Taylor Swift and Beyonce make Grammy history

http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE60U0TY20100201

Taylor Swift and Beyonce make Grammy history
Dean Goodman
LOS ANGELES
Mon Feb 1, 2010

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Country-pop starlet Taylor Swift, who rocketed to stardom with ballads of teen love that she wrote on her bedroom floor, Sunday became the youngest artist to win the coveted Grammy for album of the year.

Swift, who turned 20 in December, took home four awards after being nominated eight times. She had never previously won any Grammys. Her second album, "Fearless," was the most popular release in the United States last year. U.S. sales to date stand at 5.4 million copies.

The fresh-faced singer, known for her blonde curly mane, had been expected to dominate the music industry's top awards. But she was overshadowed by R&B singer Beyonce, who won six awards including song of the year -- the most won by a female artist at a single event.

Both were eclipsed for record of the year by Tennessee rock band Kings of Leon, who were the surprise honorees for their pop-radio hit "Use Somebody."

In winning album of the year, Swift broke a record held since 1996 by Alanis Morissette, who was 21 when she won for "Jagged Little Pill," an album with decidedly more adult content.

Swift also was the first solo female country winner ever of the award, and the first female pop winner since Celine Dion won in 1997 for "Falling Into You."

"I just hope that you know how much this means to me ... that we get to take this back to Nashville," said Swift.

She also won the Grammy for best country album, and a pair of awards for her song "White Horse," female country vocal performance and best country song.

Backstage, Swift told reporters that despite her crossover success in the pop field, she still considered country music her first love.

"Country music is absolutely going to be my home because of the stories that are told within country music," she said.

She was planning to catch a flight straight after the event to Australia where she is set to play a sold-out arena tour. Her album has been certified gold or platinum in 16 international markets, her spokeswoman said.

'AMAZING NIGHT' FOR BEYONCE

Beyonce won song of the year -- a songwriters' award for "Single Ladies (Put a Ring On It)." The anthemic hit also yielded Grammys for R&B song and female vocal performance, and Beyonce was additionally honored for contemporary R&B album with "I Am ... Sasha Fierce," traditional R&B vocal performance for her cover of "At Last" and female pop vocal performance with "Halo."

"This has been such an amazing night for me," she said after picking up the latter award.

Beyonce would have won seven awards if her husband Jay-Z had not beaten her in the rap/sung category. He ended up with three Grammys overall, taking his career haul to 10. Beyonce's career tally rose to 16, including three with her former group Destiny's Child.

Kings of Leon, long more popular internationally, finally achieved mainstream success in the United States last year with "Use Somebody." Brothers Caleb, Nathan and Jared Followill and their cousin Matthew Followill also won a pair of Grammys in the rock field for the song, taking their career haul to four.

Country combo the Zac Brown Band was named best new artist as expected. The Atlanta-based group becomes the first band to win the award since 2005.

The popular concert draw released its debut album in 2004, but did not achieve national prominence until 2008 when it released its major-label debut "The Foundation," which peaked at No. 17 on the U.S. pop chart.

The televised ceremony was packed with diverse performances, since 100 of the 109 categories were announced during a low-profile ceremony earlier in the day.

Mary J. Blige and Italian tenor Andrea Bocelli earned a standing ovation for their version of "Bridge Over Troubled Water," performed as a fundraising tribute to earthquake-ravaged Haiti. The song was scheduled to go on sale at iTunes immediately afterwards.

Swift dueted with Fleetwood Mac singer Stevie Nicks for a version of the band's "Rhiannon." Two-time winner Lady Gaga performed with the almost-as-flamboyant Elton John.

"I think she proved her point tonight that she's not just a costume freak," veteran shock-rocker Alice Cooper, one of Lady Gaga's sartorial inspirations, told reporters.

(Editing by Cynthia Osterman.)

Elton John Gets Iced (Cream)

http://www.eonline.com/uberblog/b146517_elton_john_gets_iced_cream.html

Elton John Gets Iced (Cream)
7-15-8

The Rocket Man just hooked up with the ice cream guys.

Elton John has joined the rarified and rather delicious ranks of Stephen Colbert, Jerry Garcia, Monty Python, Dave Matthews and Phish, becoming the latest celebrity inspiration for a Ben & Jerry's ice cream flavor: Goodbye Yellow Brickle Road

The limited-edition treat will be rolled out for one week only later this month to coincide with John's first concert in the pint purveyors' home base of Vermont, the last state in the U.S. the Brit rock star has yet to perform in.

Proceeds from the flavor will benefit the rocker's own AIDS foundation.

"I can't think of a more fun way to celebrate playing my 50th state, Vermont, than having Ben & Jerry's create a special ice cream, Goodbye Yellow Brickle Road, with all my favorite flavors and ingredients," John said.

"I'm especially pleased that they will be donating the proceeds to the Elton John AIDS Foundation."

The custom flavor was concocted with input from John himself and consists of "an outrageous symphony of decadent chocolate ice cream, peanut butter cookie dough, butter brickle and white chocolate chunks."

"We're thrilled with the final combination, plus we've got the Rocket Man's seal of approval," Ben's partner-in-crime (and business), Jerry Greenfield, said.

The flavor will be available in Vermont Scoop Shops for just one week only, July 18-25, in anticipation of John's Vermont show on July 21.

Further sweetening the pot, the coneheads will also play tunes from John's latest album, Rocket Man: The Definitive Hits, as well as the DVD of his recent 60th birthday concert at Madison Square Garden, in their stores that week.

Luciano Pavarotti Dies

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/20623995/site/newsweek/

Luciano Pavarotti Dies
Luciano Pavarotti, dead at 71, sang with such beauty that he beguiled listeners around the globe. Some were opera fans, but most were just fans of his honeyed tenor and outsize personality.
By Cathleen McGuigan
Newsweek

Sept. 6, 2007 - Luciano Pavarotti was one of the biggest opera stars of the last century, but he was much bigger than opera. A lyric tenor whose remarkable voice was so honeyed and brilliant that even non-opera lovers were readily moved by its beauty, he married his natural musicality with a gift for blatant showmanship. Besides his triumphs in the world’s greatest opera houses, he sold more than 50 millions record albums; his arena concerts were packed like a rock star’s; and he would happily sign autographs for his fans for hours. As he aged, and performing on the opera stage became more demanding, Pavarotti and his manager found amazing ways for him become even bigger in the public eye, especially with the phenomenally successful Three Tenors gigs, where he joined Plácido Domingo and José Carreras: their televised concerts were seen by 1.5 billion viewers worldwide. For his charity concerts and albums, “Pavarotti & Friends,” he roped in such singers as Bono, Elton John and even the Spice Girls. Critics may have disdained such commercialism, but with the help of recordings and television, Pavarotti doubtless reached the widest audience of any opera singer in history. Dubbed at various times “Lucky,” “Lurch,” “Deep Throat” and “Lucianissimo,” he took a long time to let go of his career. Like Sinatra's, his farewell tour didn’t seem a final goodbye—but after surgery for pancreatic cancer in July 2006, he never appeared in public again.

Pavarotti died, at 71, where he was born, in the northern Italian city of Modena, where his father had worked in a bakery, his mother in a cigar factory. His father was a tenor too—and Luciano grew up listening not just to his father’s voice but also to his phonograph recordings of such greats as Enrico Caruso. Pavarotti sang in the Modena opera chorus, and when the chorus took first prize at a music festival in Wales, he began to seriously embrace the idea of a singing career. He took lessons, though he never had conservatory training, and it was said he couldn’t really read music. His first big break came when he filled in for a sick tenor in “La Bohème” at Covent Garden in 1963, and he went on to sing the role of Rodolfo in his La Scala debut and in his 1968 debut at the Metropolitan Opera in New York, where, over the course of his career, he sang 378 performances, more than he did anywhere else. In 1972 at the Met, when he sang Tonio in Donizetti’s “La Fille du Régiment” opposite Joan Sutherland, he so magically hit the nine high C’s in a row that audiences went crazy and he was invited to appear on “The Tonight Show” with Johnny Carson. That began the crossover to show business.

“The King of the High Cs,” as his record company called him, lived large and was famous for his outsize appetites—for food, wine, sports. A few years back he hit the gossip pages when he left his wife of 35 years—they had three daughters—for his much younger assistant, Nicoletta Mantovani, whom he married in 2003 (they have one daughter). He sang at the Met for the last time in Puccini’s “Tosca” in 2004. Though most of his great roles were in Italian operas, he was never as big a star in Italy as he was abroad, where his ebullient personality won him a wide legion of fans. His personality overpowered most of his roles; as critics pointed out, his acting ability was no match for his singing. Pavarotti was always Pavarotti—and that’s what his fans loved. That and the beautiful voice, which reached across the world.