Posts Tagged ‘Positively Music’

Mark your calendars for November 3, because Alicia Keys will be hosting her bi-annual Blackball at Hammerstein Ballroom in New York City! With amazing live performances, surprise guests and more, the charity gala promises to be one positively special night!

The Blackball is an incredible event that Keys throws twice a year, in both London as well as New York City. This year’s event in the Big Apple is being described as “an explosion of music, soul, philanthropy and art to benefit children and families whose lives have been affected by HIV/AIDS in Africa and India,” and all monies raised will go towards Keys’ charity Keep a Child Alive.

Keep a Child Alive started in Kenya in 2002, and what started as a small charity quickly expanded to quite a bit more. Today the non-profit organization provides anti-retroviral drugs for over 4000 children and family members, provides and cares for over 250,000 people, financially supports three orphanages, and has several major clinic sites in expansion.

Since 2004 Alicia Keys has organized and run the Blackball as a night to bring attention to the AIDS epidemic in Africa and India, and to help raise funds for all of Keep a Child Alive’s endeavors. Previous performers at the event include Keys herself, as well as Justin Timberlake, David Bowie, Bono, Kasabian (one of my personal favorite bands from the UK), John Mayer and a whole lot more.

This year, the Blackball in New York will definitely be another incredible show. To date, the event has raised over $13 million for Keep a Child Alive, and has been responsible for saving countless lives. Don’t miss out on the event of the season, buy your tickets today!

All of us here at Positively Celebrity are in awe of the beautiful Miss Keys for all of her incredible talent and even more incredible dedication to help children in need! To find out more about the Blackball at Hammerstein Ballroom please visit http://keepachildalive.org/the-black-ball/2011-ny/ and to purchase a ticket or reserve a tabl,e please contact Danielle Spitzer at danielle@keepachildalive.org or (718) 965-1111.

As always, be sure to check back for all things celebrity from Richard Munassi right here at Positively Celebrity!

On November 17, 2011, Gary Barlow of the British band “Take That” will bring together some of the world’s best entertainers for “BBC Children in Need Rocks Manchester”, a one night only event in Manchester, England! With the lineup that will be rocking the event, it’s no surprise the initial run of tickets sold out in only a few hours!

Children in Need is a charity run by BBC that provides grants to projects in the UK which focus on children and young people who are disadvantaged. A remarkable 100% of all donations goes directly into projects that will help those who are in need, as all running costs are covered by Gift Aid and investment income.

The charity was started all the way back in 1927, with it’s first donation request being in the form a five-minute radio broadcast on Christmas Day of that year. In the time since, over 600 million pounds (roughly 950 million US dollars) has been given to Children in Need, and has helped to provide for countless needy children and young adults, with over 40 million pounds (roughly 64 million US dollars) being used in 2010 alone.

This year promises to be quite the event, as Gary Barlow has assembled some of the best performers on Earth for a great concert. Headlining the concert will be arguably the greatest live performer of all time in Lady Gaga, who is sure to bring all her eclectic style to light up the night in Manchester and to keep her little monsters happy!

Hugh Laurie, who plays the titular character on Fox’s smash TV hit, House, will also be performing at the concert. Laurie, who many in America don’t realize is a far bigger star in the United Kingdom than here in the States, is also an extremely talented musician who regularly tours with a full band. Armed with a sharp wit and sharper talents on the guitar as well as the piano, Laurie will be sure to bring the laughs and more to the event.

Bands Coldplay and Snow Patrol are also scheduled to perform for Children in Need, and if you have seen either live you know that they bring an energy level that will get those both in attendance as well as watching remotely up and out of their seats!

Michael Buble, the Canadian multi-Grammy award winner, will join the hosts for the evening in Fearne Cotton, Chris Moyles and David Tennant as well as a secret roster of special celebrity guests and surprise collaborations to ensure that the Children in Need Rocks Manchester is one of the best events of 2011! Make sure to keep an eye out for available tickets if you are up for a trip across the pond, or simply set your DVR to BBC to catch the event live on your home television!

All of us here at Positively Celebrity can’t wait to see the event in Manchester on November 17, and we laud all the performers as well as the BBC and all those who donate to this amazing cause! To find out more about BBC’s Children in Need charity, please visit http://www.bbc.co.uk/pudsey/aboutus/ or follow the organization on Twitter @BBCCiN.

As always, be sure to check back for all things celebrity from Richard Munassi right here at Positively Celebrity!

Singer/songwriter Christina Perri has designed a t-shirt for To Write Love on Her Arms (TWLOHA), a non-profit organization based out of Orlando, Florida, that is “dedicated to presenting hope and finding help for people struggling with depression, addiction, self-injury and suicide… exists to encourage, inform, inspire, and also to invest directly into treatment and recovery.”

Perri, who just a year ago was a divorcee working as a waitress in Los Angeles, has sold roughly 3 million singles to date, and is considered one of the music industry’s most rapidly rising stars. The gorgeous 25-year-old burst into the spotlight with a performance of her single “Jar of Hearts” on Fox’s television show “So You Think You Can Dance” in the summer of 2010, and currently has in “Arms” one of the best songs I have ever heard climbing up the Billboard charts.

On TWLOHA, Perri recently blogged:

“When I was growing up and into the women I am now– I was very sad. I had a little rain cloud over my head + heart and I don’t know why. I was always confused and insecure and felt not good enough, broken, ugly, and different. The older I became the more I learned how to make myself feel better and how to turn my feelings + emotions into poems and songs and eventually fell right into where I belong and started to like myself. It was very slow but it happened.  I always wished I could go tell that little version of me that it was all going to be ok and get better and that I am and was in fact beautiful, strong, unique and a bright shining light. What I love about TO WRITE LOVE ON HER ARMS is that’s what they do. they give everyone a chance to feel better now. They provide help + hope + self love + strength + they save lives. I believe in getting help. I believe in not giving up. I believe in TWLOHA.”

TWLOHA has a number of supporters throughout the entertainment industry, including One Republic, Switchfoot, Evanescence, Paramore, Panic at the Disco!, Helio, Miley Cyrus and more.

The organization has also won a plethora of awards, including mtvU’s Good Woodie Award, and are active on twitter and facebook (on which their page has received over 1,000,000 likes). They have also been featured on NBC and multiple other news broadcasts, and have won the USA Today twitter charity campaign. The organization is clearly a resounding success, and each day continues to help those in need. It is easy to see why artists such as Christina Perri are quick to lend a hand in support in any way that they can.

All of us here at Positively Celebrity love everything that TWLOHA has done for the community, and laud Christina Perri for linking up with the charity organization! To learn more about “To Write Love on Her Arms”, and to order the t-shirt designed by Christina Perri please visit www.twloha.com. To see where Christina Perri is performing, as well as to order her music and learn more about the amazing artist, please visit www.ChristinaPerri.com, and to see the official video for her new single check out the video for “Arms” below!

As always, be sure to check back for all things celebrity from Richard Munassi right here at Positively Celebrity!

A birthday is an annual event in which our friends and family find ways to celebrate with us the passing of another year…of us becoming older and (hopefully) wiser. For singer Adam Lambert, his 29th birthday will be a special one for another reason: the 2009 American Idol runner-up and Grammy-nominated artist is asking all of his fans to donate to charity: water in lieu of gifts.

Charity: water is a non-profit organization based in New York City that has set quite an aggressive goal: provide clean water for 100 million people in the next ten years by helping to dig wells, provide rainwater collection services and more. The organization’s founder, Scott Harrison, began charity: water after a career running New York City nightclubs and restaurants left him wanting more in life than to waste away under the flashing lights.

“In 2004, I left the streets of New York City for the shores of West Africa. I’d made my living for years in the big Apple promoting top nightclubs and fashion events, for the most part living selfishly and arrogantly. Desperately unhappy, I needed to change,” Harrison said.

Charity: water was born out of that trip to Africa, which Scott undertook as a volunteer photojournalist with Mercy Ships, a humanitarian organization which offers free medical care in the world’s poorest nations. “Over the next eight months, I met patients who taught me the meaning of courage. Many of them had been slowly suffocating to death for years and yet pressing on. Praying, hoping, surviving. It was an honor to photograph them. It was an honor to know them,” he said.

Upon returning to the United States, Scott decided that the best way in which he could help the people that had touched his life would be to use his connections in high society to raise funds and organize clean water projects and began charity: water to fulfill his vision.

The company has started extremely strong since it’s inception in 2006, and has been able to provide water for over 1 million people, has raised over $20 million and has funded over 3,000 water projects in countries from Honduras to Bangladesh to Kenya. With an estimated 1 in every 6 people in the world lacking access to clean water, there is definitely a need for all that charity: water does.

Lambert initially sought for $29,000 to be donated to charity: water, but his fans surpassed that goal within 5 hours of tweeting out the request!

Due to the overwhelmingly positive support from all around the world, Lambert has increased his target goal ten-fold, and is hoping to be able to give upwards of $290,000 to charity: water for their clean water projects.

Said Lambert, winner of both the Young Hollywood Award for Artist of the Year and the Teen Choice Award for Reality/Variety Star in 2009, “I am so excited to be a part of charity: water and able to give back to those in need.”

All of us here at Positively Celebrity are proud of Adam for his selflessness on his golden birthday, and wish him and charity: water much success in their fundraising efforts! To learn more about this great cause please visit http://www.charitywater.org

The direct site for Adam Lambert’s donation page is:

http://mycharitywater.org/adamlambert

Be sure to check back for more great inspirational celebrity stories from Richard Munassi right here at Positively Celebrity!  Thank you to everyone for your support!!

Katy Perry’s latest album is a smashing success. The follow-up to One of the Boys (her first studio release), Perry’s sophomore effort Teenage Dream debuted at #1 on the Billboard 200, selling over 190,000 copies in its first week alone. Though the album is filled with one incredible song after another, one track in particular stands out: “Firework.”

Perry recently told MTV News that “Firework,” produced by Norwegian trio Stargate and Sandra Dee, is “my favorite song off ,” and describes the track as an “anthem,” and her “opus.”

“I think that in life, people are challenged to get to where they want to be, to reach their goals and hopefully they can hear this song and find out that those challenges aren’t really difficult to get past,” Perry said.

In looking for a way to make the “Firework” music video special, the singer joined up with Deutsche Telekom and EMI records in order to start Katy’s Project this last August, who searched throughout Europe to find people with amazing inspirational stories to be included in the shoot.

In all, Katy’s Project found “about 250 kids that have a spark and are buzzing and fizzing and have the potential to become fireworks,” the singer stated. “With my it’s been so many trials and tribulations to get to this place. It’s amazing to hear people get through things in life and reach their goals.”

Perry brought the group together in Budapest, and described the experience as “like a movement…it’s an emotional experience.”

“Firework,” which Perry recently performed at the Victoria’s Secret Fashion show as well as the Grammy Nomination concert at Nokia Theater in Los Angeles, has garnered incredible critical reception, with the song being described by Bill Lamb of About.com as “a towering anthem that was aimed directly at lifting self esteem,” and Nick Levine of Digital Spy giving the song five out of five stars. It is currently sitting at #2 on the Billboard Hot 100.

Check out the official music video:

All of us here at Positively Celebrity laud Katy Perry for her inspirational message in “Firework” and also for her incredible music video project. We wish her nothing but success in her marriage, music and much much more!

Be sure to check back for more great inspirational stories from Richard Munassi right here at Positively Celebrity!

The Zac Brown Band came up big at the 44th Annual Country Music Awards (CMAs) in Nashville Tennessee; the Georgia-based band won the award for Best New Artist, beating out Chris Young, Jerrod Niemann, Easton Corbin and Luke Bryan.

“We want to thank all our fans for their incredible support. We couldn’t do any of this without you,” said front man Zac Brown about their win. “We understand that times are tough, so we’re especially appreciative that so many of you continue to support our music.”

Though the CMAs were definitely a major moment for the band, last week was not just about the awards show. “Letters for Lyrics,” a program started by the band earlier this year took center stage as well.

“Letters for Lyrics” started in May of this year, when the Zac Brown Band decided to team up with the automaker Dodge to help show appreciation to all of those in uniform. The band, who has a current #1 hit with “As She’s Walking Away,” offered a special compilation CD in exchange for a letter written to a U.S. soldier and dropped off at a concert, a local Dodge Ram dealership or submitted online. The letters are being distributed to soldiers through the Soldier’s Angels, a volunteer organization dedicated to providing support to those who fight daily to protect our freedom.

“We are extremely proud of the men and women who serve and protect our country. Year ’round, we remember those service members our country has lost and those who continue to serve, and we try to honor their heroism with every chance we get,” lead singer and songwriter Zac Brown says of the campaign.

The band has a history of supporting the troops, and is hoping to reach it’s goal of getting one million letters together and distributed by the end of the year.

“For us, the ‘Letters for Lyrics’ campaign has been hugely rewarding. We urge our fans, and everyone out there, to take time this Veterans’ Day to send a message, or many, to our troops currently overseas,” Brown said.

All of us here at Positive Celebrity are incredibly inspired by the actions of the Zac Brown Band, and congratulate them on all of their incredible success, both now and in the future!

To learn more about the “Letters for Lyrics” program, and to write a letter for a soldier, please visit http://www.ramtrucks.com/en/letters_for_lyrics/

Be sure to check back for more great inspirational stories from Richard Munassi right here at Positively Celebrity!

If you didn’t spend your weekend at Grant Park in Chicago, then you really, really missed out. Lollapalooza 2010 was hugely successful!

So successful, in fact, multiple sources are reporting this year’s attendance as the largest since the music festival made Chi-town its home in 2005.  240,000 music lovers invaded the windy city from August 6-8 and enjoyed some positively awesome performances.  So what exactly did you miss?

Concerts from fan favorites like MGMT…

…The Strokes

…and Green Day.

Devo proved that they can still “Whip It,”

and John Popper and Blues Traveler brought it back with “Hook.”

Living legend, Mavis Staples, was a treat for all the old souls…

…and  80’s band, X Japan,  rocked it out for all the heavy metal heads.

Bringing its awesomeness back to Illinois for the next eight years, Lollapalooza has signed a deal to stay in Chicago through 2018. So mark your 2011 calendars, give yourself an early Labor Day vacay, and plan to jam out at next year’s Lollapalooza!

Be sure to check out more great articles from Music Editor Erica Renee Davis right here at Positively Celebrity!

If you’re not in the know, here’s the scoop. Rapper Eminem has had an ongoing feud with Mariah Carey for denying that the two ever had a relationship. Mariah Carey fired back at Em with a single and video called ‘Obsessed’ which depicts a stalker of the singer – hinted to be Eminem.

So in a new single released by Eminem, entitled ‘Warning,’ Eminem attempts to set things straight. He threatens to reveal nude pictures and phone messages Mariah allegedly sent to him during their brief relationship. He also disses Mariah’s new husband, Nick Cannon, for having labeled his career as one that thrives on hate.

No arguments here. Eminem is clearly an artist with a lot of anger, anger that’s curiously directed only at Mickey Mouse celebrities. Ever hear Eminem diss DMX or Jay Z?

Didn’t think so. I guess in Eminem’s world everyone should care that he had a sexual encounter with Mariah and that she chose to lie about it. Aren’t there worse things to get riled up about, Em? Clearly the two artists have something in common as far as their careers lacking relevance.

I know, ouch.

Two reasons to get excited for the upcoming Alice in Chains album: It’s the band’s first record in 14 years and rock legend, Elton John plays piano on the tribute ballad to late lead vocalist Layne Staley, entitled “Black Gives Way to Blue.”

Alice in Chains thought it would take a miracle to get Elton John on board, but it only took a listen to the song for Elton to agree to play. “He’s a really warm person,” said Alice in Chains co-founder Jerry Cantrell of John. “He got up and gave us a couple of hugs, and said, ‘Well Jerry, I just wanted to tell you that I think it’s a beautiful song…I really dig the sentiment of what it’s about and who it’s for and I just want to tell you that I’m going to play on the song.’”

Cantrell, who wrote the tune, had already made a demo of the song when someone heard it and suggested John as the perfect person to play the piano part. Although the band knew people connected to John, they thought it was a long shot that he would even consider it.

So I guess you could say that when the going gets tough and you need someone to step up to the plate and validate your music, count on Sir Elton to come through in the clutch.

Following weeks of anticipation it’s official: Paula Abdul will NOT be returning to American Idol. Abdul broke the news to her tweets on her Twitter. A judge on the popular singing contest since it began in 2002, supposedly her decision was made firm after negotiations over salary fell through.

Sources say Abdul wanted $20 million to return, while producers were willing to come up with just $10 million. In the meanwhile, host Ryan Seacrest signed a three-year contract worth $45 million, making him the highest paid host on reality TV. Poor, poor Paula. Guess $10 million just doesn’t go as far as it used to.