Marianne Fauthfull was a towering artist

 

Marianne Faithfull was a towering artist, not just the muse she was painted as

Alexis Petridis

30 January 2025

It is difficult to think of a moment in pop history less receptive to a 1960s icon relaunching their career than in 1979. At that point, British rock and pop resolutely inhabited a world shaped by punk: it was the year of 2-Tone and Tubeway Army’s Are ‘Friends’ Electric?, of Ian Dury at No 1 and Blondie releasing the bestselling album of the year. And it was a central tenet of punk that the 1960s and their attendant “culture freaks” were, as Sex Pistols manager Malcolm McLaren put it: “fucking disgusting … vampiric … the most narcissistic generation there has ever been,” and that the decade’s famous names should no longer be afforded the kind of awed reverence they had enjoyed for most of the 70s. “No Elvis, Beatles or the Rolling Stones,” as the Clash had sung.

 

Iranian court sentences pop star Tataloo to death for blasphemy

Amir Hossein Maghsoudloo’s five-year jail term increased after prosecutor’s objection, according to reports

Undoing María Callas

 

Maria Callas after a recital at the Théâtre des Champs-Élysées, Paris 1973. Photo © Granger Historical Picture Archive / Alamy 

Undoing Maria Callas

Ben Miller

14 January 2025

At her considerable best, Maria Callas could lay down a performance which can’t be bettered. Others might do it just as well, differently – but not better. Over the course of a brief career, having been raised by a poor, abusive mother and trained far from the commanding heights of the opera world, she sang an astonishing breadth of roles, including Wagner roles like Kundry that demand sustained strength and power, high coloratura roles in operas by Bellini and Donizetti that demand flexibility and delicacy, and even mezzo-soprano roles like Carmen. To all of them, she brought a deep training in the art of bel canto, scrupulous musicianship and an eviscerating psychological intensity.

 

For Natalia Lafourcade, playing the Hollywood Bowl again is the next step in her storied journey

Fidel Martínez

3 September 2024

Natalia Lafourcade is sitting on a bench with her guitar in hand in the middle of the Blue Ribbon Garden, situated atop the Walt Disney Concert Hall. It’s a dreary Saturday in early May and the Grammy-winning singer-songwriter from coastal Veracruz, Mexico, is wearing a tan coat over her long orange dress to shield her diminutive frame from the frigid wind. In front of her are two microphones; she’s calmly awaiting the go-ahead from the video crew standing about 15 feet away to start playing.

Beyoncé She runs her world

In the opening image, Beyoncé wears a black cashmere jumper and white cotton and nylon floral print ball skirt, both by DIOR. Here, she is wearing an orange cashmere jumper by CÉLINE.

Beyoncé

She runs her world

Text by Paul Flynn
Portraits by Alasdair McLellan
Styling by Jonathan Kaye

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Issue n° 7, Spring & Summer 2013

Everyone knows Beyoncé Knowles-Carter, the incandescent megastar with the mesmeric voice, dazzling dance moves and stage costumes that resemble miniature suits of sparkly armour. But beyond the rump-shaking entertainer, there’s an elegant, reflective 31-year-old who’s also a recent mother and a no-nonsense businesswoman. 

Adele in The Gentlewoman

 

Adele

Text by Jude Rogers
Portraits by Alasdair McLellan
Styling by Jonathan Kaye

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Issue n° 3, Spring & Summer 2011

2011 saw a perfect start for Adele Adkins, a British singer with incredible international appeal. When her second album was released in January, it went straight to the top of the iTunes charts in 16 countries. Meanwhile, her debut album returned to the top 10. Born in north London into a clan of strong women, Adele grafts hard over her songs, which are based on her own experiences – in the case of this particular album, a crushing break-up. The events behind her lyrics still sting, and you hear it as soon as she starts to sing. Adele is a legitimate heiress to the great tradition of amazing torch singers. She’s also an adorable, down-to-earth girl.

John Lennon at 80: Zen, Haiku, and His Ties to Japan

Dec 4, 2020

One of Japan’s leading experts on the Beatles takes us on a guided trip through John Lennon’s life after leaving the group, his links to Japan, and the perhaps surprising influence of Zen and haiku on his music.

‘She’s learning that, every time she gets too emotional, the rug gets pulled out from under her’ … Dion in Nice in 2017. Photograph: Toni Anne Barson/Getty Images

Music documentary

‘In one scene, Celine Dion’s dancing. Next, she’s on a gurney’: making the film about the singer’s tragic condition

The star has Stiff Person Syndrome, meaning moments of elation can trigger potentially lethal spasms. We meet the director who captured the singer’s Las Vegas home life – and one shocking attack that almost killed her

Shaad D'Souza

Wed 26 Jun 2024 11.11 EDT

Irene Taylor has travelled the world to tell stories about sexual abuse scandals and oil spills, staunch conservationists and blind Nepalese farmers trying to regain their sight. The Portland-based film-maker is not someone you would usually associate with celebrity-obsessed mainstream America. But decidedly cushier environs are the setting for her latest project: a documentary about Canadian pop singer Celine Dion and her struggle to contend with a rare neurological disorder called Stiff Person Syndrome (SPS). The film is called I Am: Celine Dion.

Hot Tracks / Paloma Faith

 

Paloma Faith

Hot Tracks: Paloma Faith

BY LISA ROBINSON

JANUARY 25, 2013

I don’t really feel that I’m of this time,” says British singer Paloma Faith, who brings a mad splash of color and pizzazz to the current music scene. “I don’t connect much with the present. I have more of an affinity for what came in the past.” The London native has been compared to Amy Winehouse and called “the next Adele,” but Faith’s timeless singing style actually has more in common with the brazen drama of Shirley Bassey and the emotional delivery of Etta James. She eschews the “neo-soul” label that gets put on her, and says, “I think soul is soul. I don’t see new soul as any different to old soul. I tend to think of music in terms of old R&B, and soul is definitely more old-fashioned, which is what I am.”

VIEW FULL IMAGES

See Terry O’Neill’s rare images of David
Bowie’s last show as Ziggy Stardust

By Yasmin Ahram

Photographed by Terry O'Neill

November 20, 2017

In October 1973, British photographer Terry O’Neill received a call from then-manager Tony Defries to shoot an artist by the name of David Bowie—someone he had no idea would go on to become a music superstar, trailblazing style icon, and above all, close friend. The no-holds-barred performance was to be the last appearance of Bowie’s electric alter ego, Ziggy Stardust.

Bob Marley by Dennis Morris

Babylon by van, 1973

‘They asked me if I wanted to come on tour. “Yes!” I said. I met the band at their hotel, the following day after the Speakeasy gig. There was no tour bus as such, just a transit van and a driver cum roadie cum manager Benji Foot (Michael Foot’s son) and a woman named Hazel Charik. They were a little surprised to see me. “Who is this?” they asked. “It’s my photographer, Dennis,” said Bob. “You ready, Dennis?”. “Yeah, I am ready!” I replied’

Bob Marley 

by Dennis Morris

Photographer Dennis Morris worked extensively with Bob Marley between 1973 and 1980, charting his rise from small crowds to global superstardom. After greeting the reggae star at a London club in May 1973, Morris was invited to join the tour – the start of a strong friendship and unrivalled photographic access. We hear from Morris about his memories of photographing Marley

• An exhibition, Portraits of the King: Bob Marley by Dennis Morris,
  runs at 28 Old Burlington Street in London until 7 March
• Morris’s book Portraits of the King is published by Tang Deng

Photographs by Dennis Morris

Main image: Bob Marley in his tour van, London 1973. Photograph: Dennis Morris

Fri 16 Feb 2024 11.22 GMT

Hand on Heart, on tour, UK, 1973

‘I first met Bob in 1973 outside the Speakeasy club in London on the first date of the Wailers UK Catch a Fire tour to promote the Catch a Fire album, his first for Island Records. Bob invited me into the club.’ During a break, he says Marley asked him: ‘So, you wanna be a photographer? Well, they will tell you you can’t do it. You have to believe, Dennis’

Marilyn Monroe

 

Fame is not what it used to be: Why stars like Marilyn and Elvis don’t exist anymore

In a world consumed by social media influencers and superheroes, the film industry is wallowing in nostalgia for the great icons of yesteryear

Begoña Gómez Urzaiz
Barcelona, November 3, 2022

It happens more often now, even to people well versed in pop culture: one day, you discover that you don’t know half of the actors and actresses featured in the Hollywood issue that Vanity Fair puts out to coincide with the Oscars. Who is that actress next to Nicole Kidman? No idea. Who is at the top of Billboard’s Hot 100? No clue (Morgan Wallen, Steve Lacy). Emma Chamberlain’s house goes viral, and we are not quite clear about who she is, let alone what the 21-year-old has done to earn enough money to buy a $4.3 million mansion (answer: she is a social media phenomenon who has signed deals with Levi’s, Cartier and Louis Vuitton). This lack of pop culture knowledge isn’t just a matter of getting old; it shows that intergenerational and “inter-bubble” conversation has become increasingly difficult.

Sinéad O'Connor

We talked to the early hours and found ourselves falling in love: my year with Sinéad O’Connor

I bumped into her in a London pub and it felt like we were old friends. We spent more time watching Father Ted than talking about her music

John Brice
Friday 28 July 2023

I

t was summer 97, a beautiful warm evening. I was working in A&R at Warners, driving to a gig in west London, Sinéad was outside a pub with a couple of friends and we locked eyes and she waved. I’d met her a couple of times before but we’d never really chatted. I popped in, got us a drink and it was like we were old friends. She was wearing baggy torn jeans and a white vest, her beauty was captivating but in no way intimidating, she exuded warmth and kindness. We talked about Abba and what we listened to in our teens. She loved me telling her about all the early Smiths gigs in Manchester. I never made the gig that night. We would instead sit on her sofa and talk until the early hours and soon found ourselves falling in love.

‘She trembled with the truths she had to tell’: Sinéad O’Connor by friends, fans and collaborators

Sinéad O'Connor

 

‘She trembled with the truths she had to tell’: Sinéad O’Connor by friends, fans and collaborators

Neil Jordan, Róisín Murphy, MC Lyte, Anne Enright and more share their memories of a uniquely talented, uncompromising artist, mother and ‘Celtic warrior’

by Ben Beaumont-Thomas, Sian Cain and Laura Snapes
Thursday 27 July 2023

‘She was very beautiful and very wild’

Anne Enright, author

Sinéad O’Connor was a daughter, a mother and a sister, she made a family that brought many people into its extended web of care, one that included the fathers of her four adored children. So when the world mourns an iconic talent and a great star, people in Dublin think about those caught up in her astonishing life story who are now bereaved. All these people joined in the battle for Sinéad’s mental health and worked for the protection and wellbeing of her children, and all of them, including Sinéad, contended with the distorting power that fame brought to her life. It was not easy. Somewhere in there, beyond the huge talent and huge difficulty, beyond public adoration and vilification, the ardent and anguished connection she felt with her fans, was the hope that her great heart and searching wit would bring her through. She was very beautiful and very wild, and she trembled with the truths she had to tell. Sinéad’s grief at the loss of her son was hard to witness and her loss will spark difficulties in many people. Before we turn her into a rock’n’roll saint and lift her image even further from the real, let’s check in with each other and lift the sadness where we can. It’s what she would have wanted. There was none like her. Ar dheis Dé go raibh a h-anam dílis (May her faithful soul be at the right hand of God).