Spears starts long-term Las Vegas gig
Egyptian rapper speaks up for w women’s rights
LAS VEGAS is getting its newest pop fixture.
Britney Spears ( pic) began her two-year residency at Planet Hollywood Resort & Casino on Friday, just in time to catch the town’s massive New Year’s Eve crowds.
The Grammy-winning singer will perform 50 shows each in 2014 and 2015. Casino executives say the gig may be extended if it proves a success.
Spears, 32, will recap her biggest hits, including Oops. I Did It Again, ...Baby One More Time and Toxic.
She will be singing along to a soundtrack of her own voice.
Kelly Frey, a spokesman for Planet Hollywood parent company Caesars Entertainment Corp, said the track is intended to help Spears through the more physically gruelling sets.
A collection of pop stars, including Katy Perry and Miley Cyrus, are expected to attend the opening.
Spears is among the youngest stars to have settled down to quasi-retirement in Las Vegas. Other successful Strip headliners include Celine Dion and Elton John.
The show takes place in a relatively intimate theatre with nightclub touches. Tickets range from US$59 to US$179 (from RM194 to RM588). — AP AS soon as the beat started, the young veiled woman bobbed her h head to the rhythm, raised her hands to get the crowd clapping and then unleashed a flood of rap lyrics that ta tackled some of the biggest social c challenges women face in the Arab w world.
With the Middle East’s hit TV s show Arabs Got Talent as her stage, 18-year-old Myam Mahmoud (pic) rapped about sexual harassment, s second-class treatment of women and societal expectations of how a young religious woman should b behave.
The Egyptian teenager didn’t win th the programme – she crashed out in th the semi-finals – but she did succeed in throwing the spotlight on something th bigger than herself.
In Egypt, a country where politics h have grabbed most of the headlines fo for the past three years, little space has been dedicated to addressing social problems. So Myam, who is a fi first-year student of politics and economics n at the October 6 University in a western Cairo suburb, decided to draw attention to women’s rights th through rap.
“I wish we would not be silent a about our problems,” she said.
Her lyrics take the issue head on: ““Some of us see the answer is to c cover up, and if the girl is hidden she will not be assaulted,” she raps in one song. “My body is only mine.” — AP