Music

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Awards Shows

GRAMMY Awards hit CBS on Sunday

February 11, 2011 StayTuned Staff

The GRAMMY Awards suffer a lot of criticism each year: They’re an anachronism — they don’t even make “records” anymore. (And nobody out there really buys them.) The same acts get nominated and appear year after year. The duets seem forced. The categories seem gerrymandered, in a sense, to highlight certain artists’ genres, while completely ignoring others. But the show must go on, and that’s exactly what The 53rd Annual GRAMMY Awards will be when it airs on CBS Feb. 13 at 8pm ET/PT — a grand, gaudy spectacle of a show celebrating the big names in music headlines today […]

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Music

“X Factor” marks the spot for Simon Cowell

February 9, 2011 Jeff Pfeiffer

By Jeff Pfeiffer This week, FOX announced that Simon Cowell’s upcoming American version of his hit British series The X Factor will be awarding the show’s winner with a record-breaking $5 million record deal, the largest guaranteed prize in TV history. “It’s a massive, massive risk,” Cowell said in a conference call earlier this week, talking about the huge amount of prize money. “I think it puts everybody, rightly, under an enormous amount of pressure, because I didn’t want to go into this show without feeling a certain amount of pressure. With pressure, you have to find a star. I […]

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Comedy

Music of Glee: Silly Love Songs

February 9, 2011 StayTuned Staff

After a lengthy break, Glee‘s second new episode this week gives us a Valentine’s theme. Mr. Shue issues the group a challenge: Perform what you think is the world’s greatest love song. Oh, the possibilities – Whitney Houston, Ella Fitzgerald, The Righteous Brothers, Boyz II Men! What songs will they choose? The suspense is terrible. I hope it lasts. First up, Puck serenades – and more-than-slightly offends Lauren – with Queen’s “Fat Bottomed Girls”. The song’s intro strains and fabulous harmonies tempted us until Puck’s odd, twanging voice and off-putting performance pulled us out with a yawn. Remember when Puck […]

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Music

There’s nothing worse than a mangled “Star-Spangled Banner”

February 8, 2011 Jeff Pfeiffer

By Tom Comi It’s been said by many performers that “The Star-Spangled Banner is one of the most difficult songs to sing in terms of range and lyrics, and the latter was certainly proven when Christina Aguilera unintentionally altered the words in front of 111 million TV viewers before Sunday’s Super Bowl. And while we don’t want to pile on Aguilera (who admitted afterwards that she feels awful), there certainly is a history both fictional and real about the wrong and right way to sing the song. We begin this trip down Memory Lane with the standard bearer for how […]

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Awards Shows

Music performers of nominated songs at Academy Awards announced

February 4, 2011 Jeff Pfeiffer

Today were announced the artists who will perform the Original Song nominees at the 83rd Academy Awards, airing live Feb. 27 on ABC: * Gwyneth Paltrow will perform “Coming Home” from the film Country Strong. * Original Song nominees A.R. Rahman and Florence Welch, of Florence + the Machine, will perform “If I Rise” from the film 127 Hours. Rahman is nominated for writing the music (Dido and Rollo Armstrong are also nominated for the song’s lyric). *Alan Menken, who is nominated for writing the music for “I See the Light” from the animated film Tangled, will accompany singers Mandy […]

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Comedy

Ryan Murphy of “Glee”: from bully advocate to bully

February 1, 2011 Tom Comi

By Tom Comi One of the great things about Fox’s award-winning show Glee is the platform it has provided for the topic of bullying, and a great deal of the credit for building that platform goes to creator Ryan Murphy. Unfortunately, Murphy has allowed the success of the show to transform him into both a bully and a hypocrite. You would think that a show of Glee’s stature would have musicians begging to have their songs covered. Whether it’s the cast arrangement of a song or the original version, viewers are downloading singles off iTunes faster than a Sue Sylvester […]

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Family

The Killers play “Yo Gabba Gabba!”

January 25, 2011 Jeff Pfeiffer

The Killers, Marissa Jaret Winokur and Jack McBrayer are among the stars featured in new episodes of the hit series Yo Gabba Gabba! from Feb. 7-10 at 1pm ET/PT on Nickelodeon: Feb. 7: “Adventure” — Muno and friends go on an Indiana Jones-style adventure. They travel through a jungle under Gabbaland and find a golden treasure. The Killers perform “Spaceship Adventure,” and Mark Mothersbaugh is featured in his “Mark’s Magic Pictures” segment. An encore of this episode airs Feb. 11. Feb. 8: “Nature” — Toodee gets everyone to go camping. They hike, roast s’mores and tell campfire stories. They meet […]

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Holiday

Holiday pomp and circumstance on TNT’s “Christmas in Washington”

December 15, 2010 Jeff Pfeiffer

By Jay Bobbin Interesting gatherings are in many people’s holiday plans, and Ellen DeGeneres has a big one on tap. The award-winning comedian and syndicated talk show star spends a Christmas in Washington by hosting the annual TNT variety special Friday, Dec. 17. Taped the previous weekend at the National Building Museum in the nation’s capital – before an audience that was slated to include President and Mrs. Obama – the program features Mariah Carey, Annie Lennox, Andrea Bocelli, Matthew Morrison (Glee), Miranda Cosgrove (iCarly) and Maxwell as showcased performers.

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Holiday

Fuse airs Z100’s Jingle Ball Dec. 16

December 14, 2010 Ryan Berenz

By Ryan Berenz Katy Perry, Enrique Iglesias, Paramore, B.o.B, Bruno Mars, Taio Cruz, Selena Gomez and Travie McCoy are among the performers at this year’s sold-out  Z100 Jingle Ball at Madison Square Garden, televised for the first time by Fuse. Other special guests include Kim Kardashian, Jay Sean and Flo Rida. Before the concert, Fuse airs Backstage at Z100’s Jingle Ball on Thursday, Dec. 16 at 8pm ET. Hosted by Mark Hoppus of Blink 182 and Fuse’s A Different Spin along with Allison Hagendorf, host of Fuse Top 20 Countdown, the two will bring viewers exclusive interviews and backstage access. […]