Kampala, Uganda | AGNES E NANTABA | Most people know Sandra Suubi as the girl who won the Airtel Trace competition 2015 and went on to launch a fledgling music career. Not many know that Suubi combines her music with art. She is an eco-artist whose work has featured in art …
Read More »R. Kelly calls Time’s Up campaign ‘public lynching’
New York, United States | AFP | R. Kelly’s management has lashed out at a campaign for the music business to dump him over his alleged treatment of women and girls, denouncing a “public lynching.” The R&B singer, best known for his ballad “I Believe I Can Fly,” supports the Time’s …
Read More »Kanye West, doubling down, voices ‘love’ of Trump
New York, United States | AFP | Rap superstar Kanye West doubled down Wednesday on his support for Donald Trump, tweeting his “love” for the president and flirting with his own political ambitions after his newfound conservatism raised eyebrows. A master of staying in the spotlight, West last week returned …
Read More »Spotify ramps up free service in bid for expansion
New York, United States | AFP | Spotify on Tuesday announced a major expansion of its free service, hoping that a more option-rich platform will boost its ambitions to make music streaming even bigger worldwide. Weeks after its successful listing on the New York Stock Exchange, the leading streaming company said …
Read More »Rapper Meek Mill freed after uproar over harsh term
New York, United States | AFP | Rapper Meek Mill won freedom from prison Tuesday after an unusually harsh sentence triggered protests that pointed to racial biases in US probation laws. The 30-year-old Philadelphia rapper, who was jailed in November over a case from his teenage years, was ordered out …
Read More »Music business grows at record pace as digital dominates
New York, United States | AFP | The global music industry soared a record 8.1 percent last year as digital sales for the first time made up the majority of revenue thanks to the streaming boom, the industry said Tuesday. Recorded music grossed $17.3 billion in 2017 with digital music …
Read More »Dance music superstar Avicii dead at 28
New York, United States | AFP | Avicii, one of the world’s most successful DJs who helped usher in the global boom in electronic music but struggled to cope in the hard-partying lifestyle, died Friday in Oman, his representative said. He was 28. Two years after his unusually early retirement …
Read More »Tanzanian pop star Diamond Platinumz arrested over ‘indecent’ pictures
Nairobi, Kenya | AFP | Popular Tanzanian musician Diamond Platinumz has been arrested for publishing “indecent” photographs on social media, the information minister told parliament on Tuesday. Since Monday images have circulated on social networks showing the 28-year-old singer, shirtless and in bed with a female companion. “Among our …
Read More »Top music videos including ‘Despacito’ defaced by hackers
New York, United States | AFP | Some of the most popular music videos on YouTube including mega-hit “Despacito” momentarily disappeared Tuesday in an apparent hacking. Fans looking for videos by top artists including Drake, Katy Perry and Taylor Swift found the footage removed and replaced by messages that included “Free …
Read More »Music lessons improve academic performance
Cognitive skills developed from music lessons appear to transfer to unrelated subjects, leading to improved academic performance Kampala, Uganda | AGENCIES | The first large-scale, longitudinal study adapted into the regular school curriculum finds that structured music lessons significantly enhance children’s cognitive abilities — including language-based reasoning, short-term memory, planning and …
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