List of stars set to honour Bruce Springsteen – MusiCares Person of the Year

As part of the build up to music’s big night, aka The Grammys, Bruce Springstreen is set to be honoured at the 2013 MusiCares Person of the Year this year. In the press release, the special event will honour Springsteen for his “exceptional artistic achievements as well as his philanthropic work”. The money raised from the event will go into the MusiCares Foundation for people in music who run into trouble, financially, medically or personally.

The event, in its 23rd year, is completely sold out. It’s set to take place on the 8th of February at the Los Angeles Convention Center. Jon Stewart will host the event and Alabama Shakes, Jackson Browne, Kenny Chesney, Ben Harper, Emmylou Harris, Faith Hill, Jim James, Elton John, Juanes, John Legend, Natalie Maines, Tim McGraw, Tom Morello, Mumford & Sons, Patti Smith, Mavis Staples, Sting, Eddie Vedder, and Neil Young will all be in attendance. They are also set to perform. Feeling the FOMO already!!

Stay tuned for more on music’s big night, coming to you on the 10th of Feb at the Staples Center in LA.

 

Grammys 2012 – Bon Iver wins Best New Artist

Carrie Underwood took to the stage to introduce Tony Bennett. He has won 16 Grammy awards in his career, remarkable. The two sang It Had To Be You.

Best New Artist goes to Bon Iver:

“Hi, it’s really hard to accept this award because there’s so much talent on this stage and also who aren’t. I’m a little bit uncomfortable up here. I want to thank all the nominees and the non-nominees. All the bands I toured with, all the artists and the voters. Sweet hookup. “

This is what he had to say backstage:

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Grammys 2012 get going

The 54th Annual Grammy Awards are here. The show got going with a rocking performance from Bruce Springsteen. He kicked it off with a song called Take Care of Our Own as far as I can tell.

Host LL Cool J came on. “Thank you Bruce. Speaking to our times. We ask ourselves how to we speak to ourselves, this day. The only thing that feels right is to begin with a prayer.” A montage of Whitney moments is up on the screens. A performance of her singing I will always love you on the Grammy stage from a few years back. No doubt this brought tears to the eyes of many.

Bruno Mars, wearing a sick gold tux, put on a great performance of his track Runaway Baby. A nice way to lift the mood a bit.Let’s celebrate music.

Watch The Fray’s new video, “Heartbeat”

“Heartbeat” is the new single from The Fray. Their new album, due for release on the 6th of February, is called Scars and Stories . The first single was produced by Brendan O’Brien (Pearl Jam, Bruce Springsteen, Stone Temple Pilots, Audioslave) and written by The Fray’s front man Isaac Slade and Guitarist Joseph King. The guys were inspired to the write the song following a rare meeting with a Rwandan genocide survivor. Check it out above and stay tuned for more information on their new album, coming soon. 

 

Julio Iglesias Postpones South African Tour

Big Concerts this morning confirmed that the Julio Iglesias tour to South Africa (which was originally scheduled for early November 2011) has been postponed until further notice in order to allow Mr. Iglesias time to recover from a serious ear infection that he recently contracted.

Fans who have already purchased tickets for the tour are urged to hold onto their tickets until new dates are announced.  Alternatively; ticketholders are entitled to a full refund from Computicket outlets with immediate effect.

A new itinerary is currently being discussed for 2012 and more news will be circulated to fans once venue availability can be established.

Big Concerts and Mr. Iglesias have apologised to fans for any inconveniences caused by this news.

Tour updates will be made available on www.facebook.com/bigconcerts or www.twitter.com/BigConcerts

Idols Top 6 Song choices

Sindi Nene’s choices:
Jennifer Hudson- “One Night Only”
Beyoncé- “Single Ladies (Put A Ring On It)”

JVB: I think she’ll do the JHud song really well. Her voice, her range is in line with this song. It will also give her an opportunity to belt it out. The Beyoncé song is going to be interesting. If she can pull off some slick choreography, while focusing on the actual singing, she could do well. I’m not so sure though.

Adeline Mocke’s choices:
Luther Vandross- “Dance With My Father”
Shakira- “Give It Up To Me”

JVB: She will be dedicating the Luther Vandross song and her performance to her dad. I think she’ll pull this one off well. Shakira? While she’s contemporary and one of the biggest names in the biz, I just don’t think this is the right song to go with. I’m interested to see how she does it (expecting a bit of sexy choreography and I reckon the stylists will work this into her look this week too).

Boki Ntsime’s choices:
Michael Bolten’s cover of the Percy Sledge classic, “When A Man Loves A Woman”
Justin Timberlake- “My Love”

JVB- Brilliant choices. He’s bound to make a few women around the country go weak at the knees with these two songs. He has quite a low range and yet both songs are quite high. Is Boki testing/pushing himself here? With the JT song there surely will be some dancing involved. I hope so; cause it’ll reveal more of his performance side and that is an important attribute for a musician going forward.

Elvis Blue’s choices:
Simon & Garfunkel- “Bridge Over Troubled Waters”
Kanye West- “Golddigger”

JVB: First song? Great choice. He’ll rock this one and like Boki he’ll make many weak at the knees. As for the second song? Well, I’m expecting him to change the arrangement a bit because I just don’t see Elvis rapping like Kanye. I’m all for him trying new things, but rapping isn’t one of them. Let’s see what he does with this one. There’s also a method behind his madness with this song choice. Watch this video to find out what it is.

Lloyd Cele choices:
Owl City- “Fireflies”
Usher- “OMG”

JVB: When the Fireflies song came out last year I like it, but the more the radio stations played it, the more I got over it. Quickly. Having said that, I like Lloyd. He’ll do it well, no doubt! Usher OMG is a good choice too, but will there be some dancing involved with this performance? Well we haven’t really seen him to something like this yet, so I’m curious!

Pieter West’s choices:
Bruce Springsteen- “Dancing In The Dark”
Joe Cocker- “You Can Leave Your Hat On”!

JVB: Randall has been, in a sense, begging Pieter let go; show more of his personality in his performances in recent weeks. This is the perfect opportunity for him. Two not so current songs, but Dancing In The Dark is a classic and he really can let go and rock out with this one. The Joe Cocker song suits his voice too, so let’s see how he gets on. If he stuffs this one up, he really must leave!

Superbowl show continued

So judging by many of the comments in my other post, people weren’t too excited about seeing Mr Springsteen performing on Sunday, alongside the E Street Band. Having said that though, the man did rock the party…. you have to admit, even if you aren’t a fan. Those twelve minutes on stage kickstarted his album sales. So much so, the album is expected to go to number one this week on Billboard’s chart, dethroning teen-queen Taylor Swift from the top. Did you watch the performance? Here is it just in case you missed it:

And here ladies and gents is Academy Award winner and singer Jennifer Hudson singing the American National Anthem. Good on you J Hud, you’ve returned

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Super Bowl XLIII Halftime show

Today is the day many American football enthusiasts have been waiting for, it’s Superbowl Sunday. The Steelers take on the surprise finalists, the Arizona Cardinals at the Raymond James Stadium in Tampa, Florida this afternoon. Check out this video preview. Some useful information:
- The Pittsburg Steelers are going for their sixth Super Bowl win, which would make them the most successful and the only team to have won six titles. The Cardinals haven’t won the title since 1947, so it would be a great achievement for them to come out on tops.
- On the northern and southern sides of the Empire Sate Building in New York City will shine yellow and white for the Steelers, while its east and west sides will glow in red and white for the Cardinals? And however triumphs on Sunday, that team’s colours will beam across the city on all four sides? Well now you do.

Obama's little concert

Barack Obama, man oh man… the guy knows how to put on a star-studded concert. What a great event. From Hollywood A-listers to Grammy-award winning musos, all eyes were on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial at the weekend, as the USA and the rest of the world prepare for the inauguration of President-elect Barack Obama. See the gallery here

Check it out; Bruce Springsteen, John Legend, Denzel Washington, Jack Black, Tiger Woods, Sheryl Crow, Will.i.am, Stevie Wonder, Garth Brooks, Josh Groban, Ashley Judd, U2 and Beyonce were all in attendance, among others.

Golden Globe nominees

Award season is kicking off with a bang. Last week the Grammys, this week the Golden Globes… loads more to come, but lets check out who made the cut for the 2009 Golden Globe nominations going down in LA on the 11th of January. Brad, Tom and Angie- Hollywood’s A-listers are there. Kate and Leo reunite on screen in ‘Revolutionary Road’ for the first time since Titanic and already there’s a lot of Oscar buzz around the film. And while folks from the silverscreen celebrate their nominations, the small screen folk are celebrating too. 30 Rock’s Tina Fey and Alec Baldwin crack the nod for their roles. Other big nominees include Christina Applegate (Samantha Who) and Steve Carell (The Office). And of course because this is a music blog, we should check out the music orientated categories: