Women Are Finally Finding a Voice on New York Stages, From ‘Six’ to ‘Suffs’ (Guest Blog)

Emanuel Okusanya Over the last decade, Afrobeat has blossomed from a continental staple into a global sound, with artists such as Nicki Minaj, Beyonce and even Ed Sheeran incorporating the genre into their music and cosign the culture. The genre reached a new peak with Burna Boy’s concert at New York’s Madison Square Garden on Thursday, which certified him as the first Nigerian artist to headline a concert at the legendary arena.The show opened with a small welcoming speech by legendary rapper Busta Rhymes, who thanked the crowd — which was overwhelmingly West African — for their rich culture and warm embrace when he visited Nigeria.

Sofi Tukker have shared a new nostalgic single, ‘Summer In New York’ from their second album, ‘Wet Tennis’ which is out today (April 29) via Ultra / Sony Music.The duo have said that the album title is an acronym meaning: When Everyone Tries to Evolve, Nothing Negative Is Safe. They also noted that the electro-pop record is intended to be a celebration of self-empowerment, owning your right to pleasure, and liberating yourself from outside constraints.Their latest track, ‘Summer In New York’, is an ode to the city where the pair got their start.

Marc Malkin Senior Film Awards, Events & Lifestyle EditorSearchlight Pictures’ queer romantic comedy “Fire Island” will have its world premiere on June 2 during NewFest’s NewFest Pride series.“We are thrilled to kick off our annual Pride month event with the world premiere of Andrew Ahn’s ‘Fire Island,’” NewFest executive director David Hatkoff said in statement on Thursday morning. “This joyful film captures the sexy, romantic, celebratory energy of the iconic NY gay enclave, and we can’t wait to celebrate with the film’s cast and creative team with a blow-out, prideful event in the heart of NYC.”Set in Fire Island, New York’s popular gay getaway Pines neighborhood and inspired by Jane Austen’s “Pride and Prejudice,” the film stars Joel Kim Booster and Bowen Yang as best friends who are determined to have the ultimate summer adventure.

Universal debuted its first look at “She Said,” the drama about the investigative reporters at the New York Times who helped to break the Harvey Weinstein story that kicked off the #MeToo movement. Both of the film’s stars Carey Mulligan and Zoe Kazan, who play reporters Megan Twohey and Jodi Kantor respectively, were on hand to introduce the film’s trailer, and they talked up the importance of the behind the scenes story and the Kantor and Twohey’s book on which the film is based.

In February, New York State Health officials identified a small number of new Covid cases related to a new, even more infectious subvariant of Omicron BA.2. Dubbed BA.2.12.1, it made up only 3% of all new cases in the state for that month. Figures released today by the CDC indicate that in the past eight weeks BA.2.12.1 has not only outcompeted BA.2 in terms of growth, but it has now become the dominant variant in the region made up of New York, New Jersey and Connecticut. The CDC data indicates that BA.12.2 now accounts for 58% of new cases in the region. In New York state, its share is much higher.

British singer Tom Grennan has revealed the extent of his injuries after he was attacked outside a bar in New York on Wednesday evening.

Tom Grennan has shared an update after being attacked in New York, while thanking fans for their “incredible” support.The singer-songwriter was hospitalised following an “unprovoked attack and robbery” outside a bar in Manhattan after playing a headline show in New York City. As a result, he was forced to postpone his scheduled performance in Washington, D.C.

covering Rosalía’s ‘Hentai’ during the first of her two shows at Radio City Music Hall in New York City, Lorde has followed it up at the second by performing a rendition of ‘The End Has No End’ by The Strokes.“We’re in New York, you know? Got to do it,” Lorde told the crowd on night two before beginning a stripped-back rendition of the local indie rockers’ ‘Room On Fire’ cut, singing along to a dreamy guitar backing.Watch Lorde cover ‘The End Has No End’ at Radio City Music Hall below:LOOK AT OUR GIRL!!! Another video of Lorde covering The Stroke’s “The End Has No End” tonight in NYC #SolarPowerTour pic.twitter.com/j050eVFx8i— Lorde Updates ☀️ (@LordeUpdatesBR) April 20, 2022Lorde is currently on the North American leg of her current world tour in support of her 2021 album, ‘Solar Power’. The New Zealand artist will head to the UK and Ireland in May and June – tickets can be found here.Following that run, she’ll perform a string of European headline dates, as well as festival appearances at Primavera and Glastonbury, before wrapping up the tour in New Zealand and Australia in 2023.‘Solar Power’, Lorde’s third studio album, arrived back in August of last year after being previewed with its title track – which recently won Best Song In The World at this year’s BandLab NME Awards 2022 – along with ‘Stoned At The Nail Salon’ and ‘Mood Ring’.

Wordle. As the Times named Joseph Kahn its new executive editor Tuesday, succeeding former honcho Dean Baquet, the Old Gray Lady sanctioned a splashy portrait and profile of their nascent leader for New York Magazine — which captured the promotion in a disarmingly seductive way.The resulting, perhaps unintentional, erotica — featuring enough arched-back and come hither gazes to make pinup pioneers Rita Hayworth and Marilyn Monroe proud — might just drive foot fetishists everywhere into a frenzy, as well.

Lorde covered Rosalía‘s track ‘HENTAI’ during her gig in New York City last night (April 18) – you can watch fan-shot footage of the performance below.The New Zealand artist is currently on the North American leg of her ‘Solar Power’ world tour, which is running in support of her 2021-released third studio album of the same name.During her show at Radio City Music Hall in New York last night, Lorde performed a rendition of Rosalía’s ‘HENTAI’, which features on the latter’s new record ‘Motomami’.Responding to the cover, Rosalía shared footage of Lorde’s ‘HENTAI’ performance on her Instagram Stories this afternoon (April 19) and wrote: “Lorde que bonita” [how beautiful].You can watch fan-shot footage of Lorde’s cover of the track below:Fuckin hell @lorde covering @rosalia I can die now pic.twitter.com/vANjLYG7nM— Austin Rieders (@RiedersDigest) April 19, 2022Writing to fans in her newsletter last month, Lorde revealed that she had been listening to ‘Motomami’ on repeat since its March release.“I’ve listened to the Rosalía album every day since it came out, fuck, it’s so good,” she wrote. “I gagged when I heard that interpolation of ‘Archangel’, ‘Hentai’ is genius, ‘Sakura’…“Projects like this remind me why I live for pop music — at its best, there’s nothing better.” Lorde’s ‘Solar Power’ tour will visit the UK and Ireland in May and June, and tickets can be found here.

“At present there are a number of Omicron sub-lineages we’re following closely, including BA.2, BA.4 and BA.5 and another recombinant detected, made up of BA.1 and BA.2,” said WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus today. That recombinant is called XE and, until today was the newest more-transmissible variant raising concern. Now there are subvariants BA.2.12 and BA.2.12.1.

Wordle game.After playing Wordle, the free-to-use WordleBot assesses skill (“did you minimise the expected number of turns it would take to solve the puzzle?”) and luck (“did your guesses eliminate more solutions than expected?) before giving players a percentage score, as well as the daily average. WorldeBot does ignore the first guess when looking at skill, though.Then WordleBot offers a step-by-step rundown of an attempt, with recommended words marked with a little gold tick.

NYC Deli Association, here with a treat for you — and maybe a gentle nudge and nag, too. Jokes aside, the Old Jewish Men and New York Post are back again with a hot new “delicore” merchandise collab you need to see.

EXCLUSIVE:  2021 Academy Nicholl Fellow scribe Laura Kosann has been hired to adapt the female-driven comic book Mercy Sparx for MGM, The Picture Company and Assemble Media.