AMERICAN troubadour, folk music singer and activist Pete Seeger has died at a hospital in New York. He was 94.

Seeger's grandson, Kitama Cahill-Jackson, says Seeger died on Monday night after being hospitalised for six days.

Seeger gained fame as a member of The Weavers, the quartet formed in 1948 and had hits such as Goodnight Irene.

In the 1950s, his leftist politics got him blacklisted and he was kept off commercial television for more than a decade.

With The Weavers, Seeger helped set the stage for a national folk revival. The group - Seeger, Lee Hays, Ronnie Gilbert and Fred Hellerman - churned out hit recordings ofGoodnight Irene, Tzena, Tzena and On Top of Old Smokey.

Seeger also was credited with popularising We Shall Overcome, which he printed in his publication People's Song, in 1948. He later said his only contribution to the anthem of the civil rights movement was changing the second word from "will" to "shall", which he said "opens up the mouth better".

His musical career was always braided tightly with his political activism, in which he advocated for causes ranging from civil rights to the cleanup of his beloved Hudson River. Seeger said he left the Communist Party around 1950 and later renounced it. But the association dogged him for years.

Seeger was a 2014 Grammy Awards nominee in the Best Spoken Word category, which was won by Stephen Colbert.

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Grammy winners 2014:Full list

Winners in selected categories at the 56th annual Grammy Awards announced Sunday during ceremonies at the Nokia Theatre and Staples Center: Traditional pop vocal album: "To Be Loved," Michael Buble. Rap performance: "Thrift Shop," Macklemore & Ryan Lewis featuring Wanz.
Rap song: "Thrift Shop," Macklemore & Ryan Lewis featuring Wanz.

Rap album: "The Heist," Macklemore & Ryan Lewis.

R&B performance: "Something," Snarky Puppy with Lalah Hathaway.

Traditional R&B performance: "Please Come Home," Gary Clark Jr.

R&B song: "Pusher Love Girl," James Fauntleroy, Jerome Harmon, Timothy Mosley and Justin Timberlake.

R&B album: "Girl on Fire," Alicia Keys.

Urban contemporary album: "Unapologetic," Rihanna.

Rock performance: "Radioactive," Imagine Dragons.

Rock album: "Celebration Day," Led Zeppelin.

Hard rock/metal performance: "God is Dead," Black Sabbath.

Alternative music album: "Modern Vampires of the City," Vampire Weekend.

Dance recording: "Clarity," Zedd featuring Foxes.

Dance/electronica album: "Random Access Memories," Daft Punk.

Producer of the year, non-classical: Pharrell Williams.

Latin pop album: "Vida," Draco Rosa

Latin rock, urban or alternative album: "Treinta Dias," La Santa Cecilia.

Latin jazz album: "Song for Maura," Paquito D'Rivera and Trio Corrente.

Tropical Latin album: "Pacific Mambo Orchestra," Pacific Mambo Orchestra.

Country solo performance: "Wagon Wheel," Darius Rucker.

Country duo/group performance: "From This Valley," The Civil Wars.

Country song: "Merry Go 'Round," Kacey Musgraves, Shane McAnally and Josh Osbourne.

Gospel song: "If He Did It Before ... Same God (Live)," Tye Tribbett

Gospel album: "Greater Than (Live)," Tye Tribbettlatin

Blues album: "Get Up!," Ben Harper with Charlie Musselwhite.

Folk album: "My Favorite Picture of You," Guy Clark.

Americana album: "Old Yellow Moon," Emmylou Harris and Rodney Crowell.

Bluegrass album: "The Streets of Baltimore," Del McCoury Band.

Reggae album: "Ziggy Marley in Concert," Ziggy Marley.

World music album: "Live: Singing for Peace Around the World," Ladysmith Black Mambazo, and "Savor Flamenco," Gypsy Kings (tie).

Children's album: "Throw a Penny in the Wishing Well," Jennifer Gasoi.

Spoken word album: "America Again: Re-Becoming the Greatness We Never Weren't," Stephen Colbert.

Comedy album: "Calm Down Gurrl," Kathy Griffin.

New age album: "Love's River," Laura Sullivan.

Jazz vocal album: "Liquid Spirit," Gregory Porter.

Jazz instrumental album: "Money Jungle: Provocative in Blue," Terri Lyne Carrington.

Large jazz ensemble album: "Night in Calisia," Randy Brecker, Wlodek Pawlik Trio and Kalisz Philharmonic.

Pop instrumental album: "Steppin' Out," Herb Alpert.

Compilation soundtrack album: "Sound City: Real to Reel," Dave Grohl and various artists, Butch Vig.


Score soundtrack album: "Skyfall," Thomas Newman, composer.

Song written for visual media: Skyfall, Adele and Paul Epworth.

Musical theater album: "Kinky Boots," Cyndi Lauper, Billy Porter, Stark Sands, Sammy James Jr., Stephen Oremus and William Wittman.

Producer of the year, classical: David Frost.

Instrumental composition: "Pensamientos for Solo Alto Saxophone and Chamber Orechestra," Clare Fischer.

Orchestral performance: "Sibelius: Symphonies Nos. 1 & 4," Osmo Vanska, conductor.

Opera recording: "Ades: The Tempest," Thomas Ades, Simon Keenlyside, Isabel Leonard, Audrey Luna, Alan Oke, Jay David Saks.

Choral performance: "Part: Adam's Lament," Tonu Kaljuste, conductor.

Short-form music video: "Suit & Tie," Justin Timberlake featuring Jay Z, David Fincher, Timory King.

Long-form music video: "Live Kisses," Paul McCartney, Jonas Akerlund, Violaine Etienne, Aron Levin and Scott Rodger.

Historical album: "The Complete Sussex and Columbia Albums" of Bill Withers, Leo Sacks, Joseph M. Palmaccio, Tom Ruff and Mark Wilder, and "Charlie is My Darling," Teri Landi, Andrew Loog Oldham, Steve Rosenthal and Bob Ludwig.

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French dance duo Daft Punk have taken top honours at the Grammy Awards

French dance duo Daft Punk have taken top honours at the Grammy Awards, winning five prizes including album and record of the year.

Hip-hop duo Macklemore and Lewis picked up four awards - best new artist plus best rap album, song and performance.

Justin Timberlake won three, while New Zealand teenager Lorde had two including song of the year for Royals.

Sir Paul McCartney was among the other double winners and also reunited with his Beatles bandmate Ringo Starr.

The ceremony is known for its heavyweight on-stage collaborations and this year's show was opened by Jay-Z and his wife Beyonce.

Madonna joined Macklemore and Lewis to perform their anti-homophobia anthem Same Love as more than 30 couples took part in a mass wedding.

Other highlights included Daft Punk, Nile Rodgers and Pharrell Williams being joined by Stevie Wonder to perform their hit Get Lucky.

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Maud Powell - Greatest Violinst in history

Maud Powell was born in Illinois ,Unnited States in 1867. She picked up the violin as a young girl and  never put it down in the rest of her life. At the turn of the 20th century, classical music in America was scoffed at by Europeans. But Powell became the first American-born violinist — man or woman — to change that by winning over European audiences. She toured, playing her violin for audiences across the U.S. In those days, if a woman made music, she usually played the piano, and she did it in parlor rooms or at dinner parties —not in the spotlight on a stage.
Rachel Barton Pine is a violinst who has long been inspiried by Maud Powell, even releasing her own tribute recordings of Powell's work. Barton Pine says that though she grew up a big fan of music history, she never encountered Powell until she was 20 years old, and received a copy of Powell's biography in the mail from its author, Karen Shaffer.
"It was a real revelation — not just because of how she was the greatest woman violinist in the world during her lifetime, and playing the works of black composers when white instrumentalists just didn't do that," Barton Pine says. "It was the values by which she lived her life, playing concerts for communities that had never before had a classical concert, and using the recording technology as a further way to spread great music all over the place to people who had not yet had a chance to fall in love with it."

Rachel Barton Pine is one of the people accepting the Lifetime Achievement Grammy on behalf of Maud Powell, who died in 1920.

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Sweedish Ice Orchestra

They're among the rarest instruments in the world, but they'll be discarded come spring.

They're so fragile even the players' breath risks nudging them out of tune.

Turn up the temperature in the concert hall and you'd have, not a finely chiseled viola, flute or conga, but a glass of water.

"And you'd be healthier for drinking it!" says Tim Linhart, ice-instrument maker extraordinaire to an orchestra playing a series of concerts throughout the winter in the remote Swedish town of Luleå, just beneath the Arctic Circle.

Hearing really is believing when it comes to these evanescent instruments made -- bar the strings and other odd parts of metal or wood -- entirely from frozen water.

Courtesy:CNN

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Justin Bieber arrested on drunken driving

Justin Bieber was charged with drunken driving, resisting arrest and driving without a valid license after police saw the pop star street racing early Thursday morning, Miami Beach police said.

"What  did I do? Why did you stop me?" Bieber asked the police officer who pulled him over just after 4 a.m., according to the arrest report.

Bieber, 19, was released from a Miami jail an hour after he made a brief appearance through a video link before a Miami judge, who set a "standard" $2,500 bond Thursday afternoon.

He strutted out of the jail dressed in black, with a baggy hoodie covering his head. His pants appeared to be baggy leather. Bieber briefly sat on top of a black Cadillac Escalade, where he waved to screaming fans, before he was chauffeured away.

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After three years on the blacklist, China lifts gag on Lady Gaga

                                                          

Lady Gaga -- the flamboyant and provocative New York-based pop singer -- has been removed from a Chinese government blacklist, allowing her chart-topping new album "ARTPOP" to go on sale legally in China.

In  China, the pop diva's songs had been on a blacklist since 2011, when the Culture Ministry deemed her work to be "creating confusion in the order of the online music market, and damaging the nation's cultural security."Singling out songs from her album "Born this Way," Chinese authorities identified six Gaga tracks -- "The Edge of Glory," "Hair," "Marry the Night," "Americano," "Judas" and "Bloody Mary" -- as among 100 foreign songs to be placed on a blacklist.

Katy Perry's "Last Friday Night" and the Backstreet Boys' "I Want It That Way" were also included in the sweep.

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Justin Bieber’s Mom To Fans: ‘Pray For Him — He’s Struggling’

Justin Bieber’s mom is defending her son, and blames fame for his behavioral issues. She claims Justin is just lost, and believes that with prayers from his fans, the singer can get back on the right path.

Justin Bieber‘s mom Pattie Mallete has come to his defense in the midst of the egging scandal that cost $20,000 in damages. The 37 -year old author of Nowhere But Up: The Story of Justin Bieber’s Mom “beliebs” that Justin’s struggles are nothing that a little prayer can’t fix, and she urges fans to pray for him and not condemn the singer during this tumultuous time in his life.

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