Phil Collins has praised Taylor Swift, saying the pop superstar “deserves” her place as “the hugest thing in the world” after being “blown away completely” the first time he saw her perform 15 years ago.

Speaking to Vernon Kay on BBC Radio 2’s Tracks of My Years, Collins recalled meeting Swift at a Songwriters Hall of Fame event years ago, before she reached her current level of fame, and watching her perform her song “White Horse.”

“This very nice lady then got up on stage with a guitar and sang ‘White Horse,’ and it blew me away completely,” he said. “Not only was the song great, and the sentiment of the song really got me, but she sang it beautifully. And it was just so simple, you know, her on a guitar.”

Collins said he has “always had a soft spot” for the track since. “I’m so pleased that she’s the hugest thing in the world now because she kind of feels like she deserves it,” he said. “I mean it’s easy to knock someone that’s got so much success, but I think she really deserves it.”

Elsewhere in the interview, Collins revealed that his signature solo hit “In the Air Tonight” was largely improvised. “A lot of my lyrics are kind of improvised. The classic example of that would be ‘In the Air Tonight,’ which was pretty much 80% improvised,” he said, explaining that the song’s atmospheric sound came from a Prophet-5 keyboard and that he “certainly didn’t labour on it.” He described the result as “the scenario of luck… and good fortune” rather than craft.

The comments arrive during a landmark year for Collins, who will be inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as a solo artist in 2026 — 16 years after entering as a member of Genesis. Across his solo career he scored seven No. 1 singles on the Billboard Hot 100 during the 1980s, including “Against All Odds (Take a Look at Me Now),” “One More Night,” “Sussudio” and “Groovy Kind of Love.” “In the Air Tonight,” the 1981 debut solo single he referenced, reached No. 19 on the Hot 100 but became one of the most enduring recordings of his career, later finding new life through film, television and a viral 2020 reaction video.

Swift, for her part, holds the record for the most No. 1 albums on the Billboard 200 among soloists with 15, and her most recent release The Life of a Showgirl debuted with a modern-era record of 4 million equivalent album units. “White Horse,” the song Collins singled out, appeared on Swift’s 2008 album Fearless and won two Grammy Awards, including Best Country Song.

Two Australian icons shared a stage in Brighton, England, on Friday (Aug. 1) as Kylie Minogue joined Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds during the band’s concert at Preston Park to perform their 1995 duet “Where the Wild Roses Grow.”

Minogue appeared midway through the Bad Seeds’ set for the murder-ballad duet, marking the first time the pair had performed the song together live since 2019, when Cave surprised the crowd during Minogue’s legends slot at Glastonbury.

Before that, the two sang it together in 2018 — the last time the Bad Seeds played the song live — as well as in 2013 and on several occasions in the mid-1990s following the release of Murder Ballads.

Minogue reflected on the reunion in an Instagram post after the show. “I’ll forever be your Wild Rose @nickcaveofficial,” she wrote, thanking the Bad Seeds and calling it a “wonderful crowd, wonderful night.” She also credited her white lace dress, complete with wild-rose embellishments, to Susie Cave — Nick Cave’s wife and the designer behind the fashion label The Vampire’s Wife.

Earlier that day, Cave and the Bad Seeds played a surprise rooftop set atop the city’s Resident Music record store, performing four songs. That set included “Train Long-Suffering,” a track from 1985’s The Firstborn Is Dead that had not been performed live in 27 years before the band revived it on their 2026 European tour, along with a cover of T. Rex’s “Cosmic Dancer” that Cave had previously only performed solo.

“Where the Wild Roses Grow” remains one of the most celebrated collaborations in Australian music history. Written by Cave and released as the lead single from the Bad Seeds’ 1996 album Murder Ballads, the duet cast Minogue as the doomed Eliza Day opposite Cave’s murderous narrator — a stark departure from her pop image at the time.

It became Cave’s biggest commercial hit, reaching No. 2 on the ARIA Singles Chart in Australia and No. 11 on the U.K. Singles Chart, and won the 1996 ARIA Award for Song of the Year. The accompanying video, which depicted Minogue lying in a river in a pose evoking Millais’ painting Ophelia, became a fixture on MTV and helped push Murder Ballads to the biggest commercial success of the band’s career.

Minogue, one of the most successful pop artists of her generation, has scored seven entries on the Billboard Hot 100 — including “The Loco-Motion” (No. 3) and “Can’t Get You Out of My Head” (No. 7) — and 11 titles on the Billboard 200, led by 2001’s Fever at No. 3. Her 2023 single “Padam Padam” won the first Grammy for Best Pop Dance Recording. Cave and the Bad Seeds, meanwhile, continue their 2026 European tour in support of their catalogue, one of the most acclaimed in modern alternative rock.

Hit Me Hard and Soft: The Tour (Live), Billie Eilish’s concert film about her arena tour in support of her 2024 album Hit Me Hard and Soft, debuts on streaming exclusively on Paramount+ on Thursday (Aug. 6) in the United States, the streaming service announced Thursday (July 30).

Eilish premiered the film, which had a 3D theatrical release via Paramount Pictures, on May 6 at Los Angeles’ Fox Westwood Theater. Director James Cameron — as well as Eilish’s parents and brother Finneas, and her partner Nat Wolff — joined the star on the red carpet. It opened in theaters May 8.

“I just would thank this guy right here who brought this idea in the first place,” Eilish said at the event, gesturing to Cameron; the pair are credited as co-directors on the project. “I’m so excited we have this captured forever.”

The concert film features footage taken during Eilish’s four Manchester shows in 2025, behind-the-scenes moments from the road and clips from an interview conducted by Cameron.

The pop star’s biggest singles made the cut for the live-concert experience visual, which features performances of songs including her breakthrough No. 1 single “Bad Guy,” the Oscar-winning “What Was I Made For?” written for the Barbie movie soundtrack, Hit Me Hard and Soft hit “Birds of a Feather” and more.

Eilish’s Hit Me Hard and Soft album, her latest full-length studio release, debuted at No. 2 on the Billboard 200 in 2024. The set has spent a total of 114 weeks on the all-genre albums chart.

Eilish’s Hit Me Hard and Soft Tour spanned 2024-2025, wrapping in San Francisco in November.