One World: Together at Home, streamed live on 18 April, will support UN response fund
Lady Gaga is to curate One World: Together at Home, a live-streamed and televised benefit concert in support of the World Health Organizations Covid-19 solidarity response fund and in celebration of health workers around the world.
The lineup includes Lady Gaga, Billie Eilish and her brother Finneas, Lizzo, J Balvin, Stevie Wonder, Paul McCartney, Billie Joe Armstrong of Green Day, Alanis Morissette, Burna Boy, Andrea Bocelli, Chris Martin of Coldplay, Eddie Vedder of Pearl Jam, Elton John, John Legend, Kacey Musgraves, Keith Urban and Lang Lang.
The US talk show hosts Jimmy Fallon, Jimmy Kimmel and Stephen Colbert will host the event, which broadcasts live across the US television networks ABC, CBS and NBC, as well as being streamed online, at 8pm EST on 18 April.
BBC One will show an adapted version of the concert on 19 April, including exclusive performances from UK artists and interviews with frontline health workers. The details of the broadcast are yet to be announced.
Other celebrities expected to appear include David Beckham, Idris and Sabrina Elba, Kerry Washington, Priyanka Chopra Jonas, Shah Rukh Khan and Sesame Street cast members.
The WHO and the social action platform Global Citizen have partnered to produce the event. The latters Together at Home series, launched last month, has featured performances from artists in isolation including Shawn Mendes, Camila Cabello and Rufus Wainwright.
In a WHO press conference, Lady Gaga said she had helped to raise $35m (28m) for Global Citizen in the past week. She clarified that One World was not a fundraising telethon and would focus on entertainment and messages of solidarity, with philanthropists and businesses urged to donate to the Covid-19 solidarity response fund ahead of the event.
The WHOs general director, Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, said:We may have to be apart physically for a little while, but we can still come together virtually to enjoy great music. The One World: Together at Home concert represents a powerful show of solidarity against a common threat.
This article was amended on 6 April 2020. Lady Gaga stated that philanthropists and businesses were being urged to donate to the organisation, rather than fans as an earlier version said. This has been corrected.
Lady Gaga’s new song “Stupid Love” leaked onto the Internet last weekend. The singer wasn’t happy. As the recording was going viral and social media started buzzing, Gaga called out music lovers who had listened to the unauthorized release.
“Can y’all stop,” she tweeted, sharing two photos of a girl wearing a ski mask while listening to music. The message was crystal clear: those who were listening to the track or spreading it were promoting music piracy. However, the pics she had chosen had “Shutterstock” watermarks all over them. The company noticed it. The company spoke up. And all hell broke loose on Twitter.
After her song leaked onto the Internet, Lady Gaga responded with a short, clear message
According to findings by the market research firm MusicWatch’s Annual Music Study, there were 17 million stream-rippers in the U.S. in 2018. That number went up by 2 million from 2017. The term “stream-ripping” refers to the type of music piracy where users transform a file from a streaming site like YouTube or Spotify into a downloadable copy. Currently, this is one of the most popular ways to pirate recordings.
Since the Napster era, a lot has changed in the music industry. But the pirates adapted. And although streaming services like Spotify offer a free tier, piracy allows individuals to play songs offline. Experts estimate that 46% of stream-rippers pirate music for this very reason, while 37% simply want to own songs they don’t like enough to pay for.
So we can understand Lady Gaga’s disappointment.
However, she used pirated pictures in her tweet and Shutterstock was quick to point it out
When it comes to the photographer behind the stock photos, his name is Richard Nelson, and he doesn’t seem to mind not getting paid for the usage — he even Tweeted out a version of Lady Gaga’s message without the watermarks for the singer to use.
“[Lady Gaga] making one of my old stock photos viral,” he wrote enjoying the attention. “Hahaha. I just had to share.”
However, the whole situation had ignited an online debate. So far, most of the photographers seem to side with Shutterstock: copyright is copyright, and not just for musicians — it needs to be respected and defended for all artists, including photographers.
Billie Eilish and Lizzo are competing for a string of the top prizes, but could the likes of Ariana Grande, Lana Del Rey and Rosala cause upsets?
Noise threatens to drown out the music at the 2020 Grammy awards. A line had been drawn under the tone-deaf leadership of Neil Portnow, who had presided over the ceremony since 2002 between 2013 and 2018, Grammy winners were 91% male, but, after a 2018 ceremony where men swept the board again, Portnow said it was on women to step up and create opportunities for themselves.
A woman, Deborah Dugan, replaced him; a taskforce was appointed, and in December they published their report, calling for greater diversity in the Academy voters. Any hopes that they had moved on, though, were scotched last week by Dugan being suspended for alleged misconduct; Dugan countered by saying she had been sexually harassed, that the Academy had covered up an alleged rape by Portnow, and that the voting was corrupt.
So we go into this years ceremony more jaded than ever, but the irony is that, no matter how poisonous the Academy is and regardless of whether it is rigged or not, we ended up with a much more diverse range of nominees this year. Leading the pack are Lizzo with eight noms and Billie Eilish and Lil Nas X with six each a vibrantly youthful and non-conformist trio. But will the Academy members shake off the past and vote for the future?
Record of the year
Bon Iver Hey, Ma Billie Eilish Bad Guy Ariana Grande 7 Rings HER Hard Place Khalid Talk Lil Nas X ft Billy Ray Cyrus Old Town Road Lizzo Truth Hurts Post Malone & Swae Lee Sunflower
Aside from the merely pleasant HER and Khalid tracks, this is a strong field. While lots of eyes are on Lizzo and Eilish, this could perhaps be Ariana Grandes year. Its her first time with nominations in the big four categories rather than being patronised in the pop awards and, with its My Favourite Things melody, doddering Academy voters might listen to 7 Rings and say: Hey, its one I know! Triumphant earworm Old Town Road is the longest-running No 1 in US history; Bad Guy is a showcase of the kind of fiendish genius usually employed by Hollywood horror movies to construct elaborate ways for teenagers to get killed. But an Academy eager to telegraph its modernity might go for Lizzo: Truth Hurts is a great underdog story, reaching No 1 two years after release, and her charisma is near universally infectious.
Will win: Lizzo Truth Hurts Should win: Billie Eilish Bad Guy
Album of the year
Bon Iver i, i Lana Del Rey Norman Fucking Rockwell! Billie Eilish When We All Fall Asleep, Where Do We Go? Ariana Grande Thank U, Next HER I Used to Know Her Lil Nas X 7 Lizzo Cuz I Love You (Deluxe) Vampire Weekend Father of the Bride
This is Grandes best chance of a big win. Thank U, Next is a superbly realised almost-concept album about heartache, grief and moving on that can be witty, even caustic, but never cruel it sealed her as one of the three or four definitive pop stars of our time. Lizzo, HER and Lil Nas X are hampered with too much 6/10 material across their albums; Lana Del Rey was the critical hit of the year and will certainly beat out fellow Pitchfork darlings Bon Iver and Vampire Weekend, but may not cut through to the more august and mainstream Academy members. Eilish was the inescapable pop-cultural breakthrough of the year, and her album has such terrific range and invention. She will, hopefully, squeak this.
Will win: Billie Eilish Should win: Billie Eilish
Song of the year
Lady Gaga Always Remember Us This Way Billie Eilish Bad Guy Tanya Tucker Bring My Flowers Now HER Hard Place Taylor Swift Lover Lana Del Rey Norman Fucking Rockwell Lewis Capaldi Someone You Loved Lizzo Truth Hurts
Piano-driven ballads dominate the songwriting category, including Taylor Swifts only big nomination. Lover is such classic American songcraft, though Lewis Capaldis powerful Someone Like You is the best of these ballads and it would be a British win to remember. Eilish is streets ahead in terms of songwriting innovation and should win for that Duh! alone. But, while Truth Hurts most famous lyric (I just took a DNA test, turns out Im 100% that bitch) may have been plagiarised and its British author later added to the credits, Lizzo has this sewn up. The lyrics are hilarious, and it is a massively successful example of that new school of songwriting where a single melody is repeated over and over until the brainwashed public is involuntarily chanting it and then clawing hopelessly at their faces.
Will win: Lizzo Truth Hurts Should win: Billie Eilish Bad Guy
New artist
Black Pumas Billie Eilish Lil Nas X Lizzo Maggie Rogers Rosala Tank and the Bangas Yola
Nice to see some country-soul curveballs here in the excellent Black Pumas and Yola, though the less said the better about the tune-free Tank and the Bangas at any rate, theyre all making up the numbers. Maggie Rogers didnt really break beyond her fanbase with her underrated debut album, and Im sure the Academy will see Lil Nas X merely as a two-hit wonder. Lizzos debut album came out in 2013, whereas Eilish has only just turned 18 and feels like the rightful owner of this award. But you can bet than every Latinx voter is going to be going for the astoundingly talented Rosala, who won big at the Latin Grammys and could cause an upset here.
Will win: Billie Eilish Should win: Billie Eilish
Pop solo performance
Beyonc Spirit Billie Eilish Bad Guy Ariana Grande 7 Rings Lizzo Truth Hurts Taylor Swift You Need to Calm Down
Just as performances where you cry, shout and climb inside the carcass of a bear win you Oscars, the leading pop award rather behoves you to give it some welly not for nothing has Adele won it three times. Eilish and Grandes variously murmured and chatted performances will appear to the Academy like weirdo arthouse choices here, and even Swift is in a relatively conversational mode. Beyoncs ponderous Spirit was the lame old wildebeest eaten by the younger jackals on the Lion King soundtrack, so this is Lizzos to lose.
Will win: Lizzo Should win: Billie Eilish
Rock performance
Bones UK Pretty Waste Gary Clark Jr This Land Brittany Howard History Repeats Karen O & Danger Mouse Woman Rival Sons Too Bad
Anyone looking for evidence of backroom dealing in the Academy might well make Bones UK their exhibit A: Pretty Waste is the kind of creative vacuum beloved only of nihilistically cocaine-addicted LA music industry execs looking for something to soundtrack rock bottom. The rest is pretty good. Rival Sons riffs and hollering make them the most tangibly rock thing here Karen O essays 60s pop, and Brittany Howards History Repeats is a kind of bluesy funk tune, but with mainstream rock stranded out on a sandbar while rappers and pop stars taunt it on jetskis, they need to blur the genre lines. Gary Clark Jr could edge this with his politically charged This Land, half-rapped over a heavily skanking backing.
Will win: Gary Clark Jr Should win: Rival Sons
Rap performance
J Cole Middle Child DaBaby Suge Dreamville feat JID, Bas, J Cole, Earthgang & Young Nudy Down Bad Nipsey Hussle feat Roddy Ricch & Hit-Boy Racks in the Middle Offset feat Cardi B Clout
Many voters hearts will go with Nipsey Hussle, whose murder last year robbed the world of a skilful, soulful MC who united backpacker hip-hoppers and mainstream rap fans. Racks in the Middle also features Roddy Rich, who has broken through spectacularly over the last year. But the track pales next to two others here: DaBabys Suge is a slowly prowling piece of minimalism that makes Offset sound fussily overworked in comparison; its ridiculous that DaBaby isnt up for best new artist. He is rather damaged goods after a series of run-ins with the law, however. That could hand Middle Child the win, on which J Cole raps as if hes high-stepping across the surface of a lake, his triplet time full of balletic grace.
Will win: J Cole Should win: DaBaby
Country solo performance
Tyler Childers All Yourn Ashley McBryde Girl Goin Nowhere Willie Nelson Ride Me Back Home Blake Shelton Gods Country Tanya Tucker Bring My Flowers Now
If you scoff at country, youll probably always scoff at country, but this spread of songs shows off the admirable breadth of the genre and may pique your interest yet. Willie Nelsons song is a bit something-and-nothing; Tanya Tuckers Bring My Flowers Now is nominated in the song of the year category, and its live-for-today message and simple piano backing will appeal across the Academy, but its rather workmanlike. Ashley McBryde outdoes her in the ballad stakes, but its Tyler Childers and Blake Shelton both strongly channelling the gospel and soul music that not so secretly underpins country who are the strongest here. Childers song would make for a classy first wedding dance, while Sheltons stirring ode to proud Christian labour, while deeply unfashionable, will have you gazing soulfully across a cornfield.
Do you recognize these celebrities? Do you notice anything different? If not, we suggest that you take a closer look, because each photo features not one but two or even four celebrities masterfully mixed together! A 25-year-old French student has recently become an Instagram sensation after he shared his amazing creations – morphs of famous faces.
#1 Brad Pitt & Leonardo Dicaprio
#2 Billie Eilish & Cara Delevingne
The artist, who goes by the Instagram name of Morphy_me, has spent hours painstakingly morphing celebrity faces from different spheres such as music, film, sport, royalty and much more. These creations take a lot of time as he carefully studies each face to bring out the most beautiful features of it. Not to mention the whole creation process! With a lot of patience and attention to detail, he makes a new face of a ‘perfect’ celebrity.
#3 Blake Lively & Ryan Reynolds
#4 Kristen Stewart & Megan Fox
From the combination of probably two of the most beautiful and hottest Hollywood actors Brad Pitt and Leonardo Di Caprio to the mesmerizing beauty of two classy iconic stars, actress and model Megan Fox and singer, songwriter Lana Del Rey, he has an eye for captivating beauty.
#5 Dua Lipa & Gal Gadot
#6 Chris Pratt & Michael Fassbender
Currently, Morphy_me has 55.1k followers on his Instagram and some of these followers are famous Hollywood celebrities themselves. He was noticed by Lily Collins, Gigi Hadid, Mark Hamill, Doutzen Kroes, Lily Aldridge and even followed by Sophie Turner and Joe Jonas. It’s just too crazy!
#7 Jason Momoa & Chris Hemsworth
#8 Nina Dobrev & Megan Fox
#9 Natalie Portman & Millie Bobby Brown
#10 Lady Gaga & Scarlett Johansson
#11 Rami Malek & Bruno Mars
#12 Henry Cavill & Christopher Reeve
#13 Jason Momoa & Chris Hemsworth
#14 Chris Evans & Chris Pratt & Chris Hemsworth & Chris Pine
Lady Gaga has fibromyalgia, which can cause widespread pain. Photograph: Ian West/PA
Lady Gaga has cancelled the last 10 dates of her world tour, including performances in London and Manchester, on the advice of her doctors after suffering from severe pain.
A day before she was due to appear at the O2 in London, the singer said on Twitter that she had made the tough decision to cancel the final 10 dates of her Joanne tour with strong support from her medical team.
Lady Gaga is suffering from severe pain that has materially impacted her ability to perform live, the statement said. She has fibromyalgia, a chronic condition that can cause widespread pain.
Gaga had been due to play the O2 in London on Sunday and the Manchester Arena on Tuesday, then return to the O2 on Thursday. In coming weeks she had been due to perform in Denmark, France, Germany, Sweden and Switzerland.
Lady Gaga, 31, whose real name is Stefani Joanne Angelina Germanotta, had already been forced to reschedule tour dates. She pulled out of a performance at Rock in Rio in Brazil in September after being taken to hospital while suffering from severe physical pain, before postponing her European tour dates.
In November, she resumed the tour in North America and in January played several dates in Europe.
She wrote on Twitter: Im so devastated I dont know how to describe it. All I know is that if I dont do this, I am not standing by the words or meaning of my music. My medical team is supporting the decision for me to recover at home. Were cancelling the last 10 shows of my Joanne World Tour.
I love this show more than anything, and I love you, but this is beyond my control. London, Manchester, Zurich, Koln, Stockholm, Copenhagen, Paris, Berlin. And Rio. I promise I will be back in your city, but for now I need to put myself and my wellbeing first. I love you, forever. CXX Gaga.
Ticket holders have been advised they can obtain a refund at point of purchase from Tuesday.
Lady Gaga has been forced to cancel a number of shows due to the severe chronic pain condition fibromyalgia. But what is it?
Earlier this month, Lady Gaga announced the cancellation of the upcoming leg of her world tour due to her ongoing battle with fibromyalgia syndrome. Her behind-the-scenes Netflix documentary, Gaga: Five foot Two , charts her journey to Superbowl half-time show stardom, but also offers an intriguing glimpse into the challenges faced by someone living with chronic pain.
So, first to the question many of you may be asking yourselves: what on earth is fibromyalgia? In the simplest terms it is a chronic pain syndrome characterised by tenderness and pain in muscles and deep tissues. However there are many secondary symptoms that go along with this, and the biggest challenge for patients with the condition can be living with severe fatigue, broken sleep, psychological distress and mental lethargy known as fibro-fog(although the list of potential symptoms goes on, meaning that each individual patient experience can be quite unique).
In her film, we see Gaga encounter all of these issues and more. She traces her fibromyalgia back to a painful triggering trauma – a broken hip sustained on tour three years earlier. This kind of trigger is a common experience for many patients. Even after seeming to make a good recovery from an initial injury, a fibromyalgia patients pain may then develop to affect the whole body, over a period of months or even years. The most popular theory as to why this might be proposes that it could be due to a sensitisation for pain processing in the brain, which may lie dormant or unnoticed until the triggering incident leads to the full-blown syndrome.
Understanding what might cause such sensitisation is the focus of current research, and work to date points to structural and functional brain alterations. There is some evidence for a genetic component as well as support for the influence of environmental factors, particularly psychological trauma during formative years. Lady Gaga, like many patients, has experienced past sexual abuse, and severe emotional trauma in adolescence or young adulthood could impact the development of brain mechanisms that might provide resilience and protect against the development of chronic pain.
Like most chronic pain syndromes, fibromyalgia predominantly affects women. Estimates vary, but usually suggest that at least 5% of women will be affected at some point in their lives. There are around one million diagnosed sufferers in the U.K and up to 10 million in the U.S. This is roughly equivalent to the prevalence of dementia in the U.K., and its not just a first world problem – we see similar rates across the globe. Current treatments are diverse but outcomes are generally poor. In her documentary we see Gaga utilising a range of alternative therapies, painkilling injections, physiotherapy and a (long) list of medications to fight her pain but, as she herself questions, how do the millions of sufferers with more limited financial resources cope? Research suggests that a combination of medication with psychological approaches and exercise therapy gives the best results in terms of improved quality of life, but many patients never find a program that they are truly happy with. There is no cure, and although sometimes patients spontaneously recover, usually after a period of years, most sufferers will live with chronic pain for many years. For the millions of fibromyalgia patients out there this is a life-changing condition, which leads us back to my first point – why have so many people never even heard of fibromyalgia?
Perhaps the answer lies in some uncomfortable details. Fibromyalgia mainly affects women, whose gender-specific medical needs have typically been marginalised throughout history. It is an invisible illness, lacking a clear physical representation to cue the pain to onlookers and elicit the normal empathy response. It is invisible in the doctors office too; there is no blood test or scan to quantify the condition in numbers, which can lead to suspicion and doubt. Instead of these physical traits, fibromyalgia is accompanied by a psychological burden for patients to endure. If we look to our shamefully recent past, a women presenting to her physician with no apparent injury, describing severe, ongoing pain and exhibiting psychological symptoms would quickly be diagnosed as hysterical or suffering from psychosomatic pain. It would be nave to assume that this thinking has evaporated from our society with no residual prejudices remaining. Even today it can take many years of living with fibromyalgia, with multiple trips to the doctor and specialist visits before a diagnosis is given.
But its not all doom and gloom. For the first time, millions of fibromyalgia patients have in Gaga a truly global voice who actively wants to bring much needed attention to their plight. Her story will help to raise awareness and tackle ignorance for this invisible illness. Moreover, she provides a strong role model as someone who succeeds despite her suffering, like others before her who transformed their pain into art (Frieda Kahlo also likely suffered from fibromyalgia).
At the start of her film, we see Lady Gaga suffering from a painful episode; her physical agony is clear, and she tells the camera that changes in her psychological wellbeing can trigger these flares in her condition. I consider this to be something of a breakthrough point for discussions around fibromyalgia. The complex interaction between psychological and physical suffering deserves our attention, and we need to acknowledge this is not an admission of guilt or a sign of weakness or malingering. It doesnt mean that the pain is all in your head, or any less real or debilitating. It simply means that, even when the pain affects the whole of Gagas five foot two frame, the mysterious mass occupying the uppermost 6 inches will always play a pivotal role.
For her fans, I hope she is back soon, but for the millions of patients around the world who now identify with her, I am simply grateful for her honesty. Lady Gagas announcement could represent the start of something big as we search for solutions for fibromyalgia, the most prevalent pain condition youd probably never even heard of.
Dr Nick Fallon is a Research Fellow in Psychology at the University of Liverpool. His research uses neuroimaging to investigate the mechanisms of chronic pain and interactions with psychological factors. He is on twitter @nick_fallon.
The singers debilitating disorder was the reason behind the cancellation of her European tour but the mysterious condition is not easy to explain
On Monday it was announced that Lady Gaga has cancelled her European tour, due to begin next week, because of severe physical pain that has impacted her ability to perform. She has fibromyalgia, and has made a Netflix documentary, Gaga: Five Foot Two, to raise awareness about this long-term condition. A statement says: She plans to spend the next seven weeks proactively working with her doctors to heal from this and past traumas that still affect her daily life and result in severe physical pain in her body. She wants to give her fans the best version of the show she built for them when the tour resumes.
Weve all heard of Lady Gaga, but fibromyalgia syndrome (FMS) may be more of a mystery. It is a condition that is hard to diagnose, explain or treat. And many people with the condition say they struggle to get medical professionals to take their symptoms seriously. FMS is a long-term condition that causes widespread pain. Its debilitating symptoms include extreme tiredness, muscle aches, difficulty sleeping and concentrating; headaches and bloating are also common. In Lady Gagas case, it is easy to see how she may have initially put these problems down to touring and performing. But the fatigue and pains persist even when you rest, and can be far more draining than normal tiredness.
People with FMS often notice that a fairly innocuous injury, such as stubbing a toe, hurts more intensely and for longer than it should. And even a light touch that shouldnt hurt at all can be experienced as an unpleasantly painful sensation. The fatigue means you need to sleep a lot but wake up feeling groggy, stiff and achy. Even mental processes feel sluggish, so it becomes a huge effort to concentrate or learn anything new, and your speech may sound slow and a bit muddled. Patients call this fibro-fog, and it is not clear whether Lady Gaga experiences it or not.
FMS is typically diagnosed in people just like Lady Gaga: female and aged 30-50 (she is 31). It may affect as many as one in 20 people, but there is no definitive test, so it is hard to estimate numbers. There may also be a genetic component alongside environmental factors. FMS is certainly diagnosed more often now than when it was first recognised as a cause of chronic and disabling pain in 1976. It can coexist with other conditions that cause joint pain, including rheumatoid arthritis and lupus. And although you may think that, since there is no cure, there is no point in receiving the diagnosis, people who live with pain and multiple unexplained symptoms over many years often find that being told they have FMS is helpful.
No one knows what causes FMS. There is probably some disorder in the way pain is processed in the brain in people with the condition. And there is a cycle in which pain makes you depressed and anxious and this makes the experience of pain worse. Sceptics may say its all in the mind but all pain is processed in the brain, so that sort of disparaging and dismissive remark makes no sense. There is some suggestion that FMS is more common among people who have suffered from physical, emotional and sexual abuse in childhood; the evidence is weak, but this is an area that needs more study. Lady Gaga has been very open about being raped at the age of 19 and her anti-rape song, Swine, hints at the trauma she experienced.
As there is no specific cure, living with FMS means being aware of triggers (stress, bereavement, other illnesses or surgery, weather changes, travel and sleep deprivation, for instance) that can cause a flare-up, and finding a way of living, working, exercising and eating that works for you. Exercise, physiotherapy, adjustments in the workplace, counselling and stress management techniques can help. Drug treatment with anti-inflammatories, antidepressants and drugs used in the treatment of epilepsy have all been tried, but there is no single easy fix.
But Lady Gaga and her millions of fans may take heart from the fact that, however bad the symptoms are, FMS does not cause long-term joint damage and many people do get better over time. However, you cannot predict how long recovery may take, or whether symptoms will recur, so it is hard to know when she might feel ready to commit to touring again.
Lady Gaga rocked the world’s socks off at the Super Bowl LI Halftime Show, and now her powerful singing voice is getting all the cred it deserves. A video has surfaced that isolates her performance down to the raw mic feed, so that only Gaga’s bone-chilling vocals can be heard. Just hit the play button and hold on to your seat.
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Though Gaga’s most moving piece of the night was arguably Million Reasons from her latest album, Joanne, she also gave us a full throwback tour – Poker Face, Just Dance, and Born This Way included. Her performance was also politically charged, as she opened with a cover of Woody Guthrie’s This Land Is Your Land, a folk classic about embracing all corners of America that was sung frequently during the 2017 Women’s Marches.
Mother Monster continues to shock, awe, and inspire us all. Listen to the incredible mic feed below.
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