Colby O'Donis This young and hungry R&B singer signed to Akon's Konvict Muzik label in 2007, when he was just 19 years old. But early as it seemed, the break had actually been long in the making: Colby O'Donis had been singing since he was a kid and had his first proto-success as the tender age of nine, when he wrote and recorded "Mouse in the House" for the Stuart Little soundtrack. Years of sharpening his skills -- which include playing piano and guitar, singing and dancing -- followed, as well as a string of self-produced albums that paid implicit homage to his influences: Michael Jackson and Justin Timberlake. The releases didn't lead to a recording deal, however, until he linked up with Akon in 2007. Akon dug O'Donis' buttery singing voice, and took to calling him "my secret weapon." O'Donis dropped his debut single "What You Got" (featuring Akon) in early 2008.
- Sarah Bardeen
Thu, 9 Jul 2009 12:14:40 -0700 Gotan Project In the techno age, setting tango to electronic beats should have been an obvious project --but it wasn't. It took a couple of French beatmakers, Philippe Cohen-Solal and Christoph Mueller, and a handful of Argentinean expats to finally make the connection in 2001. And what an excellent connection it was. The Gotan Project -- named after the Buenos Aires slang for tango -- have quite possibly rescued the genre from those twin ghettos of musical obscurity: classical and world music. The project takes trip-hop's trademark cool and tango's visceral excitement and makes them...well...dance together. The sound is hip and slightly tense, and that's its beauty. Singer Christina Vilallonga's voice is a thrilling, guttural instrument, and the marriage of electronics and live instrumentation is a testament to the skill of the musicians involved. Overused words like "seamless" and "organic" were made for this project. Gotan are not just for 21st century hipsters; we'd wager that any Buenos Aires resident circa 1930 would hear the band and simply get it.
- Sarah Bardeen
Thu, 9 Jul 2009 12:13:30 -0700 Shakira When Shakira shimmied her way onto MTV in 2001 with a steamy video for a slick, cookie-cutter dance-pop song, some people associated the Colombian singer with her American pop-music contemporaries Britney Spears and Christina Aguilera. But the stylistic breadth of Shakira's music — elements of folk, Middle Eastern and traditional Latin styles over a foundation of rock and pop — gave her a degree of credibility the American teen queens lacked. What's more, when Shakira broke through in the United States, she'd already been a huge star across Latin America since 1996.
Shakira Isabel Mebarak Ripoll was born February 2nd, 1977, and raised in a middle class family in the Colombian port city of Barranquilla. Her Colombian-born mother is of Spanish and Italian descent; her New York City-born father's parents had emigrated to the U.S. from Lebanon. Shakira's name is Arabic for "full of gratitude."
She wrote her first poem at four years old, learned to belly dance after her father took her to a local Middle Eastern restaurant and wrote her first song lyrics by age eight. At 10, she won first place in a talent contest sponsored by a local TV station. After enrolling in a modeling school, she put together a dance group and served as its choreographer. Three years later, at 13, she performed an impromptu song and dance for an executive of Sony Discos — the Latin division of Sony Music — and was offered a three-album deal. Her first two albums, Magia (magic) and Peligro (danger), released in Colombia only, consisted of poorly produced pop ballads with electronic accompaniment, and suffered weak sales. But before she began writing and recording the songs for her third disc, she took a hiatus to finish high school. In that time, she discovered American rock acts Nirvana, Aerosmith and Tom Petty.
In 1995, with new musical influences that also included Alanis Morissette, Shakira began recording Pies Descalzos (bare feet), a giant leap forward from the synthesized pop of her first two discs. Released in 1996, the album of singer-songwriter rock and pop wound up selling more than 5 million copies and was followed the next year by a reworked version titled The Remixes. In 1998, she released ¿Dónde Están Los Ladrones? (where are the thieves?), a set of pop, rock and acoustic ballads whose poetic imagery and solid melodies won her big critical acclaim. The Middle Eastern-tinged "Ojos Así" became a worldwide hit, making Shakira a household name across Latin America and Europe.
The only big country she hadn't broken into was the United States. For that — at least at the turn of the millennium — Shakira would need to record in English. She didn't want to record songs by other writers, and she wasn't ready to write in English until she had a strong enough command of the language. Instead, Shakira followed Ladrones with a live MTV Unplugged album that included all but one of the songs from the previous album, plus "Estoy Aquí." a Latin pop chart-topper from Pies Descalzos. And she hunkered down with English-language songwriter Gloria Estefan, who co-wrote Shakira's big breakthrough hit, "Whenever, Wherever." It was the first single from her 2001 U.S. breakthrough album Laundry Service, shooting to Number Six on Billboard's Hot 100 and propelling the album to Number Three. (Her precursor in the Latin crossover sweepstakes had been Ricky Martin, who broke through to U.S. audiences two years earlier with the Billboard chart-topper, "Livin' la Vida Loca," from his 1999 album Ricky Martin.) Also in 2001, Shakira's boyfriend Antonio de la Rúa, son of then-president of Argentina Fernando de la Rúa, proposed to her; as of 2008 the couple had not yet married.
Meanwhile, Laundry Service had developed legs. In 2002, the album produced two more successful singles, "Objection (Tango)" (Number 55) and "Underneath Your Clothes" (Number Nine). Overall, the album sold more than 15 million copies worldwide, solidifying Shakira's stature as global pop phenomenon. In 2002, Shakira won the MTV Latin America category at MTV's Video Music Awards for the song "Suerte" (the Spanish-language version of "Whenever, Wherever"). She also took home five MTV Video Music Awards in Latin America, including Best Female Artist, Best Pop Artist, Best Artist–North (Region), Video of the Year (for "Suerte"), and Artist of the Year. Shakira also teamed with Celine Dion, Cher, the Dixie Chicks and Anastacia for VH1's 2002 Divas Live Las Vegas event. As commercially successful as Laundry Service was, however, the album failed to garner the critical acceptance of Ladrones, with some reviewers complaining she was not yet fluent enough in English and that much of the poetry of her Spanish-language work had been lost in the translation.
Aside from a high-profile Pepsi commercial in which she dances a tango to her song "Objection (Tango)," Shakira stayed out of the spotlight until 2005, writing the songs for her follow-up albums, an all-Spanish album called Fijación Oral Vol. 1 produced by Rick Rubin (Beastie Boys, Tom Petty) and its English-language counterpart, Oral Fixation, Vol. 2. Release of the first volume was a bold move for the young singer, and it paid off. Its first single, "La Tortura," a Middle Eastern-tinged duet with Spanish pop star Alejandro Sanz, climbed to Number 23 on the Billboard Hot 100, a respectable ranking for a song sung in Spanish. The album, which added bossa nova and new wave to Shakira's mix of rock and dance pop, was well-received critically and commercially, reaching Number Four. It was the highest-ranking debut ever for a Spanish-language album. Vol. 2 actually fared worse, but not by much (it reached Number Five). Then, in 2006, Shakira reissued Vol. 2 with a Spanglish version of "La Tortura" and a bonus track, "Hips Don't Lie," featuring Wyclef Jean. That song shot to the top of the singles chart, putting Shakira back at the center of the commercial playground in the U.S., tying her for the most nominations at the 2006 MTV Video Music Awards. She took home Best Choreography for "Hips Don't Lie." Both albums fared even better in Latin America and Europe.
From June 2006 until July 2007, Shakira embarked on her 111-date Oral Fixation Tour, which took her to Europe, America, Africa and the Far East. She also teamed with Beyoncé for a song and video, "Beautiful Liar," which shot to Number Three on the Hot 100 chart in April 2007. A second duet with Wyclef Jean, "King and Queen," was released on his Carnival Vol. II in December. In June 2008, she said she had begun work on a new album in the Bahamas.
Thu, 9 Jul 2009 12:12:32 -0700 CSS Though known in the U.S. mostly by their abbreviated handle, the proper name of Brazilian dance-rock sextet C.S.S. is Cansei de Ser Sexy, a Portuguese translation of a quip from Beyonce Knowles, who allegedly once claimed to be "tired of being sexy." The band formed in Sao Paulo in 2003 from a group of cross-connected art-scene socialites who eventually solidified a lineup consisting of vocalist Luisa Hanae Matsushita (who goes by the stage name Lovefoxxx), bassist Iracema Trevisan, guitarist Ana Rezende, and multi-instrumentalists Luiza Sa, Carolina Parra and Adriano Cintra. Under the keen musical direction of Cintra, a vet of Brazil's underground rock scene, C.S.S. found international attention for their high volume of downloads from Brazil's TramaVirtual, a music and social networking site. They self-released two EPs in 2004, Em Rotterdam Ja e uma Febre and A Onda Mortal/Uma Tarde com PJ, and issued their self-titled full-length LP on TramaVirtual's fledgling music label in 2005. It was re-released internationally on Sub Pop a year later, followed by wide international touring.
- Nate Cavalieri
Thu, 9 Jul 2009 12:12:23 -0700 Selena Memorialized in music and film, Tejano singer Selena was the first Latina to become an American pop icon. Working with family members, at a young age she began displaying an obvious talent for performance and a natural, warm-toned voice that could easily stretch her voice up a notch and send shivers down your spine with long sustains. Selena made her first recording at age 12, and by 16 she had won Tejano music awards for best female vocalist and performer. Her version of this polkafied Tex-Mex included elements of rock and country, but she also recorded cumbias and, later, added contemporary dance flavors. Singing catchy, anthemic love songs, Selena's popularity spread like a wildfire throughout the U.S. and Latin America. Ultimately, she recorded a crossover record in English that was released posthumously after her tragic murder in 1994. A source of pride to the Latin community and a monumental spark to the music industry, Selena is likened to a Latina Madonna in that she aroused controversy and fanatical devotion. Furthermore, she is credited with helping open the door to the American mainstream for Latin artists, and was instrumental in launching the career of Jennifer Lopez.
- Robert Leaver
Fri, 10 Jul 2009 12:23:17 EDT Pakistan says Taliban leader will talk to U.S. Pakistan's military has declared that not only is it in contact with Afghan Taliban leader Mullah Mohammed Omar but that it can bring him and other commanders to the negotiating table with the United States.
Fri, 10 Jul 2009 12:21:56 EDT Fido gets window seat; airlines let pets fly A few weeks ago, Tony Hoard, a 57-year-old manufacturing worker in Indiana, boarded a flight on Midwest Airlines to Las Vegas, Nevada, with his Australian Shepherd. The flight attendant smiled at the two and said, "Welcome aboard."
Fri, 10 Jul 2009 12:02:29 EDT Fire engulfs major film studio in London A large blaze broke out in the center of London's fashionable Soho district Friday, sending clouds of smoke billowing over the city.
Fri, 10 Jul 2009 11:44:44 EDT Man fatally gored in running of the bulls A man died after being gored in the neck during the annual running of the bulls in Pamplona, Spain, the Navarra regional government said Friday on its Web site.
