Red carpet islandistas – Soul Train, EMAs and Latin Grammys

Islandistas have been spotted on red carpets all over the place in the last week or so – from the Soul Train Awards to the Latin Grammys and the MTV European Music Awards.

Check them out below.

Estelle has been showing up on red carpets galore in recent weeks. We saw her down south in Brazil at the Fashion Rocks event in a Manish Arora dress that thrilled some and turned off others.

We’re sure opinions will be less divided on her look at Sir Richard Branson’s Rock the Kasbah gala in Los Angeles. It’s beautiful and on trend in every way – colour, cut, fabric and shoes. A +!

 She also was in form at the Soul Train Awards earlier this week, in this gold and black number.

 Melanie Fiona also brought some shint to the red carpet – in pewter instead of gold, with this gorgeous one-shouldered dress with a peplum skirt. See even more red carpet looks when you read more.

‘When is it going to stop?’ Rihanna gives details on assault

Really graphic and honestly… just sad details are coming out today from Rihanna’s extensive interview on ABC with Diane Sawyer, which has ABC has been leaking in bits and pieces over the last two days.

She told Sawyer:

“It wasn’t the same person that says I love you. It was not those… eyes. He had … no soul in his eyes. Just blank. …He was clearly blacked out. There was no person when I looked at him.”

“All I kept thinking all the time: When is it going to stop? When it is going to stop?”

She also shot down the loose talk that it was anything like a fight in the Lamborghini that night – it was a beatdown.

Rachel Christie gives up Miss England crown after bar fight

Lawd. have. mercy.

De Christies could well sing the old calypso:

“Woe is me… shame and scandal in de family!”

This time, it’s Rachel Christie, reigning Miss England and niece of former Olympic gold medallist Linford Christie, who’s in scandal and passa passa, after being arrested for a nightclub brawl with Miss Manchester.

And apparently over this joker.

Gladiator fighter Tornado

I’ll let that marinate for a minute.

Yeah… I know… me too.

Ok, so the story such as it is right now is that Rachel, who was crowned the first black Miss England a few months back and was set to head to South Africa next month for the Miss World contest, has today ‘given up’ her crown.

The Miss England website had a statement from the organisers which read in part:

Due to the media attention following the allegations against her, Rachel Christie has now decided to withdraw from the Miss World competition and relinquish her Miss England crown. Rachel will concentrate on clearing her name and focus on training for the 2012 Olympics until this case is resolved.”

According to media reports, Miss Manchester, Sara Jones, is the former girlfriend of Christie’s boyfriend, David Mcintosh, aka Tornado, a fighter/personality on Sky1’s Gladiators programme. Reports are that she flaunted a text message on her phone that was supposed to be from this Tornado fella (it sounds like a good kaiso name though doesn’t it? He might need to add Mighty in front of it though).

Rachel then allegedly punched Jones in the face – nuff times.

Sigh.

I could bawl.

It’s all over for Jamelia and Darren

More bad news on the Brit-islandista front.

After four years together, singer Jamelia and her footballer husband Darren Byfield are divorcing.

Photo credit: Joel Ryan

Her rep announced it in a statement this week which read:

It is with regret that Jamelia and Darren Byfield today confirm they are splitting up and getting a divorce.
“No one else is involved. Their priority is naturally their two children.”

Very short and to the point. Wonder if more will come out later on.

Interestingly enough, just two weeks ago, Jamelia was posing on the red carpet with 50 Cent at a movie premiere. (check pic at right)

We didn’t think anything of it then… but now… well, clearly she was sending out a signal.

Islandista we love- Sharmadean Reid

 

Photo credit: Wah-magazine.com

 

Sharmadean Reid is one of the coolest girls around.

Says who?

Well, us for one and that should be enough for you.

  But if you insist… the New York Times’ The Moment Blog said pretty much the exact same thing about the 25 year old islandista-descended Brit, who is the sportswear editor of Arena Homme Plus.

 Dazed and Confused loves her hot online magazine WAH (as in wahgwan or in her words ‘we ain’t hoes’. Good to know).

 The Independent listed her as one of the ‘15 People who will define the future of arts in Britain’ (no pressure!)

 And Elle UK loves her nail bar, WAH Nails. So does style.com.Good enough?

 Ok, so why do they love her so much? Well, she’s just effortlessly cool. Despite being the editor of a menswear magazine, she’s still girly, which is why she opened the WAH nail bar, as she told Elle:

“I love menswear, I was brought up on Arena Homme Plus, but at the end of the day I’m a girl!”

Her style, as reflected in WAH the online mag and WAH the nail salon is a tongue in cheek mix of street style and high end style.

For instance, you can get a Balmain-inspired nail design or even the classic Chanel logo, as seen below.

 

Photo credit: The Moment

 

Photo credit: Elle.co.uk

The style influences and trends she champions are right on the cutting edge of what’s hot - early 90s hip hop culture and style, vintage, body con, Shoreditch (it’s a London thing) and hot sneakers – among other things!

Not to mention – did you check the line up of all the girl has going on right now? Magazine editor, nail salon owner, online magazine publisher … oh and she’s a stylist and a consultant for Nike, as well.

Really, who can top us islandistas for drive and hustle?

Rihanna speaks out

Rihanna has finally spoken out about her feelings about what went down earlier this year after she was beaten by her ex(?) boyfriend Chris Brown on the morning of the Grammy Awards.

She did an interview with Glamour magazine, which is set to come in their December issue – they dropped a preview of it today (no doubt to beat out ABC).

A few of the snippets:

On the photo of her being leaked.

It was humiliating; that is not a photo you would show to anybody. I felt completely taken advantage of. I felt like people were making it into a fun topic on the Internet, and it’s my life. I was disappointed, especially when I found out the photo was [supposedly leaked by] two women.

On the chaos immediately afterwards:

It has taught me so much. I felt like I went to sleep as Rihanna and woke up as Britney Spears. That was the level of media chaos that happened the next day. It was like, What, there are helicopters circling my house? There are 100 people in my cul-de-sac? What do you mean, I can’t go back home?

On what she wants her message to other young women suffering from domestic violence to be:

Domestic violence is a big secret. No kid goes around and lets people know their parents fight. Teenage girls can’t tell their parents that their boyfriend beat them up. You don’t dare let your neighbor know that you fight. It’s one of the things we [women] will hide, because it’s embarrassing. My story was broadcast all over the world for people to see, and they have followed every step of my recovery.

Our take on this?

We’re glad she spoke. We really hope against hope that she is not being pressured to do so just to pub her album. That would be the rankest exploitation.

We know a lot of the ignorant commenters out there would like domestic violence to be a black or white issue, so they can justify their hatred/jealousy of Rihanna.

Oh yeah… islandisto Jaicko doing big t’ings!

more about “Oh Yeah Video Video by Jaicko – MySpa…“, posted with vodpod

 

Ok, islandistas, it’s a bit of an embarassing confession for us because we’re a good ten to fifteen years older than the target demographic but we’re pretty hooked on Bajan teeny bopper Jaicko’s tune ‘Oh Yeah’.

Jaicko, who signed to Capitol Records earlier this year (de Bajan invasion is real peoples!) even broke into BET’s 106 & Park charts a few weeks ago with the bouncy, insanely catchy tune.

Yes, yes we know, we know … shoot, even he knows it’s a bit repetitive as he sings:

“I know this song a little annoying, oh yeah
But now I’m making’ dollars, so i really don’t care
Now I got the whole world singing oh yeah, oh yeah, oh yeah“

He ent lie yuh know - de damn song does just stick in my head every time I hear it. The freaky thing about this song is that for some reason I’m always hearing it when I’m on the road and true enough I don’t even know whyI’m  turning up my radio but dammit if I don’t find myself bobbing my head in my car cos I feel it though.

Next t’ing yuh know it is six hours later and I still humming de song, so clearly he’s doing something right and we love to see island people do well so we don’t mind too much!

 

Bits and pieces – Leona’s race ban, red carpet sightings and Rihanna to speak out

You know every now and then we have to do a pelau post when there’s so much going on that we need to put it all in de pot! This is one of those – we have news from all over – on Ri-ri, Leona (Le-le?) and islandistas on the red carpet from Rio to London to L.A.

So to start with – islandistas have been all over people’s red carpets over the last week – from the premieres of the Michael Jackson This Is It movie in London and Los Angeles, to Fashion Rocks in Brazil.

Check out a few of the looks below.

Former Sugababe Keisha Buchanan was hot at the London premiere of This Is It in a jewel panelled LBD with a jewelled halter neckline.

Nia Long in textured black leggings and a black leather jacket at the LA premiere.

For more looks and news on Rihanna’s first public interview and Leona’s racism run-in, read on.

Islandistas (and one islandisto) in big NFL halftime show!

 

Photo via Facebook

Big things keep happening for island folk on the musical scene!

The latest major breakthrough is a huge performance opportunity for Barbadian singers Shontelle, Vita Chambers and Hal Linton and Guyanese-Canadian Melanie Fiona.

According to our sources, the four have been picked as part of a six-artiste performance at the halftime show of the Detroit Lions vs the Green Bay Packers. The performance is part of their label Universal Motown’s 50th anniversary special.

 

Photo via Facebook

A few weeks back, Shontelle had tweeted that she was praying and hoping really hard for something that could be her biggest opportunity ever but she was mum about it.

NFL. Halftime show. Motown 50th anniversary.

Wunna understand that this is a reaaallll big deal?!

The audience at the game itself is going to be about 70, 000 people – as in about one-quarter of Barbados’ population!

Then there will be another 20 million or so people watching it at home – because it’s Thanksgiving. Thanksgiving and the NFL are as time honoured an American tradition as it gets!

And FOUR CARIBBEAN PEOPLE will be part of this major, huge show.

Hal commented on his FB page that he is set to sing the Marvin Gaye classic, ‘I heard it through the Grapevine’ – a perfect fit for him, since he is definitely in that ’soul man’ mould and what better way to show off his chops than by performing a tribute to the ultimate soul man?!

No word yet on what Vita and Shontelle will be singing but we will keep you posted.

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