Free Republic

Aussie pop princess Kylie Minogue is reportedly considering converting to Catholicism so that she can marry her Spanish boyfriend Andres Valencoso in a traditional church wedding. The 41-year-old singer has been dating Valencoso since last November and is said to be planning to tie the knot in Spain at the Parador de Cardona, a 9th century castle on the Costa Brava. However, the pop diva will have to adopt her beau''s faith to be able to stage her dream wedding in a church with proper religious rites. "She enjoyed the sense of community Andres'' family share thanks to their faith,”...

Clay Aiken is no fan of fellow Idol runner-up Adam Lambert. "Now that it's all over, and for the record... I couldn't be happier about the way AI ended this year," the Season 2 second-place finisher wrote on his official fan site. Look back at the most controversial Idol contestants of all time. "I only turn the show on once a season, and only to see what the set looks like each year. This year, I happened to turn it during the minute that Adam Lambert was singing 'Ring of Fire' and, at that moment, thought my ears would bleed....

Former Russian president and apparent avid Abba-fan Vladimir Putin paid £20,000 ($29,000) to fly an Abba cover band from the UK to Russia to perform a private concert for him at a remote resort. "It was the most bizarre gig I have ever done," said Jennifer Robb of the Björn Again Abba-cover band to the Daily Telegraph newspaper. Plans for the concert, which took place on January 22nd at Lake Valdai resort, nine hours outside Moscow began taking shape sometime before Christmas when Björn Again founder Rod Stephens received a mysterious phone call. "The voice on the end of the...

Well, actually, maybe it would’ve been an “important” endorsement 25 years ago? This is video of James Duke Mason, son of 1980’s pop sensation Belinda Carlisle and former Reagan administration official Morgan Mason (who is the son of legendary actor James Mason) — telling the world that his Mom Belinda is endorsing Hillary Clinton! Heaven IS a Place on Earth, Hillary!

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Warner Music Group Corp, the world's third-largest music company, on Thursday posted a 58 percent drop in quarterly profit, hurt by an industry-wide slump in CD sales, as more fans bought songs online. Although Warner's revenue rose 2 percent to $869 million in its fiscal fourth quarter, it declined 2 percent when taking out the impact of the weaker dollar. The company also posted weaker international sales, particularly in the United Kingdom. Digital music revenue was up 25 percent at $130 million during the quarter, but this could not make up for the short-fall in compact...

Superstar MICHAEL JACKSON is set to receive a $10 million paycheque - just for attending the birthday party of a Brunei royal. Prince Azim is planning to celebrate his 25th birthday in an English country estate this weekend and has paid Jackson to be the guest of honour - even though he is aware the Thriller hitmaker won't sing. A source tells British newspaper the Daily Mirror, "Absolutely no expense is being spared for his party - Michael Jackson is his all-time idol and he said he'd pay whatever it took to get him over. "Even though Michael isn't performing,...

Sweden's first museum dedicated to Abba has come a step closer to realization, after the group behind the plan found a location on the quayside in the heart of Stockholm. The new museum, due to open to visitors in spring 2009, will be housed in a former customs office, after a deal was reached with Stockholm City Council, which owns the building. The story of the Swedish band - the third most successfull musical act of all time, after the Beatles and Elvis - will be told through exhibitions on three floors. The museum promises to go easy on dusty...

Jenny, they've got your number in a legal battle ASSOCIATED PRESS May 20, 2007 LINCOLN, R.I. – One-hit wonder Tommy Tutone made the phone number 867-5309 famous in the band's 1982 hit single, which uses the digits over and over in its catchy refrain. Now, a Rhode Island company and a national firm are battling over the right to use the number, which doesn't reach the “Jenny” that Tutone sings about but could find callers a decent plumber. Two years ago, Gem Plumbing & Heating of Lincoln, R.I., trademarked the phone number from the song, which reached No. 4 on...

Kenting packed as Spring Scream begins 2007/4/6 The China Post staff Hotels rooms in the resort area of Kenting in Pingtung County are nearly all booked as people prepared to attend a series of concert events headlined by Spring Scream which began last night. Reports said that revelers have resorted to seeking accommodation in campgrounds as hotels have hiked their room rates under high demand. The annual Spring Scream music and arts festival kicked off last night at two locations in Kenting, Erluanbi National Park and Kentington Resort in Manchou and will run until Saturday. Organizers said that over 250...

In the 2000 film "Almost Famous," young William Miller (Patrick Fugit), the stand-in for writer-director Cameron Crowe, somehow turns his first assignment for Rolling Stone into a month-long trek across the country with the mythic band Stillwater, transforming a rote profile into a star-making cover story while pausing just long enough for a tryst with three gorgeous "Band Aids" (Fairuza Balk, Anna Paquin and Bijou Phillips). If that really was life for the magazine's journalists in the '70s -- and Crowe swears his movie is accurately autobiographical -- it certainly isn't anymore. "Dude, this looks like Enron or something," says...

Britney Spears is to be investigated by social service officials concerned about the welfare of her children, it has been reported. The Los Angeles Department of Children and Family Services is apparently trying to track down the singer for a meeting. Miss Spears, 25, split from her second husband, Kevin Federline, last month, and since then has been a fixture on the Hollywood party circuit. She has been photographed – minus her underwear – at nightclubs in Los Angeles and Las Vegas, alongside socialites Paris Hilton and Lindsay Lohan. According to newspapers in the U.S., authorities fear she is failing...

Given his legacy as the key songwriter and conceptualist for Pink Floyd, one of the most theatrical bands in rock history, fans could expect that Roger Waters' show at the First Midwest Bank Amphitheatre on Friday would be a visual tour de force. Considering his infamous perfectionism, it was a given, too, that the sound and musicianship would be top-notch, especially since half of the set would be devoted to the 1973 audiophile masterpiece, "The Dark Side of the Moon." What came as a surprise was that Waters' three-hour performance in Tinley Park packed such an emotional wallop in the...

A mature, modest and (almost) scandal-free George Michael took the stage in his first solo concert in 15 years. But the pop star couldn't resist making another controversial dig at George Bush. At the end of the first set Michael sang his 2002 controversial anti-Bush song "Shoot the Dog."

WASHINGTON -- Raleigh native Clay Aiken has been appointed to serve on the President's Committee for People with Intellectual Disabilities. President George W. Bush named 12 people to the panel. Aiken, a pop singer and former "American Idol" contestant, is also well known for his work on behalf of people with autism. He launched the Bubel Aiken Foundation, which focuses on helping children with disabilities.

Thanks to the Libertines, the audience now think it's their right to charge the stage. Dave Simpson on rowdy bands, unruly fans and riotous gigs [snip] The crowd suddenly started killing each other," he sighs. "Bottles were getting smashed over people's heads. Bodies flying everywhere. It was pure chaos." Drummer Mince Fratelli took refuge in the women's toilets, while the ill and bewildered singer was escorted from the dressing room by a policeman. You won't see this sort of thing in stadiums, where crowd barriers and security teams hold sway, but small to medium-sized venues are increasingly having to deal...

The celebrities will be on risers along the side of the hall, while the main floor, emptied of seats, will be given over to fans, to roam and hoot and jeer as they please. Which raises the question: What if some wild fan abandons his network-designated station and rushes toward the beautiful people? “He should be encouraged at all points to storm the stage and to create a television moment that people will talk about at the water cooler the next day,” said Hamish Hamilton, one of the producers. “Or even better, that people will download and put on...

Heikki Saukkomaa/Lehtikuva, for International Herald TribuneThe band Lordi won a nationwide competition to represent Finland at the Eurovision song contest this year. HELSINKI, Finland — They have eight-foot retractable latex Satan wings, sing hits like "Chainsaw Buffet" and blow up slabs of smoking meat on stage. So members of the band Lordi expected a reaction when they beat a crooner of love ballads to represent Finland at the Eurovision song contest in Athens, the competition that was the springboard for Abba and Celine Dion. But the heavy-metal monster band did not imagine a national identity crisis. First, Finnish religious...

1) “And there’s a wino down the road” -- Led Zeppelin’s Stairway To Heaven 2) "Tempted by the fruit of your mother" -- Squeeze's Tempted 3) “All your Cocoa Puffs. Eat them, eat them all up, yum!” -- Santana’s Oyo Coma Va

"After three years of marriage, and careful thought and consideration, we have decided to part ways," the couple said in a statement Wednesday. "This is the mutual decision of two people with an enormous amount of respect and admiration for each other. We hope that you respect our privacy during this difficult time."

http://www.townhall.com/phillysoc/bartlettpaper.htm Conservative Pop Music-- The Top 40 of the Top 40 Bruce Bartlett Full Text of Speech to be given at The Philadelphia Society Regional Meeting in Cleveland, Ohio, September 21, 2002. Pop music is probably one of the last places a conservative would normally look for reinforcement of his worldview. Rock and roll, which has dominated pop music since the 1950s, is inexorably associated with liberalism in the minds of many conservatives. But in fact, there have been a significant number of songs on the pop charts during the rock era that are explicitly conservative. I have compiled a...