Kiev stands firm on Russia ban

YouTube to live-stream 2017 Coachella

RIGA/KIEV, April 5, (RTRS): Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko on Tuesday refused to back down over Kiev’s decision to ban Russia’s entry for this year’s Eurovision Song Contest, despite a threat from the organisers to throw Ukraine out of future competitions, though not the one due in May.

Relations between Ukraine and Russia have been toxic since Russia’s annexation of Crimea in 2014 and the outbreak of separatist violence in the Donbass region.

Their antipathy spilled over into the Eurovision contest after Ukraine’s entry Jamala won last year with a song about Stalin’s mass deportation of ethnic Tatars from the Crimean peninsula during the Second World War.

Having won the right to host this year’s event, Ukraine banned 27-yearold Russian singer Yulia Samoylova from entering its territory on the grounds that she has visited Crimea without Ukraine’s permission.

Russia said the Ukrainian move tarnished the event, while Eurovision’s organisers wrote a letter, leaked to the media, to Ukrainian Prime Minister Volodymyr Groysman threatening to exclude Ukraine’s state broadcaster from future events.

Speaking to reporters in Riga, Poroshenko said Russia had put forward its contestant as a deliberate provocation.

“The Ukrainian authorities did not fall for this provocation,” Poroshenko said. “We act consistently as regards everyone who violates Ukrainian legislation,” he said, according to a statement on the president’s website.

The European Broadcasting Union has offered the possibility of the Russian singer participating from outside Ukraine via satellite link. The proposal was made to Russia’s Channel One, which rejected the idea.

Ukraine’s state broadcaster on Tuesday urged the EBU to respect the country’s sovereignty and to drop its threat to shut Ukraine out of future competitions.

In a statement published on its website, the broadcaster urged the EBU not to be used as “an instrument of

This year’s festival will be held Sept 23 and Sept 24. Two-day passes go for $175 and there are VIP passes for $725. Tickets go on sale Tuesday.

The lineup also includes Walk the Moon, Fitz and The Tantrums, Trombone Shorty & Orleans Avenue, The Revivalists and Better Than Ezra. (AP)

LONDON:

Grammy award-winning artist Sheena Easton has made her West End strengthening foreign political manipulations”.

Ukraine expects about 12,00014,000 spectators to attend the competition in May, with millions more watching on television. It will be the second time that Kiev has hosted the event.

The war between Ukraine and Russian-backed separatists has killed more than 10,000 people. The two sides agreed to honour a ceasefire on April 1 but this quickly broke down.

YouTube is heading back to the desert: The video giant will exclusively live-stream the first weekend of Coachella 2017 for the seventh year in a row.

Performances

From April 14-16, Coachella’s YouTube channel will carry performances live available for free. The lineup for the music fest this year includes Lady Gaga, Kendrick Lamar, Radiohead, Lorde, Bon Iver, the xx, Future, Schoolboy Q, Two Door Cinema Club, New Order, and Gucci Mane. Additional details on the specific artists who will be on the YouTube live streams will be announced later.

On YouTube, viewers will be able to choose from three different live channels as well as a live 360-degree mode that will appear for select performances. The Coachella YouTube channel also will include a video-ondemand hub with highlights and footage from throughout the weekend.

New this year: YouTube will provide a sneak peek inside the famous underground dance-music Yuma tent for the first time. In addition, users will be able to opt-in to get browser alerts when their favorite artists go live.

Fans can also create personalized viewing schedules to feature the live acts they want to see, where livestream channels will automatically change to artists they’ve selected.

The webcast will again be hosted by KCRW music director Jason Bentley and co-host Francesca Fiorentini interviewing from artists and creators around the festival, and backstage in the artist lounge.

debut in the musical “42nd Street”, with Britain’s Duchess of Cambridge Kate Middleton, actor Morgan Freeman and tennis coach Judy Murray attending the show’s premiere.

The musical follows a Broadway director named Julian Marsh as he attempts to put on a successful theatrical production in the middle of the Great Depression.

Easton plays Peggy Marsh, one of the chorus line in the show, who takes over as the lead when the star actress breaks her

Lady Gaga took over as headliner for Coachella, replacing Beyonce, who opted out of the festival because she’s pregnant with twins. However, Beyonce is set to headline Coachella in 2018.

YouTube’s live-stream of 2017 Coachella is sponsored by T-Mobile.

Metallica, The Who, The Gorillaz, and Lorde will headline the Outside Lands 2017 Festival August 11-13 in San Francisco, California.

The summer festival, held at Golden Gate Park, will also feature performances from A Tribe Called Quest, Alt-J, Empire of the Sun, Fleet Foxes, Queens of the Stone Age, Above and Beyond, Solange, SchoolBoy Q, and many more.

Metallica’s performance at the festival comes on the heels of their North American tour in support of their tenth studio album, “Hardwired... to SelfDestruct.”

Additionally, Lorde’s headlining comes in the midst of her hinting at the sound of her sophomore album “Melodrama” since earlier this year, which is set to be released in June.

The festival announced the line-up with a dynamic video featuring clips from previous years’ festivals against the background song “Certainty” by this year’s performer English rockband Temples.

Atop its stacked set-list, Outside Lands will also feature a comedy lineup, which has not yet been announced. The music and arts festival will also feature a variety of food and drink options from Bay Area restaurants, wineries and breweries.

Tickets for Outside Lands go on sale April 6 at 10 a.m. PT through the festival’s website. Festival-goers have the option to purchase either a general admission ticket, which provides access to the array of music, comedy, food and drink; or a VIP ticket, which allows special privileges to the festival’s exclusive Polo Club, special stage access, and more.

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Produced by Johnny Hon and directed by Mark Bramble, “42nd Street” is famous for songs like “Dames”, “We’re In The Money” and “I Only Have Eyes For You”.

It is not the production’s first showing in London, having run in the West End from 1984 to 1989. A relatively unknown Catherine Zeta Jones performed in the chorus line in 1984. (RTRS)

LOS ANGELES:

The nominees for the 2017 Webby Awards were announced Tuesday morning.

The Webbys recognize excellence on the web across numerous categories. Over 13,000 entries were submitted for this year’s awards.

“Webby Nominees are using the internet in incredible ways to bring people together through humor, emotion, innovation, empathy, passion, optimism, and eccentricity — all of the elements that make for truly great internet,” said David-Michel Davies, executive director of the Webby Awards. “In a year marked by so much discord and divisiveness, the Webby Awards is honored to recognize the work and efforts of our Nominees as they explore new ways to use the Internet to inform our world and bring people together.”

Variety.com was named an honoree in the movie & film category, while Variety’s “Remote Controlled” podcast was honored in the podcasts & digital audio - interview/ talk show category for the inaugural episode with “Mr Robot” creator Sam Esmail. (RTRS)