Women in music

In a new video, Julia Jacklin performs a stunning, stripped-down version of “Comfort” alone in her dressing room. The tenth and final track from her new album Crushing, the clip was captured last fall while Jacklin was on tour with First Aid Kit.

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Madonna announced on Monday that she will embark on her tour for her new album, Madame X, in a series of intimate theater venues.

Beginning September 12th at the BAM Howard Gilman Opera House in Brooklyn, New York, Madonna will perform multiples nights each in a handful of cities, including the Chicago Theatre in Chicago, the Wiltern in Los Angeles, the Colosseum at Caesars Palace in Las Vegas, the Boch Center Wang Theatre in Boston, the Met Philadelphia and the Jackie Gleason Theatre at the Fillmore Miami Beach. So far, only the dates for New York, Chicago and Los Angeles have been confirmed.

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The Spice Girls kicked off their long-awaited Spiceworld reunion tour in Dublin Friday night, reuniting onstage for the first time in seven years.

For the show at Croke Park, members Emma Bunton (Baby Spice), Geri Halliwell (Ginger Spice), Melanie Brown (Scary Spice) and Melanie Chisholm (Sporty Spice) performed a slew of the band’s hits including tracks from their 1996 debut album Spice, “Wannabe,” “2 Become 1,” “Say You’ll Be There” and songs from their 1997 follow-up Spiceworld like “Spice Up Your Life,” “The Lady is a Vamp” and “Viva Forever.” Victoria Beckham (Posh Spice) opted out of the reunion tour to focus on her fashion brand.

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Madonna has unveiled her new video for “Dark Ballet.” It’s the fifth and final preview that will be released from her forthcoming Madame X, due June 14th. The cinematic clip stars Mykki Blanco, who portrays Joan of Arc.



In the visually arresting Emmanuel Adjei-directed video, Mykki Blanco is seen bravely facing adversity from various religious figures and onlookers and dancing despite the impending, inescapable doom to come.

The star mouths along to Madonna’s lyrics, “‘Cause your world is such a shame/’Cause your world’s obsessed with fame,” Madonna sings on the chorus. “‘Cause your world’s in so much pain/’Cause your world is/’Cause your world is up in flames.”

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Carly Rae Jepsen gave an intimate performance of her Dedicated single “Too Much” for Vevo. The singer-songwriter released Dedicated in May and is currently touring North America in support of the album.

For the live take, Jepsen stands out in a red tuxedo dress as she performs beneath a giant, glittering disco ball. Her denim jacket-clad back-up singers perform subtle, delicate choreography behind as she delivers an earnest take on the song all about the romantic excesses she indulges herself in. Throughout the song, Jepsen punctuates her desire to know if she is doing too much with stares directly down the barrel of the camera.

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Beyoncé unveiled the new video for her song “Spirit” during an ABC News primetime special on Tuesday called The Lion King: Can You Feel the Love Tonight With Robin Roberts. The special featured interviews with the singer, fellow members of the remake’s new cast and director Jon Favreau, alongside cast members and others involved in the original 1994 animated and music-driven The Lion King film and the stage production that followed.

In the new video for the song “Spirit,” which appears in the reboot of the The Lion King, its soundtrack and on Beyoncé’s executive produced and curated The Lion King: the Gift, clips from the movie are interspersed with beautiful shots in vibrant locales, including by waterfalls and in bodies of water, flanked by mountains and in night and daytime settings. It features Beyoncé and a cast of dancers in a variety of settings dancing and striking poses in colorful costumes. Her daughter Blue Ivy also makes a cameo. The song about resilience opens with resonant call-and-response voices and features piano and orchestral touches with gospel-tipped choruses. “Rise up to the light in the sky, yeah,” Beyoncé sings. “Watch the light lift your heart up/Burn your flame through the night.”

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Ariana Grande navigates an undefined relationship and things get confusing as they do in that situation in her new video for “Boyfriend,” which features her tour mates, the duo Social House.
In the new clip, Grande and Social House are hanging at a stylish party in a fancy mansion, pretending that they aren’t together, but two of them are … sort of … Well, it’s complicated. “I know we be so complicated/But we be so smitten, it’s crazy/I can’t have what I want, but neither can you,” she sings and Social House echo the sentiment later.

“You ain’t my boyfriend,” Grande sings on the chorus. “And I ain’t your girlfriend/But you don’t want me to see nobody else/And I don’t want you to see nobody.” At the party, they lock eyes, flirt with others, get jealous, and eventually, all the push-and-pull lust and avoidance leads to some major damage and bloodshed.

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Ari Lennox turns up the seduction in her new video for “BMO.” The video for the song, which appears on her recently released LP, Shea Butter Baby, was inspired by visuals from Missy Elliott and Total.
In the Child-directed video, the R&B singer’s sultry vocals are vibrantly matched by the sumptuous, retro-vibed setting, complete with various outfits and looks that include crushed velvet textures, shiny backdrops and scenes in the bathtub. “Break me off/Gichie Gichie yaya/When the lights is out,” Lennox croons on the chorus. “I’m summer time crushin’/Put that game on pause/And do it how I like it/Baby, nice and slow.”

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Ahead of Lover‘s official release next Friday, Taylor Swift has dropped the album’s romantic title track. The pop star announced the new song’s release while accepting her Icon Award at the Teen Choice Award on Sunday.

In the Jack Antonoff co-produced track, Swift sings the tender lyrics of devotion over a retro-styled musical motif. “Can I go where you go?/Can we always be this close?” Swift yearningly sings on the chorus. “Forever and ever/Take me out and take me home/You’re my, my, my, my lover.”

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Miranda Lambert teams with Maren Morris for a murderous revenge fantasy against a cheating partner in the new song “Way Too Pretty for Prison,” released on Monday. It’s the fourth track Lambert has offered from her upcoming album Wildcard.

Opening with an atonal squall and Lambert’s laughter, “Way Too Pretty for Prison” settles into a loping rhythm augmented by jagged shards of detuned electric guitar. Lambert plays the role of consoler, talking through a few scenarios with an aggrieved girlfriend who wants to go all “Goodbye Earl” on the guy. “He cheated, he’s a villain, and you know I’d help you kill him,” she sings, before laying out the litany of obvious consequences. Morris even proposes a couple of ways to dispatch the guy without getting too messy: “Antifreeze in Gatorade, arsenic in his lemonade,” she sings, relishing her part in the way Lambert had originally envisioned.

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