Jennie Walker

By Erin Steele
Killeen Daily Herald

From the time she was a child, Jennie Walker always felt that music was a connection to something larger than herself.

She would listen to the songs of Karen Carpenter, Barbra Streisand and Carole King and sense that something special rose from the lyrics. That idea of embracing the unique to reach a greater good led her to explore what eventually became her two primary loves: music and fundraising.

“Music has always been a part of my life,” Walker said. “It was the passion and emotion in those songs I heard as a child.”

Walker was born on Fort Hood and attended Belton Junior High School before moving to Georgia as a teenager. Her father, retired Col. Homer Lee Walker, and sister Becky Lee Hilliard still live in Belton.

Walker currently lives in New York City, where she operates a fundraising consultancy specializing in entertainment-related charities.

In addition, she is recording her first album with Grammy-nominated producer Tommy Faragher, which is expected to be released in 2006.

“It’s an amazing process, working with a professional producer — someone who is seasoned, who I can connect with and has been able to figure out what to do with my voice,” Walker said. “In order to be commercially successful, you have to have someone who understands what you’re trying to do.”

The singer said she is busy right now booking live shows in New York City, which will serve as benefit concerts for World Hunger Year this fall. World Hunger Year was founded by artist/advocate Harry Chapin in 1975 and is Walker’s main fundraising client.

Walker said that like Chapin, she considers herself both an artist and advocate. She has worked for such organizations as the Synergos Institute — founded by David Rockefeller’s daughter Peggy Dulany — and the Carter Center in Atlanta, founded by former President Jimmy Carter.

“I would say that my life really changed in 1990, the year I started working for Jimmy Carter. On a really deep level, I understood what giving back is all about,” Walker said. “It was a real blessing to be able to work for him. The message really came through that there are issues in this world so much bigger than ourselves. It was a permanent internal change.”

Her work has afforded Walker the opportunity to meet major world figures such as Archbishop Desmond Tutu, Mexican President Vicente Fox, David Rockefeller and Nelson Mandela.

“Meeting Nelson Mandela was awesome, humbling; it was a very special moment,” Walker said. “I had to keep pinching myself. He’s a spiritual leader in so many ways and to be able to meet someone like that — it’s a privilege. I don’t take it lightly.”

On a tour of South Africa in conjunction with the Global Philanthropists Cir-cle, Walker was asked to sing for a group of people that included Mandela’s wife, Gracia Machel, on the beaches of Mozambique.

“It was an honor, Walker said.

“The music is actually such a connecting force. We went to see some villagers while we were there, to study their community.”

A group of women greeted us with song. I was asked to sing one of my original songs acapella in English, and I was stunned by their response. They didn’t understand what I was saying, but by the second verse, they started chanting in appreciation.

“It was stunning to me. They recognized that I was trying to communicate with them the way they were communicating with me,” she said.

“It’s proof that music connects everyone. In a world where we have war and all kinds of disagreements, every culture can turn to music.”

Walker said that, ultimately, her fundraising work has helped her become a better musician.

“I think this kind of work helps me tune into myself, the issues within me. It gives me things to think about on a larger scale,” Walker said.

“You have your internal world you live in, but the external world puts it in perspective.

“The type of work I’ve been doing has given me the courage to look within my-self, to say what I’m thinking and feeling.

“As a musician, you have to reveal yourself and be vulnerable.”

For more information on Jennie Walker, visit:
>> www.jenniewalker.com (music) and
>> www.jwalkerinc.com (fundraising).


Contact Erin Steele at esteele@kdhnews.com


- Killeen Daily Herald (Texas)

"NY-based Jennie Walker, with producer Tommy Faragher, has mounted a CD that maintains a consistently smooth, adult groove throughout. The poignant "Your Father Your Mother" is set to a cello and funky wah guitar, which combine surprisingly well. The formula continues on "Subway Glass," which allows Walker to display the soulfulness in her voice. The ballad "Simon," conversely, eschews the funk for an orchestral approach that sounds perfect for musical theatre." - Music Connection Magazine

Clinton Dispatch from TIME’s Jay Newton-SmallFrom Baruch College Tuesday in Manhattan:

She entered to “Ain’t No Mountain High Enough” by Marvin Gaye and exited to Tina Turner’s “Simply the Best.”

She was introduced by Terry McAuliffe and entered the stage with Bill and Chelsea, who stood to her right during the speech looking proud and Bill looking very red. Hard to tell from my distance if he was crying by he cupped his face several times.

Perhaps appropriately, Hillary’s speech was held in a school gymnasium that resembled a bunker - so far underground no one got cell service. The setting was sparse for Clinton - no television screens showing returns and a cash bar for supporters. The room was coated in blue - blue tarp to protect the wooden floor, blue “Hillary for president” signs and the omnipresent Secret Service blue curtains to shade the comings and goings of VIPs. While waiting the crowd chanted “I believe in Hillary,” and, ironically, took a page from Obama’s book, “Yes, We Can.”

Also, while waiting for Hillary they listened to the musical stylings of AC/DC, John Cougar Mellencamp, and Bush’s 2004 Brooks & Dunn theme “Only in America” both before and after. (Bush seemed a theme of the night with Hillary invoking “stay the course” to describe her candidacy.)

The audience of 2,000 (with an additional 800 in an overflow room) was filled with old friends and employees. “We wanted to bring our daughters to see Hillary,” said Peter Kauffmann, a former spokesman from Clinton’s 2000 Senate run, bouncing eight-month old Sophie in his arms. “It’s almost generational, all these people with Hillary Clinton, they have been with her for a long time since the Senate or before, since the White House. It’s a lot of old friends.”

###

Jennie Walker, 45, a singer/songwriter from New York was so inspired by Clinton that she wrote her a ballad that she also made into a video on her latest album. “It’s hard to say who I’ll vote for in November, it will depend on who they both pick as running mates,” Walker said. “I hope Obama picks her. Then I’ll definitely vote for him.”

###

Lynn Forester de Rothschild, a Clinton fundraiser, said she would likely not vote for Obama unless he picks Clinton as his vice president. “He has an enormous amount of work to do with women,” said de Rothschild, the wife of Sir Evelyn de Rothschild - the couple honeymooned at the White House after their 2000 wedding. “He needs to go to her hat in hand and give her the choice, let it be her call. I believe if she’s on the ticket it repairs a lot of the damage. I believe if she’s not on the ticket, Democrats will lose in November.”

“He’ll lose women, he’ll lose Hispanics, he’ll lose seniors and he’ll lose that working community and Hillary understands that and she’s known that her entire life and they relate to her and if she’s not there, I don’t think they’re going to relate to Barack Obama,” de Rothschild said.

###

“Something isn’t working or hasn’t been working” with Obama and Latino voters, said Congresswoman Nydia Velasquez. “So I think she would be able to help him in that regard.”

When asked about the chances of an Obama/Clinton ticket, though, Velasquez demurred. “Oh, I don’t know, we have to move forward looking at November,” she said. “It’s a decision, an evaluation that he needs to make. But, look she’s a very smart lady with a lot of appeal to great sections of the population and she would be willing to work in order to help us win the White House.

Obama has a problem with Latinos. “The problem that we have is McCain being the Republican presidential candidate. He has a lot of appeal with the Latino community and we cannot underestimate that.”

###

Al Wilson, an activist from Queens, has been volunteering for Clinton at her 42nd street Grand Central offices for nearly a year. He said much of his office was in the audience tonight. “I liked the fact that she would’ve been the first woman,” Wilson said. “But I’ll vote for Obama if he’s the nominee.”

###

Todd Schechter, 27, a social entrepreneur from New York wasn’t so sure. “Regardless of who ends of winning this election, I’m not going to be devastated and really, this is the first election I’ve felt that way,” said Schechter, who said he likes both Obama and McCain, though “I’ll probably vote for the Democratic nominee.”



- TIME MAGAZINE

The last time a member of the Clinton family gave a concession speech, it was 1980. The world had not yet heard the name Indiana Jones. Barack Obama was a teenager. Rookie Arkansas governor Bill Clinton, defeated for reelection, choked out the words as his wife stood grimly by.

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It doesn't come naturally, in other words. So anyone looking to Hillary Clinton for a comfortable acknowledgment of defeat was hunting for teacups at the hardware store.

She's staying in—at least long enough to find out how many supporters will visit her website, e-mail encouragement, and click to help retire her massive campaign debt at www.hillaryclinton.com.


It was quite a speech. Obama's narrow but apparently decisive lead at the end of the primary season is merely a figment of the "pundits and naysayers," Sen. Clinton told a rally in her adoptive home of New York City. Jeers reverberated. In truth, she assured them, she won. "Nearly 18 million of you cast your votes for our campaign, carrying the popular vote with more votes than any primary candidate in history," Clinton declared. The swing states that will determine the general election belong to her. It's a debatable point—but not, ultimately, germane, because the nomination is about delegates, and Clinton made the strategic decision to give up a lot of caucus-state delegates without much of a fight. Say nay or say yea—the fact is, Obama buried her in the places she neglected to contest seriously.

But the crowd had come to the rally at the Baruch College gymnasium in lower Manhattan to hear a victory story, not a valediction. They loved her as she strode in to the strains of "Ain't No Mountain High Enough," and loved her as she departed to Tina Turner's "Simply the Best." Her speech was a roller-coaster ride and they hung on every minute.

Again and again, they grumbled as Clinton appeared to reach a classic throw-in-the-towel moment. She called on her fans to "take a moment tonight to recognize [Obama] and his supporters for all they have accomplished"—uh-oh. But then she pivoted to avoid saying exactly what they had pulled off. Later she said: "In the end, while this primary was long, I am so proud that we stayed the course together," and it sounded like setting up a farewell.

But it was not to be.

The greatest cliffhanger — a big intake of breath before the loop-the-loop—was her line: "Where do we go from here?" Surrender? Never! She sent "the 18 million people who voted for me" to her website, where they could offer advice and much-needed money. While they click vigorously, she will be consulting with "party leaders" to learn what they think she should do—this, Clinton said, on a day when one of her staunch supporters, Sen. Dianne Feinstein of California, declared the race over and uncommitted super delegates scrambled to endorse Obama.

Inside the room, people were invigorated, chanting "Denver! Denver!" as if spoiling for a floor fight at the Democratic convention in Colorado. But they were also realistic. As thrilling as it was to hear Clinton say once more that only she has the heft in swing states to beat Republican John McCain, Topic A was the vice-presidency.

"Something isn't working or hasn't been working" with Obama and Latino voters, said Rep. Nydia Velasquez of New York. "So I think she would be able to help him in that regard." Songwriter Jennie Walker hit the same note: "I hope Obama picks her. Then I'll definitely vote for him."

But it was Lynn Forester de Rothschild, wife of Sir Evelyn de Rothschild and a fund raiser for Clinton, who best echoed the candidate's audacity of nope. "He needs to go to her hat in hand," she said of Obama and Clinton—where the guy who won is the guy with the hat. "He'll lose women, he'll lose Hispanics, he'll lose seniors and he'll lose that working community," she continued. "If Hillary's not there, I don't think they're going to relate to Barack Obama."

At one point in her speech, Clinton recalled all the times she has been written off in this campaign only to pull herself back into it. The first time was in New Hampshire. She spoke there of "finding my voice."

And it's true, her campaign has been a search for the right voice. She tried the voice of experience, the voice ready on Day One, the 3 a.m. voice, the voice of the workhorse (not the show horse), the voice of the fighter.

That turned out to be the one. Once she hit on that authentic theme, she began doing very, very well. History will note that Barack Obama won the nomination in February and spent the next four months trying not to let her take it back.

You can say she finished in second place. Numbers can say that. Party leaders can say that. Rules and delegates and pundits can say that. But after her speech—the concession that wasn't—it was Obama's voice on her voicemail at 11:06 p.m. Eastern time, congratulating her, not the other way around, and asking her to call him back.

- TIME MAGAZINE

Clinton's backers can't believe candidacy may come to end
Senator Hillary Clinton, with her daughter, Chelsea, and husband, Bill, arrived to an enthusiastic crowd of supporters last night at Baruch College in New York City. (Lucas Jackson/reuters)
Email|Print|Single Page| Text size – + By Susan Milligan
Globe Staff / June 4, 2008
NEW YORK - Facing the likely end of Hillary Clinton's historic quest for the presidency, devoted supporters wrestled last night with all the stages of grief.

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There was the shock of having lost the majority of delegates to Senator Barack Obama of Illinois, a freshman lawmaker who many of Clinton's backers never imagined would be a threat. Some were still in denial, insisting Clinton could convince superdelegates - who jumped to Obama in droves yesterday - to reconsider.

Hopeful Clinton fans bargained: Maybe if Obama makes Clinton the pick for his running mate, female voters would support the ticket, delivering a win to the Democrats in the fall. A few accepted the all but certain conclusion that Obama had secured the delegates to win the nomination, and said the party would find a way to come together as one force against presumptive GOP nominee John McCain.

But mostly there was anger, as the mainly female supporters blamed the media, sexism, Obama - everything but the New York senator - as they bemoaned the failure of the most successful presidential female candidate in history to clinch the nomination.

"I feel very upset. I really feel that Hillary Clinton has been pushed out of the race. I don't think the media would push out a male candidate," said Sally Regenhard, who described her age as baby boomer.

Lynn Forester DuRothschild, 54, and sporting several Hillary Clinton buttons, said women would not simply accept Obama as their candidate - and might vote for Senator McCain of Arizona. "There is one man who's going to claim the presidency and get women [to vote for him], but it's not going to be Barack Obama," she said.

A few said they would never vote for Obama - even if Clinton asked them to. Others - mainly experienced politicians - expressed sadness at Clinton's loss, but maintained that the party would come together to beat McCain in the fall. "She will do anything to help us win in 2008," Representative Sheila Jackson-Lee, a Texas Democrat, said of Clinton last night.

Clinton's backers were buoyed by the New York senator's unexpected win in the South Dakota primary, although the win came too late to deny Obama the majority of delegates he secured last night. A scream rose from the crowd at Baruch College in Manhattan as news arrived that Clinton had won South Dakota, and excited supporters shouted chants of defiance.

"Hill-a-ry! The Nominee!" the crowd yelled. "I believe in Hillary!" As Clinton spoke, they yelled "Denver! Denver!" - indicating they wanted her to fight for the nomination until the very end.

And Clinton, too, sounded more like a winner last night than a candidate whose campaign was almost certainly coming to an end. She spoke passionately about the people she had met during her long candidacy and the policy goals she hoped to achieve to help them.

"This has always been your campaign," Clinton said to her supporters, drawing a huge cheer when she said she would consider her options before deciding how to proceed. Whatever her decision, it will be made "with the best interests of our party and our country" at heart.

Even as Obama was racking up the superdelegates he needed to clinch the nomination, some of her backers said they still believed she could pull off a win by staying in the race and hoping to woo the party in her direction.

"Anything could happen. It still leaves us hoping for a miracle," said Jennie Walker, 45, who wrote a song, "It's Our Time," for Clinton. "It still leaves us very hopeful, maybe in denial," she said.

- Boston Globe

Acculée à la défaite, elle s'est logiquement gardée de toute réaction précipitée. Le temps de négocier avec Barack Obama la suite de sa carrière politique ?
Correspondante à new york
Au dernier jour des Primaires, mardi, Hillary Clinton était au téléphone avec Lanny Davis, ancien conseiller spécial du président Bill Clinton. Celui-ci raconte leur entretien. "Tu n'as pas l'air en forme", s'enquiert la candidate. "Eh bien, honnêtement, ce n'est pas la forme en effet. Et toi ?", répond son interlocuteur, inquiet, alors que tout indique une victoire de Barack Obama le soir même. "Moi ? Je vais bien. Regarde tout ce que nous avons accompli".

Retranchée avec Bill Clinton dans leur maison de Chappaqua, à New York, l'ex-Première Dame, reconnaissant qu'elle ne pourrait pas refaire son retard sur le sénateur de l'Illinois, avait réuni plusieurs de ses plus loyaux partisans au sein du Congrès pour une conférence téléphonique mardi après-midi. Stéphanie Tubbs-Jones, représentante démocrate de l'Ohio, en faisait partie.

"Ce jour marque la fin des primaires, mais pas la fin du processus électoral", faisait remarquer celle-ci mardi soir, quelques minutes avant le discours d'Hillary Clinton à New York. Le mot d'ordre de la soirée dans le cercle Clinton ? "Pas d'empressement". "Après la dure campagne qu'elle vient de mener, Hillary a bien le droit de marquer une pause, de souffler et de prendre le temps de considérer ses options, la vice-présidence ou autre chose", poursuit l'élue de l'Ohio.

Le suspense, Hillary Clinton le ménage pour quelques jours encore. Devant des supporters qui n'étaient pas venus en masse, elle n'a pas concédé la défaite, même si son rival Barack Obama a dépassé la barre fatidique des 2118 délégués pour remporter la nomination du Parti.

Ultime victoire au Dakota

Accompagnée de Bill et de leur fille Chelsea, la sénatrice de New York a pris la parole le sourire aux lèvres, alors que le Dakota du Sud lui donnait, en bout de course, une nouvelle et dernière victoire (56 pc contre 44 pc). Ses premiers mots sont allés à Barack Obama : "Cela a été un honneur de disputer ces primaires avec lui et c'est un honneur de pouvoir l'appeler mon ami".

Pour autant, la candidate ne lui a pas fait le plaisir d'abandonner la course. "Je comprends que beaucoup de gens se demandent : que veut Hillary ?", a-t-elle lancé à ses supporters, pendus à ses lèvres. "Eh bien, je veux ce pourquoi je me suis toujours battue dans cette campagne. Je veux la fin de la guerre en Irak, je veux que l'économie redémarre, je veux une assurance santé pour tous les Américains", a-t-elle dit. "Maintenant, la question est : où allons-nous à partir d'ici ? [...] C'est une question que je ne prends pas à la légère. Cette campagne a été longue, et je ne prendrai aucune décision ce soir".

Combative, elle a assuré qu'elle voulait "que les quelque 18 millions d'Américains qui ont voté pour [elle] soient respectés, entendus et qu'ils ne comptent pas pour rien". Tout porte à croire qu'Hillary Clinton essaie désormais de négocier un compromis avec Barack Obama. "Je m'engage à unir le Parti pour que nous soyons plus forts que jamais pour reprendre la Maison-Blanche en novembre", a-t-elle promis.

Candidate vice-présidente ?

Dès mardi après-midi, le bruit avait circulé que la sénatrice serait prête à accepter le poste de vice-présidente, s'il lui était proposé. "J'y suis ouverte, si cela renforce les chances du Parti en novembre", aurait répondu Hillary Clinton interrogée sur l'hypothèse d'un ticket "Obama-Clinton". Le sénateur de l'Illinois l'envisagerait-il ? "S'il n'y pense pas, alors, je ne sais pas où il a la tête. Hillary est la championne de la classe moyenne", répond Mark Aronchick, président de la campagne d'Hillary en Pennsylvanie.

Mme Clinton n'aurait-elle donc pas dit son dernier mot ? "Pour moi, elle a déjà gagné sur beaucoup d'aspects. Et ce n'est pas la dernière fois qu'on entend parler d'elle", explique Jennie Walker, auteur de "C'est notre moment", une chanson inspirée par Hillary Clinton. "C'est notre moment" se trouve aussi être une phrase du discours de victoire d'Obama... Faut-il y voir un signe ?

- La Libre (Paris, France)

Two hecklers interrupted Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton's January campaign event in a high school auditorium in Salem, N.H., demanding, "Iron my shirt! Iron my shirt!"
Clinton paused as police escorted them outside. "Oh, the remnants of sexism - alive and well," she said, adding, to applause, that she was hoping to "break through the highest and hardest glass ceiling."

Six months later, Clinton's failure to crack that barrier is prompting an assessment beyond the usual dissection of a campaign's tactical and strategic mistakes: What role did her gender play, and what does it mean for the future?

The consensus among pollsters, strategists and scholars is that Clinton's experience will make it easier for the next woman to run for president. After all, Clinton raised about $200 million, got 18 million votes, and won the votes of droves of white working-class men never expected to be part of her base.

"For most voters, a woman president is no longer a hypothetical," said Ellen Moran, executive director of Emily's List, a group that works to elect Democratic women. "Now, we can see it. She answered the question of whether a woman can hold her own in a venue that has been male-dominated since the birth of the nation."

First, though, Sen. Barack Obama will need to win over angry female Clinton supporters who have vowed not to vote for the presumptive Democratic nominee.

What Clinton called the "remnants of sexism" was pretty virulent. Consider the obscene T-shirts, some news-media fixation on her pantsuits and appearance, and some male commentators on cable TV who mocked her voice as shrill or joked about emasculation.

More than that, though, some Clinton supporters saw discrimination in repeated calls from party leaders and pundits for her to withdraw, even though she was winning the later primaries. Male candidates in the past faced the same pressure, but it seemed disrespectful to many.

"Women who have been the backbone of the Democratic Party feel our party has betrayed us - this was our time," said Cynthia Ruccia, 55, a Mary Kay cosmetics dealer from Columbus, Ohio, who formed Clinton Supporters Count Too, a protest group. "This campaign brought out some very ugly fissures."

She said she would vote for McCain. "Let's see them try to win without us," Ruccia said.

Jennie Walker, 45, went to Clinton's rally in New York City on Tuesday, the night Obama clinched. "I admire her for sticking it out," said Walker, who said she would consider voting for the Republican. The last days of the primaries were "absurd," she said. "No man would have been asked to quit. It's so gender-biased."

Still, exit polls suggest that gender was a net positive for Clinton, forming a strong base that enabled her to get as far as she did because of rock-solid support from middle-age white women, many of whom entered the workforce in the 1960s and 1970s and identified strongly with her struggle for advancement.

White women preferred Clinton to Obama by an average of 24 percentage points in this year's Democratic contests, according to exit polls. She even carried this group in 70 percent of the primaries Obama won.

A Pew Research Center poll last month found a 13-point drop in Obama's favorability rating among white women, with 43 percent expressing a positive opinion of him, down from 56 percent in late February. The change occurred as it became clear Clinton could not win the nomination, reflecting what the center termed a "negative reaction" from frustrated backers.

In a nod to the challenge, Obama lavished praise on Clinton last week for breaking barriers, a contrast to some instances in the campaign when he seemed more dismissive, such as in an early debate when Obama said, "You're likeable enough, Hillary." After a celebratory rally, Obama met with a small group of die-hard Clinton supporters; more such outreach sessions are planned.

He said he had told the group he appreciated "that they were as inspired by her candidacy as some of my supporters are inspired by mine. They're not alone in drawing inspiration from her campaign. My own daughters now take the possibility of a woman being president for granted."

Without a template to follow, Clinton successfully navigated the "double bind" that women face as political candidates, according to Debbie Walsh, director of the Center for American Women and Politics at Rutgers University: how to project toughness without being dismissed as too strident.

"We saw her blaze a trail . . . that women can be strong and knowledgable and have the tenacity to be commander in chief, while still talking about issues of families and children," Walsh said.

Marie Wilson, president of the nonpartisan White House Project, which trains women to enter politics, said many participants in the group's recent seminars had cited Clinton as an inspiration.

"She opened the door," Wilson said.

Moved by Clinton's example, Gretchen Fontichiaro attended a "Go Run" training session last weekend in Lansing, Mich. She wants to run for her school board or the Michigan House of Representatives.

"The fact that she got as far as she did was amazing," said Fontichiaro, 44, who lost a school-board bid last year in Spring Lake, Mich. "I realized . . . it's never too late to see what I can do. . . . Too many women think, 'I'm just a housewife,' or, 'I'm just an administrative assistant,' and they can't make a difference. That's not true at all."

- Philadelphia Inquirer

A Chinese pop star’s ambition to be the world’s first musician to sell one billion downloads is the reason behind an unlikely collaboration between a pop star’s dreams and a nascent dotcom company’s ambition. Dubbed China’s Whitney Houston, Wei Wei aims to set a world record by selling more than one billion downloads to mobiles from her http://weiwei.mobi site, designed by an Irish based Internet firm, by the end of 2008.


Beautiful and well connected ( reportedly on first name terms with several of China’s politburo), label-less Wei Wei released her latest album, Wei Wei 20 X 20 Celebration Collection (marking her 20 years in showbiz), exclusively on her website, designed specially to be mobile-phone friendly.


The 34 year old singer's decision to shun traditional CDs and download stores like iTunes (an album later available at itunes) for her latest release was clinched when she was chosen to sing at the opening ceremony of next summer’s Olympic Games in Beijing. “This will be one of the world's biggest-ever media events. Accessing the Internet from mobile phones is the future of the Internet and allows me to reach my older fans and also the younger generation that uses mobile phones much more than PCs to access the Internet,” said Wei Wei in an email.


Designed by Dublin-based dotcom firm dotMobi, the .mobi domain makes websites that are more suited to mobile phone-using music fans, says Vance Hedderel, director of communications at mTLD Top Level Domain Limited, dotMobi’s parent company. “Sites built using the .mobi domain can be accessed from most Internet-enabled mobile phones, no matter which operator the user is subscribed to.


“That means an artist like Wei Wei can ensure her material is available to the widest possible global audience without restrictions. End users don't have to be tied to an operator's portal to get the music they want -- assuming that the music they want is available on an operator's portal -- and they can be sure that the money is going directly to the artist, who can use those profits to make more material available.”


Press material surrounding the Wei Wei release describing Wei Wei as “China's biggest music star” will surely be refuted by more recent arrivistes like Shang Wenjie, winner of last year’s hugely popular Supergirl reality TV pop show. Yet Wei Wei’s prices are premium: songs like the Red Flower and Welcome to Beijing cost US$4 per download. Mobile phone ring tones adapted from tunes like See You 2008 cost US$3. Songs on itunes typically cost US$0.99 to download.


“Yes, they’re expensive,” conceded Wei Wei manager Bjorn Bertoft. “But Wei Wei is a hugely popular star.” Having shot to public prominence after winning the Young Singers contest on national TV in 1986, Wei Wei has been China’s favorite face at large sporting events; she sang at the opening of 1991 Asian Games in Beijing and performed a duet with famously randy Spanish pop star Julio Iglesias at the East Asian Games in Shanghai two years later. In her 20-year career, Hohot-born Wei Wei has sold more than 200 million tapes and CDs and has recorded hundreds of songs, both in English and Mandarin.


Famous for her interpretations of Chinese songs like Telling to the Spring and Sparkling Sky (she also covered Andrew Lloyd Webber’s Love Changes Everything), Wei Wei has ambitions beyond China. The woman who claims Swedish group ABBA was her inspiration to learn English, moved to Stockholm in 1999 to begin an assault on the English language market. At the time, Wei Wei described the move as a way “to capitalize on the growing global influence of Chinese popular culture.”


Wei Wei flies to Beijing at least once a month for concert and TV appearances but records in Sweden. Her 20X20 album was polished by fabled production team Johan Åberg and Robban Habolin, writers/producers for Cher and Christina Aguilera. The Inner Mongolian native spent an hour signing autographs at the dotMobi booth during the international telecommunications conference and 3GSM World Congress in Barcelona in February. Wei Wei and three sons from her estranged marriage to a Swedish-American have been based in Stockholm since 1999.


Selling direct-to-consumer downloads rather than CDs helps curb music piracy, says Wei Wei. “This is a major problem in my home country… This is an important shift in music history. In China, the market for CDs was over a long time ago. I am going to concentrate solely on digital technology,” says Wei Wei.


Her other claim is even more intriguing. “It's also an environmentally friendly way of distributing my music.” So no more plastic CDs then? Certainly, the global music industry has been struggling to adjust to a post-CD world. Large music companies at first tried to suppress online music sharing sites like Napster before eventually selling content on licensed, online traders like iTunes and Realplayer.


dotMobi is the informal name for mTLD Top Level Domain, Ltd, a joint venture company based in Dublin, Ireland with offices in Washington, DC and Beijing. Sites and Internet services operating around .mobi are optimized for use by mobile devices. The company hopes to create critical mass by tapping into China’s 400-million strong mobile user base -- largest in the world. The standard has the backing of leading mobile operators and network equipment makers as well as Internet content providers, including Ericsson, Microsoft, Nokia and Samsung.


Working with Wei Wei opens doors in China, one of dotMobi's five largest markets. In early 2008, the company’s Beijing office plans to unveil a content directory that will make finding mobile content that works on mobile phones easier; also a device database that will make developing mobile applications both easier and less expensive.


Other musicians are following Wei Wei’s lead. Independent artists Tila Tequila and Jennie Walker have recently also built .mobi sites. “Having weiwei.mobi has been a very good demonstration of what is possible,” says Hedderel.


Wei Wei and FC Barcelona soccer heroes Messi, Deco, Márquez and Puyol give a gentlemen's salute to female soccer players with "Go-Girl-Go (Fly With Me)", a theme song and a music video for the Women’s World Cup which China hosted in September.

“Wei Wei is a national icon in China, familiar to more than a billion people,” claimed an early dotMobi press release. Hardly. But familiar enough to enough people to carry the company into the Chinese market.


(Read Mark Godfrey’s blog Beijing Beat on Ireland’s premier music website www.cluas.com.)

- China Today

By: Nicholas D. Kristof
April 5, 2008

My Sunday column is on the impact in this election cycle of our unconscious minds, particularly toward race and gender. I would strongly encourage you to take some tests that measure your own attitudes. Joshua Correll at University of Chicago has created an on-line test called “the police officer’s dilemma,” in which you encounter 100 pictures of black and white men, some armed and some unarmed. The idea is to shoot those who are armed and holster your gun when you see someone unarmed — and the program measures how fast you do these things. Try it — if you’re like most whites and many blacks, you’re quicker to shoot blacks than whites.
Also try the “implicit attitude tests” on-line at Project Implicit at Harvard. They measure unconscious attitudes on race, age, gender religion and other issues.
I didn’t have space in my column to mention it, but age is an area where Americans routinely have an unconscious aversion to older people, thinking youth is better. It’s not quite clear how that translates into politics, but it does mean that each of the three presidential contenders at this point faces some unconscious bias in many Americans.
I welcome your thoughts about these issues and how they will play out in 2008. Please post below.

49.April 6th,
2008
8:13 am As someone who spent a decade working on racism (my own included) among white liberals, I’m not sure I buy the proposition that sexism trumps racism. I do agree, though, that the unconscious plays a huge role in our political actions.

Based on her role in promoting the war in Iraq, I do not support Senator Clinton, but I’m appalled by the crude sexism of many of her opponents. Jennie Walker, a Clinton supporter who wrote a song for Hillary, reports that it has been parodied on YouTube. After watching a few frames, I’m sure you’ll agree its beyond cruel. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9UY9ihC97KE

We have to find a way to focus our politics more on the actions of the candidates than our perceptions of gender and race, and that must extend to white men as well. My guess is that if we did that, we’d be less likely to become disillusioned with the people we elect.

— Posted by womanuptown
- New York Times

As the daughter of an army officer and an opera singer, it may come as no surprise that Jennie Walker’s debut is a mix of regimented rhythms and free-flowing flights of fancy. The New York resident has an impressive resumé, having performed for the Rockefeller family and Graça Machel (AKA Mrs Nelson Mandela) and the 12 tracks of stylish soul searching here are clearly crafted by experienced hands. But, if you really want to look classy, get a string quartet in. And, while these songs range from sparse balladry to sloping grooves, it’s the presence of sharp, sculpted strings throughout that help put the album through finishing school. Like silver service dining for the ears.

It’s a sound that complements Jennie’s passionate, but polished, vocal. With hints of Suzanne Vega, Tori Amos and Kristin Hersh, she effortlessly slips her tonsils around a selection of moods. For example, “Simon” is new twist on Coldplay territory – a muscular ballad brimming with romance. On the other hand, “Your Father Your Mother” is a low-slung, hot afternoon groove; while “Black Hat” paints an edgier, seedier picture, where “in the back seat, we were one.” Just watch what you get on that upholstery.
“Rise Above The Pain” isn’t nearly as miserable as it sounds, being all quirky and grandiose in the finest ELO tradition. Things loosen up further as the tick-tocking rhythm of “The Subway Glass” gives it an almost R ‘n’ B feel; and “Night Flight To London” freebases lush strings with a busy bass to come across as more than a little dancey. On a more traditional note, there’s a whiff of Beatleness to the “Eleonor Rigby” neurotics of “Did You Notice Me?” and the “Dear Prudence” stirrings of “I Want To Show The World.” But for a true crowd-swayer, check out the high octane anthemics of “Hero In My Eyes.” Made to make real men cry.
The album’s mothership, though, has to be “It’s Our Time.” Like a post-millennial “My Way”, it’s clearly inspired by Jennie’s journey towards her first long player. “I walked tall, while others made light,” she says, “I’ve found my own voice and I speak from the heart.” And, with elegant production and a considered, sincere vocal, this isn’t the sugarfest it might look on paper. Rather, it’s a show of strength from dedicated, creative musician with a lot to say and a love of a good cello.

by Overplay - Overplay (United Kingdom) 2010