#otis l

1.Michael Jackson was one of the most generous artist of all time. He donated over $350,000,000 in total and supported 39 charities. He also started the ‘Heal the World’ foundation, which fought against AIDS, Juvenile Diabetes and helped suffering children.  He often organized and took part in charity concerts as for example ‘United We Stand: What More Can I Give’ after the attacks on the World Trade Center.

  2. Elton John established the Elton John AIDS Foundation, which has spent over $125 million to support prevention and education, elimination of discrimination and providing help to people living with AIDS in 55 countries all over the world. He also gives large amounts of money to charities like in 2004 when he donated over $43 million to different organizations.

    3. Beyoncé Knowles supported 23 charities and together with Kelly Rowland founded Survivor Foundation to help victims of the Hurricane Katrina. She was also an Ambassador for the 2005 World Children’s Day and in 2012 she took part in World Humanitarian Day performing her song ‘I Was Here’ at the United Nation General Assembly in New York. You can watch this performance here. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i41qWJ6QjPI

5. The band Coldplay supported 24 charities and in their early years they were giving 10% of their profits to charity. They teamed up with REM’s Michael Stipe in making a song to aid Hurricane Katrina victims. Moreover they ask their fans for gifts, which all are given to charity organizations and they are huge supporters of Amnesty International.

  6. Madonna helped 25 foundations and in 2006 together with Michael Berg founded Raising Malawi organization. It provides aid for people of Malawi, especially children, giving them food, proper clothes, shelter, education, medical and emotional care and psychosocial support. It also supports non-government organizations like International Medical Corps.

      7. Bono supported 33 charities and helped to create many organizations, like ONE Campaign, DATA or EDUN, which fights with the poverty and diseases . He also took part in Festival Against Racism and went to Ethiopia to draw attention to the conflicts and help children. Moreover he participated in concerts like Live 8 to raise funds of DATA.

Janelle Monáe – Electric Lady

Release date: 6 September 2013

Genre: R&B, Neo soul

Janelle Monáe has just released her second LP. Surely, it wasn’t easy to record an album which would be as good as the universally acclaimed by the critics and fans The ArchAndroid. Probably that’s why Monáe decided to use the formula which was used while recording her first LP. Certainly, on no account could I say that it’s just a copy, because it’d be a big lie. Really, really big lie. Monáe is mixing R&B with neo soul, jazz and even rock, what provides us funky and fresh combination with a high music level in here. We can hear songs that can possibly make Janelle a habitué of music charts (Q.U.E.E.N., Electric Lady, Primetime), but most of this LP’s content is not aiming to do so. Features are next great things I can say about The Electric Lady. Janelle has recorded songs with legends – Prince and Erykah Badu - but she also invited young R&B stars Solange and Miguel and the owner of three Grammy Awards, Esperanza Spalding. What’s more interesting even those two legends aren’t capable of eclipsing Janelle. It’s her album and she’s the strongest here.

Afterwards, when we cool off after the impression made by the music itself, it’s worth to concentrate on the very important and unfortunately very ignored by some ‘artists’ point. I mean lyrics and the whole idea, of course. Luckily, that’s the issue where Monáe shows how genius and talented she is, because we can find a lot of references to the topics which are really significant nowadays. The most fascinating thing is how she conveys it. This album is just a part of the futuristic story, which began on her EP, then continued and extended on The ArchAndroid. The most significant character here is Janelle’s alter ego – Cindi Mayweather, who (what is quite important to mention) is android. Yes. You must know about Cindi, if you want to understand The Electric Lady at all, understand the lyrics and the interludes. They are in the form of the radio broadcasts, in which some strange people are airing their personal thoughts. In one of these, we can hear a sentence ‘Robot love is queer’. Certainly it affects the DJ to be a little surprised, but he responds ‘What I wanna know is how you would know it’s queer. If you haven’t tried it.’ (I guess that I don’t have to explain the meaning). Despite the things connected with sexuality, Janelle is also singing about the racial segregation (Ghetto Woman), politics and woman’s movement. She mentions the characters of Dorothy Dandridge, an actress and a singer, and Sally Ride – the first woman in space.

Summarizing, Janelle Monáe is one of the most interesting (if not the most interesting) exponent of the new R&B. She is the artist that cares about every detail. She knows what she wants to sing about and the best way how to do it. She built a fascinating story (which, unfortunately, I can’t describe the way I would like to) and what’s more, she’s got a great, powerful voice. Yeah, I love to say that she is a Q.U.E.E.N.

9,5/10

Listen: Q.U.E.E.N., Electric Lady, Primetime, Dance Apocalyptic

  Solange – True EP

Release date: 27 November 2012

Genre: R&B, Pop

  Until now Solange was known only of being Beyonce’s sister. Obviously, having a famous sister has some advantages, like recognition in the media or ability to ask the older and more experienced B for advices , but it’s also connected with constant comparisons. A lot of people didn’t know that she had already released two LPs and most of them didn’t know any single song of hers (honestly, me too). But recently released EP named True is beginning to change it. From the start Solange says that her music is totally different from her sister’s … and after listening I know that she’s not lying. In fact,  they don’t have anything in common in their music. Beyonce’s vocal is very strong, she creates songs which are made to be peaking on the worldwide chart lists and she’s great in it. Solange on the True EP is choosing the other way. At first her voice is very sensitive and even charismatic. The content of this album is far away from what majority of pop stars do. Any of these songs wouldn’t peak at the lists, but interestingly this is what makes this EP great. Solange isn’t following the current music trends and she makes very nice R&B tracks mixed with pop. All is subtle, but it stays in memory. The EP has very even level, so it’s hard to choose the best songs. There aren’t any boring fillers, the whole album is genuine and the lyrics are interesting. Additionally, the important thing is that True isn’t made by a big group of producers. All lyrics are written by Solange with the help of Dev Hynes, who is responsible for production of EP and  it’s the reason why the whole album is very consistent. Solange by choosing this way isn’t trying to make a quick career, but she’s systematically gaining new fans, who will stay with her for a long time. She found her place in the music industry and that’s the reason why she’s becoming more popular (in America, anyway). And again: all comparisons to Beyonce are pointless.

I strongly recommend this album to people who like good pop music. For sure it’s not a suitable music for the parties, but it’s excellent for listening at home and in fact it’s the biggest disadvantage is that it’s an EP, so it’s a bit too short.

  9/10

Listen: Lovers in the Parking Lot , Losing You

Calvin Harris – 18 Months

Release date: 26 October 2012

Genre: Pop, Electronic

  18 Months is the third studio album of a Scotch singer, songwriter and producer, who is becoming more popular recently, i.a. because of his collaborations with well-known pop (Rihanna) and other genres artists (e.g. Dizzee Rascal, a rapper famous in Great Britain). And it’s easy to see. The album begins with the biggest radio hits by Harris (‘Bounce’ with Kelis and the previously mentioned Rihanna’s song ‘We Found Love’), in the middle of listening we can hear new Calvin’s hits like ‘Sweet Nothing’ with great Florence Welch and ‘Let’s Go’ - known from the Pepsi commercial. These songs are really catchy and nice to listen to, but what about the other part of the album, which we don’t know from the radio? Unfortunately, it’s rather weak. The song ’Green Valley’, which is opening the album, is probably its biggest mistake and it’s really terrible (luckily it lasts less than 2 minutes). Generally, some of the other songs are totally boring and repetitive (but not all, for example the strongly electronic ‘Mansion’), the listener feels that Harris is constantly using the same sounds, he doesn’t have ideas for some special moments in his songs and after long listening it can even cause a headache (fortunately there are interludes in the form of good songs). The next big mistake is that Harris sings only on two tracks (‘Feel So Close’, ’Iron’), in contrast to his previous LPs where all the songs were sang mostly by him. Maybe he’s not the best singer, but it makes his songs more personal.

In summary, I must say that 18 Months seems very average and it may be a disappointment to someone who listened to the two previous albums by Harris. They weren’t as monotonous as this record, which may bore even after few listenings. But despite of all the defects, I think this LP may commend to the fans of electronic music and it’s worth buying for its better moments.

  Listen:  Sweet Nothing, Bounce, We Found Love

5/10

Aerosmith – Music from another dimension!

It’s the 15th studio album by the famous American band Aerosmith, released on 6th November by Columbia Records. The album contains guest appearances of country singer Carrie Underwood and Johnny Deep. Standard version includes 15 tracks. The songs are similar to previous records by Aerosmith and doubtlessly will be liked by the fans of rock sounds.

  The Weeknd – Trilogy

Trilogy is a compilation album of Canadian PBR&B artist, released on 9th November by Republic Records. It includes remastered versions of The Weeknd’s mixtapes: House of Balloons, Thursday and Echoes of Silence. The album received positive reviews from music critics and includes guest appearance of well-known Canadian rapper Drake.

      Soundgarden – King Animal

It’s Soundgarden’s 6th studio album, released on 12th November by Republic Records.  The band’s previous album was released in 1996 (Down on the Upside). King Animal includes 13 songs. It received high rating from critics and is said to be good come back after 13-year hiatus.

  Rihanna – Unapologetic

Unapologetic is 7th studio album by 24-year Barbadian singer Rihanna. It was released on November 19 under the label of Def Jam Recordings and it contains 14 songs. Chris Brown, Eminem and David Guetta are featured on the album. It combines the genres of pop, dubstep and R&B. The lead single Diamonds has reached the top of 12 hit-charts worldwide including Billboard Hot 100.