Artist Spotlight: Jazmin Sullivan

This soul and RnB singer/songwriter debuted in September last year. Her first single Need u Bad featuring Missy Elliott reached number 1 on the US R&B charts while her second single Bust your windows peaked at number 4 on the US R&B charts.

Her album Fearless reached number 6 on the US charts. Her influences include Missy Elliott, Lauryn Hill and Monica. Her music contains elements of Soul, R&B, Reggae, Dub, Jazz and Pop.

Sullivan has been nominated for 5 Grammy Awards including Best New Artist, Best R&B Song for Bust Your Windows and Best Female R&B Vocal performance for Need U Bad.

Check out the video for her next single Lions, Tigers and Bears.


Click on the pictures to watch her first two singles:

Presidential Innaugration

Barack Obama was officially sworn in as the 44th president of the United States of America.

SOURCE concreteloop.com

Here is a bit of his address

My fellow citizens:

I stand here today humbled by the task before us, grateful for the trust you have bestowed, mindful of the sacrifices borne by our ancestors. I thank President Bush for his service to our nation, as well as the generosity and cooperation he has shown throughout this transition.

Forty-four Americans have now taken the presidential oath. The words have been spoken during rising tides of prosperity and the still waters of peace. Yet, every so often the oath is taken amidst gathering clouds and raging storms. At these moments, America has carried on not simply because of the skill or vision of those in high office, but because we the people have remained faithful to the ideals of our forebears, and true to our founding documents.

So it has been. So it must be with this generation of Americans.

Continue reading here

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And here is a video of the Barack Obama and his wife at the Inaugural Ball.

Be A Hero Australia

A family friend (Uncle Wills) here in Auckland sent me this link on via facebook. Be A Hero is an international organisation that tries to help care for and aid children around the world. PNG is one of the six countries where Be A Hero has projects. The Australian arm of the organisation sent a team to PNG in 2007 and this is a short clip of their work there. Click here to watch.

Be A HERO Australia took ten Queenslanders to PNG in June to renovate a child care facility, this is part of there story, make sure you watch till the end!!!!
The guys raised almost $20,000 to renovate 3 buildings to establish a child care center
for the Salvation Army in Koki, Port Moresby. They not only renovated the buildings but found out what was really happening with disadvantaged children in PNG.

Artist Spotlight: Nesian Mystik

Nesian Mystik has to be one of my favourite New Zealand music acts. Their music is a unique blend of island sounds, hiphop beats and smooth RnB vocals, ranging from conscious songs to feel good music.

They released their third album titled Elevator Music back in October 2008 and have already had hits with the first two singles Nesian 101 (which reached #1 on the NZ Charts) and Dancefloor (which reached #10).

Their third single Mr Mista featuring Che Fu is the single that caught my attention for the simple fact that it is simple yet not too cheesy sounding conscious track that draws (in my opinion) parallels to my own desire (which I'm sure is a sentiment that I share with other Papua New Guineans of my generation) to be a positive contributor to my country/PNG society to effect some change (however overly optimistic that may sound). Besides that, it is a good piece of laid back music so check it out.