I heard the news today…* Ava Cherry releases a new remix of “You Never Loved Me”; Henry Hey shares update on “Rebel Rebel;” Lexi Jones shares a new Bowie and Iman illustration; Donny McCaslin coming to New York City; Kevin Armstrong on his new album; Peter Bebergal on Bowie and the occult; Jasmine Phillips covers “Fascination” plus features, profiles, lists AND MORE!
Welcome to my weekly roundup of Bowie news! Read on for summaries of Bowie-related stories that posted this past week, and click on the bolded story names to link to the original articles…
—
NEWS
Ava Cherry Releases New Remix of “You Never Loved Me”: Ava Cherry’s label, Black Barbarella Music, has released her newly re-recorded dance single, “You Never Loved Me” (The Dascube Remix), a fresh interpretation of the Curtis Mayfield-penned song featuring cover artwork by artist Mark Wardel, with the track now streaming on major digital platforms. Ava worked closely with Bowie in the mid-1970s, including singing backup along with Robin Clark and Luther Vandross on Young Americans.
The following news updates are exclusive content and do not link to external stories:
Henry Hey Shares Update on Bowie-Themed Rebel Rebel Production in Germany. Musical director and arranger Henry Hey has reported that rehearsals for Rebel Rebel, a new David Bowie-focused production directed by Ivo van Hove, have come together successfully in Bochum ahead of its August presentation at the Ruhrtriennale. In a social media update, Hey praised the cast and musicians involved, describing the actors as “phenomenal” and expressing enthusiasm for a show that spans Bowie’s entire career, featuring what he called “so many gems” from the artist’s catalog.
Lexi releases illustration of Bowie and Iman. Lexi Jones released the above image of her parents on social media this week in celebration of their wedding anniversary, which passed two weeks prior.
Donny McCaslin to Perform Lullaby for the Lost in New York City. Donny McCaslin, Bowie’s Blackstar bandleader, as well as Jason Lindner, Jonathan Maron, and Nate Wood will perform music from his album Lullaby for the Lost on July 8 at The Pocket Jazz Club, 130 West 46th Street in New York City, with shows at 7:00 p.m. and 9:00 p.m.
Everything after this point summarizes external stories that can be linked to by clicking the titles:
Bowie immersive experience among Factory International’s autumn highlights. Bowie: You’re Not Alone, a 360-degree immersive experience featuring Bowie’s voice and archival materials, will run at Aviva Studios in Manchester from December through January as part of Factory International’s new season.
Labyrinth Receives Stunning 4K Collector’s Edition. A new 4K and Blu-ray collector’s edition of Labyrinth, featuring Bowie as the Goblin King, is being released by Anime Limited, though an updated release schedule has pushed the collector’s editions from June 22 to July 27, 2026, while some other editions remain on track or have been delayed until later in the year.
Celebration of David Bowie’s life coming to banks of Loch Lomond. Former Bowie collaborators including Earl Slick and Mike Garson will participate in Bowie: Live on the Loch, a charity celebration benefiting Save the Children that will take place on November 7 and 8 at Cameron House on Loch Lomond.
Violinist Curtis Stewart reimagines David Bowie. Curtis Stewart’s 24 American Caprices reimagines music associated with artists including Bowie as virtuosic violin compositions that connect the classical caprice tradition to a broader American musical heritage.
Rock’s Most Famous Duet Is Suddenly Climbing the Charts 45 Years After Hitting No. 1. More than 45 years after its release, Bowie and Queen’s 1981 duet “Under Pressure” has returned to Billboard’s Top Rock Streaming Songs chart, demonstrating the enduring popularity of a song that became a No. 1 hit in the UK, remains one of the defining tracks in both artists’ catalogs, and is widely regarded as one of rock’s greatest collaborations.
Maria Schneider Makes Her First Trip to South Korea. Maria Schneider, the Grammy-winning composer and arranger who contributed to Bowie’s final album Blackstar, is bringing her acclaimed 19-piece orchestra and immersive musical vision to South Korea for the first time.
Sneak peek at MONA’s $100m underground library. The Museum of Old and New Art (MONA) in Hobart, Tasmania, is opening a new $100 million-plus underground library featuring original handwritten Bowie lyrics among its distinctive attractions after four years of construction and the removal of eight Olympic swimming pools’ worth of rubble.
—
FEATURES AND REFLECTIONS
Gail Ann Dorsey reflects on touring with David Bowie. Gail Ann Dorsey credits Bowie’s confidence in her ability to sing and play bass simultaneously on “Under Pressure,” along with his kindness, creativity, and mentorship during their years together, as a lasting source of inspiration in her career.
Labyrinth at 40 – an oral history. Labyrinth, starring Bowie as the Goblin King Jareth and Jennifer Connelly as Sarah, evolved from a box-office disappointment into a cult classic celebrated for its imaginative puppetry, visual innovation, and coming-of-age story.
When Bowie unveiled Ziggy. This article is framed either as or being about an excerpt from a 2018 book titled, Strange Stars: David Bowie, Pop Music, and the Decade Sci-Fi Exploded, by Jason Heller (its a little confusing as to whether most of the article actually is an excerpt of a description of an excerpt). Anyway, it’s about how Bowie rolled out Ziggy.
New Book Charts the Untold History of The Velvet Underground. The Velvet Underground became one of the most influential bands in popular music despite limited commercial success, attracting admirers that included Bowie, Leonard Cohen, Jimi Hendrix, Roxy Music, the Pretenders, and Sonic Youth.
In 1992, Annie Lennox impressed David Bowie. At the Freddie Mercury Tribute Concert, Bowie and Annie Lennox delivered a memorable one-time performance of “Under Pressure,” with Lennox embracing Bowie’s stylistic guidance to help fill Mercury’s daunting role.
‘Dream Me a Dream’ album review. Dream Me a Dream serves as both a powerful introduction and farewell to Tucker Zimmerman, whose music impressed Bowie and evolved into a distinctive artistic voice over more than five decades.
The story of Pin Ups. Following the intense creative pace that produced Hunky Dory, Ziggy Stardust, and Aladdin Sane, Bowie recorded Pin Ups as a nostalgic tribute to the 1960s bands he admired in his youth, with Mick Ronson at the peak of his abilities.
—
PROFLIE
There’s usually more than one profile I feature each week. Lorraine Kelly has the section all to herself this week, though.
Lorraine Kelly. Bowie’s music, particularly “Space Oddity” and “Life on Mars?”, inspired Lorraine Kelly and helped her find a sense of belonging after moving to East Kilbride as a teenager.
—
THIS WEEK IN THIS BLOG
June 14: Last week’s news
June 15: David Bowie Cover of the Week: Jasmine Phillips covers “Fascination”
June 16: Drive-in Saturday Tuesday Movie Review: Disclosure Day (2026)
June 17: Bowie collaborator Kevin Armstrong on his new album
June 18: 10 Musicians Bowie took shots at in songs
June 19: Peter Bebergal Preview
June 20: Peter Bebergal on Bowie and the Occult
—
LISTS
1976: the 21 greatest albums from the year. Station to Station marked Bowie’s transformation into the Thin White Duke and bridged his soul-influenced work and the experimental Berlin period, with the title track combining industrial textures, theatrical rock, and themes of paranoia, reinvention, and artistic transformation.
Young singers who transformed the music industry. Bowie became a glam rock icon during the Ziggy Stardust era through his theatrical performances, androgynous image, and continual reinvention, influencing music, fashion, and popular culture for generations.
10 songs so pretentious it sounds like they’re looking down on you. “Time” is so abstract, surreal, and theatrical that it can seem like nonsense rather than genuinely groundbreaking avant-garde art.
17 classic songs stranded on poor albums. “Loving the Alien” stands out on Tonight as a sweeping art-pop song about religious conflict and the Crusades that showcases one of Bowie’s strongest vocal performances of the 1980s.
12 albums that shocked the world. RCA initially refused to release Low because it departed so sharply from the commercial style of Station to Station and Young Americans, but the album ultimately became a critical and commercial success for Bowie.
Rock’s 31 most iconic bands – and ONE essential album from each. Aladdin Sane expands on the glam-rock foundation of Ziggy Stardust with more experimental influences, incorporating rock, jazz, and avant-garde elements that reflect Bowie’s fascination with American culture and reward repeated listening.
10 songs that shouldn’t be on classic albums. “Space Oddity” is Bowie’s first perfect song and an early expression of the artistic direction that would later lead to Ziggy Stardust, surpassing the rest of the album’s otherwise decent material.
3 David Bowie Songs From the 1970s That Sounded Way Ahead of Their Time. Bowie’s Berlin Trilogy produced forward-looking songs such as “Warszawa,” “Breaking Glass,” and “Look Back in Anger,” which anticipated later developments in ambient, new wave, and alternative rock while showcasing his willingness to experiment and evolve artistically.
The 21 greatest cover versions of all time. Although Bowie co-wrote “China Girl” with Iggy Pop for The Idiot in 1977, his 1983 re-recording on Let’s Dance transformed it into a slick, funky global hit that many regard as a cover of the original.
The 10 greatest concept characters in music. By creating Ziggy Stardust, Bowie used an audacious blend of science-fiction, glam rock, and Japanese theatrical influences to propel his career to new heights while grounding The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars in stories that reflected human experience.
10 spots in Berlin that every music lover should visit. Bowie helped establish Berlin as a center of alternative music by relocating to West Berlin in the late 1970s, where he lived with Iggy Pop while overcoming drug addiction and recording Low and “Heroes” at an apartment that later became a site of pilgrimage for fans.
—
CHURNALISM
This section separates genuine Bowie news and original writing from recycled “churnalism” stories with vague click-bait headlines that often repeat familiar information but may still be of interest if readers have not seen them before.
Churn of the Week: The albums David Bowie never wanted to be remembered. Bowie regarded some of his commercially successful 1980s albums as artistic missteps because he believed his strongest work came from pursuing his own interests rather than trying to satisfy audience expectations. Some version of this story has been told over and over again since Bowie was around to criticize his own 80s output. There is nothing remotely revelatory here— no new comments unearthed, no original reflections on or analysis of those comments. While the same is true for everything else in this section, at least most of the following repackaged content are about stories that are least slightly less frequently retold.
The 1973 classic rock single that went from booed off stage to David Bowie’s approval. The Sweet’s “Ballroom Blitz” was inspired by a concert-ending brawl in Scotland and became a glam rock classic that earned Bowie’s praise as “a winner.”
David Bowie’s 1983 Heartbreaking Song Predicted the Death of Romance. Despite its upbeat sound, “Modern Love” is portrayed as one of Bowie’s most heartbreaking songs because its lyrics express disappointment with modern society and romance.
The frontman Pete Townshend thought could compete with Mick Jagger. Keith Richards said Jagger was intimidated by Bowie’s theatricality and stage presence, while Pete Townshend considered Ray Davies the frontman who came closest to rivaling Jagger.
1972 Rock Song, Originally a Major Flop, Remains a Classic 54 Years Later. More than 50 years after its release, “Changes” remains one of Bowie’s most celebrated songs despite initially failing to chart in the United Kingdom and reaching only No. 66 on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100.
Queen’s Most Iconic Concert Was Packed With Rock Legends Most Have Forgotten. Although Queen’s celebrated Live Aid set was immortalized by Bohemian Rhapsody, the 1985 charity concert featured more than 70 artists, including Bowie, whose performances have largely been overshadowed by Queen’s legacy.
The 1973 song that “scared the living ones” out of David Bowie. Bowie once said that Bruce Springsteen’s vivid depiction of a crowded, oppressive subway in “It’s Hard to Be a Saint in the City” frightened him so much that he avoided riding the subway, despite later expressing admiration for the song and even covering it.
The 1972 song David Bowie thought everyone misunderstood. Bowie conceived “All the Young Dudes” not as a celebration of youth but as a warning about societal decline within the apocalyptic Ziggy Stardust narrative, reflecting his concern that the idealism of the 1960s had become exhausted and misdirected.
—
And with that, “we’ve finished our news…”*
—
*“I’ve heard the news today” is Bowie’s adaptation of the Beatles lyric, which is heard in “Young Americans.” **“We’ve finished our news” is a line from, “Oh You Pretty Things”