Search Results for: sting

Suddenly there’s a whole new meaning to “Come On Over Baby” for Christina Aguilera. The five-time Grammy winner and hubby Jordan Bratman welcomed their first child in Los Angeles on Friday. The couple announced the birth in a quick text message to friends and family around 4 p.m.: “Baby has arrived. Mom and dad are doing well!” (Apparently not even the prospect of dirrty diapers can dampen their spirits.) There were no further details immediately available. However, a rep for the singer disputed the delivery dispatch. “The information you have is inaccurate,” the spokesperson said without elaboration. “We will let… Read more »

Donda West, Kanye West’s mother, died of heart disease and “multiple postoperative factors” after plastic surgery, a deputy medical examiner said Thursday. But a coroner’s report said the exact contribution these factors could have played in West’s death following breast reduction, tummy tuck and liposuction couldn’t be determined. The investigation found “therapeutic levels of medication” but no unusually high levels and no internal bleeding.” West, 58, died Nov. 10 at a Los Angeles-area hospital, a day after her surgery. “It is my opinion Ms. West died from some pre-existing coronary artery disease and multiple postoperative factors,” Dr. Louis A. Pena,… Read more »

Even though she’s a good few years away from taking stubby pencil to paper herself, Dave Grohl’s baby daughter Violet gets full credit for influencing her daddy’s writing style. For the Foo Fighters’ founder and frontman, the 2006 birth of his first child added a personal, often confessional tone to his lyrics. “Having a child made me feel like a superman in a way because I had to be,” says Grohl, who turns 39 this month. “Just as I can’t be afraid to ride the Spiderman roller coaster at Magic Mountain when it’s time, I can’t be scared of writing… Read more »

In a move that would mark the end of a digital music era, Sony BMG Music Entertainment is finalizing plans to sell songs without the copyright protection software that has long restricted the use of music downloaded from the Internet, BusinessWeek.com has learned. Sony BMG, a joint venture of Sony and Bertelsmann, will make at least part of its collection available without so-called digital rights management, or DRM, software some time in the first quarter, according to people familiar with the matter. Sony BMG would become the last of the top four music labels to drop DRM, following Warner Music… Read more »

Because of him, Ne-Yo is taking legal action. The rising R&B star has filed a lawsuit claiming he was booted off R. Kelly’s tour because fans and critics alike preferred Ne-Yo’s act to the headliner. Instead of suing Kelly, however, Ne-Yo (real name: Shaffer Chimere Smith) and his reps at Compound Touring Inc. are targeting the tour promoter, Georgia-based Rowe Entertainment. In their complaint, filed Monday in Los Angeles Superior Court, the “So Sick” singer and his handlers accuse Rowe of breaching Ne-Yo’s touring contract and violating his right of publicity by firing the 25-year-old from Kelly’s Double Up tour… Read more »

Just when it seemed erosion of music sales during the holiday season couldn’t get worse, December snowstorms compounded the retail industry’s misery. Album sales for 2007 are now down 15.3% for the year, compared with 2006. But for the four weeks beginning with Thanksgiving week and ending December 26, U.S. album sales were down 20% to 84.2 million units from 105.3 million a year ago, according to Nielsen SoundScan. The last week before Christmas didn’t help matters much, with sales totaling 25.6 million vs. 31.3 million units in the same period last year. The season got off on the wrong… Read more »

High-priced reunion tours by the Police, Van Halen and Genesis failed to prevent the North American concert industry from posting its worst year since 2004, according to a music industry trade publication. The top 20 tours generated $996 million, down 15.6 percent from the year before, according to preliminary data issued on Friday by Pollstar, which covers the concert business. The previous low was $951.1 million in 2004, when Prince and Madonna topped the box office, it said. The comeback tour by Anglo-American rock trio the Police was the top draw this year with ticket sales of $131.9 million, followed… Read more »

Ashlee Simpson is no more of a threat to Fall Out Boy’s success than Pete Wentz’s affinity for eyeliner. So says the band’s guitarist Joe Trohman, who didn’t take kindly to a New York Daily News gossip item about a source telling OK! that the younger Simpson sis was “poison” to the pop-punk rockers, and could possibly be part of the reason why 2007’s Infinity on High didn’t score any Grammy nods. The group’s “pal” reportedly told the magazine that Grammy voters have been put off by Simpson since she was caught lip-synching on Saturday Night Live in 2004. “This… Read more »

Las Vegas lore is littered with many end-of-an-era instances. The dissolution of the Rat Pack. The razing of the Sands Hotel. The annulment of Britney Spears and Jason Alexander’s 57-hour quickie marriage. And on December 15, 2007, Sin City bid yet another bittersweet goodbye: to Celine Dion, who ended her historic five-year, 717-show, $400 million-grossing run at Caesar’s Palace. Yes, apparently not everything that happens in Vegas stays in Vegas, as Celine has finally decided to move on after five years. (After all, she does have a new pop album, Taking Chances, to promote.) But it seems like only yesterday… Read more »

Do you know what time it is? Well, according to the invisible clock, it’s 9, though no one seems to be sure if that means a.m. or p.m., or why the difference is important. And, of course, there are some who still can’t even see the clock – you know, since it’s invisible and all – so they’re busy trying to figure out the 23-character word puzzle, even though everyone seems to believe that they’ve already solved it, despite the fact that they have no proof to support that belief. Confused? Well, you must not be a Panic! at the… Read more »