Arijit Singh, the renowned singer, producer, composer and founder of the label Oriyon Music has been among the most memorable voices in Indian music. He turns 37 years old today. Starting in playback singing in 2010 with composer Sandeep Chowta‘s “Neeve Na Neeve Na” from the ‘Kedi,’ Singh has rarely had to look back since. New data offered by Spotify India breaks down Singh’s popularity. While it’s been widely reported that he’s in the top five most-followed artists on Spotify (just behind Taylor Swift at number 3), there’s a lot more at play. Singh owes that largely due to his yearly appeara ..read more

In 2017, producer Hiten turned cringe-pop song “Selfie Maine Leli Aaj” by Dhinchak Pooja into a breathy, measured song, making it his first hit of sorts. While covers, remixes and reimaginations of viral songs can only give you so much mileage, Hiten went on get his foot in the door with more mainstream artists like Punjab’s Tarsem Jassar on “Fix Match” in 2020. That same year, Hiten linked up with another megastar – Badshah, producing “Awaara” featuring singer Reet Talwar. In the four years since, Badshah has become “more of a guide than an artist” to Hiten, leading the Batala, Punjab-born e ..read more

Part of “A New Breed Breaking Boundaries,” XG—Jurin, Chisa, Harvey, Hinata, Juria, Maya, and Cocona—seeks to dismantle preconceptions, customs, and prejudices, foster fresh insights through creativity, and convey the value of settling on what matters and chasing visions intent on making things happen.  As I’ve previously stated in my earlier pieces about the band, XG is a one-off. The Japanese artists who are schooled in the K-pop paradigm have been forging their sense of self, eschewing conformity. They expand on breaking boundaries with their music, which draws you in with a distinctiv ..read more

As part of her quest for confidence and personal empowerment, Billie Eilish has fostered a healthy, body-positive relationship with one of the ultimate forms of self-love: Masturbation. In her new Rolling Stone cover story, Eilish calls self-pleasure “an enormous, enormous part of my life, and a huge, huge help for me.” She adds confidently: “People should be jerking it, man. I can’t stress it enough, as somebody with extreme body issues and dysmorphia that I’ve had my entire life.” While Eilish jokes that she “should have a Ph.D. in masturbation,” she is candid ..read more

The Backstreet Boys’ Nick Carter and his younger brother, Aaron, an early-2000s teen pop sensation of his own, will be the subjects of the next big Investigation Discovery docuseries. Fallen Idols: Nick and Aaron Carter is set to premiere over two nights, May 27 and 28, at 9 p.m. ET. The four-part series will look at the sexual-assault and rape allegations leveled against Nick, and the backlash against his accusers. It will also examine Aaron’s struggles with mental health and substance-abuse issues, which ultimately led to his death in 2022 (a coroner ..read more

Takeoff will be posthumously featured on Ty Dolla $ign and Kanye West‘s upcoming album, Vultures 2, Rolling Stone can confirm. Along with including a verse from the late Migos rapper, the track, tentatively titled “Let Me Chill Out,” will feature Rich the Kid and NBA Youngboy and is set to be one of the “highlight tracks” of the ¥$ record, according to the source. During an interview with Justin LaBoy on The Download over the weekend, West revealed that the album — a followup to Vultures 1 from February — will come out on May 3. Since his ..read more

This post contains spoilers for the finale of Shōgun. Many years ago, when I first finished reading James Clavell’s historical epic Shōgun, I felt slightly puzzled. The novel had taken well over 1000 pages building to a civil war in feudal Japan between the wise Lord Toranaga and his ambitious rival Lord Ishido, and then it stopped right as the war was beginning, offering only the briefest of epilogues detailing what happened next? How was this good storytelling?, I wondered. Maybe there’s a sequel I don’t know about? Soon, though, I began to recognize that depicting ..read more

Nearly a decade since the release of his last solo album, David Gilmour will return with a new full-length, Luck and Strange, this fall. The former Pink Floyd singer and guitarist will release the record’s first single, “The Piper’s Call,” on the BBC Radio 2 Breakfast Show on Thursday; a music video will follow on Friday. The album will arrive on Sept. 6. Gilmour recorded and co-produced the album, which follows 2015’s Rattle That Lock, over five months in Brighton, England, and London with producer Charlie Andrew, whose credits include releases by Alt-J, Ma ..read more

Film music and ad jingle composer Dhruv Dhalla took his own path to learn about the importance of doing work that satisfies one’s soul. Known for composing “Chak De Phatte” for the cult Hindi film Khosla Ka Ghosla and creating the background score for Oye Lucky! Lucky Oye!, Dhalla says that after the two films got him on the radar, he was often only asked to recreate the formula for the next projects. In 2010, Dhalla – New Delhi-raised and once enrolled in the Western composition course at Musicians Institute in Los Angeles – composed music for Tere Bin Laden for director Abhishek Sharma. The ..read more

The artwork for New Delhi singer-songwriter Shourya Malhotra’s new single “Still Breathing” shows an ornately drawn aged figure (somewhat resembling the bearded artist), holding a mug in one hand and an umbrella in another, headphones plugged into a tape deck. Illustrated by Siddharth Iyer, the figure dressed in robes has his eyes closed in a seemingly serene moment. There’s an aesthetic choice that makes the artwork for the flittering, lush song “Still Breathing” fit in with this previous singles. “It’s a metaphor for where my journey is going,” Malhotra explains. While his 2023 single “Part ..read more