Rosie Jones
Comic and top doc maker
Abba Voyage, London (2023)
I went to Abba Voyage in March this year, for the second time, but this felt really special because I went with my mum, who is my favourite person and my biggest cheerleader. I grew up listening to Abba with her and it felt so lovely for it just to be me and her. It’s such an incredible experience: for the first five minutes you marvel at the technology but after that you absolutely forget that it’s not really them and you’re just transported. It felt like the perfect night with my mum who is my favourite person, though I don’t want to blow steam up her bum bum. I’ve had a very busy year this year – I’ve pretty much worked every day – but on days where I’m travelling hundreds of miles, or I’m doing a 14-hour shoot, I think back to Abba Voyage, and that night, and it brings me so much joy. I bought a dance booth which is the best place to see the whole show, and from start to finish she just danced and sang. At the end, we were hugging and crying. It was so great.
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Carly Rae Jepsen
Call Me Maybe pop megastar
Pride and Prejudice (1995)
This year I told my boyfriend to watch the 1995 series of Pride and Prejudice as an initiation process for really becoming my man, and he believed me. So I got to sit down with him and watch the entire series. He sat through Colin Firth in the wet shirt, the whole thing, and he had comments; he was invested. I don’t know why it summarises my year but it’s got so much comfort, and so much romance in it. All the homely things you want after a couple of years of chaos. I have seen that show more than 17 times and to watch it with someone that I love while getting cuddled beside the fire was so special. It feels so relaxing and stupid and just exactly what we need. I do reach for that with shows where nothing crazy is going on. It’s the perfect show for if you get sick for a week; you really need to take some time to commit but it’s perfect for magic escapism.
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Nick Offerman
Parks and Recreation star and hirsute hilarity generator
Personnage by Joan Miró (1970)
Both Personnage by Joan Miró and I were conceived in 1970, a bit surreal in proportion and shape and well equipped with a stout outer shell to withstand the peculiar hardships that life might bring to bear upon us, such as those I faced in 2023. My year was dominated by the ennui of inaction resulting from the writers’ and actors’ union strikes. Despite my wee flap-arms and extra-wide head, I was able to semi-regularly wield a picket sign on the frontlines at the studios in Hollywood and New York, proudly representing the labourers’ and makers’ side of the discussion. My extremities were also sufficient to propel myself about the territories of America, Ireland and the UK, observing with gratitude the regenerative farming that is taking hold more and more, reminding us that no laboratory, no “industrial” food system could ever hope to replicate the nutrient density and carbon captureability of rotationally grazed animals. My year may have been misshapen and bizarre, but as long as I am able to offer my bride a proper salute with my modest love-tab, then we will continue to seek out good workers with whom to thusly collaborate.
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Devendra Banhart
Freak folker
Is It Cake, Too?, Netflix (2023)
My defining cultural artefact of 2023 is the second season of Netflix’s Is it Cake?, AKA Is It Cake, Too?. I think of that show as an empathy-cultivating and compassion-training instructional video. On one level, [season one] was just a very simple, totally passive, totally easily digestible and forgettable bit of bubblegum pop culture. But the things that I suspected subconsciously became very apparent on the second season. I realised that it embodies our fundamental longing for community, ritual and healing. I started to watch it on mute while playing an album called The Pearl by Harold Budd and Brian Eno. Watching it in that context removed the competitive element that’s magnified by the show’s music. Suddenly I saw these very heartbroken people who felt so happy to find their community, and they were making mandalas, essentially; they were making sand paintings. These crazy cakes that are going to get destroyed at the end of every show. It’s an expression of attention and love and patience and an acceptance of impermanence in a pop culture context that I’d never seen before. And the prize? Diabetes.
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Käärijä
Finnish Eurovision 2023 runner-up
Me, Myself & Irene (2000)
The year has been hectic and my career has skyrocketed thanks to the Eurovision song contest. It has demanded significant juggling between the everyday “Jere” and the “Käärijä” artist persona. Käärijä is a part of Jere, and vice versa, but these characters still have their differences and distinguishing their roles has caused both headaches and moments of joy! I liken my 2023 to Me, Myself & Irene. In the film, two personalities live different lives within the same person and body. One of the personalities is crude, straightforward, daring and confident, speaking their mind openly. The other personality is an ordinary, polite, good citizen, even a bit shy. The bolder one seems to say and do things that the timid one might only dream of. I don’t have a personality disorder like the character in the film, but I see myself in the movie’s protagonist. For a year, I’ve had to balance my everyday self with the Käärijä persona. Daily life has changed to the extent that normal activities like going to the store are no longer possible. But of course, the moments of connecting with the fans are also really amazing – both for Jere and for Käärijä!
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Loreen
Sweden’s Eurovision 2023 entry – and winner
F Major by Hania Rani (2020)
A cultural moment that defined 2023 for me was the transcendent work of film director and artist Neels Castillon. He wrote and directed the stunning visual for Polish pianist and composer Hania Rani’s F Major, which was released in 2020. It inspired the look for my second Eurovision-winning single, Tattoo, and my latest release, Is It Love. He perfectly combined visually rich Icelandic landscapes with meditative moves that drew raw, human emotion. I took inspiration from his work to narrate my own compelling story that spoke to my north African Berber roots. It allowed the audience to witness a truly cinematic experience of what it means to be unapologetically Loreen.
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Candice Carty-Williams
Author and writer of BBC One musical drama Champion
Leak 04-13 (Bait Ones) by Jai Paul (2013)
It’s been a challenging year, for what feels like everyone, so it’s helped me to climb back into the past and engage mainly in culture from the last time I was remotely happy. This year for me can be summed up by Jai Paul’s first and only album, Leak 04-13 (Bait Ones), released/leaked in 2013, and the surprise live show he blessed us with at London’s Here at Outernet back in May. Hearing tracks from the album, already years ahead of itself when it was released a decade ago, live in 2023 had me weeping as I held myself up by the security barriers. A blast from the past that saved me in the present.
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Rufus Wainwright
Dapper balladeer
Darkness by Lord Byron (1816)
I’ve chosen something that wasn’t written this year, or last year. It’s a poem by Lord Byron called Darkness, from 1816. I’m putting the finishing touches to a requiem mass that I wrote that’s premiering in Paris next summer and interspersed into it will be this poem. I was writing this new classical piece and I thought: “I’m going to be really cutting-edge and try to do something really modern,” and I even thought of using transcripts from refugees, or text you find on TikTok. But then I was looking at some Byron poems and this jumped out at me. It was written in a year where a volcano erupted in south-east Asia that totally covered the world with cloud; there was no summer or spring. Everyone thought the world was ending because they didn’t know it was connected to the erupting volcano. It was also the year Frankenstein was written, so it was a particularly spooky year. It’s about ecological collapse and the world on fire, and cities being burned to the ground and people eating each other. By the end of the poem, Byron turns to the sky and refers to the universe as “she”, which I think is kind of fabulous, and basically all of this horror doesn’t mean anything to her. There’s no saving grace in it. It’s incredibly bleak. I don’t know if we live in the bleakest of times necessarily but with the environmental situation that’s unfolding quicker than we all thought, its imagery and its ideas and its fears are things all of us can relate to.
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Cat Burns
TikTok-winning singer-songwriter
Heartstopper, Netflix (2022-23)
The TV show Heartstopper is a positive lens showcasing the multifaceted queer experience of young people today. The show came at a time where I was exploring the different layers of my queer identity and the journey I’ve been on, and the storylines are relatable, so it has been such a comforting watch when I’ve been away on tour. Everything about Heartstopper, from its cast to the storylines, are diverse in so many ways, and it’s so important to have genuine representation on screen and in our culture generally, especially as a young, Black, queer woman myself. The show humanises and encourages LGBTQIA+ youth and our community authentically, really going into our complex stories which deserve to be told. I always keep this in mind with myself and the music I share with the world.
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Mimi Webb
Heartbreak balladeer
Billie Eilish, Electric Ballroom, London (2023)
Watching Billie Eilish perform a super-intimate show at the Electric Ballroom in London was a defining moment of 2023. Just seeing someone who I have watched fill arenas connect with fans in a way that made all of us feel like we were really experiencing something special together was so inspiring. Professionally, it’s been a year of firsts for me but one of my 2023 highlights was playing the main stage at Reading and Leeds. Seeing thousands of people in the crowd singing my songs back to me was a dream come true, and watching Billie showed me the importance of nurturing the relationship with your fans; that no matter how big you are as an artist, providing an intimate experience for them will only build a stronger and longer-lasting bond. As my year of touring wraps, I can’t help but think how to make the next tour bigger and better and Billie’s show gave me perspective on the beauty of going back to basics.
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Ahir Shah
Standup and Mash Report regular
To Be Frank by Ali Lewis (2023)
My wife and I got married on 28 October 2023. After the legal ceremony, we went outside for the saat phere, a Hindu ceremony wherein a couple walk seven times round a fire. Fortunately, the rain had been kept temporarily at bay by the Child of Prague, a statue of an infant Jesus left outside for good weather by my Irish wife. Before the saat phere, the poet Ali Lewis – one of my best men – read something he had written for the occasion, called To Be Frank. I should add, he’s an actual poet with books and stuff so it wasn’t shit. I spent a few Christmases in Nottingham with Ali’s family during my 20s. His father’s menorah would be lit, as would the tree. Ali read the most beautiful poem I have ever heard. A Hindu Londoner and an atheist Dubliner who left a Child of Prague out just in case then set off round a fire, into a life. I don’t know what culture is, but I know it when I see it. I know it when we make it.
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Tiffany Calver
Radio 1Xtra presenter
Things Will Get Better by Cleo Sol (2023)
With a music career that spans well over a decade, somehow only now does it feel like the world is discovering Cleo Sol. Similarly to her peer Little Simz, it’s such a rewarding feeling to watch the world welcome them. To watch their show capacities rise, the seats sell out faster than you can blink, and for them to finally get their dues. Given the highs and lows the world has been through over the past few years, it just hasn’t felt like any of us have had a real moment to catch our breath. In times like these, Cleo Sol’s musical offerings have felt like the warmest hugs. Her breakthrough album Rose in the Dark was released in 2020 during the start of a gruelling, heart-wrenching and anxious time for the world. A year later she gave us Mother and this year she gave us two albums – and on her latest, Gold, I found a connection to Things Will Get Better in particular. It has helped to bring my spirits up on some tougher days. If any of you are in need of some light and hopefulness, I truly recommend it. As we look back on 2023 and everything we have gone through, in whatever notion you choose to look at it, sometimes it’s nice to know.
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Yaeji
Hammer-wielding producer and musician
Bungo Stray Dogs (2016-2023)
I chose the anime series Bungo Stray Dogs. It follows a heist-like story featuring protagonists who work at a “detective agency”, and their main archenemies, the port mafia. Each season opens the scale of the world up exponentially, forcing us to quickly adapt to imminent issues. There is no clear villain in each arc and there are always multiple perspectives and truths coexisting; different forms of oppression and trauma that motivate each side of the parties involved – at times overwhelming, but also very real. This show is a reminder and reflection of the state of our world, the complexities of conflict, the oppressor and the oppressed, but also a reminder that we all have a heart, and we all come from various forms of pain.
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Leona Lewis
X Factor winner, actor and activist
Untitled (Rise) by Sault (2020)
The piece of culture that defines my 2023 is the album Untitled (Rise) by Sault, which came out in 2020. I just love this album so much. It’s all about spreading light, spreading love and I feel like we really need that in 2023, so it’s an album that I like to go back and listen to. Even though it was released a few years ago, I feel like it’s remained relevant, and is especially needed at the moment.
Rosie Jones tours 3 February to 25 April; Rufus Wainwright’s musical Opening Night is at the Gielgud theatre, London, 6 March to 27 July; Ahir Shah is at Soho theatre, London, 22 to 27 January.
