Local nightclub owner Enoch Nicano, 30, provided a slightly simpler explanation for Beyonce’s huge fan base in Ethiopia.

"She’s hot," he said, then paused to reconsider. "She’s more than hot."

 

Beyonce to perform in China - Oct 15 2007
Beyonce is to perform at a concert in China, according to her official website.

The US RnB star will play at the Grand Stage in Shanghai on November 3, according to an international tour schedule on the site.

The news came after Beyonce scrapped a planned performance in Muslim-majority Malaysia amid speculation that she objected to a strict dress code banning sexy attire, replacing the stop in Kuala Lumpur with Jakarta. Indonesia is also Muslim but has less stringent rules governing how performers dress and behave.

Chinese officials are also sensitive about the propriety of Western acts. They told the Rolling Stones not to sing some of their racier hits and cancelled a performance by Beyonce’s boyfriend, rapper Jay-Z, after deeming his lyrics "vulgar".

But Shanghai has also played host to Christina Aguilera, who caused a stir with the accompanying sexual imagery and bad-girl attitude from her 2002 album Stripped.

Beyonce kicks off her world tour on Wednesday in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, followed by stops in Cluj, Romania, Istanbul, Bombay, Bangkok, Jakarta, Shanghai and the southern Chinese gambling enclave Macau, where she will perform at the new Venetian casino resort.
 

Judges hear arguments in Beyonce case - Oct 4 2007
A woman who sued Beyonce Knowles alleging the singer illegally used her lyrics on the hit song Baby Boy has taken her case to a federal appeals court.

Jennifer Armour of Shakopee, Minnesota, claims the 26-year-old diva took the lyrics from her song, Got A Little Bit Of Love For You.

Her lawyer argued that the copyright infringement lawsuit -- dismissed by a Houston judge’s summary judgment in favour of Beyonce last year -- should be heard by a jury.

The singer did not attend the hearing before a three-judge panel from the New Orleans-based 5th US Circuit Court of Appeals, which was convening in Lubbock, Texas, for three days of hearings. The panel has yet to make a ruling.

Armour’s attorney, Dana Kirk, told the judges that an expert analysed Armour’s slow and melodic version alongside Beyonce’s hip-hop song and that the two are substantially similar.

But Cynthia Arato, representing the Destiny’s Child star, said the standard for copyright cases is what an ordinary person hears, not an expert’s analysis. The judge who heard the case in Houston last year had ruled the two songs were "substantially dissimilar."

Armour’s lawsuit claims she heard Beyonce performing Baby Boy in 2003 "and recognised the hook and some of the lyrics from her song.

"I do believe it was the heart of my song," she said after Wednesday’s hearing. "When I first heard it, it hit me."



Beyonce concert called off - Oct 1 2007
Beyonce Knowles’s upcoming concert in Malaysia has been cancelled following protests by local Muslim groups.

Us magazine reports that concert promoter Pineapple Concerts issued a statement announcing the cancellation of the Kuala Lumpur gig, scheduled to take place on November 1.

A ministry official says Pineapple had not applied for a licence to hold the concert. But industry sources told Billboard Magazine that Pineapple did not apply for a license because 26-year-old Beyonce, refused to comply with the dress code for what would have been her first concert in the country.