Latest news with #INNA
Khaleej Times
11 hours ago
- Entertainment
- Khaleej Times
Romanian singer INNA talks UAE fans, Arabic-Afro House, and collaborating on a Nancy Ajram remake
Romanian global pop sensation, INNA, whose high-energy tracks have long ignited dance floors from Ibiza to the Balkans, is now setting her sound on the Middle East. Fresh off the success of her latest collaboration with Sean Paul, Let It Talk To Me, INNA caught up with us on Zoom between concert runs in Austria and Turkey, radiating the same vivacious energy you'd witness from her arena shows and music videos. 'I think I was just born like that,' she laughs, when asked how she sustains such infectious vitality while touring. 'If you saw my mom, you'd understand. The women in my family are all like this — full of energy. The men? Not so much. They're shy.' INNA, whose real name is Elena Alexandra Apostoleanu, gained international recognition with her hit single "Hot" in 2008. Still going strong in 2025, that blend of nature and gratitude fuels her fire. 'My fans give me so much back. When you're living your dream, how can you not be thankful? I can't wait for my next concert — I miss the stage after just a few days off.' But don't let the glam fool you. INNA reveals that she does her own makeup and hair before each performance. 'It's my ritual. It helps me focus, visualise the show, and get into the zone," she says, "Five minutes before I go on, I don't talk to anyone. I'm nervous — still, after 16 years. But once I'm out there, after 30 seconds on the stage, it's like, okay, now I do my job.' Arabic fans are 'Top 3 in the World' INNA's relationship with the Arab world runs deep. 'I always say my Arabic fans are the craziest, in the best way," she says. "They dance, they sing, they wave their flags. There's a real connection between us. It's joy, not just a concert.' She reminisces about past shows in the UAE with warmth, calling the energy 'top three in the world.' However, she hasn't performed here recently in a while. She was part of UNTOLD Dubai's first edition in 2024. There are chances of her returning to this year's edition of the music festival, slated to take place in November. Arabic-Afro House? INNA's music has always evolved with the world around her. Now, it's absorbing the rising pulse of the Middle East's dance scene. A chance encounter at a café in Paris sparked something unexpected. 'There was a DJ playing, and we ended up doing an impromptu session. He started mixing Arabic vocals with Afro-dance beats — and I was like, ' oh my God, this is amazing.'' That spontaneous moment is now turning into an actual collaboration. 'We decided to remake a Nancy Ajram song,' she reveals. 'I won't say which one just yet — it's a surprise. But I'm recording Arabic lyrics for the first time, and it's not easy!' She's relying friends to help with pronunciation and translation. 'I know I'm not perfect, but I'm doing it with love — and that's what matters most.' Sean Paul, R3HAB, and female power in EDM When it comes to collaborations, INNA doesn't just chase big names — she builds real relationships. ' Let It Talk To Me is actually my second track with Sean Paul. The first, Up, we made during the pandemic without ever meeting.' This time was different. 'Sean came to Romania to shoot the video. We finally met properly at a festival in Helsinki, and we even performed the track live together for the first time there. He's one of the kindest, most grounded artists I've worked with.' She credits DJs for shaping her career from the very beginning — including names like R3HAB, Alok, Timmy Trumpet, and Tujamo. 'I've always been supported by the EDM community,' she says. 'And now I think it's time for more female voices to rise.' That empowerment fuels her interest in the region's emerging female talent. 'I'm keeping an eye on some incredible DJs and producers from the Middle East. There's so much power and sensitivity in what women bring to house music. I also feel that more and more female artists are getting acknowleged and supported and I think it's our time to shine.' What's next? Ask INNA where she sees herself in five or ten years, and she laughs: 'I don't even know what's happening tomorrow!' But her answer quickly turns sincere. 'All I know is, I want to keep doing what I love. I still haven't performed in India, and I want to go back to Australia. I have fans around the world I haven't seen yet.' And while she admits to feeling tired sometimes, quitting is never on the table. 'Would you be tired of doing the one thing you always dreamed of?' she asks. 'For me, music runs through my veins. I'm not stopping.' To her, music is about connection, that unique energy, she concludes, "about deep feelings of love and joy, of togetherness."
San Francisco Chronicle
21-06-2025
- Entertainment
- San Francisco Chronicle
It opened. It closed. It opened. Here's what to finally try at this hotly anticipated Wine Country café
Each week, critic MacKenzie Chung Fegan shares some of her favorite recent bites, the dishes and snacks and baked goods that didn't find their way into a full review. Want the list a few days earlier? Sign up for her free newsletter, Bite Curious. After an unexpected permitting hiccup that forced a temporary closure, Under-study in St. Helena is back open. The museum café-bakery-marketplace still doesn't have its seating sorted out, but until then visitors can eat their expertly laminated danishes and sweet and sour pig ears on the adjacent patio at sister restaurant Press. You should definitely get both, and be sure to tack on the heirloom tomato ($14) as well. On the menu, it's described as coming with 'preserved plum, toasted sourdough,' but this is no toast. Expect instead an intensely flavorful sculptural salad with precariously stacked tomato and plum segments, tweezered herbs and lacy sourdough crisps. Under-study. 595 St. Helena Hwy., St. Helena. Dafna Kory, the pectin whisperer behind East Bay company INNA Jam, will be shuttering her company in September after preserving the best of summer's figs, berries and stone fruit. INNA is best known for its jams and chutneys, but I recently took home a bottle of its Albion strawberry shrub ($16.95), a vibrant drinking vinegar that can be mixed with seltzer (and the spirit of your choice, if you're inclined). I'll be stocking up on a few more bottles while I still can. You can find INNA products at various local retailers including Bi-Rite Markets and Epicurean Trader locations and, of course, online. Respect the palate cleanser! Whether it's bites of pickled ginger at a sushi counter or sips of Pink Champ, a tart soda specifically developed to reset your taste buds between licks of ice cream, professional eaters need moments of brightness and pause. My favorite course at San Francisco's two-Michelin-star Birdsong was a palate cleanser (part of a $325 tasting menu), but also so much more. Its melange of fresh flavors (ginger, chamomile, lemon) and textures (shaved ice, marmalade, tapioca, sorbet), together with the zing of Meyer lemon zested tableside, slapped me in the face like Cher in 'Moonstruck,' prepping me for the final dessert courses ahead.
Yahoo
20-03-2025
- Science
- Yahoo
Dark skies above world's best astronomy sites could be ruined by new energy project
When you buy through links on our articles, Future and its syndication partners may earn a commission. A green energy plant expected to be built in Chile's Atacama Desert could increase night-time sky brightness at one of the world's most valuable astronomical locations by up to 35%, a new study has revealed. Such an increase would seriously affect the scientific observations conducted by some of the world's largest and most expensive telescopes, hampering scientific progress in our understanding of the most intriguing phenomena in the universe. The astronomical site in peril is Mount Paranal, where the European Southern Observatory's (ESO) Very Large Telescope (VLT) is located. A 7,400-acre (3,000-hectare) green hydrogen production facility, dubbed INNA, has been proposed by U.S. company AES Energy, which submitted an environmental impact assessment to the Chilean Environmental Impact Agency in late December. While an AES Energy spokesperson previously told earlier that the project will cause a "maximum increase over the natural sky brightness" over Paranal by a negligible 0.27%, ESO's experts foresee a much more significant impact. A new study released by ESO on Monday (March 17) calculates that the night sky above VLT could brighten up by up to 35%, as the telescope is located less than 7 miles (11 kilometers) from the prospective INNA site. That's a staggering increase that would seriously hamper the telescope's ability to view exoplanets, study the most distant galaxies and detect approaching asteroids. "The light-pollution figures we are reporting assume that the project will install the most modern available luminaries in a way that minimizes light pollution," Andreas Kaufer, ESO's Director of Operations and the lead author of the study, said in a statement accompanying ESO's new study. "However, we are concerned that the inventory of light sources planned by AES is not complete and fit for purpose. In that case, our already alarming results would underestimate the potential impact of the INNA project on the Paranal sky brightness." VLT, an interferometer consisting of four 28-foot-wide (8.5 m) telescopes that work together as one, is one of the world's most powerful astronomical instruments. It captured the first ever image of an exoplanet and tracked stars near the black hole at the center of the Milky Way galaxy, among other accomplishments. The telescope, apart from its size, benefits from the exceptionally dark sky above Mount Paranal, which is the least light-polluted among all major astronomical locations in the western world. The construction of INNA would seriously reduce VLT's scientific reach. "We build the largest and most powerful telescopes, in the best place on Earth for astronomy, to enable astronomers worldwide to see what no one has ever seen before," Itziar de Gregorio-Monsalvo, ESO's Representative in Chile, said in the statement. "Light pollution from projects like INNA doesn't just hinder research, it steals our shared view of the universe." It's not just the VLT that will suffer. The Cherenkov Telescope Array Observatory, currently being built at Paranal, will suffer a 50% light pollution increase due to INNA, as it is located barely 3 miles (5 km) from the planned hydrogen plant. The project will also affect the Extremely Large Telescope (ELT), a visible light mega-telescope with a nearly 125-foot-wide (38 m) mirror, which will be the largest in the world once completed toward the end of this decade. The ESO study estimates that the sky above the ELT could brighten up by 5%, which is enough to affect the demanding observations it is being built to perform. ESO conducted the study in cooperation with Canadian light pollution expert Martin Aubé using cutting-edge light pollution models. The team used publicly available data from the INNA environmental impact assessment submitted by AES. The company estimates that the complex will require over 1,000 artificial lights. AES spokesperson told earlier that the project will comply with "the highest standards in lighting in its design" as required by regulations laid down by Chile's Ministry of the Environment to prevent light pollution, and protect the astronomical quality of the night skies, the health of people, and biodiversity. Aside from light pollution, there are other impacts the observatories can expect to experience. The ESO study also found that wind turbines at INNA will stir the thin and quiet atmosphere above the Atacama Desert. The resulting turbulence in the air will further affect astronomical observations, causing a twinkling effect in distant deep space objects as seen from Earth. ESO estimates that observing conditions might worsen by up to 40% because of the turbines. RELATED STORIES: — World's largest telescope threatened by light pollution from renewable energy project — The Milky Way's heart shines over construction site of world's largest telescope — The loss of dark skies is so painful, astronomers coined a new term for it "Taken together, these disturbances seriously threaten the current and long-term viability of Paranal as a world-leader in astronomy, causing the loss of key discoveries about the universe and compromising Chile's strategic advantage in this area," says de Gregorio-Monsalvo, ESO's representative in Chile. "The only way to save Paranal's pristine skies and protect astronomy for future generations is to relocate the INNA complex." ESO will submit the report to the Chilean authorities as part of the Citizen Participation Process in response to the INNNA environmental assessment. Light pollution is a major problem affecting astronomical observatories all over the world. The Paranal site is one of the few remaining in the world where light pollution so far remains negligible. The pristine night sky combined with the dryness of the Atacama air provide the best conditions for astronomical study in the whole world.
