Michael Jackson's "Thriller"

Everybody knows that "the king of pop", Michael Jackson, died on Thursday, June 25, 2009, after suffering a heart attack. There is much controversy on the real cause of his death, but I am not going to deal with it in this entry. I'm just going to talk about his legacy in terms of music as the following figures show:

Records and achievements of Michael Jackson.
List of awards received by Michael Jackson.

Michael Jackson's album discography:

Got to Be There (1972)
Ben (1972)
Music & Me (1973)
Forever, Michael (1975)
Off the Wall (1979)
Thriller (1982)
Bad (1987)
Dangerous (1991)
HIStory (1995)
Invincible (2001)

The following video is probably regarded as the best video in music history.

"Michael Jackson's Thriller" is a 14-minute music video for the song of the same name released on December 2, 1983 and directed by John Landis, who also co-wrote the screenplay with Jackson. The mini-film music video was broadcast on MTV three weeks before Christmas 1983. It was the most expensive video of its time, costing US$500,000, and Guinness World Records listed it in 2006 as the "most successful music video", selling over 9 million units. (Source: Wikipedia). For more information on "Thriller", click here.

"Thriller", parts 1 and 2:

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Gomaespuminglish X

Paris

We're going to Paris tomorrow on an end-of-year school trip and I would like you to do an activity concerning vocabulary related to tourism. You will need to use your English, so, why don't you practise by doing this activity?

Tourism-related activity.

How To Make Spanish Tortilla

I have just found a very interesting site: http://www.videojug.com/. But what is this website about? I'll tell you, well, they'll tell you, this is their own description of the site:

"Whatever you want to get good at, Videojug can help. From cooking a curry or learning to dance to health, wealth, happiness and finding love. We’ve found the best advice out there and turned it into over 60,000 professionally-made video and article guides. We’ve also got a lot of great content made by our users, and still more from our many partner sites. Wherever you go on the site you’ll find a community of people just like you, with the same aims and interests, learning new things and sharing their skills and experiences. Getting good at life."

The following video shows how to make the delicious Spanish Tortilla. Follow the instructions and try and make one, you'll like it!


Breakfast: How To Make Spanish Tortilla
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Test your level of English

Do you want to test your level of English? Click on these links, you've got different tests to know how skilled you are in the English language.



British council
Englishjet
World-English
English-online
Englishtag
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Eurovision Song Contest winner: Norway

I want to congratulate Norway and the singer Alexander Rybak for winning the 2009 Eurovision Song Contest with the song Fairytale. Although his song is not my favourite, he has received the highest number of points from televoters and juries from the 42 countries participating in the contest. Norway managed to gather 387 points altogether - a new record! -, followed by Yohanna from Iceland (my favourite one) with 218 points and Azerbaijan's AySel & Arash who collected 207 points. You can find the full results of the Grand Final here.
(Source: Eurovision Official Site)

Eurovision Song Contest 2009: Second Semifinal Results

This is the list of countries that qualified in the order they were announced during the Second Semi-final of the 2009 Eurovision Song Contest:

• Azerbaijan
• Croatia
• Ukraine
• Lithuania
• Albania
• Moldova
• Denmark
• Estonia
• Norway
• Greece

This video shows the official recap of all 19 songs competing at the second semi-final of the Eurovision Song Contest 2009, in Moscow, Russia!

Eurovision Song Contest 2009: First Semifinal Results

The First Semi-final of the 2009 Eurovision Song Contest is over and these are the ten countries qualifying for the Final:

• Turkey
• Sweden
• Israel
• Portugal
• Malta
• Finland
• Bosnia and Herzegovina
• Romania
• Armenia
• Iceland

This means that 15 out of 25 participants of the Final of the 2009 Eurovision Song Contest are known. The remaining 10 finalists will be known after the Second Semi-Final, which will take place on May 14th at 21:00 CET!

Which is your favourite song to win the contest? Write and tell us!!! This is one of my favourite songs: Iceland's Is it true?

This video shows the official recap of all 18 songs competing at the first semi-final of the Eurovision Song Contest 2009, in Moscow, Russia!

Eurovision Song Contest Moscow 2009

In two weeks time, the Eurovision Song Contest will be held in Moscow. I am keen on this festival and I really like listening to the songs from the different countries.

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Since 2008, the Eurovision Song Contest consists of three live shows, aired prime-time to millions of homes across Europe. During two Semi-Finals, viewers and juries across Europe determine which countries will be represented in the Final.

The first Semi-Final will take place on Tuesday, 12th of May, 21:00 CET.
18 countries will be represented in the first Semi-Final; Andorra, Armenia, Belarus, Belgium, Bosnia & Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Finland, Iceland, Israel, FYR Macedonia, Malta, Montenegro, Portugal, Romania, Sweden, Switzerland and Turkey.

The second Semi-Final will be held on Thursday, 14th of May, 21:00 CET.
19 countries will be represented in the second Semi-Final; Albania, Azerbaijan, Croatia, Cyprus, Denmark, Estonia, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Latvia, Lithuania, Moldova, the Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Serbia, Slovakia, Slovenia and Ukraine.

The Final is scheduled for Saturday, 16th of May, 21:00 CET.
Artists from 25 of the 42 represented countries will compete in the Final of the 2009Eurovision Song Contest. From each Semi-Final, 10 countries will qualify. France, Germany, Spain, the United Kingdom and host country Russia are automatically qualified to take part in the Final.

Source: http://www.eurovision.tv/index/main

The Spanish participant is Soraya, this is her song:

In the following preview video player, you can watch and listen to all the songs taking part in the contest:
Eurovision Song Contest - Moscow 2009 Preview Player
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Labour Day 2009