Richard Branson Talks About Hurricane Irma

September 2017 - Hurricane Irma has left behind a trail of unimaginable destruction and has caused the entire British Virgin Islands (BVI) infrastructure to collapse. People need help rebuilding their lives and there is an immediate and critical need for food, water and shelter.

Communications from the BVI have been challenging since the hurricane hit and Richard has been sharing all updates via his blog. 

In his first interview since Hurricane Irma and as another hurricane approaches the area, Richard shares his experience of Irma, how he and his teams are working to support those affected and what now needs to happen to help the community survive and recover.

While many expats have left, the local people have nowhere to go. They need the world's attention now. That’s why Virgin Unite, Unite BVI and Virgin Limited Edition have launched the BVI Community Support Appeal to raise vital funds to help those devastated by the hurricane. 

This appeal is not for Necker Island or Moskito Island – it is about helping the local communities of the British Virgin Islands with basic survival and recovery.

For more information, please contact Tamara Bennett (Tamara.Bennett@virgin.com) Head of Media Relations, Virgin Management

Source:digitalnewsagency

Bieber Wants To Stay Friends, And Beyoncé Gets Academic.

 

Justin Bieber with Bloodpop - Friends You know what they say. Never trust Greeks bearing gifts, and never trust an ex who calls up to ask how your mum is doing. 

They always want to be more than friends, no matter how much interest Justin is showing when he sings “did she get the job she wanted?” So then, Friends is a counterpoint to Sorry, where it’s six months later and it’s time to try and pick up the pieces. Bloodpop keeps their eyes on the prize (he’s worked with Grimes, Haim, Gaga and Beyoncé fyi), dropping layerd synths into the mix, and we’re already waiting for theYouTube acoustic cover versions.   

Hero of the week is Sam Smith, who posted a cryptic message to hisInstagram promising fans new music shortly. “To all my beautiful fans, first of all I want to say thank you. Thank you for being so patient and for letting me have the past year to really escape into my mind & write music so freely. I feel so rejuvenated and have so many stories I can’t wait to tell you.” 

Meanwhile, students in Copenhagen University can take a course called “Beyoncé, Gender and Race”. Course leader Prof Erik Steinskog told Danish TV channel TV2: “Beyonce is important in understanding the world we live in. [She] is one of the biggest pop artists today, which makes her important in an analysis of contemporary times.” 

He went on, “she’s a controversial feminist, which is crucial. She makes us consider what it means to be a feminist, or what it can mean, but her feminism is addressed to a non-academic audience. It is hard not to be impressed. She is extremely good at what she does. Life is too short to work with music I don’t like.”

Zero of the week is the we’ll-believe-it-when-we-see-it news that Adele is eyeing up a role in Oliver! the musical. The Sun reports a source saying: “It would be a major part for her and she’s seriously considering it . . . It would be a new challenge for her but one that she would definitely be up for.”

Source: irishtimes

Meek Mill & The-Dream Perform Politically Charged 'Young Black America' on 'The Tonight Show: Watch

On Wins & Losses, Meek Mill departs from his signature braggadocio and gets personal on one of the more standout tracks from the offering "Young Black America," a vivid narrative (featuring The-Dream) of the struggles the rapper endured and witnessed on his rise to stardom.

 On Thursday night (August 17), Meek Mill hit the Tonight Show stage to deliver a rousing rendition of the timely, socially conscious cut. With the current state of unrest following the violence that transpired in Charlottesville, North Carolina, last weekend, Meek's performance couldn't have arrived at a better time.

 Moody lights set the tone as the rapper closes his eyes and reflects on his experiences backed by a soulful, stripped-down accompaniment courtesy of The Roots. "White man kill a black man, they never report us/ Black man kill a white man, they gon' start a war up/Mama she was tore up, sippin' on the Absolut/ Young n----s brainwashed, they just wanna rap and hoop,'" he raps. The performance ends with The-Dream joining Meek on stage to deliver his verse. 

Also Read: Meek Mill Talks New Album, Feuds And Film Endeavors

Shortly after appearing on The Tonight Show, Mill was arrested for reckless endangerment after police came across a video of the rapper riding his dirt bike recklessly throughout in NYC. "That level of investigation is normally reserved for heinous crimes, not for petty offenses like doing a wheelie on the street where you're endangering no one's life but your own," Mill's lawyer, Joseph Tacopina,told NY Daily News. 

"It really stinks of obvious targeting an individual who is a celebrity and maybe who law enforcement don't like, and it's not what the system is supposed to be about.

Watch Meek Mill and The-Dream perform "Young Black America" below. 

Source: billboard

World of Dance Winners Les Twins 'Couldn't Even Breathe' As Scores Were Announced

World of Dance concluded its first season Tuesday night with a near-photo finish, as French hip-hop duo Les Twins edged out Eva Igo, a 14-year-old contemporary dancer from Minnesota, and won the $1 million prize by a mere two-tenths of a point.

Despite their disparate experiences — Les Twins has toured with Beyoncé while Igo is, well, a 14-year-old girl — Laurent Nicolas Bourgeois, one-half of Les Twins, admits he and his brother Larry were nervous as the results were revealed. “We knew America will watch this TV show, and it’s hard for Les Twins to lose to a little girl,” he said. “We were stressed out a little bit. We couldn’t even breathe when our names were announced as the winner.”

While Les Twins may have scored high every week and skated through round after round of competition, Larry says the previous week — after Laure

injured his Achilles but they wound up performing with him in a wheelchair — was the most difficult. “It was not easy to see him in the wheelchair,” Larry said. “I had the hardest week ever.”

In asking about the experience of performing on the show, both brothers continued to go back to how much they enjoyed working with some of their competitors, saying they teared up saying goodbye to tap dancer Kyle Van Newkirk and joking that Igo “taught us so much.”

“Behind the scenes on World of Dance, you want to win, but you still want the help people,” Larry explained. “My brother was helping so many crews on the side that my mother would tell him, like, ‘Don’t do that. It’s not your job. You’re all here for the same reason.'”

“She reminded me and my brother it was for a million dollars!” Laurent added.

As for what they’ll do with that cash, both gentlemen have lofty dreams (a restaurant, a nightclub, a clothing line — the list goes on), but together, “we’re focused on a project in music and performance,” Laurent said. In fact, they released a single, “What Happened,” on iTunes earlier this week.
Source: ew.com

New song ‘Pere’ shows that OBO cannot escape his Sony deal, he must deliver

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Davido

 (Pigeons & Planes)

Who said Davido is done with his campaign for international recognition? Who said OBO is going to let his deal with Sony go to waste? Who said what?

OBO is back with a new record – ‘Pere’ – featuring Young Thugand Rae Sremmund. We always knew this collaboration is in the bag, but no one had an idea when it would hit the streets. According to Davido, he has three songs with Young Thug which were recorded in 2016 during the height of his Sony campaign. Rae Sremmund duo (Swae Lee and Slim Jxmmi) were also pictured with him in the studio, as well as Tinashe.

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Davido and Rae Sremmurd collaborated on a record titled 'Pere'.

 (Davido/Instagram)

Tinashe had hers released last year, with ‘How long’ promoted as one of the singles off the polarizing “Son Of Mercy” project. But the project did little to further Davido’s career, both locally and internationally, and he had to chill. After multiple negotiations with Sony, he clawed back creative control in January 2017, and has since scored local hits with singles ‘If’ and ‘Fall’.

This is where it gets interesting. Without Sony executives influencing his sound, Davido has thrived. His career is back on  track, the hits have elevated his status back to one of Africa’s brightest pop stars, and he feels this is the time to bring back the international campaign. The confidence is at its peak, and a little mixing won’t hurt, right?

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Davido with Tinashe

 (Instagram)

New song ‘Pere’ is a fusion of Trap music with African elements. Davido has always been in love with Atlanta and the music that rules its streets. In 2015, he collaborated with Meek Mill on ‘Fans mi’, another Trap record which polarized fans. The same happened with his work on ‘Coolest kid in Africa’, and Nasty C’s ‘Juice back’.

Produced by DJ Mustard, the record has Davido operating comfortably along synths, muscular drums, and claps. He takes on the chorus, plugs in the Yoruba language, with a refrain from Swae Lee, and verses from Slim Jxmmi and Young Thug.

At the start of 2017, an unhappy Davido fired his manager Kamal Ajiboye and declared that he was done with the international campaign. “Back to the basics!” he screamed on Snapchat as he commenced work on ‘If’. But having enjoyed the benefit of the ‘basics’, he is right back to what he was running away from.

"They tried to fix me up with a producer and I decided to come home, but I’m still signed to them, it’s going good. They have realized how much potential is here because even when I am all over the world it is my African songs that even the oyibo people f*** with,” Davido told Guardian.

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Davido in 'Fall' video

 (Twitter)

‘Pere’ sits in perfectly with what Sony Music’s A&R executives have been trying to do with Davido. Gone is all that talk about ‘going back to the basics’. What we have now is a record designed outside Nigeria for the urban market. It’s a compromise that was inevitable the moment Davido showed up at the Sony offices in New York, smiling into the camera and signing the papers placed on the table. He is under contract, he has taken an advance, and he must deliver.

Davido still owes Sony an album to be recorded, approved, released and distributed across the globe. And ‘Pere’ might just be a single to continue the quest to achieve that. It is inevitable. That album must come out.

But we also shouldn’t ignore the bottom-line of this record and what it represents. The push for African artist to integrate our sounds with other markets is still on. Wizkid has “Sounds From The Other Side” representing that movement on a larger scale. Davido is working on fulfilling the terms of his contracts by international collaboration such as what we have here.

Let’s all join hands and scream “Africa to the world!”

Source:pulse.ng

Inside the hipster megachurch that may have lured Justin Bieber out of music

Come to Jesus: Justin Bieber may be about to form his own church CREDIT: SAMIR HUSSEIN/SAMIR HUSSEIN/REDFERNS

•  Adam White 

28 JULY 2017 • 1:47PM

When news broke that Justin Bieber had rededicated his life to Christ and become significantly involved in an increasingly powerful modern mega-church, it likely conjured up all kinds of images of atonement, solemnity and prayer. But rather Bieber has been a regular associate of late with an all-together different sort of preacher to the one drummed into our heads through stereotypical film and TV.

Picture an extra-Jesusy Adam Levine and you'll get some idea of the magnetic, sort-of-sleazy charm of Pastor Carl Lentz, a man just as likely to spritz you with facial misting spray on a shirtless hike as he is to launch into a soft-rock Christian hymn.

The pair have been practically attached at the hip for several years, with Lentz reportedly eager to turn the endlessly searching Bieber into the Tom Cruise of their controversial megachurch. Lentz is one of the faces of Hillsong, a Pentecostal church that originated in Australia and has grown into a powerful religious organisation with chapters located across the world. There are currently seven based in the UK.

Also Read: Charlie Gard, Baby Whose Parents Battled Hospital Over Treatment, Dies

Unlike your father's Christian preachers, with their checked shirts and neat hair, these youth-targeted Christians seem to have materialised in an Urban Outfitters stock room explosion, rarely found without their leather jackets, hipster beanies or gold chains. Their online store resembles the web presence of any cool, teen-centric fashion house, they run their own record label, and perform celebrity baptisms in enormous bathtubs belonging to New York basketball stars.

Bieber, Pastor Carl Lentz and Lil Wayne are photographed together last year CREDIT:INSTAGRAM

Founded in 1983 by Australian pastor Brian Houston, Hillsong (formerly the Hills Christian Life Centre until 1999) grew in popularity throughout the decade. It became a Christian music powerhouse in the early 1990s, even surviving a scandal in which Houston's father Frank, a Pentecostal pastor, confessed to molesting a 7-year-old boy – leading to numerous other men coming forward with similar accusations about Houston.

But it's been in the past decade that the church has evolved to directly target teens. While Brian Houston's son, "Pastor Joel" Houston is a leading presence within the church, it has been Lentz that has become Hillsong's central figure-head, luring in thousands with his apparent approachability, designer facial hair and Saint Laurent duds.

That eagerness for Instagram cool stems to its high-profile followers, too. While those most famously attached to Scientology, from Cruise to John Travolta to Kirstie Alley, can't help but look like 1980s relics, Hillsong's celebrity fans read like a who's-who of your teenager's Instagram feed. Selena Gomez, Hailee Steinfeld, Cody Simpson, Hailey Baldwin and Kendall and Kylie Jenner have all been spotted at Hillsong concerts and services.

Despite their liberal sheen, however, many of Hillsong's values are traditionally conservative – they are anti-abortion, believe creationism and Intelligent Design should be taught in schools, and are against homosexual relationships. When a male leader in one of Hillsong's New York choirs was revealed to be in a same-sex relationship with one of the choir's singers, they were reportedly dismissed from their roles. As a result, the apparently sex-positive, LGBT-friendly values espoused by many of Hillsong's most high-profile celebrity followers seem slightly hypocritical.

Lentz's means of defending the church's conservative leanings, as explained in a must-read 2015 profile of the church in GQ Magazine, will be familiar to anyone that has tried to rectify religious faith with social liberalism.

The Hillsong online store resembles any teen-oriented fashion house

"These two men in particular are amazing human beings," Lentz said, referencing the dismissed gay leaders. "And they are going through a really amazing journey called life. Yes, their sexuality is involved with it, but it's not as cut-and-dry as you think it is. And if they make a decision to live as gay men, they are going to get married, our stance in this church is there's going to be a limited involvement when it comes to leadership, because you don't believe what I believe.

"This would create friction that wouldn't be fair to the people that we're serving. If you believe that homosexuality is God's will for your life, and I disagree, well, what if you're a leader and, you know, a young man comes up to you, and he has questions about his sexuality? What are you going to tell him? What I believe or what you believe?"

Bieber prepares to clasp his hands in prayer on the cover of his last album, PurposeCREDIT: DEF JAM VIA AP

While there has yet to be confirmation as to the reasons behind Bieber's recent cancellation of his remaining tour dates, showbiz reporters have claimed that Bieber is in the midst of a spiritual reawakening – a reaction to years of dodgy behaviour from the pint-sized warbler. Some have even suggested he may be looking to form his own church all-together.

"I am led to believe that the real reason he has come off the road is because he wants to reconnect with his faith and he may be even planning to start his own church," Australian journalist Richard Wilkins told Today Extra (via The Sun). "We know that he was in the country a few weeks ago having meetings and attending the big Hillsong Church convention that they had here.

Bieber floats in the air while attached to angel wings during his 2013 tour CREDIT: LEWIS WHYLD/PA WIRE

"[He's] very close to a lot of the Hillsong people. Whether he's looking at teaming up with them in something of a more permanent situation or doing some sort of religious activity on his own – starting his own church – we're not quite sure, but that's the word from an inside source."

So, parents of the world, be warned. While you're used by now to warning your children off talking to strangers over the internet or the emotional rollercoaster that is social media, something just as scary may be lurking on the horizon – religious sermonising from Justin Bieber, directly into his Instagram feed. 

Source: 

Justin Bieber Cancels Remaining ‘Purpose’ Tour Dates

After 154 shows, Justin Bieber is bowing out of the remaining 15 dates of his “Purpose” world tour,Variety has confirmed. According to a source, the pop star made the call on his own after much consideration. “It wasn’t a decision made overnight,” says an insider. “He’s had some time off and was able to consider his commitments.” To cancel the remainder of the tour, which was headed to Asia in addition to more U.S. dates, was doable seeing as some tickets went on sale as recently as one week ago, so refunds will be available quickly.

Bieber’s called off dates follow a similar move by Adele, who canceled the last two shows of her world tour scheduled for London’s Wembley Arena, where 100,000 fans were expected nightly. “On medical advice I simply am unable to perform over the weekend,” she wrote in a post on Facebook. “To say I’m heart broken would be a complete understatement.

”Bieber has not yet commented on social media and reps for the singer were also unavailable
for comment.

Through the first half of 2017, Bieber’s tour grossed $93.2 million with average per date ticket sales of 38,297, according to concert industry trade Pollstar. Bieber will likely face penalties for the U.S. dates, which are typically not insured against cancelation without a medical reason or a “Force Majeure,” which is defined as an unforeseeable circumstance that prevents someone from fulfilling a contract — 
like a war or political instability that could put an artist in danger.
A source confirms TMZ’s earlier story that Bieber was “just over it.”

Source:http://variety.com