
Controversial Oscar winning performer joins pop icon and former girl-group legend at Capital Summertime Ball as MORE musical headliners are confirmed for annual Wembley event
American Oscar-winner Will Smith will join pop star Rita Ora and former Little Mix icon Jade Thirlwall at this year's Capital Summertime Ball after more headliners were confirmed on Tuesday morning.
Smith has returned to the spotlight with long-term collaborator DJ Jazzy Jeff on new album Based On A True Story, inspired in part by his fall from grace after assaulting comedian Chris Rock at the Academy Awards in 2022.
His musical comeback will also include a headline slot at Wembley Stadium on June 15, where he and Jazzy Jeff will feature alongside a host of mainstream stars.
As confirmed by Capital Breakfast radio hosts Jordan North, Chris Stark and Siân Welby on Tuesday, British singers Rita Ora and Jade Thirlwall - who now performs as JADE - will also feature, the latter having previously performed at the annual event with Little Mix in 2015 and 2017.
Now a successful solo artist, JADE will take to the stage after winning a BRIT Award for Best British Pop Act in March.
Elsewhere Mariah Carey will headline Capital Summertime Ball with Barclaycard 2025, marking her first UK performance in six years as she joins the likes of Benson Boone and KSI among the star acts confirmed.
The UK's biggest summer party will return to London's Wembley Stadium on Sunday June 15, with 80,000 music lovers set to attend.
The pop icon, 56, will make her Summertime Ball debut at the annual event, with the star-studded musical lineup confirmed on Monday morning by Capital Breakfast presenters Jordan North, Chris Stark and Siân Welby.
The likes of Lola Young, Busted vs McFly, Zara Larsson, Dasha, Reneé Rapp, and Jessie J will also take to the stage at the music event.
Beautiful Things singer Benson Boone, 22, returns after a mesmerising performance last year while KSI, 31, makes his first appearance at the Ball since 2022.
Superstar Mariah is known for her hits We Belong Together, Hero and Fantasy, as well as festive classic All I Want For Christmas Is You, and will be jetting over to London for the festival.
She has sold more than 200 million records worldwide over a career spanning three decades and 15 studio albums.
Benson, one of the biggest pop stars on the planet right now, already has an impressive list of global smash hits which also include Cry.
KSI is set to deliver a high-energy performance, following up on his 2024 Jingle Bell Ball showing, in news which will get attendees excited, while Zara also returns for another set to remember at the event.
Busted vs McFly will bring their legendary energy to the Summertime Ball with Barclaycard.
Both BRIT Award-winning bands helped shape the soundtrack of a generation - and now, ahead of their 2025 tour, they'll go song-for-song in an unmissable showdown.
Expect a set packed with anthems from Busted's Crashed The Wedding, Year 3000 and Who's David, to McFly's Obviously, 5 Colours In Her Hair and All About You. It's a battle of the bands that will have Wembley singing every word.
Capital Breakfast's Jordan North said: 'We are absolutely buzzing to be back at Capital's Summertime Ball with Barclaycard this year!
'We've just announced the first half of the incredible line-up on-air but be sure to tune in to Capital Breakfast tomorrow for even more names that will be playing!'
Ashley Tabor-King CBE, Founder & Executive President of Global, said: 'Capital's Summertime Ball with Barclaycard is back, and this year we're bringing some huge names we've never had at the Ball before.
'We've got a stellar line-up of global superstars and today's biggest hit music artists - all set to light up the stage!
'This is truly one of our best ever line-ups and we can't wait to see 80,000 Capital listeners enjoy every moment, it's going to be a day to remember!'
James Rea, Chief Broadcasting & Content Officer of Global, said: 'Capital's live events set the bar, and nothing beats the energy of Wembley on Summertime Ball day.
'Whether you're in the stadium or tuning in live, you won't want to miss a second of the UK's biggest summer party.'
Tickets for the massive event go on general sale on Wednesday at 9am exclusively on Global Player, the official Capital app.
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Daily Mirror
2 hours ago
- Daily Mirror
'If only Macca and Mick Jagger took on the Establishment like Bruce Springsteen'
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The Herald Scotland
2 hours ago
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'Writing songs in my little back bedroom was a way to close the door on all of that and escape to another world,' Horse told Billy Sloan a few years ago. 'It became a means of taking care of myself and also releasing lots of unhappiness, anger and tension. What began to happen was a kind of osmosis, almost. My emotions became the root of the songs, which makes them all quite heartfelt.' In the Eighties, she met Angela McAlinden, and they began working on songs together, and over the years other musicians joined them. Horse, who wrote the melodies, and Angela, who composed the lyrics, made a formidable team. A tape made by the band came to the attention of the producers on The Tube, a wildly popular TV music show at the time. 'We were really just thrown on', Horse told The National, the Herald's sister paper, in 2022. The band guested on the show in March 1987. 'The soundcheck was the camera check – and there were cameras everywhere! My mouth was so dry and I could hardly sing. However, in those days there was no social media or way of contacting the show other than phoning in and they told us that the switchboard had been jammed with people asking about 'that' band. "At that point we had no management, and we really weren't equipped to 'go'. It was such a lost opportunity but what a great experience for us. A mass audience of over five million meant when we were back in Scotland people did start to look and point at me in the street. Not for bad reasons either'. Read more After more demo tapes being sent to publishers and labels a publishing deal was finally secured with the giant EMI. Sally Perryman organised a showcase in Glasgow for the top record labels at what was then the Third Eye Centre (now the CCA), and from this they signed to Capitol. The two women began crafting the 10 songs that would appear on the album. The production was in the hands of Pete Smith, for whom the band first showcased the album's songs in a gig at Paisley Arts Centre – the very place where the Same Sky 35 tour begins in a fortnight's time. The recording of the album was, however, interrupted by an unforeseeable development; realising that something was amiss with her voice, Horse consulted a doctor, then a specialist, who told that she had a node on her left vocal cord. The singer wanted to delay an operation until after the album was finished, but the specialist recommended otherwise. The operation took place, and she had to remain silent for 10 days. The recording of her vocals was put back for two months; in the meantime, the band continued to put down the tracks. The 10 songs on The Same Sky have so many highlights, as signalled by the opening, soaring one-two of …And She Smiled, and The Speed of the Beat of My Heart. Careful, the poignant closing track, was recorded with a 12-piece string section and arranged by Audrey Riley. It was the ultimate single from the album, it would later be covered, solo and with an acoustic guitar, by Will Young. Horse is in superb voice throughout, and the emotional impact of Angela's lyrics can't be overstated. One track, Sweet Thing, expresses a sense of longing, and also gives rise to the album title: 'Can our hearts synchronise, my baby? / Miles of distance come between us like years/ Covered by the same sky but so separately…' It also happens to be Pete Smith's favourite track on the record. He's especially proud of the build-up into the chorus, as he told Davie Scott on the latter's BBC Radio Scotland Classic Scottish Albums series in 2022. 'Sometimes you get something eighty per cent right, sometimes you get things fifty per cent right. I got that a hundred per cent right'. Horse, in subsequent interviews, spoke of her lasting pride in the record, noting with pride that a lot of people had said it remained their favourite albums of the Nineties. But there is perhaps a sense that greater success might have been yielded by The Same Sky. There were several time-consuming issues with the record label, Capitol UK, and frustrations with the way that Horse herself was marketed. 'We were never part of any clique', she reflected as she discussed the album with Davie Scott. 'We were never part of the Glasgow crowd, like Postcard [Records], but we were around at the same time as Hue and Cry, Deacon Blue, [the Pearlfishers], H20 – a really successful seam of Scottish artists – but we always just never seemed to pass Go and collect £200. 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Despite the fact that we couldn't solve the record-company hassles, we knew there were a lot of fans out there who hadn't forgotten about us. They really kept us going and made us doubly determined to succeed.'' The Herald's David Belcher predicted at the time: 'It would seem that Horse McDonald, the woman, and Horse, the band, are on the verge of becoming Horse, the big-time pop phenomenon'. It didn't quite work out like that, unfortunately, and the band eventually broke up. But Horse has continued to successfully release her own music since 1999. The most recent album was The Road Less Travelled in 2024. The Same Sky 35 anniversary tour, and the 2025 remaster, will add lustre to the reputation of an excellent debut album. * For full dates of the Same Sky 35 tour, see


Metro
3 hours ago
- Metro
Psychological thriller labelled a ‘masterpiece' free to stream on BBC iPlayer
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