Archive for the ‘Celebrity News’ Category

By: Ra-Umi Alkebu-lan

Lutan Fyah recently returned from a short summer tour to Europe in awe of how much the people there love his music and how easily the music that comes from Jamaica transcends language and cultural barriers.

The singer, born Anthony Martin, and who grew up wanting to emulate reggae icons Dennis Brown and Garnett silk, enjoyed what he described as a 10-show European tour that included stops in Brussels , Germany , Italy and Croatia . Everywhere he went, he said, there was incredible response to his music. “I feel confident and good for this response,” he said. “Each and every show was like a different gear, a better performance.”

In Croatia , he said, the best way to describe the crowd response to the music was ‘pandemonium’. He also performed in Lazinello, Italy along with Julian Marley but the show in Germany had a great ‘vibe and ambience. It was a great show.” He closed off the tour with a performance at Reggae Gael in Belgium on August 7.

Coming from Jamaica the home of reggae music, Lutan Fyah said he his heart was warmed by the way Europeans embraced his music. “The people gravitate to the kind of music that we make; and the place that we come from and the language that we use; we don’t understand what dem a say and them no understand what we a say if we reason face to face, but the people dem sing your song line for line whichever country in Europe where people listen reggae,” he said. “Reggae has a fan base (in Europe ), the people just have a love for the music and anywhere it de, dem find it.” Read the rest of this entry »

Showbizspy wrote an article on Tuesday about “Hilary Swank Gets Laughed at for Being Fight-fisted With Money”…but my simple question is “So what?” She just isn’t taking much (well they said her fortune) for granted.

The article: HILARY Swank doesn’t take her fortune for granted.

The actress — who grew up in Bellingham, Wash. without much money — says she still appreciates the value of a dollar.

“People around me laugh because I still have a deep understanding of what a dollar gets you and how far to make that dollar go,” Swank told In Style magazine. Read the rest of this entry »

Los Angeles, California (CNN) — Zsa Zsa Gabor, who asked for a priest “to read her the last rites” Sunday, left the hospital Monday afternoon because she “wants to spend her final days at her home,” her publicist said.

Gabor, 93, is suffering complications from last month’s hip-replacement surgery, but she and her husband decided against additional surgery, publicist John Blanchette said.

Doctors told her the chances of success from the procedure was 50-50, so she chose to go home instead, Blanchette said.

An ambulance carried the actress from Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center in Los Angeles to her Bel Air, California, home Monday afternoon, he said.

“The doctors did everything they could do,” her husband, Prince Frederic Von Anhalt, said. “The rest is up to her to whether she recovers or not.”

Gabor has been hospitalized for most of the past month since breaking her hip in a fall from bed on July 17. Saturday marked Gabor’s 24th wedding anniversary with Von Anhalt, her eighth husband. Read the rest of this entry »

Busy Signal is one of the best Dancehall artists whose versatility has made him one of the most sought after artists. Whether implementing the soulful importance of the Commodores “Night Shift” on his song of the same name, or his lyrical versatility connecting with fans young or mature such his mastery with Reggae Queen, and member of the I-Three’s, Marcia Griffiths on the song “Automatic,” Busy Signal knows what buttons to push, and where.

His third album for the VP Records imprint, D.O.B, gives listeners Busy’s extended versatility, and also sees the young star break new ground with a Latin audience by teaming with Elvis Crespo for the chune”Suavemente”,” Busy’s second release following “Sum’n Ah Gwaan” featuring Bounty Killer. Read the rest of this entry »

REGGAE singer, Gramps and his brother Peetah Morgan are reportedly still on a musical high after completing solo tours of Europe that saw them delivering performances in Zurich, Switzerland; Poland; Bersenbruck, Germany; Oslo, Norway; Uppsala, Sweden; Schlossplatz, Germany; Amsterdam, Holland; Cantazaro and Lecce, Italy.

“The shows were all well attended and everyone was very satisfied with our solo performances. A few fans even commented that they were shocked, as they did not know I could sing so good. To be honest, to hear fans sing along to songs from my debut album was refreshing and is an endorsement of the hard work that I have put in over the last 12 months,” Gramps said in an interview.

The start of the European tour came on the heels of a very successful performance at Reggae Sumfest in Montego Bay that saw Gramps enthralling fans for well over 30 minutes with tracks Come Back To Bed, Time and Wash the Tears. So well received was his performance, that fans in the second city have since dubbed him “the Beres of this era.” Read the rest of this entry »

AP: MEMPHIS, Tenn. – Candles flickered in the balmy night as thousands of Elvis Presley fans filed silently by his grave during a vigil at Graceland, marking 33 years since the American icon died.

Elvis admirers from around the world descended on Elvis’ former home Sunday night to attend an annual candlelight vigil and procession that ran into Monday morning. Presley died at age 42 at his Graceland mansion on Aug. 16, 1977. Memorials started the following year.

Elvis ballads like “If I Can Dream” and “Fools Rush In” played as participants solemnly filed in through the gates. Flowers and photos lined the entrance to the grave site, which also is the resting place of Presley’s father Vernon, his mother Gladys and grandmother Minnie Mae. Some wiped away tears as they walked past the graves.

Participants defied high heat and humidity that continued into the night.

Standing outside Graceland, Thomas Hollis, 52, said he thought of his wife, who passed away in May from cancer. It’s his sixth Elvis vigil, but the first without his wife. Sunday was the couple’s 13th wedding anniversary.

Hollis’ granddaughter carried a candle for his wife.

“This vigil is kind of like for Elvis, and kind of like for her, too,” said Hollis, of Louisville, Ky. “It’s rough this year … I’ve been through down times myself for a while, but I listen to his music and it keeps me going.”

The nighttime procession is the highlight of a weeklong series of fan-club meetings, film showings and Elvis tribute artist contests. Elvis purchased the 13-acre Graceland property in 1957 for a song — just a bit more than $100,000. Read the rest of this entry »

LOS ANGELES – A spokesman for Zsa Zsa Gabor says the actress is in serious condition at a Los Angeles hospital and has received the last rites.

John Blanchette on Sunday described Gabor’s health situation following her surgery a day earlier as “very sad.”

Blanchette told the Los Angeles Times the 93-year-old Gabor asked for a priest and he administered the sacrament Sunday morning.

The paper reported that Gabor was being fed through a tube, but that doctors hoped to get her to eat without it Monday.

Gabor underwent surgery for the removal of the clots from her upper body. She had broken her hip July 17, had hip replacement surgery and had just returned home from the hospital Wednesday.

AP: NEW YORK – Lindsay Lohan’s mom says the actress will be moving away from California and back to New York after she gets out of drug rehabilitation.

Dina Lohan, during an often tense interview with NBC “Today” show co-host Matt Lauer on Friday, said her daughter was doing “wonderfully” after 14 days in jail and lashed out at California Superior Court Judge Marsha Revel, who put the actress there.

“She’s great,” Lohan said. “She’s been through a lot. The judge played hardball. Lindsay was in with alleged murderers and she’s become friends with a lot of them. Lindsay rolled with the punches and she’s doing wonderfully.”

Lindsay Lohan served 14 days of a 90-day jail sentence for violating her probation in a 2007 drug case. She was sent to a UCLA drug rehab facility for a court-mandated three-month treatment, and her mother said she’d be out soon.

Revel removed herself from Lohan’s case earlier this week after a prosecutor complained she improperly contacted experts or participants in the case. Read the rest of this entry »