The one-night concert was titled "East Meets West - Three Stars in Collaboration." The trio presented solo and collaborative performances accompanied by the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra and Chorus.
Song, one of China's most popular vocalists, performed a selection of her popular Chinese folk songs, including "Little Back Basket" and "Flying Songs".
She was later joined by Bocelli and Lang Lang for "Love Song of Kangding".
Footage of Chinese people expressing their hopes for a successful 2012 London Olympic Games was also shown at the concert.
The event marked the second collaboration between the three musicians following the 2010 Shanghai World Expo's opening ceremony.
Wednesday, January 9, 2013
Post apocalyptic film
The Hunger Games" won four MTV Movie Awards on Sunday but a "Twilight" film picked up the best movie honor for the fourth straight year in what proved to be a tame evening at the typically outrageous awards show.
Post-apocalyptic film "The Hunger Games" nabbed MTV's golden popcorn trophies for best male performance by Josh Hutcherson, best female performance by Jennifer Lawrence, best transformation by Elizabeth Banks and best fight.
The movie of the year award, voted for by fans online throughout the show, went to vampire romance "The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn - Part 1," beating out "The Hunger Games" and "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2."
Female-led comedy "Bridesmaids" picked up two awards for best comedic performance by Melissa McCarthy and best gut-wrenching performance for its stomach-turning food poisoning scene, while the final installment of the "Harry Potter" franchise won for best cast and best hero.
Host Russell Brand, known for raunchy humor, launched into jokes about his short-lived marriage to singer Katy Perry, thanking Kim Kardashian for "taking the pressure off me" due to her brief marriage to basketball player Kris Humphries and joking about keeping his "eyes peeled" for a new wife.
His barbs also were directed at pop star Justin Bieber, Charlie Sheen, John Travolta, Kanye West and "Shame" actor Michael Fassbender for "profiting from sex addiction."
Post-apocalyptic film "The Hunger Games" nabbed MTV's golden popcorn trophies for best male performance by Josh Hutcherson, best female performance by Jennifer Lawrence, best transformation by Elizabeth Banks and best fight.
The movie of the year award, voted for by fans online throughout the show, went to vampire romance "The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn - Part 1," beating out "The Hunger Games" and "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2."
Female-led comedy "Bridesmaids" picked up two awards for best comedic performance by Melissa McCarthy and best gut-wrenching performance for its stomach-turning food poisoning scene, while the final installment of the "Harry Potter" franchise won for best cast and best hero.
Host Russell Brand, known for raunchy humor, launched into jokes about his short-lived marriage to singer Katy Perry, thanking Kim Kardashian for "taking the pressure off me" due to her brief marriage to basketball player Kris Humphries and joking about keeping his "eyes peeled" for a new wife.
His barbs also were directed at pop star Justin Bieber, Charlie Sheen, John Travolta, Kanye West and "Shame" actor Michael Fassbender for "profiting from sex addiction."
Tuesday, January 8, 2013
Wang later spent six years in a local military school
Wang, who was born and raised in Nanjing, Jiangsu province, started learning ballet at age 3. One day when he was 9, he passed a local sport center near his neighborhood and saw fitness dance for the first time.
Wang later spent six years in a local military school as an art soldier, where he learned fitness dance. At 20, he won a national fitness dance competition and decided to develop a career in dance.
In early 2009, he attended a training class organized by Zumba in Beijing, where he got an invitation to go to the US and to learn with teachers there.
Created in the late 1990s in Colombia by fitness instructor Alberto Perez, Zumba is a high-energy aerobic workout based on dance steps borrowed from salsa, meringue and other dances.
Wang's father, a retired photographer from Nanjing Film Studio, and his mother, a teacher, gave him lots of support.
"My mother dances with neighbors in a park near our house every morning," Wang said.
Wang later spent six years in a local military school as an art soldier, where he learned fitness dance. At 20, he won a national fitness dance competition and decided to develop a career in dance.
In early 2009, he attended a training class organized by Zumba in Beijing, where he got an invitation to go to the US and to learn with teachers there.
Created in the late 1990s in Colombia by fitness instructor Alberto Perez, Zumba is a high-energy aerobic workout based on dance steps borrowed from salsa, meringue and other dances.
Wang's father, a retired photographer from Nanjing Film Studio, and his mother, a teacher, gave him lots of support.
"My mother dances with neighbors in a park near our house every morning," Wang said.
Sunday, January 6, 2013
Uehara is a world acclaimed Japanese jazz pianist
Grammy-winning jazz trio Hiromi Uehara will take the stage of Xinghai Concert Hall in Guangzhou.
Uehara is a world-acclaimed Japanese jazz pianist, known for fusing classical, jazz, country and rock music. She's described as a "jazz fairy" and often appears onstage in colorful outfits and outlandish hairdos.
She cooperated with American jazz master Chick Corea at age 17. The Stanley Clarke Band won Grammy's Best Contemporary Jazz Award in 2011, and Uehara is billed as a featured artists, playing piano on four of the album's songs.
The improvisations of the trio's drummer and the bass player are critically acclaimed.
Uehara is a world-acclaimed Japanese jazz pianist, known for fusing classical, jazz, country and rock music. She's described as a "jazz fairy" and often appears onstage in colorful outfits and outlandish hairdos.
She cooperated with American jazz master Chick Corea at age 17. The Stanley Clarke Band won Grammy's Best Contemporary Jazz Award in 2011, and Uehara is billed as a featured artists, playing piano on four of the album's songs.
The improvisations of the trio's drummer and the bass player are critically acclaimed.
Saturday, January 5, 2013
If we take a look at the songs
In the vast provinces, where CDs were never a main media for music, most songs are disseminated through either Internet cafes or KTVs, and what people listen to there is often quite different from what people like in Beijing and Shanghai.
If we take a look at the songs that are popular in provincial areas, there is a higher percentage of the so-called "ethnic trend". Songs like Taking a Train to Lhasa by Xu Qianya or Moonlight over the Lotus Pond by Phoenix Legend are all based on the traditional Chinese pentatonic scale, while many also feature Chinese instruments, making it easy for these songs to resonate among people who are not yet that cosmopolitan.
In terms of rhythm the "ethnic trend" songs usually have strong beats to dance to. They sometimes remind one of Hollywood East, a series of tape cassettes of remixed Western disco music that used to be popular in China in the 1980s, but "ethnic trend" songs are certainly more localized.
Those provincial hits likely better represent the situation of Chinese pop music, just like provincial areas better represent the country — compared to the few developed coastal metropolises.
If we take a look at the songs that are popular in provincial areas, there is a higher percentage of the so-called "ethnic trend". Songs like Taking a Train to Lhasa by Xu Qianya or Moonlight over the Lotus Pond by Phoenix Legend are all based on the traditional Chinese pentatonic scale, while many also feature Chinese instruments, making it easy for these songs to resonate among people who are not yet that cosmopolitan.
In terms of rhythm the "ethnic trend" songs usually have strong beats to dance to. They sometimes remind one of Hollywood East, a series of tape cassettes of remixed Western disco music that used to be popular in China in the 1980s, but "ethnic trend" songs are certainly more localized.
Those provincial hits likely better represent the situation of Chinese pop music, just like provincial areas better represent the country — compared to the few developed coastal metropolises.
Friday, January 4, 2013
A new folk singing show is high on Guangxi Satellite TV
New programs are offering twists on singing competition reality shows - blind auditions are ensuring judges' decisions are based on vocal skills alone. Guangxi Satellite TV recently launched Sound of Love, a folk program based on the concept of selecting the singer with the best voice, regardless of appearance and style.
Liu Xichen, president of Shixi Media - the country's leading TV content provider, which produced the show - says it's adapted from True Talent, a singing competition program created by Paris-headquartered Zodiak Media.
"A new folk singing show is high on Guangxi Satellite TV's agenda," Liu says.
"The broadcaster hopes to use the project to promote the Guangxi Zhuang autonomous region's annual Nanning International Folk Song Art Festival. It also wants to borrow the packaging of an already-successful foreign program," Liu continues.
"That's why we bought Zodiak's entertainment format. It's high-ratings, and its concept of focusing solely on voices is fresh in China."
Initial auditions are under way in six cities, including Liaoning's provincial capital Shenyang and Shaanxi's provincial capital Xi'an. Applicants must be at least age 18.
In this phase, three judges - all professional musicians - will turn their backs to listen to contestants.
If they like a contender's voice, the judges will turn around and face the singer. If even one judge doesn't turn around, the contestant is out.
Liu Xichen, president of Shixi Media - the country's leading TV content provider, which produced the show - says it's adapted from True Talent, a singing competition program created by Paris-headquartered Zodiak Media.
"A new folk singing show is high on Guangxi Satellite TV's agenda," Liu says.
"The broadcaster hopes to use the project to promote the Guangxi Zhuang autonomous region's annual Nanning International Folk Song Art Festival. It also wants to borrow the packaging of an already-successful foreign program," Liu continues.
"That's why we bought Zodiak's entertainment format. It's high-ratings, and its concept of focusing solely on voices is fresh in China."
Initial auditions are under way in six cities, including Liaoning's provincial capital Shenyang and Shaanxi's provincial capital Xi'an. Applicants must be at least age 18.
In this phase, three judges - all professional musicians - will turn their backs to listen to contestants.
If they like a contender's voice, the judges will turn around and face the singer. If even one judge doesn't turn around, the contestant is out.
Thursday, January 3, 2013
Madonna Beastie Boys Yauch was one of a kind
NEW YORK — Madonna says Adam Yauch, the Beastie Boys rapper who died Friday, was one of a kind and that the group was important to her musical history.
The singer says the seminal hip-hop group was "integral to the musical revolution that was happening at the time."
Yauch's representatives confirmed that the rapper, also known as MCA, died Friday morning in New York after a nearly three-year battle with cancer.
Madonna says she was sad to hear of Yauch's death and asked God to bless his family.
The Beastie Boys opened for Madonna on tour in the 1980s, and the group was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame last month.
The singer says the seminal hip-hop group was "integral to the musical revolution that was happening at the time."
Yauch's representatives confirmed that the rapper, also known as MCA, died Friday morning in New York after a nearly three-year battle with cancer.
Madonna says she was sad to hear of Yauch's death and asked God to bless his family.
The Beastie Boys opened for Madonna on tour in the 1980s, and the group was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame last month.
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