Korupsi File

Malawi labels Madonna an "uncouth" bully in scathing attack

Written By Unknown on Sabtu, 13 April 2013 | 02.58

By Mabvuto Banda

LILONGWE (Reuters) - The Malawi government has branded pop star Madonna an "uncouth" bully who exaggerates her charitable work in the country and demands preferential treatment when she visits.

Malawi President Joyce Banda's government accused the "Material Girl" of bullying officials after she complained about her latest trip to the southern African country this month.

"Among the many things that Madonna needs to learn as a matter of urgency is the decency of telling the truth," said an 11-point statement from Malawi's State House.

Media reports said Madonna and her children were forced to join a check-in queue and go through security with ordinary passengers at a Malawi airport when they left the country.

The "Holiday" singer dismissed Malawi's comments as "lies" in a statement on the website of her Raising Malawi foundation.

"I'm saddened that Malawi's President Joyce Banda has chosen to release lies about what we've accomplished, my intentions, how I personally conducted myself while visiting Malawi and other untruths," Madonna said.

Malawi said Madonna expected the government to be forever chained in an "obligation of gratitude" towards her for adopting two Malawian children and contributing to the construction of classrooms in the country.

"Kindness, as far as its ordinary meaning is concerned, is free and anonymous. If it can't be free and silent, it is not kindness; it is something else," the statement said. "Blackmail is the closest it becomes."

The singer said she came to Malawi seven years ago with honorable intentions and returned earlier this month to view the new schools built by her foundation.

"I did not ever ask or demand special treatment at the airport or elsewhere during my visit," Madonna said.

"I will not be distracted or discouraged by other people's political agendas. I made a promise to the children of Malawi and I am keeping that promise."

She said the disagreement was rooted in her history with President Banda's sister, Anjimile Mtila Oponyo, who once headed Raising Malawi. Oponyo was fired and sued the charity for wrongful termination.

The Malawi government said in its statement the current dispute had nothing to do with Oponyo, however.

"For her to accuse Mrs. Oponyo for indiscretions that have clearly arisen from her personal frustrations that her ego has not been massaged by the state is uncouth, and speaks volumes of a musician who desperately thinks she must generate recognition by bullying state officials instead of playing decent music on the stage."

(Writing by Paul Casciato; Editing by Sonya Hepinstall)

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Korean rapper Psy releases single to follow "Gangnam" hit

By Narae Kim and Elaine Lies

SEOUL (Reuters) - South Korean rapper Psy released his much-anticipated new single on Thursday hoping to repeat the success of "Gangnam Style" that made him the biggest star to emerge from the growing K-pop music scene.

The video for "Gangnam Style" has become the most watched item on YouTube with more than 1.5 billion hits and Psy's horse-riding moves sparked an international dance craze.

The details of his latest single, "Gentleman", were kept under wraps until the song was released at midnight in New Zealand (1200 GMT).

The song, with a techno beat, was full of puns in Korean and contained the lines "I am a party mafia!" and the refrain, "I am a mother father gentleman".

Psy, 35, will perform "Gentleman" in public for the first time on Saturday at a concert at Seoul's World Cup stadium but he has been coy about what dance to expect this time, except to hint that it is based on traditional Korean moves.

"All Koreans know this dance but (those in) other countries haven't seen it," Psy told South Korean television last week.

He has asked fans to wear white to Saturday's event and his stylist told Reuters last month that the concept for the new song would again be a formal suit with "an unexpected twist of fun".

In "Gangnam Style", written as a commentary on materialism in the wealthy Seoul suburb of Gangnam, Psy was decked out in sunglasses, a white dress shirt, bow tie and tuxedo jackets.

The song racked up 3.59 million digital sales last year in the United States and Canada, according to Nielsen SoundScan and Nielsen BDS, putting it ninth in the best-selling list. It was third on Amazon's MP3 song bestseller list for 2012.

"Gangnam Style" catapulted Psy to global fame after an rocky career in the music business over the past decade.

Psy, whose real name is Park Jae-sang, graduated from the Berklee College of Music in the United States and made his debut in 2001 with the album "PSY from the Psycho World".

But he ran into trouble with the authorities for "inappropriate" content in the lead song on that album, which was seen as sexually suggestive. He was also charged with possession of marijuana in 2002.

Since then he has released five more albums.

Psy's brash style - at a concert last year he parodied Lady Gaga, complete with fake breasts that he set on fire - stands in stark contrast to the squeaky clean singers that dominate K-pop which is finding an increasingly large international audience.

A Music Industry White Paper published by the Korean Creative Content Agency said sales of K-pop outside Korea surged 135 percent in 2011 from a year earlier to $196 million. In 2006 overseas sales were worth $16.7 million.

Psy acknowledged last month that the stress of following up Gangnam was taking its toll.

He tweeted a picture of himself covering his face at a recording studio, with the caption: "The pain of creation."

(Reporting by Narae Kim, writing by Elaine Lies, Editing by Belinda Goldsmith)

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McCartney tops UK music rich list, Adele richest youngster

LONDON (Reuters) - Former Beatle Paul McCartney's 680-million-pound ($1.04 billion) fortune put him at the top of a list ranking the UK and Ireland's richest musicians that also highlighted Adele as the wealthiest young music millionaire.

McCartney was followed closely by music and stage impresario Andrew Lloyd-Webber at 620 million pounds, Irish rock band U2 and singer Elton John in the Sunday Times Rich List 2013 to be published on April 21, an emailed statement from the paper said.

McCartney, 70, has topped all the charts for the country's wealthiest musicians since the Rich List began in 1989, when the former Beatle was worth just 80 million pounds.

Aside from starring roles at Queen Elizabeth's diamond jubilee as well as the closing and opening ceremonies for the London Olympics, McCartney's "On the Run" tour grossed $57 million from 18 dates in 2012.

His total was also boosted by wife Nancy Shevell's stake in her father's New England Motor Freight trucking operation.

Profits from Lloyd-Webber's hugely successful stage shows, such as "Phantom of the Opera", "Evita" and "Cats", helped to boost the composer and theatre owner's fortune to keep him in second place ahead of U2 at 520 million and "Candle in the Wind" singer John in third at 240 million pounds.

Rolling Stone Mick Jagger came joint fifth at 200 million pounds alongside former Spice Girl Victoria Beckham and her soccer player husband David Beckham.

Adele topped the 2013 Young Music Rich List of entertainers aged 30 and under with a 30 million pound fortune. With the continued worldwide success of her album "21", this was a 50 percent increase on the 20 million pounds which put the Oscar-winning singer-songwriter atop the list in 2012.

New entries to the youngsters' list, each worth 5 million pounds, included singer-songwriters Emeli Sandé, aged 26, Ed Sheeran, 22, and all five members of boy band One Direction, Niall Horan, 19, Zayn Malik, 20, Liam Payne, 19, Harry Styles, 19, and Louis Tomlinson, 21.

One Direction have become Britain's richest boy band, with combined wealth of 25 million pounds. This puts them just 1 million pounds ahead of the combined wealth of the four members of JLS, Jonathan (JB) Gill, 26, Marvin Humes, 28, Aston Merrygold, 25, and Ortisé Williams, 26, who now share a total fortune of 24 million pounds.

(Reporting by Paul Casciato; editing by Stephen Addison)

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Manic comic Jonathan Winters dead at 87

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Comedian Jonathan Winters, whose manic, improvisational genius never seemed to take a rest, has died at the age of 87 after a more than 50-year career in stand-up comedy, on television and in film.

The burly, moon-faced Winters, a major influence on contemporary comedians like Robin Williams and Steve Martin, died on Thursday of natural causes at his Montecito, California home, surrounded by family and friends, said long time family friend Joe Petro III.

Winters had standout roles in 1960s comedy films "It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World" and "The Russians are Coming, The Russians are Coming."

He also made regular appearances on "The Tonight Show" with hosts Jack Paar and then Johnny Carson, "The Andy Williams Show" and his own TV variety shows, "The Jonathan Winters Show" and "The Wacky World of Jonathan Winters," in the late 1960s and early 1970s.

Winters' outlandish riffing style and repertoire of madcap characters made him a leading stand-up performer in the late 1950s but the pressure of being on the road led to a mental breakdown in 1959. He spent time in mental hospitals and was diagnosed with bipolar disorder.

Winters was a comedian who rebelled against telling jokes and entertained in a stream-of-consciousness style that could veer into the surreal.

"I love improvisation," he told Reuters in an interview nearly 13 years ago. "You can't blame it on the writers. You can't blame it on direction. You can't blame it on the camera guy. ... It's you. You're on. You've got to do it, and you either sink or swim with what you've got."

Actor Robert Morse, who starred with Winters in the 1965 movie "The Loved One," marveled at the agility with which Winters could transform an ordinary object into an instrument of rapid-fire gags.

""Most of us see things three-dimensionally," Morse once mused in The New York Times. ""I think Jonny sees things 59-dimensionally. Give me a hairbrush and I see a hairbrush. Give Jonny a hairbrush and it will be a dozen funny things."

Steve Martin paid tribute on Twitter on Friday: "Goodbye, Jonathan Winters. You were not only one of the greats, but one of the great greats."

SALTY MAUDIE, DRAWLING SUGGINS

His characters included Maudie Frickert, the salty old lady with a razor for a tongue, and Elwood P. Suggins, the drawling, overall-clad hick who "was fire chief a while back until they found out who was setting the fires."

Winters joined the U.S. Marine Corps at 17 and fought in the Pacific during World War Two. After the war he returned to his native Ohio, attended art school and married Eileen Schauder.

At her urging he entered a talent contest, which led to a show on a Dayton radio station on which he would create characters and interview them using two voices.

Winters moved to New York and with his many impressions, facial expressions and sound effects, quickly made a reputation in the city's stand-up comedy clubs, leading to high-profile appearances on television variety shows.

Winters' career derailed in 1959 when he began crying on stage at a nightclub in San Francisco. He was later taken into custody by police who found him climbing the rigging of a sailboat, saying he was from outer space.

Wrung out from the solitude of the road and stress of performance, Winters spent eight months in a psychiatric facility.

"I almost lost my sense of humor," he said in the interview with Reuters, recalling that his role as furniture mover Lennie Pike in the 1963 ensemble comedy film "It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World" marked a turning point in his recovery.

"I was fresh out of the hospital. I didn't know if I was up to doing a picture such as this," he said. But he took the part at his wife's urging, and "I finally opened up, I realized I was back, and I was in charge of myself and my mind."

Winters once admitted he felt the need to be ""on" at all times - staying on the set after filming was done to entertain the crew, breaking into characters to amuse strangers on an elevator or joking with customers in a store.

""I was the class clown," Winters told The New York Times in recounting his high school days. ""Other guys had more security, steady dates and all that ... I didn't. They only thing that kept me together was my comedy."

In 1981 Winters was cast in the sitcom "Mork and Mindy," teaming him with Williams, an ardent admirer whose own gift for off-the-wall improvisation made him the Jonathan Winters of his generation.

Winters also became familiar for his commercial work on behalf of such brands as Hefty trash bags, Good Humor ice cream and the California Egg Commission.

He won an Emmy in 1991 for his work on the short-lived sitcom "Davis Rules" and was given the Mark Twain Prize for American Humor in 1999.

Recent work included providing the voice of Papa Smurf in the 2011 live action "The Smurfs" movie, and a sequel due for release in July.

His wife Eileen, with whom he had two children, died in 2009 of breast cancer.

(Reporting By Bill Trott, Eric Kelsey and Steve Gorman; Editing by Jill Serjeant and Vicki Allen and David Brunnstrom)

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Kenny Rogers to join Country Music Hall of Fame

Written By Unknown on Jumat, 12 April 2013 | 02.58

By Vernell Hackett

NASHVILLE, Tennessee (Reuters) - Veteran singers and songwriters Kenny Rogers, Bobby Bare and "Cowboy" Jack Clement will be inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame, organizers said on Wednesday, achieving one of the highest honors in the music industry.

Rogers, 74, the husky-voiced three-time Grammy winner best known for songs like The Gambler" and "Ruby, Don't Take Your Love To Town," will be inducted in the "Modern Era" category, the Country Music Association announced.

"Everything pales in comparison to this," Rogers said, tearing up because the honor came in his lifetime.

"My older sons thought I was already in here. Maybe now I can really impress them," he told Reuters, referring to his 8-year-old twin sons from his fifth marriage.

Rogers, a country-pop crossover artist who scored a big hit with the 1983 duet "Islands in the Stream" with Dolly Parton, has charted hit singles in each of the past six decades, and is due to play at the Glastonbury pop music festival in England in June.

Wednesday's three new inductees will bring membership of the Country Music Hall of Fame to 121 since its creation in 1961, including the likes of Parton, Elvis Presley, Garth Brooks, Reba McEntire, Glen Campbell and Willie Nelson.

Bare, 78, was born in Ohio and moved to California, where he had a hit with "The All American Boy" in the pop field in 1959. He later moved to Nashville, was signed to a record deal by guitar player Chet Atkins, and went on to have hits with "Detroit City," and "500 Miles Away From Home."

"This is real huge," Bare said on Wednesday. "This is the culmination of a 19-year-old boy's dream who left Ohio to be a singer."

Clements, 82, is a producer and songwriter from Texas who moved to Memphis just as Johnny Cash, Roy Orbison and Jerry Lee Lewis, whom he discovered, were breaking into the music scene in the mid-1950s.

He persuaded George Jones to record one of his early hits, "She Thinks I Still Care," and also persuaded a record label to sign Charley Pride, one of the few African-American singers to make it big in the country music scene.

Clement, who also produced tracks in Memphis for U2's "Rattle and Hum" album, will be inducted as a non-performer in the ceremony to be held later this year at the Country Music Hall of Fame in Nashville.

(Editing by Jill Serjeant and Mohammad Zargham)