Blake Shelton, Kelly Clarkson, Alicia Keys and Adam Levine share Sinatra and Simone classics in the B&W clip
By Scott T. Sterling
The stars of The Voice are throwing it back to the Rat Pack
Alicia Keys, Blake Shelton, Kelly Clarkson and Adam Levine have teamed up for a stylish new promo clip featuring the singers taking on retro classics in a throwback nightclub setting
The stylized black & white video opens with Levine and Shelton trading onstage banter at the Las Vegas Sands Casino before launching into a spirited take on jazz standard “Fly Me to the Moon,” best known as performed by Frank Sinatra.
Clarkson and Keys are seen enjoying the show in the audience before Levine welcomes them to the stage. The pair team up for a sultry rendition of Nina Simone‘s “Feeling Good.”
Céline Dion breaks down crying while singing ‘All By Myself’
Since her return to Vegas, Céline Dion has paid tribute to her late husband René Angélil onstage with their children and her golden cast of his hand.
Additional footage surfaced of Dion’s return performance and shows the “My Heart Will Go On” singer crying mid-concert after performing “All By Myself” for the first time since Angelil’s passing.
It appears that the lyrics from her hit single cued her emotions that evening. The heartfelt message of the song still resonates with the singer two decades after its 1996 release.
“Don’t want to be … all by myself,” Dion belts out before covering her eyes with her hands.
While Dion was getting choked up after reciting those fateful words, audience members cheered her on as the music continued to play. The songstress took her time finishing the song.
During her first appearance since her husband’s passing, Dion was overcome with emotion more than once.
Blues legend B.B. King died peacefully in his sleep Thursday night, May 14, 2015, at his home in Las Vegas. He was 89. King won 15 Grammy Awards, released more than 50 albums, sold millions of records worldwide and was inducted into both the Blues Foundation Hall of Fame and the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. King performed more than 100 shows a year into his 80’s and was a mentor to countless musicians including Eric Clapton.
He’s perhaps best known for his song “The Thrill is Gone.”
Mississippi’s own B.B. King
Riley B. King (September 16, 1925 – May 14, 2015), known by his stage name B.B. King, was an American blues singer, songwriter and guitarist.
Rolling Stone ranked King number 6 on its 2011 list of the 100 greatest guitarists of all time (previously ranked number 3 in the 2003 edition of the same list). He was ranked No. 17 in Gibson’s “Top 50 Guitarists of All Time“. According to Edward M. Komara, King “introduced a sophisticated style of soloing based on fluid string bending and shimmering vibrato that would influence virtually every electric blues guitarist that followed.”
King was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1987.
He is considered one of the most influential blues musicians of all time, earning the nickname “The King of the Blues“, and one of the “Three Kings of the Blues Guitar” (along with Albert King and Freddie King).
King was also known for performing tirelessly throughout his musical career, appearing at more than 200 concerts per year on average into his 70’s. In 1956, he reportedly appeared at 342 shows.
In 1990, King was awarded the National Medal of Arts by President George H.W. Bush. In 2006, he received the Presidential Medal of Freedom from President George W. Bush. He is widely regarded as one of the most influential blues guitarists of all time, inspiring countless other electric blues and blues rock guitarists.
Born and raised by underpaid public school teachers in Sanford, Fla., Andy Marlette graduated from the University of Florida and became staff editorial cartoonist at the Pensacola News Journal in 2007.
Marlette received a priceless editorial cartoon education while living with his uncle and Pulitzer Prize-winning cartoonist Doug Marlette in Hillsborough, N.C.
Doug’s tragic death in July of 2007 made evermore poignant the elder Marlette’s fierce and faithful devotion to the art form of editorial cartooning as a cornerstone of American free speech. With this in mind, Andy works daily to learn and uphold the disciplines and values passed on to him by his late uncle.
Grab a tissue and watch this tearjerker video of Ellen hosting the two male high school students – one gay, one straight – who are going to their prom together because they’re best friends.
Anthony Martinez didn’t have a date for the prom. What his straight friend Jacob Lescenski did about that surprised everyone.
Ellen knew she had to hear their incredible story.
“You’re hella gay, I’m hella str8, but you’re like my brother so be my d8!,” Jacob wrote on a sign happily held by friends.
Those friends and many more rented a bus to join Anthony and Jacob on Wednesday on “The Ellen Show,” where Ellen DeGeneres interviewed the best friends and commended them for being great role models.
She also handed each of them a $10,000 check for their education, to help reinforce and show the world that gay or straight, nothing beats friendship.
Grab a tissue and watch this awesome video!
Ellen DeGeneres had a generous surprise in store this week for the gay-straight “couple” whose colorful proposal went viral last week in the blogosphere.
DeGeneres rewarded Jacob Lescenski and Anthony Martinez, who are juniors at the Desert Oasis High School in Las Vegas, Nevada, with a check for $10,000 each for the headline-making gesture.
“I just wanted to say I know that there are some schools out there that don’t support this and wouldn’t allow this to happen and it’s really a shame because prom is very important to a lot of people,”
she gushed in the interview, video of which can be found.
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Lescenski, who is straight, revealed that he was initially apprehensive after he learned that the openly gay Martinez had a crush on him.
Still, the two struck up a seemingly unlikely friendship.
“At first I was kinda scared,” he said in the interview. “I didn’t support gay rights then, but I also wasn’t against them … [but] Anthony, actually, was the reason that I began to support gay rights. He’s such a convincing person, he can convince anyone of anything. He’s such a great speaker.”
Anthony Martinez didn’t have a date for the prom. What his straight friend Jacob Lescenski did about that surprised everyone. Ellen knew she had to hear their incredible story.
I must have been hiding under a rock. I’m a fervent Celine Dion fan and have always wanted to see her singing live. I heard that she wasn’t playing Caesar’s Palace in Las Vegas but didn’t really follow up on why and for how long.
I knew that her husband, Rene Angelil, had battled cancer before but I wasn’t aware of the seriousness of his medical condition until I found the video included below.
My heart is sad for Celine and her family.
I hope the best for them and wish for a recovery.
Celine Dion’s husband, Rene Angelil, is struggling through throat cancer treatment, and Celine recently opened up in a tearful interview to speak about their living life “one day at a time.”
“We’re choosing to live.” Those simple words say everything that Celine has been willing to do for her husband, Rene, 74, who has been struggling with cancer since 1999. After initial treatments, a tumor was discovered in his throat years later, and he underwent a procedure to have it removed in 2013.
Since then, things have been a long, uphill battle for Rene, Celine and their three children. Now, Celine has taken on the duties of being Rene’s caretaker in regards to feeding him daily, and that constitutes work with a feeding tube. Celine has been open and honest about her fears of losing Rene, as he has been so instrumental in all aspects of her life. He championed her career.
For fans of Celine, they’re well aware that she has put her career on hiatus to play caretaker to her family, and because she herself was struggling with a throat issue in 2014. She hit pause on her Las Vegas residency in July of last year, and is planning to resume her show in August of 2015.
There is something delightfully weird about Celine. And no, that’s not an insult–it’s a compliment. Weird meaning spiritual/uncanny. Say what you will about some of her antics being steeped in different cultural understanding, and sub-culture of that culture, but the woman can sing like the best of songbirds.
“When I stopped performing, I wanted to be just a wife and a mother,” she says. And the Canadian songstress did just that, caring for her husband and the couple’s three sons – René-Charles, 14, and twins Eddy and Nelson, 4.
However, at Angélil’s urging, they began planning her comeback and continued to do so after they found out he was diagnosed with cancer for a third time.
Says Dion, tearing up: “He wants me to sing again, and I want to do this with him.”
Indeed Angélil – who remains unable to speak due to extensive throat surgery, has difficulty hearing because of past radiation treatments and eats three times a day through a feeding tube – will be her biggest fan at her debut.
“René will be in the audience,” says Dion, 46, about opening night. “I promise there will be high, happy notes, but it’s going to be very emotional for me.”
“Hello, my name is Roger Ridley and I was in the “JOY” business. I was born in Lumpkin, Georgia, a small town near Atlanta. My career started in elementary school when I sang in a school program to get out of English class. I moved to New York City in 1964 and launched my professional career with Maley & The Isles as the lead singer, the first of many times as a singer.
At the age of 26 I married and became a father of three, two girls and one boy. They too are musically talented and sing with much feeling and authority. While I was playing in many clubs around New York City and throughout the tri-state area, the Ridley genius also ran deeply in the house.
I come from a musical family, “all my life I have been surrounded by music: my mother, my sisters and brothers are all singers and my father played the guitar, a little.
My goals were to share my music and songs with the world. “I pray these goals have been accomplished.” I thank God and appreciate the fact that I have the ability to draw crowds wherever I perform whether it be on the city streets, in the subways, concerts, street fairs or the night clubs.
On March 29, 1997 I moved to Las Vegas, Nevada where I performed in a show about street musicians called “Madhattan” produced by Kenneth Feld. After one years of the show running it closed and a close friend of mine introduced me to the 3rd street Promenade in Santa Monica California and all of a sudden I was back to performing in front of millions of people, a diversified audience with one thing in common, good music.
On November 16, 2005 my Lord and Savior called me home and I had to go. I have made my mark and am very satisfied in knowing that my family is keeping my music alive.
Roger Ridley and his music embody everything that music is: soul, perseverance, and talent. He has often been called “the voice of God” by the other street musicians on the 3rd Street Promenade in Santa Monica, California. His dedication to his audience is clear, traveling from his home in Las Vegas, Nevada to his spot in Santa Monica every Saturday and giving his best performance before returning home that night.
It was Roger’s performance of Stand By Me that sent Playing for Change off on its mission to connect the world through music by adding other musicians to his recording.
Directly from the YouTube video description … Playing for Change YouTube channel
“Sending you love from your worldwide PFC Family. Today we are proud beyond words to bring back our hero, the voice that started our first ever Song Around The World, “Stand By Me“, many years ago on the streets in Santa Monica, CA. Roger Ridley inspired us from the very beginning, and his music continues to inspire as we share this with you 9 years and 95 Episodes later.
When I first met Roger, I had no idea we would collaborate on something that would reach so many people and help them feel more connected as a human race. Today we are growing the PFC family all over the world and thanks to Roger, all of you, and music everywhere, we can see that if we stand by each other everything is going to be alright. Turn up this classic medley of “Tears on My Pillow” and “You Send Me“, the final PFC video featuring Roger Ridley, and for a moment find peace in your heart and in your world. Music is the Key.
RIP Roger, we LOVE you and your music shines as bright as the sun.”
From the award-winning documentary, “Playing For Change: Peace Through Music“, comes “Stand By Me“, the first of many Songs Around The World produced by Playing For Change. This Ben E. King classic features musicians around the world recorded by the Playing For Change team during their travels. This song continues to remind us that music has the power to break down boundaries and overcome distances between people.
It Is What It Is 