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Album covers have sadly become a lost art in the twenty-first century. Stemming from the international standardization of MP3 in the early 90’s, to the iPod revolution in the early 2000’s, to the rise of today’s download and stream-friendly platforms like iTunes, YouTube and Spotify, album covers have regretfully been reduced to the size of a stamp and are only truly cherished by a small minority of people.

This will explain why some of the best and most iconic album covers date back to the 60’s and 70’s – a time all music lovers associate as the ‘glory’ years; a time when everything to do with music was treasured at its face value; a time when album covers captured “the dreams, hopes and fears of a music-loving generation” and when studying the sleeve was part of the whole-rounded experience of owning an LP.

Here are our picks for the 20 greatest album covers of all time. We review our favourite 10 in date-release order.

1. The Velvet Underground – “The Velvet Underground and Nico” (1967)

The bright yellow banana that graced the cover of The Velvet Underground and Nico’s debut album has become one of the most recognised pieces of pop artwork ever, crafted by the most popular pop artist ever, Andy Warhol, who also produced this 1967 protopunk album. The original album cover was interactive, telling fans to “peel slowly and see” and allowing them to peel back the banana skin sticker that revealed a pink banana underneath. Part of the reason behind the album’s delayed release was because manufacturers found it hard to pull-off the sexually charged effect of peeling the banana.

Although the album saw no commercial success, the band eventually became a cult favourite in the decades after The Velvet Underground broke up. Today, the album has become a rare collector’s item and an emblem of the protopunk genre.

2. Cream – “Disraeli Gears” (1967)

Created by Australian artist, Martin Sharp, the cover of Cream’s “Disreali Gears” album has become an icon of spiralling fluorescent movement of the 60’s. Sharp combined Victorian elements and loads of “flower-power” roses and feathers with a publicity photo he had been given by Eric Clapton. Sharp attempted to capture the sound of the psychedelic music in the cover, which he described as a “warm, fluorescent sound”, by first drawing the cover in black and white and then colouring it in with fluorescent, eye-stinging, colours.

3. The Beatles – “Abbey Road” (1969)

Those who believed Paul McCartney’s death myth in 1967 analysed the cover of Abbey Road. They believed that McCartney has been replaced by a dopplegänger and interpreted the picture as a funeral procession, with John Lennon as the preacher (dressed in white), Ringo Star as the mourner (dressed in black), George Harrison as the gravedigger (dressed in denim) and Paul McCartney as the corpse (walking barefoot). They also believed that the license plate in the background read 281f, symbolising McCartney’s death at the age of 27 (when the album came out) and making people think the message was intended to represent McCartney turning 28, had he not died. All of the latter was pure coincidence. The Beatles shot the cover of the album on August 8th, 1969 outside of Abbey Road studios.

The cover is the most recognised album cover in pop music history and has been parodied several times. Today, Abbey Road is one of the most popular tourist attractions in the London area.

4. The Rolling Stones – “Sticky Fingers” (1971)

“Sticky Fingers” was The Rolling Stones’ first album for Atlantic Records, which provided them with the budget to mass-produce their cover art with an actual zipper. Designed by Andy Warhol, the zipper on the album’s cover could be unzipped to reveal white underwear with the Rolling Stones’ tongue logo plastered on it. Nobody seems to know who exactly was the man in the underwear, but it wasn’t Mick Jagger’s crotch, contrary to the popular myth.

5. Pink Floyd – “Dark Side Of The Moon” (1973)

The design of the iconic album cover for “Dark Side Of The Moon” represents three elements; the band’s stage lighting, that comes through via the prism of light, Richard Wright’s request for a “simple and bold” graphic design, and a triangle to symbolise thought and ambition, a subject that comes through in the album lyrics. The initial inspiration for the album cover art was a black and white photo of a prism on top of some sheet music, with a colour beam going through it. Storm Thorgerson, George Hardie, and the team at Hipgnosis, took these initial ideas as a starting point and eventually came up with the iconic prism-and-rainbow design set against a black background.

6. Led Zeppelin – “House Of The Holy” (1973)

Inspired by the ending of Arthur C. Clark’s novel, “Childhood’s End”, which portrayed several hundreds of naked children wandering the earth, Led Zeppelin’s artwork for their “House Of The Holy” album has become one of the most iconic and most mysterious album covers of the 70’s. Produced by the design firm Hipgnosis, the cover was shot on the Giant’s Causeway in Northern Ireland. Audrey Powell, who designed the cover, photographed two children, a brother and sister, over the course of ten days at dusk and at dawn. The children were to originally be tinted in gold and silver but the hand tinting accidentally went wrong. Powell explains: “when we hand-tinted it, the airbrush artist, by accident, put a kind of purple tinge onto them. When I first saw it, I said, “Oh, my God.” Then we looked at it, and I said, “Hang on a minute, this has an otherworldly quality.” So we left it as it was”. The siblings were later multi-printed to create a small army of 11 children.

7. The Sex Pistols – “Never Mind The Bollocks Here’s The Sex Pistols” (1977)

According to Steve Jones, the album’s title, which was originally going to be titled God Save Sex Pistols, was taken from two fans who would always say the phrase “never mind the bollocks” to one another. Due to the album’s indecent use of language, the police filed an obscenity case and tried to prosecute Virgin Rercords for displaying it on their shop shelves. The Sex Pistols and Virgin Records were found not guilty after their lawyer, Queen’s Council John Mortimer, produced expert witnesses who could demonstrate that the word “bollocks” was a legitimate Old English term originally used to refer to a priest, and which also meant “nonsense”, in the context of the title.

Art director of the Sex Pistols and designer of the album cover, Jamie Reid, explains: “I saw Punk as part of an art movement that’s gone over the last hundred years, with roots of Russian agitpop, surrealism, dada and situationism”.

The cover became a blueprint for punk design.

8. The Clash – “London Calling” (1979)

Pennie Smith captured one of the most iconic pictures in rock music history, while taking pictures of the Clash at New York’s Palladium in September of 1979.

Simonon explains: “we weren’t getting any response from them [the audience], no matter what we did. I’m generally good-natured, but I do bottle things up and then I’m like a light switch, off and on, and it can be quite scary, even for me, when I switch, because it’s very sudden. Onstage that night I just got so frustrated with that crowd and when I go to the breaking point I started to chop the stage up with my guitar”.

…Talk about rock n’ roll!

9. Nirvana – “Nevermind” (1991)

The naked baby floating underwater on Nirvana’s “Nevermind” album is one of the most eye-catching album covers of all time. According to photographer Kirk Weddle, the image was “a fluke”. Kirk completed the shoot at a public pool in Pasadena in Southern California, after convincing his friends to use their four-month-old baby boy for the cover, of which the original concept was to capture an underwater birth. Kirk explained: “the mom was on my left, and blew a puff of air into the child’s face… then we dunked him in and, bang bang, pulled him out. We did it twice and that was it”. The fish hook and dollar bill were added by the record label’s art department as finishing touches. Indeed, “the baby has a platinum album”, says Kirk. Today, Spencer Eden, the infamous naked baby, admits: “It’s kind of creepy that many people have seen me naked… I feel like the world’s biggest porn star.”

10. Santana – “Corazon” (2014)

Santana’s unique cover art for the latest and very first all-Latin music album “Corazon” was designed by art collective Boa Mistura, who is based in Madrid and works on public art pieces and developing projects in South Africa, Norway, Berlin, Sao Paulo, and Rio de Janeiro. Full of bright colours, this album cover is a beautiful eye-catcher.

11. Frank Sinatra – “In The Wee Small Hours” (1955) / 12. The Beatles – “Revolver” (1966)

13. King Crimson – “In The Court Of The Crimson King” (1969) / 14. The Who – “Who’s Next” (1971)

15. Stevie Wonder – “Innervisions” (1973) / 16. Elton John – “ Goodbye Yellow Brick Road” (1973)

17. Pink Floyd – “Wish You Were Here” (1975) / 18. The Eagles – “Hotel California” (1976)

19. Supertramp – “Breakfast In America” (1979) / 20. Prince – “Purple Rain” (1984)

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Animated music videos, including cartoon, motion graphics, 3D, lo-fi and hand-drawn animation, have become a big hit throughout the MTV Generation. The animated style has become a go-to for artists on tour who don’t have time to appear for shoots, who don’t want to appear in their own clips, who have a tighter budget, or even artists who simply choose animation for stylistic purposes. 

By putting together a playlist of some of our favourite animated videos, including promos by Queen, Bjork, Gorillaz and Daft Punk, we honour the talented designers and illustrators behind some of the craftiest and most colourful music videos in our digital modern age.

The videos are featured in date-release order, following the evolution of digital animation.

Dire Straits – Money For Nothing (1985)

‘Money for Nothing’ was Dire Straits’ most successful single, peaking at Nº1 for three weeks in the US. Taken from their hugely successful 5th studio album ‘Brothers in Arms’, the song won a Grammy for the Best Rock performance. The album proved to be the band’s crowning glory selling more than 25 million copies worldwide. It was also the first album to sell a million copies in the new CD format. 
The music video featured early computer animation illustrating the lyrics and was one of the first uses of computer-animated human characters – it was considered ground-breaking at the time of its release. When MTV Europe launched in 1987 this was the first video they played which contained the appropriate line ‘I Want My MTV’! The video was awarded “Video of the Year” (among many other nominations) at the third annual MTV Video Music Awards in 1986.

Leave Me Alone – Michael Jackson (1987)

The music video for ‘Leave Me Alone’, directed and produced by Jim Blashfield and Paul Diener, combines stop motion animation and weird imagery, including shrines to actress Elizabeth Taylor, tabloid videos of MJ’s personal and public life, a nose being chased by a surgical scalpel in reference to Jackson’s plastic surgery, all of which compliment the song’s paranoid feel towards the paparazzi and the media. The video won Best Short Film Music Video at the Grammy Awards in 1990 and Best Special Effects at the 1989 MTV Video Music Awards. It also received 6 nominations for Video of The Year, Viewer’s Choice, Breakthrough Video, Best Editing and Best Art Direction. After MJ’s death, Rolling Stone referred to the track as “Jackson’s most monumental song”.

Innuendo – Queen (1991)

‘Innuendo’ immediately shot to Nº1 in the UK Singles Charts in 1991. It is the lengthiest of Queen’s songs ever to be released as a single. The music video, directed by Jerry Hibbert and Rudi Dolezal, inspired by George Orwell’s dystopian novel 1984, has been described as one of the band’s darkest and most moving works. The use of live action with stop motion animation, eerie plasticine figurines, montage and illustrations, accommodates Queen’s prog-rock, heavy metal, flamenco and rock opera sound of the early 90s. While Freddie Mercury is drawn in the style of Leonardo da Vinci, Brian May is drawn in the style of Victorian print, Taylor in the style of Jackson Pollock, and Deacon in the style of Pablo Picasso.

Hold me thrill me kiss me kill me – U2 (1995)

Written for the ‘Batman Forever’ soundtrack, the American top 20s smash was nominated for a Golden Globe. Inspired by the world of comic books, it was only fitting that the band members of U2 would appear as cartoon superheroes and villains performing in Gotham City in the animated video clip. Directed by Dave King, the video also uses clips from the third installment of Tim Burton’s Batman film series.

Paranoid Android – Radiohead (1997)

The animated music video for ‘Paranoid Android’, created by Magnus Carlsson, is drawn in a simplistic style, using bold colours and clear, graphic lines. It features Robin, the character from the Swedish animated series ‘Robin’, and his friend Benjamin setting out into the world, running into EU representatives, bullying pub patrons, and featuring a prostitute, two men kissing, a drug addict, deranged businessmen, mermaids and an angel who plays table tennis with Robin. The video is indeed bizarre and hard to figure out!

Freak On A Leash – Korn (1999)

The animated music video for the late 90s funk-metal sounding track, ‘Freak On A Leash’, directed by Todd McFarlane, contains a mixture of animation and live performance footage. The video combines “special effects and clever camera moves in the live action portion of the video”, while it follows the journey of an accidentally-fired bullet travelling out of the animated cartoon realm and into the real world, damaging property and flying around the members of Korn, before it makes its way back into the animated world. The video received awards for Best Editing and Best Rock Video at the 1999 MTV Video Music Awards and also won a Grammy Award for Best Short Music Video in 2000.

One More Time – Daft Punk (2000)

The music video animation in Daft Punk’s dance-pop classic track ‘One More Time’ later appeared in the 2003 Japanese animated film ‘Interstella 5555: The 5tory of 5ecret 5tar System’. The video, directed by Kazuhisa Takenouchi under the visual supervision of Leiki Matsumoto, illustrates a pop-band made up of blue-skinned aliens performing a song on their home planet, while a bizarre force approaches it.

Californication – Red Hot Chilli Peppers (2000)

‘Californication’ is still one of the band’s most popular songs. The animated music video, directed and produced by Jonathan Dayton and Valerie Faris, has over 110 million views on YouTube. The video takes the form of a video game, which intercuts with live-action footage of the band performing. The game is filmed from a third-person point of view of each of the band members, all of whom are on different adventures within the game. Eventually, the band members end up turning back from 3D computer-generated avatars into their real selves, as the message on the screen reads ‘Game Over’.

Feel Good Inc. – Gorillaz ft. De La Soul (2005)

The alternative rock song, ‘Feel Good Inc.’, by the British virtual band Gorillaz, won Best Pop Collaboration at the 2006 Grammy Awards, Best Breakthrough Video and Best Special Effects in a video at the 2005 MTV Video Music Awards. Directed by Jamie Hewlett and Pete Candeland, the music video mixes CGI with two-dimensional animation to create a textured and layered effect, with Japanese-inspired colours, textures and tones. The animated video’s main themes approach the issues of intellectual freedom and the media-induced dumbing down of mass culture.

Wanderlust – Björk (2008)

Björk has said that ‘Wanderlust’ is about “being in the state of something and almost knowing you’re never going to find it”. The strange and uncanny animated music video, directed by Ecyclopedia Pictura, presents us with a kaleidoscopic vision, by using a mixture of animation, large-scale puppets, live action acrobatics, miniature clay figurines and CGI. The video also uses pillarboxing – an effect that occurs on widescreen displays when black bars are places on the sides of the image, shrinking the original image and placing it in the centre of the widescreen frame. The video won Best Art Direction, Best Alternative/Indie Video and Video of The Year at the 2008 UK Video Music Awards. It was also nominated for Best Special Effects.

Heartless – Kanye West (2008)

Kanye West teams up with director Hype Williams, for a vibrant tribute to Ralph Bakshi’s 1981 film ‘American Pop’. It features rotoscope animation (a technique in which animators trace over footage, frame by frame, for use in live-action and animated films) and references several scenes and background from the film. The video was William’s first animated clip. ‘Heatless’ is one of the best-selling singles of all time, selling 5.5 million digital copies in 2009, alone.

Strawberry Swing – Coldplay (2009)

Coldplay’s sweet melody, with afro-pop influences and alternative rock vibes, became a top 5 hit in several European charts. The music video for ‘Strawberry Swing’, directed by Shynola, features stop motion animation, with frontman turned superhero Chris Martin lying on the ground against animated chalk drawings, as he rescues a damsel in distress. The video was nominated for Best Animation at the MTV Video Music Awards 2009 and for Breakthrough Video at the 2010 MTV Video Music Awards.

Get Busy Living – Goldfish (2010)

Goldfish are know for their stylistic and comedic animated music videos, most of which have connecting stories, use recurring characters and which usually feature pop culture references. The music video for ‘Get Busy Living’, directed and animated by Mike Scott, was the official video for Goldfish’s first single from their self-titled album.

The Shrine – Fleet Foxes (2011)

Sean Pecknold, brother of Fleet Foxes frontman Robin, directed the haunting animated music video for ‘The Shrine’. It’s an eight-minute long video about a carnivorous antelope “travelling across a hostile, fantastical landscape”.

Miss Atomic Bomb – The Killers (2012)

Director Warren Fu fuses the two mediums of animation and live-action shots to bring to life a heartbreaking love story in the animated music video for ‘Miss Atomic Bomb’. The video has been characterized as “the epic companion to Mr. Brightside”, as it continues the love triangle depicted in the latter video, released in 2004. Actress Izabella Miko and actor Eric Roberts re-adopt and re-enact their roles from the ‘Mr. Brightside’ video and approach the story from a different point of view.

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21-year-old British pop singer-songwriter/acoustic-guitarist, Lewis Watson, is a name rising to the global skyline. The YouTube sensation-turned prolific iTunes chart topper, has released five EP’s and an album since his 2012 debut, and has built a following of over 100,000 Facebook likes, 70,000 Twitter followers, five million YouTube views and five million Spotify streams. Watson’s album “The Morning”, released on July 8, is charged with powerful melodies and has storytelling qualities that tremble with sensitivity, charm, honesty and maturity.

Lewis chose our Sunday Sessions this week!

The Oxfordshire-born troubadour began his road to stardom at the somewhat tardy age of 16, when he was given a guitar for his 16th birthday and began uploading his tunes on YouTube. Watson soon landed a deal with Warner Bros after releasing his first EP “BTW”. The charming boy-next-door, with his folk-rooted sound, is indeed “something quite special”. Having yielded singles such as “Calling”, “Even If” and “Stay”, toured with the likes of Birdy and Benjamin Francis Leftwich, and having already achieved success in the States and Australia, Watson is sure as hell ready for the big leagues.

How exciting! You just released your debut album “The Morning”! How do you feel right now?
Thank you! Yeah, it’s a bit wacky but amazing… still pinching myself, really.

Before the release of your first album, you released 5 EP’s in the space of two years, and were already rising up the charts worldwide. Did you ever expect such great success so early on in your career?
Never, I didn’t expect any ‘success’ full stop, to be completely honest. My outlook on life (which is a terrible one!!) is that if you don’t expect anything, you won’t be disappointed. I wish that wasn’t how I looked at things but it’s all I can do! I have been so overwhelmed with everything up to this point and I think I like it that way.

You picked up music relatively late in your life. What was it that sparked your desire to follow music as a career? And how did you get so good so fast??
Haha, thanks! I’ve always been a big fan of music and I think that anybody who loves music would love to create it. For me, the tipping point was that music started meaning more and more to me with every song I listened to. Lyrics started to really resonate with me and I couldn’t stop wanting to give it a go. I always thought the guitar would be a lot harder than it was – although it’s quite tough! – I thought it’d be impossible. I just found that the more I played guitar, the more I wanted to improve and so I dedicated all of my time to it.

You’ve collaborated with some very talented artists on your EP “Some Songs With Some Friends”: Gabrielle Aplin, Kimberley Anne and Hudson Taylor. What did you take away from that experience?
That I have some super talented mates! It was a joy being in the studio with them and, being a big fan of all of their music, it was an honour that they’d want to jump on a track with me.

Out of all the countries you’ve been to and out of all the shows you’ve played, which was your favourite city and what was your most memorable moment?
Probably Sydney Opera House in Australia (obviously…) I played 3 nights there with Birdy and I just felt so welcome. I was the support and, although a few people had bought tickets because I was there, it wasn’t my crowd and I was pretty scared to play to that many people who didn’t know me. It went so well, though! Everybody seemed to be really into it (or pretending at least) and I went away feeling very grateful. Not only is Australia a lovely country but the people are brilliant.

What can we expect from a live show and what’s the funniest/craziest thing that’s happened to you on stage?
I’m a fairly nervous (babbling) performer when it comes to speaking and in-between song jokes, etc. However, I’m lucky to have a great band and I do have a great time playing the songs and that’s all that matters, right?

How did you feel when you first heard your song play on the radio?
It was crazy! I remember I was on a bed in a Manchester hotel on tour with Gabrielle Aplin when Zane Lowe played my song “What About Today’. I had no idea he was going to play it and I got very warm. Chuffed.

Do you think you could ever get used to hearing an audience sing your lyrics back at you?
Never. Those lyrics were written by me, for me, and to think that other people are singing them for their own reasons is amazing. I’m paraphrasing but Dave Grohl once said ‘50,000 people can be singing my lyrics back to me and it’s for 50,000 different reasons’ (or something like that) and that blows my mind… (Not quite 50,000 for me though, Dave)

What do you do when you get writer’s block?
I just stop writing. It’s a horrible feeling but getting frustrated because you can’t write is worse. It really puts you off writing and that’s super bad. Just stop, have a cuppa, read a book, watch a film, listen to some music, etc. and come back to it.

In order of importance, which has had the biggest influence on your success: creative ability, live performance, social media, radio play, passion and drive?
Nothing can beat passion and drive – there are extraordinary examples of that every day in the news and stuff. I’d say with 100% certainty that I’d do this forever, even if I knew that it wouldn’t be my career and I think that has had a massive influence on my career so far.

Social media has definitely helped me capitalise on that but I think that I had to have it in the first place for it to be as effective!
Live performances, radio play and creative ability have helped a lot too (of course) but the passion and drive is the main thing I think!

What has been your biggest challenge yet and how did you overcome it?
The biggest challenge for me was the thought of anybody listening to my music to be honest. At the start, I was terrified of what others thought and I almost stopped because of it. All I did to overcome it was to bite the bullet and do it. I knew that I wanted to do this and if people didn’t like the stuff I could’ve just deleted them!

A lot of young artists are independently releasing their material and promoting it on social media platforms. Having sailed those waters yourself, do you have any advice for them?
It’s terrible but don’t expect anything to happen immediately. If it does, amazing and congratulations but chances are that it won’t. It could take 10 years but good music will always rise to the top!

So, you have 5 EP’s and 1 album tucked in the bag, and you probably have a whole lot of festivals to attend this summer. What happens next?
Write the next record; tour, tour, tour; record the next record. Rinse and repeat! (Hopefully)

Follow Lewis Watson on:
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Buy ‘The Morning’ from his website.

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Jennifer Lopez first began her rise to the heights of the Hollywood hills in 1986, at the tender age of 16. Born to Puerto Rican parents in the Bronx on July 24, 1969, and with a taste for the limelight, “Jenny from the block”, worked her famous butt off to become a successful actress, dancer, singer, producer, fashion designer and author.

Although her first film role in ‘My Little Girl’ (1987) didn’t quite make the cut to kick-starting her career, her taste of fame propelled her to work harder and to dream bigger. Lopez won her first dance role in Janet Jackson’s music video ‘That’s The Way Love Goes’ in 1993, followed by a series of screen and film roles including ‘Nurse On The Line: The Crash of Flight 7’ (1993), ‘My Family’ (1995), ‘Money Train’ (1995), Francis Ford Coppola’s comedy drama ‘Jack’ (1996), starring Robin Williams, and ‘Selena’ (1997), for which she was nominated Best Actress at the Golden Globes, and was consequently moved up the show biz ladder.

Yet the 90’s were only the beginning for JLo.

Thanks to her sky-high profile following the success of her role in Steven Soderbergh’s 1998 film ‘Out of Sight’, starring George Clooney, JLo was offered a modeling contract with L’Oreal as well as a recording contract with Sony records. She then released her debut album ‘On The 6’ (1999), instantly reaching the top 10 on the US charts, earning her a Grammy nomination for Best Dance Recording and two nominations at the Latin Grammy Awards.

The gorgeous Latin Icon has since released 7 studio albums, almost all of which were as successful as one another, certified Gold and Platinum. She has also starred in numerous blockbusters, including ‘Maid in Manhattan’ (2002) with Ralph Fiennes, ‘Shall We Dance’ (2004) with Richard Gere, ‘Monster-In-Law’ (2005) with Jane Fonda, and ‘What To Expect When You’re Expecting’ (2012) with Cameron Diaz.

JLo has had more than a few successes in her extensive career:

• She became the first Latina actress to earn more than $1 million for a film role (‘Out of Sight’).
• She became the first person to have a Nº1 album (‘J.Lo’) and film (‘The Wedding Planner’) in the same week.
• ‘J to tha L-O! The Remixes’, released in 2002, became the first in history to debut at Nº1 on the U.S. Billboard 200.
• Her fifth studio album ‘Como Una Mujer’ (2007), produced by her then husband and father of her twins, Marc Anthony, received the highest first-week sales for a Spanish album in the U.S.
• JLo has sold over 75 million records worldwide and has an accumulative film gross of over $2 billion.
• She is the highest paid Latin star, with a net worth of $250 million, and is deemed the most influential Hispanic celeb in the U.S.
• She received the Legacy Award at the 2010 World Music Awards for her contributions to music.
• She has won 6 ALMA Awards, 3 American Music Awards, 3 Billboard Music Video Awards, 4 Billboard Music Awards, 8 Billboard Latin Music Awards, 3 Brit Awards, 2 MTV Music Video Awards… the list goes on.

So, happy 45th Birthday, JLo, and congratulations on your many successes – you are sensational! Oh… and by the way, you look fantastic!

See a mashup of JLo’s funniest moments >>

See a 10-track playlist of JLo’s top Billboard Hot 100 hit charts based on actual performance in release-date order >>

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Starlite Festival, the biggest cultural festival in southern Spain this summer, celebrates its third year in Marbella, alfresco under the stars. If you’re into music, fashion, art, film or simply want a good night out with entertainment, exquisite food and cocktails then you just have to check it out.

Situated in the La Cantera, Nagüeles area, a massive auditorium ‘’Auditorio Marbella’’, tucked away in the mountain, with remarkable views over the Andalucian coast, will be open every night from July 23 – August 23, with a fantastic line-up of international stars. It’s quite simply the best venue we have ever seen. Not only do you have views to Africa and Gibraltar but you are well and truly ensconced ‘inside’ Marbella’s iconic mountain – La Concha. You also get a great view of the stars – and not just the ones that will be singing!

After the success of the two previous summers of hosting the Starlite Festival in Marbella, the international music event is back for another season with a top line up of international artists. Now in its third year, the Starlite Festival has become one of the most eagerly anticipated in Spain and last year’s highlights saw performances from international stars, including Enrique Iglesias, Jamie Cullum, Buenavista Social Club and Alejandro Sanz. The organisers of this year’s series of concerts have made sure that there really is something to suit all musical tastes.

Good Vibrations

The Beach Boys, celebrated for having sold tens of millions of albums and singles and for having changed the musical terrain for every pop act since, kick-off the action-filled month with plenty of good vibrations. Their 2013 release of “Sounds of Summer” certified triple platinum and marks The Beach Boys’ positively assured comeback. To continue the band’s iconic legacy, Mike Love, Bruce Johnston (Grammy-winning songwriter), Christian Love, Randell Kirsch, Tim Bonhomme, John Cowsill and Scott Totten, will be rocking the stage on July 23.

La Vida Loca

Two nights later, on July 25, Grammy-award winning and multi-platinum recording artist, Ricky Martin, will be performing live. After a two and a half year break from the music industry, the Latin pop legend has come back with a bang, with the worldwide release of his second World Cup single “Vida” (2014). If you haven’t seen Ricky Martin live yet, it’s perhaps time to live la vida loca. Here’s your chance to see one of the leading musical icons of our time!

Pet Shop Boys

Playling on July 30 are the English electronic pop duo, consisting of Neil Tennant and Chris Lowe, who together have sold more than 50 million records worldwide. They are also listed as the most successful duo in UK music history by The Guinness Book of Records. If electro pop is your thing, you probably know all about them.

The Divas

Starlite officially introduces the show Divas: Marta Sánchez and Gloria Gaynor. On August 6, the two Pop Queens, both with dance floor Nº1’s, will ensure that the whole audience dances the night away to their multiple hits. Sánchez is known for her multiple hits “Soy Yo”, “Get Together” and “De Mujer a Mujer”, and is regarded as one of the best Spanish female voices and one of the biggest stars in Spain of the last decade. Gloria Gaynor, mother of the mythical song “I Will Survive”, made a name for herself in the mid 60s, has since won a “Legend” award at the Monte Carlo World Music Awards, and was honoured by the Grammy Awards Museum in Los Angeles in 2010. Don’t miss you opportunity to see two international music Divas own the stage while they get the party started.

King of Latin Lovers

Julio Iglesias, the man who has earned his title as King of the Latin lovers for becoming the best-selling Latin artist in history, takes the stage on August 13. Julio, Marbella’s very own international superstar, is the only international artist to perform in three consecutive editions of Starlite… and to sell-out every time! The ladies here sure do love a little bit of crooning by the old style Spanish sweetheart.

What’s New Pussycat?

August 17 sees Sir Tom Jones perform a selection of his biggest hits, including “It’s Not Unusual”, “Kiss”, “Delilah”, “What’s New Pussycat”, “I’ll Never Fall In Love Again” and “If I Only Knew”, and songs from his two latest albums “Praise & Blame” and “Spirit In The Room”, for his last show in Spain this year.

Celebrate the Good Times

The awesome foursome, bringing only the best in funk, jazz and party anthems – Kool & The Gang. The Grammy-award winning band with seven American Music Awards, 25 top ten R&B hits, nine top ten pop hits, 31 golden and platinum albums, has sold over 70 million albums worldwide and influenced the music of its following generations, take the stage on August 19.

Sanz is back!

On August 22, multi Grammy winner Alejandro Sanz – known for his collaborations with Shakira and Alicia Keys – is back to perform for his second consecutive year at Starlite, his only live show scheduled in Spain for 2014. Once again, this should be a sellout!

The Starlite Gala, hosted by Antonio Banderas on August 9, is an international charity platform that was born in 2010. All proceeds will go the charities Lagrimas y Favores, Niños en Alegría, CUDECA and Caritas.

Enjoy the summer festivities! We’ll see you there!

See the full lineup and schedule on Starlite’s website.

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