Music Friday: India.Arie Tells Young Women They Are ‘More Valuable Than a Diamond’

Welcome to Music Friday when we bring you sensational songs with jewelry, gemstones or precious metals in the title or lyrics. Today India.Arie delivers a message of inspiration and empowerment in her 2008 Grammy-nominated “Beautiful Flower.” In the song, she tells young women struggling with self-worth issues that they are beautiful, brilliant, powerful, resilient and “more valuable than a diamond.”

Written to support Oprah Winfrey’s Leadership Academy for Girls in South Africa, “Beautiful Flower” delivers the motivational message that young South African girls have the talent, intelligence and drive to become a new generation of leaders.

India.Arie sings, “‘Cause you’re beautiful like a flower / More valuable than a diamond / You are powerful like a fire / You will heal the world with your mind, and / There is nothing in the world that you cannot do / When you believe in you.”

Born India Arie Simpson, India.Arie (punctuation intended) is a talented singer, songwriter, musician and record producer. She’s also an activist for global health and human dignity. India.Aire was named an Ambassador for UNICEF and traveled to Africa extensively to address the AIDS crisis.

Oprah Winfrey became an avid fan of India.Arie’s music and invited her to appear on her TV show to discuss her music and activism. In 2007, she appeared in Winfrey’s documentary, “Building a Dream: The Oprah Winfrey Leadership Academy.” The documentary chronicled Winfrey’s five-year mission to create an academy for disadvantaged girls in South Africa.

“Putting spiritual and empowerment ideals into music concepts… that’s always been the core message of my music—and it seemed I was talking to others…” India.Arie told chopra.com. “But the truth is that it was my message to myself because I was yearning to know the peace of a self-defined life.”

The daughter of a Motown songstress and a former NBA basketball player, the 45-year-old Denver native has won four Grammy Awards from her 23 nominations, and has sold more than 10 million records worldwide.

“I’m happy that the people who inspired me like my music,” she told The Atlanta Constitution. “When Elton John said I was one of his favorite artists — now, that was success.”

Please check out the video of India.Arie’s enchanting live performance of “Beautiful Flower.” The lyrics are below if you’d like to sing along…

“Beautiful Flower”
Written by India Arie Simpson and Joyce Anne Simpson. Performed by India.Arie.

This is a song for every girl who’s
Ever been through something she thought she couldn’t make it through, yeah<
I sing these words because
I was that girl, too
Wanting something better than this
But who do I turn to

Now we’re moving from the darkness into the light, yeah
This is the defining moment of our lives

‘Cause you’re beautiful like a flower
More valuable than a diamond
You are powerful like a fire
You will heal the world with your mind, and

There is nothing in the world that you cannot do
When you believe in you, who are beautiful
Yeah, you, who are brilliant
Yeah, you, who are powerful
Yeah, you, who are resilient

This is a song for every girl who
Who’s ever been through something she thought she couldn’t make it through
Girl, you can make it through
I sing these words because I know you’re the one who
Knows there’s something better than this
And you’re gonna define it, yeah

Now we’re moving from the darkness into the light
This is the defining moment of our lives

‘Cause you’re beautiful like a flower
More valuable than a diamond
You are powerful like a fire
You will heal the world with your mind, and

There is nothing in the world that you cannot do
When you believe in you, who are beautiful
Yeah, you, who are brilliant
Yeah, you, who are powerful
Yeah, you, who are resilient

Yeah, you, who are beautiful
Yeah, you, who are brilliant
Yeah, you, who are powerful
Yeah, you, who are resilient

Yeah, you, yeah, you
Hey, yeah, you
Yeah, you, yeah, you
Yeah, you, yeah, you
Yeah, you, yeah, you
Yeah, you, yeah, you
Yeah, you, yeah, you

Credit: Photo by Chris Hakkens, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons.

Emily Ratajkowski Commemorates Birth of Baby Boy With Two Gold Necklaces

Model and actress Emily Ratajkowski gave birth to her first child, Sylvester Apollo Bear, on March 8 and took to Instagram this past Sunday to show off two gold necklaces to commemorate the momentous event.

In a post that was liked by more than 939,000 Instagrammers, the 29-year-old Ratajkowski modeled a fashionable "mama" nameplate flanked by two princess-cut diamonds on a delicate gold chain, as well as a diamond-pavé "Sylvester" nameplate affixed to a bold curb chain.

Exactly three years ago, Ratajkowski made news when she told The Tonight Show‘s audience how she accepted a paper clip engagement ring from beau Sebastian Bear-McClard when he popped the question at the Minetta Tavern in New York City.

“He didn’t have a ring, so I was like, ‘Hmmm, nah,'” Ratajkowski explained to host Jimmy Fallon. “And then he took the paper clip that the bill was paid with and made me a ring, which I actually thought was really romantic.”

Five months after the proposal, the paper clip ring was replaced with a more suitable double-stone engagement ring stunner — pear-shaped and princess-cut diamonds nestled side by side on a simple yellow-gold band. Ratajkowski said that she and Bear-McClard took an active role in the engagement ring’s design. Vogue.com reported that the end result was a labor of love, as the couple worked on more than 50 sketches before agreeing on the final look.

That ring made a return engagement in Ratajkowski's Sunday Instagram post. You can see it peeking in at the lower-right portion of the photo, at top. Also seen is a wide yellow-gold wedding band that has a story of its own.

During that same Tonight Show interview, Ratajkowski recounted how she and her fiancé were looking to get married at City Hall soon after the proposal and had little time to pick out wedding bands.

Said Ratajkowski: “So then we walked into Chinatown and bought an ounce of gold, and he was like, ‘We’ll melt down the gold and make the rings.’

“So I was like, ‘I just don’t see us melting down gold, like that just seems kind of difficult,’ but then he ended up going to some store in Midtown and met this nice man— this is the night before our wedding, by the way— and this very nice Israeli man was like, ‘I know how to do that.’

“So we came into his studio after hours and then we actually hammered them out, the whole thing, used a little blow torch. And they were supposed to be temporary rings, but now I’m very attached and I really don’t want to get rid of it.”

Three years later, it looks like the hammered wedding band has found a permanent home on the model's finger.

Credits: Images via Instagram/emrata.

140 Years Ago, a Violent Landslide Led to the Discovery of Kashmir Sapphires

Exactly 140 years ago, a dangerous landslide led to the discovery of the most beautiful and coveted sapphires known to man. High above the nearly inaccessible Himalayan village of Soomjam, the serendipitous event exposed a sheer wall pocked with cornflower blue corundum crystals — gems that would soon be known as Kashmir sapphires.

At first, the locals traded the gem crystals — one for one — for salt. But soon the word got out, merchants recognized their true value and their popularity grew.

Despite the extremely limited three-month mining window due to rough terrain and inhospitable weather, the Kashmir sapphire supply at the original "Old Mine" was completely exhausted by 1887.

The six years of production at the "Old Mine" yielded some of the largest, most beautiful and valuable sapphires the world had ever seen or will ever see. Some of the rough gems were rumored to be as large as 3 x 5 inches. Indian traders referred to their richly saturated blue color as "peacock's neck."

After the initial find was depleted, prospectors attempted to continue their good fortunes at the "New Mine," just south of the original. But those attempts were scrapped because of harsh weather conditions and limited production.

Today, the legacy of the "Old Mine" lies in the valuable stones that were sourced in Kashmir between 1881 and 1887. Two of those stones are headlining Sotheby's Geneva auction on May 11. The 55.19-carat oval-cut Kashmir sapphire, seen above, is being billed as the largest of its kind ever to appear at auction.

The 55.19-carat sapphire is set in a stylized ribbon brooch alongside a cushion-shaped Kashmir sapphire weighing 25.97 carats. The jewelry, which is dated to the 1930s and designed by Cartier, and was once owned by Maureen Constance Guinness, the heiress to the Guinness beer fortune.

“Kashmir sapphires of over 30 carats are a very rare occurrence, so the appearance of a gem of 55.19 carats — the largest ever to come at auction — is an important event,” said Benoit Repellin, head of Sotheby’s Geneva Magnificent Jewels auction.

Sotheby's noted that the Kashmir stones exhibit the deep, velvety blue for which sapphires from these fabled mines are best known, owed to fine clouds of dispersed nanoparticles of iron and titanium, which scatter the light and give the stones a dreamy haziness, quite unlike sapphires from other locations."

Sotheby's is estimating that the brooch will fetch as much as $3 million at its Magnificent Jewels and Noble Jewels sale.

Credits: Jewelry image courtesy of Sotheby's. Zanskar range of the Himalayas by Kashmir photographer, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons. Map by Googlemaps.