Roberto Blanco, 84, pop singer, asked the Mayor of Vienna Michael Ludwig, 60, to exhume the composer Ludwig van Beethoven (1770-1824) at the Vienna Central Cemetery. A DNA examination could prove that Beethoven had African roots. Blanco says in a video shared on social media, “I bet he looked more like me than you think.” Beethoven’s grave has already been opened twice, in 1863 and 1888. First it was a matter of measuring his bones, then he was embedded in a grave of honor. There has been speculation about a possibly African background of Beethoven’s ancestors for decades.
Tina Turner, 81, Swiss pop singer, has sold her song rights. The music company BMG did not want to provide any information on the purchase price of the songs. Turner’s solo works include ten studio albums, two live albums, two soundtracks and five compilations, which together have sold more than 100 million copies. The native American now lives in Switzerland and has accepted citizenship. Other musicians have already parted ways with their song rights, most recently Paul Simon, Neil Young and Bob Dylan. The reasons are, among other things, declining record sales and, due to the pandemic, collapsing concert revenues, while revenues from the streaming and series boom are becoming more and more valuable for the industry.
Jamie Lee Curtis, 62, US actress, warns against an exaggerated ideal of beauty. “I’ve tried plastic surgery,” she told the magazine Fast Company. “This trend in fillers and different processes, this obsession with doing everything possible to improve our appearance at video conferences, for example, is what destroys beauty in the first place.” She also felt ashamed when a cameraman refused to work with her because she had puffy eyes after a plastic surgery.
Carolin Kebekus, 41, comedian, struggles with the church’s conception of the Last Judgment: “Is it then really billed and looked at in the class register? My God. I would say straight away: I want a lawyer.” From her Christian upbringing, however, she took a “basic trust in love” with her, she told the Catholic news agency. “In the fact that everything will fall into place, that not evil will conquer, but good.” The “resigned Christian” once again advised the institution of the church to finally reform. Otherwise it will shrink to a sect for arch-conservatives.