Mel C spices up Encore! with her new music

Natasha Joubert is one of the most beautiful women in the world, but it's her resilience through hard times with depression that make her a force to be reckoned with.

This week on arts24 we welcome Tom McRae, an English Francophile who gained musical recognition in the early 2000s thanks to delicate songs like "You Cut Her Hair" or "End of the World News". He's just released his new album "Étrange Hiver", in which he sings many tracks in French and invites a number of French artists to collaborate with him. We also welcome Liverpool-based rising duo King Hannah, who are set to release their second album "Big Swimmer" at the end of May. Plus, we discuss the country music comeback of Beyoncé.

Nigerian swimmer Akinrodoye Samuel has tried to raise awareness on mental health in Africa's most populous nation, swimming nearly 12 km (7.45 miles), the length of the longest bridge in Lagos where many people have jumped to their deaths. Akinrodoye, a swimming coach, said he was moved by the experience of a friend who nearly took his own life due to depression.

In this edition of our arts24 music show, Jennifer Ben Brahim meets French musician Thomas de Pourquery. The saxophonist, singer, composer and actor has fronted a variety of music collectives such as "Supersonic", as well as working with the likes of Metronomy and Jeanne Added. As a saxophonist, he won France's top jazz award, the Django Reinhart prize, in 2021.

She has featured in Beyoncé's music videos, choreographed a sell-out stage musical and brought underground nightclub moves to the stage of the Opéra de Paris. Now Josepha Madoki is hosting a weekend of waacking in the Musée d'Orsay’s imposing entrance hall; she tells us more about this 1970s queer subculture and how she became France’s unofficial queen of waacking. She also tells us about the phone call from her friend and colleague, Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui, which led to a video shoot in the Louvre with Beyoncé and Jay-Z. Plus, Josepha explains why sports and the performing arts are complementary disciplines as she discusses her part in the Paris 2024 Cultural Olympiad.

Opera stars, politicians and public figures are attending a gala to raise funds for Ukrainian children living with trauma.