Hey Ho, is there another epic music feud in the works between Elton John and The Lumineers?
The Lumineers – best known for their ditty “Hey Ho” — told UK radio station Xfm that Elton John slapped their drummer, Jeremiah Fraites at the Grammys in L.A.
“We saw Elton John’s suit and his brightness and his entourage and Elton John turns and says The Lumineers! I’m a big fans of yours,’” explains the band.
“He comes over and our drummer says, ‘there is no frigging way you listen to our album’ and [Elton] slaps him in the face and says, ‘the hell I didn’t! I definitely did!’
“He was really upset that we were questioning whether or not he’d heard our album.”
Designer D’Milikah with LL Cool J. (Photo by Todd Oren/WireImage)
We don’t know that sexy swimwear ever went away, but at the Grammys lounge we saw a fresh new line from designer D’Milikah that brought Brazilian bikinis to a sexy new level. Called “Blurry Feminine,” celebrities flocked to the line, commenting on the colorful prints and variety of cuts made to flatter women of all shapes and sizes. The sexy one-piece “Francine” was the most popular suit selected.
Tyrese Gibson, picked up the Francine style swimsuit in tiger print and noted” a lot of woman don’t like to have their stomach show. I think this swimsuit is tasteful and classy.”
Sting, picked up the Nadia for his wife Trudy responding, it’ll look beautiful on her. He’s also expressed interest in receiving D’Milikah Men’s Swim Trunks. The men’ trunks are being manufactured in Brazil and will be available for sale in the US soon.
Anthony Hamilton, (nominated for two Grammys this year) selected the Aline swimsuit for his wife and had this to say, “I think my wife will love it…..I think it’s a touch of class, sexy and overall amazing.”
Miguel selected the Nadine swimsuit quoting “it’s sexy and at the same time it’s very simple. A nice combination of both”
Ashanti selected the Francine swimsuit and told our designer Emily “I love that these are Brazilian inspired, I want to go to Brazil. If I go soon, I’ll be wearing your bikini.”
Chaka Khan chose the Francine and spoke favorably of the tiger print.
LL Cool J chose the Francine swimsuit for his wife offering “she’s going to look beautiful in this one.”
Taking a break from a hectic Grammy schedule, bands flocked the GRAMMY gift lounge presented by MTG and the New Era caps seemed to be a favorite of everyone.
The Wanted, Travis Barker and his son, Pete Wentz, and Ed Sheeren were among the celebrities picking up a soon-to-be-favorite cap.
While you already know how cute the band The Wanted is, turns out they’re nice guys as well, joking with each other and cheerily talking up all the lucky girls at the booth!
Singers Jay McGuiness and Max George of The Wanted
Sonos Studio kicks off Grammy Week with Janelle Monae and Wondaland
For Grammy week, all normal music activity is suspended. Touring takes a break, artists stop recording, and most fly to L.A. to present an award/perform/party at the Grammys.
Last night, Janelle Monáe kicked off Grammy week in style at Sonos Studios, with curated performances featuring Deep Cotton, Roman GianArthur, St. Beauty, and of course, MS. Monáe herself. For the night, the studio was transformed into ‘Wondaland West’ with mirrors, clocks, a sky full of balloons, grass floor for croquet, a photo booth, supersize screens and ‘Wondajuice’ for the guests.
Sonos studios is known for its’ acoustics and playing with music, art and technology, so it was the perfect venue. We can’t wait to see what other original programming they have in store!
Grammy Golden Girl Adele had a lot to chew on the big night! Not only did the soulful Brit scoop up a half dozen golden gramophones – but she also had a mouthful of gum - and the world and the folks at gum brand Trident took notice!
In honor of Adele’s bold, tear-filled, multi-gum-filled acceptance speeches – Trident has already shipped off a year’s supply to the soulful songbird.
Here’s hoping she’ll chew her way into her next Grammy-worthy recording!
Another new question: Wouldn’t it be more fitting for Mariah to lead the tribute tonight, rather than Jennifer Hudson? It would feel more poignant, right?
While the news of Whitney Houston’s death sent shockwaves throughout the world, her erratic behavior and her descent into darkness, has been documented for some time now.
People.com is reporting that Whitney was under increasing pressure with her forthcoming comeback.
“Her voice was ruined, and her comeback wasn’t what it was supposed to be, because her voice wasn’t what it used to be,” a close pal of Houston’s tells PEOPLE.
As the source notes, “In the music industry, you’re only as good as your last hit, even if you are Whitney Houston. Then she had people gossiping about her … It was a lot to deal with.”
So was it the pressure? The enablers? The fact that everyone around watched her fall, but couldn’t help pick her back up?
And here was her last ever performance…two days later, she was dead.
UPDATE: We are being told that it was drugs…and she suffered from a cardiac arrest….more to come
A year or so back, we did a story for the National Enquirier, where we had information on how Whitney was spending upwards of $6,300 a week on drugs – or $327,600 a year.
And we had quotes then, that “Whitney is a dead woman walking! With the amount of drugs she’s buying, she won’t be able to live long. She’ll be dead in months.”
We never thought that it would ring true: We hoped she’d get it together…and whilst we are unsure what the cause of death was, surely, someone should have helped this woman who had the voice of an angel.
Instead, she was surrounded by enablers…and we, as the media, didn’t help.
We need to be more careful about the impact we have upon people and their self-esteem.
Meanwhile, a host of stars have come out and expressed their sorrows.
Leading the tributes was Mariah Carey, who wrote: “Heartbroken and in tears over the shocking death of my friend, the incomparable Ms. Whitney Houston.”
Mariah’s husband Nick Cannon added: “Tell our loved ones how much we love them while they’re still here. I wish I could’ve told Whitney how great she was one last time.”
Dolly Parton, who wrote I Will Always Love You, said, “mine is only one of the millions of hearts broken over the death of Whitney Houston. I will always be grateful and in awe of the wonderful performance she did on my song and I can truly say from the bottom of my heart, “Whitney, I will always love you. You will be missed.’”
Update: Whilst her body still remains at the Beverly Hilton, Clive Davis’s party will go on at the same hotel.
At 3.23pm today the police got the call to the Beverly Hilton. She was declared dead 33 minutes later.
So, far, police are saying there are no signs of drugs.
However, she was reportedly carried out of a club last night.
Earlier this week, Whitney was seen out and about in LA with Ray J, ahead of tomorrow’s Grammys, and according to an eyewitness, she didn’t seem to be out of control.
“She seemed fine, ” says the eyewitness. “She looked like she had been partying, but not out of control.”
Ok, so the final countdown to the Grammys is here, and this week I’ll be looking at a few of the remaining categories, starting with best new artist.
This is a tough one to call. There is no Rock act, and two Urban artists, (J.Cole and Nicki Minaj).
The other nominees are family Country act, The Band Perry; Indie-folksters, Bon Iver; and out-there Electronic artist, Skrillex.
I’m going with Bon Iver. With their atmospheric and moody sound, and singer Justin Vernon’s fragile falsetto, they offer just enough to be new and interesting without being confrontational.
Nicki Minaj could be up there too with her quirky (and explicit) rap, but may be just a tad too in yer face to get the nod.
Best Pop Duo/Group Performance has an interesting collection of artists this year, although only Maroon 5 (Moves like Jagger) could really be called pop.
Neither Black Keys, Foster the People, nor Coldplay truly fit into this genre, and as for Tony Bennett and Amy Winehouse’s rendition of ‘Body and Soul’…well its jazz.
However, with Amy’s passing and Tony Bennett being an American institution, I’m going for this duo to win, and deservedly so. It’s classy and understated with great vocal performances.
As irritating as I find Coldplay sometimes, I think they may take the Best Rock Song or Performance this year for their uplifting ‘Every Teardrop is a Waterfall’.
The competition is stiff mind you (all 5 songs are the same in both categories), with both Mumford and Sons and The Decembrists offering up pleasing slices of folkiness,along with the upfront rock of the Foo Fighters’ ‘Walk’ and the perhaps too obscure to win ‘Lotus Flower’ from Radiohead.
By way of a quick round up, I’m picking Thompson Square’s ‘Are you Gonna Kiss me or What’, to win either Best Country Song or Group Performance, ‘I need a Doctor’ (Dre/Eminem) for Best Rap Song, and Kanye will almost certainly pick up an award somewhere along the line, possibly for Best Rap Album and/or Best Rap collaboration.
Finally, one of my ones to watch for 2012, The Civil Wars, are up for Best Folk album for ‘Barton Hollow’, although the eponymous song from that record is up for Best Country Group Performance…go figure!?
Anyway, good luck to them…and to all the others of course!
Next week I’ll talk about the results and see how my predictions faired.
The Grammys are this Sunday the 12th at 8pm (PST) on CBS.
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