Godess In Oz...

Another look at the upcoming tour editions of "Aphrodite" from Miss Kylie Minogue:



It looks like these will only be released in Australia...

Sky1 has revealed that it is to broadcast Kylie Minogue's current 'Les Folies' world tour next month.

The tour (the singer's 12th to date), kicked off in February in Demark and will come to a close on July 14 in Cape Town, South Africa.

The 42-year-old will have taken the flamboyant stage show across five continents by its end, performing a total of 76 concerts worldwide.

Sky1 will air Kylie Live In 2011: Aphrodite Les Folies on June 19 at 7pm. The footage was recorded during one of Minogue's London dates in April.

More Progress...

Take That will release a repackaged version of their multi-million selling album Progress next month.

The band will include eight new tracks on the reissued record, including the new single "Love Love" from the X-Men: First Class soundtrack.

The new edition, titled Progressed, will be expanded on to two discs. It will be available from June 13th, while the group play their sold-out tour in stadiums across the UK and Europe.

The Big Surprise...

Madonna, Beyoncé, Halle Berry, Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes … the list goes on of Hollywood’s A-list celebrities who descended on Chicago to wish Oprah Winfrey farewell at a taping of the talk show last episodes ever of The Oprah Winfrey Show.


Winfrey told the crowd at Chicago’s United Center…

“I feel the love and I thank you for it.
Thank you for being a part of this great night, this celebration of what you have done for ‘The Oprah Winfrey Show.’
You have made it possible for us to stand for 25 years.”

Queen Madonna told the crowd that she is among the millions of people who are inspired by Winfrey, who announced in November 2009 that she would end her popular talk show after 25 years.

"So, you look surprised," says Madonna. "Yeah!" says Oprah.

“It’s no secret millions of people are inspired by Oprah.
I am one of those people.
She’s a self made woman who has been at the top of her game for 25 years and she is still kicking ass, encouraging people to dream big, work hard, to read a book, get an education, ask questions – no matter who you are or where you come from.
She fights for things she believes in, even if it makes her unpopular.
She has balls and a wealth of compassion.
I’ve learned so much from her.
I hope to have that same thrill in the years to come, to see that I, too, have made a difference.
Oprah, may the next chapters be even better.
I stand before you on behalf of the many you have helped and vow to be more courageous and never give up. Never.
Thank you for inspiring me.

"After 25 years what will Oprah's shows legacy be? Just look at this audience."

The shows will air May 23 and May 24.

Copycat...

Choreographer Laurieann Gibson has helped Lady Gaga with her often spectacle-filled performances. She finally admitted Gaga was ripping off Madonna in a new interview to the LA Times…

LA Times: A lot of her visual aesthetics have been compared to Madonna. As her creative director what are your thoughts on that?
Laurieann Gibson: Listen, [Madonna] should be bitter because I did it on purpose, and you can quote me. I did it on purpose because for all those kids who believe that you can’t, I wanted to let them feel that you can. And that’s what I represent, that’s what Gags represents. That’s what this movement represents.

Gibson probably forgot what she told CNN, a couple of months ago, about Lady Gaga’s Grammy performance:

I’m not inspired by Madonna as far as choreographically.
For me, the comparison to the Blond Ambition Tour, absolutely not!

First Lady Gaga says it’s an homage, then she called the comparison “retarded”, then her producer called it bullshit, now her creative director admits it…

The next single from Gaga's upcoming album will be "The Edge Of Glory". The Fernando Garibay-produced track was originally released as a promotional single to start the iTunes countdown to the album (due out on May 23rd). However, the singer decided to make the track the official third single from the album after it topped download charts in more than 10 countries and received rave reviews from critics and fans.

“The Edge of Glory” will be officially sent to American radio tomorrow -  a day after the release of the next countdown single, the RedOne-produced “Hair.”



In other news about the real Queen Of Pop, here is what her manager is saying about her upcoming projects:

On W.E. and what the Daily Mail wrote about Madonna pulling the movie out of Cannes as soundtrack isn’t ready yet

- The movie should be done in next month or so…
- That newspaper has no idea.. we have no idea.. film should be done soon and then we shall see when the release is..

On music

- Madonna is listening to potential tracks and ideas for the new album.. She is eager to get started… This will happen soon…
- I don’t have info for album release dates or touring plans today.. I promise to give you all info as soon as I have it..

On a Madonna Vevo on Youtube?

- Warner Records has all the past M albums, so Vevo is not up to us.. With the new album we can do what we want..

New Editions...

Yes, the rumours were true! Kylie Minogue is re-releasing her hit album Aphrodite in not one, but two different tour editions! Sadly though, despite being a 3CD release it does not include any new tracks...

Disc 1: – The original album

Disc 2:

1 – Put Your Hands Up (Pete Hammond Remix)
2 – Aphrodite (Denzal Park Remix)
3 – Cupid Boy (Stereogamous Dub)
4 – Get Outta My Way (Paul Harris Vocal Mix)
5 – All The Lovers (WAWA & MMB Anthem Remix)
6 – Put Your Hands Up (Muscles Club Remix)
7 – Better Than Today (Bimbo Jones Remix)
8 – Higher (Taio Cruz featuring Kylie)

Disc 3:

20 Minute Megamix Party Disc

The second version will be entiled Goddess Edition and will have the same tracklist - but it will feature a pop-up booklet and exclusive new photos. These will be out on June 3rd.

Aphrodite | Les Folies Tour Edition (3CD Re-Package)
Release date: June 3, 2011

Aphrodite | Goddess Edition
(collectors edition featuring exquisite pop-ups)
Release date: June 3, 2011

Results...

Well, another Eurovision is over. I thought the final on Saturday was great fun, despite the fact that there were not that many tracks to root for this year. Unlike previous years, it was impossible to predict the winner. Out of the ones that most people seem to be betting on (UK, France etc), Sweden was the one that did best. My absolute faveourite this year, the Swedish entry was in the lead for quite some time and finished in the third place (being bumped down from the second place at the very end).

So, the highlights for me were:

Sweden doing so well!
Finland and Iceland doing so badly!
The bloody ballads doing badly!
Spain being such a fun act!
Exciting voting and a great looking show!



The winning entry was a bit of a surprise, not to mention that godawful thing from Italy finishing in the second place! Ukraine, Greece and Georgia also did better than expected, while France (zzzzzzz) delivered one of their weakest entries in the last few years, and the UK performance didnt really manage to sell the song (the same can certainly be said for the otherwise excellent track from Hungary).

I voted for Sweden, Spain, Hungary and Germany. Below are the final results for the final, and both semifinals. And BTW: Australian voters voted the winning entry into the last place in their voting! They put Ireland on top...

1. Azerbaijan    221
2. Italy    189
3. Sweden    185
4. Ukraine    159
5. Denmark    134
6. Bosnia & Herzegovina    125
7. Greece    120
8. Ireland    119
9. Georgia    110
10. Germany    107
11. United Kingdom    100
12. Moldova    97
13. Slovenia    96
14. Serbia    85
15. France    82
16. Russia    77
17. Romania    77
18. Austria    64
19. Lithuania    63
20. Iceland    61
21. Finland    57
22. Hungary    53
23. Spain    50
24. Estonia    44
25. Switzerland    19

Semifinal 1

1. Greece (133)
2. Azerbaijan (122)
3. Finland (103)
4. Iceland (100)
5. Lithuania (81)
6. Georgia (74)
7. Hungary (72)
8. Serbia (67)
9. Russia (64)
10. Switzerland (55)
11. Malta (54)
12. Armenia (54)
13. Turkey (47)
14. Albania (47)
15. Croatia (41)
16. San Marino (34)
17. Norway (30)
18. Portugal (22)
19. Poland (18)

Semifinal 2

1. Sweden (155)
2. Denmark (135)
3. Slovenia (112)
4. Romania (111)
5. Bosnia & Herzegovina (109)
6. Ukraine (81)
7. Austria (69)
8. Ireland (68)
9. Estonia (60)
10. Moldova (54)
11. Belgium (53)
12. Bulgaria (48)
13. Slovakia (48)
14. Belarus (45)
15. Israel (38)
16. F.Y.R. Macedonia (36)
17. Latvia (25)
18. Cyprus (16)
19. The Netherlands (13)

Already looking forward to next year...

Results...

Well, the first semifinal of the 2011 Eurovsion contest is over. And I must say that there were some very unexpected results! These are the songs that will go on the finals:

• Serbia (Running order position in the Final: 24) - Unspectacular, but not totally unexpected
• Lithuania (Running order position in the Final: 4) - Very boring and very unexpected
• Greece (Running order position in the Final: 9) - Decent track, ruined by the performers
• Azerbaijan (Running order position in the Final: 19) - Decent track, looked good, sounded flat
• Georgia (Running order position in the Final: 25) - Absolutely dreadful and very unexpected
• Switzerland (Running order position in the Final: 13) - As expected
• Hungary (Running order position in the Final: 5) - As expected - although the act could have been better. Still my only fave from this semifinal, and the only one I voted for.
• Finland (Running order position in the Final: 1) - Boring beyond belief, but will probably do well.
• Russia (Running order position in the Final: 10) - Bad song, horrible act and a "singer" that looks like a gay pornstar!
• Iceland (Running order position in the Final: 21) - Very boring and forgettable, helped along by a sad backstory.

The biggest shock (besides Iceland, Lithuania and George going to the final) was the fact that massive favourite (although not mine) Norway did not get through. And neither did Turkey, which has always done very well (and even though their song was nothing special, it was certanly better then, say, the one form Russia). Out of the rest that didnt qualify, I felt that Albania did a very good job with a quality song and it would have been nice to see them pass instead of one of the more horrendous ones.

Overall, I thought it was a very weak show. The stage was nothing special, the presenters were surprisingly stiff and dull, and the songs were very weak overall. Techincal problems were apperant in many countries. In many countries the sound went on and off during the first 5 songs (none of which made it to the finals) - for example: in Spain, less then a minute of the song from Norway could actually be heard during the broadcast!

Here in Iceland we had to indure a hystercial woman commentaitor, screaming and crying when our song got through - you would have thought that we had just won the whole damn thing. Still, she was better then the idot we have been stuck with in the last years, who makes watching Eurovision feel like a chore! And speaking about the commentaitors, appernantly a lot people have been complaining about the UK ones - I guess Mr Norton wasnt available...

One can only wonder the results we will see tomorrow. It is a much stronger lineup,and hopefully the best tracks will actually go on to the final, and the (mostly) trash songs that got through last night will finish at the bottom on Saturday. We will see...