Tag: MTV (41-50 of 72)

Sep 13 2010 12:24 PM ET

Florence Welch of Florence and the Machine: An EW Q&a

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Florence-and-the-MachineImage Credit: Paul Redmond/WireImage.comSomewhere between Gaga’s meat smock and the endless iterations of Kanye-vs.-Taylor, a different kind of star emerged at last night’s VMAs.

Crimson-haired songstress Florence Welch (who is, essentially, Florence and the Machine) stunned an audience fed on frantic dance moves, endemic lip-synching, and ersatz drama—simply by singing the crap out of a genuinely great song.

EW caught up with the 24-year-old Londoner and 2009 EW Year-End Albums topper late last week, while she was still anticipating last night’s performance, and spoke to her about gearing up for the show, getting to know Lady Gaga, and who she was most likely to fan out on backstage.

EW: Hello! We’re big fans here at EW, so it’s nice to finally speak to you. Are the VMAs a thing you’re familiar with, having grown up in England?

FW: Yeah, they do run them here on MTV, for sure.

EW: So you know the show is famous for crazy incidents—Eminem fighting with the sock puppet, the guy from Rage Against the Machine falling off a statue onstage, Prince in his buttless pants…

FW: Oh yes, the buttless pants! The Brits are really my only experience with awards, and the VMAs are such an iconic event. Just yesterday, I was walking around [London's] Soho in a dress that cost me one pound and has a hole in it, and then later I was laying on the living-room floor with my sister and this advert came on for the VMAs, this huge spectacle with explosions and all these massive artists and I was like “Oh my god, I’m doing that? Are you sure?” People in south London laying on their living-room floors aren’t supposed to be the people who do that. It just seems so surreal to me that I was laying there watching an advert for a thing I’m actually scheduled to be performing at.

EW: Are you planning to match that level of spectacle?

FW: I think it’s going to be something quite big, not something we’d be able to do at any other event.

EW: So that means you’ve been learning arial acrobatics, like Pink?

FW: Yes, absolutely. While doing jump rope upside down [laughs].

EW: tell me how this year has been for you, it seems like in America at least, it’s been a pretty slow, steady build… READ FULL STORY »

Sep 13 2010 03:39 AM ET

Inside the VMAs: What you didn't see on TV

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Taylor-Swift-VMAsImage Credit: Kevin Winter/Getty ImagesThe crowd settling into the Nokia Theatre L.A. Live on Sunday evening knew that anything could happen over the next two hours — primarily because anything did happen at the last MTV Video Music Awards. (Lil Mama, you are not forgotten.) I’m sure I wasn’t the only one in that auditorium wondering whether we were about to see any more jaw-dropping surprises when the lights went down at 6 P.M. West Coast time. But did we? Read on. READ FULL STORY »

Sep 12 2010 11:20 PM ET

Lady Gaga announces title of her upcoming new album during VMA speech, steals show

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Lady-Gaga-Glee-VMAs_320.jpg Image Credit: Vince Bucci/PictureGroup/MTV Lady Gaga made good on a promise to fans to announce the name of her next album in her speech if she won Video of the Year: In accepting the award for “Bad Romance” (from Cher! who was wearing her “If I Could Turn Back Time” spiderweb/thong getup! gays, rejoice!) she not only dropped the title — Born This Way – but also sang a few bars. And between her amazing non-Auto-Tuned voice (sorry, Kanye) and her great throwaway line (“I never thought I’d be asking Cher to hold my meat purse”), she calmly, classily stole the show, just by being Gaga. No actual speech-stealing required. (Again, sorry, Kanye.)

What did you think of the impromptu sneak-peek at Born This Way, Music Mixers?

Sep 12 2010 10:25 PM ET

Taylor Swift sings about Kanye West (we think, sort of) at the VMAs: Is this the official end to the saga?

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Taylor-Swift-VMAs_320.jpg Image Credit: Kevin Winter/Getty Images Taylor Swift “surprised” the audience at the VMAs (though word of the performance leaked last night) with a song “about” Kanye West’s now-all-too-infamous stage-crashing incident at last year’s ceremony. And a good thing word leaked yesterday, or we’d barely know this song she sang was vaguely, possibly, inspired-ish by said lapse in manners. The replay of the incident at the beginning of her appearance helped make it clearer, but then it was all moody lighting and red lipstick and sparkles. She looked gorgeous, as she is wont to do, but, um, the actual song was a pretty opaque: She seems to be saying Kanye “lost [his] balance on a tightrope” and “lost [his] mind trying to get it back” and also “who you are is not where you’ve been,” thus he is “still an innocent.” Perhaps the clearest reference to the rapper was when she said “32 is still growing up now” — lo and behold, he was that very age when he crashed the stage.

At any rate, she seems to have forgiven him: “Time turns flames to embers,” and “minds change like the weather — I hope you remember today is never late to be brand new.” So, yay. Let’s all toast to the (hopefully) final note in that moment that launched a thousand blog posts, apologies, and replays on YouTube. Everyone’s been wondering if her new album full of confessional tunes, Speak Now, would address the debacle — and now we have our answer! And she’s had the last word. There, don’t we all feel better now?

How do you feel, Music Mixers? Do you have proper closure on Taylor/Kanye-gate?

Sep 12 2010 09:14 PM ET

Eminem and surprise guest Rihanna open VMAs

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Rihanna-Eminem-VMAsImage Credit: Vince Bucci/PictureGroupComing off a summer so amazing he left us wondering how he did it, Eminem capped off the season by opening up tonight’s VMAs with “Not Afraid” and his Rihanna-assisted “Love the Way You Lie.” In a black jacket, hooded sweatshirt, and white tee, the Detroit rhymer intensely ripped through “Not Afraid.”

In a white knee-length tutu, blazing red hair and black combat boots, Rihanna–who slyly fibbed about not being able to make the show tonight because of prior obligations earlier this week–popped up on stage halfway through “Not Afraid” for “Lie.” The crowd ate it up, jumping to their feet before they closed and hugged as fire lit the jumbo screens. Em’s comeback is complete, it seems.

Did you catch the performance? Let us know what you think.

More MTV VMAs coverage on EW.com:
MTV VMAs: We’re live-blogging it!
VMAs: Video of the Year nominees
VMA nominees: Surprising winners and losers
Kanye West apologizes to Taylor Swift: ‘I only want to do good.’
VMAs: 15 terrible fashion choices

Sep 12 2010 08:46 PM ET

Lady Gaga's crazy Native American-ish VMA arrivals outfit: What did you think?

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The most-nominated Lady of the VMAs — that is, Lady Gaga — has already made her first (of potentially many, if history is any indication) fashion statements of the night. She arrived on the white carpet in a feathery gold headdress, flowing platinum locks, and a very autumnal gold, green, and orange gown with a pumpkin-ish pouf at the bottom — a creation of the late Alexander McQueen (who committed suicide in February). Then, well, there are the McQueen armadillo shoes, which still defy words, even after seeing the similar ones she wore in the “Bad Romance” video. A little more of a nature-bound look than we’re used to from the otherworldly Gaga, but, of course, she does like to keep things fresh and current — so why not nod to the changing seasons?

What did you think of Gaga’s arrivals getup, Music Mixers?

Image Credit: Reuters/Mario Anzuoni/Landov

Sep 11 2010 06:47 PM ET

Taylor Swift to perform song about Kanye incident at the VMAs?

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According to the Associated Press, Taylor Swift has written a song about last year’s Kanye West incident and will unveil it with a surprise performance tomorrow night at the VMAs. That means the two probably won’t team up as some had hoped (here are some of our suggestions for such a pairing), but we’re still dying to hear Swift’s musical take on the now-infamous encounter.

What do you think? Are you excited to hear it, or should they move on, already?

Image Credit: Ed Rode/Nashville Rising/Getty Images

Sep 4 2010 01:13 PM ET

Kanye West apologizes to Taylor Swift on Twitter: 'I've learned. I only want to do good.'

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kanye-taylorImage Credit: Gary Hershorn/Reuters/LandovNearly one year after Kanye West famously interrupted Taylor Swift’s acceptance speech for Best Female Video at MTV’s Video Music Awards, the rapper has taken to his Twitter to apologize — for the second time — to the young award-winner. Today, West unleashed a barrage of tweets about the famous incident, even thanking Twitter creator Biz Stone and CEO Evan Williams for giving him a platform to ask forgiveness. “When I woke up from the crazy nightmare I looked in the mirror and said GROW UP KANYE … I take responsibility for my actions,” one of the rapper’s tweets read.

West even tweeted that he had written a song for Swift: “[It's] so beautiful and I want her to have it. If she won’t take it then I’ll perform it for her,” he wrote. Though his tweets over the two-hour twitter frenzy ranged from convoluted (“The Wicked witch of the west basically is so convicted to tell her’ truth when she does it she is outcasted by society and turned WICKED”) to introspective (“With new found humility … who am I to run on stage? I would never ever again in a million years do that. Sorry to let you down.”) to utterly ridiculous (“There are people who have named there kids after me… can you imagine that next day in school. Even though I don’t have kids…”), West seems to want to make his remorse clear, finishing his dozens of tweets with one simple sentence: “I’m sorry Taylor.”

Of course, the timing of the tweets — released so close to the anniversary of the buzzed-about incident — is a little suspect, especially when you consider that VMA host Chelsea Handler is aiming to reunite the two during this year’s awards ceremony on Sept. 12. (And the fact that West released a new song, “Devil in a Dress,” on his blog today doesn’t really help his cause either.) But, for the time being, should we view West’s second apology as genuine?

Aug 27 2010 06:00 PM ET

Ke$ha's spacey VMA promo: Watch the exclusive preview clip here!

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Keisha-vmasImage Credit: F. Scott SchaferDrunk-pop princess Ke$ha’s had a big ol’ year, one that’s set to culminate at the 2010 MTV Video Music Awards, where she’s up for four Moonmen, and also performing.

Also also, the tall, blonde drink of vodka is one of the rising stars picked to shine alongside Justin Bieber and Nicki Minaj in the VMA ad campaign, and her “road to the VMAs” — you can watch our exclusive premiere of the spot after the jump — is an appropriately trippy journey for this space cadet: Young Ke$ha is asleep on a giant bed inside what looks to be the mansion from the “Total Eclipse of the Heart” video, until she awakes to the strains of “Tik Tok” coming from outside the window. She plunges from the mansion’s balcony and… well, you’ll just have to watch it and see. And of course, weigh in below.

The 2010 MTV Video Music Awards air Sunday, September 12, at 9p.m. ET/8p.m. CT, live from the Nokia Theater in L.A. READ FULL STORY »

Aug 12 2010 01:31 PM ET

Kanye West to perform at MTV VMAs: How will it go down one year after TaylorGate?

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Kanye-West-TaylorImage Credit: Gary Hershorn/ Reuters/ LandovWell, that was quick. Just as fast as Kanye West was ushered out of the building for interrupting Taylor Swift’s acceptance speech at last year’s VMAs, he’s back.

After months of backlash from his impromptu outburst, MTV has opened their arms and is hailing his forthcoming performance as a “triumphant return,” during which West will likely perform a selection from his  as-yet-untitled November album. The news will be a surprise to many who ideally would expect MTV to punish West for last year’s debacle. But hey, newsflash to all who didn’t know: There are no morals in entertainment. On the heels of releasing his groundbreaking “Power” clip (on MTV, by the way) and surprisingly premiering an unfinished Beyoncé-assisted track yesterday, Kanye’s comeback likely will bring in ridiculously high ratings.

When the awards air September 12 live from Los Angeles, we’ll certainly be tuned in. Swift, who’s also gearing up for the release of her Speak Now album and recently debuted at No. 3 on the Billboard hot 100 chart with the set’s first single “Mine,” probably will be in attendance.

Do you think Kanye will acknowledge last year’s gaff on stage? Since then, he’s personally apologized to the country-pop starlet. But do you expect him to do it again publicly? Do you think MTV will script a skit for the two to comedically act out? Oh, so many questions. Let us know what you think.

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