#europop

#europop

Developers are planning to bring ABBA Voyage, the high-tech concert experience built around holographic versions of the Swedish pop group, to Hell's Kitchen. The project is one step closer to reality and, if all goes as planned, the show will open in 2028 inside a purpose-built venue on 11th Avenue between West 45th and 46th Streets.

The four members of ABBA - who are, yes, still alive and in their 70s - apparently spent years developing their holograms along with a team of producers to craft the 100-minute performance. This included five weeks of filming Agnetha, Björn, Benny, and Anni-Frid in motion-capture suits and the work of 140 animators from Industrial Light & Magic, the visual-effects firm behind a bunch of Marvel movies.

R&B in the 21st century has been in a constant state of flux, tugged between safe traditionalism and blurry attempts at progression. For the last decade-plus that "progression" has seen R&B music become more indebted to trap records and the moody atmospherics of alternative bands like Radiohead, Coldplay, or My Bloody Valentine.

Oumy is a leading figure in contemporary Senegalese music. Her style, which blends hip-hop, African R&B and global pop, makes her one of the most exciting artists on the country's urban scene. Beyond her music career, she has also been involved in social projects within her community, participating in cultural festivals and campaigns related to the environment and equality.

Turns out every soul song with a lot of blank space in it just needs to be filled to the brim with Jersey club stomps and squeaks.

Formed in 1998 to celebrate the 25-year anniversary of ABBA winning Eurovision with 'Waterloo', teens Amit Paul, Dhani Lennevald, Marie Serneholt and Sara Lumholdt entered A*Teens as an ABBA tribute group. But after their slew of ABBA covers reached the top 40 around the world - 'Mamma Mia' hit number one in their homeland - the group decided to stick about for a bit, releasing original hit singles.

She watched her peers get called up for groups like SHINee and f(x), but her own debut never came. When Kim, now known professionally as Ejae, was finally dropped by the agency in 2015, the explanation she got was simple: This was a business. As she recently told the Philippine media network ABS-CBN, "SM has a very specific vision and sonic sound and I just didn't really fit that."

Eurovision is a natural love for me, Goodrem says, pointing to the two greatest influences in her life: Olivia Newton-John and Celine Dion, who have both been on the Eurovision stage. To be chosen, she says, feels like a celebration of a career which has leapt from milestone to milestone and cemented her in Australian pop history.

We both live in maybe the most impractical place if you want to be a successful DJ, laughs Alice Marie Jektevik, one half of Article 3, a Sami female DJ collective. Jektevik, 36, and her collaborator, Petra Laiti, 30, reside in a rural village in the far north-east of Norway. But living in Sapmi the region across northern parts of Sweden, Norway, Finland and Russia traditionally lived in by Sami people has proven to be central to their success, providing the inspiration for much of their work.

DJ-Kicks is a series that shaped how I think about DJing and listening. I played the DJ Koze mix an unhealthy number of times, to the point where it basically lives in my DNA now. Those mixes taught me that the best ones aren't about showing off; they're about taking people on a journey. They move, twist and surprise you. They give you goosebumps when you least expect it.

When director Emerald Fennell needed to hire a musician to score her Wuthering Heights adaptation, only one person came to mind: Charli XCX. Not only did the British pop star accept the offer, but she used her soundtrack to capture love in all of its grandiose, moody, and elusive ways. As she described the soundtrack on her Substack, it's a "dive into persona, into a world that felt undeniably raw, wild, sexual, gothic, British, tortured and full of actual real sentences, punctuation and grammar."

"You can really push yourself to the limit, and there's a correlation between muscle power and the sound produced," he said. Matzke's appreciation for the accordion began in his childhood. Now, he serves as one of the ambassadors for the instrument of the year in 2026. "The accordion sparks the imagination. Sometimes it sounds like an orchestra with wind instruments, but you can also cover pop songs wonderfully," he told DW.