Image Credit: Adam Rose/Fox
This week, Glee pays homage to music legend Stevie Wonder in an episode appropriately titled “Wonder-ful.”
EW is exclusively premiering three(!) tracks from this week’s episode, including a cover by returning guest star Kate Hudson of Wonder’s “Uptight (Everything Alright).”Listen below, Gleeks:
When it comes to all the forms of entertainment in the Super Bowl telecast, music completes the package. No, we’re not talking about Beyonce’s halftime show. We’re talking about the tunes in all those commercials.
The music in this year’s Big Game ads was a mix of recent hits and decades-old classics. Appropriate for one of America’s biggest partying days, the song choices were mostly upbeat and celebratory, but there were a few more emotional tracks as well.
Here EW presents to you a special edition of TV Jukebox with those Super Bowl commercials in the spotlight. Check out our picks and Spotify playlist below. READ FULL STORY »
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This year’s American Music Awards will be the first without its founder Dick Clark. But America’s eternal teenager will still be there in spirit — and in song.
Stevie Wonder will be performing a special tribute to Clark at this Sunday’s live ceremony, Dick Clark Productions has announced. The tribute will be introduced by Ryan Seacrest.
“He was a mentor, friend and a wonderful advocate for popular music,” Seacrest said of Clark in a statement. “It’s only fitting that one of music’s legends, Stevie Wonder, will play at Sunday’s tribute.”
Clark, of course, formed the American Music Awards back in 1973 as a means of competing with the Grammys. Wonder himself has snagged 11 AMAs over the years.
“Without a Dick Clark,” AMA producer Larry Klein says, “our entire current musical repertoire might be classical in nature. Not that there’s anything wrong with classical music, but Clark helped Beethoven roll over and tell Tchaikovsky the news.”
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Like most music awards shows, the Billboard Music Awards are so not about the statuettes that are doled out. The show — which aired live last night on ABC from the MGM Grand Hotel, with hosts, Modern Family stars Julie Bowen and Ty Burrell — is typically more about everything but the awards: performances, tributes, collaborations, and other sundry craziness.
Hell, even the fashion — hello to Miley Cyrus’ barely-there suit jacket — is more important than the prizes! And that was no different this year. Just a handful of the 46 awards were actually given out during the show (LMFAO dominated), which was jolted to life with performances from Katy Perry, Cee Lo Green, and Linkin Park; tributes to Robin Gibb, Donna Summer, Whitney Houston, the Beastie Boys’ Adam Yauch, and Stevie Wonder; a collaboration between Stevie Wonder and Alicia Keys; and a heartfelt speech by Houston’s daughter Bobbi Kristina Brown.
Here are 20 essential takeaways from the evening:
Image Credit: Bob Riha Jr/WireImage
Grammy-winning “Fallin’” singer Alicia Keys will present the Billboard Icon Award to Stevie Wonder — and perform with the legendary artist — at Sunday’s Billboard Music Awards, EW has learned exclusively.
There’s no word on what song — or medley of songs — the pair will perform. Wonder and Keys have had a long-running kinship and respect for each other, as they performed “Higher Ground” together at the 2004 MTV VMAs and presented together at the 48th Grammy Awards in 2006 (pictured here). Keys has won 10 Billboard Music Awards during her career.
Modern Family acting duo Ty Burrell and Julie Bowen are taking on hosting duties at the awards show, which will broadcast live on ABC from the MGM Grand Hotel in Las Vegas this Sunday at 8 p.m. Leading nominees for the awards include Adele, LMFAO, and Rihanna.
Just-announced presenters at the show include Whoopi Goldberg, Swizz Beatz, and Charlie Sheen. They join previously announced presenters Lisa Marie Presley, Wiz Khalifa, Luke Bryan, Robin Thicke, Brandy, Monica, Miley Cyrus, Taio Cruz, Gavin DeGraw, Gladys Knight, Julianne Hough, Natasha Bedingfield and Jeremy Sisto, along with musical acts Jordin Sparks, John Legend, Kelly Clarkson, Linkin Park, Nelly Furtado, Usher, Carrie Underwood, Justin Bieber, LMFAO, and The Wanted.
Tanner on Twitter: @EWTanStransky
Read more:
‘Modern Family’ stars Ty Burrell and Julie Bowen to host Billboard Music Awards — EXCLUSIVE
Adele, LMFAO, and Rihanna lead Billboard Music Award finalists
Whitney Houston’s funeral on Saturday will feature performances from Aretha Franklin and Stevie Wonder, The Associated Press reported today.
Oprah Winfrey and Kevin Costner were among the celebrities invited to the private service at the Newark Baptist Church, where Houston grew up singing in New Jersey. Houston’s mentor Clive Davis is scheduled to speak, as well as gospel singer Marvin Williams.
An invitation was extended to Whitney Houston’s ex-husband Bobby Brown, contrary to reports that he was banned from the funeral. A source told People “Bobby will be there at the funeral to support his [and Houston's] daughter [Bobbi Kristina Brown, 18]. There was some talk … some people were angry at him, but that’s just grief. He will be there.”
Brown has a concert with New Edition on Saturday in Connecticut and plans to perform at that event following the funeral, People reports.
Houston’s funeral will be livestreamed on EW.com, beginning at 12p.m. ET Saturday.
Read more:
Private funeral for Whitney Houston set for Saturday
Whitney Houston tributes viewing guide
This Week’s Cover: Whitney Houston’s life and legacy
Yesterday evening at 8 P.M. Eastern, HBO began airing the two-night all-star concert that the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame put on in NYC a few weeks back. To give you a sense of the material they were working with here, if the network had shown the entirety of both October dates, that broadcast would have just finally wrapped up around six this morning. Instead, HBO selected a representative sampling of the concerts’ most awesome moments — which, given the lengthy and generally unbelievable nature of the original set lists, added up to a four-hour extravaganza anyway.
The listed headliners alone were enough to justify outrageous ticket prices for the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame’s first 25th anniversary concert at NYC’s Madison Square Garden last night: Crosby, Stills & Nash, Simon & Garfunkel, Paul Simon solo, Stevie Wonder, and Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band can all fill arenas by themselves. Yet they weren’t even half the talent in the room. As each of those top-billed acts brought out one legendary friend or forebear after another to jam on stage, a truly epic event took form. (Check out a full set list after the jump.) By the end of the night — which was actually 1:30 this morning — the performers had succeeded at a goal that the Hall of Fame itself only sometimes reaches: They had presented a convincing rock canon, a rich history that’s still living and breathing in the present tense.
