SiriusXM is launching a niche subscription offering targeting sports fans, creating what will be its least expensive option in the process.
The satellite radio giant is launching SiriusXM Sports Pass, a $5 per month audio subscription that will bundle all of its sports channels alongside a slew of terrestrial sports radio stations.
The service will be the most comprehensive live sports subscription offering anywhere (albeit audio-only), with every home and away NFL, MLB, NBA and NHL game broadcast; every NASCAR, IndyCar and Formula 1 race; PGA TOUR events and golf’s major championships; WWE Premium Live Events including WrestleMania, and many other events.
The new offering will launch Sep. 1, right as the NFL and college football season get underway. Channels include Mad Dog Radio, Fantasy Sports Radio, and the channels dedicated to individual sports like the NFL, MLB, NBA, F1, etc. It also includes national sports radio brand from ESPN, Fox Sports and Westwood One, as well as sports stations from Audacy, including WFAN New York and 97.1 The Fan Los Angeles.
“Every new channel, artist performance, live event, and creator collaboration advances our vision for the future of audio: making SiriusXM a home for fandom, where listeners can go deeper into the things they love and feel part of a lasting community,” said Jennifer Witz, SiriusXM’s CEO, in a statement. “SiriusXM Sports Pass brings that vision to life for sports fans by putting every game and event we carry, hometown voices, national personalities and the daily sports conversation into one simple, affordable subscription. No matter who you cheer for or where you listen, it brings you closer to the teams and voices that matter most to you.”
The sports offering opens up new possibilities for the company, which currently has an all-music tier for $11.99 per month and an all-access tier for $25.99 per month ($11.99 for streaming only) that serve as its most popular offerings. There also premium and family plans, as well as a $14.99 per month news, talk and sports plan.
The sports offering suggests a future where SiriusXM could cater to more specific tastes, be it through news or opinion, specific music genres, or other areas of “fandom,” as Witz puts it.
A consortium of 22 different advocacy organizations are lining up to support Walt Disney Co. as it continues to tangle with the Federal Communications Commission.
“We urge you to continue to defend and exercise your First Amendment rights, so that we can all continue to exercise ours,” reads the letter, addressed to Disney CEO Josh D’Amaro and signed by the American Civil Liberties Union, the National Coalition Against Censorship, the Electronic Frontier Foundation, Public Knowledge, TechFreedom and several other groups.
Disney has for the past several weeks grappled with unorthodox pressure from the Trump administration. The Federal Communications Commission, led by Chairman Brendan Carr, ordered Disney to file for renewals for eight of its stations years ahead of schedule. In filings, Disney has said its applications were made “under protest in response to an unlawful, arbitrary, and unconstitutional order.” “The View,” which has thrived in recent years with discussion of politics, has also found itself in the administration’s cross-hairs. The FCC has probed whether the program has violated so-called “equal-time” election laws following the appearance of political figures, launching its investigation after James Talarico, the Democratic Senate candidate from Texas, appeared on the show in February. The FCC issued new guidance in January that late-night and daytime hosts needed to give equal time to political candidates from various parties, claiming the programs might be working along partisan lines.
“Freedom of the press is such a core component of having a functioning democracy,” says Jenna Leventoff, senior policy counsel for the ACLU, during a recent interview. The groups wanted to remind Disney that “when you’re standing up for yourself, you are standing up for all of us,” she says. Eroding the ability of media organizations to report on things that governments may not approve of will also undermine the nation’s democratic values, she adds.
“Meaningfully fighting back requires more than strongly worded regulatory filings. It requires that you make clear to the public what is happening to you and to them — that the government is violating the First Amendment,” the letter to D’Amaro reads. “Remember: the public rebelled against the heavy-handed attempt to force Jimmy Kimmel off the air, and stood with you. Disney now has the opportunity to stand with all of us in protecting our rights to watch, read, and access information the government wishes we would not. Illegal jawboning demands decisive and vocal resistance. Your rights, and all of our rights, depend on it.”
Other signatories include Fall of Freedom, Issue One, PEN America, People for the American Way, LGBT Tech, The Media and Democracy Project, The Trevor Project, The Tully Center for Free Speech and UnidosUS.
A coalition of nearly a dozen of the biggest record companies in the music business — including the “big three” of Universal Music Group, Sony Music and Warner Music Group — are calling for global music charts to adopt policies that would disqualify many AI slop tracks from consideration.
The companies are calling on the chart companies to introduce new rules that would only allow AI-generated songs to be included if the use of AI is properly authorized and lawful, if the track was substantially human made and if it doesn’t raise concerns of streaming fraud or chart manipulation.
Those stipulations don’t outright disqualify all AI songs — a primarily human created song that lawfully uses AI as a supplemental tool is still allowed — but they’d certainly limit eligibility considerably. The biggest AI music generation platforms still face lawsuits over allegations of mass copyright infringement to train their models, and much of the AI music uploaded to streaming services is linked to streaming fraud.
“Tracks created using generative AI systems have been appearing on streaming services, however many of these have been developed with tools that have been trained on artists’ music without authorisation,” the companies said in a release on Wednesday. “These tracks are also commonly associated with streaming fraud. To tackle this, record companies are driving the development and licensing of AI music services that respect the rights of music creators. Through the implementation of these principles, human creators will have further assurance that tracks manufactured via unauthorised algorithms unjustly built upon their work – or fraudulently promoted – will not be celebrated by industry charts.”
While AI-generated songs haven’t overwhelmed the charts yet, there have been several notable cases. The AI country act Breaking Rust, for example, garnered major headlines last year after managing to make it on the country digital sales chart. Still, it should be said that placements on digital sales charts certainly don’t reflect mass consumption, as it only takes a thousand-or-so sales to chart there given that digital downloads have become far less common in the streaming era.
AI remains among the most pressing issues in the music industry, as the record companies have announced partnerships with the likes of Nvidia, Spotify and Stability AI to develop AI music tools, while also suing when the AI companies cross the line. All three of the major labels sued AI music generators Suno and Udio back in 2024, though UMG settled with Udio last year, while WMG settled with both Suno and Udio. Sony is yet to carve out a deal with either company.
The labels’ call comes just weeks after the RIAA and IFPI announced a push for streaming services to more explicitly label AI-generated content on their platforms, suggesting a strategy similar to the current labeling of explicit music on streamers, with AI icons next to a song.
Penélope Cruz, Lee Chang-dong, Rosalind Eleazar, Siân Heder and Isabelle Huppert are the first honorees announced for the eighth annual TIFF Tribute Awards, the gala set for Sept. 13 during the Toronto International Film Festival.
Cruz, who won the supporting actress Oscar for “Vicky Cristina Barcelona,” will receive the TIFF Special Tribute Award. Eleazar and Huppert will each be honored with the TIFF Tribute Performer Award, while Lee will take the TIFF Ebert Director Award. Heder, whose “Being Heumann” is this year’s opening night selection, will receive the TIFF Tribute Award in impact media.
“Now in its eighth year, the TIFF Tribute Awards celebrate some of cinema’s most exciting artists at an event dedicated to the transformative power of film,” says Cameron Bailey, CEO of TIFF. “From the captivating performances of Isabelle Huppert, Penélope Cruz and Rosalind Eleazar to Lee Chang-dong and Siân Heder’s vital filmmaking, each has shown a profound impact on screen storytelling. It’s our privilege to recognize their achievements as we gather to celebrate another exceptional year in film and rally support for TIFF’s ongoing work.”
Cruz arrives in Toronto with two titles including the Spanish-language drama “La Bola Negra” which premiered at Cannes, where directors Javier Calvo and Javier Ambrossi won best director. She also stars opposite Oscar winner Javier Bardem in “Bunker,” from writer-director Florian Zeller, the Oscar-winning scribe of “The Father” (2020).
Lee returns to the festival with the Special Presentations premiere of “Possible Love,” his first feature since “Burning” in 2018. Eleazar, the breakout of Apple TV’s “Slow Horses,” appears in “Misty Green,” which Chris Rock wrote and directed. Huppert, whose career spans more than 100 films, reunites with director Marc Fitoussi, who guided her through “Paris Follies” in 2014, for the comedy “All About Corinne,” a gala presentation.
Heder makes her festival debut with the world premiere of “Being Heumann,” her follow-up to “CODA,” which won best picture at the 2022 Academy Awards and earned her the adapted screenplay Oscar.
The Tribute Awards is TIFF’s largest annual fundraiser, with proceeds supporting expanded access to cinema, artist development and industry initiatives.
The 51st Toronto International Film Festival runs Sept. 10-20. The fest has long served as a launchpad for Oscar-winning fare, particularly through the People’s Choice Award, whose past winners include “Chariots of Fire” (1981), “American Beauty” (1999), “Slumdog Millionaire” (2008) and “Green Book” (2018).
Jean-Pierre Dorléac, the costume designer behind “Somewhere in Time” and “Battlestar Galactica,” died July 23 from natural causes. He was 83.
Dorléac earned an Oscar nomination for the 1981 film “Somewhere in Time.” He also landed 11 Emmy nominations for his TV work, winning two for “Battlestar Galactica” in 1979 and “The Lot” in 2001.
Dorléac was born in Toulon, France, in 1943 to an American military service member stationed with his family in Europe. There he studied at the École des Beaux-Arts in France. After his family moved back to the United States, he started his career as an actor in Hollywood. But when one of his theater productions was looking for a costume designer, he took that opportunity, which led him to design the costumes for the play “Marat/Sade” in 1973 for West Coast Theatre in Los Angeles, earning critical acclaim and a Drama Critics Circle Award.
He became Edith Head’s protégé, and as a film and television costume designer he designed for multiple productions. Dorléac was also a writer. Among his works, he wrote “Abracabra Alakazama” in 2005, and “The Naked Truth: An Irreverent Chronicle of Delirious Escapades” in 2015.
He frequently shared gossip and opinions on social media, where he became a controversial figure. Back in 2021, he took to Twitter and made several comments about “Battlestar Galactica” actor Patrick Macnee. He wrote, “Patrick Macnee was just as abysmal, conniving, nasty and evil as the part he played [Count Iblis]. He was a horrid person and a lousy actor who went out of his way to make life miserable for others on the show. The only thing of value to him was his ego. A major, terrible disappointment.”
In his tell-all, “The Naked Truth,” he wrote, “I think this business is like King of Hearts, where they opened the asylum doors and let the patients loose. No one in production knows much about anything, and all the behind-the-scenes people are merely pretending, just like actors. They have no inkling regarding good taste, flair or panache, or the ability to create.”
He is survived by his spouse, Gilberto Mello, whom he met 41 years ago in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
Jared Leto faces new sexual misconduct accusations from multiple women, with some of the allegations occurring when the women were teenagers.
On Wednesday, the BBC revealed that in total 10 women have come forward with allegations against the Oscar-winning actor and frontman of rock band Thirty Seconds to Mars as part of a new BBC documentary titled Jared Leto: Hollywood’s Dark Secret.
Four of the women have accused Leto of criminal sexual conduct, all occurring when they were teenagers, according to the BBC. The allegations against the 54-year-old stem from incidents between 2002 and 2016.
In the BBC report, one of the women claims she was sexually assaulted by Leto in a motel bathroom when she was 17.
A second woman says Leto threatened her with sexual assault when she was 19, after being “unexpectedly” left alone with him in a hotel.
The third woman reveals she had sex with Leto when she was 17 in California, in a state where she would have been underage and the act classified as statutory rape. This same woman also claims she had a conversation with the actor about her age and he “shrugged off” concerns about California’s age of consent.
The fourth woman claims she groomed by Leto, saying he “abused his celebrity status by making repeated sexually explicit phone calls to her when she was 16.” She adds that on at least one occasion, Leto suggested they should have sex. This fourth woman also alleges that she was subsequently sent a non-disclosure agreement to prevent her from talking about her relationship with Leto, but that she refused to sign it. The BBC says it has seen the NDA.
A fifth woman claims that when she was 14, Leto had made a lewd comment about her chest during an autograph-signing event and then instructed a security guard to take her backstage at a music festival. The woman claims her mother confronted Leto at the time, but the actor repeated the lewd comment.
An additional four women claim they received calls from Leto when they were younger that were “strange and often very sexual.”
The BBC says it has “corroborated” a number of the women’s accounts with friends and family who were told about the encounters with Leto at the time. In some cases, the British broadcaster states, reporters have also seen pictures and messages that support the claims.
Two men who worked with Leto’s band told the documentary staff were “uncomfortable” about the way Leto would interact with teenage girls. They say he would sometimes invite them backstage to his dressing room or invite them to the house where he was recording. “I think everyone thought the age gap was way too big,” one of the men, unnamed in the BBC report, says.
The Hollywood Reporter has reached out to Jared Leto’s reps for comment on the investigation, but had yet to hear back when this story was published.
Sexual misconduct allegations have long dogged the Dallas Buyers Club and Tron star. In June 2025, Leto‘s reps denied that the actor engaged in sexual misconduct or inappropriate relationships with women after an Air Mail exposé. That investigative report contained interviews with nine women, the majority of whom are anonymous. They alleged that Leto behaved inappropriately with them, and some say they were underage at the time they came in contact with the actor.
The Air Mail piece also published a viral Twitter post shared by actor Dylan Sprouse in 2018. It reads: “Yo Jared Leto, now that you’ve slid into the DMs of every female model aged 18-25, what would you say your success rate is?” Filmmaker and DC chief James Gunn replied: “He starts at 18 on the internet?”
The Locarno Film Festival, whose 79th edition takes place Aug. 5-15, always features world premieres from around the world by established and up-and-coming auteurs, new hidden gems and cinematic discoveries, along with highlights from the festival circuit.
But audiences can also expect the unexpected. After all, Locarno also features quirky, edgy and offbeat movies just waiting to unspool.
So, buckle up for a ride on the wilder and more unorthodox side of the cinematic spectrum as THR presents its look at some of the more unusual-sounding films at Locarno79.
Wandering Trees(Alberi erranti) Director: Salvatore Section: International competition
Once upon a time in Sardinia. Piero and his son Giuliano lived alone in a farmhouse filled with injured animals that they cared for. But the local notables wanted to drive them out because they lived like vagrants. One day, snow fell, and Piero disappeared, while the animals were killed. So, Giuliano had no choice but to search for his father. On his journey, he met Maddalena, and it was love at first sight.
Giuliano’s dreamlike search across a wounded landscape explores the wonder and special experience of childhood, a time in life that provides a possibility of resistance against the violence of the adult world.
The filmmaker puts it into magical images – and words. “To tell a love story, you mustn’t be afraid to open up emotionally,” says Mereu, who also wrote the script with Alberto Capitta, in a director’s note. “But to embark on a fairy tale, you need to risk something. When you accept its rules, you have to accept everything – even the unthinkable.”
Objet A Director: Ann Oren Section: International competition
‘Object A’
Courtesy of Juan Sarmiento G./Schuldenberg Films
Ready for a bold, playful and stylized excursion into fragile relationships between humans as well as humans and nature, intimacy, desire, identity – and kleptomania – that uses the body as the core of its cinematic language? Well, Objet A is ready to bend your mind and leave you unsettled!
“Ingeborg and Adam are visionary hand surgeons bound by love, control and irresistible fixations,” teases a synopsis. But there is more: “She is compelled to steal objects; he longs to become one. When an accident brings the enigmatic Gaia into their lives, unexpected desires begin to take shape, unsettling the careful balance that has long defined their relationship.”
Berlin-based visual artist and filmmaker Ann Oren (Piaffe) returns to Locarno to serve up a film, which she wrote with Geoffroy Grison, that features cinematography by Juan Sarmiento G. (The Voice of Hind Rajab, A Poet) and editing by Hansjörg Weißbrich (Rose, Late Shift). It stars Aenne Schwarz (All Is Well, Every You Every Me) as Ingeborg, Louis Hofmann (All the Light We Cannot See, The Forger, Dark), and Simone Bucio (Piaffe, The Ivy) as Gaia. “I’m interested in human desire and how it connects us to other species,” Oren says in a director’s note. “The human body is the starting point for my cinematic language: the more control we have over it, the more we separate ourselves from the natural world.”
Bloody Tennis Director: Nikias Chryssos Section: Out of competition
‘Bloody Tennis,’ courtesy of augenschein Filmproduktion
The world of elite sports is taken to disturbing new heights full of brutality and painful ambition in the new film from Nikias Chryssos (The Bunker, Rave On, A Pure Place). “Sophie joins a prestigious tennis academy where the brutality of competitive sports is taken to its extreme, and only the hungriest survive,” warns a synopsis.
Sandra Guldberg Kampp (Assassin’s Creed, Electric Child), Helena Zengel (News of the World, The Legend of Ochi, System Crasher) and others star in the movie, along with Elina Löwensohn (Schindler’s List), and Zlatko Burić (Triangle of Sadness), with an original score by Jim Williams (Titane, Raw).
If that’s not enough for you yet, the press notes also promise, or should that be: threaten, “blood-sucking leeches, hard-hitting serves and delicious nightmares.” Game on!
Bakma Abdelhamid Bouchnak Section: Out of competition
‘Bakma,’ courtesy of Chams Ghorab
You have surely never seen Tunisia like this. And you likely haven’t seen a film from Tunisia like this before. What Bouchnak unleashes onto Locarno screens is an urban horror thriller, which he also wrote and edited, with cinematography by Chams Ghorab.
Animalistic violence takes on a different meaning in this movie. Commissioner Ali and Khaled investigate the ritualistic murder of a young woman. So far, so horrible. But there is more, as a synopsis highlights: “Her limbs have been severed, her head is missing, and in its place, the killer has grotesquely sewn the head of a dog.”
Locarno artistic director Giona A. Nazzaro, in unveiling this year’s festival lineup, highlighted said about Bakma: “It’s a film that, in a very specific way, addresses the political corruption in Tunis at the moment. It’s also a very bitter commentary on what’s left of the so-called Arab Spring that ignited the overthrow of some regimes – and, as you’ll remember, it originated in Tunis.”
Tomorrow a Long Time Ago(Morgen vor langer Zeit) Director: Luise Donschen Section: Filmmakers of the Present Competition
Not much dialogue is used, or needed, in the new film from Donschen (Casanovagen), which stars Gerti Drassl and Manuela Biedermann and others. After all, life and actions say more than words.
Amid German reunification in 1990, the 50-year-old Patty first loses her job and then her friend Jelena. “In a small East German town, she collects discarded objects and meets the younger Franz,” teases a synopsis. “When her flat becomes so full of belongings that she can no longer enter it, she sets out into a colorful forest. A journey through landscapes and history begins, carrying away more than just her.”
The movie has a personal dimension for the filmmaker who grew up in the GDR. “Inspired by my childhood experience of German reunification, the film captures the moment when the present splits into ‘before’ and ‘after’,” the moment when everything seems completely unseen and very familiar at the same time.”
Donkey Princess(Princesa Burro) Directors: Cristóbal León and Joaquín Cociña Section: International competition
‘Donkey Princess’
Courtesy of Benjamin Echazarreta
Once upon a time… wait a second, isn’t that how we started this journey into the mind- and genre-bending films at Locarno79!? But wait, this one is different, although love plays a key role again.
Diana is the princess of an ancient kingdom. Her father, King Arthur, has forbidden love. So, when Diana falls in love with Lalo, the King banishes him. A synopsis teases where things go from here: “Using a magical bracelet, Diana travels to other worlds in search of her love. Discovering that her father manipulates her decisions, she must face her fears and change her destiny.”
The travels of the protagonist allow the director duo to play with the look and feel of the places she visits. “Diana travels through parallel worlds where each universe transforms the film’s genre,” León and Cociña explain. “The film brings this constant mutation of realities into live action, where fantasy reshapes everything.”
Banijay Entertainment has posted it first financials since its mega-merger with All3Media was completed.
Half-year revenues at the TV giant were down slightly in the first half of 2026, reaching at €1.37 billion ($1.56 billion), with production volume falling, a drop of 2.2% on the same six months in 2025.
However, the latest results do not yet include the performance of All3Media, whose figures will be included as part of the results from the second half of this year.
Meanwhile, Banijay Entertainment’s production revenue dropped 11.9 percent, with the company citing “anticipated phasing in production.” But distribution revenue rose 10.5 percent, something it said was “fueled in particular by a format sale in the first quarter” without detailing the particular format in question.
There was an unprecedented growth in Banijay’s live event business, which is grouped with Banijay Entertainment, where revenues soar almost 50% thanks to both the Winter Olympic Games and FIFA World Cup.
“The FIFA World Cup generated unprecedented player acquisition and engagement, supported double-digit pro forma revenue growth and strengthened our ability to grow across all products,” the company said. “In Entertainment & Live, record live activity and continued momentum across our content portfolio in distribution partly offset the anticipated phasing of content production, demonstrating the strength and diversification of our business model.”
Earlier this month, Banijay completed the merger of its entertainment arm with RedBird IMI’s All3Media to create an $8 billion Goliath, with the combined group — housing shows such as “The Traitors,” “Big Brother” and “Peaky Blinders” — spanning 25 territories and housing one of the largest content catalogues in the industry, with more than 265,000 hours of content. Banijay Entertainment Chair Jeff Zucker asserted it was the largest indie producer ever created.
“2026 is definitely a transformational year for Banijay Group,” said François Riahi, CEO of Banijay Group, of the latest results. “In the second half, we will enhance the integration processes in our two business units and will start delivering synergies.”
World soccer governing body FIFA and its controversial CEO Gianni Infantino are under fire over plans to sell off a stake in FIFA’s commercial operations to private equity investors.
The plan would see FIFA set up a new entity, called FIFA Forward Enterprise (FFE), that would bundle all the money-making operations associated with the soccer World Cup — including broadcast rights, sponsorship, ticket sales and licensing fees — and sell a significant stake in the new operation to private investors. FIFA is valuing the new commercial venture at around $20 billion.
After news of the plan broke on Tuesday, FIFA confirmed it is working with U.S. investment bank JP Morgan to set up the new entity. Thrive Capital, an investment company founded by Joshua Kushner, brother of Donald Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner, is leading the search for investors.
The backlash was immediate.
European soccer governing body UEFA condemned the plan, saying the sport “isn’t FIFA’s to sell.”
“This crosses a line that football’s governing institutions should never cross,” UEFA said in a statement. “The soul and governance of football are not assets to trade — especially with zero transparency as to who gains financially.”
U.K. Prime Minister Andy Burnham joined the fray, taking to social media to post that “football does not belong to investors. It belongs to the people who fill the stands and who stand on the touchline week in, week out, rain or shine. The World Cup is not a product. It is the greatest competition in world sport, and it was never anyone’s to sell. Dress the deal up however you like. Once you have sold a piece of it, you have sold out.”
Let me say this very directly.
Football does not belong to investors. It belongs to the people who fill the stands and who stand on the touchline week in, week out, rain or shine.
The World Cup is not a product. It is the greatest competition in world sport, and it was never…
FIFA says the FFE could raise an additional $10 billion for its member organizations, the 211 national soccer leagues that make up the association. If members approve the plan, FIFA said it could more than double funding to its member associations from $8 million to $20 million a year, a huge sum for the majority of FIFA members. Infantino defended the plan as a way to spread the wealth generated by the World Cup globally. “This is about the democratization of football worldwide,” he said in a statement.
Others see a money grab.
FIFA and Infantino have been sharply criticized for the commercialization of the recent World Cup, held in the U.S., Canada and Mexico. FIFA expanded the event from 32 to 48 teams, greatly increasing the number of games, allowed a pricey resale market for tickets, and introduced controversial “hydration breaks” which stopped play and allowed for additional advertising during matches. The 2026 tournament was the most lucrative in history, with FIFA expected to announce revenues of more than $15 billion for the event.
Given Joshua Kushner’s connection, via his brother, to President Trump, many also see a potential political conflict of interest.
Infantino already has close ties to the U.S. President. After Trump complained about not winning the Nobel Peace Prize, Infantino invented the “FIFA Peace Prize” and then awarded it to POTUS in December.
UEFA claims FIFA undermined the integrity of this year’s World Cup when it intervened to overturn a red card given to USA striker Falorin Balogun after Trump called and asked Infantino to do so.
This week, Jamie Raskin, the top Democrat on the House Judiciary Committee, launched an investigation into Infantino and FIFA’s ties to Trump’s administration and businesses.
Kavinsky, the French electro music producer and DJ whose hypnotic anthem “Nightcall” became a cult classic after opening Nicolas Winding Refn’s 2011 film “Drive,” died on Tuesday. He was 50.
The artist was found dead at his Paris home on Tuesday evening. Authorities have opened an investigation into the circumstances of his death, though no foul play has been reported. French media said the musician had complained of headaches in the days leading up to his death, according to Reuters.
While Kavinsky had long been a respected figure on France’s electronic music scene, “Nightcall” transformed him into an international cult favorite. Produced with Guy-Manuel de Homem-Christo of Daft Punk and featuring vocals from Lovefoxxx of Brazilian band CSS, the song helped define the film’s aesthetic and became one of the signature electronic tracks of the 2010s.
Kavinsky most recently performed the song alongside Phoenix and Angèle at the Paris 2024 Olympic Games closing ceremony, which was broadcast globally, introducing it to new audiences over a decade after “Drive’s” release.
Born Vincent Belorgey in Seine-Saint-Denis in 1975, he came to music relatively late after first working as an actor and appearing in films by longtime friend Quentin Dupieux. Inspired by 1980s action movies, arcade games and sports cars, he developed the fictional persona of Kavinsky, a mysterious, undead driver said to have returned from a fatal Ferrari crash to make electronic music.
He emerged in the mid-2000s through the influential French label Record Makers, releasing the EPs “Teddy Boy,” “1986” and “Nightcall” before touring alongside artists including Daft Punk and Justice. His debut album “OutRun,” released in 2013, expanded on the retro-futuristic sound that would become synonymous with the growing synthwave movement. After a long hiatus, he returned with a second album, “Reborn,” in 2022.
Although he never achieved the mainstream commercial profile of fellow French electro artists such as Daft Punk or Justice, Kavinsky had a large influence on a generation of producers drawn to nostalgic, cinematic electro music, and helped popularize the synthwave genre well beyond France.
