Pop icon Michael Jackson and Canadian singer Leonard Cohen will headline a group of talent receiving lifetime achievement awards at the Grammys next month, organizers announced on Thursday.
The late King of Pop, a 13-time Grammy winner, and singer-songwriter Bobby Darin will be receiving the prestigious prize posthumously during a Los Angeles gala on Jan. 30, on the eve of the 52nd Annual Grammy Awards.
Other awardees include classical pianist Andre Previn, country legend Loretta Lynn, jazz trumpeter Clark Terry and blues musician David “Honeyboy” Edwards.
“This year’s honorees are a prestigious group of diverse and prominent creators who have contributed some of the most distinguished and influential recordings,” Recording Academy president and
chief executive Neil Portnow said in
a statement.
“Their outstanding accomplishments and passion for their craft have created a timeless legacy that has positively affected multiple generations, and
will continue to influence generations to come.”
Montreal-born Cohen, 75, will receive the Grammy nod in honor of a career spanning four decades during which he recorded 18 albums, including collaborations with Elton John, Neil Diamond, Iggy Pop and Willie Nelson. He was inducted in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame last year.
Previn, also a conductor and composer, has won 10 Grammys for his work with some of the world’s most recognized orchestras, including the New York Philharmonic and the Vienna Philharmonic. He also composed the operas A Streetcar Named Desire and Brief Encounter.
Irish singer Sinead O’Connor called on Friday for Pope Benedict to step down over a government report that said Church leaders covered up widespread sexual abuse of children for 30 years.
The Vatican issued a statement on Friday saying the pope felt “outrage, betrayal and shame” over the scandal and would write to the Irish people about sexual abuse.
But O’Connor, who once inflamed Catholic sensibilities by ripping up a picture of Benedict’s predecessor Pope John Paul II on live television, said in a letter published in a British newspaper earlier on Friday that the pope had remained silent on child abuse for
too long.
“I demand the Pope stand down for his contemptible silence on the matter and his acts of non-co-operation with the inquiry,” O’Connor wrote in a letter to the Independent newspaper.
“Popes have had no problem voicing their opinions when we wanted contraception or divorce,” O’Connor said. “No problem criticizing The Da Vinci Code. No problem criticizing Naomi Campbell for wearing a bejeweled cross.
“Yet when it comes to the evils done by pedophiles dressed as priests they are silent. It is grotesque, unbelievable, bizarre and unprecedented. They stand for nothing now but evil.”
Pop legend Elton John is selling off thousands of articles of his clothing, including outrageous outfits from his concerts, in a London shop as part of a charity fund-raiser.
John, and his partner David Furnish, officially inaugurated the shop at Covent Garden in the heart of the capital at a ceremony Friday evening, in an event they are calling “Out of the Closet.”
Proceeds of the sale, the fifth he has organized, will go towards the singer’s AIDS charity.
“We always get a fantastic response from the public,” said John.
“I think the idea that the items we all buy and enjoy can help someone in dire need, particularly at this time of year, really strikes a chord.”
RSS