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Soul singer Adele added to her awards haul at the 2012 BRITs on Tuesday and set the biggest night in British pop alight with a rousing performance of “Rolling In the Deep”.

At the start of the evening, Adele picked up the statuette for British female solo artist and finished off proceedings by scooping the coveted best album honor for “21″ at the end of a two-hour televised show.

In between, the 23-year-old captivated a packed O2 Arena in her native London with a vocal display that suggested her husky voice was on its way back after surgery on vocal cords late last year which forced her to cancel part of a tour. (more…)

Whitney Houston was laid to rest on Sunday in a private burial before family and close friends near her birthplace in Newark, New Jersey, more than a week after her sudden death shocked the world.

The pop star, whose powerful voice fueled her rise to fame in the mid-1980s with self-titled albums that made her a global pop star, died in a Beverly Hills hotel room last week. She was found underwater in a bathtub, but an exact cause of death has yet to be determined. (more…)

Stars, family and friends mourned Whitney Houston in a spirited Baptist funeral service at her hometown church on Saturday, a week after the death of the singer whose spectacular voice made her one of the biggest pop stars of her era.

Gospel and soul music greats, celebrities and family members swayed to gospel hits and delivered tributes both sung and spoken to the crowded New Hope Baptist Church in Newark, where Houston honed her wide vocal range as a young choral singer with her mother Cissy Houston, a backup singer for Aretha Franklin. (more…)

The New Hope Baptist Church, where pop star Whitney Houston first sang and family and friends will gather on Saturday to pay her a final tribute, sits in a hardscrabble corner of Newark, New Jersey. Its well-maintained red-brick facade seems at odds with the dusty parking lot and derelict housing projects around it.

But to hear the gospel choir sing on Sundays, which once featured teenager Houston and her mom Cissy, was to be briefly transported to a faraway, trouble-free world, its patrons say. (more…)

Police on Thursday said they plan to lock down streets near Saturday’s private funeral for Whitney Houston in her hometown of Newark, New Jersey and urged the thousands of fans expected to crowd the area to stay home.

The U.S. pop star will be laid to rest after the noon (1700 GMT) service that will be held at the New Hope Baptist Church in Newark, where she performed while growing up. Several blocks around the church will be cordoned off and fans will not be allowed near it, Newark police said on Thursday. (more…)

Music producer Clive Davis’s pre-Grammy party is typically one of the most fun-filled highlights of the week leading to the music industry’s top awards, but this year’s event quickly turned into a tribute for Whitney Houston, who died earlier in the day.

On the red carpet outside Saturday night’s event, the recording industry’s biggest stars were stunned by news that Houston, among the biggest female recording stars of all time, died that afternoon in the same hotel, the Beverly Hilton. (more…)

The show must go on. Despite Whitney Houston’s shocking death a day earlier, music stars came out to celebrate Sunday’s Grammy Awards with typical red carpet flash and over-the-top fashion.

Several artists exuded glamour, including Carrie Underwood, nominated for best country solo performance, who arrived shimmering in a silver Gomez-Garcia gown with a Swarovski black clutch. Other musicians raised eyebrows, including up-and-coming Russian-born singer Sasha Gradiva, who wore a soft pink mermaid shaped gown that featured a machine-gun adorned sleeve. (more…)

Soul singer Adele triumphed in her return to music’s stage on Sunday, scooping up six Grammys and winning every category in which she was nominated including album of the year for “21″ and best record with “Rolling In the Deep.”

As joyous as the show was for Adele, it was equally as serious with tributes to late pop star Whitney Houston, who died suddenly on Saturday. She was remembered by fellow artists in acceptance speeches and songs. Jennifer Hudson sang Houston’s signature hit, “I Will Always Love You,” and Grammy host LL Cool J offered a prayer for Houston’s family, friends and fans. (more…)

Whitney Houston’s body arrived in her home state of New Jersey on Monday night, ahead of a funeral expected later this week for the pop superstar whose blockbuster career was often overshadowed by drug and alcohol abuse.

A plane owned by actor-producer Tyler Perry landed at an airport in Teterboro, New Jersey, where security was tight. A gold hearse left the airport and arrived just before midnight at the Whigham funeral home in Newark, the city where Houston was born. A crowd of about 50 fans had gathered outside. (more…)