Riding High, DJ Guetta
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LIFESTYLE37 TUESDAY, DECEMBER 9, 2014 Music & Movies Morocco court upholds rapper’s 4-month jail term n appeals court in the Moroccan city his release in September after serving the of Casablanca yesterday upheld a full term, the 26-year-old known as Lhaqed- Afour-month jail sentence imposed on The Rancorous One in Arabic-said he pro-reform rapper Mouad Belghawat for planned to appeal to prove his innocence assaulting police, a judicial source said. On and that he had been the victim of assault. The judicial source said the prosecution also appealed the initial sentence against the rapper, who has now served three prison terms. Belghawat was arrested at a football match in May and accused of drunkenness in public, assaulting security agents and touting tickets on the black market. He was also ordered to pay 15,000 dirhams ($1,720, 1,400 euros) to the two policemen he allegedly assaulted as well as a 500-dirham fine. Human Rights Watch at the time warned of political motives behind his jailing and demanded that any appeals trial admit key evidence the judge had rejected in convicting him on July 1. The musician was a public face of the February 20 movement in 2011 born out of the Arab Spring protests sweeping the region and demanding extensive reforms in Morocco. Authorities contend that most of their demands were met in a new consti- tution adopted later that year at the initia- tive of King Mohamed VI. Lhaqed in 2012- 2013 served a one-year jail term for a A file picture taken on March 29, 2013 YouTube video of a song he wrote called shows Mouad Belghouat, aka “Al- “Dogs of the State,” which denounced Haqed”, a young Moroccan rapper police corruption and was deemed an A file photo taken on July 16, 2011 shows French DJ David Guetta performing during the 27th edition of the Francofolies de La Rochelle music known for his anti-monarchy lyrics, giv- affront to Morocco’s entire police force. The festival in La Rochelle, western France. —AFP photos ing a press conference after he was video showed a policeman with the head released from jail in Casablanca on of a donkey.—AFP March 29, 2013.—AFP Riding high, DJ Guetta looks inside and overseas e has sold eight million albums and packs dance floors across the world but on HDavid Guetta’s latest album, the leading international DJ is slowing down a notch and becoming more introspective. His new album, “Listen,” follows the blockbuster success of 2011’s “Nothing but the Beat” that produced a string of major club hits including “Without You,” which featured Usher on vocals, and “Where Them Girls At?” with Nicki Minaj. “Listen” does not represent a break from his previous work, with Guetta still producing fes- tive dance anthems. But the French DJ turns down the tempo slightly at times on “Listen” and he acknowledges a touch of “melancholy” in the sound. “This album was made at a difficult time in my life on a personal level and that definitely influences the words and the music,” Guetta told AFP. In this November 15, 2012 file photo, musician Carlos Santana performs during the Guetta recently separated from his wife 13th Annual Latin Grammy awards show in Las Vegas, Nevada.—AFP Cathy, a manager of Parisian nightclubs, setting off messy divorce proceedings. The two spent 25 years together as an emblematic international clubbing couple, flying to dance floors around Santana extends tour the world. “Up until now, my life has been pretty much non-stop partying. Here I’m at a point David Guetta arriving to present his “The World Need More” video at the United Nations head- where I’ve asked myself plenty of questions and quarters in New York. to Europe, Mexico that can be felt,” he said. also my responsibility as a producer to get peo- he will DJ in Mexico for New Year’s Eve. ple discovered and to come up with a new Guetta said he hopes to plan a “real tour of More star collaborators atin rock superstars Santana have Santana toured across North America in sound,” Guetta said. Africa” once he has more time. The DJ has also Guetta composed “Listen” initially as an announced a tour through Europe, the 2014 and also played shows in South Africa worked last year with the United Nations to raise acoustic production, writing the songs with a US South and Mexico, where the band and the United Arab Emirates. Santana reg- A rare tour of India funds for people displaced by war in Syria and L piano and guitar. He then brought in electronic will play with fellow arena-fillers Journey. ularly plays in Las Vegas, where the band Guetta, adept not only as a DJ but as a busi- disasters in the Philippines. Guetta, 47, has sounds and the heavy drums which are his hall- The extended tour come after a busy year has a residency at the House of Blues. nessman, is planning with his new album to homes in London, Los Angeles, Ibiza and Dubai. mark. Guetta-who describes his sound as “a com- for the band, which released the Latin pop- Carlos Santana was born in Mexico and move beyond traditional club circuits. He will He often composes from his computer in hotels bination of funk, soul, new wave and house infused album “Corazon,” and the publica- moved as a child to California, where he soon tour India, which has an active trance or airplanes. “I don’t really have a set place where music”-has in the past five years emerged as one tion of an autobiography by the band’s developed his style that merges Latin influ- scene in Goa but is otherwise rarely on the cir- I spend my life and I can’t really say, ‘I’m going to of the biggest forces in dance music. Detractors leader, 67-year-old guitar legend Carlos ences with rock and the blues. The band cuit for major global DJs. “Some DJs have decid- get up and go to bed every day at the same say that he has settled for a mainstream style Santana. scored a breakthrough by playing the ed to bet everything on the United States time,’” he said. “There are plenty of high points to that relies on contributions from pop celebrities. The band yesterday announced three Woodstock festival in 1969, introducing the because that’s the big market right now, while my profession, but a routine is not one of them.” Guetta-who has worked in the past with dates in March in Santana’s native Mexico- music to a new crowd and winning a record others are really invested in Ibiza,” he said, refer- Despite his globe-trotting lifestyle, Guetta Madonna, Rihanna and the Black Eyed Peas- Monterrey, Guadalajara and Mexico City, deal. ring to the Spanish resort island famous for its said he still feels an attachment to France, which brings another all-star set to “Listen.” Minaj is with Journey joining in the second two After a period of commercial decline, club scene. in recent years has become a major hub for elec- back, with John Legend and Sia also taking turns shows. Santana will then head to Europe Santana came back triumphantly with the “For me, I’m also there but I also want to go to tronic music with artists including Daft Punk, singing. But Guetta also offered vocal duties on for a June-July tour that will include five album “Supernatural” which took home places where not everyone else is,” he said. “I’m Martin Solveig and Bob Sinclar. “I have a very two of the album’s early singles, “Lovers on the dates in France before culminating at eight Grammys in 2000, tying the band going, for example, on a tour of India. It’s a coun- international life, but culturally I still feel com- Sun” and “Dangerous,” to the comparatively London’s 02 arena. The band also with Michael Jackson for the most awards try where there’s little in terms of album sales, pletely French,” he said.—AFP obscure US singer Sam Martin whom the DJ ran announced a swing through the US South won on a single night.—AFP but I want to take advantage of this opportunity into at a studio in Los Angeles. in March, starting in Saint Petersburg, to discover countries and cultures,” he said. “People always talk about me with regard to Florida, and closing in Corpus Christi, Texas. Guetta will play New Delhi, Bangalore and Pune collaborations with big American artists, but it’s between December 19 and 21. Soon afterward, ‘Excuse me’: Italian star Mango bows out on stage ango, an Italian singer-songwriter who was one of the country’s biggest stars in the 1980s, has died Maged 60, after having a heart attack on stage. Giuseppe “Pino” Mango, who blended Mediterranean pop with world music and folk influences and recorded three of his 23 albums in Spanish, was performing at Policoro in his native southern Italy when he was taken ill on Sunday evening. He had just struck the opening bars of his hit song “Oro” when he raised an arm and said “excuse me” to the crowd ‘Happy,’ ‘Frozen’ top before collapsing. He died later in hospital. Italian news agency ANSA described it as the “perfect stage exit for an Annalise Bishop, left, and Jamie Foxx present the award for favorite rap/hip-hop artist.” Mango was married to another singer, Laura Valente, album at the 42nd annual American Music Awards at Nokia Theatre LA Live on iTunes end of year list and the couple had two children together.