Modern Music

Lady Gaga’s six-day sojourn in Australia has reaped dividends for the pop superstar.

THE hysteria surrounding Lady Gagas whirlwind visit Down Under has reaped dividends for the pop superstar, but it did little to wipe the shine off Adeles dominating success on the Australian music charts.

Lady Gaga, who last week held an exclusive concert at Sydneys Town Hall and two surprise nightclub appearances, was in the country to promote her latest album Born This Way.

Her six-day visit helped boost the record to number two on the ARIA albums chart, up three spots from last week.

Sales of her current single The Edge of Glory also spiked, shooting to sixth position from 22.

It is Gagas tenth ARIA top 10 single.

But the frenzy failed to derail Adeles continued dominance on the charts.

The British singer-songwriter now boasts two albums in the top three, bookending Gaga at number one and three with 21 and 19 respectively.

The triple-platinum record 21, which this week became the second album to ever sell a million digital downloads in the US, marks its tenth week at the top.

Meanwhile, her debut album 19, released back in 2008, reaches its highest position to date.

Two new albums have also entered the charts coveted top 10, including Christina Perris Lovestrong at number five and Australian country music star Adam Harveys Falling Into Place at tenth spot.

Harvey has also landed the number one country album in Australia.

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Bette Midler has accused Lady Gaga of stealing her ideas, insisting the pop superstar’s controversial wheelchair stunt last week was copied from her own stage show.

Lady Gaga sparked outrage among disability rights groups by taking to the stage at a show in Sydney last week dressed in a mermaid’s tail and sitting in a wheelchair. Midler has now spoken out to insist she invented the routine in the 1980s.

In a series of posts on Twitter, Midler writes, “I’m not sure Lady Gaga knows that I’ve performed my mermaid in a wheelchair for millions of people – and many of them are still alive …

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AMERICAN country music singer-songwriter Bryan White hopes to leave a lasting impression at his first Australian appearance at next months Gympie Music Muster.

White appeared on the American country music scene in the mid-1990s.

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Elton John canceled his Sept. 13 concert at DTE Energy Music Theatre, but the “Rocket Man” has added a concert at Windsor’s WFCU Centre on Sept. 10.

Tickets for the show, $93.25 and $153.25, go on sale at 10 a.m. Friday at http://wfcu-centre.com, by phone at (866) 969-WFCU (9328) or in person at the WFCU Centre box office.

No reason was given for John’s DTE cancellation, which was announced last week. A statement from venue officials said a new concert date will be announced at a later date.

The DTE date — scheduled to be John’s first performance at the Clarkston amphitheater since 1989 — was one of two cancellations on John’s current tour. He also canceled a Sept. 16 show outside of Philadelphia.

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“Composting” is hardly a common metaphor for making music. But in the hands of Hafez Modirzadeh, this concept of dissolution releasing the raw materials for new creativity becomes a template for musical drama.

The visionary San Jose tenor saxophonist premieres his ambitious project “In Convergence Liberation” on Saturday at Yerba Buena Center for the Arts in San Francisco. The concert features an international array of artists steeped in diverse traditions. They include Iraqi-American trumpeter and vocalist Amir ElSaffar, with whom Modirzadeh recorded the 2010 album “Radif Suite” (Pi Recordings), which applies a jazz vocabulary to classical Arabic and Persian musical modes, as well as Argentine-Mexican Latin-jazz vocalist Mili Bermejo.

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