US pop diva Mariah Carey has produced many hits during her almost three-decade-long career. Among the songs, Carey’s classic “All I Want for Christmas Is You” has earned her and songwriter Walter Afanasieff over US$60 million (NT$1.8 billion) in royalties as of 2017, the Economist reports.
The song was originally released in 1994. With global sales exceeding 16 million copies, it is the 11th best-selling single of all time. Carey and Afanasieff reportedly finished the lyrics and melody for the song together in just 15 minutes. Some joke that the song could easily support her extravagant lifestyle for the rest of her life.
Carey held concerts in Taiwan in 1998 and 2014 respectively, conquering many fans with her “whistle register.” Several days ago, she returned to Times Square in New York to perform for the New Year’s Eve countdown party. She was humiliated at the previous year’s party by the microphone system that began to malfunction as she sang, and was determined to redeem herself this time around.
Photo: AP
照片︰美聯社
(Liberty Times, translated by Eddy Chang)
美國流行歌后「花蝴蝶」瑪麗亞凱莉出道近三十年,唱過多首膾炙人口夯曲。根據「經濟學人」雜誌報導,其中經典「你是我最想要的聖誕禮物」到二○一七年為止,竟讓她和作曲家華特亞方納席耶夫大賺超過六千萬美元(約新台幣十八億)的版稅!
該曲於一九九四年發行,在全球銷售超過一千六百萬張,榮登史上最暢銷單曲第十一名。瑪麗亞和華特據說當年只花了十五分鐘,便完成詞曲創作,該曲也被戲稱是維持瑪麗亞奢華生活的養老歌。
瑪麗亞於一九九八年、二○一四年兩度來台開唱,以「海豚音」征服許多歌迷。她前幾天再次參加了紐約時報廣場的跨年晚會,對比去年演唱因耳麥故障而蒙羞的慘況,這次則決心要一雪前恥。 (自由時報)
Rice is an essential ingredient in Taiwanese cuisine. Many foods are made of rice, adding more variety to our cooking, such as rice cake, or “gui.” Wagui is made by steaming rice flour batter in a bowl. The term “gui” refers to a type of food made from rice, while “wa” refers to a bowl. The pronunciation of “gui” in Taiwanese Hokkien is similar to the word for “nobility” in Chinese, so it is common for people to prepare various types of gui, including wagui, as offerings to the gods or ancestors,. 米是台灣重要的主食,用米製成的食品十分多元,豐富我們的飲食,如米做成的「粿」。粿的意思是米做成的糕點,碗粿是將在來米漿倒入碗中蒸熟,因而得名。粿因為音同「貴」,因此碗粿等粿食常用作供品祭拜神明和祖先。 nobility (n.) 高貴,高尚;貴族 offering (n.) 供品 While Taiwan may not be
Drive-through (or drive-thru) restaurants provide people with the immense convenience of being able to purchase and pick up meals without needing to leave their vehicles. These restaurants have been around for decades, and their success has spawned a number of equally handy services. The drive-through concept originated with the drive-in restaurant, the first of which was established in the US in 1921. Patrons would order and eat the food that was delivered to their cars by workers called “carhops.” Ten years later, a drive-through service was introduced, but it was not until 1947 that the first exclusively drive-through restaurant opened its
On Tuesday last week, the flame for this summer’s Paris Olympics was lit at the birthplace of the ancient Olympic Games in southern Greece in a meticulously choreographed ceremony. It will then be carried through Greece for more than 5,000km before being handed over to French organizers at the Athens venue used for the first modern Olympics in 1896. The pageantry at Olympia has been an essential part of every Olympics for nearly 90 years since the Games in Berlin. It’s meant to provide an ineluctable link between the modern event and the ancient Greek original on which it was initially modelled. Once
A: “Forbes” magazine just revealed Hollywood’s top 10 highest-paid stars of 2023. B: How much did those superstars make last year? A: Denzel Washington was at No. 10, having made US$24 million, which is about NT$771 million. B: That’s an astronomical figure to me. A: No. 9 to No. 6 were: Ben Affleck with US$38 million, Jason Statham with US$41 million, Leonardo DiCaprio with US$41 million, and Jennifer Aniston with US$42 million. A: 《富比世》最近公布了好萊塢去年的片酬排行榜。 B: 大明星的片酬到底有多高? A: 第10名是丹佐華盛頓、片酬2400萬美元,大約7.7億台幣。 B: 天啊這根本是天文數字! A: 第9到6名是︰班艾佛列克、3800萬美元,傑森史塔森、4100萬美元,李奧納多狄卡皮歐、4100萬美元,珍妮佛安妮斯頓、4200萬美元。 (By Eddy Chang, Taipei Times/台北時報張聖恩)