Janelle Monae Page 3

Janelle Monae has responded to the firestorm created by Kim Burrell’s recent homophobic rant, telling her fans that the gospel singer will not be performing with her and Pharrell Williams on the ‘Ellen Degeneres Show’ later this week.

The three singers were scheduled to perform their song ‘I See a Victory’ from the movie Hidden Figures – of which Monae herself is a star – on DeGeneres’ show on Thursday this week (January 5th). However, Burrell has been castigated for a recent sermon she delivered at a church in Houston where she described homosexuals as “perverted”.

The gospel singer, 44, has compounded the anger directed at her for refusing to back down or apologise for her comments in a later Facebook Live broadcast.

Continue reading: Janelle Monae Says Kim Burrell Won't Be Performing With Her And Pharrell After Homophobic Rant

Outkast returned home to Georgia for their stint at CounterPoint Festival 2014 - and fans were a lot more pleased this time round than they were at their comeback gig at Coachella.

Nothing was going to spoil the mood at this year's CounterPoint Festival. With a line-up headlined by one of the world's favourite veteran hip hop duos and also featuring Pretty Lights, Foster The People and STS9, not even the ferocious storm that swept the venue over the weekend engulfing festival goers in streams of mud was going to ruin the experience for anyone. 

Continue reading: Outkast Were Back In Georgia For CounterPoint Festival 2014, With A Few Special Guests

Next weekend's CounterPoint Festival will be the event's first year at a new 5000-acre site, featuring campgrounds, a food court, bars (including a draught house), carnival rides, free water stations and its very own arts village. Oh, and then there's the music line-up.

This year's bill is headed by hip-hop stars Outkast, who make their hugely anticipated hometown return. Elsewhere, we'd have to point you in the direction of the blu Freedom Stage on Saturday (April 26, 2014) which boasts a pretty fantastic line-up starting with Wild Cub and St Lucia. As evening approaches, Janelle Monae will take to the stage, followed by J. Cole and headliners Foster the People. 

Continue reading: CounterPoint Festival 2014 To Feature Hometown Return Of Outkast

After months of speculation, the official line-up has been confirmed for the 2014 Glastonbury Festival, which will be held from the 27th to the 29th June this year. The festival tweeted this year's snazzy line-up poster which listed a tonne of previously unconfirmed acts. Sadly, and despite the rumours, it doesn't look like Prince will be getting funky at Glasto but the appearance of Elbow, Arcade Fire, Kasabian, The Black Keys, and Jack White should make up for the Purple One's absence.

Kasabian Have Been Confirmed To Play Glastonbury Festival This Year.

Joining these four big name acts will be an intriguing and eclectic mix of acts of all sorts of genres. Skrillex, De La Soul, Ms Dynamite, Rudimental, Disclosure, Lil Louis and DJ Pierre will be bringing dance music whilst Kelis, Janelle Monáe, Jurassic 5 and M.I.A will be giving the festival a hip hop flavour.

Continue reading: Glastonbury Line-Up Confirmed: Elbow, Kasabian, Arcade Fire, Jack White...And Who Else?

The line-up for this year's Bonnaroo Music and Arts Festival has been announced and looks to be more impressive than ever with Elton John, Kanye West, Lionel Richie, Jack White and Vampire Weekend all gracing the Manchester, Tenn. stages across the four-day celebration. The festival, which will be held from the 12th to the 15th June this year, will serve up an enviable mix of genres.

Elton John Will Lead This Year's Incredible Bonnaroo Festival Line-Up.

Bonnaroo Festival is famous for having provided a stage to one of Kanye West's famous rants last time he played in 2008. The rapper and his fans reacted with outrage when Kanye's originally late night set was shifted to a performance during broad daylight, provoking a classic caps-lock tirade from the short-fused star.

Continue reading: Kanye, Elton, Jack And Lionel: Say Hello To Bonnaroo Festival's Line-Up 2014

The nominees have been announced for this year's Brit Awards, which will be presented live in a ceremony on ITV on the 19th February. The annual awards celebrate the year's biggest British music stars, in a competition that is as hotly contested as ever after a thrilling year in music.

Disclosure Could Be About To Get A Lot More Famous With Four Potential Brit Awards Headed Their Way.

Bastille and Disclosure have emerged as the early front-runners after netting four nominations apiece and will go head-to-head in the Mastercard British Album of the Year, British Breakthrough Act, British Single and British Group categories. Though both groups have enjoyed rocketing to success this year, Disclosure and their album Settle may have the edge due to having been also nominated for last year's Mercury Music Prize.

Continue reading: Brit Awards 2014 Nominations: Disclosure, Bastille, Rudimental Emerge On Top

This week’s SNL was not just the Halloween episode – which is usually more treat than trick – but also Edward Norton’s very first time hosting the sketch comedy show. Despite Norton’s lack of any kind of comedy background, he pulled off quite a funny show. His Woody Allen impression in the opening monologue was spot on and, of course, he did have plenty of help.

Norton did great, despite not having a comedy background.

And we’re not talking about Jenelle Monae demonstrating her impressive vocal chops or killer style here, though she did do both of those things. There were two celebrities that popped by during Norton’s opening monologue, to provide the greenhorn host with some oldschool SNL wisdom – Alec Baldwin and Miley Cyrus. And while Baldwin definitely has some experience to back him up – and his jokes got a good round of laughs – Cyrus did seem a bit nervous and too scripted, her tongue gag raising eyebrows, more than prompting laughs.

Continue reading: Edward Norton Does A Surprisingly Good Job Hosting Halloween-Themed SNL

Singer Janelle Monáe has dropped her sophomore album, Electric Lady, following on from 2010's debut The ArchAndroid. The 27 year-old, who has become famous for her distinctive glamorous tuxedo style, has carved out a musical niche, widely described as a cross between funkadelic soul and futuristic R&B: a rather unique sound that is no less evident and enthralling on her latest record.

Janelle Inspired Herself With Her Latest Album.

In response to the question "Who are the electric ladies in your life?" in an interview with NPR, Monáe explained that "Electric Ladies cannot be marginalised.[they are] community oriented." Similarly, speaking to MTV News, Janelle spoke of the album's themes and direction: "This album isn't to be marginalized. It is of hope, of inspiration and of love," she said adding, "It is to encourage a million electric ladies to build and come into existence, and 'electric lady' does not have a particular skin colour or hair texture but our communality is community and wanting to nurture the community and knowing that we have to be the change."

Continue reading: Janelle Monáe "Genuinely Inspired" By 'Electric Lady' On Latest Album

Sunday (25 August) night saw the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, New York taken over by the biggest names in pop for one night only, as the 29th annual MTV Video Music Awards took the recently-completed venue by storm in an awards show that, like most VMAs, will be long remembered. In all there were eleven different winners in the sixteen different categories, whilst the ceremony itself was an onslaught of musical surprises and memorable performances, as the VMAs continued to live up to it's billing as the 'Oscars for youth.'

Justin was the biggest winner on the night

The biggest winner of the night was pop's returning prince Justin Timberlake, who not only won the Michael Jackson Video Vanguard Award for his services to the music industry, but also took home another three awards for two of his The 20/20 Experience music videos. His comeback single 'Suit & Tie' won Best Direction, whilst the follow-up single 'Mirrors earned the former N*Sync singer the Best Editing and the coveted Video of the Year Award. And speaking of N*Sync, during Timberlake's medley of hits prior to the Video Vanguard handing over, we were finally treated to the long-overdue reunion of N*Sync, who performed their memorable hits 'Girlfriend' and 'Bye Bye Bye.' We would have been more surprised, if it wasn't such a poorly kept secret.

Continue reading: Justin Timberlake & Macklemore And Ryan Lewis Are The Toasts Of The Night: MTV VMAs FULL Winners List

Mellody Hobson has married her long-time partner - Star Wars director George Lucas - at Skywalker Ranch in Marin County. The ceremony went ahead on Saturday afternoon (June 29, 2013), with former New Jersey Senator Bill Bradley giving away the bride and George's son Jett serving as the best man. The director and producer's daughters Amanda and Katie served as bridesmaids, according to the movie mogul's spokesperson.

According to the Hollywood Reporter, Irish singer-songwriter Van Morrison played live at the reception, with the soulful Janelle Monae also playing a set. Steven Spielberg was also in attendance and director Francis Ford Coppola read a poem by Maya Angelou. That's some guest-list. 

Lucas became engaged to DreamWorks Animation chair Hobson, 43, in January. She is also head of the Chicago-based investment management firm Ariel Investments and chairman of Ariel Mutual Funds. Oh, and she's a director at Estee Lauder, Groupon and Starbucks as well as a regular contributor at CBS - in other words, she's a big player. A huge player. It will be her first marriage, though the second for Lucas, 68.

Continue reading: Mellody Hobson Marries George Lucas, But Which Legend Played Live?

Janelle Monae releases her new album The Electric Lady soon and the first single to be taken from it is Q.U.E.E.N. - a pretty righteous collaboration between Janelle and Erykah Badu.

On her Twitter page, Janelle revealed that all of the girls dancing in the video are her friends and the director of the promo is Alan Ferguson, who also made the video for ‘Many Moons." Described by Stereogum as an “irresistible art-funk strut,” the video is a typically stylised one from Monae, who seems to blend a futuristic vision with a retro sound somewhat effortlessly. The video begins with an introduction to ‘Project Q.U.E.E.N.’ – a “musical weapons programme for the 21st century” before the track begins, with Janelle and her dancing buddies dressed in 60s monochrome, the odd slash of red leaping out of the black and white uniformity. Then in comes Erykah looking delightfully freaky in a blonde wig and adding her ultra-funky vocal as the track slows down a notch before giving way to Janelle’s fierce rapping.

The track’s been getting a great reception, so far, with US music journalist Jess Hopper pronouncing “THIS JANELLE MONAE VID IS EVERYTHING” and BBC’s Rob Da Bank (@RobDaBank) describing the song as “siiiccckkk” and NME magazine including the song on a list of 10 songs their readers should listen to this week.

Continue reading: Q.U.E.E.N. – A Righteous Collaboration Between Janelle Monae And Erykah Badu

Janelle Monae's career has skyrocketed over the past few years, leading to her being nominated for three Grammys in 2011 for Best R&B album and also for her collaboration with Big Boi. This year another collaboration, with Fun has catapulted her further from the peripheries of music and further into the view of the public. Speaking to Billboard she has explained how this year's awards meaning something entirely different to Grammy Awards gone by.

"This year's Grammys has a significant meaning," she says. "I was nominated before for my own work, you know, my own album and I had the opportunity to perform in 2011. That was a big moment for my career... This time around I'm there to support Fun. and we're there together. This is about team work; it's about collaborations and making people happy with our music. That means a lot; that's a big deal."

While team work is certainly an important part of her career - she's now top of the list for many artists to collaborate with - but just as importantly is her ability to have done that without compromise. When she started her career financial success wasn't a drive force, she says. "It was just to make music on my own terms or create my own image, do my own hair, do my own makeup. It's an artistic expression for me... That's why I'm here today, because I've been able to be in control of that." 

Continue reading: Janelle Monae In Control, And Why The Grammy Awards 2013 Have A 'Significant Meaning' For Her

The nominations for the 55th Grammy Award Nominations in 2013 have officially been announced by the award's organisers. Here’s a run down of some of the main awards, and our tips for Grammy's Glory.

Album Of The Year:

El Camino — The Black Keys

Continue reading: Grammy Nominations 2013: Who Will Win? Who SHOULD Win?