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Trey Songz performs at the 20th St. Lucia Jazz Festival. Pic: ANDREA DE SILVA/ REUTERS
It’s been confirmed that American singer-songwriter and Rapper, Trey Songz will be coming to South Africa.
Songz is scheduled to perform two shows: Durban (Wave House) on the 26th August and Johannesburg (Coca Cola Dome) on the 27th August.
According to the organizers the “sexy and seductive R N B And Soul star” will be performing in celebration of woman`s month.
Tickets are already available at Computicket.
Chris Brown poses for photographers with two of the four BET Awards he won. Pic: Jason Redmond/ REUTERS
After a yearlong public plea for redemption that had some people feeling sorry for him and others disgusted by him. It seems like 22-year-old RnB artist, Chris Brown is back in America’s good books again.
On Sunday night he was the comeback kid and the man of the moment at the BET Awards as he collected four awards, including male R&B artist, ,video of the year and collaboration for “Look at Me Now”.
“All my fans are everything to me,” he said, while accepting the award for male R&B artist. “I know it’s been a long road. I just appreciate every blessing that’s been put in front of me.”
Lady Gaga. Pic: ©BANG
US talk show host David Letterman ‘upset’ Lady Gaga when she made a scarcely clothed appearance on his show on May 24. The pop star got so upset on the show that she swallowed his “list of rumors” by the end of the interview.
Letterman began the interview by questioning her about her outfit “What are you wearing? I mean, what aren’t you wearing?,” he asked and Lady Gaga calmly replied: “I only liked the jacket, so I decided that’s all I would wear.”
But then Letterman harped on about Gaga’s famous pantlessness saying “I’ve never thought to myself that I’m just gonna wear my underpants”, she shot back: “Why not? I’m sure you’d look nice. You’d be surprised,” adding a few anecdotes of her variety show time together with her co-star Lady Starlight, when they used to wear matching bikinis singing pop songs: “It’s amazing what will happen if you take your clothes off,” she quipped.
But after applauding Letterman’s stylist (orange tie with stripes), the conversation took a different turn, with the talk-master checking off various rumors off his list. Following a story of Gaga supposedly making her own jerky out of the famous beef dress, or using flyfishing for relaxation, the star had enough, grabbed Letterman’s notes, and ate them up.
Shakira during the press conference at Soccer City, Johannesburg. PHOTO: ANTONIO MUCHAVE
Colombian-born singer Shakira has become the latest recording artist to accumulate over 30 million friends on Facebook. She passed the 30 million mark on May 26 and in a show of gratitude uploaded a video on Facebook thanking her fans for making her one of only a handful of musicians to gain over 30 million friends on the social networking site.
Shakira also attracted attention on Twitter when she pushed talk show host Oprah out of tenth place on Twitter’s “top ten most followed” charts this week.
According to AFP, Eminem became the first person to hit the 30 million friend mark in March. aND he currently has more Facebook friends (37,279,306) than any other person, living or dead. As of May 27 other musicians with over 30 million friends include Lady Gaga (35,451,406), Rihanna (34,269,822) and Michael Jackson (33,651,096).
Shakira’s Facebook page can be found at http://www.facebook.com/shakira
Zaki Ibrahim at the "For Coloured Girls"movie premier. Pic: THE TIMES
Last night Canadian-born, South African based neo-soul singer Zaki Ibrahim performed at Analogue Nites in Melrose and I haven’t heard/ read a single bad review. I was at a different event (that’s for another post) but I got to meet her when she performed at the film premier of Tyler Perry’s “For Colored Girls”.
Zaki’s song “Ansomnia” features in the movie’s soundtrack, alongside music from the likes of Janelle Monae, Nina Simone, Lalah Hathaway, Sharon Jones & The Dap- Kings and Estelle.
After her performance I asked her to tell me a bit about herself and her music:
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Go to TimesLIVE Multimedia for the full video of the For Colored Girls premiere.
Scotty McCreery celebrates winning the 10th season of "American Idol" . Pic: MICHAEL BAKER/ REUTERS
After the count of an overwhelming 122 million votes, Ryan Seacrest announced that 17-year-old Scotty McCreery was the winner of American Idol.
McCreery, the fourth male to win the title in 10 seasons, beat runner up contestant 16-year-old Lauren Alaina in the two hour season finale, that was hosted at the Nokia Theatre in Los Angeles last night.
Commenting on if he thought he would win, McCreery said: “It’s been a year since Lauren and I tried out. We’ve been together since day one and we’re going to stay together. Never in my wildest dreams…I’ve got to thank the Lord first, he got me here.”
McCreery will receive a recording contract with Vivendi SA’s Universal Music Group and joins his predecessors who held the prestigious American Idol title such as Kelly Clarkson, Jordin Sparks, Taylor Hicks, Reuben Studdard, David Cook, Kris Allen, Fantasia Barrino, Lee DeWyze and Carrie Underwood.
Go to TimesLIVE Multimedia to see pictures for the Grand Finale which featured special performances by Beyonce, Lady Gaga, Marc Anthony, Judas Priest and Gladys Knight.
I was intrigued when I saw 2 pantsula dancers in Beyonce’s new video, Run The World (Girls). I was convinced that they were local and I was curious about how they managed to make it onto the video. Well, they’re not South Africans but they are from neighbouring Mozambique.
Beyoncé and her longtime choreographer Frank Gatson, Jr. were inspired by the Mozambique dance group Tofo Tofo, after seeing a video of them dancing on YouTube.
It took Beyonce’s people almost 2 months as well as the assistance of the embassy to track them down. She then flew them to the States and they taught her some of their moves.
Frank told MTV “We had seen something on YouTube; we had seen these three guys from Africa, this Mozambique African dance troupe … we were like, ‘Wow, this is an amazing movement.’ And that movement has always been in the back of our head for the last year. From there, we talked about a lot of concepts.”
While pantsula dance is nothing new to us Africans, it’s the first time that it has been given such exposure. I’m glad Beyonce saw something great in them and the movement as a whole. But I wish the genre was as appreciated and respected here. Why do our artists always need the American/ European stamp of approval for us to value them?
Liquideep won Album Of The Year and Duo/Group Of The Year for Fabrics Of The Heart. Pic: CATHY PINNOCK
Like most entertainment journalists, my colleagues and I braved the cold and made our way to Montecasino for the 17th Annual South African Music Awards. But once we got there we realised that the event was littered with organisational and logistical problems.
Firstly the signage was poor. My colleagues and I walked round and round in circles, on the slippery Monte Casino cobble stones looking for the Media/ VIP entrance. When we finally found it; annoyed VIPs were being shoved and pushed by restless fans who were only informed that they were at the wrong entrance once they got to the front of the queue.
It caused a huge safety issue but there was no crowd control appointed to resolve it. Some of the VIPs were scared that a stampede was going to ensue so they got out of the way and waited. But with only 5 minutes to go before the event commenced we bravely went against the tide.
Thembisa Madoda's tweets about the SAMA
We thought we’d survived the worst. But when we eventually got to the SAMA dome we found people sitting on our allocated seats. Apparently our seats were double booked! And we weren’t the only ones. Vuzu TV’s Lalla Hirayama was also left standing in the aisle while the ushers were busy trying to assist hoards of other guests. After 15 minutes of being ignored and being told to duck down for the camera men, we sat in the first set of empty seats we found.
We had missed an entire 35 minutes of the awards! But the production for the show was equally disappointing. The layout didn’t work: some screens were placed out of sight, presenters didn’t sound rehearsed and some award winners took 3 minutes to reach the stage.
Lira's tweet about the SAMAs
The amazing performances by artists such as Vusi Mahlase, Ray Phiri, The Arrows featuring Loyiso and Die Antwoord, were shadowed by the events poor planning and lackluster production.
Having struggled to get into the venue, we sneaked out when the final performance was taking place. But a quarter of the guests had the same bright idea. We found ourselves in the same dangerous situation but this time was worse.Pick pockets were freely roaming around as we were navigating through the crowd. I felt a hand frisking me and trying to open my purse. I caught his hand before he reached for my possessions. I asked him what he was doing and he said something along the lines of “what do you mean? You can see it’s packed, I bumped into you by mistake”. I let go of his hand once I realised that I was surrounded by his entourage. And there wasn’t a security guard in sight.
The SAMAs move to Montecasino was punted by the organisers as a way to make the awards “more accessible”. They failed tremendously at making them accessible to the relevant people and succeeded in making them more accessible to criminals. It was a hunting ground for thieves.
Musician Tamara Dey of the SAMA nominated group Flash Republic took to social network twitter after her iPhone was stolen at the after party. SAMA winner Jax Panik reportedly robbed as well.
Tamara Deys tweets about the SAMAs
All in all, they were an epic fail! You should doubt the credibility of any journalist and the motives of any celebrity that tells you other wise. I don’t know who’s to blame but someone needs to get fired.
Shugga Smaxx of Rap group Skwatta Kamp
Rihanna flaunts her softer side in her latest video for a track from the massively successful LP, Loud. The new pop ballad, “California King Bed,” follows the huge success of Loud singles “S&M” and “Only Girl (In the World)” and will hit international radio stations later this month. So far the video, posted on her YouTube Vevo channel, has had nearly 567,000 views.
“As the video opens, Rihanna and her hunky beau are feeling a painful distance, even as they snuggle up in their California king-sized bed,” describes Billboard. “Rihanna’s just rolled-out-bed look is completed by modest, cream-colored lingerie in the airy, light-filled video.”
Rihanna teased her nearly 5 million Twitter followers last week when she posted a photo from the video shoot. Since the clip released, her fans have been aflutter with reviews: “it’s been a while since I liked a Rihanna song, love California King bed, and the video is good too,” tweeted HillarySesi. “Just listend to California King Bed of @Rihanna, its not what I expect from her, but it’s a nice song #fact,” tweeted itsnwar.
Rihanna has sold more than 15 million albums and 45 million singles. Loud, which released last November, has peaked in the top ten in album charts in some 21 countries, including reaching number one in the UK and Canada.
Watch the video below and tell me what you think:
CENTER: Tumi Molekane of Tumi and The Volume at the SAMA Nominees Party. Pic: AVUSA MEDIA
Nominated in Duo or Group of the Year plus in the Best Rap Album categories – Tumi and The Volume believe that they are in for a win if the judges listen to their album carefully…
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