Ke$ha - Nashville Photo Shoot BTS
- Artist: Ke$ha
- Label: RCA Records Label
- Director:
- Album: All for One
Dania Ramirez Danica Patrick Daniella Alonso Danneel Harris Deanna Russo Denise Richards Desiree Dymond Diane Kruger Dido Diora Baird
Dania Ramirez Danica Patrick Daniella Alonso Danneel Harris Deanna Russo Denise Richards Desiree Dymond Diane Kruger Dido Diora Baird
R&B crooner let his vocals do the dancing with a simple, stripped-down performance.
By Kelley L. Carter
<P><P>With two spotlights shining down on him, a sleeveless Usher belted out the first notes of his summer hit, "Climax," at Sunday's 2012 BET Awards.</P><P>The R&B crooner stood center stage, wearing all black, save for a pair of hot-colored shoes, and sang the ballad with the electro-beat from his seventh studio album, <i>Looking 4 Myself,</i> in front of a live band. Some wicked, black-and-white animation danced behind him on a large screen that backlit the auditorium.</P><P>This was the first time Usher has performed at the awards show since 2010, where he also sang another ballad, "There Goes My Baby," from his <i>Raymond v. Raymond</i> album.</P><P></P><P>The Sunday night (July 1) performance came in the first half-hour of the show and was apropos, considering that Usher's latest studio album is topping <i>Billboard</i>'s charts for the second week in a row (and his fourth #1-debuting album in a row). The dance-friendly album was just released last month. "Climax" hit #17 on the singles chart, while second track "Scream" has peaked at #13.</P><P>For his BET Awards performance, the multiplatinum, multi-Grammy-winning R&B singer kept it fairly muted. Save for a few quick microphone movements, he let his vocals dance during the performance. Even his attire was muted compared to what we've seen Usher turn out at awards shows in years past; a lone, shiny timepiece decorated his wrist.</P><P>Usher concluded his performance with a quick wave of his hand to the fans down in front.</P><P><b>Stick with MTV News as we bring you all the scoop from the 2012 BET Awards, including winners and must-see performances!</b></p></p>
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'She is frail, and she doesn't eat when she should,' John says of Gaga in new interview with The Guardian.
By John Mitchell
<P>Elton John is concerned about his friend Lady Gaga's health, telling The Guardian that Mother Monster's hectic touring and work schedule leave her "frail" and undernourished.</P><P>Perhaps more disconcerting is that John said Gaga's parents, to whom she is famously quite close, worry about her welfare as well. "I look at Gaga, and I think, 'How does she do it?' I talk to her mum and dad about it. They worry," he said.</P><P>"She is frail, and she doesn't eat when she should do, and she's a girl, and it's tougher for a girl. She works really hard," John continued. "She will be in Denmark one night and Saudi Arabia the next. I know how tiny she is, and I do worry about her, yes."</P><P>Gaga and John are so close that the music legend chose the "Born This Way" singer to be the godmother of his one-year-old son, Zachary. The pair have collaborated artistically multiple times, including a medley performance of their hits at the 2010 Grammys and on the duet "Hello Hello" for the animated 2011 film "Gnomeo & Juliet." Gaga has said that the two will duet again for her next album, which she is reportedly working on concurrently with her "Born This Way Ball" Tour.</P><P></p><div class="player-placeholder right" title="Lady Gaga Has The Title And Concept For Her Next Album" id="vid: 717202" width="415" height="255"></div><p></P><P>"My next duet, I believe, will be with Elton," Gaga told British talk-show host Alan Carr late last year. "I'm already working on my next album, and I played him a song that I wrote, and he really loved it. I don't want to give anything [else] away!"</P><P>John's concerns for Gaga's health are not without precedent. In January 2010, the pop star was forced to cancel a concert in West Lafayette, Indiana, when she experienced shortness of breath and a rapid heartbeat backstage immediately before the performance was set to begin. After that frightening incident, Gaga canceled dates in Atlantic City, New Jersey, and Wallingford, Connecticut, based on doctor's recommendations that she take time to recover from exhaustion.</P><P>Just two months later, Gaga appeared on the verge of collapse by the conclusion of a "Monster Ball" show in Auckland, New Zealand. Video from the performance shows Gaga sitting and even lying down during the final song of the evening, "Bad Romance."</P><P>
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Danica Patrick Daniella Alonso Danneel Harris Deanna Russo Denise Richards Desiree Dymond Diane Kruger Dido Diora Baird Dita Von Teese
Ciara Cindy Crawford Cindy Taylor Cinthia Moura Claudette Ortiz Coco Lee Connie Nielsen Cristina Dumitru Daisy Fuentes Dania Ramirez
'You will always remember where you were ... when you heard the news,' Simon Cowell says, echoing the sentiments after Jackson's death.
By Tomika L. Anderson
<P>Few people will forget where they were when they heard that the King of Pop, Michael Jackson, had died in June 2009. And now, the same can be said for 1980s and '90s Queen of Pop Whitney Houston.</P><P></p><div class="player-placeholder right" title="Celebrities React To Whitney Houston's Passing" id="vid:733106.id:1679030" width="240" height="211"></div><p></P><P>The beloved, long-suffering singer died Saturday inside a Beverly Hills hotel room, hours before she was expected to attend a pre-Grammy Awards party thrown by her longtime mentor Clive Davis.</P><P>And while the official cause of death is yet unknown — what's been speculated so far is that Houston may have drowned in the bathtub after taking prescription drugs, including Xanax — given her very public struggle with substance abuse, depression and anxiety over the past decade, it's hard not to conclude that some drug- or alcohol-related accident may have been to blame.</P><P>It's much like, most recently, British singer Amy Winehouse and the late, great Michael Jackson before her, who died after taking a fatal cocktail of propofol and two other drugs. Also like Jackson, Houston's sudden death — at the age of 48 — has stopped the world in its tracks, an enormous, one-of-a-kind musical flame forever extinguished.</P><P>Even Jackson's brother, Jermaine — who was first introduced to Houston years ago by Clive Davis at the same Beverly Hills Hilton where the singer passed away — could not help but draw the comparison. In an interview with CNN overnight, he paid tribute to the two fallen musical giants. "They shared a lot of success in the late '80s and they were great friends," he said. "I'm happy and honored to have been a part of their lives."</P><P>And oh, what lives they led: Like Jackson — who died at just 50 years old, after years of struggling with personal demons — Houston, too, had an intensely profound and everlasting impact on the world of entertainment.</P><P>Mariah Carey, Christina Aguilera, Jennifer Hudson and countless other chart-topping entertainers have all name-checked her as their musical mentor, icon and inspiration: To date, she is one of the best-selling artists of all time, with more than 170 million albums, songs and videos sold.</P><P>In her lifetime, Houston achieved what precious few of them have or ever will — stacking an astonishing 415 awards, including six Grammys, two Emmys, 22 American Music Awards, 30 <i>Billboard</i> Awards.</P><P>Her voice, in its prime, was a national treasure.</P><P>"X Factor" mastermind Simon Cowell may have summed it up the best: On "Piers Morgan Tonight," he said, "She was one of the greatest voices in our lifetime. Whitney was the number one singer that other singers want to emulate. People like that can't be manufactured. They've either got, it or they don't."</P><P>He added, "You will always remember where you were and what you were doing when you heard the news."</P><P>Like Michael before her, gone too soon.</P><P><center></center></P><P><b>MTV News' Sway and James Montgomery will be live from the Grammys red carpet tonight starting at 5 p.m. ET to get reactions from music's biggest stars on the death of Whitney Houston. Watch reactions and remembrances at MTV.com.</b></P><P><I>Share your condolences with Whitney's family and friends on our Facebook page.</I></p>
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'It shows the intense live side of the band, as opposed to the perfection and the cleanness of how we sound on our albums,' guitarist says.
By Chris Harris
<P>On October 14, Dimmu BorgirDimmu Borgir — who just happen to be Demi Lovato's favorite black-metal band — will release a a three-disc DVD/CD set called "The Invaluable Darkness," the band's first visual offering since 2002's "World Misanthropy." Boasting live footage shot last year, during gigs in Norway, Germany and England, "The Invaluable Darkness" demonstrates the unbridled furor of seeing Dimmu live, guitarist Silenoz said.</P><P>"It shows the honest rawness and atmospheric darkness of our concerts," the Norwegian told <i>Metal File</i> last week, after dismissing recent online rumors that his band's next LP would be coming out through Roadrunner Records. "Basically, it shows the intense live side of the band, as opposed to the perfection and the cleanness of how we sound on our albums. It's just a different side to the band, basically."</P><P>Dimmu Borgir began thinking about "The Invaluable Darkness" two years ago, but didn't start capturing footage until last summer, Silenoz explained, adding that the band will use its current stint on the Blackest of the Black Tour — which got underway Thursday night in Miami Beach, Florida, and also features the tour's founder, Danzig, along with MoonspellMoonspell, Winds of PlagueWinds of Plague and Skeletonwitch — to promote the DVD. Dimmu Borgir will not, however, use the tour to write material for their next LP.</P><P>"It's our first time on Blackest, but Glenn [Danzig] had wanted to bring us out before [on the tour], but we weren't available until now," Silenoz said. "We've done Ozzfest before, but we're looking forward to this tour more. We did the main stage on Ozzfest, playing in f--_ing broad daylight. This tour will let us play in bigger places, but at the same time showcase more of what the band's about, visually. We are going to concentrate on the tour for now. Some years ago, we tried putting [material] together on the road, but once we got home, we listened back to it, and were like, 'What the f--- <i>is</i> this?' So, we just scrapped it all. We find it's so much better to totally focus on one thing at a time, and then, when that's over, you move on to the next [thing]. We don't really feel like we need to rush things, anyway, so we'll just take our time, and it's going to be what it's going to be."</P><P>Dimmu Borgir hope to reconvene in late December to begin writing the follow-up to 2007's diabolically titled <i>In Sorte Diaboli.</i> "We have some ideas floating around already, but we haven't arranged any material yet," he said. "We'll start doing that once the touring for this DVD is over." The band's frontman, Shagrath, is also due to marry soon — he's engaged to actor Nicolas Cage's ex-girlfriend, Christina Fulton, so that may have an effect on when Dimmu finish their next album, which Silenoz said could be out this coming spring.</P><P>"I'm sure [Shagrath] won't let anything get in the way [of] the band — I think, I hope," the guitarist said. "We don't need a Yoko [Ono] situation."</P><P>While Dimmu have been at it going on 15 years now, Silenoz said he doesn't think their forthcoming material will be much of a departure from their previous black-metal offerings.</P><P>"And we have always been about more than just that term, 'black metal,' " he said. "Luckily for us, the older you get, the less concerned you get with the categorization and putting labels on your music. Things start getting more and more limitless with us, and we know that we operate within certain frames. But we try not to analyze things too much, because it's just going to be working against you in the end. When we write new stuff, we don't think about what we should write — we just get together, and put material together, and if we like it, we keep it. That's the formula, if we even have a formula."</P><P>Dimmu Borgir are definitely getting older — guitarist Galder will be missing Blackest because of a recent addition to his family, and Susperia'sSusperia's Cyrus will be filling in for him; while former VaderVader drummer Dariusz Brzozowski takes over for Hellhammer, who had to leave the band in 2007 after sustaining a neck injury that's now limited the use of his right arm. As Dimmu has gotten on in years, Silenoz admits they have failed to keep pace with some of the more extreme black-metal acts that have followed in their wake.</P><P>"We helped open doors for the more extreme bands out there," Silenoz said. "I'm sure we helped open doors for bands like Watain, [insomuch as] people that had maybe started listening to us first then went on to the more extreme stuff. Let's face it — we're not as extreme as Watain and other bands like that, but we're fine with that."</P><P>The Blackest of the Black Tour continues through November 10 in San Francisco.</P><P>The rest of the week's metal news:</P><P>Dimmu's tourmates on Blackest, <b>Winds of Plague</b>, have announced ex-<b>Azusa</b> drummer <b>Art Cruz</b> has joined their ranks — he replaced <b>Jeff Tenney</b>. According to the band's blog, "Art has already added a new spark to the band and has provided us with a solid backbone that will allow us to continue our rampage stronger than ever." ...</P><P>What the world really needs is another Led Zeppelin<b>Led Zeppelin</b> box set, so, on November 4, Rhino Records will issue the <i>Led Zeppelin Definitive Collection Mini LP Replica CD</i> box set. For just $200, you'll get 1969's <i>Led Zeppelin,</i> 1969's <i>Led Zeppelin II,</i> 1970's <i>Led Zeppelin III,</i> 1971's <i>Led Zeppelin IV,</i> 1973's <i>Houses of the Holy,</i> 1975's <i>Physical Graffiti,</i> 1976's <i>Presence,</i> 1976's <i>The Song Remains the Same,</i> 1979's <i>In Through the Out Door</i> and 1982's <i>Coda,</i> as mini-LP replicas, with artwork from the original U.K. LP sleeves. Now, you know what you can get your dad for Christmas. ...</P><P>Former Killswitch Engage<b>Killswitch Engage</b> frontman <b>Jesse Leach</b> and current Killswitch Engage guitarist <b>Adam Dutkiewicz</b> have teamed up for a new project they're calling <b>Times of Grace</b>, and they've already started working on material for their debut album. According to Leach, "We have two songs to go and we will be finished with all of the vocals. Adam has taken lead vocals in three songs as of yet and he is doing a great job. We also worked on a track yesterday that is so epic — we trade vocals and do two different melodies at the same time. This album went from a melodic metal album to an epic mix of metal/rock/pop/shoegaze and punk. So all of your metal expectations will be incorrect — we are pushing genre boundaries." To quote "Meet the Parents," we'll look forward to that, Greg. ...</P><P><b>The Funeral Pyre</b> and <b>Early Graves</b> will be hitting the road together next month, starting November 7 in South Lake Tahoe, California. Dates are booked through November 21 in Hollywood. ...</P><P>The latest incarnation of <b>Brujeria</b>, which features Carcass<b>Carcass</b> frontman <b>Jeff Walker</b> and Napalm Death's<b>Napalm Carcass's</b> <b>Shane Embury</b>, have lined up several U.S. dates for this winter. The band will begin its brief trek November 28 in Denver, and wrap things up in Dallas on December 7. ... Demiricous<b>Demiricous</b> will be touring with the <b>Gates of Slumber</b> starting November 9 in Denver, for a jaunt that's scheduled to run through December 6 in Indianapolis. ...</P><P>Nearly three years after Roadrunner Records' Roadrunner United concert, which took over the Nokia Theater in New York's Times Square, the label is now releasing footage from that special night as "Roadrunner United: The Concert." The DVD, which hits stores December 9, will boast two discs and 24 live tracks, including Life of Agony's<b>Life of Agony's</b> "River Runs Red," King Diamond's<b>King Diamond's</b> "Abigail," Killswitch's "My Last Serenade," Type O Negative's<b>Type O</p>
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Departed artists like Whitney Houston, Queen's Freddie Mercury and John Lennon also get mentions from fans in Times Square.
By Kate Callahan
<P><b>NEW YORK</b> — After the Tupac hologram performance at Coachella made such a huge splash, the team behind the projection system floated the possibility this week of an Elvis hologram to perform with Justin Bieber. Even '90s girl group TLC is rumored to be considering a virtual version of the late Left Eye on their upcoming tour.</P><P>With all that talk, MTV News hit Times Square to ask fans which departed artists they would most like to see perform in hologram form. While some of those interviewed wanted to see other rappers like the Notorious B.I.G. or Nate Dogg, one fan thought Whitney Houston should get the honors.</P><P></P><P>"I love her, I grew up singing her [songs], just walking around the house when I was seven or eight," Shayana of Houston said.</P><P>Brits Amy Winehouse and John Lennon of the Beatles were also popular picks, and a few rock fans mentioned Queen's flamboyant frontman. "It would have to be Freddie Mercury because Queen were one of the all-time greatest bands and he was a showman," said a fan named Rob.</P><P>Blane Mader would like to see a hologram of another great showman, Michael Jackson.</P><P>"It's a really cliché answer, but in my time I've never seen him and it would just be something awesome to watch," Mader said of the King of Pop.</P><P>Members of the Jackson 5 recently announced that they would love to have a virtual Michael on their upcoming Unity Tour. "Wouldn't that be wonderful? As a matter of fact, we had that idea two years ago for Michael's Cirque du Soleil show," Michael's brother Jackie Jackson told E! News.</P><P><i>Share your wish-list for future hologram performers in the comments below!</i></P><P><center>
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Charli Baltimore Charlies Angels Charlize Theron Chelsea Handler Cheryl Burke China Chow Chloë Sevigny Christina Aguilera Christina Applegate Christina DaRe
Spears goes head to head with Demi Lovato after a young male contestant performs in the first auditions.
By Emily Blake
<P>When "The X Factor" producers announced that they were adding Britney Spears to the judges' panel, experts and viewers wondered whether she would have what it takes to sit alongside Simon Cowell and L.A. Reid to dole out advice to bright-eyed singers. But from the sounds of audio leaked to TMZ from the first round of auditions, it seems that the audience thinks Spears will do just fine.</P><P>After months of speculation, Spears was officially added to the "X Factor" judges' panel in May for a cool $15 million per season. While the show doesn't premiere until September, audio leaked Thursday (May 24) from auditions in Austin, Texas, give us a taste of what we'll be in for come fall. In the clip, Spears and fellow newbie Demi Lovato give differing critiques to a young male contestant.</P><P>"I think that you have a great voice and your tone was great," 19-year-old Lovato told the contestant. "But, I don't really know where you fit. I don't know what's going to set you apart from other musicians who are boys. So, I think you just have to find out what makes you special and what separates you from all the other teenage boys in this industry."</P><P>Britney, on the other hand, had a some kinder words for the amateur singer. "I think you can be bigger than the next Justin Bieber," Spears said, eliciting a rambunctious response from the crowd.</P><P>"I feel like your runs are amazing," she added. "And I do feel like with a little more training, you could actually [inaudible] better presentation, but I see what's there. And you're very gifted. Thank you."</P><P><i>Do you think that Britney Spears and Demi Lovato have what it takes to be a judge on "The X Factor"? Leave your comment below!</i></P><P><center>
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Bianca Kajlich Bijou Phillips Blake Lively Blu Cantrell Bonnie Jill Laflin Bridget Moynahan Britney Spears Brittany Daniel Brittany Lee Brittany Murphy