Bieber Bests

SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 5, 2015 Bieber bests One Direction’s Avicii tackles human Spotify record trafficking in directorial debut ustin Bieber is marking a comeback: The singer set a new record on Spotify, besting One Direction. JSpotify said Thursday that Bieber’s “What Do You Mean” was streamed more than 21 million streams in just five days. The song sets a new record in the US and globally, and surpassed the 20 million streams that One Direction’s “Drag Me Down” launched in its debut week. Bieber performed the song at Sunday’s MTV Video Music Awards and cried after the performance. The 21- year-old said in an interview on “The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon” on Wednesday that the performance was “so overwhelming for me ... I just wasn’t expecting them to support me in the way they did.” Bieber will release his new album on Nov. 13. — AP Swedish DJ, remixer, record producer and singer Tim Bergling, better known by his stage name ‘Avicii’ performs at the Sziget music festival on the Hajogyar Island of Budapest. — AFP eading DJ Avicii has turned his attention to fighting child reminiscent of a Western movie. Avicii, whose real name is Tim trafficking as he made his debut as a director with a pair Bergling, co-directed with filmmaker Levan Tsikurishvili and Lof disturbing videos. The Swedish house DJ, one of the shot the videos in Hungary. biggest stars on the global club circuit, said he was hoping to Hungary has taken a hard line in Europe’s escalating use his music for a greater social cause. refugee crisis, with Prime Minister Viktor Orban saying “The promise of a better life often traps families and chil- Thursday that the mostly Muslim migrants threatened the dren into being used as tools for some of the most despicable continent’s Christian roots. The videos were shot earlier in the people on Earth,” he said in a statement Thursday, as he summer before the latest tensions. Sweden is a top destina- released the videos. “It’s an issue about which I hope to start a tion for migrants and accepts more refugees per capita than louder discussion, especially now with the huge number of any EU country. families on the move from war-torn countries looking for safe- Amid a busy schedule with his album and his directorial ty and shelter.” debut, Avicii’s publicists said he was postponing the rest of his “For a Better Day,” which will appear on Avicii’s upcoming performances for the year. Avicii, who plans to return to tour- album “Stories,” features a video full of unsettling imagery as ing next year, will not play several shows in Japan and the hooded traffickers go on a killing spree of adults in their way, United States as well as the Storm Festival of electronic music including a politician portrayed by actor Krister Henriksson. in Shanghai. Avicii, who turns 26 on Tuesday, similarly called The video shows two children rushing through fields to off shows including the Storm Festival in September last year In this Aug 30, 2015 file photo, Justin Bieber reacts after escape, only to be forced barely clothed into a traffickers’ car. due to health issues. — AFP performing at the MTV Video Music Awards in Los The second video, for the song “Pure Grinding,” is similarly Angeles.— AP violent, if less socially oriented, as it shows a gangster feud Black Sabbath announce ‘The End’ tour lack Sabbath, who pioneered heavy metal Osbournes.” Guitarist Tony Iommi has stayed in more than four decades ago, on Thursday England and in recent years struggled with cancer, Bannounced a final tour and vowed it would a factor that has clouded previous chatter about a be the band’s last. The English rockers, known for new Black Sabbath tour. their thunderous guitars and dark subject matter, Black Sabbath went on an 84-date reunion tour said that “The End” tour would feature three of the from 2012 to 2014 that opened in Birmingham and band’s four longtime members including flamboy- closed in London’s Hyde Park. The extensive tour ant frontman Ozzy Osbourne. brought out original bassist and lyricist Geezer “It promises to surpass all previous tours with Butler, who will again play in “The End” shows. But their most mesmerizing production ever. When the longtime drummer Bill Ward was not listed to par- tour concludes, it will truly be the end,” said a ticipate in the final tour. Ward also did not play on voiceover on a video announcement on the band’s the 2012-2014 tour or on the band’s last album, the website. The band announced 24 dates for the 2013 release “13,” amid a feud with Osbourne. tour, which will start on January 20 in Omaha, Black Sabbath started out with a self-titled first Nebraska in the US Midwest, a hotbed for heavy album in 1970. The band took a root of the metal fans. American blues but brought in a heavier guitar The tour will cover the United States, including sound as well as often macabre themes. “Iron Man,” New York’s Madison Square Garden, as well as one of the band’s most identifiable songs, tells of a Canada, Australia and New Zealand. The final date- man who travels in time and wreaks revenge on the real “The End”-is scheduled for April 30 in the humanity after being turned into steel. Black southern New Zealand city of Dunedin. The tour Sabbath and Osbourne’s later solo work often does not feature any shows in Europe, including alarmed Christian groups who saw dangerous or the band’s native city of Birmingham, England. Satanic messages in the music. — AFP Osbourne has pursued a successful solo career Tony Iommi (left), Ozzy Osbourne (center) and Geezer Butler (right) of Black Sabbath and lives in Los Angeles, where his family was fea- pose in the press room after winning Best Metal Performance for ‘God is Dead?’ during tured a decade ago on the MTV reality series “The the 56th Grammy Awards at the Staples Center in Los Angeles. — AFP .

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