Enrique Iglesias and Pitbull have teamed up for the infectious single Let Me Be Your Lover and the music video is such a laugh! You’ll be tapping your toes to this and smiling (unless you’re in a coma). The track is the latest single from Iglesias’ 10th studio album Sex + Love.
The music video, directed by Alejandro Pérez, is a whole lot of fun and features the pair as marionette puppets dancing and driving around Los Angeles, plus live performance shots.
The formidable duo are surely a match made in Latin-American pop heaven. They collaborated on the huge hit I’m a Freak, which charted in the Top 10 all over the world. Pitbull is also currently co-headlining Iglesias’ Sex + Love Tour, which started in February last year and comes to an end on March 7 in San Juan.
Paloma Faith has premiered a music video for her new single Beauty Remains. Laden with disco and motown influences this is an uplifting yet emotional cut. As we’ve come to expect from Faith, the visuals are stunning and her vocals, timeless and powerful.
Faith co-wrote Beauty Remains with Suede’s Bernard Butler and Fyfe Dangerfield (founding member of The Guillemots). It’s the 6th cut from her latest album A Perfect Contradiction: Outsiders’ Edition. She recently told Digital Spy that she will be working on a new album in the coming months and has already contacted producer Mark Ronson.
Faith will embark on a UK arena tour next month and has been announced as the headliner of the seven date spectacular Forest Live tour.
Faith is nominated for British Female Solo Artist at the BRITs and will perform tonight (February 25) at the ceremony in the O2 Arena in London.
Today would have been Steve Jobs’ 60th birthday and in his honour we have collected together our favourite quotes, videos and images. It’s been 4 years since he passed away, but he remains a role model and an inspiration to many.
The “Father of the Digital revolution” and the “greatest marketer of all time” was indeed a visionary and pivotal to many industries. He has been credited with revolutionising not just the computer industry but the phone, tablet and music industries and even film through another company he co-founded, Pixar.
A world without Steve Jobs
It’s almost impossible to imagine what the world would be like without Steve Jobs. To start with, there would be no Apple. That’s a big void. Without Jobs’ constant pushing the company would never have got off the ground. If you follow that thought through to the end, no Apple means no Mactintosh, iPod, iPhone, iPad, iMac, iTunes. Whoa.
Without Apple the mouse-driven computer with it’s gorgeous graphical interface would never have entered the mainstream and personal computers would have been very different animals. They might even still be beige! yuk! Jobs was an obsessive perfectionist and the creation of icons and his attention to typography made the interface of the personal computer a completely different world. Jobs said “It is in Apple’s DNA that technology alone is not enough. It is technology married with liberal arts, married with the humanities that yields the result that makes our hearts sing..”
The iTunes music store is certainly responsible for the music download revolution that has seen digital sales soaring way ahead of physical ones. When iTunes first appeared we suddenly didn’t need the CD anymore – we could listen to thousands of songs remotely.
In 2007 Steve Jobs was on stage in California and he removed the iPhone from his pocket and called it a “a phone, an iPod, and an internet communicator”. The iPhone was the first phone to do away with number buttons – it was all touchscreen. Jobs declared the keyboard dead and all the other phone companies laughed. They soon followed suit when consumers bought the iPhone in its millions.
The same revolution happened with the iPad in 2010. It might not have been a new product but it was certainly an innovation. It wasn’t greeted with the same reverence as the iPhone with many seeing it as pointless. But 258 million units later Jobs’ words ring truer than ever: “I don’t believe in market research. People don’t know what they want until we show it to them.”
You may well argue that other innovators and inventors would have eventually come round to being as creative as Jobs was. Would they though? All the app icons and smart gestures in use today come from the minimal design inspired by Jobs. The devices would probably be around but covered in buttons and looking like a PC.
Former Apple CEO John Sculley has written a book called Moonshot and he looks at the amazing effect created by Jobs. “Steve was not an engineer — he just saw different things that people were working on and connected the dots between them,” Sculley says in his book.
In an interview with Business Insider Sculley said, “Steve always had an extraordinary talent. He was always a genius. He always saw things ahead of the rest of the world. He had a brilliance that was every bit as apparent back in the era when I worked with him as when we saw him when he was incredibly successful 15 years later.”
Jobs left us with more than a technological and digital revolution. His quotes and speeches have inspired many. Here are our favourites.
“Don’t let the noise of others’ opinions drown out your own inner voice.”
“Sometimes life’s going to hit you in the head with a brick. Don’t lose faith. I’m convinced that the only thing that kept me going was that I loved what I did.”
“The greatest artists like Dylan, Picasso and Newton risked failure. And if we want to be great, we’ve got to risk it too.”
“Taking LSD was a profound experience, one of the most important things in my life. LSD shows you that there’s another side to the coin, and you can’t remember it when it wears off, but you know it. It reinforced my sense of what was important—creating great things instead of making money, putting things back into the stream of history and of human consciousness as much as I could.”
“Here’s to the crazy ones. The misfits. The rebels. The trouble-makers. The round pegs in the square holes. The ones who see things differently…they change things. They push the human race forward. And while some may see them as the crazy ones, we see genius.”
“I’m not dismissing the value of higher education; I’m simply saying it comes at the expense of experience.”
“It [what you choose to do] has got to be something that you’re passionate about because otherwise you won’t have the perseverance to see it through.”
“Everything around you that you call life was made up by people that were no smarter than you, and you can change it, you can influence it, you can build your own things that other people can use.”
“We’ve got to make the small things unforgettable.”
Steve Jobs brainstorms with the NeXT team (1985)
This fascinating documentary was filmed from December 1985 to March 1986 at NeXT’s team retreat in Pebble Beach. It offers a rare glimpse of Steve’s vision, aspirations and managerial approach.
The new song and video from Jess Glynne – Hold My Hand – will make you feel goooood! This upbeat, house-pop track is packed with positivity. The music video, directed by by Emil Nava (Ed Sheeran, Rita Ora, Jessie J) is pretty feel-good as well. It’s not complicated, or arty, just friends having some fun in the desert.
The Grammy-award winning singer (Best Dance Recording for her Clean Bandit collaboration Rather Be) will release Hold My Hand on March 23, through Atlantic. The single gives us a first taste of her debut album, slated for a summer release, which Glynne says has lots of “upbeat soul”.
The single follows last summer’s Gorgon City produced Right Here as well as her second collaboration with Clean Bandit Real Love.
Glynne is nominated for 3 Brit Awards this year, including Best British Single and Best Video. She will start a UK tour next month with Clean Bandit which will include a night at London’s Alexandra Palace.
HIGHLIGHTS: The show was opened and hosted by the comic host Neil Patrick Harris (of Doogie Howser MD, Smurfs and How I Met Your Mother fame) who produced some entertaining moments including him stripping down to his “tighty-whiteys” (a reenactment from a scene in Birdman). The stand out big winners of the night were Birdman and The Grand Budapest Hotel each receiving four awards. The highly acclaimed Selma was largely outside of the major Oscar running, as was the much-talked-about American Sniper. There were performances by the likes of Lady Gaga, John Legend & Common and Tegan and Sara. It was not one of the most exciting ceremonies the Oscars have ever produced, the host struggled with some of the scripted jokes falling flat, there was controversy over the nominee list containing mostly ‘white folk’, but on the whole there were some typically prestigious Oscar moments, some fantastic performances and the dresses did not disappoint.
TOP SPEECHES The award ceremony has always been a stage for those wanting to deliver a poignant message during their acceptance speeches…here is the pick of the power speeches that came from last night’s show. Patricia Arquette wins best supporting actress for Boyhood. The film was shot intermittently over the course of a 12-year period, from 2002 to 2013, and depicts the adolescence of a young boy in Texas growing up with divorced parents. Big things were expected for this movie at this year’s Oscars but Arquette received its only award. Patricia took to the stage and began to accept the award in the usual fashion but ended up urging all of the minority groups of the world to fight for women and pay equality in today’s society. “It’s our time to have wage equality once and for all!” she roars. The camera pans to Meryl Streep, wildly pumping her fist, and J-Lo sitting next to her, just as riled up.
Best Song winner John Legend for Selma (based on the 1965 Selma to Montgomery voting rights marches led by James Bevel, Hosea Williams, and Martin Luther King, Jr. of SCLC and John Lewis of SNCC) insisted that “Selma is now, because the struggle for justice is right now. “We know that the voting rights that they fought for 50 years ago are being compromised in this country today.” He went on to say the U.S. is the most incarcerated country in the world, as “there are more black men under correctional control today than were under slavery in 1850. People are marching with our song — we see you, we love you,” he said. “March on.” Backstage Common said: “I feel like to whom much is given much is required. The fact we have an opportunity to get to a stage like the Oscars. How could you not say anything? Beyond what we have done on this song, John has always made music about love; he’s been doing things about education for a long time. I feel it’s our duty to do it.” John Legend discussed process: “Common called me. He describes what they were looking for and gave me ideas for the title of the song. ‘Glory.’ That word really inspired me. My thoughts were that the song should sound triumphant but realize there is more work to do.”
Best Adapted Screenplay winner Graham Moore — for The Imitation Game, about British cryptography genius Alan Turing who was persecuted for being gay — started things off pretty light, saying, “thank you so much to the Academy…and to Oprah!” But went on to say that he thought it was an injustice that the subject of his film, Alan Turing, “never got to stand on a stage like this with all these disconcertingly attractive faces.” He recalled considering suicide at age 16 because he felt different and like he didn’t belong, and offered hope to young people feeling the same way. “Stay weird,” he said. “Stay different and when it’s your turn and you are standing on this stage, please pass the same message to the next person who comes along.”
With plenty of political issues surrounding the evening, none were perhaps as contentious as those raised by Alejandro González Iñárritu during his third acceptance speech of the night. He dedicated the best picture win for Birdman to his fellow Mexicans and called on his country to “find and build a government that we deserve”. He ends with a plea on behalf of Mexicans newly arrived in the United States, asking they be treated with the same respect as the others who came before “to help build this incredible immigrant nation”.
Julianne Moore gives a gracious and touching speech having been given the award for Best Actress for Still Alice, a film approaching the difficulties of Alzheimer’s disease. After 17 years and five nominations, it finally happened. She talks about the importance of visibility for people with Alzheimer’s, and mentions that Still Alice‘s co-writers and directors Richard Glatzer and Wash Westmoreland couldn’t be there, because of Glatzer’s illness. He has ALS. The honour goes to Moore for the culmination both of her hard work playing an Alzheimer’s patient in the past year and a long career in which she’d been nominated for four previous Oscars. She also talked about shining a light on Alzheimer’s disease: “So many people with this disease feel isolated and marginalized,” she said, adding that movies make people feel seen and not alone. “And people with Alzheimer’s deserve to be seen so we can find a cure.”
It was hard not to be elated for TV veteran J.K. Simmons (The Closer, Oz, Law & Order) as he picked up the Best Supporting Actor award for Whiplash – the film stars Miles Teller as a student jazz drummer who seeks the respect of an abusive teacher played by Simmons. Things got even more feel-good when rather than reel off the standard list of “thank you” messages; he instead focused on smaller, simpler advice: “Call your mom, call your dad. If you’re lucky enough to have a parent or two alive on this planet, call ’em. Don’t text, don’t email, call them on the phone. Tell them you love them. Thank them and listen to them for as long as they wanna talk to you.”
PERFORMANCES The music always makes the show in show business ceremonies and this year’s Oscars was no exception.
Tegan and Sara with Andy Samberg’s Lonely Island trio (dressed in powder blue tuxedos) delivered a fast-paced, energetic, almost hallucinatory Everything Is Awesome the ridiculously catchy song that kicked off The Lego Movie. They get some help from actual lego characters along with a giant chorus including Will Arnett dressed as Batman and Questlove. That definitely woke up and shook up the audience.
Lady Gaga performed a medley from The Sound of Music to celebrate its 50th anniversary. She hit the high notes, belting out The Hills Are Alive, before launching into a rendition of My Favorite Things and slowing things down for Edelweiss and Climb Every Mountain. It may seem like a madcap idea but Gaga is no stranger to the strange and actually delivered the classic musical tunes perfectly and managed to exclude her personal oddities from the stage for a change. Julie Andrews also came onstage to say a few words, “It’s hard to believe that 50 years have gone by,” she said. “How lucky can a girl get?”
John Legend’s performance of Glory with Common was one of those extremely rare Oscar musical numbers that managed to reproduce the emotion of the movie (Selma) onstage. With the power of the music and a recreation of the march across the Edmund Pettus Bridge the audience was reduced to complete silence (and some tears) in this emotional and powerful production.
Rita Ora gave Beyond The Lights, one of many under-appreciated movies this year, its moment of the night when she belted out the ballad Grateful from the film.
RED CARPET Here’s our top ten best dressed Oscar attendees from the big night…these lovely ladies were the pick of the bunch from the glittering glamour of the evening.
Cate Blanchett in Maison Margiela Reese Witherspoon in Tom Ford Rita Ora in Marchesa
Scarlett Johansson in Versace Jennifer Lopez in Elie Saab Gwyneth Paltrow in Ralph and Russo
Rosamund Pike in Givenchy Marion Cotillard in Christian Dior Couture Lupita Nyong’o in Calvin Klein Emma Stone in Elie Saab
WINNERS LIST
Best Picture Birdman or (The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance) Alejandro G. Iñárritu, John Lesher and James W. Skotchdopole, Producers.
Best Actor Eddie Redmayne in The Theory of Everything
Best Actress Julianne Moore in Still Alice
Best Director Birdman or (The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance) Alejandro G. Iñárritu
Supporting Actor J.K. Simmons in Whiplash
Supporting Actress Patricia Arquette in Boyhood
Adapted Screenplay The Imitation Game Written by Graham Moore
Original Screenplay Birdman or (The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance) Written by Alejandro G. Iñárritu, Nicolás Giacobone, Alexander Dinelaris, Jr. & Armando Bo
Animated Feature Big Hero 6 Don Hall, Chris Williams and Roy Conli
Documentary Feature CitizenFour Laura Poitras, Mathilde Bonnefoy and Dirk Wilutzky
Original Song Glory from Selma Music and Lyrics by John Stephens and Lonnie Lynn
Foreign Language Film Ida Poland
Original Score The Grand Budapest Hotel Alexandre Desplat
Film Editing Whiplash Tom Cross
Visual Effects Interstellar Paul Franklin, Andrew Lockley, Ian Hunter and Scott Fisher
Cinematography Birdman or (The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance) Emmanuel Lubezki
Costume Design The Grand Budapest Hotel Milena Canonero
Makeup and Hairstyling The Grand Budapest Hotel Frances Hannon and Mark Coulier
Production Design The Grand Budapest Hotel Production Design: Adam Stockhausen; Set Decoration: Anna Pinnock
Animated Short Film Feast Patrick Osborne and Kristina Reed
Live Action Short Film The Phone Call Mat Kirkby and James Lucas
Documentary Short Subject Crisis Hotline: Veterans Press 1 Ellen Goosenberg Kent and Dana Perry
Sound Mixing Whiplash Craig Mann, Ben Wilkins and Thomas Curley
Sound Editing American Sniper Alan Robert Murray and Bub Asman
Don’t have Creation 5? Download it from the App Store!
Jack White has released an awesome interactive video for his latest single That Black Cat Licorice. It’s actually 3 videos in one and you can flip between the videos as the song plays. You can change the video by holding down the ‘3’ or ‘B’ keys on your keyboard.
If you just hit play without pressing 3 or B, you will see a surreal animated video, directed by James Blagden, which shows White attempting to seduce an Egyptian Queen, cutting out his tongue and lots of crazy dancing bats.
If you hit the 3 on your keyboard whilst watching you’ll watch a live-action, moody video, directed by and starring White himself. If you hold down the B key whilst watching you’ll see another live-action video, directed by Brad Holland, that is basically just slow-mo footage of people head banging. Swapping between the 3 and B keys makes for really interesting viewing, they mix so well together, playing in conjunction perfectly.
The track is from White’s latest album Lazaretto, which was released almost a year ago and is still going strong.
Don’t have Creation 5? Download it from the App Store!
Classic rock firepower, searing guitar riffs and high-flying vocals – Florence + the Machine is back! What Kind of Man, the first single from their new album, now has a cinematic visual. A full chorus of back up singers brings extra drama to the track which is about the dangers of love and sex with the wrong kind of man.
The video matches the storyline perfectly – be warned, there’s plenty of disturbing images like full on car crashes and scenes with circling men. There’s nothing vulgar – Florence is too subtle for that – but the message certainly gets across.
The new album, How Big How Blue How Beautiful, is the first since 2011’s Ceremonials and release is set for June 1st in the UK via Island Records and June 2nd in the US via Republic Records. Ceremonials focussed on water, death and escapism whilst the new album theme’s are more in the here and now. Florence said: “The new album became about trying to learn how to live, and how to love in the world rather than trying to escape from it, which is frightening because I’m not hiding behind anything but it felt like something I had to do.”
Post To Be, the winter jam that sounds like a summer vacation, has finally got a music video. Omarion, Chris brown and Jhene Aiko have a dance-off and it also stars a white Ferrari…Produced by DJ Mustard this bright, light and fun track is taken from Omarion’s 2014 album Sex Playlist.
Omarion and Chris Brown might win at the dance-off – the dancing is excellent – but Jhene Aiko steals the show with her gorgeous vocals, plus she also got to say the line “but he got to eat the booty like groceries”! Directed by Jay Ahn and co-directed by Omarion and Taz, this video is four minutes of perfectly crisp mirror-dancing. The three musicians take turns showing off their moves with Omarion just loving the white Ferrari.
Omarion has noticeably progressed from boy-band heartthrob to a mature artist and his voice has gained age and character. First famous as a member of the hugely popular group B2K, he has released four solo albums, including Sex Playlist.
One of music’s most influential women and a fashion icon – the bad girl herself turns 27 today! We’ve collected together some of our favourite images and videos to celebrate the occasion!
From her rumoured relationship with Dicaprio to her new single FourFiveSeconds with Paul McCartney and Kanye West, RiRi has started 2015 with a blast! She also plans on releasing her 8th studio album this year – R8. She also continues to immerse herself in the fashion industry. When Rihanna appeared on the scene – a whole generation changed what they wore to the clubs. Everyone went from heels to baggies virtually overnight. Her influence as a style icon is undeniable.
The Rihanna Effect is a real phenomenon. Following her Style Icon Award at the 2014 CFDA awards, the songstress added another title to her resume in 2015: Global Ambassador for PUMA! Pick up practically any magazine in the last 6 months and Rihanna adorns the cover, from Vogue to Esquire to Elle to ID, the bad girl’s gorgeous face is everywhere.
With RiRi’s power pipes and full-on attitude she is not only music’s most exciting star, but one of the best-selling artists of all time. She has had as many Nº1 singles (thirteen) as Michael Jackson on Billboard’s Hot 100. It took Jackson nearly 23 years – it took Rihanna seven. She’s sold 50 million albums and 180 million singles, and won eight Grammy Awards, eight American Music Awards, 22 Billboard Music Awards, and two BRIT Awards. Pretty amazing really for a tomboy from Barbados named Robyn Rihanna Fenty who never took singing lessons. From an early age she was going her own way – musically and sartorially.
The above and below images were taken for a recent photo shoot for Harper’s Bazaar.
In an interview with Vogue last year she said: “I did sing a lot as a child. A lot. I practiced hard to manoeuvre my voice. I love singing. I love it, and it doesn’t feel like a chore. It’s an expression. I never wanted to be famous. I just wanted my music to be heard all over the world. Then it happened and the fame came with it. I can’t ever imagine feeling used to it.”
Random Rihanna facts:
Born in Saint Michael, Barbados, her career began upon meeting record producer Evan Rogers in late 2003 through mutual friends
Rihanna has turned down many offers to appear on the cover of Playboy magazine.(Not such a bad girl after all then?)
Her fabulous legs were used by Gillette’s Venus Breeze with the Celebrity Legs of a Goddess award in 2007 – which was soon followed by RiRi getting her legs insured for $1 million. (What’s a girl to do?)
Before performing, RiRi always drinks a shot. Dark liquor is her favourite but sometimes she drinks vodka.
She has 19 tattoos and is always in the mood to add more. She was once quoted as saying “I like hanging out in tattoo shops.”
Barbados made her the official face of tourism back in 2007 and today she has the honorary title of Ambassador for Culture and Youth of Barbados. In 2008, Barbados also created a national holiday in her honour.
Here’s our Top 10 Rihanna tracks – tap on any title to play the video in Creation 5
Trey Songz has released a steamy video for his smooth and sexy song Slow Motion. It’s directed by Dre Films and it’s hot! Everything about this video is hot – the sultry lyrics, the sexy scenes and of course, Trey’s killer falsetto. The story starts with Trey picking up his girl to go to the club, but naturally they soon return home for much more fun!
In the video you’re bound to notice the product placement for a new type of drink – this is Trey revealing early details of his own upcoming spirit brand, SX Liquor, which will feature in 6 flavours – among them “SXchachcha”, which is shown prominently in the video – the world’s first honey tequila.
Slow Motion is the first single from his upcoming album Trigga Reloaded which drops everywhere on April 14. The R&B superstar heartthrob kicked off his Between the Sheets Tour with Chris Brown last week. After this he will join Nicki Minaj on the European leg of her Pinkprint Tour. Dates get underway March 16th at The Globe in Stockholm, with stops then slated to hit arenas for Norway, The Netherlands, Germany, Belgium, France, Ireland, and the UK.
