Search Results for: rihanna

With his spiky mohawk, cluttered canvas of tattooed skin and punk rock pedigree stretching back to childhood, Travis Barker isn’t exactly pleading to be taken seriously as a hip-hop head. A former drummer for the multi-platinum-selling power pop trio Blink-182 who also has done turns behind the kit for rock outfits including the Aquabats, +44 and Box Car Racer, he boasts impeccable Warped Tour credentials and critical props as one of modern rock’s most exciting, exacting percussion players. But a funny thing happened when Barker posted a video of himself on YouTube last September drumming thunderously in time with Southern… Read more »

He does comedy, writes books, mixes it up with the hottest stars in music and Hollywood. With all this, who needs swimming? Certainly not Michael Phelps – not anymore, at least. But as a presenter at the 2008 Video Music Awards, all that fresh Olympic bling will certainly help. The swimmer who took home a record-breaking eight gold medals from the Beijing Games joins Miley Cyrus, Lindsay Lohan and Ciara as presenters at the Sept. 7 VMAs telecast from Los Angeles. British comedian Russell Brand will host. It’s been a busy week for Phelps, who announced he’ll write a book… Read more »

The upcoming Stand Up to Cancer benefit is beginning to look like the Oscars, the Emmys and the Grammys rolled into one. I just got word that newlywed Ellen DeGeneres has signed on to work the phonebank during the live telecast of the fundraiser on Sept. 5. The talk-show pooh-bah isn’t the only new name added to the roster… Halle Berry, Jessica Alba, Kate Bosworth and Rob Lowe will also be answering phones. And that’s just a smidgen of the previously announced participants, who include Christina Applegate, Jennifer Aniston, Charlize Theron, America Ferrera, Meryl Streep, Kirsten Dunst, Julia Louis-Dreyfus, Scarlett… Read more »

How do you get VIP or backstage passes at concerts? I’m not a crazy, but I would love to meet Foo Fighters next time they play here. –Jenna, Melville, N.Y. I’d like to take this opportunity to dedicate this column to Kevin, That Other Jonas, who gets such little love from the kids. Everyone is always going on about Foo Fighters or Rihanna or the two hot Jonas Brothers. Doesn’t anyone want to hang out backstage with What’s-His-Name Jonas? Kevin? No? Anyway, no matter. From what I learned today from Industry insiders, you stand very little chance of a backstage… Read more »

Katy Perry’s “I Kissed a Girl” led Billboard’s Hot 100 singles chart for a seventh week on Thursday, tying the Beatles to become the longest-running No. 1 in the rock era for the singer’s Capitol Records label. The Fab Four ruled for seven weeks in 1964 with “I Want to Hold Your Hand.” Perry was previously tied at No. 2 with the Knack’s 1979 song “My Sharona.” If Perry’s song can hang on for three more weeks, it will tie rapper Flo Rida’s “Low” as the second longest-running No. 1 of 2008. But challenges loom from R&B singer Chris Brown’s… Read more »

Mariah Carey, Justin Timberlake, Beyonce and Rihanna will perform at the fifth annual Fashion Rocks concert celebrating the relationship between music and fashion. The event will be held Sept. 5 at Radio City Music Hall, and will air in a two-hour special on CBS the following night. Proceeds will benefit Stand Up to Cancer, a program established by the Entertainment Industry Foundation to raise money for cancer research. Also performing: Keith Urban, Chris Brown, Kid Rock, Fergie, Lil Wayne and the Black Eyed Peas. “Fashion Rocks uniquely celebrates the intersection of two of the most sexy cultural paradigms: fashion and… Read more »

The red carpet swiftly turned into a red river, but we knew it would take more than a soggy strip of flooring material to put a damper on the MuchMusic Video Awards. An early-evening deluge timed perfectly to truncate the annual, big pre-show build-up to last night’s MMVAs ceremony at Much headquarters on Queen West nevertheless added a new urgency to the usual hysteria that splays around Queen and John at this time of year. There was a real sense of brewing terror in the air on the carpet while everyone who’d gathered outside the old CHUM-City building — the… Read more »

Maroon 5’s 2007 album, “It Won’t Be Soon Before Long,” will be reissued in expanded form July 8. The A&M/Octone package will include a bonus DVD with four music videos and a full concert shot last year in Montreal. In addition, the original CD is bolstered with five B-sides: “Infatuation,” “Miss You Love You,” “Until You’re Over Me,” “Story” and “Losing My Mind.” Also tacked onto the track list is “If I Never See Your Face Again,” Maroon 5’s new single featuring Rihanna. The original version of “Won’t Be Soon” has sold 1.85 million copies in the United Stated, according… Read more »

N.E.R.D.’s new single “Everybody Nose,” which depicts a club-hopper’s drug use, could be the theme song for out-of-control party girls on the celebrity circuit. But frontman Pharrell Williams says the song is not chastising people for their questionable habits. “The message is just making an observation. It’s not us condoning or glorifying it or talking about people who do it,” the superproducer told “Everybody Nose” is the first new music from the eclectic trio in years. The group – which includes Williams’ Neptunes production partner Chad Hugo and friend Shay Hayley – haven’t released an album since 2004, and were… Read more »

Multi-platinum Island Records group Fall Out Boy kicks off the new year with “****LIVE IN PHOENIX,” their first long-form CD+DVD two-disc package, set to arrive in stores on April 1st.   The core of the program will be their full-length Honda Civic Tour concert of June 2007 from the Cricket Pavilion in Phoenix, with all 22 songs contained on both the CD and DVD layers. In addition, the DVD layer will include all 8 of Fall Out Boy’s Island Records video clips in chronological order — from their debut single “Sugar, We’re Going Down” (MTV2 Award winner for 2005), “Dance,… Read more »