The Star Online: Entertainment: Music
The Star Online: Entertainment: Music |
- ABBA fever hits Stockholm at museum opening
- Justin Timberlake announces world tour, new album
- Justin Bieber, Usher in copyright infringement lawsuit
| ABBA fever hits Stockholm at museum opening Posted: 07 May 2013 06:57 AM PDT STOCKHOLM: ABBA fever hit Stockholm on Tuesday when a museum devoted to the Swedish pop legends opened - filling a void in the hearts of millions of fans since the group disbanded three decades ago and likely to fill the pockets of Sweden's tourism industry too. "I'm so moved, I think it's so fantastic that we get to see the history of ABBA," 46-year-old Swede Henrik Ahlen, who lives in London but came to Stockholm to be one of the first to tour the new museum. "I was eight years old when they won the Eurovision Song Contest (in 1974) and they have always been a part of me." Like many of the first visitors, most of whom were in their 40s and all of whom were taking pictures, Ahlen had tears in his eyes as he looked around. The museum features a host of exhibits including the glitzy costumes worn by the group, which has sold more than 378 albums worldwide. A 31-year-old Argentinian woman named Celeste, who said her grandmother raised her on ABBA music, said she could "spend the whole day in the costume room". "I've already been to Sweden eight times and every time it was ABBA-related," she said, adding that she learned Swedish because of the band and that she had had five ABBA costumes sewn up for herself. The quartet dominated the 1970s disco scene with their costumes, kitsch dance routines and catchy melodies such as "Voulez Vous", "Dancing Queen" and "Waterloo", the song that won the 1974 Eurovision Song Contest and thrust the band into the international spotlight. They last performed on stage together in 1982 and split a year later, and have vowed they will never reunite to sing together again. "There is simply no motivation to regroup. Money is not a factor and we would like people to remember us as we were," band member Bjoern Ulvaeus, 68, said in a 2008 interview. On Monday, Ulvaeus, Anni-Frid (Frida) Lyngstad and Benny Andersson attended a VIP event at the museum. Agnetha Faeltskog was promoting her latest solo album in London and did not attend. The state-of-the-art museum, located on Stockholm's leafy island of Djurgaarden, allows visitors to get up close and personal with the band, offering a bevy of interactivity. In one room, fans who have dreamt of becoming the fifth member of the band will be able to appear on stage with the quartet and record a song with them thanks to a computer simulation. In another room dedicated to the song "Ring, Ring", a 1970s telephone will be on display. Only four people know the phone number: the four ABBA members, who may occasionally call to speak live with museum visitors. Other rooms feature childhood photos, the band's costumes and instruments, gold records, replicas of their recording studio and dressing rooms, and their stylist's worktable. Visitors get the band's inside story told "with humour and warmth. They'll get close to the truth," Ulvaeus, who was married to Faeltskog, told AFP in an interview. Andersson and Lyngstad were also married. "We also talk about daily life, life with the children, our break-up, the crises, things we haven't talked much about, the divorces. We've gone beyond the happy image that we presented," he said. "A Really Successful ABBA Mix," Sweden's Dagens Nyheter headlined in a review Tuesday, adding that it was as if the whole museum was permeated by "Bjoern's and Benny's mildly sceptical smiles." "The mix of cultural history, experience, and interactivity that seldom works at museums is really successful in a way that gives fans, the traditional museum public and families with children what they want." Yet the entrance fee may deter some. At 23 euros, or US$30 a ticket for anyone over the age of eight, a family of four with two children will have to dish out 91 euros or US$120 for a few hours of fun. But that hasn't stopped the most die-hard fans, who have booked up most of the available tickets online for the first few weeks, the lion's share of them from abroad, according to museum officials. The museum says it expects to attract a quarter of a million visitors in 2013. - AFP |
| Justin Timberlake announces world tour, new album Posted: 06 May 2013 09:40 PM PDT LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Justin Timberlake will embark on an international tour in October - his first in six years - and will release 10 new songs at the end of September, concert promoter Live Nation said on Monday. The 20/20 Experience, the singer's first album in seven years, was released in March and topped the U.S. album charts for three consecutive weeks. He is now planning to release 10 news songs, and out-takes from the March release, in a second installment of The 20/20 Experience on September 30, record label RCA said. The North American leg of Timberlake's tour will begin on October 31 in Montreal and finish on February 10, 2014, in Omaha, Nebraska. It will follow an abbreviated summer stadium tour with rapper Jay-Z. The Suit & Tie singer will perform mostly in mid-sized cities, such as St. Louis, Indianapolis and Edmonton, that his Legends Of The Summer tour with Jay-Z did not cover. Live Nation has yet to announce the European, Australian and South American tour dates. The release of The 20/20 Experience was the first new music from Timberlake, 32, since 2006 after the former N'Sync boy spent several years focusing on his movie career, launching his own record label, and marrying actress Jessica Biel. |
| Justin Bieber, Usher in copyright infringement lawsuit Posted: 06 May 2013 08:16 PM PDT LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - One of Justin Bieber's hit songs is the target of a US$10 million copyright infringement lawsuit that also accuses Bieber's mentor, R&B singer Usher, of funneling the song to the teen pop star. R&B singer Devin Copeland, known professionally as De Rico, and songwriter Mareio Overton filed a lawsuit last week in U.S. District Court in Virginia alleging that they came up with the song Somebody To Love. Bieber, who is managed by one of Usher's business ventures, released Somebody To Love in 2010 with Usher also singing on the recording. The song peaked at No. 15 on the U.S. Billboard chart. Copeland and Overton allege that Somebody To Love has the same title, time signature, underlying beat pattern as well as similar chords and share similar lyrics, including the chorus "I ... need somebody to love." "There is essentially a zero probability for the number of points of congruence between the two versions of Somebody To Love," Copeland and Overton said in the lawsuit. Bieber (pictured with Usher), songwriter Heather Bright and the Stereotypes are credited as the writers of Bieber's Somebody To Love. Messages left with attorneys for Bieber and Usher were not immediately returned. Copeland and Overton allege that music scouts presented Somebody To Love to Usher in 2009, and that Usher's mother, who also serves as his manager at times, asked Copeland to re-record the song and go on tour with Usher. After not hearing back from Usher, Copeland alleges in the lawsuit he heard his song being sung by Bieber on the radio. Usher, who first recorded the song as a demo for his 2010 album Raymond v. Raymond, later recorded a remix version with Bieber singing backing vocals on the song. The lawsuit lists 19 defendants, including record label Universal Music Corp, a unit of French media company Vivendi. |
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