British singer M.I.A. gives birth to boy (Reuters)

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – British pop singer M.I.A., who performed at the Grammy Awards last Sunday despite experiencing labor contractions, has given birth to a baby boy, she said on her MySpace page.

The unnamed baby was born on Wednesday, and is "healthy, fine, beautiful and the most amazing thing ever on this planet," according to her Web posting on Saturday.

The baby's father is musician Benjamin Brewer, son of Canadian liquor scion Edgar Bronfman, chairman and CEO of Warner Music Group. The location was not disclosed.

M.I.A., 31, whose real name is Mathangi "Maya" Arulpragasam, was born in Britain but raised in Sri Lanka, where her father agitated for an independent Tamil state. She achieved fame with her second album "Kala," a cross-cultural mishmash of beats, slogans and lyrical drama. Her ubiquitous single "Paper Plane," which incorporates elements of an obscure Clash track, received a Grammy nomination for record of the year.

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Obama plans concert for Stevie Wonder (AP)

WASHINGTON – The White House is planning a concert this month to honor Stevie Wonder, whose music provided part of President Barack Obama's campaign soundtrack.

The White House says the president and first lady Michelle Obama will present Wonder a Library of Congress award on Feb. 25. The concert will be broadcast the next day on PBS as part of its "Performance at the White House" series.

The award-winning and chart-topping Wonder performed at the Democratic National Convention in Denver on the night Obama accepted his party's nomination. He also performed at a concert during the week of Obama's inauguration.

His song "Signed, Sealed, Delivered I'm Yours" became a theme song during the campaign. Obama also used "Higher Ground" during campaign stops.

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Chris Brown's father says singer "remorseful" (Reuters)

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – Chris Brown's father says the R & B star is remorseful following his arrest on suspicion of attacking a woman widely believed to be pop star Rihanna, People magazine reported on its Web site on Friday.

Clinton Brown, who lives in Toppahannock, Virginia, told the magazine his son is "home" but would not give a location.

"He's reflecting on this situation," Clinton Brown told People. "He's very remorseful. He's very concerned about the situation and he wants to make sure that (Rihanna's) okay."

Police and prosecutors have not officially disclosed that Rihanna was the victim of Brown's attack early Sunday morning in Los Angeles ahead of the Grammy Awards. But unnamed police sources told the Los Angeles Times she was the victim, and numerous media outlets have reported the same information.

Brown turned himself in to police hours after the incident in the early morning hours this past Sunday, and he was booked on suspicion of making criminal threats against a woman. The Los Angeles Police Department took the case to prosecutors Tuesday, but were told to investigate it further.

Prosecutors will not charge Brown before next week at the earliest, said Sandi Gibbons, a spokeswoman for the L.A. District Attorney's Office.

Celebrity websites and magazines have reported that the incident happened shortly after Brown left a party in a car with Rihanna as his passenger. Rihanna suffered bruises on her face and a split lip, according to several reports.

Rihanna, 20, whose hit songs include "Disturbia" and "Umbrella," was a no-show at the Grammy Awards on Sunday and the NAACP Image Awards on Thursday night, and she canceled an Asian concert trip scheduled for this week.

Brown, 19, was also absent from the same two awards shows, and he withdrew from a celebrity event this weekend as part of the NBA all-star game. The pop star is known for his dancing prowess and for songs like "Forever" and "Kiss Kiss."

(Reporting by Alex Dobuzinskis: Editing by Bob Tourtellotte)

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Usher's wife recovering after cardiac arrest (AP)

SAO PAULO – The wife of R&B singer Usher continues to recover in a Sao Paulo hospital after suffering a cardiac arrest shortly before undergoing plastic surgery, the spokeswoman of the doctor who was to perform the procedure said Thursday.

Ellen Dastry, spokeswoman for plastic surgeon Silvio Sterman, says Tameka Raymond checked into the Sao Rafael Hospital last Friday for a "simple liposuction." Dastry said that Raymond suffered a cardiac arrest while being anesthetized for the procedure "but was revived in less than a minute by heart massage." She was then placed in an induced coma before being taken to the intensive-care unit, a procedure Dastry said was "absolutely normal" and performed in order to "avoid unnecessary complications."

That same day Raymond was transferred to Sao Paulo's posh and better-equipped Sirio-Libanes Hospital where she is recovering, Dastry said without providing further details.

At Sirio-Libanes, a spokeswoman would only say that Raymond remains hospitalized. She explained that Raymond's family requested that no information regarding her condition be divulged by the hospital. She did not give her name, per hospital rules.

Usher was supposed to perform at music mogul Clive Davis' pre-Grammy party last Saturday, but backed out to come to Brazil to be with his wife.

The 30-year-old R&B star and his wife were married in August 2007. They have two young sons, 2-year-old Usher Raymond V and 2-month-old Naveid Ely Raymond.

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U2 gets week long gig on David Letterman show (Reuters)

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – Irish supergroup U2 have found what they are looking for to promote their new album in the United States -- a five-night gig on the "Late Show with David Letterman."

For the first week of March, U2 will perform every night on the late night chat show, CBS said on Thursday. It's the first time a musical act has been booked for an entire week on the show.

U2 starts the weeklong gig Monday, March 2, and ends it the following Friday. During the week -- on March 3 -- the band and its label, Interscope Records, will release the album "No Line on the Horizon."

The band kicked off the Grammy Awards on Sunday in Los Angeles with a performance of their single "Get on Your Boots" and sang for hundreds of thousands of people at pre-inauguration concert for President Barack Obama in Washington DC in January.

Lead by the sunglass-wearing singer Bono, U2 was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2005.

The band recorded its latest album in Morocco, Dublin, New York and London. Their last album, the 2004 "How To Dismantle An Atomic Bomb," sold more than 9 million copies worldwide.

(Reporting by Alex Dobuzinskis: Editing by Jill Serjeant)

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Idol Goes Hollywood: Triumph, Despair and the Return of Bikini Girl (E! Online)

Los Angeles (E! Online) – Simon Cowell and Randy Jackson have been advised to bring their poles to the Kodak Theatre.

If that seems like strange advice, chalk it up to Katrina "Bikini Girl" Darrell being in town and ready to dance in a venue where the performers, ahem, utilize poles—according to Kara DioGuardi, that is.

Darrell may have worn a whole dress to Hollywood, but Kara and Paula Abdul still didn't think she had the pipes to compete. But Randy and Simon, images of Phoenix dancing in their heads, readily agreed to send her through, eyes a-googling, on Tuesday's episode of American Idol.

Despite that decision, which set the wrong example for young girls everywhere, 103 other hopefuls had a swell day in the L.A. sun, as well, including audition-round favorites such as Rose Flack, Emily Wynne-Hughes, Jackie Tohn, Danny Gokey, Jeremy Michael Sarver, Jasmine Murray and Nick Mitchell, aka the headband-and-shiny-shirt-wearing Norman Gentle, who everyone but Simon inexplicably loves.

On the other hand, we also saw 43 dreams go poof! tonight, including one belonging to Dennis Brigham, who informed the judges that they suck and then, to Simon, said, "For somebody to be so rich, your pants are very, very cheap."

So there.

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Jewel's lullabies helped her through hard times (AP)

DETROIT – As a teenager, Jewel had her share of hard times, including a period of homelessness. To soothe herself, she wrote a song called "Raven" when she was 16.

That song, and another, "Angels Standing By," were written to help ease the stress she felt while living in her blue Volkswagen bus.

The songs are part of an upcoming collection of original lullabies she hopes to release this spring.

"I've been writing lullabies since the beginning," the 34-year-old singer-songwriter, who was born Jewel Kilcher, said in a recent phone interview.

"I kind of did it for myself to help myself fall asleep when I really worried, like when I was homeless and I'd fall asleep in my car," she said. "I wrote the song 'Angels Standing By' ... to try and soothe myself — rock myself to sleep, basically — because I was so scared and stressed."

Jewel, whose last album, "Perfectly Clear," was country-influenced and co-produced with John Rich of Big & Rich, said the lullaby album will be spare and self-produced at her home studio.

She said working from the 2,000-acre ranch near Stephenville, Texas, that she shares with her husband, rodeo champion Ty Murray, was easy and convenient. But it also was liberating, getting her back to why she makes music — "not having all these considerations that you think of, except what moves me."

The upcoming album also has been influenced by movies, specifically those like "Shrek" that can be enjoyed by both children and adults. "They sort of exist on two levels, and that's something I wanted this record to do," she said.

The songs also could be for her own children — one day. She said she and Murray want to start a family.

"I hope that my life ends up being my greatest work of art, not just my music."

___

Associated Press Writer Mike Householder contributed to this story.

___

On the Net:

http://www.jeweljk.com

(This version CORRECTS to 2,000-acre ranch, sted 2,000-square-foot ranch.)

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