Backstage, minutes before Bad Bunny's headlining set at Coachella, everyone seems to be running on pure adrenaline. A group of dancers are climbing a set of stairs toward their marks when a security guard stops a wardrobe designer in their midst and refuses to let him pass. "He's the designer!" one woman shrieks, her voice crackling with the anxiety of countless things that could go wrong.
A gate flings open and Kylie and Kendall Jenner pass through the backstage area, leaving me so surprised that I wheel around and almost hit Kylie with my backpack. Nearby, a troop of fans breaks into a sprint, trying to get into a private area just in front of the stage that's rapidly filling up with celebrities from all over the world. Eventually, the Jenners, Blackpink's Jennie, Rosé and Jisoo, Mexican singer Peso Pluma and Hailey and Justin Bieber all stand there to watch Bad Bunny make history in real time.
The crowd radiates a chaotic, uncontainable energy, understanding that there will be a precise before and after this moment. Bad Bunny is about to become the first Latino solo act and first Spanish-language artist to headline Coachella in the festival's 24-year history.
Screens flicker. As the audience roars a few decibels louder in anticipation, Benito Antonio Martínez Ocasio is standing onstage in the dark, a mantra running through his head: Thank you, God, thank you, life, for letting me do this. It's one of the only private moments he lets himself have during the performance - if he gets sidetracked by any thought, he tends to forget his lyrics, and this event is too big for distractions.
Denne historien er fra August/September 2023-utgaven av Rolling Stone UK.
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Denne historien er fra August/September 2023-utgaven av Rolling Stone UK.
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Sounding the Alert - The UK music industry is calling for the new Labour government to make essential changes to rescue British music - from halting the closure of venues to providing essential opportunities for new talent
To quote one Bob Dylan: "the times they are a-changin." After 14 years of Tory rule, 4 July saw a changing of the guard in British politics as Sir Keir Starmer stood on the steps of Downing Street to mark the start of a new Labour government and - according to the man himself - a decade of national renewal.Not that the result was ever in doubt, however. A cursory look at polls over the preceding year showed that a Labour landslide was very much on the cards, and it seemed like those aforementioned Dylan lyrics were about to ring true.
Staying Power- As they gave their first performance in the UK for five years, Rolling Stone UK caught up with Bang Chan, Lee Know, Changbin, Hyunjin, HAN, Felix, Seungmin and I.N, who together make up the record-breaking K-pop phenomenon Stray Kids
As they gave their first performance in the UK for five years, Rolling Stone UK caught up with Bang Chan, Lee Know, Changbin, Hyunjin, HAN, Felix, Seungmin and I.N, who together make up the record-breaking K-pop phenomenon Stray Kids. Here, they open up about the bonds they share between themselves and their devoted fans, as well as their common goal of super stardom
BACK TO THE GRIND
The Clipse broke up when a spiritual path called to one of the brothers from Virginia. Now, one of the greatest duos in rap returns
THE SCREAM QUEEN NEXT DOOR
In just a few short years, Hunter Schafer has gone from small-town North Carolina to global runways, Euphoria stardom, and her first lead role, in the horror flick Cuckoo
Together in Electronic Dreams
Raphaella Lima of video game publisher Electronic Arts brings music to her childhood love of gaming to spotlight many of the most exciting emerging acts of the past two decades in the hit football game EA SPORTS FC
JAMIE XX WAVE AFTER WAVE
Nine years after his decade-defining debut album In Colour, Jamie xx returns with In Waves, a darker and broodier follow-up that saw him fall back in love with making music
"You can feel trapped when people perceive you as one thing"
On their career-best fourth album, Fontaines D.C. have shed their skin of old to deliver something more fantastical. Grian Chatten tells us the story behind their evolution
IN COMPLETE CONFIDENCE
Confidence Man's Janet Planet and Sugar Bones go bigger and wilder than ever before on 3AM (LA LA LA), an album made about partying, while partying, and perfect for partying to
Collective consciousness
Ezra Collective return with Dance, No One's Watching, the roaring follow-up album to last year's boundary-moving Mercury Prize win
DAYDREAM BELIEVER
Welsh techno-pop artist Kelly Lee Owens is the first signing to Dirty Hit's new dance label, dh2. She talks \"transcending my bullshit\" on the euphoric, thumping club tunes of fourth album, Dreamstate
