Lady Gaga shed tears of joy in London on Tuesday night as she became the biggest winner at an international pop prize ceremony, adding three Brit Awards to her two Grammys this year. Jay-Z, named best male artist, said the ceremony recognized the power of US music.
Lady Gaga, 23, has already sold eight million copies of her debut The Fame (Interscope), named the Brits’ best international album. She also won best international breakthrough act and the world’s top female solo artist award. Her hat-trick of wins was the most by a non-UK artist since the Scissor Sisters in 2005.
Record-company bosses at the Earls Court event said the dominance of US stars — and some disappointments for British stars at this year’s Grammys — didn’t undermine Britons’ potential for more commercial success. A win may add as much as US$6.3 million to an album’s sales, a certain boon for some music executives at the ceremony’s three-course dinner. Winners also receive a Brit statuette.
Kasabian was chosen as the best British group. JLS won the British breakthrough act award and get another Brit for its single Beat Again. JLS, runners-up in the 2008 series of the TV show The X Factor, were getting the first Brit recognition for artists in music entrepreneur Simon Cowell’s stable. Florence and the Machine’s Lungs was named best British album.
Lily Allen was the opening act, singing The Fear in a leather corset. She was surprised to be later named best UK female solo artist, saying that she had donned an orange wig to make it harder for cameramen to catch her likely disappointed face. (Allen was nominated for four awards in 2007 and won none).
Other live performers included Dizzee Rascal (named best British male star, after number one hits such as Bonkers and Dance Wiv Me) and Robbie Williams (the former Take That star was honored for an outstanding career contribution to music). Williams has now won 16 Brits, more than any other artist; he ended the evening with a medley of his hits.
Lady Gaga — born Stefani Germanotta — dedicated her performance to the fashion designer Alexander McQueen, who died last week. She started in a tall wig and three-tier dress that looked like a wedding cake, rapidly stripping to a white lace bodysuit.
Jay-Z performed Empire State of Mind with Alicia Keys. He beat Eminem, Bruce Springsteen, Michael Buble and Seasick Steve to his prize.
The Brits are the British Phonographic Industry’s annual pop-music awards and have been presented in one form or another since 1977. They have been sponsored by Mastercard Inc for the last 12 years.
There were two special awards this year for the Brits’ 30th anniversary. One was for best performance, and went to the Spice Girls’ 1997 rendition of Wannabe that featured Geri Halliwell in a union flag dress. Last night, Halliwell and Mel B forgot to thank their fellow band members as they accepted the award. They later apologized.
Oasis won for best British album of the three decades. Singer Liam Gallagher arrived onstage, pointedly refused to thank his estranged songwriter brother, Noel — who wasn’t present — and then threw both the award statuette and a microphone into the audience.
March 24 to March 30 When Yang Bing-yi (楊秉彝) needed a name for his new cooking oil shop in 1958, he first thought of honoring his previous employer, Heng Tai Fung (恆泰豐). The owner, Wang Yi-fu (王伊夫), had taken care of him over the previous 10 years, shortly after the native of Shanxi Province arrived in Taiwan in 1948 as a penniless 21 year old. His oil supplier was called Din Mei (鼎美), so he simply combined the names. Over the next decade, Yang and his wife Lai Pen-mei (賴盆妹) built up a booming business delivering oil to shops and
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