Latest news with #popduo
Daily Mail
2 days ago
- Entertainment
- Daily Mail
Pop duo are forced to cancel a string of gigs after band member dramatically collapsed onstage
A well-known pop duo have been forced to cancel a string of gigs after one of their band members dramatically collapsed on stage. Royel Otis - an Australian guitar-pop duo from Sydney - will no longer perform their upcoming shows after member Royel became 'unwell with a virus'. The band was formed in 2019 by Royel Maddell and Otis Pavlovic and this week they had been performing in Germany at the MS Dockville festival. Video circulating on TikTok appeared to show the worrying moment Royel collapses in the middle of their set. He was then helped by the rest of the band on stage. The band have not directly addressed the collapsing incident but did release a statement this weekend. They said: 'We are really sorry to say that we need to cancel our set at Lowlands + Pukkelpop festival as Roy has been unwell with a virus since last night's show in Hamburg. 'We were really looking forward to playing for you and hope we can see you at one of our other shows soon. 'Thank you for all your support always [pink heart emoji] Roy + Otis.' It comes as this week it was announced that Harvest Rock Festival will return this year after suffering a cancellation last year - and Royel Otis are down to play. The iconic Adelaide music event announced its 2025 lineup in an Instagram post on Thursday, revealing that iconic rock band The Strokes would be headlining the event in October. Bragging 14.5 million monthly listeners on Spotify, a platinum album and numerous awards - including a Grammy Award for Best Rock Album in 2021 - the band are a huge addition to the festival's program. Also on the stacked list of performers is The War On Drugs, M.I.A and Jelly Roll, as well as beloved Aussie favourites Vance Joy, Wolfmother, Lime Cordiale, Royel Otis and The Jungle Giants. Taking place at Rymill Park and King Rodney Park in the heart of Adelaide on October 25 and 26, the festival's return has sent waves through the live music circuit. The band was formed in 2019 by Royel Maddell and Otis Pavlovic and this week they had been performing in Germany at the MS Dockville festival when Royel collapsed Presale tickets will be available for purchase on August 19, and general sale will be open to the public on August 20. Last year fans were left heartbroken after the festival was scrapped just months before it was set to take place. In August 2024, Harvest Rock organisers announced on Instagram that the show would not go on, marking the first time it had been cancelled since its inception in 2011. 'We've been working hard to make Harvest Rock III another incredible event, however we have made the difficult decision to not hold the festival in 2024,' the post read. 'We appreciate the ongoing support of the South Australian Government and we look forward to Harvest Rock in the future.' Secret Sounds, the promoter of the event, is understood to have been unable to book a headline act for the 2024 event, the Adelaide Advertiser reported. However, the exact reason for the cancellation was not indicated by either Harvest Rock music festival or Secret Sounds.
The Sun
3 days ago
- Entertainment
- The Sun
Pop duo forced to cancel gigs after member collapsed on stage
A POPULAR pop duo have been forced to cancel a string of gigs after one of the members dramatically collapsed on stage. Royel Otis have cancelled upcoming gigs after a worrying turn on stage this week. 2 2 The Aussie pop duo had been performing in Germany at the MS Dockville festival when one member fell unwell on-stage. Consisting of Royel Maddell and Otis Pavlovic, footage that was circulated on TikTok appeared to show Royel collapsing to the ground mid-set. Members of the on-stage live band rushed to help as Royel stumbled backwards with his guitar still on him. He appeared to fall on his back as gasps could be heard ringing out across the shocked crowd. The band are yet to address what happened to Royel but concert-goers appeared to suggest that his terrifying fall came just 15 minutes into the band's performance. Now, the band have broken their silence to confirm they are pulling the plug on their impending gigs following the scary incident. Writing on their Instagram account, they confirmed that Royel was suffering from a virus as they said: "We are really sorry to say that we need to cancel our set at Lowlands + Pukkelpop festival as Roy has been unwell with a virus since last night's show in Hamburg. "We were really looking forward to playing for you and hope we can see you at one of our other shows soon. "Thank you for all your support always [pink heart emoji] Roy + Otis." The group have been working together for the past six years but have only found mainstream success in recent years.
Japan Times
03-08-2025
- Entertainment
- Japan Times
A great start to Saturday
At first, it seemed like a lost opportunity to schedule the Argentine pop duo Ca7riel and Paco Amoroso in the morning, but it actually was a stroke of genius. Saturday is traditionally the most crowded day of the festival for obvious reasons, and today is sold out. C&PA thus were charged with getting the crowd in the proper mood to last the rest of the day, and they passed with flying colors, especially pink, which Ca7riel sported in an enormously puffy air-conditioned jacket and slacks combination. Paco was all in black, though the weird shapes coming off his costume made him look like a Takashi Murakami figurine. The fact that they stayed seated for the first half of their hour-long set didn't discourage the audience from dancing themselves, which they did with total abandon, and all the way up to the tree line. We assume we have Sony, their label, to thank for the translated lyrics on the jumbotron screens. Lots of good-natured sexual content there, and while the duo's music zigzags from hip-hop to smooth R&B to raunchy rock and several species of Latin dance music, it's all wrapped in a sardonic tone. The reason they're so easy to love is because they make you feel you're in on their secret joke. And once they stood up and started dancing themselves, Ca7riel's bounce contrasting fully with Paco's swish, it was already party. In fact, the problem may be that the crowd would be too exhausted to last the day. Maybe the best opening Saturday set we've ever seen at Fuji The crowd at the White Stage for opener Basque ska-punk Fermin Muguruza was much smaller but quite a bit livelier. We saw our first mosh pit of the day, which is saying something considering how hot it was. Stridently political, Muguruza covered the waterfront so to speak, ranging from Kurdish independence to chants of Free Palestine! to name-dropping important figures of the revolution. Rumor has it that he's finally retiring, but despite the grandfatherly aspect, he still puts on a fiery show and got the kids, as well as few ojisans, pogoing enough to kick up some dust. Viva la Revolucion!
Daily Mail
10-07-2025
- Entertainment
- Daily Mail
'Fake lesbian' pop duo look unrecognisable more than two decades after finding fame with VERY provocative music video - can you guess who they are?
A headline-grabbing pop duo look unrecognisable more than two decades after they first found fame in 2002. The controversial pop stars burst onto the scene in the early noughties and quickly went to number one in the UK with their debut single. The music video saw the pair dressed as school girls where they kissed in front of a group of passive adult onlookers. At the time, the ladies played into a lesbian gimmick where they pretended to be in love with each other and in a relationship. However, they later admitted that their lesbian persona was a fake marketing ploy cooked up for shock value. Now, the pair have reunited and promised 'a lot of interesting things ahead' for their fans - but can you guess who they are? That's right, it's t.A.T.u! The duo, comprised of singers Lena Katina and Julia Volkova, were rarely off the red carpet following the release of hit single All The Things She Said in 2002. The video sparked inevitable outrage, and the BBC were forced to deny banning it from their pre-watershed schedule, instead insisting they had better content available at the time. ITV later refused to play the clip on Ant McPartlin and Declan Donnelly's Saturday morning show CD:UK, insisting: 'It is not really suitable for children.' Despite the controversy, the song went to number one in several countries and to number 20 on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100, still the highest-placing position for a Russian act to date. They also represented Russia in the 2003 Eurovision Song Contest - where they finished third. Some of their other attention-grabbing publicity stunts included performing on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno in 2003 wearing T-shirts that had 'f**k the war' written in Russian, and attempting to run for Russian president in 2004. All The Things She Said would prove to be their high point, with subsequent singles failing to make a similar impact before the band finally parted ways in 2011. These days Yulia looks vastly different to how she did during her chart-topping past as one half of the Russian group They have reunited sporadically over the yeards for concerts and have now got together again, posing for a new photoshoot and promising exciting things ahead for their fans. One of their recent notable gigs was at Gazprom Arena, home of Russian president Vladimir Putin's favourite football club Zenit St. Petersburg, in May 2023 - despite efforts from his supporters to have the pair cancelled for spreading 'LGBT propaganda'. The pair sang Not Gonna Get us before Zenit St Petersburg's clash with Spartak Moscow, which the home side won 3-2, sealing a fifth Russian Premier League title in a row. t.A.T.U came out of retirement as Putin's censors sought to expunge any trace of their band amid a hardline crackdown on LGBT propaganda, part of a wave of repressions in Russia during the war in Ukraine. Speaking ahead of the match in front of thousands of Russian fans, they sang: 'Nothing can stop this, 'Not now, I love you', 'They're not gonna get us'.' Lena is now married to millionaire businessman Dmitry Spiridonov, her second husband, after exchanging vows in 2022. The star was previously married to Sasha Kuzmanović from 2013 to 2019 and shares son Aleksandr, 11, with him. Away from t.A.T.u she's released three studio albums so far and topped the U.S. Billboard club chart with her 2011 single Never Forget. Lena admitted she opted against having media at her second wedding, saying: 'We'll just sign the papers and think about having a big bash later. 'Both Dima and I know what we want to do, we will do everything for ourselves.' Dmitry previously battled thyroid cancer and went into remission after treatment. The cancer later returned but he is said to be in remission once again. The couple welcomed their first child as a couple and Lena's second, a son, in 2023. Lena was visibly pregnant with her second child when they took to the stage at Gazprom Arena, home of Russian Premier Vladimir Putin's favourite football club Zenit St. Petersburg Meanwhile Yulia has attracted her fair share of controversy away from the band, starting in 2004 when she announced her first pregnancy with then-boyfriend Pavel Sidorov - who was already married with a daughter. She gave birth to daughter Viktoria that September before parting ways with Sidorov, with whom she no longer maintains contact. Three years later she welcomed her second child, son Samir, with Uzbek businessman Parviz Yasinov. In 2013 she surprised fans by revealing she was Muslim, telling HELLO!: 'I don't wear typical clothes, but I converted to Islam because it's the closest to my heart.' However, she later reverted back to Eastern Orthodox Christianity. The singer also faced backlash after appearing on Russian TV show Lie Detector in 2014 after stating she would condemn her son if he came out as gay. 'Yes, I would condemn him, because I believe that a real man must be a real man,' she was translated as saying. 'God created man for procreation, it is the nature. The man for me is the support, the strength of… I won't accept a gay son.' Despite her strong views, she stated that she didn't have a problem with lesbians. 'Two girls together—not the same thing as two men together. It seems to me that lesbians look aesthetically much nicer.' In April 2021, she launched a political career as a candidate for Russia's conservative party, United Russia, but was crushed in the legislative election. Lena Katina appears to have aged naturally with little to no cosmetic surgery and has largely focused on her solo music career since leaving t.A.T.u.
The Guardian
25-05-2025
- Entertainment
- The Guardian
‘People in the scene would sometimes be mean to us. They'd forget we were teenagers': Daphne and Celeste look back
New Yorkers Celeste Cruz and Karen 'Daphne' DiConcetto auditioned to become a pop duo in 1998. Their career was short-lived but memorable – releasing Ooh Stick You, U.G.L.Y. and a cover version of Alice Cooper's School's Out!; they were also bottled off stage at the 2000 Reading festival. After getting dropped in 2001, Celeste pursued a career in acting, and Karen in screenwriting. They reunited in 2015, with the album Daphne & Celeste Save the World following in 2018. Karen lives in Brooklyn, and Celeste in New Jersey. They perform at the Mighty Hoopla festival in London on 31 May. Based on Celeste's T-shirt, I would say this was taken during the promotion of U.G.L.Y. – her frosted blue eyeshadow is a clear indicator, too, as it was very much a thing back then. Someone should have told me to paint my nails. I also think we were getting bored with all of our normal poses. Boredom is the only reasonable explanation for that hand-to-mouth expression. One of the first things Celeste said to me was: 'Hey, so, like, I've got pinkeye [conjunctivitis].' She wanted to get it out of the way at the start of the audition, so I wouldn't think she had an eye that always looked like that, which I found endearing. My other memory is of us dancing to the instrumental to Ooh Stick You and us both saying: 'What is this strange song?' When we arrived in England, I had just seen the movie Notting Hill, and, based on that alone, we decided we should live there. It was the 90s and labels had a lot of money, so they said: 'Sure!' Before Daphne and Celeste, my ambition was to do Broadway. Pop wasn't taking off as much in America as it was in the UK – the kind of music I liked was Lauryn Hill and Radiohead – but I soon became fully immersed. As well as British pop, we loved British TV. Once we saw Sid Owen from EastEnders and reacted as if he was the biggest star in the world. The same thing happened with Darren from the first season of Big Brother. Who knew some guy chasing chickens around a garden could ignite that kind of response? There was always a deep sense of irony about everything we did in Daphne and Celeste, and the people who got the joke knew we were just having fun. Richard and Judy were not those people. When we left the set after our interview the producers said: 'Never come back.' I don't even think they said please. What did we do? We were just being ourselves and maybe talking too much. They wanted us to be cheeky but not too cheeky, which we were. They took themselves very seriously and, while we didn't want to be rude, we also thought: 'This is really not that deep. Our lyrics are literally 'Up your butt with a coconut.'' Being a pop band in that era was a whirlwind. We'd often be told we were doing something, such as an Asda supermarket tour, and we'd just agree to it. It never occurred to us to ask more questions about why the next three months of our lives would be spent in different Asda supermarkets. It was one of the weirder experiences we had, but actually pretty convenient as we could pick up food after the signings. Throughout those years, Celeste and I were stuck with each other. There were occasional moments when we needed space, but we had no other option but to figure it out. Learning how to work through problems like that in real time was an incredible skill to acquire at such a young age. Once the group got dropped, we went back to the States and took some time out from each other. A year later, we became roommates again, and we've been close ever since. As for the future, I'm not sure. We still have so much fun performing together. Mostly, I am just grateful to have Celeste as my friend. Our schedule during this period would often include 15 shoots in a day, so it's impossible to pinpoint exactly where we were or what we were posing for. My eyebrows are Christina Aguilera levels of thin. It was the era to have almost no eyebrows at all. Someone should have told me to do a little less with my nails, and Daphne a little more. I think the expression we were going for was: 'Gasp! Did you really just say that thing you shouldn't have said?' People liked that type of sass from us. My first impression of Karen was that she had a striking bob. The audition itself was confusing, as I wasn't entirely sure what it was for – apart from En Vogue, we didn't have girl groups in the US at that time. Once I got to the UK I really started to understand the pop explosion that was happening – so much so that I bought multiple Steps records. Sign up to Inside Saturday The only way to get a look behind the scenes of the Saturday magazine. Sign up to get the inside story from our top writers as well as all the must-read articles and columns, delivered to your inbox every weekend. after newsletter promotion From the start our attitude was: 'Just have fun! This probably won't last for ever.' But the pop world was incredibly earnest and people would often forget that we were 16 [Karen] and 18 [Celeste]. For example, when U.G.L.Y. charted at No 18, we were really excited – Top 20 was a huge thing for us – but the other groups we were on tour with responded as if something terrible had happened. In general, the pop scene found us tricky to place, and would sometimes be mean to us. There was very much a 'sit at your own lunch table' vibe in response to us. But not S Club 7. They were so fun. When Karen and I lived in London, our nextdoor neighbour was Brian Eno. We bumped into him one day and he said: 'My daughters love you.' I did not know who this person was, which I now feel so embarrassed about. He invited us into his home and I remember looking around at all of his records and saying: 'Wow, you must be such a huge U2 fan.' Thankfully, he was so humble and sweet, and didn't let on he was the legend that he was. Quite quickly, mine and Karen's friendship became like a sisterhood. As we were living and working together for 24 hours a day, there were moments when we would be at each other's throats, but we had no choice but to learn how to take care of each other. When the group ended, we had a bit of space from each other. I definitely needed to gain back a bit of my identity: I was 'on' for so long that I totally forgot who I was and what I really liked. At first I was restless and couldn't stay static – I started following members of the Grateful Dead on tour. Then a year later, Karen and I were back in touch and we started hanging out again. Since then, we've been with each other for all of the major life milestones – we went to each other's weddings, we got pregnant at the same time, and, as we both lived in Brooklyn, our children became besties. It's really cute – they vibe similarly to how Karen and I do. I feel like the universe chooses who you go through life with, whether you intentionally pick someone or if you meet them at an audition. Karen and I love our husbands, but there is a bond between us that's unique. She knows what it's like to be in a pop group, to be a pandemic mum, to work five jobs in New York to get by. She gets me on all levels, and I can't say that about anyone else.
