2012 GRAMMY NOMINEES ANNOUNCED

Nominations for the 54th Grammy Awards have been announced, with Kanye West leading with seven nods and Adele showing her stance with six nods; including album, record and song of the year.

Joining the brilliant Brit at six nods were Foo Fighters and Bruno Mars; Lil Wayne and Skrillex each received five nods and Nicki Minaj, Rihanna and Mumford & Sons rallied with four nominations.

Highlights from the nominations include the below. For a full list, visit the official site.

ALBUM OF THE YEAR:
"21" -- Adele
"Wasting Light" -- Foo Fighters
"Born This Way" -- Lady Gaga
"Doo-Wops & Hooligans" -- Bruno Mars
"Loud" -- Rihanna

RECORD OF THE YEAR:
"Rolling In The Deep" -- Adele
"Holocene" -- Bon Iver
"Grenade" -- Bruno Mars
"The Cave" -- Mumford & Sons
"Firework" -- Katy Perry

BEST NEW ARTIST:
The Band Perry
Bon Iver
J. Cole
Nicki Minaj
Skrillex

SONG OF THE YEAR:
"All Of The Lights" -- Jeff Bhasker, Malik Jones, Warren Trotter & Kanye West
"The Cave" -- Ted Dwane, Ben Lovett, Marcus Mumford & Country Winston
"Grenade" -- Brody Brown, Claude Kelly, Philip Lawrence, Ari Levine, Bruno Mars & Andrew Wyatt
"Holocene" -- Justin Vernon
"Rolling In The Deep" -- Adele Adkins & Paul Epworth

BEST POP SOLO PERFORMANCE:
"Someone Like You" -- Adele
"Yoü And I" -- Lady Gaga
"Grenade" -- Bruno Mars
"Firework" -- Katy Perry
"F***in' Perfect" -- P!nk

BEST POP DUO/GROUP PERFORMANCE:
"Body And Soul" -- Tony Bennett & Amy Winehouse
"Dearest" -- The Black Keys
"Paradise" -- Coldplay
"Pumped Up Kicks" -- Foster The People
"Moves Like Jagger" -- Maroon 5 & Christina Aguilera

BEST DANCE RECORDING:
"Raise Your Weapon" -- Deadmau5 & Greta Svabo Bech
"Barbra Streisand" -- Duck Sauce
"Sunshine" -- David Guetta & Avicii
"Call Your Girlfriend" -- Robyn
"Scary Monsters And Nice Sprites" -- Skrillex
"Save The World" -- Swedish House Mafia

BEST ROCK PERFORMANCE:
"Every Teardrop Is A Waterfall" -- Coldplay
"Down By The Water" -- The Decemberists
"Walk" -- Foo Fighters
"The Cave" -- Mumford & Sons
"Lotus Flower" -- Radiohead

BEST ALTERNATIVE MUSIC ALBUM:
"Bon Iver" - Bon Iver
"Codes And Keys" - Death Cab For Cutie
"Torches" - Foster The People
"Circuital" - My Morning Jacket
"The King Of Limbs" - Radiohead

BEST RAP/SUNG COLLABORATION:
"Party" - Beyoncé & André 3000
"I'm On One" - DJ Khaled, Drake, Rick Ross & Lil Wayne
"I Need A Doctor" - Dr. Dre, Eminem & Skylar Grey
"What's My Name?" - Rihanna & Drake
"Motivation" - Kelly Rowland & Lil Wayne
"All Of The Lights" - Kanye West, Rihanna, Kid Cudi & Fergie

BEST RAP PERFORMANCE:
"Look At Me Now" - Chris Brown, Lil Wayne & Busta Rhymes
"Otis" - Jay-Z & Kanye West
"The Show Goes On" - Lupe Fiasco
"Moment 4 Life" - Nicki Minaj & Drake
"Black And Yellow" - Wiz Khalifa

Winners from the 2011 MTV Video Music Awards

In case you missed the 2011 MTV Video Music Awards, some are saying this was the best year yet. Whilst none of the nights wins were real surprises, it was certainly a fun night.

Some of the non award highlights were:

+ Beyoncé announcing to the world that Jay-Z and her were expecting via the red carpet. Later on in the night Mama Bey belted out her 4 album track Love On Top and at the end of the number she rubbed her little belly. Oh, sweet.

+ Lady Gaga's male alter ego Jo Calderone opened the show performing Yoü and I (in a deep, male voice), and as the track came to an end he/she welcomed Queen's Brian May as he played on his guitar.

+ Adele performed her UK/Australian number one hit Someone Like You (which was breath-taking), so expect to see this sky-rocket to the top of the Billboard charts in the coming weeks.

On the night Katy Perry and Adele lead the way with three awards each, followed by Lady Gaga with two awards. For the complete list see here.

Some of the night's winners...

• Video of the Year: Katy Perry, Firework
• Best Female Video: Lady Gaga, Born This Way
• Best New Artist: Tyler, The Creator, Yonkers
• Best Male Video: Justin Bieber, U Smile
• Best Collaboration: Katy Perry featuring Kanye West, ET
• Best Hip-Hop Video: Nicki Minaj, Super Bass
• Best Rock Video: Foo Fighters, Walk
• Best Pop Video: Britney Spears, Till the World Ends
• Best Video With A Message: Lady Gaga, Born This Way
• Best Choreography: Beyoncé, Run the World (Girls)
• Best Visual Effects: Katy Perry featuring Kanye West, ET
• Best Art Direction: Adele, Rolling in the Deep
• Best Editing: Adele, Rolling in the Deep
• Best Cinematography: Adele, Rolling in the Deep

KATY PERRY MAKES BILLBOARD HISTORY WITH FIVE #1 SINGLES FROM "TEENAGE DREAM"

This week Katy Perry made Billboard history when her latest single to be lifted from her Teenage Dream album, Last Friday Night (TGIF) moved into the coveted #1 position.

Hear Missy Elliott's latest remix of Perry's Last Friday Night (TGIF).

Last Friday Night joins the singles California Gurls (featuring Snoop Dogg); the title track, Teenage Dream and ET (featuring Kanye West) to have reached the top spot. Perry ties with the late Michael Jackson as the only two artists ever to have achieved this great feat.

The King of Pop had the hits from his Bad album reach the #1 position - I Just Can't Stop Loving You (with Siedah Garrett); the title track, Bad; The Way You Make Me Feel; Man in the Mirror and Dirty Diana.

Congratulations Katy! What an outstanding achievement. For the full article, read online here.

Adele and Katy Perry top Billboard's mid-year charts

Adele's outstanding album 21, and Katy Perry's collaboration with Kanye West, ET, take out the top selling album and digital track respectively in the US - according to Billboard's mid-year charts.

Since it's release in late February, 21 has sold in excess of 2.51 million copies - an outstanding feat for any artist. Coming in at second place is Lady Gaga's Born This Way with an impressive 1.54 million copies sold (much of which was moved in it's first week of release). Coming in at third place is Mumford & Sons with Sigh No More on 982,000 copies.

Other notable album mentions are:
+ Bruno Mars' soul-tastic Doo Wops & Hooligans at #5 with 686,000
+ Chris Brown rise to F.A.M.E at #7 with 646,000
+ Nicki Minaj's debut album Pink Friday at #9 with 609,000
+ Katy Perry's luscious Teenage Dream at #10 with 600,000
+ Rihanna's real Loud at #11 with 598,000
+ Britney Spears' return to the spotlight at #12 with Femme Fatale with 590,000

ET, Perry's fourth single to be lifted off her Teenage Dream album, has moved over a staggering 4.1 million downloads, and is followed closely by Adele's Rolling in the Deep on 4.08 million downloads. Coming in at third place is Cee Lo Green's masterpiece Fuck You (Forget You) with over 3.2 million copies sold.

Watch the videos for Perry's ET [VIDEO], Adele's Rolling in the Deep [VIDEO] and Green's Fuck You [VIDEO]

Other notable digital track mentions are:
+ Lady Gaga's return with Born This Way at #4 with 3.02 million
+ Rihanna's raunchiness with S&M at #5 with 2.7 millions
+ Jennifer Lopez's RedOne production with Pitbull, On The Floor at #6 with 2.6 million
+ Bruno Mars with two appearances - his explosive Grenade at #9 with 2.3 million, and The Lazy Song at #15 with 2 million

Billboard has reported that both album and digital singles are up year on year with an impressive 1% and 11% respectively. In addition, album sales are up from this point point last year for the first time since 2004! What's even more impressive is the volume of talented pop artists in both charts.

For the full article, including the full top twenty albums and digital sakes, view Billboards article online [WEBSITE]

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[VIDEO PREMIERE] KATY PERRY "E.T." FEAT. KANYE WEST

And it's here - Katy Perry and Kanye West in their much-anticipated video for Katy's fifth Billboard #1 single, E.T.

The video for the Dr Luke and Max Martin produced single is nothing short of visually stunning. There will be obvious comparisons to Gaga's Born This Way video with it's supernatural themes, however Perry's clip is somewhat more visually pleasing. Regardless, it definitely seems as though Perry has taken a leaf out of the artistic catalogue.

Watch and enjoy!

KATY PERRY SCORES HER FOURTH "TEENAGE DREAM" BILLBOARD #1 WITH "E.T."

And she does it, AGAIN! Katy Perry scores another Billboard Hot 100 #1 hit with her latest single, E.T. featuring Kanye West. Billboard.com have just released a statement ahead of this weeks chart that E.T. pushes Lady Gaga's six-week #1 hit, Born This Way, back to #4.

Perry's Teenage Dream is the ninth album in the 52 year history of the Billboard charts to produce four #1 singles. The last time a female solo artist achieved this feat was Mariah Carey with her self-titled LP in 1009/91.

The video for E.T. is due to drop the evening of 31 March, so stay tuned - not long now!

Well done Katy, well deserved. Read the fully story online [BILLBOARD]

Purchase Teenage Dream and/or E.T. digitally today [ITUNES]

[VIDEO PREMIERE] KANYE WEST "ALL OF THE LIGHTS" FEAT. RIHANNA

My favourite track off the My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy album, All of the Lights is Kanye West's forth single (behind Power, Runaway and Monster). The track, which features Rihanna (looking freakin' hot in the clip, as always), also features additional vocals from John Legend, The-Dream, Elly Jackson (of La Roux), Alicia Keys, Fergie, Kid Cudi and Elton John. Quite a line up.

The track has hit top 30 status in Australia, according to the ARIA Singles Chart, and is also starting to make waves on the US Billboard and UK charts.

Directed by Hype Williams (who also directed Jessica Mauboy's Get 'Em Girls and Saturday Night - why were they so bad???), the clip is good. A little sore on the eyes with all the "flashing", but it's a good clip.

Anywho. Enjoy!

KATY PERRY FEATURES KANYE WEST ON "E.T." REMIX

Katy Perry's forth single to be lifted off the Teenage Dream album is ET. The track has already had success in Australia reaching #5 on the ARIA Singles Chart and achieved platinum sales status (>70,000 copies sold).

Written by Perry, Dr Luke and Max Martin, the track has been compared to TaTu's All The Things She Said. Random if you ask me - I don't hear it.

The global EP release sees a Kanye West remix added, as well as remixes by Benny Benassi and Tiësto; and is scheduled to be released over the coming weeks. The music video will feature the Kanye remix, and will be directed by Floria Sigismondi (who directed the music video for Christina Aguilera's 2006 single Hurt).

Anywho. Take a listen. I actually love the Kanye remix - much better. It's a very clever move by Perry... I wonder if it'll give her a forth #hit in a row on the Billboard chart...?

Enjoy.