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Taylor Swift Eyes Record at Grammys as Women Take Center Stage 

US singer-songwriter Taylor Swift arrives for the 81st annual Golden Globe Awards at The Beverly Hilton hotel in Beverly Hills, California, on January 7, 2024. (AFP)
US singer-songwriter Taylor Swift arrives for the 81st annual Golden Globe Awards at The Beverly Hilton hotel in Beverly Hills, California, on January 7, 2024. (AFP)
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Taylor Swift Eyes Record at Grammys as Women Take Center Stage 

US singer-songwriter Taylor Swift arrives for the 81st annual Golden Globe Awards at The Beverly Hilton hotel in Beverly Hills, California, on January 7, 2024. (AFP)
US singer-songwriter Taylor Swift arrives for the 81st annual Golden Globe Awards at The Beverly Hilton hotel in Beverly Hills, California, on January 7, 2024. (AFP)

All eyes are on -- who else? -- Taylor Swift ahead of Sunday's Grammys, when the megastar could break the record for most Album of the Year wins at a gala where women finally are taking center stage.

SZA will arrive at the star-studded event in Los Angeles as the evening's top nominee with nine, while Billie Eilish, Olivia Rodrigo and Miley Cyrus are also in the running for the show's top prizes.

With her sophomore album "SOS," SZA explored an eclectic blend of styles and genre including pop, rock and jazz, with dreamy electro inflections that scored her the most nominations of any artist.

And supergroup boygenius -- Phoebe Bridgers, Julien Baker and Lucy Dacus -- are up for six Grammys.

The trio met as up-and-comers in the indie music scene and, tired of constant comparisons to each other as "women in rock," decided to collaborate while also continuing to produce solo work.

Bridgers has a seventh nomination for her collaboration with SZA.

Janelle Monae and Lana Del Rey are in the mix for Album of the Year, while Victoria Monet is a contender for Record of the Year.

So it's highly likely a female act will win the top awards -- unless Grammys darling Jon Batiste does.

The piano virtuoso is the sole man up for the two major prizes, two years after he bested pop's royalty to dominate the proceedings.

It will be a particularly poignant evening for Batiste, whose triumph in 2022 was paired with immense personal struggle behind the scenes as his wife, the writer Suleika Jaouad, was receiving treatment for a recurrence of leukemia.

This time around, she will be able to join the party as her partner contends for some of music's most prestigious honors.

Among his accolades, Batiste is up for the top songwriting prize for "Butterfly," written for Jaouad while she was in hospital.

"For us to be able to celebrate the album and that song, and to also be at the Grammys again, with her this time? That's what my favorite part of this is," Batiste told AFP in an interview late last year.

"It's full circle."

Another day, another Swift record

If Swift's "Midnights" wins Album of the Year, it would be a record-breaking fourth win of the prize for the 34-year-old, who's already the toast of the music world, making headlines with every breath.

She is currently tied in elite company with Frank Sinatra, Paul Simon and Stevie Wonder at three top album honors.

Swift's in-demand producer Jack Antonoff scored six nominations for his work, notably with her and Del Rey, the baroque pop singer whose album "Did you know there's a tunnel under Ocean Blvd" earned her five nominations.

And the soundtrack of the blockbuster film "Barbie" could also clean up: music from the effervescent summer smash earned 11 nods thanks to performances including from Eilish as well as Dua Lipa, rapper Nicki Minaj and the movie's sleeper standout... Oscar-nominated actor Ryan Gosling.

Bubbly Bronx rapper Ice Spice is also up for an award for her work on "Barbie" as well as the prize for Best New Artist, which industry watchers predict she could take home after a banner year that saw her go totally viral.

Joni, Billy, U2 set to perform

The vast majority of the more than 90 competitive trophies are doled out prior to the Grammys gala broadcast, which is heavy on spectacle: many of the top nominees, including SZA, Eilish and Rodrigo are on deck to perform.

Nigerian sensation Burna Boy, country singer Luke Combs and rapper Travis Scott will also deliver sets.

And the legendary Joni Mitchell will take the stage in her first ever performance at the Grammy Awards.

The 80-year-old -- who has nine competitive Grammys and a Lifetime Achievement Award -- is in the running for best folk album for her live record entitled "Joni Mitchell at Newport."

She won her first Grammy for "Clouds" more than half a century ago.

"Piano Man" Billy Joel also will perform on the heels of releasing his new single "Turn The Lights Back On" -- his first original music in 17 years -- on Thursday.

And U2 will make a special remote appearance from Las Vegas, where the rockers have a residency at the new Sphere arena.

The main Grammys gala airs on Sunday at 5:00 pm (0100 GMT Monday) on US network CBS.

Comedian Trevor Noah, who's up for best comedy album, will host for the fourth consecutive year.

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Entertainment

Summer Movie Preview: Nolan, Spider-Man and ‘Toy Story’ Light Up the Cinemas

This image released by Universal Pictures shows, from left, Jimmy Gonzales ia Cepheus, Matt Damon as Odysseus and Himesh Patel as Eurylochus in a scene from "The Odyssey." (Melinda Sue Gordon/Universal Pictures via AP)
This image released by Universal Pictures shows, from left, Jimmy Gonzales ia Cepheus, Matt Damon as Odysseus and Himesh Patel as Eurylochus in a scene from "The Odyssey." (Melinda Sue Gordon/Universal Pictures via AP)
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Summer Movie Preview: Nolan, Spider-Man and ‘Toy Story’ Light Up the Cinemas

This image released by Universal Pictures shows, from left, Jimmy Gonzales ia Cepheus, Matt Damon as Odysseus and Himesh Patel as Eurylochus in a scene from "The Odyssey." (Melinda Sue Gordon/Universal Pictures via AP)
This image released by Universal Pictures shows, from left, Jimmy Gonzales ia Cepheus, Matt Damon as Odysseus and Himesh Patel as Eurylochus in a scene from "The Odyssey." (Melinda Sue Gordon/Universal Pictures via AP)

The movies always feel bigger in the summer. The budgets. The ambition. The names. The stakes. This summer, Hollywood has many of the regulars on the lineup: “Spider-Man,” “Minions,” “Star Wars” and “Toy Story.” But the most eagerly anticipated is not a superhero, toy, or franchise: It’s a 3,000-year-old epic poem.

For filmmaker Christopher Nolan, “The Odyssey,” out July 17, isn't just a story. It's the story: A foundational piece that deserved to be done on the biggest possible scale, with all the resources modern Hollywood had to offer.

“There’s a massive amount of pressure,” Nolan told The Associated Press. “Anyone taking on ‘The Odyssey’ is taking on the hopes and dreams of people for epic movies everywhere and that comes with a huge responsibility.”

It's a familiar feeling, though. He did three Batman films after all.

“What I learned from that experience is that what people want from a movie about a beloved story, a beloved set of characters, is they want a strong and sincere interpretation,” Nolan said. “They want to know that a filmmaker has gone to the mat for it. I really tried to make the best film possible.”

Three summers ago, “Oppenheimer” made nearly a billion dollars. “The Odyssey” has battles, creatures and an army of movie stars — Matt Damon, Anne Hathaway, Zendaya and Tom Holland included. It's also the first movie shot entirely on IMAX film. Tickets for some IMAX 70 mm showings sold out in under an hour a full year in advance.

“The Odyssey” will be shorter than “Oppenheimer”; Three hours is the longest they’ve been able to get onto an IMAX film projector, after all.

“It’s an epic film, as the subject matter demands,” Nolan said. “But it is shorter.”

Summer movie season's fashionable kickoff

Hollywood may not save all its blockbusters for the hottest months anymore, but the 18-week corridor running from the first weekend in May through Labor Day remains the industry’s most important, accounting for around 40% of the year’s box office. And it's only surpassed $4 billion once since the pandemic, in 2023.

Marvel movies often kick off the season, but last year filmmaker David Frankel got a call from Disney: “Avengers: Doomsday” wasn’t going to be ready by the first weekend in May; Could “The Devil Wears Prada 2” step up?

May 1 is just days before the Met Gala and it would give the movie a long runway to play, he figured. It would also require a bit of a sprint — they finished the film just weeks ago. But the enthusiasm was motivating, from fans snapping photos of Hathaway and Meryl Streep on the New York streets, to support from Anna Wintour.

Love for “Prada” isn’t the only thing that’s changed in 20 years; Magazines have also become an endangered species.

“How does Miranda Priestly deal with this changing world and what’s her future?” Frankel said. “The same with Andy Sachs: If all your ambition has been funneled in this one direction, what happens when you have to pivot and how do you adapt?”

The $4 billion question

The movie industry is also adjusting to a new paradigm. Box office is down over 20% from pre-COVID levels. The rise in streaming, the pandemic and shifting theatrical windows altered people’s moviegoing habits, perhaps permanently. And there may be one less major studio if Paramount acquires Warner Bros.

But, as James Cameron said, “hope springs eternal.

“We still have a very robust theatrical industry at a time when it was kind of almost pronounced dead,” Cameron said.

The gap is not widening. Studios are committing to longer exclusive theatrical windows. Original movies and premium formats are drawing crowds. And the market continues to expand globally.

Cameron is behind one of those only-in-a-theater experiences with the 3D Billie Eilish concert film (May 8). Using new technology, they used 17 camera systems to capture four nights of her Manchester shows last year.

“Seeing it in 3D is astonishing,” Cameron said. “You really feel an intimacy with her and yet you feel the scale of the spectacle.”

A summer for heavyweights

Nolan isn’t Universal’s only giant of cinema on its summer roster: Steven Spielberg is also returning to one of his most beloved genres with “Disclosure Day” (June 12). There are superhero movies as well, with “Supergirl” (June 26), which DC Studios co-head Peter Safran said is “is something cool and original and we haven’t seen before,” and “Spider-Man: Brand New Day” (July 31). The last Spidey film, which made over $1.9 billion, ended with Holland’s Peter Parker erasing himself from everyone’s memory.

“This is a blockbuster action movie with all the humor and emotion we love about Spider-Man,” director Destin Daniel Cretton said. “But at its heart, it’s a story about learning how to reconnect with the ones you love.”

A lot of power recently has shifted to PG-rated offerings. This summer has “Toy Story 5” (June 19), “Minions & Monsters” (July 1) and a live action “Moana” (July 10), which could all very well hit a billion dollars each.

One non-franchise family friendly film is “The Sheep Detectives” (May 8), in which the animals (Julia Louis-Dreyfus, Bryan Cranston) investigate the death of their beloved owner (Hugh Jackman). Writer Craig Mazin understands the hurdle: There have been a lot of stupid talking animal movies. But this one is different, he said, it's not just silly sheep doing silly things.

“There are some really beautiful moments and themes and things that parents can talk about with their kids,” Mazin said. “And most importantly, it is legitimately a movie that is meant for everyone.”

Then there's “Star Wars: The Mandalorian and Grogu” (May 22), which is rated PG-13 but has an impossibly cute alien going for it. It’s also one of several made for IMAX.

“People have got great TVs at home,” said director Jon Favreau. “You’ve got to give them a reason to go out.”

The scary movies

Movie studios also continue to lean into horror and this summer has both franchises, like “Evil Dead Burn”(July 10) and “Insidious: Out of the Further” (Aug. 21) and unnerving indies, including the “conversion therapy” horror “Leviticus,” “Rose of Nevada” (both June 19), and “Backrooms” (May 29).

And then there is “Scary Movie 6" (June 5), which sees the return of Regina Hall and Anna Faris, as well as Marlon and Shawn Wayans, who haven't been involved in the franchise they helped create since the 2001 sequel. And there were so many movies ripe for parody, like “M3GAN,” “Get Out,” “Weapons,” the just-released “Michael,” and “Sinners,” which Marlon Wayans was most excited about.

“Mockery is the greatest form of flattery,” Wayans said. “Sending up their movie was definitely tipping our hat to them.”

The festival darlings and other gems

Audiences want more than brands and blockbusters though. This year moviegoers have already proven they’ll turn out when the buzz is right, whether it’s for a big crowd pleaser like “Project Hail Mary” or for something more challenging like “The Drama.”

One that has the potential to break through is Olivia Wilde’s “The Invite” (June 26), a chamber dramedy about two very different couples (Wilde, Seth Rogen, Penélope Cruz and Edward Norton) over one night that sparked a bidding war at the Sundance Film Festival. Wilde was heartened that most studios were offering theatrical releases, and ultimately chose A24. They’ve even made a 35 mm print.

“The whole project for me is really tipping my hat to Mike Nichols,” Wilde said. “We thought of the audiences that have always loved those films.”

There are plenty of indies and originals to choose from throughout the summer, including Daniel Roher’s “Tuner,” about a piano prodigy turned safecracker, Boots Riley’s colorful shoplifting movie “I Love Boosters,” (both May 22) and a John Carney musical with Paul Rudd (“Power Ballad,” June 5).

As Wilde said, there’s room for both originals and franchises.

“The audience really likes to recognize risk,” she said. “There’s something exciting about that.”

Entertainment

Technician Dies Installing Stage for Shakira Concert in Rio

A general view of the stage after the death of a worker in an accident that occurred during its setup for Colombian singer Shakira at Copacabana Beach in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, on April 26, 2026. (AFP)
A general view of the stage after the death of a worker in an accident that occurred during its setup for Colombian singer Shakira at Copacabana Beach in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, on April 26, 2026. (AFP)
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Technician Dies Installing Stage for Shakira Concert in Rio

A general view of the stage after the death of a worker in an accident that occurred during its setup for Colombian singer Shakira at Copacabana Beach in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, on April 26, 2026. (AFP)
A general view of the stage after the death of a worker in an accident that occurred during its setup for Colombian singer Shakira at Copacabana Beach in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, on April 26, 2026. (AFP)

A technician was killed on Sunday in Rio de Janeiro setting up a stage where pop superstar Shakira is set to perform a free concert this week, authorities and organizers said.

Crews have been working for weeks to assemble a stage on the sands of the Brazilian city's Copacabana beach, where crowds are expected from around the world to see the Colombian singer perform on May 2 as part of her record-breaking world tour.

The man suffered crushing injuries to his legs in a lifting system, the fire department said in a statement.

Workers managed to free the man and he was taken to hospital, but he did not survive, the state fire department (CBMERJ) said.

"Unfortunately, the technician passed away in hospital," concert organizer Bonus Track said in a statement.

"Out of nowhere, we saw people running, and when we looked, the structure was on the ground," Antonio Marcos Ferreira dos Santos, 51, who was on the beach at the time, told AFP.

"People were saying that a man had gotten trapped underneath. People rushed over to pull him out."

Entertainment

'Michael' Moonwalks to $97 Million Opening, Shattering Record for Music Biopics

Michael Jackson's black sequined jacket with the markings "002 MJJ 87" and "Proto 2" (1987), is displayed before the auction of a collection dedicated to Michael Jackson at the Aguttes auction house in Neuilly-sur-Seine, near Paris, France, April 23, 2026. REUTERS/Sarah Meyssonnier
Michael Jackson's black sequined jacket with the markings "002 MJJ 87" and "Proto 2" (1987), is displayed before the auction of a collection dedicated to Michael Jackson at the Aguttes auction house in Neuilly-sur-Seine, near Paris, France, April 23, 2026. REUTERS/Sarah Meyssonnier
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'Michael' Moonwalks to $97 Million Opening, Shattering Record for Music Biopics

Michael Jackson's black sequined jacket with the markings "002 MJJ 87" and "Proto 2" (1987), is displayed before the auction of a collection dedicated to Michael Jackson at the Aguttes auction house in Neuilly-sur-Seine, near Paris, France, April 23, 2026. REUTERS/Sarah Meyssonnier
Michael Jackson's black sequined jacket with the markings "002 MJJ 87" and "Proto 2" (1987), is displayed before the auction of a collection dedicated to Michael Jackson at the Aguttes auction house in Neuilly-sur-Seine, near Paris, France, April 23, 2026. REUTERS/Sarah Meyssonnier

"Michael," the big-budget Michael Jackson spectacle, shrugged off bad reviews and a troubled production to launch with $97 million in US and Canada theaters, according to studio estimates Sunday, shattering a record debut for music biopics.

A highly authorized portrayal of the King of Pop, co-produced by the Jackson estate, Lionsgate’s “Michael” far surpassed previous biopic top performers like “Straight Outta Compton” (a $60.2 million debut in 2015) and “Bohemian Rhapsody” ($51 million in 2018).

International sales were also strong, The Associated Press reported. “Michael” collected $120.4 million overseas, to give it a $217.4 million global opening — a new high for a music biopic. Universal picked up distribution in most international markets.

Even in the lucrative market of music biopics, “Michael” was an audacious bet by Lionsgate on an extraordinarily popular but controversial figure. The reputation of Jackson, who died in 2009 at the age of 50, has been repeatedly tarnished by allegations of sexual abuse of children. Jackson and his estate have maintained his innocence, though the pop star acknowledged sharing a bedroom with other people’s children. He was acquitted in his sole criminal trial in 2005.

Some Jackson family members opposed the film. Janet Jackson was uninvolved and doesn’t appear in it. Jackson’s daughter, Paris, called it “fantasy land.” But three years after “Leaving Neverland,” the 2009 documentary about Jackson’s alleged sexual abuse of children, “Bohemian Rhapsody” producer Graham King announced plans for the biopic. Jackson’s nephew, Jaafar Jackson, was cast to star.

“Michael” had an unusually rocky production. After shooting was completed, producers realized they had made a costly mistake. The third act focused on the accusations of Jordan Chandler, then 13 years old, whom Jackson paid $23 million to in a 1994 settlement. The terms of that settlement barred the Jackson estate from ever mentioning Chandler in a movie.

A huge chunk of the film had to be cut. Reshoots for as much as $50 million were done at the estate’s expense. Director Antoine Fuqua and screenwriter John Logan reworked the movie to conclude in 1988, before any accusations were made.

Yet as bad as things once looked for “Michael,” the movie turned into a hit. The film’s total production cost came close to $200 million. To defray costs, Lionsgate sold international distribution rights to Universal. A sequel, while not yet announced, is expected.

Critics slammed the film for glossing over some of the less convenient aspects of Jackson’s life. It scored a paltry 38% on Rotten Tomatoes. But audiences were far more enthusiastic.

“Michael” earned an “A-” CinemaScore.

The opening for “Michael” added to a strong spring for Hollywood boosted by box-office hits like Amazon MGM’s “Project Hail Mary” and Universal’s “The Super Mario Galaxy Movie.” After three weeks atop the box office, the “Mario” sequel slid to second place, with $21.2 million. It four weeks, it’s collected $386.5 million domestically.