Greyson comes out

Greyson Chance, the singer who, as a 12-year-old, received international attention after his cover of Lady Gaga’s “Paparazzi” went viral, has come out as gay in a recent Instagram post.

Chance, now 19, said he “fully realized” he’s gay when he was 16, but decided not to publicize it as a “matter of privacy.”

“I was still trying to find comfort and confidence within my own skin,” he wrote.

Greyson added: “I encourage anyone who [is] navigating their sexuality to devote as much time as they need to the process of finding self-confidence, self-acceptance and self-love.” —ALLAN POLICARPIO

source: entertainment.inquirer.net

Stars slam ‘bathroom bill’

Oscar winner Jennifer Lawrence and musicians Lady Gaga and Alicia Keys are among more than 140 artists and celebrities condemning a Texas “bathroom bill,” targeting transgender people.

Britney Spears and late-night host Jimmy Kimmel also signed a letter on Tuesday criticizing the Republican-backed efforts as a “denial of basic human dignity.” The bill would require people to use bathrooms that correspond to the sex on their birth certificate.

It’s similar to a North Carolina law that prompted rockers Pearl Jam and Bruce Springsteen to cancel concerts in that state last year.

The Texas bill has yet to receive even a preliminary vote but public pressure is ratcheting up.

Last week, the NFL suggested that Texas could be passed over for future Super Bowl sites if the proposal became law.

source: entertainment.inquirer.net

Lady Gaga to sing at Super Bowl, Grammys

LOS ANGELES, United States—Lady Gaga will perform at two of February’s most-watched events as she sings the national anthem at the Super Bowl and leads a tribute to David Bowie at the Grammys.

The National Football League announced that Lady Gaga would sing “The Star-Spangled Banner” at Super Bowl 50 on Sunday in San Francisco, where British rockers Coldplay will be the halftime entertainment.

The Super Bowl is often the most-watched television event each year in the United States, and the league generally seeks out non-controversial performers.

Lady Gaga has increasingly traded her ostentatious stage persona to focus on singing pop classics, performing duets with 89-year-old Tony Bennett.

Lady Gaga turns 30 next month and plans to release an album in 2016.

While the National Football League rarely picks artists known for controversy, their performances can draw intense scrutiny as when Christina Aguilera botched lyrics in the national anthem in 2011.

Lady Gaga was separately announced Tuesday as a performer at the Grammy Awards on February 15 where she will lead a tribute to Bowie.

Gaga will perform “a multisensory testament to the icon’s incredible artistry and a reflection of his limitless creativity,” the Recording Academy said in a statement.

The tribute will be directed by Nile Rodgers of Chic fame, a longtime friend of Bowie who produced his disco-infused 1983 album “Let’s Dance.”

Bowie, one of the most influential figures in pop music history who invented glam rock before experimenting in soul, electronica and jazz, died on January 10 after a previously undisclosed battle with cancer.

Lady Gaga—with her array of glittery costumes and sexual openness—is one of many contemporary stars who claims artistic descent from Bowie.

Despite the wide respect for Bowie in the music world, the British artist won only one Grammy during his half-century career, which was for a video.

Bowie, who lived in New York but enjoyed more commercial success in Britain and other European countries, was also presented a Grammy lifetime achievement award in 2006.

This year’s Grammys, the biggest night in the US-based music industry, will also feature performances by superstar British ballad singer Adele as well as award nominees including rapper Kendrick Lamar, who is in the running in the most categories at 11.

source: entertainment.inquirer.net

Video of Singaporean woman doing ‘pull-up dance’ goes viral

SINGAPORE — Need to lose some flab after all the Chinese New Year feasting?

A video of a Singaporean woman doing a “pull-up dance,” which has been viewed at least 60,000 times, may offer some inspiration.

The video shows Ming Leong, clad in a tight red dress, doing pull-ups from a bar installed at the bathroom door, while dancing to Lady Gaga’s Bad Romance.

She uploaded the 15-second clip on her Facebook page on February 19, the first day of Chinese New Year.

By 6:30pm on February 22, it had 27,000 views. Her video was also picked up by citizen journalism site Stomp, where it was viewed about 15,000 times.

Ming, who goes by the moniker Suzie Wong on Facebook, told The Straits Times that she decided to try the dance at her mother’s home while she was visiting for Chinese New Year.

She had been challenged to it by others who had viewed the original dance by personal trainer Marissa Inda from the United States.

Ming, who described herself as a “health nut,” said: “Many people showed me the video, and kind of challenged me to it. I honestly thought I couldn’t do it at all.”

The fitness instructor wears many hats. She does pole dancing, aerial fitness, and cross-fit. On top of that, she goes jogging four or five times a week. She also owns a pole dancing studio and co-owns an aerial fitness studio.

She said that there are people who follow her fitness journey on social media. She posts four to six times a day on her Facebook and Instagram accounts to document her journey.

She said: “Being an older woman and being fit, many people tell me that they are inspired by my fitness.”

source: technology.inquirer.net

$7.3M award owed to woman who discovered Lady Gaga upheld

NEWARK, New Jersey — Lady Gaga’s first producer and former boyfriend owes the Hollywood songwriter who discovered her $7.3 million after he promised to split profits with her, a federal judge has ruled, upholding a jury’s verdict.

US District court Judge Jose Linares ruled Wednesday against producer Rob Fusari’s argument to reduce the amount the jury awarded last year to Wendy Starland.

Starland testified during the trial that Fusari, based in Parsippany, had asked her to find an “edgy, bold, confident, charismatic” performer and “someone that you can’t take your eyes off of.”

She brought back Lady Gaga after spotting her during a New York City performance in 2006, when she was simply Stefani Germanotta.

Lady Gaga said in a deposition in 2011 that she believed Fusari and Starland, a singer and songwriter who wrote songs with her, had a verbal agreement to split their share from her career.

“My understanding was that Wendy and him had initially agreed upon 50/50 perhaps before Wendy ever found me, and after I was signed to Rob and made music, Rob began to change his mind,” said Lady Gaga, whose hits have included “Poker Face” and “Bad Romance.”

Fusari, a Grammy Award-winning producer whose credits include work for Beyonce, Whitney Houston and Will Smith, previously sued Lady Gaga for $35 million in court in New York, but that lawsuit was dropped.

source: entertainment.inquirer.net

Lady Gaga acts like a pig onstage to ‘inspire’ fans

AUSTIN, Texas – Lady Gaga kicked off 24 hours in the spotlight at South By Southwest in typically memorable fashion.

The pop provocateur began her appearance at Stubb’s BBQ on Thursday night during the annual music festival and conference by roasting herself on a spit like a gutted pig as her dancers basted her with barbecue brushes—and then things got really weird.

Part S&M sex club homage, part affirmational session, the show sponsored by Doritos to benefit her Born This Way Foundation included moments meant to provoke and others meant to inspire.

Gaga began the evening by taping a segment on “Jimmy Kimmel Live” in which she wore a puffy white dress complete with a huge hat that mostly obscured her face. By the time she hit Stubb’s a little after 10, she had stripped down to a black bikini on an unusually chilly night at the outdoor venue and put on long blonde dreadlock extensions. (She was to deliver the SXSW keynote address the next morning.)

Her set began with an attractive woman provocatively eating barbecued sausages. Soon after completing the smoked meats portion of her hour-long show, Gaga invited friend Millie Brown on stage to assist on “Swine.” Brown, a “vomit painter,” proceeded to drink a full bottle of neon green liquid before forcing herself to throw up on the singer as she played drums.

Not to titillate
The pair then climbed aboard a mechanical bull-like pig equipped with a ball gag and a keyboard. Gaga straddled Brown atop the pig and played the keys as they bucked in circles. Brown then painted Gaga with a black liquid that stained the singer’s skin throughout the performance.

The entire show wasn’t meant to titillate; there were moments aimed at inspiration.

“I love my fans because they always let me be myself and they don’t care what anybody says,” Gaga told the crowd.

A little while later, she set up her somber song “Dope” with a self-reflective moment.

“It’s so much easier to be yourself than it is to be somebody else,” she told the crowd as she played melancholy notes on the piano. “Because then you have to pretend to be someone else and like things that you don’t like and do stuff that you don’t want to do.”

source: entertainment.inquirer.net

Lady Gaga unveils ‘flying dress’ at NY album party

NEW YORK – Lady Gaga’s album sales are already stratospheric, so why not her evening wear?

The “Applause” singer unveiled a high-tech, white vehicle she calls the world’s first flying dress.

The contraption lifted her inside a mammoth building in New York City, where she held a launch party for her new album Sunday.


The 27-year-old New York entertainer said this was “maybe a small step for Volantis” — as she calls the battery-powered metal dress — but “a big-time step” for Lady Gaga.

She says her ultimate goal is to stage the first musical performance from space.

Her third studio album, “Artpop,” will be released worldwide Monday.

source: entertainment.inquirer.net

Lady Gaga debuts ARTPOP at iTunes Festival

LONDON – With flying pigs and wigs, Lady Gaga debuted her “ARTPOP” songs at the iTunes Festival.

The pop star performed seven new songs, as she headlined the event at London’s Roundhouse Sunday night.

It is Gaga’s first solo show since she had hip surgery in February.

The concert started with her swinging over the audience in a cage and involved many on-stage costume changes, elaborate wigs and dancers in hazard suits wearing pig masks, hanging from the ceiling.

The songs included “Jewels & Drugs” —a rap number featuring T.I.— pop song “Sex Dreams” and ballad “I Wanna Be With You.”

Also the title track of Gaga’s new album, “ARTPOP,” which is released Nov. 11.

iTunes Festival continues throughout September with Elton John, Justin Timberlake and Katy Perry on the line-up.

source: entertainment.inquirer.net

Miley Cyrus, Gaga vie for attention at MTV’s VMAs

NEW YORK – Miley Cyrus made Lady Gaga look surprisingly tame as the pop stars opened the MTV Video Music Awards.

Gaga changed costumes four times Sunday night during her first return to the stage since hip surgery as she performed her new single “Applause.” It was a predictably unpredictable appearance for Gaga, who seemed to pump in boos over the over the sound system as she opened the song in a white nun’s habit and square headdress. By the time she finished the song, she was surrounded by unitard-clad male dancers and wearing a thong bikini decorated in shells and a long blonde wig.

Cyrus immediately kicked things up well beyond provocative, however, as she appeared on stage with a multitude of dancing teddy bears in a bodysuit adorned with a cartoon character. She twerked, changed into a nude bikini, ran a fan’s foam finger along her privates as Robin Thicke appeared on stage to perform “Blurred Lines,” then gave the singer a lap dance.

“Miley better go get a pregnancy test after all that grinding,” Kevin Hart joked afterward.

Gaga and Cyrus were just the first of a cavalcade of music’s top stars performing Sunday night at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, where the awards were held for the first time. They managed to drown out rumors about the ‘N Sync reunion temporarily and left Katy Perry, Drake, Kanye West and several others quite the spectacle to top.

Timberlake – the top nominee with Macklemore & Ryan Lewis – will be honored with the Michael Jackson Video Vanguard Award and the anticipation over whether Timberlake and his old boy-band cronies will appear together dominated the pre-show conversation.

MTV was officially mum, neither confirming nor denying the rumor, and Joey Fatone has even denied it officially. But ‘N Sync conveniently debuted a Twitter account Saturday and the hubbub had overshadowed what will be an all-star lineup at the Barclays Center.

Timberlake – who’s won seven moonman trophies – has the year’s best-selling album, “The 20/20 Experience,” and his follow-up “The 20/20 Experience: 2 of 2,” is due out in September. His “Mirrors” is up for video of the year. Thicke’s “Blurred Lines” featuring T.I. and Pharrell, Bruno Mars’ “Locked Out of Heaven” and Swift’s “I Knew You Were Trouble” round out the category.

Swift had Twitter afire early in the evening when she appeared to utter an expletive toward One Direction when the British boy band made an appearance after Gaga’s performance.

Early winners included Macklemore and Lewis for best rap video, Thirty Seconds to Mars for best rock video and Selena Gomez for best pop video.

source: entertainment.inquirer.net

Lady Gaga supports LGBT people in Russia, invites arrest from authorities

US superstar Lady Gaga has revealed her support for LGBT people in Russia, after it was recently revealed that she had been accused of spreading 'gay propaganda' in the country during her 2012 visit.

The 'Marry The Night' singer has been criticised by Russian politicians of promoting homosexuality during her 2012 Born This Way ball tour, as well as travelling to the country without the appropriate paperwork. The country has also come under scrutiny in the press recently concerning its treatment of gay and lesbian people, where homophobia is still a widespread issue among the population.

Lady Gaga took to Facebook and Twitter to address the Russian situation, and the accusations levelled at her.

"Sending bravery to LGBTs in Russia," she wrote on Facebook. "The rise in government abuse is archaic. Hosing teenagers with pepper spray? Beatings? Mother Russia? The Russian government is criminal. Oppression will be met with revolution. Russian LGBTs you are not alone. We will fight for your freedom.

"Why didn't you arrest me when you had the chance, Russia? Because you didn't want answer to the world?"

She also took to Twitter to repeat her message.




An investigation has recently been launched into Gaga's time spent in Russia following the second allegation that she broke the law by possessing the incorrect visa.

The star has been accused of performing in the country on a tourist visa, another illegal act, as the singer was making money.


A statement from Russia has been released claiming "The visas issued were of the basic cultural exchange sort, which does not grant their bearers the right to engage in any commercial activity."

The cases will now be forwarded to the Foreign Ministry and the Federal Migration Service for further investigation.


source: gigwise.com