The Star Online: Entertainment: Music
The Star Online: Entertainment: Music |
- New Whitney Houston book recalls singer's musical magic
- No Grammy love for Justin Bieber, One Direction
- Alicia Keys dethrones Rihanna from Billboard top spot
| New Whitney Houston book recalls singer's musical magic Posted: 07 Dec 2012 05:27 AM PST LOS ANGELES: A new book on Whitney Houston by her early producer seeks to tell the story of the rise to stardom of the pop diva who died nine months ago. Emmy and Grammy-winning producer Narada Michael Walden, who produced many of Houston's early hits, like "How Will I Know" and "I Wanna Dance With Somebody," appeared at the Grammy Museum in Los Angeles on Wednesday to discuss the book and perform some of the songs he collaborated on. "Her death was so shocking and sudden that I wanted to create something to keep alive the beautiful aspects of her life. The media was lashing out on the addiction and ignoring her musical genius," Walden told Reuters. Since she drowned in a bathtub on February 11 after taking cocaine, Houston's music and life have generated a TV tribute with Jennifer Hudson, Usher and others, a greatest hits CD, a coffee table book of photos and a TV reality show starring family members. Walden's book "Whitney Houston: The Voice, the Music, the Inspiration," co-written with Richard Buskin, describes how Walden first met the singer when she was 13 and accompanied her mother to the studio. Walden was working on a record with her mom, soul and gospel singer Cissy Houston. Walden said he all but forgot the young pretty girl until he got a call from Arista records in 1984, while working on an Aretha Franklin record, and was told to "make the time" to work on Houston's debut album. Walden said Janet Jackson's management turned down the chance to record "How Will I Know" and that he rewrote it to make it catchier for Houston, who with her five-octave vocal range, recorded the 1985 No.1 song in only one take. "The first take was the keeper. Instead of laboring on it for the better part of a day or even longer, we were done in a matter of minutes," he said, noting Houston always worked fast. Walden, who also produced for Ray Charles, Stevie Wonder and Barbra Streisand, collaborated with Houston on "So Emotional," "One Moment in Time" and "I'm Every Woman" from the film, "The Bodyguard." Walden and Houston went in different directions by the late 1990s, but he would see her at the annual pre-Grammy party hosted by her long-time mentor, record industry mogul Clive Davis. At the 2011 Davis party, Houston sat with her daughter, Bobbi Kristina - then 17 - who exclaimed she wanted to sing and work with Walden. "But Whitney gave me a look that said 'Slow down. I've been down that road....and I'm not sure I want to curse her with that'," he said. Walden said he would now welcome the opportunity to work with Houston's daughter, who has become a fixture of gossip blogs and tabloids. "If she wants to, I'd love to produce her and keep alive the professional image of her mother and focus on the positive," he said |
| No Grammy love for Justin Bieber, One Direction Posted: 07 Dec 2012 05:14 AM PST LOS ANGELES: Irate fans of Justin Bieber and boy band One Direction took to social media on Thursday to voice their outrage after being snubbed by the Grammys for a chance to win the biggest honors in the music industry. Indie-pop band fun and rapper Frank Ocean led the 2013 nominations, tying with The Black Keys, Mumford & Sons, Jay-Z and Kanye West for six nods. But The Recording Academy overlooked some of the year's biggest and most commercially successful artists in Wednesday's nominations. While Bieber, 18, who won three American Music Awards in November, stayed quiet on his omission, his manager Scooter Braun took to Twitter. "Grammy board u blew it on this one. the hardest thing to do is transition, keep the train moving. The kid delivered. Huge successful album, sold out tour, and won people over. ... This time he deserved to be recognized," Braun posted in a series of tweets. Many of Bieber's 31 million Twitter fans quickly followed suit, with hashtags such as #BieberForGrammys trending on the micro-blogging service. The Canadian singer, who has never won a Grammy, in June released album "Believe," showcasing a more grown-up image. The album, which produced top 10 hits "Boyfriend" and "As Long As You Love Me," has sold more than 1.1 million copies. British boy band One Direction was also left empty-handed despite their debut album "Up All Night" having topped the Billboard 200 album chart. The quintet has performed sold-out shows across the world and won three MTV video music awards earlier this year. The Grammy Awards are voted on by members of The Recording Academy and recognize achievement in 81 categories. Lady Gaga, rapper Nicki Minaj and Korea's Psy also failed to snag any nominations. While Gaga hasn't released new music this year, focusing on her global tour, Minaj released "Pink Friday: Roman Reloaded," which topped the Billboard 200 chart and spawned singles such as "Starships." Psy may have YouTube's most watched video ever with "Gangnam Style," - over 897 million views - but he missed out on becoming the first Korean artist to receive a Grammy nod. The Grammy Awards will be handed out at a live performance show and ceremony on February 10 in Los Angeles. |
| Alicia Keys dethrones Rihanna from Billboard top spot Posted: 07 Dec 2012 12:49 AM PST LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - American R&B singer Alicia Keys scored her fifth No. 1 album on the Billboard 200 album chart on Wednesday with Girl On Fire, unseating reigning chart queen Rihanna. Keys' fifth studio album sold 159,000 copies, according to Nielsen SoundScan, which was the lowest opening week of sales for any of the soulful singer's career. Keys, 31, held off country-pop starlet Taylor Swift's Red and Rod Stewart's Merry Christmas, Baby for the top spot. British boy band One Direction's Take Me Home and country-rock singer Phillip Phillips' The World From The Side Of The Moon were fourth and fifth on the chart respectively. Rihanna's Unapologetic slid to sixth in its second week on the chart. Keys' only album not to debut atop the Billboard chart was 2009's The Element Of Freedom, which sold 417,000 copies in its first week but was thwarted from the top spot by British talent-show sensation Susan Boyle's I Dreamed A Dream. First-week sales of Girl On Fire were in line with industry expectations of 145,000 to 170,000 units sold, Billboard said. Album sales tumbled the week after the holiday shopping season kicked off, falling 23 percent overall. Only 13 albums picked up more sales in the top 100 this week, not counting chart debuts and re-entries. The 7.52 million albums sold last week was a decline of 7 percent from the same week last year. In 2012, some 275.3 million albums have been sold so far, marking a 4 percent decline compared with the same point in 2011, according to Nielsen. Black Eyed Peas mastermind will.i.am's single Scream & Shout featuring Britney Spears knocked Korean viral dance hit Gangnam Style by PSY out of the top spot in digital songs. Scream & Shout, which was released on November 21, leaped from No. 66 to the top spot with 169,000 downloads. The electronic pop-dance song was buoyed by the music video's premiere on the U.S. television singing show The X Factor, which stars Spears as a judge, and as the feature music of an TV advertising campaign for headphones starring will.i.am. |
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