NEWS DIGEST: Tuesday, February 17

12:08 PM GMT 17/02/2009

Stevie Wonder is to play a concert at the White House later this month. Wonder’s music played an integral part in soundtracking Barack Obama’s campaign for the Presidency during the second-half of last year.

The Motown legend will also be awarded the Library of Congress Gershwin Prize for Popular Song.

The President will present the award at a special ceremony due to take place on February 25.

Paul Simon won the first Gershwin Prize for Popular Song in 2007.

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King of Pop: A Once In A Lifetime Auction Featuring The Personal Property of Michael Jackson is set to showcase a selection of the fallen star's possessions.

Among the 2000 items going under the hammer is the bejewelled white glove that Jackson first wore for 1983's Billie Jean video.

An exhibition will present all the auction lots before the bidding starts in Beverly Hills on Tuesday, April 25.

For more information, head over HERE.

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A spokesperson for troubled singer Gerry Rafferty has revealed that he is in contact with the Baker Street star, refuting claims that Rafferty hadn't been seen since August last year.

"I spoke to him two weeks ago and he's fine," Paul Charles told The Independent. "There's no album, there's no tour, so he's not coming out in public."

Rafferty has battled alcoholism throughout his life and was being treated for liver failure at London’s St Thomas’s Hospital.

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Louie Bellson, big band drummer, composer and author, has died in Los Angeles at the age of 84. It's understood he had been suffering from Parkinson's Disease.

Born Luigi Paulino Alfredo Francesco Antonio Balassoni in Rock Falls, Illinois, he began playing the drums at the age of 3. By 15 he was pioneering the double bass drum configuration and would soon go on to play on over 200 albums, drumming for jazz legends such as Dizzy Gillespie, Duke Ellington, Count Basie, Benny Goodman, Oscar Peterson, Louis Armstrong and Ella Fitzgerald. He was also a successful bandleader in his own right.

Here he is in explosive action from 1957.

He is survived by his second wife, two daughters and two grandchildren.

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Coldplay's Viva La Vida Or Death And All His Friends has officially been named the best selling album of 2008 by the International Federation Of The Phonographic Industry.

The band's fourth album sold 6.8 million copies worldwide. AC/DC's Black Ice, the soundtrack to Mamma Mia! The Movie and Duffy's debut Rockferry came in at second third and fourth places respectively.

Posted by Ross_Bennett at 12:08 PM GMT 17/02/2009

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