NPR News

When tenor Noah Stewart was growing up in Harlem, N.Y., his friends called him "opera boy." They were onto something.

Earlier this year, he became the first black singer to hit No. 1 on the classical music charts in the U.K.

But Stewart's musical tastes aren't confined to Puccini, Bizet and Strauss, and his new, self-titled album gives him a chance to put his mark on everything from American spirituals to Top 40 hits.

Stewart says he doesn't mind being called an opera singer, but that he would rather just be called a singer.

Emeli Sande is already a star across the pond. Her debut album topped the charts in the UK this year. Her songwriting prowess has won wide acclaim and with her BRIT Critics' Choice Award, she joins the company of artists including Adele and Florence and the Machine.

Now it's time for another coming-out party of sorts. Sande is bringing her unique mix of pop ballads, soulful belting and dance arrangements to North America for a new tour. Her album, Our Version of Events, is out in the U.S. this week.

On-Air Challenge: Every answer is the name of a world capital. You'll be given clues to its phonetic parts, and you name the capital. For example, given the clues "person from Bangkok" and "salary," the answer would be Taipei ("Thai" plus "pay").

Last Week's Challenge From Listener Jack Lechner: Name two different kinds of wool. Take the first five letters of one, followed by the last three letters of the other, and the result will spell the first and last name of a famous actor. Who is it?

Democrat Elizabeth Warren will not have to face a primary challenger in the Massachusetts Senate race. The Harvard Law School professor and consumer advocate secured more than 95 percent of the delegate vote today at her party's state convention.

Lynn Jolicoeur of member station WBUR in Boston reports that Warren's margin was the largest ever in such a race in Massachusetts. Warren's challenge now is incumbent Republican Sen. Scott Brown.

Marina Keegan had just graduated from Yale University with a degree in English and was headed off to a job at The New Yorker. On May 26, she died in a car crash near her family's summer home in Massachusetts.

The Beach Boys are in harmony again. The group is recording and performing together, after years of disputes and estrangement.

Brian Wilson and Mike Love tell Guy Raz, host of weekends on All Things Considered, that they're not surprised at the reunion.

"We've had 50 years' practice," Wilson says, "not just in music but in being guys."

Love says once they got back in the studio and started writing again, it felt like they had never left.

"It was nuts," Wilson says. "It was a nutbuster."