Rising country singer wins award


Rising country music star Kaylee Bell has added another prize to her promising career, winning at the National Country Music Awards in Hamilton on Saturday night.

Bell shared the spotlight with Tami Neilson when the singers were jointly awarded the Best Female Artist of the Year award at the National Country Music Awards evening held at Founders Theatre on Saturday.

Bell who has lived in Australia for three years to focus on her music career, said she was thrilled to be recognised in the New Zealand music circles.

“Country music is growing and there’s a lot of great female country music artists coming through here so it’s pretty cool to still be in the mix. It’s a really good boost to my career.”

And what a career it is has been so far for the 25-year-old who is currently rocking the country music charts in Australia with her hit single, Just a little crazy.

The song is track number 3 on her award-winning album, Heart First, which earned a Tui Award for for best country album in May.

The Kiwi songstress has also won the Gore Gold Guitar award – New Zealand’s highest accolade for country music – the NZCMA Best Female Artist of the Year twice, and the Horizon award at the NZ Country Music Awards, and Australia’s 2013 Toyota Star Maker.

Bell was also a nominee for the prestigious Australia Gold Guitar Award.

The accolades have been a notch on an already sterling career.

In June, Bell sang a duet with Kiwi country music sensation Keith Urban at one of his concerts in Australia. The experience was “amazing,” she said. “It was huge. It was something that was so unexpected. I was really lucky to have a great team around me that made it happen.”

Bell started her music career as a four-year-old in the South Island.

“I have really focused solely on my music since I moved to Australia . . . Right now music is the priority.”

Bell, who has been to Nashville, the heart of the country music scene in America, said her ultimate dream would be to headline her own shows, but for now she is putting in the hard yards.

“I want to continue with my song writing which is a big thing and continue travelling, touring and trying to get some support spots with the big American country artists that tour Australia.” [email protected]

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– Waikato Times

Out-and-proud Ricky Martin heading to NZ


It was rain, not women’s underwear, that pelted the stage the previous time Ricky Martin came to visit.

The sexy Puerto Rican pop star attracted a legion of female fans when he performed in Auckland at the turn of the century. That fateful weekend at the then-Ericsson Stadium, some 20,000 fans waited 24 hours for their idol, thanks to issues with his production crew not being able to build a stage shelter in time.

This time, not only do we have a new stadium, Vector Arena, but we also have a new out-and-proud Martin.

With more than 70 million album sales under his belt and a 30-year-strong career, the 42-year-old has been open about his sexuality since coming out in 2010.

But it’s a banned topic when speaking with New Zealand media. As are other areas of his private life, if he doesn’t bring them up first.

Today’s celebrities are speaking less and less about themselves, with the likes of Justin Bieber, Rihanna, Pink and Beyonce limiting interviews and opting to open up to fans on social media.

Fairfax Australia recently had interviews with Eminem and John Mayer withdrawn after challenging imposed limitations on certain topics.

Ricky Martin doesn’t appear to fit this bill.

He’s constantly allowing his 6-year-old twin sons Matteo and Valentino to be photographed in public and he recently spoke out in support of gay Australian swimmer Ian Thorpe.

“I’ll say it now, and I’ve said it on many occasions. There are millions of little boys and girls around the world struggling with their sexual identity,” Martin said recently. “To have someone as powerful as him, and as successful as [Thorpe] saying: ‘It’s OK to be who you who you are, and be happy.’ Kudos, Ian, I’m very proud of you.”

That was obviously enough comment on that topic, Martin’s people telling the Sunday Star-Times there were to be no questions on that topic.

But when the opportunity arose, Martin was obliging.

“Hah he ha,” he paused to find words. “Ah, um, ah . . . there’s nothing wrong with people’s sexuality. It really shouldn’t be an issue, but you know, maybe people are interested. But are the media writing about sexuality because the audience wants to know about it or vice versa

“It shouldn’t be an issue. Music is the most important thing. I think that the audience will read it if it’s there, but at the end of the day they just want to have a good time when they go to a concert.”

While Martin has changed since his previous visit here, his music certainly hasn’t.

His latest single, Vida, has that Latino, upbeat, party-on-the-beach sound.

He’s been hoping the song would take off like 1998 hit The Cup of Life.

The catchy tune with the lyrics “here we go! Ole, ole, ole” cemented itself as the anthem for the Fifa World Cup tournament in France. For Vida, Martin was approached by the international football organisation to create another hit.

“It was so beautiful what happened with The Cup of Life, I said let’s do something different,” Martin explained. “Let’s bring the audience into this project. I want the audience to write the song for the world cup.”

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A social media campaign was established and 1600 songs poured in, with Vida picked as the best description of the “spirit of the world cup”.

It’s no Cup of Life, but it was a cool idea.

“It’s charting in many countries and getting lots views on Youtube,” Martin said.

Over the phone, Martin is every bit as warm and charming as he is as a judge in Australian TV competition The Voice.

He jumps right in and poses the first question.

“Where are you at the moment Auckland I can’t wait to go back. New Zealand could be like a lucky charm for me in a world tour which will hopefully go for a year and a half. It will set the atmosphere.”

He remembers his previous tour here vividly; it’s where he made his first skydive and he hopes to add to his adventures.

“I hopefully will take some time to wear the tourist hat.”

And like the rest of the world, he cannot get enough of our own Ella Yelich-O’Conner.

“Oh my god, Lorde! Now you’ve got me climbing up the walls here.

“That amazingly talented women that is doing so much for New Zealand music around the world. It would be an honour to ever work with her, definitely.”

– Sunday Star Times

Nicholas’ brutal life story a masterclass in sensitivity


REVIEW:

Last night’s Consent, (TV One), had a fair few chilling, skin-crawling scenes, but one of the most affecting was when we saw rape complainant Louise Nicholas and her daughter having coffee on their hotel balcony during the trial.

Down in the street, a paddy wagon is leaving the High Court across the road. Nicholas tells her daughter the passengers are two of the three former policeman rape defendants, already in prison for gang-raping another woman.

It was a badly-kept secret, but an officially enforced and defended one, and remains one of the nastiest stains on justice in this country’s history. Which is why a well-made dramatisation like Consent: The Louise Nicholas Story is money and effort superbly well-spent. Nicholas’ story shows us how far we needed to evolve in the way we approach rape complaints at official and personal levels, while subliminally freighting the message that we should never take a beady eye off this particular ball again. A powerfully told true story like this illustrates with visceral clarity how much easier it is and always will be for everyone concerned not to do the right thing.

Michelle Blundell did a note- perfect job of portraying the young woman whose life was blighted both by vile individual officers, and their in-the-know colleagues who turned a blind eye.

Perhaps the cleverest portrayal, though, was Mark Mitchinson’s of John Dewar, the senior officer who, while appearing to support and help Louise, in fact was found to have perverted the course of justice to protect his institution against her.

Deft acting and scripting meant the viewer could see without needing to have it spelt out in dialogue how deeply conditioned and conflicted Dewar was about where his duty lay. On paper what he did was monstrous, yet this was not obviously a monster.

The programme left us with the sense that Nicholas, like us, will never know the enigmatic Dewar’s true nature. A nod is also due to the show’s portrayal of Dominion Post journalist Phil Kitchin – brusque, uningratiating, relentless and meticulous. A reporter with a tiger by the tail, weighing up whether the risk of his project could ever justify the potential damage of making a bad situation worse.

Seeing the story in a compact sequential form like this makes it the more of a wonder Kitchin and Nicholas even embarked on this process. Despite the court acquittal, they proved their case to the outraged and grateful satisfaction of the public, and the establishment.

We can only celebrate again that they did, courtesy of this TV masterclass in how to approach a story of the most brutal realities with sensitivity.

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– The Dominion Post