Curated playlist

Island Records artists

U2U2, the Irish rock band, began with a note pinned to a school notice board in Dublin in 1976. Larry Mullen Jr., then a 14-year-old pupil at Mount Temple Comprehensive School, was looking for musicians for a new band. The first practice…
Queen (band)A DJ was told not to play Queen's song "Bohemian Rhapsody", then played it fourteen times in one weekend.
Eric B. & RakimBy Eric B.'s telling, Rakim spat his beer all over the wall laughing at the bass line Eric B. picked.
Elton JohnElton John sang "Candle in the Wind 1997" live only once, at Princess Diana's funeral. He wrote it days before.
Katy PerryKaty Perry grew up in a home where the word "luck" was banned. Her pastor mother said it reminded her of Lucifer.
Janet JacksonJanet Jackson was seen at the 1983 American Music Awards wearing a hoop earring with a key attached to it. She has worn variations of that earring in music videos and live shows ever since. The pair she wore between 1987 and 1990 is now on…
Amy WinehouseAmy Winehouse won five Grammys singing by satellite from London at 3 a.m. Her visa was not processed in time.
Tom WaitsTom Waits accepted his place in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2011 with a joke at his own expense. “They say that I have no hits and I'm difficult to work with. And they say that like it's a bad thing!” The man who inducted him, Neil…
Justin BieberScooter Braun found Justin Bieber by clicking a YouTube video by accident. He had been searching for a different singer.
Cat StevensCat Stevens sold more than 100 million records before he walked away from pop music. A 25-year break followed.
Mariah CareyMariah Carey handed her demo tape to a record boss at a party in December 1988. He turned his car around.
AviciiAvicii, the stage name of the Swedish producer Tim Bergling, is best known for one song's remarkable run. His track Wake Me Up held the title of most-streamed song on Spotify for 506 days, until Ed Sheeran's Thinking Out Loud overtook it…
Robbie WilliamsRobbie Williams walked onto a stage at Knebworth on the 1st of August 2003 and faced a crowd of 125,000 people. He then did it again on the 2nd and the 3rd. Three consecutive nights, with that many people each time, made it the biggest…
Bob MarleyBob Marley, the Jamaican singer, songwriter and guitarist born Robert Nesta Marley, was buried with a red Gibson Les Paul guitar in his casket. Beside it lay a Bible opened to Psalm 23 and a stalk of cannabis, placed there by his widow,…
Demi LovatoDemi Lovato, an American singer, songwriter and actress, sang the national anthem at Super Bowl LIV in 2020. Eighteen years earlier, in 2002, Lovato was a child playing a character named Angela on the children's series Barney & Friends.…
Grace JonesGrace Jones once slapped the chat-show host Russell Harty on live television. She was promoting a record, and she felt ignored when he turned away to interview other guests. The moment suits a performer who has never been easy to look…
Sabrina CarpenterSabrina Carpenter was one of 7,000 entrants in an online singing contest that opened in October 2008. The contest was called The Next Miley Cyrus Project, and Miley Cyrus herself ran it. Carpenter did not win. She placed third, in 2010.…
Jon Bon JoviJon Bon Jovi, born John Francis Bongiovi Jr. on the 2nd of March 1962, has played more than 3,000 concerts with his band in over 50 countries. The crowds added up to more than 35 million fans. He is an American singer, songwriter and…
Jennifer LopezJennifer Lopez wore a plunging green Versace silk chiffon dress to the Grammy Awards in February 2000, and a single outfit changed how people used the internet. The dress became the most popular search query in Google's history. That flood…
Chappell RoanChappell Roan stood in front of a crowd in June 2024 and admitted she was having a hard time that day. Her career, she told them, was going really fast and was hard to keep up with. Then she said the line that frames her whole story: "This…
Madison BeerIn July 2012, Justin Bieber sent a short message to his millions of followers: "wow. 13 years old! she can sing. great job. #futurestar". The girl he meant was Madison Beer, an American singer-songwriter. At the time, she was a teenager…
Florence WelchFlorence Welch, the English singer and songwriter, chose the name of her band while the clock was running out. About an hour before her first gig, she still had no name to announce. Her best idea was Florence Robot Is A Machine, which she…
Keke PalmerKeke Palmer's famous nickname has nothing to do with her real name. Lauren Keyana Palmer took it from an imaginary friend called Keke, invented by her older sister, Loreal, before Palmer was even born. In an interview with Glamour in 2022,…
MorrisseySteven Patrick Morrissey, known to the world as Morrissey, once led a tour of Manchester for the Oxford Road Show in 1985. Late in that tour he reached the secondary school he had attended. He described it in harsh terms and closed with a…
Priyanka ChopraPriyanka Chopra Jonas was crowned Miss World at the Millennium Dome in London on the 30th of November 2000. In 2001, the bridge of her nose collapsed during surgery to remove a polyp. She fell into depression over an appearance she…