Pamela Bach, Baywatch star and ex-wife of David Hasselhoff, dies aged 62
From a modern hip-hop masterpiece to Canada's greatest export since maple syrup, via UK dancehall-grime-funk, here's our pick of the three albums celebrating a major anniversary this month.
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Every month of 2025, Euronews Culture takes a trip down memory lane and handpicks a trio of albums celebrating a major milestone.
These are the three records you should choose to (re)discover as they respectively turn 10, 20, and 30 this March.
Turning 10 in 2025: Kendrick Lamar – To Pimp A Butterfly
Kendrick Lamar – To Pimp A Butterfly
Top Dawg Entertainment
Release date: 15 March 2015
In a nutshell: It's been fourteen years since Compton-born Kendrick Lamar dropped his debut album, and the music scene hasn't quite been the same since. Last year was something of a consecration for the artist who has become one of the most influential rappers of all time. From the Drake-destroying battle, the victory lap that was 'GNX', to this year with his Grammy sweep and the Super Bowl halftime show, it's clear that no one can dethrone hip-hop's poet laureate. Before all that though was K.Dot's third album, 'To Pimp A Butterfly'. No one could have predicted quite to what extent his 2015 effort would not only top his previous storytelling masterpiece, 'Good Kid, M.A.A.D City', but herald him as the most distinctive generational voice of his time. No hyperbole.
Why it's our pick: What can be said about 'To Pimp A Butterfly' that hasn't already been gushed about profusely? Not much, except to say that every now and then, an album comes along that feels like it simultaneously holds a mirror up to culture and comes to define it. The album is urgent, lyrically dexterous, exigently executed, timely and timeless - a veritable milestone in hip-hop alongside 'Madvillainy', 'Illmatic' and 'The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill'. By fusing hip-hop, R&B, jazz, funk and spoken word, Lamar constructed a politically charged opus that is both hopeful and enraged, as evidenced by two of the album's standout tracks: the Grammy-winning 'Alright', a modern-day 'What's Going On' that became the unifying anthem of the #BlackLivesMatter movement, and 'The Blacker The Berry', a track dripping with righteous anger which interrogates and celebrates the concept of Blackness to better comment on the Black American experience. It's an unashamedly heady album, not just because of its themes that explore historical and psychological oppression - as well as entrenched racism with the American system - but also due to its musically rich makeup. 'To Pimp A Butterfly' doesn't reveal all its layers in one go, making it an album which rewards listens 10 years since its release. Many consider it Lamar's best; what's certain is that as we celebrate its first decade, it's a strong contender for the greatest album of the 21st century. Would you look at that - turns out there's still plenty to say.
Key tracks: 'King Kunta', 'U', 'Alright', 'Hood Politics', 'The Black The Berry', 'I'.
Standout lyric: 'I'm black as the moon, heritage of a small village / Pardon my residence / Came from the bottom of mankind / My hair is nappy, my dick is big, my nose is round and wide / You hate me don't you? / You hate my people, your plan is to terminate my culture / You're fuckin' evil / I want you to recognize that I'm a proud monkey / You vandalize my perception but can't take style from me / And this is more than confession / I mean I might press the button just so you know my discretion / I'm caught in my feelings, I know that you feel it / You sabotage my community, makin' a killin' / You made me a killer, emancipation of a real nigga.' ('The Blacker The Berry')
Also turning 10 in March 2025: Sufjan Stevens' 'Carrie & Lowell', one of the American musician's most glorious and heartbreaking albums; 'Sometimes I Sit and Think, and Sometimes I Just Sit', the superb debut from Courtney Barnett; Laura Marling's 'Short Movie'; Canadian post-rockers Godspeed You! Black Emperor's fifth record 'Asunder, Sweet and Other Distress'. March 2015 was a good month for music.
Turning 20 in 2025: M.I.A. – Arular
M.I.A. – Arular
XL Recordings / Interscope Records
Release date: 22 March 2005
In a nutshell: 20 years ago, listeners discovered the sounds of Mathangi "Maya" Arulpragasam aka: M.I.A., the British rapper and singer of Tamil origin. Combining dancehall grooves, hip-hop brashness, as well as a hefty dose of raga, world music and punk spirit, her debut album was a true statement of intent. Her underground and unclassifiable sound was finally emerging, and you'd never heard anything like it before.
Why it's our pick: Chances are you know at least one song by M.I.A.: her 2008 Grammy-nominated hit 'Paper Planes', which was featured in the Oscar-winning film Slumdog Millionaire. However, before that came the more lo-fi 'Arular', a raw debut that wanted its listeners to dance to political songs. Indeed, themes of conflict and revolution are everywhere in 'Arular' - the title being a clue, as it refers to the political code name used by her father during his involvement with Sri Lankan Tamil militant groups. Standout tracks include the sexually charged 'Bucky Done Gun', which was reportedly influenced by her experiences of civil war in Sri Lanka; the downtempo jungle sounds of 'Sunshowers', which tackles the topic of gun culture and led MTV US to censor its sounds of gunshots (the death of irony, ladies and gentlemen); and 'Galang', a dancehall banger containing plenty of sexual innuendos and references to weed, as well as nods to The Clash's 'London Calling'. While it may sound abrasive and musically scattergun, there's something addictively weird and wonderful about this album. M.I.A. may have refined her sound with more confident efforts like 'Kala' (2007) and 'Mantangi' (2013), but 'Arular' remains a fascinating debut album well worth revisiting.
Key tracks: 'Pull Up The People', 'Bucky Done Gun', 'Fire Fire', Sunshowers', 'Galang'.
Standout lyric: 'They say rivers gonna run though / Work is gonna save you / Pray and you will pull through / Suck a dick'll help you / Don't let em get to you / If he's got one you get two / Backstab your crew / Sell it I could sell you.' ('Galang')
Also turning 20 in March 2025: UK indie rockers Kaiser Chiefs' debut 'Employment' which features pretty much all their hits apart from 'Ruby'; Jack Johnson's best album, 'In Between Dreams', featuring the uplifting hits 'Better Together', 'Good People' and 'Sitting, Waiting, Wishing'.
Turning 30 in 2025: Céline Dion – D'eux
Céline Dion – D'eux
Columbia
Release date: 30 March 1995
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In a nutshell: Who said 13 was unlucky? It certainly wasn't for Queen Céline, whose thirteenth studio album 'D'eux' remains her greatest to this day. Mainly written and produced by French singer-songwriter Jean-Jacques Goldman, the album includes hits like 'J'irai où tu iras', 'Pour que tu m'aimes encore', 'Je sais pas' and 'Vole' - the latter three later recorded in English as 'If That's What It Takes', 'I Don't Know' and 'Fly' on Dion's next album, 1996's Grammy-winning 'Falling Into You'. Most anglophone listeners will know that record, but as good as it is, the French-language 'D'eux' is a superior beast. It was prosaically titled 'The French Album' in the US (scoff and eyeroll all you want, they've asked for it) and it became the best-selling French-language album - as well as the best-selling non-English language album by a female artist - of all time.
Why it's our pick: We could wax lyrical about how beautiful this album is, how it rightly stayed at the top of the French charts for a record-breaking 44 weeks, or how Céline expertly navigated the most commercially successful phase of her career in the 90s – a decade in which she outsold both Whitney Houston and Mariah Carey. Instead, here's a question: Have you ever listened to the song 'Pour que tu m'aimes encore' and, in a moment of reckless abandon, fuelled by heartbreak and too much wine which made you forget you have the singing voice of an enchanted plimsoll, belted out the song's lyrics as if your love life depended on it? Well, you should. Preferably culminating on your knees, with your clenched fists becoming outstretched arms. Seriously, has there ever been a more soul-stirring declaration of love? No there hasn't, and no cries of protest citing Whitney's 'I Will Always Love You', Stevie's 'Signed, Sealed, Delivered I'm Yours' or Percy's 'When A Man Loves A Woman' count. On the swoon scale, they all rank high, but the crown remains Céline's. And if you were thinking about the maudlin 'All Of Me' by John Legend, you need to take a long hard look in the mirror and start rethinking some things, sunshine.
Key tracks: 'Pour que tu m'aimes encore', 'Je sais pas', 'Les derniers seront les premiers', 'J'irai où tu iras'.
Standout lyric: 'J'irai chercher ton cœur si tu l'emportes ailleurs / Même si dans tes danses d'autres dansent tes heures / J'irai chercher ton âme dans les froids dans les flammes / Je te jetterai des sorts pour que tu m'aimes encore.' ('Pour que tu m'aimes encore')
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Also turning 30 in March 2025: Radiohead's second album 'The Bends', a significant step up from 'Pablo Honey' and a sure sign that there was a lot more to the Oxford quintet than their hit 'Creep'; Joan Osborne's debut 'Relish', featuring her biggest hit 'One of Us'; ex-Wu-Tang member Ol' Dirty Bastard's hardcore hip-hop debut 'Return to the 36 Chambers: The Dirty Version'.
Happy listening and catch you next month!
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Euronews
2 days ago
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Profundity may be hard to detect among a sea of crystals but there are important themes at work amongst the glitz. There's an anthropological callback to Levi Strauss in the play's symbolic handing-over of the written word from the character of 'Me' and then to the character of 'You'. Walls created by isolation are broken, which takes on its own emotional evocation after the confinement of the global pandemic. The astonishing acrobatic performers (audiences genuinely screaming with disbelief at the physical feats) fall out of windows onto trampettes and ping back up again only to throw themselves out again is a nice metaphor for human romantic behaviour. The silly shapes we bend ourselves into for love and visibility. And on the philosophical note, when quizzed about upcoming fashion trends, Gaultier responds with something that probably should be on a poster. "I don't look at fashion as much as I used to. And trends are just trends but the style is something that stays. If you are too fashionable then very quickly you become unfashionable. As the French say La Mode se démode." Falling in Love is booking until 5 July 2025.
France 24
2 days ago
- France 24
Thirteen go on trial in France over 'racist' stunt targeting singer Aya Nakamura
The defendants, linked to extreme-right group Les Natifs (the Natives), are on trial for unveiling a banner in March 2024 that read: "No way, Aya, this is Paris, not the Bamako market" -- a reference to Mali's capital, where the singer was born. Nakamura's performance sparked a political firestorm amongst far-right politicians and conservatives in a reaction French President Emmanuel Macron at the time described as "racist" and "shocking". The 13 defendants, between 20 and 31-years-old, now face charges of publicly inciting hatred or violence -- or complicity in such incitement -- on the grounds of ethnicity, nationality, race, or religion. Les Natifs espouses the far-right, white nationalist so called "Great Replacement" conspiracy theory, according to which white Europeans are being deliberately supplanted by non-white immigrants. Nakamura responded to the group's stunt on social media, writing: "You can be racist, but you're not deaf... and that's what really bothers you! I'm suddenly the number one topic of debate -- but what do I really owe you? Nothing." The singer and anti-discrimination NGOs filed complaints with the Paris prosecutor's office over the incident, which was investigated by France's anti-hate crimes organisation, OCLCH. - 'Shock public opinion' - The 30-year-old is the world's most listened to Francophone singer, and her July 2024 performance on one of Paris's fabled bridges the Pont des Arts was among the most-watched moments of the opening ceremony. But when rumours began circulating in March that the Mali-born and Paris-raised superstar was going to perform, far-right politicians and groups vehemently criticised the decision. An appearance by Nakamura, who mixes French with Arabic and Malian slang, would "humiliate" the country, far-right leader Marine Le Pen suggested, taking aim at her supposed "vulgarity" and "the fact that she doesn't sing in French." Far-right media amplified Les Natifs' banner which they unfurled along the capital's Seine River, another in a series of provocative stunts by the group which it shares with thousands of followers on social media. In March, the group covered portraits of veiled women on display in a church in the Paris suburb of Saint-Denis with black sheets. One of the thirteen defendants set to stand trial on Wednesday, Stanislas T., 24, will also face charges in that case on Thursday. And in February, they plastered an Air Algeria office in Paris with posters reading "Re-migrate 'light' from France to Algeria, for a one-way ticket with no return" written over a single suitcase. The goal for groups like Les Natifs is to "provoke massive reactions and shock public opinion so we have no choice but to talk about them", said Marion Jacquet-Vaillant, an expert on far-right movements in France. In April, one of Les Natifs' roughly 50 members described the group's identity as "civilisational, European; national, French; and local, Parisian". The so-called fight against the "great replacement" is the "mother of all battles", said Gabriel, 25, who works in finance. The United Nations human rights chief warned in 2024 that the conspiracy theory is "delusional and deeply racist," and a direct driver of violence. Nakamura's complaint is not the only one stemming from last summer's opening ceremony to head to trial. A French court in May found seven people guilty of bullying Thomas Jolly, the artistic director for the opening ceremony who is openly gay. And five people are to stand trial in September over similar complaints from Barbara Butch, a French DJ and lesbian activist who starred in a controversial scene during the event. © 2025 AFP
