Private memorials will be held in India and California for the legendary Indian sitar player Ravi Shankar after his death last week. Concerts to celebrate the 92-year-old's life will be held next year in New York and London, said a publicist. "Memorial services will be held near his homes in southern California and in India," he said, noting that they would be "private" events. "Both services will be attended by family and friends and will offer an opportunity for loved ones to share intimate memories and thoughts about the musician. Public concerts celebrating Ravi's music, in both New York and London, are being discussed for 2013." Shankar died on Tuesday in southern California, after failing to recover from surgery. His family was at his bedside. The sitar pioneer taught his close friend George Harrison, the late Beatle, to play the instrument and collaborated with him on several projects. Harrison called Shankar "the godfather of world music", and Yehudi Menuhin, widely considered one of the greatest violinists of the 20th century, compared him with Mozart. - AFP
One Pound Fish music video out
The mother of the Pakistani internet sensation One Pound Fish Man is hoping her son has a Christmas No 1 hit so his wife and four children can join him for a new life in Britain. Early this year, Muhammad Shahid Nazir, a fish-seller in London, came up with a song to entice customers, in which he urged local women to part with £1 (Dh5.9) for some fresh fish. "Come on ladies, come on ladies, one pound fish," he croons. After someone filmed a video and uploaded it on YouTube, the song went viral and Warner Music offered Nazir a record deal. A slicker version with Nazir performing Bollywood-style in a natty suit was uploaded on December 10. The video currently has more than 2.5 million hits. "I appeal to people in Pakistan and abroad to give this song as many hits as possible. I am fasting and saying special prayers for my son so that his song appears as number one," said Nazir's 67-year-old mother Kalsoom from Pattoki, Pakistan. Nazir's wife Kashifa said: "We never imagined that my husband would become so popular. Our children and I miss Shahid a lot and we want to join him in London to share these happy moments." - AFP
Hayao Miyazaki to release new film
The Oscar-winning Japanese animator Hayao Miyazaki's first film in five years will be released next year. Miyazaki, who created the 2003 Oscar winner Spirited Away, will release the wartime romance Kaze Tachinu, based on the novel of the same name. The film's hero is modelled on the flight engineer Jiro Horikoshi, who designed the Zero fighter, Japan's best known Second World War fighter aircraft. In a career that has spanned five decades, Miyazaki has achieved critical and commercial success around the globe, blazing a trail for the genre of Japanese cartoons known as anime. - AFP