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As we noted this morning, the United States men's Olympic hockey team overcame tremendous odds to defeat Canada by a score of 5-3 yesterday. The U.S. team will now advance to the top seed of the quarterfinals, adding another wrinkle to an already unusual Olympic tournament.

Much of the credit for the unlikely victory goes to goaltender Ryan Miller, whose day job is with the NHL's Buffalo Sabres and who racked up 42 saves in a tense and heated match-up. Of course, Miller didn't do it alone: He had support from his able-bodied teammates, as well as a hand from Angus Young and Jared Leto.

Like many elite Olympic athletes, Miller uses music to help get him into the game-time mindset. "It varies, but a lot of the time it's a lot of modern rock mixes," Miller told MTV News in Vancouver. "I've been listening to Kings of Leon for a long time — ever since they had mustaches and long hair, so I like that they've had some success. I like that 30 Seconds to Mars has new stuff out. I like Silversun Pickups, Yeah Yeah Yeahs, stuff like that."

Teammate Ryan Callahan — a forward who plays with the New York Rangers — likes it a little older and heavier. "I keep it more old-school and simple," Callahan said. "AC/DC and Metallica get me really pumped up and ready to go. I like listening to that stuff before the games."

The men play again on Wednesday, but on Monday (February 22), the women get the chance to continue the U.S. hockey run in Vancouver. The U.S. will play Sweden in a semifinal game, and you can bet that an eclectic mix will help the ladies get ready to play. "On my iPod, I like to listen to hip-hop," forward Kelli Stack told MTV News. "I have a lot of Lil Wayne, Drake, Jay-Z and Eminem. But in the locker room, it's a little bit of everything, so a little bit of hip-hop, a little bit of country."

What would you play in the locker room to get ready for an Olympic hockey game? Leave your ideas in the comments!

Tags ac/dc, Hockey, kings of leon, olympics, video, Winter Olympics

An inordinate number of stars from the music world are in Australia at the moment (including Taylor Swift and Paramore), and it's hard to blame them. While the United States continues to struggle through a cold winter with freakishly huge amounts of snow falling seemingly every other day, it's currently the middle of summer south of the equator. It's festival season in Australia, which is why plenty of American groups have flown south for the winter.

Of course, the trip down under provides many opportunities for bands to get out and experience another culture or just enjoy nature. Paramore did a bit of both during their trip to the zoo, which they documented in photos at their official Web site. The photos (snapped by band photographer and director of the group's new video "The Only Exception" Brandon Chesbro) show the band members frolicking with various branches of wildlife, including a kangaroo, a koala and a white tiger. On her Twitter, singer Hayley Williams noted that the tiger's name was Mohan.

The rest of Paramore's trip has been full of killer performances, both on their own and as part of the traveling circus that is the Soundwave Festival (which also features Faith No More, Jane's Addiction, AFI and Jimmy Eat World). The fest also gave Williams the opportunity to see Sunny Day Real Estate (which she often cites as her favorite band of all time). Amazingly, it doesn't appear as though big-time UFC fan Williams was able to make it to last Saturday night's (February 20) show live at the Acer Arena in Sydney (where she would have seen Cain Velasquez knock Antonio Rodrigo "Minotauro" Nogueira absolutely silly in two-and-a-half minutes).

Tags Australia, Paramore, photo, Taylor Swift

"Saturday Night Live" has always been a haven for young comics and hot musicians, and there have been the rare occasions where the show takes its focus on youth very literally. On April 10, 15-year-old Candian singing phenomenon Justin Bieber will take the stage at 30 Rock and serve as the musical guest on "SNL." (By the time he sings on the show, he will have turned 16 — his birthday is March 1). Bieber immediately makes history as one of the youngest performers to ever grace the "Saturday Night Live" stage, joining the elite group below.

Ashlee Simpson
The singer had just turned 20 years old when she took the stage on October 23, 2004 on an episode hosted by Jude Law. Her first song "Pieces of Me" ran smoothly, but when she got to her second song, something went wrong. The intro to "Pieces of Me" played again, Simpson's guide track got pumped into the audio and the singer simply decided to do a jig.

Taylor Swift
Swift can't seem to do anything without breaking a record, winning an award or setting an otherwise untouched precedent. So it's not surprising that when she first guested on "Saturday Night Live" in 2009, she was among one of the youngest musical guests in the show's history. The 19-year-old Swift rolled through "Love Story" and "Forever and Always."

Avril Lavigne
In January of 2003, the "Complicated" singer took the stage of "Saturday Night Live" when she was only 18 years old. Read more...

Tags Ashlee Simpson, Avril Lavigne, Hanson, Justin Bieber, saturday-night-live, Silverchair, Taylor Swift, the-jonas-brothers

Really, you should be listening to music every day, but thanks to Twitter, Monday has become the best day of the week to discover new songs, show some love to the tune currently dominating your iPod playlist and quietly judge the listening habits of your closest friends. Yes, it's #MusicMonday, one of Twitter's most enduring trending topics. Hence "MTV News' #MusicMonday," a weekly look at the songs your favorite stars are currently crushing on.

This week, R&B superstar Robin Thicke takes some time out to big up Jay-Z and Alicia Keys' "Empire State of Mind."

Robin Thicke dropped one of the most underrated albums of 2009, but in the opening months of the new decade, Sex Therapy has been catching on. Thicke's latest single "Rollacoasta" is one of the best R&B jams on the radio right now (mostly because it sounds like mid-period Prince). In fact, all of Sex Therapy pounds — especially "Meiplé," Thicke's collaboration with Jay-Z.

Of course, Thicke isn't just a Jigga collaborator — he's also a big fan. "The last album I downloaded was Jay-Z's album, which is amazing," Thicke told MTV News. "['Empire State of Mind'] is an immediate classic for the rest of time — just like Frank Sinatra's 'New York, New York.' It's a new generation getting to feel the streets of New York the way he described it."

Thicke is about to hit the road as the opening act on Alicia Keys' tour, and the singer thinks that secret weapon in "Empire State of Mind" is none other than Keys' chorus. "With Alicia's booming voice, we all feel inspired. We feel like we could conquer and do anything when those two say it."

Tags #MusicMonday, Alicia Keys, Jay-Z, robin-thicke, video

It's a quiet week on the late night front, which is probably good considering the potential fireworks coming next week. Next Monday, Jay Leno returns to host "The Tonight Show," where he will undoubtedly reignite his long-standing ratings war with David Letterman (who is the current ratings champion at 11:35, albeit without any competition at the moment).

In fact, it appears as though everybody is girding themselves for next week's rebirth of late night, as not only are the NBC shows pre-empted by coverage of the Winter Olympics in Vancouver, but Letterman has also taken the week off. Still, that doesn't mean that you won't find fresh takes on the talk show circuit. Craig Ferguson will chat with Quentin Tarantino on Friday (February 26), which should be a wildly entertaining conversation between two hilarious lunatics. Over on "Jimmy Kimmel Live," British upstart VV Brown will perform on Wednesday night (February 24) and "American Idol" judge Kara DioGuardi stops by on Friday.

But for the real good action, you have to turn to cable this week. Chelsea Handler will welcome Danica Patrick to "Chelsea Lately" on Tuesday (February 23), while "The Crazies" star Radha Mitchell will sit on her couch on Wednesday. Meanwhile, Comedy Central may have the best hour in late night this week: Not only is "The Daily Show" back with new episodes (with Ricky Gervais on Monday and Tracy Morgan on Wednesday) but "The Colbert Report" will be doing special Olympic shows from Vancouver. Colbert has already been heavily involved in the Olympics, and he's responsible for the best image of the games so far.

If you're a morning person, Tuesday's edition of "The View" is a can't-miss, as not only will the ladies welcome the aforementioned Gervais but also the cast of MTV's "Jersey Shore." Over on "Live with Regis and Kelly," they'll have Olympic gold medal snowboarder Shaun White on Monday (February 22) and "Cop Out" star Bruce Willis on Thursday (February 25). Finally, Ellen DeGeneres welcomes "American Idol" co-star Randy Jackson on Monday, "American Idol" castoff Shelby Dressel on Tuesday and "Shutter Island" star Leonardo DiCaprio on Friday.

What shows are you most looking forward to this week? Leave your thoughts in the comments!

Tags Jersey Shore, jimmy-kimmel, Jon Stewart, Late Night, Ricky Gervais, Shaun White, Stephen Colbert, Talk Shows, VV Brown

It's a great morning for the United States hockey program, as they walked away from their match-up with Canada with a 5-3 victory on Sunday (February 21). Goalie Ryan Miller played an improbably stellar game, and the U.S. now has a bye into the quarterfinal round of the tournament. They'll have to see how the rest of the seeding shakes out, but for now the U.S. is the top seed in an already topsy-turvy Olympic tournament in Vancouver.

It's appropriate that the United States got the win a mere 24 hours before the anniversary of the biggest upset in the history of Olympic hockey. On this day in 1980, the underdog United States team defeated the Soviet Union by a score of 4-3 in the semifinals of the Olympic tournament in Lake Placid, New York. The game was a freestanding metaphor for the height of the Cold War: The Soviet Union team consisted of more experienced, state-sponsored athletes, while the U.S. was made up of mostly college players and true amateurs. The grit and tenacity of the American squad — along with some deft coaching care of hockey legend Herb Brooks — overcame the streamlined efficiency of the Soviets, and the U.S. outlasted them in one of the most stunning upsets in sports history. Two days later, the United States went on to win the gold medal following a win over Finland.

The victory over the Soviet Union became known as the "Miracle on Ice" (after play-by-play announcer Al Michaels jubilantly shouted "Do you believe in miracles?" following the final buzzer at the end of the game). While Sunday night's win over Canada doesn't quite hold the same cultural caché as the win in 1980, it's still a huge upset and could mean big things for the U.S. squad (which hasn't won a medal since 2002 and hasn't scored gold since 1980). Maybe it's time for another run. Maybe it's "Time for Miracles" (thanks, Adam Lambert).

Tags adam lambert, Canada, Hockey, olympics, Vancouver, video, Winter Olympics

Even though we were only providing news, insight and humor for four days this week (thanks, President's Day!), there was still a remarkable amount of excellent news tumbling out of the Internet and onto the MTV Newsroom Blog. It was a fantastic batch of stories featuring an eclectic batch of stars, from John Mayer and Lady Gaga to Mitt Romney and Olympic skier Hannah Kearney.

If you've like us, you're going to spend your weekend seeing "Shutter Island," wishing the snow would melt and maintaining a nasty case of Olympic Fever. But before you indulge in all of that, be sure to catch up with everything you might have missed.

» After she won a trio of prizes and made jaws drop with her performance at the Brit Awards, Lady Gaga threw her support behind a series of designer condoms. Practice safe sex, Little Monsters!

» John Mayer's Playboy controversy appears to have blown over, but that didn't stop us from analyzing some select lyrics from Mayer's catalog. We still can't believe he has a song called "My Stupid Mouth."

» We celebrated Mardi Gras this week with a playlist featuring Lil Wayne, Better Than Ezra and Miley Cyrus.

» There was no shortage of Winter Olympics coverage this week, including an interview with Hannah Kearney, the first U.S. gold medal winner in Vancouver.

» Also, even if everything at the Olympics had been a total disaster, at least the Winter Olympics mascots are adorable.

» In news that doesn't involve athletes, filmmaker Kevin Smith got into an argument with Southwest Airlines over his weight, which put him in an exclusive club with Snoop Dogg, Peter Buck and Courtney Love.
Read more...

Tags American Idol, John-Mayer, Lady Gaga, Mardi Gras, Winter Olympics

Probably the strangest (and somehow best) news of the day is the fact that former Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney got into an altercation on an airplane with Sky Blu, who counts himself as one half of party-dance duo LMFAO. If nothing else, it allowed for the words "Mitt Romney" and "Sky Blu" to be associated in the same story, and the two will forever be tied together as one of the great politician versus musician feuds.

Interestingly, both Romney and LMFAO were flying back to the United States from Vancouver, where they were both at the Winter Olympics. (If you want to know about the incredibly raucous show they put on in Vancouver, check out the LMFAO report from MTV News' Adam Stewart.) The party atmosphere in Vancouver must have made the duo — consisting of Sky Blu and cousin Redfoo — feel right at home. After all, the do provide the theme song for MTV's hit show "Jersey Shore."

In fact, providing the theme song for "Jersey Shore" has thus far been the band's biggest break (as have the multiple appearances of their catchy-like-the-measles song "Shots" on the show). So when Snooki hit the red carpet at the Grammy Awards on behalf of MTV News, she caught up with the two dudes who gave her show so much excellent tuneage.

"I got to say, you're a party animal," Sky Blue told Snooki on the red carpet. "There's a lot of party animals on the show, but you know how to do it!"

When Snooki brought up the liberal use of "Shots" on the show, she asked the group how many shots they take a night. After Sky did a bit of math, Snooki concluded, "So you're pretty much wasted all the time. Just like me!"

Tags Jersey Shore, LMFAO, Mitt Romney, Snooki, video

"I think that Simon Cowell leaving 'American Idol' is amazing, because those are two potential jobs that I may have in the future. If they're looking for a new judge on 'American Idol,' I am available. I haven't asked Simon Fuller, who created the show, but maybe I should. I'd be a great judge! But I'd also happily be a judge along with Simon Cowell on his U.S. version of 'X Factor.' Basically, I'm shamelessly looking for work. I'm available. And I'm cheap!"

-Celebrity blogger and music mogul Perez Hilton, speaking to MTV News about the possibility of sliding behind the judges' table on "American Idol" once Simon Cowell bolts the show in favor of the American version of "X Factor." (Although clearly Hilton is not above working with Cowell on that show, either.)

During a conversation with reporters on Thursday (February 18), Cowell was asked about Hilton's potential as a judge on the show. The normally cantankerous Brit was quite complimentary of Hilton's potential. "Perez would be funny," he said. "He's got good taste in music, he's got a personality, that could work." (Cowell also had compliments for Hilton pal Lady Gaga, who he called "the most relevant pop artist in the world right now.")

The ninth season of "American Idol" has finally hit its stride, with the Top 24 selected and new judge Ellen DeGeneres settled into her role. Even though the real competition is underway, there is still no indication as to who will take over Cowell's chair when he leaves at the end of this season.

Who would you like to see as the new "American Idol" judge? Would Perez Hilton make for a good adjudicator? Leave your thoughts in the comments!

Tags American Idol, Perez-Hilton, Quote, simon-cowell

In our continuing efforts to take you — the loyal music lover — deeper into the minds of today's artists, MTV News presents "Frame By Frame." Each week, we'll get a musician to give you the inside scoop on their latest music video.

By Matt Harper

30 Seconds to Mars is no stranger to Epic (yes, that's a capital "e") music videos. The band has already made ground-breaking videos in China and the Arctic, and while "Kings and Queens," their latest effort, was filmed in Los Angeles (with some scenes literally shot in frontman Jared Leto's back yard), the video is no less grand in scope.

Leto is passionate when talking about the video (no surprise there, considering he not only wrote the song but also directed the clip). "That shot was one of the earliest shots I storyboarded," he said, referring to an immaculately framed silhouette shot of dozens of bikers moving in slow motion, backed by a sunset. And while he admits that a lot of the shots were painstakingly set-up and difficult to get, a few of the iconic moments from the video were achieved through happy accidents. "We were supposed to shoot downtown, but shot the other way instead because the smog was so bad," he said of one sequence. So you can thank the notorious Los Angeles air pollution for those shimmering silhouette shots of the band.

Fun fact: "Kings and Queens" is filled with allusions to other art forms. Some of the bikers are dressed as the Baseball Furies gang from the cult movie "The Warriors," and at one point a frame of the video meticulously recreates underground artist Banksy's "Flower Chucker" graffiti. Leto even directed the video under the alias "Bartholomew Cubbins," a recurring character in the Dr. Seuss universe.

The video is split between two parts: 30STM performing on a cliff edge in Griffith Park, overlooking Los Angeles, and a gang of cyclists riding through an abandoned city. Leto couldn't speak highly enough about how great the bike-riding extras were during production of the video. After pointing out a few of the particularly committed members of the cast, Jared related that he "really couldn't get enough of them. That was my favorite part about editing, was trying to get these individuals in there."

"Kings and Queens" is an impressive video feat, and there was so much to say from this edition of "Frame By Frame" that we had to break it into two parts. Enjoy the first part below, and stay tuned for the second next week.

Tags 30 Seconds to Mars, Frame By Frame, Kings and Queens, video