Daily Archives: July 7, 2009

Judith Hill – Heal the World singer at Michael Jackson Memorial

Lots of people are asking who the Asian singer was at the Michael Jackson Memorial service. The singer looks to be Judith Hill, who is part Japanese and part African American. Here’s some information about Judith Hill on her site.

Judith was born in Los Angeles and raised in a family of musicians. Her mother is an immigrant from Japan who met her father in a funk band in the 1970s. She laughs about her bi-racial experience, “I was a skinny mixed kid with a lot of hair that I didn’t know what to do with (and still don’t know what to do with it). And my mom could not help me with it!” She lived in a Christian home and embraced Jesus Christ at an early age. She comments, “I had a pretty good life in my childhood. Me and God were friends since the beginning. That helped a lot. But, it didn’t save me from walking a path of pain and asking the deep questions of life. I was a philosopher as a kid, and in school you could find me in the library.” She admits that she never “fit in”. Depending on the social circle, she was labeled “too quiet”, “too loud”, “too black”, “too asian”, or too something. Judith expresses, “I was a traveler, kind of a drifter. But, looking back I see how all of those experiences, friends, and cultures made me who I am today.”

You can learn more about Judith Hill on her website here.

Judith Hill performing Heal the World at Michael Jackson Memorial

Judith Hill singing, “One Love Forever” last year

Update:

Judith Hill talks about her performance on Entertainment Tonight (ET)

Michael Jackson Memorial Service

The Jackson family today announced the participants for the Michael Jackson memorial on Tuesday, July 7th, at the Staples Center starting at 10am PT/1pm ET:

Ron Boyd (family friend); Kobe Bryant; Mariah Carey; Andrae Crouch Choir; Berry Gordy; Jennifer Hudson; Shaheen Jafargholi (finalist on Britain’s Got Talent); Magic Johnson; Martin Luther King III; Bernice A. King; John Mayer; Lionel Richie; Smokey Robinson; Rev. Al Sharpton; Brooke Shields; Pastor Lucious Smith (family friend); Usher; and Stevie Wonder.

The list is preliminary and subject to change. Here’s other posts we have done about Michael Jackson : RIP Michael Jackson – King of Pop, Michael Jackson tribute on the 404, Asian American tributes to Michael Jackson, Dancing Inmate’s Michael Jackson tribute, Jabbawockeez talk about Michael Jackson, and Kollaboration NY tribute to Michael Jackson.

Michael Jackson Memorial Service

If you tune in before 10am PT/1pm ET, you can watch these other tributes

The Way You Make Me Feel with David Choi

Remember The Time with Kinna Grannis

Hibi no Neiro by SOUR

If you liked the Deadline – Post-It Stop Motion, you might find this video interesting. This Japanese music video was shot for Sour’s ‘Hibi no Neiro’ (Tone of everyday) from their first mini album ‘Water Flavor EP’. The cast was selected from the actual fans of Sour, from many countries around the world. Each person and scene was filmed via webcam. Definitely, the music video took lots of time to coordinate and edit like Back Again directed by Todd Angkasuwan.

Hibi no Neiro by SOUR

Drop Dead Diva with Margaret Cho

Margaret Cho’s got a new role in Lifetime’s new show “Drop Dead Diva”. On her blog, Margaret sheds a little light on why she took the role “because it dealt with issues of body image with such respect and grace.” She’s been affected negatively by ‘fat jokes’ and the status quo of women’s bodies for as long as she can remember. In her first TV sitcom “All American Girl“, Margaet Cho was told by network executives that her “face was too full” to play herself. She states, “I never lived up to the thin, blonde beauty queen ideal – the image I saw in magazines and movies and television. Because of this, I always felt invisible.” You can read her full blog post here. Here’s more about Drop Dead Diva:

“Drop Dead Diva” tells the story of a beautiful-but-vapid model wannabe, Deb, who has a fatal car accident and suddenly finds herself in front of Heaven’s gatekeeper, Fred, who declares her a self-centered “zero.” Outraged, Deb attempts to persuade Fred to return her to her shallow existence but is accidentally relegated to the body of the recently deceased Jane Bingum (Brooke Elliott). A brilliant, thoughtful and plus-size attorney with a loyal assistant (Margaret Cho), Jane has always lived in the shadow of her more comely colleagues, whereas Deb has always relied on her external beauty. Now, by a twist of fate and a bolt of divine intervention, Deb must come to terms with inhabiting Jane’s plus-size frame in the ultimate showdown between brains and beauty.

“Drop Dead Diva” premieres on Lifetime Sunday, July 12 at 9 pm et/pt. Marget Cho seems to be doing a lot of TV these days with Beautiful on Showtime and The Cho Show on VH1.



Go behind the scenes with actress and comedienne, Margaret Cho, who plays Jane’s assistant Teri, and hear what she has to say about her role in the Lifetime series “Drop Dead Diva.”

Drop Dead Dive Preview