How we get a tune out of our music coverage

After the drama of the past few weeks, I wanted to take the opportunity of the long Easter weekend here in the UK to step away from the news and focus on a terrific aspect of the Guardian’s culture output: our music journalism.

As the number of specialist music publications has greatly diminished over the past two decades, it’s important the Guardian continues to promote and invest in quality music journalism.

There’s perhaps been no better example of that in the last few weeks than this lovely essay by the incomparable Zadie Smith about how the sight of the also incomparable Tracy Chapman (above) at the 1988 Free Nelson Mandela concert changed her perception of what music and the people who make it could be. “She didn’t just look like the people on our side of the screen, she was singing our songs. Songs of everyday struggle, working-class experience, poverty, drink, political protest, domestic troubles, thwarted dreams. She was talkin’ about a revolution. On the BBC!”

Our broad remit and range of journalists means our music features can leap between genres. For instance, this week we published Stevie Chick’s paean to Cuban singing legend Celia Cruz, who changed the shape of salsa and Latin music in the 20th century while in exile from the Castro regime. Before that, Kevin Le Gendre told the fascinating story of Brafa, a star-studded collection of Black British artists who teamed up to raise money for famine-hit Ethiopia but were ignored when it came to Live Aid. And, if you’re from the north of England, the sound of a brass band will always provide a certain emotional stirring, so I loved Flora Willson’s piece on Bradford’s Black Dyke Band, which is 170 years old and is still thriving despite the mills and the mines of its founding being long gone.

Our big-name interviews are just as varied in scope. In the past week or so they’ve included Laura Snapes’s rare audience with Bon Iver’s Justin Vernon, Alexis Petridis talking cancer and penis-shaped swimming pools with Blink-182’s Mark Hoppus and the first big interview with Grammy-winning UK indie band Wet Leg for their new album. (They told Rebecca Nicholson about escaping endless touring to pop home for beans on toast.)

It was also a big week for music festivals in the US, as revellers descended on Indio, California, for the first weekend of Coachella. Braving the heat and high prices, Adrian Horton covered electrifying sets from Charli xcx and Missy Elliott. But it was Lady Gaga’s theatrical two-hour headline set that stole the weekend with an “all-timer night of pop theatre in the desert”.

All of our music coverage is tied together by a great slate of critics, led by Alexis, our rock and pop critic, whose album of the week is a first port of call for what to listen to each Friday. Alexis will, as usual, be a big part of our team at the year’s biggest music event: Glastonbury festival in June. This year, the Guardian is once again an official media partner – tune in for a live blog that almost makes up for not being in a field in Somerset. Well, at least you won’t be in the mud.

As Sudan’s devastating civil war passed the two-year mark, NGOs and aid agencies told Rachel Savage that “massive scale” rights violations were being perpetrated. Kaamil Ahmed spoke to relatives of the dead from recent attacks by the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces on IDP camps, and Mark Townsend got hold of a leaked UN report that raised fresh concerns over the UAE’s role in the war. Patrick Wintour reported on Arab states’ refusal to sign up to a modestly worded communique to end the suffering.

There have been two significant developments this week as a result of our reporting in the UK. Former Conservative MP Craig Williams was among 15 people charged over bets on the timing of the 2024 UK general election, following stories broken by Pippa Crerar. And the Department for Work and Pensions announced an overhaul of the way carer’s allowance overpayments will be checked, after Josh Halliday and Patrick Butler’s reports on the thousands of people left with life-changing debts.

On Palm Sunday morning, a bus was driving down Petropavlivska Street in Sumy, north-eastern Ukraine, when a Russian Iskander missile carrying cluster munitions exploded nearby. Luke Harding’s reporting from the bomb site brought home in vivid detail the impact of the deadly Russian attack, and the survivors’ outrage. In the US, pro-Ukraine Republicans called for president Trump to increase the pressure on Putin to stop such “barbaric attacks”.

Senior figures in the Labour party urged the government to rethink the rules around Chinese investments in UK infrastructure, following the latest crisis at British Steel, as Kiran Stacey reported, and Tom Burgis had a scoop about Chinese access to UK GP records. Liberal Democrat MP Wera Hobhouse said that she suspects she was refused entry to Hong Kong because she is on a Chinese blacklist for speaking out on human rights, and Tania Branigan wrote on why so many in China see Trump as an American version of Chairman Mao.

Our reporters have been busy covering the Australian election, including a fascinating profile of the prime minister, Anthony Albanese, by Paul Daley, as the latest Guardian Essential Poll shows Labor pulling ahead of the opposition. Ben Smee revealed how a Coalition MP told a group of climate science deniers that blackouts were “a big political opportunity” and urged fellow MPs to adopt a “do nothing strategy”.

The UK’s supreme court has ruled the term “woman” in the Equality Act refers to a biological woman, in a judgment viewed by gender critical campaigners as a victory. Severin Carrell and Libby Brooks covered the news. Jessica Murray spoke to trans people and gender critical campaigners about the significance of the ruling.

Marina Hyde had plenty to say about the Blue Origin spacecraft, writing that the “vacuous” spectacle set us back decades in terms of female empowerment. Moira Donegan said it highlighted how the US was “increasingly tailored to the impulses of the richest and least responsible”, and showed a vision for women that is “dependent on men, confined to triviality, and deeply, deeply silly.”

Reflecting on his ​four decades of writing about science for the Observer, ​R​obin McKie lamented the lack of progress on the most important topic he has covered – the ​dangerous climate experiment that humans are ​carrying out on themselves.

Ewan Murray and Andy Bull were in Augusta to witness sporting history as Rory McIlroy became only the sixth man to complete the grand slam of all four majors as he finally banished the ghosts of 2011. Re-live the victory with our Masters in pictures gallery. Ireland correspondent Rory Carroll detailed how McIlroy’s home town of Holywood in Northern Ireland celebrated its local hero.

Jenny Kleeman heard from Renée Ballou that she was horrified to learn that rogue fertility doctors stole her eggs and gave them to another woman, who then got pregnant. In our Dining across the divide column, a former Labour-voting aid worker and a Reform-voting welder debated empire and socialism, producing one of “the most interesting conversations I’ve had”, according to one of the diners. I also enjoyed Jude Rogers asking if Michael Sheen really was the best person to save Welsh theatre. Finally, the 28 fake photos that fooled the world, introduced by Jonathan Freedland, was a deeply absorbing look at how many of the most well-known images date from decades before the advent of Photoshop or deepfakes.

One more thing …If you can catch it before it closes, go to see a double bill at London’s Hayward Gallery of the artists Linder and Mickalene Thomas. It’s an intriguing pairing of exhibitions from two women, one a punk Mancunian who subverts porn, the other an African American who uses rhinestones and lush colours. Their different kinds of subversive glamour disrupt the female experience in ways that speak to each other across generations, races and continents.

Cook this | Nigel Slater’s baked feta with blood oranges, and aubergine and haricot beans

A light supper of stuffed aubergine rethought as a more substantial offering, the aubergines layered with haricot beans and chilli-spiked tomatoes under a thyme and breadcrumb crust.

Watch this | Khartoum before and after footage shows scale of war destruction in Sudan

Last month the Sudanese army took control of Sudan’s capital from the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces. This footage, from before and after the fighting, shows the scale of the destruction wrought by the two-year-long conflict.

Listen to this | The scramble to save British Steel – Today in Focus

For clarity on the issues behind the Scunthorpe steel story, the Guardian’s financial reporter Jasper Jolly talks Helen Pidd through what is at stake in this episode of Today in Focus, from the emergency recall of MPs to parliament, to how Scunthorpe’s steelworks differ from those at Port Talbot, and what this can tell us about the UK’s critical infrastructure.

The Guardian’s crosswords and Wordiply are here to keep you entertained throughout the weekend.