Music
How Portugese band Napa turned a Eurovision flop into 143 million streams
With the most-streamed song from last year’s Eurovision and a new album on the horizon, Portuguese band Napa are on their way to stardom.
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In need of a sound night’s sleep? Curl up at Berlin’s 30-hour immersive music event
In a climate where attention spans are shrinking into bite-sized viral moments, a space made for the act of listening feels strangely rebellious.
Amid ongoing controversy, the Eurovision Song Contest is ready to pop
Following tensions, boycotts and protests at recent editions of the song contest, this year could prove more fiery than ever – including on the dance floor. Here are five of our favourite entries.
A Canto-pop revival is putting Hong Kong’s local music scene back in play
Canto-pop is booming and a fresh generation of stars is on the rise. As a new wave of homegrown music finds its groove, are we entering another golden age?
Missing old-school audio? Press play at Dug Factory, Tokyo’s boombox specialist and analogue empire
Tokyo-based collector Junichi Matsuzaki has spent more than two decades amassing retro audio units. Here he lets us in on his prized collection of 5,000 items.
Aitana, the new voice of Catalan electropop
A forthcoming world tour is set to make a global superstar of reality-TV performer turned electropop queen Aitana.
The man who remixed Japan: How M-Flo rapper Verbal went from the Tokyo club scene to global CEO
Tokyo-based rapper and Ambush CEO Verbal disrupted Japanese pop music and launched a global fashion brand and a new saké venture, establishing himself as a cultural curator.
Five floor-fillers from Brazilian Carnival that will bring the ‘bloco’ to you
Listen to Monocle’s Carnival playlist with tunes by Léo Santana, Gretchen, Marina Sena and more.
Upstairs at Ronnie’s keeps Soho nights swinging with jazz and reinvention
Jazz club Ronnie Scott’s new space is proof that, for live venues to thrive, they need to change with the times.
Ok Go’s Damian Kulash on reinventing the music video and resisting algorithms
Two decades after redefining viral creativity, Ok Go’s frontman reflects on DIY spectacle, analogue magic and resisting Tiktok-era metrics.
How singer Charlotte Dos Santos channels Norway’s winter landscapes on her ‘Neve Azul’ EP
Charlotte Dos Santos has many rare gifts, including synaesthesia, which helps her to form musical ideas. Monocle meets her to discuss the city’s evolving cultural scene and her new EP, ‘Neve Azul’.
