Virgin Fest, a brand-new multi-genre festival debuting later this year, has announced its inaugural lineup. The two-day event, taking place June 6-7 across multiple stages throughout Banc Of California Stadium and Exposition Park in South Los Angeles, has confirmed recent GRAMMY newcomer Lizzo and rap giant A$AP Rocky as the headliners. The lineup also includes Anderson .Paak & The Free Nationals, Diplo's Major Lazer outfit, recent Best New Artist nominees Tank And The Bangas and many more. 

Virgin Fest, which is promoting an all-inclusive environment—its tagline boasts "All Are Welcome"—features a diverse artist roster. As Rolling Stone points out, the 2020 lineup is composed of 60 percent female artists, which include acts like Ellie Goulding, Kali Uchis, Jorja Smith, Banks, Japanese Breakfast, Empress Of and others. 

Read: The 1975's Matt Healy Pledges Only To Play Gender-Balanced Festivals

The festival is also celebrating the LGBTQ+ fan and artist community. In addition to booking LGBTQ+ artists and allies, including Clairo, Trixie Mattel, singer-songwriter and former Fifth Harmony member Lauren Jauregui and others, Virgin Fest is offering gender-neutral restrooms and is screening all vendors to ensure they align with the festival's values of inclusivity and positivity, with a focus on the LGBTQ+ community and an "emphasis on correct pronoun usage," according to PRIDE.

Read: 2020 Pitchfork Festival: Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Run The Jewels, The National To Headline

In an interview with PRIDE, Virgin Fest CEO and founder Jason Felts discussed the festival's LGBTQ+-focused lineup and its approach to creating an inclusive environment.

"Being a gay man who loves music and loves people and loves diversity and loves humanity on the whole, I thought, 'Why don't we have a festival that celebrates all of that?'" he said.  

Read: Firefly Fest 2020 Lineup: Billie Eilish, Halsey, Rage Against The Machine, Maggie Rogers & More 

Virgin Fest is also taking an eco-conscious approach focusing on sustainability. The festival is "handpicking vendors who share its values and have policies that comply with their commitment to sustainability"; it will also be the "first festival in California to employ a reusable cup deposit system instead of single-use plastic cups," according to a post shared on the Virgin Group's, the festival's parent company, website. According to the event's website, the festival is also banning all single-use plastics onsite and will feature a "robust renewable energy and solar program," among other green initiatives.

To purchase tickets and to view the full lineup for the inaugural Virgin Fest, visit the festival's official website.

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Inspiration can strike anywhere — something that Empress Of learned during a night out at a strip club. 

The singer/songwriter and L.A. native returned to the studio the next morning, raring to work that energy into her new album. "I came into the studio, like, ‘Guys, I went to a strip club. I gave a beautiful woman money. That is the energy for today,’" she says with a laugh. "Almost to a fault, everything can be an inspiration." Her upcoming album, the ecstatic For Your Consideration (due March 22), was spurred by that type of sultry stimulus and winks knowingly at the seductive glitz of her Hollywood home.

Born Lorely Rodriguez, Empress Of debuted in 2015 with the sublime Me and has since perfected a formula of avant pop songwriting, high-energy electronic textures, and bold poetics across two further albums. But a distinct change powers For Your Consideration, in part powered by a surreal heartbreak: the press release accompanying the album’s announcement details having been broken up with by a film director, only to wind up bombarded by his "For Your Consideration" campaign for the Oscars. 

As such, For Your Consideration embraces the strengths of her first three records, while bringing a renewed immediacy to every facet. The house and R&B influences are distilled to their essence on some tracks, while others lavish in lush experimental pop. Lyrically, Rodriguez opts for raw, sensual tales of love, lust, and loss — sung in both Spanish and English. 

Nearing the release of For Your Consideration, Empress Of spoke with GRAMMY.com about finding inspiration from Raya dates and early ‘00s club music, losing your naivety, and finding her Lady Gaga transformation.

As an L.A. native, how has your perception of the entertainment industry shifted over the last few years? Was that something that had any impact on the way that you grew up and envisioned your future?

It's funny, I never saw L.A. as "the stars" and all that. But on this record, I'm embracing that L.A., or embracing that side of myself. I see "For Your Consideration" billboards everywhere. And now I'll have a "For Your Consideration" next year. But it’ll be like, "For your consideration: For Your Consideration." I think it's funny. I'm poking fun at it on this album. 

I don't think I've ever been so lighthearted with my album art and how I promote myself. I've always felt like an "indie darling." Maybe a little serious. And here I'm like 10 years into doing this, this is my fourth album, and I'm like, Let's ride a shooting star over Los Angeles. Let's be her. Let's send the message, and the message is she's a shooting star.

It feels as if you're introducing another side of yourself within this almost satirical and intensely contemporary conception of "the artist." It’s as if you needed to build to this level of poking fun, and now you’re comfy enough to.

For sure. And I think confidence is something you hear on the album. Even just working with this photographer, she was like, "If we're going to do this…you need to give me camp. You need to give me laughing, throwing your head back." 

I couldn't be serious on this album cover. And what I love about that is like, yes, I take my career very seriously, but I also am having a laugh at how absurd it is what we do.

I think there's a big misconception in art that you have to be stoic when you’re theorizing and contextualizing. The signs of having fun can actually be much stronger than projecting something more intense.

I think it's like you said: I'm comfortable. And there's also something when you speak about an album that you know is good. There might've been other times in my career where I was not as assured in something, like maybe I was doing something new. But even on this record, I'm doing something new. I worked with tons of producers and songwriters and all that, but I know it's a good album. If I didn't make it, I would want to listen to it.

You did work with some incredible songwriters for the album. There's never a moment where I hear something and think it sounds unlike you or out of place.

Age is confidence. And being older and having done four albums now, I just don't really doubt anything. I don't think I've compromised or was in a situation where a producer was pushing too much of themselves on a song. I feel like I was a very good leader on this album where even though I wasn't at the laptop or making the beats or whatever, I was able to convey what I wanted to make.

I agree with you about age — I know when I was young I would push myself and had this strange confidence because I was naïve! But as you grow older, you see a more complex picture. Thematically, does it feel like this captures that romantic, cyclical sense of longing and then having and then losing? 

Totally. You have that naive confidence when you're younger. When you're older, you have confidence about not caring anymore. Naiveness turns into "I don't give a f—." That is even more power in itself. 

The romantic themes and feminine themes on the record, the themes about wanting to be wanted and wanting to feel good, but being okay with letting it go — a lot of the lyrics are just a little bit more direct than I would have ever said them. An earlier me would drown it in metaphor. And I don't feel like I'm drowned in metaphor. It's like who I am right now. If you went on a date with me, I wouldn't be trying to present a version of myself that you would like. You would just get me. 

A lot of these songs were written with me using [the dating app] Raya for the first time and going on dates. [Laughs.] It's weird. It helps with when you're writing songs, because I'm tired of presenting a version of myself that someone can understand. Either you get it or you don't.

 But getting there takes a lot of sifting through your own personal crap doesn’t it? 

Oh my God. Yeah. There was a 27-year-old version of me that was like, [nervous muttering]. And now I'm just kind of like, "Yes, there's a lot of intention and a lot of art direction, vision, but to me it feels less safe, and I like that."

I feel like there's a sweet spot in an artist's career when they become less safe. And I have seen it before in other artists and I'm like, Cool. This is an evolution for you. I don't know if I'm quite there. I don't know if I'm at the Lady Gaga point of less safe, but I feel like it takes time.

I was struck by the level of detail you went into in the runup to the album, talking about the heartbreak you experienced with a film director. Do you feel like being that direct and transparent helped you just push past it and move through it instead of getting stuck in metaphors?

Everyone always loves my breakup songs. I get so many comments from fans being like, "Your song got me through my breakup." The song I have with Muna, "What's Love," is a breakup song — a "breakup song but I'm not broken." It feels like my "thank u, next." Like, yes, I'm heartbroken, but I learned so much in it.

Completely. And now you can really go and sing it to the masses and have the story be your triumph. Does that ever get uncomfy, though, having people run up to you like, "I loved your most painful traumatic moment!"

No — once music is out, it belongs to people, and it's up to them for interpretation. If I broke up with someone or if I was mourning someone and had to go and play this song about them on tour, it would be difficult. But when I sing the songs, they kind of feel like someone else's songs. When I’m on tour and I sing my songs, it's like I'm singing a song that I added to my playlist.

How far into the writing and concepting did you get before you started working with someone like Rina Sawayama or Muna?

I wrote a lot of these songs during a summer, and then going into fall, going into sessions, I knew I wanted to start everything with my voice. I feel like the voice is the most important instrument. No matter what producer or songwriters, I was like, "Can you just turn the microphone on, and can I just beatbox and hum and sing, and we just chop it up and make some world?" 

I was like, "I just want to write hot songs. I want to write horny songs. I want to write fun songs. I want to be on stage and I want to be sexy and I want to evoke this sensuality." And so when I was writing, I was just like, "Okay, how can we make it horny?" 

That’s so fun, especially because you’re doing it by being unapologetically dedicated to what you needed in that moment.

I wrote these songs over two years, but I definitely remember being in the studio and coming up with ideas with these songwriters and just being like, "How can we make it hot? I just want to feel hot."

There’s this incredible duality to your music that makes me think of artists like Björk — this ability to bounce between really lux, almost ballad-y melodies, and then you can get really club-ready. And then, you've got some electronic textures. Who were your influences here, and how did you go about harnessing that wide spectrum so cohesively?

I was listening to a lot of music from the early 2000s. I was listening to this band called Koop, and their album Waltz for Koop which has Yukimi Nagano on it. I was listening to Des’ree’s "You Gotta Be. I was listening to the Romeo + Juliet soundtrack, with the Cardigans. I was listening to a lot of Pharrell and the Neptunes. I always listen to Saint Etienne. I just love the sexiness of being in a club in the early 2000s.

I was struck by how much singing in Spanish was emphasized on this album. Was that something you set out to do at the outset of the record?

On your fourth album, you’re like, How else can I make this exciting for myself? I’ve never written this much music on an album in Spanish. And I wanted to write with co-writers who write in Spanish. 

Just being in the room with them and thinking of themes and song titles that go with that flirty sexiness, like "Sucia" which means dirty, and "Fácil" which means easy, and "Preciosa" which means precious. It’s so fun. It made writing this album so exciting for me. For "Preciosa," the night before I had gone to a strip club and I came into the studio, like, "Guys, I went to a strip club. I gave a beautiful woman money. That is the energy for today. Let’s write a song." [Laughs.] 

Almost to a fault, everything can be an inspiration, whether it’s being objectified as a woman or being heartbroken or being on a Raya date and having a one-night stand. I hate and love that everything turns into a song.

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Kylie Minogue has taken home the golden gramophone for Best Pop Dance Recording — an all-new category — at the 2024 GRAMMYs, for "Padam Padam."

Minogue came ahead of of David Guetta, Anne-Marie and Coi Leray ("Baby Don’t Hurt Me"); Calvin Harris featuring Ellie Goulding ("Miracle"); Bebe Rexha and David Guetta ("One in a Million"); and Troye Sivan ("Rush").

The win marks Minogue’s second GRAMMY win after six career nominations. She had previously won Best Dance Recording for "Come Into My World."

The Australian pop star — along with producer Peter "Lostboy" Rycroft and mixing engineer Guy Massey — are the first-ever winners of the Best Pop/Dance Performance category. It was one of three new categories introduced at the 66th GRAMMYs; the other two are Producer Of The Year, Non-Classical and Best African Music Performance. 

Lostboy took the stage to accept the award on behalf of himself, Minogue, and Massey. 

"Padam Padam" charted at No. 7 on Billboard's Hot Dance/Electronic chart; it was a much bigger hit in the UK, where it was a No. 1 hit. The song was embraced by the LGBTQ+ community on both sides of the Atlantic. 

"It's hugely important to me and so touching," said Minogue of her popularity with LGBTQ+ fans in an interview with GRAMMY.com earlier this year. "I hope that for that community and beyond, I just want to say I am open-minded and I want people to be happy in themselves. That community needed support and still needs support. I'm here. And they padamed for me."

Keep checking this space for more updates from Music’s Biggest Night!

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Since the start of her career, four-time GRAMMY winner Lizzo has been making music that radiates positive energy. Her Record Of The Year win for "About Damn Time" at the 2023 GRAMMYs proved that being true to yourself and kind to one another always wins.

Travel back to revisit the moment Lizzo won her award in the coveted category in this episode of GRAMMY Rewind. 

"Um, huh?" Lizzo exclaimed at the start of her acceptance speech. "Let me tell you something. Me and Adele are having a good time, just enjoying ourselves and rooting for our friends. So, this is an amazing night. This is so unexpected."

Lizzo kicked off her GRAMMY acceptance speech by acknowledging Prince's influence on her sound. "When we lost Prince, I decided to dedicate my life to making positive music," she said. "This was at a time when positive music and feel-good music wasn't mainstream at that point and I felt very misunderstood. I felt on the outside looking in. But I stayed true to myself because I wanted to make the world a better place so I had to be that change."

As tracks like "Good as Hell" and "Truth Hurts" scaled the charts, she noticed more body positivity and self-love anthems from other artists. "I'm just so proud to be a part of it," she cheered.

Most importantly, Lizzo credited staying true to herself despite the pushback for her win. "I promise that you will attract people in your life who believe in you and support you," she said in front of a tearful audience that included Beyoncé and Taylor Swift in standing ovation, before giving a shout-out to her team, family, partner and producers on the record, Blake Slatkin and Ricky Reed. 

Watch the video above for Lizzo's complete acceptance speech for Record Of The Year at the 2023 GRAMMYs. Check back to GRAMMY.com for more new episodes of GRAMMY Rewind, and be sure to tune into the 2024 GRAMMYs on Sunday, Feb. 4, airing live on the CBS Television Network (8-11:30 p.m. LIVE ET/5-8:30 p.m. LIVE PT) and streaming on Paramount+ (live and on-demand for Paramount+ with SHOWTIME subscribers, or on-demand for Paramount+ Essential subscribers the day after the special airs).

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Kali Uchis is experiencing one of her most creatively prolific moments. For the first time, the GRAMMY-winning singer delights her fans with two long-play projects in less than a year: Red Moon in Venus and Orquídeas, the latter out Jan. 12. 

Described by Uchis as her most energetic body of work, Orquídeas is her second Spanish language record and a showcase of Uchis' vocal and musical growth. While Uchis' recent releases typically contrast her soothing vocals with hypnotic, mid-tempo R&B and hip-hop instrumentals, her fourth studio album exists in a distinctly different musical environment.

The 14-track, dance-centric album incorporates a breadth of Latin rhythms with a global influence: Dembow, salsa, hard-hitting merengue, reggaetón, Cuban son, and Latin soul appear alongside alternative, house, and even bolero. Orquídeas' first two tracks, ​​"Como así" and "Me Pongo Loca," set the tone for Uchis diving into house beats. On "Igual Que Un Angel," Uchis pulls Peso Pluma away from his corridos tumbados and into her dance world.

"I feel like others see Latin music or Latin artists as just one thing. That's why I need to demonstrate all the different genres of Latin music," Uchis tells GRAMMY.com. "As an artist, it's always important to push myself to do new things and try different genres. Being bicultural has always been part of my life." 

Expanding the bounds of her creativity has long been part of Uchis' vocabulary. Since releasing her first mixtape, 2012's Drunken Babble, Uchis' career and sound have been characterized by taking chances. Even before she dreamed of being a singer, the artist born Karly-Marina Loaiza defied expectations and dared to be the first in her family to pursue music. The Colombian American singer lived in her car and moved from Virginia to Los Angeles alone, all the while remaining fearless in the dogged pursuit of her dream.

Uchis says following her instinct has long been a vital part of her success. Uchis defended her creative decisions on her first Spanish-language album, 2020's Sin Miedo (del Amor y Otro Demonios), which her record label at the time thought risky. In fact, the most played single from the album, "Telepatía," was on the verge of not being part of the album after the label suggested production changes to make it more radio friendly. 

"I’d rather not go to radio than change my song," she told the New York Times. The single came out as she had imagined; her vision translated into billions of views, driven by virality achieved on TikTok.

The risk-taking didn't stop on Orquídeas, which sees Uchis exploring dance music and a wider variety of Latin music. The singer tells GRAMMY.com that "Labios Mordidos," the album's third single and a duet with Karol G, was one of Orquídeas' biggest risks. 

"I had a reggaetón/perreo song on Isolation, but it didn't do well; it's called 'Nuestro Planeta.' [Doing 'Labios Mordidos'] was definitely a risk; I mean, the whole album is really a risk because it's not one genre; it's a mix of so many different things, and it's not what people are used to hearing from me," she adds. 

Released on Nov. 24, "Labios Mordidos" debuted at No. 75 on Spotify's Global Top Songs charts. Since, it has accumulated over 54 million streams on Spotify and YouTube combined.

Orquídeas also represents Uchis' growth in songwriting; the singer says her storytelling abilities flourished on this album. She also gets incredibly vulnerable: On the melancholic bolero "Te Mata," Uchis mined her childhood experiences of survival and being kicked out of the house as a teenager. 

"I had to get even tougher skin. I had to learn to put myself and my happiness first. It meant a lot for me to write, and I hope it helps anyone else going [through] it find some self-power or some peace," she said in a TikTok video. 

"I love boleros," Uchis says of "Te Mata." "Romantic music, in general, has always fascinated me, as it can feel so timeless. It was a great opportunity to explore this genre and showcase my ability to tell stories in different ways."

Uchis honed her intuition writing alone, creating the entirety of her first EP in her bedroom. Solitude was her best ally in the creative process, she reflects. "[By working alone] I get a lot of my essence in music, which I feel is what people can really take away from it. That's why people listen to [my music]," says Uchis.

For Sin Miedo, Uchis worked with a group of composers who helped her clear up Spanish verbiage doubts and grammatical issues. "I didn't feel completely confident about my writing yet to make fully Spanish songs; that's why I write so much bilingual," Uchis explains.

While Uchis thought the experience cool, she has since moved on. When it came to writing  Orquídeas, "I feel like I didn't need the help; I was using [the process] to better myself, improve my writing, and be open to learning more about different writing processes. I felt ready. 

Just a few months after releasing Sin Miedo in 2021, Uchis embarked on the production of Red Moon in Venus and Orquídeas. For some, carrying out two productions in parallel — creating two different concepts while writing songs in two languages — may seem challenging. For Uchis, it was the perfect setting to expand her creativity.

"It's really easy to work that way because I feel like I have so much creativity that I need to express all the time. It's a little difficult for me to commit to just one sound, project, and language at this stage of my life," Uchis reflects.

Red Moon and Orquídeas are polar opposites, Uchis explains. In her 2023 album, she explores her "higher self, speaking [more] from a place of love; everything is about love. [Orquídeas] is like my bitchier side," the singer told the Brazilian YouTube channel Foquinha.

The freedom to express oneself, challenge genres, and forge a unique career path is a virtue Uchis has maintained throughout her productions and collaborations. She has never allowed the pressure to be mainstream to influence how she approaches her art. 

"I've always had the freedom to do what I want. I don't do music [for the numbers]; I never feel pressure," she says. "I do this because it's my creative outlet. Whether I get more mainstream or more success, those are nice things. I'm proud of my accomplishments, but I don't think life should revolve around [the idea] of trying to be the most accomplished, the most successful."

Although Uchis does not lose any sleep over topping popular charts, her albums have done just that. With Isolation, she broke into the Billboard 200 chart, and Sin Miedo led Billboard's Latin Pop chart. In 2021, Uchis won her first GRAMMY for "10%" in the Best Dance Recording category, collaborating with KAYTRANADA.

Released in March 2023, Red Moon in Venus placed fifth on the Billboard 200 chart and was named by TIME magazine as 2023’s album of the year. To add to her success, the Colombian American singer finished the year as one of the most listened-to Latin female artists on Spotify, a distinction she shares with Karol G, Shakira, Rosalía, and Ana Castela.

2024 promises to be equally successful for Kali Uchis; the singer told GRAMMY.com that Orquídeas will be one of two albums she will release this year. That record will be a return to form, Uchis promises. (And she just revealed that she is pregnant, in her music video for “Tu Corazón Es Mío” and “Diosa.”)

"I have another project coming this year, completely different from Orquídeas. I did the whole thing in my house, alone, and never sat in a room with anybody. It's nice to go back to my roots," she says.

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