Lorde’s quirky ‘showmanship’

Lorde Photo by RUBEN V. NEPALES

If you’ve been following Lorde’s career, you know only too well that the New Zealand artist’s live performances can get raw and intense, and are usually peppered with her signature quirky dancing.

But while her fans find her movement quite charming and distinctive, others poke fun at it. And after her recent guest appearance in “Saturday Night Live”—where she sang “Green Light” and “Liability”—Lorde’s stage showmanship was once again ridiculed in social media.

Now, it seems that the 20-year-old singer-songwriter is becoming tired of the criticism. “One day, I’ll do a normal dance choreographed by a nice person, and I will look more like your other favorite performers,” Lorde, responding to her bashers, wrote on her Facebook page. “But we have not yet reached that day.”

As one Twitter user put it succinctly: “Laughing at Lorde’s dancing is so 2013.”

Chuck sings his swan song

Chuck Berry, who is one of the pioneers of rock ’n’ roll music, died last March 18 in his home in Wentzville, Missouri. He was 90.

In a statement posted on Facebook, the St. Charles County Police Department said that the first responders dispatched to attend to the medical emergency observed an unresponsive man and immediately administered lifesaving measures. However, efforts to revive the musician were unsuccessful.

Inspired by the blues, gospel and R&B music, Berry, whose real name is Charles Edward Anderson Berry, was the man behind the songs, “Johnny B. Goode” and “Roll Over Beethoven.”

“While Elvis Presley was rock’s first pop star, Berry was its master theorist and conceptual genius. He understood what the kids wanted before they even knew themselves,” wrote critic Jon Pareles in the New York Times.

‘Wonderful’ singing duo

With the live-action retelling of the animated Disney film, “Beauty and the Beast,” its popular theme song has been enjoying a lot of exposure once again: It’s been re-recorded by John Legend and Ariana Grande, but YouTube singers have been coming up with their own covers.

What did composer Alan Menken think of Emma Watson and Dan Stevens’ remake?

While he sensed trepidation in the two leads while working on it, he said their version “ended up being wonderful.”

“We worked closely with them. There was a lot of lead time when they learned the song. There was a lot of rewriting,” Menken told Billboard.

“It was hard work—and it was worth it,” he added.—ALLAN POLICARPIO