Womad festival review – ​hugely welcome return of joyous planet-spanning music fest

​In a new home after a year off, there’s a thread of fierce political anger running alongside the spirited musical performances – including standout sets from Barrington Levy and Daniela Mercury

Plas Johnson obituary

Celebrated saxophonist in demand for session work and film soundtracks who was famous for his stylistic and technical versatility

‘You say genocide, I say war’: Boy George releases pro-Israel song, We Will Dance Again

Culture Club singer sings ‘I stand with the Jews / I don’t feel brave, I just need to behave like a human’, in song defending Israel’s response to Hamas attack

Carly Simon shares Parkinson’s disease diagnosis and says music has ‘rescued’ her

Singer-songwriter also had surgery to treat carcinoma on her face, leading her to ‘withdraw from public view’

Charli xcx portrait added to National Portrait Gallery collection

Pop star is celebrated as ‘one of the defining cultural figures of her generation’ by gallery, which acquires Brat-era portrait by Harley Weir

‘The greatest album never made’: the untold story of George Michael’s secret, star-packed duets project

Suing his record label and sick of being a sex symbol, the singer spent 1992 working on the Trojan Souls for stars including Aretha Franklin and Bryan Ferry. Now, newly released studio footage shows him in his creative prime

‘I thought it didn’t stand a cat’s chance in hell’: Andrew Ridgeley on Wham’s surreal trip to China

Four decades after he and George Michael became the first western pop act to tour the country, Ridgeley recalls silent gigs, awkward embassy receptions – and the ‘bloody ludicrous’ hiring of Lindsay Anderson as director

Pussycat Dolls singer Ashley Roberts looks back: ‘It was my dream come true, but we were all burned out’

Roberts on refusing to take no from her dance teacher, moving to the US aged 18, and reuniting with Kimberly Wyatt and Nicole Scherzinger

Luke Combs review – regular Joe megastar brings the arena-sized party home

Despite his humble persona, the highest-selling country artist of all time has the vocal firepower and heavyweight hits to deliver two hours of crowd-pleasin’ pyrotechnics

Shania Twain’s honest playlist: ‘If Dancing Queen comes on, you rush out’

The country-pop superstar loves Abba and secretly listens to Lloyd Webber, but which British heartthrob’s single gets her out of bed in the morning?

‘I know what it’s like to be vulnerable’: musician This Is Lorelei AKA Nate Amos on addiction and finding peace

The singer-songwriter and Water from Your Eyes guitarist was unstoppably prolific, despite a growing dependence on substances. Now sober, he reflects on his new album and the songs that helped him turn his life round

The Strokes: Reality Awaits review – a perfect marriage of mayhem and melody on their best album in years

Allying the crackpot strangeness of Julian Casablancas’ side projects with his band’s gift for pop minimalism, the New Yorkers are on playful, joyous form

Tyla: A*Pop review – old-school pop superstar transports us back to more carefree times

The South African singer reflects on love’s highs and lows on her second album, nimbly flipping between moods but with her voice always holding attention

‘It’s more than backcombing a beehive!’ How tribute acts got massive – and put the live music scene back in the black

Versions of Amy Winehouse and hundreds of other musicians are generating millions for beleaguered UK venues. But what is the emotional toll for the imitators, and are they pushing out original artists?

Charli xcx: Music, Fashion, Film review – slippery search into selfhood that hits just as hard as Brat

How do you follow up the album that made you a star – and a caricature? In classic Charli style: with a pivot to guitar and a meta masterpiece about the instability of identity