Beyonce ended the European leg of her Mrs Carter tour on Saturday by headlining The Sound of Change. The concert, which saw a stellar line-up of A-list celebrities descend on London, launched the Gucci-founded global campaign Chime for Change.

I was lucky enough to join an audience of 50,000 people to watch the four hour show, which was also broadcast live from Twickenham Stadium to an audience of 1 billion across 150 countries.

Short sets came from a predominantly female line up including surprise act Jessie J, who opened the concert. She was followed by Iggy Azalea, Rita Ora, Laura Pausini, Florence and the Machine, John Legend, Haim and Ellie Goulding, who all performed a selection of their top hits. Jennifer Lopez was joined on stage by Mary J Blige for the Beatles classic Come Together. Timbaland was also joined on stage by another surprise act, Duran Duran’s Simon Le Bon.

Each act was interspersed with moving and inspirational short films, introduced by a line-up of presenters as impressive as the musical one, including James Franco, Ryan Reynolds, Blake Lively, Jada Pinkett Smith and Madonna. The hard hitting films presented the audience with statistics and highlighted issues and real life experiences.

What better and more fitting way to end an extraordinary event than with Chime for Change co-founder Beyonce. She opened with Sam Cooke’s A Change is Gonna Come, followed by Etta James’ At Last. Her empowering songs included Run the World (Girls), Destiny’s Child hit Survivor and If I were a Boy. She also performed a haunting rendition of the late Whitney Houston’s I Will Always Love You which lead into Halo. A highlight for me and considering the response, the whole audience, was when she was joined on stage by rapper husband Jay Z during Crazy in Love.

Co-founders Salma Hayek, Gucci’s creative director Frida Giannini and Beyoncé Knowles-Carter, were joined by the biggest stars in the world right now to support an amazing cause. Chime for Change campaigns for education, health and justice “for every girl, every woman, everywhere” and the Sound of Change is its first event. The sell-out concert is expected to fund at least 120 projects in more than 70 countries from ticket sales alone. In a world first, ticket buyers could choose which project to fund and 100% of their money would go straight to the non-profit organisations.

Ellie was a guest of Freud.

Last Friday, London was treated to a tantalising glimpse of the exotic at the third annual Malaysia Night in Trafalgar Square. The event, which attracted thousands of people despite the rain, demonstrated the huge variety of Malaysia’s culture and provided a spectacular start to London’s 2012 Malaysia Week.

The event was officially opened by a group of Malaysian luminaries, including Dr Wong Lai Sum, Dr Syed Kamal and renowned shoe designer Jimmy Choo. Speaking at the event, member of the London Assembly James Cleverly pointed out that ‘Malaysia has a huge affinity with London’, explaining that the city’s diversity is an important factor in the close links between the two locations.

After the dignitaries cut the huge ribbon on stage, London was treated to spectacular entertainment that included colourfully-attired dancers, a spellbinding fashion show and haunting melodies from musicians using traditional Malaysian instruments. Around the square, stalls representing London’s best Malaysian restaurants sizzled with freshly cooked delights that ranged from traditional curries to sumptuously plump Malaysian pancakes.

Fortunately for those now hooked on Malaysia’s many delights, the South Bank is hosting Malaysia Week from now until 10 October. Here you’ll  find cultural exhibitions, traditional board games and, of course, the country’s delicious cuisine. As those who attended Malaysia Night will attest, the wealth of what’s on offer will even make you forget it’s raining!

When Victorian Londoners craved some cultural stimulation and a little mischief, they could head to the city’s opulent pleasure gardens to find it. Those long-faded entertainment destinations are about to be resurrected, with the launch of London Pleasure Gardens on 30 June.

Pontoon Dock, a derelict site in east London is currently being transformed into a pop-up cultural centre that can hold 35,000 people, with venues for music, dance, arts and theatre as well as a floating cocktail lounge, a hotel and restaurant, a nature reserve and sculpture gardens.

The Creative Team

The idea for London Pleasure Gardens won the Meanwhile London competition to find uses for London’s wasted spaces before they are permanently redeveloped. The creative team behind the initiative have worked on projects like Glastonbury’s futuristic Shangri-La, the field where a night-time dystopia of clubs, costumes and theatrics unfold after the festival’s music stages close.

One of the directors is Garfield Hackett, the man behind east London’s counter culture art movement, Mutate Britain. He says London Pleasure Gardens will bring “the kind of urban leisure environment not seen in the city since the great pleasure gardens of the Georgian and Victorian periods.”

“We’re going to have beautiful structures, amazing art, places to chill out and all kinds of cultural adventures for those who want them. Our backgrounds in the guerrilla entertainment world mean we’ll be bringing lots of names and faces you really couldn’t see elsewhere.”

Coming Up at London Pleasure Gardens

The pleasure gardens have already signed up major events like Bloc 2012 and BT River of Music. For the Olympics it will put on a programme of entertainment ranging from big screen sports to cabaret, circus and comedy, in what Hackett affectionately calls “an environment of beautiful madness.”

Building work is well underway to create the site before the opening night on 30 June. “Over the next couple of weeks anyone passing by is going to see some cool structures going up and confront a stream of workers, artists, designers, architects, food and drinks co-ordinators and more heading in and out,” says Hackett.

“We’re right on schedule at the moment, though the pop-up nature of the site means it still isn’t looking finished. At the minute, it looks like a butterfly half out of the chrysalis, or, less poetically, like somewhere that is going to be pretty unbelievable in a couple of weeks time.”

London Pleasure Gardens opens with the Paradise Gardens Festival, 30 June to 1 July. Entry is free.

Madame Tussauds have a new wax figure this October: R&B star, Rihanna.

The singer’s likeness takes centre stage in the attraction’s interactive Music Zone alongside female performers including:        

• Kylie Minogue
• Britney Spears
• Lady Gaga
• Amy Winehouse

The sexy singer is captured in the sleek style she wore for her X Factor duet with last year’s winner Matt Cardle; a fitted black dress, slit to the hip, with bright cherry-red hair.

“We are thrilled to welcome Rihanna to Madame Tussauds London,” said Liz Edwards, PR Manager at the attraction. ”Her inclusion couldn’t be more timely as her Loud tour arrives in the capital this week. We are sure she will hit the right note with our guests as demand for her figure has been huge since her appearance on The X Factor 2010. Rihanna is one of the biggest music stars of the moment and is a perfect addition to the diva dream team of female artists we have here at the attraction.”

Read more about Madame Tussauds and book tickets here; and there’s more information about Rihanna’s Loud tour here

The free concert is being put on by Live Music Sculpture on Saturday and Sunday, 1 and 2 October.

If you’re around this weekend, look out for five musicians, including a soprano, positioned inside the four large alcoves and at the bottom of the stairs in The Monument.

The creator of the event, Samuel Bordoli, is a multi-award winning composer and musician. He’s composing a 15-minute piece, called Monument which will be played at regular intervals throughout the two days.

Samuel said, “I had been looking to do something different with acoustics for quite some time and on visiting the Monument last year I realised it was the perfect place to develop my ideas.

“Working with the building’s acoustical properties, we will be able to create sounds and musical effects which would be impossible to achieve anywhere else. This will be a truly historical event, and Live Music Sculpture will be the first people ever to have composed music for, and perform, in this magnificent structure. This [is] the first piece of music composed for a vertical space/column, an act which, as far as we are aware, is unprecedented.”

Visit www.themonument.info to find out more about The Monument

Enter our competition

You and a friend can enjoy a perfect summer afternoon at Hatfield House, experiencing live music in beautiful surroundings.

As well as Elton John, the line-up includes Rumer, The Pierces, The Lighthouse Family and The Overtones. There’ll also be a West End Stage where you can see excerpts from you favourite West End Shows including Billy Elliot, Wicked and Jersey Boys.

We’ve got fifteen pairs of tickets to Magic Summer Live to give away. Enter now (and hurry, competition closes 10 July 2011).

The English National Opera (ENO) are currently staging Two Boys, a new opera from talented young musician and composer Nico Muhley with librettist Craig Lucas.

The story is loosely inspired by actual events.  We watch Inspector Anne Strawson as she struggles to find 13 year old Jake’s killer.

There is one obvious lead – a teenage boy caught on CCTV leaving the murder scene, and yet as the narrative unfurls it seems there is more to this crime than the obvious facts. To discover the truth, Detective Strawson must delve into a menacing cyberworld of internet sites and chatrooms.

Two Boys kept me on the edge of my seat throughout. The clever storytelling, with tiny clues revealed throughout, left me desperately trying to solve the murder mystery myself; it was completely engaging and captivating.

Muhley’s score is enchanting – spooky and beautiful, imaginative and aggressive, and I found it heartbreakingly moving. Vocally, I enjoyed the chorus moments best: massive, grand, multi-layered writing that conveys the overwhelming reach of the internet.

Bartlett Sher’s staging is beautifully realised through Michael Yeargan’s designs, a set that really adds to the production. The large chorus stand illuminated eerily at the back while other characters are elevated in darkly lit towers across the front of the stage – it is oddly magical and otherworldly.

Nico Muhley’s new creation is an operatic masterpiece that will stun audiences.

Two Boys at The ENO until 8 July 2011

Director Christopher Alden has scrapped the dreamy forest in favour of a 1960′s school yard setting – a tad morbid and bizarre. Some of the characters are teachers (Oberon and Tytania) and some are pupils (Lysander, Hermia, Demetrius and Helena). The lover’s tiffs from Shakespeare’s original turn to adolescent arguments and teenage romances.

Charles Edward‘s set is strikingly beautiful and imaginative – giant brickwork walls of an urban British boys school, complete with high windows and several floors, it is staggeringly realistic. For me the design was the highlight of the production.

Visually this opera is quite unbelievable. The vast set and at times the sheer quantity of young boys on stage is enough to make you gasp. No-one can deny it is a daring production but I couldn’t help wondering how necessary all this drama is? It is not beneficial to our understanding, confused the already complicated narrative, and made little sense to me.

The large cast dealt with this odd interpretation as best they could. I have never seen so many young children in one opera – at one point when all the boys lined up across the stage I counted nearly 40!

The vocal star of the show was most definitely counter tenor Iestyn Davies as Oberon. He sings this tricky part wonderfully with pitch perfect accuracy and gorgeous tone. I could have listened to him all night. The chorus excelled producing a rich sound and bringing the best out of Britten’s stunning music.

The orchestra worked persistently on Britten’s tricky music, and I thought their rendition evoked all the magic of the Britten’s otherworldly score. Leo Hussain performed well too, conducting with a sensitive understanding of the music. Much of this opera’s music is quiet and hesitant – musical directions that are exhausting to conduct, especially for a three hour production. However, this didn’t seem to trouble Hussain at all and he seemed completely at ease throughout.

A very strange, and yet mesmerising production of Britten’s dazzling opera, go and see it if you like your opera a bit on the wild side.

A Midsummer Night’s Dream at the London Coliseum until 30 June. Book tickets

Searching for Barbadian culture for our World in London series, we realised that one of Barbados’s biggest exports is coming to town.

R&B superstar Rihanna will appear at The O2 this autumn,  performing hits such as Umbrella, Shut Up and Drive, Only Girl (In The World) and What’s My Name.

New dates have just been added to the sell-out tour. If you want to see the Barbadian chart topper live in London, book your tickets now.

Where do you go for a taste of Barbados in London? Let us know in the comments below.