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The 28-year-old Swedish singer said her own opportunities had as much to do with luck as anything else. She was born in Sweden, received an education and was able to build a career that allows her to travel the world. The immigrants being arrested by Trump’s government, she argued, were simply dealt a more difficult hand and were trying to improve their families’ lives.

“I just don’t understand how it could be the worst thing in the world to be an undocumented immigrant,” Larsson told Variety. “This video is so dehumanizing.”

Larsson was especially angry that the administration selected “Midnight Sun,” a song she wrote about feeling connected to nature, the universe and other human beings. “These people in the video are real people,” she said. “There’s a fucking guy in there with construction wear. He’s working. These people who are undocumented are regular people with jobs, and they’re just trying to have a better future.” She accused the White House of turning human suffering into a meme before offering her blunt verdict: “You guys are such fucking losers.”

It was not Larsson’s first fight with Trump’s social-media operation. Earlier in the year, the White House used “Lush Life” in a video of Trump dancing while pro-administration messages appeared onscreen, including “WE LOVE ICE and our law enforcement!” Larsson responded with an Instagram post declaring her support for immigrants, trans people, abortion rights, queer people, contraception and social welfare before concluding, “I fucking hate ICE.”

The argument erupted just days after Larsson performed at Rock in Rio. The Swedish pop star reached the Sunset Stage close to midnight Sunday (9/13) after nearly a full day of rain had soaked Rio de Janeiro’s Olympic Park. Dressed in Brazilian colors and hot pink, Larsson opened with “Midnight Sun” and asked the fans who remained to help her turn the gloomy festival grounds into something bright and summery.

Larsson, vocals, age 28, was backed by an all-woman band and used noticeably fewer prerecorded tracks than many of the festival’s pop acts. The individual musicians were not credited in the available coverage, so their names and ages cannot be confirmed. Larsson supplied the singing, choreography and relentless energy required to keep a rain-soaked audience moving near midnight.

Rock in Rio’s Cidade do Rock occupies the Olympic Park in Barra da Tijuca, the sprawling complex constructed for the 2016 Summer Olympics. The festival has used the grounds since 2017 and can accommodate approximately 100,000 people per day. The 2026 edition attracted more than 700,000 people across seven days, continuing a history that began when the original Rock in Rio drew approximately 1.38 million people in 1985.

The abbreviated festival performance moved quickly through “Can’t Tame Her,” Tyla’s “She Did It Again,” “I Would Like,” “Hot & Sexy,” “Wow,” “Ain’t My Fault” and “Pretty Ugly.” Larsson climbed onto a car-shaped platform with her dancers, worked both ends of the stage and frequently allowed the crowd to take over the vocals.

“Never Forget You” and “Blue Moon” slowed the pace before “Symphony” produced the night’s sweetest moment. Larsson invited a fan onstage who admitted she could not speak English but had no trouble dancing with her. Larsson eventually returned to “Midnight Sun,” closing the performance with the same song she had used to create a little artificial summer at the beginning.

Larsson became famous in Sweden after winning Talang, the country’s version of Got Talent, at age 10. Her albums are 1 (2014), So Good (2017), Poster Girl (2021), Venus (2024) and Midnight Sun (2025). “Lush Life,” “Never Forget You,” “Ain’t My Fault” and her Clean Bandit collaboration “Symphony” made her a global streaming star, while Midnight Sun established a clearer identity for the woman singing those hits.

“Midnight Sun” earned Larsson her first Grammy nomination, for Best Dance Pop Recording. She performed the song during the 2026 Grammy Premiere Ceremony but lost the award to Lady Gaga’s “Abracadabra.” Larsson has not won a Grammy.

Upcoming dates:

9/18-9/19  iHeartRadio Music Festival, T-Mobile Arena, Las Vegas, NV
9/26  All Things Go, Merriweather Post Pavilion, Columbia, MD
9/29-9/30  Greek Theatre, Los Angeles, CA
10/13-10/14  Riverstage, Brisbane, Australia
10/15  Afterpay Arena, Sydney, Australia
10/17  Margaret Court Arena, Melbourne, Australia
10/18  Entertainment Centre Theatre, Adelaide, Australia
10/20  Perth HPC, Perth, Australia
10/22  Margaret Court Arena, Melbourne, Australia
10/23  Afterpay Arena, Sydney, Australia
10/25-10/26  Spark Arena, Auckland, New Zealand

Videos:

“Midnight Sun” — official music video
“Midnight Sun” — live from Lollapalooza Chicago
“Midnight Sun” — 2026 Grammy Awards performance

Larsson’s latest official music video is the Winx Club version of “Midnight Sun”, released August 21.

more on… Variety

Although his clothes came into American homes every week through Carol Burnett, Cher was probably his most famous collaborator. Fans of Diana Ross and Madonna are welcome to argue. They have some pretty good evidence.

“Sadness doesn’t come close to how I feel. I loved him very much,” Burnett wrote on Instagram Monday. “There was no one like him.”

“I feel so lucky to have met Bob,” Sabrina Carpenter posted on her Instagram Stories Monday, adding that she is a “Mackie girl forever.”

Carpenter had already made that clear at the 2024 VMAs, where she wore Madonna’s 1991 Oscars gown. Thirty-three years later, the dress was still ready for its close-up. Earlier that year, Miley Cyrus performed “Flowers” at the Grammys in vintage Mackie on the night she won her first Grammy. The next generation had figured out where the good stuff was.

For the entire 11-year run of The Carol Burnett Show (1967–1978), Mackie dressed the people making America laugh. His masterpiece might have been the curtain dress in Burnett’s Gone with the Wind parody. He left the rod in it. An absurdly simple idea, and there it was, stretched across her shoulders, getting a laugh before she could say a word.

Then there was Elton at Dodger Stadium. A baseball uniform covered in sequins sounds ridiculous until Elton John puts it on. Now try imagining those shows without it.

Mackie’s client list could keep an awards-show announcer busy through the commercial break: Ann-Margret, Lucille Ball, Diahann Carroll, Carol Channing, Doris Day, Barbara Eden, Lola Falana, Farrah Fawcett, Judy Garland, Liza Minnelli, Bette Midler, Dolly Parton, Pink, Barbra Streisand, Donna Summer, Sylvie Vartan, Dottie West, Oprah Winfrey, RuPaul and Beyoncé.

Country singers, disco queens, comedians, Broadway stars. Everybody had somewhere to go, and Bob could help them make an entrance.

He came from the San Gabriel Valley. Born in Monterey Park on March 24, 1939, Mackie spent part of his childhood with his maternal grandparents in Alhambra after his parents separated. Later, he lived with his father in Rosemead and attended Rosemead High School.

He studied at Pasadena City College and Chouinard Art Institute, where Eva Roberts headed the fashion department. Then costume designer Frank Thompson offered him a job sketching at Paramount. Mackie left school. There was work to do.

His education continued around people like Edith Head and Jean Louis. While working for Louis, he drew the sketch for the gown Marilyn Monroe wore when she sang “Happy Birthday” to President John F. Kennedy in 1962.

The drawing was Mackie’s. The dress was a Jean Louis design. That distinction gets blurry in some accounts, but Mackie had plenty of his own work to take credit for.

His bigger opportunity arrived in 1966, when Mitzi Gaynor hired him to design costumes for her Las Vegas act. Television specials followed. Here was someone who needed to dance, get laughs and look spectacular doing it. You can see why they got along.

The awards followed, too. Mackie won nine Emmys from 32 nominations, then picked up a Tony in 2019 for the costumes in Broadway’s The Cher Show. After all those years dressing Cher, he won another award dressing people playing Cher.

His Emmy-winning work included Alice Through the Looking Glass (1966), G.I.T. on Broadway (1969), two Mitzi Gaynor specials, Mama’s Family (1983–1990), Carol & Company (1990–1991) and Cher: The Farewell Tour (2003).

The Academy nominated him for Lady Sings the Blues (1972), Funny Lady (1975) and Pennies from Heaven (1981). He never won an Oscar. Three chances to give Bob Mackie an Academy Award, and they let him leave empty-handed every time.

He was also the very first guest judge on RuPaul’s Drag Race (2009–present). In 2023, RuPaul presented him with the show’s first Giving Us Life-time Achievement Award. Even the award’s name dressed up for the occasion.

View this post from RuPaul’s Drag Race on X

His private life held long relationships and some terrible losses. In 1960, he married singer and actress LuLu Porter. They divorced three years later but remained close. Their son Robin became a makeup artist. He died of an AIDS-related illness in 1993 at 33.

Fellow costume designer Ray Aghayan was Mackie’s partner for nearly half a century, until Aghayan died in 2011.

Later, Mackie and Porter learned that Robin had a daughter they hadn’t known about. They had a granddaughter. Through her, their family also included two great-granddaughters.

Thriller, Michael Jackson, #18

This is the least mysterious old album on the list. Jackson’s catalog exploded again after the Michael biopic, with Sony saying his streams rose to roughly four times their pre-release level and Jackson posting his best streaming week ever. Thriller is the natural landing spot because “Billie Jean,” “Beat It” and “Human Nature” are still enormous streaming songs, and the album has now spent 734 weeks on the Billboard 200.

Number Ones, Michael Jackson, #21

The same Jackson surge is helping this 2003 compilation, but greatest-hits albums have an extra streaming advantage: every time somebody plays one of the major songs collected on them, that activity can contribute to the album’s chart total. Number Ones has now logged 253 weeks on the Billboard 200 and, like Thriller, is also showing up on sales, vinyl and streaming charts.

Rumours, Fleetwood Mac, #31

This one never really went away. “Dreams,” “Go Your Own Way,” “The Chain” and the rest of the record continue to stream at a level that would have been impossible for catalog music in the old sales-only era. The album just crossed 700 weeks on the Billboard 200, and it also continues to sell on vinyl, giving it two different ways to keep piling up consumption.

Greatest Hits, Fleetwood Mac, #60

Fleetwood Mac gets a second bite because the hits compilation collects the songs casual listeners reach for without needing to play Rumours front to back. It recently crossed 400 weeks on the Billboard 200, and streaming has turned it into exactly the kind of all-purpose catalog package that can sit on the chart almost indefinitely.

Diamonds, Elton John, #39

This 2017 collection is a streaming-age monster because it concentrates decades of Elton John songs into one title. Every fresh listener who finds “Rocket Man,” “Tiny Dancer,” “Your Song,” “Bennie and the Jets” or “I’m Still Standing” helps the same compilation, which is why a package released long after most of the music was recorded can behave like a current album.

Greatest Hits, Queen, #41

Queen’s collection has spent more than 700 weeks on the Billboard 200 because the band’s biggest songs never stopped being consumed. “Bohemian Rhapsody,” “Another One Bites the Dust,” “Don’t Stop Me Now” and “We Will Rock You” are playlist staples, sports-arena staples and perennial discovery songs for younger listeners. Streaming turned that permanent cultural presence into measurable album units every week.

Chronicle: The 20 Greatest Hits, Creedence Clearwater Revival, #48

Chronicle was one of the best greatests hits of all and a testament to John Fogerty’s genius. “Fortunate Son,” “Bad Moon Rising,” “Proud Mary” and “Have You Ever Seen the Rain” beautifully hold up as powerfully today as when he wrote, sang and perform them. The album has now spent more than 800 weeks on the Billboard 200 because of one man: John Freakin Fogerty, who deserves more praise.

Curtain Call: The Hits, Eminem, #65

Eminem’s first greatest-hits set has become a catalog sponge for “Lose Yourself,” “Stan,” “The Real Slim Shady,” “Without Me” and other songs that continue to stream at blockbuster levels. Instead of those plays being scattered across a shelf of old albums, a large share of casual-listener activity lands on one compilation, helping it reach 804 weeks on the chart.

Nevermind, Nirvana, #66

Nirvana does not need a greatest-hits album to pull this off because so much of the band’s catalog gravity is concentrated on one record. “Smells Like Teen Spirit,” “Come as You Are,” “Lithium” and “In Bloom” keep bringing new listeners back to Nevermind, while vinyl sales give it a second source of chart units. It is now at 790 weeks on the Billboard 200.

Greatest Hits, Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers, #68

Petty’s compilation is another one-stop catalog title that benefits every time “Free Fallin’,” “I Won’t Back Down,” “Learning to Fly” or “Mary Jane’s Last Dance” gets streamed. The old record-store logic said a greatest-hits set sold once; the streaming logic lets it earn another tiny fraction of an album every time somebody presses play.

Journey’s Greatest Hits, Journey, #83

There may be no better example of one song keeping an entire catalog package alive than “Don’t Stop Believin’.” Add “Separate Ways,” “Any Way You Want It,” “Faithfully” and “Open Arms,” and Journey has a compilation that functions like an always-on classic-rock playlist. It has now spent 925 weeks on the Billboard 200.

Gold: Greatest Hits, ABBA, #93

ABBA’s biggest songs have spent decades being recycled through radio, movies, stage shows, weddings, parties and now algorithmic playlists. Gold is the obvious destination for all of that listening. “Dancing Queen” alone is a global evergreen, but “Mamma Mia,” “Take a Chance on Me” and “Gimme! Gimme! Gimme!” keep the whole package moving.

Greatest Hits, Guns N’ Roses, #106

GNR’s hits set has been hanging around the chart for years because the band’s giant songs remain giant songs. “Sweet Child o’ Mine,” “Welcome to the Jungle,” “Paradise City” and “November Rain” continue to rack up streams, while every tour cycle introduces the catalog to another wave of ticket buyers who go home and hit play.

Greatest Hits, 2Pac, #108

Hip-hop catalog behaves just like classic rock catalog now. “Changes,” “California Love,” “Dear Mama” and “Keep Ya Head Up” remain gateway songs for listeners born long after 2Pac died, and the greatest-hits collection captures that discovery in one place. That is why a 1998 compilation can still sit in the middle of a 2026 album chart.

Legend: The Best of Bob Marley and the Wailers, Bob Marley and the Wailers, #138

Legend is one of the clearest examples of catalog music behaving like a current release. “Three Little Birds,” “One Love,” “Could You Be Loved” and “Is This Love” are continuously streamed around the world, and the 2024 Marley biopic gave the catalog another major discovery cycle. The compilation is now at 955 weeks on the Billboard 200.

Toxicity, System of a Down, #154

This is a younger catalog record than the classic-rock titles above it, but it is now a quarter-century old and still behaves like a live release. “Chop Suey!” has more than a billion YouTube views, while “Toxicity” and “Aerials” remain hard-rock streaming standards. Heavy music has become especially good at keeping old albums together instead of reducing them to one or two isolated songs.

Metallica, Metallica, #172

The Black Album is another case where the entire record remains part of the culture. “Enter Sandman,” “Nothing Else Matters,” “The Unforgiven” and “Sad but True” are still streamed in huge numbers, and Metallica’s ongoing stadium-scale touring keeps sending people back to the catalog. The album has spent 848 weeks on the Billboard 200.

Greatest Hits, Earth, Wind & Fire, #197

This one actually did re-enter the Billboard 200 this week, and “September” is the obvious engine. The song gets a recurring seasonal bump every September, but the compilation also collects “Shining Star,” “Let’s Groove,” “After the Love Has Gone” and other songs that remain wedding, party and playlist fixtures. In the streaming era, a seasonal song can pull an entire old album back onto the chart with it.

The funny thing is that most of these records are not really “back.” They are living in a chart system that finally measures the way people actually listen now. A teenager playing “Dreams” from a recommendation, a dad putting on “September” at a cookout and somebody watching “Billie Jean” on YouTube can all wind up contributing to album consumption. The result is a Billboard 200 where 1976 and 2026 can sit next to each on the chart the same way they live in our hearts.

Twisted Teens have been moving at an absurd pace in 2026. Blame the Clown arrived earlier this year, followed by Florida Water Blues, and the duo has already announced another album, The Holy Cross Tigers, due 11/6 through Sub Pop. Tweedy, meanwhile, has made covers a regular part of Starship Casual, including recent takes on Cameron Winter’s “Love Takes Miles” and Star Moles’ “Real Magic.”

more on… Stereogum

Last Setlist

Jeff Tweedy, Jimmy Kimmel Live, Los Angeles, CA, 7/16/26
“Out in the Dark”

Next Five Shows

9/23 FitzGerald’s Outdoors, Berwyn, IL
9/24 FitzGerald’s Outdoors, Berwyn, IL
9/25 FitzGerald’s Outdoors, Berwyn, IL
10/4 ShoalsFest, Florence, AL
10/20 The Acorn, Three Oaks, MI

Styles is not exactly waiting around for next spring. He is in the middle of a 30-night Madison Square Garden residency that runs through Halloween, with Jamie xx opening the New York shows. North American tickets for the newly announced 2027 dates go on general sale 9/16, with artist and American Express presales scheduled before that.

more on… FOX 32 Chicago

Last Setlist

Harry Styles, Madison Square Garden, New York, NY, 9/12/26
Dance No More
Carolina
Music for a Sushi Restaurant
Cinema
Adore You
Watermelon Sugar
Taste Back
Sweet Creature
The Waiting Game
Satellite
Are You Listening Yet?
Ready, Steady, Go!
Pop
Season 2 Weight Loss
Kiwi
American Girls
As It Was
Carla’s Song
Coming Up Roses
Sign of the Times
Aperture

Next Five Shows

9/16 Madison Square Garden, New York, NY
9/18 Madison Square Garden, New York, NY
9/19 Madison Square Garden, New York, NY
9/23 Madison Square Garden, New York, NY
9/25 Madison Square Garden, New York, NY

Dion’s last full concert was in March 2020, before the pandemic shut down touring and before her stiff-person syndrome diagnosis forced her farther away from the stage. She had made a few major appearances since, most famously at the 2024 Paris Olympics, but this was the real comeback: a two-hour-plus concert and the opening night of a long Paris run that continues through October and returns again next May.

more on… People

Last Setlist

Céline Dion, Plenitude Arena, Nanterre, France, 9/12/26
On ne change pas
Destin
Because You Loved Me
Encore un soir
Les derniers seront les premiers
Tout l’or des hommes
The Power of Love
My Heart Will Go On
Beauty and the Beast
The Chase
J’irai où tu iras
Ne bouge pas
I’m Alive
Dans un autre monde
I Feel Love / I’m Alive / That’s the Way It Is / Sweet Dreams (Are Made of This)
Dansons
Un garçon pas comme les autres
Courage
Love Can Move Mountains
The Prayer
It’s All Coming Back to Me Now
Je chanterai
Ebben? Ne andrò lontana
All by Myself
Pour que tu m’aimes encore
S’il suffisait d’aimer
Des milliers de baisers

Next Five Shows

9/16 Plenitude Arena, Nanterre, France
9/18 Plenitude Arena, Nanterre, France
9/19 Plenitude Arena, Nanterre, France
9/23 Plenitude Arena, Nanterre, France
9/25 Plenitude Arena, Nanterre, France