Tag: Taylor Swift

MTV VMAs 2015

Post author By reco valeriano
Post date August 31, 2015

Taylor Swift won Video of the Year and shared smiles with Nicki Minaj at Sunday’s MTV Video Music Awards ceremony — during which she also presented a lifetime-achievement award and an open mic to Kanye West.

Swift thanked Lamar, whose rap is featured on “Bad Blood,” and thanked her video co-stars, all of whom are women in show business. “There are two women in the video who I’ve named cats after,” she said. “I love them so much. … There’s been a lot of discussion this video and what it means, but I’m just happy that, in 2015, we live in a world where boys can play princesses, and girls can play soldiers.”

Swift later presented the Video Vanguard Award to West, who famously crashed her 2009 VMAs acceptance speech. “I first met Kanye West six years ago — at this show actually!” she said, while giving him the lifetime-achievement award. “Since then, we’ve had a lot of time to talk about a lot of different things.”
The rapper smiled when Swift revealed that his album “College Dropout,” was the “very first album that my brother and I bought on iTunes when I was 12 years old.” She added, “I have been a fan of his, since I can remember, because Kanye defines what is to be a creative force in music, fashion and, well, life. So, I guess I have to say to all the other winners tonight: I’m really happy for you, and I’mma let you finish, but Kanye West has had one of the greatest careers of all time!”

Billboard Music Awards 2015

Post author By reco valeriano
Post date May 18, 2015

View image | gettyimages.com

The Billboard Music Awards took place yesterday and was filled with performances and many awards. Taylor Swift took home the most awards winning eight in total, followed by Sam Smith, Pharrell, and Iggy Azalea each winning three. Swift is the most successful artist in the show’s history with 20 wins, beating Garth Brooks’ 19-win record. The show opened with the premiere of Taylor Swift’s video for Bad Blood which featured a star studded cast. She also swapped her first two verses with new ones from rapper Kendrick Lamar for her performance of “Bad Blood.”

Mariah Carey performed a medley of “Vision of Love” and her new song “Infinity.” Some criticized her due to her performance sounding too pitchy. Britney Spears and Iggy Azalea debuted their first live performance of their song “Pretty Girls,” which many said was a great performance. Kanye West closed out the show with a medley of his songs, “All Day” and “Black Skinhead.” For the most part, his performance was censored and you could not really see him due to the stage being so smoky. Which was your favorite performance of the night?

To see a full list of winners and photos head on over to: billboard.com

Tags sam smith, all day, award show, Kanye West, billboard, billboard music awards, One Direction, britney spears, Taylor Swift, mariah carey, music, pretty girls, Pharrell, iggy azalea, awards

Celebrity News Music/Concerts

2015 Grammy Nominations

Post author By reco valeriano
Post date December 5, 2014

#459965996 / gettyimages.com

A partial list of the 2015 Grammy nominations were announced early this morning on CBS This Morning at the Grammy Museum in Los Angeles. Pharrell Williams and Ed Sheeran announced four categories for the 57th Annual Grammy Awards. The remaining list of the nominees will be revealed through Twitter throughout the rest of the day from celebrities and artists. The first round has already been revealed by celebrities, Ryan Seacrest, Jared Leto, and Alanis Morissette.

Sam Smith is currently leading the amount of nominations with five- record of the year, best pop vocal album, best pop solo performance, song of the year, and best new artist.

In all, there are 83 categories at the Grammys this year. We just have to keep checking throughout the day to see who the other nominees are! But they are announcing the most coveted award last…

Nominees for album of the year – the Grammy’s biggest award – will be announced on A Very GRAMMY Christmas, which will air at 9 p.m. ET on CBS. There will be performances by Pharrell Williams, Ariana Grande, Sam Smith, Maroon 5 and Tim McGraw. The show will be hosted again by LL Cool J. The 2015 Grammy Awards will air live on February 8 on CBS.

Taylor Swift at Victoria’s Secret Fashion Show

Post author By reco valeriano
Post date December 5, 2014

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Taylor Swift headlined this year’s Victoria’s Secret Fashion show, which airs December 9 at 10 p.m. on CBS. The show was shot Tuesday in London.

Swift even closed out the show where she walked among the models on the catwalk. She performed her latest single, “Blank Space” along with another song from her 1989 album, “Style.”

Swift’s role in the show was very involved compared to past artists who have been performers for the show. The show featured a special segment dedicated to the models like Karlie Kloss praising the singer’s talent. Swift also walked hand in hand with model/BFF Karlie Kloss at the beginning of her “Style” performance. This kind of attention on a performer during the show was unprecedented. Past artists, like Fall Out Boy, merely served as background music.

Another artist that stole the show, in a different manner though, was Ariana Grande. During Grande’s performance Model Elsa Hosk who was wearing fluffy pink wings down the runway accidentally knocked the 21-year-old pop-star down into a crouching position. She might have cringed, but after the show she tweeted: “A Victoria’s Secret angel accidentally smacked me in the face with her wings and it was awesome #goals #bangbangintomyface.”

The annual fashion show also saw performances by, Ed Sheeran, and “Take Me to Church” singer Hozier.

American Music Awards

Post author By reco valeriano
Post date November 24, 2014

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The American Music Awards were last night with performances from a multitude of today’s top artists, including Lorde, Taylor Swift, and J. Lo. The award show was hosted by Pitbull this year which he also performed his latest single alongside Ne-Yo. Taylor Swift opened the show with her single, “Blank Space,” and brought the music video to life in her performance. Taylor Swift won the honor of the night with the Dick Clark Award for Excellence, which was presented to her by Diana Ross.

During her acceptance speech, Swift reiterated her stance towards pulling her music from Spotify.

“To the fans who went out and bought over a million copies of my last three albums, what you did by going out and investing in music and albums is you’re saying that you believe in the same thing that I believe in,” she said during her speech. “[You believe] that music is valuable and that music should be consumed in albums and albums should be consumed as art and appreciated.”

The show ended with the award for Artist of the Year, which was awarded to One Direction! Also, closing off the performances was the highly anticipated world tv premiere performance of J.Lo’s “Booty” remix featuring Iggy Azalea.

Taylor Swift Pulls All Songs From Spotify

Post author By reco valeriano
Post date November 5, 2014

#458119854 / gettyimages.com

Taylor Swift shocked everyone this week on Spotify when her label, Big Machine Records, pulled all her music from the streaming service. Spotify did not have “1989” available to stream when it came out, which was not a surprise since Swift has made clear her distaste for free streaming sites.

The 40 million subscribers to Spotify won’t be able to listen to her new album, “1989,” or any of Swift’s past albums.

Swift told The Wall Street Journal last summer that “piracy, file sharing and streaming have shrunk the numbers of paid album sales drastically and every artist has handled this blow differently.”

She also has been quoted saying, “Music is art, and art is important and rare. Important, rare things are valuable. Valuable things should be paid for.”

Swift isn’t the first artist to withhold her music from Spotify. For instance, Beyonce’s lastest album only offers 4 songs available to stream.

As Big Machine Records pulled Swift’s songs Monday, Spotify responded by saying how much the company loves Swift.

“We hope she’ll change her mind and join us in building a new music economy that works for everyone. We believe fans should be able to listen to music wherever and whenever they want, and that artists have an absolute right to be paid for their work and protected from piracy,” Spotify posted on its blog.

Spotify also posted playlists, “A Little Playlist Poetry for Taylor Swift,” and, “What to Play While Taylor’s Away.”

Swift’s music, including “1989” — which sold 1.3 million copies in just the first week of release — is still available on iTunes.

MTV’s VMAs Award Winners

Post author By reco valeriano
Post date August 26, 2013

The MTV VMA's took place in Brooklyn on Sunday, August 25 and presented 17 awards for talented work. — The MTV VMA’s took place in Brooklyn on Sunday, August 25 and presented 17 awards for various talented work.

MTV aired the Video Music Awards on Sunday, August 25, and as always, the entire award show was a night to remember. The night was filled with an *NSYNC reunion, a Miley Cyrus and Robin Thicke duo performance, Katy Perry’s performance of her newest single ‘Roar,’ and so much more.

The award show presented awards to amazingly talented individuals in the music industry. The list of winners this year is as follows:

Video of the year: Justin Timberlake, “Mirrors”

Best female video: Taylor Swift, “I Knew You Were Trouble.”

Best male video: Bruno Mars, “Locked Out of Heaven”

Best pop video: Selena Gomez, “Come & Get It”

Best hip-hop video: Macklemore & Ryan Lewis featuring Ray Dalton, “Can’t Hold Us”

Best rock video: Thirty Seconds to Mars, “Up In the Air”

Best collaboration: Pink and Nate Ruess of fun., “Just Give Me a Reason”

Best video with a social message: Macklemore & Ryan Lewis featuring Mary Lambert, “Same Love”

Best song of the summer: One Direction, “Best Song Ever”

Artist to watch: Austin Mahone, “What About Love”

Michael Jackson Video Vanguard Award: Justin Timberlake

Best direction: Justin Timberlake’s “Suit & Tie” (director David Fincher)

Best visual effects: Capital Cities, “Safe and Sound”

Best choreography: Bruno Mars, “Treasure”

Best art direction: Janelle Monae featuring Erykah Badu, “Q.U.E.E.N.”

Best cinematography: Macklemore & Ryan Lewis featuring Ray Dalton, “Can’t Hold Us”

Best editing: Justin Timberlake, “Mirrors”

Tags Macklemore, VMA, Miley Cyrus, MTV, music videos, One Direction, Pink, *NSYNC, Roar, Award Winners, Robin Thicke, Bruno Mars, Selena Gomez, Justin Timberlake, Taylor Swift, Katy Perry, Video Music Award