Seven-year-old Miles Phillips has become the youngest Aussie to ever hit the ARIA charts with his viral hit ‘Eastern Rosellas’ – debuting at #5 on the ARIA Australian Artist Singles Chart last week. I asked ARIA if anyone younger than Phillips has ever reached the milestone, and they said there’s no official record, but the consensus is Miles is the youngest Aussie.

However, he’s not the youngest performer overall. That title belongs to French performer Jordy, who was four when his track “Dur Dur D'être Bébé!” peaked at #37 on the ARIA singles chart in 1992. The song translates to “it's hard to be a baby” and is one of the kookiest, French-iest things I've ever heard… watch the video for it here.

P.S. A quick heads up before we dive in: A couple of stories in today’s newsletter deal with distressing themes. Help is available via Lifeline on 13 11 14.

“[The exhibition] will directly address the rupture caused by his antisemitic, racist, and anti-Asian conduct in 2010 and 2011”.
The Metropolitan Museum of Art announcing controversial designer John Galliano will be the focus of its 2027 Costume Institute exhibition – to be launched at next year’s Met Gala. The Costume Institute has promised to address “the derogatory conduct that fundamentally altered [Galliano’s] career and public reception,” alongside his “extraordinary creative accomplishments”.

$AU1.3 billion.
How much Spider-Man: Brand New Day earned at the global box office in its opening weekend – the second highest-grossing global debut in cinema history. It’s also the best global launch for Sony. Combined with the ongoing success of Christopher Nolan’s The Odyssey, the two films delivered the highest-grossing box office weekend ever.

Pop royalty came together in Amsterdam when Madonna was joined on stage by Aussie Kylie Minogue for a surprise performance during her WorldPride set and omg iconic.

Multi-ARIA award-winning artist Genesis Owusu, (whose real name is Kofi Owusu-Ansah) doesn’t conform to a particular genre or sound. Not in his career, not even in one album. Owusu’s third record Redstar Wu & the Worldwide Scourge epitomises this movement. The album, released in May, somehow meanders through styles like hip-hop, electronic, R&B, and rock seamlessly.

TDA was lucky enough to witness this unique genre-bending performer up close at Spotify’s Turn Up Aus event in Sydney – an intimate and free invite-only gig for Owusu’s top listeners at the Bat & Ball Hotel in Redfern last week.

Here’s what this acclaimed Aussie artist told us after the show.

A: It’s a really cool initiative, actually; I’m glad something like this exists. All of these people have had me running in their earphones and speakers like crazy, so it’s cool to be able to break the fourth wall and have so many of them in the same room together.

A: If it wasn’t for the small venues I wouldn’t be where I am. It was a chain effect of getting opportunities because someone saw me in one small venue in one city, then decided to book me in another small venue in another city, until those venues got bigger and bigger. These rooms also helped me to become the performer that I am today.

It definitely builds character playing to small (and empty) rooms. I see some artists today who blow up and end up on a huge stage, and have no idea what to do because they didn’t get to hone their craft beforehand.

With all the obstacles that the live music industry has faced over the years, we’ve not only had the threat of losing precious third spaces, but losing potentially generational artists who never had the chance to perform and become who they should have become.

A: In pockets, and in waves. I think the Western Sydney music scene was a great example of creatives really bouncing off of each other and making movements greater than the sum of their parts.

But it’s difficult; Australia is geographically so big, while its music industry is so small. That literal distance makes it hard for that chemistry to really formulate amongst lots of creatives; not to mention, sustaining yourself as a creative, individually, is really difficult. So it comes in waves.

A: Try to organise your own things with your friends. House parties, gigs in tunnels, random shit. Bypass the convention and let the gate keepers and tastemakers come to you. All people want these days is genuine, organic community, and that can’t be bought or manufactured.

Reporting by Emily Donohoe.

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In recent years, there has been extensive online discussion about pop star and actor Ariana Grande’s physical appearance – with conversation spiking in recent weeks during her Eternal Sunshine tour and promotion of her eighth album petal, which dropped on Friday.

The singer’s representatives gave a statement to People magazine this week, and Grande herself spoke on stage, effectively saying the same thing: she is taking a break from public life when the tour ends next month. 

The 33-year-old said her decision to step back from the spotlight is “not a reactive or impulsive thing” and has been planned for a long time.

How did we get here?

Ariana Grande first broke into the spotlight on the 2010s Nickelodeon show Victorious, created by Dan Schneider – who was later accused of sexual harassment, fostering a hostile work environment, and behaving inappropriately around child actors, including allegations that child stars (Grande among them) were sexualised in his shows.

Schneider denied most of the claims, which were aired in the 2024 documentary Quiet on Set: The Dark Side of Kids TV. However, he admitted to “embarrassing” behaviours he “regrets”.

While at Nickelodeon, Grande began uploading singing videos to YouTube, landing a record deal at 17. Her first hit was “The Way” with rapper Mac Miller in 2013, whom she began dating publicly in 2016.

The next few years are best explained in a short timeline. 

May 2017: a man inspired by the terror group ISIS detonates a bomb as the audience exits Grande’s concert in Manchester, killing 22, including children. 

May-December 2018: Miller and Grande break up, and she gets engaged to comedian Pete Davidson soon after. She releases her fourth album Sweetener, featuring a track titled pete davidson, a month before Miller dies of an accidental drug overdose at the age of 26. (Three men were jailed in relation to his death.) The next month she breaks up with Davidson, and weeks later releases the song thank u, next

2019: She releases an album also called thank u, next, and tours the world with it and Sweetener 

2020: She meets future husband Dalton Gomez and releases the album Positions. 

2021: Gomez and Grande get married. She judges The Voice, begins auditioning for the film adaptation of the musical Wicked, and releases a makeup line. 

2022: Grande begins rehearsals for Wicked, with filming beginning in December.

2023: Grande continues filming Wicked then Wicked: For Good in the UK. She divorces Gomez and enters a relationship with co-star Ethan Slater, who is separating from his wife. Fans begin to comment more on Grande’s physical appearance, and she responds in a video saying: “We should be gentler and less comfortable commenting on people’s bodies… the body you’ve been comparing my current body to was the unhealthiest version of my body.” 

2024-25: Grande promotes both parts of Wicked and releases another album, eternal sunshine. Commentary about her increasingly thin physical appearance grows. On the song  yes, and?, Grande responds to the ongoing discourse about her appearance, singing: “Don’t comment on my body, do not reply”.

On her most recent outing, the album petal, Grande’s lyrics were more pointed than on “yes, and?”. Almost every song references a fraught love/hate relationship between the singer and the public.

On the album's ninth track, “like i do”, Grande alludes to comments about her body: “All that shit talk keeps me well-fed/Through thick and thin, you're so locked in/You hate to love me”.

Then there’s the music video for the title track, “petal”. It follows Grande as an aspiring actress repeatedly auditioning in front of a panel of male executives. Each time she's rejected for reasons that echo criticism levelled at the singer throughout her career.

Their notes include, “boring”, “no sex appeal”, and “too much work done” as well as references to a need to change her hairstyle (Grande is famous for her ponytail) and that it “couldn’t hurt to lose a few pounds”.

The video ends with Grande picking up a chainsaw and attacking the panel. Screenshots and clips from the video quickly garnered a lot of attention online.

Shortly after the “petal” music video dropped, Grande announced she would be taking a step back from public life after she wrapped up her tour. The performer has dropped out of the London revival of the Stephen Sondheim musical Sunday In The Park With George, in which she was due to appear opposite her Wicked co-star Jonathan Bailey.

Appearing on stage in Chicago, Grande took a break from singing to address the decision, saying it came from "a thoughtful and empowered place."

Her Eternal Sunshine tour will come to and end on 1 September, after a 10-night residency in London.

It’s been a big week of commentary since Grande’s latest announcement.

TDA reached out to national eating disorder charity the Butterfly Foundation for advice on how, and whether, to cover Grande in this newsletter.

The Foundation’s Director of Education Initiatives Danni Rowlands said: “While we need to move away from commenting on people’s bodies and tying their worth to their weight, shape or appearance, it cannot be ignored that people in the public eye, and their management teams, do have a duty of care to not only the celebrity, but those who follow and look up to them too.”

Rowlands urged online users against normalising “extreme thinness,” warning it can have dangerous implications for many, particularly vulnerable young people.

It’s important to know eating disorders can affect anyone, Rowlands noted. “It's not possible to tell that someone has an eating disorder just by their physical appearance alone.”

Confidential and free support is available via the Butterfly National Helpline on 1800 ED HOPE (1800 33 4673) or you can visit www.butterfly.org.au to chat online.

Reporting by Lucy Tassell and Elliot Lawry.