Music Features

Beyoncé performs during the MTV Video Music Awards in August 2014, at the Forum in Inglewood, Calif.

10 years later, the 'Beyoncé' surprise drop still offers lessons about control

4:38pm December 13, 2023

by Anastasia Tsioulcas

On Dec. 13, 2013, Beyoncé fans got a holiday gift no one expected. A decade later, the artistic and economic impact of her fifth album is still reverberating.

In 2023, pianist Awadagin Pratt released a terrific comeback album, his first in 12 years.

Music & Culture

The 10 Best Classical Albums of 2023

1:44pm December 13, 2023

by Tom Huizenga

Discover a broad spectrum of this year's most compelling classical music, from symphonic hell rides and soaring voices to searing string quartets, cathartic choirs and one amazing comeback.

Music & Culture

The 123 Best Songs of 2023

5:19pm December 12, 2023

A best-of list should be an opportunity for discovery, so NPR Music has handmade a series of mixtapes full of great songs from 2023 to help you find music you'll love well beyond the end of the year.

Kiss performs its final concert. But has the band truly reached the 'End of the Road'?

6:06pm December 02, 2023

by Chloe Veltman

The 50-year-old heavy rock group performs the final concert of its "End of the Road" tour Saturday in New York. But it's said farewell before.

Maria Callas as Rosina in Rossini's Il Barbieri di Siviglia, at Milan's La Scala theater in 1956.

Maria Callas: The soprano of the century

7:57am December 02, 2023

by Tom Huizenga

One hundred years after her birth, Maria Callas still commands attention in the world of opera, which she forever altered with her singular, searing performances.

Music & Culture

At 95, jazz icon Sheila Jordan still eats, drinks and breathes the music

3:40pm December 01, 2023

by Sarah Geledi

She's among the last living beboppers, one of the first singers on Blue Note and a pioneer of voice and bass. The legendary Sheila Jordan joins Christian McBride for a career-spanning conversation.

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For Beyoncé's Renaissance tour Es Devlin designed a spherical portal — a 50-foot wide aperture — from which the star, her dancers and musicians could emerge and withdraw between songs.

When stars are on stage, this designer makes it personal for each fan in the stadium

6:43am November 30, 2023

by Bilal Qureshi

Es Devlin says that stadiums are designed for competition and combat. So her job, whether she's designing for Beyoncé, Super Bowl Halftime, or The Olympics, is to achieve intimacy on a massive scale.

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Finding a place at the Met, this opera sings in a language of its own

4:55pm November 27, 2023

by Luis Trelles

Florencia gives star Ailyn Pérez a rare chance to sing in Spanish. As the bilingual daughter of Mexican immigrants, she learned early on that language had the power to shape her experience and voice.

In Leo Adam Sandler voices a 74-year-old lizard who learns he has a gift for helping kids sort through their problems.

'Leo' is an animated lizard with an SNL sensibility — and the voice of Adam Sandler

4:35pm November 21, 2023

by Elizabeth Blair

If the pets in a 5th grade classroom could talk, what would they say? That's the premise of Leo, the new coming-of-age movie musical from Netflix.

"I'm better than ever," Brown says. "It just took some time for me to get back to being me again."

Music & Culture

Danny Brown's clean slate

3:53pm November 20, 2023

by William E. Ketchum III

After battling drug addiction and alcoholism, the Detroit rapper emerges from a downward spiral with Quaranta, his most thoughtful album, embracing the wisdom of his 40s.