Lady Gaga was recently honored with the Big Man of the Year award for her work in music education at the Little Kids Rock benefit, held in New York City. The princess of pop received the award from the wife of Clarence Clemmons, who played the saxophone solo in “The Edge of Glory”, and passed away this past summer. Lady Gaga said in her acceptance speech “My first experience with music was my father playing a vinyl of the E Street Band. I knew every time the song played that my grandpa was looking down and thanking me [for]… the gift I had given to my father by having Clarence on that record.”
JLS recently premiered the music video for their song “Take a Chance on Me”. The mid-tempo pop track serves as the second single from the British boy band’s upcoming album “Jukebox”, which is due out on November 14 but will be available for pre-order on November 6th. In my opinion, the song is really mediocre and really does nothing to further their career. Call it secondary syndrome or whatever but I actually had high hopes for these guys. As for the video, the boys promote the sites of London, including the Thames path walk, Tower Bridge and the illuminated London eye. It makes me wonder if the England Tourist Board financed this video.
Nicole Scherzinger recently premiered the music video for her song “Try with Me”. The dance-ballad, which was written and produced by The Nervo Twins, serves as the official lead single from the pop singer’s upcoming European re-release of her debut album “Killer Love”. Nicole shines on this song and with the proper promo, can be a massive single for her. As for the visual, it was shot earlier this month in a lost rainforest in Mexico, and sees the beautiful singer wandering through the breathtaking sites, playing the piano in a lake, spinning around in ecstasy and executing glamorous poses in the wild.
Cher Lloyd has recently premiered the music video for her brand new single “With UR Love”. The Mike Posner-assisted track will officially be released in the UK on October 30th. The question now is if the pop singer can get her second UK #1 in a row. The week of her release will be a tough one though as she will be up against Jennifer Lopez, Sean Paul, Avril Lavigne, Beyonce and The Wanted’s new releases. As for the video, I think it’s adorable. Cher looks beautiful and the clip gives the song even more life. But I still think Cher sounds weird on it.
Joe Jonas and Lil Wayne Collaborate on Remix – Just in Love
Joe Jonas is really desperate to get his solo career off the ground, so much so that he’s recruited Lil Wayne to join him on the official remix of his single “Just in Love”. The pop singer may be delirious because he’s not getting any urban airplay if that’s what he was going for. As for the remix, Joe’s vocals, lyrics and the song’s beat are the same, with the addition of Lil Wayne adding some rap verses. Unfortunately for Joe, they don’t really add anything good to the song. I was actually anticipating Joe’s solo debut after hearing “See No More” but after “Just in Love” and hearing other leaked tracks, let’s just say he’s lucky that he’s pretty.
Kelly Clarkson has gone on the promotional route in support of her latest single “Mr. Know it All”, which comes off of her upcoming album that’s set to be released on October 24th. The American Idol alum went over to Australia to perform on this past Wednesday’s episode of X Factor. The pop singer was absolutely flawless in her performance. I just can’t get tired of watching her do live renditions of “Mr. Know it All”. And I have to say, Kelly is looking more and more fabulous each day. I wonder if she’s working out in preparation for a rigorous tour once her album comes out.
Bruno Mars scores the first single from the soundtrack of “The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn Part 1”. The powerful ballad “It Will Rain”, which was co-written and produced by The Smeezingtons, was released officially on iTunes on September 27th, while the soundtrack disc hit stores on November 8th, 2011. The R&B/pop singer described the new song as “think of the darker side of love”. I think this is perfection. I love the melody, the lyrics and the passion in Bruno’s voice. I think this is the highlight for me from the entire Twilight soundtrack. It’ll be hard to top Bruno but if Robert Pattinson has something up his sleeve…
Justin Bieber has brought back his rapper alter ego Shawty Mane for this fresh remix of Lil Wayne’s latest smash hit “How to Love”. The teen pop singer kept the entirety of the original lyrics and even added a whole new rap verse. He definitely shows off his talent on the sweet acoustic number from “Tha Carter IV”. A couple of demos of Justin as Shawty Mane have leaked recently and is making me think that a rap album or mix tape might be in the works. I think he’ll do it one day. He obviously likes that type of music.
Aqua is back on the scene but the legendary Danish-Norwegian pop band is toning things down a bit in the new single release from their new album “Megalomania”, which will hit stores in select markets across Europe on October 3rd. They had some fun with the first single “How R U Doing?” but the Lene Nystrom-led band has decided to slow the tempo down a little for the follow up “Playmate to Jesus”. Aqua recently premiered the music video for the song on their YouTube page. Lene looks stunning in the visual but I’m not entirely sure about the goth vibe. And thanks to this video, I just noticed that the band actually sampled some of Kanye West.
Kelly Clarkson gave the first TV performance of her new single “Mr. Know It All” on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno this past Tuesday. I think the pop singer is back in the US just in time to promote her single because the song is losing places like that on iTunes. While the song is still doing great on radios, I hope that once the music video comes in and she continues her TV run, that “Mr. Know It All” will make its way back up the charts. As for her performance on Leno, Kelly absolutely killed it! Her vocals were hot and she looked stunning in that little number.
Agnes, aka the Leona Lewis of Sweden, has recently unveiled the full version of her brand new single, the disco ballad “Don’t Go Breaking My Heart”. I actually don’t think the track is good. It doesn’t have that instant impact like her song “Release Me”. I guess I’ll just wait until remixes come out to say whether or not it can gain some legs. However, Agnes does great vocals on top of the techno beat within a ballad. Leona can learn something from her. With this new single, the pop singer gears up for the upcoming release of her fourth studio album which will hit European stores in early 2012.
Porcelain Black has a new single out called “Naughty Naughty”. In a somewhat comedic way, the sassy up tempo track was actually leaked by producer RedOne via YouTube this past Sunday. If you’re wondering why, he took to his Twitter to announce that Porcelain’s new single would be officially released on iTunes and radio on November 15th, which drew a lot of heat from fans. RedOne understood the fans’ frustration and decided to leak the single. “Naughty Naughty” is a straight pop song. I guess with the chart disaster that was “This is What Rock N Roll Looks Like”, Porcelain and her team decided to come up with a new strategy.
Jennifer Lopez recently appeared on Good Morning America to world premiere the music video for her new single “Papi”. JLo didn’t attend the show in person but a video of her was displayed at one of the jumbotrons at New York City’s Times Square, from where the ABC morning show was being broadcasted live. The pop singer introduced the clip and just as I was dreading, the Fiat 500 commercial, plus some extra footage, was indeed what made up the official video. I am so disappointed. The song is killer and the clip just doesn’t embody anything about the song. I was expecting so much more.
Check out the full version of Tony Bennett and Lady Gaga’s cover of “The Lady is a Tramp”, a classic jazz song that dates from 1937. The music icon and the pop singer have revised the popular song by adding a more contemporary sound, well, at least Lady Gaga did. I love their version. Who knew that her voice was actually suited for this genre? The track can be found on Tony’s upcoming album “Duets II”, which is due out on September 20th. Tony also has collaborations with Mariah Carey, Carrie Underwood, Aretha Franklin, Norah Jones and others on the CD.
Nick Jonas is set to join the cast of “How to Succeed in Business without Really Trying”. The 18-year old pop singer will begin his run as J. Pierrepont Finch on Broadway beginning on January 24, 2012. Daniel Radcliffe is currently playing the role. Once the “Harry Potter” actor finishes his run, “Glee” star Darren Criss will take over for just under a month. How do you think Nick will fair on the show after following Daniel and Darren? Sure he has some experience but compared to Daniel and Darren, he’s a novice. Who’s planning to see the show?
Kevin McCall and Chris Brown just love working together. The two R&B singers have made some hot records together. They managed to score a top 20 US hit with “Deuces” so it shouldn’t be a surprise to find out that they were putting out a new collaboration to continue with the winning streak. A new track called “Hard to Get” appears on the recently released deluxe edition of Kevin’s latest mix tape “The Eargazm”. In my opinion, this might be the end of their streak. The song just sounds okay to me. I don’t like that it sounds so pop when I was looking forward to a hot R&B track.
Inna has decided to give us another brand new song called “Endless”, which comes off of her upcoming sophomore album “I Am the Club Rocker”. The 24-year old singer from Romania uploaded the track onto her YouTube account for fans to listen to. I wonder how many more songs she plans to put out before the album gets released on September 19th. Anyway, as for the new song, in a word, it’s different. The song isn’t straight electro pop/dance material. It actually shows a more mellow, calm side to Inna with soft vulnerable vocals over a simple thump synth beat and a few stings of Spanish guitar. It’s actually pretty nice.
Lady Gaga is featured on the cover of the October 2011 issue of Harper’s Bazaar, which hits newsstands on September 27. The 25-year old pop singer talked to the magazine about her body image and self-confidence, saying “I’m very free-spirited. Even when I was a kid, I used to run around naked with the babysitter, driving her crazy. I do yoga, I do Bikram and I run, and I eat really healthy. You know, my work sort of feeds me. I keep in shape by working hard.” Lady Gaga, who had a natural look going for her on the cover, also talked about staying true to herself, saying “Whether I’m wearing lots of makeup or no makeup, I’m always the same person inside.”
It looks like things are going good for Joe Jonas. Not only has he set off with a solo music career but he’s also going to get a chance to be a real Hollywood movie star. If anyone knows anything about Hollywood, you can work on a film all you want but if you don’t have financing, you have a problem. That’s apparently been the struggle Joe was facing for a while but good news came recently. The pop singer said “I was in Mexico City last week and my manager called me and said, ‘The movie’s financed!’ I was, like, in tears. [It's about a] young man who is finding himself. The storyline is still bare bones, but I will say he has a specific dream that he wants to accomplish, and it’s the good and the bad he has to go through to get there. It’s going to be an older-feeling kind of movie. It’s a little bit of everything. One of my favorite movies is The Four Feathers, and that has everything. It has funny, romantic, passionate. I want to do something like that.”
Leona Lewis has recently unveiled the official artwork for her upcoming album “Glassheart”. The pop singer’s third studio effort will hit stores in the UK on November 28th. I guess she’s keeping “Glass Heart” written as one word. I’m not sure what to think of that. Anyway, the actual album cover features a pretty photo of Leona. There’s no denying that her face is simply stunning but with all the possibilities with the words, they could have done so much better with the cover. It’s very safe in my opinion. Where’s the creativity and originality? In other news, Leona recently had an interview with UK radio show “IN: DEMAND with Alex and Lucy” earlier this week where she confirmed that she will be performing on the US X Factor.
MTV News caught up with Britney Spears for a little interview where they asked the money question of whether or not the pop singer will be releasing a new single. In typical Britney fashion, she candidly spilled the beans that there is going to be a fourth single from the “Femme Fatale” album and it will be “Criminal”. The mid tempo track will be the follow up to “I Wanna Go”. I like the choice. After 3 up tempo singles, it should be nice to get something to slow things down a bit. Expect the new single to drop on radios soon. Britney also said that she already has an idea in mind for the music video. I can’t wait to see that.
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Lil Wayne teams up with R&B/pop singer Bruno Mars in a track called “Mirror”. The song is a bonus track included on the deluxe version of the rapper’s latest album “Tha Carter IV”. This thing came out of nowhere! If you didn’t have enough reasons to buy this album, now you do. “Mirror” is an absolute smash, in my opinion. And if Lil Wayne is smart, he’ll release this as a single ASAP. Bruno is a pretty hot thing in the music industry and everybody just loves the guy. Featuring him on a track is a guarantee that radios will eat this up.
Lil Wayne featuring Bruno Mars – Mirror – New Song
Demi Lovato delivered a spectacular performance of her single “Skyscraper” on America’s Got Talent earlier this week. The track is the lead single from the pop singer’s upcoming third album called “Unbroken”, which is due out on September 20th. The song managed to top the iTunes Singles Chart and enter the top 10 on Billboard’s Hot 100 recently. It’s such an emotional song, and with the vocals that Demi has, she can afford to show off and make the song even more beautiful during live performances. Dare I say it, she’s the best performer from the whole Hollywood Records roster.
Demi Lovato – Skyscraper – Performance Video
Leona Lewis has recently premiered the music video for her new single “Collide”. The pop singer is seen belting out her song with soaring diva vocals from the sandy shore of a Malibu beach, moving along with the uplifting beat while seated in a convertible and enjoying a fireworks display at night. I’m not that crazy about this video. Leona looks beautiful in it and it’s obvious that the camera loves her but it’s just too boring. And considering what the song’s lyrics are about, the whole concept is just so wrong. I honestly don’t expect this to help her single any.
Leona Lewis – Collide – New Video
Smirnoff Vodka is working with Madonna on a new promotion that could very well choose a new backup dancer for the Queen of Pop’s upcoming tour. The promotion, called the Smirnoff Nightlife Exchange Project, will try to get 10 million people in 50 countries to swap nightlife stories on their Facebook page. Some winners will be chosen to attend one of 50 parts on November 12 where Madonna herself will be in attendance. The singer will be on the lookout for some pretty awesome dancers who will compete for her attention and later participate in a dance off. The winner could very well be chosen to become a dancer on her next tour. So who has some interesting nightlife stories to share?
Lady Gaga stopped by the MTV offices in Times Square yesterday to announce her big surprise regarding the 2011 MTV Video Music Awards. I had initially thought that the princess of pop was going to be the host of this year’s show, with there still not being one announced. It wasn’t what the singer announced but her news was still a doozey. Lady Gaga has been confirmed to kick off the show, which will air live from the Nokia Theatre in Los Angeles on August 28. How the rest of the show can live up to an epic opening number by Lady Gaga, I don’t know.
Jessie J has a new song out called “Domino”. The upbeat track, which was produced by Dr. Luke, is a song that wasn’t included in the 23-year old British pop singer’s debut album “Who You Are”. It makes me wonder if this a bonus track or a new song or just something that didn’t make the cut. If it’s the last one, I’ll never understand the reason because I really think it’s a great song. It has a catchy tune and a refreshing vibe. And with lyrics that go “Rock my world into the sunlight. Make this dream the best I’ve ever known. Dirty dancing in the moonlight. Take me down like I’m a domino. Every second is a highlight. When we touch don’t ever let me go” how can you not think of it as fun?
Jessie J – Domino – New Song 
Lady Gaga has recently premiered the official music video for her latest single “You and I”. The Robert “Mutt” Lange-produced ballad becomes the fourth single from the princess of pop’s highly successful album “Born This Way”. The 25-year old singer took to her Twitter just as the video debuted, saying “You will never find what you are looking for in love, if you don’t love yourself.” Check it out! It is a visual extravaganza! While I don’t quite get the concept of it, it’s an enjoyable watch. I loved the presence of Lady Gaga’s male alter ego in the video too.
Lady Gaga – You and I – New Video 
Although it’s not definite yet, I’m encouraged to find out that Girls Aloud singer Kimberley Walsh recently revealed in an interview that the British pop band will in fact reunite in 2012 for a new 10-year anniversary tour. Kimberley said “I’d like to do more acting, but, to be honest, being in the band has surpassed everything I ever dreamed of doing with my life. The girls will have been together for ten years next year and that’s definitely going to be celebrated with a tour. I can’t say any more until next year – but I’m really looking forward to it.” If that isn’t salivating information, I don’t know what is.
Nicki Minaj’s “Super Bass” is an official hit. The track has been moving up on the Billboard Hot 100 chart weeks after its initial release and has become the highest charting Hot 100 rap hit by a solo female rapper ever since Missy Elliott’s “Work It”, which reached the #2 spot back in 2002. “Super Bass” is also only one of eight rap singles by a solo female artist to reach the top 10 in the chart’s 53-year history. Cash Money co-founder Ronald Williams isn’t surprised by the success of Nicki and the track, saying “Nicki isn’t like any other female rapper. We knew she had the goods when Lil Wayne signed her. She’s not a female rapper — she’s a pop star who happens to rap.” Congratulations!
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