Filipa Santos Sousa
Filipa Santos Sousa writes about music-led experiences in the city, with a focus on turning festivals, neighborhood parties and cultural events into clear, usable guides for readers. Her coverage for Lisboa Secreta combines detailed practical information with context about venues, programs and the everyday texture of urban life, grounded in more than a decade spent working in journalism and writing.
Festival guides and Rock in Rio Lisbon
In her music beat, Filipa’s most distinctive work is around major festivals, where she builds comprehensive previews that walk readers through both the line-up and the logistics. In her guide to Rock in Rio Lisbon, she organizes the program from headliners like Katy Perry and 21 Savage down to the full daily schedules, pairing artist information with what visitors need to know before reaching the festival grounds. That same structure appears in her coverage of the Iminente Festival, where she explains that the event will return in September 2026 with a new home in the former Afonso Domingues Industrial School in Marvila and notes previous locations such as Monsanto Panoramic, Matinha and Terreiro do Paço. She gives dates, the new address and the time frame of the move, allowing readers to understand how the festival is evolving and how to plan around it. Across these pieces, the emphasis is on clarity: where the festival happens, when it runs, and how the program is shaped, so that music fans can translate interest into attendance.
Popular Saints festivities and neighborhood concerts
Alongside large festivals, Filipa regularly covers Popular Saints celebrations and local arraiais, treating neighborhood concerts with the same level of precision she brings to big stages. In her article on the Grande Arraial de Benfica, she highlights that the event runs for four days, outlines that it will feature concerts, and specifies the location at Alameda Padre Álvaro Proença as well as the fact that tickets are free. A similar approach appears in her coverage of the Arraial de Alvalade, where she explains that the festivities take place at the São João de Brito Municipal Sports Complex, indicates the exact dates in June and notes that entry is free of charge. These pieces show her interest in street-level music culture and community events, with practical details—venues, schedules, prices—made as explicit as those for headline festivals. For stories tied to music in public spaces or neighborhood celebrations, she is attentive to how concerts fit into broader local traditions.
Culture, bookshops and city events beyond music
Filipa’s remit at Lisboa Secreta also extends beyond strictly musical events into the wider cultural life of the city, and she often treats these stories with an experiential, itinerary-style frame. In her article on five bookshops in Lisbon, she builds an “unmissable itinerary for avid readers”, presenting each space with a short history, its role in the world of antique books, and precise addresses such as Rua Garrett 100 in Chiado and Calçada do Carmo 50. She notes services like book evaluation, purchase, archive organization and bibliographic research, giving readers reasons to visit each location. Her piece on TEDxLisboa similarly situates a cultural event by explaining that the conference will celebrate its 15th edition with a program focused on themes like life, conflict, science and technology, and she provides the date, times and venue at Culturgest. Across culture coverage, she ties content to concrete places and timetables, making it easier for audiences to move from reading about an event or space to physically experiencing it.
Urban mobility, drinks events and micro-experiences
Another strand in Filipa’s work concerns how people move through and enjoy the city, which often intersects with leisure and social experiences. In her articles on the GIRA bicycle network, she reports that shared bikes now cover all Lisbon parishes, and she lists new stations in detail, including the number of docks and street-level locations such as Azinhaga da Cidade in Santa Clara and Avenida 5 de Outubro and Avenida António Serpa in Avenidas Novas. This granular information positions cycling not just as infrastructure but as a day-to-day option for exploring the city. In her coverage of the Browers Beer Ato festival, she describes an event with 75 beers to sample, a giant screen for World Cup matches and limited-edition snacks, and she specifies the venue at Browers Beato, the dates in early July and the conditions for free admission and glass purchase. The same concern with logistics, pricing and atmosphere that shapes her music pieces appears here in the context of drinks and sports. Outside the masthead, Filipa also works in copy and content writing and creates material around micro-experiences and travel journalism, reflecting a broader interest in helping audiences discover specific, well-framed experiences in different cities.
Experience-led journalism in multiple languages
Filipa’s author pages show that she writes for Lisboa Secreta’s editions in several languages, including Portuguese, English, Spanish, Italian, German and French. Across these versions, she describes herself as having a degree and a master’s in Information and Journalism and as having dedicated her professional time to writing for over ten years. She also notes a personal passion for history and travel, which aligns with her focus on stories that link events, venues and urban infrastructure to the lived experience of exploring a city. In addition to Lisboa Secreta, she contributes to Porto Secreto, carrying the same background in information and journalism into coverage for another urban-focused outlet. For music and events stories that sit within broader city life—whether festivals, neighborhood concerts, cultural conferences or experiential itineraries—her work consistently brings together service detail and an interest in how people move, gather and spend time in urban spaces.
4 more music journalists.
Abby Webster
Abby Webster zeroes in on the storytelling side of contemporary pop, writing for Billboard about how songs build worlds around K-pop groups, fictional pop stars and ambitious soundtracks. She covers K-pop projects through close, song-by-song features, like her track-by-track piece with SEVENTEEN’s Vernon and The 8 on their EP ‘V8,’ and fan-centered lists such as “7 Best Moments from BTS’ Long-Awaited Return.” She treats soundtracks and fictional acts with the same rigor, mapping the inspirations behind “The Vampire Lestat” soundtrack and profiling in-universe groups like HUNTR/X and Saja Boys as if they were chart acts. Through Chart Beat stories on projects like “KPop Demon Hunters,” she connects these releases to industry strategy, global fandom, and the business systems that turn pop narratives into durable IP.
Alex Suskind
Alex Suskind is a freelance writer and editor who covers music with concise news stories and curated release lists. He focuses on new songs, album roundups, and archival access, from Carly Rae Jepsen’s “On Wires” to Neil Young opening his full catalog to residents of Greenland. His reporting stays close to the release cycle and foregrounds the core hook of each story. He has written for Pitchfork and has freelance work in Vulture, The Guardian, The New York Times, Vanity Fair, and The Atlantic. He also covers broader arts and culture, but his music beat is built around what is newly out now or newly available.
Ali Shutler
Ali Shutler links chart pop, alternative music and fan culture with the ways songs move through festivals, streaming platforms and games. He is a freelance culture journalist specialising in music, writing news and features for NME and other music and culture titles. He covers breakout chart acts, legacy artists whose catalogues are resurfacing, and how audiences rediscover songs via TikTok, streaming or in‑game soundtracks. His reporting on streaming-era pop and live festival moments tracks virality, catalog access and fan behaviour as part of the story of a track. He also examines music, gaming and visual art crossovers, treating game soundtracks and artist-led campaigns as part of a wider cultural map. Alongside this, he profiles emerging chart artists for outlets including The Telegraph, Vice, The Independent, Dork and Upset, focusing on early-career trajectories and fan culture.
Annette Sharp
Annette Sharp is a veteran gossip and entertainment columnist known for direct, opinion-led coverage of celebrity power struggles and reputational crises across television and the music industry. She now writes high-profile columns for the masthead, after a decade on a well-read gossip column and a move to News Corp in 2008. Her real beat is the friction between public image and behind-the-scenes behaviour on flagship TV programs, including breakfast shows, reality formats and other long-running franchises. She focuses on who drives conflicts, who is exposed and who benefits, using ratings history, production decisions and industry mechanics as context. Sharp covers on-air personalities, executives, advisers and musicians, treating television and music as workplaces with competing egos, contracts and alliances, and blending reporting, media commentary and critique in a narrative column format.