Italy wins 2021 Eurovision Song Contest following tight race

Dino Melaye releases song on coronavirus

Dino Melaye releases song on beauty of character

An online talent contest created to keep young Jordanians busy as they sit out their country's coronavirus lockdown has proved a hit, with thousands taking part and millions of views.

British musician Laura Marling wasn't planning to release her seventh album until the end of the summer. But when the Covid-19 pandemic hit, and her US and European tours were canceled, she decided to put it out early. The singer-songwriter speaks to Eve Jackson about London in lockdown, writing an album for her younger self and giving online guitar lessons.

Whether it was cutting off his own head on stage with a guillotine, or false rumours that he bit the head of a chicken live on stage, his theatrical shows caused a scandal in the early 1970s. Thirty albums later and with 50 million records sold, first as the Alice Cooper band and later as the solo act, he's given us classic rock anthems like "I'm Eighteen", "School's Out" and "Billion Dollar Babies". Alice Cooper speaks to Eve Jackson from his home in Arizona about his rallying anthem "Don't Give Up", shock-rocking audiences for five decades and that chicken incident.

Eimear Quinn shot to fame in 1996, winning the Eurovision award for Ireland. Since then, she's gone on to have a successful music career, touring all over the planet. She recently released her fourth solo studio album, "Ériu", an orchestral record of Irish music.

"We Wish You a Merry Christmas" is a traditional English Christmas carol of unknown origin that is believed to date from the 16th century. It was sung by children in Victorian times as they went about performing carols door to door on Christmas Eve, hoping for sweet rewards.

Here are a few reasons to pick up a copy of The Guardian on Wednesday. Find these stories and much more when you grab a copy of The Guardian on Wednesday.⁣

Have you listened to Joe Boyofficial's debut album Somewhere Between Beauty & Magic? In this chat with The Guardian Life, he reveals his favorite track off SBBM, do you agree with him?

Hopewell Chin'ono didn't set out to become an internet sensation when he made a song about corruption in Zimbabwe, but that's exactly what happened when he uploaded 'Dem Loot' to Twitter. The outspoken Zimbabwean journalist has been arrested three times in six months for tweets protesting graft. In a video that has gone viral, Chin'ono has released a short free-styled reggae dance-hall track, titled Dem Loot -- "They Loot" -- in which he chastises rampant state corruption in the southern African country.

Like a fish out of water, Aycayia's arrival on dry land is a troubling, seismic shift and one that ripples through the island community she enters. She's the protagonist of Monique Roffey's slippery, seductive charm of a novel "The Mermaid of Black Conch", a book which straddles literary forms and sings with the creole poetry of its central character. Roffey joins us by video to talk about winning the Costa book award and the post-colonial power struggles that the novel's Caribbean setting throws up.

Eurovision organizers have rejected a song entry from Belarus due to its lyrics mocking demonstrations against Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko. Critics say the song legitimizes Lukashenko's regime.