Thrilling tennis at Australian Open - with teenage troubles left well behind by Dokic

The Top 10 players in the women's draw of the Australian Open are wonderful ambassadors for tennis, and it's great to see plenty of young talent snapping at their heels.

One favourite of the Aussie crowd is Jelena Dokic, who thrilled everyone as a teenager with her powerful play. Now 25 years old and over the blip of the past few years, Dokic is back as a contender, working her way up the rankings.

That journey is, however, perhaps harden than 10 years ago. The teenagers in the rankings from 10 to 50 are full of talent and confidence, attacking the top players and building great reputations. When Jelena Dokic, ranked 187, met Caroline Wozniacki of Denmark, the No. 11 seed, the sets showed the importance of the mental game today.

Wozniacki, with so much talent and court skill, won the first set despite some close games and break point opportunities for Dokic. The second set showed the power and baseline dominance of Dokic, and quite a few wobbles in the Wozniacki game. That left the scores at 6-3, 1-6.

Mid-way through the third set, Dokic was tested and responded with mental strength and hitting power. With some excellent position play and even aces, Dokic sped to lead by 4 games to 2.

With a marvelous display in the 7th game, Dokic took her lead to 5-2, and that left her serving for the match. She controlled everything - her nerves, the ball, the player on the other side of the net. "Guts in life and on the court," is how one reporter described Dokic. The final score (6-3, 1-6, 2-6) was both unexpected and very welcome, even if we feel some sympathy for Wozniacki.

A standing ovation for Dokic was deserved, whether you are Australian or not. Former Australian No. 1 Alicia Molik, now a commentator, gave Dokic a hug at the end, as they were so both emotional. Jelena said she took on a point-by-point strategy after losing the first set. Asked about the past few years, Dokic said maybe she got on the tour too early, but has matured and feels helped by the crowd always, and the whole Australian nation: "I have so many feelings and emotions going on right now, so not sure how to say." As Molic said, just be proud, because everyone else is.

Pirate-friendly Island - Watch out Ibiza - Isle of Man to allow unlimited music downloads

The independent, self-governing and former Celtic-Norse island, tucked in between England and Ireland, was originally the Isle of Mann or Manx. Its own dialect of Irish and Scottish Gaelic, also known as Manx, is still being taught at schools.

Settled as far back as 10,000 BC, the island was often seen as a safe haven, but now it is famous as a tax haven with low personal taxation and zero corporate taxes. They also host 3 main music festivals and numerous other gigs and concerts.

Now, in a radical approach to the internet, they plan to allow unlimited legal music downloads. Let me repeat that, unlimited legal music downloads. The island has 100% broadband coverage, so a small annual fee will cover a necessary music licence for the whole island, and all residents and visitors. From whatever source!

"At the end of the day, we're not going to stop piracy," said a spokesperson. But this plan effectively bypasses the piracy issue. "It legalises what's already going on ... what's already going on in a big way." In other words, if the music industry had embraced channels similar to Napster years ago, digital downloads would be very different today, and possibly all 'paid for' in one way or another.

The fee may be as low as one euro a month, and if a major network like Telefonica with 120 million users signed up, then music rights companies would get all they need. Go Isle of Manx!

UK struggles against US music power - only Leona Lewis has any credibility

The new season of American Idol proves, again, the overwhelming dominance of America in chart music - whether pop, rock, soul or whatever. Idol is the number one tv show in the States, on the No. 1 tv network, and achieves an average of 30 million viewers per episode.

Even better figures help the final, which has 55 million viewers, as the results of the 97 million votes are revealed. Don't forget, these are just the USA figures and millions more watch the show worldwide. That power means only exceptional talent - and almost always a fantastic voice - will make a significant impact Stateside. For the UK there has been a severe lack of music power.


Leona Lewis is the most successful British artist to cross the Atlantic for years. Having conquered Top 10 album charts around the world, her album Spirit hit No. 1 status in the States too. With the single Bleeding Love also topping the Billboard Hot 100, Leona has proven her extraordinary talent in the most competitive market in the world.

Just for the record, Spirit achieved No. 1 all major markets: UK, USA, Canada, Australia, China, Germany, etc.

Robbie Williams arrived in America along with massive hype with The Ego Has Landed. The best the album could achieve was No. 63 on the U.S. pop charts. Follow-up Sing When You’re Winning only reached No. 110 on the U.S. charts. Escapology didn't reach Top-40, while Rudebox did not even get in the shops - it was only released digitally in America.

After winning the Mercury Prize in 2002 Ms. Dynamite was tipped as the British rapper who would win over America. The critics fell over themselves with praise for A Little Deeper but the American public was not fooled - it only reached No. 179 in the States and follow-up Judgement Day didn’t receive full release in the U.S. Ms. Dynamite is just one of many hyped UK rappers who failed to resonate, including Dizzee Rascal and Lady Sovereign.

Although the Sugababes are one of the most successful pop groups in Britain, they have very little presence in the U.S. Only Hole in the Head charted low on Billboard’s Hot 100 and Americans can only buy Sugababes on import.

Even MySpace-hyped Lily Allen could do no better than No. 49 on Billboard’s Hot 100 with Smile.

All of which shows that only real musical talent and dedication will achieve success in America. Britain's music press and gutter tv pundits need to get their heads out of lurid, non-music hype and self-promotion. Only then will they see any real British music talent.

Top Pop Artists 2008 - Girls Steal the Show

Girls stole the show for the Top Pop Artists of 2008 by taking 4 of the top 5 slots.

1. Rihanna - solo and collaborations
2. Chris Brown - especially with Jordin Sparks
3. Leona Lewis - the most beautiful voice
4. Katy Perry - sassy, sexy, classy talent
5. Jordin Sparks - heartfelf and smooth diva

Some may argue that Brown is only there because of his duet with Jordin, and that is probably correct. So maybe the girls took four-and-a-half of the top 5 slots!

For us, all of the girls are making MUSIC rather than the boys who seem locked in their big-production, multi-million-budget, metro-sexual, copycat toons. Just look at the ENERGY of Rihanna, the RANGE of Leona Lewis, the breathless CATCHYNESS of Katy Perry and the MUSICALITY of Jordin. Can't find 5 boys to equal those.

2 years of astonishing growth - YouTube and FaceBook crush MySpace

At the start of 2007, MySpace, Google and YouTube were close to level-pegging for worldwide web traffic. FaceBook was barely on the radar.

One year later, YouTube was running at twice the traffic, while FaceBook had caught up with the other two.

At the start of 2009, FaceBook has caught YouTube, while MySpace is close to declining. The success of YouTube started with a lot of fairly juvenile and fun content, but now it exceeds MySpace for great music content, and good film resources, and, well, the whole of life - almost.

YouTube probably has the market locked tight for genre and niche content - all readily available, easy to find, and with good stepping stones to similar items. FaceBook, on the other hand, has captured both the tweenies market - great networking and mesmerising apps - and the family networking crown.

Prediction for the next 12 months: Blogs will catch up with MySpace, especially if FaceBook ever work out how to get a Blogroll to work properly.
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Highest Paid Actresses 2008 - Angelina Jolie tops chart

Money may not be everything, but it certainly proves talent and popularity. The critics bleat on about their favourites, or who they have been paid to promote, but the public support has the final say. So we are happy to see one of our favourites at No 1 in the highest paid actress chart for 2008.

Angelina Jolie earned above $15 million for Wanted and may receive $20m for a sequel. The fee is not the only income, however, and the $15m for Edwin A. Salt will be boosted by healthy shares of profits. But also don't forget that Angelina (and Brad) give millions to charity, and huge amounts of time to humanitarian activities.

At No 2, Julia Roberts has returned and hit the jackpot with Duplicity, earning $15 million-plus for the thriller directed by Tony Gilroy. Roberts is also a strong supporter of charities.

Moving from rather cute child actress and coed, Reese Witherspoon has accomplished a surprising variety of roles. Her salary for Four Christmases was around $14m and total earnings put Witherspoon at No 3 for the year.

Cameron Diaz is still a high earner, with around $10m for the comedy What Happens in Vegas, and that helped toward total earnings of around $50m for the year.

Another former child and TV star is No 5, Katherine Heigl, who is leaping up the earnings list. With around $6m for The Ugly Truth and $225,000 per episode for Grey's Anatomy, our guess is her bank balance is fairly healthy.
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