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Poonam Pandey to play Mandodari in Ramila; BJP, VHP seek replacement: ‘She is known for controversies’
Bollywood

Poonam Pandey to play Mandodari in Ramila; BJP, VHP seek replacement: ‘She is known for controversies’

by jummy84
written by jummy84

Published on: Sept 22, 2025 07:30 pm IST

After the Lav Kush Ramlila committee signed Poonam Pandey to play Mandodari, BJP Media Cell head and secretary of the Vishva Hindu Parishad want her swapped.

This year, the Lav Kush Ramlila committee has new additions to their troupe. Actor Poonam Pandey has been roped in to play Mandodari, Ravan’s wife, in the play. But not everyone is happy with the news, given that some political leaders want her to be swapped out due to her ‘controversies’.

Poonam Pandey has been roped in to play Mandodari at this year’s Ramlila in Delhi.

Poonam Pandey roped in for Ramleela

Poonam will be playing Mandodari in this year’s Ramleela. Arjun Kumar, president of the Lav Kush Ramlila, said in a statement, “When we approached Poonam Pandey for this role, she instantly agreed. She shared that portraying Mandodari on stage has been her lifelong dream, fulfilled by the blessings of Lord Shri Ram. Performing live before thousands of spectators is a challenge, and she is already deeply engrossed in rehearsals to perfect her performance.” The actor is known for starring in films like Karma—The Journey and GST: Galti Se Sirf and appearing on TV shows like CID and the reality show Lock Upp.

BJP, VHP want her replaced

After the news broke, Delhi Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) media cell head Praveen Shankar Kapoor, who’s also the senior vice president of the Lav Kush Ramlila Committee, wrote to the organisers requesting that Poonam be swapped with another actor. According to PTI, Vishva Hindu Parishad’s (VHP) Prant Surendra Gupta has also objected to Poonam playing Mandodari in Ramlila.

According to the news agency, Praveen urged the organisers to distance themselves from Poonam and said, “Pandey has not only been off the screen for years but is also known for controversies over her photos and videos on social media.” However, the president of the committee, Arjun, told PTI, “We don’t see anything wrong with a woman playing a character that represents goodness in the Ramleela. Everyone deserves a chance.”

About Lav Kush Ramlila

Lav Kush Ramlila hosts one of the most iconic Ramlila performances in Delhi every year. Arjun stated that Poonam will play Mandodari and take the stage on 29 and 30 September. Performances are to begin from 22 September onwards. More than 500 performers will participate in the staging, which will take place at Red Ford Ground in New Delhi till 3 October, with a grand celebration planned for 2 October on Dussehra. Arya Babbar will play Ravan at the Ramlila this year.

News / Entertainment / Bollywood / Poonam Pandey to play Mandodari in Ramila; BJP, VHP seek replacement: ‘She is known for controversies’

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Content Creator Arrested, Home Birth Death
Celebrity News

Za’Darius Smith Makes Sideline Play For Kash Doll Mid-Game

by jummy84
written by jummy84

You know it’s a whole vibe when an NFL star pulls up to the sidelines and turns a football game into a whole moment. ZaDarius Smith didn’t just show up to play — he stunted on the sidelines with his girl, Kash Doll, who was out here flexing a custom jersey that repped his name and number.

RELATED: Okay! Kash Doll Cashes Out For Za’Darius Smith’s Birthday Amid Sharing “First” Photo They Took Together (VIDEOS)

Kash Doll Blushes As Za’Darius Smith Slides Over For Autograph

ZaDarius Smith sprinted off the field with a sharpie ready, sliding right up to Kash Doll to autograph her corset-style jersey like it was the hottest merch drop of the season. Kash was dripping in iced-out chains, rocking flawless waves, and that VIP lanyard to remind everyone she’s not just there to watch—she’s bossing the game day scene. When he signed her top, she immediately turned around like the ultimate fan girl — and honestly, who could blame her? The whole thing was pure couple goals, no cap.

One Lil’ Autograph Had The TL Running Plays

Now, listen! People did full-on sprints and hurdles straight to The Shade Room comment section. While some were riding with Kash Doll, others weren’t here for ZaDarius signing autographs mid-game like the scoreboard ain’t watching.

One Instagram user @shy_yonce said, “Her outfits is lit EVERY D*MN GAME 🔥🔥🔥🔥😍😍😍😍”

This Instagram user @sovereignshay joked, “That’s nice & all but y’all f*cking my parlay up.“

Meanwhile,  Instagram user @__tnd added, “That’s why we losing , he worried about the wrong stuff right now 😫”

While Instagram user @diamoniqueslife wrote, “WE 19 TO 7 AGAINST THE RAMS AND YOU OVER HERE SIGNING SHIRTS WTF“

Instagram user @_mamassss.__ shared, “I LOVE this for her 😍❤️❤️”

Finally, Instagram user @msrabanne commented, “I actually love her in her WAG bag😍😍😍

Philly Got Za’Darius, But Kash Been Locked In

Kash Doll don’t play about her man, her man, her man — and she made sure the whole timeline knew it. After Za’Darius Smith officially signed his one-year, $9 million deal with the Philadelphia Eagles, the NFL vet was all smiles on Instagram, pen in hand, captioning the post with a simple “Year 11.” But before the ink could even dry, Kash slid into the comments with a “Congratulations” and a fire emoji, keeping it cute but making it very clear: she’s locked in and cheering loud. Furthermore, a recent video shows the rapper iced-out as she supports her man from the suites during his first game. Either way, one thing’s for sure — Kash is going support her man like it’s his big day, every day.

RELATED: Kash Doll Reacts As Her BF Za’Darius Smith Inks New Deal With Philadelphia Eagles (PHOTO)

What Do You Think Roomies?

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tinnu anand shakti kapoor
Bollywood

EXCLUSIVE: Shakti Kapoor Was Not The Original Choice To Play Crime Master Gogo In Andaz Apna Apna; Tinnu Anand Reveals Being Offered The Role FIRST

by jummy84
written by jummy84

Tinnu Anand was originally cast as the iconic character Crime Master Gogo in Andaz Apna Apna; however, Shakti Kapoor later replaced him. In an exclusive interview with Bollywood Bubble, the filmmaker and actor revealed he was supposed to play the role in the Aamir-Salman starrer. Tinnu recalled the time when Shakti Kapoor yelled at his fans, asking for a selfie. Scroll down to read below and watch the full interview.

Tinnu Anand Reveals Shakti Kapoor’s Crime Master Gogo Was Actually Supposed To Be Him

Speaking of Shakti Kapoor’s infamous Crime Master Gogo from Andaz Apna Apna, Tinnu Anand revealed an interesting story. He shared, “Crime Master Gogo ka character bhi mera hi tha. Log nahi jaante, kyunki Raj aur meri bahut dosti ho gayi thi. Damini ki hai humne, Ghatak ki hai. Ab Crime Master Gogo ka sawaal aaya ji, toh Raj ji ne mere ko kaha, ‘Tinnu, ek role hai. Kuch clear cut nahi aa raha hai, lekin uska naam Crime Master Gogo hai.’ Maine kaha, ‘Raj, mere upar wale maale pe ek Sardar ki family rehti hai.”

He added, “Unki ek beti hai, bachchi hai, lekin itni confident ladki hai yaar. Ghanti maaregi, mere sofa pe aake baith jaayegi. Paon ke upar paon rakh degi. Maid ko bulaayegi—‘Ek Coke la dena.’ Piye gi, rakh degi. Main wahin khada hota hoon. Kabhi thank you bolke chali jaati hai, kabhi bina thank you bole hi nikal jaati hai.’ Yeh roz hota tha.”

Tinnu Anand On His Experiment

He continued, “Maine ek experiment try kiya. Aaj subah jab woh aayi, aise baithi, main apne bedroom mein tha. Bedroom se bahar aaya toh maine dekha—’Kaise ho?’ toh she said, ‘Fine.’ Abhi Gokula aaya nahi tha, usne peeche mud ke dekha, ‘Kya hua Gokula ko?’ Maine kaha, ‘Aa raha hai, aa raha hai.’ Aur phir maine usko aise dekha—uski aankhon mein aankhen daal ke. Aap bhi try kijiye kabhi. Blink mat kijiye. Aapko lagega kuch gadbad hai. Dekhiye—blink kiya na? Fir main bola, ‘Kya dekh rahi hai? Yeh jo teri moti moti aankhen hain na, woh main hathheli pe rakhunga, nikaal ke, aur uske saamne goti khelunga.’”

The filmmaker added, “Uska expression kabhi dekha hi nahi tha maine. Aise (the child got scared)karke bhaagi, upar jaake ro rahi thi. Maa ne kabhi nahi dekha tha usko roते hue. Very proud parents—kyunki bachchi roti nahi thi. Aur aaj aise ro rahi thi ki bolo mat. Aur aise hi character build hua tha set pe. Aamir Khan kehta tha, ‘Woh do din jo humne enjoy kiye aapke saath, kaam kam ho raha tha, hansi zyada nikal rahi thi.’ Dono ke saath jo main kar raha tha, sab improvise tha.”

Tinnu Anand Recalls Shakti Kapoor Yelling At Fans

Tinnu Anand recalled how Shakti Kapoor recently yelled at fans. He shared, “Shakti aur main recently airport pe the. Kyunki hamara plane delayed tha, toh humne kaha chalo coffee pee lete hain. Café mein gaye. Café mein itne mein teen—do ladke, ek ladki—aaye hamare table par, aur bole, ‘Sir, sir, selfie, selfie!’ Shakti Kapoor unpe chillaa diye, ‘You people are college students, don’t you know manners? We are talking to each other, guftagu kar rahe the. We were talking about something, and you came and interrupted us. When we finish, you stand there, I will give it to you!’”

He concluded, “I was shocked. Toh maine kaha, ‘Shakti, tere ko apne din yaad hain? Jab tu struggling tha, tu struggling only for this, right? Ki log aayenge, selfie–autograph lenge, photograph lenge, ladkiyan aayengi. Aaj jab aa rahe hain tere se maangne, tu rude kyon ho raha hai yaar? Bas zara wait kar lijiye. Do tareeke hote hain baat karne ke.’ He said, ‘Sorry sir.’ He called them and said, ‘Come, take, take a selfie.’”

Tinnu Anand was recently seen in Good Bad Ugly, Crazxy and Dil Dosti Aur Dogs. All these films were released in 2025.

Watch The Full Interview

For more news and updates from the entertainment world, stay tuned to Bollywood Bubble.

Also Read: EXCLUSIVE: Tinnu Anand ADMITS Filming Major Saab With ‘Bankrupt’ Amitabh Bachchan Was Difficult; Confesses, “No More Direction”

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Ed Sheeran: Play Album Review
Music

Ed Sheeran: Play Album Review

by jummy84
written by jummy84

“Old Phone”’s literal attempt to mine the past for inspiration is, at the very least, slightly new territory for Sheeran. On “Camera,” he taps back into the I-love-you-despite-your-flaws clichés of his One Direction co-write “Little Things” (“You think that you don’t have beauty-in-abundance but you do/That’s the truth”) before inverting the premise of his 2015 hit “Photograph”: “I don’t need a camera to capture this moment/I’ll remember how you look tonight for all my life.” But then again, isn’t it every childhood Clapton obsessive’s dream to one day rip off “Wonderful Tonight?” Again?

The box-ticking doesn’t end there: Play contains unworthy successors to both “Perfect” (“In Other Words”) and “Thinking Out Loud” (“The Vow,”) as well as “A Little More,” a vintage Sheeran breakup track in that it is too bilious by half. When he sings “I can’t call you crazy/’Cause you could be diagnosed” it reinforces two things we already knew about Sheeran: he’s never been able to save any of his famous empathy for his exes, and he’s never been able to really land a joke.

These obvious, odious songs pad out a couple of singles that vindicate my perhaps-unpopular feeling that Sheeran is at his most dynamic when drawing from nonwhite musical traditions. “Azizam,” named after an Iranian term meaning “my darling,” is his catchiest, most energized song since “Shape of You” thanks to its tight hook and producer Ilya’s subtle incorporation of unconventional rhythms and traditional Iranian instruments. “Sapphire,” a collaboration with the Punjabi superstar Arijit Singh, and “Symmetry,” built around a frisky, hypnotic tabla rhythm by Jayesh Kathak, are heavy-handed, but Sheeran’s sheer enthusiasm on each track—the same level of investment that made “South of the Border” work despite its profound cringe factor—sells them entirely. (I am almost certain that non-diasporic Indians will go crazy for these songs, and that’s before you factor in the appearance of Shah Rukh Khan, India’s Tom Cruise, in the video for “Sapphire.”)

These are the only songs on Play where Sheeran doesn’t sound like he’s going through the motions; he’s talked about finishing the album in Goa, and they’re sparky enough to make you wish he had done the whole album there. And of course, Sheeran is not “Mr. Political,” as he put it in 2017, but there is a bitter aftertaste to his collaborations with Indian and Iranian musicians on an album released just a day before more than 110,000 far-right anti-immigrant protesters roiled through the streets of London. These are escapist songs landing in inescapably awful times; Sheeran might be the only everyman in England who can ignore the fact that this kind of apolitical, commerce-minded Choose Love thinking ran out of steam a long time ago.

Play ends with “Heaven,” one of the album’s strongest songs, and also the song that best encapsulates all its problems. On one hand, it taps into a narrative that’s dogged Sheeran through his entire career: He may have “won both cases,” as he raps on “Opening,” referring to copyright infringement cases he won in 2023 and 2024, but that doesn’t change the fact that a lot of Sheeran’s music bears uncanny resemblance to other hits, and this one is fairly similar to both Jason Mraz’s “I’m Yours” and Charli XCX’s “Everything Is Romantic.” On the other hand, its combination of an easy ghatam-led groove and sweetly generic lyrics seems to find a healthy middle ground between the innovation that Sheeran says he’s too old for and the timeworn cliché that sounds so stale on the rest of the album. Then again, attentive listeners might find repetition of the same old images too much to bear when he drops lines like “Chemicals bursting, exploding/As every second’s unfolding.” Take a double shot.

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Chiranjeevi, Nayanthara, Tabu and Vijay Sethupathi ran into each other at a film studio.
Bollywood

Kantara Actor Rishab Shetty to Play a Cameo in Jr NTR’s Dragon?

by jummy84
written by jummy84

Although the makers of Jr NTR’s upcoming film, Dragon (working title), have been shooting silently, speculations continue to rife about the action entertainer. The film is more than 50 per cent done, but the makers haven’t officially announced the leading lady’s name. Rukmini Vasanth had even participated in a couple of schedules but her name hasn’t been announced officially. While Jr NTR has recently resumed shooting for the film in Hyderabad, the latest we hear is that Kantara actor Rishab Shetty will be making a brief appearance in the Prashanth Neel directorial.

Also Read: Exclusive: Dragon Filmmakers Build Jr NTR’s House Set Worth Rs 15 Crore

Rishab Shetty is rumoured to play a cameo in Jr NTR-Prashanth Neel film Dragon

Rishab shares great bonding with Jr NTR and Neel

According to tinsel town reports, Rishab Shetty will be seen in a significant cameo in Jr NTR and Prashanth Neel’s film. Both Rishab and Prasanth are Kannadigas and gel well; Jr NTR too shares great camaraderie with Rishab. Prashanth felt there’s a scope for a significant character in the narrative to appear on screen. And the director believes that Rishab would be apt for the part. While the filmmakers haven’t made any official statement on the development, fans of Jr NTR and Rishab are expressing excitement over the reports. The filmmakers also believe that Rishab’s inclusion would boost the film’s visibility in Karnataka. Featuring an explosive blend of action, drama and mass appeal, Dragon will release on June 25, 2026.

Jr NTR and Rishab Shetty during their earlier meetingJr NTR and Rishab Shetty during their earlier meeting

Trip enjoyed a spiritual trip together

Last year, all the three stars, Jr NTR, Rishab Shetty and Prashanth Neel, holidayed together with their respective families. They were seen enjoying a spiritual trip together, visiting temples and spending time in nature in Karnataka. Their bond has set major friendship goals. Rishab Shetty, and Prashanth Neel escorted Jr NTR to the Udupi’s Shri Krishna Matha Temple. During the same trip, Jr NTR also treated his mother, Shalini, to a special birthday surprise. Their photos amid a divine atmosphere struck a chord with fans.

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Foo Fighters Play First Show in Over a Year, Unveil New Drummer Ilan Rubin
Music

Foo Fighters Play First Show in Over a Year, Unveil New Drummer Ilan Rubin

by jummy84
written by jummy84

Foo Fighters returned to the stage for their first show in more than a year on Saturday night (September 13th) at the Fremont Theater in San Luis Obispo, California. The last-minute concert was announced the night before, with tickets selling out immediately.

The gig marked the debut of new Foo Fighers drummer Ilan Rubin, following reports earlier this summer that he had replaced Josh Freese in essentially what amounted a trade between the Foos and Nine Inch Nails.

Grohl and company certainly gave fans their money’s worth at the intimate gig, playing a 25-song set, kicking off with “All My Life,” as Rubin immediately lived up to the challenge with the drum-heavy song.

Related Video

At one point in the show, Grohl told the audience, “I finally get the opportunity to say, ‘Ladies and gentlemen, will you please welcome… the most badass motherfucker, Ilan Rubin, is playing drums in the Foo Fighters right now.’ It’s official. You can stamp the passport.”

The Foos broke out a handful of tunes for the first time in a decade or more, including “Have It All” (last performed in 2015), a cover of Late!’s “Winnebago” (not played since 2014), and “Exhausted” (previously performed in 2014).

The rest of the set featured favorites like “Times Like These,” “The Pretender,” “My Hero,” and “Best of You,” and closed out with the classic “Everlong.”

The one-off concert precedes a series of dates in Asia in October and Mexico in November, with tickets to those concerts available here. During the show last night, Grohl revealed that the band had some other surprises coming up in the near future.

See video footage and the setlist from the San Luis Obispo below.

Setlist:
All My Life
Rope
Have It All (first time since 2015)
Times Like These
Wattershed
Stacked Actors
La Dee Da
These Days
The Pretender
Walk
My Hero (preceded by band introductions)
Learn to Fly
Rescued
Aurora
This Is a Call
No Son of Mine (with Motörhead’s “Ace of Spades” interpolation)
Shame Shame
White Limo
Winnebago (Late! cover — first time since 2014)
Best of You
Encore:
Alone + Easy Target (first time since 2018)
Low
Monkey Wrench
Exhausted (first time since 2014)
Everlong

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Watch Foo Fighters play surprise first gig with their new drummer
Music

Watch Foo Fighters play surprise first gig with their new drummer

by jummy84
written by jummy84

Foo Fighters played their first gig with their new drummer, after a year away. See the footage below.

  • READ MORE: Foo Fighters live in Manchester: invincible and still untouchable

The band returned for their first show since 2024 last night (September 14), with a small gig at the 900-capacity Fremont Theater in San Luis Obispo, California.

They announced the gig only one day before they took to the stage, telling fans on social media that tickets were only available in-person at the venue’s box office from 8am the day of the show.

It marked their first gig since drummer Josh Freese announced that he had departed the Foos after they “decided to go in a different direction with their drummer”. Freese stepped in as a touring drummer back in 2023, following the death of Taylor Hawkins.

The group then reportedly enlisted Ilan Rubin – essentially swapping with Nine Inch Nails for their ex-touring drummer Freese.

Now, Dave Grohl has officially confirmed Rubin’s place in the band, telling the crowd: “Everybody else has said it, I finally get the opportunity to say, ladies and gentlemen, will you please welcome, the most badass motherfucker, Ilan Rubin, is playing drums in the Foo Fighters. It’s official.”

After the show, the Foos also updated their Facebook profile picture with an image of them with Rubin. Check out footage from the gig, and the full setlist, below.

Photo by Elizabeth Miranda

Posted by Foo Fighters on Saturday, September 13, 2025

Clip from Foo’s Instagram stories, announcing Ilan as their new drummer
byu/AddisonDeWitt333 inFoofighters

Foo Fighters’ setlist was:

‘All My Life’
‘Rope’
‘Have It All’
‘Times Like These’
‘Wattershed’
‘Stacked Actors’
‘La Dee Da’
‘These Days’
‘The Pretender’
‘Walk’
‘My Hero’
‘Learn to Fly’
‘Rescued’
‘Aurora’
‘This Is a Cal’
‘No Son of Mine’
‘Shame Shame’
‘White Limo’
‘Winnebago’
(Late! cover) 
‘Best of You’
‘Alone + Easy Target’

‘Low’
‘Monkey Wrench’
‘Exhausted’
‘Everlong’

It comes after the band seemingly began the rollout of their next era earlier this month, by posting a shot of the six-piece band’s legs and feet standing together in a circle.

“Foo Fighters Assemble!!!” they captioned the snap. They then hinted at an imminent announcement, writing: “Make sure you’re subscribed to the newsletter for info you won’t want to miss… just sayin’…” Sign up here.

The band’s 11th and latest album, ‘But Here We Are’, was released in 2023. It marked their first material since the death of drummer Taylor Hawkins the previous year, and saw them enlist Josh Freese as a touring sticksman.

This July, Dave Grohl and co. marked their 30th anniversary by sharing a new single called ‘Today’s Song’.

Their gig last night marks their first this year, ahead of more shows scheduled in Indonesia, Japan, Singapore and Mexico next month and into November – suggesting new material could emerge soon.

They reportedly cancelled some European dates for 2025 last December, following the news that Grohl had “recently become the father of a new baby daughter, born outside of [his] marriage”.

Freese recently addressed his sacking from Foo Fighters, explaining: “Looking back, it was probably more an issue with their management.” However, the drummer said the Foos’ material “wasn’t music that I really resonated with”.

Upon sharing ‘Today’s Song’, Grohl thanked every former member of the band for their contributions throughout the years. He praised “the thunderous wizardry of Josh Freese”, and said Hawkins was “still in everything we do, everywhere we go, forever”.

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dEUS to play classics 'Worst Case Scenario' and 'In A Bar, Under The Sea' in full on 30th anniversary 2026 UK and European tour
Music

dEUS to play classics ‘Worst Case Scenario’ and ‘In A Bar, Under The Sea’ in full on 30th anniversary 2026 UK and European tour

by jummy84
written by jummy84

dEUS will play their classic albums ‘Worst Case Scenario’ and ‘In A Bar, Under The Sea’ in full on a UK and European tour next year to celebrate their 30th anniversaries.

The influential Belgian rockers will celebrate their early years on the 19-date tour across the continent, though they will “not necessarily” be playing the two albums – released in 1994 and 1996 respectively – front to back.

The tour will kick off in Lille, France on March 12 before taking in cities including Paris, Brussels and Berlin. There is only one UK date on the tour, taking place at London’s O2 Shepherd’s Bush Empire on March 17. They will then sign off in Oslo on April 11.

Tickets are on sale now – you can buy yours here and see the full list of dates below.

dEUS’ ‘Worst Case Vs In A Bar’ UK and European tour dates are:

MARCH
12 – Lille, FR, L’Aeronef
13 – Paris, FR, L’Olympia
15 – Dijon, FR, La Vapeur
17 – London, UK, O2 Shepherd’s Bush Empire
19 – Brussels, BE, Forest National
21 – Nijmegen, NL, De Vereeniging
24 – Cologne, DE, Burgerhaus Stollwerck
25 – Berlin, DE, Metropol
27 – Frankfurt, DE, Batschknapp
28 – Fribourg, CH, Fri-Son
29 – Milan, IT, Magazzini Generali
31 – Vienna, AT, Arena

APRIL
2 – Amsterdam, NL, Paradiso
3 – Amsterdam, NL, Paradiso
6 – Groningen, NL, De Oosterpoort
7 – Hamburg, DE, Markthalle
9 – Copenhagen, DK, Amager Bio
10 – Stockholm, SE, Debaser
11 – Oslo, NO, Rockefeller

Breaking out in the early ’90s, dEUS eluded definition with their experimental style of rock music, blending elements of folk and jazz. They also became notably more prolific than many other acts from their home country of Belgium.

They have remained active since, other than a hiatus in the early 2000s. They released their first album for 10 years, ‘How To Replace It’, in 2023.

The band last toured in 2019 to mark the 20th anniversary of their cult album ‘The Ideal Crash’.

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Music Review: Jon Batiste opts for chill vibe on stripped-down album, 'Big Money'
Bollywood

Music Review: Ed Sheeran returns to his roots on ‘Play,’ a cross-cultural playground

by jummy84
written by jummy84

NEW YORK — Ed Sheeran has long sought to bring people together with his music, whether it be his emotionally resonant acoustic ballads or unproblematic, danceable pop hits. “Play,” his eighth studio album out Friday, stays in that familiar lane for the most part.

Music Review: Ed Sheeran returns to his roots on ‘Play,’ a cross-cultural playground

In his quest, Sheeran has maintained an everyman quality by carefully evolving with the status quo . The aesthetic of Ed Sheeran, global star, still matches that of Ed Sheeran, up-and-coming troubadour. Most of the time, it’s still just Sheeran, his guitar and his loop pedal against the world.

Of course, Sheeran, like most pop stars, knows that as his stardom has risen and his audience widened, the meaning of that relatability has shifted. His listeners, over a decade in, know that too. So “Play,” the first project in a new series from Sheeran named for symbols , uses Sheeran’s global acclaim to his advantage — without straying too far from his singer-songwriter roots.

Recorded throughout his “Mathematics World Tour” and finished in Goa, India, the project feels split. There are moments that herald the return of Sheeran the hitmaker, an exciting development after his last two albums — the final chapter of his mathematics series, “Subtract,” and the folk-pop “Autumn Variations” — were well received but failed to produce the kind of chart-toppers that created Sheeran, the megastar. Most tracks, however, fall more in line with those albums, deviating little from the narrative songwriting toolkit that raised Sheeran, the artist.

Sheeran turned to new collaborators for a couple songs that are already established hits. The addictive “Sapphire” features Indian singer Arijit Singh, who ranks among Spotify’s most popular artists globally. A Farsi version of the single “Azizam,” written and produced with Ilya Salmanzadeh, Savan Kotecha and Johnny McDaid, was released in April featuring Iranian singer Googoosh. Sheeran isn’t just eyeing the U.S. and U.K. charts here — he’s playing for cross-cultural domination, and having fun while doing it.

The rest of the tracks, those that feel more classically Sheeran, see old themes recycled: “Old Phone” provides him the space to remember old friends and reminisce about his changing personal life, just as the landscape in 2017’s “Castle on the Hill” provided a tangible marker of memory. The conceit of the sappily sweet “Camera” — “I don’t need a camera to capture this moment” — comes in conflict with that of Sheeran’s own beloved “Photograph” from 2014’s “Multiply.”

There are still moments that feel like they’ll stick: Sheeran’s ode to his daughters, “For Always,” with cooing backing vocals from co-writer Amy Allen, is sure to be a favorite father-daughter dance track, right behind the groovy “The Vow” on wedding playlists.

Sheeran flexes his pen on “Opening,” the album’s first track. Bounded by glittery verses about boundaries, he raps about his family, his mental health, that court case, fame and what comes next. “Been a long time up top but I ain’t complacent/If I look down I can see replacements,” he raps at one point. “Gotta make dreams and chase them.”

Sheeran wants to be for everyone. And to do that, he’ll still be an everyman.

“Play” by Ed Sheeran

Three stars out of five.

On Repeat: “Opening”

Skip it: “Camera”

For fans of: Romance novels, Bollywood playback singing, “Shape of You,” Coldplay

This article was generated from an automated news agency feed without modifications to text.

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Kenneth Branagh Has Talked 'The Tempest' Play & A 'Henry V' Anecdote
TV & Streaming

Kenneth Branagh Has Talked ‘The Tempest’ Play & A ‘Henry V’ Anecdote

by jummy84
written by jummy84

Kenneth Branagh is a master of the Shakespearean stage but things haven’t always gone swimmingly for the Oscar-winning star of the Royal Shakespeare Company’s (RSC) upcoming version of The Tempest.

Speaking to the BBC’s Today program this morning, Branagh recalled a time when things went badly wrong for the budding young thespian during a production of Henry V in Stratford-upon-Avon when he was just 23 years old.

“I forgot the gloves that I needed to return to the character at the last part of the play upon which much of the plot depended,” Branagh admitted. “So I made up a lot of the Shakespeare [lines] and I thought I had got away with it.”

Branagh, who went on to be twice-Oscar nominated for 1990’s Henry V movie, thought all was fine but on his way home, “a car slowed down and someone yelled out, ‘Very nice performance, seamless… oh by the way loved the gloves’.”

Branagh recalled the charming anecdote as a rallying cry for people to go and watch Shakespeare in the theater rather than spending time viewing content on their phones, because they will be able to “experience things going wrong that no one else will ever see.” The titan of the stage will play Prospero next year in the Richard Eyre-directed Tempest, and he will join Oscar-winning Helen Hunt who makes her RSC debut in Anton Chekhov’s The Cherry Orchard. Our Breaking Baz interview with Hunt and Eyre can be found here.

Branagh said he relishes the challenge of convincing today’s audience to turn up for Shakespeare. “It makes the battle more lively,” he said. “We have to work harder to earn the audience’s attention but the thrill and surprise is the arrival of the audience and there is nowhere with a greater sense of adventure than the Royal Shakespeare Theater at Stratford-upon-Avon.”

The Tempest will run from May 13 – June 20 at the Royal Shakespeare Theatre.

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