The Star Online: Entertainment: Music
The Star Online: Entertainment: Music |
- Psy's 'Gangnam Style' closes on one billion views
- Ex-Beatle's widow lauds Ravi Shankar at US memorial
- Korea's Cho Yong-pil to release new album
| Psy's 'Gangnam Style' closes on one billion views Posted: 20 Dec 2012 10:33 PM PST SEOUL: Psy's "Gangnam Style" video was galloping towards the one-billion-view mark on YouTube Friday, a fresh milestone in the enduring global craze for the South Korean rapper and his horse-riding dance. As of 0600 GMT, the view counter attached to "Gangnam Style," which was only posted on the video-sharing site in mid-July, stood at 995.8 million and counting. Psy has swept all before him in the past five months, hoovering up awards and scoring guest appearances with everyone from Madonna to the head of the United Nations. The video and its singer have been given walk-on roles in major world events like the US presidential election and major maybe-events like the Mayan calendar-inspired speculation about looming global armageddon. The timing of the one-billion views breakthrough looks set to dovetail with a viral social network hoax that had the 16th century French seer Nostradamus apparently referencing Psy as a harbinger of the December 21 apocalypse. And it comes less than a month after the video took the all-time "most-viewed" title away from "Baby" by Canadian heartthrob Justin Bieber. Bieber's effort was still in second place Friday with more than 812 million views. Although its imminent demise has been predicted many times, the Psy phenomenon has simply refused to die. Every time it has looked like fading, another parody, another celebrity or even another world leader has popped up to administer some publicity CPR and restore it to health. Rolling Stone put "Gangnam Style" at number 25 on its top 50 list of best songs for 2012 and labelled Psy as "Seoul Brother Number One." On the Billboard Hot 100 chart it peaked at number two. The song - which refers to a trendy Seoul district - has spawned a mini tribute video industry and has been co-opted by an impressive roster of big names, including Chinese dissident artist Ai Weiwei. It earned Psy a contract with Bieber's management agency and a number of assessments and projections have been posted claiming "Gangnam Style" has generated over $8.1 million in advertising deals. And the public has joined in, with tens of thousands turning out for giant flashmob performances of Psy's horse-riding dance in cities like Paris and Rome - even beauty spots like South America's majestic Iguazu waterfalls. The quirky star, whose real name is Park Jae-Sang, has won adulation in his homeland for the global hit and was this month awarded one of South Korea's highest cultural honours, the Okgwan Order of Cultural Merit. Psy hit a speedbump in the United States when anti-American views he voiced a decade ago caught up with him last month - but he apologised and went on to perform at a "Christmas in Washington" gala attended by Obama and his family. South Korea sees popular culture as a potent export force, providing international exposure for a country that still feels overlooked in comparison to neighbours China and Japan. The government has spent substantial time and money supporting the so-called Hallyu (Korean Wave) of TV shows and pop music that has swept across Asia in the past decade.-AFP |
| Ex-Beatle's widow lauds Ravi Shankar at US memorial Posted: 20 Dec 2012 08:52 PM PST ENCINITAS, California: Former Beatle George Harrison's widow Olivia joined hundreds of fans and family of Ravi Shankar on Thursday at an open-air memorial to the Indian sitar legend near his California home. Anoushka Shankar, daughter of the late musician who died last week near San Diego, and her half-sister Grammy-winning singer Norah Jones also paid their last respects at the service in a palm tree-lined meditation center. Tributes were read out from fellow musicians and artists who had been inspired by Shankar, labeled "The Godfather of World Music" by the Beatles and compared to Mozart by violin maestro Yehudi Menuhin. Harrison, whose late husband learned sitar from Shankar and collaborated with him notably on the ground-breaking Concert for Bangladesh in 1971, said the former Beatle had learned so much from their friendship. "They were like father and son as well as brothers... they made each other laugh as if they shared a secret. And I'm sure they did," said the 64-year-old, whose husband died of cancer in 2001. Shankar "laid the stepping stones from West to East, that led George to new concepts, alternative philosophies and completely transformed his musical sensibilities," she said. "They exchanged ideas and melodies until their minds and hearts, East and West, were entwined, like a double helix," she added in Encinitas, where Shankar had a home. Shankar's 31-year-old daughter Anoushka - also a sitar player, and just nominated for a Grammy - told the audience that her father would have approved of the memorial's venue, the Self-Realization Fellowship spiritual center. "My father loved spending time here so much, so it feels so right for us to be here celebrating his journey," she said, before tributes were read out from singer Peter Gabriel and film director Martin Scorsese. Gabriel said: "Ravi Shankar opened the door to non-Western music for millions of people around the world." Shankar died last Tuesday at the age of 92, after failing to recover from surgery at a hospital in La Jolla, near San Diego. His family was at his bedside. Private memorial services were announced both in the United States and India, where Shankar also had a home. Jazz-soul singer Jones, Shankar's daughter from an affair with a US concert producer, was dressed in black and kept a low profile at Thursday's event in Encinitas, up the coast from San Diego. His widow Sukanya was also at the California memorial, which started with prayers chanted by M.N. Nandakumara of the Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan institute for Indian art and culture in London. Nandakumara said that Shankar's music "brought people of various countries, communities together to his soul-stirring music, which was matchless. "I do not know another musician who has understood the Eastern and Western music the way (Shankar) understood it, and interpreted it in such a way that people around the world were mesmerized by it," he said. As well as Indian family and friends, Thursday's event - at which speakers were flanked on stage by photos of Shankar at various stages of his life - was attended by locals and other fans and followers. "He's local, he's part of the community here," said Eddy Jimenez, a musician and trumpet player from Encinitas, comparing Shankar's influence and music to that of Harrison's fellow Beatle John Lennon. "He's a bridge between humanity, really, not just East and West. I'm just here to pay my respects," the 61-year-old told AFP. Grammys organizers the Recording Academy announced last week that Shankar, a three-time Grammy winner, is to receive a posthumous lifetime achievement award. Shankar also received another Grammy nomination for the music indudstry's annual awards show, due on February 10, for "The Living Room Sessions Part 1," released by his East Meets West Music label, for Best World Music Album.-AFP |
| Korea's Cho Yong-pil to release new album Posted: 20 Dec 2012 07:59 PM PST KOREA (Reuters) -- Acclaimed musician Cho Yong-pil, one of the most beloved singers of all time in Korea, is to release a new album, his first in ten years. The pop singer is currently writing songs for his 19th studio album, aiming to drop it in the first half of next year, Korean news agency Yonhap News reported Thursday. To celebrate the 45th anniversary of his debut next year, the Dream singer is also planning a nationwide tour and is currently in negotiations about the show's venues and schedule, Yonhap added. Fans of the 61-year-old singer have long awaited for Cho's forthcoming album since his last album, Over The Rainbow in 2003, although the singer has had several big-scale concerts in 2004, 2008 and 2011. Considered as a living legend of the South Korean pop scene, Cho began his career in 1971 when he formed a band Atkins. After kicking off a solo career in 1980, he has received remarkable popularity with hit numbers including Return To Busan Port, The Lady Outside The Window and Dear Friend. The famed musician, also known by his nickname "King of Singers," marked himself as the first Korean artist to perform at New York's Carnegie Hall in 1981 and hit the first Asian music festival PAX MUSICA in Japan from 1989 to 1991. He has received numerous awards such as the KBS and MBC Best Artist Award (1980–1986), AMPEX Golden Reel Award (1982) and the CBS-SONY Golden Disc Award (1984). He is called "oppa" [the Korean word for "older brother"] by female fans not just in Korea but in Japan and other countries. |
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