Prince Harry's memoir to be published in January, titled Spare

The book will be "full of insight, revelation, self-examination, and hard-won wisdom about the eternal power of love over grief", said the publisher.

Britain's Prince Harry's memoir will be published on Jan 10 with the title Spare and will tell with "raw unflinching honesty" his journey from "trauma to healing", publisher Penguin Random House said on Thursday (Oct 27).

The book, which was originally due to be published later this year, will be "full of insight, revelation, self-examination, and hard-won wisdom about the eternal power of love over grief", the publisher s

The title refers to Harry's position as the younger brother of Prince William, who has been heir to the British throne since their father Charles become king last month following the death of Queen Elizabeth. Until William and his wife Kate had their three children, Harry was next in line to his brother in the order of succession, hence the phrase "the spare to the heir".

A photo of Harry looking directly into the camera features on the cover, along with the words "Prince Harry" and "Spare".

This image provided by the Random House Group shows the cover of Spare, Prince Harry's memoir. The book is an object of obsessive anticipation worldwide since first announced last year, is coming out Jan 10. (Random House Group via AP)

Harry and his wife Meghan, who are formally known as the Duke and Duchess of Sussex, stepped down from royal duties in early 2020 and moved to the United States.

The pair sent shockwaves through the British monarchy in a 2021 interview with Oprah Winfrey when Meghan accused an unnamed member of the royal family of having raised concerns about how dark their son's skin might be and said her life as a royal had left her on the brink of suicide.

Harry has also spoken about being on a "different path" to his brother, although he and his wife appeared with William and Kate after Queen Elizabeth's death last month.

The book will be published in 15 languages, including Spanish, French and Chinese, while the English-language edition will be available in the UK, Ireland, Australia, New Zealand, India, South Africa and Canada.

It will be priced at 28 pounds (US$32.43) in Britain, the publisher said, and an audio edition, read by the author, will be released.

Harry will support British charities with donations from his proceeds, the publisher said.

Source: Reuters/sr

ENTERTAINMENT

Backstreet Boys performing in Singapore in February, alright

They're back again and this time, they'll be performing at the Singapore Indoor Stadium on Feb 22. Tickets from S$168 and general sales start on Nov 10.

We’re not playing games with your heart – Backstreet is back. The Backstreet Boys are coming to Singapore for a concert on Feb 22 at the Singapore Indoor Stadium, as part of their DNA World Tour 2023.

The group made the announcement on Tuesday (Nov 1) on social media, highlighting six dates in total.

Apart from Singapore, the five-man band will hold three shows in Tokyo, Japan; one in Kaohsiung, Taiwan; and one in Manila, Philippines – all of which are taking place from mid-February.

Fan club pre-sale for the Singapore leg starts on Nov 7 at 10am, while the Live Nation pre-sale starts on Nov 9 at 10am. General sales will start on Nov 10 at 10am.

Tickets are priced at S$168, S$198, S$248, S$288 and S$328, excluding booking fees, and you can get them online via Ticketmaster, at all SingPost outlets and through the hotline at 3158 8588.

The group – made up of AJ McLean, Howie Dorough, Nick Carter, Kevin Richardson and Brian Littrell – has performed in Singapore several times, including in 2017 and 2019.

The boyband’s last studio album, DNA, was released in January 2019. In their almost 30-year career, they’ve released numerous radio hits, including As Long As You Love Me, Shape Of My Heart, Larger Than Life and I Want It That Way.

Blackpink Singapore concert tickets to go on sale from Nov 21

Red Hot Chili Peppers to perform in Singapore in February

Source: CNA/sr

ENTERTAINMENT

Taylor Swift sets Billboard Hot 100 first with a perfect 10

Swift has the top 10 slots on the Billboard Hot 100 chart, with songs from her latest album, Midnights.

Taylor Swift scored a 10 out of 10 as she became the first artiste in history to claim the top 10 slots of the Billboard Hot 100 chart with tracks from her new record Midnights.

Billboard reported on Monday (Oct 31) that Swift surpassed Drake, who had held the previous record with nine of the top 10 songs for a week in September 2021.

“10 out of 10 of the Hot 100??? On my 10th album??? I AM IN SHAMBLES,” the pop star tweeted on Monday.

The new album came out on Oct 21 with both a 13-track standard release and a deluxe version with another seven bonus tracks. It has had one of the biggest album launches in nearly seven years. Billboard also reported that Swift now ties with Barbra Streisand for the female artiste with the most No 1 albums.

The No 1 spot belongs to Anti-Hero, whose lyrics “It's me/hi/I'm the problem/It's me” have quickly become a TikTok trend. The other top 10 songs include Lavender Haze, Maroon, Snow On The Beach, Midnight Rain, Bejeweled and Question...?.

The numbers are for the week of Oct 21 to Oct 27.

Source: AP/sr

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Cameron Crowe's Almost Famous rocks out on Broadway

Writer-director Crowe, who won an Oscar for the film's screenplay, was inspired by his own experiences growing up and says he wanted the musical to “capture that same feeling that the movie did”.

Composer Tom Kitt got a compliment the other day that any songwriter would sing about.

A friend had seen his Broadway stage adaptation of Cameron Crowe's film Almost Famous and couldn't tell which songs Kitt had supplied and which ones were classics.

Mind you, those classics included songs by the likes of Elton John, Led Zeppelin, Cat Stevens, David Bowie, Deep Purple, Joni Mitchell and the Allman Brothers.

“I thought, ‘Well, then I’m doing my job,’” recalls Kitt, a Pulitzer Prize and Tony Award winner. “The goal here was in some ways to make it all feel like one voice.”

Kitt has teamed up with Crowe to turn the filmmaker's very autobiographical coming-of-age story for a new audience in a new age. The show, now in previews, opens Nov 3 at the Bernard B Jacobs Theatre.

“It feels like it’s a companion piece to the movie,” says Jeremy Herrin, the musical's director. “It’s another iteration of that story in another form.”

Almost Famous centres on a smart and earnest 15-year-old in the early 1970s who manages to get assigned by Rolling Stone magazine to do a profile of the fictional midlevel rock band Stillwater.

“It’s about a young man discovering that he can express himself with integrity and that life is better for him and those around him when he does so. And that’s a powerful thing to be reminded of,” says Herrin.

Crowe, the writer-director who won an Oscar for the film's screenplay, was inspired by his own experiences growing up and says he wanted the musical to “capture that same feeling that the movie did”.

In many ways, a stage adaptation makes perfect sense: The film is about loving music and had a community constantly bursting into song – something musical theatre is built on.

“That communal feeling and that hang that you have going to a concert is also the thing that I experience when I go to Broadway. I’m going to be in a room with a bunch of people, having a shared experience, with storytelling and live music happening. So I think that there’s a real crossover,” says Lia Vollack, lead producer.

The film starred Billy Crudup as Stillwater's lead guitarist, Frances McDormand as the young man’s mother and Kate Hudson as Penny Lane, the band’s chief groupie or, as she prefers to think of herself, its muse.

“At the heart of it, it's a story that many people can relate to, which is finding your own family,” says Vollack. “You have your family that you’re with, who you love and who are a part of you, but also finding community outside of that.”

Kitt supplied 17 original songs, did the orchestrations and arrangements, and collaborated with book writer Crowe on lyrics. He was already a fan of the filmmaker's Fast Times At Ridgemont High, Say Anything, Jerry Maguire and Vanilla Sky.

“I love to write about connection and catharsis and what are things that trouble us. What are things that we are in motion on, and where do we settle and find great resolution and hopefully walk out of a theatre feeling inspired and excited to talk about what you just experienced?” he said. “That’s a Cameron Crowe film for me.”

The challenge for Kitt was to write new songs alongside such classic rock songs as Simple Man by Lynyrd Skynyrd, 20th Century Boy by T Rex and Ramble On by Zeppelin. The film's score won a Grammy.

“When I was a classical pianist – just starting to study in the ‘80s – it was the music of the ’70s that took me away from Mozart and into Bruce Springsteen and Elton John and Billy Joel at my piano,” Kitt says. “The assignment was to write original music in the style of music that I love.”

The creative team chose to stud the musical with songs that reveal the characters' feelings. So if the film has a close up, the musical gets a song in its place. Kitt often plumbed the film's script for the lyrics.

Take the song The Night-Time Sky’s Got Nothing On You, a quiet moment between the muse and the guitarist. Kitt begins the song with dialogue from the film virtually word for word: “The way you turn a hotel into a home/The way you pick up strays wherever you go.”

“That was the goal for me because Cameron is a poet, and he writes poetry about our everyday experience. So it’s natural for that to become lyric,” says Kitt, who has worked on the musicals Next To Normal, Green Day’s American Idiot and Alanis Morissette’s Jagged Little Pill.

The creators initially considered using only preexisting songs, but that posed a challenge to the storytelling. They also considered all original music but would awkwardly have to plop in John's Tiny Dancer – which is sung in a pivotal scene. Kitt, who has worked with originals and written his own, was the answer they needed.

“Tom just made it all flow together in this gorgeous tapestry of this world and created a world with it and it is seamless,” says Vollack. "Tom is very comfortable swimming in both waters."

The creators also took the opportunity to alter some things, like going deeper into the characters of the mum and Penny Lane, or as Crowe says “putting a little more padding in the shoulders of these characters”. Both women get songs, including The Wind for Penny and Elaine’s Lecture for mum.

Vollack has noticed some young women in the Broadway audience wearing a version of Penny's distinctive fur-trimmed coat, a nod to her status as a cool, strong female character.

“The women in our story – given that Roe v Wade was being passed at that time – they have more rights than women do right now,” Vollack says. “That was a time when women were getting those rights for the first time and having agency over their own lives and their own sexuality.”

The musical – like the film – is about learning to be your authentic self and seizing your moment – something the creators looked back on in their on lives while creating the show.

“We all want to have a transformative moment where you suddenly see your future and you see the person you’re meant to be. In this story, it is music. And for me, it was music,” says Kitt.

Source: AP/sr

OBSESSIONS

Kane Lim’s dad gave him a US$1m watch in Bling Empire’s latest season. Here’s what you need to know

In the latest season of the hit Netflix reality series, Singaporean Kane Lim visits the Jacob & Co boutique in New York to pick up a gift from his dad, with co-star Kevin Kreider tagging along. We take a closer look at the stunning watch.

What do you get from your Asian parents when you’ve made them proud? While most of us simply hope for some kind of acknowledgement, if you’re the son of a billionaire, you’ll apparently get a million-dollar watch.

In Bling Empire Season 3, Singaporean Kane Lim had big news to share. He was newly appointed as the face of Fenty, a beauty brand founded by singer Rihanna, and this achievement earned the approval of his dad, who surprised him with a Jacob & Co timepiece in episode 8 of the series.

Lim, together with co-star and best mate Kevin Kreider, went to New York to pick up the watch. The watch was revealed to be the Astronomia Art Phoenix by Jacob & Co. The American watch brand, founded in 1986 by diamond designer Jacob Arabo, is known to make some of the world’s most over-the-top and complicated watches. The Astronomia Art Phoenix is no exception.

Here are three facts about the stunning timepiece.

IT’S A MINIATURE SCULPTURE

The Astronomia Art Phoenix is not just a watch; it’s basically a work of art on the wrist. This exquisite timepiece features a gold phoenix rising over the movement, encased in a dome-shaped sapphire crystal and precious metal case. The case allows for unhindered viewing of the spectacular calibre and the artwork inside.

Along with the Phoenix, Kane’s version of the watch also features three-carat Jacob-cut diamond rotating on itself in 60 seconds, a hand-lacquered globe rotating on itself in 60 seconds, an hours and minutes sub-dial, as well as a triple-axis tourbillon.

IT TOOK EIGHT MONTHS TO MAKE THE PHOENIX

Art takes time, and Benjamin Arabov, CEO of Jacob & Co, said in the episode that an artist took eight months to craft the phoenix from a single piece of gold. It was also engraved and finished by hand. According to the Jacob & Co website, the delicate wings of the phoenix are the hardest part to craft, as many were broken when the rough sculpture was cast. While engraving the wings, many of the pieces broke and had to be repaired.

YES, IT’S WORTH US$1 MILLION

Pondering about the price of the watch, Kreider said in the episode: “I’m kind of afraid to ask you how much your dad paid for it. Is it as much as your condo?”

Cue awkward laughter from Lim.

According to Monochrome Watches, the Astronomia Art Phoenix retails for US$1 million (S$1.4 million), available at the Jacob Four Season Hotel des Bergues boutique in Geneva. Considering that customisation of the timepiece was done for Kane, we reckon the final cost was likely higher. You know, just a casual gift from Dad.

In the episode, Kreider and Lim were also presented with buddy watches from Jacob & Co to signify their friendship. The watch model appears to be the Epic X in titanium white, reportedly worth more than US$20,000.

Now where do we sign up to be Lim’s friend?

Kane Lim in Singapore: The Bling Empire star on Rihanna, racism and life after the show

Source: CNA/st

ENTERTAINMENT

President’s Star Charity 2022 raises record-breaking S$13m at end of live show

Mediacorp’s flagship fundraiser show on Sunday (Oct 30) featured stars like Ellie Goulding, Eric Chou, Aina Abdul, Taufik Batisah and Sylvester Sim.

It was a record-breaking night for the President’s Star Charity (PSC) on Sunday (Oct 30) as an unparalleled S$13,085,960 was raised by the end of the live show, according to a Mediacorp news release.

Themed 'Small Actions, Big Changes', the charity event aimed to drive home the message that every small action can bring about big changes in the lives of those in new ways of the community.

The two-hour PSC 2022 show was aired on meWATCH, Channel 5 and Mediacorp Entertainment on YouTube, beginning at 7.30pm.

Mediacorp’s flagship fundraiser under the President’s Challenge featured a host of stars, with performances by singer-songwriter Ellie Goulding, pop star Eric Chou, singer Aina Abdul and Singapore Idol 2004 winner Taufik Batisah and runner-up Sylvester Sim.

Taufik Batisah (left) and Sylvester Sim performing at PSC 2022. (Photo: Mediacorp)

Artistes Zoe Tay, Elvin Ng and Richie Koh presented a juggling act in collaboration with students with mild disability from APSN Delta Senior School Circus Arts Group, D’Circulus, while Azura Goh and Gunalan Morgan performed an electrifying bungee dance. Kym Ng and Steven Chia hosted the show.

Even the guest of honour President Halimah Yacob and Mr Mohamed Abdullah Alhabshee got in on the action by singing the PSC theme song Believe, accompanied by the West Winds.

Viewers were encouraged to donate generously in support of PSC 2022 via a PayNow QR code that was flashed on the screen during the show, and available on mediacorp.sg/psc2022. Members of the public can keep donating in any preferred amount until 11.59pm on Nov 6.

Zoe Tay presented a juggling act at PSC 2022. (Photo: Mediacorp)

All proceeds from PSC 2022 will aid the 82 benefitting organisations backed by the President’s Challenge, including Club HEAL (Hope, Empowerment, Acceptance & Love); Very Special Arts, which is dedicated to offering opportunities for persons with disabilities to participate in the arts; and TOUCH Community Services, a multi-service organisation spanning a spectrum of communal causes.

Said Mediacorp CEO Tham Loke Kheng: “I was moved to witness the spirit of giving from our audiences tonight, and in the lead up to the show. I would like to thank everyone for contributing so generously to the President’s Star Charity. Every action, no matter how small, can have positive ripple effects, so I hope the public can continue donating to the President’s Star Charity to bring about big changes to those in need.”

Last year’s event raised S$10,902,409 by the end of the live show. PSC 2021 featured Stefanie Sun, British singer-songwriter Calum Scott and Malaysian girl group DOLLA as headliners.

Catch PSC 2022 on demand for free on meWATCH or watch a repeat on Channel 5 on Nov 6 at 3pm. For more information on President’s Challenge, head to presidentschallenge.gov.sg.

Source: CNA/sr

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ENTERTAINMENT

Blackpink Singapore concert tickets to go on sale from Nov 21

Here's how you can score tickets for Blackpink's concert in Singapore on May 13, 2023 at the National Stadium as part of their Born Pink world tour.

Blinks, get ready. Tickets for Blackpink's Singapore concert go on sale at 10am on Nov 21.

The K-pop fabulous foursome comprising Jisoo, Jennie, Rose and Lisa, will perform at Singapore's National Stadium on May 13, 2022 announced that official Blink fanclub presale tickets on Weverse will be available from Nov 21.

Tickets will be available for presale for PayPal members on Nov 22, Live Nation presale is on Nov 23, and general public sales start at 10am on Nov 24.

If you're eager to score fanclub presale tickets, note that you have to register for the presale period on Weverse from Nov 7, 2pm to Nov 9, 2pm.

You must also have an account on ticketmaster.sg.

Here's a handy guide courtesy of Live Nation. You'd want to Ddu-du Ddu-du Du all you can to get your hands on the tickets, so read carefully.

Blackpink's Born Pink world tour kicked off on Oct 15 in Seoul and the K-pop stars head to the US and the UK in November. They will perform across Europe in December.

Here are the dates for Blackpink's world tour, including numerous stops in Asia:

Jan 7 and 8, 2023: Bangkok, Thailand
Jan 13, 14 and 15: Hong Kong
Jan 20: Riyadh, Saudi Arabia
Jan 28: Abu Dhabi, UAE
Mar 4: Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
Mar 11 and 12: Jakarta, Indonesia
Mar 18: Kaohsiung, Taiwan
Mar 25 and 26: Manila, Philippines
May 13: Singapore
Jun 10 and 11: Melbourne, Australia
Jun 16 and 17: Sydney, Australia
Jun 21: Auckland, New Zealand

Source: CNA/ly

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ENTERTAINMENT

'Ar-JIN-tina': BTS K-pop star sparks fan craze in Buenos Aires

Jin is set to make a guest appearance on Friday (Oct 28) with Coldplay on the Argentine leg of the British rock band's tour.

Buenos Aires has been gripped by "Jin" fever, with fans thronging to catch a glimpse of the K-pop superstar from BTS making what could be his last public appearance in a while.

Ahead of signing on for military service in South Korea, 29-year-old singer-songwriter Jin is set to make a guest appearance on Friday (Oct 28) with Coldplay on the Argentine leg of the British rock band's tour.

He is plugged to appear for one track – the first-ever live performance of his first solo single, The Astronaut, co-written with Coldplay's Chris Martin.

Jin will give the first-ever live performance of The Astronaut co-written with Coldplay's Chris Martin (Photo: AFP/JUAN MABROMATA)

The promise of one song was enough to set off a craze, and since news broke last week of Jin's one-off appearance, hundreds of fans have set up camp outside the River Plate stadium hosting 10 concerts by Coldplay, who tweeted on Thursday: "Jin is here!"

More than a thousand devotees flocked to the airport in the vain hope of catching a glimpse of Jin's arrival earlier in the week, but he slipped out through a back exit.

"It... means a lot now that he is going to go to do military service," university student Agustina Jenzi told AFP outside the stadium – among those who came with tents, yoga mats, food and drink for the long wait.

"It's nice for him to experience this. I don't know whether he passed by here and saw us... he should know that there are a lot of people here."

The local branch of the global

Prince Harry New Book

Prince Harry's memoir to be published in January, titled Spare

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