On February 1st, 80 of music's biggest stars gathered for a charity remake of "We Are the World" in support of Haitian Earthquake Relief. Tomorrow, that video which features Enrique Iglesias, Carlos Santana, Lil Wayne, Kanye West, and a bevy of A-list talent will premiere at 2pm on MTV Tr3s.
Not to be out done, Emilio Estefan is producing his own version of the track and Blogamole will have more details on that in coming weeks.
The "We Are the World" remake will be available for purchase in the coming weeks with all proceeds benefiting the newly formed charity, We Are the World Foundation LLC, and then being distributed to Haiti.
But make sure you catch the video on Saturday, February 13th at 2pm on MTV Tr3s.
The energy was electric Monday night (February 1) at Henson Studios as more than 80 of music's biggest stars gathered for a charity remake of "We Are the World" in support of Haitian earthquake relief.
Among the voices in the 81-member choir were Enrique Iglesias, Carlos Santana, Pink, Lil Wayne, Kanye West, Nick Jonas, LL Cool J, Robin Thicke, Celine Dion, Akon, Rob Thomas, Wyclef, Jeff Bridges, Vince Vaughn, Barbra Streisand, Jordin Sparks, Good Charlotte's Madden brothers, Tony Bennett, Josh Groban, Snoop Dogg, Justin Bieber, Jennifer Hudson, Keri Hilson, Jamie Foxx, Tyrese, Katharine McPhee, Sean Garrett, Will.I.Am, Melanie Fiona, Toni Braxton, Jason Mraz, Miley Cyrus, Busta Rhymes, Nicole Scherzinger, Nicole Richie, Usher, Julianne Hough, Raphael Saadiq, Zac Brown, India.Arie, "American Idol" judge Randy Jackson, Musiq Soulchild, Heart's Ann and Nancy Wilson, Fonzworth Bentley, Kid Cudi, Iyaz, Bizzy Bone, Nipsey Hussle, the Beach Boys' Brian Wilson and Al Jardine, Trey Songz, Faith Evans, Mya and Gladys Knight.
The inspirational lyrics were laid down over a track that had a more modern Southern hip-hop bounce to it. The recording session took place almost 25 years to the day since the original song for African famine relief was recorded.
"We Are the World" and the accompanying video will be available for purchase through a variety of on-line and retail partners, with all proceeds going directly to the earthquake-relief efforts in Haiti through the We Are The World Foundation, a newly created not-for-profit organization made up of board members Quincy Jones, Lionel Richie, Wyclef Jean, Paul Haggis, Randy Phillips and Ambassador Louis Moreno of the Inter-American Development Bank. (MTVNews)
The 52nd annual Grammy Awards added some heavy artillery to the roster of performers taking the stage on January 31: nominee Lady Gaga!
She will perform at Los Angeles' Staples Center alongside a previously announced slate that includes Beyoncé, the Black Eyed Peas, and Taylor Swift; as well as Pink and the Dave Matthews Band, who were also announced yesterday. More artists and presenters will be revealed soon, according to a press release from the Recording Academy.
With the addition of Gaga and the DMB, all five nominees for Album of the Year — which also include Beyoncé, the Black Eyed Peas and Swift — are now slated to play live on the show.
This year's Grammys are shaping up to be a potentially big night for the ladies, as Beyoncé leads the pack with 10 nominations for I Am ... Sasha Fierce, followed by eight nods for Swift's unstoppable Fearless album, six each for the Peas and Kanye West and five each for Jay-Z and Gaga.
Upon learning of her fistful of nominations last month, Gaga took a moment to thank the people who have really made her success possible, her fans, while performing in Boston as part of her Monster Ball tour.
"So, thank you to all of you little monsters. This year, you were nominated for five Grammy Awards. If it weren't for you, I wouldn't be where I am today, so thank you!"(MTV News)
The globe trotting Kanye West took to his blog this morning to announce his return to the studio and making more of those Grammy winning money making hits!
His Rant:
"FIRST OF ALL, I WANT TO THANK EVERYBODY FOR THEIR CONSTANT LOVE AND SUPPORT OVER THESE PAST 6 YEARS! I'M SO HAPPY TO BE BACK IN THE STUDIO MAKING NEW MUSIC. I WILL BRING YOU THE BEST I HAVE TO OFFER WITH THE SAME DEDICATION THAT KOBE HAS ON THE COURT. IT'S FUNNY HOW SO MANY RAPPERS GET WORSE AS THEIR CAREERS STRETCH OUT BUT TRUE POETS GET BETTER. WE WILL FOLLOW IN THE FOOTSTEPS OF MAYA ANGELOU, GILL SCOTT HERRON AND NINA SIMONE. THEIR WORK IMPROVED WITH TIME. THEY DOCUMENTED WHAT WAS HAPPENING IN CULTURE. THAT IS OUR RESPONSIBILITY AS THE MODERN DAY ARTISTS AND POETS, TO ACCURATELY REPRESENT WHAT IS HAPPENING NOW, SO WHEN THE POWERS THAT BE TRY TO REWRITE HISTORY YOU CAN ALWAYS LOOK AT OUR WORKS AND FIND TRUTH AND SINCERITY IN A WORLD OF PROCESSED INFORMATION. LET US SOAK IN POSITIVE FORCES AND LOOK DOWN ON UPON THOSE WHO MASQUERADE AS TRUTH TELLERS AND OBJECTIVE FACT GIVERS WHEN IN REALITY EVERYTHING THAT IS PROJECTED HAS AN AGENDA OF BRAINWASHING US, THE "CONSUMER", THE PUBLIC, TO BELIEVE WHAT THEY WANT US TO. LET US LOOK PAST HEADLINES AND DEAL WITH JUST A BIT OF REALITY IN THIS NEW DECADE. WE HAVE OUR OWN OUTLETS NOW. WE DON'T HAVE TO BELIEVE EVERYTHING ANYMORE. NOW I'LL FIGURE OUT A WAY TO MAKE THAT RYHME LOL!!!"
Wow! Looks like the time he took off after the Taylor Swift incident did Kanye some good! We can't wait to see what he delivers in 2010! We hope it's less like 808s and Heartbreak, and more like his Graduation and Late Registration LPs. Which Ye do you prefer? (KanyeUnivercity)
We couldn't celebrate el año nuevo without delivering our favorite headlines of the year past!
9. Octomom- Nadya Suleman gave birth to octuplets in January of 2009. She already had 6 hijos bringing the grand total to 14. Reality shows should be in the works...but we're pretty sure the Jon and Kate Plus Eight drama ruined it for the money making mami!
8. TIE: Swine Flu/ Jobs?- The world went crazy when H1N1 emerged in April of 2009. The outbreak began in Mexico, and quickly spread. In recent months the vaccine has become available. Still...this was a rather unpleasant story of the year.
Tales of the Recession!- The economy sucked this year. Recent college graduates couldn't get jobs, experienced professionals lost their jobs and couldn't find jobs..
Lets just say admitting you were jobless wasn't as bad as admitting you had swine flu.
7. Chrihannagate-Chris Brown and Rihanna wereonce the next Beyonce and Jay-Z, but a February altercation changed all that. After leaving a party in Los Angeles, Brown reportedly received a text message from another woman and refused to let Rihanna see his phone. An argument ensued, followed by Brown assaulting Rihanna. A TMZ photo was leaked of the extensive damage Brown did to Rihanna's face and Brown later pleaded guilty to felony assault and was sentenced to five years probation and six months of community service. However, we like to remember them in happier times...
6. Balloon Boy- This was perhaps one of the funniest stories of 2009. On October 15, 5 year old Falcon Henee took off on an air adventure in a silver balloon his meteorologist father had designed for work. Or so we thought...after every air authority followed the balloon for up to 2 hours, it finally landed and young Falcon (the name is perfectly ironic) wasn't inside. Instead he was hiding in his attic. The following day the Henee family was on every morning show, leading the public to believe this was a publicity stunt. It was in fact a hoax and on December 23, Falcon's dad, Richard Heene, was sentenced to 90 days jail and mom, Mayumi Heene, to 20 days weekend jail.
5. Twitter- The social networking site was founded in 2006, but reached popularity in 2009. The 140 character messages are quick and make everyone feel like their very own self important celebrity..including MTV Tr3s! Feel free to follow us here @mtv3. The site became much more than a quick version of Facebook's status updates though; it's now a go to for quick links to news stories and recaps for pop culture's biggest events. When news of Balloon Boy emerged, the funniest updates included tweets like "Falcon, Imma let you finish, but Up was the greatest runaway balloon story of all time."
4. Kanye West vs. Taylor Swift- How could we forget Kanye West stealing Taylor Swift's moment during the 2009 VMAs. Ye believed Beyonce deserved the coveted MTV Moon Man for Best Female Video, and hopped up on stage during Swift's acceptance speech to proclaim that 'Single Ladies' was one of the best videos of all time. Kanye later apologized twice to Taylor, and also managed to coin the phrase "Imma let you finish."
3. Michael Jackson's Death- The King of Pop died on June 25th after suffering from cardiac arrest. He reportedly had been administered drugs such as propofol and lorazepam, and his death was ruled a homicide by the Los Angeles County coroner. His death triggered an outpouring of grief from around the world with a globally live broadcast of his memorial service from Los Angeles' Staples Center that attracted an audience of up to one billion people. Director Spike Lee recently made a video for Jackson's last song, 'This Is It', which was also the name of his 2009 tour.
2. President Barack Obama- This may feel like a 2008 story, but the official inauguration for President Barack Obama took place on January 20th. The first African American President is still highly favored and appointed our number one story of the year....
1. Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor- The Bronx-born Latina is the first Hispanic to sit on the Supreme Court, the third female justice in U.S. history and the second-youngest member of the court. Making her NUMBER ONE on our list!
Feliz y prospero año nuevo! And remember to stay tuned to MTV Tr3s in January to catch nuestros especiales on Lo Mejor De Los 00's, y mientras tanto...
The Nominees for the 52nd Annual Grammy Awards were announced this week and Beyoncé leads the pack with 10 nods! Her 'Video Phone' co-star, Lady Gaga walked away with 6 nominations, and country star Taylor Swift grabbed eight!
Other notable Grammy nominees include: Calle 13, Paulina Rubio, Ricardo Arjona, Wisin y Yandel, Katy Perry, Adele, Pink, and Kanye West.
Rihanna released her new slow tempo single "Russian Roulette" today to mixed reviews. It definitely won't have fan reciting lines like 2007's "Umbrella." (Ella, ella, eh, eh!)
This is the first single of Rihanna's fourth studio album, Rated R, which Def Jam confirmed will be released on November 23rd. For the LP, RiRi teamed up with the likes of Justin Timberlake, Tricky Stewart, Chase & Status and Ne-Yo, who wrote and produced "Russian Roulette."
The single seems to allude to an abusive relationship, and we can only assume that this album is a form of creative release and may be a brand new sound for the artist; therapy if you will, and similar to Kanye'semotional 808s and Heartbreak.
MTV News caught up with Ne-Yo recently and this is what the writer/producer had to say about Rated R:
The best and safest way I can say this is that Rihanna has some stuff to say and she's going to say it. And she ain't going to make no apologies for it.... I've heard a good majority of the album... world, get ready. That's all I'm going to say : World ,get ready. [MTV News]
So what do you think? Are we ready for an album outlining Rihanna's abusive relationship with Chris Brown? Speak on it below!
Kanye West should be on top of his game. Named #4 on MTV News' list of Hottest MCs, the 32-year-old rapper has a bald beauty on his arm, stacks galore, and is arguably one of the best producers of all time. What did Jay-Z call him on Bill Maher? Oh yeah, a genius!
But the Taylor Swift fiasco started a downward spiral that even we couldn't have anticipated. After a round of press apologies, backing out of his Fame Kills tour with Lady Gaga, and avoiding this past weekend's BET Hip Hop Awards (in which he lead the pack with 9 nominations), it seems Ye is finally taking a much needed professional break.
According to Hip Hop Wired, Kanye is going on a religious retreat to reassess his life at Sri Aurobindo Ashram in Pondicherry, a small coastal town in South India. Ye attributes his misdirection to the untimely death of his mother, Donda West, in 2007, to whom his latest album, "808s and Heartbreak," is largely attributed.
MTV Tr3s wishes Mr. West the best of luck with his retreat... [HipHopWired]
Looks Like Lady Gaga didn't want all the negative press surrounding Kanye to Kill her Fame! Gaga took to her twitter page to announce that she will indeed be going on tour this November -SOLO!!!!
Dates and Locations will be announced next week, so stay tuned to find out mi gente!
Con estos dos, we can always expect the unexpected. And today that means that Kanye West and Lady Gaga have managed to put an abrupt stop to all the hype about their upcoming "Fame Kills" concert tour... because it ain't gonna happen. Not now anyways.
Looks like the chief interrupter, Mr. West, is still suffering from a bad case of negative publicity.
Well folks, for those of you who were looking forward to the guaranteed circus sensation that would have been a Kanye/Gaga concert tour... lo sentimos mucho. Let's keep our fingers crossed for next year! [MTV News]
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