Last month, the Brit pop singer, Charli XCXmade a bold proclamation with "I think the dance floor is dead, so now we're making rock music". Many of her fans were taken aback by this statement since she made her name by creating energized music that you could dance to since her breakout single, "Boom Clap" back in 2014. But the singer/songwriter, born Charlotte Aitchison, was actually doing a little promoting for her newest bit of music, "Rock Music". And while this track has an edgy and rough vibe, it's not exactly a hardcore rock song but more guitar-driven with a dance beat driving the tune along. Charli has been busy: contributing music for the soundtrack of Emerald Fennell's adaptation of "Wuthering Heights" and performing as an actor in the films, "The Moment", "Faces of Death" and the upcoming Gregg Araki comedy-thriller, "I Want Your Sex". But she has not abandoned her pop music career with "Rock Music" being the first release from her seventh studio album with no title or street date revealed just yet.
Here's a round up of some intriguing new music: the soul music legend, Chaka Khan is back with "Chakzilla", an oddly titled funky dance track (with production by Greg Kurstin) which also happens to be the title of her upcoming studio album, Khan's first in seven years; the latest single from Harry Styles, "Dance No More" has the former boy band member busting out some serious dance moves in the music video; the Swedish artist, Tove Lo has dropped a raw and edgy new single, "I'm Your Girl, Right?" with an equally oddball video; "Five Past Three" is an electropop single from the Chainsmokers’ newest EP, "Love Is Kind", which is a collaboration with the Swedish performer, Oaks; and Sir Paul McCartney has his twentieth solo album, "The Boys of Dungeon Lane" on the way with the song, "Home to Us", is a duet with his former bandmate, Ringo Starr.
The 2026 Eurovision Song Contest recently concluded on May 16th with thirty-five countries competing for the top prize of the best international original pop song. Held at Wiener Stadthalle in Vienna for the contest's 70th edition, Dara from Bulgaria won the Grand Prize for "Bangaranga", a dance-pop song with the title taken from Jamaican Patois and has been translated as "a joyful kind of disorder". This song, the first win for this country, won both the jury vote and televote, the first entry to do so since 2017. The runner-up was from Israel with "Michelle" by Noam Bettan and in third is "Choke Me" by Romania's Alexandra Căpitănescu. Several countries had declined to participate this year in protest at Israel's inclusion in the contest due to the on-going Gaza war.
Clarence Carter, the blind soul singer behind the hits, "Patches" and Strokin'", passed away on May 13th at the age of ninety. Born in Montgomery, Alabama, Carter (blind since birth) attended the Alabama School for the Blind in Talladega and later went to Alabama State University, graduating with a Bachelor of Science degree in music. After pursuing music professionally with friend, Calvin Scott in 1960, the duo formed the C & C Boys and recorded several singles but none of them gained much traction commercially. Six years later, Scott was seriously injured in an auto accident with Carter deciding to continue as a solo performer.
His first break came the following year with "Tell Daddy", his answer record to Etta James' hit, "Tell Mama", which reached the top forty on the r&b chart. Carter joined Atlantic Records which began a string of hits on the R&B and pop charts, starting with "Slip Away", "Too Weak to Fight", "Snatching It Back" and the naughty, "Back Door Santa". Carter's biggest hit came in 1970 with his version of "Patches", originally recorded by Chairmen of the Board, which reached number two in the UK and number four on the U.S. pop chart. The record would sell over one million copies and win the Grammy Award for Best R&B Song.
Carter's career would cool down following this but he did have one more hit record with "Strokin'" in 1986. While the song was considered too raunchy to actually be played on the radio, it was discovered by fans with it being played on jukeboxes and later found even bigger success when it was included on the soundtracks for Eddie Murphy's remake of "The Nutty Professor" and the 2011 crime-drama, "Killer Joe". Carter was briefly married to Candi Staton, who began as one of his background singers, in 1970 and they had a son together, Clarence Carter Jr., before divorcing in 1973.
There was unfortunately plenty of controversy long before a note was sung during the 2024Eurovision Song Contest. People had begun protesting, numbering in the thousands, earlier in the week before the contest began May 7th outside the venue, Malmö Arena in host country, Sweden over Israel’s participation due to their actions in Gaza. And then during the contest, the Netherlands’ contestant, Joost Klein was disqualified and sent home, over allegations of intimidation against a production crew member were made.
But despite all of this, the show went on and there was a winner: Switzerland’sNemo won for their song "The Code". Baby Lasagna of Croatia was in second place with their song, "Rim Tim Tagi Dim" and Alyona Alyona and Jerry Heil of Ukraine with "Teresa & Maria" came in third. Thirty-seven countries participated in this year's contest, with Luxembourg competing for the first time since 1993, while Romania opted not to participate after doing so last year.
While she has spent much of her time recently working on her popular daytime television talk show, Kelly Clarkson has certainly not given up on her music career. Even on the program, the first "American Idol" winner devotes some time to allow herself an opportunity to sing with her Kellyoke segment where she puts her spin on classic songs. But Clarkson has announced that new music is on the horizon.
For her upcoming tenth studio album, "Chemistry", Clarkson dives into all of the experiences you can through in a relationship; from the blissful beginning to the devastating end. Using her own marriage and bitter divorce as inspiration, Clarkson began work on this project two years ago, writing close to sixty songs. She states that the writing was helpful for her, allowing all of the complicated emotions she was going through to be expressed, and hopes the album will be of aid for anyone who is going through challenging times. Two singles have been released, "mine" and "me" as Clarkson didn't want just one song to represent the entire album.
Clarkson will be out promoting "Chemistry" (due out on June 23rd) with a ten-night Las Vegas residency at the Bakkt Theater in Planet Hollywood from July 28th to August 19th.
When Donna Summer first emerged with "Love To Love You, Baby" back in 1975, this sexy dance ballad punctuated by erotic moans would create a cultural shift on what was acceptable to be played on pop radio. She would follow this international smash two years later with "I Feel Love", another global sensation that effectively used synthesizer loops to create a new, influential sound that helped lay down the foundation of what would later become electronic music. These tracks (which also includes the disco version of "MacArthur Park" and "Last Dance") would help Summer achieve the crown of "The Queen of Disco" but she was determined to prove she had much more to offer than just dance music. Summer would go on to amass thirty-two charting singles in the US that ranged from pop, rock and r&b, selling well over one hundred million records worldwide.
Sadly, Summer passed away in 2012 but her incredible legacy will be celebrated with a new documentary, "Love To Love You, Donna Summer" by the Oscar-winning filmmaker, Roger Ross Williams and Brooklyn Sudano, one of Summer's daughters. The film takes an in-depth, personal look into Summer's life and career with photos, home-video footage (much of it never before seen) and interviews with "Love To Love You, Donna Summer" making its premiere on HBO on May 20th.
And this year's Eurovision Song Contest is over with a new winner crowned. Held in Liverpool, UK with thirty-seven countries in competition, Swedish singer, Loreen won for "Tattoo" becoming only the second contestant to win twice (she previously took the giant mic statue in 2012 for her song, "Euphoria") and giving Sweden another victory with a total of seven wins, tying Ireland. Finland's Käärijä came in second with "Cha Cha Cha" while Noa Kirel from Israel with "Unicorn" came in third. This European pop music contest is a very popular event with an estimated one hundred and eighty million viewers tuning in to watch this three-day competition.
Now Eurovision hasn't made much of an impact here in the States over its sixty-seven years, even with ABBA, Celine Dion, Julio Iglesias and Olivia Newton-John going on to great success after appearing in the contest but that has changed recently. It might have begun with the 2020 Netflix musical-comedy, "Eurovision Song Contest: The Story of Fire Saga" with Will Ferrell and Rachel McAdams which helped bring attention and create interest for this contest to American audiences, especially when the actual Eurovision had to be cancelled that year due to the COVID lockdown.
