The Malaysian Insider :: Showbiz
The Malaysian Insider :: Showbiz |
| Rihanna leads MTV Europe Music Award nominations Posted: 17 Sep 2012 08:47 AM PDT  Barbadian R&B singer Rihanna led the nominations for the MTV Europe Music Awards today with six, ahead of country songstress Taylor Swift on five and pop stars Justin Bieber and Katy Perry on four each. — Reuters pic The music channel said Rihanna had been shortlisted for best song ("We Found Love"), best female, best pop, best video ("We Found Love"), biggest fans and in the new category, best look. She is up against Swift in the female, pop and look sections, while Swift was also nominated for best live and best world stage act. Lady Gaga dominated last year's awards held in Belfast, coming away with four prizes and performing "Marry the Night". This year she is nominated for three awards — best live act, video ("Marry the Night") and "biggest" fans. A host of other acts, including Lana Del Rey, Nicki Minaj, Jay-Z and Kanye West also earned three nominations each. The awards, many of which are voted for by MTV fans online, are one of the biggest pop events outside the United States, and, despite being based in Europe, are generally dominated by American artists. This year they will be held in Frankfurt's Festhalle on November11. Following are the main nominations: BEST SONG: Carly Rae Jepsen/"Call Me Maybe"; Rihanna feat. Calvin Harris/"We Found Love"; Gotye/"Somebody That I Used To Know"; Pitbull feat. Chris Brown/"International Love"; fun. feat. Janelle Monáe/"We Are Young" BEST NEW: Rita Ora; fun.; One Direction; Lana Del Rey; Carly Rae Jepsen BEST FEMALE: Rihanna; Katy Perry; P!nk; Taylor Swift; Nicki Minaj BEST MALE: Justin Bieber; Kanye West; Flo Rida; Pitbull; Jay-Z BEST POP: Justin Bieber; No Doubt; Katy Perry; Taylor Swift; Rihanna BEST LIVE: Taylor Swift; Lady Gaga; Jay-Z & Kanye West; Green Day; Muse BEST HIP HOP: Jay-Z & Kanye West; Nas; Rick Ross; Drake; Nicki Minaj BEST ROCK: Linkin Park; Green Day; Muse; The Killers; Coldplay BEST ELECTRONIC: David Guetta; Swedish House Mafia; Avicii; Skrillex; Calvin Harris BEST ALTERNATIVE: Jack White; The Black Keys; Arctic Monkeys; Florence + The Machine; Lana Del Rey BEST VIDEO: M.I.A./Bad Girls; Lady Gaga/"Marry The Night"; Katy Perry/"Wide Awake"; Rihanna feat. Calvin Harris/"We Found Love"; PSY/"Gangnam Style". — Reuters |
| Frail but feisty Masur opens Baltic music festival Posted: 17 Sep 2012 08:16 AM PDT  Despite his old age and recent injury, German conductor Kurt Masur, 85, gave an energetic show as he opened the Usedom Musci Festival in Germany. — Reuters pic Masur injured his shoulder when he fell off a stage in Paris in April. He had to be helped to the podium on Saturday night for the opening concert in the vast turbine hall of a former power station that served the Nazi rocket programme on the Baltic Sea island during World War Two. Summoning up some of the vigour that made him a leading dissident as a young man in then-communist East Germany, Masur — startling the packed first-night crowd — in mid-concert shouted out "one" to the orchestra, to get the players back on beat. In keeping with the history of the locale, Masur also made certain all of the piece's dark details, especially a kettle-drum roll that sounds like artillery fire, and which he forced the percussionist to perform a half dozen times in rehearsal, came through in the energetic playing of the youthful ensemble. "If you love music and you like to listen to music you can be helped by music but if you have nothing of that you have a problem," Masur told Reuters before the concert, when asked how he found the energy to carry on. The festival, in its 19th season, brings a high level of music-making to the island, a popular tourist destination during the summer months. This year's festival, which runs until Oct 7, explores relationships between German and Russian music and also featured master classes with Masur for seven young conductors. "He really imparts knowledge no one else could give us," Gemma New, 25, of Wellington, New Zealand, the only woman conductor among the seven, said. Masur, who lived much of his life in communist East Germany and helped to mitigate violence during its turbulent collapse before going on to a distinguished career in the West as music director of the New York Philharmonic, and later as principal conductor of the London Philharmonic Orchestra, said not everything had changed for the better with communism's demise. "I get a cultural shock because then I only feel that nobody of you really understands what it meant in a socialist country," he said when asked about the aftermath of the end of communism. "In East Germany everybody had work and money, not very rich but fine, good enough. And I think we have to face the fact that not everybody who's free is happy." As for why, at his age and in frail health, he keeps up a strenuous conducting schedule, leading the youth orchestra and holding master classes for younger conductors, Masur said he feels it is part of his calling to help the next generation. "I don't like them to be hopeless and lost because normally they get a good education, then they get out and they get no position or they are just suffering to get a position in a good orchestra and then what should they do? They try to get money in any way and and then for me the problem is how will the future look?" Hugely appreciative The musicians, but especially the young conductors, were hugely appreciative of his efforts. Kah Chun Wong, 25, of Singapore, said Masur had instilled in him "a religious passion for music", and he was moved by his "relentless energy to deliver what the composer wants, even when he's 85". Johannes Zurl, 32, of Germany, said Masur had impressed upon him "the simplicity of conducting". "Sure, he's an older guy and he's not jumping around, but I am extremely inspired to make an effort to bring out more with less," he said. The young conductors took turns leading sections of the opening piece, Mussorgsky's "Pictures at an Exhibition", and were enthusiastically applauded for their round-robin effort. Of course, with an orchestra of more than 90 young people, there was more on the agenda than just making music. "The main thing for me is the people that you meet," said Jason Denner, 27, a San Diego clarinetist now based in Berlin. "It's in one sense the connections for work, but also you meet some really pretty cool musicians. For a long time this orchestra has attracted the type of person who is willing to take a lot of risks and wants to do things a little bit differently and doesn't necessarily want to be first chair in the Berlin Philharmonic." Festival director Thomas Hummel said the event has been growing in importance year by year and now had visitors from as far away as the United States, though most of the audience comes from Germany, Poland, the Netherlands and Switzerland. "Not many islands have a festival like this," he said. Having Masur conduct was a draw, but it had its downside, at least for those sitting in the back rows of the orchestra, which was founded in 2008 by the festival and Baltic gas pipeline company Nord Stream AG. "For me he gives us the impulses but not much more," bass trombonist Ingrid Utne, of Stavanger, Norway, said. "I think there would be more in it for me if I could hear what he's saying all the time." — Reuters |
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