It's official: Rihanna's headed to the Grammys stage again. And once again, she won't be alone.
For the 2011 Grammys, RiRi dutty whined her bawdy all over Drake for their collaboration "What's My Name?" And this year, Rihanna will hit the stage with Coldplay to perform "Princess of China," their collaboration from Coldplay's latest album Mylo Xyloto.
Rihanna broke the news on Twitter herself:
#RihannaNavy My friends @ColdPlay and I will be sharing the stage for a performance at this years Annual Grammy Awards! #BONKERS
The hottest and most prized category in the Grammys each year is without a doubt, the Album of the Year category.
Many were rightfully upset that Kanye West's My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy, one of the year's most widely praised albums, was shut out of the category. But the remaining contenders in the category are all worthy in their own way. For the most part.
Let's size up the albums that made it into the Album of the Year category. We'll take a look at the quality of the album and rate the likelihood of it taking the trophy home.
He might catch a grenade for ya, but he's much more likely to be opening his hands to snag a few Grammys. Bruno Mars got big nominations in the Album of the Year, Record of the Year and Song of the Year categories for the 2012 Grammys. He shares some of his nominations with his production cohorts, Phillip Lawrence and Ari Levine of the Smeezingtons.
Kanye West racked up the most nominations, but he was inexplicably shut out of the two biggest categories: Record of the Year and Album of the Year. This despite the fact that My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy was one of the most highly rated albums of 2010/2011. He did land a nod for "All of the Lights" in the Song of the Year category, but that feels kind of hollow since that's more a songwriter's award than an artist's award.
Adele picked up nominations in all of the big categories, and curiously "Rolling in the Deep" picked one up for Short Form Music Video even though it's as dull as watching paint dry. She'll likely sweep, so perhaps it's alright that she has one category that's pretty sure not to win.
The big surprise of the night? Rihanna's big-time nomination in the Album of the Year category for LOUD. The supposed singles artist just got a nod in the biggest albums category. Who's bad?
Not everyone was having a good night, however. Rising R&B star Miguel vented his frustrations with being shut out in every category, despite his debut album All I Want Is You being a sleeper hit.
Mr. Terius Nash, aka The-Dream, also took to the tweets to express frustration over his gal pal Beyonce receiving fewer nods than he'd hoped for her latest album 4.
The Grammys has become so swollen and self-inflated that they're now booking marquee talent just to perform in between their televised nominations, a whole 2 months ahead of the actual big show. Do we love awards shows or what, people?
The Grammys booked Lady Gaga, Lady Gaga + Jennifer Nettles, Rihanna (via satellite, whomp, whomp), Usher and some country people for their big unveiling. Gaga was dressed like it Nov. 1, not Nov. 30 as she was in her best Day of the Dead garb for her "Marry the Night" performance. She then kept her scary panda eyes for her howling duet of "You and I" with Jennifer Nettles of Sugarland.
Rihanna phoned it in for her brief performance of "We Found Love" from her LOUD show in London. She looked and sounded exhausted, to be honest. Rest up, Rihanna. Soon.
Check out the performances from the nominations special below
The 2011 American Music Awards is usually a good time. Next to the Grammys, it's the music event of the year. The show's also good for cramming an ungodly amount of performances into three hours. And cramming and forcing stuff in is precisely what went on a lot during the show.
For starters, there was Christina Aguilera squeezing herself into her Forever 21 best with a wild, teased out mane and dramatic eye shadow. Xtina is known for the drag queen look, but somebody on her team should've advised her that her figure wasn't exactly in fighting form for skintight numbers, no matter how many spanx her stylist squeezed her into before she hit the stage.
Then there was Nicki Minaj trying to force herself on us as a singer, once again. Nicki is beloved for her punchlines and her dynamic flows as a rapper. Her singing is cute for nyeh, nyeh stuff on record, but it's almost always off when she does it live. This holds true for her performance of "Turn Me On," with David Guetta, which was as awkward as her VMAs performance with will.i.am in 2010. Nicki would've been better off opening with Drake on "I'm So Proud" or Big Sean for that juicy "Ass" remix.
The extended concert known as the American Music Awards took place on Sunday night and there were very few bright spots during the whole affair. Nicki Minaj opened the show with David Guetta, performing her collaboration with him "Turn Me On," which segued into her smash hit, "Super Bass."
Chris Brown, who seems to be making the awards show rounds, turned out one of his more subpar performances. He decided to highlight some of the tracks from his latest album, The F.A.M.E., starting off with the ballad "All Back." It was a mess, vocally, but he smartly transitioned into yet another Michael Jacksonesque routine for his MJ-sounding "Say It With Me." Chris has seen better performances.
One of the real big stinkers was Kelly Clarkson's big band rendition of her latest single "Mr. Know It All." She tried to turn the bitter pop/rock anthem into a screed against the press and the media, but she hardly garners enough attention to even make the point compelling. And Kelly Clarkson stuffed in a ballgown looked about as comfortable as a linebacker in stilettos. All around very strange.
By far, Jennifer Lopez won the night with her on-fire dance routine. Tacky product placement aside, Jennifer Lopez pulled out all the stops for an awards show performance worth watching. It had hints of Beyonce and Britney Spears in there, but hey, if you're gonna steal, steal from the best.
Watch the performances from the American Music Awards below
Shut it down. Tore it out the frame. Two of the illest dudes in hip hop right now are white men. Yelawolf and Eminem formed a vicious wolf pack as they ravenously tore apart their freestyles for the 2011 BET Hip Hop Awards Cypher. Joe Budden, who's bearded and a little bit bitter these days, dropped a few gems in there as well. But Royce Da 5'9" got Twitter real excited with his "Hi, Rihanna" lines. Who says name dropping doesn't work?
Shady/Slaughterhouse is winning. Young Money, can you handle this?
If there's one word that best summed up the 2011 MTV VMAs, it's awkward. Like Lady Gaga's whole drag king concept with the Jo Calderone character. Very, very awkward. Her idea of impersonating a man is decidedly antiquated. Her archetype seems to be the Fonz, from the 1950s sitcom Happy Days.
People blasted Gaga for being a rumored hermaphrodite, but if last night's performance proved anything, it's that Gaga doesn't have the first clue about how to be a guy. Instead of delivering a convincing performance as a man, she did play a believable butch stud. Pink, you interested in a wild night out?
The one thing that Gaga did manage to do successfully was buck expectations. People were waiting to see what wild fashion concoction Gaga would come up with next, after her egg incubating stunt at this year's Grammys. The last thing anyone expected was for her to stay dressed up as K.D. Lang the WHOLE show. And it was entertaining watching other celebrities try to make sense of Lady Gaga's schtick, especially Britney Spears, who looked like she wanted to crawl under the stage during her interactions with Mr. Gaga.
