It's the most wonderful time of the year as we present our jumbo-sized Christmas issue of Music Week, led by our newly crowned Artist Of The Year Dua Lipa.
The Future Nostalgia queen is joined by her team at Warner Records and Tap Music to spill the beans on the bold, bright and brilliant campaign that defied the pandemic to conquer the pop world in 2020.
In addition, we speak at length with our Breakthrough Artist Of The Year Headie One. The chart-topping rapper, Relentless Records, O'Division Management and BBC Radio 1Xtra's Tiffany Calver lift the lid on a story full of twists and turns - and talk us through the blueprint that has the potential to change rap forever.
The hits keep on coming courtesy of Songwriter Of The Year Kid Harpoon, aka Tom Hull. After the songs he helped shape on Harry Styles' smash Fine Line album lit up 2020, we sit down with the ace hitmaker alongside Universal Music Publishing Group’s Mike McCormack and manager Jeffrey Azoff to get the inside story on his rise.
And the Black Music Coalition delivers a year-end statement in Music Week, covering progress since its formation in the wake of Black Out Tuesday earlier this year and offering an insight into what comes next.
In an extended Big Story, a host of touring executives reflect on a "lost year" for live music and discuss how and when the business can bounce back from the Covid-19 crisis.
Also in news, music mogul Merck Mercuriadis lays out the next stage of his Hipgnosis Songs Fund revolution following the firm's astonishing growth over the past 18 months and sets out his vision for a £3 billion company, while acclaimed artist Phoebe Bridgers speaks to us about her new label Saddest Factory, a joint venture with Secretly Group’s Dead Oceans.
Top names such as Gary Barlow, Charli XCX, Tim Burgess, Frank Turner, Dolly Parton, Damian Christian, Beverley Knight, Niall Horan, Michael Ball and No Signal Radio founder Jojo Sonubi share their inspirational lockdown stories in a special feature, while a host of top music executives find some positives to take from 2020 in our traditional end-of-year Q&As.
Legendary rocker Jon Bon Jovi shares a few pearls of his wisdom in a very special edition of The Aftershow and there's a round-up of the year's best industry soundbites in Quotes Of The Year. Plus, we revisit your best Twitter musings in Tweets Of The Year.
Alongside all that, we bring you the very latest charts, news and analysis.
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