Names and faces
■ U2 performed for two hours inside the Sphere, Las Vegas’ high-tech, globe-shaped venue, which opened for the first time Friday night. Throughout the night, there was a plethora of visuals — including kaleidoscope images, a burning flag and Las Vegas’ skyline, taking the more than 18,000 attendees on U2’s epic musical journey. “What a fancy pad,” said Bono, who was accompanied onstage with guitarists The Edge and Adam Clayton along with drummer Bram van den Berg. U2 made their presence felt at the $2.3 billion Sphere, which stands 366 feet high and 516 feet wide. The Sphere is the brainchild of James Dolan, the executive chair of Madison Square Garden and owner of the New York Knicks and Rangers. He sketched the first drawing of the venue on notebook paper. As U2 wrapped up the show, a bright light shone from the ceiling and the massive screen began to fill with images of birds, insects and reptiles above a lake. The band closed its first Sphere concert with “Beautiful Day,” which won three Grammys in 2001.
■ Ice Spice said she and Matty Healy have moved past his controversial remarks about her ethnicity. The rapper revealed to Variety that the 1975 frontman made amends months after he appeared on the podcast “The Adam Friedland Show.” She told the magazine that Healy “apologized to me a bunch of times.” “We’re good,” she added. In January, Healy mocked Ice Spice’s ethnicity with comics Nick Mullen and Friedland. He called the rapper — who is Nigerian and Dominican — an “Inuit spice girl” and a “chubby Chinese lady.” Healy also imitated Hawaiian and Chinese accents. Ice Spice, whose real name is Isis Naija Gaston, told Variety that his comments left her “so confused.” When Healy first received backlash for his comments, Ice Spice did not respond. She said she “didn’t really care.” Healy in April told a New Zealand audience, “I don’t want Ice Spice to think I’m a d***. I love you, Ice Spice.” The backlash also extended to the rapper’s collaboration with Taylor Swift, who reportedly dated Healy briefly earlier this year. Music fans took issue with Swift’s association with him. The 23-year-old rapper, who is a fan of the 1975, told Variety she and Healy recently ran into each other, and that he showed concern for her. “He was like, ‘Hey, you OK?’” she said. “I’m like, ‘Of course.’”