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Mercy James is spending her final days in Malawi playing with friends, completely unaware her life is about to change beyond all recognition.

The four-year-old has been photographed enjoying the company of her nursery school classmates with a huge smile on her face as her new life with Madonna draws near.

New life ahead: A beaming Mercy James at her nursery school in Lilongwe, Malawi. She will soon fly to New York to be with Madonna

Malawi’s Supreme Court overturned a lower court ruling in April which said Madonna could not adopt Mercy James because she was not a resident of the southern African country.

Rights groups have accused the government of giving Madonna special treatment and said the case would encourage foreign celebrities to think they can adopt Malawian children at will.

Chief Justice Lovemore Munlo said the singer had shown an interest in helping Malawi orphans and that Mercy would have a better life with her. He said a lower court had erred in turning down the adoption request.

‘Madonna has shown that she is bold, and compassionate enough to come forward to adopt Chifundo James,’ he said.

Source: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/artic…fe-Madonna.html

 

By Will Hurrell

Sky has signed an exclusive deal to broadcast Madonna’s most recent tour: Sticky and Sweet.

The 120-minute Madonna: Sticky and Sweet special was recorded in Buenos Aires in December. It features the singer performing her greatest hits, as well as songs from her latest studio album, Hard Candy.

It will air on Sky 1 and Sky 1 HD on the 4 July, the day Madonna arrives in the UK for her performance at the 02 Arena.

The deal also gives Sky 1 the rights to a special 15-minute, behind-the-scenes film to be broadcast alongside the tour.

It was commissioned by Donna Taberer, commissioning editor, entertainment, Sky 1, 2 and 3 and is a co-production between Globe and JJ Stereo Productions.

The deal was brokered by Julia Stuart, senior acquisitions executive, Sky 1, 2 and 3.

Source:  http://www.broadcastnow.co.uk/news/commissioning/sky-bags-madonna-tour/5002459.article

 

**A BIG shout out to both of our members Lucifer-PL and jwad for bringing this subject to our attention.

SKY1 has landed an exclusive deal to broadcast the latest tours by Madonna and Girls Aloud.

Madge’s Sticky and Sweet tour, recorded in Buenos Aires in December, will air on July 4, along with a 15-minute behind-the-scenes film.

It will go out on the day the star, who has just succeeded in adopting Malawian girl Mercy, arrives in the UK to perform at the 02 Arena.

Girls Aloud’s sellout Out of Control tour, filmed at London’s 02 last month, will be shown in August.

The gigs will air on Sky1 as well as Sky HD.

source: the sun

Following the critical success of Madonna: Confessions, the powerHouse team, Madonna, and Guy Oseary return with a knockout punch: Sticky & Sweet, a dynamic look at Madonna's celebrated Sticky & Sweet Tour, which broke all previous records and became the number-one highest grossing tour of any solo artist ever--with Madonna playing before 2,350,282 fans and selling over 280 million dollars' worth of tickets. The tour has been extended through the summer of 2009 and will have passed the mark of 400 million dollars in ticket sales by the time it's complete. In over 500 full-color photographs taken on, and backstage, during the course of this historic 58-show tour, Oseary documents the four acts of the rock-driven, pop journey that is the Sticky & Sweet show--Pimp: A mashed-up homage to 1920s deco and modern-day gangsta pimp, with Madonna making a grand entrance dressed in Givenchy; Old School: Madonna tips her hat to her early-80s, downtown, New York City dance roots, with flashes of Keith Haring and the dance culture vibe of the time, including the birth of Hip Hop; Gypsy: A VIP trip to La Isla Bonita, infused with the spirit of Romanian folk music and dance--a tour de force; and Rave: Far-eastern influences emerge all sparkly and sporty. Guy Oseary is the CEO of Maverick and Madonna's manager. He has worked closely with Madonna for almost two decades, and was the only individual permitted to take photographs both on and backstage on the landmark Sticky & Sweet Tour. Oseary's first book, Madonna Confessions, was published by powerHouse in 2008. Just click here to pre-order book!

BLANTYRE (Reuters) - The father of a Malawian girl being adopted by Madonna says he has dropped his fight to get the child back and has urged the U.S. pop star to take good care of her.

Malawi’s Supreme Court on Friday approved Madonna’s application to adopt a second child from the country, overturning a lower court ruling.

James Kambewa, the father of 4-year-old Mercy James, originally said he opposed the adoption.

However, he told Reuters on Saturday he had decided not to fight the case, asking only that Mercy be brought up knowing he was her biological father.

“Let the child go … My only plea to Madonna is that she should seriously look after the child,” he said in an interview.

“I am asking Madonna to make sure that, while the child is growing, she must be informed of me as her biological father … she really must know that while she is far away the father is still alive.”

A Malawian court ruled in April that Madonna could not adopt Mercy because she was not a resident of the southern African country.

The Supreme Court overturned that decision, saying the child, who has been living in an orphanage, would have a better life with the singer. She never lived with Kambewa.

“When the child was born I was never told,” he said.

Rights groups have accused the government of giving Madonna special treatment by skirting laws preventing non-residents from adopting children.

The government came under fire in 2006 after Madonna, who has supported orphans in the country through her Raising Malawi charity, adopted 13-month-old David Banda.

Officials at the charity said Mercy was expected to be flown out of Malawi this week.

(Additional reporting by Mabvuto Banda)

Source: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/06/14/AR2009061400919.html

The father of a Malawian girl being adopted by Madonna says he has dropped his fight to get the child back and has urged the U.S. pop star to take good care of her.

Malawi’s Supreme Court on Friday approved Madonna’s application to adopt a second child from the country, overturning a lower court ruling.

James Kambewa, the father of 4-year-old Mercy James, originally said he opposed the adoption.

However, he told Reuters on Saturday he had decided not to fight the case, asking only that Mercy be brought up knowing he was her biological father.

“Let the child go … My only plea to Madonna is that she should seriously look after the child,” he said in an interview.

“I am asking Madonna to make sure that, while the child is growing, she must be informed of me as her biological father … she really must know that while she is far away the father is still alive.”

A Malawian court ruled in April that Madonna could not adopt Mercy because she was not a resident of the southern African country.

The Supreme Court overturned that decision, saying the child, who has been living in an orphanage, would have a better life with the singer. She never lived with Kambewa.

“When the child was born I was never told,” he said.

Rights groups have accused the government of giving Madonna special treatment by skirting laws preventing non-residents from adopting children.

The government came under fire in 2006 after Madonna, who has supported orphans in the country through her Raising Malawi charity, adopted 13-month-old David Banda.

Officials at the charity said Mercy was expected to be flown out of Malawi this week.

source: reuters

The decision to grant pop star Madonna the right to adopt a second Malawian child has been warmly received by many in the southern African state.
The singer’s victory at Malawi’s Supreme Court of Appeal led the news on local radio stations and prompted a positive response on phone-in shows.
But James Kambewa, who is claiming paternity of the four-year-old girl, remains opposed to the adoption.
‘I won’t give up the fight,’ he said, adding that the court disregarded him.
‘I wrote to the court challenging the adoption because I am ready and willing to take care of my child,’ said Mr Kambewa.
‘How can they continue referring to her as an orphan when I told them I am there for her?’
However, Mr Kambewa was a lone voice of opposition, with most Malawians welcoming the court’s decision to allow Madonna to adopt Chifundo ‘Mercy’ James.
‘She is taking Mercy out of a life of destitution; she could have lived in the orphanage until she was old enough to start prostitution,’ said Michael Jonas, a curio seller in Blantyre, Malawi’s second-largest city.
‘I am happy for her and the world should ignore the so-called father. We have lots of fathers but very few parents.’
‘I am happy for Mercy,’ said Martha Banda, a university student in Blantyre.
‘Those who are against the adoption are just plain selfish. How can one say she is better off in an orphanage?’
Chifundo’s uncle, Peter Baneti, said her family were ‘very happy’.
‘We, as a family, have been anxiously awaiting this ruling. We are very happy for Chifundo,’ he said.
He added that Mr Kembewa could ‘jump into Lake Malawi’ for all he cared.
‘We don’t know this James boy. He was not there when my sister was pregnant; he didn’t attend her funeral. How can he just come out to claim the baby? Does he want to steal my niece?’
Mercy’s teenage mother died of child-birth complications a few days after giving birth.
Mr Kambewa admitted he had denied responsibility for his girlfriend’s pregnancy. He met the 14-year-old Mwandida Mwaunde in secondary school, but deserted her when she fell pregnant in 2006.
‘I was young then, but now I am old and responsible,’ he said.
Yet even those in Malawi initially opposed to the adoption appear to have had a change of heart.
‘We are happy today’s ruling has clarified issues of inter-country adoptions,’ said Maxwell Matewere, Executive director of Eye of the Child - a child rights organisation which previously expressed reservations about the adoption.
Frank Phiri, a resident in Bvumbwe - where the Mercy orphanage is situated - said Malawi has millions of orphans and one orphan less must be viewed as good news.
‘I wish other rich people would come here to adopt orphans like Madonna has done,’ he said.
‘Governments should encourage people to adopt children because living in an orphanage is tough.’
According to the Ministry of Women and Child Welfare Development, there are close to 2 million orphans in Malawi, a quarter of whom have lost their parents as a direct result of the HIV/AIDS pandemic.
Madonna, one of the most successful stars in pop history, first met Mercy in October 2006 at Kondanani Children’s Village, just outside Blantyre, the same year she began the process of adopting David Banda.

Source: BBC News By Raphael Tenthani

By Barbara Jones

This is little Mercy James, pictured in Malawi last week on the day the country’s Appeal Court agreed that she can join Madonna and her family for a new life in New York.

 

The four-year-old girl, whose future has been hotly debated by children’s rights campaigners worldwide, has been leading a secret existence for the past two months while Malawi’s top judges weighed up arguments for and against her adoption.

Tomorrow, according to Madonna’s lawyer, the singer or one of her close aides will arrive to collect the girl. But Mercy will have less than three weeks with her new mother before she departs for a seven-week European tour, beginning on July 4.

Hidden away: Mercy has been living a life of luxury in preparation for her possible life with Madonna.

 

During the long wait for the court’s decision it appears Madonna left nothing to chance. Mercy has been hidden away, ready to pack instantly if the adoption went Madonna’s way.

The girl, who used to live in an orphanage, was taken to a luxury bungalow on the day in April when Madonna left the country in tears after her first attempt at adoption failed.

The house, belonging to Lois Silo, programme co-ordinator of Madonna’s charity Raising Malawi,  is behind blue gates in a discreet suburb of the capital Lilongwe, called Area 47.

According to local sources, Mrs Silo and her husband have been caring for Mercy, helping her to speak English and teaching her Western manners.

Each morning she has been driven to the nearby Cherub nursery, a privately run fee-paying school. There she plays with other Malawian children who knew nothing of her special status until they heard on Friday that she was leaving the country.

Her teacher Bridget Kawiya said yesterday: ‘The staff and teachers are amazed. We had no idea this was the girl who Madonna wanted. She was registered under a different name and we knew her as Chifundo Moyo.’

Mercy’s school teacher was Bridget Kawiya (in the black top)

 

Chifundo means Mercy in Malawi’s national language Chichewa, and she is used to being called by that name.

Mrs Kawiya said she was cheerful and intelligent, loved her schoolwork and got on well with her classmates.

Recalling Mercy’s first day, Mrs Kawiya said: ‘Many children are tearful and want to go home. But she blended straight in, playing with the others as if she had known them all her life. She’s such a sweet little girl, always happy, never crying.

‘Chifundo joined in all the games and we liked her very much in the brief two months she spent with us. She always arrived nicely dressed, happy to be with her pals.’

Mercy went to school most days with her hair in bunches, decorated with colourful ribbons. Her favourite school-bag was bright pink with a Barbie motif. Classes ended before noon and she would be taken home again where a nanny or cook made lunch for her before an afternoon nap, some children’s TV, then playtime, supper and an early night.

Mercy, a natural chatterbox, would run into school in the mornings to talk to her friends in Chichewa until corrected by teachers who encourage all the children to speak in English.

Long way away: Mercy with her uncles and her grandmother Lucy.

 

 That is important,’ said Mrs Kawiya. ‘English is the official language and you need it to make a good career.

‘We had no idea that Mercy would need it more than the others if she is going to live in New York.

‘At our end-of-term ceremony in July we had planned that Mercy, who is so clever, would introduce herself and others from her group in French. Of course, now that isn’t going to happen. We are sorry to lose her.’

On Friday night a driver picked up Mercy from the Silos’ household and took her to Kumbali Lodge, the guesthouse where Madonna stays when in Malawi. There a Raising Malawi team from America was waiting.

Already familiar with life at the Lodge – she spent three weeks there during the first court hearing in April – Mercy tucked into supper and sought out the staff’s children who had become her friends on a previous visit.

She is expected to be flown by private jet to Johannesburg, then to New York to join Madonna’s daughter Lourdes, 12, son Rocco, eight, and David Banda, three, the Malawian orphan adopted two years ago.

Mercy’s mother Mwandida was 14 when she became pregnant by an older pupil at her school. She died days after giving birth. That left Mercy’s only relatives as her grandmother Lucy and two uncles, Peter and John. Her father James had
disappeared but claims he had been told that Mercy was also dead.That is important,’ said Mrs Kawiya. ‘English is the official language and you need it to make a good career.

‘We had no idea that Mercy would need it more than the others if she is going to live in New York.

‘At our end-of-term ceremony in July we had planned that Mercy, who is so clever, would introduce herself and others from her group in French. Of course, now that isn’t going to happen. We are sorry to lose her.’

On Friday night a driver picked up Mercy from the Silos’ household and took her to Kumbali Lodge, the guesthouse where Madonna stays when in Malawi. There a Raising Malawi team from America was waiting.

Already familiar with life at the Lodge – she spent three weeks there during the first court hearing in April – Mercy tucked into supper and sought out the staff’s children who had become her friends on a previous visit.

She is expected to be flown by private jet to Johannesburg, then to New York to join Madonna’s daughter Lourdes, 12, son Rocco, eight, and David Banda, three, the Malawian orphan adopted two years ago.

Mercy’s mother Mwandida was 14 when she became pregnant by an older pupil at her school. She died days after giving birth. That left Mercy’s only relatives as her grandmother Lucy and two uncles, Peter and John. Her father James had
disappeared but claims he had been told that Mercy was also dead.

In spite of Mercy’s apparent happiness, charities fear she could face problems adapting to her new life.

Maxwell Matewere, of Malawi’s Eye of the Child group, said: ‘It’s hard to say how much damage may have been done to a girl who’s been moved from pillar to post because of one woman’s determination to have her.

‘Her first days were with her schoolgirl mother who then died, and she spent three years in an orphanage.

For the past two months she has been living like no other Malawian child, surrounded by toys and a bewildering array of luxury. We are pleased if she finds happiness in her new life, but we cannot approve of the stress she has already suffered.’

Others have accused Madonna of virtually bribing Malawi’s lawmakers and child protection officers into giving her what she wants by donating a reported £1.5million to the country through Raising Malawi.

But her lawyer Allan Chinula said: ‘It is a total fabrication to say that Madonna poured money into Malawi for the purposes of being able to adopt a child.’

Source: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/article-1192893/Madonna-new-mum-New-York-I-come-.html