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    Is She Jazz? Is She Pop? She’s Laufey, and She’s a Phenomenon.

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    For Laufey, 2024 was a whirlwind year. 2025 may be even wilder.Last year, the indie singer-songwriter, who cannot be described without a flurry of hyphenated hybrids — Icelandic-Chinese, jazz-pop-classical, TikTok-trad — became a breakout star with a quirky pop style that draws equally from Taylor Swift and the romantic whimsy of midcentury musicals. She won a Grammy Award and attended the Met Gala in a rosé-colored princess gown and, in perhaps the ultimate orchestra-nerd Easter egg, a veil embroidered with a Bach fugue.In an interview this spring, as she prepared to release her third studio album, “A Matter of Time,” Laufey, 26, was still practically glowing over those accomplishments. But seated at a control console at Electric Lady Studios in New York, where she recorded three of the album’s 14 songs, she also cataloged the jitters and anxieties she felt being thrust into the machinery of fame.“I wanted 2025 to be this year where I was less anxious,” she said, “and instead of walking meekly onto the red carpets or meekly into relationships, I wanted to walk with confidence.”“And I wanted to write a country song,” Laufey continued. She paused a beat. “Country-ish,” she amended herself, and then pushed a button to play “Clean Air” — a twangy starting-over ballad that she said was partly inspired by Dolly Parton, Linda Ronstadt and Emmylou Harris’s “Trio” albums from the 1980s and ’90s.In just a few years, Laufey — her name is properly pronounced with a vowel unfamiliar to most English speakers, but she answers to LAY-vay — has become a phenomenon almost without comparison in contemporary pop. Even in an age of scrambled genres, she stands out as a master code-switcher who cites inspiration from Prokofiev and Chet Baker yet has racked up more than five billion streams with concise, witty earworms that paint a glamorous wonderland shaded with the second guessings of a Gen Z diarist. Despite ruffling some feathers among the conservative gatekeepers of jazz, she has cultivated a vast fan base online and this fall will embark on her first arena tour, including two nights at Madison Square Garden.And she has big fans.Despite ruffling some feathers among the conservative gatekeepers of jazz, Laufey has cultivated a vast fan base. Olivia Rodrigo and Barbra Streisand are among her A-list admirers.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      Can Indigo De Souza Spin Pop Gold From the Wreckage of Her Past?

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      Indigo De Souza and Elliott Kozel almost canceled their musical blind date.In January 2023, De Souza — a singer and songwriter who had increasingly toyed with borders around indie-rock, soul and pop — flew to Los Angeles from her home in Asheville, N.C., where she’d made her records with old friends. Now she wanted to try meeting strangers in their studios and seeing if, together, they might create a pop anthem. She was anxious, since this “blind session” would be her first. Kozel wasn’t nervous. He’d long done 60 such sessions a year. He had, however, been up late, playing songs in a small club. He was hung over.“He was very grumpy, like the world had beaten him down,” De Souza said during a recent video interview, a day after turning 28, laughing beneath the radiant-green tree canopy of a rural spread where she sometimes stays near Asheville. “He wasn’t putting on any frills. He was showing me exactly who he was. That’s what I needed.”Within an hour, Kozel had found a synthesizer sound and vocal sample De Souza loved. As the music looped, she sat down and, in 10 minutes, wrote “Not Afraid,” an existential examination of life, aging and death, of recognizing the inevitability of them all. Kozel was stunned she could explore her own mortality so readily in front of someone new, let alone sing about it.Though De Souza went to other sessions, she returned only to Kozel to write and record in his garage. With its heroic keyboards, romantic guitars and insistent rhythms, the absorbing 11-track result, “Precipice,” makes good on her longtime ambition to release a sophisticated pop album. It is a vivid and gripping reintroduction, putting her in unexpected conversation with stars like Lorde and Charli XCX.Indigo De Souza’s new album, “Precipice,” makes good on her ambition to release a sophisticated pop record.Perhaps more important, De Souza’s work and camaraderie with Kozel allowed her to write about lifelong struggles with mental illness and abusive relationships with newfound clarity and confidence.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

    • 88 Shares170 Views

      in Television

      Taye Diggs Can’t Resist a Good Rom-Com

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      “There is the element of love, which can be so serious and so complicated, but when you add the dynamic of humor, it makes it so much more real and exciting and fun to watch.”Taye Diggs got his big break when he played the landlord Benny in the original Broadway cast of “Rent,” back in 1996, and he credits the stage for creating, as he put it, “who I am and why I am who I am.” Problem is, live performance had been taking a back seat in his life.“Once one is lucky enough to cross over to film and TV, it’s easy to get kind of stuck and become an audience member when it comes to theater, and then fear starts to set in,” Diggs said. “I found myself in the audience wondering how these actors onstage memorized all their lines. That’s when I started to get scared.”Not scared enough to turn down the opportunity to step into “Moulin Rouge! The Musical,” though — Diggs is currently in rehearsals for the show, in which he’ll play the scheming, wealthy Duke of Monroth starting Tuesday and through Sept. 28.Diggs’s presence on New York stages has been sporadic in the decades since “Rent.” One reason is that he has been living in Los Angeles; the other is why he’s in California.His screen career took off a couple of years after “Rent,” when he helped Angela Bassett track down her mojo in his film debut, “How Stella Got Her Groove Back.” This led to lead roles in the beloved rom-coms “Brown Sugar” and “The Best Man.” Diggs has also been a steady presence on television, with lengthy runs on “Private Practice” and “All American.”But now he’s putting his summer to good use by returning to Broadway, his first appearance there since a stint in “Hedwig and the Angry Inch” in 2015. It helped that he’s a fan of “Moulin Rouge,” having seen the show, he said, about 10 times. And the Duke is a juicy character.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      Patty Griffin’s Life Fell Apart. Rebuilding Gave Her Music a Jolt.

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      Patty Griffin did not intend to embarrass her mother on her debut album.In the early ’90s, Griffin recorded a series of simple demos to get gigs within Boston’s songwriter circuit. She had written “Sweet Lorraine” — a biographical snapshot of her mother’s rough-and-tumble upbringing — in a flash. But as hubbub grew about the diminutive redhead with the enormous voice, every label interested in Griffin demanded that “Sweet Lorraine” appear on her 1996 debut, “Living With Ghosts.” She’d never thought Lorraine would hear it.“She was so angry, and now that I’m older, I don’t blame her,” Griffin said recently during a video interview from her home in Austin, as her dog, Buster, nuzzled her. “That was stepping across a line.”On her 10 albums since that debut, Griffin has pinballed between post-grunge rock and graceful folk, between Spanish balladry and sizzling blues, even duetting with Mavis Staples before cutting a country-gospel wonder in Nashville. As she wrote about civil rights and bigotry, adventure and lust, she continued to examine her difficult childhood and relationship with Lorraine in many of her most tender but tough songs.Those family tunes culminate on her new album, “Crown of Roses,” out July 25, with the arresting “Way Up to the Sky.” On “Sweet Lorraine,” she blamed her mother’s problems on her past. But on “Way Up to the Sky,” Griffin shoulders some of the blame, singing about being the youngest of seven children who rarely made their mother feel valued amid a collapsing marriage in a cash-strapped household held together by Catholicism and convenience. Lorraine never heard “Way Up to the Sky.” She died in February at 93.“I wanted to know all the secret stuff in her heart, what those days were like when she was sad and lost and broke and unappreciated,” Griffin, 61, said with a rueful chuckle. “It was hard to get that close to it, because she had been so angry with us for so long — especially me.”On the 10 albums since her debut, Patty Griffin has pinballed between post-grunge rock and graceful folk, between Spanish balladry and sizzling blues, even duetting with Mavis Staples before cutting a country-gospel wonder in Nashville.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

    • 163 Shares190 Views

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      The Gospel Star Tasha Cobbs Leonard Takes a New Leap: A Studio Album

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      Inspired in part by a book she published last year, the singer and songwriter reveals more of herself on “Tasha,” an album blending gospel and pop.“Tasha,” the new album from the gospel music star Tasha Cobbs Leonard, tucks messages of salvation, hope and encouragement into songs shaped by hip-hop, R&B and even bluegrass. Guest appearances include a gospel music icon and an EGOT winner.But fans of the singer and songwriter, 44, will be most surprised by what the LP, releasing July 25, doesn’t feature: the sound of an audience. Since her major-label debut 13 years ago, Cobbs Leonard has only released live albums. As a worship leader, she is most comfortable singing in front of a gathering, whether in a church or in Nashville’s Ryman Auditorium.“I’ve been doing this for almost 13 years,” she said during a recent video interview. “What keeps me relevant is stretching myself and doing the uncomfortable thing — not something completely new, but building on the foundation.”Walter Thomas, the senior vice president of Motown Gospel and TAMLA Records, said the goal was giving audiences a more three-dimensional picture of Cobbs Leonard. “We wanted to showcase who Tasha is outside of church,” he said. “There’s a pop side, there’s a fun side, there’s a family-oriented side. This body of work reflects that.”Cobbs Leonard has been slowly revealing herself for years. She’s a busy touring musician, a mother of a blended family of four and a pastor of the Purpose Place Church in Spartanburg, S.C., with her husband, the music producer Kenneth Leonard Jr. Chatting from her living room, wearing a baby-blue short-sleeve top that was nearly the same color as the walls behind her, a flourish of flaxen curls cascading across her forehead, Cobbs Leonard spoke candidly, smiling and laughing with the same infectious and welcoming enthusiasm she brings to her singing.“I’ve been doing this for almost 13 years,” Cobbs Leonard said. “What keeps me relevant is stretching myself and doing the uncomfortable thing.”Will Crooks for The New York TimesWe are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

    • 163 Shares197 Views

      in Television

      Kristen Doute’s Path From Villain to the Voice of Reason on ‘The Valley’

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      In 2013, Kristen Doute was working as a server at the West Hollywood lounge SUR and struggling to make it as an actor when one of the restaurant’s owners — Lisa Vanderpump of “The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills” fame — approached her with the opportunity to be cast in a new Bravo reality show.Called “Vanderpump Rules,” the show would follow the personal and professional lives of the young staff members at SUR. The two decided to give it a shot, unaware that one day, Ms. Doute’s boyfriend at the time, Tom Sandoval, would become the most hated man in the United States, and Ms. Doute would be publicly fired for racist behavior.“The worst-case scenario is that it doesn’t do well and no one ever hears about it again,” Ms. Doute, now 42, said of her decision to join the show during a recent interview. “Our IMDB pages are not through the roof right now. I think we’ll be OK.”After agreeing to join the cast, the two immediately went home and binge-watched MTV’s “The Hills,” one of the most popular reality TV shows of the time. “We wanted to learn how to, quote, unquote, do reality TV,” Ms. Doute said.Turns out, she did not need the help. With “Vanderpump,” Ms. Doute quickly became one of the network’s biggest reality stars — for better or worse. Since debuting on Bravo screens more than a decade ago, she has been an insatiable vortex for drama, earning the nickname “Crazy Kristen” for her drunken antics (i.e. throwing a drink on James Kennedy, a castmate), battling with gravity (i.e. tripping over a coffee table on a girls’ trip to Solvang, Calif.), and embarking on tireless quests for the truth — or at least her truth. (Her other cast-given nickname is “Detective Doute.”)In her time on “Vanderpump Rules,” Ms. Doute was known for creating drama wherever she went.Bravo/NBCUniversal, via Getty ImagesWe are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      in Movies

      How ‘Superman’ Star David Corenswet Won the Role

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      Even before he became the linchpin of a new superhero universe, David Corenswet took great pride in being reliable.“I don’t know whether I’m a good actor in the sense that I see people onscreen and think, that’s a good actor,” he said. But what he does know, and what he aspires to, is that people can count on him. It’s a reputation Corenswet has cultivated since he was a child actor, when he once delivered his lines so efficiently during a commercial shoot that the crew got to go home early.“I want people to feel that every day that my name is on the call sheet is going to be a better day — a little bit of an easier day, and maybe a more fulfilling day,” he said.Now, Corenswet’s reliability will be put to its ultimate test. The 32-year-old is playing the iconic title character in James Gunn’s “Superman” reboot, which arrives in theaters this weekend burdened by big expectations. It’s the first feature from the newly rebranded DC Studios, which previously managed some successes (“Wonder Woman,” “Man of Steel”) and a passel of bruising bombs (“Justice League,” “The Flash,” “Shazam: Fury of the Gods”) in its efforts to keep pace with Marvel’s highly lucrative cinematic universe.David Corenswet wasn’t immediately sold on the role of Superman: “When the easy conversation is so exciting, I want to have the hard conversation: Let’s talk about what could go wrong.”These days, though, even Marvel is facing headwinds: In a market saturated with comic-book content, audiences don’t always show up for cape-and-tights spectaculars the way they used to. Warner Bros. is betting that Gunn, who was hired to co-lead DC Studios after directing Marvel’s “Guardians of the Galaxy” trilogy, can restore the luster to its superhero shingle. But the future of the DC slate, including next year’s “Supergirl: Woman of Tomorrow,” hinges largely on just how high “Superman” can soar.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      in Television

      The Best Mafia Show, According to Morgan Spector of ‘The Gilded Age’

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      The actor, who plays a railroad magnate on HBO’s period drama, is into Russian war novels, “lefty” podcasts and his home gym.Morgan Spector’s character on “The Gilded Age” always seems to have it together, even if, behind the scenes, his business empire is teetering on the brink of collapse.In real life, well — he’s trying.Speaking from his home in Hillsdale, N.Y., where he lives with his wife, the actress Rebecca Hall, he was sleep-deprived because his 7-year-old daughter had been up in the middle of the night. His 1-year-old Rhodesian Ridgeback, Stella, had vomited all over the house. His phone was acting up.“It’s been one of those days,” he said.Spector, 44, has become a fan favorite for his scene-stealing turn as the railroad magnate George Russell on HBO’s period drama about what happens when old money meets new money. His character has a crisis of confidence this season, as he allows himself to be swept along by a marriage plot hatched by his wife, Bertha (Carrie Coon), involving their daughter, Gladys (Taissa Farmiga), and the Duke of Buckingham (Ben Lamb) — a man George knows she doesn’t love.“It causes him to have a kind of existential reckoning,” Spector said. “Because despite all the sort of horrible robber baron-y things he does, he thinks of himself as someone with a moral code, particularly with regard to his family.”He shared his 10 cultural essentials, including the book that “made his entire personality” and the magazine he reads cover to cover. These are edited excerpts from the conversation.MomMy wife and I are both relatively busy working actors, which means our lives are logistically chaotic. That would make it extremely challenging to provide a grounded, consistent experience of childhood for my daughter, were it not for my mom. She jumped on board our crazy train early on and, as a result, it all functions pretty seamlessly.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      in Television

      What’s Next for ‘Love Island’ Contestant Jeremiah Brown? A Book Club.

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      Jeremiah Brown asked his 2 million TikTok followers what to do after being voted off the hit series. The answer has him, and his fans, reading “The Song of Achilles.”After he was voted off the dating show “Love Island USA” last month, Jeremiah Brown wasn’t sure what to do with his newfound fame.During his 16 days as a contestant, he’d gained more than two million followers on TikTok, up from just 44 before he went on the show. Shortly after his exit, a suggestion from a follower on social media immediately grabbed him.“Somebody said, you should start a book club, and I was like, oh my gosh, lightbulb,” Brown said in an interview. “The second I read this idea, I was like yeah, we got to do this.”When Brown posted about his book club in early July, the announcement generated wild enthusiasm. Soon, the club had around 120,000 members.“Y’all some nerds,” Brown told his followers.After polling club members on what genre they wanted to read (romance, naturally), Brown gave them a list of books to vote on, which included BookTok favorites like “It Ends With Us,” “Beach Read,” “Twisted Love” and “The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo.” The winner, by several thousand votes, was “The Song of Achilles,” by Madeline Miller.The novel, which is more of an epic tragedy than a romance, has already attracted a wide audience, selling more than 4 million copies since its release in 2012. Set during the Trojan War, it imagines a doomed love affair between the warrior Achilles and his devoted companion Patroclus.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More