Singer, actress and newly engaged superstar, Brandy Norwood stopped by VH1′s Big Morning Buzz Live With Carrie Keagan this morning to dish on her new flick, Tyler Perry’s Temptation: Confessions of a Marriage Counselor. But that’s not all this busy lady is up to, she’s also starring in BET’s hit series, The Game and has much to say about her character Chardonnay Pitts.
The dead of winter hasn’t hit NYC yet but the lineup for the Essence Music Festival has us dreaming of warmer weather and beignets. Every year the EMF is held in New Orleans on Fourth of July weekend to celebrate black music and culture. Brandy, Jill Scott, Maxwell and Keyshia Cole are scheduled to hit the stage for the 19th annual event that takes over the city for four days.
Eight stages will rock with a myriad of artists including LL Cool J, New Edition and Charlie Wilson; and crowds will gather around smaller stages for Mint Condition, Blackstreet, Big Daddy Kane and others. Essence Music Festival is a big deal–”one of the most important forums for non-hip-hop black music and culture” according to the New York Times.
Last summer VH1 flew to New Orleans for the food, music and culture of the city and event. One of The Top 5 Most Entertaining Moments was Dru Hill reuniting on stage! How’s that for a trip down memory lane? Summer, we miss you. Come again soon.
Jill Scott, Keyshia Cole and Brandy to Headline 2013 Essence Festival [New York Times]
[Photo: Getty Images]
Fairytales do come true in their own time. Fifteen years ago 60 million viewers tuned in to watch a young Brandy play Cinderella in the television adaptation of the Disney cartoon movie. For Brandy, real life is far greater than the Cinderella story. A newly engaged Brandy was glowing on New Year’s in Vegas when she chatted with PopStop TV about her engagement to Ryan Press. The R&B beauty also had some advice for Kim Kardashian on motherhood. Read more…
Last week, we successfully bought you the VH1 staff’s favorite songs of 2011 without any bloodshed, and we’re happy to report that no one’s brain exploded while trying to narrow down the amazing albums of 2012 into a concise list. Again, what VH1 staffers enjoyed in 2012 was a rich and vibrant tapestry of genres, created both by newcomers and veterans.
As far as consensus is concerned, there were 23 LPs that appeared on multiple ballots, but only 6 that appeared on four or more lists: Miguel‘s Kaleidoscope Dream (7 ballots), Emeli Sandé‘s Our Version Of Events and Frank Ocean‘s channel ORANGE (6 ballots apiece), Kendrick Lamar‘s good kid, m.A.A.d. city (5 ballots), Taylor Swift‘s RED and Macklemore & Ryan Lewis‘ The Heist (each with 4 ballots).
Now, on with the show!
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2012 was the year of being or getting #turntup. Crunk songs encouraging partying, drinking and the good life were the soundtrack to turning up. French Montana‘s “Pop That” instructed women on how to, err, pop their booties at a party or club. It easily was one of the summer’s most popular anthems. In the same vein was Juicy J‘s “Bands A Make Her Dance” which suggests rolls of money secured by a rubber band will indeed make a girl dance. Not that we frequented the strip club or anything, but word on the street is strippers made this their unofficial theme song.
Other crunk songs had less to do with booty popping or stripping and more to do with intimacy–straight grown and sexy style. Take for instance Kelly Rowland‘s “Motivation” that inspired a body roll whether you were at your desk at work or in your car at a red light. Fun.‘s “We Are Young” isn’t your typical crunk song, however, if the DJ played this song at a party you witnessed the crowd going wild. So without further ado, here’s 16 of the year’s crunkest songs. Shout out to the artists for enabling our turned up ways. Read more…
Remember JoJo? No, not that JoJo, this JoJo. The JoJo that launched her career when she was just thirteen and starred in a movie with Robin Williams. Well, JoJo isn’t thirteen anymore, and since her hit album she’s been doing all sorts of good stuff–most of it under the radar. There was that cover of Drake’s “Marvin’s Room” that sounded (dare I say) better than the original? Last year’s “Disaster” even peaked at 29 on the Billboard charts last year. Most exciting, however, is JoJo’s newest project: an EP called Agápe.
Contrary to popular belief, the music most celebrated on the charts isn’t always the best. Okay, that was sarcasm. But even artists with hits on the charts have a slew of singles that fall by the wayside. Not every album is a Katy Perry string of #1s. Thus, here is a list of artists whose albums were certainly recognized, but had singles that didn’t quite get the attention they deserved.
Rye Rye’s delayed and delayed album Go! Pop! Bang! finally came out in May of this year–and is really fantastic. An upbeat, eletro-pop banger that not only samples the Vengaboys‘ “Boom, Boom, Boom, Boom”, but also elevates Rye Rye’s signature sound. Unfortunately, it didn’t do so well on the charts, only hitting #9 on Dance Songs.
Men lie. Women lie. Numbers don’t. After taking a deep-dive into this year’s VH1.com streaming data, we’ve come up with a list of the Top 40 Most-Watched Videos of 2012. All you favorites are below, and there are even some underdog surprises that we didn’t expect to rank so favorably. So yeah, consider this an early New Year’s gift, and start re-living all the music video glory that took place in this incredible year of the apocalypse.
40. Gavin DeGraw “Sweeter”
39. The Fray “Heartbeat”
38. Gym Class Heroes “The Fighter featuring Ryan Tedder”
37. Bruno Mars “Grenade”
36. Adam Lambert “Never Close Our Eyes”
35. Daughtry “Crawling Back To You”
34. Tamia “Beautiful Surprise”
33. Adele “Rolling in the Deep”
32. Ellie Goulding “Lights”
31. David Guetta “Titanium (Ft. Sia)”
Kelly Clarkson found love in a hopeFUL place. Before Sunday’s VH1 DIVAS rehearsal, the singer excitedly tweeted her engagement to Brandon Blackstock. Later in the evening, she delivered a lively performance of “Catch My Breath” from her recent album, Greatest Hits: Chapter One. But before any of the DIVAS hit the stage, celebrities congratulated Clarkson on her engagement while working the red carpet.
While some celebrities kept their congratulatory words brief, others offered funny advice. Our favorite is Jordin Sparks‘ reaction when asked to give the couple some marital advice. Check out the best quotes from VH1′s video of celebrities congratulating the newly engaged singer. Read more…
There was nobody as influential to Brandy‘s singing career as Whitney Houston. Whitney was her idol, her close friend, her everything. Almost a year later Brandy still tears up while talking about the legend on CNN’s Piers Morgan talk show. Brandy remembers falling to her knees in tears when she found out about Whitney’s passing. Brandy also weighed in on how Whitney must have felt after losing her voice. Hopefully her transparency will not be misconstrued to defame The Voice’s character. Read more…
VH1 Presents Mixtape Festival: Train, NKOTB, TLC, The Script + more! Tickets on sale now at MixtapeFestival.com!
