lifestyle THURSDAY, MAY 8, 2014 MUSIC & MOVIES Eurovision winner says bad planning behind tepid sales

Icelandic band Pollapnk perform during the Eurovision 2014 semi-final, on May 6, 2014 in Copenhagen, Denmark. The final of the mpetitionco will be held in the Danish capital on May 10, 2014. —AFP photos espite winning hands down at last petition’s winners remains the exception and my bookers,” she added. winning song,” Danish deejay and TV personal- ants, the final is the first time their song is year’s Eurovision Song Contest, Danish rather than the rule. ity Dan Rachlin told tabloid Ekstra-Bladet last heard by the vast majority of the audience, Dsinger Emmelie de Forest has struggled And like many of her predecessors, the elfin Where has she been? year. “She sings really well, but she just hasn’t making it easy to forget. “The Eurovision stage to find commercial success in her native 21-year-old singer-set to once again perform One Danish tabloid even said she would made any music that came close to the win- is virtually their only platform. Other than that, Denmark. “I had too much to think about. You barefoot before an audience of 125 million tel- stage “a comeback” at this year’s Dansk Melodi ning track,” he added. Branding her critic “an all that remains is hard work afterwards,” have so much to think about when you win evision viewers-has struggled to convert her Grand Prix, the competition that each year old washed-up deejay who isn’t particularly Soerensen said. “And that can be extremely Eurovision,” said de Forest, who this year will maximum 12-point score into album sales. determines the country’s Eurovision entry, successful himself”, de Forest said she doesn’t difficult because there are so many people perform the official Eurovision theme, her lat- While her winning number “Only Teardrops” begging the question: Where had she been? “I “listen to what other people say”. vying for a spot in the limelight.” est single “Rainmaker”, at Saturday’s final in went on to become a top 20 hit in several have travelled so much since Eurovision. The The past year has seen her come of age, The Danish artist said that after this year’s Copenhagen. European countries, a follow-up single failed three months after were fully booked and I’ve she said. “I think I’ve become much better at final, she would continue working on her new As fans from around the world descend on to make the charts and last year she had to been to 25 different countries over the past handling stress, more independent and better album, which will see her collaborating with the Danish capital, the city has converted its cancel a tour of Denmark and Germany. year,” she said. Most of that time was spent in at making big decisions about my career,” she American songwriter MoZella, who co-wrote main shopping street into a buzzing Flagging ticket sales “were part of the rea- Germany and Sweden, where the competition said. The chairman of Eurovision fan club Miley Cyrus’s hit “Wrecking Ball”. After down- “Eurovision Fan Mile” and several top hotels son”, she admitted. “There were some people is taken relatively seriously, especially com- OGAE Denmark, Johann Soerensen, said he ing only one White Russian at last year’s hectic have already said they are fully booked for the around me who maybe should have handled pared with countries like France and Britain, thought de Forest was a fantastic performer event, this time like much of the rest of event. But 40 years after Swedish disco group things a little bit better, but they didn’t, so I which tend to enter performers who are and that he hoped her new single would kick- Europe-she plans to party. “After the final I Abba used the annual glitz-fest to launch one had to cancel,” she said. “Sometimes you have unknown or past their prime. “It doesn’t sur- start her career. have one week’s holiday. I haven’t had a holi- of the most lucrative careers in the history of to let other people take over and I can’t man- prise me that she’s been unable to sell tickets. Parlaying a Eurovision win into commercial day in almost one and a half years, so I can pop music, commercial success for the com- age everything, so I have to trust my manager The only song you know by Emmelie is the success is difficult because for most contest- party after I’ve sung,” she said. — AFP ‘Gravity’ director shakes up Mexico’s oil debate

lfonso Cuaron, the Oscar-winning director of Revolutionary Party (PRI) made clear that the legis- sci-fi thriller “Gravity,” is bringing his star lation was in the hands of Congress, where the Apower to Mexico’s very earthly debate over constitutional changes passed in December with controversial energy reform-and getting the presi- the backing of the conservation National Action dent’s attention. Cuaron, who has not lived in Party (PAN). Mexico for years, has taken out full-page newspa- “Welcome to the debate. But the discussion is in per advertisements twice in the past week to chal- the field of the legislature,” said David Penchyna, lenge President Enrique Pena Nieto to explain the chairman of the Senate Energy Committee. “This is benefits of the legislation. not a movie. This is real life,” said Penchyna, a PRI Last week, he asked the president 10 questions member. Deputy Energy Minister Lourdes Melgar about the constitutional overhaul, which was agreed that lawmakers will be the ones deciding. approved by Congress in December and will open “This issue must be debated and resolved in up the state-run energy sector to foreign investment Congress. It is up to the legislators. All discussions for the first time since 1938. Pena Nieto thanked are public and open,” Melgar told reporters on Cuaron on Twitter for asking “questions that enrich Tuesday. In his last missive, Cuaron wrote that the the debate and that will help to know with more televised debates were needed because of the precision the benefits” of the reform. The govern- “poor democratic” process that led to the passage This Jan 31, 2014 photo shows plush Disney characters piled up in a display at a Disney ment then responded to the questions, insisting of the constitutional changes in December. Store in Saugus, Mass. — AP that the reform would benefit the nation by lower- At the time, leftist lawmakers were angry that ing energy costs, creating jobs and reversing a the PRI had fast-tracked the legislation by skipping steady drop in oil production. But Cuaron pressed debates in committees to bring it to the full floor. It on, publishing a new letter on Monday asking Pena took just 10 days for the legislation to go from bill Disney Q2 earnings beat Nieto to organize three televised debates with politi- to Pena Nieto’s desk for his signature. Edna Jaime, cians, experts and “independent voices.” Cuaron’s director of the political analysis institute Mexico incursion came as lawmakers prepare to debate the Evalua, said Cuaron’s questions echo the “wide Street, helped by ‘Frozen’ “secondary” legislation that will lay out the details of skepticism among Mexicans” regarding the bene- isney on Tuesday posted second-quarter cent to $1.92 billion, or $1.08 per share, from the new law.His initiative was welcomed by the fits of the reform. earnings that beat Wall Street forecasts, $1.51 billion, or 83 cents per share, in the same opposition and artists including fellow film stars “These are questions that many Mexicans are helped by the home video sales of block- period a year ago. Excluding charges for foreign Gael Garcia Bernal and Diego Luna, who had leading also making,” Jaime told AFP. “We have found D buster movies “Frozen” and “Thor: The Dark exchange losses and restructuring, adjusted Mexican film director Alfonso Cuaron and roles in his 2001 film “Y Tu Mama Tambien.” someone who has given an organized expression World.” Both films showed the power of buying earnings came to $1.11 per share, beating the 96 Sheherazade Goldsmith arrive at the White of our doubts, someone who has a reputation, who multibillion-dollar content brands. “Thor” comes cents expected by analysts polled by FactSet. House Correspondentsí Association (WHCA) ‘This is not a movie’ will be listened to within and outside Mexico,” she annual dinner in Washington. — AFP But Pena Nieto’s centrist Institutional said. —AFP from Disney’s $4 billion purchase of Marvel Revenue grew 10 percent to $11.65 billion, Entertainment in 2009. “Frozen” was a direct trumping the $11.25 billion analysts expected. result of adding creative talent from Pixar after The biggest surprise was the strength of the Cyrus and Martin to perform Disney bought it for $7.4 billion in 2006. When movie studio, which saw revenue increase by 35 combined with its $4 billion acquisition of percent to $1.8 billion and operating income Lucasfilm in 2012 and the release of three more quadruple to $475 million. at Billboard Music Awards installments in the “Star Wars” franchise starting in December 2015, Disney CEO Bob Iger said he Ratings were down et ready for another eyebrow-raising per- Cyrus and Martin join a list of performers that expects the motion-picture business to grow, “It was a good clean beat from the studio,” said formance from Miley Cyrus. The “Can’t Be already included 5 Seconds of summer, Florida fueled by international sales, bucking the indus- Brett Harriss, an analyst with Gabelli & Co. “All the GTamed” singer/controversy magnet has Georgia Line, Imagine Dragons, Jennifer Lopez, trywide decline in disc sales and a low-growth other divisions were solid.” Revenue from Disney’s joined the performers’ roster for the 2014 John Legend and more. Presenters at this year’s domestic theatrical market. TV business rose 4 percent to $5.13 billion, and Billboard Music Awards, as has Ricky Martin, Dick event will include Kelly Rowland, Kendall Jenner, “The strategy of making branded movies is operating income rose 15 percent to $2.13 billion. Clark Productions and Billboard said Tuesday. Jordin Sparks, Mark Cuban and Pete Wentz. This definitely working, and I think that we really are The company said audience ratings were down at Cyrus is a finalist in eight Billboard awards cate- year’s ceremony will air live from the MGM Grand just seeing the beginnings of it in terms of their both ESPN and ABC, but it got higher prices for gories this year, including Top Artist, Top Female Theater in Las Vegas Sunday May 18 at 8 pm ET impact on the company,” Iger said. Net income in commercial time. Harriss took that as a “bullish” Artist and Top Streaming Artist. on ABC. — Reuters Ricky Martin and Miley Cyrus the three months through March jumped 27 per- sign for future advertising sales. —AP Musical theater workshop becomes a Broadway engine n a room in a lower Manhattan skyscraper, a and clever lyrics but wonders who is making cheese group with his wife, composer Kristen Anderson- musical is being born, song by song. Standing at in post-apocalyptic Philadelphia. Another wonders Lopez, whom he met at the workshop. Ia piano is an up-and-coming songwriting team, to whom exactly the song is being sung. Someone Shows nurtured by the program include “A presenting a new tune called “Think of Cheese” else wants to know what the song’s function is in Chorus Line,” “Little Shop of Horrors,” “Nine,” “Once from its fledgling show “Afterland,” which takes the show. Still another hates the title. On This Island,” “Ragtime,” “Avenue Q” and “Next To place outside post-apocalyptic Philadelphia. Velez and Hathaway graciously take the criticism Normal.” Six musicals currently playing on Broadway Composer and co-lyricist Benjamin Velez launches and sit down. There are five more songs to be pre- were authored or co-authored by members of the into a flamenco-flavored ditty. “See the cheese, see sented on this day, including a tune about a 12- BMI Workshop: “Aladdin,” “Newsies,” “The Book of the cheese/See the Parmesan is snowing/On the year-old science-obsessed girl in the 1950s trying to Mormon,” “Violet,” “If/Then” and “Rocky.” trees/Ooh, la-la/Smell that pungent odor blowing,” be cool, and a song sung by a woman who has “We don’t tell people what to write or how to sings Velez, as his co-writer Kathryn Hathaway looks found foot-fetish porn on her husband’s computer. write or even what style to write in. But we do on, somewhat nervously. This class is part of the BMI Lehman Engel Musical teach and talk a lot about how musicals are put Some two dozen fellow lyricists, playwrights and Theatre Workshop, and judging by its track record together,” says writer and lyricist Patrick Cook, the composers fill the seats, all hoping to join the list of as a top-notch incubator of musicals, there’s a good program’s director, who is a former workshop stu- musical heavyweights who have gone through this chance that in a few years there will be a new dent. “We’re one of the only places that actually classroom process, including Alan Menken, Lynn Broadway show with a song about post-apocalyptic talks about the craft of musical theater and how Ahrens, Steve Flaherty, Maury Yeston, Tom Kitt, cheese. it’s a different craft than almost every other art Brian Yorkey and Amanda Green. The song over, it’s “It gives writers something that is very hard to form,” he adds. The BMI workshops started in 1961 time for the young composers to face the music. come by: an audience every week,” says “The Book and its three-year program goes from learning the Hands go up in the class. One student comple- of Mormon” co-writer Bobby Lopez, who for the last This image released by Polk & Co shows Sutton Foster, second right, and Annie Golden, basics of songwriting to the creation of full-length ments the team on a song with spectacular music three years has helped moderate the advanced right, during a performance of ‘Violet’ in New York. —AP musicals. —AP