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Stevie Wonder backs out of IDF gala performance

Thu, 29 Nov 2012 20:40:00 +0000

A Change.org petition asking Stevie Wonder not to play at the Dec. 6 Friends of the Israeli Defense Forces fundraising event in Los Angeles only needed 419 more signatures -- but it looks like its organizers won't need them anymore. The Jewish Telegraphic Agency reports that Wonder, who is a United Nations "Messenger of Peace," has backed out of the performance, citing a "recommendation from the United Nations to withdraw his participation." The FIDF fundraiser is expected to raise millions of dollars in support of the Israeli military.

Maj. Gen. (Res.) Yitzhak (Jerry) Gershon, the national director and CEO of Friends of the IDF, said in a press release, "We regret the fact that Stevie Wonder has decided to cancel his performance at an important community event of the FIDF, an American organization supporting the educational, cultural, and well-being needs of Israel’s soldiers, their families, and the families of fallen soldiers."

The petition, however, called the IDF "an institution which promotes, enables, and protects Israel's Apartheid regime."

Obama’s last celebrity push

Mon, 05 Nov 2012 21:04:00 +0000

With the 2012 election now down to its last day, President Obama has been pulling in major star power to urge Americans to get out and vote. According to the AP, 181 celebrities, including prominent actors, musicians, authors, athletes and politicians, "are being deployed to carry his message to television and radio in the waning days of the campaign." Just this weekend alone ...

Stevie Wonder played a surprise concert in Ohio:

Neil Diamond worked the phones in Los Angeles:

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(Of course, he sang too):

Will Ferrell, the founder of Facebook, said "he'll personally give you a tattoo" if you vote for Obama:

Katy Perry performed in Milwaukee:

Frank Ocean’s sexuality is beside the point

Tue, 23 Oct 2012 23:21:00 +0000

Nineteen-year-old Christopher Breaux fell hard for another straight-acting boy who wouldn’t love him back, confessing his love in a car parked in front of the girlfriend’s house. Like many a millennial, he took to Tumblr to share his feelings about a love he described, with portentous adolescent drama, as “malignant.” But the queerest song released so far by the artist now known at Frank Ocean hasn’t been an ode to boy-on-boy love and lust but a corrosive satire of “traditional” American marriage in the era of Kim Kardashian and Newt Gingrich. If hip-hop is the CNN of the ghetto, then “American Wedding” aims to be its TMZ as well, replete with celebrities and courtroom hijinks, muscle motors, and divorce settlements, with Ocean ruefully rubbernecking at all the car crashes en route to the good life.

“American Wedding” has attracted the proprietary attentions of paleo-rockers the Eagles, whose radio staple “Hotel California” the track is based on. But the real story here isn’t about the sampling wars. It’s about a scapegoat generation struggling to find a path through the crumbling infrastructure of the American dream.

Stevie Wonder: OK, maybe gays aren’t confused

Tue, 04 Sep 2012 20:04:00 +0000

At least he didn't post his apology on his Web page. Stevie Wonder: still an innovator!

Adding his name to the long, long list of celebrities who forgot that thoughts go on the inside, the iconic singer has been doing the apology tour after making some seriously strange remarks in the Guardian newspaper. In a conversation about his lengthy musical career, why race is still an issue, and the Queen of England's astrological sign, Wonder was asked about his current singer-songwriter heir apparent, Frank Ocean. After acknowledging, "Yeah, I like Frank," he added a few observations about Ocean's openness about his romantic history with another man. "I think honestly, some people who think they're gay, they're confused," Wonder said. "People can misconstrue closeness for love. People can feel connected, they bond. I'm not saying all [gay people are confused]. Some people have a desire to be with the same sex. But that's them."