Some voices stick forever to a song. Victor Willis’s stuck to several — and the world has said goodbye to him. The founding lead singer of Village People has died at 74, a day before turning 75, after a short but aggressive illness. The news was made public on July 1 by his wife, Karen Huff Willis.

The voice behind the anthems

If you have ever danced to “YMCA” at a wedding, belted out “Macho Man,” or marched along to “In the Navy,” you know Willis’s work. He was the lead singer and co-writer of the group’s biggest hits, the moustached policeman who became one of the most recognisable faces of the 1970s disco era.

Village People were far more than a band of their time. They became a cultural phenomenon, with a visual imagery — the cop, the Native American, the construction worker, the cowboy — that crossed generations and still turns up at parties, stadiums and dance floors around the world.

A legacy that never goes out of style

The curious thing about songs like “YMCA” is that they never really die. They pass from generation to generation, play at sporting events, liven up birthday parties, and insist on getting everyone to spell out the famous letters with their arms. Willis leaves that rare inheritance: having written music that still makes people smile decades later.

What remains is the memory of a voice that helped define the sound of an era. See also our piece on Madonna’s return with “Confessions II”. More on Willis’s career can be found on his biographical page.

Thirty years after Reasonable Doubt, Jay-Z went home. The Brooklyn rapper opened the first of three nights at Yankee Stadium in New York on Saturday, revisiting his 1996 debut album with a live band — and turned the anniversary into a family reunion that left the stadium in raptures.

The surprise came on the very first song: Beyoncé walked out in a pinstripe suit to sing the hook on Can’t Knock the Hustle, the part Mary J. Blige owned on the original record. A guest of that calibre is usually saved for the finale; putting her first was Jay-Z’s way of announcing this would not be a normal night.

What did Blue Ivy do at Jay-Z’s concert?

She sat down at the piano and stole the show. At 14, the couple’s eldest daughter closed out Feelin’ It with a piano solo, introduced by her father as “the legendary Blue Ivy Carter” — one of those moments that separate a big concert from a historic night. Across more than three hours there was also room for Nas, the old rival turned guest of honour, and for Alicia Keys, who joined Jay-Z on the inevitable Empire State of Mind to end the night.

Why does Reasonable Doubt matter?

Released on June 25, 1996, it was the record that introduced the world to a Brooklyn ex-hustler with a rare gift for turning the street into literature — and it founded the empire that today includes the label and agency Roc Nation, whose official schedule lives on Roc Nation’s site. Three decades on, the catalogue fills a 50,000-plus stadium without breaking sweat.

The celebrations continue with two more Yankee Stadium nights, and judging by opening night, nobody should expect the same guest list twice. The summer of 2026 has been generous to comebacks — even the Rolling Stones turned up with a new album — but few land with this much precision.

For the first time in nearly a century of World Cups, the final will have a halftime show — and the debut is not a modest one. Madonna, Shakira with Burna Boy, BTS, Justin Bieber, conductor Gustavo Dudamel and Coldplay themselves with the PS22 children’s choir share the MetLife Stadium stage on 19 July, in a lineup curated by Chris Martin. Even the Muppets are in on it.

Who is performing at the World Cup 2026 final halftime show?

The bill confirmed by FIFA brings together Madonna, Shakira and Burna Boy, BTS, Justin Bieber, Gustavo Dudamel and Coldplay with the PS22 Chorus, plus an appearance by the Muppets — all squeezed into the final’s interval. Martin is not the headliner: he is the architect, in a Super Bowl-style curator role, shaping the lineup with FIFA. For BTS, it is another stop in a year when the Arirang world tour has them back in stadiums; for Madonna, the stage comes weeks after the release of Confessions II.

Why has the World Cup never had a halftime show?

Because football’s interval lasts 15 sacred minutes — which is why the production promises a lightning-fast spectacle in service of a cause: the event supports the FIFA Global Education Fund with Global Citizen, channelling proceeds into schooling for children worldwide, as detailed on the initiative’s official page.

One question remains, and it is the important one: does anyone really dash to the bathroom while Madonna and BTS are splitting 15 minutes of turf?

Madison Square Garden, New York’s most famous arena, was keeping an unflattering secret: an internal database of nearly 40,000 names from entertainment, politics, sport and business, now exposed by a hack. Among the recorded fields were labels on sexual orientation and risk ratings that, with suspicious frequency, lined up with public criticism of the venue’s owner, James Dolan.

What was in the Madison Square Garden database?

According to the US press investigation that reviewed the files, the talent list included dozens of public figures tagged with LGBTQ labels and roughly 400 people carrying a risk rating — from flagged to high risk — that often appeared to reflect whether the person had criticised Dolan, executive chairman of MSG Sports and Entertainment. The practices reportedly extended to the group’s other venues, including the Sphere in Las Vegas and Radio City Music Hall.

How did the hack happen?

A group calling itself ShinyHunters tricked an employee over the phone — the technique known as vishing — and gained access to the company’s systems. When the ransom demand went unpaid, the data was published. The company, now facing several federal class-action lawsuits, keeps its corporate communications on the official MSG website.

The irony writes its own screenplay: an arena that makes its living hosting stars spent its time cataloguing them behind their backs. After Harry lost his privacy case against the Daily Mail, this story shows the coin’s other face — when the one watching the celebrities is not a tabloid but the venue itself.

The flesh-and-blood Moana isn’t sailing the way Disney dreamed. The live-action remake, which hit cinemas on Friday, is tracking towards a 40-45 million dollar opening weekend in the United States — well short of the 60-plus million the studio hoped for, and an uncomfortable number for a film that cost 250 million before a cent of marketing.

How much did the live-action Moana make on opening?

Weekend estimates point to 40-45 million dollars in the US, after 4.5 million from Thursday previews. For context: the 2016 animated Moana opened to 57 million, and 2024’s Moana 2 rocketed to 140. In other words, the version with real actors — Catherine Laga’aia as Moana and Dwayne Johnson once again as Maui, now in person — is opening below the original it set out to remake, in a week that was supposed to belong to it on July’s release calendar.

Why is Moana falling short?

The reviews didn’t help: 35% on Rotten Tomatoes, below even Snow White (39%) and Aladdin (57%), and live-action remake fatigue is looking less like a theory every month. The summer is crowded too — Toy Story 5 opened with a franchise record a few weeks ago and is still hoovering families into cinemas. The film’s official page is on Disney’s site.

The good news for Disney? The weekend isn’t over, and international markets may soften the fall. The bad news: when audiences would rather rewatch the cartoon at home, the ocean doesn’t call — it refunds.

Anthony Hopkins has two Oscars, 88 years on the clock and, as of Friday, a brand-new career: classical composer with a record deal. The Welsh actor has signed with Decca Classics and released his first single, “Bracken Road”, ahead of his debut album, “Life Is a Dream”, due on 21 August.

The story behind the piece is the stuff of cinema. Hopkins wrote “Bracken Road” in 1963, when he was a young actor at the Liverpool Playhouse, improvising at the piano before rehearsals. The album gathers orchestral works composed across more than six decades — the man learned piano at age 4 and was writing music for local plays as a teenager, long before Hannibal Lecter ate up his schedule.

Who recorded Anthony Hopkins’ album?

This is no weekend session: “Life Is a Dream” was recorded in April at London’s Alexandra Palace by the Philharmonia Orchestra under Gustavo Dudamel, one of the most in-demand conductors on the planet. Release details are on the Decca Classics page, which frames the project as the fulfilment of a desire that predates the acting career itself — “music was my first desire”, Hopkins has said.

The timing raises a smile: this is the week the veterans refused to leave the stage, with the Rolling Stones dropping their 25th studio album and Hopkins debuting at 88. Retirement age? Apparently just a suggestion.

Portugal’s most talked-about summer reality show is up and running — and this year it went back to basics. TVI’s Big Brother Verão kicked off on 28 June with a house full of unknown faces: 18 anonymous contestants, nine men and nine women, competing for a prize that can reach 100,000 euros.

Who hosts Big Brother Verão 2026?

Maria Botelho Moniz is back at the controls, fronting the Sunday galas and the special weeknight shows. Around her spins a permanent-tribunal panel of commentators — from Cinha Jardim to Francisco Monteiro and Márcia Soares, former contestants recycled as analysts, proof that in this format nobody ever truly leaves the house.

What is different this season?

The bet on anonymous contestants, after editions packed with celebrities. Producers promised the «biggest and fiercest» competition yet, with a challenge-house designed to test the 18 from day one — and the first weeks have backed the promise, with the hand-picked cast keeping social media busy. You can follow on TVI and the channel’s digital platforms, with every development on the show’s official site.

Between galas, nominations and the inevitable hot seat, Big Brother Verão should fill Portuguese evenings deep into September. If you would rather have your dysfunctional families scripted, the new ‘Little House on the Prairie’ landed on Netflix this week — every summer gets the families it deserves, some with a script, some without.

A generous Friday for guitar people: Jack White has released ‘Frozen Charlotte’, his new album of originals, singled out by American critics among the week’s essential records. And what a week — on the same day the Rolling Stones put out their 25th studio album, the ex-White Stripes frontman turned up to remind everyone that garage rock keeps its own calendar.

What do we know about the new Jack White album?

‘Frozen Charlotte’ hit platforms and shops this Friday, 10 July, and was immediately flagged by NPR as one of the week’s standout releases. The title borrows from the Victorian porcelain dolls of the same name — an image straight out of White’s American-gothic universe, confessed collector of strange relics and stranger riffs.

Where to listen and what to expect?

The record is on the usual platforms and on vinyl through the musician’s store, with special editions at Jack White’s official site and Third Man Records, his Nashville headquarters-slash-label. Expect what White does best: electrified blues, analogue production and the sense that every track might fall apart mid-song — and never does.

In a summer piling up comebacks — from the Stones to U2, who also woke up this week, White plays in a different league: the one for those who never actually left. The Frozen Charlotte of Victorian legend was a doll that could not be warmed up; the record, early listeners assure, does exactly the opposite.

Sixty-odd years into their career, the Rolling Stones still do not know how to stop — thankfully. ‘Foreign Tongues’, the band’s 25th studio album, hit platforms and shops this Friday: 14 tracks recorded in under a month at London’s Metropolis Studios, produced by Andrew Watt, with a guest list that reads like an entire festival.

Who features on the new Rolling Stones album?

Brace yourself: Paul McCartney, Bruno Mars, Robert Smith of The Cure, Steve Winwood — who lends his organ to ‘Jealous Lover’ — and Red Hot Chili Peppers drummer Chad Smith. And there is a moment for the tissues: one track revives a recording made with Charlie Watts before the drummer’s death in 2021. The album was previewed by the single ‘In the Stars’, released in May as a double A-side with ‘Rough and Twisted’, and at the London launch Mick Jagger and Ronnie Wood threw in a surprise acoustic ‘Ringing Hollow’ for an audience that included James Bond himself. Editions and the promised tour dates are on the band’s official site.

Is this the Rolling Stones’ last album?

All signs say no. Despite farewell rumours, the band reportedly has at least ten more songs written for a follow-up — ‘Foreign Tongues’ arrives less than three years after ‘Hackney Diamonds’ (2023), which itself took 18 years to follow ‘A Bigger Bang’. In other words: the Stones went from one album per generation to the release rate of a hungry new band.

It is proving a generous week for rock’s best-preserved dinosaurs all round: U2 also dropped a new single and announced an album. At 82, Jagger keeps making the wrong question sound right: retire why, if the voice still gets there?

Nine years on, U2 have pressed play again. “Street of Dreams”, released this week, is the first single from the Irish band’s upcoming studio album — their first record of all-new material since 2017 — and it lands with two signs that this is the real thing: The Edge in classic mode, chiming guitars and all, and Larry Mullen Jr. back behind the drum kit.

What do we know about “Street of Dreams”?

It’s a joyful, anthemic track in the band’s best tradition, driven by Mullen’s rolling snare. The video was shot in Mexico City, with U2 riding a bus customised by artist Chavis Mármol — including a short public gig performed on its roof, very much the move of a band that has played everywhere and still enjoys the stunt. The single and official editions are on U2’s official site.

When is the new U2 album out?

The second half of 2026, they promise — no date or title announced yet. The warm-up has been running for a while: earlier this year the band put out two six-track EPs of new material, “Days of Ash” and “Easter Lily”, an unusual way of clearing the throat before the main record.

The musical summer isn’t slowing down elsewhere either: between record-breaking tours like BTS’s, now heading for Europe, and heavyweight returns like this one, 2026 is shaping up as a hard bill to ignore. For a band closing in on 50 years on the road, sounding new is the hardest trick of all — and it’s exactly what they’re attempting here.

Bonnie Tyler, the Welsh singer with one of pop music’s most recognisable voices, has died at 75 — and the news touches Portugal directly: she died overnight in a Portuguese hospital, her family announced, following the illness she had been treated for since the spring.

Tyler had undergone emergency surgery for a perforated intestine and spent a month in a medically induced coma, from which she emerged in June. Her death, her team said, came unexpectedly. The Portugal connection was no coincidence: Tyler had owned a home in the Algarve for decades, splitting her life between Wales and the Portuguese south, where she was a familiar face.

Why was Bonnie Tyler famous?

The voice — that unmistakable rasp, the result of vocal cord surgery in the 1970s which, instead of ending her career, gave her a signature. It’s a Heartache (1977) made her a star; Total Eclipse of the Heart (1983), written by Jim Steinman, made her immortal — one of the most-played power ballads of all time, a number one on both sides of the Atlantic. Holding Out for a Hero completed the 80s holy trinity. Her full discography is on the singer’s official site.

What do we know about her death?

Her family and team announced that the singer died unexpectedly overnight, in a hospital in Portugal, as a result of the illness she was being treated for. The announcement did not name the hospital. Tributes multiplied within hours, from the music world to the fans who turned her ballads into karaoke anthems across four decades.

Pop music loses one of its great voices in a summer that has already taken Victor Willis, the voice of Village People. What remains is the usual consolation: the songs. And let’s be honest — as long as there’s a karaoke bar open somewhere, someone will be belting out “turn around, bright eyes”.

BTS are back on top — and this time at stadium scale. The South Korean group’s Arirang world tour rolled through London with two sold-out shows that became the highest-attended event at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium since it opened. Now the caravan moves on to the continent.

How many shows are on the Arirang tour?

It’s enormous: the 2026-2027 run spans 34 regions and 88 shows across Asia, North America, Europe, Latin America and Australia, making it one of the most ambitious tours of BTS’s career. The setlist pairs tracks from their fifth studio album, Arirang — like “SWIM,” “2.0” and “Like Animals” — with career-spanning global hits “Butter” and “Dynamite.”

What happened in London?

Far more than two concerts. The city hosted the “BTS THE CITY” experience from July 4 to 10, with landmark illuminations, exhibitions and fan activations across the British capital — the same model already seen in Seoul, Las Vegas and Busan. It was, in effect, a citywide takeover by ARMY fever.

What’s next?

After London, the tour continues its European leg with stops in Munich and Paris. For Portuguese fans, the logic is the same as the big pop-culture moments we’ve been following — keep an eye out for new date announcements. As awards season heats up too, with the Emmy nominations already out, the group’s official schedule is on the BTS site.

The planet’s strangest festival is coming to the small screen. The Man Will Burn, HBO’s documentary series about Burning Man, premieres this Thursday 9 July, with new episodes on the 16th, 23rd and 30th — four chapters directed by Jehane Noujaim and Vikram Gandhi, with direct access to the leadership of the project that builds (and burns) a city in the Nevada desert every year.

What is The Man Will Burn about?

The decade in which Burning Man nearly burned from the inside. The series starts with the countercultural San Francisco origins and founder Larry Harvey, then follows the anarchist gathering’s transformation into a multi-million-dollar event beloved by tech billionaires. Along the way: the pandemic cancellations, the “Renegade Burn” that took the festival back to its roots without asking permission, the internal war over commercialisation and influencers, and 2023’s epic “Mud Burn”, when days of rain turned the desert into a bog and thousands fled the site.

Critics have praised the rare behind-the-scenes access, even if the Hollywood Reporter notes the series sometimes prefers the photogenic surface to the uncomfortable depths. Either way, it is television made for anyone who enjoys watching utopias collide with reality — in the same week the Emmy nominations set the TV world buzzing.

Where can you watch The Man Will Burn?

The series lands on HBO Max, with the first episode on 9 July and the rest on the following Thursdays. The official project page, trailer included, is on the Burning Man website.

The 2026 Emmy nominations are in — and the list scrambled the predictions. HBO Max’s hospital drama “The Pitt” leads the race with 25 nominations, followed by the farewell season of “Hacks”, which racks up 24 and sets a record for a comedy in a single season. The announcement came on Wednesday, and the full list is on the official Emmys site.

Which shows lead the 2026 Emmy nominations?

Behind the front-runners comes Apple TV’s big newcomer, horror comedy “Widow’s Bay”, with 19 nominations, and only then “Pluribus”, with 18 — the sci-fi drama the forecasts had installed as the big favourite, as we covered in our preview of these nominations. Then come “DTF St. Louis” with 13 and “Saturday Night Live” and “Spider-Noir” with 11 apiece. By platform, HBO Max came out on top with 122 nominations, against Netflix’s 111 and Apple TV’s 87.

When is the 2026 Emmys ceremony?

The awards are handed out on September 14 at the Peacock Theater in Los Angeles — unusually, a Monday, because Sunday was taken by an NFL game on NBC. Hosting duties go to Mariska Hargitay, who starts her 28th season of “Law & Order: SVU” in the autumn and has meanwhile graduated to most-beloved veteran of American television.

Between now and September there’s time to catch up: if the list is a compass, “The Pitt” is the show voters think should be at the top of your queue.

Tilly Norwood does not exist — and she is about to star in a movie. The AI-generated “actress”, created by British studio Particle6, was announced this week as the lead of Misaligned, her first feature film, produced by the very studio that invented her. Hollywood, which had already greeted her through gritted teeth, is boiling again.

What is the film Misaligned about?

It is described as a coming-of-age comedy-drama “infused with existential AI chaos”, set in the “Tillyverse”, a surreal digital world somewhere up in the cloud. Tilly plays — fittingly — an AI being with no body, no childhood and no lived experience of her own, only access to everyone else’s memories. The project is in early development and, the studio insists, will be made with human directors, writers and editors working alongside AI specialists.

Why is Tilly Norwood controversial?

Because to flesh-and-blood actors she is not a character, she is a precedent. When she was unveiled in 2025, the US actors’ union publicly denounced the creation, and a string of stars rejected the idea of synthetic “actors” trained, ultimately, on the work of real ones. The film announcement reignites that fight in a summer when AI already dominates the conversation — from cinema screens to the diplomatic stage, where the UN is trying to bring order to the technology.

For audiences the test is simpler: will anyone actually buy a ticket? July is already packed with releases starring humans — when Misaligned arrives, it will have to prove a lead with no pulse can hold a dark room’s attention.