NEW YORK: Rihanna will receive MTV’s lifetime achievement award at the Aug. 28 Video Music Awards (VMA) show, MTV said, joining the likes of Kanye West, Madonna and Beyonce. The Michael Jackson Video Vanguard award is the highest honor in the video music industry, and reflects an artist’s impact not just on music but on pop culture, fashion, film and philanthropy.
Rihanna, 28, has twice won the coveted video of the year at the MTV ceremony and is an eight-time Grammy winner with more than 61 million albums sold. The “Umbrella” singer also set up the Clara Lionel Foundation, which works to improve health and cultural services in her home of Barbados and beyond.
Rihanna will perform at the ceremony in New York, where she is nominated for four VMA’s for her song “Work” with Canadian rapper Drake, and her collaboration with Calvin Harris on “This is What You Came For.”
Rapper West won the Vanguard award in 2015 and other previous winners include Michael Jackson, Britney Spears and Justin Timberlake.
Earlier, reports said Rihanna along with Anne Hathaway and Helena Bonham Carter might join Sandra Bullock and Cate Blanchett in a female-driven spinoff of the “Ocean’s Eleven” crime caper franchise.
News of the movie comes a month after the release of the all-female remake of the beloved 1980s action comedy “Ghostbusters,” this time starring Melissa McCarthy and Kristen Wiig, that prompted a hate-filled backlash on social media.
Production of on the Warner Bros. movie, to be called “Ocean’s Eight,” is expected to start in October, with director Gary Ross, Hollywood websites Deadline and Variety reported.
Ross told movie website SlashFilm in June that the movie would continue the “Ocean’s Eleven” trilogy starring George Clooney and Brad Pitt, as well as having a similar light-hearted tone.
Rihanna will receive MTV’s lifetime achievement award
Rihanna will receive MTV’s lifetime achievement award
Makkah museum displays world’s largest Qur’an
MAKKAH: The Holy Qur’an Museum at the Hira Cultural District in Makkah is showcasing a monumental handwritten copy of the Holy Qur’an, recognized as the largest Qur’an of its kind in the world.
The manuscript measures 312 cm by 220 cm and comprises 700 pages, earning the museum recognition from Guinness World Records for displaying the world’s largest Qur’an, the Saudi Press Agency reported.
The manuscript is a magnified reproduction of a historic Qur’an dating back to the 16th century, the SPA stated.
The original copy measures 45 cm by 30 cm, with the chapters written primarily in Thuluth script, while Surah Al-Fatiha was penned in Naskh, reflecting the refined artistic choices and calligraphic diversity of the era.
The Qur’an is a unique example of Arabic calligraphy, gilding and bookbinding, showcasing Islamic art through intricate decorations, sun-shaped motifs on the opening folio, and elaborately designed frontispiece and title pages that reflect a high level of artistic mastery.
The manuscript was endowed as a waqf in 1883. Its original version is currently preserved at the King Abdulaziz Complex for Endowment Libraries, serving as a lasting testament to Muslims’ enduring reverence for the Qur’an and the richness of Islamic arts across the centuries.
