David Byrne Apologizes for Wearing Blackface in 1984 Talking Heads Promo Video

David Byrne has shared a new edition of his online magazine Reasons To Be Cheerful, which focuses on tackling division within society.The new series We Are Not Divided tells the stories of places and institutions that are succeeding in overcoming division.

Jem Aswad Senior Music EditorAfter a pandemic-induced delay and several production shutdowns and rescheduling, singer-songwriter and “Power” star Rotimi presents his official video for “In My Bed,” featuring Wale. The clip is steamy but reps assure that safety protocols for talent and crew were strictly followed.“This record has been a blessing for me and I felt like the fans deserved a classic visual to tell the story,” Rotimi says.

Jem Aswad Senior Music EditorJ Balvin, Ellie Goulding, FKA twigs, Grimes, Matt Healy from the 1975 and Chaeyoung from Twice are all starring in the new season of Google Arts & Culture’s Art Zoom series, which takes viewers on a guided tour of some of the world’s most famous masterpieces through the narration of famous musicians.Through Google’s “gigapixel” Art Camera — a robotic camera custom-made to create the highest possible resolution images of paintings — users can zoom into an artwork at

Jem Aswad Senior Music EditorAfter a comparatively slow week leading into the long weekend — which means we only scanned around 100 songs last week instead of the usual 130! — the avalanche of songs is back with a bang.

Jem Aswad Senior Music EditorCanadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau spoke Wednesday at Hxouse in Toronto, the office of the organization founded by The Weeknd and his longtime associates Lamar Taylor and Ahmed Ismail, to announce a major investment in a new national program to help Black Canadians get funding and business loans with national banks.Trudeau announced investments of up to $220.9 million in partnership with Canadian financial institutions — including up to nearly $93 million from

Despite the countless technological innovations in the 36 years since the release of Jonathan Demme's Stop Making Sense, that iconoclastic time capsule of a 1983 Talking Heads show is still considered by many to be the greatest rock concert film ever made.

Spike Lee and David Byrne aren’t an obvious pairing. While the former’s oeuvre, for the most part, features unflinching stories about Black life in America, the latter became a hero to white college-educated teens everywhere.

just really has no part in any discussion of the work of Byrne or of director Spike Lee, who turned the former Talking Heads front man’s Broadway show into a film that premiered at the slimmed-down TIFF on Thursday, and will come to HBO in October.

Owen Gleiberman Chief Film CriticWhen you watch the filmed version of a show like “Hamilton” or “Springsteen on Broadway,” it can feel like the next best thing to being there. But Spike Lee’s playful and entrancing big-screen version of David Byrne’s “American Utopia” is better than the next best thing — it feels more like a whole new thing.Byrne’s spiky and exuberant 21st-century rock-concert-on-Broadway jamboree, which opened at New York’s Hudson Theatre on Oct.

If there ever was a year for the Toronto Film Festival to open with a musical pep talk for Americans, surely 2020 is it. American Utopia, the concert film of David Byrne’s 2019 Broadway show, directed by Spike Lee, provides a spark of optimism in the era of COVID-19 and civil unrest.

coronavirus pandemic, with a programme of 58 films from around the world — 50 of which will be premiering online.Steve McQueen’s Mangrove will be opening the festival, and the new film from God’s Own Country director Francis Lee Ammonite will be the closing night gala.Further films that are set to premiere include Spike Lee’s filmed take on David Byrne‘s smash-hit Broadway show American Utopia, as well as Miranda July’s new film Kajillionaire and Josephine Decker’s Shirley Jackson

blackface in a 1984 promotional video.The 68-year-old musician has made a statement on social media referring to the 1984 Stop Making Sense concert film, which features Byrne portraying different characters interviewing himself.Byrne tweeted: “Recently a journalist pointed out something I did in a promo video skit in 1984 for the Talking Heads concert film Stop Making Sense.

David Byrne is acknowledging it was a mistake doing a Blackface bit in a performance in 1984.

David Byrne is the latest star to apologize for previously wearing blackface. In the 1980s, to promote the Talking Heads concert film "Stop Making Sense," the musician appeared in a promo video in which he interviewed himself about his work in the form of various characters.

Related: Chris Frantz: 'If you knew David Byrne, you would not be jealous of him' “Recently a journalist pointed out something I did in a promo video skit in 1984 for the Talking Heads concert film Stop Making Sense,” he tweeted.

Greg Evans Associate Editor/Broadway CriticIn a 1984 promotional video for the Talking Heads concert film Stop Making Sense, David Byrne appeared as both himself and a variety of interviewers, including men of color.

David Byrne has addressed his use of black and brownface in a promo skit for Talking Heads‘ 1984 concert film Stop Making Sense.Taking to Twitter, Byrne revealed that a journalist had recently pointed out this particular part of the promo material to him, and proceeded to call the inclusion of the blackface and brownface a “major mistake in judgement”.“In the piece I appear as a number of different characters interviewing myself, and some of the characters portrayed are people of colour,” Byrne