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Lady Gaga will have to cancel her sold-out show in Indonesia following protests by Islamic hard-liners and conservative lawmakers, who said her sexy clothes and dance moves will corrupt young people. National police spokesman Boy Rafli Amar, responding to the pressure, said today that the permit for her 3 June “Born This Way Ball” concert [...]

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The final of the competition, which was broadcast on Sunday night on BBC2, was won by teenage cellist Laura van der Heijden. However Norman Lebrecht, the arts critic and BBC Radio 3 presenter, criticised the corporation’s coverage as being “low-key to the point of torpor”. Viewers also accused the corporation of using a lightweight production [...]

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Fifteen-year-old cellist Laura van der Heijden has won the BBC’s Young Musician prize for 2012. The teenager played Sir William Walton’s Cello Concerto with the Northern Sinfonia at the competition’s final at The Sage in Gateshead. Accepting the £2,000 prize, van der Heijden, from East Sussex, said she felt “amazing” and “so, so lucky”. She [...]

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Sheffield’s Labour city council has succeeded with a bid for £1,800,000 to the Arts Council which will pay for all children and young people in the city to learn a musical instrument or sing in a choir. They don’t have to. Older readers may recall terror in the classroom at having to pluck away in [...]

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Simon Cowell predicts Britain’s Got Talent winner Pudsey will become the most famous dog in the world. He’s probably right. I can just see Hunger Games star Jennifer Lawrence being cast as Ashleigh and Pudsey portraying himself – and maybe Colin Firth playing Simon since he’s putting up the money? There simply isn’t a Hollywood [...]

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The Government is ready to bring in new laws to protect children taking part in reality TV programmes. Ministers will begin meeting this month with broadcasters including the BBC and ITV and production companies such as Simon Cowell’s firm SyCo, which makes The X Factor and Britain’s Got Talent, to discuss how to safeguard vulnerable [...]

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Stubbs, 51, made her name as an actress with the Royal Shakespeare Company and had notable roles as Desdemona in Othello and Viola in Twelfth Night. But she admitted she could often find the texts impenetrable and it could be “frustrating” to get into character.   Stubbs told the Radio Times: “Shakespeare can be terrifying, [...]

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A video of cancer-stricken kids singing along to Kelly Clarkson’s hit song Stronger has become an internet sensation with over one million views. The shoot was set up by Chris Rumble, a regular twenty-something from Seattle with a passion for hockey and making amateur movies. Until, that is, he was suddenly diagnosed with leukaemia, which [...]

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It started with a music teacher’s request for two of her pupils to sing at her wedding. Ginette Brown chose the song, The Prayer, and teenagers Jonathan Antoine and Charlotte Jaconelli performed it at her church ceremony. When the pair sang the same duet to audition for Britain’s Got Talent, their performance earned acclaim from the [...]

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If tattooed warriors can win an audience by chanting Shakespeare in Maori and shaking the hallowed foundations of the Globe Theatre then, come on, there’s hope for us all.   That thought took me back to an evening last year, when I found myself at the Lyric in the West End for a programme of [...]

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Lady Gaga admitted she was nervous filming a part for the 23rd season finale of The Simpsons, which celebrated its 500th episode in February. The Simpsons is the longest-running prime-time scripted programme on US TV and is contracted to run for another two seasons.   The episode entitled ‘Lisa Goes Gaga’ is being shown on 20th [...]

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A choirboy may have accidentally strangled himself during an experiment to improve his singing by restricting his breath, an inquest heard yesterday. Judge’s son Edward Morgan-Gooch, 12, was concerned he wouldn’t be able to hit high notes when his voice broke. His mother, Julia, 43, had tucked him up in bed but found him lifeless [...]

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The mother of Edward Morgan-Gooch, 12, went to turn off his bedside light when she found him sitting lifeless on his bedroom floor with a belt tightened around his neck. Her barrister husband Christopher Morgan who is also a Recorder at Norwich Crown Court tried to resuscitate him, but he was later declared dead in [...]

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The mother of Edward Morgan-Gooch, 12, went to turn off his bedside light when she found him sitting lifeless on his bedroom floor with a belt tightened around his neck. Her barrister husband Christopher Morgan who is also a Recorder at Norwich Crown Court tried to resuscitate him, but he was later declared dead in [...]

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East End schoolchildren today spoke of their pride at being chosen to take part in the Olympics closing ceremony, saying it was a chance to be “a part of history”. More than 40 pupils from Leytonstone School in Waltham Forest will participate in the event called A Symphony of British Music and featuring everyone “from [...]

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This little girl must really like Carrie Underwood. A woman recorded her three-year-old niece dancing and singing in her car seat to the country singer’s ‘Good Girl.’ The toddler doesn’t just move to the beat — she rocks out. The little girl squeezes her eyes shut for most of her performance, so she can really [...]

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A former English Ballet dancer has been charged with fraud after allegedly fooling dozens of children into believing they will perform at the Olympics. Stephen Moonesamy was charged with four counts of fraud by false representation after he was arrested on Friday. The alleged scam involved 75 children from three different schools who were led [...]

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Tala,16, will make history in Sepember when she embarks on a four year training programme in Moscow, one of only a handful of British dancers to make the journey in the Bolshoi’s 236 year history. While she is there Tala, who started dancing when she was four, will have to learn Russian to help her settle [...]

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It’s a sunny April Saturday and Inner Voices have just opened the Mayor of London’s St George’s Day Festival on Trafalgar Square. Dressed in black with turquoise ties, the choir of 43 teenagers from 11 inner London state schools entertains the crowds with an eclectic 20-minute set ranging from John Bennet’s 1599 madrigal “Weep, O [...]

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A Michigan high school has staged an all-girl prom. Hamtramck High School, a school near Detroit with a significant Muslim population, put on the strobe light-filled event last Saturday night. Organised by Tharima Ahmed, a 17-year-old senior student at the school, the event drew 100 of the co-educational school’s 900 students. As many Muslim students [...]

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Most four year olds are content with banging on a drum and would struggle to get a note out of a recorder. But child prodigy Mimi Zou has astounded her piano teacher with her progress and will tonight give her first solo performance at the Royal Albert Hall. Mimi, who has only been learning the [...]

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Now and again on Britain’s Got Talent, a young star comes along who blows more experienced acts out of the water. And that was certainly the case on tonight’s show, as 11-year-old Molly Rainford took to the stage and stole the hearts of  both the panel and the audience. Her pitch-perfect rendition of Jennifer Hudson’s [...]

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A Government Minister last night criticised Britain’s Got Talent after a nine-year-old boy burst into tears while performing for the ITV show. More than ten million viewers saw Malakai Paul, from North London, break down while singing Beyonce’s Listen on last night’s edition of the prime-time series. Malakai was shown talking about suffering from stage [...]

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A learner driver who mowed down an aspiring teenage dancer before setting fire to his car has been jailed for six-and-a-half years. Talented Alessia Boschiazzo,14, from Carshalton, Surrey, had passed her audition to the Brit school in south London the day before she was run over by hit-and-run scaffolder Steven Saunders. Some of the biggest names [...]

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Mick Jagger and Keith Richards have been photographed together on countless occasions. But this class picture from January 9, 1951, is probably the very first. With their pudding basin haircuts, the pair, then aged seven, took their place among the rows of new boys and girls at Wentworth Primary School in Dartford. Now, released 50 years after [...]

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A new arena show based on the Ice Age movie trilogy will feature some of the world’s most advanced animatronics. Performers in Ice Age Live! A Mammoth Adventure will wear animal suits on top of ultra-light carbon-fibre skeletons which use the latest electro-mechanical technology. The creature’s faces and other features are controlled by the actors and [...]

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The National Theatre’s hit play War Horse has been voted as Best Play in the inaugural Mousetrap awards – voted on exclusively by young people aged 15 to 23. Mervyn Millar, creative associate and artistic director of War Horse, accepted the award for Best Play, while Andy Bryant, who plays Boq in Wicked took home [...]

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He already has the doe-eyed good looks and an army of female fans called the Mayniacs. Now Conor Maynard can really be called “Britain’s Justin Bieber” after the Brighton musical prodigy displaced the Canadian teen idol from the chart summit with his debut single. Maynard, 19, enjoys a rather different life to his college peers. [...]

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It launched the careers of some of Britain’s biggest stars, including Dame Helen Mirren, Colin Firth and Jude Law. Doctor Who’s Matt Smith honed his acting skills there, and it was where David Walliams and Matt Lucas of Little Britain fame met. But now the National Youth Theatre (NYT) – whose patron is Prince Edward [...]

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While the competition to be voted prom queen is notoriously fierce, one mother did everything in her power to ensue her daughter would wear the crown. Mother Tammy Day purchased an entire revolving outdoor billboard in Killeen, Texas, which read: ‘Vote Brandy Day for Prom Queen.’ It was bright pink and also featured a photo [...]

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A well-dressed 12-year-old girl will shock the Britain’s Got Talent judges tonight when she chooses a ‘gangster song’. Simon Cowell labels schoolgirl Lauren Thalia ‘posh’ but was left impressed after her rendition of Keri Hilson’s Turn My Swag On. Wearing a blouse with butterflies on it, red tights and a flower in her hair, the [...]

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Young Londoners are being offered the chance to experience live opera free. Opera Holland Park is making 300 tickets available for nine- to 18-year-olds, for performances in the temporary pavilion erected each summer in the park in Kensington. The offer was made as research for the company’s summer season sponsor, Investec Wealth and Investment, suggested [...]

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She has appeared in five Harry Potter movies and makes her London stage debut tonight, but Katie Leung is going back to school — to learn how to act. Following her run in Wild Swans, an adaptation of the bestselling book, Leung, 24, will take up a place at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland in [...]

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Towards the end of last year my nine-year old son, Monty, landed the lead role in Oliver! at our local amateur dramatic society and the news had me bursting with maternal pride. Even though I suspected that his floppy blond hair and deceptively innocent face had probably nailed the part, rather than any discerning acting [...]

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A nine-year-old prodigy who lives in a council house is set to perform in front of thousands of ballet fans at the London Coliseum.   Charlie Salsen, from Ilford, has overcome shyness and bullying at school to land a starring role in an adaptation of Tolstoy novel Anna Karenina by acclaimed Russian choreographer Boris Eifman. [...]

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Ensemble playing key to music in schools Share guardian.co.uk, Wednesday 18 April 2012 20.59 BST Article history This is a challenging time for music education, with fast-paced changes and some unknowns (School music under threat, 17 April). What is known is that the government has recognised the value of music education, via a visionary and [...]

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Did you hear about the girl who did a degree in ballet? She got a tutu. Rubbish jokes aside, many students are deeply troubled by the prospect of discovering, at the end of their final year, that they’ve been accorded a 2:2. And that’s mostly because of reports that “around three-quarters of large graduate employers [...]

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School music under threat Cutbacks and the back-door privatisation of services are putting children’s musical education at risk Primary school children making music in Tower Hamlets where the music service aims to give all children, regardless of their family income, the opportunity to learn an instrument. Photograph: Graham Turner for the Guardian It’s a weekday [...]

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A real-life Billy Elliot who was paralysed after a street attack has defied doctors by dancing again. Professional ballet star Jack Widdowson, 19, suffered serious spinal injuries last November just two days after a starring stage role. His devastated family rushed to his bedside and doctors feared he would be never be able to dance [...]

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Sue Tollefsen’s only child Freya turns four tomorrow and an epic weekend of celebrations is planned. As well as a trip to the Moscow Ballet and a family get-together, Freya and 15 little friends will mark her birthday with an adventure playground party. ‘And after that, I expect I’ll come home, flop into a chair [...]

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For tapping out a beat may help children learn difficult fraction concepts, according to new findings due to be published in the journal Educational Studies in Mathematics. An innovative curriculum uses rhythm to teach fractions at a California school where students in a music-based programme scored significantly higher on math tests than their peers who [...]

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These hilarious pictures imagine what life holds for babies when they grow up. Created by dad-of-three Eric Maloberti, 39, the series sees his adorable three-month-old daughter June dressed as a boxer, a priest and a butcher along with other professions. Making intricate costumes with the help of his wife, Eric – known as ‘Malo’ to [...]

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The retiring principal of the BRIT School for performing arts has accused the Department for Education of “living in a state of fear” and denying children the vocational teaching they need for future careers in the creative industries. Nick Williams, who has been a transformational figure in revitalising the BRIT School as a source of [...]

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They have always had a close relationship. Now, mother and daughter Hillary and Chelsea Clinton are growing closer in the looks department, too. Stepping out at the School of American Ballet Winter Ball last night, Chelsea not only sported a haircut not unlike Hillary’s, but has grown to look strikingly similar to her mother as [...]

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The video below begins like so many others on YouTube, a teenage girl laughing with friends as she prepares to show the world her version of a hit made famous by her idol. And in her spine-tingling cover of Adele’s Someone Like You, Tara, 13, showcases a powerful voice beyond her years – but this [...]

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A group of teens from Lewisham and New Cross aim to be as big as Beyoncé after winning a nationwide search for musical talent. Floodliners — five friends aged from 15 to 18 — won the songwriting award in the Next Brit Thing, a contest for 11 to 19-year-olds backed by the Brit Awards, the [...]

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Last summer, my daughter Matilda was thrilled to be invited to her friend Ruby’s eighth birthday sleepover along with another little girl. She eagerly counted down the days to the big night, so when I collected her the following day I was surprised when Ruby’s mum Louise explained there had been a bit of a [...]

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Thousands of school music lessons involve barely a note of music, a damning report revealed today. Ofsted inspectors condemned poor standards of music education in English schools after discovering that classes are dominated by teachers talking and written exercises. Pupils are given few opportunities to play or listen to music or sing, they found. ‘Put [...]

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Inspectors warned that many pupils were being turned off the subject after spending hours reading textbooks or listening to complicated assessment procedures instead of playing the piano, guitar, violin, trumpet or recorder. In one case, a group of 14-year-olds was required to spend a lesson copying out information about the lives of Eric Clapton and [...]

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Funding for the country’s top drama schools must be protected, according to the government’s recent review into cultural education in England. Darren Henley’s report, commissioned by the Department for Culture, Media and Sport in 2010 and published this week, recommends that “exceptional funding” for conservatoire-level arts training institutions should be “secured for the long-term”. The [...]

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