interview | afrodeutsche

★ ★ ★ ★ ★

Gender parity has been a hot topic in festival lineups for years, and while Mad Cool festival already has a long history of championing female talent, its 2026 edition took it a step further. Matching efforts from other promoters, like Primavera Sound’s notable all-female headlining trio in 2025 or Olivia Rodrigo‘s recently announced all-female nonprofit music festival, Daisy Chain Fields, Mad Cool let women take the reins for the second day of the festival.

Irish pop-country star CMAT was in charge of warming up the crowd as the first act of the night on the Orange stage, putting on a pared-down show with her crew, all clad in skirts, that was a perfect mix of humour and vocal prowess. CMAT, an acronym for the artist’s name Ciara Mary-Alice Thompson, was a splendid display of irreverence with crowd interactions galore. The summer heat didn’t stop her dancing and jumping. She even shouted out Olivia Rodrigo before “When a Good Man Cries”, in reference to her cover of the track. 

Wunderkind Reneé Rapp took on the main Region of Madrid stage to a legion of fans. She closed with viral hit tracks like “In The Kitchen”, “Tummy Hurts” and  “Snow Angel” before ending on a cheeky note with “At Least I’m Hot,” off her 2025 album “Bite Me.” As the sun began to set, New Zealand pop royalty, Lorde, put on an experimental and raw show using EKG electrodes that monitored her cardiac vitals as part of her visuals. The 29-year-old performed songs like “Royals”, “Team”, and “Ribs” from her debut album “Pure Heroine”, as well as standouts from her latest album, “Virgin”, before ending with her feature on the remix of Charli xcx‘s “Girl, so confusing.” 

One of the most anticipated acts of the night was Swedish pop princess Zara Larsson. She brought her technicolour world of dolphins and hibiscus flowers to the Spanish capital. Making her grand return to Mad Cool after four years, Larsson arguably deserved a bigger stage than Orange’s second in command. She kept the energy positive and bright with tracks like “Symphony,” “Lush Life” and, of course, “Midnight Sun” (twice) as the sun began to set. Larsson definitely takes the home run for best live arrangements, interpolating elements from other remixes and songs, like “Looking for the Hoes” by Sexyy Red and the seminal “Tokyo Drift” by Teriyaki Boyz.

 Jennie, who rose to fame as a member of BLACKPINK, turned up the heat during her first solo appearance in Spain. Jennie’s stage was theatrical with Euphoria-esque hazy visuals custom-made for each song. The star sang three unreleased songs and delighted fans with live renditions of standouts like Tame Impala collaboration “Dracula”, The Idol‘s “One of the Girls”, originally with The Weeknd and Lily-Rose Depp, as well as the vast majority of her first solo album “Ruby.” Marking her return to the festival since 2022, the honour of closing the day went to Florence + The Machine. The show was akin to a religious experience, with leading lady Florence Welch gracing the stage barefoot in a flowy dress to perform from her new album Everybody Scream and career-defining tracks like “Dog Days Are Over” and the Candi Staton cover “You Got the Love.” 

While women stole the show on Thursday, that’s not to say there was a shortage of male talent. Teddy Swims and Charlie Puth also drew massive crowds and the festival lineup featured standouts like Foo Fighters, Moby, Kings of Leon, and more. However, dedicating a full day to spotlighting female talent was a bold move that paid off. Truly, the only worry for attendees was keeping heatstroke at bay, as CMAT joked during her set, and manoeuvring around the small but pesky schedule overlaps here and there. Every year, Mad Cool tries to reinvent itself with new stage configurations, new acts, and a broader scope. A decade in, the formula seems to be working better than ever.

photography. Javier Bragado + Luis Carbonell
words. Sara Delgado

The roar within the sold-out, open-air Tottenham Hotspur Stadium on 6th July arrived long before BTS even appeared. Despite London’s soaring temperatures, the lights fell and the highly anticipated London leg of the ‘ARIRANG’ world tour began, marking the first time in seven years that all seven members of BTS stood together on a London stage. The atmosphere felt less like a reunion and more like a continuation, as though the story had simply been waiting for its next chapter.

J-Hope led the charge, emerging for “Hooligan” with one arm raised as if conducting the crowd itself. Flames erupted across the stage while dancers punctuated every “ha-ha-ha” movement with razor-sharp precision, turning the opening into a statement: BTS hadn’t returned to revisit the past, they had come back with something new. Moments later, ARMY were already fully immersed singing every word of “Aliens” back towards the stage like a choir. The response wasn’t prompted, it was instinctive. 

As the show progressed, it moved effortlessly between the scale of a global stadium production and moments that felt incredibly intimate. Cameras lingered on handmade ARMY signs before Jin appeared holding a handwritten one that simply read, “BTS LOVES ARMY.” RM looked around the stadium and said, “Here we are. BTS.” It was a simple statement, yet it carried the weight of everything that had happened since their last London performance seven years ago.

Then V issued a challenge: “Let’s make London the loudest stop on this tour.” The city answered. For roughly the next three hours, ARMY chants became another instrument, so intuitive they often blurred the line between audience participation and performance. BTS gave the stadium every ounce of energy they had, and ARMY returned it with the same intensity. Seven years may have passed, but the connection between BTS and ARMY didn’t feel restored. It felt uninterrupted.

During “SWIM”, enormous white sheets billowed around the inner stage in the hands of the dancers, creating the illusion that the members were suspended above water. It was one of the evening’s quieter moments, demonstrating that the group doesn’t always need explosions or fireworks to command a stadium. Quiet exchanges between the members on stage revealed just how instinctively they still moved as one, despite years away from performing together. These fleeting interactions made ‘ARIRANG’ feel less like a meticulously rehearsed show and more like seven artists rediscovering the joy of sharing a stage.

BTS quickly shifted the mood as “Not Today” exploded into life, with dozens of dancers armed with illuminated batons moving in hypnotic circles around the members, transforming the stadium into a sea of synchronised movement. The energy barely had time to settle before the unmistakable opening of BTS’ 2017 “MIC Drop” sent the crowd into another frenzy, showing that nearly a decade later, the tune still lands with remarkable force.

And if that song reignited the past, “FYA” from their newest studio album, ARIRANG showed exactly where BTS are headed. Jets of fire erupted across the stage as the audience bounced in unison, shouting back, “Everything lit, it’s fire. Everything big, it’s fire.” In one of the night’s many spontaneous moments, Jungkook and V broke into an impromptu dance together while dancers in front of them fired towering flames into the night sky. 

Each performance highlighted BTS’ chemistry, but looking around the stadium revealed the scale of the community they’ve built beyond the stage. Fans had travelled from across the UK, Europe and even beyond. Arriving with handmade banners, exchanging photocards and gifts with strangers who shared the same devotion, Tottenham Hotspur Stadium became the meeting point for a global community brought together by these seven artists.

That philosophy extended into the show’s design. The production balanced heritage and progression throughout the night. The 360-degree stage placed BTS at the centre of the stadium rather than the end of it, removing the usual distance between artist and audience. Architectural details inspired by Korean design framed the performance without overwhelming it, allowing cultural references to feel integrated instead of ornamental. 

Rather than remaining on the central stage, BTS stepped onto the stadium floor during “IDOL”, surrounded by a vast procession of dancers carrying oversized flags as confetti rained from above. It felt less like a concert and more like a triumphant parade, drawing every corner of the stadium into the celebration. The mood shifted once again when RM smiled and began, “Smooth like butter…” The reaction was instant. Before RM could finish the opening line, the stadium had already taken over. Even alongside an album built around new material, BTS’ global hymn remains woven into the shared memory of both the group and their fans.

photography. Courtesy of HYBE/BIGHIT MUSIC
words. Sandy Aziz

suit. Stella McCartney
shoes. Toga Pulla
opposite
jacket + dress. Valentino

What if we could touch the stars and push the boundaries of space exploration for the sake of humanity? It’s a concept that human beings have been toying with for decades, and Apple TV’s ‘Star City’, a spin-off of ‘For All Mankind’, explores the inner workings and politics that go into sending someone to the moon. A bold historical fiction that doesn’t pull its punches, the series takes place in soviet Russia at the height of its power, being the first to have a cosmonaut walk on the moon. Enter Alice Englert’s Anastasia Belikova, the first woman to make history and walk on the lunar surface. Now back on Earth, she has to contend with being a victim of her own success, living in the shadow of the state, and finding that space may have been less complicated. 

There is a melancholy to Anastasia when audiences meet her. And it’s Englert’s acting expertise that shines through here. We’re given a window straight into Anastasia’s mind; she longs for adventure, to explore, to play, the actor explains through the course of our conversation. But she is made to marry, be shuttled around like a prize, and is, for all intents and purposes, grounded. What comes to fruition is a reckoning of someone coming to terms with their reality. The rose-tinted glasses are off, and now she has to face whatever comes next.

Chatting with Schön!, Englert discusses why she thinks humanity is obsessed with space exploration, working on an open set, what she loves about the genres of fantasy and horror, what her thoughts on Anastasia’s inner monologue are, and more. 

I love the idea of alternate histories, ‘V for Vendetta’ and ‘Inglorious Bastards’ delve deep and ask the question, ‘what if?’ What was it about the story of ‘Star City’ that fascinated you? What were your thoughts on Anastasia being the first woman to walk on the moon? 

Oh my gosh, I actually found a diary entry the other day from just after I had my first callback for the role, and in it, I’m writing about Anastasia, “I like her,” and then at the end, I don’t want to say I love her in case I don’t get it. I’m writing about it like it’s some high school crush. For me, I’ve always had a crush on space. I don’t love it in a fabulously detailed factual sense; it just makes my tummy flip with excitement. This idea that you’re floating. 

When I spoke to Garrett Reisman, who is this astronaut who has been an advisor to Matt (Wolpert) and Ben (Nedivi) for many years, we were talking once I had the role about how, at the end of the day, it’s so compelling to be up there. There’s something really just magical and joyful and genuinely out of this world about the whole thing because I was really interested in the way that an experience like that can almost be an enlightenment experience. An awakening. And how much it can be a jolt to come back down to Earth. 

When you see the world differently, and you think, “I thought I had some power, I thought I had control over my life,” and I think for me this comes down to that kind of magic I’m really interested in, in all genres. I’m drawn to the epic as well as the existential. 

You do such a wonderful job of making us feel Anastasia’s melancholy at being back on Earth. She’s a victim of her own success. You can feel her struggle. Can you walk us through what it takes to get into that mindset as an actor and what you would say Anastasia’s inner monologue is?

First of all, thank you; that means a lot. It’s kind of funny and meta, but I’ve always found doing press a little bit terrifying. I just had so much compassion for her feeling eclipsed by her own expectation of who she has to be — even in my own dime-sized version of that. I think everyone who has to exist in an industry where, for whatever reason, you have to appear aspirational, something is gnawing inside of you. 

The real person has to break, and the other one has to somehow keep it together, and I just thought that was really fascinating and beautiful. I feel like whether you’re in an industry where you have to be somewhat public-facing, or you’re in normal life, having to step outside, trying to put something on the hell zone that is the internet. I remember when you’re a kid, you go to school and all that, and it’s like, “Oh don’t worry no one’s saying anything as bad as you’re saying to yourself,” and then the internet came along. 

I do think it’s so interesting the way it’s such a reflection of our consciousness. If we keep thinking, eventually we’ll arrive at some kind of trap door or solution or resolution, but we’re very well matched to just exacerbate our anxiety further and further and further. I don’t even know if I articulated that properly, but let that be an example of how silly the mind can be. 

I read that if you weren’t a director or an actor, you’d be writing a fantasy novel. What would your fantasy world look like?

I can’t tell you because I actually am writing it. I just so appreciated the genre growing up, and I think that’s also what drew me to ‘Star City.’ What I like about fantasy is that it allows you to see the narrative of us in the world from a different perspective. It can show us places where we could have compassion or empathy, and explore curiosity and bias that we may have picked up along the way. I’ve always liked fantasy for that. Fantasy and the supernatural genre and sci-fi have always informed science.

Einstein had an imagination and was thinking about riding around on a rocket or whatever. Don’t quote me on that. [laughs] I remember the story, but it always takes imagination for the next leap forward. I was reading this great book by Carlos Rovelli, who’s a wonderful Italian writer who writes about quantum theory in a way that someone like me can comprehend. He talks about how every time we’ve moved forward it took letting go of one thing that we truly believed to be the backbone of science. You can’t take everything with you. That also takes this huge openness to imagination. I love that those things inform and hold hands with each other. 

What is the kind of fantasy story that helped inform you as you were growing up? 

‘Narnia’. I just used to listen to it on the tapes, and it also kind of terrified me. I like ‘The Hobbit’ and the whole ‘Lord of the Rings’ trilogy. I have a somewhat Hobbit haircut at the moment. [laughs] I do gravitate towards ‘The Hobbit’ a lot. I have to say ‘Kindred’ really blew my socks off. I only read that more recently. Octavia E. Butler is just such an incredible force in the fantasy world. She does exactly the thing that I love, which is transporting you to places that you otherwise thought you were familiar.

There’s also this Australian writer called Ian Irvine. He’s a marine biologist, and I remember finding one of his books and it was full of the most incredible landscape descriptions that I’ve ever read. I love ‘Frankenstein’ and ‘Dracula’. I love that women and femmes have contributed so much. 

I also really like supernatural horror. I really like Mariana Enriquez as well. ‘A Sunny Place for Shady People,’ you might enjoy. A lot of inspiration came from me and my best friend. We would play the most elaborate fantasy games for years when we were kids. With huge respect to the genre, I was obsessed with other worlds. We would play in New Zealand, and that place is Middle-earth. It was hours of being wolves or some kind of creature. We were just so embarrassing because we played these games for way too long. We were busting into adolescence. 

We’ve discussed ‘Star City’ being an alternate history, an alternate universe. Is there a part of history you would want to explore and play in and kind of your own twist to? 

Another good question. I’m interested in when the continents hadn’t broken up yet.

Pangaea! 

Exactly. I think that’s my truth. I’m interested in the ice age. I’m curious about when we started wearing shoes. When did that evolve? I’m curious about love in the very early days. What did that look like? I want to see hunter-gatherers. It’s just so fascinating. I did read this book once called ‘The Kingdom’, which was a fictionalized exploration of when Christianity was more extreme early days. It was a hippie alternative. I just thought it was interesting to imagine something that controls our calendar year as an alternative lifestyle. I always hesitate to be too casual about things that are super important to people. I’m a curious type, and I like figuring out how these things form. I thought that book did a great job of looking at that particular time and exploring how this writer, in his real life, found deep faith and then also lost deep faith. 

top + skirt. Miu Miu
opposite
shirt. Souvenir Stand

There’s a moment where you can already tell that her faith in the States is shaken now that she’s back on Earth. There’s a moment when she’s in that club and in the bathroom, and she’s given an out by that agent. I don’t know if this was purposeful on your part, but for a split second, you can see she’s considering it before shaking it off and reaffirming her fealty. What’s going through her head? Do you think she knows she’s being set up? 

I wanted her to be someone who was surprising herself. I really wanted to play her as an adult who was now experiencing her first real adolescence — someone who has realized they actually don’t know who they really are, but there is something inside of them that is beginning to wake up. She also loses all her autonomy at the very moment she has the most power. I think that she has to have secrets even from herself.

What I thought was really different about the way that she is intelligent is that it is a very intuitive emotional intelligence. It’s the kind of thing that you develop from growing up around a parent or a system that could and will blame you for anything at any time — where you have to be more than yourself, or you have to be what they need you to be. I think that requires abdicating your autonomy and a feeling of privacy, which is a theme in general. I felt that she had to move with the secrecy of a teenager through this situation. That’s the roguishness that can lead you into danger. You can’t trust that your adventurousness is not supported. It’s a strange situation to be in as someone who is ‘growing up’ in the series. 

You’re not a stranger to film sets; you directed your own feature that premiered at Sundance (Film Festival), and you have family in the business. What’s something that you learned on ‘Star City’ that you haven’t learned on another film set?  

I was impressed by how Matt and Ben were so approachable. It’s something I’ve experienced before, but they really wanted to know how we were doing and how we were feeling. They wanted to know if anyone was being a dickhead [laughter] because that actually matters. That wasn’t a one-time thing, you know? They were sensitive about it and made sure to check in. We were very lucky to have zero dickheads, but they really create an environment where they want you to feel flourishing and safe, where you don’t feel frightened to speak up, which is sort of the opposite of the material we were working with.

It was a really refreshing boundary between what you’re seeing on screen and the environment that you’re making that work in. There was just this genuine belief that you shouldn’t have to suffer to have empathy and compassion to do your work. It will be hard; there will be days when I have the flu, but I’ll also be skydiving, and it’s snowing, it has its charms, but there are times when it’s also intense. It just felt like it was hard in the right ways. You could know in your body why you felt sore or tired. That was just a beautiful thing to see. It was just nice to see some humanity. And to work with such nice people.

Of course! You want your film sets to be open and collaborative. You don’t want it to be a toxic work environment, because you don’t do your best work under that type of scrutiny or pressure.

It’s a total fiction perpetuated by assholes to justify that they don’t know how to express their pain another way. I have compassion for that, but it’s not enough to put up with it. I’ve found that whenever I’ve been able to direct, people are so smart and they have such good ideas. You just have to get out of your own way a lot of the time and be there together. I guess that’s another thing I like about the show: the relationships between people and the exhaustion and the compromise and the human cost of trying to always be first. It doesn’t take you nearly as far as it would to be creative, and to be curious instead of competitive. 

One of my favourite things that I loved early on was the relationship between Anastasia and Sasha. The first time you really see Anastasia smile is when they’re at the club together. How would you say their relationship develops over the course of the season? 

I feel so silly. I feel like I didn’t see how their relationship developed coming. I think that’s all I should say. [laughs] I loved working with Solly (McLeod), he’s so great. We’re both very silly, but also very serious as well. We want to have some space to enjoy the process, and we really trusted each other. We took our characters seriously. We just wanted to do what we thought they would really do, and that was so encouraging. It was surprising and obvious, in many ways. I loved it. They realize they have a real understanding of the other. They’re both outsiders, and they realize that they’re outside… together. It doesn’t feel so bad.

What I loved is that they’re something so special about going beyond the ick. The ick they have for each other, they ick they have for their lives. They have such deep ick. I feel like neither of them appeals to the other. Neither of them is a prize. For me, it’s interesting to see how people behave when they actually start understanding each other instead of feeling like, “Oh, this person will elevate me in some ways.” The business part of that is so very cut and dry for them. I like the way human nature grows like weeds on cement, and it bumps the pavement up. They’re supposed to be in this arrangement, but what are you going to do when you put two absolute weirdos together? 

They’re going to do more weird things. Another moment that I’d love to touch on is her leaving him waiting at the altar. I know it’s not a funny moment, but I couldn’t help but laugh. 

I love that. I’m so happy to hear that. I find it quite funny to think that he’s like, “She’s not my type anyway.” It feels like it’s got that gallows humour. It’s both tragic and funny. I think the show does have that in it, which I really like. 

What is it about space exploration that you think keeps coming back for more? 

I always think it’s about mortality, to me. It’s about identity. I find it quite striking that we know more about the stars than apparently we do about the bottom of the ocean. Which feels weird and compelling. I think that there’s something about the way we move and try to understand and comprehend what’s outside of our space. I think it appeals to me because it’s such a literal interpretation of our human beings’ endless search for ‘who am I?’ And ‘where are we going?’ And there’s something, I guess, about the final frontier. There’s something about adventure. But we’re pretty scared about dying, and there’s something about going into that night where being with it must be compelling. 

And lastly, if you could sit down and have a conversation with Anastasia, what advice would you give her? If any?

Oh gosh, you know, I think I’m learning from her. Which I know is a funny thing to say as the actor. But I suppose I’m in a collaboration with the others and the story. I felt like I had slightly forgotten – and this is so cheesy to say, but still so true – that being brave also means being terrified. And that you don’t have to stop feeling terrified. It’s not something you vanquish. It’s something you live with. Nick Murphy had said in the audition, “Can you play this one as if you know you will fail?” And I was like, “That feels too familiar.” [laughs] But I think we forget the sensation of cowardice, that we feel like running, that you can’t do this, that you feel like you know you can’t do this, and having to do the hard thing anyway. I think that’s what I learned.

top + skirt. A.W.A.K.E. MODE
opposite
bodysuit. Valentino

photography. Samira Eugster
fashion. Jessica Skeete-Cross
talent. Alice Englert
casting. Emma Fleming
hair. Sandra Hahnel @ Caren Agency using Only Curls
make up. Terri Capon using Rare Beauty
lighting technician. Niko Mrtj
production. Clara La Rosa
interview. Dana Reboe