songs played on country radio from 2002 to 2020, Jada Watson, an assistant professor in the School of Information Studies at the University of Ottawa and the principal investigator of SongData, found that artists of colour represented just 3% of country airplay, two-thirds of which were by solo male artists.

The case of one radio station in Oklahoma, which responded to a fan request to play "Texas Hold 'Em" with the message: "We do not play Beyoncé on KYKC as we are a country music station", received national attention as indicative of the prejudices around the genre.

It "ignited a new flame in a long-simmering debate over how Black artists fit into a genre that has Black music at its roots", said The New York Times.

The backlash not only "set off a rapid chain of events" that eventually led to the song topping the country charts, reported NPR, but also "solidified a complaint against country radio stations in particular: that they act as gatekeepers of a stereotype that the genre is limited to white artists".

Breaking down country barriers

These reactions, "which range from simply ignorant to downright misogynoir, presuppose that commercial country music – a music of guitars, banjos and fiddles; of pick-up trucks, heartbreak and that down-home lonesome sound – is a legacy that belongs only to white, rural southerners", said two-time Grammy-winning musician Rhiannon Giddens in The Guardian. But "that supposition is just plain wrong".

"The truth is that country music has never been white," argued Taylor Crumpton in Time. "Country music is Black. Country music is Mexican. Country music is Indigenous", and Beyoncé does not need "white validation to classify her country –she has been country for the entirety of her life".

So far, there is "no indication the singles have challenged the system and its goal of targeting affluent white listeners", said NPR, even if it is clear that Beyoncé's foray into country music has helped "shed light on the presence of Black country artists".

But if anyone can break down the barriers in country, Dr Charles Hughes, the director of the Lynne and Henry Turley Memphis Center at Rhodes College, told The New York Times, it's Beyoncé and her legion of BeyHive fans.

"Maybe that power will create an expanded space for all these great Black women making country music," he said, "to make it more in line with the people who love country music and the country it's supposed to represent."

The holiday season is here, bringing with it plenty of gifts for movie fans to unwrap. From Oscar hopefuls to superhero flicks and musicals, these are the new movies you won’t want to miss in December: 

'Renaissance: A Film by Beyoncé' (Dec. 1)

It's a great year for experiencing concerts at the movies that you couldn't get tickets to in person. After Taylor Swift's "The Eras Tour" film, Beyoncé is similarly bringing her "Renaissance" tour to theaters. In addition to capturing a few live performances, the film depicts "Beyoncé's intention, hard work, involvement in every aspect of the production," the announcement said. The movie will be playing from Thursday to Sunday for at least four weeks. 

'Godzilla Minus One' (Dec. 1)

Praise be to Godzilla. The king of the monsters returns in Toho's latest, a follow-up to the acclaimed 2016 reboot "Shin Godzilla." This one, though, is a period piece set after World War II. It's part of the Japanese franchise, not to be confused with the American MonsterVerse series that includes the ongoing "Monarch: Legacy of Monsters" and next year's "Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire." After a year of superhero fatigue, we'll soon learn if there's such a thing as Godzilla fatigue. 

'Silent Night' (Dec. 1)

Director John Woo was being quite literal when he titled his new Christmas action movie "Silent Night." The film, starring Joel Kinnaman as a man who has lost his voice and seeks revenge for his son's death, has no dialogue. "We are using music instead of language," Woo told Vulture. It's the latest film to utilize this gimmick after "No One Will Save You," which was also virtually dialogue-free. 

'Poor Things' (Dec. 8)

Emma Stone is coming for her second Oscar. The actress is earning raves for her performance in "Poor Things," Yorgos Lanthimos' follow-up to "The Favourite." Stone stars as a woman who commits suicide, only to be brought back to life by a mad scientist with the brain of an unborn child. The film is expected to be one of this year's Best Picture nominees, extending the era of Oscar contenders that will probably baffle your mom.

'Rebel Moon' (Dec. 15)

Fans won't need to campaign for a #SnyderCut of Zack Snyder's latest film: He's way ahead of them. From the "Justice League" director comes this Netflix sci-fi epic about a woman who assembles a team of warriors to fight a tyrannical government. Snyder originally conceived "Rebel Moon" as a "Star Wars" film before turning it into an original property. It will be released in two parts, each of which will also have longer R-rated director's cuts. 

'Wonka' (Dec. 15)

You don't need a golden ticket to see Timothée Chalamet's transformation into the candy man. The actor stars in this prequel providing an origin story for Willy Wonka and revealing how he became the chocolate maker we meet in "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory." Chalamet will perform seven musical numbers in the film, which also stars Hugh Grant as an Oompa-Loompa. 

'Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom' (Dec. 22)

It's the end of an era for DC. The superhero franchise is undergoing a reboot, so after a decade, "Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom" marks the official last entry of the DC Extended Universe. The sequel pairs Jason Momoa's Aquaman with Patrick Wilson's Orm Marius, the superhero's half-brother who was imprisoned after the events of the first film. Amber Heard is also returning, though reportedly with a reduced role. Her appearance in the trailer is a literal blink-and-you-miss-it moment. 

'Anyone But You' (Dec. 22)

Remember those rumors of an on-set affair between Sydney Sweeney and Glen Powell? The film they were shooting when the gossip spread, "Anyone but You," is arriving in December. The two star as a woman and a man who can't stand each other but pretend they're a couple while at a destination wedding. 

'The Color Purple' (Dec. 25)

"American Idol" winner Fantasia Barrino might be seeing the color gold this awards season. She takes on her first major movie role in "The Color Purple," a film version of the Broadway musical, which adapted the same book that was previously turned into the 1985 Steven Spielberg film. Might Barrino become the latest "American Idol" alum to snag an acting Oscar after Jennifer Hudson? Based on early reactions to "The Color Purple," it sounds like she hits all the right notes. 

Beyoncé has come in for criticism after she was reportedly paid $24m (£19.4m) for a one-off concert in Dubai to celebrate the opening of a new hotel.

The 41-year-old was applauded by the 1,500-strong crowd as she emerged in a “yellow sequinned gown with a sculptural feathered cape”, said Sky News, opening with a cover of Etta James’s At Last.

It was Beyoncé’s first live stage performance since 2018, but her decision to sing in Dubai – where homosexuality is illegal and considered a crime, technically punishable by death – has been widely condemned.

A ‘huge mistake’

Peter Tatchell, the LGBT rights campaigner, said Beyoncé’s performance in a “dictatorship like Dubai” was a “huge mistake”.

He said she had abandoned “her own progressive values” and “put a money-grabbing pay cheque” before human rights. “Like many of her LGBT fans, I feel betrayed and angry,” he said, adding that “her liberal reputation has taken a hard knock”.

The performance did not contain any material from Beyoncé’s highly acclaimed 2022 album Renaissance, which “purports to be a love letter to Black and queer dance-music pioneers”, said Stereogum. Commenting on the reported omission, Tatchell said: “It looks like she did this to appease Dubai’s homophobic regime.”

Bev Jackson, co-founder of the LGB Alliance, said the Grammy-winning star’s performance in Dubai “casts a shadow over her support for lesbians and gay people”.

“Beyoncé is a huge icon for many gay people,” Jackson told The Telegraph. “LGB Alliance is deeply therefore disappointed that Beyoncé has agreed to give a lucrative concert in Dubai, where same-sex sex acts are a criminal offence, potentially punishable by death.”

‘Inspiring’ and ‘hopeful’

However, said The Times, there was also support from some members of the gay community, who argued that it was “inspiring” and “hopeful” to see a gay icon perform in a country where homosexuality is illegal.

Beyoncé is not the first artist to face criticism over a decision to perform in the Middle East. Campaigners have “long lobbied” artists to cancel concerts in the UAE and Saudi Arabia over the countries’ “respective serious human rights violations”, said The Guardian.

These campaigns have had mixed results: in 2019, Nicki Minaj pulled out of playing Jeddah World Fest in Saudi Arabia but in 2021, Justin Bieber performed in Saudi Arabia despite pressure to cancel.

In November, Robbie Williams defended his decision to perform in Qatar during the World Cup. He was criticised for agreeing to sing during the tournament, due to the country’s human rights record, stance on homosexuality and treatment of migrant workers.

“Of course, I don’t condone any abuses of human rights anywhere,” he told Italian newspaper la Repubblica.

“But, that being said, if we’re not condoning human rights abuses anywhere, then it would be the shortest tour the world has ever known: I wouldn’t even be able to perform in my own kitchen.”

Olly Mann and The Week delve behind the headlines and debate what really matters from the past seven days.

You can subscribe to The Week Unwrapped wherever you get your podcasts:

• Spotify
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In this week’s episode, we discuss:

Immunotherapy breakthrough

A small trial of a new immunotherapy drug has found that the treatment had a 100% efficacy rate against a form of colorectal cancer. It’s only one form of the disease and it’s a very small trial, but it’s a really strong result – and it comes on top of 15 years of astonishing progress. Someone diagnosed with metastatic melanoma in 2008 was likely to be dead within two years. Now people can live with the disease for decades and die of something else. Are we finally turning the tide on cancer?

Unionising tech

Workers at an Apple store in Maryland have voted to unionise, and in doing so have become the company’s first official US union. Other American Apple stores have tried, but without success. As UK-based unions flex their muscles this week with rail and Tube strikes, is this a sign that organised labour is making a comeback?

House revival

Drake's new album, Honestly Nevermind, signals a significant change in tone, and Break My Soul from Beyonce has a similar energy. Both have acknowledged that they turned to 1990s House music for inspiration – and in some cases for talent too. Drake’s album was produced with the help of house and electronic music producers Gordo, Rampa, Black Coffee and Alex Lustig. But why now? What is the appeal of a genre that had drifted out of the mainstream?

Christianity may be on the decline worldwide but worshippers in the US are flocking to a groundbreaking service called Beyonce Mass. Combining progressive theology and pop music, the Mass is a celebration of God… and of former Destiny’s Child star Beyonce Knowles-Carter.

So exactly what is it?

Launched in San Francisco last year, Beyonce Mass is a Christian “womanist worship service that uses the music and personal life of Beyonce as a tool to foster an empowering conversation about black women”, according to the organisers’ website.

The Mass is making its debut in New York this week, with a Wednesday service at the First Presbyterian Church of Brooklyn and a Thursday event at St James Presbyterian in Harlem.

The service features black women singers, dancers and officiants along with a sermon, scripture readings and the Lord’s Supper.

And it uses Beyonce’s story and songs, from Formation to Flaws and All, to frame religious narratives - and those of black women - through a Christian lens.

“I haven’t been involved in the church for years, but stepping back into that space felt amazing,” Lydia Middleton, dean of Black Student Affairs at the Claremont Colleges in Los Angeles, told the The New York Times (NYT).

“It felt warm and inviting, and I left feeling healed. By the end of the service, people were weeping, people were joyous, people were hugging each other.”

How did it start?

Beyonce Mass grew out of a chapel service led by Reverand Yolanda Norton, chair of Black Church Studies at San Francisco Theological Seminary, where she taught a class called “Beyonce and the Hebrew Bible”.

The course examined female-centric interpretations of the Bible and how black female identity is represented in scripture, with a focus on how Beyonce’s “personal life, career trajectory, music and public persona reflects aspects of black women’s stories”.

The first major Beyonce Mass was in April 2018, when “900 people turned out for a midweek evening church service that typically draws 50 participants at Grace Cathedral in San Francisco”, reports the NYT.

Why Beyonce?

Norton says that having Beyonce serve as the inspiration for the Mass was a personal choice as well as a scholarly one.

“As her life evolves, my life evolves,” said the 37-year-old cleric. “I can hear Beyonce songs, or Destiny’s Child songs, and know what stage of life I was in.”

The Christian Broadcasting Network (CBN) reports that during a Beyonce Mass service last year, Norton told the congregation: “I’ve been asked time and time again, ‘Why Beyonce?’

“I believe she reminds us that you have to do your thing your way, you don’t do it on demand, you don’t do it for your oppressor, you don’t sing when they want you to sing... you sing when God calls you to sing.”

The concept has been applauded by Rev. Dr. Kelly Brown Douglas, dean of the Episcopal Divinity School at New York City’s Union Theological Seminary, where Norton is currently a scholar in residence.

Douglas said: “Black artists have always been central to the struggle for black freedom…Beyonce is a part of this legacy. There is this natural correspondence between the kinds of things she does in her music and the black church.”

But the service isn’t about worshipping Beyonce, Norton cautions.

“Absolutely not, and I’m a card-carrying member of the BeyHive,” she said.

“People think we’re worshipping Beyonce, none of that is true. This is a way to have different kinds of conversation.”

Beyonce’s former drummer has claimed the singer practiced witchcraft in order to ruin her love life and control her cat.

Kimberly Thompson, 37, last week filed for a temporary restraining order against the pop star, who she claims is trying to destroy her life out of jealousy.

A Los Angeles judge immediately denied the request. But according to music news site Pitchfork, another restraining order hearing is scheduled for 11 October.

Meanwhile, Thompson, who was in Beyonce’s all-girl backing band for seven years, has given an interview on DailyMailTV.

“Thompson claims Beyonce used witchcraft that allowed her to be ‘manipulated sexually’, saying the singer did this by ‘jumping into other bodies’ to watch her be intimate with partners,” reports the newspaper.

The star is also accused of messing with a kitten belong to Thompson, who sought the advice of psychics last year after her new pet began attacking her and “doing weird magical stuff”.

“I was getting abused,” Thompson to DailyMailTV. “Every time I came home from work to rest, I was just being abused to the point where I’m still healing from a scratch on my rib cage.

“It drew blood, it was awful. It was so manic and gnarly that I ended up calling two psychics.”

She claims they told her that Beyonce had put a spell on the cat. The singer later had the animal killed, she adds.

“For a very long time, I put this person [Beyonce] on a pedestal, I loved them, and the entire time, this person was casting spells, and manipulating and controlling my job situation, my relationships, just all kind of things,” said Thompson.

Beyonce has not commented on the allegations.

Beyonce has confirmed that she will voice Nala in the upcoming Lion King remake.

The news was met with all the restraint and reserve you’d expect from the chart queen’s dedicated following, the self-styled “beehive”.

The singer’s past acting credits include Diana Ross stand-in Deena Jones in Dreamgirls and Foxy Cleopatra in Austin Powers: Goldmember.

Heading the cast is Community star Donald Glover, also known by his rap stage name Childish Gambino, who is to play the adult Simba.

The Daily Show host John Oliver will step into Rowan Atkinson’s shoes as meddlesome hornbill Zazu, while fellow comics Billy Eichner and Seth Rogen have been cast as Timon and Pumbaa, respectively.

The only original cast member from the 1994 animation is James Earl Jones, who will reprise his role as king Mufasa, opposite Chiwetel Ejiofor as the villainous would-be usurper Scar.

Many Twitter users applauded Disney’s decision to cast black actors in the majority of the leading roles, with African-American blog The Root calling it the “blackest Disney movie ever”.

However, some commentators were disappointed that the majority of the main cast are American or British, despite the African setting of the tale:

So far, two African actors have been cast - South African John Kani will play soothsaying baboon Rafiki, and German-Ugandan actress Florence Kasumba is to voice dim-witted hyena Shenzi.

While others saw a welcome political allegory in the film’s climax, which portrays the triumph of good over an evil dictator:

The film is being billed as “live-action” - meaning a lifelike CGI version of the tale similar to 2016’s The Jungle Book, rather than the likes of Beyonce and James Earl Jones actually running around in furry costumes.

The two movies will share a director - Jon Favreau - who has already started shooting The Lion King. A brief clip shown to an audience as Disney fan convention D23 “featured jaw-dropping photo-real shots”, said the Hollywood Reporter.

Visual effects supervisor Rob Legato, who also worked on The Jungle Book, said The Lion King would use even more advanced technology to bring the story to life.

"We are going to use a lot of virtual-reality tools,” he said. “The actors can now walk into a scene and see the other actors and trees … and because you are in 3D, you get a realistic sense.”

After completing her hit album Work in January 2016, singer Rihanna chose the Paul Mitchell Estate in Oahu, Hawaii as the perfect place to unwind.

This seven-bedroom beachfront resort is modelled on a Polynesian village and features traditional carved wood architecture, a saltwater lagoon-style pool, coconut groves and stunning views on to the Pacific Ocean.

Unlike most Polynesian villages, however, the £4,924-a-night Paul Mitchell Estate also boasts a gym, a Japanese bathhouse and a meditation pond.

Pop star Britney Spears spent Valentine's Day at the Malibu Dream Escape villa, a secluded oasis in California which offers uninterrupted views of the Pacific Ocean and glimpses of "surfers, kite surfers, dolphins, and even the whales".

Done out in a Mediterranean style, this five-bedroom property includes a gym, hot tub and a built-in music system. It is valued at $30m (£24m), but it can be yours for a night for the slightly less princely sum of £6,154.

What do Beyonce and Justin Bieber have in common? They have both in this San Francisco hillside villa, an achingly-stylish glass-fronted home with thoroughly contemporary clean edges and minimalist interiors designed by Noah Cross Architects.

A one-night stay will currently set you back £8,206 and for that, you can enjoy the views from the infinity pool, before being pampered in the spa or kicking back with a drink at the bar. The villa also has a kitchen with five ovens, designed for entertaining on a grand scale.

Beyonce and Bieber might go for the modern look, but Mariah Carey was looking for old-school extravagance on the Italian leg of her Sweet Fantasy tour. She found it at the Villa Napoleone I, once home to opera composer Vincenzo Bellini.

This luxurious property on the banks of Lake Como boasts a private dock, 12th-century belltower and no fewer than 11 fountains in its sprawling grounds.

Meanwhile, opulent interiors recall the property's 18th-century roots, but with modern touches that would have completely confounded Bellini, including a home cinema, cocktail bar and two playrooms.

A night's stay in the historic lakeside mansion will cost £9,118.

Tromvik Lodge, which lies on a remote island off Norway's northern coast, might be at the more modest end of the luxury scale - available to rent at £305 a night - but it can claim the most blue-blooded guest.

Prince Harry is said to have brought girlfriend Meghan Markle here earlier this year to see the Northern Lights.

The cosy lodge's secluded surroundings were perfect for the privacy-loving Prince. It also comes with its own sauna, hot tub and wood-burning stove for romantic nights in.

In Hawaii to film Aloha, Oscar-winning actress Emma Stone chose the Diamond Head villa for her green room, a four-bedroom home at the foot of the dormant volcano of the same name.

Built using natural wood and stone to reflect local traditional styles, the £3,282-a-night property is a true island paradise, surrounded by vibrant tropical gardens.

Amenities include a heated pool surrounded by an outdoor lounge, a spa and, in case Stone hadn't had enough of films after a day on set, a private cinema.

To celebrate his brother's stag do in May 2016, Breaking Bad star Aaron Paul hired out the Alpine Sanctuary ski lodge in Park City, Utah.

The luxury lodge, which can be hired for £8,206 per night, hosts up to 11 guests in six bedroom suites and in addition to a private wine cellar and outdoor jacuzzi, it features table football, table tennis, billiards and a private cinema. It's not hard to see why Paul chose it for a boys' weekend away.

Adele and Beyonce were the undisputed stars of the 59th Grammy Awards, with dazzling performances, generous tributes and some gravity defying theatrics.

Adele opened the show with her hit Hello before taking a total of five awards, including album of the year for 25.

But the British singer seemed embarrassed to have won this last gong and suggested Beyonce's Lemonade was the more worthy contender – she even snapped the award in two and offered half to "the artist of my life".

Beyonce, who announced last week she is expecting twins, lived up to the tribute, wowing audiences with a spectacular, digitally enhanced performance of Sandcastles and Love Drought, both from the album.

But while everyone was talking about the two stars, there were plenty of other strange, funny and important moments in the ceremony.

Here are just five.

Streamer makes history

Chance the Rapper made history as the first streaming-only artist to be nominated and win a Grammy, beating Kanye and Drake to win best rap album for Coloring Book. He also became the first black hip-hop star to win best new artist since Lauryn Hill in 1999. Chance used his moment on stage to petition the awards to include more streaming-only acts as official contenders in the future.

Red carpet ventriloquism

If there were an award for "most bizarre red carpet interview", Mike Posner would have won it. The Took a Pill in Ibiza singer insisted on speaking to interviewers through his collaborator Blackbear, whispering his answers to his sidekick, who would then answer. The two also indulged in some Joker-lookalike cosplay, sporting acid green hair to make the whole thing even creepier. The sight left many wondering what kind of pill Posner did take in Ibiza.

Rihanna's flask

The Grammys stretch for more than three and a half hours, not all of them scintillating. But Rihanna came up with novel way to keep things lively. The Bajan star sipped from a diamond-encrusted hip flask throughout the night, graciously offering it to those around her. The contents of the blinged-up vessel remain a mystery, but whatever was in it, it seemed to help the singer keep her spirits up as she danced and smiled enigmatically throughout the evening.

Things turned political

Politics made its presence felt throughout the awards: Neil Portnow, president of the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences, made a call for unity, while Katie Perry performed in front of a projection of the US constitution. Rappers A Tribe Called Quest took things to another level with their black-power fist-pumping performance to protest the US travel ban, with Busta Rhymes referring to Donald Trump as "President Agent Orange" and different ethnicities walking down the aisles.

Transgender solidarity

Among several moments of solidarity with the transgender community, Orange is the New Black actor Laverne Cox called for audiences to google the name Gavin Grimm, the teenager at the centre of an upcoming Supreme Court case which will determine whether schools can force students to use toilets that match the gender on their birth certificate. The awards also saw a man and a transgender woman join the so-called "trophy girls" bringing the honours on stage. Portnow said: "To be honest, the idea of a 'trophy girl' has felt antiquated for some time now. The ability to present a trophy has nothing to do with one's gender."

Infographic by www.statista.com for TheWeek.co.uk.

In 2007, Charlie Bit My Finger turned two ordinary children into celebrities. In 2012, you couldn't go ten minutes without hearing Gangnam Style. Last year, Adele's Hello became the music video that launched a thousand parodies.

So what were the defining viral videos of the year? Here are some of the candidates:

Chewbacca mom

In May, Texas mother Candace Payne uploaded a video to Facebook entitled "It's the simple joys in life..." in which she laughs hysterically while trying out a talking Chewbacca mask.

Her infectious delight struck a chord with Facebook users, who shared the clip a stonking 3.3 million times. The shops ran out of the masks within days as the video spread, and Payne was invited to appear on the Ellen DeGeneres Show and on James Corden's Carpool series, reports Forbes.

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British running champion Jonny Brownlee was moments away from winning the final race in the World Triathlon Series in Mexico when heat and fatigue overwhelmed him. Metres from the finish line, he began to stagger, seemingly on the verge of passing out.

But his brother Alistair, who was running comfortably in third place, decided not to overtake him and instead dragged him to the finish line and pushed him ahead to ensure he finished in second – a display of brotherly love that brought a tear to the nation's eye.

Jonathan Pie

As pro-Remainers and anti-Trumpers alike struggled to wrap their heads around this year's two astonishing blows to the political establishment, British satirist Jonathan Pie took to Facebook to express his frustration with the left-wing's failure to predict or understand the rise of populism.

The video quickly racked up 22 million views. While not everyone agreed with his assessment, with some accusing him of acting as an apologist for bigots, it certainly got people talking.

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In the middle of a fierce national debate over police brutality in the US and the Black Lives Matter movement, Beyonce turned her half-time gig at the Super Bowl into a bold political statement.

Dressed in military-style black leathers, she gave a Black Power raised-fist salute before launching into her black pride anthem, Formation. The racially charged performance drew both criticism and applause, and received more than 100 million views.

25,000ft no parachute [[{"type":"media","view_mode":"content_original","fid":"105393","attributes":{"class":"media-image"}}]]

How do you survive a jump from a plane with no parachute and nothing to break your fall but a net somewhere 25,000ft below?

There's no catch – American skydiver Luke Aikens did just that. As onlookers on the ground held their breath, the fearless thrillseeker plummeted through the air and made his Looney Tunes-style landing look effortless. Even if you know he succeeded, it's almost impossible not to watch through your fingers.

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In an election season that seemed almost too surreal to parody, Saturday Night Live fans looked forward to the comedy institution's take on Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton's first presidential debate.

Alongside Kate McKinnon as Clinton, the sketch introduced the world to Alec Baldwin's Trump. His uncanny take-off of the billionaire's idiosyncratic mannerisms had the internet in stitches – except Trump himself, who complained on Twitter that the skit was "Unwatchable! Totally biased, not funny and the Baldwin impersonation just can't get any worse. Sad."

Damn, Daniel [[{"type":"media","view_mode":"content_original","fid":"105395","attributes":{"class":"media-image"}}]]

Californian high school student Joshua Holz filmed himself greeting his embarrassed friend, Daniel Lara, with a "Damn, Daniel!" on multiple occasions, and turned it into a Snapchat compilation that millions of people tuned in to. While many adults were left baffled by the clip's popularity, schoolteachers reported that references to the Damn, Daniel video had become ubiquitous in classrooms.

SATURDAY, UK: Tony Bellew celebrates after winning the WBC Cruiserweight Championship belt in Liverpool

SATURDAY, JAPAN: Helena Merten of Australia dives from a 92ft platform at the Red Bull Cliff Diving World Series

SUNDAY, INDIA: Police step in during a demonstration against the Indian government's dismissal of a proposal on water-sharing rights.

MONDAY, US: Arizona Cardinals fans wear masks of presidential candidates Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton at an NFL game

TUESDAY, ECUADOR: The La Compania church in Quito is lit up as the city hosts a UN conference on housing and urban development

TUESDAY, UK: Triathletes greet spectators at the Trafalgar Square victory parade for Team GB's Olympics & Paralympics stars

WEDNESDAY, JAPAN: Pepper the robot talks to guests at Japan Robot Week 2016 in Tokyo

THURSDAY, IRAQ: Shiite fighters head towards Mosul to support government forces fighting to retake the city from Islamic State

THURSDAY, CHINA: Children hold plastic flowers and flags to welcome Philippines President Rodrigo Duterte at the start of his four-day visit

FRIDAY, UK: Labour's Tracy Brabin is interviewed after winning the Batley and Spen by-election

Beyonce's sixth solo album, Lemonade, has critics and fans intrigued.

Described as "every woman's journey of self-knowledge and healing", it premiered on HBO and is now available on iTunes and the music streaming site Tidal. The "visual album" features songs accompanied by a one-hour film, rather than individual videos, and includes performances by Kendrick Lamar, The Weeknd, James Blake and Jack White.

Its title is said to be inspired by Beyonce's grandmother, Agnez Dereon, and her husband Jay Z's grandmother, Hattie White, who features on the track Freedom. "I had my ups and downs, but I always found the inner strength to pull myself up. I was served lemons, but I made lemonade," she says, in a recording from her 90th birthday speech.

Critics have been universal in their praise.

It is "by far Beyonce's strongest album" and her most "profane, political and personal album to date", says Jonathan Bernstein in the Daily Telegraph, who also calls it an "hour of rage and recriminations".

Alexis Petridis in The Guardian agrees, praising Beyonce for Formation, a song about race, and "lyrical references to slavery, rioting and Malcolm X". In an era when pop doesn't tend to say a great deal, he writes, "there's obviously something hugely cheering about an artist of Beyonce's stature doing this".

Nevertheless, adds Petridis, Lemonade is an album less about politics than the state of her marriage, in particular the alleged infidelity of husband Jay Z. Beyonce is "not a woman to be messed with".

His Guardian colleague, Ijeoma Oluo, however, argues that while the early headlines suggest Lemonade is all about Beyonce and Jay Z and that infamous elevator fight, it is about "so much more than one relationship". It is about the suffering of black women "when our love and commitment and struggle is met with disregard and disloyalty".

But it's the references to infidelity that have got fans talking, amid intense speculation about the meaning of the lyric: "He better call Becky with the good hair," notes the Daily Mail.

Hours after the album was first released, Rachel Roy, the ex-wife of Jay Z's former business partner, made a reference to her "good hair" on Twitter, prompting Beyonce's devoted legion of followers to accuse her of having an affair of Jay Z.

Music experts, however, have suggested the lyric is actually a reference to Sir Mix-a-lot's hit Baby Got Back, in which he mentions a woman of the same name.

Former New York mayor Rudy Giuliani has criticised Beyonce's politically charged performance at last weekend's Super Bowl, calling it "an attack" on police.

The singer took to the stage on Sunday evening to perform her new single Formation to an audience of more than 100 million people.

The track, which has been dubbed a black power anthem, celebrates black identity, mourns the victims of police violence and highlights the effects of Hurricane Katrina on black communities.

"[It] articulates multiple identities of southern blackness, while social critiques of the nation's crimes against its darker skinned citizens acts as ballast," Syreeta Mcfadden writes in The Guardian.

During her Super Bowl performance, Beyonce's troupe of dancers were decked out in leather and black berets – an iconic symbol of the revolutionary Black Panthers Party - and ended the performance with a black power salute.

The performance comes against the backdrop of the growing Black Lives Matter movement, which began in response to police killings of unarmed black men.

The dancers were pictured backstage holding a sign saying: "Justice 4 Mario Woods", in reference to the 26-year old African-American who was shot dead by police in San Francisco in December.

Why has it caused a stir?

Guiliani described the half-time show as a "bunch of people bouncing around and all strange things" and said Beyonce did not understand that "this is football, not Hollywood".

He told Fox News: "I thought it was really outrageous that she used it as a platform to attack police officers who are the people who protect her and protect us and keep us alive."

The former mayor went on to call for "you know, decent wholesome entertainment" instead.

What has the response been?

"I'm not sure, as usual, what Mr Giuliani was talking about," Andrew Rosenthal writes in the New York Times. "That's only an attack on police officers if you believe that they should not be restrained in their use of violence."

"BREAKING: old, white people find Beyonce's black pride distasteful," says Gawker's Rich Juzwiak, who argues that it's "telling" that her performance and subtle militancy is intimidating to white conservatives.

"It's, in fact, telling in the same manner as white people's discomfort with the words 'Black Lives Matter' – a simple and self-evident concept that nonetheless troubles people," he adds.

The greatest spectacle on earth – as the Americans like to call it – is nearly upon us: the Super Bowl. And while the Panthers and the Broncos will be battling it out on the field in the annual National Football League (NFL) championship game, harmony will break out at Levi's Stadium in California with the dazzling half-time show.

Star attraction this year is Britain's Coldplay, with 2013 headliner Beyonce giving them a helping hand.

So what can we expect from the half-time hullabaloo?

What is the half-time show?

It is a 12-minute performance from some of the world's biggest music superstars. Often "gargantuanly cheesy", says the BBC, the half-time show pulls in up to 115 million viewers – more, with the YouTube views.

It hasn't always been the slick extravaganza we will see on Sunday. In the early years, the music was provided by university marching bands while a Walt Disney parade was about as glitzy as it got. "It was decades before the NFL realised that the half-time show plays not to the stadium but to the camera," says the New York Times.

When is it?

The American football will start on Sunday at 11.30pm GMT and is being shown live on the BBC, if you can stay awake. The half-time show will therefore be on at about 1am, depending on stoppages (and the lights staying on – which did not happen in the 2012 season).

What can we expect from Chris Martin and co?

Coldplay's taciturn singer has been relatively vocal about the upcoming performance, saying how much the band was looking forward to playing live with Beyonce, who has collaborated on two songs for their upcoming album.

Bruno Mars is also rumoured to be making an appearance, with the Uptown Funk singer mentioned in a recent interview by Martin about the event.

What are some of the most memorable performances?

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In 2004, Janet Jackson performed alongside a rather hot and heavy Justin Timberlake, which resulted in the term "wardrobe malfunction" entering cultural consciousness. As the performers reached their denouement, the Senorita singer ripped his co-performer's top, baring Jackson's nipple to the world. A pity, says Billboard, as "bedazzled breast or not, you have to admit that J&J put on a pretty kick-ass show. It's a shame all anyone remembers is the last two seconds".

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Janet's brother Michael's 1993 show is remembered as the pre-cursor to the over-the-top performances we see today. A smash hit-filled medley concluded with the crowd unveiling drawings created by children in Los Angeles as Michael bellowed out Heal the World.

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Coldplay could do well to follow the example of fellow rockers U2 – whose performance just months after September 11 was credited as revitalising their career. Coming to the end of a raucous performance of Where The Streets Have No Name against a backdrop of the names of all those who had died in the attacks, lead singer Bono unveiled the stars-and-stripes lining of his jacket, to a rapturous ovation.

Taylor Swift has made history by becoming the youngest person ever to be included on the Forbes 100 most powerful women list.

The 25-year old pop star comes in at number 65 and is among 17 women under the age 45 to make it onto the rankings. "The current era of female empowerment is stronger and better than ever, and the growing number of younger influences on the list is enough proof that age is nothing but a number," says Forbes.

The list is billed as the magazine's "definitive annual audit" of the foremost heads of state, iconic entrepreneurs, celebrity role models, billionaire activists and pioneer philanthropists, all ranked by money, media, impact and sphere of influence.

Politics

German Chancellor Angela Merkel tops the list for the fifth consecutive year, but the magazine is confident that Hillary Clinton is hot on her heels. The presidential hopeful has appeared on the list every year since it launched more than a decade ago and is "just a breath and a ballot away from the Most Powerful Woman crown". Brazilian president Dilma Rousseff also made it into the top ten as the first female leader of her country.

Business

At a time when the number of women-owned businesses in the US increased by 68 per cent in the last eight years, "there's never been a better moment to champion these women who've helped pave the way," says Forbes. Elizabeth Holmes, the 31-year old founder of the blood testing company Theranos, made her debut on this year's list as the world's youngest self-made billionaire. In total, seven Silicon Valley executives made it into the top 25, reports The Guardian.

Entertainment

The women in this section have a combined social media imprint exceeding six billion followers and fans and include the comedian Ellen DeGeneres (57), actress Angelina Jolie (54) and singer Shakira (81). While Taylor Swift may be the newest arrival, Beyoncé still reigns supreme, with her latest tour raking in more than £100m.

Philanthropy

Melinda Gates tops the list at number three for championing women's reproductive and education rights in the developing world. "If you want to unlock the most progress for the most people, start by investing in women and girls," she said on a recent trip to India.

The top 10 women on the list

1. Angela Merkel, German chancellor

2. Hillary Rodham Clinton, US presidential candidate and former Secretary of State

3. Melinda Gates, co-chair of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation

4. Janet Yellen, Chair of the US Federal Reserve Bank

5. Mary Barra, CEO of General Motors

6. Christine Lagarde, Managing Director of the International Monetary Fund

7. Dilma Rousseff, Brazilian president

8. Sheryl Sandberg, COO at Facebook

9. Susan Wojcicki, CEO at YouTube

10.Michelle Obama, US First Lady

Jay Z launched his new streaming service Tidal last night, backed by some of the world's biggest names in music. Madonna, Beyonce, Rihanna and Kanye West were among the "co-owners" to join him at the event in New York City. Each celebrity signed a document pledging to join the "movement to change the status quo" in front of a screaming audience, while Alicia Keys promised a "better experience for fans and for artists". But critics have suggested the focus is more likely to be on the latter...

What is Tidal?

It is a subscription streaming service that Jay Z recently bought for more than $50m with the hope of rivalling Spotify and other companies.

How is it different to its competitors?

Tidal is billed as the first-ever artist-owned music platform and is said to go "beyond commerce and technology". Jay Z says he and his celebrity co-owners are different from tech companies selling advertising and hardware because they have a "passion" for music. "Right now, they [other streaming services] are writing a story for us," he says. "We need to write the story for ourselves."

Who else is involved?

Jack White, Nicki Minaj, Chris Martin, Usher, Calvin Harris and Daft Punk were also among the famous co-owners at yesterday's event, which was technically a re-launch under Jay Z's new ownership, as the service was first unveiled in October last year. According to the Financial Times, they have been offered a mix of stock and cash for promotional support. "At least one act was offered as much as $3m and a 3 per cent stake in the new service," says the newspaper.

How does Tidal compare to Spotify?

Tidal is charging £9.99 a month for a basic subscription and £19.99 for a high-quality audio subscription, with a seven-day free trial, while Spotify offers a free version, as well as the option of upgrading to a £4.99 or £9.99 premium service. Both offer similar music, but Tidal is expected to feature more exclusive music and previews of unreleased albums. It also promises to send users songs in 1411 kbps FLAC, which is better than CD quality and Spotify's best quality, which is about 320 kbps. But that means nothing if the hardware is not made for it and most speakers are not, says Andrew Griffin at The Independent.

#Tidalforall or #Tidalfornoone?

On Twitter, celebrities turned their avatars blue and circulated a #Tidalforall hashtag to promote the launch, but soon a new hashtag – #Tidalfornoone – began to trend. "You guys don't ever have to work another day in your life should you choose to, why should we pay more for the same music?" asked one Tweeter. Others summed up the project as "millionaire singers wanting more money".

A star-studded launch video – in which Jay Z hails the "beginning of a new world" – was also panned as an "advert disguised as social activism". Sky's Tom Cheshire says the new venture is not about those listening to music, but those making a lot of money from it. He concludes: "Tidal's superstars know that their music in particular is valuable, and are simply trying to carve out a little bit more of that value for themselves."

Last night's double-header of awards shows – the Baftas and Grammys – proved to be a successful night for British talent. While Eddie Redmayne accepted the best actor gong in London's West End, Londoner Sam Smith was the big winner in LA, taking home four Grammys.

Smith, who is just 22, thanked an un-named ex-lover for inspiring the songs from his award-winning album by jilting him. The Stay With Me singer won best newcomer, best song, best record and best pop vocal album.

He said: "I want to thank the man who this record is about, who I fell in love with last year. Thank you so much for breaking my heart because you got me four Grammys."

The Guardian says Smith's victories were no surprise – but there was an unexpected win for Beck, who took best album, beating both Smith and Beyonce with his downbeat, melancholic folk-rock Morning Phase.

Beck's win angered at least one Beyonce fan. Kanye West followed Beck onstage as he went up to collect the award, The NME reports, just as he once followed Taylor Swift onstage at the MTV awards to make a hugely embarrassing impromptu speech.

Back then, in 2009, West wanted to tell the world that Beyonce should have won Swift's prize (best female video). Last night, he had exactly the same motive – but checked himself just in time, leaving the stage without speaking.

Explaining his brief stage invasion later, West accused the Grammys of "diminishing art and not respecting the craft and smacking people in their face after they deliver monumental feats of music" by not giving the award to Beyonce.

West added: "Beck needs to respect artistry and he should've given his award to Beyonce." In 2009, West, who had been seen drinking brandy during the show, apologised to Swift the next day.

There was a consolation prize for Beyonce, however: two awards, for best R&B performance and best R&B song.

Beck also took best production, while other winners included Pharrell Williams and Rosanne Cash.

There were other British winners besides Sam Smith on the night: Clean Bandit with Jess Glynne, and Aphex Twin. They won, respectively, best dance recording and best dance/electronic album.

Feminists

Feminism has been one of the biggest buzzwords of 2014, with scores of celebrities coming out in vocal support of gender equality. In a year when the F-word was no longer such a taboo, Beyonce sang at the MTV music awards in front of a giant screen emblazoned with the word, incorporating parts of the author Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie's speech on feminism into her song. Emma Watson's heartfelt speech to the UN on gender equality also sought to redress the idea that feminists are "aggressive, isolating, anti-men and, unattractive"."The zeitgeist is irrefutably feminist: its name is literally in bright lights," writes The Guardian's Jessica Valenti.

YouTube vloggers

With some of them earning more than £20,000 a month, 2014 has been the year of the video blogger. Zoella, real name Zoe Sugg, is a British fashion and beauty blogger with over seven million subscribers on YouTube and a book that smashed all records in the process of becoming the fastest selling debut novel of all time. "After you go shopping and you discuss what you got with your friends – [my videos are] like that, but millions of people watch you doing it,'" the 24-year old explained to the Daily Mail.

The vloggers are "commercially very savvy. For example, they agree to vlog about a product, Instagram it and then Tweet about it for a certain price." explains Kate Ross, managing director of the digital marketing agency eight&four.

Scientists

2014 has been one of the biggest years for space exploration since the Moon landing nearly five decades ago. The Mars rover discovered evidence of a lake on the red planet, "bolstering evidence that the planet most like Earth in the solar system was suitable for microbial life", according to Reuters. Separately, scientists at the European Space Agency managed to land a spacecraft on a comet as part of its decade long Rosetta mission – one of the most important achievements in the history of space exploration. Not to be outdone, a team of British scientists managed to decipher the meaning behind a cow's moo.

Cannabis users in the US

Marijuana can now be legally bought and sold in states across the US and surveys show that the majority of the American population are in favour of nationwide legalisation. Last month Bob Marley's family announced that it would be launching the first global cannabis brand based on the life and legacy of the Jamaican icon. In July, The New York Times called on the US government to repeal the ban on marijuana, comparing it to 1920s era prohibition. It argues that the ban "inflicts great harm on society just to prohibit a substance far less dangerous than alcohol."

The royals

The royal family has had a lot to celebrate in 2014. Prince George marked his first birthday just before the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge announced that they were expecting their second child, and the Duchess beat out fashionistas Kate Moss and Cheryl Cole to be voted Britain's greatest style icon. The couple also charmed fans across the pond with a trip to New York earlier this month. "No other couple in the world has the power to fill a room like the Cambridges can right now," says Max Foster at CNN. "America's fascination with this fairytale is unmatched."

Meanwhile, the Crown Estate boasted record earnings this year, and the value of its assets reached a record £9.4 billion thanks to rising property prices, according to the BBC.

Women in the clergy

The Church of England's General Synod finally voted to allow the creation of women bishops, bringing to an end one of its longest-running controversies. This month, Reverend Libby Lane became the UK's first woman to hold the leadership position in the church. The divisive issue had dominated religious debate in recent years. The new legislation will alter the leadership profile of the Church of England and marks a milestone on the wider issue of women's rights. It comes two decades after the first female priests were ordained.

Gay people in the UK (excluding Northern Ireland)

In March, gay rights campaigners celebrated as the first same-sex marriages took place in England and Wales. David Cameron said the change in the law shows that the UK is "a country that will continue to honour its proud traditions of respect, tolerance and equal worth". In a historic move, the Archbishop of Canterbury said that the Church of England would drop its opposition to same-sex marriage. "The law's changed; we accept the situation," said Justin Welby.

Female footballers

In November ticket sales for the female international friendly at Wembley Stadium outstripped those for the men's and more than 1.4 million women and girls now play the sport regularly, The Guardian reports. "When a girl says she plays football now, it doesn't raise eyebrows or cause surprise the way it used to do," said Kelly Simmons, director of the national game and women’s football at the FA. "We now have broadcasters on board, commercial partners – the women's super league has gone from amateur to semi-pro to professional. It is happening step by step, but I think it’s fair to say it's accelerated quicker than anyone would have dreamed," she said.

The one per cent

While the rest of us deal with the rising cost of living and stagnating wages, there's one group of people who remain unaffected by the lingering effects of the recession and subsequent cuts: the super rich. Numerous reports show the gap between the richest one per cent and the rest of the population continues to grow. The super-rich received 45 per cent of the total income growth during the dot-com boom, 65 per cent during the housing bubble period and a "stunning 95 per cent" during the current recovery, according to Mother Jones.

First-time house buyers

The government's flagship housing scheme Help to Buy has helped over 71,000 across the UK buy a new home since it was launched last year, according to official figures. First-time buyers, along with most other people buying a home, have also benefitted from the major reforms to the stamp duty system outlined by George Osborne in his final Autumn Statement before the general election.

IS THIS the moment of schadenfreude where the American public get to enjoy the very public embarrassment of their prince and princess of pop culture, Jay Z and his missus, Beyonce?

Few have not seen the CCTV footage of Jay Z fending off a ferocious assault from Solange, the fashionista and aspiring singer who is Beyonce’s younger sister.

It is spectacular, and a terrific scoop for the gossip site TMZ. The security camera in an elevator at the groovy downtown New York hotel The Standard captures Jay Z stepping in with Beyonce, Solange, and a hefty security guard. They are all dressed to the nines because they are on their way to a Met Ball after-party in The Standard's rooftop bar, known as the Boom Boom Room.

No sooner do the doors slide shut than Solange throws a punch at Jay Z, known on his birth certificate as Shawn Carter. He manages to grab her wrist, fending off the blow.

There follows a melee as the security guard, his head like a polished Viking helmet bobbing just below the camera, manages to wrap his arms around Solange and hold her more or less at bay. This goes on for several seconds. Beyonce stands quietly at her husband’s side, but makes no attempt to intervene.

The guard presses the emergency halt button, stopping the car because it would be a good idea to keep this private. Just when things look like they are under control, a rather elegant leg flashes from beneath Solange’s skirts and she very nearly lands a kick right between the great man’s legs.

Carter makes no attempt to fight back. That could become crucial in the forthcoming image wars. One chain on Facebook was immediately lauding him as a “gentleman”, and that should certainly go down well with the royal couple’s innumerable friends in high places, starting at the West Wing of the White House.

On the other hand, what is the “base” to think of that - Carter’s old ‘gangsta’ milieu and a good few of the young men who fork out vast sums for his giddying range of products in hopes of catching a little of his charisma? He has sung often enough about “bitches” and how to handle them. What was he doing letting Solange get away with such disrespect?

Something of this, of course, applies to the whole “gangsta” fetish. How to maintain the street credibility without alienating the one-percenters whose company is such balm to the ego? It is very Gatsby. Just as in that quintessentially American story, the man with the interestingly shady past reaches the giddy heights of celebrity, only to be undone as the façade cracks to reveal the squalor within.

Is the façade cracking?

The Daily Beast takes the lead with this way of thinking in an article titled 'Why does the world idolize Jay Z?'

“Now, America loves a good redemption story,” the Beast goes on. “Heck, we let an ex-boozehound halfwit run the country for eight years. And Jay Z’s rags-to-riches tale would make Horatio Alger wet his trousers.

"A child born in the Marcy Houses - a sketchy housing project in BedStuy, Brooklyn - raised (along with his three siblings) by a single mother after their father jumped ship with a preternatural gift of the gab who rises to become the world’s preeminent rap mogul. 'I’m not a businessman, I’m a business, man,' he rapped.

“But everyone’s favorite homophone-happy MC has a long, troubling history that’s been all but erased from our collective memory.”

That might not be quite right: some of it has been erased, and some of it has been carefully manipulated to suit the image of the gangsta-entrepreneur.

As the Beast details, the talented Carter grew up rough enough to have faced the fate of many young black Americans, a lifetime in jail. When he was 12, he shot his older brother, a drug addict, in a fight over a stolen ring. Carter wrote in his memoir, Decoded, that “I thought I would go to jail forever” - but his brother stuck to code and refused to press charges.

So Carter was free to become a teenage drug dealer. He boasted of this in an interview with Vanity Fair last November. “I mean,” he said, “I know about budgets. I was a drug dealer.”

In 1999, already a rapper on the rise, Carter went to the Kit Kat Klub on West 43rd Street off Times Square, and stabbed a man named Lance Rivera in the back with an eight-inch knife. Two years later, he pleaded guilty in court in exchange for a sentence of three years’ probation.

Not long after that, he was caught on camera slapping a small woman with a camera who approached him as he made his way from a concert stage.

Is this all good colourful material for an artist with roots in the ghetto? Or is it a reason to wonder why America and a world in thrall to pop culture would reward such a man?

Carter, now 44, is listed by Forbes magazine as worth $520 million. The money comes from a whole range of enterprises, including part-ownership of the New York Nicks basketball team. He is the third richest of the “rap culture” entrepreneurs after Sean 'Diddy' Combs at $700 million and Andre 'Dr Dre' Young with $550 million.

Sean Combs brushed off far bigger things than a scuffle in an elevator on his way to the top.

But as the newshounds chase the story, there is already one small clue as to what was going on that might just trigger a backlash.

The Hollywood Life site claims to know “the real reason" Solange lashed out at Jay Z. It quotes an "insider" saying it had all begun with a "heated conversation" before the Met Ball between Beyonce and her husband.

“Solange doesn’t like the way Jay Z controls Beyonce," said the website's source. "Beyonce would never speak up to him or defend herself, so Solange does it. Solange is not afraid of him and is fed up with him calling all the shots in Beyonce’s life.”

The source goes on: "That’s why Beyonce didn’t do anything, because Solange was coming to HER defence. Solange and Beyonce are extremely tight and Solange has always been very protective of her. Obviously Solange couldn’t take it anymore and flipped out."

Well, you never know. Perhaps the doors of the palace will crack, to reveal a life of misery and dysfunction as the formerly revered prince of bling torments the princess with the golden voice so beloved of their people.

That would make a good story.

READERS of the French newspaper Le Figaro were no doubt spellbound this afternoon after it published a claim that the President of the United States, Barack Obama, had trumped their own President, Francois Hollande, by having an affair not with a little-known actress (sorry, Julie) but with America's queen of pop, Beyonce.

The extraordinary claim was attributed to a Parisian paparazzo, Pascal Rostain, who claimed it would break in the Washington Post tomorrow.

"You should know that in the United States there is something of enormity about to happen," Rostain had said in the course of a radio interview with Europe 1 earlier in the day. "It will come out tomorrow in the Washington Post – which you can hardly call the gutter press… I can assure you that the entire world is going to be talking about it."

Whether one gave the story any credence was all a matter of trust – in the photographer, in Le Figaro and in the Washington Post.

Could Pascal Rostain be trusted?

Le Figaro claimed that the 56-year-old snapper, who founded the Sphinx agency with Bruno Mouron, had enjoyed many international scoops, including snaps of President Sarkozy's former wife Cecilia with her new friend, Richard Attias back in 2005. Rostain then became close enough to Carla Bruni for her to call him affectionately "Mon Pascalou". If that wasn't enough, he used to lend his apartment to Valerie Treirweiler when she needed to make a discreet rendezvous with her then lover Francois Hollande (those were the days). Rostain's contacts are so good, said Le Figaro, that it would not be surprising if he was "au courant" with what was being planned by the Washington Post.

Could Le Figaro be trusted?

Normally, yes. It's a solid newspaper: its nearest equivalent in Britian would be the Daily Telegraph. Its reporting of Pascal Rostain's claim is not typical of its news coverage. The paper was honest enough to say in its piece that Rostain likes to be provocative – but then hedged its bets by adding: "Even when it's in provocation, there is always some truth in what he says."

Could the Washington Post be trusted?

It is hard to believe that the newspaper that broke the 1972 Watergate scandal – the 'gate' against which all other 'gates' are measured - would publish such a story unless it was watertight. Of course, the paper was no longer in the hands of the Graham family having recently been bought by Amazon founder Jeff Bezos: if he was looking for a circulation-building scoop, he couldn't do much better than this. However, a Post spokesperson, Kris Coratti, insisted that it was "definitely not true" that the paper had such a story in the works.

Well, they would deny it, wouldn't they? Which meant that it all came down to the word of a paparazzo who may or may not be best mates with Carla and Valerie.

Cut to 6.30 pm French time when Le Figaro updated its article. Pascal Rostain, it turned out, had decided to retract his story. He said he was busy promoting his new book, Voyeurs, when he was pushed into a corner by Europe 1 presenter Jean-Marc Morandini and, as a joke, came up with the tale of Obama and Beyonce.

"Only Morandini could have believed this and jumped on it by repeating it on the internet," said Rostain. "Listen carefully to what I said on the radio and you will hear me laugh at the end…

"It's incredible to see what a buzz this has provoked across the world… I only wanted to show, by being absurd, how my profession is going downhill."

At least the retraction is out of the way before tomorrow night's state dinner at the White House for President Hollande. With the Obama administration already having had to destroy several hundred embossed invitations because they included a reference to Valerie Treirweiler, any further Franco-American awkwardness would have been de trop.

HOBART, WEDNESDAY:

SOMERSET, WEDNESDAY:

FLORENCE, THURSDAY:

MANILA, FRIDAY:

MUMBAI, TUESDAY:

SAN JOSE, TUESDAY:

WEST BANK, FRIDAY:

LOS ANGELES, SUNDAY:

ISTANBUL, MONDAY:

TORONTO, WEDNESDAY: Justin Bieber appears at a police station in connection with an alleged assault on a limousine driver. It came hours after his lawyer filed a not-guilty plea over an alleged drink-driving incident in Florida.

DAFT PUNK were the big winners at last night's Grammy Awards, where two Beatles superstars were reunited and 33 couples unexpectedly took part in a mass wedding. The winners were announced at the Staples Centre in Los Angeles. Here are the top five moments from the ceremony:

Daft Punk get lucky

Daft Punk took home record of the year for Get Lucky and album of the year for Random Access Memories. Wearing their shiny robot helmets, the French electronic duo - Guy-Manuel de Homem-Christo and Thomas Bangalter - won five awards in total but declined to speak. Pharrell Williams, who accepted a number of the awards on their behalf, earned much attention on Twitter for his choice of headwear. The account @PharrellHat, set up in honour of the large Indiana-Jones-style headpiece, had more than 11,000 followers by the end of the night.

Raunchy performance from Beyonce and Jay Z

Beyonce and Jay Z opened the show with Drunk in Love. Beyonce was seen writhing around on a wooden chair in a leather thong and fishnet tights before her husband joined her on stage for an affectionate duet. Jay Z later held up his best rap/sung collaboration award and gave a message to the couple's daughter Blue: "Look, Daddy got a gold sippy cup for you."

Mass wedding ceremony

More than 30 couples, some gay, some straight, took part in a mass wedding at this year's Grammys. They were joined in matrimony during a performance of Same Love, a song written in support of same-sex marriage, by the rap duo Macklemore & Lewis. The marriages were officiated by Queen Latifah, while Madonna also sang on stage.

Beatles reunion

Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr, who picked up the lifetime achievement award, reunited for a rare performance on the Grammy stage. After being introduced by Julia Roberts, McCartney sat down on a psychedelic-painted piano with Starr on drums to perform Queenie Eye from McCartney's latest album, New. Yoko Ono and Olivia Harrison, the widow of the late George Harrison, were also in the audience.

Head-banging Taylor Swift

Taylor Swift's head-banging was a hot topic on Twitter last night. The country pop singer whipped her hair around as she performed All Too Well on the piano. Swift was also caught on camera looking gobsmacked after thinking she was going to win for album of the year, which went instead to Daft Punk.

Main award winners

Album of the year: Random Access Memories, Daft Punk

Record of the year: Get Lucky, Daft Punk with Pharrell Williams and Nile Rodgers

Song of the year: Royals, Lorde

New artist: Macklemore & Ryan Lewis

Pop vocal album: Unorthodox Jukebox, Bruno Mars

Pop/duo group performance: Get Lucky, Daft Punk with Pharrell and Nile Rodgers

Rap/sung collaboration: Holy Grail, Jay Z with Justin Timberlake

Rock song: Cut Me Some Slack, Paul McCartney, Dave Grohl, Krist Novoselic and Pat Smear

Rap song: Thrift Shop, Macklemore & Ryan Lewis featuring Wanz

R&B song: Pusher Love Girl, James Fauntleroy, Jerome Harmon, Timothy Mosley and Justin Timberlake

ADELE HAS agreed to join Beyonce and perform at Michelle Obama's 50th birthday party at the White House next year.

After picking up an Oscar for her performance of the James Bond theme Skyfall, the British singer's "incredible US journey" has continued with an invitation to sing at the First Lady's soiree in Washington DC on 17 January, reports the Mail on Sunday. Beyonce had already agreed to perform at the event, which is described as a "huge, celebrity-packed party" by the Daily Express.

A source told the paper that Adele has "graciously accepted" Obama's invitation and waived her usual fee for a "high-profile private performance". The Obamas will be picking up the 24-year-old singer's expenses because the party is a private, not a State event.

The Express says Adele has another reason to head back to the US: her new best friend, Oscar-winner Jennifer Lawrence. The two women "struck up a friendship" at the Oscars and have been "hanging around together", a source said. Lawrence is scheduled to come to London later this year to make an X-Men movie and Adele has recommended she stays in London's exclusive Notting Hill, where the singer owns a house.

Adele has become a star in the US thanks to the success of her album 21. In January, it was revealed that the record had become the US's biggest-selling album for the second year in a row.

Beyonce has a long-standing relationship with the Obamas. The singer performed at President Obama's inauguration earlier this year, sparking controversy when it was revealed that she lip-synched to a backing tape. Both Beyonce and her husband, Jay-Z, backed Obama when he first ran for president and when he campaigned to be re-elected.

BEYONCE'S half-time performance at the Super Bowl "wowed millions" on Sunday. But her publicist says some of the photographs taken at the event are so "unflattering" she wants them removed from the internet.

Gawker reports that the news and entertainment website Buzzfeed put together a gallery of pictures of Beyonce performing in New Orleans under the headline: "The 33 fiercest moments from Beyonce's show". The tone was adulatory, with captions praising the singer's "fierceness" - her confident, powerful attitude - and the way she entered the stadium "in all her glory".

But Beyonce's publicist was unimpressed. She sent a letter to Buzzfeed yesterday asking it to remove at least six of the pictures (one of them is featured above) she deemed unflattering. "We are respectfully asking you to change," the publicist wrote. "I am certain that you will be able to find some better photos."

Gawker says the letter suggests that Beyonce's publicist "doesn't understand her client" because all photographs of the singer are great regardless of her posture or facial expression. "According to the Third Immutable Natural Law Of Beyoncé, there is no better photo of Beyoncé than the photo of Beyoncé you are viewing, because at that moment, it is the best of all possible Beyoncé photos," it writes. "This is one of the great Mysteries of Beyoncé."

On a more serious note, Gawker points out that there have been claims that rapper Kanye West's publicists tried recently to force the picture agency Getty Images to remove from its website photographs of the performer wearing a leather skirt at a benefit concert in New York.

"Kanye was successful - as far as we can tell, you can't buy a photo of the rapper in a skirt, anywhere," says Gawker. But the 'unflattering' pictures of Beyonce were still looking "fierce" on the Buzzfeed and Getty websites at the time of posting.