To improve your Upper intermediate English, add these chunks or phrases to your vocabulary. You'll be amazed at how regularly you see them in newspaper articles. Look at the glossary at the bottom of the page to help you understand the advanced vocabulary.
David Bowie is hot again! After making TV news bulletins and front page headlines with the release of a single (Where are we now?) in January to coincide with his 66th birthday, now Bowie has gone straight in at number one with his new album, the first in a decade. His success has not only been in the UK though; the album The Next Day has gone to the top of the iTunes charts in over 40 countries – not bad for a pensioner, is it? It seems that London is Bowie-tastic at the moment, with a brand new exhibition at the Victoria and Albert Museum entitled, David Bowie Is. The retrospective look at his career has sold more than 42,000 advance tickets. That is double the amount of tickets sold before for the opening of previous exhibitions. This is the first international retrospective of Bowie's career and the curators have gained full access to David Bowie's personal archive. They have selected over 300 objects that display the creative songwriting process, his changing fashion style and the way that he constantly reinvented himself with iconic characters. 
As you would expect, the items on display include original costumes, photographs, film, music videos and album artwork. But there are also lots of personal items included such as Bowie's own sketches, diary entries, handwritten lyrics, his own instruments and never-before-seen items. All the buzz surrounding Bowie shows the power of the man, the music, the cultural icon and influential performer especially considering that he has shunned the limelight since 2004 when he suffered a heart attack shortly after a live gig.
Upper intermediate English Vocabulary Chunks
- making headlines
- to be so popular that you are the main topic of conversation in a country
- the release of a single
- to have a new song available to buy
- has gone straight in at number one
- to be extremely successful as soon as you start something new
- retrospective look at
- an examination of the past history of something
- gained full access
- to be allowed to look at everything
- iconic characters
- a fictional person that symbolises something (usually positive)
- never-before-seen
- something that has not been previously available or perhaps even known about
- the buzz surrounding
- the hype, the media, people talking about a fashionable and opular subject
- shunned the limelight
- for someone who is famous to not look for publicity and not let people know about their private life
