The sample is from the opening of Stevie Wonder's track Pastime Paradise, off his revered 1976 double album Songs In The Key Of Life. Like most good hip-hop songs, Gangsta's Paradise started with a great sample - in this case the sound of a string section as replicated by a Yamaha GX-1 synthesizer a keyboard so advanced and rare that in 1975, when the riff was recorded, it cost US$60,000 - about AU$407,000 today. In Australia, it stayed at number 1 for 13 weeks - a long-standing record in the ARIA Charts-era that was only broken in 2017 by Ed Sheeran's Shape Of You (who was in turn superseded by Tones & I's Dance Monkey in 2019) - and was 1995's biggest-selling single here.īut where did this song come from, and what happened to the artist, born Artis Leon Ivey Jr, better known as Coolio? Welcome to paradise Its title track remains one of the biggest selling songs of all time. They pointed out that the cops would be assisted by the Devasthanam security and staff.The album cover of Coolio's Gangsta's Paradise. Regarding the bandobast, they noted that the requirement would be limited with a relatively small number of police around the main temple complex and near the barricades. The authorities added that special pujas will be conducted at the temple from May 28 onwards, but would be telecast online ( on the Simhachalam Devasthanam Live).
When asked if VIPs and special darshans would be allowed, the EO said, "No way!! As per government policy, they will not be allowed, the restrictions are not just for the general public alone".
As for the priests, we shall be using only five each for every shift (three shifts totally)". The EO added, "We don't want to take any risk inside the temple either, it is a sensitive issue as far as the priests are concerned but we have restricted the number of priests and Vedic pandits to 20, this is because all the four Vedas are chanted, hence we require the four pandits, but only in the morning, during the main Puja. The temple authorities further added that they are also rotating the priests on a shift basis to prevent crowding at the Sanctum Sanctorum ( Garbha Alayam). We have also requested for additional police force has also been asked for". Venkateswara Rao further added, "We don't want to put lives of people in danger and barricades have already been set up at seven major points. But this year there are no chances being taken. It is a lavish public affair, involving more than 1,20,000 devotees, thousands of VIPs, VVIPs and a huge battalion of police personnel, with a separate control room service also being provided. Usually, the festival is a grand affair, with priests, public and patrons and Vedic scholars participating in a big way. The Chandanotsavam draws lakhs of crowds every year and is one of the main festivals concerning the primary deity of north-coastal Andhra Pradesh, Lord Varaha Lakshmi Narasimha.
This was ironical when the Spanish Flu was doing the rounds in the sub-continent, wreaking havoc all over". The EO, M Venkateswara Rao said, "According to sources, the last time there was such a shut-down was in 1920. The temple is being shut down completely for the first time in exactly a hundred years due to the Covid-19 scare. VISAKHAPATNAM: The Simhachalam Devasthanam Board has taken all measures to ensure that there is no public coming to the temple for the annual ‘ Chandanotsavam’ of Sri Varaha Lakshmi Narasimha Swamy that would commence in the early hours of Sunday.