Rihanna's star on the rise

by GRANT ROLLINGS

RIHANNA'S the sultry singer from a sunshine isle who's got Britain going Umbrella crazy. The 19-year-old beauty from Barbados has spent weeks at the top of the singles chart and rained on the competition by taking album Good Girl Gone Bad to No.1 on Sunday. Rihanna's lyrics to Umbrella, about it "raining more than ever", are apt when applied to her troubled early life. She witnessed
dad Ronald Fenty's struggle with his crack cocaine addiction. When she was little, Rihanna's parents would often argue after shop worker Ronald got off his head on the lethal drug. As a consequence, she and her brothers Rorrey and Rajad had to be brought up mainly by mum Monica.

St. Kitts 11th Annual Music Festival

True To This

Mike Bolton, Pluto Shervington And Allison Hinds Stole The Show

By Michael D. Roberts

United States singer Michael Bolton recovered from a negative perception that he snubbed the media during the just-ended 11th Annual St. Kitts Music Festival to put on a stellar encore performance that sent music lovers and fans wild as he rocked the Warner Park Stadium in Basseterre with a mix of old and new ballads. When it was all over an excited crowd of approximately 3,000 was left wanting more, the singer capping a hugely successful music festival. Indeed, the justification to move the festival from its old haunts to the brand new Warner Park Stadium proved correct since the large crowds meant that the place where the event started was definitely now too small and cramped. Moreover, the professional set up of the festival demonstrated that the event is undergoing a metamorphosis as it starts a new movement after leaving the last decade behind. There is still room for growth and development of one of the Caribbean region’s most successful annual musical events.