Posts Tagged music

Fiji Water fuels the Music Industry



We all know the famous water brand that’s taken our country’s name all around the world. Fiji Water has come a long way in its bid to rule the bottled water world, and its marketing prowess is nothing to sneeze at. Its presence in Hollywood We’ve all freaked out when the bottle appeared on Friends. Heck, I practically had a fit when I saw the Fiji Water vending machine in that episode of X-Files when Scully waits at a train station for Mulder. I swear it was right there at the train station. I wasn’t thinking, “Oh dear, I wonder if dear mysterious monotone Mulder will show up for his one true love Scully?” No. I was spazzing out, grabbing anyone nearby by the collar and screaming, “OMIGODWTFBBQ DID YOU SEE THE FUCKING FIJI WATER MACHINE THINGO AT THE TRAIN STATION? QUICK! SCREENSHOT!”

Right.
There’s no denying that Fiji Water has the Hollywood crowd, with famous actors such as Junior James T Kirk and Brad Pitt seen out in public with the bottle close by. The Music Industry too is no slacker. Bottled water and public performance go hand in hand and in a strange way, sort of makes sense. Singing, especially in concerts with either the glaring mid-day sun on your face, or the bright, insect-attracting floodlights giving you accidental tan, is a tiring, sweaty job. So hydration is top on the list of necessary life items, besides pizza and the drug dealer’s speed dial button.
If you want to see what these singing celebrities order during their tours/performances, look no further, The Smoking Gun has a comprehensive list of famous singers and their list of travel demands a.k.a. Tour Riders. And one of the interesting things is how popular Fiji Water is amongst the bottled water request line up. Some of the more famous performers who’ve requested Fiji Water include:
Ok not Kelly Clarkson in particular, who prefers Dasani Water, but her rock band, who ask for a whooping 24 bottles of Fiji Water. In a rather unusual show of un-rockmanship, her list of needs is rather…small. Like, post 2008 world economy crash small. Which is quite funny, since her record sales show a different tale.
What I said about Kelly Clarkson? I take it back. Either Mandy Moore’s trying to compete with Kelly on the ‘who’s on the hobo diet?’ competition, or the printer ran out of ink when it got past item 7. Thank goodness 8 bottles of Fiji Water was at the top.
Granted the list said Fiji Water or Volci but still. As an aside, I was glad that some other singer/group aside from the current list of girl pop stars was on the list. And it was one of my favourite rock bands to boot! Now I can rock out to their tunes, knowing that they rock out with Fiji Water. As an added bonus, their tour rider write up is pretty hilarious, and is up there with the Iggy Pop one.
My personal favourite, Mary’s Tour Rider states most emphatically that her room must have “…10 1.5 litre bottles of FIJI water (absolutely, positively must be FIJI).” Like…absolutely. Or else there’ll be a whole lotta drama.

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Lost in Fiji

Yesterday I was involved in a discussion about the TV show Lost. I ended up mentioning how I “lost” interest in the show after Season 1, ok it was actually Season 3 but only because I was intrigued about the monster.

Further discussion led to myself staking claim that the survivors from the plane crash were actually stranded on an island in Fiji. Interestingly enough, I relied on google to help me search online for much needed evidence i.e. conspiracy theories from fans, to support my claim. It was through that search that I came across a band called “Lost in Fiji”, which is …a brand spankin’ new pop band based in London.

What a pleasant surprise, since it is a band from the UK and their sound is different to that offered by our popular local artists. The mainstay of music in this country is reggae.

I am not quite sure as to how the band’s name came about. Updates and information on the band can found on their MySpace and Facebook profiles.

As another google search bonus, I also came across a cool video which is a parody on Lost made on Natadola beach (in case you didn’t know) in Fiji.


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Digicel to open in Fiji, brings R&B Crooner

Digicel, the upcoming gargentuous thorn-in-the-side to mega-corp Vodafone, is due to officially open its doors next week Wednesday, 1st of October here in Fiji, bringing to an end the years long monopoly Vodafone had on the local mobile phone industry.
While this may sound like good news to some, the more interesting tid bit of info was which musical artist they’d bring to entertain/disuade the locals during opening day. More marketing then friendly peace offerings to the competition before beginning cut throat business, Digicel is known for impressive, near festival quality opening shows in the countries it opens in.


A free concert, massive promotions, the works.

As impressive as it sounds, I was more interested in who Digicel would bring to Fiji for their mega opening ceremony. Since a repeat of Shaggy’s performance here wouldn’t be original, let alone fair to the friendly tongans (malo to ya’ll tongan readers – yes all 2 of you (: ), any musician was fair game.
After some asking around, a fair bit of bribing and buddy building relationships over booze and grog, rumours have began to surface over who exactly Digicel is bringing to our much hallowed shores for the night’s entertainment. Bear in mind this isn’t official until actually officially announced by Digicel themselves, but a spin on the rumour mill will add a bit of fun to the mix.

Yes, thats right. Rumour has it that we’re getting the chubby chase of hip hop, the rolly polly of R&B, Sean Kingston, singer of such hits as beautiful girls, love like this and What is it.
Surprised? A little bit. Perhaps I was hoping for the return of the UK super reggae band UB40, since their previous concert here in Fiji was more awesome then booze induced sex anywhere. But hey, if it’s a free show, then what’s there to complain about? This, with Vodafone’s car razy promo, signals the beginning of more mega promos on the horizon.
Who were you hoping for?
EDIT: Well, there you have it.

While Sammy G and Mr Grin were of little surprise (I have a feeling this concert will look great on their resume), KatchaFire was somewhat out of the blue.
Also…the Millenium Orchestra? Unless this Orchestra does UB40 covers, I’m not quite sure how they’ll fit into the grand scheme of Hip Hop/Reggae/Rap performances come Wednesday, but I’m always open to surprises :)

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