Bark + Bite

Madonna rocks the halftime show at the Super Bowl

Madonna may be one old dog, but she's definitely picked up plenty of new tricks.

The 53-year-old pop diva performed at the Super Bowl XLVI halftime show in Indianapolis in an eye-popping spectacle. The set opened with a Roman empire-style take on her hit "Vogue." She tutted her way through the number and then transitioned to her song "Music," which then segued into a megamix of LMFAO's "Party Rock Anthem" which resulted in Madonna shuffling with the Gordy boys. Amazing.

Madonna then brought out her brown cheerleaders, Nicki Minaj and M.I.A., for a brief run through of her new single "Give Me All Your Luvin'," and M.I.A. might land everybody in a little hot water as she flipped the bird on camera during her verse. As Janet Jackson's nipplegate saga taught us, the FCC doesn't play when it comes to the Super Bowl.

For her final act, Madonna brought out an all-black choir and Cee Lo Green for a divine rendition of her hit song, "Like A Prayer." It was an all-around pop music touchdown. No complaints.

Watch Madonna's Super Bowl halftime performance below

Lana Del Rey redeems herself with Letterman performance

First impressions are unfortunately impossible to do over. And Lana Del Rey, who gave one of the drier, more awkward performances in SNL history, probably wanted to redo her poorly received performances from that night.

That unfortunately won't work, because NASA hasn't released the time machine technology that everyone knows they're hoarding. So Lana will have to settle for redemption, which is something American audiences are quite fond of anyway.

Lana took to David Letterman's late night show to perform her viral hit "Video Games," accompanied by a piano and a delicate string quartet. It was everything the SNL performance wasn't. While she's still a bit of a pussycat instead of a tiger on stage, like Adele, for example, Lana proved she could gather herself together well enough to find a key and sing on pitch. She also managed to look appropriately wounded rather than terrified-deer-in-headlights like she did on SNL.

By the end of the whole thing, Letterman was quite smitten with her and implored the rising star to come back to the show tomorrow. And the day after. Yeah, it was kinda creepy.

Watch Lana Del Rey's late night show performance below

Gotye brings Kimbra along for U.S. debut of "Somebody That I Used to Know" on Kimmel

Last year, Gotye conquered his homeland Australia with his bitter breakup anthem, "Somebody That I Used to Know." The heart-wrenching duet with rising star and native New Zealander Kimbra, who was profiled by Bark + Bite in 2010, is now making its way to the U.S. The duo from the land(s) down under made their U.S. television debut with a performance of the song on Jimmy Kimmel Live this past Wednesday.

Dividing his time between the mic and a beat machine, Gotye was unassuming in his performance and appearance as he dressed modestly in a grey button-down shirt and skinny jeans. Kimbra, on the other hand, was determined to shine brightly in her bedazzled black crystal number. Both singers were in top form vocally and they didn't miss a note in their song about the coldness of an intimate lover transitioning into a stranger.

Watch Kimbra and Gotye duke it out in their duet below

Drake performs "Look What You've Done For Me" on New Year's

Performing in front on an adoring crowd, Drizzy Drake let his vocal cords shine as he sang the melodious album track "Look What You've Done for Me," from his sophomore album Take Care.

While Usher obviously has nothing to worry about, Drake sounds like he's made improvements and some of his "riffs" were pleasing to the ear. Keep up the good work, Drake!

SOURCE: RapRadar

The 2012 Grammy nominations concert starts Grammy fever off early

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

Bruno Mars spills his broken heart on X Factor USA in "It Will Rain" performance

Eff your light show, will.i.am. This is how you put some video technology to work.

Not only did Bruno Mars spruce up his performance of "It Will Rain" with an impressive light show, he also remixed it musically, adding a new intro and switching up the melody in places and adding electronica effects during the second verse. Shout out to the girl who broke Bruno's heart, cause she's inspired greatness in our favorite Martian.

Watch Bruno Mars perform on the X Factor below

2011 AMAs: The Performances

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

Rihanna performs "We Found Love" live on the X Factor

Rihanna is one busy beaver. The singer, who is in the midst of her European tour, flew overseas back to the US for a one-night gig on the X Factor. Donning her Americana-inspired wardrobe, Rihanna performed her hit single "We Found Love" on stage and on national TV for the first time.

Although Rihanna relied heavily on a backing track that seemed to dominate, she was full of energy as she thrashed, fist pumped and danced her heart out in front of the world. The one bit of the performance that had choreography was pure delight. More of this please, Miss RiRi.

During the interview portion though, Rihanna's face looked slightly bloated. Like she was on meds or suffering from exhaustion? Things won't get easier for the Barbadian as her sixth album is set to drop next week and she has to squeeze in whatever promo she can before then.

Watch Rihanna's performance on the X Factor below