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      Sweden Drops Case Against Joost Klein, Disqualified Eurovision Entrant

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      Investigators could not prove that Joost Klein, the Dutch entrant, had behaved threateningly during an incident shortly before the event final.Swedish prosecutors said Monday that they were closing an investigation into Joost Klein, the Netherlands entry to this year’s Eurovision Song Contest, whom organizers threw out of the singing competition hours before the final in May after an altercation with a camerawoman.Fredrik Jonsson, a Swedish prosecutor, said in a news release that he could not prove that a gesture Klein had made at the camerawoman during the incident “was capable of causing serious fear,” or that Klein had intended it to scare her.The brief statement added that although Klein had “made a movement” toward the crew member, and touched her camera, “the course of events was fast and was perceived differently by the witnesses of the incident.”The run-up to this year’s Eurovision Song Contest was unusually tense, with months of protests around Israel’s participation. In the days leading up to this year’s contest final, pro-Palestinian groups held several marches through the host city, Malmo, Sweden, and some Eurovision acts used social media to discuss their pro-Palestinian views.On the day of the final, Klein’s disqualification came as a last-minute curveball.The day before the final began, Klein, a well-known figure in Dutch pop music whose songs feature silly lyrics and very fast beats, did not appear at a rehearsal to perform his track, “Europapa.” Shortly afterward, the European Broadcasting Union, which organizes the contest, said in a statement that it was investigating Klein because of “an incident” involving a member of the show’s production crew. The next day, just hours before the final, the union organizers said in a new statement that Swedish police were also investigating, and it would not have been appropriate for Klein to take part while a legal process was underway.Klein’s disqualification caused immediate uproar among Eurovision fans on social media. And in the days following the competition, many in the Netherlands rallied around the singer, with radio stations repeatedly airing Klein’s song. Some churches even rang their bells to its tune in protest.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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      Shelby Lynne Meets Her Moment, Again

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      Twenty-five years after the album that reshaped her career, the singer and songwriter unlocked a new creative groove, with the help of an all-female team in Nashville.Shelby Lynne left Nashville both physically and metaphorically behind two and a half decades ago.In 2000, she released “I Am Shelby Lynne,” a genre-defying declaration of self that helped land her first Grammy, for best new artist. She’d spent a decade in Nashville, putting out five albums that never quite harnessed her sweltering Southern soul, then moved to Palm Springs, Calif., and jettisoned country music. While she found success with the bluesy rock and retro pop of “I Am,” produced by Bill Bottrell (Sheryl Crow’s “Tuesday Night Music Club”), she floundered in a life of her own intractable artistic standards, bad decisions and drinking.Back in Tennessee, sitting on the patio of Soho House, the Nashville outpost of the British social club, in rust-colored Dickies overalls over a crisp white dress shirt and tailored black jacket, she laughed, a slow-rolling molasses tumble, looking back at it all.“I’d come back here to be near Sissy,” Lynne, 55, explained in a slow, vowels-extended drawl, referring to her younger sister, the singer and songwriter Allison Moorer. “I was always kind of making records in California, but I thought that part of my life was over. I just wanted to write some songs, maybe get a publishing deal, which I never had.”Nashville being Nashville, the creative hive often rises to meet legacy talent. With the 25th anniversary of “I Am” on the horizon, Katie McCartney of Monument Records offered to reissue it. But Lynne also had new songs on her mind, which she was starting to realize with help from the country stalwart Ashley Monroe, whose introductions led to female collaborations that proved to be wildly different from anything Lynne had experienced. The result is “Consequences of the Crown,” her 17th studio album, due Friday.Lynne’s all-woman core creative team for the LP includes Monroe, Karen Fairchild of Little Big Town and the producer and engineer Gena Johnson. Lynne, in the midst of heartbreak, poured her emotions into songs, often live in the studio surrounded by this supportive tribe.“This is maybe the record everybody wanted after I made ‘I Am,’” she said. “Maybe all that time between was getting ready for this one, you know?”Eric Ryan Anderson 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

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      Monet, Taylor Swift, ‘Moana’: What Got Readers Through Their Grief

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      After our series on how artists have been affected by loss, we asked readers what helped them when they experienced it. These are 15 of their answers.Over the Memorial Day holiday weekend, we published The Grief Project, a series of interviews with artists who discussed the ways that loss affected their work and creativity. We also asked readers about the art and culture — whether it was a book, a movie, a song or anything else — that helped them remember or cope with losing a loved one. Hundreds responded. Here is what some of them said.Music‘As’ by Stevie WonderLike Stevie Wonder, Nancy Hanks wrote, her mother “was soulful and full of spirit, enriching the lives of all she came in contact with.”Evening Standard/Hulton Archive, via Getty ImagesI’m not sure if it’s the melody or lyrics, but this song deeply captures the deep feelings of love and profound grief that I feel for the loss of my mother. Throughout the song Stevie Wonder professes all the ways and lengths that the depth of his love reaches. He notes “did you know true love asks for nothing / her acceptance is the way we pay.” I often am reminded of this. The grief that I carry is a tax on the lifetime of unconditional love I’ve experienced from my mother. Like Stevie, she was soulful and full of spirit, enriching the lives of all she came in contact with. We couldn’t have the proper celebration we wanted for her because of Covid, but I imagine if we did, we would have played this song along with so many more of her favorites and danced all night. I can’t hear the song anymore without feeling a deep sense of longing for her. I’m so grateful for her life and legacy, and I miss her terribly. —Nancy Hanks, AtlantaFilm‘School of Rock’It was less than a week after we lost our 4-year-old daughter Laila to cancer, in 2004. A neighboring couple, who had been supportive throughout Laila’s illness, brought over a VHS tape of “School of Rock.” In those very early days of bereavement, as far as I knew, I would never laugh again. But we popped in the videocassette, and before long I found myself laughing out loud, along with the family and friends gathered with us. Although my sadness filled my entire soul, there was somehow still room for humor. The wondrous physics of hope, in a lesson delivered by Jack Black with his electric guitar. As a family, we rewatch “School of Rock” every now and then, and it never fails to uplift. To me, it will always be a symbol of resilience. —Mary Janevic, Ann Arbor, Mich.SportsThe New York RangersWatching the Rangers “offered tremendous comfort to my family,” wrote Pam Poling, whose sister was a fellow fan.Joel Auerbach/Getty Images/Getty ImagesOur sister died in December after an incredibly brief illness. She was our go-to person for all things hockey, especially our beloved Rangers. Watching them skate so beautifully this season offered tremendous comfort to my family. Whether they win or lose, we often text each other, “Joanie would have loved this.” It really helps. —Pam Poling, Fairfield, Conn.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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      Mísia, Who Brought a Modern Flair to Fado Music, Dies at 69

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      With her smoky voice and her high-fashion look, the self-proclaimed “punk of fado” found stardom by shaking up a venerable Portuguese genre.Mísia, an acclaimed singer who helped modernize fado, a traditional Portuguese music known for wistful songs of fate, loss and regret, with a runway-ready style sense and an eclectic approach that earned her the label “anarchist of fado,” died on July 27 in Lisbon. She was 69.Her death was announced by Dalila Rodrigues, Portugal’s minister of culture, who called Mísia “a fundamental voice in the renewal of fado.” News reports said the cause was cancer.Fado — the name is derived from the Latin word fatum, meaning fate — is an urban folk music spiced with Arabic and other global influences that arose in the 19th century in the grittiest quarters of Lisbon. Marked by a minor-key plaintiveness, the music is rich with feelings of longing and resignation.Like the American blues, fado long functioned as the song of the disenfranchised, a search for transcendence amid struggle. “It was sung in the taverns and the houses of prostitution,” Mísia said in a 2000 interview with the American arts magazine Bomb, “where a lot of sailors and rough people, people who had a hard life, went to hear the music.” Fado, she added, “was the shouting of the people with no power.”Fado is also known for its theatrical, if spare, presentation: stylized, almost ritualistic performances by vocalists typically dressed in black, accompanied by traditional instruments like the Portuguese guitarra, a 12-string guitar dating to the 13th century.Her ascent to global success began with the release of her critically acclaimed debut album, called simply “Mísia,” in 1991; she eventually performed in the esteemed music halls of New York, London and Tokyo and attracted a particularly avid following in France.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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      Tim Walz’s Jam: Dylan, Prince, the Replacements and Hüsker Dü

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      Kamala Harris’s running mate is a rock fan with an affinity for Minnesota artists including Bob Dylan, Prince, the Replacements and Hüsker Dü.When Beto O’Rourke and Gov. Tim Walz of Minnesota served in Congress together in the 2010s, they would go on early morning jogs and talk about their shared love of music from Minnesota, from icons like Bob Dylan and Prince to the indie rock ferment the Twin Cities produced in the 1980s, including the Replacements and Hüsker Dü.“Music would come up a lot,” Mr. O’Rourke recalled of those runs when they were both serving on the House Committee on Veterans’ Affairs. (He also said that Mr. Walz, a native Nebraskan, seemed impervious to Washington winters, wearing T-shirts and shorts.)Mr. Walz’s affinity for rock comes up often enough, vouched for by enough sources, to appear deep-seated. By all appearances, the governor, whom Vice President Kamala Harris selected on Tuesday as her running mate, truly loves his dad rock.Three years ago Mr. Walz wished Bob Dylan — born in Duluth, raised in Hibbing — a happy 80th birthday on social media, identifying “Forever Young” as a favorite Dylan tune (Walz posted the slow version, not the up-tempo one). Last year Mr. Walz used purple ink to sign a law honoring the Minneapolis native Prince, the artist behind the 1984 album and movie “Purple Rain,” by renaming a stretch of Highway 5 the “Prince Rogers Nelson Memorial Highway.”Mr. Walz periodically texts about upcoming rock concerts in the Twin Cities or Mr. O’Rourke’s hometown, El Paso. “I love that he has got one of the most intense jobs in the world, all these things on his plate, but he finds time to reach out, to listen to music, to go to concerts,” Mr. O’Rourke, a onetime presidential hopeful, said in an interview.Mr. Walz, 60, is also a fan of Bruce Springsteen. Patrick Murphy, a former Democratic congressman from Pennsylvania who at one point was Mr. Walz’s roommate in Washington, recalled how Mr. Walz urged him to delve deeper into the Springsteen catalog.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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      A Musical Tour of Tim Walz’s Minnesota

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      The state is a hotbed of corrosive underground rock, birthplace of two acclaimed icons, home to a lively hip-hop scene and a bedrock of ’80s pop and funk.Minnesota royalty: Prince.Chris Pizzello/R-PIZZELLO, via Associated PressDear listeners,On Tuesday, Vice President Kamala Harris announced that she had chosen a running mate: Tim Walz, governor of Minnesota. The news cast a spotlight not only on Walz, but on Minnesota’s culture — and in particular its rich, varied musical history.Walz is an avowed music fan himself, with a special appreciation for local record stores and artists who hail from the state. My colleague Marc Tracy delves into this side of Walz in a piece published this morning, in which he suggests that the Gen X governor’s fandom of Twin Cities indie-rock legends like the Replacements and Hüsker Dü has “signaled a changing of the generational guard.” Adds Michael Azerrad, author of the ’80s rock tome “Our Band Could Be Your Life,” “It makes sense that our post-Boomer politicians would be into indie rock.”But Minnesota, of course, is more than just a hotbed of corrosive underground rock. It’s also the birthplace of two of the greatest American musicians of the last century (Duluth’s Bob Dylan and Minneapolis’s Prince), home to a lively hip-hop scene that produced a recent superstar (the Detroit expat Lizzo), and the locus of the wildly influential “Minneapolis sound” (practiced by groups like the Time) that reverberated throughout ’80s pop and funk.Today’s playlist is a celebration of the many sounds of Minnesota, and it features all the aforementioned artists plus the heartland revivalists the Hold Steady, the grunge hell-raisers Babes in Toyland and the alt-country mainstays the Jayhawks. To quote Prince — in whose honor Walz renamed a stretch of Minnesota highway last year — “Rock ’n’ roll is alive! (And it lives in Minneapolis).”Sure as the Land of a Thousand Lakes is sometimes made of snow,LindsayListen along while you read.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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      Shawn Mendes Returns Full of Questions, and 8 More New Songs

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      Hear tracks by Leon Bridges, Ravyn Lenae, Kelsea Ballerini and others.Every Friday, pop critics for The New York Times weigh in on the week’s most notable new tracks. Listen to the Playlist on Spotify here (or find our profile: nytimes) and at Apple Music here, and sign up for The Amplifier, a twice-weekly guide to new and old songs.Shawn Mendes, ‘Why Why Why’“I stepped off the stage with nothing left,” Shawn Mendes sings, referencing his headline-generating 2022 decision to cancel a scheduled world tour and focus on his mental health. The stomping, acoustic-guitar driven “Why Why Why,” from his forthcoming album “Shawn,” represents a new level of candor and pathos from the 26-year-old pop star, who has returned to the spotlight but admits he still doesn’t have all the answers: “I don’t know why, why, why, why,” he croons as the instrumentation builds around him, offering fleeting catharsis in the form of a folksy, singalong chorus. LINDSAY ZOLADZLeon Bridges, ‘Peaceful Place’Leon Bridges, the singer and songwriter based in Texas, sets aside past troubles to enjoy unexpected contentment in “Peaceful Place.” His recent collaborations with Khruangbin have moved him away from soul revivalism toward hybrid, open-ended grooves. “Peaceful Place” hints at funk and Nigerian Afrobeat, with a steady-ticking beat and a hopping bass line as he reassures everyone, “I found something no one can take away.” JON PARELESRavyn Lenae, ‘Genius’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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      3rd Teenager Arrested Over Planned Attack on Taylor Swift’s Vienna Concerts

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      The authorities said the 18-year-old was connected to the main suspect and had recently sworn allegiance to the Islamic State.The authorities in Vienna have arrested a third teenager in connection with a foiled terrorist attack on a Taylor Swift concert in the city this week. They say they believe that the man, an 18-year-old connected to the main suspect, was not part of the plan but had been in touch with the plotters and had recently sworn allegiance to the Islamic State.Ms. Swift was scheduled to stage three concerts in Vienna starting Thursday through Saturday, but all three performances were canceled after the authorities arrested two teenagers over a plan to attack the sold-out, 50,000-seat stadium. Chancellor Karl Nehammer of Austria said the plot had been designed to leave a “trail of blood.”Since arresting two other teenagers on Wednesday, the authorities have been racing to investigate the planned attack, although after what the police said was a full confession by the main suspect, they said there was no longer an imminent danger.The police are looking into a network of people around the main suspect, a 19-year-old Austrian citizen of North Macedonian descent who they said had radicalized himself online and sworn allegiance to the Islamic State. Citing privacy rules, the authorities have declined to publicly name the suspects, but they said that both teenagers arrested on Wednesday were born in Austria and held Austrian citizenship.During a raid on the main suspect’s house on Wednesday, the police said, officers found chemicals used to make bombs, as well as explosives, timers, machetes, knives and a functioning police siren, which investigators believe he planned to use to gain access to or move around the area around the stadium.The concert cancellations affected about 200,000 Taylor Swift fans, some of whom had traveled to Europe from other continents to see her perform as part of her Eras Tour. Ms. Swift has not commented publicly on the cancellations.A 15-year-old boy who was held for questioning on Wednesday about the plot has been released and is being treated as a witness, the police said. They said that they had determined he was not part of the plot but that he knew many of its details and had helped corroborate some key elements of the main suspect’s confession. More