Carly Rose Sonenclar & Ella Henderson Blow Away X Factor Judges

Posted by Sam in Entertainment, TV

Carly Rose Soneclar and Ella Henderson are 2 singers who have wowed the X Factor judges on both sides of the Atlantic this season. Given their young age, and assuming they will improve with age, have we witnessed 2 superstars of the future?

Add you comments below and tell us what you think.

One thing is for sure, you can no longer turn up to these talent shows with an okay voice. You need to be seriously good.

Carly Rose Sonenclar Sings ‘Feeling Good’

Carly Rose Sonenclar, from NY, went to the Providence audition of the X Factor USA and shocked the judges with her rendition of Nina Simone’s ‘Feeling Good’.

With a voice that belies her 13 years she blew the X Factor USA judges away with her tone, power and emotional version of the classic.

Initially Simon Cowell had a skeptical look when Carly Rose Sonenclar announced that she was going to sing the classic ‘Feeling Good’. And, lets face it, you have to either be very good or stupid to take on one of the all time great songs from an all time great singer, Nina Simone.

As soon as she started singing though, the Simon Cowell sneer turned to amazement as she proved she was equal to the song.

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Ella Henderson Makes Nicole Scherzinger Cry

Ella Henderson from the X Factor UK is only 16 years old but still succeeded in getting a standing ovation for her interpretation of the Cher song ‘Believe’.

Nicole Scherzinger was reduced to a blubbering wreck by the performance saying “We can’t touch her, we just have to be in awe of her.”

Apparently Cher herself broke down in tears when she saw the performance of her No.1 hit song.

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Ella Henderson also has another advantage apart from her stunning voice. She has been writing songs since she was 13 and performed one for her first X Factor UK audition.

Dedicated to her late Grandad who had inspired her to sing, it was an emotionally charged performance in which you could hear a pin drop. It took a few seconds for the audience to react at the end as they took it in.

It also earned a standing ovation, not bad for a self penned song by a 16 year old. See Ella Henderson’s first audition below.

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Later in the @XFactorUSA series, Carly Rose Sonenclar sung ‘If I Were a Boy’ by Beyonce after viewers voted for the track in a Pepsi poll.

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Whitney Houston Dies Aged 48

Posted by Sam in Celebrity, Music

Whitney Houston Dies Aged 48 according to initial reports from the news wires.

Whitney Houston was the most successful soul singer of all time during the 1980′s and came from a musical family, including cousin Dione Warwick and Godmother Aretha Franklin.

She also became a successful actress with her well received film ‘The Bodyguard’ starring Kevin Costner. The soundtrack epitomized her power ballad style that she became best known for, showcasing her incredible voice.

There were some at the time who said that her main character in ‘The Bodyguard’, self obsessed and prima dona, was too close for comfort to the real Whitney Houston.

Her subsequent marriage to Bobby Brown ended in divorce, rumor of violence and drug abuse. Her voice obviously suffered as she tried to make a return to singing with a concert that fans complained was not the Whitney they remembered. Recently there were rumors that Whitney Houston had lost all the money from her multi-million record sales.

If the news reports turn out to be true then I think most people, including ourselves, would like to remember Whitney Houston as the very beautiful lady with the incredible voice and great songs. Leave your comments below.

Whitney Houston Videos

Photo: tm_10001

X Factor Vs American Idol – Battle of the Music Shows

Posted by Tracy in Entertainment, TV

X Factor Vs American Idol the ultimate battle of the music talent show.

Now that we have finally seen the X factor USA in action and we have our first winner, Melanie Amaro, we are interested in what you think about the talent shows and tell us your views about the X Factor Vs American Idol debate.

Its major rival is the long running show American Idol and old hunting ground of the X Factor judge and driving force Simon Cowell.

So we have a couple of straw polls below, just vote on which show you thought was the best and who was your favourite judge.

We have our own opinions and would love to hear yours, so get opinionated below right now.

X Factor Vs American Idol Straw Poll

X Factor Vs American Idol: Judges the Judges

We thought both shows had their plus points and there was enough of a difference between the two shows to keep both healthy in the ratings.

Simon Cowell is always fun to watch, usually he tells the truth as he sees it but the X Factors USP of mentoring individual acts means that he is completely blinkered when it comes to his own acts.

Nothing wrong with that of course, one of the traits of successful people is that they intently focus on what they want to see in order to lead others in that direction. As a neutral viewer though it can be frustrating.

American Idol on the other hand has moved into the middle ground, a touchy feeley place that Simon Cowell would find uncomfortable.

Both The X Factor and American Idol have their fair share of winners and losers amongst the contestants. Some of it is painful to watch, some of it is inspiring to watch and some of it… well you just can’t take your eyes of it no matter how hard you try.

Tell us what you think about the X Factor Vs American Idol debate in the comments below.

Upcoming Movies 2012 – Coming Soon

Posted by James in Entertainment, Movies & Film

Upcoming movies 2012, coming soon to a theatre near you. We take a look at the new movie releases for 2012.

First up we have Rock of Ages starring Tom Cruise, Russell Brand, Catherine Zeta-Jones & Alec Baldwin. It tells the story of small town girl Sherrie & city boy Drew as they pursue their dreams of fame and fortune. It’s based on the successful musical & features some classic rock hits so we know it will at least have a good soundtrack. It is coming in June 2012, check out the trailer below.

Upcoming Movies 2012: Rock of Ages Trailer

Next we take a look at what will be one of the biggest releases of the year, The Dark Knight Rises. Due in July 2012 Christopher Nolan returns to complete his Batman trilogy with Christian Bale once again reprising the role of Batman the caped crusader.

Upcoming Movies 2012: The Dark Knight Rises Trailer

They don’t come any bigger than the release of The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey in December 2012.

From the Lord of the Rings director Peter Jackson expectations are surely sky high for the first of 2 films based on J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Hobbit. The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey is set 60 years before the Lord of the Rings and features Bilbo Baggins as the hero played by Martin Freeman.

Ian McKellen returns as Gandalf the Grey as does Cate Blanchett as Galadriel, Ian Holm as the older Bilbo Baggins, Elijah Wood as Frodo, Christopher Lee as Saruman, Orlando Bloom as Legolas, Andy Serkis as Gollum and Hugo Weaving as Elrond.

The second film will be called The Hobbit: There and Back Again, scheduled for release in December 2013.

Upcoming Movies 2012: The Hobbit An Unexpected Journey Trailer

2012 Happy New Year !

Posted by Jeff in Entertainment

2012 Happy New Year ! The world has welcomed in the new year, watch the fireworks below.

2012 New Year Celebrations in Las Vagas

2012 New Year Celebrations in London

Happy New Year from everyone at DT News

YouTube Most Viewed Videos 2011

Posted by Jeff in Entertainment, YouTube

YouTube most viewed videos 2011 list has been announced & it may surprise you that someone we had never heard of last year tops the list.

So here is the run down of the most viewed videos of 2011, although we think it is a bit premature of YouTube seeing as though we haven’t reached the end of the year yet but there you go.

Don’t forget that you can see the DT News channel on youtube where we post the occasional press conference and other titbits.

1) Yes, Rebecca Blacks ‘Friday’ video surpassed 100 million views and got there in a surprising short amount of time as its notoriety was propelled by ‘haters’ trashing the song and performance. I think Rebecca Black has had the last laugh though.

2) Next up is a video of a talking dog from Canada (well kinda) with almost 80 million views.

3) With almost 62 million views here are The Lonely Island crew with a tribute to Jack Sparrow featuring the legend that is Michael Bolton.

4) At no. 4 are the talking twin babies, my personal favourite. You’ll see what I mean and they will be hard to resist. Meet the talk show hosts of the future.

5) Nyam Cat is up next with 55 million views. Quite why is baffling to me but there you go, make up your own mind…if you still have it after listening to this.

6) Karmin are at no. 6 with a cover of ‘Look At Me Now‘ by Chris Brown ft. Lil Wayne and Busta Rhymes. Strangely addictive after a bit of Christmas sherry.

7) Here are The Lonely Guys again with a dittie called ‘The Creep‘ feat. Nicki Minaj & John Waters. You will have togo to YouTube to watch this one.

8) 10 year old Maria Aragon is up next with a cover of ‘Born This Way‘ by Lady Gaga. Lady Gaga herself prompted this video to go stratospheric when she tweeted “Can’t stop crying watching this. This is why I make music. She is the future.”

9) The no. 9 spot is taken by a viral ad from Volkswagon entitled ‘the force‘ for obvious reasons. Designed for the Superbowl it actually got picked up prior to the event by bloggers and went viral very quickly around the world.

10) Last on the list with almost 40 million views is this short video showing a cat hugging a kitten…. yes almost 40 million views… I know.

X Factor USA Results Are In – Melanie Amaro Wins Final

Posted by Jo in Entertainment, TV

X Factor USA results are in and Melanie Amaro has triumphed after beating Josh Krajcik & Chris Rene in the final.

The first ever winner of the X Factor USA, Melanie Amaro, hails from Sunrise in Florida and has a formidable voice.

Her winners story is all the more remarkable because she was initially rejected by her mentor, Simon Cowell, at the judges houses stage of the competition & didn’t make it to the live shows.

However, Simon Cowell later had a change of heart & made a special journey to Amaros home in Florida. He admitted that he had made a mistake & asked her to take part in the live shows. The X factor USA voters obviously responded to her and her voice.

It is these little things that can make a big difference in how contestants are perceived & perhaps this initial rejection from Simon gave Amaro the back story she needed to really make an impact.

You need much more than just a good voice to win these competitions and whatever you may think about these talent shows, with over 100,000 people auditioning no one could ever say that it is easy.

Melanie Amaro walks away from the X Factor USA with a $5 million recording contract & an appearance in a TV ad. Possibly the biggest prize in TV today.

Josh Krajcik was runner up on the night & although he didn’t win he can be pretty sure of securing a contract of his own.

With a very distinctive and soulful voice he would translate to radioplay very easily & Simon Cowell is too savvy to let that slip away.

X Factor USA result & Melanie Amaro Video

X Factor USA – Who was your favorite?

Google Music Store & Blackberry BBM Music Services Launched

Posted by Jo in Entertainment, Music

Google music store launched in the US this week close on the heals of the Blackberry BBM music service UK launch.

The Google music store allows anyone running the Google Android operating system to buy and stream music files to their device.

Most of the major music labels are getting behind Googles music store including EMI, Sony and Universal. These music labels in conjunction with other smaller independents have allowed Google to build up a library of over 10 million songs.

Google are also taking the opportunity to integrate their Google+ social service into the music store allowing friends to listen to your track for free as a one time play.

Prices for songs are similar to the Apple iTunes store starting at $0.69 and will feature some exclusive content from the likes of Coldplay.

A step that the struggling artist will appreciate is the music stores new artist hub which allows artists to create their own page to sell music through for a small fee and 30% commission on any sales.

Google Music Store Promo Ad

Meanwhile on the other side of the Atlantic the Blackberry BBM music service was launched in the UK with a monthly subscription model.

Blackberrys music service is built around their social networking system with each of your BBM music friends able to share 50 tracks with you via the cloud. Omnifone are partnering with RIM to provide the Blackberry BBM music service.

All in all the online music world is hotting up with all the big online companies vying for their share of the market. Google, Amazon, Spotify, RIM, Nokia, Pandora and many others are all after Apples dominant share.

With Google owning the largest portion of the mobile market in the same way that Microsoft did with Windows, who would bet against them?

Tintin Movie, ‘The Adventures of Tintin: The Secret of the Unicorn’, Comes To Life

Posted by Tracy in Entertainment, Movies & Film

Tintin movie called ‘The Adventures of Tintin: The Secret of the Unicorn’, comes to life thanks to the efforts of director Steven Spielberg & producer Peter Jackson.

The Tintin movie, with a budget of around $100 million, uses the latest technology in motion capture to create super realistic 3D animation that they call ‘performance capture’.

You can understand why Spielberg and Jackson got together for this project. Jackson brought us the special effects monster that was the Lord of the Rings trilogy and Spielbergs achievements in ‘daring do’ movies need no introduction.

Most of the other major players in the Tintin movie happen to be British. The screenplay was principally written by Dr Who’s writer Steven Moffat and most of the cast are British.

Billy Elliot star Jamie Bell plays the lead role of reporter Tintin while Captain Haddock is played by Andy Serkis who won acclaim for his portrayal of Gollum in the Lord of the Rings trilogy.

Simon Pegg and Nick Frost play the bumbling detectives, the Thompson twins, while James Bond himself, Daniel Craig, plays the villain Ivanovich Sakharine.

The Tintin books have been bestsellers for decades around every corner of the world, from China to Europe, but America has been slow to catch on.

For Spielberg he hopes that this will now change as the film opens across the US. He has been a fan since his Indiana Jones days and he admits to wanting to make a Tintin movie for the past 30 years.

With so many Tintin stories to base the film on they decided to use 3 books as a basis for the movie. The Secret of the Unicorn, The Crab with the Golden Claws and Red Rackhams Treasure.

Tintin Trailer

Tintin Reviews

The Tintin movie has premièred in Europe and is coming to the US and rest of the world soon. Perhaps the biggest thumbs up for the film has been the good reception of the Tintin movie in Belgium, the home of Tintins author, the late Georges Remi (pen name Hergé).

Here is what other people have said:

Variety: “the director and his team have deployed both technologies with subtle finesse throughout, exploiting 3D’s potential just enough to make the action scenes that much more effective without overdoing it…. The characters, with their exaggerated features, almost resemble flesh-and-blood thesps wearing prosthetic makeup.”

Hollywood Reporter: “First Tintin instalment takes Steven Spielberg back to his fun-filled, visually splendid roots.”

Telegraph: “there’s a mechanistic quality to Spielberg’s craft that’s undoubtedly disappointing: a film directed by one such distinctive artist and based on the work of another shouldn’t feel like it could have been made by almost anyone.”

Empire: “Action-packed, gorgeous, and faithfully whimsical: Hergé thought Spielberg the only director capable of filming Tintin. He was onto something.”

Film4: “An entertaining start – roll on the next one”

Photo:tintin.com