Jay Z and his lady Beyonce both made surprise appearances at the Coachella festival over the weekend, with Bey supporting sister Solange on stage during her performance of “Losing You” and Jay joining Nas for a late night set.
Nas is celebrating the 20th anniversary of his well-regarded album Illmatic and performed classics like “N.Y. State Of Mind” and “Life’s A Bitch”.
Nas brought Jay Z onstage to help on songs like “Dead Presidents” and “Where I’m From”, and got a little help from Diddy, who sprayed the audience with champagne in celebration of his friend.
“If it wasn’t for you, hip-hop wouldn’t have arrived to the place it has,” Diddy said.
Beyonce, meanwhile, drew Coachella fans over to the stage once everyone realized she was there and gave an energetic performance, which included synchronized dancing with her sister.
“Give it up for my favorite dancing partner and my favorite person in the world, my sister, Beyonce,” Solange said.
The beauty standards are always shifting to be impossible to meet. Anything to get desperate and insecure women to shell out the cash to fail to meet them.
If it isn’t boobs too small or thighs too big, it’s some other physical beauty demand crushing the souls of millions of women and girls.
As Beyonce herself once sang, “Perfection is a disease of a nation.”
Now some fans are afraid that the R&B/Pop diva is herself infected by that very disease.
The singer is embroiled in a new controversy over Instagram photos that were uploaded to her account.
The new photos featured Beyonce playing golf. One photo in particular is viewed as especially suspicious to observers. In the image, you can see that Beyonce has a relatively huge thigh gap.
BEYONCE Is in BIG TROUBLE after Uploading FAILED Photoshop Images that are making her FANS Very Mad. pic.twitter.com/nxIYgYINci
The “thigh gap” is all the rage among ultra-body conscious youngsters today. It’s not unusual to see girls uploading images to Istagram or Tumblr that “celebrate” the fact that their thighs don’t touch.
Some women and teens have even taken to faking the gap with image editing.
Whoever it is that runs Beyonce’s Istagram account and posts photos is accused of having done this for a few reasons:
1.) The abnomal bump on the right thigh. Photoshoppers know that if you don’t take special care when using the Smudge tool, what you’ll get is lumps and bumps.
2,) Right hip blends into background TOO well. Some look at the green line that is visible along the outside of Beyonce’s right hip in the picture and see it as proof of Photoshop. The hip is seen as too smooth, almost as if it were carefully shaped.
3.) Where’s the green’s edge? This could be a matter of lighting, but some fans and onlookers note that the edge of the green is not too visible where her thigh gap is.
It’s very possible that there was no editing and that this is just a bizarre coincidence. If the image really was edited in such a way, it’s rather unfortunate.
Beyonce isn’t who she is because of a thigh gap; she will still be seen as beautiful regardless of whether or not she has one.
Women have enough social pressure hurled at them without seeing women they admire being treated in such a way.
This should fuel conversation about the “thigh gap” and why it’s such an unhealthy obsession for a generation of young women. If it gets women to open up about and acknowledge chasing ridiculous beauty standards, perhaps it can be said some good came of the controversy.
I can't believe people think that Beyonce would photoshop a instagram picture of her legs…………..uhhhhhhh why
The gorgeous Beyoncé loves showing off her bodacious bod on her Instagram account. Wether the babe is sharing pictures from concerts or vacations, the focal point of the photos always fall on the Queen. (And we’re not complaining!)
But recently, Blue Ivy’s mom has been under some intense scrutiny over a certain Instagram photo she shared with her many followers.
The photo of Beyoncé was published just yesterday. In the shot, you can see her leaning over a putter on a golf course lined with palm trees. She’s sporting striped, high-waisted bikini bottoms with a bright, solid bikini top.
While the suit is adorable, it seems that people can only seem to focus on the look of Beyoncé’s thin thighs. Some viewers are even claiming the photo was photoshopped in order to enhance and create a “thigh gap.”
One Instagram user said, “do you agree this thigh gap was edited? I know her body is amazing but it really does appear edited!!!!”
Some Instagram users claimed the pic was altered while others are saying it’s the positioning of her body that’s created the slimmed-down look.
Another user said, “her legs are separated and she’s leaning over. that’ll give anyone a “gap”. try it!”
Shortly after posting the first photo, she went to Instagram to post yet another bikini shot. This time, it was from the side without any “thigh gap” present. The focus is on her booty rather than her thighs.
What do you think about the photo? Did Bey alter it in order to achieve a sleeker look or is it just the angle of the shot? What’s your take on the “thigh gap” epidemic?
Beyoncé’s fearlessness is clearly depicted on the cover of Out’s Power Issue.
The absolutely stunning Bey was featured on the cover wearing nothing but a blonde wig and a string of long pearls. The 31-year-old looked very Marilyn Monroe, totally channeling the 1953 classic Gentlemen Prefer Blondes.
The pop R&B goddess opened up to the magazine about the power of owning female sexuality and the drop of her groundbreaking visual album.
“There is unbelievable power in ownership, and women should own their sexuality,” she explained. “There is a double standard when it comes to sexuality that still persists. Men are free and women are not. That is crazy.”
“The old lessons of submissiveness and fragility made us victims,” she continued. “Women are so much more than that. You can be a businesswoman, a mother, an artist, and a feminist—whatever you want to be—and still be a sexual being. It’s not mutually exclusive.”
The Queen continued to talk about why she made the album and who she was striving to make it for.
“While I am definitely conscious of all the different types of people who listen to my music, I really set out to make the most personal, honest, and best album I could make. I needed to free myself from the pressures and expectations of what I thought I should say or be, and just speak from the heart,” Mrs. Carter proclaimed.
Beyoncé went on to discuss the magnitude of her most recent album, admitting that she was scared that it was “too ambitious” of a move. She later realized she was scared something big was about to happen-and boy was she right.
“I was recording, shooting videos, and performing on the tour every night, all at the same time. At some point I felt like, ‘What am I doing? Is this too ambitious? Even the day the record was to be released I was scared to death,” she admitted. “But I also knew if I was that scared, something big was about to happen.”
Below is a photo from her Mrs. Carter world tour.
Her album drop shattered records, selling over 1.3 million copies in just the first three weeks.
Check out the unbelievably sexy photoshop for her cover story here. You can pick up the magazine and read her entire May cover story now.
Jay Z and Beyonce’s daughter Blue Ivy is already on her way to being a New York City fashionista, as her famous parents have already posted photos of the 2-year-old wearing some of the most adorable outfits.
Recently, Beyonce shared one particular image that’s been spreading across the Internet pretty quickly, and it’s of Blue Ivy sporting a black fedora like hat, a stylish trench coat, and the cutest little checkered dress.
The photo shows the superstar child looking back at her mother as she exits a hotel, probably heading to the next town for a performance or some sort of business engagement. And of course Beyonce looked wonderful herself, in a leather two-piece suit and a huge shaggy handbag.
It seems the Partition singer and her daughter are completely inseparable, as the two have been seen pretty much all over the globe together. Some famous working parents choose to leave their child at home with the nanny, but not Beyonce, Blue Ivy has been with her for much of the singer’s Mrs. Carter Tour.
In past interviews Beyonce has spoken at length about how motherhood has changed her, and she said that once Blue Ivy was born she felt like a much stronger person.
“[Having a child] just gives you purpose and all of the things that my self-esteem was associated with, it’s all completely different,” she said.
“I realized why I was born, and more than anything, all of the things I want to pass onto my child, and the best way of doing that is not by preaching or telling her, but showing her by example, which is one of the reasons I’m here.”
And one of the things she’ll definitely be showing her daughter is how to be stylish, and if Blue Ivy dresses this well at 2 years old, what will she be wearing once she becomes a teenager? She’ll probably be an international fashion icon at the very least, since she’s becoming one already.
Ever since “Swingers” came onto the scene in 1996 and gave us Vince Vaughn and Jon Favreau in Ratpack style–hunting pretty babies, of course–a revival of the swing era has been showing up off and on in music and movies. Personally, I couldn’t be happier, and when I discovered this gem on the wonderful interwebz today I had to share it.
Cristina Gatti is a very talented singer and, with her swing band accompanying her, she does a mean version of Beyonce’s “Drunk In Love”. As someone who adores new versions of good songs, this was a perfect Monday afternoon find. Listen and fall in love.
As Grammy Award-winning recording artist Beyonce performs in and tours Dublin with her family, Fox News host Bill O’Reilly is telling us how he really feels about the 32-year old singer.
On Monday nights show, O’Reilly spoke to hip hop icon Russell Simmons about the “harmful entertainment marketed to largely unsupervised children.” O’Reilly was especially outspoken about Beyonce, pointing to her steamy “Partition” video which shows her having sex with her husband in the back of a limousine.
“Teenage girls look up to Beyoncé … why on earth would this woman do that? When she knows [about] the devastation [of] unwanted pregnancies and fractured families,” O’Reilly said. “I believe an entertainer like Beyoncé [has] an obligation to protect children.”
Pointing out that, as a mother and promoter of gender equality, Beyonce has an “obligation to protect children” and he strongly believes that she is far from doing so with her recent video, which he calls “inexplicable” and “exploitive garbage.”
58-year old Simmons, who is said to be the third richest figure in hip hop, defended Beyonce saying that she is simply reflecting our society’s reality by expressing “something that’s sexual in music.”
“There’s research that says that a man thinks about sex every 12 seconds …If we want that reality changed, then we have to do things that affect the core,” Simmons explained.
“Bill, if you think that art that comes out of a community is the cause of the struggle–”
“That’s art?” O’Reilly interrupted.
“Yes, absolutely,” Simmons said.
“Beyonce in the back of a limo having sex and referencing Monica Lewinsky is art?”
“She’s a brilliant artist,” Simmons said. “And she’s not only appreciated by people of color, as you know, she’s really one of the top artists in the world to people of every color.”
But O’Reilly stuck to his guns, pointing out that “teenage girls look up to Beyoncé, particularly girls of color. She’s an idol to them.”
Though Simmons was on the show to promote his new book on meditation, O’Reilly spoke mostly of curing the “fundamental disease” of influencing our youth in a negative way.
“You’re going to have to get people like Jay-Z, Kanye West – all these gangsta rappers – to knock it off,” he told Simmons at the conclusion of the show.
When Beyonce released her self-entitled visual album at the close of 2013, many noticed a slight change in the singer and in the material she presented.
Prior to the visual album, the pop star had a few risque songs, but for the most part her cuts were fairly tame and focused more on love, relationships, and having a good time.
However, this project is different, as songs like Drunk in Loveshow a side of Beyonce that we all just got glimpses of, which is sort of a bad girl who doesn’t mind talking about sex in a very direct way.
The best example of this new Beyonce is on the song Partition, which seems to be the next official single from the visual album, since the video is just now going viral.
In the song and video, the 32 year old doesn’t pull any punches when it comes to openly talking about having sex in back of a limousine, and there’s absolutely no subtly in the overall presentation of the video.
It begins with Beyonce sitting across from her significant other at breakfast and it seems she’s having some sort of sexual fantasy about him. From there, the video flashes between performance shots and the singer having a physical encounter with her husband Jay Z, which is why she asks the driver to roll up the partition so he can’t see what’s going on in back of the limo.
And it’s not just the lyrical content and suggestive imagery that makes the video so sexy, Beyonce also sports all types of proactive clothing, including a body-hugging black mini dress and a glittery leotard type of outfit with a thong a bottom. Again, the singer pulls out all of the sexy stops and seems to be totally okay with showing more of her body these days.
Clearly, out of all the songs on the new album Partition is the most in your face, and it doesn’t seem like Beyonce cares anymore about ruffling feathers or losing her image as America’s sweetheart. It’ll be interesting to see if she keeps this new racy image or if she goes back to being a little more tame.
No charges have been filed following the crash that injured Salma Hayek’s brother and left his passenger dead at the scene Sunday, police said.
Sami Hayek, 40, was transported to the hospital suffering from several broken ribs and a laceration to his head following the accident.
His passenger, Ian Cuttler Sala, 43, sustained major blunt-force trauma to his body and was pronounced dead at the scene of the crash, the police report said.
Hayek, a designer of custom chairs, was driving east on Sunset Boulevard in the Bel Air community of Los Angeles when he lost control of his 2006 Ford GT, crossing into the westbound lanes, police said.
The driver of the second vehicle, Alvin Gomez, 20, of Los Angeles was transported to the hospital with a broken foot after the sports car collided with his Toyota Tacoma pickup truck.
Cuttler, a New York City-based photographer and Grammy award winning art director, won the coveted prize for his design of the Johnny Cash: The Legend music box set.
Cuttler worked with many stars , including Beyoncé, who posted a tribute to him on her Facebook page.
Hayek has not been arrested, but police say he was in violation of driving on the wrong side of the road. Speed may also be a factor in the fatal crash.
According to an LAPD statement released Tuesday, alcohol was not a factor in the crash. The case will be presented to the district attorney’s office following an investigation.
Mexican Actress Salma Hayek’s brother was hospitalized Sunday evening following a vehicle accident in the Bel Air community of Los Angeles, California.
The collision sadly took the life of one person.
Sami Hayek, 40, was traveling eastbound on Sunset Boulevard when he lost control of his 2006 Ford GT and struck a 2011 Toyota Truck driving in westbound traffic. The driver of the truck was identified as 20-year-old Alvin Gomez.
Hayek and Gomez were immediately rushed to Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center for treatment. Hayek suffered several broken ribs and a head wound. Gomez is being treated for a broken foot.
Only reason I’m alive right now is only because God himself gave me a second chance.. Rest in Peace pic.twitter.com/dujaSLJYXP
Hayek’s passenger, Ian Cuttler Sala, was pronounced dead at the scene, succumbing to blunt force trauma to the body. The 43-year-old Mexican-native is “a photographer and art director who won a Grammy for his design of the Johnny Cash: The Legend music box set.” He has also been the mastermind behind other renowned music artworks like Louis Armstrong: The Complete Hot Five and Hot Seven Recordings.
Rest in Peace Ian Cuttler. Ian was a Grammy Award winning art director and photographer who will be greatly missed. His memorable work includes album covers for “Destiny Fulfilled” and “Dangerously in Love.”
The local coroner office is expected to conduct a complete autopsy of the photographer’s body. All finds will be relayed to the District Attorney’s office for review.
Hayek, who is also a furniture designer in Los Angeles, was not arrested for the accident. However, police say that he may face consequences for a traffic violation, which is driving on the wrong side of the road.
Investigators are currently looking more into what happened, but speed is presumed to be in connection with the fatal accident.
Cudi’s Satellite Flight: The Journey to Mother Moon is comprised of 11 tracks and an accompanying digital booklet. The entire set is now available to download for $9.99.
Cudi has been “secretly preparing his latest work since wrapping up his last tour” following his chart-topping album Indicud.
The new album hasn’t crushed the music charts like Beyoncé’s surprise album drop did last year. It seems though that Cudi isn’t too bothered by it constantly taking to twitter to thank his fans and retweet the excitement.
“I LOVE YOU CUD FAM!!!!” he proclaimed on Twitter generating over 12-thousand likes.
The physical version of Satellite Flight will be available April 29.
Kelly Rowland is busy preparing her fifth studio album, but she took some time out from recording to visit New York Fashion Week. While she was there, she talked about the news that “X Factor”, which she served as a judge on during the third season, will be cancelled.
“You know what? It was an incredible experience and I made new friends. You’ve got to think about the fact there’s American Idol, The Voice and all these new shows that are coming up. But I have to compliment Simon because he started it all with American Idol,” she said.
“X Factor” is seeing more big changes across the pond; the original show, created by Simon Cowell, will see him return now that the U.S. version is done. Former Pussycat Doll Nicole Scherzinger will be leaving the judge’s table to focus on her music, but sources say it was a difficult decision for her.
“It breaks her heart, but Nicole is sad not to be able to go back to the show this year,” a source told The Sun. “She put her music career on hold last year but now she has to focus on her music.”
The singer recently celebrated her birthday with Beyonce, putting to rest some rumors that the pair are at odds. There’s been talk for years that the former Destiny’s Child bandmates had issues with one another, especially after Rowland broke down and started crying during a performance of her song “Dirty Laundry” last year. Some thought the lyrics were suggestive of a jealousy towards Beyonce and all the success she was having with her solo career.
“Bird in a cafe/ You’d never know what I was dealing with…Went our separate ways but I was happy she was killin’ it/ Bittersweet, she was up, I was down/ No lie, I feel good for her but what do I do now?”
However, when Bey rocked a pixie cut last year and Rowland was asked whether she thought her friend stole the idea from her, she stood up for the superstar.
“We have been rocking short haircuts since the beginning of time,” she said. “But we all got it from somebody. Somebody had something off of somebody…Beyonce can have a strand of hair on her head and still be fine.”
The day after celebrating in New York, Rowland attended shows at Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week, sporting a new bob, black dress, fur jacket, and some risqué thigh-high black boots.
Bruno Mars made history this past Sunday when he performed as the Super Bowl halftime main event. A record breaking 115.3 million viewers tuned in to see Bruno sing–and that’s more than any other Super Bowl halftime show in history. Beyonce drew 110.8 million viewers in 2013 and Madonna brought in 114 million two years ago. The Locked Out of Heaven star has now blown both of these records clear out of the water. Add to that the fact that Bruno Mars is the youngest solo artist to ever headline the Super Bowl halftime show, and you’ve got success on top of success on top of–you guessed it–more success. This can only lend itself to a huge rise in popularity for the already adored 28-year-old music superstar.
Things got even better for Bruno, too, following the halftime show. He soared to the top of the iTunes sales charts immediately after the show, and the second leg of his ‘Moonshine Jungle World Tour’ has sold out in most markets. It sounds like Bruno Mars got more out of the Super Bowl than either of the NFL teams playing–or at the very least he wowed more of the football fans.
Check out the Super Bowl XLVIII halftime show as Bruno Mars performs one of his hit songs–Just the Way You Are.
It’s been a pretty amazing couple of weeks for Mars. At the 56th Grammy Awards on January 26th he won the award in the Best Pop Vocal Album category for his hit album Unorthodox Jukebox. This was the second Grammy for Bruno Mars, who won his first for his album Doo-Wops & Hooligans.
Even if you were disappointed in which teams made it to the Super Bowl, or like many fans–disappointed in the lack of excitement on the field during the actual game–you have to admit that halftime show was pretty spectacular.
Can you even imagine walking in Bruno Mars’ shoes right now? Kudos to the young hit singer.
Katy Perry has had a big week in music. The singer not only swept the no. 1 spot on Billboard’s Hot 100 chart with hit “Dark Horse,” the beauty just earned herself over 50 million Twitter followers. The whopping follower number contributes to her title of most followed artist on Twitter.
So what does it take to be the most followed musician on Twitter? Perry recently came into a Twitter following of over 50,055,293 and growing.
Perry took over for most followed artist on Twitter last November when her follower amount grew larger than the recently arrested Justin Bieber.
The singer took to twitter to announce the great news saying, “Oh yeah AND we grew to 50 million Katycats! Eh, regular day at the office.”
The other top-ranking artist on Twitter include Justin Bieber at 49 million, Lady Gaga 41 million Britney Spears at 35 million and Rihanna at 34 million. Wondering where the Queen Bey sits with Twitter followers? She’s at about 13 million.
It’s really no surprise Perry landed the coveted spot since she earned 18 million followers in 2013. That crazy amount of followers made her the top follower-earning artist that year.
Will the woman ever stop? Probably not since she cleverly uses her twitter as a way to get her new album out and fans involved with promises of retweets.
Oscar-winner Dame Helen Mirren showed off a little bit of her bum-shaking skills on Thursday at Harvard University’s Hasty Pudding Theatricals Award Ceremony.
The ceremony is put together by one of the nation’s oldest drama companies, which presents annual awards to actors who have made a profound impression in the entertainment industry.
Casting members asked the 68-year-old actress to twerk, so she did just that.
Although she seemed quite embarrassed, but yet humored by her own actions, she happily received her Hasty Pudding Theatricals Woman Of The Year award.
“…And I was made a dame of the British Empire,” she said. “I had to go to Buckingham Palace and uh, I was honored by actually not her royal highness, by Prince Charles. Didn’t come anywhere close to this.”
Following the ceremony, Mirren sported her gold medal and joined the costumed troupe outside for some parade-fun.
As an entertainer, Mirren has accomplished some of the greatest achievements within her acting career. For instance, her portrayal of Queen Elizabeth II in “The Queen” won her an Oscar in 2006. That movie role alone also made her the recipient of 29 major awards.
Surprisingly, one ‘a-lister’ that Mirren particularly likes is none other than the ‘Queen B’ herself. No, not Queen Elizabeth but Beyoncé, who also gave a little ‘butt action’ during her Grammy performance on Sunday 26.
“I think she’s quite extraordinary,” she told People.com, as she remember seeing the singer during a live performance. “She had this incredible sense of concentration and energy and preparation. I was very impressed by that. Standing in the wings watching her was this explosion of energy. Quite spectacular.”
As far as twerking goes, she’s not too fond of her skills.
“I’ve tried in my bedroom in private in front of the mirror, very unsuccessfully,” she said. “Absolutely humiliating to have to do it in public in front of a whole load of people.”
Mirren may just be ‘cooler’ than we think, especially since her awful attempt at twerking! Although she seems to be quite conservative, she also appears to be an outgoing woman.
“Actors are rogues and vagabonds. Or they ought to be. I can’t stand it when they behave like solicitors from Penge. I’m a would-be rebel. The good girl who’d like to be a bad one.”
The 56th annual award show kicked off with the Queen Bey provocatively straddling a chair with her back to the audience showing off her brilliant behind. The star sported a black thong complete with lined panty hose and a sheer bustier. Her hair was cropped and wet, giving off a sexy “Flash Dance” look.
While the song “Drunk in Love” contains a verse for Jay Z, the live Grammy collaboration was only confirmed a few days prior in a CBS commercial.
The performance continued as Beyoncé slithered on top of her chair, rocking her hips and shooting out dangerous glances into the audience. The stage belonged to her and the audience fell victim as well.
Around three minutes into the song, Jay Z charged the stage ready to join his other half. Beyonce stood up, taking her place alongside the chair allowing her husband to take the stage. She danced patiently behind him, careful not to give away too much as he performed.
The audience simply couldn’t stand the chemistry, screaming and chanting for the two who were clearly in love. She was captivated by him just like the audience was by her.
While some people were mesmerized by the opening performance, others were outraged saying the act was just too provocative.
.@Beyonce wasn't nominated for a single award at last night's Grammys, yet she still managed to dominate http://t.co/80ORYcAyiY
Best latin rock, urban or alternative album: “Treinta Días,” La Santa Cecilia
Best regional mexican music album (including tejano): “A Mi Manera,” Mariachi Divas De Cindy Shea
Best tropical latin album: “Pacific Mambo Orchestra,” Pacific Mambo Orchestra
Best reggae album: “Ziggy Marley In Concert,” Ziggy Marley
Best world music album: “Savor Flamenco,” Gipsy Kings and “Live: Singing For Peace Around The World,” Ladysmith Black Mambazo
Best children’s album: “Throw a Penny In The Wishing Well,” Jennifer Gasoi
Best spoken word album (includes poetry, audio books & storytelling): “America Again: Re-becoming The Greatness We Never Weren’t,” Stephen Colbert
Best instrumental composition: “Pensamientos For Solo Alto Saxophone And Chamber Orchestra,” Clare Fischer, composer
Best instrumental arrangement: “On Green Dolphin Street,” Gordon Goodwin, arranger
Best instrumental arrangement accompanying vocalist(s): “Swing Low,” Gil Goldstein, arranger (Bobby McFerrin & Esperanza Spalding)
Best recording package: “Long Night Moon,” Sarah Dodds and Shauna Dodds, art directors (Reckless Kelly)
Best boxed or special limited edition package: “Wings Over America (Deluxe Edition),” Simon Earith and James Musgrave, art directors (Paul McCartney And Wings)
Best album notes: “Afro Blue Impressions (Remastered & Expanded),” Neil Tesser, album notes writer (John Coltrane)
Best Historical Album: “Charlie Is My Darling — Ireland 1965” and “The Complete Sussex and Columbia Albums”
Best engineered album, non-classical: “Random Access Memories,” Peter Franco, Mick Guzauski, Florian Lagatta and Daniel Lerner, engineers; Antoine “Chab” Chabert, Bob Ludwig, mastering engineers (Daft Punk)
Best remixed recording, non-classical: “Summertime Sadness (Cedric Gervais Remix),” Cedric Gervais, remixer (Lana Del Rey)
Best surround sound album:”Live Kisses,” Al Schmitt, surround mix engineer; Tommy LiPuma, surround producer (Paul McCartney)
Best engineered album, classical: “Winter Morning Walks,” David Frost, Brian Losch and Tim Martyn, engineers; Tim Martyn, mastering engineer (Dawn Upshaw, Maria Schneider, Australian Chamber Orchestra and St. Paul Chamber Orchestra)
Producer of the year, classical: David Frost
Best orchestral performance: “Sibelius: Symphonies Nos. 1 and 4,” Osmo Vänskä, conductor
Best opera recording: “Adès: The Tempest,” Thomas Adès, conductor; Simon Keenlyside, Isabel Leonard, Audrey Luna and Alan Oke; Jay David Saks, producer
Best choral performance: “Pärt: Adam’s Lament,” Tõnu Kaljuste, conductor
Best chamber music/small ensemble performance: “Roomful Of Teeth,” Brad Wells and Roomful Of Teeth
Best classical instrumental solo: “Corigliano: Conjurer – Concerto For Percussionist and String Orchestra,” featuring Evelyn Glennie and the Albany Symphony Orchestra
Best classical vocal solo: “Winter Morning Walks,” Dawn Upshaw
Best classical compendium: “Hindemith: Violinkonzert; Symphonic Metamorphosis; Konzertmusik,” Christoph Eschenbach, conductor
Best contemporary classical composition: “Schneider, Maria: Winter Morning Walks,” Maria Schneider, composer
Best comedy album: “Calm Down Gurrl,” Kathy Griffin
Best musical theater album: “Kinky Boots”
Best compilation soundtrack for visual media: “Sound City: Real To Reel”
Best score soundtrack for visual media: “Skyfall,” Thomas Newman, composer
Best song written for visual media: “Skyfall,” Adele Adkins and Paul Epworth
Best dance recording: “Clarity,” Zedd featuring Foxes
Best dance/electronica album: “Random Access Memories,” Daft Punk
Best R&B performance: “Something,” Snarky Puppy With Lalah Hathaway
Best traditional r&b performance: “Please Come Home,” Gary Clark Jr.
Best R&B song: “Pusher Love Girl,” James Fauntleroy, Jerome Harmon, Timothy Mosley and Justin Timberlake
Best urban contemporary album: “Unapologetic,” Rihanna
Holy Grail rapper Jay-Z definitely made a statement last night at the 56th annual Grammy Awards.
The biggest night in music, which was held at the Nokia Theatre in Los Angeles, actually turned out to be a big night for the rapper as well.
However, it wasn’t just a big night for the Roc Nation mogul. His wife, Beyonce also made her presence known, as she and Jay took the stage as the opening act performing her latest hit, “Drunk In Love”.
The collaborative, blowout performance was quite nostalgic as its the first since their “Crazy In Love” performance at the 2003 MTV VMA’s.
While the performance was nothing less than perfection, as he and Queen Bey set the standard for the night, fans were able to catch a glimpse of the rapper’s softer side later in the show.
When the 44-year-old rapper took the stage again to accept the award for Best Rap/Sung Collaboration for “Holy Grail” which featured Justin Timberlake, his acceptance speech was a bit different from his norm.
He sauntered to the stage, playfully throwing fake punches at actor Jamie Foxx, who presented the award. Then, he got down to business.
“Thank you very much, thank you to all the producers and The-Dream, Justin, for writing this song, all the typical things,” the rapper said. He went on to thank God just “a little bit,” and accredited the universe for his union with his wife.
“I want to thank God, I mean, a little bit for this award, but also all the universe for conspiring and for putting that beautiful light of a young lady in my life,” he continued, gesturing with the Grammy gong to Beyonce who watched from the front row.
Then, he added a sweet message to his 2-year-old daughter Blue Ivy. “I want to tell Blue, ‘Look, Daddy got a gold sippy cup for you!’”
The rapper’s “sippy cup” reference immediately became an online sensation as one of Twitter’s biggest trending topics for the night.
“Blue, Daddy got a gold sippy cup for you” – @s_c_#GRAMMYs
In addition to the award for Best Rap/Sung Collaboration for “Holy Grail,” Jay-Z and Justin Timberlake also took home the award for Best Music Video for “Suit and Tie.”
When pop queen Beyonce dropped her latest album last month, most people were completely surprised, because not only did she do a great job of keeping the project a secret, but she released it with no marketing or promotion, and it still sold extremely well.
And Beyonce’s fans weren’t the only ones surprised at the new material, her Destiny’s Child band mate, Michelle Williams, was caught off guard too, but for a different reason. In an interview with Us Weekly, the 33-year old singer said Beyonce’s highly sexual songs made her feel embarrassed.
“I was telling someone on the way here now how I was laughing,” she said. “I don’t know if it’s laughter of shyness or embarrassment, because the makeup artist and everyone was listening to her say these things, and I’m like, ‘That’s private girl!’ We aren’t supposed to know all that.”
However, Williams then took a step back, and said that everyone assumes that Beyonce and her husband Jay-Z have a good sex life, so hearing the risque songs weren’t really all that shocking. “But she is married, and has produced a baby,” said Williams. “And we know what you have to do to produce a baby so OK.”
And the sexual songs didn’t just embarrass Williams, Beyonce herself said she was afraid to play them to her mother, especially the cut “Partition.”
“I was so embarrassed after I recorded the song because I’m just talking s—,” she told People magazine. “I’m like, ‘I can’t play this for my husband.’ I still haven’t played it for my mom. She’s going to be very mad at me.”
The gorgeous Texan then explained what ‘Partition” is all about, and said she wanted to write a song that captured that new feeling of meeting her husband for the first time. Plus, she wanted to revisit the period when Jay-Z was still courting her.
“It takes me back to being in my car as a teenager,” she explained. “It takes me back to when me and my husband first meet, and he tries to scoop me and he thinks I’m the hottest thing in the world. “I kinda had this whole fantasy of being in the car, and this whole movie played in my head. I didn’t have a pen and paper. I got the mic, I’m like, ‘Oh, press record.’ ”
Surprise performances add excitement to the Grammy awards, which is why people love to speculate about them. Two rumored surprise acts have many people buzzing with delight. Music insiders believe Beyonce and Madonna are secret performers at the 2014 Grammy awards.
The LA Tiimes reports that a source confirmed Beyonce and Madonna’s performances at the Grammys. However, they won’t be singing together. Beyonce will sing some songs from her secretly released self-titled album. This will be the first televised performance of songs from this one.
For her secret act, Madonna is singing background vocals for an already announced Grammy performer. She fueled these performance rumors even more by posting a picture on Instagram. On the picture Beyonce kisses Mercy James, Madonna’s adopted daughter. Madonna captioned the photo by saying, “Mercy James gets a big fat one from Queen. B!”
This picture gave their fans the impression that the two are bonding while rehearsing for the Grammys.
When the L.A Times asked Grammy Awards show producer Ken Ehrlich about the possibility of Beyonce and Madonna being surprise performers, he didn’t confirm or deny either one. He did, however, say things that made these rumors seem real.
“Let’s put it this way … we have a really great history that goes back to the early days of Destiny’s Child. I love working with [Beyonce]. She’s incredible. She is so into what it is that she does and making sure that everybody who sees her walks away saying, ‘wow.’ Should she be on the show this year? I would think that the potential is there for that kind of moment,” Ehrlich told the L.A Times.
A few of the other 2014 Grammy performers are Sara Bareilles with Carole King, Kendrick Lamar with Imagine Dragons, Robin Thicke with Chicago, Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr, Taylor Swift, Pink with Fun.’s Nate Reuss, and Katy Perry.
Beyonce is becoming so efficient at keeping secrets that her fans probably can’t handle anymore of them. This Grammy surprise might just give them joy overload if it proves true.
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