Dua Lipa was named a double winner at the Brit Awards - she took home the British female solo artist and album of the year titles. Little Mix became the first all-female band to win best British group, Harry Styles took best British single for his song 'Watermelon Sugar', while J Hus received best British male solo artist. Female singer-songwriters Arlo Parks and Griff took home the British breakthrough artist and rising star awards respectively. The Weeknd won the international male solo artist prize, Billie Eilish was named international female solo artist winner, while Haim were dubbed best international group. The BRITs 2021 served as a government COVID pilot event, meaning that a scaled-back live audience – largely made up of NHS and key workers – witnessed this evening’s performances and acceptance speeches in person without the need to wear masks or social distance. NME reported from the event.

Dua Lipa, Arlo Parks, Celeste, Joel Corry and Young T & Bugsey lead Brit Awards 2021 nominations with three noms apiece. The British album category also features four out of five female nominees for the first time in Brits history, with the aforementioned women joined by Jessie Ware and J Hus. Also, more than half the nominees in key categories are non-white, making the most diverse nominations in the event's history, as Sky emphasizes. Alexis Petridis points out that - "by recognising UK rap and women’s creativity, the Brits are finally in tune".

Dua Lipa’s Thanksgiving-weekend Studio 2054 live-stream drew five million viewers, it was broadcast in territories across the world, cost upward of $1.5 million, and took nearly five months to put together. Lipa’s management says it was a profitable venture with 284,000 tickets sold, and that Lipa will do another live-stream in the future regardless if in-person shows come back first. Rolling Stone believes Lipa’s show was also a highly "successful guinea-pig case for the music business". Tech platform Live-Now is selling tickets for fans to catch the recorded show until Sunday, 8,50 euro per ticket.

The number of babies called Dua in the UK has doubled in 2019 compared with 2017, when Dua Lipa had her first UK number one, Mirror reports. The Office for National Statistics said 126 babies were called Dua in 2019, compared with 63 in 2017. Meanwhile, Alexa has fallen since the introduction of Amazon's Echo, down from 332 in 2016 to just 39 in 2019. Oliver and Olivia are still number one in England and Wales.

Female artists and female-fronted bands - like Dua Lipa, Charli XCX, and Porridge Radio - have outnumbered men on the shortlist for this year's Mercury Prize, for the first time in its 29-year history, Sky reports. A total of seven female or female-fronted acts (of 12 nominees) made the 2020 shortlist; the previous highest total was five. In general, this year pop dominated the shortlist, with none left of the field albums.

The nominees:

Anna Meredith - ‘FIBS‘
Charli XCX - ‘how i’m feeling now‘
Dua Lipa - ‘Future Nostalgia‘
Georgia - ‘Seeking Thrills‘
Kano - ‘Hoodies All Summer‘
Lanterns on the Lake - ‘Spook the Herd‘
Laura Marling - ‘Song for Our Daughter‘
Michael Kiwanuka - ‘KIWANUKA‘
Moses Boyd - ‘Dark Matter‘
Porridge Radio - ‘Every Bad‘
Sports Team - ‘Deep Down Happy‘
Stormzy - ‘Heavy is the Head‘

Warner Records released two flagship albums simultaneously on Friday, March 27th: Dua Lipa's 'Future Nostalgia' and PartyNextDoor's 'PartyMobile', the latter featuring Rihanna’s first new vocal for three years. Warner's COO Tom Corson explained to the Rolling Stone: “Music is very of the moment - it captures a time. To say, ‘Let’s push these releases back a number of months,’ which we did consider, felt very risky from the standpoint that we had momentum and great music that people wanted to hear”. Streaming services were happy with the decision, Corson adds - "There was a real excitement of ‘This is just what we need!’".

The Weeknd's 'After Hours' remains atop the Billboard 200 in its second week on the charts with 138,000 equivalent album units, while 6 new albums enter the Top 10, as Billboard reports. Australian pop-rock band 5 Seconds of Summer scores its fifth top 10 album on the Billboard 200 chart as 'Calm' surges from No. 62 to No. 2 with 133,000 equivalent album units (up 1,159%). UK pop singer Dua Lipa lands her first top 10 album, as her second effort, 'Future Nostalgia', debuts at No. 4 with 66,000 equivalent album units earned. Grunge veterans Pearl Jam return to the Billboard 200 with their first studio album since 2013, as 'Gigaton' jumps in at No. 5 with 63,000 equivalent album units earned (14,000 copies sold on vinyl, the second-largest week on vinyl for a 2020 release). Canadian r'n'b singer PartyNextDoor lands at No. 8 with 50,000 equivalent album units earned with 'PartyMobile'. American rapper Joyner Lucas makes his chart debut with his first studio album, 'ADHD' selling in 39,000 equivalent album units, enough for No. 10 spot.

Dua Lipa, Sam Hunt, and The Weeknd are pop stars who decided to release their new albums despite the big lockdown. Lady Gaga, Haim, and Sam Smith have decided to wait. Dua Lipa said, as Variety reports, she "thought I’d be doing them a disservice to delay it, especially during this time”, while Lady Gaga said - “it just doesn’t feel right to me to release this album with all that is going on during this global pandemic”. Whether to release an album or not depends on the genre also - hip-hop sells close to 100% in digital formats so there's a good chance of selling the album in expected numbers, while some older-demographic artists are still selling 70%-80% physical, and the records stores are closed... Tours are equally cancelled for both sides.

Fans were forcefully removed from a Dua Lipa concert in Shanghai, China, on Wednesday. Some social media users have said people were forcibly removed because they were dancing. Others have also said that it was because they were waving pro-gay rights flags, Daily Mail reported. Videos posted on social media show security workers pulling people […]