Music Archives - Page 33 of 41 - StayTuned Magazine

Mum’s the word: VH1’s “Unplugged: Mumford & Sons” airs Friday

June 21, 2011 Lori Acken

Mumford & Sons is of those bands, the ones that hipster Hollywood types like Carey Mulligan, Jake Gyllenhaal and Natalie Portman — and a few music obsessed mortals like my friend Kiki — seem to know about a good year before the rest of us do. But once you finally get on the bandwagon, you’re awful glad to find yourself there. Especially if you think that squeezebox, banjo and stand-up bass never really lost their place in good music. Most folks got their first look at the English power bluegrass (Britgrass? Graygrass?) quartet — made up of Marcus Mumford, “Country” Winston […]

“American Idol” Season 11 auditions to kick off soon

June 17, 2011 Jeff Pfeiffer

By Jeff Pfeiffer Follow @ChannelGuideJP The seemingly never-ending American Idol juggernaut is seeking its next round of contestants for Season 11. The nationwide search begins June 28 in St. Louis, at the Scottrade Center (1401 Clark Avenue, St. Louis, MO 63103). Producers are seeking men and women 15-28 years old (as of June 26, 2011), who are eligible to work in the United States. Wristbands will be distributed from approximately 7am on June 26 until approximately 8am on June 28. Auditioners will not be permitted to camp out. Once auditioners obtain their wristbands, they will be asked to return to […]

OWN’s “Why Not? With Shania Twain” closes with a duet, wedding and single

June 10, 2011 StayTuned Staff

by Karl J. Paloucek It’s debatable whether the folks at OWN really intended a pun when they said that this Sunday’s episode of Why Not? With Shania Twain, titled “Endless Love,” ends with a bang — seeing as how it features her marrying her new beau, Fred — but there it is. A wedding is a big enough finale, but in addition to tying the knot after ending her tour, the episode highlights Lionel Ritchie‘s offer to record a song, “Endless Love,” with Twain for his upcoming duets album. Although still haunted by doubts about her voice, Twain accepts the […]

Tony Awards brings Broadway to your living room

June 10, 2011 Tom Comi

By Tom Comi Follow @ChannelGuide There is always something special about two entertainment mediums coming together, and that’s exactly what we get Sunday night when CBS brings us live coverage of the Tony Awards (8 pm ET). Even more cool is that there so many familiar faces from television and the movies who have been nominated for their work on the stages of Broadway, including Al Pacino, Edie Falco, Vanessa Redgrave, Josh Gad, John Larroquette, Ellen Barkin, Billy Crudup and Joe Mantello. You can also include returning host Neil Patrick Harris (pictured), who is sure to entertain viewers with his […]

“The Voice” sets new tone in reality TV landscape

June 7, 2011 Tom Comi

By Tom Comi It’s almost impossible to fathom that anybody could come up with anything remotely fresh on the reality TV front, so you really have to applaud NBC for its singing competition The Voice. One of the major criticisms of many talent shows is that they are largely based on looks, so The Voice (tonight at 9pm ET) decided that its initial auditions would be based purely on vocals. Judges Adam Levine, Cee Lo Green, Christina Aguilera and Blake Shelton could only hear the singers on the stage, and then they would turn their chair around if they liked […]

PBS presents the Met’s premiere of John Adams’ “Nixon in China”

June 1, 2011 StayTuned Staff

It would really be cool if, when people talk about how good music was in the ’80s, they meant John Adams. In 1987, the opera world saw something really new — the premiere of Nixon in China, an opera by composer Adams with a libretto by Alice Goodman based on the 1972 meetings between Richard Nixon and Mao Tse-tung. Not only was it a major work set in fairly recent times, but it represented a landmark step for one of America’s most vital composers as well as a milestone in contempory music. At the time, Adams was consistently lumped in […]

“America’s Got Talent” is more miss than hit

May 31, 2011 Tom Comi

By Tom Comi Pop quiz: What does Las Vegas headliner Terry Fator have in common with no-names like Bianca Ryan, Neal E. Boyd, Kevin Skinner and Michael Grimm? Answer: All of them won their respective seasons on NBC’s talent show America’s Got Talent. The difference is that only Fator (an accomplished ventriloquist) has come close to becoming a household name, and that’s only for those households who have visited the Mirage hotel and casino in Sin City. And so it goes for the talent show that portends to find the country’s hidden gems and turn them into stars. As you […]

TV 101: You can make yourself an expert tonight

May 24, 2011 Tom Comi

By Tom Comi Are you tired of walking into your office breakroom every day, only to find your-co-workers gathered around the water cooler talking about the latest television fads? Do you long for the chance to finally be part of those pop-culture conversations? Well, tonight is one of those nights where you can do a crash-course on almost everything TV and present yourself tomorrow morning as the company’s resident expert. And the beauty is you really haven’t missed a thing up until this point. All you have to do is find out what happens on the respective shows, throw out […]

“Ice My House” contest to award room makeover by Vanilla Ice

May 23, 2011 StayTuned Staff

To kick off the second season of The Vanilla Ice Project, coming in early 2012, DIY Network is giving one lucky viewer a rock star room renovation. Through June 27, homeowners can upload videos and photos to DIYNetwork.com telling Vanilla Ice why he should renovate a room in their house. The winner of the “Ice My House” contest will receive a $30,000 room makeover courtesy of the ’90s rapper and his crew. The transformation will be documented in a one-hour special called VIP: Ice My House, which will start the show’s second season. Currently in production, rock star turned home […]

Shania Twain Tries To Overcome A Career-Paralyzing Emotional Barrier — All On TV

May 13, 2011 StayTuned Staff

Don’t call her a reality star. If there’s one thing Shania Twain wants people to understand about her new series for OWN, it’s that it’s a true docu-series, and not a scripted reality anything. After a highly traumatic betrayal involving an affair between then husband (as well as producer and professional partner) Mutt Lange and her best friend, and through the subsequent rather public divorce, Twain suffered a disconnect between herself and the voice that has sold millions of records around the world. It’s been years since her public has seen or heard anything new from her, and in an […]