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asimina

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  1. asimina
    Organizers for the all-star “Hope for Haiti Now” telethon say the event raised $57 million and counting.
    “The public has set a new standard of giving for a relief telethon with ‘Hope for Haiti Now,’ and the donations continue to come in,” Lisa Paulsen, president and CEO of the Entertainment Industry Foundation, said in a statement released Saturday. The group is helping to oversee the funds gathered from the event.
    The two-hour telethon aired Friday night on the major networks and dozens of other channels, including MTV, Bravo, and PBS, and was also streamed live online. Stars like Brad Pitt, Beyonce, Madonna, Bruce Springsteen and more used their presence to encourage donations for Haiti, following a Jan. 12 earthquake that killed an estimated 200,000 people.
    The total released Saturday includes money raised by phone, text and the Web. It does not include donations by corporations or via iTunes, where people are able to buy performances of the event for 99 cents each, or the entire album for $7.99. Those funds also go to Haiti relief.
    The “Hope for Haiti Now” CD is the biggest one-day pre-order in the site’s history and the new song “Stranded (Haiti Mon Amour)” by Jay-Z, Rihanna, Bono and the Edge, debuted during the telethon, is the No. 1 single on iTunes.
    People can donate via text, phone or through the “Hope for Haiti” Web site for the next six months. Among the organizations who will receive funds from the telethon include Oxfam America, UNICEF, and the Clinton-Bush Haiti Foundation.
  2. asimina

    Madonna on Slant

    By asimina,

    38. Madonna, Confessions on a Dance Floor
    Confessions on a Dance Floor could’ve just as easily been called Ghost of Madonnas Past: at once a thumping tribute to the restorative power of dance music (this was the workout album of the decade if there was one) and a treatise on the singer’s own fame (“I spent my whole life wanting to be talked about”), in which all her musical tics headily come to fore (singing in foreign languages? Check. Faux-tribalistic hymn? Check.). References to the past are everywhere, from the ABBA sample of “Hung Up” to her silly love letter to the city where she got her start, “I Love New York,” but Madonna has always been a thoroughly postmodern pop artist, and as such, songs like “Hung Up,” Sorry,” and “Forbidden Love” aren’t so much throwbacks as updates of the disco sound to which she’s indebted. PS
    31. Madonna, Music
    Though Madonna would collaborate with William Orbit on three tracks on her follow-up to Ray of Light, the album otherwise represented a seismic shift from its predecessor’s warm-and-gooey spirituality (a Book of Revelation to many fans, anathema to others). Mirwais’s defiantly experimental, Eurotrashy, wholly artificial production—awash in Auto-Tune and Nintendo beats—was bound to disappoint some, but no one does ersatz like Madonna, and fittingly, this is also one of her most soul-bearing works, from the feminist “What It Feels Like for a Girl,” to the Toni Morrison-alluding “Paradise (Not for Me), to “Nobody’s Perfect,” a slow burn that’s never less than affecting. PS
  3. asimina
    Celebration lost to Lady Gaga’s Poker Face
    Best Dance Recording
    For solo, duo, group or collaborative performances. Vocal or Instrumental. Singles or tracks only.
    WINNER : Poker Face / Lady Gaga [streamline/Interscope/Konlive/Cherrytree]
    other nominated:
    Boom Boom Pow / The Black Eyed Peas [interscope Records]
    When Love Takes Over / David Guetta & Kelly Rowland [Astralwerks]
    Celebration / Madonna [Warner Bros.]
    Womanizer / Britney Spears [Jive/Zomba]
  4. asimina
    Best Pop Dance Track
    3 – Britney Spears
    Bad Romance – Lady Gaga
    Celebration – Madonna
    Evacuate the Dancefloor – Cascada
    I Gotta Feeling – Black Eyed Peas
    Love etc. – Pet Shop Boys
    Sexy ***CENSORED*** – David Guetta feat. Akon
    When Love Takes Over – David Guetta feat. Kelly Rowland
    Best Artist (Solo):
    Beyonce
    Britney Spears
    David Guetta
    Deadmau5
    Katy Perry
    Lady Gaga
    Madonna
  5. asimina
    …Guetta, who recently whipped up material for Madonna’s upcoming album, explains that what he loves about working with such varied artists “is that our music can reach people that are not even from hip hop or electro” scenes. “It’s just music that touches your soul.”…
    Tell us about the first time you went into the studio with Kelly Rowland.
    DG: It was magic. It was incredible. It was the first time I worked with an R&B singer. I feel like when it comes to to sound and energy, nobody can beat us, dance music producers. When it comes to singing and melodies, nobody can beat urban artists. They have soul. So it was the perfect combination. I’m now working on Kelly’s new album. I also have the new Madonna album coming up. So I’m very thankful to Kelly and Will and Akon—all those people who came to me when I was not big.
  6. asimina
    A star-studded collection of celebrity photos featuring iconic photographs of Michael Jackson, Madonna, Angelina Jolie and Britney Spears has gone on display in New York, proceeds of which will go to Haiti relief fund. The exhibition, titled ”Snapped! From the Red Carpet to the Dark Side of Celebrity”, is being held to mark the 21st anniversary of entertainment news and photo agency World Entertainment News Network, Contactmusic reported.
    Snapped! showcases shots from the past two decades, including Lady GaGa with British monarch Queen Elizabeth II and Madonna in Malawi with her adopted son David Banda. The collection is also raising money for charity as all proceeds from the sales of prints will be donated to Concern Worldwide’’s Haitian earthquake relief efforts.
    “Like everyone, we were devastated by the horrors of the recent events in Haiti and have been looking for an appropriate way in which to contribute,” Lloyd Beiny, organiser of the display said. The exhibition runs until February 28 at Manhattan’’s Chelsea Market.
  7. asimina
    “I’ve always said, if you’re going to go way out on a limb and have an insane image like Lady Gaga and do ridiculously, outrageous things, the people that succeed at that really have talent,” Cooper mused. “I mean, look at Madonna. She did all the outrageous stuff, but she could sing. She was a great performer! If she got up there and she couldn’t sing a lick, I’d go, ‘Ok, this is a sideshow.’ But, she can really sing.”
  8. asimina

    Jan29 Madonna on Slant

    By asimina,

    36. Madonna, “Hung Up”
    “Hung Up” employs a ticking clock to represent fear of wasted time, but Madonna isn’t singing about aging or saving the world—she’s talking about love. It had been years since Madge sounded this vapid. With its pitched-upward vocals, infectious arpeggio sample from ABBA’s “Gimme Gimme Gimme (A Man After Midnight),” and the bridge’s unironic, archetypical key change, the track decidedly points to the past, and it proved that, 20 years into her career, Madonna was still the one and only Dancing Queen. SC
    33. Madonna, “Don’t Tell Me”
    Madonna’s Y2K-era dalliances with electronica could oftentimes verge on the theoretical, so it’s a tad ironic that the one hit from her Orbit-Mirwais daze that still packs fully loaded pistols is also the most engrossed in chemistry-set beat science. “Don’t Tell Me” is first and foremost a concoction: two parts corn pone, one part glitch, with reliable disco strings to serve as the catalyst. What seals the deal, though, is that lyrically Madonna’s on board too. Tell the peanut butter of acoustic guitars to stay away from the chocolate of digital bass drones, but don’t tell Madonna she can’t eat both and spit back manna. EH
    25. Madonna, “Music”
    From its generic title to Madonna’s anonymous vocal performance, “Music” is a blank slate of a song. To wit, the song has had almost as many makeovers as Madonna herself. Okay, so not quite that many, but each of the performer’s tours during the last decade has featured a new incarnation of the song: Kraftwerk-inspired electronica, ’70s disco, and most recently, ’80s hip-hop (the next logical embodiment would be ’90s house). If music truly is a universal language, then “Music”—in all of its meta reinventions and retro dialects—might be the best piece of evidence we have that music really does make the people come together. SC
  10. asimina
    Leaning across a burgundy velvet divan in the leopard-print drawing room of his company’s Milan headquarters, Stefano Gabbana thumbs through a pile of xeroxed images. “This is crazy!” he enthuses, waving one page in the air. “Madonna washing dishes? This will go down in history!”
    The designer may be overstating things, but a housewife performing mundane daily chores certainly represents a new identity for the world’s most famous chameleon. And the photograph Gabbana is so excited about is just one of nine black and white Steven Klein shots depicting Madonna in her latest incarnation. The singer-cum-actress can also be seen wielding a broom, peeling vegetables and eating spaghetti with her fingers. Together the images make up Dolce & Gabbana’s spring campaign, which launches worldwide in February.
    The overall aesthetic of the ads is old-world Italian—with white lace tablecloths, frilly curtains and plenty of pasta—which was a deliberate choice on the part of the designers. “Twenty-five years ago, when we debuted, we made our mark with a very Italian collection, and for spring we felt the time was right to go back to our roots,” says Domenico Dolce.
    Since the fashion duo first met Madonna—who, notwithstanding her Britishisms and flirtations with Latin, Indian and Jewish cultures over the years, is, of course, Italian-American—in 1991, a friendship has developed. Despite that bond, Dolce and Gabbana had long resisted approaching the star about representing their brand. “Strangely enough, there was a sort of fear on our behalf of asking Madonna to do anything businessy,” admits Gabbana. “We thought it could impact our relationship, and Madonna is one of the few people we’re really in awe of.”
    This past year, however, the three grew closer—Madonna filmed part of the video for her single “Celebration” at their Milanese runway venue, Metropol; the designers hosted the after-party for her concert in the city; and Dolce and Madonna, whose birthdays are three days apart, had a combined celebration in Portofino in August. Teaming up for an ad campaign felt like a natural next step.
    Still, despite all the quality time spent together, the designers retained their aforementioned sense of awe, which came through in the numerous tweets that Gabbana, a prolific social networker of late (he tweets about this interview just nanoseconds after it ends), sent into cyberspace to keep fans in the loop about the campaign’s progress: “I spoke with Steven…next week in NY,” he wrote. And later, “We are at the last shot.” Then, “M, she’s simply beautiful….”
    The photographs were taken in a former lay convent in uptown Manhattan. “There are many Italian symbols in the images, ones the whole world recognizes and identifies with,” says Gabbana, pointing to the cross Madonna wears around her neck as well as the brass bed, a typical sight in Sicilian homes. Food imagery also looms large. “It’s healthy and sensual,” says Gabbana. “They say there’s a connection between food and sex.”
    For inspiration, Madonna, Klein and the designers watched old Italian movies and found themselves particularly drawn to Bellissima, Luchino Visconti’s neorealist 1951 film starring Anna Magnani as a woman desperate to make her young daughter a star. On set, Madonna channeled Magnani’s raw sensuality in a wardrobe of leopard prints, crocheted tops, plunging necklines and a sweet floral skirt, some pieces straight off the spring runway and others customized to suit her taste. “It really didn’t matter that she wanted a black bodysuit instead of a floral one,” says Gabbana. “It’s a question of mood more than the clothes.”
    Madonna, who was visited by her children Lourdes and Rocco during the shoot, went into character every time she stepped in front of the lens, according to Gabbana. One photo depicts her staring melancholically into the distance, tears streaming down her cheeks, after reading a letter from a loved one. “She was really crying!” says Gabbana. “It wasn’t fake!”
    While in New York, the designers also checked on the progress of Dolce’s new penthouse in Chelsea and embarked on a five-hour shopping marathon to stock up on red and green iPhones, Kiki de Montparnasse sheets and Dean & DeLuca muffins. And on the plane home, as he started to unwind, Gabbana typed one last Twitter blast about the undertaking: “To have Madonna in our campaign is a dream come true.”
    source: W Magazine
  12. asimina

    By asimina,

    Hope for Haiti Now album has become the biggest one-day album pre-order in iTunes history and currently is at No. 1 on iTunes’ album chart in 22 countries!
    ‘Hope for Haiti Now’ is #1 in Australia, Austria, Belgium, Canada, Denmark, Finland, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Luxembourg, Mexico, Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, United Kingdom and United States
  13. asimina

    Jan24

    By asimina,

    All proceeds from album sales of Hope for Haiti Now will go to the Clinton Bush Haiti Fund, Oxfam America, Partners in Health, Red Cross, UNICEF, United Nations World Food Programme, and Yele Haiti Foundation. In addition, all proceeds from the special studio version of “Stranded (Haiti Mon Amour)” by Jay-Z, Bono, the Edge, and Rihanna will go to Partners in Health.
    Hope For Haiti Now Digital Album at Amazon.com / Video on Demand at Amazon.com
    Tracklisting:
    1. Send Me An Angel – Alicia Keys
    2. A Message 2010 – Coldplay
    3. We Shall Overcome – Bruce Springsteen
    4. Time To Love / Bridge Over Troubled Water – Stevie Wonder
    5. I’ll Stand By You (with The Roots) – Shakira
    6. Motherless Child – John Legend
    7. Hard Times Come Again No More (with The Roots) – Mary J. Blige
    8. Breathless – Taylor Swift
    9. Lift Me Up – Christina Aguilera
    10. Driven To Tears – Sting
    11. Halo – Beyoncé
    12. Lean On Me (with Keith Urban & Kid Rock) – Sheryl Crow
    13. Like A Prayer – Madonna
    14. Hallelujah (with Charlie Sexton) – Justin Timberlake
    15. Let It Be (The Roots) – Jennifer Hudson
    16. Many Rivers To Cross – Emeline Michel
    17. Stranded (Haiti Mon Amour) – Jay-Z (with Rihanna, Bono & The Edge) (Live Version)
    18. Alone And Forsaken – Neil Young (with Dave Mathews)
    19. Rivers Of Babylon / Yele (Medley) – Wyclef Jean
    20. Stranded (Haiti Mon Amour) – Jay-Z (with Rihanna, Bono & The Edge) (Version 1.0)
  14. asimina

    January 12, 2010 Madonna

    By asimina,

    Madonna’s ‘Sticky & Sweet’ Concert To Be Released March 30th On DVD, Blu-Ray And CD
    LOS ANGELES, CA -- January 12, 2009 -- Madonna’s most recent stage extravaganza, the “Sticky & Sweet” concert, will be released on March 30th, it was announced today by Live Nation, the world’s largest live music company. “Sticky & Sweet”, which was produced by Live Nation, was the most successful tour by a solo artist in history and was seen by over 3.5 million fans in 32 countries around the world. The show, which will be distributed by Warner Bros Records, will be available on DVD, Blu-Ray and CD and will include many of the Material Girl’s hits from the course of her unprecedented career including, “4 Minutes,” “Like a Prayer,” “Hung Up” and “Ray of Light”. Filmed in Buenos Aires, over four days to a crowd exceeding 256,000 fans, the concert also includes a show stopping moment when Madonna performs a historic “Don’t Cry For Me Argentina” to a thunderous audience response from her Argentine fans. Also included are several hits from the multi-Grammy winner’s most recent CD “Hard Candy” which debuted at No. 1 in 37 countries. The DVD also includes 30 minutes of exclusive footage filmed behind the scenes during the course of the tour. “Part concert, part block party and all fun, there is still only one Madonna,” raved the Oakland Press in their review of the “Sticky & Sweet” Tour. “A night of triumph and defiance… A two hour multi-media juggernaut,” glowed the LA Times. “Our lady of perpetual motion…This may be the best tour she’s ever stitched together,” claimed the NY Post.

    ABOUT LIVE NATION:
    Live Nation’s mission is to maximize the live concert experience. Our core business is producing, marketing and selling live concerts for artists via our global concert pipe. Live Nation is the largest producer of live concerts in the world, annually producing over 22,000 concerts for 1,600 artists in 33 countries. During 2008, the company sold over 50 million concert tickets and drove over 70 million unique visitors to LiveNation.com. Live Nation is transforming the concert business by expanding its concert platform into ticketing and building the industry’s first artist-to-fan vertically integrated concert platform. The company is headquartered in Los Angeles, California and is listed on the New York Stock Exchange, trading under the symbol LYV. For additional information about the company, please visit www.livenation.com/investors.
     
    madonna.com
  15. asimina
    Bonnie Greer can’t recall all of her fellow clubbers from the days when she frequented New York’s hottest nightspots but one girl in particular, three decades on, stands out. She had dark hair, wore a tight stripy tube dress and, alone, would dance to records that she gave the DJ to play. Afterwards, rather than retiring to her bed, she would sometimes sleep in a music producer’s office. Her name was Madonna and she was, says Greer, “a hick”.
    “She was from Lansing or wherever [she's actually from Michigan's Rochester Hills], which is like being from, I don’t know… Dorset.” The playwright, by and large a softly spoken presence, howls with laughter and takes a sip of juice. “She was very aggressive, like ‘I’m going to be a star,’ and we just thought [she rolls her eyes], ‘Who is this ***CENSORED***? You ain’t going nowhere, girl.’” Then three years later, in 1984, at the inaugural MTV awards, Greer noticed that the singer writhing around on stage was the club aficionado from the sticks. “She was singing Like a Virgin and got her bridal dress caught in the microphone lead. At the end we were like, ‘You’ve got to be kidding.’ But Bette Midler, who was hosting, said: ‘Trust me, that girl’s going to go far.’” Impassive, Greer stirs her drink and swaps quips with the barman. “And we all thought she was taking the piss.”
  16. asimina
    Best of the Aughts: Music Videos
    8. Madonna, “Hung Up” (Johan Renck)
    Madonna may be wearing Karen Lynn Gorney’s thrift store hand-me-downs and dancing for her own sake, but I’d like to see John Travolta or anyone else dare to ask her if she’s in training to be anything other than the yoga-flexible, parkour-and-krump co-opting, ass-cleave-baring, DDR-oblivious, beatbox-humping trooper she is and always will be. EH
    also:
    19. Madonna, “American Life (Director’s Cut)” (Jonas Akerlund)
    When announcing her decision not to release director Jonas Akerlund’s original cut of the “American Life” video, Madonna claimed that she did not “want to risk offending anyone who might misinterpret” its meaning. It seemed like spin control back in 2003, but that statement reads today like a damning indictment of the reactionary groupthink that gripped the nation in the early days of the Iraq War. It isn’t like either the video’s message about viewing war as a form of popular entertainment or its striking, loaded images leave much room for misinterpretation. Prescient? Yes. Relevant? Surely. Subtle? Not so much. JK
  18. asimina
    The Sticky & Sweet Tour CD/DVD
    Audio CD (March 30, 2010)
    Number of Discs: 2
    Format: Dual Disc
    Label: Warner Bros.
    ASIN: B002ZFQD04
    Link
    Revolver Mixes (Import) (listed as Revolution)
    Audio CD (February 2, 2010)
    Number of Discs: 1
    Format: Single, Import
    Label: Warner Music
    ASIN: B0030HG3LU
    Link
    Tracklisting
    1. Revolver (Madonna Vs. David Guetta One Love Remix (feat. Lil Wayne) 3:25
    2. Revolver (Madonna Vs. David Guetta One Love Remix) 3:10
    3. Revolver (Madonna Vs. David Guetta One Love Club Remix) 5:23
    4. Revolver (Paul Van Dyk Remix) 8:36
    5. Revolver (Paul Van Dyk Dub) 8:36
    6. Revolver (Tracy Young’s Shoot To Kill Remix) 9:30
    7. Celebration (Feat. Akon) 03:54
    8. Celebration (Felguk Love Remix) 6:38
  19. asimina

    Fan Club Update!

    By asimina,

    Dear Iconers,

    Some of you have contacted us about various technical issues during the past weeks, including access to the site and community section. Also, some members are awaiting feedback from the customer service regarding missing items and unresolved issues.

    As of December 1st, some changes took place on the site and the fan club’s structure, including our customer service, which is now made of a brand new team. We are doing our best to get all of the submitted requests and open issues resolved, and our program should be back to normal within the next few weeks. We apologize for the delays and thank you for your patience while our new colleagues get familiar with Icon’s technical specifications.

    Last, but not least, please note that some 2009 gift and magazine print-on-demand option updates are to be posted to the news section of the site this month. We invite you to check back on a regular basis for more info.

    Thank you again and let’s make 2010 a brand new year!

    The Icon team
  20. asimina

    Win A Signed Copy Of The

    By asimina,

    To celebrate the February release of the ‘Madonna: Sticky + Sweet’ book, we are happy to launch a brand new devoted contest!

    Want to win your signed copy of this amazing 280 pages book? Come on and play with us!

    To enter this contest, all you need to do is to e-mail us your favourite Sticky & Sweet Tour Live photo and to tell us the reason behind your choice in just one sentence.

    Your sentence must be 30 words maximum. The picture can be one of yours or one found on the internet, as long as it’s JPEG format and not over 100KB.

    Once you’re done, e-mail us the both of them to madonnacontests@gmail.com, along with your full name, mailing address and phone number (including country code).

    Don’t forget to use “Sticky + Sweet Book Contest” as your e-mail’s subject line. One entry per person please. Deadline for submissions is Monday, February 1st 2010, at 11:59pm PST.

    We will pick the 10 best collected entries and each of them will be mailed a copy of the book signed by Guy Oseary.

    Good luck to you all!
  22. asimina
    'Queen Celebration' is a book showing the glorious musical career of the Queen of Pop. This book allows you to discover (or re discover) pictures that made Madonna the most celebrated female singer around the world.
    You’ll see rare pictures and previously never seen before pictures all taken by the most talented and famous photographers.
    Printed on glossy paper, its format (24 x 34cm) makes this book a truly unique and a must have collector item for any fan of the Queen of Pop.
    Limited collector edition: 1000 copies only and is almost sold out!
    Available to buy at www.sunset-media.net/queencelebration
    Part of the benefits of 'Queen Celebration' will be donated to the Sidaction foundation.
     
  23. asimina

    UK Magazines: Vogue

    By asimina,

    The February 2010 issue of UK Vogue magazine is one of several that feature Madonna's Dolce & Gabbana Spring Summer 2010 advertising campaign. Vogue has two of the adverts across a total of four pages.
     
  24. asimina
    Madonna's legendary "Sticky + Sweet" Tour, the most successful tour by a solo artist in history, has been chronicled by her longtime manager Guy Oseary and the resulting book, "Madonna: Sticky + Sweet" is being published by powerHouse Books (Feb. 2009) The glossy retrospective includes 500 extraordinary photographs taken on and off stage during the course of the 58 show tour which circled the globe in 2008 and was seen by over 2 1/2 million fans. Oseary's discerning eye along with his unprecedented access to Madonna before, during and after each show gives the viewer a unique insight into the journey of a lifetime. The Sticky+Sweet photo book feature the four segments of the concert experience including the opening “Pimp” section, and Old School salute to early NYC dance roots, onto Romani music influences and escalating in a rave finale. Oseary previously released the critically acclaimed "Madonna: Confessions" photo book, also published by powerHouse Books which covered her previous tour.

    Guy Oseary is the CEO of Maverick and Madonna’s manager. He has worked closely with Madonna for almost two decades, and was the only individual permitted to take photographs both on and backstage on the landmark Sticky & Sweet Tour. Oseary’s first book, Madonna: Confessions, was published by powerHouse in 2008.

    COLLECTIBLE: STRICTLY LIMITED TO 7,500 INDIVIDUALLY NUMBERED COPIES

    Click here to pre-order your copy!
  25. asimina
    EPIX announced today that Mediacom Communications, the seventh largest cable television provider in the US, will begin distributing its multi-platform premium entertainment service to its customers in April 2010.

    EPIX offers a linear channel, on demand service and online service at www.EpixHD.com, which enables Mediacom consumers to watch more than 150 films and additional programming in an online, on demand format at anytime and anywhere.

    Movie and entertainment offerings from EPIX that will be available to Mediacom customers across multiple platforms upon launch in April include the Madonna Sticky & Sweet: Live from Buenos Aires concert that premiered on EpixHD last year.
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