Tag Archive | Usher

Who to watch in 2015 – Music!

2014 was an extraordinary year for music and 2015 promises to be the same, if not better! With more newcomers set to take over, old names are guarenteed to make a comeback, it’s an exciting time to be a music fan.

The Newcomers 

Years & Years

Years & Years are an electronica trio from London. The group formed back in 2010 and released their debut single ‘I Wish I Knew’ in 2012. But it was their single ‘Desire’, released in November 2014, that made their name known. They’ve toured with Sam Smith in Europe in 2014 and gained a large following. They have huge critical hype around them as they have been nominated for the Brits Critics’ Choice Award and MTV Brand New. P.s. The lead singer is Olly Alexander is very easy on the eyes 😉

 

Prides

Prides are a synthpop band from Glasgow and started in 2013. They released their debut EP in February 2014 called ‘The Seeds You Sow’. In less than a year, they have stacked up over 900,000 views on Youtube. They performed their song ‘Messiah’ at the Commonwealth Games Closing Ceremony in Glasgow last year, allowing them to spread their name to an even bigger audience.

 

Becky G

Becky G is an American singer/rapper from California. She began to form a fanbase back in 2011 when she posted videos on Youtube. In 2012, she featured on Cody Simpson’s ‘Wish U Were Here’ and also collaborated with Cher Lloyd on her single ‘Oath’. Becky is set to be 2015 biggest urban pop star. In April 2014, she released her first single from her debut album, ‘Shower’  and charted at number 16 on the Billboard Hot 100. In December, she released her latest single ‘Can’t Stop Dancin’ in December and it’s a tune that would have you dancing!!

 

Nick Gardner

Nick Gardner has an electronic/pop sound and started on Youtube in 2008 and has racked up over 5 million views. He has done endless amount of covers, from Bruno Mars to Adele to Labrinth. He has recorded his debut album with Universal Music and toured with Maroon 5 in 2014. Nick’s debut single is ‘Lose You’.

 

Shawn Mendes

Shawn Mendes is a Canadian musician. He found fame when he started posting covers on Vine in 2013. He signed to Island Records and released his debut single ‘Life of the Party’ in June 2014. He won a Teen Choice Award for Webstar in Music in 2014. He has featured on UK band, The Vamps, single ‘Oh Cecilia’ in 2014. Oh yeah and he is just 15 years old. His recent single is ‘Something Big’ and I am pretty sure, he is going to be the next big thing from Canada.

 

 

Fifth Harmony 

Fifth Harmony is an American girl band that were formed on US X Factor (I’ve wrote a blog previously about them, check it out!). Their career has been growing throughout 2014 and were meant to released their debut album ‘Reflection’ in November of 2014 but pushed it back to January 2015. They won MTV’s Video Music Award for Artist to Watch for Miss Movin’ On in 2014. This album release will probably be the best thing about January.

 

Rixton

Rixton are a Pop/R&B band from England and have Scooter Braun as their manager. The topped the charts in 2014 with their catchy debut single ‘Me & My Broken Heart’, successfully getting their first number one at the same time.  Their second single, ‘Wait On Me’, was dropped in November 2014 and once again, they produced an unforgettable tune that is sure to have you singing along when it comes on the radio. They have been working extremely hard on their debut album and it’s sure to be a hit worldwide.

 

 

The Comebacks

Adele

It’s been 4 years since we’ve heard from her and she is rumoured to drop ’25’ this year. Without a doubt, this is the most highly anticipated album for 2015. She has wrote with Diane Warren among some other famous names. No matter who she writes with, it is no doubt this album will be a huge success.

Image belongs to www.vogue.com

Image belongs to http://www.vogue.com

Ellie Goulding 

It has been 2 years since Ellie released Halcyon, She later re-released it and named it Halcyon Days. In October 2014, she featured on Calvin Harris’s new song ‘Outside’. She confirmed in November that she has been working on her third album and that it will be released in 2015.

Rihanna

Since 2006, Rihanna released an album every year up until 2012. She hasn’t gone off the radar altogether, as in 2013, she appeared on Eminem’s song ‘The Monster’ and in 2014, she featured on Shakira’s single ‘Can’t Remember to Forget You’. R8 is almost ready though, after she recently teased a new song on her Instagram. It is rumoured that Drake and ex-man Chris Brown are to feature on the album.

Kanye West

Yeezus came out in 2013 and Kanye has been touring with that album since. Rumour of a new album stemmed from Rihanna’s Diamond Ball, when tickets for his 2015 tour were put up for auction. He has been in the studio for months and even missed Thanksgiving with his new wife Kim and daughter North to work in the studio. He had stated that he doesn’t ‘want it to a be like a regular Kanye album’. At midnight on New Years Eve, he dropped his new single ‘Only One’ who he collaborated with Paul McCartney.

Image from saintheron.com

Image from saintheron.com

Demi Lovato

Demi released her self titled album ‘Demi’ back in 2013 and she spent most of 2014 touring around the world. She has confirmed that she has been writing and recording new music and her team said it is due to come out sometime this year.

Lawson

It’s been two years since they released their debut album ‘Chapman Square’ and almost 2 years since they have released their singles ‘Brokenhearted’ and ‘Juliet’. Andy, Joel, Ryan and Adam have spent pretty much the last two years working hard in recording studios in various studios in America and Europe. With ‘Chapman Square’ producing some incredible songs, I’m confident that album number two will be just as good, if not better.

There are many more albums set to drop in 2015 from various artists like Justin Bieber, Rita Ora, Usher, Labrinth, Little Mix, Nick Jonas and Miley Cyrus.

2014 MTV VMA’s – All you need to know right here!

On Sunday 24th of August, MTV’s annual Video Music Awards took place in The Forum in California. The VMAs always has talking points for days and sometimes weeks after it (who can forget Miley Cyrus’ performance last year?!) and this year is no different. Well, on a much tamer scale.

Performances

Opening this year’s show was a medley, kicked off by Ariana Grande belting out her new song ‘Break Free‘ in a silver leotard, similar to the Glittering Gold one Beyonce wore during her I Am… Sasha Fierce tour in 2009.

Nicki Minaj took the stage next with a jungle themed performance of her new single ‘Anaconda‘ but had no snakes (unlike Britney back in 2001, but it was later said they had to scrap the snake idea due to an incident that happened in rehearsals with one of Nicki’s dancers and the snake!!) Nicki and her dancers did however showed Miley Cyrus how to really twerk!!

Image from hellobeautiful.com

Image from hellobeautiful.com

To finish the opening medley, Jessie J joined Ariana Grande and Nicki Minaj onstage for the first ever performance of their joint single ‘Bang Bang’. While Jessie J and Ariana were smashing their incredible vocals, poor Nicki had a wardrobe malfunction!! The rapper walked on to stage while holding her black dress closed over her chest. and boy was she holding on for dear life! Nicki later said in a backstage interview what happened, which was that she ran out of time backstage when changing and failed to get the dress zipped up.

Taylor Swift performed her new single ‘Shake It Off‘ while wearing a sparkling silver bralet and shorts. Viewers got excited when she was standing on top of a massive “1989” sign and appeared as if she was about to jump off it and into her crowd of dancers awaiting arms, but she squirmed away and said “I don’t care if it’s the VMAs, I’m not jumping off there,” she said, disappearing while going down stairs saying  “All kinds of people getting bit by snakes, it’s dangerous!”, in reference to Nicki Minaj’s dancer!

Image from thechatterreport.com

Image from thechatterreport.com

Sam Smith made his American awards show debut with a flawless performance of his breakout ballad, ‘Stay With Me‘ simply singing into a microphone in the spotlight and just accompanied by a piano.

Usher launched his new single ‘She Came To Give It To You‘ which features Nicki Minaj. When Nicki joined Usher on stage, he repeatedly touched her bum with his shoulder while playing the electric guitar and then spanked her before she left the stage.

Next up was my boys, 5 Seconds of Summer! They sang their pop-rock ballad ‘Amnesia‘. They were literally incredible and have received nothing but compliments about their performance. Proud of you guys ❤

Image from AP Images/Invision

Image from AP Images/Invision

Iggy Azalea and Rita Ora showed their fierce sides when they teamed up to perform ‘Black Widow‘. They made sure the viewers knew that spiders were the main theme of the performance with a lit-up spider web behind them and the  dancers dressed in spider inspired outfits. Rita went one step further and had diamond shaped siders on her nails (I’M SHAKING AT EVEN THE THOUGHT – I HATE SPIDERS (but LOVE this song)!

Image from AP Images/Invision

Image from AP Images/Invision

Outside the venue, Maroon 5 performed their new hit single ‘Maps‘ to a large crowd of fans!

One of the main talking points of the night was Miley Cyrus’ guest, homeless man Jesse Helt. Miley got Jesse to go on stage and accept her award for Video Of The Year on her behalf and spoke about homeless youths and to highlight the issue. Miley looked on while crying. This shows that Miley should get more credit where credit is due. She’s not a bad person at all. She could of went up there and gave a meaningless few thanks to fans and her music label but she selflessly used that time to highlight an issue prominent in the USA.

 

And last, but certainly not least, was the performance of the night by the one and only QUEEN BEYONCE! While wearing a bejeweled bodysuit, Bey literally performed a snippet of her Mrs. Carter Tour! She sang 12 songs mashed together from her self titled album, Beyonce, which included Drunk In Love, Partition and the remix version of Flawless. After her very sexual performances, hubby Jay-Z and daughter Blue Ivy stepped up onto the stage with the Michael Jackson Video Vanguard Award to present it to Beyonce. Bring Beyonce to tears, Blue Ivy cheered ‘Go Mommy’ and the Jay presented her the award stating that she is ‘the greatest living entertainer’. Putting a stop to all those spilt and divorce rumours, they put on a united family front for the world to see!

Image from mashable.com

Image from mashable.com

 

My Best Dressed Females

Number 1 best dressed female is Beyonce! No surprises there! She looked incredible gracing the red carpet in a black lace fishtail dress. Because it’s Queen Bey, her second outfit also gets a mention. After her show stopping performance, she changed into a dark pink/burgundy dress by Lebanese designer, Zuhair Murad.

My number 2 best dressed girl goes to my idol, Demi Lovato! WOW. She simply looks perfect. Demi has definitely proven she’s body confident at last in her sexy, floor length red gown. She donned a new shorter hair do with a simple smokey eye and strong, sexy red lipstick.

My Number 3 goes to the Kardashian trio. 18 year old Kendall and 16 year old Kylie both wore black. Model Kendall chose a jumpsuit with a sheer mesh top while Kylie decided to wear a silk dress with a very-high-thigh slit. Older sister (yet the smallest sister!) wore no other than her favourite, Balmain, with her cleavage on clear display!

My Worst Dressed Females

Amber Rose. WHAT WERE YOU THINKING?! I can’t even begin to explain it. How was she let leave her house? The ‘dress’ is by Rose McGowen, just incase anyone wants to get themselves a replica (doubt it!)

Katy Perry, girl, you can do so much better, in both men and in fashion. Ditch Riff Raff and ditch the demin. Britney and Justin did this look over 13 years ago, it didn’t work then and it doesn’t work now.

Image from hollywoodlife.com

Image from hollywoodlife.com

Taylor Swift, it breaks my heart to put you in the worst dressed section but for a girl who 90% of the time dresses ‘Oh so right‘ at award shows, you got it ‘Oh so wrong‘ this time! This outfit just does nothing for you. That’s it. I can not find anymore words to say about it. Just go back to your long sparkly gowns that everyone adores!

My Best Dressed Males

Nick Jonas is my number 1 best dressed male. Just look at him. He is looking FINE! Nick looked incredibly dapper in a navy check print jacket and waist coat by Vivienne Westwood.

Image from fashionbombdaily.com

Image from fashionbombdaily.com

My number two best dressed male is Sam Smith, who rocked the red carpet in a stunning three piece black suit.

My number 3 best dressed are 5 Seconds of Summer. The foursome donned their true punk rock style. They looked hot. So hot. Incredibly hot. Have I mentioned they look hot? Because the look SO HOT!! I think you get my idea. Also, Ashton’s blazer costs a whopping $1250. WHAT? This is the band that get their stylists to put holes in their t-shirts to make them look cooler. I hope they took that jacket and put it somewhere safe away from scissors.

 

Winners List

Video Of The Year – Miley Cyrus – ‘Wrecking Ball’

Best Male Video – Ed Sheeran – ‘Sing’ (ft. Pharrell Williams)

Best Female Video – Katy Perry – ‘Dark Horse’ (ft. Juicy J)

Artist To Watch – Fifth Harmony – ‘Miss Movin’ On’

Best Pop Video – Ariana Grande – ‘Problem’ (ft. Iggy Azalea)

Best Rock Video – Lorde – ‘Royals’

Best Hip-Hop Video – Drake – ‘Hold On, We’re Going Home’ (ft. Majid Jordan)

MTV Clubland Award – Zedd – ‘Stay the Night’ (ft. Hayley Williams)

Best Collaboration – Beyonce – ‘Drunk in Love’ (ft. Jay-Z)

Best Choreography – Sia – ‘Chandelier’ (Choreographer: Ryan Heffington)

Best Cinematography – Beyonce – ‘Pretty Hurts’ (Directors of Photography: Darren Lew and Jackson Hurt)

Best Video With A Social Message – Beyonce – ‘Pretty Hurts’

Best Lyric Video – 5 Seconds of Summer – ‘Don’t Stop’

Best Editing – Eminem – ‘Rap God’ (Editor: Ken Mowe)

Best Direction – DJ Snake and Lil Jon – ‘Turn Down for What’ (Directors:DANIELS)

Best Art Direction – Arcade Fire – ‘Reflektor’ (Art Director: Anastasia Masaro)

Best Visual Effects – OK Go – ‘The Writing’s on the Wall’ (Visual Effects: 1stAveMachine)

Michael Jackson Video Vanguard Award – Beyonce

And that’s it, all the crazy antics are over for another year! Well.. maybe just until the EMAs in November!