Lily Allen you biscuit – where have you been? The world has been missing a little bite and cynicism, thank god she chose to make her musical comeback now.
Justin Bieber’s South American tour is in the toilet after he sauntered offstage for the second time without completing his set, last night. The packed Beunos Aires crowd went mental, booing the Canadian for their money’s worth.
Kimberley Rose had always dreamed of being a superstar on the world stage, but she was diagnosed with cancer before she could make her dream a reality. This prompted local band, The Plastics to step in and help make her dream come true.
In yet another case showcasing Australia’s uber-tight border control regulations, officials at Australia’s customs desk have declared international copies of Katy Perry’s new album, “Prism,” to be an indisputable bio-hazard. Why? Is it because her album is just so terrible and they need an excuse to get it off the number one spot on Australia’s Aria chart? No. It’s because Katy Perry gives away free seeds with her album.
This is awesome. A busker in Berlin was caught on camera by a passer-by when he was playing ‘Smalltown Boy’ by Bronski Beat. Halfway through, a bald man and his dog approach him as the man begins to chime in. Surprisingly, he sings pretty well. The busker doesn’t seem too fazed by the whole ordeal, until he realises that the bald man just happens to be Bronski Beat’s legendary frontman, Jimmy Somerville.
We get sent links to cool stuff all the time. Sometimes the cool stuff is genuinely cool, sometimes it just isn’t. But every once in a blue moon we get an absolute gem sent to us – something from the deep web that mainstream media hasn’t been able to pick up quite yet. This time it’s a music video from somewhere in South Africa.
Meet Jean-Philip Grobler, aka St. Lucia. Originally from Johannesberg, St. Lucia grew up performing with the Drakensberg Boys Choir School in KwaZulu-Natal. Nowadays he lives in Brooklyn, and is blowing up on the New York music scene. On October 31 he posted the following announcement to the band’s Facebook page:
The video of David Attenborough narrating Miley Cyrus twerking at the 2013 MTV Video Music Awards (that you’ve been waiting for) is finally here. If you watch nothing else today, watch this.
You think Britain’s got talent? Think again – Holland has got talent. In another one of those video clips that turn a nobody into an overnight somebody for at least a week (see Susan Boyle), we now have nine year-old Amira Willighagen. Her absoluely astounding rendition of Puccini’s “O Mio Babbino Caro” from the opera “Gianni Schicchi” earned her a Golden Ticket from the judges – taking her straight through to the live show.
It’s always tetchy when it comes to copyright infringement of musical elements. You could,on the one hand, argue that nothing is an original in the first place, and that every piece of music somehow borrows from others. But then again, there are some clear-cut cases of copycat music. This time, we have two of Marvin Gaye’s children in the one corner, and Robin Thicke in the other.
In an industrty that takes itself pretty serioulsy, Maria João Pires is a seriously big deal. Classical piano is an earnest, time-honoured tradition. And like any classical pianist, Maria wanted to get off on the right foot when she played at the Amsterdam Concertgebouw. She was supposed to be playing a Mozart Concerto, only to hear the orchestra start playing another Mozart concerto – no 20 in D minor.
That’s right, Bruce Springsteen is making a trip across the Atlantic for two shows in South Africa. The Boss has sold 120 million albums, won 20 Grammy’s, two Golden Globes and an Academy Award – so it’s fair to say that him coming here is big news, even if you weren’t born when he had his first hit single.
James Stewart rose to local fame as the writer and lead singer for pop rock sensation The Usual – with chart topping songs like ‘The Shape That I’m In’ and multi-SAMA award winning ‘Like a Vision’ released in the early noughties. With the success of his band, it was no wonder James was approached by brands keen to use his music in television ads. Which is when he got screwed.
Here’s the latest trailer for the musical, ‘As Jy Sing’. Heads up: Afrikaans musicals are still the highest-grossing box office movies in South Africa. Would you just look at that. Just have a long, hard (pronounced “hahrt”) think about that. [Source : JyTube] [Dankie, Lize!]
Today, we celebrate the 15th anniversary of that pop-culture moment by taking a look back at the video that started it all. Here, for your enjoyment, is the school-uniform outfit that made school uniforms sexy again.
What you’re seeing on front of you went down on 19 October. The Ohio State University Marching Band is performing a musical tribute to Michael Jackson at the half time break of a football game. They sample hits including, but not limited to ‘Bad,’ ‘Wanna Be Startin’ Somethin” and ‘Billie Jean.’ And then, oh then. Well then, they pull off a massive group moonwalk.
On that fateful day that Miley twerked, foam-fingered and tongue-rolled her way into infamy, it seemed as if the whole world had turned on the once-innocent teen-pop sensation. That was until Paul McCartney came to the rescue.
We’re sad to present proof that the kinds of people who troll the comments section of News24 exist in real life. What we have here is a highly-educated, classicly trained, contemporaneously-trained New Yorker screaming at a street busker for being a “no talent, self-consumed, mediocre piece of shit.”
Beneath every good YouTube video is a solid base of profoundly moronic comments. One almost fees obliged to get involved and set the trolls straight, but this always ultimately leads to severe keyboard bashing, and the eventual trolling of the troll himself. That was until The YouTube Comments Choir burst onto the scene
There’s no question that Eminem has had a rough ride throughout his life – always at odds with how he coped with the atrocities of his early life, and how he managed his new life in the spotlight. He took a four-year hiatus after releasing Encore in 2004, and his two most recent albums Relapse and Recovery, were a bit hit and miss, with many fans claiming to have lost the real slim shady.
Last night Ricky Gervais took to the stage to perform songs as David Brent for the first time. Sipping a can of beer in between songs, Brent performed the 40-minute set to a rapturous crowd of over 500 people. Tickets to the gig sold out in 60 seconds, and included celebrities like Professor Green. Here’s […]
Well, this is the best worst thing you’ll see today. What we have here is difinitive proof that Rebecca Black was not the puppet master behind her ironic smash hit, “Friday”. You have a man named, Patrice Wilson who wrote and produced Friday. Patrice has struck again, and struck very hard indeed. Presenting: ‘Chinese Food’ by Alison Gold – the next best worst thing on the internet.
Right, so – Sandra Bullock. Whether you watched her in Miss Congeniality, Princess Diaries or 28 Days (or in any other of her countless movies that stretch all the way from the 80’s) you’d have a hard time denying her awesomeness. And now it’s gonna get even harder, as she recently broke it down on the Jonathan Ross show – rapping better than most.
Rihanna is in South Africa at the moment for her Diamonds Tour. Last night she rocked Johannesburg and sometime between her arrival and now, she also checked out some wild animals. Check out these hot pics..
Nechama Brodie (who commonly writes for Africa Check) has penned an extensive analysis of crime data in South Africa in response to South African pop singer and occasional ‘7de Laan’ villain, Steve Hofmeyr’s repeated claims that white people in South Africa are suffering a genocide at the hands of black compatriots.
Kanye West made an appearance on Jimmy Kimmel’s show yesterday to clear the air following a very public Twitter spat between the pair some time in the last 10 days. The full interview is well worth your time. If you don’t have much time to spare, hit part 2 straight away, and skip to the four minute mark for an amazing eight-minute long rant.
In 2010, South African band, THIEVE released their track ‘Way To Go’. A video posted to YouTube compares the THIEVE track to a recently-released Will.I.Am track, featuring Justin Bieber. The description reads: “The two songs have the same melody and lyrics, except the one was made before the other.”
Miley, being the embryo that she is, replied to Sinead’s slightly unhinged but nevertheless relavent open letter by posting a screenshot of tweets posted by O’Connor over two years ago, in which she pleads for medication in order to avoid a mental breakdown. Miley went to compare O’Connor to Amanda Bynes, who recently suffered a public mental unravelling. So, naturally Sinead wrote another open letter to Miley on her Facebook page.
We knew there was something besides disdain on Rihanna’s face during Miley’s 2013 VMA performance – it was annoyance at a minor threat. Rihanna’s music video for ‘Pour It Up’ features diamond bikini tops, a golden throne, red bikini bottoms covered in dollar bills, and multiple stripper poles. You stay classy, America.
I’m pretty sure you saw what we just did there. Sinead O’Connor has taken it upon herself to write an open letter to Miley Cyrus, appealing to the young starlet to refrain from “prosituting” herself to the music business. O’Connor’s letter comes in the wake of comments from Cyrus to Rolling Stone, in which she indicated that O’Connor’s iconic video for ‘Nothing Compares 2U’ was the aesthetic inspiration for Cyrus’ ‘Wrecking Ball’ video.