The chances of more KANYE WEST awards show drama have increased exponentially, as he received a leading eight GRAMMY nominations THURSDAY. British singer AMY WINEHOUSE received six nominations after months of personal problems that took the focus off her music. Other top nominees included the FOO FIGHTERS, JAY-Z, RIHANNA, PAUL MCCARTNEY, T-PAIN and TIMBALAND.
Both WEST and WINEHOUSE were nominated for Album of The Year for their CDs "Graduation" and "Back to Black," respectively. WINEHOUSE was also cited for Best New Artist, plus record and Song of The Year for the defiant hit "Rehab."
Other Record of The Year candidates included BEYONCE’s "Irreplaceable," THE FOO FIGHTERS "The Pretender," RIHANNA’s "Umbrella" and "What Goes Around Comes Around" by JUSTIN TIMBERLAKE.
Song of The Year candidates included CORRINE BAILEY RAE’s sweet-sounding "Like A Star," CARRIE UNDERWOOD’s revenge anthem "Before He Cheats," THE PLAIN WHITE T’s "Hey There Delilah" and "Umbrella."
With his mother, Dr. Donda West's death just a week ago, Kanye West returned to Europe to fulfill his concert obligations beginning with Paris Saturday night.
However, when the rapper tried to perform "Hey Mama," he broke down in tears and couldn't finish.
"This song is for my mother..." is how West started to introduce the song to a sold-out crowd at Le Zénith in Paris, but couldn't go on.
"He said the word, 'Mother' and just couldn't go any further," Le Parisien journalist Meddy Magloire told People. "A back-up singer, the DJ and a guitar player came over to console him. (At one point,) it looked like he might collapse. He just couldn't continue. He just stood there in a spotlight, crying while the band continued playing."
Magloire says that after a few moments of stunned silence, the audience of 5,000 reacted by offering calls of encouragement, which grew into applause.
The band restarted the song, but West left the stage, but he came back after 10-15 minutes to finish the concert with a rousing performance of "Stronger."
At this point except for Monday's show in Amsterdam, West's European tour is still on which is somewhat surprising. He cancelled a Victoria's Secrets performance on Thursday and was not at the memorial for her in Chicago on Friday. There was speculation that he would remain reclusive until after his mother's funeral tomorrow in Oklahoma.
Now the word is that after the funeral he will resume the tour – including his planned Thanksgiving Day, Nov. 22, performance at the O2 arena in London. The European tour dates, which are listed on his website, end on December 4.
Meanwhile, the grieving artist is also tapped to work on upcoming albums from Mos Def and John Legend.
Legend, who is preparing a follow up to last year's "Once Again," says his thoughts are with West following the sudden death of his mother.
"She loved him and supported him unconditionally," Legend notes. "She was really there for him a lot and was ... really a great example for him. You could tell how close they were, and I just can't imagine how devastated he is right now."
Legend dedicated a performance of his hit "So High" to Dr. West at a Get Together show Wednesday in Detroit and said afterwards that he plans to attend her funeral tomorrow in Oklahoma.
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Grammy-winning rap star Kanye West's mother, a former university professor, died in a Los Angeles-area hospital due to possible complications from surgery, the L.A. County Coroner's office said on Monday. She was 58.
Donda West helped manage her son's businesses and educational foundation after retiring in 2004 after 30 years teaching English at Chicago State University. She died Saturday night at Centinela Freeman Hospital in seaside Marina del Rey after paramedics were called to her nearby home.
A coroner's spokesman said an autopsy would be performed later this week. He did not know what sort of surgery West underwent, but media reports said she had a breast reduction and abdominoplasty, a major procedure commonly referred to as a "tummy tuck."
The celebrity news Web site TMZ.com quoted a Beverly Hills plastic surgeon, Jan Adams, as saying he performed surgery on West before she died, that her death was unforeseen and he did nothing wrong.
In a statement issued late on Monday, Kanye West thanked "everyone for the outpouring of support and kind words that have come in from across the country." He did not address any surgery or health issues.
Donda West raised her son in a middle-class Chicago suburb after splitting with her husband, a former Black Panther who went on to become a sociology professor.
Mother and son co-founded the Kanye West Foundation, which aims to keep inner-city youth in school and improve literacy.
She inspired the song "Hey Mama," which is featured on her son's Grammy-winning 2005 album "Late Registration." In May, she published a book titled "Raising Kanye: Life Lessons from the Mother of a Hip-Hop Superstar."
(Reporting by Dana Ford and Dean Goodman; Editing by Patricia Zengerle)
Kanye West Scores The Biggest Sales Debut Of 2007; UMG Garners 50% Market Share Just hours after he was officially crowned the victor in his much-hyped sales battle with 50 CENT, KANYE WEST turned up at GQ's 50th anniversary party as the featured performer. But the evening was more like a coronation for WEST, whose "Graduation" widely outsold 50 CENT's "Curtis" in first-week sales, according to NIELSEN SOUNDSCAN: 957,000 copies to 691,000 copies.
"To be a champion, you've got to take out a champion," WEST declared TUESDAY night, as an all-star crowd including JAY-Z, BEYONCE and DIDDY cheered him on. Moments later, he called for his "theme music," then launched into a performance of his song "Good Life."
Things couldn't be much better for WEST, who gave the struggling music industry its best debut of the year with "Graduation," besting the year's previous first-week champ, LINKIN PARK, which sold 623,000 of "Minutes to Midnight" when it debuted in MAY.
"It feels overwhelming," WEST told The ASSOCIATED PRESS earlier in the day. "Everyone is coming up to me and telling me how proud they are of me. I was the underdog because I sold less records in the past, so it was a win-win for me," he said. "If I lost, everyone would be happy that I even went up against him."
"The rivalry helped both of them," said DEF JAM Pres. JAY-Z. "It was definitely one of those moments in the game that was exciting, everybody could pick a side and weigh in on and have an opinion ... it garnered a lot of attention."
Kanye Omari West (pronounced /'kɑnjɛj/) (born June 8, 1977) is an American record producer and rapper who rose to fame in the mid 2000s. He released his debut album The College Dropout in 2004, his second album Late Registration in 2005, and his third album Graduation in 2007. His first two albums received numerous awards (including six Grammys), critical acclaim, and commercial success. West also runs his own record label GOOD Music. West's mascot and trademark is a teddy bear, which has appeared on the covers of his three albums.
