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Apple Music salutes best in R&B and soul with the launch of Soul September

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R&B and soul are two genres that are able to convey the intense highs and lows of human emotion like few can, and so to celebrate the best of both, Apple Music is launching Soul September, a month-long celebration of the genres’ legendary artists and its new wave. 

Apple Music’s Soul September campaign will feature a selection of 14 exclusive playlists from some of the biggest names in R&B. From iconic singers like John Legend, Toni Braxton, Tamia and Anthony Hamilton, to current stars of the scene like Ari Lennox, Alina Baraz, Snoh Aalegra, Teyana Taylor, UP NEXT alumni Victoria Monet and Mzansi’s very own superstar, Elaine.

Each guest playlist features the artists’ favourite R&B songs of all time, alongside songs that have been vital in helping them forge their own career paths. The collection will also include the best new R&B releases as well as classic albums, music videos and Artist Essentials playlists.

“During this exciting period in R&B where we’re seeing both breaking artists and legacy artists release such impactful projects — and collaborate with each other — Soul September is a much needed celebration of their work and the music that inspired them.” – Nadeska Alexis (Apple Music 1 presenter and host of R&B Now)

“This is like my ‘Throwback Thursday’ playlist that I listen to most days! I love old school jams, it reminds me of when I was cool, young and hot but didn’t even know I was cool, young, and hot! No matter what, when you look back you will always remember those hot fun summer moments. Some of the newer songs have that same flavour. I wanted to highlight younger artists who are bringing that same heat.” – Toni Braxton

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“This is a list of some of the R&B and soul songs that I love. Many of them are from decades ago. They were the songs that made me fall in love with the beautiful tradition of black music that I try to help carry on today. Some are from my favourite R&B artists of today. They’re all beautiful and special to me – songs of love and joy, longing and uplift.” – John Legend

“Soul September makes me think of warmth, romance, passion, feeling nostalgic and everything in between. This playlist highlights some of the artists that I grew up listening to, and that have paved the way for young R&B and soul artists like myself.” – Elaine

“There are so many songs that belong in this playlist. Here are just a few of my favorites! All of the artists and songs in my selections give a sense of timeless! The music transcends any trend while still allowing for nostalgia. These songs will definitely trigger some great memories from the soul.” – Victoria Monet

“These songs reflect many different times in my life when I was transitioning. ‘Jodeci’ reminds me of my first trip to NYC to get my record deal at Uptown/MCA in 1992 with $67 in my pocket. We would sing the entire album on our drive from Charlotte. Some of the songs on this list remind me of my childhood and other songs remind me of good and bad relationships.” – Anthony Hamilton

“This playlist of soulful legends really changed my life and I love them so much. They really inspired my sound. Also shoutout to the new soulful artists on this list as well, the future is bright for soul music which is very exciting!” – Ari Lennox

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“I grew up listening to all genres of music, but R&B is where my heart is. This is just a small look at some of my favourite R&B songs of all time. Whether I’m getting ready in the dressing room before a show, spending time with friends, or relaxing, these are a few of my go-tos.” – Tamia

“These songs are my go-to when I need to get a vibe going – feel good music. Check out my list, songs 1-25 is a complete ride. I go back to memories of hearing songs like ‘I Can Love You’ by Mary J. Blige feat. Lil’ Kim, and ‘Not Tonight’ by Lil’ Kim feat. Da Brat, Left Eye, Missy Misdemeanor Elliott and Angie Martinez. I immediately get visions of my mom cleaning up the house, dancing and prancing around while singing with the broom, simultaneously picking out our outfits to go to the family gatherings, birthday parties. Awww man great memories, and good times!” – Teyana Taylor

“Music is my form of healing. These are some of my favourite R&B songs, ranging from the 90’s to now. I was especially inspired by the uplifting sonics of these songs, they bring me peace, joy and high vibrations. I hope it can do the same for you.” – UMI

Apple Music’s Soul September campaign has the best moods and grooves that the most exciting artists in R&B and soul have curated exclusively.

Victoria Monet Playlist – http://apple.co/victoriamsoulsept

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Keri Hilson Playlist – http://apple.co/kerihsoulsept

Anthony Hamilton Playlist – http://apple.co/anthonyhsoulsept

Alina Baraz Playlist – http://apple.co/alinabsoulsept

Ari Lennox Playlist – http://apple.co/arilsoulsept

Tamia Playlist – http://apple.co/tamiasoulsept

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Teyana Taylor Playlist – http://apple.co/teyanatsoulsept

Elaine Playlist – http://apple.co/elainesoulsept

Toni Braxton Playlist – http://apple.co/tonibsoulsept

Umi Playlist – http://apple.co/umisoulsept

John Legend Playlist – http://apple.co/johnlsoulsept

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Snoh Aalegra Playlist – http://apple.co/snohasoulsept

Brandy Playlist – http://apple.co/brandysoulsept

India Arie Playlist – http://apple.co/indiaasoulsept

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The 77th Festival de Cannes winners’ list

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After 11 days of an exceptional edition, the Jury of the 77th Festival de Cannes, chaired by American director, screenwriter and actress Greta Gerwig, surrounded by Turkish screenwriter and photographer Ebru Ceylan, American actress Lily Gladstone, French actress Eva Green, Lebanese director and screenwriter Nadine Labaki, as well as Spanish director and screenwriter Juan Antonio Bayona, Italian actor Pierfrancesco Favino, Japanese director Kore-eda Hirokazu and French actor and producer Omar Sy, presented its winners’ list among the 22 films presented in Competition this year.

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Sean Kingston, mother arrested after singer’s Florida mansion raided

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Singer Sean Kingston has been arrested in California, hours after a police raid of his Florida mansion, during which his mother was also arrested. (more…)

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The winners of the 27th La Cinef Selection

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La Cinef Selection

The Short Films and La Cinef Jury presided by Lubna Azabal and comprised of Marie-Castille Mention-Schaar, Paolo Moretti, Claudine Nougaret and Vladimir Perišić has awarded the 2024 La Cinef Prizes today during a ceremony held in the Buñuel Theatre, followed by the screening of the winning films. La Cinef consisted of 18 student films, chosen out of 2 263 entries coming from 555 film schools around the world.

First Prize

SUNFLOWERS WERE THE FIRST ONES TO KNOW…
Chidananda S Naik
FTII, Pune, India

Joint Second Prize

OUT THE WINDOW THROUGH THE WALL
Asya Segalovich
Columbia University, United States

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THE CHAOS SHE LEFT BEHIND
Nikos Kolioukos
Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Greece

Third Prize

BUNNYHOOD 
Mansi Maheshwari
NFTS, United Kingdom

Awards

The Festival de Cannes allocates a €15,000 grant for the First Prize, €11,250 for the Second and €7,500 for the Third.

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Rerun in Paris

The awarded films will be screened at the Cinéma du Panthéon on June 3 and at the MK2 Quai de Seine on June 4.

More information about the rerun of films on the website of the Festival de Cannes next week

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Award for Best Immersive Work of the 77th Festival de Cannes

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Today at the Plage des Palmes, the Jury of the Immersive Competition of the 77th Festival de Cannes awarded the prize for Best Immersive Work, presenting one winner among the 8 in-competition virtual reality, augmented reality, video projection and holographic works.

The Jury, chaired by French filmmaker and screenwriter Marie Amachoukeli, included French writer, director and producer Mathias Chelebourg, American producer, writer, and director Vassiliki Khonsari, Israeli filmmaker Uri Kranot, and New Zealand and American filmmaker Raqi Syed.

The Award was presented to Colored created by Tania de Montaigne, Stéphane Foenkinos, Pierre-Alain Giraud.

For its inaugural year, more than 3000 tickets were booked by Festival attendees to experience this new movement taking place at the 77th Festival de Cannes.

The selected works – En amour, Evolver, Human Violins: Prelude, Maya: the Birth of a superhero, Noire, TELOS I, The Roaming and Traversing the Mist – each used a variety of technologies and techniques to pave the way for new methods of storytelling.

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“With the Immersive Competition, the Festival de Cannes is showcasing a new art form that draws in part on the heritage of cinema. This approach is in line with our desire to explore new stories and new experiences. This is not the first time the Festival de Cannes has exhibited an immersive work. In 2017, Alejandro González Iñárritu‘s Carne y Arena was presented in the Official Selection, and it was a great success. Today the medium is more mature and we’re once again pioneering our approach, offering immersive art pride of place at the Festival, with a selection of 8 works in competition and an awards ceremony hosted by an international jury,’ says Thierry Frémaux, General Delegate of the Festival de Cannes.

“The Immersive Competition is a continuation of the original values of the Festival, exploring new stories with the new tools available,” says Elie Levasseur, Immersive Competition Project Director.

 

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The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill takes No. 1 spot on Apple Music’s 100 Best list

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The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill takes No. 1 spot on Apple Music's 100 Best list

Apple Music’s 100 Best Albums list culminates today with the much-anticipated reveal of the top 10 albums of all time and The Miseducation of Lauryn Hillcrowned No. 1.

Upon receiving the news, Lauryn Hill told Apple Music, “This is my award, but it’s a rich, deep narrative, and involves so many people, and so much sacrifice, and so much time, and so much collective love.”

10. Lemonade (2016), Beyoncé
Beyoncé’s genre-obliterating blockbuster sixth album is furious, defiant, anguished, vulnerable, experimental, muscular, triumphant, humorous, and brave — a vivid personal statement, released without warning in a time of public scrutiny and private suffering. Every second of Lemonade deserves to be studied and celebrated.

9. Nevermind (1991), Nirvana 
Nevermind and its opening salvo “Smells Like Teen Spirit” didn’t just mark an unlikely breakthrough for the Seattle trio, it upended popular culture in ways never before and never since. Punk became pop, grunge became global vernacular, industry walls broke into rubble, and lead vocalist Kurt Cobain was anointed the reluctant voice of a generation in need of catharsis — all seemingly overnight.

8. Back to Black (2006), Amy Winehouse
Amy Winehouse’s presentation and otherworldly, timeless vocals make her music feel different — not so much an attempt to re-create the past as to honor the music she loved while still being true to the trash-talking, self-effacing millennial she was. The sound of Back to Black might appeal to retro-soul fans and jazz classicists, but the attitude is closer to rap. Yes, she was funny. But she wasn’t kidding.

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7. good kid, m.A.A.d city (2012), Kendrick Lamar
Kendrick Lamar’s sophomore album good kid, m.A.A.d city is one of the defining hip-hop records of the 21st century. West Coast hip-hop elders like Snoop Dogg and Dr. Dre anointed Lamar to carry on the legacy of gangsta rap, and the legacy of this album is a crucial example of American storytelling that established the future Pulitzer Prize winner as perhaps his generation’s most accomplished writer.

6. Songs in the Key of Life (1976), Stevie Wonder
In 1974, Stevie Wonder was the most critically revered pop star in the world; he was also considering leaving the music industry altogether. So when Songs in the Key of Life was released two years later, demand was so high that it became, at the time, the fastest-selling album in history. The album, which runs nearly 90 minutes, is effortlessly melodic, broad in scope, and deeply personal. Sonically, culturally, and emotionally, Songs in the Key of Life is much more than a gigantic collection of songs — it forms an entire worldview.

5. Blonde (2016), Frank Ocean
Though Blonde packs 17 tracks into one quick hour, it’s a sprawling palette of ideas, a testament to the intelligence of flying one’s own artistic freak flag and trusting that audiences will meet them where they’re at. They did. And Ocean established himself as a generational artist uniquely suited to the complexities and convulsive changes of the second decade of the 21st century.

4. Purple Rain (1984), Prince & The Revolution
With half its track list comprising top 10 singles, this soundtrack is what truly turned Prince Rogers Nelson into one of the most instantly recognizable and distinctive pop artists ever. Prince often drew comparisons to Jimi Hendrix for the way he mixed music that felt Black and white, sacred and profane. The reality is that he had no precedent then and no comparison now.

3. Abbey Road (1969), The Beatles
The Beatles’ Abbey Road is an ageless, unmatched collection of songs by a world-changing band at their creative peak. The band’s 11th and penultimate album sounds like nothing more or less than four extremely gifted humans playing one indelible song after another in the same room together.

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2. Thriller (1982), Michael Jackson
There are few pop albums, or even works of art, that denote a wholesale shift in time and space the way Michael Jackson’s Thriller did in 1982. It did nothing less than define the modern pop blockbuster and redefine the scope and reach of music. Seven of its nine original cuts were top 10 singles, and it became one of the bestselling albums ever made.

1. The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill (1998), Lauryn Hill
Lauryn Hill’s debut — and only — solo studio album was a seismic event in 1998: a stunningly raw, profound look into the spiritual landscape not just of one of the era’s biggest stars, but of the era itself. She was, and remains, a once-in-a-generation talent whose inspiration and innovation can be heard through the decades. Artists exhaust long discographies hoping for a cohesive piece of work resonant enough to reshape culture and inscribe its creator into the pantheon; Lauryn Hill did it in one.

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Iran’s president and foreign minister killed in helicopter crash

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Iran president and foreign minister killed in helicopter crash

Iran’s President, Ebrahim Raisi, has been killed in a helicopter crash in a mountainous area of north-western Iran, the country’s state media has said.

He was travelling with Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian who also died after the aircraft came down on Sunday.
It was initially reported that the helicopter carrying the men and their entourage had made a rough landing in foggy conditions.

Mr Raisi, 63, was tipped as a potential successor to Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

The helicopter came down in a remote area of north-western Iran on the way back from Azerbaijan where Mr Raisi had been meeting President Ilham Aliyev.

On Monday, the Iranian Red Crescent confirmed the bodies of the president and others who died in the crash had been recovered and search operations had ended.
“We are in the process of transferring the bodies of the martyrs to Tabriz [in Iran’s northwest],” the organisation’s chief said on state television.
According to local media he had been in the area to open the Qiz Qalasi and Khodaafarin dams.
Ahead of the confirmation of the death, vigils had taken place in the capital, Tehran, with pictures showing people kneeling in prayer.

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Mr Raisi, 63, was a hard-line cleric close to Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, and was considered to be a potential successor to the 85-year-old.

His election as president in 2021 consolidated the control of conservatives over every part of the Islamic Republic.
In a statement following his death, the Iranian government said it would continue to operate “without disruption”.
A number of countries have expressed their condolences following President Raisi’s death.

In Pakistan, Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif announced a national day of mourning and described the Mr Raisi and Mr Amir-Abdollahian as “good friends of Iran”.

Writing on social media, India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi said he was “deeply saddened and shocked” by the deaths.
Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said his government was “in full contact and co-ordination with the Iranian authorities” and was ready to “provide any necessary support”.

Russia’s Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov expressed his condolences and said the president and foreign minister were “true, reliable friends of our country”.

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