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      Hayley Williams Is Fueled by Teas, Thrifting and Terrifying Films

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      As Paramore releases its sixth album, “This Is Why,” the singer and songwriter chats about playing in a maturing band — and the music, mushrooms and tinctures that have aided that journey.Hayley Williams is only 34, but she is already two decades into her career as the dynamic frontwoman for the pop-punk band Paramore. “I was just saying to the guys, we’re too young to be old, but too old to be young,” she said with a laugh last month, referring to her bandmates, the guitarist Taylor York and the drummer Zac Farro. “There’s people that think of us the way I think of artists that have been doing this way longer than us. Part of me feels 85, and the other part feels like I have no answers to life.”Aside from the fiery hues of her signature hair, Williams is a very different person from the teenager who formed Paramore in 2004. She has survived a painful divorce, the acrimonious exits of several band members (including Farro, who quit in 2010 but returned in 2017), and delved into deeply personal material on two solo albums released in 2020 and 2021.Likewise, Paramore’s sixth album, “This Is Why” (out Friday), bears little resemblance to the howling emo of its youth, reveling in the spiky new wave and funkier syncopations of its 2017 LP “After Laughter,” all topped by Williams’s lush, versatile voice. The group’s latest single, the hyper “C’est Comme Ça,” nods to its maturity: “I hate to admit getting better is boring/But the high cost of chaos?/Who can afford it?”“We’re much better friends to each other,” Williams said. “I remember calling my manager two Christmases ago and being like, ‘I didn’t get you a gift other than to say that we finally figured out how to talk through our problems.’”As she prepared for “This Is Why,” Paramore’s first album in six years, Williams credited her first solo album, “Petals for Armor,” with building confidence in her own musical prowess. It also empowered her to look outward as she grappled with the trauma of the pandemic and processed racial injustice near her Nashville home during lockdown. “Mostly, the lyrics are a disdain for resistance to progress,” she said. “We went through all this, and people are still absolute [expletive] to each other.”From Farro’s rental studio in Nashville, where Williams’s goldendoodle, Alf, hunted for crumbs, the singer and songwriter shared what has inspired and comforted her as her band revved up once again. These are edited excerpts from the conversation.1. Mushrooms I feel like something happened when [the film] “Fantastic Fungi” came out. It opened up a lot of people’s minds to all the ways mushrooms can be used. [The chef and writer] Sophia Roe has this amazing Instagram account and a new show called “Counter Space,” and she uses mushrooms a lot for plant-based cooking. Mentally, too, the effects that they can have on someone — I’m not speaking from experience here, but I’m very excited to do a guided session and see how it affects my journey with depression and PTSD. And “The Last of Us” is blowing my mind; I love that mushrooms have become such a thing that now the zombies on a TV show have mushroom faces. Taylor and I were watching it the other night, and I was like, I’m the first person to turn. I take this coffee alternative called Everyday Dose, and it has all these cordyceps. I’m definitely a goner.2. Starface Zit Stickers When I would break out in my early 20s, I was petrified for any show or photo shoot. We opened up for No Doubt, and I remember trying to ask Gwen Stefani, like, “Did you ever have acne?” She was like, “Oh, I think I struggled when we toured in the van.” I wasn’t a big makeup-wearer so I didn’t know what to do. I love that there’s this new generation of skin care that’s like: Celebrate it. Decorate your face. Connect the dots.3. Jonah Hill’s “Stutz” We watched this documentary in the front lounge of our bus on this last run, which was our first tour in a very long time. I was having anxiety around not being home. It was so meaningful. I love that Jonah Hill is a very well-respected actor, a great filmmaker and he’s like: I’m going to take care of myself before I worry about being a product. That’s why we took four years off. We’ve never gotten to experience the world through any other filter than Paramore, and that’s privilege. People might say, “Yeah, well, you already had success.” But it’s very hard to walk away from opportunities. I’ve done some pretty intense therapy.4. A24 Horror Films I grew up with my grandfather taking me to Blockbuster. We would rent “Pet Sematary” or whatever, and we would run around the woods behind his apartment and search for ghosts. What I love most is when the genre takes on social issues, like “The Babadook” or Jordan Peele movies. And Ari Aster’s films for A24 are some of my favorites: “Hereditary,” obviously, and “Midsommar.” A24 feels so artistic. I was even into “Lamb.”5. Rozi Plain’s “Prize” Basically, this is the first record that I’ve had on repeat since SZA’s album came out last year. Taylor introduced me to her music. It’s got such warmth to it. I listened to all of Jessica Pratt’s records throughout the pandemic, which was so comforting, and Rozi Plain feels like that.6. Pique Tea I love herbal tea. My favorite is rooibos. I attended a Moroccan tea ceremony right before the pandemic hit, and I wanted to learn more about what tea means in different cultures. So I ordered a few things from Tea Huntress here in Nashville. But Pique Tea is great. There’s all this science and ritualization that goes into it that I found really helpful.7. DYEposit I’m a little horrified because it’s a product that my hair dye company, Good Dye Young, released last year, but I genuinely use this once a week. [The actress] Jane Asher was the poster on the walls of my mind as we were planning looks for this tour — a little bit strawberry blonde. I use copper DYEposit, and it keeps me from having to re-dye my hair all the time.8. Alexis Smart Flower Remedies It’s kind of like Bach Rescue Remedy. You can go on her website and pick these tinctures based on where you’re at, not where you want to be. I purchased a few for social anxiety, as we’re getting ready to be around people again, and for any time I feel impostor syndrome. I wish I’d known about this for “Petals for Armor” because I would have been like, “Yo, can we make a blend?”9. Pre-Owned Clothes Growing up, the guys and I shopped at thrift stores almost exclusively. In high school, everyone wanted to look like, I don’t know, Phantom Planet. I didn’t have money, and it was cool. Now it’s for the planet. I hate buying something without any thought and then getting rid of it two months later. I collect vintage T-shirts. I made a decision that when I buy for my personal closet, I will go to Depop or B.Real. It’s a way into sustainability for people that really love fashion.10. “Play Time” Solange just composed this beautiful music for a ballet called “Play Time” that was choreographed by Gianna Reisen. I’m going to take my mom to New York in May before we get busy on the U.S. tour. My mom was a ballerina and was injured early on. Later, she worked for the National Dance Institute under Jacques d’Amboise. My 10,000 hours has obviously gone in a different direction, but ballet resonates so much with me. More

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      Beyoncé Has The Most Grammys Ever After Winning 32nd Award

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      Move over, Sir Georg Solti — Beyoncé reigns at the Grammy Awards.After 88 career nominations, the R&B singer and pop superstar won her 32nd Grammy on Sunday, for best dance/electronic music album, giving her the record for most Grammy victories. Solti, a Hungarian-born conductor who was the previous leader, won his last award in 1998, the year after his death.Beyoncé’s fourth win of the night — after taking home best R&B song for “Cuff It” and two awards at the preshow ceremony — came in a category that showed the breadth of her two-decade career: “Renaissance,” her tribute to Black and queer dance music, beat work by Bonobo, Diplo, Odesza and Rüfüs du Sol. Beyoncé became the first Black woman to win in the dance album category, which has been awarded since 2005.Earlier, her No. 1 single “Break My Soul” had won in best dance/electronic recording, while “Plastic Off the Sofa,” from the same genre-spanning album, won best traditional R&B performance.After the winner for dance/electronic album was announced by James Corden — “This is an honor, because we are witnessing history tonight!” — Beyoncé, who had not yet arrived at the ceremony when she won her first televised award of the night, took the stage to a standing ovation.“I’m trying not to be too emotional,” she said, “and I’m trying to just receive this night.” (Already, a post had been uploaded to Beyoncé’s official Instagram celebrating her wins so far: “We won 3 y’all,” the caption read, alongside a photo of the singer with a trio of trophies. “‘Plastic Off the Sofa’ is my favorite song on ‘Renaissance’ most days. It’s hard to pick though. Haaa.”)Beyoncé went on to thank her “Uncle Jonny,” whose battle with H.I.V. she has cited as an influence on her turn to dance music, with its historical ties to the L.G.B.T.Q. community.“I’d like to thank the queer community for your love and for inventing the genre,” the singer said.Nominated nine times overall on Sunday, mostly for “Renaissance” and its songs, Beyoncé will have a chance to add to her total with the top categories still to come: song, record and album of the year, a prize she has never won despite three previous chances. Of the singer’s 32 trophies, just her song of the year victory in 2010, for “Single Ladies (Put a Ring On It),” came in one of the Grammys’ major, all-genre fields.Beyoncé’s status as both a perennial, now-unmatched Grammy favorite and also a high-profile loser under the ceremony’s brightest lights — including album losses to both Adele and Taylor Swift, each of whom has won the category multiple times — has underlined the show’s complex relationship with contemporary Black music.While the Recording Academy, the organization behind the Grammys, has in recent years emphasized its commitment to showcasing hip-hop and R&B on the telecast, and to broadening its voter base, critics have contended that Black music has too often been overlooked in the top categories.Beyoncé had entered the night already the most awarded woman in Grammy history, and tied with the producer Quincy Jones, who has 28 wins, for second most overall trophies. Alison Krauss, the bluegrass singer and violinist who was nominated twice on Sunday but lost both awards, has 27, as does Chick Corea.Here’s Beyoncé’s entire speech:“I’m trying not to be too emotional, and I’m trying to just receive this night. I want to thank God for protecting me. Thank you, God. I’d like to thank my Uncle Jonny, who’s not here, but he’s here in spirit. I’d like to thank my parents — my father, my mother — for loving me and pushing me. I’d like to thank my beautiful husband, my beautiful three children, who are at home watching. I’d like to thank the queer community for your love and for inventing the genre. God bless you. Thank you so much to the Grammys. Thank you.” More

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      Kim Petras, A Transgender Woman, Wins Grammy for Best Pop Duo Performance

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      Accepting an award with Sam Smith for “Unholy,” the German pop singer Kim Petras announced that she was the first transgender woman to win a Grammy in the best pop duo and group performance category.“Unholy,” featured on Smith’s album “Gloria,” became the British musician’s first No. 1 hit in the United States and captured listeners with “a campy, devilish romp,” as the New York Times critic Lindsay Zoladz put it. Smith stood back and let Petras do the talking, as she thanked Madonna for her fight for L.G.B.T.Q. rights, “the incredible transgender legends before me” and her mother.“My mother — I grew up next to a highway in nowhere, Germany, and my mother believed me that I was a girl, and I wouldn’t be here without her and her support,” Petras said.Petras also thanked Sophie, a transgender Scottish producer who died in 2021 at age 34. Sophie received a Grammy nomination in 2018 for “Oil of Every Pearl’s Un-Insides” in the best dance electronic/album category.“Sophie, especially, my friend who passed away two years ago, who told me this would happen and always believed in me,” Petras said. “Thank you so much for your inspiration, Sophie. I adore you and your inspiration will forever be in my music.”Other nominees included “Don’t Shut Me Down,” by Abba; “Bam Bam,” by Camila Cabello featuring Ed Sheeran; “My Universe,” by Coldplay and BTS; and “I Like You (A Happier Song)” by Post Malone and Doja Cat. More

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      Grammys 2023: How to Watch and What to Expect

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      A guide to everything you need to know for the 65th annual awards on Sunday night.After two years of pandemic-related disruptions, the 65th annual Grammy Awards are returning on Sunday to their longtime home at the Crypto.com Arena (formerly the Staples Center) in Los Angeles.The night’s big story is Beyoncé. With 28 Grammy wins to her name, the star could become the most decorated Grammy artist ever. She needs three wins to tie, and four to beat the conductor Georg Solti, who holds the record for most overall wins.Her field-leading nine nominations this year include the three top categories — album, song and record of the year — where she has previously struggled to win. The Recording Academy, the institution behind the awards, has faced longstanding criticism that the show often fails to recognize Black talent with its biggest awards. Over the past few years, it has been trying to address that by eliminating nearly all of the nominating committees that determined the ballot and pushing to attract a younger and more diverse pool of voters.A bad night for Beyoncé, who enters the ceremony with an adored album in “Renaissance,” a famously vocal fan base known as the BeyHive and only one career win in an all-genre category, could mean more hard conversations for the Grammys.The awards on Sunday will recognize recordings released between Oct. 1, 2021 and Sept. 30, 2022. There were 16,741 eligible entries considered, and superstars including Adele, Kendrick Lamar, Harry Styles and Taylor Swift will contend for top honors.The Grammy Awards 2023The 65th annual ceremony will be held on Feb. 5 at Crypto.com Arena in Los Angeles, after two years of delays and complications caused by the Covid-19 pandemic.Beyoncé: With a dominant new album and the chance to become the most awarded artist in Grammy history, all eyes are on the pop superstar ahead of the ceremony. What could go wrong?Bonnie Raitt: Long renowned as an interpreter of songs, the musician has quietly built a catalog of her own. Up for song of the year, she talked about her lifetime onstage in an interview with The Times.The-Dream and Muni Long: Ahead of the first-ever Grammy Award for songwriter of the year, the two musicians, who are both up for awards, trace their unique journeys to recognition.Here’s how to watch — and what to expect at — Sunday’s ceremony.What time does it all start?The ceremony will air live on Sunday, at 8 p.m. Eastern time (5 p.m. Pacific time) on CBS and stream live on Paramount+.Before the prime-time event, the premiere ceremony, where about 80 of the 91 prizes will be awarded, takes place at the Microsoft Theater in Los Angeles. It begins at 3:30 p.m. Eastern time (12:30 p.m. Pacific time), and is available to watch in real time on live.Grammy.com and the Recording Academy’s YouTube page.The comedian Randy Rainbow will help host that event, and performers include Arooj Aftab, Blind Boys of Alabama, Madison Cunningham, Samara Joy, La Marisoul from La Santa Cecilia, Anoushka Shankar and Carlos Vives.How do I watch the red carpet?The parade of fashion and awkward interviews commences at 4 p.m. Eastern time on E!, and “Live From E!: Grammys” starts at 6 p.m. Celebrity arrivals will be streamed at grammy.com beginning at 6:30 p.m.Who is hosting?Trevor Noah, formerly of “The Daily Show” on Comedy Central, will do the honors for a third year.Who are the top contenders?Beyoncé, who this week announced a world tour supporting her latest album, “Renaissance,” has the most nominations, with nine, followed by Kendrick Lamar with eight and Adele and Brandi Carlie with seven each. Harry Styles, Mary J. Blige, Future, DJ Khaled and the producer and songwriter The-Dream all landed six apiece.What’s the breakdown of Beyoncé’s nominations?Beyoncé will go head-to-head with Adele once again in multiple categories, most notably album of the year, an award Beyoncé has yet to win. Adele cleaned up in all of the major contests in 2017, when “25” squared off against “Lemonade,” which led to Adele at first tearfully saying that she could not accept her album prize. Beyoncé’s losses in the show’s premier categories have also fueled wider complaints about how the Grammys have often failed to recognize Black artists in its all-genre categories. Only three Black women have ever taken home album of the year — the most recent was Lauryn Hill in 1999.In addition to album of the year (“Renaissance”), Beyoncé has nominations for record and song of the year (“Break My Soul”), best dance/electronic recording (“Break My Soul”), best dance/electronic album (“Renaissance”), best R&B performance (“Virgo’s Groove”), best traditional R&B performance (“Plastic Off the Sofa”), best R&B song (“Cuff It”) and best song written for visual media (“Be Alive” from the movie “King Richard”).Who will hit the stage?Bad Bunny (the most nominated artist at the Latin Grammys in November), Lizzo and Harry Styles will perform during the prime-time ceremony. The live lineup also includes Mary J. Blige, Brandi Carlile, Luke Combs, Sam Smith and Kim Petras, DJ Khaled, and Steve Lacy. Stevie Wonder will also perform with Smokey Robinson and Chris Stapleton.In celebration of 50 years of hip-hop, a special performance bringing together genre legends and contemporary stars will feature Busta Rhymes with Spliff Star, Missy Elliott, Future, GloRilla, Ice-T, Lil Baby, Lil Wayne, Queen Latifah, Run-DMC, Salt-N-Pepa and others. LL Cool J will introduce the segment, perform and share a few words.And as the show honors the artists we lost last year, Kacey Musgraves will perform for Loretta Lynn; Sheryl Crow, Mick Fleetwood and Bonnie Raitt will pay tribute to Fleetwood Mac’s Christine McVie; and the Migos rapper Quavo will be joined by Maverick City Music to celebrate Takeoff, who died at 28 in a shooting in November.Who will be handing out the awards?Jill Biden will take the stage on Sunday as a presenter, but she’s not the first-ever first lady to grace the Grammys. (Michelle Obama made a surprise appearance in a 2019 opening segment and won a Grammy the following year for best spoken word album.) Other presenters include Cardi B, James Corden, Billy Crystal, Viola Davis, Dwayne Johnson, Olivia Rodrigo and Shania Twain.What else is new this year?The Recording Academy introduced a new award for songwriter of the year, which will go to a single songwriter or a team of writers for a given body of work. Four other categories are arriving, too, for alternative music performance, Americana music performance, spoken word poetry album and score soundtrack for video games and other interactive media. In addition, a prize for best song for social change will be handed out the day before the ceremony.Who might make history?Beyoncé, of course, who could become the Grammys’ most awarded artist. The superstar, already recognized as the “winningest woman in Grammy history,” and her husband, Jay-Z, both have 88 total nominations each — a tie for most Grammy nods collected by any artist.Bad Bunny also has a chance to join the Grammy record book: An album of the year win for “Un Verano Sin Ti” would make it the first exclusively Spanish-language release to earn the honor. His nomination was historic, too, as “Un Verano Sin Ti” is the first album released entirely in Spanish to earn an album of the year nod. More

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      It’s Beyoncé’s Time to Shine at the Grammys … Right?

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      With a dominant new album, “Renaissance,” and the chance to become the most awarded artist in Grammy history, all eyes are on the pop superstar ahead of Sunday’s show. What could go wrong?Beyoncé enters the 65th annual Grammy Awards on Sunday in rarefied air — a pop deity festooned with trophies, supported by one of the music world’s most ardent fan bases and on the precipice of Grammy immortality. So why does she also feel like an underdog?Already the winningest woman in Grammy history, with 28 victories, Beyoncé has a field-leading nine nominations this year. She is tied with her husband, Jay-Z, for the most nods collected by any artist, with 88.In what could make for dramatic television, Beyoncé needs just three more Grammys to match — and four to beat — the record for most overall wins, a position currently held by the conductor Georg Solti, who died in 1997. And for the third time in her career, Beyoncé, 41, is nominated in all three top categories — record, song and album of the year — raising the possibility that her crowning moment could come at the climax of a show that in recent years has struggled to find an audience and generate positive headlines.And yet.While many Grammy watchers believe Beyoncé will enter from a position of strength, with “Renaissance,” her dance-infused album, garnering both commercial and critical success, the singer’s coronation is far from assured, thanks to her own complicated history with the awards. Despite Beyoncé’s oodles of wins, she is just 1 for 13 in the major, all-genre categories for releases on which she was a lead artist.As the ceremony approaches — with stars like Adele, Harry Styles, Lizzo, Kendrick Lamar and Bad Bunny also in contention for the premier prizes — the key question for fans and industry insiders isn’t how big she will win, but rather: What if she loses, again?Harry Styles, who is slated to perform at the Grammys, has six nominations, including album, record and song of the year.The New York TimesThis year more than most, public perception of the Grammys’ relevance may come down to the fate of a single artist. A prominent win for Beyoncé could be seen as an overdue make-good, which is something of a Grammy specialty. But a notable loss could call into question the redemption narrative that the Recording Academy, the institution behind the awards, has been carefully tending for years, as it has tried to address longstanding criticism that the show too often fails to recognize Black talent with top awards.The Grammy Awards 2023The 65th annual ceremony will be held on Feb. 5 at Crypto.com Arena in Los Angeles, after two years of delays and complications caused by the Covid-19 pandemic.Beyoncé: With a dominant new album and the chance to become the most awarded artist in Grammy history, all eyes are on the pop superstar ahead of the ceremony. What could go wrong?Bonnie Raitt: Long renowned as an interpreter of songs, the musician has quietly built a catalog of her own. Up for song of the year, she talked about her lifetime onstage in an interview with The Times.The-Dream and Muni Long: Ahead of the first-ever Grammy Award for songwriter of the year, the two musicians, who are both up for awards, trace their unique journeys to recognition.That complaint, along with suspicions about the voting process, has led some high-profile Black artists to abandon the Grammys in recent years, like Drake, Frank Ocean and the Weeknd. But there are also some signs that the awards may be changing. Last year, Jon Batiste, the Black jazz bandleader, took home album of the year, and in 2021 a Black Lives Matter protest anthem by H.E.R. won song of the year. A push to attract a younger and more diverse voting pool has resulted in 19 percent more women and 38 percent more members of “traditionally underrepresented communities” since 2019, the academy says.Those numbers would seem favorable for Beyoncé. But her track record in album of the year, traditionally the most coveted prize, is especially wrenching. In 2010, her “I Am … Sasha Fierce” lost to Taylor Swift’s “Fearless.” In 2015, Beck’s mellow “Morning Phase” was the upset winner, beating out Beyoncé’s internet-breaking, self-titled surprise LP. Two years later, when Beyoncé’s paradigm-shifting visual album “Lemonade” lost to Adele’s “25,” Adele seemed almost embarrassed to accept the award, calling Beyoncé the “artist of my life.”Should Adele win a third album of the year trophy on Sunday, with “30” — or if Styles, Abba, Coldplay or Brandi Carlile comes out on top — it would be the fourth time that Beyoncé has lost that prize to a white artist, noted Paul Grein, the awards editor at Billboard. “The Grammys would get beat up,” he said. But, he added, “I don’t think it’s going to happen.”After two years of disruption by Covid-19, the Grammys are finally back in Los Angeles, on their home court, the Crypto.com Arena (formerly known as the Staples Center).Bad Bunny, Lamar, Lizzo and Mary J. Blige round out the competition for album of the year, and besides Beyoncé, the night holds some potential buzzy moments. Bad Bunny’s “Un Verano Sin Ti,” a streaming juggernaut, is the first release entirely in Spanish up for album of the year. After five failed nominations in song of the year, Swift could finally win for “All Too Well (10 Minute Version),” an extended remake of a track she first released in 2012.The performers on Sunday will include Styles, Bad Bunny, Lizzo, Sam Smith and Kim Petras, Steve Lacy, Blige, Luke Combs and Carlile. Fan cults and industry gossips have been speculating for weeks over whether Beyoncé, Swift, Lamar or Adele will also perform.Lizzo is also nominated in the top three categories, for her album “Special” and single “About Damn Time.”Scott Legato/Getty Images For SiriusXMBut the story line that has drawn by far the most attention is Beyoncé’s. And as much as fans desire a triumph, pessimists have history on their side. Only three Black women have ever won album of the year — Natalie Cole, Whitney Houston and Lauryn Hill, all in the 1990s — and of Beyoncé’s 28 wins, only one has been in a top category, song of the year. That was more than a decade ago, when she was recognized as a songwriter for “Single Ladies (Put a Ring on It).”“The fact that she has not won a major award since 2010 is insane,” said Brandon Katamara, a student in Cardiff, Wales, who has run @rumiyonce, a Beyoncé fan account with more than 400,000 followers on Instagram, since he was 13.Katamara, now 20, said that even if Beyoncé’s No. 1 hit “Break My Soul” came away with wins in song or record of the year, it wouldn’t lessen the sting. “We don’t care if she just takes one award,” he said. “We just want her to win album of the year.”And should she lose? Katamara predicted a “9.5 out of 10” on the social-media backlash scale. (The nightmare scenario for the BeyHive: a shutout that results in their heroine being passed by the Americana artist Alison Krauss, who has two nominations in genre categories this year and trails Beyoncé by only one win as the most-awarded woman.)Harvey Mason Jr., a producer who is the chief executive of the Recording Academy, said it would be unfair to look to a Beyoncé victory or loss in any single contest as a test of changes to the voting membership, which numbers about 11,000.“If voters are more diverse,” he said, “my hope is that the results would be more diverse across the entire field, not in just one category.”According to figures provided by the Recording Academy, the largest voting blocs by genre are pop at 23 percent and jazz at 16 percent. Rock and alternative are counted separately but, if combined, would make up 25 percent of voters; R&B sits at 15 percent.In 2018, the academy also expanded the number of nominees in the top categories to eight from five, and increased that number again to 10 nominees in a last-minute change in 2021, potentially adding more unpredictability to the results.Yet for many Grammy observers, Beyoncé is indeed a barometer of the awards’ complex treatment of Black musicians overall.“It’s always rocky,” said Cipha Sounds, a veteran radio personality now with 94.7 The Block, a throwback hip-hop and R&B station in New York. “It feels like they don’t give the same amount of love that they do to other genres, but when they do it feels kind of forced,” as if the academy has to “check the diversity boxes,” he added.Still, he said, Black artists and fans crave the affirmation that comes with winning a Grammy. “We just want regular credit,” he said.For the academy, a nonprofit group that draws the bulk of its revenue from fees related to the television broadcast, attracting eyeballs to the annual show is vital. Those numbers have been sliding for years. In 2021, 8.8 million viewers watched the show, an all-time low; last year, it was 8.9 million.At the same time, the Super Bowl halftime show has emerged as perhaps the most gargantuan media event in music — last year an average of 103.4 million people watched a nostalgic hip-hop segment with Dr. Dre, Snoop Dogg, 50 Cent and others — and this year’s show, on Feb. 12, featuring Rihanna, has been bubbling for weeks as a huge pop-culture moment. Recently, an email bounced around the offices of Billboard magazine. “Music’s Biggest Night is coming up,” it read. “And a week earlier, there’s the Grammys!”In recent years, the Grammys have been buffeted by a series of controversies over nominations, performances and even the power struggles within the academy. As unpleasant as those may have been for the organization, they did drive a certain amount of interest. This year, there has been much less buzz, good or bad. Is the Beyoncé question enough to make it a successful show?“I’m OK with there not being controversy before the show,” Mason, the academy chief, said diplomatically. “I like to think it’s going to be about the music.” More

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      Raye Made ‘My 21st Century Blues’ After a Long Journey

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      The British musician spent years writing for other artists, eventually sharing her frustrations online. After speaking her truths about the industry, she shares personal revelations on her debut.When the British artist Raye performed “Ice Cream Man.” during a January concert at the cavernous Utilita Arena in Birmingham, England, many of the young women in the audience began to cry.“Everything you did, it left me in a ruin/And no I didn’t say a word/I guess that proves it/I’m a woman,” she sang, her voice assertive, but with a quiver of vulnerability. The intimate, spare track recounts her experience of sexual assault, and was one of several unflinchingly personal songs in her set as the opening act on Lewis Capaldi’s tour.As she belted out “Escapism.,” a collaboration with 070 Shake that earned Raye her first U.K. No. 1 last month, the crowd screamed the lyrics back to her. Even that track, which exploded on TikTok and recounts a nihilistic night out with glib humor, is “actually quite a sad song,” Raye said, sitting in the bedroom she’d created on her tour bus after the show, a burning Le Labo candle nearby. But she chose to put the melody over “this fat beat with this fat bass,” adding sirens, synths and strings, which “makes me feel powerful in my pain,” she said.Transforming her pain into power is a recurring theme on Raye’s debut album, “My 21st Century Blues,” which arrives on Friday, nine years after the 25-year-old musician signed her first record deal.“When you think, ‘I want to be an artist,’ there are a few things you think of, the first thing being: album,” she said. But waiting became as much a part of her journey as creating.Raye joined the roster of Polydor Records in 2014, and in the subsequent years wrote on tracks for artists including Beyoncé, John Legend and Charli XCX. While she worked on her own music, she said that the label encouraged her to make chart-friendly dance tracks with D.J.s like Joel Corry and David Guetta, which she now believes pigeonholed her as “the girl who sings on dance songs” that she didn’t even like. She wanted to create a body of work, but, “From a business perspective, they decided for me that I was this, and this was all I would ever be,” she said.Sitting in her tour bus in stage makeup and sweatpants, Raye recalled the moment in June 2021 when, as she was about to record a performance for N.Y.C. Pride, a member of her team told she wasn’t going to be able to release an album with Polydor after all. “I freakin’ lost it,” she said. After bursting into tears, she wiped her eyes, recorded the broadcast and later posted a string of tweets about her frustration with the industry that drew loud support from other artists. Three weeks later, she announced that she had parted ways with the label.“It’s important to be honest about those things I kept in the darkness for so many years,” Raye said.Alexander Turner for The New York TimesA Polydor spokesman declined to comment on Raye’s description of her time with the company, and said, “We’ve loved seeing Raye having all of this well-deserved success and wish her the very best.”Raye was determined to carry on. Last year, she signed a deal with the distribution service Human Re Sources. Its founder and chief executive, J. Erving, who is also an executive vice president at Sony, said in a video interview that Raye could have gotten more money upfront — “the bag, so to speak” — if she had signed with a traditional label. But instead she “bet on herself,” choosing to release her album as an independent artist who owns her masters.For Raye, creative control was the key to continuing in an industry that had nearly broken her down. “I’m not interested in being a ‘singles’ girl, it’s the last thing I ever wanted to be,” she said. For her, the album format is not about “selling records” but telling stories.Raye (born Rachel Keen) has known what kind of artist she wanted to be from a young age. At 10, she was determined to attend the BRIT School, the performing arts institution known for famous alumni, including Amy Winehouse and Adele. Four years later, she won a place at the school, which is near the home in south London she shared with her parents and three younger sisters.Raye said she was so devoted to her budding career, she gave up her social life to write music after school and on weekends with professionals she met through her guitar teacher: “I’d get the train up to whatever address in my calendar and I would go into a room full of middle-aged men and be like ‘Hey, I’m going to write a song.’”Growing up, her Ghanaian-Swiss mother and English father “worked stupidly, exceptionally hard,” she said, as a nurse and in insurance. Church, where her father played piano and her mother sang in the choir, was a big part of family life.But Raye’s private time with the records she loved inspired her to dream big. Every day after school, she would lie on the living room floor and play “The Diary of Alicia Keys‌,” the singer’s 2003 album, “like a religion,” ‌she said. With its hip-hop overture, spoken-word interludes and vivid storytelling, Raye said “Diary” made her excited to one day write her own liner notes, order her own track listing‌ and tell people who she was through her music‌.Raye’s vision for her debut album began with its title. “I wanted to tell my blues,” she said, which she defined as both a “12-bar phrase” but also “the stories on top.” Heartbreak, so often a focus in pop music, was just one small part of the human experience, she added, and the album also explores disordered eating and addiction.“As a woman, it’s so taboo, and so unattractive, and so like, ‘God, she’s such a mess’ to even discuss having a problem,” Raye said. She described “Body Dysmorphia.” as the album’s most revealing track. “I’m so hungry I can’t sleep/But I know if I eat/Then I’ll be in the bathroom on my knees” she sings, her voice staccato over a trip-hop beat.Making music out of hard truths has become as central to her mission as speaking them when she felt the industry was holding her back. And rather than using metaphors to keep such experiences hidden, Raye said it now feels “important to be honest about those things I kept in the darkness for so many years.”It may be therapy for her listeners, but it helps her, too: “I want to create stuff that will make me feel better.” More

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      Gary Glitter Is Released From Prison After Serving Half of His Sentence

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      The disgraced former glam rock singer was found guilty in 2015 of sexually abusing three young girls in the 1970s. He had been given a 16-year sentence.LONDON — The former glam rock singer Gary Glitter has been released from prison after serving half of a 16-year sentence for sexually abusing three young girls decades ago, Britain’s Ministry of Justice said on Friday.The singer, whose real name is Paul Gadd, will serve the remainder of his sentence under probation, a common arrangement in Britain.Mr. Gadd will be fitted with a GPS tag and will face other restrictions, the ministry said in a statement. “If the offender breaches these conditions at any point, they can go back behind bars,” it noted.The 78-year-old former star rose to fame in the 1970s after a string of hits, including “Rock and Roll Part 2,” which has been widely featured in films and at sporting events in the United States.Mr. Gadd was arrested in 2012 as part of an inquiry set up to investigate accusations of sexual abuse against Jimmy Savile, a longtime BBC host.That arrest led to Mr. Gadd’s conviction on one count of attempted rape, four counts of indecent assault and one count of sexual intercourse with a girl under the age of 12. During his 2015 trial, prosecutors described how he had abused his access to young fans as he became an international star in the 1970s.In his sentencing remarks, Judge Alistair McCreath said that he had found no evidence that Mr. Gadd had done anything to atone for his crimes and that, after reading statements from the three victims from the 1970s, it was “clear that in their different ways, they were all profoundly affected by your abuse of them. You did all of them real and lasting damage.”Before his 2015 conviction, Mr. Gadd had been convicted in separate cases of sexually abusing minors and possession of child pornography.In the late 1990s, he served two months in jail after admitting to possessing 4,000 images of child pornography. In 2006, he was sentenced to three years in prison in Vietnam for molesting two underage girls at a seaside villa he was renting.In 2019, the music label that owns “Rock and Roll Part 2” said that Mr. Gadd would not receive any royalties from the use of his song in “Joker,” one of the year’s top-grossing films.The British government enacted a law last year that required criminals serving sentences for violent or sexual offenses to spend longer in prison, with the automatic release point occurring two-thirds through their sentences, not halfway. More

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      Karol G and Romeo Santos’s Sensual Goodbye, and More New Songs

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      Hear tracks by Morgan Wallen, Yves Tumor, Lankum and others.Every Friday, pop critics for The New York Times weigh in on the week’s most notable new songs and videos. Just want the music? Listen to the Playlist on Spotify here (or find our profile: nytimes). Like what you hear? Let us know at theplaylist@nytimes.com and sign up for our Louder newsletter, a once-a-week blast of our pop music coverage.Karol G and Romeo Santos, ‘X Si Volvemos’Two Latin pop songwriters who thrive on breakup drama — Karol G, from Colombia, and Romeo Santos, a stadium-scale headliner from the Bronx with Dominican and Puerto Rican roots — arrange a last tryst in “X Si Volvemos.” Karol G points out “No funcionamos” — “We don’t work” — and “We’re a disaster in love,” but she admits, “In bed we understand each other.” He tells her their relationship is toxic, but wonders if he’s addicted to their intimacy. The musical turf, a reggaeton beat, is hers, but the temptation is mutual. JON PARELESMorgan Wallen, ‘Last Night’The distance between acoustic-guitar sincerity and electronic artifice is nearing zero. Morgan Wallen, the canny country superstar, has what sounds like a loop of acoustic guitar — three chords — backing him as he sings about a whiskey-fueled reconciliation: “Baby, baby something’s telling this ain’t over yet,” he sings, sounding very smug. PARELESSunny War, ‘No Reason’Sunny War, a songwriter from Nashville born Sydney Lyndella Ward, sings about a flawed but striving character — maybe herself — in “No Reason,” from her new album, “Anarchist Gospel.” She observes, “You’re an angel, you’re a demon/Ain’t got no rhyme, ain’t go no reason,” as folk-rock fingerpicking, a jaunty backbeat and hoedown handclaps carry her through the contradictions. PARELESYves Tumor, ‘Echolalia’There’s a dreamlike quality about “Echolalia,” the breathy, percussive new single from Yves Tumor’s wildly titled upcoming record “Praise a Lord Who Chews But Which Does Not Consume; (Or Simply, Hot Between Worlds).” Basically a three-minute swoon, “Echolalia” finds the 21st-century glam rocker dazed with infatuation and, however briefly, cosplaying conventionality: “Just put me in a house with a dog and a shiny car,” Tumor sings breathlessly. “We can play the part.” LINDSAY ZOLADZJames Brandon Lewis, ‘Someday We’ll All Be Free’When Donny Hathaway sang his “Someday We’ll All Be Free,” it was determinedly encouraging. On his new album, “Eye of I,” the tenor saxophonist James Brandon Lewis makes it both militant and questioning. Chris Hoffman’s electric cello snarls distorted drones and Max Jaffe’s drumming moves between marching-band crispness and rumbling eruptions, while Lewis and Kirk Knuffke, on cornet, share the melody, go very separate ways simultaneously and then reunite, contentious but comradely. PARELESUnknown Mortal Orchestra, ‘Layla’The New Zealander Ruban Nielson, leader of the tuneful lo-fi psych-rockers Unknown Mortal Orchestra, is known for being a prolific songwriter, so it makes sense that the band’s forthcoming “V,” its first release in five years, will be a double album. “Layla” is full of warmth, with a soulful vocal melody, Nielson’s nimble guitar playing and the band’s signature fuzzy tones all contributing to an enveloping atmosphere. “Layla, let’s get out of this broken place,” Nielson sings, conjuring an alluring elsewhere. ZOLADZTemps featuring Joana Gomila, Nnamdï, Shamir and Quelle Chris, ‘Bleedthemtoxins’“Do not fear mistakes,” floating voices advise for the first minute of “Bleedthemtoxins,” a bemused miscellany overseen by James Acaster, an English comedian, actor and podcaster turned musical auteur. His debut album as Temps, “Party Gator Purgatory,” is due in May. The studio-built track is loosely held together by a loping beat, but it rambles at will through Beach Boys-like harmonies, free-form raps and small-group jazz, all thoroughly and cleverly whimsical. PARELESDebby Friday featuring Uñas, ‘I Got It’“I Got It,” from the Toronto musician Debby Friday, is an explosive, pounding, relentlessly calisthenic dance-floor banger with attitude to spare. A pulsating beat flickers like a strobe light as Friday and Chris Vargas of the duo Pelada, appearing here as Uñas, trade braggadocious bilingual verses. “Let mama give you what you need,” Friday shrieks before calmly assuring, “I got it.” ZOLADZCaroline Polachek, ‘Blood and Butter’Sheer, euphoric infatuation courses through “Blood and Butter,” the latest single previewing the album Caroline Polachek is releasing on Valentine’s Day: “Desire, I Want to Turn Into You.” Polachek and her co-producer, Danny L Harle, constructed a song that starts out in wonderment — “Where did you come from, you?” — on its way to declarations like “What I want is to walk beside you, needing nothing.” Springy hand percussion, a bagpipe solo and multilayered la-las sustain the bliss. PARELESRaye, ‘Environmental Anxiety.’Most of the songs on “My 21st Century Blues,” the impressive new album by the English songwriter Raye, are about personal struggles: with romance, with the music business, with drugs, with exploitation. But “Environmental Activity” views the generational big picture: a poisoned planet, a toxic online culture, a rigged economy. The song is elegant in its bitterness, opening with a sweetly sung indictment — “How did you ever think it wasn’t bound to happen?” — leading to a snappy dance beat, a matter-of-fact, half-rapped list of dire situations and a poised chorale sung over church bells and sirens: “We’re all gonna die/What do we do before it happens?” PARELESYuniverse, ‘L8 Nite Txts’Yuniverse, an Indonesian-Australian songwriter, collaborated with the producer Corin Roddick, of Purity Ring, to make a familiar situation shimmery and surreal: “You’re smiling through your lies again/You’re telling me she’s just a friend,” she sings. Her voice is high and breathy, with hyperpop computer tweaks; it floats amid harplike plinks and fragments of deep, twitchy, drill-like beats. Even in the synthetic soundscape, heartache comes through. PARELESJana Horn, ‘After All This Time’The Texas folk singer Jana Horn makes music of arresting delicacy; her songs take shape like intricately woven spider webs. “After All This Time,” from a new album due in April, is a hushed, gently off-kilter meditation full of Horn’s peculiar koans: “Looking out the window,” she sings in a wispy voice, “is not the same as opening the door.” ZOLADZLankum, ‘Go Dig My Grave’The Irish band Lankum amplifies the bleakest tidings of Celtic traditional songs, leaning into minor modes and unswerving drones, harnessing traditional instruments and studio technology. “Go Dig My Grave,” an old song that traveled from the British Isles to Appalachia, is death-haunted and implacable. It begins with Radie Peat singing a cappella, insisting “tell this world that I died for love.” The band joins her with somber vocal harmonies, tolling drone tones, clanking percussion and baleful fiddle slides, a crescendo of dread. PARELES More