Music Friday: Soulful Songstress Duffy Laments, 'You Wear Me Like a Charm,' in Her 2008 Single, 'Serious'

Welcome to Music Friday when we bring you splendid songs with jewelry, gemstones or precious metals in the title or lyrics. Today, soulful songstress Duffy brightens our blog with a live performance of "Serious" from her Grammy-award-winning album, Rockferry.

In the song, the 28-year-old Welsh star senses that her boyfriend doesn't want a serious relationship. She laments, "I'm a trophy on your arm. You wear me like a charm, yes you do."

The 2008 release of Rockferry brought Duffy instant success and international fame. Despite it being a debut album, Rockferry entered the U.K. Album Chart as number one and went on to sell more than seven million copies worldwide. The critically acclaimed album spawned Duffy's Grammy-nominated international megahit, "Mercy."

Born Aimee Ann Duffy, the artist told a British entertainment web site that she was inspired to pursue soul music after watching Whoopi Goldberg's performance in the movie Sister Act.

See the video of Duffy at the end of this post. The lyrics are below if you'd like to sing along.

"Serious"

Written by Bernard Butler and Aimee Ann Duffy. Performed by Duffy.

I always wanted to see the colors of your destiny
I always wanted to know a flower that would grow 

I'm a trophy on your arm
You wear me like a charm, yes you do
An accessory that suits
Your new suede boots

I get a feeling deep down inside
Something just ain't right
I get a feeling that tells me I know
Baby you never show

How you really feel for me
Tell me, can we ever be
Serious, serious in love? 

A joke on my expense
In front of all your friends, all the time
A game you like to play
Leaves me solo every day

I get a feeling deep down inside
Something just ain't right
I get a feeling that tells me I know
Baby you never show

How you really feel for me
Tell me can we ever be
Serious, serious in love
Serious, serious in love?

I get a feeling deep down inside
That something just ain't right
I get a feeling that tells me I know
Baby you never show

How you really feel for me
Tell me, can we ever be, tell me
Serious, serious in love?

Another Supersize Gem in the News: Botswana Mine Yields 239.2-Carat Rough Diamond

It's been a big week for BIG diamond news. On Monday, we told you about a 101.73-carats flawless diamond that's expected to break auction records at Christie's Geneva. On Tuesday, we wrote about a 1,000-carat necklace that features the golden 407.48-carat L’Incomparable Diamond.

Today, we give you a close-up look at a rough diamond recently extracted from the Karowe Mine in Botswana that weighs a whopping 239.2 carats. Also pulled from the same mine were smaller, but still impressive, rough diamonds weighing 124 carats and 71.1 carats.

Credited with these stellar finds is the Canadian-based mining company, Lucara Diamond Corp. The company was unable to estimate the clarity or potential value of the largest diamond because, in its current state, it's difficult to see beneath the surface.
William Lamb, president and CEO of Lucara, told JCK magazine, "The color is good, but because of the surface texture, it is difficult to say on the clarity." The company will be sending the rough diamond to Antwerp to be analyzed by expert gemologists and gem cutters.

The challenge will be to get the best yield while maintaining the highest possible clarity and color. Lamb added that the 239-carat stone is "one of the largest diamonds ever to have been recovered from the highly prolific Orapa kimberlite field in more than 40 years of production."

 The mining company's recent success with mammoth diamonds coincided with the southward expansion of its mining pit.

News Anchor's 'Breaking News' Is the Lead-In to Her Own On-Air Marriage Proposal

Huntsville, Ala., news anchor Jillian Pavilca was tricked into reading some "breaking news" off the teleprompter during a live TV broadcast on Saturday, only to discover that the news was actually the lead-in to her own surprise marriage proposal. Pavilca's boyfriend, Vince Ramos, convinced the show's producer to put his script into the teleprompter and the results were spontaneous, funny, romantic and memorable. "And we do have some breaking news to report to you," Pavlica told her audience at the end of Saturday's 9 p.m. newscast. "Fox 54 has just learned that a Huntsville news anchor is being proposed to on live TV right now." It takes a moment for the news anchor to absorb what she just said, and her two fellow newscasters scamper off the set. Then Ramos enters the scene, where he drops to one knee and proposes on live TV. The anchor says, "Yes," and the couple embraces. The producer then goes to a shot of the weather map, as one of the fellow anchors says, "Hey, here in the Fox 54 studios, a hundred percent chance of a few tears of joy tonight." Pavlica revealed to the "Today" show that she had no chance to read the "breaking news" script before she did it live. In the few days since the live broadcast, the romantic story and video have gone viral with 191,000 views on YouTube. Check it out below...

1,000-Carat Necklace Highlighted by L'Incomparable, a 407-Carat Flawless Golden Diamond

Valued at more than $30 million, the L’Incomparable Diamond Necklace by Mouawad features a staggering 1,044 carats of diamonds, including the internally flawless golden L’Incomparable Diamond weighing in at 407.48 carats. The high-profile designer claims that the unusual triolette-cut gem is the world’s largest internally flawless diamond. The necklace was unveiled for the first time at the Doha Jewellery and Watch Exhibition in Qatar a few weeks ago.

Complementing the massive L’Incomparable Diamond are 637 carats of smaller white diamonds in pear, brilliant and emerald cuts, all set in rose gold in a laurel wreath design. There are 91 diamonds in total.

Although no price was put on the piece, some jewelry experts estimated that the L’Incomparable Diamond Necklace would probably command an asking price of $30 million or more if it were ever offered for sale.

The flawless center stone, which was discovered 33 years ago in the Democratic Republic of Congo, weighed 890 carats in its rough state. It was polished in 1984, and its first public appearance was at the Smithsonian Institute in Washington, D.C.

A young girl is credited with finding the L’Incomparable Diamond in a pile of rubble collected from an old mine dump. The diamond had been overlooked because the bulky rubble was thought to be too large to contain any diamonds. This massive rough diamond was considered to be cut into the world's largest gem, but the final size was reduced to 407.5 carats in order to earn a flawless grade.

101.73-Carat Flawless Diamond Expected to Set Records at Christie’s Geneva

Tipping the scales at an astounding 101.73-carats, it's the largest flawless diamond ever to be offered at auction. The yet-unnamed pear-shaped gem is expected to set auction records when it fetches upwards of $20 million at Christie's Magnificent Jewels sale at the Four Seasons Hotel des Bergues on May 15.  Discovered in the Jwaneng mine in Botswana, the once-in-a-generation marvel weighed 236 carats in its rough state. According to The Sun, expert diamond cutters worked on the specimen for 21 months. According to a spokesperson for the auction house, the diamond was literally "sculpted like a work of art." The cutters lost nearly 57 percent of the diamond's weight during the process, but yielded a D-color, Type IIA flawless gem — the best ratings for color and clarity. “This diamond is, in its scale, quality and rarity, one of the most beautiful ‘white’ diamonds Christie’s has ever had the honor of offering for sale,” said Rahul Kadakia, Head of Jewellery, Christie’s Switzerland and Americas. How does the unnamed 101-carat diamond stack up against the largest gem-quality diamonds of all time? The reigning champ is the 530-carat Cullinan I (also known as the Great Star of Africa), which is part of the British Crown Jewels.