[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-JtRl1UBESI&w=560&h=315]
Idols SA first launched in 2002, and eight seasons later, the South African television show, based on the popular British show Pop Idol (the inspiration for the U.S.’ American Idol), finally crowned its first black winner.
Khaya Mthethwa (pronounced KYE-yam-TET-wa), 25, went home with the top honors and a prize package of 1 million South African rand ($114,000 in U.S. dollars) and a recording contract with Universal Music South Africa.
Posts published in “Pop/R&B/Dance”
[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hy9W_mrY_Vk&w=560&h=315]
[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hy9W_mrY_Vk&w=560&h=315]
Public Enemy, N.W.A., Rush, and Deep Purple are among the group of first-time nominees for the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.
They join returnees Heart, Joan Jett and the Blackhearts, Randy Newman, Donna Summer and Kraftwerk among the 15 artists vying for entry.
It was an evening suitable for a legend at the historic Chateau Marmont hotel in West Hollywood, as internationally acclaimed composer, filmmaker and philanthropist Quincy Jones was on hand to receive the Montblanc Lifetime Achievement Award. There to introduce the iconic producer were Hollywood legends Sidney Poitier and Morgan Freeman as well as Quincy Jones’ daughter, actress and filmmaker Rashida Jones.
Singer Rihanna and media mogul Oprah Winfrey have topped Forbes‘ list of Hollywood’s highest-paid women for 2012. Out of a short list of only ten high-powered ladies in entertainment, Oprah landed at the number-one position with her take of $165 million for the period ranging from May 2011- 2012. Britney Spears came in second by earning $58 million. Rihanna’s take for 2012 was $53 million, from her album sales, endorsement deals, and touring revenues. Yet, it was close in the upper echelons of this ranking, with Britney Spears being followed closely by Taylor Swift, who landed at number three with her $57 million dollar income. Ellen Degeneres tied with Rihanna, earning $53 million as well through her television deals.
Lil Wayne is the new Elvis Presley when it comes to Billboard hits. The inimitable MC from New Orleans has just surpassed the king of rock in total number of songs to land on the Hot 100. “Celebration,” the latest single from Game, is the 109th song to make the chart with Wayne appearing as either a lead or featured artist. Presley’s record was 108 spanning between 1958 and 2003.
Lil Wayne is the new Elvis Presley when it comes to Billboard hits. The inimitable MC from New Orleans has just surpassed the king of rock in total number of songs to land on the Hot 100. “Celebration,” the latest single from Game, is the 109th song to make the chart with Wayne appearing as either a lead or featured artist. Presley’s record was 108 spanning between 1958 and 2003.
Bettye LaVette (Chang W. Lee/The New York Times)
WEST ORANGE, N.J. — Bettye LaVette makes no apologies for her life. Sitting cross-legged on an Art Deco chair in her living room here, sipping wine, she was animated and gritty as she talked about the decades she spent singing in clubs and cursing her “buzzard luck,” while her contemporaries, like Aretha Franklin and Diana Ross, became superstars.
“I thought I was going to die in obscurity,” said Ms. LaVette, 66. “I’m still going to die broke but not obscure.”
It has been 50 years since Ms. LaVette, then a teenage mother from a working-class Detroit home, recorded her first single, “My Man — He’s a Lovin’ Man,” which became a hit on Atlantic Records and seemed to foretell a bright future. But she quarreled with Jerry Wexler of Atlantic Records and left the label, and even though she recorded dozens of other R&B singles in the 1960s, including the minor hit “Let Me Down Easy,” her career never took off. She survived as a club performer and appeared in “Bubbling Brown Sugar” on Broadway and on tour. Her long-delayed first album in the early 1980s didn’t sell. By the late ’90s, she was popular only among European R&B enthusiasts.
It has been 50 years since Ms. LaVette, then a teenage mother from a working-class Detroit home, recorded her first single, “My Man — He’s a Lovin’ Man,” which became a hit on Atlantic Records and seemed to foretell a bright future. But she quarreled with Jerry Wexler of Atlantic Records and left the label, and even though she recorded dozens of other R&B singles in the 1960s, including the minor hit “Let Me Down Easy,” her career never took off. She survived as a club performer and appeared in “Bubbling Brown Sugar” on Broadway and on tour. Her long-delayed first album in the early 1980s didn’t sell. By the late ’90s, she was popular only among European R&B enthusiasts.
Singer Monica performs a tribute to Whitney Houston during BET Awards 12, at the Shrine Auditorium in Los Angeles on July 1, 2012. UPI/Jim Ruymen
Celine Dion, Jennifer Hudson and Usher are to lead the lineup of performers for a Whitney Houston tribute to tape in Los Angeles next month, CBS announced. Houston accidentally drowned in a hotel bathtub last February after using drugs shortly before she was to attend the Grammy Awards ceremony. She was 48.