Music

International

In Japan, a J-Pop star has come out as gay and his fans cheer

Ashley Westerman

Shinjiro Atae shared the personal revelation on Wednesday evening with an auditorium filled with thousands in Tokyo.
Joni Mitchell's return 'At Newport' reconfigures her legacy

Annie Zaleski

The surprise performance at the Newport Folk Festival, now released as an album, is another exciting evolution in Joni Mitchell's notoriously chameleonic career.
National

Leny Andrade, known as the first lady of Brazilian jazz, dies at 80

James Gavin

Andrade was a consummate nightclub artist who sang torridly of love in a husky voice. A fixture in her home country since the '60s, she became a sensation in the U.S. in the 1990s.
International

Irish singer Sinead O'Connor has died at 56

Neda Ulaby

Anastasia Tsioulcas

O'Connor, who had one of the biggest hits of the early 1990s with her version of "Nothing Compares 2 U," became as well known for her political convictions and the tumult in her life as for her songs.
Arts & Culture

Sinéad O’Connor, gifted and provocative Irish singer, dies at 56

Sylvia Hui

Sinéad O’Connor, the gifted Irish singer-songwriter who became a superstar in her mid-20s but was known as much for her private struggles and provocative actions as for her fierce and expressive music, has died at 56
Tony Bennett on his first job, Sinatra's advice and San Francisco

Terry Gross

The legendary crooner, who died July 21, told Terry Gross in 1991 he never got tired of singing "I Left My Heart in San Francisco": "I'm very grateful for that song."
In 'Someone Who Isn't Me,' Geoff Rickly recounts the struggles of some other singer

Jason Heller

Rickly's first book is a solid and promising literary debut. He's a natural, albeit a germinal one. He is best known as a singer and songwriter of the rock band Thursday.
How Chicago rap became a home for controversial, visionary stars

Meaghan Garvey

Though defined from the start by outsiders — hip-hop flyover country one day, scrutiny magnet the next — Chicago's poets, brawlers and hustlers remain the last word on what gives the city its soul.
Trumpet was too loud, clarinet was too soft — here's 'The Story of the Saxophone'

Samantha Balaban

A shared love of jazz led author Lesa Cline-Ransome and illustrator James Ransome to discover inventor Antoine-Joseph "Adolphe" Sax and the instrument named after him.
International

Malaysia's government cancels festival after The 1975's Matty Healy kisses a bandmate

Juliana Kim

The lead singer of The 1975 disparaged Malaysia's anti-LGBTQ laws, saying he regretted agreeing to perform in the country.