Karol G's Ode to Curves, Plus 7 More New Songs
Karol G: 'Latina Foreva'
The Colombian singer and rapper Karol G cheerfully fends off some unwanted male attention by praising Latin women instead: 'Those curves don't even exist in NASCAR.' The inventive pop-reggaeton production stays light and changeable, with little keyboard blips and string lines making sure the familiar beat is always laced with bits of melody.
Alejandro Sanz featuring Shakira: 'Bésame'
Husky meets breathy in 'Bésame' ('Kiss Me'), the new duet by Alejandro Sanz, from Spain, and Shakira, from Colombia: a 20-years-later reconnection after their 2005 megahit 'La Tortura.' They trade endearments over a track that connects Latin pop to Nigerian Afrobeats — and, in the bridge, tosses in some flamenco handclaps for more trans-Atlantic fusion.
Guedra Guedra: 'Drift of Drummer'
Abdellah M. Hassak, the Moroccan electronic producer, records as Guedra Guedra. Guedra is a Tuareg dance that shares its name with a cook pot that becomes a drum when covered with an animal skin. 'Drift of Drummer' mixes field recordings that Hassak gathered in his travels across Africa with hand drum machines and synthesizers. Juggling ever-changing layers of percussion over a brisk implied pulse and a terse bass line, the song is a cauldron of rhythms, humanized by snippets of speaking voices.
St. Vincent featuring Mon Laferte: 'Tiempos Violentos'
St. Vincent is joined by another high-drama songwriter and singer, Mon Laferte, for a third iteration of 'Violent Times,' which appeared on her 2024 album 'All Born Screaming' and its Spanish-language version, 'Todos Nacen Gritando.' The ominous horns, looming drumbeats and James Bond-theme chords of the original track remain. Where Laferte takes over certain lines, she brings her own sharp-clawed sweetness.
Stereolab: 'Melodie Is a Wound'
In the 15 years between the band's studio albums — and extensive archival releases in the interim — Stereolab has had ample time to assess and focus its strengths and ambitions. Its new album, 'Instant Holograms On Metal Film,' reinvigorates and concentrates all of Stereolab's best ideas from the 1990s: perky minimalist cycles, odd meters, amiable pop melodies, wavery analog synthesizer tones and calm denunciations of oppressive power structures. In 'Melodie Is a Wound,' Laetitia Sadier warns about, among other things, disinformation that's meant to 'Snuff out the very idea of clarity / Strangle your longing for truth and trust.' The seven-minute track detours into an instrumental coda that starts out breezy, dissolves into noise, reassembles itself and then proceeds to climb through changes of key and texture that cannot contain a rising anxiety.
Julia Michaels: 'Try Your Luck'
Flirtation can be fraught. Julia Michaels urges a timid suitor to 'Try Your Luck,' offering advice with equal parts nonchalance, encouragement, amusement and exasperation: 'If you want the goal, then you gotta shoot the puck,' she sings, backed by easygoing, guitar-scrubbing R&B. 'I could be into it too, depending on you,' she nudges, waiting for the hint to be taken.
Laura Stevenson: 'Honey'
Romance is thorny and ill-starred for Laura Stevenson in 'Honey.' 'No one's come close enough to ever love me back,' she sings. 'I'm not enough, I never am.' What starts out modest and folky, with a lone guitar and then a country-ish band, metamorphoses into a psychedelic reverie, at first delicate and then buffeted by distorted guitars as all her troubled longing surfaces.
Kieran Hebden and William Tyler: 'If I Had a Boat'
In a thoroughly unexpected collaboration, the electronic musician Kieran Hebden (who also performs as Four Tet) joins the meditative guitarist William Tyler for an 11-minute instrumental fantasia on Lyle Lovett's 'If I Had a Boat,' from an album due in September. Tyler fingerpicks the song's cozy, folky chord progression partway through. But most of the track forges electroacoustic hybrids: sustained resonances, metronomic blips, what might be either scraped strings or synthesizer tones. It trades Lovett's verbal free associations for sonic ones.
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Even before we had access to high-speed internet, our youth were achieving remarkable results, mediating conflicts, launching businesses, and leading community dialogues. They were doing this with limited digital tools, often relying on intermittent access or offline resources. Now, with reliable broadband, we're unlocking a new dimension of possibility. Connectivity means more than just sending emails faster. It means access to global knowledge, virtual mentorships, online certifications, and real-time collaboration between our centers in South Sudan, Uganda, South Africa, and beyond. It means our young leaders can now participate in global conversations, access digital markets, and build bridges with peers across continents. For communities that have long been isolated, this represents a significant step toward inclusion, innovation, and empowerment. 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They begin to see themselves not just as survivors of conflict, but as contributors to a shared future. A few years ago, we created an online conversation between students in California and youth from South Sudan. It was extraordinary to witness. On paper, nothing could be more different than their countries and contexts - one group living in a region marked by decades of civil war, the other in one of the world's most developed economies. And yet, nothing compared to the energy that radiated from them as they discovered how close their preoccupations were as the youth of this world. They spoke about their dreams, fears, communities, and hopes for the exchange was not only enlightening but also empowering. It reminded us that the desire to be heard, to connect, and to make a difference is a universal human experience. This is how digital access becomes a tool of emancipation, empowering individuals to become global citizens who understand that their local actions can have global resonance, and vice versa. Our new partnership with Intelsat is a powerful example of how technological innovation can serve social innovation. By bringing high-speed internet to our centers, we're not just upgrading infrastructure: we're expanding horizons. Kevin Holden Platt: In an interview titled 'Forest Whitaker's Journey From Blue-Collar Kid to Peace Seeker,' you mentioned that your interest in cultivating a new generation of peace-builders began while visiting an orphanage in Uganda during the filming of The Last King of Scotland. What was the initial spark that inspired the creation of these peace-focused learning centers across the region? Forest Whitaker: That moment in Uganda was deeply personal. I met young people who had survived the unimaginable. They were former child soldiers who had been forced into violence. And yet, they still carried a spark of struck me most was that they didn't want pity. They wanted purpose. They tried to rebuild, to protect others from experiencing what they had endured. That encounter planted the seed for WPDI. But the idea of creating peace-focused learning centers came from a more profound realization: that peace cannot be imposed from the must be cultivated from within communities. And for that to happen, people need safe spaces, places where they can learn, heal, and grow. Our ambition to provide such safe spaces is what led us to create Community Learning Centers. They are hubs of transformation, where young people gain the tools to become mediators, entrepreneurs, and leaders. They are also symbols—visible commitments to the idea that every community, regardless of its marginalization, deserves access to knowledge, technology, and opportunities. Kevin Holden Platt: In an essay for Time magazine, titled 'Education Is the Key to Breaking the Cycle of Violence,' that you co-wrote with Irina Bokova, who was then UNESCO's Director-General, you said that education brings hope, fosters dreams, and equips youth to rebuild—and called it the best long-term path to peace. Was this the core idea behind your learning centers, that education—particularly in peace-building and human rights, combined with internet access—is key to fostering peace and progress in conflict-affected areas? Forest Whitaker: Absolutely. Education is not just a tool—it's a lifeline. In places where violence has become normalized, education offers an alternative narrative. It tells young people: 'You matter. Your future matters. At WPDI, we see education as the foundation of everything we do. But we define it broadly. It's not just about classrooms or infrastructure; it's about life skills, digital literacy, conflict resolution, and entrepreneurship. It's about equipping people to navigate their world with confidence and compassion. When a young woman in a refugee settlement learns how to code, or when a former gang member in Tijuana learns how to mediate conflict, they're not just gaining skills—they're reclaiming agency. They're becoming architects of peace in their own communities. And that's the long game. Peace isn't built in a day. But when you invest in education, you're planting seeds that will grow for generations. That's why we believe it's the most powerful—and sustainable—path to peace. Kevin Holden Platt: In another article, you said that each role you take on teaches you something profound about humanity. What were some of the most profound lessons you learned while researching, meeting, and portraying Archbishop Desmond Tutu, the remarkably courageous spiritual leader who won the Nobel Peace Prize and helped bring peace and harmony to South Africa? Forest Whitaker: Portraying Archbishop Desmond Tutu in The Forgiven was one of the most spiritually and emotionally demanding roles I've ever taken on. It wasn't just about embodying a historical figure; it was about stepping into the heart of a man who believed that reconciliation was not only possible, but necessary—even in the face of unimaginable pain. What made the experience even more profound was that I knew Archbishop Tutu personally. I had the privilege of meeting him on several occasions, and over time, we developed a friendship rooted in mutual respect. That added a layer of responsibility to the role. When you portray someone you admire deeply—you're not just interpreting a character. You're reflecting a living legacy. You want to honor their truth, not just dramatize it. One of the most profound lessons I learned from that experience was the radical courage it takes to forgive. Tutu didn't see forgiveness as weakness. He saw it as a form of strength, as a way to reclaim dignity and humanity in the aftermath of systemic violence. That's a lesson that resonates deeply with my work at WPDI. In communities fractured by conflict, we often think peace begins with a ceasefire. But real peace begins when people choose to listen, to understand, and to heal. Another lesson was about leadership. Tutu led not by force, but by moral clarity. He understood that authentic leadership is about creating space for others to grow. That's something I strive to carry into my work with young people by helping them discover their voice, their purpose, and their capacity to lead. Kevin Holden Platt: What lessons have you learned while opening the learning centers in Africa, and have those lessons been applied to the parallel center in Seine-Saint-Denis outside Paris? Forest Whitaker: One of the most important lessons we've learned from our Community Learning Centers in Africa is that transformation begins with trust. When we open a center in a place like South Sudan or northern Uganda, we don't just bring in technology or training—we build relationships. We listen to the community. We hire locally. We co-create programs that reflect their needs and aspirations. That trust is what turns a building into a hub of hope. We've carried that same philosophy into our work in Seine-Saint-Denis, France. We are discussing environments that appear to be very different, but the underlying challenges—marginalization, inequality, and lack of opportunity—are strikingly similar. In all these places, you will discover that young people are often told what they can't do. Our goal is to show them what they can do. Another key lesson is adaptability. In Africa, we've had to innovate around limited infrastructure: sometimes we even have to create solar-powered centers or offline learning modules. That spirit of innovation has shaped our approach to programs globally. Ultimately, whether it's in a refugee settlement or an urban classroom, the core insight is the same: When you give people access to knowledge, tools, and a sense of purpose, they don't just change their own lives: they change the world around them.
