NEWS
Daft Punk at the Mayan, 1997
Courtesy of Daft LifeExactly a year ago Tuesday (Feb. 22), Daft Punk announced they were breaking up after a 28-year run that established the French duo as the world’s top electronic music makers. Many fans forecasted that this pair of numerology enthusiasts — who appeared in public as helmeted robots — would do something special a year from the breakup date.
That date — 2/22/22 — is today, and those forecasts were correct. Daft Punk is marking the one-year anniversary of their end with a one-time-only stream of a 1997 performance filmed at Los Angeles’ Mayan Theater. Available to view exclusively on Daft Punk’s Twitch channel, the livestream begins today at 2:22. p.m. PT. (That’s 22:22 p.m. GMT.)
Performed as part of Daft Punk’s Daftendirektour — the duo’s first concert tour that extended from January to December 1997 — the live show was filmed on December 17, 1997, at the 1,700-person-capacity venue in downtown Los Angeles. The group’s live album, Alive 1997, was also recorded during this tour.
1997 was also the year Daft Punk released their all time classic LP, Homework, and in celebration of the album’s 25-year anniversary the duo is releasing Homework Digital Deluxe. Out today via Daft Life with distribution by ADA/Warner Music, this deluxe edition contains the original album along with 15 remixes of the album — including nine that were previously unreleased on streaming platforms. Remixers include DJ Sneak, Roger Sanchez and Junior Sanchez, Todd Terry and Masters At Work.
The market for Daft Punk collectibles skyrocketed in the days after Daft Punk announced their breakup, with items soaring in price across platforms like Etsy and eBay as collectors clamored to buy memorabilia. Vinyl editions of both Homework and Alive ’97 will be back in stores around the world on April 15 and can be pre-ordered starting today.
Homework spent 19 weeks on the Billboard 200, where it peaked at No. 150 in September 1997. Sixteen years later, the duo’s final album, Random Access Memories, hit No. 1 on this same chart, where it spent 54 weeks. Random Access Memories also won the 2014 Grammy for album of the year.
NEWS
Stormzy has shared that he is returning with renewed strength after a period of being “crippled by sadness” in 2025, while also pushing back against accusations that he was “selling out” following his collaboration with McDonald’s.
The collaboration was initially revealed early last year, when the UK rapper partnered with the fast food brand to launch the first Famous Order meal across the UK and Ireland. Fans were able to order his go to meal, and a selection of merchandise was released through the McDonald’s app at the same time.
The partnership sparked criticism from some quarters due to McDonald’s perceived support of Israel, with detractors arguing that the deal appeared to contradict Stormzy’s stated values. The artist, whose real name is Michael Ebenezer Kwadjo Omari Owuo Jr., has previously spoken publicly in support of Palestine and performed at a benefit concert in January 2024 to help raise funds for humanitarian aid.
The Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement had earlier backed an international boycott of McDonald’s after franchises in Israel distributed thousands of free meals to Israeli forces in the aftermath of Hamas’ October 7 attack.
Around the time the collaboration was announced, fans also noticed that the rapper had deleted a social media post from October 2023 in which he voiced his support for Palestine.
Stormzy later addressed what he described as a “twisted narrative” suggesting the post was removed because of the McDonald’s partnership. He clarified that the deletion was part of a wider clean up of his social media account, during which he removed numerous older posts.
“In that post I spoke about #FreePalestine, oppression and injustice and my stance on this has not changed,” he wrote at the time. “The brands I work with can’t tell me what to do and don’t tell me what to do otherwise I wouldn’t work with them.”
Now, Stormzy has shared another reflective message to usher in 2026, explaining that the previous year had been a deeply transformative chapter in his life, marked by his efforts to push through feeling “crippled by sadness”.
Opening the lengthy message, Stormzy described facing “a few unexpected twists and turns” at the beginning of 2025, experiences that he said strengthened his resilience and “put the final nail in the coffin of my desire to be understood”.
Reflecting on the reaction to the McDonald’s deal, he noted that “a lot of you [questioned] both my character and my integrity”, adding that a younger version of himself would have felt “compelled to quickly explain himself, and let you know that there is no world in which he would ever trade his humanity for cash”.
He explained that he no longer feels that pressure, saying he “couldn’t give a single fuck to explain that fact” because he does not “need to explain anything to anybody”.
Opening up further about the challenges he faced throughout the year, the ‘Hide & Seek’ rapper said he was determined not to allow “2025 have me on the backfoot, so I came out the first quarter with one hand down my trousers and my middle finger up”.
“Then towards the end of the summer I found myself crippled by sadness and I was struggling again,” he continued, adding that his faith and close circle of friends helped him find the strength to keep going.
“I was tested physically, spiritually, professionally and creatively. I had no choice but to reassess every detail of my life,” the post later shared. “So yes it’s been painful and at times I hated it but as the year ends and I reflect I can say that I am so so so so grateful for it.”
Looking ahead, he said that he has “gained a lot of clarity around who I am as a man and who I am as an artist, and in 2026 I want to honour that clarity with execution”.
He finished by revealing that he plans to step back from social media and confirmed that work is still ongoing on his fourth studio album.
Around the period of the McDonald’s controversy, the company’s CEO Chris Kempczinski stated that the brand had not taken sides in the conflict, describing the boycotts as “disheartening and ill founded” and attributing them to “misinformation”.
Elsewhere in Stormzy news, the London artist was awarded an honorary doctorate from Cambridge University last summer in recognition of the Stormzy Scholarship to Cambridge.
The scholarship programme began in 2018 and committed to funding two Black British students each year. With additional backing from HSBC UK, the scheme expanded to support 10 students annually, resulting in 56 students having their tuition fees and living costs fully covered.
