The Memorable Duet of Ronan Keating and Carola at Allsang på Grensen
An Unforgettable Musical Partnership
A memorable moment occurred in 2018 during the Norwegian music festival Allsang på Grensen when Irish pop star Ronan Keating teamed up with Swedish superstar Carola for a duet that has amassed over 21 million views on YouTube. In 1998, the two gave an incredible performance of “No Matter What,” a worldwide success for Keating’s band Boyzone.
A Combination of Success and Talent
Known for selling over 20 million records as a solo artist and an extra 25 million with Boyzone, Ronan Keating performed alongside Carola, a prominent figure in Swedish music since the 1980s. The audience was in awe of the combination of Carola’s strong voice and Keating’s sultry vocals during the performance.
An Emmy-winning Performance
The night’s high point was the duo’s performance, which included Carola’s beautiful voice enhancing Keating’s sincere delivery. The audience, which included a mother and daughter pair, was enthralled with the musical chemistry on stage and happily danced to the song’s beat.
Carola: A Legendary Scandinavian
There is no denying Carola’s influence on Scandinavian music. Her debut album “Främling” continues to sell more copies in Sweden than any record released by ABBA. Her triumph in the 1991 Eurovision Song Contest with “Fångad av en stormvind” cemented her place in music history; her winning performance has received over 350,000 views on YouTube.
Witness the enchantment of Ronan Keating and Carola’s rendition of “No Matter What” at Allsang på Grensen. To relive this priceless musical moment, watch the video below.
Walmart alters course: Drops self-checkout expansion amidst customer concerns
The advance of technology helps facilitate our lives a great deal, but do we pay a high price when it comes to relying on the machines way more than we should?
In order to speed up the process of running errands and shopping for groceries, Walmart introduced self-checkouts. What they didn’t expect, however, is to face backlash because of this decision that many of the customers consider controversial.
The self-service machines aren’t something new. In fact, they were first introduced in the 1980s to lower labor expenses.
But this service faced plenty of obstacles and customers complain to the added responsibilities.
For example, certain items may have multiple barcodes, whereas the produce, including the meat, fruit, and vegetable, typically needs to be weighed and manually entered into the system using a code, which might be time consuming for the ordinary shoppers. Other times shoppers won’t hear the “beep” confirming an item has been scanned properly.
Another issue is the increase of theft. Walmart announced that thefts at its stores has reached an all-time high.
The machines not only fall short at their purpose of making shopping easier at times, but they also make it harder for the employees they were meant to help.
Christopher Andrews, a sociologist and author of The Overworked Consumer: Self-Checkouts, Supermarkets, and the Do-It-Yourself Economy, says the system “doesn’t work well for anyone.”
He continued: “Everyone feels like they have to have it. Companies are thinking: ‘If we can just get more people on this, maybe we can start reducing some overheads.’”
What’s most, most of the customers have reported that they miss the human interaction while shopping.
Randy Parraz from Making Change at Walmart perfectly summed up customer sentiments by saying, “You can’t convince customers to do the job of a cashier just because you don’t want to pay for the work.”
Walmart decided to listen to what their customers had to say and instead of further expanding automation, the retail giant will hire additional cashiers to provide their customers with a pleasant shopping experience and service.
What Walmart and the rest of the retailers, among which Costco and Wegmans, learned is that efficiency is important but maintaining a balance with positive experiences remains crucial.
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