2013 Grammy nominees

The 2013 Grammy nominees have been announced. Leading the pack is Mr. Frank Ocean and the Indie-rockers, Fun. Kelly Clarkson, Jay-Z and Kanye, and Mumford & Sons all scored nicely too. The one category I’m a bit surprised about is the New Artist category. I really would’ve thought that Carly Rae Jepsen would’ve been in there, not so much. She is nominated for her global smash hit, Call Me Maybe in the the Song of the Year category and a few others.

Also have to give props to the fantastic, the legendary, Bra Hugh Masekela, who has been nominated for a Grammy too. He has been nominated in the Best World Music category for his album, Jabulani. Proudly South African moment! Boom.

The awards are set to take place on the 10th of February in Los Angeles. Again, if anyone wants to send me, I’m more than willing to go. #TrueStory. Check out the full list below:

Record Of The Year

• Lonely Boy – The Black Keys
• Stronger (What Doesn’t Kill You) – Kelly Clarkson
• We Are Young – Fun. featuring Janelle Monáe
• Somebody That I Used to Know – Gotye Featuring Kimbra
• Thinkin Bout You – Frank Ocean
• We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together – Taylor Swift

Album Of The Year

• El Camino – The Black Keys
• Some Nights – Fun.
• Babel – Mumford & Sons
• Channel Orange – Frank Ocean
• Blunderbuss – Jack White

Song Of The Year

• The A Team – Ed Sheeran, songwriter (Ed Sheeran)
• Adorn – Miguel Pimentel, songwriter (Miguel)
• Call Me Maybe – Tavish Crowe, Carly Rae Jepsen & Josh Ramsay, songwriters (Carly Rae Jepsen)
• Stronger (What Doesn’t Kill You) – Jörgen Elofsson, David Gamson, Greg Kurstin & Ali Tamposi, songwriters (Kelly Clarkson)
• We Are Young – Jack Antonoff, Jeff Bhasker, Andrew Dost & Nate Ruess, songwriters (Fun. featuring Janelle Monáe)

Best New Artist

• Alabama Shakes
• Fun.
• Hunter Hayes
• The Lumineers
• Frank Ocean

Pop Field

Best Pop Solo Performance

• Set Fire To The Rain [live] – Adele
• Stronger (What Doesn’t Kill You) – Kelly Clarkson
• Call Me Maybe – Carly Rae Jepsen
• Wide Awake – Katy Perry
• Where Have You Been – Rihanna

Best Pop Duo/Group Performance

• Shake It Out – Florence & the Machine
• We Are Young – Fun. featuring Janelle Monáe
• Somebody That I Used To Know – Gotye Featuring Kimbra
• Sexy And I Know It – Lmfao
• Payphone – Maroon 5 & Wiz Khalifa

Best Pop Instrumental Album

• 24/7 – Gerald Albright & Norman Brown
• Impressions – Chris Botti
• Four Hands & A Heart Volume One – Larry Carlton
• Live At The Blue Note Tokyo – Dave Koz
• Rumbadoodle – Arun Shenoy

Best Pop Vocal Album

• Stronger – Kelly Clarkson
• Ceremonials – Florence & the Machine
• Some Nights – Fun.
• Overexposed – Maroon 5
• The Truth About Love – Pink

Kelly Clarkson’s Greastest Hits – Chapter One artwork and track listing unveiled

Ten years ago American Idol crowned its first winner, Kelly Clarkson. She has since gone on to release five albums. She has toured the world, sold millions of records, won two Grammys (and countless other awards) and she’s enjoyed a lot of success along the way. Now the “Miss Independent” singer is preparing to release her first greatest hits album. It’s due for release on the 19th of November. Check out the track listing below:

Kelly Clarkson – Greatest Hits – Chapter One International STANDARD CD Tracklisting

1 Since You Been Gone

2 My Life Would Suck Without You

3 Miss Independent

4 Stronger (What Doesn’t Kill You)

5 Behind These Hazel Eyes

6 Because Of You

7 Never Again

8 Already Gone

9 Mr. Know It All

10 Breakaway

11 Walk Away

12 Don’t You Wanna Stay (with Jason Aldean)

13 Catch My Breath – NEW SONG

14 People Like Us – NEW SONG

15 Don’t Rush (featuring Vince Gill) – NEW SONG

16 I’ll Be Home For Christmas

17 Dark Side

18 A Moment Like This

19 The Trouble With Love Is

20 I Do Not Hook Up

21 Beautiful Disaster (Live)

Kelly Clarkson has a ‘Dark Side’ … Watch

Kelly Clarkson’s new music video is out. It’s the third single taken off her latest offering Stronger and it’s called Dark Side. This is one of my favourites off the album. Kelly is looking really good in the video too, seems to have slimmed down a bit not so?

Grammys 2012 – Best Rap Performance to Jay-Z and Kanye West

Fergie and Marc Anthony present the next award for  Best Rap Performance. The two weren’t there tonight so the presenters accepted the award on their behalf.

Jason Aldean and Kelly Clarkson then took to the stage to perform, Don’t You Wanna Stay. This woman has one of the best voices right now. No lip-syncing there, its real talent.

It’s Grammy weekend!

It’s Grammy weekend!!! One of my favourite award ceremonies of the season. Music is a universal language, one that unites us. The 54^th Annual Grammys hits our screens on Sunday evening/ Monday morning and the show will honour some of the biggest names in the business. Performances from Adele, The Foo Fighters, Chris Brown, Tony Bennett, Coldplay and Rihanna, Jason Aldean and Kelly Clarkson and many many more are expected, while LL Cool J will be on hosting duty.

CHECK OUT A FULL LIST OF NOMINEES HERE

The festivities getting going on E! Entertainment, channel 124 on DStv from 01:00 with Live From The Red Carpet. The team will be broadcasting from the Staples Centre in Los Angelas. Catch Ryan Seacrest and Giuliana Rancic as they chat to the biggest names of the red carpet and the all time favourite Glam Cam 360 will be catching all the talent on camera, with some commentary from Kelly Osbourne and others.

Once the red carpet is done, switch over to Channel O, channel 320 on DStv for a live broadcast of the awards. I’ll be up, tweeting and blogging at the absurd hour but it’s all for the love of the game. If you’re in my part of the world join me:

@JasonVonBerg

And right here.

Music highlights at Super Bowl XLVI

Congratulations to the New York Giants, who are the new Super Bowl champions. Super Bowl Sunday took place in Indiapolis last night. It saw the Giants beating their rivals the Patriots 21 points to 17. As you know this is a music and entertainment site, so I thought let’s look at some of the musical highlights from this year’s Super Bowl. First off, one of my favourite artists Kelly Clarkson had the honours of singing the American National Anthem and man oh man did KC nail it. She’s scored rave reviews all over the place, and rightfully so. Check it out below:

Country superstars Miranda Lambert and Blake Shelton performed America The Beautiful too. What did you think of their performance?

Then the biggie of the night… The Queen of Pop, Madonna performed during the Bridgestone Halftime concert. She was joined by the likes of M.I.A, Nicki Minaj and Cee Lo Green. Check out the set below:

Performing tracks like Vogue, Music and her new single Give Me All Your Luvin‘, she proved she still has was it takes to be the queen. I really liked the remix of Music, which featured the Party Rockers LMFAO…. Love it!

X-Factor winner Melanie Amaro’s Pepsi commercial debuted during the Super Bowl too. It features Elton John and Flavor Flav. Check it out:

LL Cool J to host the 54th Annual Grammy Awards

Rapper and actor LL Cool J is set to host the 54^th Annual Grammy Awards on the 12^th of February.  This makes him the first person to host the coveted award ceremony in seven years. The peops behind music’s biggest night announced the news yesterday.
“I’m thrilled to be part of Music’s Biggest Night,” said LL COOL J. “I will always have fond memories of my first GRAMMY Awards and to now be hosting the GRAMMY show, in the company of so many other incredible artists, is a dream come true. Great performances and great music — it’s gonna be a great night!”

More presenters and performers will be announced soon, but in the mean time LL joins the likes of Jason Aldean, Kelly Clarkson, Bruno Mars, Nicki Minaj, Taylor Swift and Foo Figthers, who will all be taking to the stage this coming Feb. Man I’m excited!!

Kelly Clarkson- Stronger track by track

If you ask me who I’ve enjoyed interviewing and meeting in the industry, Kelly Clarkson has to be one of my them. I had the privilege of interviewing her ahead of her South African tour last year. When she touched down in Mzansi, I also got to meet her too. What a humble, friendly and wonderful person. Right, now that that is out of the way, we can talk about her talent and her incredible voice. The original American Idol winner is, in my opinion, one of the most talented vocalists in the business. Those high notes she is able  to reach is astounding and she nails it every time. Her lyrics are fun, but also meaningful and she isn’t afraid to wear her heart on her sleeve, especially with her brand new offering, Stronger, which was released recently.

If you’re a KC fan, you definitely need to get your “Dear Santa” letters ready because this album is a must. It’s hard to believe that this is her fifth album already, but this just proves how her star-power is still as relevant as it was with her debut, Thankful, back in 2003. For me, I think Kelly has never sounded better. Let’s take a closer look at the songs one by one:

1.

Mr Know It All- She has enjoyed a lot of success with this the lead single off the album. It has hit the top ten in many countries and it is still on high rotation. The video has been viewed over 10 million time and you can understand why. It’s a great track to launch with. Clarkson has stated in several interviews that this song is a “vocally raw” song and that she wanted it to sound as close to her live performances. If you saw her perform this on X-Factor then you will know that it sounds just as good. Her American Music Awards performance was great too. The jazzy, swing feel she added to the track was superb.

Go behind the scenes of Kelly Clarkson’s new video “Mr Know It All”

American Idol queen Kelly Clarkson is gearing up release her brand new album Stronger. The album drops in just over a month and this will be her fifth album. The first single off that album is called Mr Know It All. The track made its debut (the highest for the week) on Billboard’s Hot 100 chart at number 18. Nice! While the video has dropped yet, a behind the scenes one has surfaced online. Kelly’s looking good and you can see how involved she is in the whole production; from the treatment to starring (obviously) to the look and feel. I can’t wait to see the video.

First Look: Kelly Clarkson’s album cover

The original American Idol, Kelly Clarkson is gearing up to release her new album Stronger this October. This is Clarkson’s fifth studio album, can you believe it? Gosh! That’s star power. I love her. What a great performer, a great singer/songwriter and an even nicer person is the flesh. The album is due to be released on the 24th of October. Have a listen to the first single below. It’s called Mr Know It All: