Add to playlist: the gloriously boisterous grime-metal of Native James and the week’s best new tracks

Filtering alt influences and eskibeats through a distinctly Black British point of view, the Ipswich rapper’s scorched-earth rage sounds like a lot of fun

With albums under threat, Raye’s Mercury win is a triumph for grand statements

Her winning album has its longueurs, but there’s something heartening about its risk-taking – and the Mercury prize needs big bold records like this to stay relevant

Raye wins 2026 Mercury prize for This Music May Contain Hope

Singer who has had record-breaking Brit awards success adds to haul thanks to massively ambitious big-band album

Super Graphic Spectacular review – Chappell Roan dazzles at her gloriously gay mini-festival

With performances by Christina Aguilera, Lola Young and Tinashe, the pop star brings a colorful vision to life in support of LGBTQ+ charities

Amy Winehouse musical in development for West End

Stage show based on late singer reportedly set to feature her best-loved songs with involvement from her father Mitch

Heartbreak, hope and human imperfection: Leonard Cohen’s greatest songs – ranked!

A decade after his final album, and his death, we rate the best of the Canadian singer-songwriter who brought a deep, spiritual wisdom to love and grief

Amy Winehouse: Back to Black 20 review – trying an all-star Amy tribute show is a losing game

With Jorja Smith, Mark Ronson and others reinterpreting Back to Black for its 20th anniversary, most of the singers are eclipsed by the memory of Winehouse

‘He had this electrical charge’: the short life and long legacy of Jason Molina, master of Americana

As a documentary celebrates the late US musician, friends and collaborators describe an incomparable storyteller who brought ‘myth and magic to everyday life’

Can UK pop cut immigration and stop the boats? I suppose we’ll find out with GB News Music Radio

An ‘all British, all day’ station is a nativist dream come true – but good luck with the playlist. And anyway: how many artists will want to be on Farage FM? asks Guardian columnist John Harris

Cyndi Lauper on fun, fashion and freedom of expression: ‘We have braces on our brains’

As she auctions off her treasures, the synth-pop savant opens up about her eccentric style and why she doesn’t believe in cancel culture

Vast Beatles museum, hailed as ‘extraordinary’ by Paul McCartney, to open in Liverpool in 2028

City’s Beatles Story museum to move to 100,000 sq ft new home and official ownership, along with Yellow Submarine makeover of Liverpool’s second-tallest building

‘Taylor Swift tells us to take the lead!’ Could highly organised pop fans clinch victory for Brazil’s Lula?

Brazil’s famously outspoken fandoms have near-unanimously rallied behind the leftwing presidential candidate. On the streets of São Paulo, they explain their mission

‘We tried to levitate the Pentagon’: the almost unbelievable life of Ed Sanders, trickster god of the US counterculture

He gave Jimi Hendrix his gear, freaked out Frank Sinatra, inspired Norman Mailer – and tried to topple the American war machine. As a documentary about his band the Fugs comes out, the 87-year-old gives a rare interview

Michael Kiwanuka: Fudge review – rough and instinctive, but also lush and alive with melody

Its release delayed by ill health, Kiwanuka’s latest was made in tandem with 2024’s Small Changes – but it’s much more than a mere companion album

Will there ever again be a band as big as the Beatles or the Stones?

The long-running series in which readers answer other readers’ questions on subjects ranging from trivial flights of fancy to profound scientific and philosophical concepts