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| Battleship movie 2012 (image via Wikipedia) |
Battleship is an upcoming 2012 science fiction naval war film based on the game of the same name. The film is being directed by Peter Berg and will be released by Universal Pictures. The film stars Taylor Kitsch, Alexander Skarsgård, Brooklyn Decker, Rihanna and Liam Neeson.
The film was originally planned to be released in 2011, but was rescheduled to May 18, 2012. (source: Wikipedia)
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| Julie Ann San Jose and Elmo Magalona image via JAPS |
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| Westlife (image via Wikipedia) |
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| Westlife (image via westlife) |
Biography (from westlife official website)“We know we can sing. That’s the easy part,” says Shane Filan, one quarter of the most successful boy band of the last decade.Twelve years, ten albums and 44million sales into their career, Westlife came to a crossroads earlier this year.Did they stick to the winning formula that had produced 14 No1s (only three less than The Beatles), or tear themselves away from their comfort zone, shred the rule book and start again?The latter, as it happens. And in emphatic style.The quartet’s eleventh offering, Gravity, sees the Irishmen sail into uncharted waters, wrestle an unprecedented level of creative control and most critically of all – start believing in themselves again.“It’s a really good album,” insists Nicky Byrne. “It’s one producer. It’s one sound. Maybe it’s taken us twelve years to get there. But it doesn’t matter. We’re here now.“It’s the kind of record we knew we could make and we just needed the right person to deliver it with us.”And that individual was legendary producer John Shanks. He steered Take That’s last two collections, was responsible for Bon Jovi’s recent reinvention and sculpted some of Kelly Clarkson, Celine Dion and Sheryl Crow’s most enduring hits.As sessions sprang into life this summer, first in London and then Los Angeles, it quickly became clear that the recording process would be radically different from anything the lads had ever done before.Nicky recalls, “From day one John said, ‘I’m not going to be ringing Shane up and saying I want him in on Wednesday lunchtime and Kian in on Friday morning.“If I’m going to do this, we’re all going to be in the studio together.’“That was the first time anyone had ever said that to us. He made us feel like a real band again.”And injecting that sense of coherence, togetherness and freedom was critical for the group.They had to confront some painful truths about how much creative steam they were lacking.Shane admits, “We made some choices over recent years that we weren’t happy with. We got to a point where we were selling so much, we didn’t think twice about doing a Rat Pack album or an album of covers of love songs. They were selling millions, but we eventually realised we needed some original songs again.“For us to keep going as a band, for us to remain excited, we had to write our own material, not just record other people’s songs.”And collaborating with Shanks saw the lads flex song-writing muscles that had been little-employed over the previous decade.Nicky explains: “It’s not like it was in the past where we had a lot of covers. John insisted we get involved. Now we’ve got an album of twelve tracks and four are co-written.”Shane reiterates: “It was very natural the way we bonded with John. He really wanted to get us involved in each song. We really feel like we’ve made this album together. We were there from the start to the finish. It feels like we were in the happiest place we have ever been making an album.”Yet, one track confronts one of the most painful experiences two of the lads’ had ever gone through.Kian and Nicky’s respective fathers both passed away over the last twelve months and they explore their grief in the most personal song the group have ever recorded.Too Hard To Say Goodbye is a tender, tear-jerking ballad that many will identify with.“Myself and Kian lost our dads last year. My dad died of a heart attack over night and Kian’s dad died over the course of a year” says Nicky. “We were discussing the loss with John over lunch one day and he said, ‘Let’s write a song about it’. We had tears in our eyes when we were putting it together. But it’s one song we’re all really, especially proud of.”Elsewhere on the collection can be found the results of a conscious effort to erase some of the preconceptions that have weighed heavily around the four piece’s necks for many a year.Nicky explains, “I’m not boring. I know I’m not boring.“I’ve never liked the fact we got tarred with the brush that we were just these four lads who sit on stools, wear suits and sing slow songs.”Beautiful Tonight echoes the crisp, euphoric electronic pop of Erasure, claims Shane, while banger No One’s Gonna Sleep Tonight is “Westlife does the Black Eyed Peas.”“We’re twelve years in and all at least thirty years of age,” says Mark Feehily. “We could all go home now and we’d be alright for the rest of our lives.“So, if we are going to make more records we want to do it well otherwise we don’t want to do it at all.”And Gravity shows these four individuals to be men of their words...Westlife’s album ‘Gravity’ is out on the 22nd November
The brothers started to upload their lip synch videos via YouTube in 2007. In 2008, their videos and their YouTube profile garnered over 5 million hits and they have more than 130,000 subscribers from all over the world. Most Mexicans, Americans and Filipinos gave positive remarks for the duo's uploaded videos. Most of their videos were shot at home, as seen in the background, where their aunt Mama Auntie also appears. They use their laptop and cellphone cameras to shoot the videos. Aside from their aunt, other guests who appeared in their videos include their friends and Philippine TV celebrities. Among their most popular YouTube videos are Wanna Be (by Spice Girls) and MariMar (by Thalía).
The duo made their first TV appearance in GMA Network's Bubble Gang on June 27, 2008; they are now regulars in that show. Aside from Bubble Gang, they have been seen in MTVCampus Crashers. In their TV interviews, their real voices were masked using high-pitched tones or other voices through the microphone so that their real voices would remain a mystery. (source: Wikipedia)
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| Immortals - 2011 movie (image via wikipedia) |
Immortals is an upcoming 2011 3D epic fantasy-adventure film directed by Tarsem Singh and starring Henry Cavill, Freida Pinto, and Mickey Rourke. The film was previously named Dawn of War and War of the Gods before being officially named Immortals and is loosely based on the Greek myth of Theseus and the Minotaur and the Titanomachy.It is set to be released in 2D and in 3-D (using the Real D 3D and Digital 3D formats) on November 11, 2011 by Universal Pictures and Relativity Media. (source: Wikipedia)
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| Taylor Swift - Back to December (image via wikipedia) |
"Back to December"'s accompanying music video was directed by Yoann Lemoine, who directed the video for Katy Perry's "Teenage Dream, and was filmed in late December 2010 before Christmas day. In an interview with Country Music Television, Lemoine explained that he developed the idea for the video after being inspired from the movie, E.T.. He also told MTV News that he wanted the video to be simple yet metaphorical. He added, "I wanted to work on the coldness of feelings in a very visual way, playing with the snow, the distance and sadness." He wanted to focus on Swift's look in the video so that she would come off as accessible, saying "I wanted her to perform a very natural way, to make her look very European. This was the main challenge to me. All of Taylor's world is very far away from my culture, but I saw something in her that could be very rough and heartbreaking; far from the princess glittery outfits and glam that she often goes for." Lemoine was allowed to take control of the whole production of the video, although it was Swift's idea to have her character leave the letter for her beloved. Swift's love interest in the video was played by male model, Guntars Asmanis. Lemoine commented that Asmanis was the perfect fit for Swift's love interest, saying "I wanted a boy that was fragile and beautiful. I didn't want to go for a hunk or a perfect cheesy boy that would have killed the sincerity of the video." The music video premiered on January 13, 2011, on CMT and Great American Country. Footages of the school and baseball stadium in the video were filmed in Binghamton, New York, in MacArthur Park while scenes with Swift were shot in an old country mansion outside of Nashville. (source: Wikipedia)
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| Taylor Swift - Mean (image via wikipedia) |
"Mean" is a song by American singer-songwriter Taylor Swift, taken from her third studio album, Speak Now (2010). The song, written by Swift alone, and produced by Nathan Chapman and Swift. It was first released as a promotional single for the album on October 17, 2010, by Big Machine Records. The song was later released as an official single on May 10, 2011. The song contains heavy elements of fiddles and banjos, with critics saying that it was the most country song on Speak Now. According to Swift, she wrote the song to get back at her critics who constantly question her songs as well as her ability to sing.
Upon its release as a promotional single, the song garnered mixed to positive reviews from critics for its lyrical detail and profound country sound. "Mean" received commercial success in the United States and Canada, debuting at number eleven on the Billboard Hot 100 and number ten on the Canadian Hot 100. The song also appeared on the Australian Singles Chart at number forty-five. It was later re-released as the third official single from Speak Now, and re-entered the Billboard Hot 100 at number ninety. Additionally, "Mean" became Swift's thirteenth consecutive single to reach top ten on Hot Country Songs when it jumped from number 12 to number 9 on the week ending May 14, 2011. This achievement makes Swift as one of the two women (the other being Carrie Underwood) to begin their chart histories with as many consecutive top 10s dating to the survey's 1944 launch.
The song's accompanying music video was directed by Declan Whitebloom, who developed the concept together with Swift. Upon release, it received mixed reviews from critics who perceived ambivalent messages in the video, despite the prevalent self-empowerment and anti-bullying themes. "Mean" was performed for the first time by Swift at the 46th Annual Academy of Country Music Awards on April 3, 2011. ( source: wikipedia )
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Taylor Swift "Teardrops On My Guitar" (image via wikipedia)"Teardrops on My Guitar" is a song by American country pop singer-songwriter Taylor Swift. The song was co-written by Swift, alongside Liz Rose and produced by Nathan Chapman with Swift's aid. "Teardrops on My Guitar" was released on February 24, 2007 by Big Machine Records, as the second single from Swift's eponymous studio album, Taylor Swift (2006). The song was later included on the international release of Swift's second studio album, Fearless (2008), and released as the third single from the album in the United Kingdom. It was inspired by Swift's experience with Drew Hardwick, a classmate of hers whom she had feelings for. He was completely unaware and continually spoke about his girlfriend to Swift, something she pretended to be endeared by. Years afterwards, Hardwick appeared at Swift's house, but Swift rejected him. Musically, the track is soft and is primarily guided by a gentle acoustic guitar. Some critics have queried the song's classification as country music.Critics received the track generally positively, complimenting Swift's vocal delivery and songwriting style. The song is considered to be Swift's breakthrough single, as it spread her popularity throughout the United States. "Teardrops on My Guitar" was commercially successful, peaking at number thirteen on the Billboard Hot 100, becoming the best-charting single from Taylor Swift on the chart. The single was also certified double platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA). Its music video was directed by Trey Fanjoy and features Swift as she sees her love interest develop a relationship with another female. The video received a nomination for MTV Video Music Award for Best New Artist, but lost to Tokio Hotel's music video for "Ready, Set, Go!". The song was promoted through multiple live performances, some while supporting as opening act for various country artists' concert tours. She also performed "Teardrops on My Guitar" on her first headlining tour, the Fearless Tour (2009–10). (source: wikipedia) |
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| Jason Mraz - I'm Yours (image via wikipedia) |
"I'm Yours" was immensely successful in the U.S. on the Billboard charts. At 76 weeks on the Hot 100, it holds the record for most weeks spent on the chart, breaking the previous record set by LeAnn Rimes' song "How Do I Live" in 1998. It is currently the sixth best selling digital song of all time in the U.S., selling in excess of 5 million downloads. It remains Mraz's biggest hit single in the USA to date, and his only one to reach the Top 10 of the Billboard Hot 100 and The Single Most total weeks on the Hot 100 history. Mraz even sang a version of the song on Sesame Street, instead of "I'm Yours" the song was titled, "Outdoors." Mraz also made a remixed version featuring Lil Wayne and Jah Cure, which also gained success. (source: wikipedia)
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| Auburn - Perfect Two (image via auburn website) |
Auburn was born in Minneapolis to a single mother who raised her and her two older siblings in a no-nonsense household. A straight-A student who graduated from high school a year early, Auburn was a tomboy and self-described “nerd” who remembers being painfully shy as a kid. “My uncle nicknamed me ‘Wednesday,’ after the daughter in The Addams Family, because I was so quiet,” she says with a laugh. Auburn began singing in church and listened to nothing but gospel music as a kid. “BeBe and CeCe Winans, Fred Hammond, and a bit of Whitney Houston, that was about it,” she says. She got behind the mic for the first time at age nine when her cousin J. Isaac, a well-known local singer, invited her to his home studio to see what she could do.
“I started singing and he stopped me and said, ‘I don’t hear you. I don’t feel your emotion,’” Auburn recalls. “And I was like, ‘I’m behind a mic in a room. You can’t see me.’ And he said, ‘That’s the thing, you have to make me see you. Let me see the words. Give me a picture.’ He taught me that you have to feel what you’re singing in order for the person who’s listening to feel it.”
As Auburn turned 13, she continued to work on her songwriting, posting tracks on her MySpace page, and growing her fanbase the grass-roots way. In 2007, Auburn released an independent album called Same Giirl on local St. Paul label FS Music. The album, which blended dance-club hip-hop with deep-reaching R&B, featured production by Naughty By Nature’s Kay Gee and Jer-Z (Lady Gaga, B2K), as well as contributions from her musical cousins, rapper Chellie B and producer/beatmaker Young Bishop. Same Giirl spawned the underground hit “Ewww!!!”, which climbed to No. 6 on DJBooth’s Underground chart. (source: Auburn website)
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| Bonnie Tyler - Holding Out for a Hero (I Need a Hero) image via wikipedia |
"Holding Out for a Hero" is a song written by Jim Steinman and Dean Pitchford, originally recorded by Bonnie Tyler. It was released in 1984 on the soundtrack to the film Footloose. It later appeared on Tyler's Secret Dreams and Forbidden Fire album. It hit #96 for the first time in UK in 1984, #2 in 1985, #69 in 1991. The opening couplet - "Where have all the good men gone and where are all the gods?/ Where's the street-wise Hercules to fight the rising odds?" - could be seen as an example of the Ubi Sunt motif in literature. (source: Wikipedia)
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| Air Supply - Making Love Out of Nothing at All (image via wikipedia) |
"Making Love Out of Nothing At All" is a power ballad written and composed by Jim Steinman and first released by Australian rock band Air Supply for their 1983 compilation album Greatest Hits. It reached #2 on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100. The song has been covered by many other artists, with the most successful cover being by singer Bonnie Tyler. Air Supply's version of the song is also featured in the 2005 film Mr. and Mrs. Smith during the car chase/gunfight scene, and is also featured on the film's soundtrack album. It was also used in the films Click and Dumb and Dumberer: When Harry Met Lloyd. In 1983, Air Supply performed the song on stage, in "lip-sync" form with full back-up band for the popular early 1980s television program Solid Gold. Absent were many of the musicians that producer Jim Steinman used to record the original tracks. However, original Air Supply members Frank Esler-Smith on keys & Ralph Cooper on drums participated, and former Babys lead guitarist Wally Stocker, "synced" so well, studio player Rick Derringer's guitar solo, without the slightest of glitch.(source: Wikipedia)