Archive: February 2010 (111-115 of 115)

Feb 1 2010 03:18 PM ET

ABBA: New album on the way! (Well, sort of.)

Ever since I saw 2008′s Mamma Mia! — an all-time great music movie, and I don’t care who disagrees — I’ve been wishing ABBA would reunite already and write some new tunes that were half as much fun as their old ones from the ’70s. Well, I might be waiting for a while on that one. But! At least I can look forward to the Benny Andersson Band‘s Story of a Heart, due March 2.

Benny Andersson, of course, is one of the original Bs in ABBA. The other B, Björn Ulvaeus, co-wrote every song on Story of a Heart with him. Think it’s a stretch to call this an ABBA reunion without their ex-wives Anni-Frid Lyngstad and Agnetha Fältskog? I admit their absence is a shame, but take a listen to the title track from Story of a Heart below and tell me that’s not the classic ABBA sound you’ve been missing. Make sure you stick around til the chorus kicks in around the 0:55 mark. There, now that sugary Scandinavian pop hook is going to be all up in your head for the rest of the day, like it is in mine.

Any other ABBA fans out there excited by this news? (Don’t be ashamed, you can admit it.) Am I kidding myself to think this is as close to a new ABBA album as we’re likely to get?

(Follow the Music Mix on Twitter: @EWMusicMix.)

More from EW.com’s Music Mix:
Taylor Swift wins Album of the Year: Did the Grammys get it right?
Lady Gaga and Elton John: What did you think?
Taylor Swift and Stevie Nicks’ Grammy duet: out of sight, or out of tune?
Grammys pay tribute to Michael Jackson with help from his kids: A fitting salute?
Grammys: the complete list of winners
Grammys backstage report: which star ‘thought I was going to fall on my nude butt’?

Feb 1 2010 01:15 PM ET

Vampire Weekend love Lady Gaga? Hear them explain their unexpected adoration

Last week, indie band Vampire Weekend recorded a co-hosting appearance on Sirius Radio’s SIRIUS XMU channel (their latest album, Contra, recently landed atop the Billboard 200).

During a conversation that spanned several topics, host Jenny Eliscu asked the Vampire boys who their favorite secret music indulgence was, and keyboardist/guitairst Rostam Batmanglij offered up a rather surprising (for him!), answer: “Pretty much everything by Lady Gaga,” Batmanglij said. When Eliscu said she took issue with Gaga, claiming there’s “no there there,” Batmanglij defended the pop princess, explaining that she’s helping teenagers know that “they shouldn’t feel like a freak. That’s something I personally can relate to. And so I think it is meaningful. I think what she is doing is meaningful.” Well put, Rostam!

Listen to the full, Lady Gaga-infused segment below, and be sure to stick around for their rendition of “Bad Romance” at the end. Then tune in every day this week from 5 to 6pm to hear the show (SIRIUS channel 26 and XM channel 43).

Does this revelation make you love Vampire Weekend even more? Do you smell a freaky Vampire-Gaga collab coming on? I say: Bring it!

(Follow the Music Mix on Twitter: @EWMusicMix.)

More from EW.com’s Music Mix:
Taylor Swift wins Album of the Year: Did the Grammys get it right?
Lady Gaga and Elton John: What did you think?
Taylor Swift and Stevie Nicks’ Grammy duet: out of sight, or out of tune?
Grammys pay tribute to Michael Jackson with help from his kids: A fitting salute?
Grammys: the complete list of winners
Grammys backstage report: which star ‘thought I was going to fall on my nude butt’?

Feb 1 2010 08:59 AM ET

Major Lazer trash-talks, covers Beyonce's 'Halo' with help from Elephant Man

Oh, Diplo, you joker. The Grammy Award for Best Female Pop Vocal Performance went to Beyoncé’s “Halo” last night, one of six trophies she took home — more than any female artist ever. Producer/DJ Diplo’s erratically capitalized response via Twitter: “SERIOUSLY CANT BELIEVE beyonce won a GraNNY when My VErSiOn of HaLo with elefant man + @majorlazer is SoOO MUCH BETTER!” Diplo even included a link to download his conceptual dancehall project Major Lazer’s cover of “Halo,” with lead vocals provided by Jamaican star Elephant Man, right there in his tweet. If you add the MP3 to iTunes, the artist will be listed as “Diplo shoulda won grammy.” Ha ha.

Putting Diplo’s prankish commentary aside — because I don’t think anyone including him could seriously argue that the three dudes behind this cover deserved Best Female Pop Vocal Performance over Queen B — this version of “Halo” is…okay. It stays fairly close to the original, except with Elephant Man growling instead of Beyoncé belting the verses. I’m not hearing the kind of irresistible, innovative beats that Major Lazer guys Diplo and Switch usually bring to the table, though. Is this “Halo” cover fun? Sure. Necessary? Not particularly.

Use Diplo’s Twitter link to check out Major Lazer’s “Halo,” then sound off: Are you glad Diplo leaked this cover? Do you think he’s in a position to be talking trash about Beyoncé’s Grammys?

(Follow the Music Mix on Twitter: @EWMusicMix.)

More from EW.com’s Music Mix:
Taylor Swift wins Album of the Year: Did the Grammys get it right?
Lady Gaga and Elton John: What did you think?
Taylor Swift and Stevie Nicks’ Grammy duet: out of sight, or out of tune?
Grammys pay tribute to Michael Jackson with help from his kids: A fitting salute?
Grammys: the complete list of winners
Grammys backstage report: which star ‘thought I was going to fall on my nude butt’?

Photo credit: Albert L. Ortega/PR Photos

Feb 1 2010 08:30 AM ET

Imelda May: Who was that singing with Jeff Beck at last night's Grammys?

Categories: Grammys, Tributes

The Grammy Awards took a brief detour to the middle of last century last night, when guitarist Jeff Beck led a cover of “How High the Moon” in honor of the late Les Paul. Lead vocals were handled by someone you might not have recognized, but who’s already a sizable star in her native Ireland and the U.K.: Rockabilly singer Imelda May.

The Dublin singer has released two albums, No Turning Back and Love Tattoo, the latter reaching No. 12 on Billboard‘s Heatseekers chart this past December. Check out a clip of May performing “Big Bad Handsome Man” on Ireland’s Late Late Show in 2009. Then let us know what you think: Does Imelda May have what it takes to break out in the U.S. like, say, Amy Winehouse did a couple years back? Were you familiar with her work before the Grammys?

(Follow the Music Mix on Twitter: @EWMusicMix.)

More from EW.com’s Music Mix:
Taylor Swift wins Album of the Year: Did the Grammys get it right?
Lady Gaga and Elton John: What did you think?
Taylor Swift and Stevie Nicks’ Grammy duet: out of sight, or out of tune?
Grammys pay tribute to Michael Jackson with help from his kids: A fitting salute?
Grammys: the complete list of winners
Grammys backstage report: which star ‘thought I was going to fall on my nude butt’?

Feb 1 2010 07:13 AM ET

Grammys backstage report: Which star 'thought I was going to fall on my nude butt'?

Categories:

EW.com had its eyes and ears open backstage and on the red carpet of the 52nd annual Grammy Awards Sunday in L.A. (Check out our full list of 2010 Grammy winners.) While everyone buzzed about Lady Gaga, it was ultimately country and Taylor Swift that took the night. (John Legend even sorta predicted it to us.) Come along.

•    Taylor Swift, carrying her four Grammys in her arms, says she has some big choices to make. “All four of them?” Swift said when asked where she will put her Grammys, including Album of the Year. “I imagine I have four options.”

•    AC/DC won their first ever Grammy in Best Hard Rock, but couldn’t beat the mighty (but comparatively neophyte) Green Day in Best Rock. Asked if he had mixed feelings about beating AC/DC, Billie Joe Armstrong said in the press room, “I love AC/DC. If it wasn’t for Angus I wouldn’t be playing guitar. But no, I don’t feel bad.”

•    Kathy Griffin took to Twitter after the show to say Stephen Colbert “stole my motherf—ing Grammy” for Spoken Word Album, and was visibly dismayed when she didn’t win. Griffin said on the carpet before the show she was surprised to be nominated: “I can’t believe it, I am stunned, like a dog that has been punched in the face.”  Griffin’s upcoming sixth season of My Life on the D List will feature Liza Minnelli, Cher, and Kristen Chenoweth, she says. The paparazzi-friendly comedian greeted a gaggle of tabloid reporters on the red carpet with open arms. “These are my peeps!” Griffin exclaimed.

•    John Legend, who presented Album of the Year to Taylor Swift, said before the show that 2010 was all about ladies: “I think it’s a close tie between the three ladies: Beyonce, Gaga, and Taylor Swift. Usually they say pick the older acts, but there is no one older act in the Album of the Year this year. Maybe it’s good to bet on country.” The R&B hitmaker has his fourth album coming this summer, with the Roots. “I’m still going to be the same John Legend,” he says.

•    Best New Artist nominee the Ting Tings are knee-deep into their new album thanks to cold German winters. “We’re in Berlin recording our new record, about seven tracks in,” Jules DeMartino says. “It’s pretty there. It’s minus 20 degrees in Berlin, so we don’t go out much. We sit there and write.”

•    T-Pain joked with a reporter in the press room wearing a red stocking cap that he looked like Jason Mewes. “Where is Silent Bob?” T-Pain said, to muted laughter. In fact, T-Pain was all about surprises: he divulged that Slash ignored him, and that he was dying to work with Carrie Underwood. “The next on my list, and I will not work with anybody until I do get her, is Carrie Underwood,” T-Pain said. “I swear to God, everybody else can suck it until I get to Carrie Underwood.”

•    Pink, who performed onstage in a trapeze-like contraption of silk scarves (she is an old acrobatic pro), said she almost fell. “I thought I was going to fall on my nude butt, but I worked it out,” Pink said after the show, adding of her talent: “People are like, ‘Why is she here?’ I am like, This is why, bitches.”

•    Miley Cyrus tells EW to expect one more kid-friendly pop record from her later this year – and then it will be a different Miley. “That’s for my next record,” Cyrus said on the red carpet. “I have to do one more record that is poppy and fun, then I want to take a couple years and work on this next one. That will be kind of exactly who I am. I just don’t know exaclty who that is yet, so I am going to wait until I know.”

•    Don’t look for Keith Urban to duet with wife Nicole Kidman. “We tend to stick to the viral YouTubes of the world,” Urban says of singing with Kidman. “I love singing with her around the house. I don’t think we are going to put the show on the road anytime soon.”

•    Miranda Lambert, nominated for Best Female Country Vocal Performance for “Dead Flowers,” said of the nomination: “It’s a song that I felt like for a minute for a minute it didn’t get the shot it deserved, but the Grammys thought it did. So that made me feel really good.”

(Follow the Music Mix on Twitter: @EWMusicMix.)

More from EW.com’s Music Mix:
Taylor Swift wins Album of the Year: Did the Grammys get it right?
Lady Gaga and Elton John: What did you think?
Taylor Swift and Stevie Nicks’ Grammy duet: out of sight, or out of tune?
Grammys pay tribute to Michael Jackson with help from his kids: A fitting salute?
Grammys: the complete list of winners

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