SHE MAY be on only her first U.S. tour, but British pop singer-songwriter Natasha Bedingfield is already schooled in the first rule of entertainment: The show must go on.
The other night in New York with her throat ravaged from a cold, she found another way to engage the audience: "It's interesting, when your voice goes, you have to rely on other things," she says, calling from Quebec the next evening. "I definitely wiggled my booty more. It's entertainment. As long as everybody goes home happy . . ." She laughs a little raspily, but otherwise she sounds chipper and resilient.
Just like her music. Bedingfield became a sensation in the U.S. three years ago on the back of the uplifting title track from her first CD, 2005's "Unwritten." That song has proved to be sticky in America: It was the most played song on the radio in 2006 and remains a staple today. "Unwritten" is also the opening theme to MTV's "The Hills" and is apparently a cure-all for dull hair, given its usage in a never-ending series of Pantene commercials.
Bedingfield released her second album, "Pocketful of Sunshine," this year, and, similarly to "Unwritten," the title track is flypaper on the radio.
Bedingfield wrote and recorded "Pocketful" in Los Angeles, with the sunny skies and warm climes providing the perfect backdrop for the breezy album. "Los Angeles is an escape. Creatively, I'm very free there," Bedingfield says. "I spent a summer in Santa Monica writing this record. I had an amazing view of the sea. Now I stay in Hollywood and I have an amazing view of the Hollywood sign. I like a view."
Her current view is of the upper reaches of the pop charts. The album debuted at No. 3 on the Billboard 200 and the title track is edging toward No. 1 on a number of singles charts.
For someone so associated with pure pop, Bedingfield concedes that she doesn't listen to much of the current stuff, preferring "old soul and drum and bass." She has a real fondness for Björk because "we expect to be surprised by her. She's like a musical scientist, she's always experimenting." But Bedingfield is smart enough to stay within her musical lane: "I have written songs like Björk . . . [but] the style that feels like I flow in it the most and that gets a good reaction from people is a bit more mainstream."
For years, female singers from Britain could not make a dent on U.S. charts -- when "Unwritten" hit No. 1 in Billboard's Pop 100 chart in 2006, it marked the first time a British woman had hit the summit since Kim Wilde with "U Keep Me Hanging' On" in 1987.
But the last few years have provided an unending cascade. Bedingfield and K.T. Tunstall followed Dido. Next came Amy Winehouse and Lily Allen. Now, headlines tout the "New Amys" like Duffy, Kate Nash and Adele, as well as diva Leona Lewis.
"I'm really proud of them," she says of the current crop. She attributes the success to self-confidence. "Everyone was looking at America; you'd see the German Justin Timberlake or the English Madonna. Every country had their own version and when that person tried to make it in America, they didn't because [America] has its own very good Justin Timberlake. Now people are taking what's in our country and just being ourselves, with our own accents."
After her own outing, Bedingfield slips into the support slot on the New Kids on the Block reunion tour, which stops at Staples Center on Oct. 8.
Bedingfield is too young to have been hangin' tough with NKOTB the first time around -- she was under the sway of childhood idols with names like Bert and Ernie.
"I was still into 'Sesame Street' " during the boy band's first go-round, she admits, adding one more confession: "And I was into Disney, as I secretly still am."
NATASHA BEDINGFIELD WHERE: House of Blues Anaheim, 1530 S. Disneyland Dr., Anaheim
WHEN: 8 p.m. Monday
PRICE: $17.50-$20
INFO: (714) 778-2583; www.hob.com/anaheim
WHERE: House of Blues, 8430 Sunset Blvd., West Hollywood
WHEN: 8:30 p.m. Wednesday
PRICE: $23-$25
INFO: (323) 848-5100; www.hob.com/sunsetstrip
Thursday 3 July 2008
Speidi at DMV -- Licensed to Drive You Sick
One more reason to hate going to the DMV -- you might see Spencer sucking on Heidi's fake lips!
The Heidi and Spencer Show pulled up to the Santa Monica DMV on Tuesday -- and caused more carnage with their PDA than a drunk driver in front STK!
Heidi was there to register to vote. The thought of the dingbat voting may be the only thing scarier than her singing.
See Also
The Heidi and Spencer Show pulled up to the Santa Monica DMV on Tuesday -- and caused more carnage with their PDA than a drunk driver in front STK!
Heidi was there to register to vote. The thought of the dingbat voting may be the only thing scarier than her singing.
See Also
Shiv Kumar Sharma (Santoor), Pt. Hari Prasad Chaur
Artist: Shiv Kumar Sharma (Santoor), Pt. Hari Prasad Chaur
Genre(s):
Classical
Discography:
Call Of The Valley
Year: 1997
Tracks: 9
Rakesh Chaurasia, Sunil Das, Zarin Daruwala, Ulhas
Artist: Rakesh Chaurasia, Sunil Das, Zarin Daruwala, Ulhas
Genre(s):
Easy Listening
Discography:
Divinity Four
Year: 2005
Tracks: 9
Nitty
Artist: Nitty
Genre(s):
Other
Discography:
Nasty Girl
Year: 2004
Tracks: 4
Growing up in the notorious Fort Apache department of the Bronx can make you a gangsta if the hip-hop life style is your thing. With a firm family base and a house filled with deference and ethics, rapper Nitty distinct he wasn't going away to fall prey to the Bronx's dark side. Growing up, he always best-loved rappers like Will Smith, Heavy D, and Young MC -- rappers world Health Organization had positive messages and were as entertaining as they were skilled. Determined to find his place in the hip-hop cosmos, Nitty linked the Du Brothers, a work party of aspiring rappers, singers, DJs, and dancers from the Lower East Side of Manhattan. It gave him confidence in his positive style of rapping and authority that hip-hop required more fun, less gangsta. A draw of rap fans must get agreed, since his 2004 single "Nasty Girl" was an instant smash hit on urban and rhythm radio.
Oktor
Artist: Oktor
Genre(s):
Metal: Death,Black
Discography:
Oktor
Year: 2004
Tracks: 2
Catwoman Star Meriwether Plans 'Tell-all' Book
Amy Winehouse's Scandalous Sex Photos!
If you fancy seeing some Amy Winehouse porn, your best bet it looking through her laptop.
The Back To Black singer invited an interviewer into her Camden home, and urged her to look through photos of her and Blake Civil-Fielder’s wedding.
However, the Rolling Stone scribe had the misfortune of seeing Wino in an uncompromising position, nibbling something banana shaped.
She recalls: “Suddenly the screen flashes Winehouse's blurry face, taken from above with a phone in one hand and a gigantic penis in her mouth. [Remi] Nicole [Wino’s musician friend] and I both look away.”
If Amy really is as bored as she claims, maybe organising her dodgy snaps into a separate hidden folder wouldn't be a bad idea.
The Back To Black singer invited an interviewer into her Camden home, and urged her to look through photos of her and Blake Civil-Fielder’s wedding.
However, the Rolling Stone scribe had the misfortune of seeing Wino in an uncompromising position, nibbling something banana shaped.
She recalls: “Suddenly the screen flashes Winehouse's blurry face, taken from above with a phone in one hand and a gigantic penis in her mouth. [Remi] Nicole [Wino’s musician friend] and I both look away.”
If Amy really is as bored as she claims, maybe organising her dodgy snaps into a separate hidden folder wouldn't be a bad idea.
Prophet sharing: New Black Panther Party's hip-hop ambassador organizes march for peace
Jamarhl Crawford talks a lot of talk. But he walks a lot of walk, too.
The Boston Chapter chairman of the New Black Panther Party, Crawford also raps under the name UNO the Prophet. But he spends most days pounding cement, promoting community causes and passing out copies of his newspaper, The Blackstonian.
This week he’s especially busy, hopping from park to park and block to block to promote the 10,000 Strong Boston march for peace and justice that takes place Sunday from noon to six in Franklin Park.
“This is going to be like a mini Million Man March for Boston,” Crawford, who organized the event, said in an interview at his Roxbury home. “We’re going to assemble as many people in the park as we can to call for responsibility, accountability, atonement and an end to all beefs.”
Crawford, 37, is not only an activist, he’s an artist who’s been rapping for more than 20 years. The Boston native began taking music seriously while living in Atlanta, where he released his first book and a cassette titled “Prophetic Visions” in 1996. Crawford said his message then is the same as his message now.
“Every single song I’ve ever released has, in whole or in part, been about beheading this beast,” he said of his battle against what he considers an oppressive economic and political system.
After returning to Boston in 1997, Crawford’s role as the New Black Panther Party’s National Hip-Hop Ambassador has kept him active in the progressive rap scene.
“I’m respected because I’m not one of these conscious rappers who you can’t find a revolutionary part of,” Crawford said. “If the only thing you’ve contributed to the revolution is a poem or a rhyme, then you’re not a revolutionary, you’re just a poet or an MC.”
In the past few years, Crawford has appeared on albums by Public Enemy MC Professor Griff, Bay Area MC Paris and Grammy-nominated duo Les Nubian. Though bitter about not getting props for his musical accomplishments in his hometown, Crawford is quick to dismiss local artists who gauge their buzz by how many local heads know their songs.
“For most of these guys, it’s completely ego-driven,” Crawford said. “If my goal was to put stickers up around the city, then stickers it would be. But that’s not the goal. I have a larger mission that has nothing to do with hip-hop. I’m here to save the ’hood.
In pursuing that mission, Crawford has ruffled more than a few feathers. Last year, addressing a group of residents at the Roxbury Family YMCA, he compared Boston’s cops to vampires: “They are polite. They’re smooth,” Crawford said. “But once they get in, the door closes and havoc ensues.”
But Crawford doesn’t blame the police and City Hall for the problems plaguing inner-city neighborhoods.
“The problems in the ’hood have everything to do with us and nothing to do with them,” he said. “They can only do to us what we allow to be done. That’s what this march is all about: teaching responsibility.”
As for anyone who wants to challenge his ideas, Crawford invites dialogue, while delivering a warning.
“You can love me or hate me,” he said, “but don’t debate me.”
The Boston Chapter chairman of the New Black Panther Party, Crawford also raps under the name UNO the Prophet. But he spends most days pounding cement, promoting community causes and passing out copies of his newspaper, The Blackstonian.
This week he’s especially busy, hopping from park to park and block to block to promote the 10,000 Strong Boston march for peace and justice that takes place Sunday from noon to six in Franklin Park.
“This is going to be like a mini Million Man March for Boston,” Crawford, who organized the event, said in an interview at his Roxbury home. “We’re going to assemble as many people in the park as we can to call for responsibility, accountability, atonement and an end to all beefs.”
Crawford, 37, is not only an activist, he’s an artist who’s been rapping for more than 20 years. The Boston native began taking music seriously while living in Atlanta, where he released his first book and a cassette titled “Prophetic Visions” in 1996. Crawford said his message then is the same as his message now.
“Every single song I’ve ever released has, in whole or in part, been about beheading this beast,” he said of his battle against what he considers an oppressive economic and political system.
After returning to Boston in 1997, Crawford’s role as the New Black Panther Party’s National Hip-Hop Ambassador has kept him active in the progressive rap scene.
“I’m respected because I’m not one of these conscious rappers who you can’t find a revolutionary part of,” Crawford said. “If the only thing you’ve contributed to the revolution is a poem or a rhyme, then you’re not a revolutionary, you’re just a poet or an MC.”
In the past few years, Crawford has appeared on albums by Public Enemy MC Professor Griff, Bay Area MC Paris and Grammy-nominated duo Les Nubian. Though bitter about not getting props for his musical accomplishments in his hometown, Crawford is quick to dismiss local artists who gauge their buzz by how many local heads know their songs.
“For most of these guys, it’s completely ego-driven,” Crawford said. “If my goal was to put stickers up around the city, then stickers it would be. But that’s not the goal. I have a larger mission that has nothing to do with hip-hop. I’m here to save the ’hood.
In pursuing that mission, Crawford has ruffled more than a few feathers. Last year, addressing a group of residents at the Roxbury Family YMCA, he compared Boston’s cops to vampires: “They are polite. They’re smooth,” Crawford said. “But once they get in, the door closes and havoc ensues.”
But Crawford doesn’t blame the police and City Hall for the problems plaguing inner-city neighborhoods.
“The problems in the ’hood have everything to do with us and nothing to do with them,” he said. “They can only do to us what we allow to be done. That’s what this march is all about: teaching responsibility.”
As for anyone who wants to challenge his ideas, Crawford invites dialogue, while delivering a warning.
“You can love me or hate me,” he said, “but don’t debate me.”
Gloria Trevi
Artist: Gloria Trevi
Genre(s):
Latin
Discography:
Como Nace El Universo
Year: 2004
Tracks: 12
Serie Platino
Year: 2003
Tracks: 14
Ellas Cantan Asi
Year: 2003
Tracks: 20
El recuento de los dalos
Year: 2001
Tracks: 12
No Soy Monedita de Oro
Year: 2000
Tracks: 14
De Pelos: Lo Mejor De Gloria Trevi
Year: 1996
Tracks: 14
Si Me Llevas Contigo
Year: 1995
Tracks: 10
Mas Turbada Que Nunca
Year: 1994
Tracks: 11
Me Siento Tan Sola
Year: 1992
Tracks: 12
Tu Angel De La Guarda
Year: 1991
Tracks: 11
Rock Millenium
Year: 1991
Tracks: 12
Maxi exitos
Year:
Tracks: 6
Discografia Casi Completa Y Extras
Year:
Tracks: 20
Often hailed as "the Mexican Madonna," Gloria Trevi was non only when one of the to the highest degree daring and forefront Latin stars of the ‘80s and ‘90s; she whitethorn very well be the to the highest degree controversial fig in the story of Latin pop up and rock music en español. In the late ‘90s and early 2000s, the Mexican singer's nominate was repeatedly dragged through the clay because of a major sex-related dirt; Mexican law enforcement officials accused Trevi and manager/ex-husband Sergio Andrade of sexually abusing and imprisoning jejune girls--and in the Latin American media, the Trevi/Andrade outrage has been as immense a story as the O.J. Simpson tribulation was in the United States in the mid-‘90s (negative the racial constituent). Regrettably, the abundance of sordid, distressful headlines surrounding Trevi and Andrade let often overshadowed the importance of her sometimes sociopolitical medicine, which could be quite a challenging and provocative.Trevi was born Gloria de los Angeles Treviño on February 15, 1970 in Monterrey, Mexico, an industrial city in the northerly portion of the country. The isaac Bashevis Singer had a rough childhood; she was rather short, and her parents (both of whom allegedly abused her) divorced when she was 10. But none of those things discouraged Trevi from becoming in earnest concerned in the arts. As a preteenager, she studied ballet saltation and well-read to play the pianoforte; finally, she erudite to play the drums as well. Trevi was non only when concerned in Latin euphony; she was in earnest into American and British rock and listened to Led Zeppelin, the Doors, Deep Purple, Pat Benatar and Janis Joplin (among others) extensively. Against her mother's wishes, Trevi left home when she was only 12 and stirred from Monterrey to Mexico City to quest for a calling in the humanistic discipline. At first, life in Mexico City was a skin for Trevi, world Health Organization survived by doing everything from vocalizing on the streets for money to marketing tacos; she likewise taught aerobic exercise for for a while. But her vocation started to take off when, in 1984, a 14-year-old Trevi met manufacturer Sergio Andrade, world Health Organization was nearly 28 at the time and went on to get her managing director and wise man as well as her husband. After briefly vocalizing with the all-female group Boquitas Pintadas in the mid-‘80s, Trevi became a full-time solo artist and, with Andrade's help, recorded her debut solo record album, Que Hago Aqui?, in 1989. Released on an independent Mexican label, that record album and its lead individual "Dr. Psiquiatra" (which made it to #1 on the Latin charts) were a smash--and in 1990, Trevi landed a deal with RCA/BMG's Latin division. By 1993, she had sold more than than five one thousand thousand albums overall. The Mexican Madonna was marketing taboo great venues all over Latin America, where she embraced for the most part Spanish-language material merely likewise performed covers of songs by Zeppelin, the Doors and other English-speaking rockers on stage. Between her albums, alive performances and racy cover girl calendars (which sold millions of copies), soul wHO had been scandal poor as a minor had suit unitary of Mexico's wealthiest, most affluent and illustrious women.Even in the other ‘90s--long before her well publicised words with the law--Trevi was exceedingly controversial. The thing that made her so disgraceful to social conservatives in Mexico and other Latin American countries was her image--an range of a function as contumaciously and blatantly sexual as Prince or Madonna. Like Madonna--who she has ofttimes been compared to--and Prince, Trevi promoted sexual freedom in a identical in-your-face way. Trevi wasn't the only female artist of Mexican descent wHO was oft compared to Madonna in the ‘90s; the late tejano star Selena (a bilingual Chicana from Texas) was as well described as unmatchable of Madonna's Mexican counterparts. But Selena, for all her sex activity appeal, was never as controversial or sinful as Trevi, whose alive performances went taboo of their way to jounce, taunting and spite social conservatives. Trevi's antics included erosion a bandoleer of condoms across her nude chest and bringing young male fans on microscope stage so that she could strip them down to their underwear. But in that location was more than to Trevi than jolt economic value and titillation--much, much more. Her material often had a decidedly women's liberationist outlook, and she brought a sociopolitical linear perspective to topics like outside marriage pregnancies, drugs and abortion. Upsetting social conservatives was incisively what Trevi set taboo to do; in many respects, she was the Mexican equivalent of a Riot Grrrl. Some Latino journalists suffer compared her to Irish agitator Sinead O'Connor--a very vocal feminist--and Trevi was ofttimes quoted as expression that she hoped to move for president of Mexico someday. In fact, unrivaled of her cover girl calendars portrayed her as a nude painting presidential prospect.The singer's life history was seriously interrupted in the late ‘90s, when Mexican legal philosophy enforcement officials accused Trevi, manager/ex-husband Andrade and choreographer/backup singer Maria Raquenel Portillo, a.k.a, Mary Boquitas, of corrupting minors, sexual abuse and snatch. The authorities' master witness was singer Karina Yapor, world Health Organization was only 12 when, in 1996, she left her native Chihuahua to alive with Trevi and Andrade in Mexico City. Yapor went to them for musical preparation, only Mexican officials alleged that Trevi and Portillo (wHO recorded a solo record album for Sony's Latin part in 1995) brought the aspirant singer to Mexico City in monastic order for her to accept sex with the a great deal sr. Andrade. Yapor was only 13 when she became pregnant--allegedly by Andrade--and she has since written a book of account about her experiences with Trevi and Andrade, wHO she accused of "atrocious physical and psychological abuse." Subsequently, the case against them became fifty-fifty stronger when two other wishful Mexican singers, Karola de la Cuesta and her sister Katia de la Cuesta, came frontwards and made allegations of sexual ill-use against Trevi and Andrade. Trevi chartered the de la Cuesta sisters as backup singers when they were silent adolescents; Mexican police force accept alleged that Trevi was in reality recruiting them for Andrade's sexual pleasure. And in 1999, some other teen singer wHO Trevi allegedly recruited, Delia Gonzalez, told Mexican television system that Andrade forced her to make a pornographic moving picture in San Diego, CA and that he "ravaged me for ball club months…He would draw huffy and expectoration on me, he would strap me, he would lock me in a room." Between Yapor, Gonzalez, the de la Cuesta sisters and Andrade's ex Aline Hernandez (wHO made many of the same allegations of sexual abuse), Mexican jurisprudence enforcement felt that the eccentric against Trevi and Andrade was fabulously damning. Once praised by social progressives for supporting sexual liberation and distaff authorisation, Trevi constitute herself being accused of promoting sexual enslavement and female oppression. Nonetheless, Trevi silent had her parcel of traditionalist fans wHO refused to see her as villain; some fans have argued that she was manipulated by Andrade and was identical a great deal a victim herself. But Trevi's detractors, including Yapor and Gonzalez, make asserted that she knew just what she was doing and was a very willing accomplice in his alleged crimes. The Laredo Morning Times quoted Hernandez (wHO has much described ex Andrade as a sadistic, controlling misogynist) as saying, "I believe Gloria arrived as unacquainted as the rest of us were. If Gloria contributed to all this, it is because (Andrade) made her ill, turned her, trained her, educated her in his way of life." When prosecutors accused Trevi, Andrade and Portillo of crimes that were major felonies under Mexican jurisprudence, they denied all charges and ended up fleeing to Brazil. In early 2000, they were appreciated in Rio de Janeiro, where they vowed to conflict extradition back to Mexico. Trevi was being held in a Brazilian federal prison house when she became pregnant; at number one, she claimed to possess been sacked by a prison house guard, simply Trevi afterward recanted that story when DNA tests proven that Andrade was the forefather of Angel Gabriel (the baby son she had given birth to). Exactly how Trevi became meaning with Andrade's son slow parallel bars is unclear; officially, she was denied conjugal visits, although on that point was guess that Trevi and Andrade bribed a guard (wHO arranged for them to have sexuality). Some Brazilian prison house officials accept alleged that Trevi became meaning on purpose through unreal insemination, possibly because she believed that getting pregnant would serve her nullify extradition. The Brazilian government activity wasn't flying to hand the alleged offenders over to the Mexican government; in April 2000, a Brazilian federal margaret Court ruled that the grounds against them needful to be studied extensively before Brazil could agree to Mexico's extradition request. But in late 2002--after nigh tercet eld behind parallel bars in Brazil--Trevi, Andrade and Portillo in conclusion agreed to renounce fight extradition and returned to Mexico to stand tribulation. In Mexico, Trevi's return was every act the media circus that the O.J. Simpson test had been in the U.S., and some Mexican intellectuals argued that the country's media were paid way overly much attention to her case--often at the expense of serious political and social issues that needful to be addressed. To be sure, the riposte of Trevi, Andrade and Portillo was the top taradiddle in the Mexican media, just as the Simpson type had dominated the U.S. media in the mid-‘90s--and like Simpson, they had a "aspiration team" of costly defence attorneys (at least 12). In late 2002 and 2003, Trevi awaited trail in the Aquiles Serdan prison approximate Chihuahua.
Tender Forever
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