Broadway’s ‘Wicked’ welcomes Lencia Kebede, its first pionering full-time Black Elphaba

NEW YORK – Green tears were flowing when Lencia Kebede made history this week on Broadway, becoming the first Black actor to assume the role of Elphaba full time in the Broadway company of “Wicked.”

“It’s hard to even pinpoint a single emotion because I feel that it changes like every five minutes,” she told The Associated Press, still buzzing a day after her debut. “I woke up and I still sort of felt in the world of Oz.”

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Kebede, a first-generation Ethiopian American from Los Angeles, spent five years touring with “Hamilton,” most recently in the role of Angelica Schuyler. Stepping into “Wicked” on Tuesday marked her Broadway debut.

“Defying Gravity”

Kebede had already gone through an emotional wringer by the time the curtain finally came down. She sings the Act 1 showstopper “Defying Gravity,” shooting into the air and the power of the moment ripped through her.

“When the lights went off at the end of the song, I started sobbing. Not like just a gentle tear. Viscerally, I had to release,” she says.

“I really felt like I was flying, is the simplest way to put it. I felt like I’m doing it myself, though my own power — my vocal power, my emotional power, the power of all of my African ancestors.”

“If I’m flying solo/At least I’m flying free/To those who ground me, take a message back from me/Tell them how I am defying gravity,” she sang.

“Everyone deserves a chance to fly,” says Kebede. “I’m projecting this message that no matter who you are, what you look like, where you come from, you deserve liberation and you deserve empowerment in the way that the character feels in that moment. It just feels like I’m taking the entire audience in my arms.”

Thank goodness it was intermission. “I needed to regroup,” she says, laughing. “My makeup artist was like, ‘Just let it out, just cry, and then we can clean it up.’”

Who was watching Kebede’s ‘Wicked’ debut?

In the audience were some 60 family and friends — mom and her aunts and uncles, her many cousins, her boyfriend, pals from other shows, her agent and casting directors, even her college choir director.

“My whole family was in the audience — just everyone who I’ve ever loved, with everyone who has loved me and supported me through my life is just like under me, lifting me and holding me,” she says.

“It was just so important to me to have people there that I could share this moment with, so I could say to their faces, ‘I couldn’t be here without a piece of your heart that you gave me.’”

A sisterhood of Elphabas

The popularity of the Cynthia Erivo-led movie hasn’t dampened the appetite for the Broadway version, which opened in 2003 with songs by Stephen Schwartz and a book by Winnie Holzman. Over Christmas, it took in a staggering $5 million over nine performances, marking the highest weekly gross in history for any Broadway show.

Kebede joins a sisterhood of green-clad Black women who have played Elphaba, a list that includes Saycon Sengbloh and Lilli Cooper, both Broadway standbys; Brandi Chavonne Massey, a Broadway understudy; and Alexia Khadime, a full-time West End Elphaba.

Others who have played the role over the years include Shoshana Bean, Stephanie J. Block, Megan Hilty, Jessica Vosk and, of course, Idina Menzel, who won a Tony Award in the role in 2004.

A career takes a turn

Kebede graduated from Occidental College in 2016 with a double major of diplomacy & world affairs and politics, intending on a career in law or public policy. By her senior year, she had an itch she needed to scratch.

“I just had this creative craving in terms of storytelling in the theatrical way that I was missing,” she says. “So I sat my mother down and I was like, ‘Look, I think I need just a couple years to explore this creative endeavor.’”

Her first professional job was a production of “Memphis” at Musical Theatre West and then a stint at Tokyo Disney and touring in “Rent.” In addition to years on the road with “Hamilton,” Kebede also sang backup for Beyoncé during her Coachella rehearsals.

“The rigorous nature of touring, I think, prepared me immensely for this,” she says. “I do feel very equipped — physically, vocally, emotionally. I feel like I know how to take care of my body and my mind, how I need to cool down emotionally after such an intense experience for three hours.”

A magical night

On debut night, Kebede tried to keep a set of mental screenshots, a reel of faces and feelings. As she turned to get backstage, she was feeling the love.

“My grandmother and my father passed when I was in high school and I just took a moment to connect with my angels,” she says. “It was, oh God, it was electric.”

Family came backstage after the show for photos and a tour, she was toasted at a nearby bar by friends, she finally ate something and then got home to try to sleep.

“My battery was dead. I mean, I couldn’t even move. I couldn’t move my face. I was just drinking my tea, playing calming jazz. I had to just turn it off,” she says.

And then she had to do it all over again the next night.

Mickey 17 star Naomi Ackie’s life off-screen including tragic loss

Naomi Ackie returns to the silver screen in a new thrilling narrative by Oscar-winning director Bong Joon-ho.

In Mickey 17, she stars alongside Robert Pattinson, who plays the lead role of Mickey Barnes.

The film centres around Mickey, a dispensable worker on a colonial mission to an icy planet named Niflheim. His job on the colony ship involves undertaking perilous tasks, only to be cloned each time he perishes.

Ackie takes on the role of security agent Nasha Barridge, who initiates a romance with the first version of Mickey and remains loyal through his multiple lives.

While many cinema-goers may recognise her from Zoe Kravitz’s 2024 thriller Blink Twice, Ackie has enjoyed a diverse career since 2015.

Broadway’s ‘Wicked’ welcomes Lencia Kebede, its first pionering full-time Black Elphaba

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Green tears were flowing when Lencia Kebede made history this week on Broadway, becoming the first Black actor to assume the role of Elphaba full time in the Broadway company of “Wicked.”

“It’s hard to even pinpoint a single emotion because I feel that it changes like every five minutes,” she told The Associated Press, still buzzing a day after her debut. “I woke up and I still sort of felt in the world of Oz.”

Kebede, a first-generation Ethiopian American from Los Angeles, spent five years touring with “Hamilton,” most recently in the role of Angelica Schuyler. Stepping into “Wicked” on Tuesday marked her Broadway debut.

“Defying Gravity”

Kebede had already gone through an emotional wringer by the time the curtain finally came down. She sings the Act 1 showstopper “Defying Gravity,” shooting into the air and the power of the moment ripped through her.

“When the lights went off at the end of the song, I started sobbing. Not like just a gentle tear. Viscerally, I had to release,” she says.

“I really felt like I was flying, is the simplest way to put it. I felt like I’m doing it myself, though my own power — my vocal power, my emotional power, the power of all of my African ancestors.”

“If I’m flying solo/At least I’m flying free/To those who ground me, take a message back from me/Tell them how I am defying gravity,” she sang.

“Everyone deserves a chance to fly,” says Kebede. “I’m projecting this message that no matter who you are, what you look like, where you come from, you deserve liberation and you deserve empowerment in the way that the character feels in that moment. It just feels like I’m taking the entire audience in my arms.”

Thank goodness it was intermission. “I needed to regroup,” she says, laughing. “My makeup artist was like, ‘Just let it out, just cry, and then we can clean it up.’”

Who was watching Kebede’s ‘Wicked’ debut?

In the audience were some 60 family and friends — mom and her aunts and uncles, her many cousins, her boyfriend, pals from other shows, her agent and casting directors, even her college choir director.

“My whole family was in the audience — just everyone who I’ve ever loved, with everyone who has loved me and supported me through my life is just like under me, lifting me and holding me,” she says.

“It was just so important to me to have people there that I could share this moment with, so I could say to their faces, ‘I couldn’t be here without a piece of your heart that you gave me.’”

A sisterhood of Elphabas

The popularity of the Cynthia Erivo-led movie hasn’t dampened the appetite for the Broadway version, which opened in 2003 with songs by Stephen Schwartz and a book by Winnie Holzman. Over Christmas, it took in a staggering $5 million over nine performances, marking the highest weekly gross in history for any Broadway show.

Kebede joins a sisterhood of green-clad Black women who have played Elphaba, a list that includes Saycon Sengbloh and Lilli Cooper, both Broadway standbys; Brandi Chavonne Massey, a Broadway understudy; and Alexia Khadime, a full-time West End Elphaba.

Others who have played the role over the years include Shoshana Bean, Stephanie J. Block, Megan Hilty, Jessica Vosk and, of course, Idina Menzel, who won a Tony Award in the role in 2004.

A career takes a turn

Kebede graduated from Occidental College in 2016 with a double major of diplomacy & world affairs and politics, intending on a career in law or public policy. By her senior year, she had an itch she needed to scratch.

“I just had this creative craving in terms of storytelling in the theatrical way that I was missing,” she says. “So I sat my mother down and I was like, ‘Look, I think I need just a couple years to explore this creative endeavor.’”

Her first professional job was a production of “Memphis” at Musical Theatre West and then a stint at Tokyo Disney and touring in “Rent.” In addition to years on the road with “Hamilton,” Kebede also sang backup for Beyoncé during her Coachella rehearsals.

“The rigorous nature of touring, I think, prepared me immensely for this,” she says. “I do feel very equipped — physically, vocally, emotionally. I feel like I know how to take care of my body and my mind, how I need to cool down emotionally after such an intense experience for three hours.”

A magical night

On debut night, Kebede tried to keep a set of mental screenshots, a reel of faces and feelings. As she turned to get backstage, she was feeling the love.

“My grandmother and my father passed when I was in high school and I just took a moment to connect with my angels,” she says. “It was, oh God, it was electric.”

Family came backstage after the show for photos and a tour, she was toasted at a nearby bar by friends, she finally ate something and then got home to try to sleep.

“My battery was dead. I mean, I couldn’t even move. I couldn’t move my face. I was just drinking my tea, playing calming jazz. I had to just turn it off,” she says.

And then she had to do it all over again the next night.

Pamela Bach, actor and ex-wife of ‘Baywatch’ icon David Hasselhoff, dies by suicide

LOS ANGELES — Pamela Bach, the ex-wife of “Baywatch” star David Hasselhoff who also had a TV career of her own, was found dead at her home in Hollywood on Wednesday.

The Los Angeles County Medical Examiner’s office confirmed Thursday on its website that Bach died by suicide. A gunshot wound to the head is listed as her cause of death. A spokesperson for the Los Angeles Police Department confirmed to The Times on Thursday that officers responded to a death investigation at the 3400 block of Troy Drive in Hollywood at around 10 p.m. Bach was pronounced dead on the scene, according to TMZ, which broke the news of her death. She was 62.

“Our family is deeply saddened by the recent passing of Pamela Hasselhoff,” David Hasselhoff said in a statement to TMZ. “We are grateful for the outpouring of love and support during this difficult time but we kindly request privacy as we grieve and navigate through this challenging time.”

ARTICLE CONTINUES BELOW

Hayley Amber Hasselhoff, one of the two daughters Bach shares with David Hasselhoff, reposted a photo of her parents to her Instagram story Wednesday evening. The 32-year-old actor and model added a white heart emoji above the picture.

Bach was born Oct. 16, 1962, in Tulsa, Oklahoma, and had several acting credits — including stints on shows “The Young and the Restless” and “Otherworld” — before she married heartthrob David Hasselhoff in 1989. Her acting career spanned from the ’70s to the early aughts and also included roles on “The Fall Guy,” “T.J. Hooker,” “Superboy” and “Viper.”

Bach met her husband on the set of his Emmy-nominated series “Knight Rider.” After the series ended its four-year run on NBC in 1986, Bach and Hasselhoff tied the knot in a private ceremony in Studio City. The then-partners in life later brought their relationship to the set of the beachside drama “Baywatch,” which ran from 1989 to 2001. The series starred Hasselhoff as dreamy lifeguard Mitch Buchannon. Bach played multiple characters over 14 episodes from 1991 to 2000, according to IMDb.

In a 1989 interview with The Times, Bach dispelled any notion that her marriage to Hasselhoff helped her land “Baywatch” roles. At the time, she said her husband’s last name was “great baggage to have but I never open it up.”

“Just because he’s the star and producer [doesn’t mean that’s how I got the job],” she doubled down. “I know inside myself that I cannot negate the fact that I know my lines, I’m always on time, I’m very professional and never pull any weight on the set. In fact, I go the opposite to make people feel more comfortable. I rely on my own laurels.”

In 1990, Bach and Hasselhoff welcomed their first daughter, Taylor, a year after their marriage. Daughter Hayley Amber was born two years later. In the early aughts, the actors went their separate ways and divorced in 2006.

ARTICLE CONTINUES BELOW ARTICLE CONTINUES BELOW

Before her death, Bach dedicated her social media pages to sharing personal updates and family news. In her final Instagram post, Bach said she looked forward to what 2025 has in store, adding that watching her granddaughter London “grow and seeing her smile light up my world is truly the greatest blessing.”

“May 2025 be filled with beautiful moments, laughter, and all the blessings your hearts can hold,” she continued. “Here’s to a year of making cherished memories, spreading joy, and embracing every precious moment!”

Suicide prevention and crisis counseling resources

If you or someone you know is struggling with suicidal thoughts, seek help from a professional and call 9-8-8. The United States’ first nationwide three-digit mental health crisis hotline 988 will connect callers with trained mental health counselors. Text “HOME” to 741741 in the U.S. and Canada to reach the Crisis Text Line.

‘CHAOS: The Manson Murders’ Review: Errol Morris’ Manson Documentary Gets Lost in the Fog of Conspiracy

‘Last Breath’ Review: Woody Harrelson and Simu Liu in a True-Life Undersea Rescue Thriller That Takes You Down and Lifts You Up 1 week ago

I’m one of those people — there are a lot of us — who is always up for a Charles Manson movie. There have been so many! All the documentaries and dramatizations. Not to mention the TV specials, both prestige and tabloid, the broadcast interviews with Manson acolytes like Tex Watson and Patricia Krenwinkel, and the epic-event television interviews with Charlie himself, like the famous one conducted by Tom Snyder in 1981 (“Get off the space shuttle, Charles!”) or the one that Charlie Rose did with Manson in 1986. Then there are the books, from Ed Sanders’ “The Family” to Jeff Guinn’s “Manson” to the one that remains the granddaddy of all Manson studies, Vincent Bugliosi’s “Helter Skelter,” the best-selling crime book in history (seven million copies).

The Manson saga has been excavated from every angle. Yet I’m always open to any new ray of light that can be shed on its darkness. So I sat down to watch “CHAOS: The Manson Murders,” a new Netflix documentary directed by Errol Morris (“The Fog of War,” “The Thin Blue Line”), with what I would describe as a kind of skeptical curiosity. Given what an acclaimed and intelligent filmmaker Morris is, I thought: There has to be something new here. Or why do it? That said, is there actually anything new to discover?

“CHAOS” gives off a deep-dig archival glow typical of contemporary documentaries, with a fair amount of photographs I’d never seen before of the settings of the Manson crime scenes: the occasional oblique shot of a butchered body, as well as images of the words that were scrawled in blood (“death to pigs”), but mostly the banality of the settings before they were drenched in murder, as if those rooms were waiting for the violence to happen.

What’s newer than the photographs, however, is the art-grunge treatment Morris frames the entire film with. “CHAOS” is full of rapid-fire punk coffee-table-book graphics, and such touches as a time-lapse shot of mescaline cactus flowers or a close-up of wriggling maggots (to accompany the story about how when the police discovered Gary Hinman’s body after a week, they could hear the maggots eating him), or psychedelic imagery that looks like it came out of a Kenneth Anger film, or the raw photos of blood on the floor that are now placed in a kind of aestheticized context, as if they were grisly Nan Goldin photographs. Often the photos will be black-and-white, but one part of the image will have a red tint, or the images will be doubled, for that Warhol Confidential feeling. The whole movie is designed as a sick-crime art object.

It’s kind of seductive, but let’s be clear: This is all Manson window dressing. What’s truly new is that Morris, building the film around an interview with Tom O’Neill, author of the book “CHAOS: Charles Manson, the CIA, and the Secret History of the Sixties,” explores a conspiracy theory about the Manson saga that seeks to explain its most mysterious and haunting element. Namely: How is it that the Family members who did the killing — those four “Manson girls” along with Tex Watson (who actually did most of it) — could have been brainwashed and manipulated into descending into such savagery?

We do know that’s what happened. And we know the mythology that’s been built up around it — that Manson was a devious street-hustling criminal who exploited the new youth culture to turn himself into the garbage version of a hippie cult leader, using the psych-out tactics of a pimp combined with breaking down the egos of his followers through massive doses of LSD, spinning out his theory of “Helter Skelter” (an apocalyptic uprising against middle-class white “pigs,” which would be led by Black revolutionaries) as if it were a demonic catechism. He turned his followers into believers who would literally do anything for him.

But Tom O’Neill thinks that this trajectory of events is full of holes. And he’s the one who’s going to fill them in. Because he has a theory — oh, does he have a theory. This man is a piece of work. He doesn’t have evidence — he has hunches. Which he’s willing to palm off as the grand missing puzzle pieces of it all.

O’Neill is a former entertainment journalist who, in 1999, received an assignment from Premiere magazine to write about how the Tate-LaBianca murders changed Hollywood; he wound up going down a rabbit hole. The core of O’Neill’s theory is that he has devised a way to tie the Manson murders into the hidden dark side of the CIA. He’s figured out how to take this legendary chapter of ultraviolent insanity and connect it to…the Man.

O’Neill’s focus is the clandestine CIA program known as MKUltra, which was launched in 1953 and lasted for 20 years. (It was so dicey that the records of it were mostly destroyed in 1973.) MKULtra was the Agency’s ongoing experiment in mind control, rooted in what could be done with hallucinogenic drugs, and utilizing university research centers, most of which had no idea that they were working for the CIA. The LSD experiments had multiple dimensions, but one key facet of them is that the CIA wanted to see if it could use LSD to produce programmed assassins. This idea, part behavior mod and part sci-fi, was very much in the air at the time (it’s dealt with quite spectacularly in the classic 1962 Hollywood thriller “The Manchurian Candidate”). And so you could say that there was an overlap between what the CIA was doing in its subversive bunkers and what Charles Manson was doing with his sermons and drug orgies at Spahn Ranch. But was there a literal connection?

Here’s about as far as it goes. Manson was released from prison in 1967, and he violated his parole by traveling up to San Francisco and settling into the Haight-Ashbury scene. That’s where he started to attract the followers who would become the Family. Manson spent a lot of time at the Haight-Ashbury Free Medical Clinic, mostly because his girls were stricken by venereal disease. But the CIA had also set up an office there. Louis “Jolly” West, a psychiatrist who was deeply involved with MKULtra (he’s known for having conducted an interview with Lee Harvey Oswald assassin Jack Ruby just before Ruby’s murder trial), used the clinic to recruit subjects for his studies of LSD and youth. He called the place a “laboratory disguised as a hippie crash pad.”

But did West and Manson ever meet? O’Neill concedes that he has never found evidence or testimony placing Jolly West and Charlie Manson in the same room. But he’s got enough of a hunch to suggest that Charlie learned his mind-control techniques from the CIA.

Since there’s no actual evidence of this to linger over, Morris fills out the documentary with a dozen tangents, always implying that he’s finding new details and angles — like, for instance, his exploration of Manson’s music career, and how close Charlie actually came to landing a recording contract. Through his friendship with Dennis Wilson, there is actually a Manson song, “Cease to Exist,” on the Beach Boys’ 1969 album “20/20.” And the truth is that Manson had a singing voice of knowing mellow command. Stranger things might have happened than this eccentric crooner turning into a one-hit wonder.

But when the music producer Terry Melcher came up to Spahn Ranch to give Manson an audition, Melcher liked Charlie’s songs but said, “I don’t know what to do with you.” So Charlie came close, but not close enough. And that was a key motivation for the Manson murders, the first night of which took place at the home that Manson thought was Terry Melcher’s house.

But we’ve been through all this before. In “CHAOS,” Errol Morris winds his way through Manson back-alleys, now mixing in the spice of conspiracy theorizing. Here’s a man named Bernard Crowe who Manson shot (and thought, wrongly, that he’d killed) because Charlie believed that Crowe was a Black Panther. Here’s Susan Atkins, the breathy WASP witch-princess of Manson’s followers, talking in an old interview about how she and Tex Watson got super-wired on speed the night of Sharon Tate’s murder (the drug factor is a major part of the explanation of how the girls could see the stabbings they were doing as “unreal”). And here’s a theory, offered up by Bobby Beausoleil in a new interview with Morris, that Charlie was so paranoid that he was afraid one of his followers was going to rat him out, so he orchestrated the murders to make sure everyone was too complicit to snitch.

And, finally, here’s Tom O’Neill’s most scurrilous theory: that the way Vincent Bugliosi pieced together the whole race-war/piggies/Beatles mythology of “Helter Skelter,” in what was one of the most brilliant acts of prosecutorial perception an American courtroom had ever seen (for he had to convict Manson of murder when Manson hadn’t actually killed anybody — a paradigm that goes back to Hitler), was just something he came up with…to sell books! “CHAOS” ends up suggesting that the Manson murders were a grand plot, orchestrated from on high (by the CIA? the Deep State? Nixon?) to turn America against the counterculture. I don’t believe that theory for a second, but there’s one way I think it stays true to the spirit of Charles Manson: It’s pure madness.

Song revealed for UK’s 2025 Eurovision act Remember Monday

Girl group Remember Monday will represent the UK at the 2025 Eurovision Song Contest with the song What The Hell Just Happened?.

The country music group will be hopeful they get a better result at this year’s edition of the international competition in May in Basel, Switzerland, than the UK has had during the last two years.

Olly Alexander’s performance with disco-style Dizzy saw the UK come 18th in Sweden’s Malmo in 2024, and Mae Muller’s I Wrote A Song in 2023 landed in second-last place in Liverpool.

Remember Monday said: “What The Hell Just Happened? is exactly how we’re feeling right now. It’s all very surreal; our friendship goes so far back, and we definitely never imagined that we’d be doing anything like this.

“When you’re a kid and people ask you what you want to be when you grow up, an absolute classic is ‘I wanna be a pop star’, so the fact that we’re getting the chance to live that dream as three best friends is just wild.

“We’re going to be the first girl band to represent the UK since 1999, which feels like such a crazy honour.

“We’re going to bring loads of fun, energy and hopefully do something that you won’t have seen before on the Eurovision stage. We honestly can’t wait to experience this with all of the other incredible artists from around the world, and hopefully make everyone back at home feel proud.

“This is really the music World Cup and we’ll do our best to bring it home.”

Their key change musical theatre-esque song was co-written with British duo Billen Ted (Tom Hollings and Sam Brennan), Thomas Stengaard – who is behind several Eurovision songs – and pianist and songwriter Julie “Kill J” Aagaard.

The upbeat pop track is about a fun night out with friends, and it showcases the group’s harmonies.

Remember Monday, made up of Lauren Byrne, Holly-Anne Hull and Charlotte Steele, previously competed on The Voice UK in 2019, where they were eliminated before the final of the competition.

They have released a number of tracks since the show, including their EP Crazy Anyway which came out last October.

The previous last girl band Precious made it to 12th in the Jerusalem 1999 edition of Eurovision with the song Say It Again. The group broke up a year later.

Remember Monday have been chosen by Sam Ryder’s manager David May, who headed up the BBC’s search for the next Eurovision contestant.

Ryder came second at Turin 2022 with the uplifting and energetic Space Man, which made him the first UK entrant to make it to the top five since Jade Ewen’s It’s My Time in 2009.

May said: “I’ve had the pleasure of working across multiple areas of the music industry for nearly two decades.

“Every now and then, you meet an artist on the verge of turning into something truly outstanding and inspiring.

“That is Remember Monday: a true class act and a combination of vocal prowess, charisma, professionalism, and unwavering drive. It’s our job to help them reach their full potential, and it’s one I will take great pride in.”

Remember Monday’s other songs include Laugh About It, Queen hit Fat Bottomed Girls, What The Bathroom Is For, and Famous, which have racked up hundreds of thousands of streams on Spotify.

They have toured the UK and US, including stopping at the C2C: Country to Country British music festival, The Long Road festival in Leicestershire, Highways Festival at the Royal Albert Hall, CMA Fest in Nashville, Tennessee, and they opened for Billy Joel’s 2023 BST Hyde Park show.

During their blind audition for The Voice UK, they harmonised to Seal’s Kiss From A Rose, and had all the judges including Will.i.am, Jennifer Hudson, Sir Tom Jones and Olly Murs saying yes to mentoring them.

American singer and actress Hudson was the mentor chosen, and they later appeared on The Jennifer Hudson Show, where they performed Alanis Morissette’s Hand In My Pocket, in 2024.

At the British Country Music Association, they took home the UK Horizon prize in 2019, and the best duo or trio gong in 2024.

Remember Monday have been a recipient of the International Showcase Fund run by PRS Foundation in partnership with other organisations.

After meeting at sixth-form college in 2013, they quit their day jobs and become full-time band members in 2023.

They have appeared in musical theatre productions, with Hull being in Les Miserables and The Phantom Of The Opera, Steele appearing in Mary Poppins, and Byrne being in Matilda and the tour of Six The Musical.

Billen Ted are Brit Award nominees who have worked with Little Mix, Anne Marie, MNEK and Armin van Buuren, while Stengaard previously co-wrote Denmark’s 2013 Eurovision winning song Only Teardrops, performed by Emmelie de Forest, and 2024 Austrian entrant Kaleen’s We Will Rave.

Duo Billen Ted said the song is a “a wild ride that throws it back to Queen’s epic theatrics while taking a fresh twist on the classic sound”.

They added: “It’s our own nod to doing something different – similar to how Sam Ryder embraced his David Bowie influence. Remember Monday are a powerhouse trio with killer harmonies, and we can’t wait to see them fully send it in Basel.”

The grand final of Eurovision will take place in St Jakobshalle on May 17, with the semi-finals on May 13 and 15.

Review: ‘Mickey 17’ flies high on Bong Joon-ho’s no-limits imagination

It’s been six years since South Korean cinema master Bong Joon-ho released “Parasite” and won Oscars for best picture, director and screenplay. Now, he’s back in theaters with his latest, “Mickey 17,” working in English with up-for-anything actor Robert Pattinson and determined to make us see the world in fresh ways while swiping at greed and class discrimination.

Repeating his historic success with “Parasite” is off the table. It’s not happening. But that doesn’t mean Bong has lost his knack for shakings things up. In this goofball, sci-fi space opera tinged with biting social satire, Pattinson plays Mickey Barnes, a lowly space traveler built to be used, abused, murdered and regularly re-animated through human printing technology.

Pattinson’s broad American accent alone is worth at least 17 hoots. “I really hate dying,” says Mickey, and for good reason, since we watch him endure multiple deaths (I winced at the sight of radiation burning off his skin) — and that’s not even the worst of Mickey’s torments.

How did Mickey end up in such a horrific pickle? Well, back on Earth, with a loan shark threatening to end him, Mickey signed up for a program in which the highest bidder could use him as a human expendable. Better than expiring for keeps, Mickey thought.

It doesn’t take him long to think again. After volunteering to be shot into deep space, Mickey finds himself on the ice planet of Nilfheim in the godless year of 2054, when the one-percenters are still in charge, with malicious mischief on their minds. There are also armies of alien “creepers” outside ready to gobble up intruders. That’s you, Mickey.

The leader of the human pack of space invaders is Kenneth Marshall, a futuristic MAGA candidate in a red hat who’s hilariously hammed by Mark Ruffalo. The acting legend that is Toni Collette matches Ruffalo for flame-throwing flamboyance as the dictator’s wife Ylfa.

Mickey is not without allies. As the passionate Nasha, Naomie Ackie seems to love Mickey for real. His so-called BFF Timo, played by the great Steven Yeun, is way harder to trust. And the tension, for which Bong is famous, escalates hard enough to leave you breathless.

Bong has covered this territory before in his other two movies in English. In 2014’s epic “Snowpiercer,” he crammed a microcosm of haves and have-nots onto a speeding train. And in 2017’s “Okja,” the adorable title character is a genetically engineered pig that’s part of scheme to feed and control the masses.

The filmmaker has often been accused of being too much. And “Mickey 17,” bloated with a big studio budget, suffers from excess. Bong’s script is based on Edward Ashton’s 2022 sci-fi novel “Mickey7,” so he’s already added 10 Mickeys to the game. There’s also a do-badder Mickey 18 in play, but I will say no more, except to remind you that Bong is also a maximal talent.

The British Pattinson, miles from the American vampire dreamboat days of the “Twilight” franchise, has developed into an actor of stunning virtuosity (see him in a “Good Time,” “The Lighthouse” and as the darkest-ever Caped Crusader in “The Batman”). My guess is you could triple the number of Mickeys and Pattinson would play the hell out of each one.

Flaws and all, “Mickey 17” flies high on Bong’s no-limits imagination. So what if his Korean language films, from 2003’s “Memories of Murder” to 2019’s “Parasite,” represent his best efforts. Despite a few clumsy lunges at profundity, “Mickey 17” is still Bong busting barriers to create a visionary thriller that’s alive with talent and an artful sense of purpose.

Roy Ayers, jazz-soul legend whose music was heavily sampled by younger artists, dies at 84

Roy Ayers, jazz-soul legend whose music was heavily sampled by younger artists, dies at 84

Christie D’Zurilla

March 6, 2025 at 6:49 PM

Roy Ayers, the “King of Neo Soul” who was born and raised on Vernon Avenue just south of downtown Los Angeles and saw more than 60 of his songs sampled by a who’s who of hip-hop and soul artists, died Wednesday in New York. The bandleader and vibraphonist was 84.

“It is with great sadness that the family of legendary vibraphonist, composer and producer Roy Ayers announce his passing which occurred on March 4th, 2025 in New York City after a long illness,” his family said late Tuesday in a statement on social media. “He lived a beautiful 84 years and will be sorely missed. His family ask that you respect their privacy at this time, a celebration of Roy’s life will be forthcoming.”

“I grew up listening to the legendary Roy Ayers,” former Vice President Kamala Harris said Wednesday on X. “‘Everybody Loves the Sunshine’ is one of my favorite songs, and it has scored some of the most important moments in my life. When Doug [Emhoff] and I were dating, one of the first things Cole [Emhoff] and I bonded over was our love for Roy Ayers.”

Ayers’ “Everybody Loves the Sunshine,” a minor hit when first issued, has been a Southern California anthem since its release in 1976. The longevity of the jazz-driven soul song is largely due to its use in hip-hop and soul tracks, with snippets of the song sampled by Dr. Dre, Mary J. Blige, J Dilla, 2Pac, J. Cole and dozens of others.

Hundreds of other artists including Tyler, the Creator, Jill Scott and Madlib sampled Ayers, earning him a vaunted place among music producers and DJs. His work in the 1970s as bandleader of the six-piece band Roy Ayers Ubiquity helped spawn the subgenre called acid jazz.

“If I didn’t have music, I wouldn’t even want to be here,” Ayers told The Times in 2011. “It’s like an escape when there is no escape. An escape for temporary moments.” He said he was happy that he never asked anyone to sample his music, though he thought at the time that about 60 artists had done so.

“They just started doing it,” he said. “It’s been wonderful hearing people put their own spin on my sounds.”

Roy Edwards Ayers was born Sept. 10, 1940, in south Los Angeles to a musical family — dad played trombone, mom played piano. He was raised against the backdrop of the storied Central Avenue Jazz scene during the 1940s and ’50s. The area (known then as South Park) was a relatively peaceful beacon of African American culture, fostering luminaries including revered musicians Dexter Gordon and Charles Mingus.

Ayers told The Times in 2011 how as a 5-year-old in the crowd at the Paramount Theater he received his first set of mallets from the great Lionel Hampton. “At the time, my mother and father told me he laid some spiritual vibes on me,” Ayers said. They became his weapon of choice after picking up the vibraphone as a Thomas Jefferson High School student at age 17.

Ayers released his debut album, “West Coast Vibes,” in 1962. He relocated to New York City in 1966 after he dropped out of Los Angeles City College and began touring with flute player Herbie Mann.

With Argerie Ayers, whom he married in 1973, the musician had son Mtume and daughter Ayana, who later became his manager. He also had a son, writer Nabil Ayers, with ballerina-turned-waitress Louise Braufman.

As a bandleader, Ayers’ albums include 20 studio records, nine collaborative releases and six live ones. He released 17 singles, primarily in the 1970s and 1980s, including “Don’t Stop the Feeling,” “Hot,” “Running Away,” “Get on Up, Get on Down” and “In the Dark.”

He did the soundtrack to the Blaxploitation movie “Coffy,” which was co-written by its star Pam Grier and director Jack Hall. Quentin Tarantino’s Vista Theater retro cafe, Pam’s Coffy, pays homage to the 1973 project, and Tarantino used the music from “Coffy” in his 1997 Grier film “Jackie Brown.”

“The president of PolyGram came to me in 1973 and said, ‘Roy, can you do a soundtrack?’ I said, ‘Of course.’ I had never done a soundtrack in my life,” he told musician Stephen Titmus in 2014. “So they sent me out to California and showed me the movie and showed me everything I had to do and I did it.” His experience working with big bands made for easy work, he said.

Ayers’ career got a significant revival in the 1990s when, during hip-hop’s Golden Era, sample-minded emcees plumbed his ample catalog and worked his music into theirs. His “King of Neo Soul” title came from singer-songwriter Erykah Badu, one of the artists who partnered with him on his 2004 record “Mahogany Vibe.”

“I wrote the song because I felt it,” Ayers told The Times in 2020 via email when asked about the place of “Everybody Loves the Sunshine” in Southern California culture. “Perhaps because it is sunny and lovely out on the West Coast, that came through.”

Times deputy editor Nate Jackson and former staff writer Randall Roberts contributed to this report.

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This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.

Disney’s $296M Snow White Flees UK Premiere Amid Modernization Storm

Mirror, mirror on the wall, who’s the most cautious studio of them all? Disney, darlings — and their latest strategic pirouette around the “Snow White” controversy proves it.

The House of Mouse is tiptoeing away from London’s glittering premiere scene faster than Cinderella at midnight. With a whopping $296 million budget hanging in the balance (enough to buy every poisoned apple in the kingdom), they’re trading the traditional red carpet spectacle for — wait for it — “a handful of tightly controlled press events.” How… understated.

Let’s be real: Hollywood’s attempts to modernize beloved classics have been about as graceful as a princess in glass combat boots lately. The leaked “Powerpuff Girls” adaptation looked more tragic than magic, honey. And now Disney’s finding out that even the fairest tale of them all isn’t immune to 2025’s particularly spicy brand of cultural warfare.

Rachel Zegler, bless her candid heart, didn’t exactly help matters when she went off-script about Prince Charming’s, shall we say, questionable courtship techniques. “A guy who literally stalks her” probably wasn’t the fairy-tale romance angle the marketing department had in mind. Though… she’s not entirely wrong?

The whole situation’s messier than the dwarfs’ cottage before Snow White’s cleanup montage. You’ve got Israeli actress Gal Gadot’s casting stirring up political storms, social media boycott campaigns swirling like evil queen’s magic, and traditionalists clutching their vintage collectibles in horror at the mere suggestion that Snow White might *gasp* prioritize leadership over true love’s kiss.

David Hand — son of the original film’s supervising director — practically declared the new version blasphemous. Darling, when someone suggests their father is “turning in their grave,” it’s rarely followed by “…with delight.”

And then there’s that first teaser trailer… Oh, sweeties. When your CGI dwarfs prompt 1.4 million dislikes from 11 million views, perhaps it’s time to wish upon a different star. The visual effects team might want to phone home to whatever realm they borrowed that technology from.

But here’s the tea: Disney’s premiere dodge isn’t cowardice — it’s Hollywood survival instinct at its finest. In an era where every creative decision becomes a cultural battleground, sometimes the smartest move is to keep your crown low and your PR team close.

As March 21st’s release date looms like a forbidden fruit, the real question isn’t whether Snow White will find her happily ever after. It’s whether Hollywood can finally crack the code on modernizing classics without shattering the magic that made them beloved in the first place.

Spoiler alert? Don’t hold your breath, darlings. But do grab your popcorn — this show’s far from over.

King Charles Is Playing DJ in an Unexpected Collaboration with Apple Music: ‘It Brings Us Joy’

Simon Perry is a writer and correspondent at PEOPLE. He has more than 25 years’ experience at PEOPLE covering the royals, human interest and celebrity.

DJ King Charles is in the house! Well, the palace — and behind his desk curating a set of songs for Apple Music.

The King, 76, is taking listeners on a musical journey to give an insight into music from around the Commonwealth.

Recorded in his office at Buckingham Palace, “The King’s Music Room” includes artists from 1930s singers to Kylie Minogue and reggae great Bob Marley and Afrobeats stars. It also features Grace Jones, Davido and RAYE.

A trailer for the show, which was made to commemorate Commonwealth Day, which falls on March 10, was released on March 6. The show is available from 1 a.m. EST on Apple Music 1 for free on March 10.

Opening the broadcast, King Charles says, “Throughout my life, music has meant a great deal to me. I know that is also the case for so many others. It has that remarkable ability to bring happy memories flooding back from the deepest recesses of our memory, to comfort us in times of sadness, and to take us to distant places.”

“But perhaps, above all, it can lift our spirits to such a degree, and all the more so when it brings us together in celebration,” he adds. “In other words, it brings us joy.”

King Charles is head of the Commonwealth, which is made up of 56 countries — including Australia, Canada, India and Kenya — that have strong ties to the U.K. and span much of the world.

Apple says in a statement the musical journey reflects King Charles’ personal taste and is shaped by his “extraordinary experiences from around the world.” During the broadcast, he also tells some anecdotes about his meetings with artists and unveils why some of the songs are important to him.

“Human curation has always been a key pillar of our unique editorial approach,” Rachel Newman, Apple Music’s global head of content and editorial, says in a statement. “Apple Music Radio is where culture is happening worldwide, and we are honored that King Charles III chose to share his personal playlist with us, and with music fans around the world.”

Errollyn Wallen, CBE, Master of The King’s Music, added, “You can see His Majesty’s wide-ranging enthusiasm for music in this playlist to mark Commonwealth Day. The Commonwealth has produced more than its fair share of wonderful songs, singers, and musicians, and this fun and eclectic collection is a great reminder of this treasure trove of creativity.”

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It’s not the first time a member of the royal family has collaborated with Apple. Prince William recorded the Apple Fitness+ podcast Time to Walk, taking listeners around Norfolk and giving a little insight into his family life. And Charles was given a tour of the company’s HQ in Battersea, London in December 2024.