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SECURITY

High security in Rome ahead of Ariana Grande concert

Security was extra tight in Rome's PalaLottomatica arena on Thursday as US singer Ariana Grande arrived for the Italian leg of her world tour.

High security in Rome ahead of Ariana Grande concert
File photo of Ariana Grande performing. Photo: Kevin Winters/Getty Images North America/AFP

Grande – who has Italian ancestry – resumed her world tour in Paris last week after pausing it following a suicide attack outside her concert in Manchester.

The arena in the EUR complex of Rome was set to be protected with metal detectors and random inspections of those attending the sold-out show.

Guests were banned from bringing any kind of suitcase, backpack, or bag, with the exception of transparent bags, which women were allowed to carry, tour promoter Livenation said. Aerosol cans, alcoholic drinks, tripods, tablets, and even selfie sticks were also forbidden.

The same rules will apply to Grande's concert in Turin on Saturday, where security at public events has recently come under scrutiny. 

Shortly after the attack in Manchester, more than 1,500 people were injured at an outdoor showing of a football game in Turin.

The cause of the panic in Turin is still unclear, though witnesses at the time said they thought a bomb had gone off, and Interior Minister Marco Minniti said there was “an emotional link to the Manchester attack”. The city's mayor is reviewing safety regulations for public events in the wake of the panic, which left three people critically injured.

The youngest, a seven-year-old boy, left hospital this week, and one woman in her 20's has come out of a coma. However, hospital sources told the Ansa news agency that the third critical patient, a 38-year-old woman, was unlikely to survive.

On May 22nd, a suicide bomber attacked a concert by Grande in Manchester, killing 22 people including seven children when he blew himself up.

Grande cancelled shows she was due to give in London, Belgium, Germany, Poland and Switzerland, and went to her Florida home, before returning to Manchester to headline an all-star benefit show for victims of the attack and then continuing her tour in France, Portugal, and Spain.

The terror threat in Italy is currently at level 2, the highest possible in the absence of a direct attack.

Security in the country, particularly in cities and crowded areas, has been repeatedly reviewed and updated in recent months after a series of deadly attacks in Europe.

READ ALSO: 'We can't lower our guard': Italy ups security in crowded areas'We can't lower our guard': Italy ups security in crowded areas after London attack
A security checkpoint at Rome's Colosseum. Photo: AFP

CULTURE

New songs mark sixth anniversary of French star Johnny Hallyday’s death

Fans of the late Johnny Hallyday, "the French Elvis Presley", will be able to commemorate the sixth anniversary of his death with two songs never released before.

New songs mark sixth anniversary of French star Johnny Hallyday's death

Hallyday, blessed with a powerful husky voice and seemingly boundless energy, died in December 2017, aged 74, of lung cancer after a long music and acting career.

After an estimated 110 million records sold during his lifetime – making him one of the world’s best-selling singers -Hallyday’s success has continued unabated beyond his death.

Almost half of his current listeners on Spotify are under the age of 35, according to the streaming service, and a posthumous greatest hits collection of “France’s favourite rock’n’roller”, whose real name was Jean-Philippe Leo
Smet, sold more than half a million copies.

The two new songs, Un cri (A cry) and Grave-moi le coeur (Engrave my heart), are featured on two albums published by different labels which also contain already-known hits in remastered or symphonic versions.

Un cri was written in 2017 by guitarist and producer Maxim Nucci – better known as Yodelice – who worked with Hallyday during the singer’s final years.

At the time Hallyday had just learned that his cancer had returned, and he “felt the need to make music outside the framework of an album,” Yodelice told reporters this week.

Hallyday recorded a demo version of the song, accompanied only by an acoustic blues guitar, but never brought it to full production.

Sensing the fans’ unbroken love for Hallyday, Yodelice decided to finish the job.

He separated the voice track from the guitar which he felt was too tame, and arranged a rockier, full-band accompaniment.

“It felt like I was playing with my buddy,” he said.

The second song, Grave-moi le coeur, is to be published in December under the artistic responsibility of another of the singer’s close collaborators, the arranger Yvan Cassar.

Hallyday recorded the song – a French version of Elvis’s Love Me Tender – with a view to performing it at a 1996 show in Las Vegas.

But in the end he did not play it live, opting instead for the original English-language version, and did not include it in any album.

“This may sound crazy, but the song was on a rehearsal tape that had never been digitalised,” Cassar told AFP.

The new songs are unlikely to be the last of new Hallyday tunes to delight fans, a source with knowledge of his work said. “There’s still a huge mass of recordings out there spanning his whole career,” the source said.

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