Brits 2009

So, unlike my Grammy predictions, i got the Brits's ones completely wrong! Oh Well you win some you lose some.....


Moments of the night:

Girls Aloud actually winning something

Duffy performing Warwick Avenue instead of Mercy (good call)

Natalie Imbruglia looking amazing

Estelle and The Ting Tings - livened up an otherwise text book show

Nicola Roberts refusing to take the mic when going up to collect 'Best Single'

Kanye's Speech

Kylie's green dress

The Brits 2009 are coming

What do The Brits 2009 have instore? Back in they heyday of the late nineties / early 2000s, The Brits were the award show guaranteed to make the front pages. Every year there was either some controversy, some fabulous comeback, a shock award or that showstopping performance. Who can forget Jarvis Cocker wiggling his bum at Jacko, Belle and Sebastian winning Best Newcomers, Justin grabbing Kylie's bum or, possibly the most iconic image of The Brits and of late nineties Britain ever, Geri Halliwell's Union Jack dress?

In recent years the show has mellowed slightly and been diluted for fear of antics upstaging the music. This is all very well, but it was the antics that made the show and drew so many parallels with the music. Whilst the Grammys focuses on flawless vocal performances, jazz and folk tinged music and the beauty parade, The Brits was always about naughtiness. It embodies the vital British characteristic of 'Cheeky'. Even the international artists can let there hair down in a way that just isn't tolerated on American TV.

For 2009 i hope there are some antics, some unique duets and some bizarre winners. There will inevitably be the foregone winners; Coldplay, Kings Of Leon, but i do hope they throw us a few surprises.

As with the Grammys i have listed some key categories, with whom the Bookies are banking on, who i think deserves the award, who doesn't have a hope in hell chance of winning it, and who i think will actually get it when all is said and done.

British Male Solo Artist
Ian Brown
James Morrison
Paul Weller
The Streets
Will Young

Bookies: Paul Weller
Want: Will Young
No Chance: The Streets
Think: Paul Weller - i think they will go with the 'modfather' for a bit of nostalgia.

British Female Solo Artist
Adele
Beth Rowley
Duffy
Estelle
M.I.A.

Bookies: Duffy
Want: Adele
No Chance: Beth Rowley
Think: Adele - this was tough one, but i think Duffy could well be the 'Craig David', 'Gorillaz' and 'Lily Allen' of this year's awards and walk away empty handed.

British Group
Coldplay
Elbow
Girls Aloud
Radiohead
Take That

Bookies: Coldplay
Want: Girls Aloud
No Chance: Elbow
Think: Take That - they could award them for the sheer number of years they've been in the business, however Girls Aloud would be much more deserving and, ultimately, more interesting winners. If they won this award instead of one of the male acts it would blow The Brits wide open for the years to come. Rather than it being so blue print and straight forward as it has become in recent years. It would also go someway in making up for them never giving the Spice Girls this very award.

British Single
Coldplay - 'Viva La Vida'
Duffy - 'Mercy'
Girls Aloud - 'The Promise'
Leona Lewis - 'Better In Time'
Scouting For Girls - 'Heartbeat'

Bookies: Girls Aloud
Want: Girls Aloud
No Chance: Scouting For Girls
Think: No idea - this one always throws out a curve ball for me. Baffled by Take That beating Leona, or Coldplay and Dido winning in previous years. Will Young would have to be the most surprising winner, though. It is really hard to figure out which way this goes, i do really hope Girls Aloud get as this could be the only chance they ever get to come this close to a Brit.

British Album
Coldplay - Viva La Vida
Duffy - Rockferry
Elbow - The Seldom Seen Kid
Radiohead - In Rainbows
Ting Tings - We Started Nothing

Bookies: Coldplay
Want: Duffy
No Chance: Ting Tings - the mere fact they are absent from the Group category shows they will never win this.
Think: Coldplay - if they do get this one, then they will also have the Group category sewn up too, as this award signals to the winner also receiving their Group, Female or Male award as well.

International Female Solo Artist
Beyoncé
Gabriella Cilmi
Katy Perry
Pink
Santogold

Bookies: Katy Perry
Want: Beyoncé
No Chance: Gabriella Climi
Think: It really depends on who out of Pink, Katy Perry and Beyoncé actually shows up on the night. It would be a travesty if Perry did get it, as an artist she does not even compare to the others. The organisers could not justify giving her this and not handing Girls Aloud the group award.

As for the others: Kings Of Leon have the International Group and Album categories pretty much in the bag, Jay-Z will probably get the Male award for his triumphant Glastonbury set. Elbow will of course get Live Act and Florence and the Machine will baffle viewers when they receive an award, much in the same way Adele did last year!

On Wednesday night we will find out whether The Brits can once again capture it's magic, or if it will follow some well worn tracks and hand out it's awards to the obvious. I fear that the latter will be the case.

A Little Bit Of Love for V-Day

Yesterday i was faffing around on itunes and typed in 'Love Machine' to see if anyone had covered it. Sad i know, but i love the song.

Anyway nothing relevant popped up. What i did find however, during that search, was this: a cover of 'You Got The Love' originally by The Source featuring Candi Staton, by Brit Award winners Florence and the Machine. This version has grown on me over the past day and i just had to post it up here. I looked on youtube for a suitable video but the only ones there were a live performance and a static visual one. So i threw together some videos i had on my computer and came up with this. It's all very random, but the focus for you is on the song, really!

Lily Allen - It's Not Me, It's You

Lily Allen - everyone has an opinion on her, whether she is your Naughties' Wordsworth, your Myspace pioneer or your gobby neptonic irritant, there really is no escaping her. And so it is that at the beginning of 2009 she releases the follow up to her, now two and a half year old, debut - 'Alright, Still'.

With not a Mark Ronson credit in sight, Allen has swapped trumpets for synths, Ska for Electropop. She has always been an artist who writes directly, both emotionally and literally, from the heart and there is no hiding in this record. Her feelings are out there and very little is shrouded in clever metaphors or smilies. No more is this apparent than on the closing track 'He Wasn't There', a nostalgic look at her childhood and the effect her famous father, Keith Allen, had on her. Set the the sound of a 1930s beach holiday it is one of the more captivating and unique offerings on the album.

Other highlights include number one single 'The Fear': a dreamy ode to fame in which Allen blurs the lines between reality and pastiche when addressing her place in the world of celebrity. 'Everyone's At It', the obvious choice for the second single, is much more lyrically challenging. Assuming that the whole world is on drugs, when one suspects this is not wholly true of the real world, more of London, L.A. and the kind of places one would expect to find the glitterati. Starting off like the backing track to a horror movie, Allen produces a song that would have fitted amazingly on the Kaiser Chiefs's debut. She, however, is much more apt at reflecting real life through her lyrics.

'Fuck You' is her most effecting effort to date. Set to a nursery rhyme-esque tune, the song addresses not only, as has been heavily written about, George Bush, but the bigots, racists, homophobes and prejudice of the world. When we live in a world where tolerance is the most important thing, but the one most lacking, Allen has poured all her feelings towards discrimination into a simple but memorable chorus - 'Fuck you, fuck you very, very much'. Simply this song is brilliant.

Whilst no one would excuse Lily Allen of resting on her laurels she evens tackles Existentialism with the quirky 'Him'. By projecting human qualities onto the world's most unhumanly being, God, Allen throws up some brilliant lines like 'Do you think he's any good at remembering people's names / Do you think he's ever taken smack or cocaine'. By looking at God through a series of questions and human foibles she has perhaps asked all the things we have always been wondering. Are Creedence Clearwater Revival actually God's favourite band?...Perhaps, not!

As for the rest of the album, 'Who'd Have Known' comes off poorer from pinching from Take That's 'Shine', whilst 'I Could Say' talks about moving on from someone you used to adore set the the backing track of a beautiful love song.

All in all 'It's Not Me, It's You' sums up the world in 2009 almost perfectly. Put in a time capsule and opened in 1,000 years time the listener (if they have a CD Player?!) would get a brilliant idea of what has been going on recently. Perhaps Lily Allen will be viewed as the Wordsworth of 2004 +, but i guess we will never know!

Grammys 2009

The Grammys are the musical Oscars, everybody wants one. The 2009 ceremony takes place tomorrow night (Sunday). Each year there are some killer performances and some surprise wins. The Grammys are like the older, classier sister to the Brit naughty, eccentric younger brother.

Past performances have become historic and artists are always raising the bar with how they present themselves during this prestigious night. Performers at this years bash apparently include Katy Perry (Style over content), Coldplay, U2, The Jonas Brother (trying to appeal to a younger audience, i guess, no other reason for them), Lil' Wayne (The biggest act in America right now), Jennifer Hudson (no doubt will receive a standing ovation due to the horrific events she has endured lately) and Adele (doing it for us Brits). They have a lot to live up to performance wise, with some of the greatest artists in the world having put in career defining performances during Grammy's 50 year history.

Michael Jackson proved his talents during 1988 with a heartfelt performance of 'Man In The Mirror', it was during these years he was one the ascent to the global megastar he is today. Whitney Houston had her debut Grammy performance with 'One Moment in Time' and Marvin Gaye gave his Grammy swan song with 'Sexual Healing'. Christina Aguilera has put in a couple of belting performance, no more so than her James Brown tribute in which some suggested that, for a brief moment, her body was taken over by the spirit of the late Brown himself. That same year Mary J. Blige brought the house down with an emotional, powerful performance of her winning song 'Be Without You' which ended with the classic 'Stay With Me Baby'.



But there is one person who has put in not just one but three memorable and Grammy defining performances. It is of course Beyonce (yes her again). Last year she introduced and then helped end the Grammy comeback performance of Tina Turner. Their homage to the classic Turner 'Proud Mary' dance was magic. It was 2004, though, that Beyonce showed just how much of a star she was, first she performed with music legend Prince, then she sung her beautiful ballad 'Dangerously in Love part 2' which was dressed in a picture frame and was mesmerising to watch.

Beating the performances in Grammy column inches is always the winners and losers. This year there is a mixed bag of nominees, with some very predictable outcomes. However there is a great focus on British artists, which is probably due to the great success they've had lately and of course Winehouse's wins last year.

Below are some of the nominations with who i would like to see win, the bookies favourites and who i think will win.


Record of the Year:

"Chasing Pavements" - Adele
"Viva La Vida" - Coldplay
"Bleeding Love" - Leona Lewis
"Paper Planes" - M.I.A
"Please Read The Letter" - Robert Plant & Alison Krauss

Bookies: Leona Lewis
Want: Adele
Think: Coldplay - Just think they will edge it.

Album of the Year:
"Raising Sand" - Robert Plant and Alison Krauss
"Viva La Vida" - Coldplay
"Tha Carter III" - Lil Wayne
"Year of the Gentleman" - Ne-Yo
"In Rainbows" - Radiohead

Bookies: Robert Plant and Alison Krauss
Want: Ne-Yo
Think: Robert Plant and Alison Krauss - it's the type of thing that seems to win album of the year.

Song of the Year:

"American Boy" - Estelle featuring Kanye West (William Adams, Keith Harris, Josh Lopez, Caleb Speir, John Stephens, Estelle Swaray & Kanye West, songwriters)
"Chasing Pavements" - Adele (Adele Adkins & Eg White)
"I'm Yours" - Jason Mraz
"Love Song" - Sara Bareilles
"Viva La Vida" - Coldplay (Guy Berryman, Jonny Buckland, Will Champion, & Chris Martin

Bookies: Coldplay
Want: Adele
Think: Coldplay - If they get record of the year then this will be in the bag, though I'd rather it went to Adele

Best New Artist:
Adele
Duffy
The Jonas Brothers
Lady Antebellum
Jazmine Sullivan

Bookies: Jazmine Sullivan
Want: Adele
Think: The Jonas Brother - this seems to usually go to a more commercial artist, but we'll see. Would be happy for either Duffy or Adele to win.

Best Female Pop Vocal Performance:

"Chasing Pavements" - Adele
"Love Song" - Sara Bareilles
"Mercy" - Duffy
"Bleeding Love" - Leona Lewis
"I Kissed A Girl" - Katy Perry
"So What" - Pink

Bookies: Leona Lewis
Want: Leona Lewis
Think: Adele - Her dominance in the more lofty categories could see a token award if she doesn't get the others, and if she does then she will probably get this one too

Best Pop Vocal Album:
"Detours" - Sheryl Crow
"Rockferry" - Duffy
"Long Road Out Of Eden" - Eagles
"Spirit" - Leona Lewis
"Covers" - James Taylor

Bookies: Leona Lewis
Want: Duffy
Think: Duffy or James Taylor - I'm torn by this one, Taylor seems more Grammy friendly, but Leona has been riding high. Duffy could just swipe it as her album is well crafted and ultimately much better than Lewis's.

I know i'm always bleeting on about Beyonce, BUT....

Obama's Inaugural Neighbourhood Ball featured many a celebrity guest and singer. Alicia Keys, Mariah Carey, Sting, Maroon 5, Stevie Wonder and Shakira (to name but a few) all came out to perform for their newly elected president. All (except Mariah) put in fine performances (with Shakira doing a particularly quirky cover of Van Morrison's 'Bright Side of the Road'), but it was once again Beyonce who stole the show. Her spine-tingling version of Etta James's 'At Last' was faultless, touching and beautiful. Taken from the soundtrack to her latest movie 'Cadillac Records' the film has been somewhat of a disappointment to the critics, however I've been told Beyonce is rather surprising in it.

Never one to let her emotions get the better of her, Beyonce almost keeps her composure, but she is visibly moved at the end of her song. Possibly the performance of her life. Simple. Elegant. Mesmerising.

Rediscovered this little beauty

This popped up on my I-Pod during a shuffle moment and i kinda like it! The backing track is brilliant

Jagged Edge - Let's Get Married (Remix)