17/07/2025

LYFE THURSDAY | JULY 17, 2025

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Justin Bieber releases new album Swag SINGER Justin Bieber has released his first new album in four years called Swag . The 21-track seventh LP, released in a surprise drop on Friday, sees the singer reflect on his experiences as a husband and father, following online speculation around his marriage to wife Hailey Bieber. It comes after the 31-year-old began to post teasers on Instagram last night as mysterious billboards were put up in locations around the world, with the new album described as “some of his most personal music yet”. In May this year, Hailey, daughter of US actor Stephen Baldwin, told Vogue that postpartum life had been “very difficult”, describing constant internet rumours as a “crazy life to live”. She said giving birth to the couple’s son Jack Blues Bieber in August last year was one of the “hardest things” she has ever done after going through an 18-hour labour. The couple has been married since 2018. Track titles on the new record include Therapy Session, Dadz Love and Devotion . Swag follows 2021’s Justice album, which featured singles Hold On , Peaches and Anyone , and was made in collaboration with Carter Lang, Dylan Wiggins, Daniel Caesar, Dijon, Mk.gee, Daniel Chetrit, Eddie Benjamin and Knox Fortune. The record is being released on the Def Jam Recordings label. The Canadian singer began his career in his early teens, and is best known for songs such as Baby , What Do You Mean and Sorry . Justin has been nominated for 23 Grammy Awards and won two, for best country duo/group performance for 10,000 Hours with Dan + Shay and best dance recording for Where are U Now recorded with EDM duo Jack U, made up of DJs Skrillex and Diplo. He also recently launched his clothing and lifestyle brand SkyLRK. – Bernama-Pa Media/dpa

Thames attends the premiere for the film How to Train Your Dragon in Los Angeles, California, US.

Recreating legacy magic H OW To Train Your Dragon writer and director Dean DeBlois said he feels relief and pressure embarking on its sequel following o How To Train Your Dragon star, director speak on experience making live action movie and clarity. What was it like revisiting this world and bringing it to life?

How did you bring to life some of the animation’s famous scenes, such as “Forbidden Friendship” and “Test Flight”? DeBlois on “Forbidden Friendship”: Our solution was to give Mason a dragon and we did so by creating foam versions of Toothless that would be puppeteered by Tom Wilton. And so they worked out the choreography, the drawing in the sand, the sort of stepping around lines and coming to touch for the first time in this beautiful way set to John Powell’s music. Thames on “Test Flight”: It is just me on a giant mechanical bull with wind machines in my face. I had the music playing in the background, which was really cool. Given the film’s success, how do you feel going into the sequel? DeBlois: I feel relieved the movie is being embraced, that audiences are showing up and they are definitely demonstrating there is still an appetite for this world and these characters. And I also feel the pressure to deliver at the highest level we can. No instalment of How to Train Your Dragon should feel like a disappointment that stains the franchise. So, I always feel that pressure, for sure.

the live-action remake’s box office success. The fantasy adventure, which has grossed US$560 million (RM2.3 billion) worldwide since its release in June, came out some 15 years after the DreamWorks animation, which DeBlois co-wrote and co-directed. He also directed the two subsequent animations. Staying loyal to the original, the live-action follows kind-hearted young Viking Hiccup, played by Mason Thames, who secretly befriends a dragon he names Toothless. In an interview with Reuters ahead of the film’s release on digital platforms on Tuesday, which includes behind-the-scenes vignettes, DeBlois and Thames spoke about bringing the animation to life. Below are excerpts edited for length

DeBlois: It was certainly a fun challenge to take a story that I had basically put to bed after spending a decade of my life on it and to sort of dive back into the world, but through the live action lens, which meant we could present a very grounded, a very credible version of this world. And that meant being able to scout locations in Iceland, the Faroe Islands and Scotland to start to design and build actual sets, where we could walk around and touch things. What was it like stepping into the franchise? Thames: It was very daunting and slightly terrifying because so many people care about this world and these characters. I really wanted to do Hiccup as a character justice and finding my version was a lot of fun.

Swag is Justin’s first album since Justice in 2021. – PIC FROM INSTAGRAM @JUSTINBIEBER

Bob Geldof, Brian May mark Live Aid’s 40th at London musical MUSICIANS who performed at Live Aid, the transatlantic concert that raised millions for famine relief in Ethiopia, reunited in London last Sunday to mark the event’s 40th anniversary, attending a special Nik Kershaw and actor Vanessa Williams. probably resonates all the more strongly,” Geldof said. The musicians attended a performance of the musical Just For One Day . Among the stars gathered at Shaftesbury Theatre were Live Aid organisers Bob Geldof and Midge Ure, Queen guitarist Brian May, musician

On this day in 1985, some of the biggest names in music came together for the televised international charity show, held simultaneously at London’s Wembley Stadium and the John F. Kennedy Stadium in Philadelphia. An estimated 1.5 billion people globally watched Live Aid via live satellite broadcasts. The event raised about US$100 million (RM425.3 million) and spawned similar events all over the world for decades afterwards. Irish rocker and activist Geldof said Live Aid is still important because it showed the power of collaborative action. “And today in the age of the death of kindness, which (US President Donald) Trump, (Vice President JD) Vance and Musk have ushered in, it

performance of Just For One Day: The Live Aid Musical , a behind-the-scenes stage musical featuring songs from Sunday’s attendees as well as Bob Dylan, David Bowie, Madonna, Elton John and Paul McCartney. The musical, which had a run at London’s Old Vic in 2024, transferred to the Shaftesbury Theatre in London’s West End in May. It is produced with the permission of the Band Aid Charitable Trust, which gets 10% from the sales of all tickets. “It made me very emotional at the time. Even thinking about it now makes me emotional,” May said, referring to Live Aid in 1985. Queen’s performance that day at Wembley Stadium is widely regarded as a landmark concert in rock music history. – Reuters

Geldof says Live Aid is still important because it showed the power of collaborative action. – PICS FROM REUTERS

May says thinking about Live Aid in 1985 makes him emotional.