The Star Online: Entertainment: Music

Robbie Williams aims to seal solo legacy with tour
K-pop acts dropped from Japan year-end music show
Wonder Girls' Sun getting married in January

Robbie Williams aims to seal solo legacy with tour

Posted: 26 Nov 2012 11:21 PM PST

LONDON (Reuters) - Still famous as the in-again/out-again member of chart-topping boyband Take That, British singer Robbie Williams says it is time to get serious as a solo artist and prove his place at the top of the pop pile.

Williams told reporters on Monday he planned a 15-date European stadium tour kicking off in Manchester on June 19, 2013 and concluding in Tallinn, Estonia on August 20.

"I'm buzzing. I'm ready to go. I haven't done a tour of this size since 2006," he said in London.

"I think it's legacy time, because I'm venturing into getting my handicap down at golf and all that business.

"I'm nearly 40, that's what I'm trying to say. I want to go and seal my place in pop history and go off and deliver a tour of great magnitude while I still can."

The 38-year-old in fact enjoyed major success after leaving Take That in 1995, producing a string of hit albums and singles including Angels and Millennium and signing a contract with EMI in 2002 reportedly worth tens of millions.

But by the time his 2006 album Rudebox came out followed by Reality Killed The Video Star in 2009, he was seen as a dwindling force in British pop who had failed to break the key U.S. market.

Williams rejoined Take That in 2010 and they recorded the hit album Progress before touring together in 2011, and the singer said the experience had helped give him confidence to tour large venues again as a solo artist.

"I just ran out of ideas and ran out of a bit of creativity and ran out of energy and did the textbook 'burnt out'," he said of the late 2000s.

"But I've been working really hard and I needed to do something else, and fortunately it came in the shape of my old band. A lot of demons were vanquished from the past. A lot of wrongs were put to rights.

"That tour last summer was just absolutely incredible. It kick-started my professional career."

Earlier this month, Williams returned to the top of the album charts with Take The Crown.

Asked whether he would consider rejoining Take That again, he replied: "I haven't officially left ... What I do know is that ... if we all remain healthy then I will definitely be a part of Take That at some point. It's joyful being around them."

Williams conceded it may be too early to talk about his legacy at 38, but added he wanted to "put my stamp down.

"The fact that 40 is looming plays on my mind more than it does on anybody else's mind. Pop stars cease to be pop stars at 40 and start being old people singing, don't they?

"There is a forum for a male solo star to get up there in stadiums and own the place and I want that to be me, so I've kind of been lethargic for the last couple of albums."

Williams recently became a father, and said his daughter would accompany him on tour. Olly Murs, who rose to fame on The X Factor reality TV show, will support Williams on his tour.

K-pop acts dropped from Japan year-end music show

Posted: 26 Nov 2012 10:21 PM PST

TOKYO: Japan's widely-watched year-end TV show will feature only Japanese acts this year, with popular South Korean performers left out of the line-up amid territorial frictions with Seoul.

Taxpayer-funded broadcaster NHK insisted politics had played no role in the selection of performers for the New Year's Eve broadcast watched by up to 40 percent of the nation's TV audience.

Korean girl groups KARA and Girls' Generation and male group Tohoshinki (TVXQ) were among the headline acts last year on "Kohaku Uta Gassen" (The Red and White Song Contest).

The live TV show lasts more than four hours, and features established acts like AKB48, as well as grandees of J-pop like ageing boy band SMAP.

Viewers are drawn from a wide cross-section of society on an evening when Japanese families traditionally gather at home, often around a television set.

NHK officials told a press conference that Korean performers were dropped after reviewing how popular they were over 2012, and after looking at support for them among Japanese fans.

They denied speculation that the spat over the sovereignty of a pair of islands in the Sea of Japan (East Sea), called Takeshima in Japan and Dokdo in South Korea, had played any role in the decision.

President Lee Myung-bak's visit to the islands in August angered the Japanese public, and cooled ties between the neighbours.

Korean political leaders and cultural figures, including actors and an Olympic athlete, staged a series of stunts over the following months designed to reinforce Seoul's control of the islets.

At least one popular Korean drama was pulled from Japan's airwaves after one of its stars voiced support for Seoul's claim.

Tokyo has also spent several months in bitter dispute with Beijing over the ownership of a different set of islands.- AFP

Wonder Girls' Sun getting married in January

Posted: 26 Nov 2012 07:54 PM PST

KOREA: Wonder Girls fans are in for a shocker. Lead singer Sun made it public recently that she's planning on settling down.

JYP Entertainment said in a press release this morning that Sun will get married on 26 January 2013.

Officials from JYPE explained that Sun, who has led the top female quintet for last six years, expressed her intention to get married and other members and the firm respected her decision.

The officials added that Sun (pic) will devote her marriage life for a while and the teammates will pursue individual activities.

Last year, Sun, whose Korean name is Min Sun-ye, went public about her relationship on SBS talk show Strong Heart, explaining that her boyfriend is a Korean-American.

The idol star denied about the ongoing wedding rumor by posting some message on her official Twitter account last September.

Kredit: www.thestar.com.my

Selasa, 27 November 2012

The Star Online: Entertainment: Music

The Star Online: Entertainment: Music

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