Joni Mitchell to make Grammy Awards debut performance at 80
Joni Mitchell will perform at the Grammy Awards for the first time in her five-decade music career this weekend.
The 80-year-old singer-songwriter, who’s best known for her hit Big Yellow Taxi, is up for best folk album.
Mitchell in 1969. Pic: PA
The Canadian star’s previously won nine Grammys and a lifetime achievement award, and has inspired artists including Taylor Swift, Bob Dylan and Prince.
Mitchell was forced to re-learn how to walk, talk and play guitar after suffering a near-fatal brain aneurysm in 2015.
Nominated for her album Joni Mitchell At Newport [Live], the record marked her first headline show in 20 years.
Her three-hour show saw her perform with stars including Annie Lennox, Marcus Mumford and Brandi Carlile.
Despite being one of the most important female recording artists of the 20th century, Mitchell has previously said she believes her work did not get the recognition it deserved in the 1970s due to sexism within the music industry.
Other artists who will perform on stage at the 66th Grammy Awards include Billie Eilish, Dua Lipa, Burna Boy, Travis Scott and Olivia Rodrigo.
Irish rock band U2 will also deliver a special remote performance from Sphere in Las Vegas.
US singer-songwriter SZA leads the nominations, with nine, Victoria Monet has seven and Billie Eilish, Olivia Rodrigo and Taylor Swift are up for six awards each.
Swift has also broken a Grammys record with her nod for Anti Hero, becoming the first artist to have seven tracks nominated for Song Of The Year.
In a good year for female artists, all the nominees in the top three categories (album, record and song of the year) are women, apart from Jon Batiste.
The Grammys will take place in Los Angeles on Sunday 4 February, hosted by comedian Trevor Noah.
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Om Fahad: Iraqi social media influencer shot dead by gunman on motorbike who posed as food delivery rider – report
A well-known Iraqi social media influencer has reportedly been shot dead in her car by a gunman on a motorbike.
Om Fahad, whose real name is Ghufran Sawadi, was killed outside her home in Baghdad’s Zayouna district on Friday, according to the AFP news agency, citing security officials.
It appears the unidentified attacker pretended to be delivering food to the victim, one security source said.
Om Fahad, who has nearly half a million TikTok followers, became famous for posting light-hearted videos where she dances to Iraqi music.
Six days ago, she shared footage of herself driving in a car and also posing in front of a mirror. They have each been watched hundreds of thousands of times.
The influencer was sentenced to six months in prison in February last year for sharing videos that a court ruled contained “indecent speech that undermines modesty and public morality”.
A campaign was launched in 2023 by the Iraqi government to clamp down on social media content which broke the country’s “morals and traditions”.
The interior ministry set up a committee to look for “offensive” clips on platforms such as TikTok and YouTube, with several influencers being arrested.
“This type of content is no less dangerous than organised crime,” the ministry declared in a promotional video which asked the public to help by reporting such content.
“It is one of the causes of the destruction of the Iraqi family and society.”
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Speaking last year, interior ministry spokesman Saad Maan argued the morality campaign has “nothing to do with freedom of expression”.
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In 2018, gunmen in Baghdad shot dead Tara Fares, who was a model and influencer.
After years of war and sectarian conflict following the 2003 US invasion that overthrew dictator Saddam Hussein, Iraq has returned to some semblance of normality despite sporadic violence, political instability and corruption.
But civil liberties, particularly among women and sexual minorities, are still constrained in a conservative and male-dominated society.
R Kelly’s challenge against a 20-year sentence for child sex convictions has been quashed by an appeals court.
The singer was correctly sentenced to 20 years in prison, a Chicago court ruled on Friday.
He was convicted in 2022 on three charges of producing child sexual abuse images and three charges of enticement of minors for sex.
In his appeal, Kelly, 57, argued Illinois’ old statute of limitations – which required prosecution of child sex crime charges within 10 years – should have applied, rather than the current law permitting charges while an accuser is still alive.
The appeals court rejected this, labelling it an attempt by Kelly to elude the charges entirely after “employing a complex scheme to keep victims quiet”.
He also argued that charges involving one accuser should have been tried separately from the charges tied to three other accusers due to video evidence that became a focal point of the Chicago trial.
Prosecutors have said the video showed Kelly abusing a girl. The accuser, only identified as Jane, testified for the first time that she was 14 when the video was taken.
The three-judge panel from the appeals court noted jurors acquitted Kelly on seven of the 13 counts against him “even after viewing those abhorrent tapes”.
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In a written statement, Kelly’s attorney Jennifer Bonjean said they plan to seek a US Supreme Court review of the decision and “pursue all of his appellate remedies until we free R Kelly”.
“We are disappointed in the ruling, but our fight is far from over,” she said.
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