Latest news with #Lionel
The Irish Sun
a day ago
- Entertainment
- The Irish Sun
Virgin Media star Katja Mia reveals link to 80s music superstar after ‘legendary' interview on The Six O'Clock Show
LEGENDARY musician Lionel Richie made a brief appearance on The Six O'Clock Show tonight. The music icon is currently in Ireland for his European headline tour Say Hello To The Hits. 2 Katja Mia interviewed Lionel Richie on The Six O'Clock Show tonight Credit: Instagram 2 Katja shared her heart warming link to Lionel with viewers and the music superstar Credit: Instagram travelled up to Belfast to chat with However, before showing her interview, Katja's co-host Brian Dowling gushed: "I actually can't believe you got to meet Lionel Richie in the flesh. What was he actually like in person?" Katja then revealed to her co-host that she was able to have an easy start to her chat as she had a sweet link to the music star. She explained: "He was so genuine, came in smiling, but I told him my brother was named after him and the rest was history." read more on Katja Mia Lionel and Katja weren't the only ones with a connection as the singer expressed his love of Irish crowds at his concerts. He said: "Everyone is a character. Thank God everyone has decided they want to become a singer, because when they come to the show and sing louder than anybody I ever seen in my life. "I think they go to the pub first before they come to the show to then after the show, go to the pub." The 75-year-old explained that he and his touring band take a lot of joy from the laid back nature of performing for an Irish audience. Most read in News TV He explained: "There's a casual, 'We don't care', approach to Ireland. Like if we hit the right note, we are fine. And if we don't hit the right note... we're fine. "It's just loud strong and wrong, it's just great. And they own it, how they can possibly be that happy throughout a whole show... I just don't know." Katja Mia left 'shaking' after creepy gym experience Ahead of her big interview with the star, Katja The 29-year-old wrote: "What the f*** is my life, I'm about to interview Lionel Richie." Sharing a short clip of herself and the music producer hitting it off, Katja said: "What a legend. "I told him my brother was named after him and the rest was history lads." THE ONLY ONE Katja then shared a series of snaps of her looking absolutely thrilled beside Lionel in the indoor stadium. The influencer stunned in a pair of stylish black leather-look jeans, an oversized denim jacket and a pair of black boots. While Lionel looked dapper in khaki green cargo trousers, a grey bomber jacket and a black t-shirt. Katja captioned her post: "Lionel, my new bestie @lionelrichie!!! Interview coming up on The Six O'Clock Show tomorrow."
The Irish Sun
2 days ago
- Entertainment
- The Irish Sun
Virgin Media star Katja Mia left starstruck as she meets ‘legendary' music superstar in ‘iconic moment'
VIRGIN Media star Katja Mia was left completely starstruck after meeting a "legendary" music superstar. The Dublin beauty gets to interview many celebs on Advertisement 3 Katja Mia interviewed Lionel Richie Credit: Instagram / @katja_miaa 3 Katja's interview will be shown on The Six O'Clock Show today Credit: Instagram / @katja_miaa 3 Katja's fans all congratulated her on the 'iconic' interview Credit: Brian McEvoy The Stuck on You singer will be taking to the stage at the SSE Arena in Belfast tomorrow on May 31, before he heads to Dublin. Lionel will be performing at the 3Arena on Sunday, June 1. Katja took to her Instagram yesterday to reveal that she was about to come face-to-face with the star. Advertisement read more on katja mia The 29-year-old wrote: "What the f*** is my life, I'm about to interview Lionel Richie." Sharing a short clip of herself and the music producer hitting it off, Katja said: "What a legend. "I told him my brother was named after him and the rest was history lads." Katja then shared a series of snaps of her looking absolutely thrilled beside Lionel in the indoor stadium. Advertisement MOST READ ON THE IRISH SUN The influencer stunned in a pair of stylish black leather-look jeans, an oversized denim jacket and a pair of black boots. While Lionel looked dapper in khaki green cargo trousers, a grey bomber jacket and a black t-shirt. Inside Virgin Media star Katja Mia's engagement party Katja captioned her post: " Lionel, my new bestie @lionelrichie !!! Interview coming up on The Six O'Clock Show tomorrow. " The popular presenter's friends and fans were sent into a frenzy as they rushed to the comment section with love and support. Advertisement Aoife wrote: "Iconic moment for sureeee!!!" Paciencia said: "Stopppp!! Love this for you." TV LAUGHS Maria commented: "So proud queen!!!!" Kelly remarked: "Oh wow, what a day at the office." Advertisement Katja had spent a couple of days During the week, Katja posted a hilarious video of herself and The Six O'Clock Show producers saying: "Brian who?", before she went live on air. The So, as Brian made his big return, Katja was quick to put him back in his place. Advertisement
Yahoo
23-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Yes, Paul Mescal can sing in 'The History of Sound'
CANNES, France — If you are not perpetually online, you may have missed a TikTok titled 'Paul Mescal Having Pipes for a Minute Straight.' Ardent fans already know that Mescal — jovial Irish lad IRL and incredibly talented sad boy from 'Normal People,' 'All of Us Strangers' and 'Aftersun' — can sing. They've circulated 2012 clips of him playing Javert in 'Les Misérables' and the titular role in 'Phantom of the Opera,' both from when he was 16 and in high school. Occasionally, the actor, 29, has posted videos of himself playing piano and singing at home, including a lovely, impressive duet of 'Nothing Arrived' by Irish indie folk group Villagers alongside Mescal's sister, Nell. He's also been a surprise guest vocalist at a concert of Irish singer Dermot Kennedy, played guitar and sang in a music video for a mostly songless film adaptation of the opera 'Carmen,' and even performed a musical parody of 'Gladiator II' on SNL in 2024 — which may be the first time the public became aware of those pipes. That word, though, hadn't quite gone international, judging from the pleasantly surprised gasps, impressed murmurs and longing sighs that echoed throughout the theater during the premiere of Mescal's singing-infused period epic, 'The History of Sound,' at the Cannes Film Festival on Wednesday night. Ever since the film — a quiet, heartbreaking gay romance set in and around World War I — was announced as a Cannes selection, there have been two burning questions: How's the chemistry between its co-stars, Mescal and Josh O'Connor — two of the biggest young actors of the moment? And how's Mescal's singing? Reviews have been giving shockingly little space to either of these very important topics, so it seemed imperative to dive in. The sepia-toned film — from South African director Oliver Hermanus ('Moffie,' 'Living'), with a script that Ben Shattuck adapted from his own short story — is told from the perspective of Mescal's Lionel, a farm boy raised on guitar-plucked folk songs in rural Kentucky who has both synesthesia and a voice that lands him at the Boston Conservatory of Music. At a bar, Lionel overhears a fellow music student, O'Connor's David at the piano playing a song Lionel's father used to sing to him. Soon, David gets the entire bar to quiet down and cajoles the much-shier Lionel into singing a traditional ballad for him, 'Silver Dagger,' which is essentially a mother's warning to her daughter about men. The only sound in the scene is Mescal's absolutely angelic voice, until David, listening intently, starts accompanying him on piano. Mescal brings a sense of utter joy to Lionel as he sings; this is what he loves more than anything in the world. And you can tell from O'Connor's face that David is mesmerized. It's hard for the audience not to be, too. David immediately begs Lionel to sing him every folk song he knows. That lesson turns into many other joyous nights around the piano, and eventually a night when David asks Lionel to walk him home and the two take their bond to its natural next step. After being torn apart by war, they embark on a blissful summer together hiking through Maine to 'collect' recordings of American folk songs on wax cylinders. There are long dialogue-free stretches, and even when the men are talking, an economy of words. The end of that summer is perhaps the film's greatest tragedy. Early reviews of the film and singing have been mixed. The film's tone was too 'listless' for some, and the BBC's Nicholas Barber wrote that 'Mescal's singing never sounds any better than anyone else's in the film.' Still, his many plaintive renditions of American heritage songs — which were stuck in this viewer's head for days — are deeply felt. 'The power of the music alone makes it one of the most unabashedly romantic LGBTQ films in recent memory,' wrote David Rooney of the Hollywood Reporter. Much of the premiere audience had no quibbles, and seemed primed to love anything Mescal did. The two young women sitting next to this reporter were practically shaking with excitement that they'd scored last-minute seats, and sighed deeply every time Mescal let that lovely voice fly. The actor got a 'We love you, Paul!' shouted from the balcony, and a prolonged standing ovation once the movie ended. Mescal said during Thursday's news conference that he's long been surrounded by the kind of traditional Irish music that influenced so much of the American folk music in the film, 'so it's music that I grew up being familiar with,' he said. (O'Connor couldn't attend the premiere because he's filming Stephen Spielberg's untitled new sci-fi film with Emily Blunt. Rooney accurately describes his charming singing style as 'tuneful' but 'with more gusto than vocal skill.') This film is, bar none, the most of Mescal's singing his fans will hear yet — at least until he finally gets the Broadway musical he's broadcasted wanting to do. As for the chemistry question, the actors are overflowing with it. 'Josh is one of the easiest people to build chemistry with,' Mescal said at the news conference. '[Josh] has a great gift [in that] the person the general public sees is very close to the person we know,' Mescal continued. 'That's a very difficult thing for an actor to do in today's age.' The two men were attached to the film as it developed for four or five years and already came to know each other well. For three or four weeks, they filmed in the woods together, sharing inside jokes and warming up in cars instead of film trailers. On-screen, that gravitational pull is rarely shown with the touching of flesh, but rather through loving, sometimes lustful gazes and dialogue laden with unspoken meaning. More than a few critics brought up parallels to 'Brokeback Mountain,' Ang Lee's celebrated 2005 story of repression and longing among cowboys. Mescal pushed back on that notion in the news conference: 'I personally don't see the parallels to 'Brokeback Mountain,' other than we spend a little bit of time in a tent, but to each their own.' He added, 'To be honest, I find those comparisons relatively lazy and frustrating. For the most part, I think that the relationship that I have to the film is born out of the fact that it's a celebration of these two men's love, not a film about their repressed relationship with their sexuality.' Mubi bought the film out of Cannes and will be bringing it to North America sometime this year. The exact release date is unknown, but it will surely be accompanied by new TikToks of Mescal having pipes, and rightly so.
Time Out
23-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Time Out
The History of Sound
Prepare the Brokeback Mountain comparisons now, because Paul Mescal and Josh O'Connor's tender romance has all the ingredients of Ang Lee's Oscar-winning queer love story. Like that Annie Proulx adaptation, it's based on a short story (by Ben Shattuck, who adapts here) and is set in the woods and hills of rural America (Maine, rather than Wyoming). It's full of the stifled emotions of two men who fall in love but can't quite express it. The only thing missing – and it's a biggie – is the deep passion that coursed beneath the surface of that Oscar winning western. South African director Oliver Hermanus finds plenty of deep feeling and sincerity here but his beautiful-looking, measured period piece gets stifled by its own languors – especially in a first half that needs a slug or two of moonshine to inject some life into it. As he's proved twice already, with gorgeous Ikiru remake Living and striking queer bootcamp drama Moffie, Hermanus is guided by a powerful sense of empathy and compassion. Here, he follows the story of Lionel (Mescal) and David (O'Connor), two music students who meet at Boston Conservatory in 1917 and bond over their shared love of folk music. Lionel, a gentle country boy blessed with an ability to see music – synesthesia – is the shy outsider; David is an east coaster with easy confidence and a boyish sense of mischief. They fall into bed, but their love remains unspoken and undefined. Soon, David is in uniform and off to the Great War trenches of France, while the conflicted but dutiful Lionel heads home to care for his dying mother. The next time they meet will be for a walking tour of Maine, suggested by David, where they'll gather folk songs from small New England communities and record them for posterity. Hermanus has crafted a quiet, touching torch song to lost love This Bill Bryson-meets-Llewellyn Davis project gives Mescal and O'Connor plenty of shared screen time as the pair's chemistry shines through. O'Connor seeds the once-buoyant David with wartime trauma. Mescal, in owlish Harry Potter specs, shows new colours as the sensitive Lionel, though his subdued performance sometimes over-matches the stillness of these beautiful rural tableaus. Happily, The History of Sound turns up the volume in a second half that spans the 1920s and follows Lionel to Rome and Oxford, where unhappy dalliances await, including one with Emma Canning's bubbly upper-class beauty. It's a different kind of gay love story – there's less sense of David wrestling with his sexuality than trying to find a way to remain true to himself as he gradually accepts what he's lost. Ultimately, what emerges is a film about loneliness, about someone important slipping away in a way that will come to define your life. There may be few fireworks, but Hermanus has crafted a quiet and touching torch song to lost love.
Metro
23-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Metro
The History of Sound review - I loved Paul Mescal in this imperfect gay drama
The History of Sound was one of the most eagerly anticipated films out of Cannes for its depiction of an historic gay love story between characters played by Paul Mescal and Josh O'Connor. Director Oliver Hermanus delivers the romance in a poignant, beautifully-shot package – but it's smaller and slower than expected, even if it contains Mescal's finest onscreen work to date. Mescal plays Kentucky farm boy Lionel, blessed with a gifted voice – and synaesthetic response to music – strong enough to send him to a Boston music conservatory on a scholarship in 1917. There he meets Josh O'Connor's David, a genius-level composition student 'with a thousand songs in his head', after he plays a folk song from home that Lionel recognises. It turns out collecting songs is David's passion, with the meeting between his confident and slightly louche manner and Lionel's shyness and sincerity a sweet moment. That it turns sexual between the pair that evening is initially only hinted at, with moments such as them sharing the same glass before David invites Lionel into his bedroom – and it cuts to the next morning. And so begins a surprisingly happy but casual relationship between the pair, given the period, interrupted only when David is drafted to serve in World War One. With thousands of members from all over the world, our vibrant LGBTQ+ WhatsApp channel is a hub for all the latest news and important issues that face the LGBTQ+ community. Simply click on this link, select 'Join Chat' and you're in! Don't forget to turn on notifications! While embraces are later shown, The History of Sound is rather shy and prudish about sex, especially when given the emotionally vulnerable talents of its two lead actors. In some ways, yes, that matches it being a century ago – but it also somehow chafes against the nature of its passionate characters. The angst and emotion of their connection – and how they figure it out when David later invites Lionel on a folk song collection trip in the forests of Maine – is reminiscent of Brokeback Mountain. That's a big compliment to Mescal and O'Connor's natural chemistry, as well as the beautiful if ponderous way director Oliver Hermanus frames and shoots their relationship, even if this romance is not dealing with repression like Heath Ledger and Jake Gyllenhaal's film was. But it leaves you wanting more with its sometimes plodding structure and repetitive moments in the wild together. For a film called The History of Sound, I also didn't connect with the music as much as I expected. There's some lovely singing scenes, but far less of an abundance of folk music than anticipated given David's passion for it. Mescal, who has a pleasant voice, is also given the task of living up to Lionel's much-hyped stunning vocal talent every time he opens his mouth to sing; it feels like the film skirts around it to avoid that issue of exposure where it can. The History of Sound doesn't seem as concerned with music and its emotional impact as much as expected either, especially once David and Lionel's trip together is finished. Lionel's blessed career then takes him across the world – never seemingly impeded by his poverty – as he pines after David following their trip, while pursuing the adventures David wanted him to have. We follow him throughout the 1920s – the film is rigid in noting every date and location in a slightly unnecessary way – until Lionel decides to track down the man who has clearly become the love of his life. More Trending The revelations of The History of Sound's final act are moving and more engaging than other sections of the often slow-moving film. It fuels its poignant and reflective nature about the impact of a love still felt many decades later when Chris Cooper appears as an 80-something Lionel in a touching coda. Mescal and O'Connor do prove the captivating onscreen couple that all their fans hope they'd be, it's just a pity that The History of Sound doesn't provide as sweeping a canvas for them to paint as anticipated. The History of Sound premiered at Cannes Film Festival. It is yet to receive a UK release date. Got a story? If you've got a celebrity story, video or pictures get in touch with the entertainment team by emailing us celebtips@ calling 020 3615 2145 or by visiting our Submit Stuff page – we'd love to hear from you. MORE: Alpha review – I'm sticking up for gruelling French body horror that inspired walkouts MORE: The real story behind those '20-minute standing ovations' at Cannes Film Festival MORE: The 'must-watch' film of 2025 just received a 19-minute standing ovation at Cannes
