Brazil, Japan win International Emmys for news (AP)

NEW YORK – Television networks in Brazil and Japan have won their first-ever International Emmy Awards in the news and current affairs categories.

TV Globo's "Jornal Nacional: War on Drugs," about the four-day raid in November 2010 by security forces to take control of a major drug dealer's stronghold in Rio de Janeiro, is the winner of the International Emmy for news.

Japan's NHK takes the award in the current affairs category for "Back from the Brink: Inside the Chilean Mine Disaster" about the 69-day ordeal of 33 miners trapped underground and their dramatic rescue last year.

The awards were presented on Monday by The International Academy of Television Arts & Sciences in New York.

____

Online:

http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/ap/ap_en_ot/storytext/us_tv_international_emmys_news/43066101/SIG=10mstpkjs/*http://www.iemmys.tv

Yahoo! News

Japan maestro Ozawa cancels China performances (Reuters)

TOKYO (Reuters) – Seiji Ozawa, Japan's most famous conductor, will not take part in a music festival in China later this week, organizers said, with media reporting that he was in hospital in Tokyo for tests.

The 75-year-old former Vienna State Opera musical director, who for many years was also conductor of the Boston Symphony Orchestra, was diagnosed with oesophogeal cancer in January 2010 and completed treatment later that year.

In January, he had endoscopic lower back surgery for chronic back pain and took a six-month break from conducting. But his comeback at the Saito Kinen Festival in the Japanese castle town of Matsumoto ran into trouble last week when he was diagnosed with dehydration and a light case of pneumonia, forcing him to cancel two of four performances.

"He will not be taking part in performances in China," said a spokesperson at the Saito Kinen Festival, the organizer of the Chinese event.

She would not confirm media reports that Ozawa was in hospital for tests and unspecified treatment.

Ozawa was one of the first Asian classical musicians widely recognized abroad and has strived to revitalize the classical music scene in his native country by founding the Saito Kinen Festival.

Born the son of a dentist in 1935 in Shenyang, part of what was then Japanese-occupied China, Ozawa spent much of his early childhood in Beijing and has kept up connections with China since the late 1970s, when he was invited to work with a Chinese orchestra for a week.

Ozawa had been set to take part in four performances during the Chinese festival, which runs from Sept 1 to 11.

(Reporting by Elaine Lies)

Yahoo! News

Lady Gaga denies Japan charity bracelet scam (Reuters)

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – Representatives of Lady Gaga on Tuesday denied claims of a scam over sales of the singer's wristbands for Japan's earthquake relief efforts.

They described a lawsuit targeting the pop star and other companies involved in the sale and marketing of the $5 white and red "We Pray for Japan" rubber bracelets as misguided and without merit.

"This misguided lawsuit is without merit and unfortunately takes attention away from the kind deeds of the fans around the world who are supporting the people of Japan," Gaga's representatives said in a statement.

Michigan legal network, 1800LAWFIRM, filed a lawsuit last week alleging that not all of the proceeds from the wristband sales were going to help victims of the March earthquake and tsunami, as Lady Gaga had pledged on her website. The federal class action also claimed that shipping costs were inflated.

The lawsuit was filed on Friday while the "Born This Way" singer was in Japan for a benefit concert.

"The entire $5 donation made with the purchase of each bracelet is going to support the disaster relief. No profit is being made on shipping costs. Sales tax charges were made in accordance with local legal requirements. Lady Gaga has personally pledged her own funds to this cause and continues to support the victims of the disaster," Tuesday's statement said.

Gaga, whose real name is Stefani Germanotta, is reported to have donated about $3 million to Japan disaster relief through sales of the wristbands and other ventures.

Lady Gaga was last month named the most powerful celebrity in the world by Forbes magazine, based on her earnings, media visibility and social media popularity.

(Reporting by Jill Serjeant; Editing by Bob Tourtellotte)

Yahoo! News

Law suit over Lady Gaga Japan relief efforts (AFP)

LOS ANGELES (AFP) – American pop star Lady Gaga is accused of misrepresenting charitable donations from wristbands sold to benefit tsunami and earthquake victims in Japan earlier this year.

The complaint, filed in a Michigan court on Friday by 1800lawfirm, says the star as well as her record label, Universal Music Group, and the Bravado International Group, lacked transparency surrounding the amount of money that was raised from sales of the wristbands and whether those funds were 100% allocated to earthquake and tsunami victims.

After the earthquake and tsunami disasters in March 2011 that devastated Japan, Lady Gaga created the rubber wristbands and the singer's website advertised that all proceeds from sales of the wristband would benefit victims.

The white rubber bracelets were sold for $5 and inscribed in red with the phrase, "We pray for Japan," in English and Japanese.

"While we commend Lady Gaga for her philanthropic efforts, we want to ensure that claims that "all proceeds will be donated to Japan?s earthquake relief efforts" are in fact true," said one of the plaintiff's lawyers, Alyson Oliver, in a press release.

The suit alleges that the singer and her partners "added additional "shipping charges" in excess of the amount required to ship the wristbands based on their weight, and retained a portion of the shipping charges," according to court documents.

"This misguided lawsuit is without merit and unfortunately takes attention away from the kind deeds of the fans around the world who are supporting the people of Japan," said Lady Gaga's spokeswoman, Holly Shakoor in an email to AFP.

"The entire $5 donation made with the purchase of each bracelet is going to support the disaster relief. No profit is being made on shipping costs. Sales tax charges were made in accordance with local legal requirements," she added.

The lawsuit seeks damages, "including a return of all amounts paid for the products," according to the press release.

According to Japanese media, Lady Gaga has so far donated approximately $3 million to disaster zones in the northeast of Japan, most of that from the sale of the wristbands.

The star was in Tokyo last weekend for a charity concert organized by MTV Video Music Aid Japan.

Yahoo! News

Lady Gaga sued over fundraising effort for Japan (AP)

DETROIT – A lawsuit filed in Detroit claims music star Lady Gaga is misleading her fans with an online pitch for donations for victims of the Japan earthquake.

Lady Gaga's website is selling $5 wristbands that say, "We Pray For Japan." The website also allows people to make additional donations and says "all proceeds go directly to Japan relief efforts."

But the lawsuit notes that sales tax and a $3.99 shipping charge are added. Detroit-area attorney Alyson Oliver believes not all money is going to help the Japanese. She wants an accounting.

An email seeking comment was left Monday with a spokesman for Lady Gaga. The lawsuit was filed Friday in federal court in Detroit. It seeks class-action status and possible refunds for people who bought wristbands.

Yahoo! News

Lady Gaga sued over Japan earthquake charity bracelets (Reuters)

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – Pop superstar Lady Gaga has been sued over sales of her wristbands for Japan's earthquake relief efforts in a class action that claims that not all the proceeds went to victims as she had promised.

Michigan legal network 1800LAWFIRM also alleges that Gaga and other companies involved in the sale and marketing of the $5 white and red "We Pray for Japan" wristbands overcharged buyers on shipping costs and "artificially inflated reports of total donations".

"While we commend Lady Gaga for her philanthropic efforts, we want to ensure that claims that 'all proceeds will be donated to Japan's earthquake' are in fact true," said Alyson Oliver, an attorney for 1800LAWFIRM.

"Our intention via this lawsuit is to uncover any improprieties committed by Lady Gaga and appropriate the full donations assumed to the victims in Japan."

Lady Gaga, 25, and her representatives did not return calls for comment on Monday. The federal class action lawsuit was filed in Michigan on Friday while the "Born This Way" singer was in Japan for a benefit concert for victims of the March earthquake and tsunami.

Gaga, whose real name is Stefani Germanotta, is reported to have donated about $3 million to Japan disaster relief through sales of the wristbands and other ventures.

The official website for the singer's store however has several comments from frustrated fans complaining about long delivery times and shipping and handling costs of more than $5 for the small rubber wristbands.

The lawsuit claims that a slew of federal racketeering and consumer protection laws were broken by what it calls deceptive advertising and profits from the sale of the bracelets.

Lady Gaga was last month named the most powerful celebrity in the world by Forbes magazine, based on her earnings, media visibility and social media popularity.

(Reporting by Jill Serjeant; Editing by Bob Tourtellotte)

Yahoo! News

Lady Gaga on Japan: It's safe, food's great (AP)

TOKYO – Lady Gaga says that if you want to help Japan recover from its tsunami disaster, come visit.

The flamboyant pop star, in Tokyo this week for a benefit concert for tsunami victims, said Thursday in an interview with The Associated Press that she's making a point to get out and enjoy the city and its food, and that her fans should do the same thing.

"I can't say enough to people all over the world that the majority of Japan right now, Japan in general, is very safe," she said. "It's fine to come here. It's beautiful."

Many performers and athletes have canceled appearances in Japan after the March 11 earthquake and tsunami that caused widespread destruction and set off a crisis at the Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear power plant about 140 miles (220 kilometers) north of Tokyo. Tens of thousands of people were forced to leave homes near the plant because of the radiation danger, but even far from the evacuation zone, Japanese tourism has suffered because of the disaster.

Lady Gaga said she couldn't wait for the chance to show her support.

"The most important thing, and the best thing, we could do for Japan right now is to boost tourism, and so everyone come to Japan and come enjoy the beautiful country," she said.

The singer received a certificate from the commissioner of the Japan Tourism Agency on Thursday, thanking her for her support and money-raising efforts.

After her appearance at MTV Video Music Aid Japan on Saturday, Lady Gaga will move on to Taiwan on July 1.

Yahoo! News

Stradivarius violin sold for $16M for Japan relief (AP)

TOKYO – A Japanese music foundation has sold a renowned Stradivarius violin for $16 million at a London auction to raise money for tsunami disaster relief.

The nonprofit Nippon Foundation said Tuesday the proceeds from selling the nearly 300-year-old violin known as the Lady Blunt will go to relief projects in northern Japan.

The group's music affiliate owned the violin made in 1721 and hardly used. The new owner was not identified.

Foundation spokesman Hideo Fukuda said the group plans to use the proceeds to support and promote traditional arts in the region.

The March 11 earthquake and tsunami left more than 23,000 people dead or missing in northeastern Japan and destroyed hundreds of homes, offices and factories.

Yahoo! News

Japan 3-D pop avatar a real-world hit (AFP)

TOKYO (AFP) – Japanese teenage pop sensation Miku Hatsune has millions of smitten fans, a string of top hits and an image entirely unblemished by drug use, scandals or celebrity meltdowns.

She doesn't demand six-figure recording contracts, always shows up on time, never throws tantrums and won't break a sweat during a two-hour live show in a concert hall packed with thousands of adoring followers.

Too good to be true? Yes and no.

Miku Hatsune is a 3-D computer animation.

The collaborative brainchild of software developers, a manga comic artist and a vast digital fan community, the virtual singer from outer space has become one of the hottest stars on the J-pop scene.

Next month she's giving her debut US concert, the "Mikunopolis" show on July 2 at the Anime Expo 2011 in Los Angeles.

Miku may not, technically, be real, but that didn't stop several thousand fans, most of them young men, from flocking to her latest live gig in Tokyo, where the android star enthralled her audience from an onstage screen.

"We can see her but we can't touch her. We think she is a true idol, the purest kind of idol," gushed 21-year-old literature student Keisuke Umeda, decked out in a Miku T-shirt and a range of her merchandise.

"She's so cute, and she dances so well," nodded his girlfriend Azusa Fushimi, 20, a design student dressed in a self-made Miku outfit for the occasion, complete with body-length aquamarine pig-tails.

Below the strobe lights, TV cameras and disco balls, fans were jabbing the air with fluorescent glow-sticks even before Miku showed up and while her very human support band was still fidgeting with their instruments.

An excited roar rippled through the crowd when she burst onto the stage as a cloud of pixels that morphed into the shape of a petite galactic manga vixen with thigh-high boots and an impossibly short miniskirt.

The programmers who created Miku are vague about her persona, but very specific about her stats -- the teenage pop queen is 158 centimetres (five feet two) tall and weighs a dainty 42 kilogrammes (93 pounds).

What followed was an energy-packed, pixel-perfect show with all the usual elements of a rock concert -- light banter between star and audience, strobe lights, bursts of dry ice, and a series of well-received encores.

Unlike her flesh-and-blood pop sisters, Miku changed costumes at the speed of a mouse-click -- wearing a sailor-girl school uniform one moment and a China-doll red silk number with a paper hand-fan the next.

To the casual observer, Miku's strange show, held in March, could easily appear like a glimpse into a dystopian future when humans will slavishly celebrate computer programmes.

But to insiders and fans, the phenomenon is a far more participatory, collaborative and interactive experience than a normal concert, because fans don't just sing along with the hits -- they create them.

The software engine behind Miku is Yamaha's Vocaloid music programme, which allows fans to literally put words in her mouth, by typing in lyrics and a melody that creates a synthetic voice track.

The company Crypton Future Media, based in Sapporo on the northern island of Hokkaido, created the Miku Hatsune character in 2007 with the help of a manga artist and voice samples from a real singer, Saki Fujita.

Fans were invited to breathe life into her, and they have -- posting more than 30,000 songs and films featuring the virtual star on video sharing websites such as YouTube and Japan's Nico Nico Douga.

The creative outpouring has spawned a number of real-world hits, and a compilation of Vocaloid songs featuring Hatsune Miku in May 2010 hit number-one on one Japanese weekly's album charts.

Amid her meteoric rise, the galactic vixen really has reached for the stars.

When Japan launched the its Venus Climate Orbiter Akatsuki in May last year, the spacecraft carried three aluminium plates depicting Miku, thanks to a fan petition with more than 10,000 signatures.

US fans can see Miku live on July 2 at the "Mikunopolis" concert, sponsored by Sega and Toyota, at the Anime Expo 2011 which runs at the Los Angeles Convention Center from July 1-4.

Yahoo! News

Japan 3-D pop avatar a real-world hit (AFP)

TOKYO (AFP) – Japanese teenage pop sensation Miku Hatsune has millions of smitten fans, a string of top hits and an image entirely unblemished by drug use, scandals or celebrity meltdowns.

She doesn't demand six-figure recording contracts, always shows up on time, never throws tantrums and won't break a sweat during a two-hour live show in a concert hall packed with thousands of adoring followers.

Too good to be true? Yes and no.

Miku Hatsune is a 3-D computer animation.

The collaborative brainchild of software developers, a manga comic artist and a vast digital fan community, the virtual singer from outer space has become one of the hottest stars on the J-pop scene.

Next month she's giving her debut US concert, the "Mikunopolis" show on July 2 at the Anime Expo 2011 in Los Angeles.

Miku may not, technically, be real, but that didn't stop several thousand fans, most of them young men, from flocking to her latest live gig in Tokyo, where the android star enthralled her audience from an onstage screen.

"We can see her but we can't touch her. We think she is a true idol, the purest kind of idol," gushed 21-year-old literature student Keisuke Umeda, decked out in a Miku T-shirt and a range of her merchandise.

"She's so cute, and she dances so well," nodded his girlfriend Azusa Fushimi, 20, a design student dressed in a self-made Miku outfit for the occasion, complete with body-length aquamarine pig-tails.

Below the strobe lights, TV cameras and disco balls, fans were jabbing the air with fluorescent glow-sticks even before Miku showed up and while her very human support band was still fidgeting with their instruments.

An excited roar rippled through the crowd when she burst onto the stage as a cloud of pixels that morphed into the shape of a petite galactic manga vixen with thigh-high boots and an impossibly short miniskirt.

The programmers who created Miku are vague about her persona, but very specific about her stats -- the teenage pop queen is 158 centimetres (five feet two) tall and weighs a dainty 42 kilogrammes (93 pounds).

What followed was an energy-packed, pixel-perfect show with all the usual elements of a rock concert -- light banter between star and audience, strobe lights, bursts of dry ice, and a series of well-received encores.

Unlike her flesh-and-blood pop sisters, Miku changed costumes at the speed of a mouse-click -- wearing a sailor-girl school uniform one moment and a China-doll red silk number with a paper hand-fan the next.

To the casual observer, Miku's strange show, held in March, could easily appear like a glimpse into a dystopian future when humans will slavishly celebrate computer programmes.

But to insiders and fans, the phenomenon is a far more participatory, collaborative and interactive experience than a normal concert, because fans don't just sing along with the hits -- they create them.

The software engine behind Miku is Yamaha's Vocaloid music programme, which allows fans to literally put words in her mouth, by typing in lyrics and a melody that creates a synthetic voice track.

The company Crypton Future Media, based in Sapporo on the northern island of Hokkaido, created the Miku Hatsune character in 2007 with the help of a manga artist and voice samples from a real singer, Saki Fujita.

Fans were invited to breathe life into her, and they have -- posting more than 30,000 songs and films featuring the virtual star on video sharing websites such as YouTube and Japan's Nico Nico Douga.

The creative outpouring has spawned a number of real-world hits, and a compilation of Vocaloid songs featuring Hatsune Miku in May 2010 hit number-one on one Japanese weekly's album charts.

Amid her meteoric rise, the galactic vixen really has reached for the stars.

When Japan launched the its Venus Climate Orbiter Akatsuki in May last year, the spacecraft carried three aluminium plates depicting Miku, thanks to a fan petition with more than 10,000 signatures.

US fans can see Miku live on July 2 at the "Mikunopolis" concert, sponsored by Sega and Toyota, at the Anime Expo 2011 which runs at the Los Angeles Convention Center from July 1-4.

Yahoo! News

Hirai mourns Japan quake at Hong Kong performance (AP)

HONG KONG – Ken Hirai somberly expressed solidarity with fellow Japanese suffering from the March earthquake and tsunami as he promoted his new album in Hong Kong on Thursday.

Dressed in a tweed-patterned three-piece suit and sporting a spiky blonde hairdo, the 39-year-old pop star performed two songs from his new record and his hit "Gently Close Your Eyes" at a suburban Hong Kong mall late Thursday. Fans besieged the ground floor area where Hirai performed and others peeked down from higher floors.

After the brief set, Hirai quickly turned to Japan's recent natural disaster. He had been wrapping up his new release, "Japanese Singer," when the twin disasters struck.

"We shouldn't give up. This is a very tough time for Japan. I hope we can get through this situation soon and see a better day," said Hirai, whose hometown of Higashiosaka was not affected.

He added that he intended the 13th and last track on the album, whose title translates as "Together," as a message of encouragement to his fellow countrymen and countrywomen.

Hirai said the title of the album, his first in three years, derived from his national pride and reminded him to represent his country honorably.

"I love Japan a lot. I hope I can do my best as a Japanese singer and not disgrace Japan," he said.

With eight albums to his credit, Hirai has sold more than 8 million records over a 16-year career.

Yahoo! News

Opera stars, fearing radiation, skip Japan tour (AP)

TOKYO – Two of the biggest stars of New York's Metropolitan Opera have bowed out of a Japan tour, citing fears of radioactive contamination and sending the company scrambling to find last-minute stand-ins.

Soprano Anna Netrebko and tenor Joseph Calleja announced just days before the opening show that they would not join the tour of Nagoya and Tokyo despite experts' assurances they would be safe, forcing the Met to "scour the world" for replacements, general manager Peter Gelb said Tuesday.

"Part of what makes opera such an exciting art form is that it is so unpredictable," Gelb said. "If there were a rationality clause in opera singers' contracts, not many opera singers would perform."

Japan was hit by a devastating earthquake and tsunami on March 11 that left about 25,000 people dead or missing and crippled a nuclear power station north of Tokyo, setting off radiation leaks. The plant remains unstable, though the leaks have declined substantially.

Tokyo briefly registered nominally higher radiation levels in its air and water, but they have subsided to pre-tsunami levels. There was never any scientific concern of a radiation impact on Nagoya, which is much farther away.

The disaster and the uncertainty it spawned caused a spate of concert cancellations, and the arts scene is only now returning to normal. Along with pop music and sports events, classical concerts by the Vienna Boys Chior, the Lyon Orchestra and the Stuttgart Chamber Orchestra also were nixed, along with performances by violinists Hillary Hahn and Anne Sophie Mutter.

"Of course, Tokyo is safe," said Momoko Serizawa, a spokeswoman for concert organizer Japan Arts. "But the visit by the Met comes at a very important and delicate time and we hope it will give impetus to others to follow soon."

Not all artists have stayed away — last month, opera great Placido Domingo performed in Japan and later donated $200,000.

Even so, Gelb said Netrebko, who is Russian, chose not to go through with the tour because of radiation concerns and because, she said, she had friends who died of cancer after the Chernobyl disaster in 1989.

Gelb said she told him that she would be so distraught that she wouldn't perform well and would be a disappointment to her fans.

Calleja also said he was concerned for his health.

Gelb said the Met struggled with whether to go ahead with the performances, planned years in advance.

Last month, David Brenner, an expert on low-dose radiation, was brought in from Columbia University to meet with the company. He informed them that radiation levels in Tokyo had returned to their pre-tsunami norm, and that the airplane trip or a simple X-ray would probably lead to greater exposure than the stay in Japan.

"There are cities in Europe with higher levels," Gelb said Brenner told the performers.

That was enough to convince all but three — German tenor Jonas Kauffmann announced last month he was pulling out. The rest of the 300-plus member company arrived in Nagoya, west of Tokyo, on Monday.

"Obviously, if it were not safe we wouldn't be here," Gelb said. "I feel very strongly that we have a responsibility to be here. I think we are setting an example by being here for the global artistic community and for the Japanese public."

Gelb said he hoped the Japanese would not take the withdrawals as an insult. "They are great artists and I hope the Japanese public won't think less of them," he said.

The tour, the Met's seventh in Japan, begins Saturday and runs through June 19.

Four singers — soprano Marina Poplavskaya, along with tenors Marcelo Alvarez, Rolando Villazon and Alexey Dolgov — will fill the hole left by Netrebko and Calleja.

The Met will be performing performing "La Boheme," "Don Carlo," and "Lucia di Lammermoor."

Yahoo! News

This post was made using the Auto Blogging Software from WebMagnates.org This line will not appear when posts are made after activating the software to full version.

Comic Brand deported from Japan, tweets pop star wife (AFP)

TOKYO (AFP) – Comic actor Russell Brand was expelled from Japan on Sunday, his US pop star wife Katy Perry wrote on microblogging site Twitter as she arrived for a series of concerts.

"So... my husband just got deported from Japan," Perry tweeted, saying that the reason for the action "was for priors from over 10 years ago!"

"I brought him all this way to show him my favorite place," she added, without giving further details.

An immigration official in Tokyo declined to confirm her comments.

"We don't make comments on such a matter because of privacy concerns," the official told AFP.

The 35-year-old star of the remake of 1981 comedy "Arthur", who married Perry in October last year, has spoken openly in interviews and stand-up comedy shows about his prior drug use and promiscuity, and has had various run-ins with the law.

He was arrested in September last year after he allegedly attacked a photographer at Los Angeles International Airport.

The actor, who found fame in Britain fronting a reality TV show, got his big break in Hollywood in the film "Forgetting Sarah Marshall" which led to a starring role in 2010's "Get Him to the Greek".

A controversial career spanning presenting, journalism, acting and comedy saw him resign from BBC radio after being suspended for prank telephone calls he made to the actor Andrew Sachs.

Perry is in Japan to play a series of concert dates in Tokyo, Osaka and Nagoya.

Yahoo! News

This post was made using the Auto Blogging Software from WebMagnates.org This line will not appear when posts are made after activating the software to full version.

Naomi Campbell holds Japan charity show in Cannes (AP)

CANNES, France – Naomi Campbell's charity is piggybacking on the high-wattage Cannes Film Festival to organize a fashion show in aid of the Japanese Red Cross' earthquake and tsunami relief fund.

The show will be held Monday at a historic market not far from the headquarters of the French Riviera movie showcase, which is in full swing though May 22.

Campbell told Associated Press Television News that the theme of the show is red carpet, so "we thought it was appropriate" to stage it in Cannes.

She added, "You have to remind people that they still need help, so it had to be now."

Campbell's Fashion for Relief charity staged its first show in 2005 and says that since then it has raised 4.5 million pounds ($7.2 million).

Yahoo! News

This post was made using the Auto Blogging Software from WebMagnates.org This line will not appear when posts are made after activating the software to full version.

"Songs for Japan" charity album raises $5 million (Reuters)

LONDON (Reuters) – A charity album featuring hits from the likes of Lady Gaga, Bob Dylan and Madonna has raised $5 million for the victims of the Japanese earthquake and tsunami, the record labels involved said on Wednesday.

The album "Songs For Japan," a collaboration between the world's biggest record companies, was released a month ago and has been on sale in digital format and as a two-disc CD set. It was available from March 25 on iTunes and from April 4 as a CD.

Organizers said the Japanese Red Cross Society last month received $2 million on behalf of featured artists, songwriters, labels, publishers and iTunes, who waived their royalties and proceeds. A further payment of $3 million was made on Monday. More than 500,000 copies of the album have been sold so far in all formats. Songs For Japan featured 38 hits and classic songs, including "Imagine" by John Lennon, "Don't Let The Sun Go Down On Me" by Elton John and "Pray" by Justin Bieber.

(Reporting by Mike Collett-White, editing by Paul Casciato)

Yahoo! News

This post was made using the Auto Blogging Software from WebMagnates.org This line will not appear when posts are made after activating the software to full version.

"Songs for Japan" charity album raises $5 million (Reuters)

LONDON (Reuters) – A charity album featuring hits from the likes of Lady Gaga, Bob Dylan and Madonna has raised $5 million for the victims of the Japanese earthquake and tsunami, the record labels involved said on Wednesday.

The album "Songs For Japan," a collaboration between the world's biggest record companies, was released a month ago and has been on sale in digital format and as a two-disc CD set. It was available from March 25 on iTunes and from April 4 as a CD.

Organizers said the Japanese Red Cross Society last month received $2 million on behalf of featured artists, songwriters, labels, publishers and iTunes, who waived their royalties and proceeds. A further payment of $3 million was made on Monday. More than 500,000 copies of the album have been sold so far in all formats. Songs For Japan featured 38 hits and classic songs, including "Imagine" by John Lennon, "Don't Let The Sun Go Down On Me" by Elton John and "Pray" by Justin Bieber.

(Reporting by Mike Collett-White, editing by Paul Casciato)

Yahoo! News

This post was made using the Auto Blogging Software from WebMagnates.org This line will not appear when posts are made after activating the software to full version.