| We are here to prove that Ukrainian culture and music are alive and they have their own beautiful signature. |
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 | | Ukraine's Kalush Orchestra celebrates winning Eurovision, Turin, Italy, May 15, 2022. | | (Jens Büttner/Picture Alliance/Getty Images) | | |
| quote of the day |
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| rantnrave:// |
Here
I'm at a bit of a loss for words after a weekend of astonishing pain in America—a racist mass shooting in Buffalo, a church shooting in Southern California, protest marches around the country on behalf of women being stripped of their basic rights. Music, it's often said, is an escape, but it isn't, not in the way a lot of people want that to mean. Music reflects on and processes and remixes and illuminates and helps us understand what's going on in the world, and in our hearts, and everybody else's hearts. It's an act of participation, of connecting, of engagement, of community. There can be beautiful escapes within, but music is as likely to remind us where we are as where we aren't.
Sounds of Silence
Some jumbled notes on a few things that happened this weekend on various concert stages in various cities. TRAVIS SCOTT made a mildly controversial appearance at Sunday night's BILLBOARD MUSIC AWARDS in Las Vegas—his most prominent performance since the crowd-crush tragedy at ASTROWORLD six months ago—and chose not to acknowledge the tragedy that he's still trying to find a path back from (and which remains an active legal issue for him). Two songs, one of them new, on a video-like stage set—as if to create distance—and that was that. The same night, the WHO performed in Cincinnati for the first time since an equally horrific crowd-crush tragedy at that city's Riverfront Coliseum 43 years ago, and messaged in a number of ways—including providing seats in front of the stage for families of nine of the victims—that it's still processing and trying to atone for the events of that long ago night. An objectively better response. But maybe it's easier to process with four decades of separation than with only six months and an active lawsuit. In 1979, the Who got right back on its bus after the Cincinnati tragedy and was back onstage within 24 hours. The band has since suggested it regrets that decision, but at the time, TWITTER wasn't around to call it out in real time. Has the Who displayed more empathy than Travis Scott? Maybe. But ask me again in another 43 years. We all process, um, different. And none of us get to forget.
Five miles and 24 hours away from Scott and the Billboard Music Awards, there was another crowd-crush incident, albeit a seemingly minor one, at the LOVERS & FRIENDS fest at the Las Vegas Festival Grounds. Festivalgoers heard what they thought were gunshots, started running and three people were hurt in the confusion. The fest was halted for an hour, a lot of people left and then the music—USHER, LIL JON and LUDACRIS—continued. Thank the festival gods more people weren't hurt, or worse. Crowded, general-admission festivals continue to pose questions that need to be confronted, and crowd-control and security officials should be processing this. Artists, this time, won't have to.
One final note: The Who's show the next night 43 years ago was in Buffalo. This Sunday in Buffalo, a tour stop away from the 2022 version of PETE TOWNSHEND, ROGER DALTREY and crew, JUSTIN BIEBER paused his show at the KeyBank Center for a moment of silence for the victims of Saturday's shootings. You might imagine any performer should, and would, do the same. But not all performers do. Not all fans either. In an Instagram post later Sunday, Bieber wrote, "To the people who couldn't stay silent to honor the lives that were so tragically lost, I urge you to ask yourself why."
Rest in Peace
Atlanta rapper LIL KEED, an up-and-coming rapper from Young Thug's YSL crew who released seven albums and mixtapes between 2018 and 2020 and was named to XXL's 2020 Freshman Class. He was best known for the 2018 hip-hop ballad "Nameless"... DANIEL BELARDINELLI, half of the duo Duomo, whose instrumental covers of Taylor Swift, Ariana Grande and other pop stars helped soundtrack "Bridgerton"... Spanish opera singer TERESA BERGANZA... DJ MOONCUP, Bristol club and radio DJ.
| | - Matty Karas (@troubledoll), curator | |
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 | | Complex |
| | The Emancipation of Kendrick Lamar | | By Kevin Powell | | Kendrick Lamar's latest album, 'Mr. Morale & The Big Steppers,' is his emancipation proclamation and love letter to us. | | |
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 | | CBS Sunday Morning |
| | Lionel Richie on his "amazing ride" | | By Kelefa Sanneh | | The Grammy-winning singer-songwriter, lead singer of the Commodores, solo artist, and "American Idol" judge is being honored with the Library of Congress' 2022 Gershwin Prize for Popular Song - and he promises new music in the near future. | | |
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| what we're into |
 | | Music of the day | | "Stefania" | | Kalush Orchestra | | "I'll always find my way home, even if all roads are destroyed." The Ukrainian band's Eurovision-winning song. | | |
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| Music | Media | | | | | | Suggest a link  | | "REDEF is dedicated to my mother, who nurtured and encouraged my interest in everything and slightly regrets the day she taught me to always ask 'why?'" |
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