WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 15, 2017 lifestyle MUSIC & MOVIES Riding high, BeyoncE fails to break Grammy curse s Beyonce too edgy for the music industry? Or do the debut album was edged out by in 2013 by English folk "'Lemonade' is really about how black women are treated Grammy Awards suffer from an underlying racial bias? revivalists Mumford & Sons, chose not to even submit his fol- in society historically, and in the contemporary moment, IThe superstar's failure to win top prizes is vexing her low-up, "Blonde," for Grammy consideration. After Sunday's and it's about loving ourselves through all of that," said many admirers-among them the night's big winner Adele. awards, Ocean wrote an open letter asking the Grammy LaKisha Simmons, an assistant professor of history and Beyonce had led the Grammy nominations with nine for organizers to discuss the "cultural bias and general nerve women's studies at the University of Michigan. "So in some "Lemonade," her most daring album to date, which she damage" caused by the show. ways, it's kind of fitting that she was left standing there," she crafted as a celebration of the resilience of African Ocean, who defiantly released "Blonde" independently, said. "Beyonce will be fine," she said. "But I think for the rest American women. But Beyonce, whose tour was one of the said he initially wanted to take part in the Grammys for the of us, it stings because of that-it's almost like, 'Get back in industry's most lucrative in 2016, took only two awards tribute to late pop icon Prince. "But then I figured my best your place.'" Sunday, again losing in the leading categories of Album tribute to that man's legacy would be to continue to be and Record of the Year. myself out here and to be successful," he wrote. "Winning a Challenging industry Adele, whose blockbuster album "25" stuck to her trusted TV award doesn't christen me successful. It took me some The Grammys marked Beyonce's first public appearance style of wrenching ballads, for the second time swept three time to learn that." since she revealed she was pregnant with twins. Her per- top Grammys-and she earned praise from Beyonce's fans for formance returned to the theme of matriarchy as she saying that "Lemonade" deserved to win. "My view is, kind By and for black women donned a crown and her female troupe glided beneath her of, what the fuck does she have to do to win Album of the The Grammys-determined through voting by some on a sea of flowers. Yet Beyonce is hard to pigeon-hole as an Year?" Adele told reporters at the Los Angeles gala. The 13,000 music professionals in the Recording Academy-have experimental artist. When she last was passed over for English singer said that her black friends found "Lemonade" hardly ignored Beyonce. With 22 career Grammys, she is Album of the Year in 2014, it went to alternative rock icon to be "empowering" and hailed Beyonce's creativity for among the most recognized artists in history. Stevie Wonder Beck who is far less commercial. intertwining the album with a film. "Obviously the visual is is tied for the record of winning Album of the Year three But one constant is Beyonce's innovations on selling very new and the Grammys are very traditional, but I just times but the top prize has been especially elusive for black albums. Her self-titled 2013 album was also a surprise thought that this year would be the year that they would women. Only three Natalie Cole, Lauryn Hill and Whitney accompanied by videos. "She really challenges the people in kind of go with the tide," Adele said. Houston-have won it. On "Lemonade," the film blurs present the Recording Academy and the music industry," said Kevin Adele's triumph comes a year after Kendrick Lamar's "To and past with flashbacks to slavery in the Deep South, where Allred, who has lectured on Beyonce at Rutgers University. File photo shows singer Beyonce poses with her Grammy Pimp A Butterfly," hailed as a hip-hop landmark and whose African American women are shown as proudly self-suffi- Beyonce is "breaking the rules and succeeding, and is also a trophies in the press room during the 59th Annual song "Alright" became an anthem of the Black Lives Matter cient. "Lemonade" draws a link to 21st century America, tak- very powerful black woman who has achieved a level of Grammy music Awards on February 12, 2017, in Los movement, also lost to a best-seller, Taylor Swift's "1989." ing on police brutality as well as marital infidelity as the power that few do." — AFP Angeles, California. — AFP Frank Ocean, the introspective hip-hop trailblazer whose music spans influences and culminates in hip-hop. Debbie Harry crowned Style Icon at Elle Style Awards ebbie Harry, frontwoman of rock "Call Me" in the late 1970s and early 1980s, band Blondie, was crowned a fash- is expected to release their 11th studio Dion icon at London's Elle Style album, "Pollinator", in May. Awards, and she thanked her punk influ- "It's about the ongoing circle of cul- ences for defining her style. "Coming from ture and how we all feed off of each oth- the punk point of view, which was very er and I think at this particular time...it's deconstructionist, destructive, and disre- very important to remember that. That A tourist poses for a photo in front of a statue of composer Johann A statue of composer Johann Strauss by sculptor Edmund Hellmer is pic- spectful, you have to find something in we're all so deeply connected," Harry Strauss by sculptor Edmund Hellmer at the Stadtpark in Vienna. tured at the Stadtpark in Vienna. — AFP photos yourself that makes you feel a lot of differ- said about the new album. British actress ent ways," she told Reuters at the red car- and United Nations Women Global pet event late Monday. "So you have to Goodwill Ambassador Emma Watson was feel beautiful, you have to feel comfort- given the Woman of the Year award in able. I have to feel sexy." recognition of her acting career and Harry, who attended the event with work for gender equality. Other winners Blondie co-founder Chris Stein, playfully included French singer-songwriter wore a crown designed by Vivienne Christine and the Queens, who won Westwood, while posing for photogra- Album of the Year, and Christopher phers. Harry also wore a Westwood red Bailey took home British Brand of the suit with a black-and-white shirt and Year for Burberry. Erdem Moralioglu won shoes. Blondie, an American punk band British Designer of the Year. — Reuters famous for hits like "Heart of Glass" and Visitors look at scores of the Blue Danube waltz by Johann Strauss and other exhibits during the opening of the exhibition "Donau, so blau" at the Wienbibliothek im Rathaus in Vienna. 'The Blue Danube' keeps waltzing at 150 orn out of defeat, initially not that popular and "schlager" (German for "hit") -- supposedly the first music to passengers before takeoff and after landing. dedicated to a river that's more greeny-grey, recorded use of the term. But the piece only really A survey in 2016 of customers found 72 percent in Bthe beginnings of "The Blue Danube" 150 years took off once an orchestral version was performed in favor of the practice continuing. It is also a perennial ago this week were inauspicious. But Johann Strauss Paris later in 1867, to a rapturous reception, and soon favorite on the silver screen, most famously in Stanley Singer Debbie Harry poses for photographers upon arrival at the Elle Style Junior's rousing waltz, first performed on February 15, afterwards in London. In a tour of the United States in Kubrick's "2001: A Space Odyssey" but also in "Cool Awards in London on Monday. — AP 1867, is now one of the world's most famous and 1872, Strauss conducted a performance by a 2,000- Runnings" and "Titanic", to name but a few. More catchiest pieces of classical music. It features in piece orchestra and a 20,000-strong choir to 100,000 irreverently, a sketch by British comedy troupe Monty movies galore and is being performed and danced to people. "How am I supposed to conduct this mess?" Python showed members of an orchestra exploding still. "An der schoenen blauen Donau", as it is known the composer reputedly said. one by one as they played the piece in a field. Music Review in the original German, began life as a choral work It has also featured in madcap animated series commissioned by the Vienna Men's Choral Society. The rest is history "SpongeBob SquarePants" while in "The Simpsons", The main aim was to cheer people up after Austria Today "The Blue Danube" evokes like no other Homer, in homage to Kubrick, floats around a space- had lost an important and bloody battle against waltz the elegance of Vienna's 19th-century heyday- ship eating potato chips. But apart from it simply Ryan Adams delivers Prussia, at Koniggratz, the previous summer. The title which lives on in the city's ball season, currently in full being a nice tune, how to explain the popularity, par- was said to have been inspired by a poem but the swing. It also takes pride of place in the Vienna New ticularly considering that Strauss wrote almost 500 words were penned by the society's own lyricist, a Year's Concert every January 1, and is Austria's unoffi- other waltzes? "There is no definitive answer," Thomas fresh songs and heartaches policeman who humorously bemoaned the state of cial national anthem.