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UK Singer-songwriter Raye Sweeps Brit Awards

Raye had been nominated in a record seven categories. HENRY NICHOLLS / AFP
Raye had been nominated in a record seven categories. HENRY NICHOLLS / AFP
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UK Singer-songwriter Raye Sweeps Brit Awards

Raye had been nominated in a record seven categories. HENRY NICHOLLS / AFP
Raye had been nominated in a record seven categories. HENRY NICHOLLS / AFP

Rising star Raye on Saturday swept the UK's top music awards, setting a record for winning the most prizes in a single year.
The 26-year-old singer-songwriter scooped six awards including best artist, R&B act, new artist, song of the year for "Escapism" and album for "My 21st Century Blues", AFP said.
Her award for best songwriter was pre-announced.
Accepting the best new artist award she called the win "overwhelming", adding "this is wild".
"What is actually happening right now?" a delighted Raye told the audience at London's O2 arena.
"The artist I was three years ago would not believe the sight she is seeing today. I'm in control, I'm my own boss now," she declared.
She had made history even before the ceremony started by being nominated for a record seven prizes in one year.
The Londoner, whose real name is Rachel Keen, had been up against six other female artists out of the 10 shortlisted in the gender neutral best artist category following a controversy last year.
Not a single female artist ended up being shortlisted in the category in 2023 after the merging of the best female and male artist categories for the first time a year earlier.
That led Brit Awards chairman Damian Christian to complain about a "disappointing lack of female representation", blaming a dearth of eligible 2022 releases by big female stars.
This year the shortlist was extended from five to 10 and included Dua Lipa and Jessie Ware, newcomer Olivia Dean, and Mercury Prize winners Little Simz and Arlo Parks, as well as Raye.
- Rocky road -
This year's awards also saw prizes go to Dua Lipa for best pop act, US singer-songwriter SZA for international artist and US indie supergroup Boygenius for international group.
Kylie Minogue was honored with the Brit Awards global icon prize.
Minogue also took to the stage, with other artists performing including DJ Calvin Harris, Ellie Goulding, Dua Lipa, Nigerian Afrobeats star Rema and Raye.
Her Brits triumph follows a sometimes difficult path to the top.
Before making it as a solo artist she wrote songs for big names such as Beyonce, Jennifer Lopez and Little Mix.
She had also had success as a guest artist on dance tracks.
But after being signed by record company Polydor, creative disagreements led to a tearful online post in which she accused the label of refusing to release her debut album.
Polydor subsequently released her from her contract and she went on to critical and commercial success as an independent artist.
Her track "Escapism" featuring American rapper 070 Shake took off on TikTok and scored a UK number one hit just over a year ago.
The single, the third from her debut album, also topped singles charts in Denmark and Ireland and entered the top 10 in 20 countries.
The Brit Awards were first held in 1977. The event is run by British Phonographic Industry, a trade association that represents the UK music industry.

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Entertainment

Long-awaited Ubisoft 'Star Wars' Game Hits Shelves

"Outlaws' is Ubisoft's first foray into the Star Wars universe. Ina FASSBENDER / AFP/File
"Outlaws' is Ubisoft's first foray into the Star Wars universe. Ina FASSBENDER / AFP/File
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Long-awaited Ubisoft 'Star Wars' Game Hits Shelves

"Outlaws' is Ubisoft's first foray into the Star Wars universe. Ina FASSBENDER / AFP/File
"Outlaws' is Ubisoft's first foray into the Star Wars universe. Ina FASSBENDER / AFP/File

After more than four years in the making, French video game designer Ubisoft on Friday released its much-anticipated "Star Wars Outlaws", an immersive spinoff from the famed saga.
The group's first foray into the universe created by George Lucas, "Outlaws" is an open-world adventure featuring Kay Vess, a young outlaw who travels the galaxy far away to pull off the heist of the century.
"This project is a childhood dream for many of us," the studio's creative director Julian Gerighty told AFP.
The game crafted by Sweden-based Massive Entertainment allows players to explore cities and space stations in a fictional planet truthful to the sci-fi epic.
While "Outlaws" is not the first Star Wars-themed game, Gerighty says his teams managed to design dense cities and ultra-realistic vessels thanks to the advent of state-of-the-art, powerful consoles.
"We created new planets, new moons, and characters that enter this universe," said Gerighty.
"Outlaws" is the product of a partnership struck with the company LucasFilms, the video game branch of the Disney-owned franchise.
Its creators were granted access to the entertainment giant's "exclusive library with all the details and design documents" of Star Wars -- the key to rendering an authentic atmosphere.
An odyssey without Jedis
Fans however should not expect Jedis -- members of the saga's mystical knightly order. Rather, "Outlaws" brings the galaxy's underworld into the spotlight.
The world features iconic characters and legendary locations, with planet Tatooine, where original hero Luke Skywalker was born, as its setting.
The "incredibly ambitious" project inserts itself between the events of the "Empire Strikes Back" and "Return of the Jedi", said Gerighty.
Some of the adventure's protagonists could appear in other productions, he added, as Disney in recent years has scaled up spinoffs from the franchise.
"Outlaws" will be the first Star Wars game to be developed by a publisher other than Electronic Arts (EA), since an exclusivity contract between the brand and the US firm ended in 2021.
Some gamers who were granted early access reported a few bugs, which the creators have pledged to fix.
'A plethora of adaptations'
EA since 2013 has rolled out a number of titles, from shooting multiplayer "Star Wars Battlefront" to laser sabre combat "Jedi: Fallen Order" and "Jedi Survivor".
"These games have been key successes," said Mat Piscatella, an analyst for the industry-tracking firm Circana, who says Disney terminated its deal with EA to "maximize" revenue from the franchise.
The latest Star Wars video games have all ranked among the top 10 best-sellers in the US, according to Piscatella's figures -- the likely trajectory for "Outlaws".
"There has been a plethora of adaptations" since the late 1970s, said Thibaut Claudel, the author of "Star Wars - Disney and the legacy of George Lucas".
"As an entrepreneur and an artist, George Lucas has always been interested in gaming," which explains the "insane range" of games in the early 2000s, when the second trilogy came out, said Claudel.
"It's a lot of pressure on the creators," he added, pointing out that fans with high standards dissect every fresh release.
Once the "Outlaws" frenzy dies down, connoisseurs will shift their attention to "Star Wars Eclipse", a space epic by French studios Quantic Dream, who have yet to announce a release date.