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By Zachary Swickey

We already knew that U2 was going to set a new record for highest grossing tour of all time, and of course they have now officially done so – pulling in $293 million more bones this year alone (which means they could pretty much recreate Scrooge McDuck’s swimming pool of money in the real world) from 44 shows as Billboard reports in their list of the top-grossing tours of 2011.

While vets like U2, Bon Jovi, Roger Waters and Take That (Take Who?) take the four top spots, the younger generation of artists aren’t far behind in the money race with birthday girl Taylor Swift rounding out the top five (blowing away several big name acts like the Eagles and Journey who have apparently not stopped believin’). The country charmer grossed a staggering $97 million on her 89-date tour behind Speak Now … 87 of which were impressively sold-out!

Plenty of other MTV favorites managed to make the list. Read on to find out who! Read more...

Tags britney spears, Katy Perry, Lady Gaga, Taylor Swift, tour

Singer, songwriter, director, prime-time Thanksgiving show host, Polaroid designer, friend of Obama. Lady Gaga has so many hyphens in her name at this point that her business card is starting to look like a word cloud.

But that hasn't stopped her from signing up to become an ordained minister in order to perform a wedding ceremony for her close pal and yoga teacher, Tricia Donegan. In light of the legalization of gay marriage in New York state in June, Gaga has filled out the paperwork to do the deed.

According to numerous sources, she reportedly told Perez Hilton, "I'm actually getting ready now to be ordained to marry one of my best friends, Tricia, who is also my yoga instructor."

It would be the first step to what Gaga earlier suggested could be a second (or third or fiftieth, considering her other recent new gig as a nude model for Tony Bennett) side gig as a traveling wedding officiant, following earlier comments that she would like to start performing gay weddings at her concerts in the future. Read more...

Tags Lady Gaga

By Zachary Swickey

Typically, people don’t begin anticipating Christmas until Thanksgiving has come and gone, so we really only get one month a year to listen to the holiday tunes that have us waxing nostalgic (unless you’re one of those weirdos who listen to it year-round). Admittedly, the holiday music my family favors belongs to the coolest man to ever live, Frank Sinatra, and brother-sister duo The Carpenters, who aren’t usually my thing, but have been ingrained on my musical palette since birth around Christmas-time.

We wanted to know what tunes some of our favorite Bands We Like artists spin around the holidays, and when MTV News queried Jordan Buckley, bassist of Every Time I Die, he was happy to share.

"Nothing triggers Christmas memories like the 'National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation' soundtrack. That movie got played in my house at least once a day between Thanksgiving and Christmas," he said. "Maybe even a couple of times in the spring. One time. I even caught my dad watching it in French. So whenever I hear that 'Hip Hip Hooray for Christmas Vacation' song, I know the movie is starting. Whenever 'Mele Kalikimaka' is on, I know Clark is dreaming about that chick’s can [Ed. note: I can relate], and 'Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer' on the tuba means the sh**ter is full! Damn, I’m going to put that soundtrack on right now!"

Some folks, on the other hand, aren’t too crazy about Christmas-themed music. For example, I doubt that anyone who works at a mall cares much for. When we reached out to Mariachi El Bronx and asked drummer Jorma Vik for his favorite Christmas tunes, he was the first to admit he’s not nuts about holiday music, but he did have one classic he highly recommends. Read more...

Tags Bands We Like, Holiday

Today, adorable cardigan sweater enthusiast Taylor Swift turns 22! Happy birthday, Taylor. We'd buy you a drink if, you know, you were into that sort of thing.

Here on the MTV Newsroom blog, we're kind of obsessed with Taylor Swift. Not in a weird way or anything! It's more of a "we think it's kind of funny that this extraordinarily successful and talented 22-year-old beauty queen can be counted on to do the sorts of things your 45-year-old aunt Sally does" situation. We've even devoted a semi-recurring feature to it called "This Week In Taylor Swift Being Taylor Swift."

>>> This Week In Taylor Swift Being Taylor Swift: OMG CHRISTMAS!
>>> This Week In Taylor Swift Being Taylor Swift: She Named Her Cat After A 'Grey's Anatomy' Character
>>> This Week In Taylor Swift Being Taylor Swift: She Tweets Her Thanks To Famous Friends After CMA Win, Finds A Christmas Tree

We're not even being tools about it either! We think it's great that Taylor is so authentically herself in spite of whatever pressure might be coming at her from the music industry, which tries to sex up even the sweetest starlets. Taylor Swift is America's Sweetheart and wears the title proudly and responsibility and that is something to really admire.

And you know she's gotta be one of the coolest cats in the game if she was able to round up the eclectic cast of characters who joined her on stage during her massive, sold-out world tour behind Speak Now, which is the second biggest album of 2011 and was recently nominated for multiple Grammy Awards. Not just anyone can get, ahem, Nicki Minaj, T.I., Justin Timberlake, Jason Mraz, Hayley Williams, Hot Chelle Rae, Nelly, Tim McGraw and Kenny Chesney on stage for a fairly impromptu duet. But Taylor Swift isn't just anybody. Happy birthday, girl!

After the jump, check out T.I. getting real with MTV News about the differences between being backstage at a Taylor Swift concert and a hip-hop show. (Hint: Both are exactly as you'd expect them to be!) Read more...

Tags Happy Birthday!, Taylor Swift

This week in the MTV Newsroom, we're celebrating some of our favorite stars of 2011 by asking you, their loyal fans, which of their videos from the last year is your favorite. Yesterday, we opened things up with Katy Perry and today, in honor of her 22nd birthday, we're taking a look back at Taylor Swift's big year.

We love Taylor Swift in the MTV Newsroom. Sure, we sometimes have a little fun at her expense with our "This Week In Taylor Swift" posts, but it's because she's so dang adorable when she takes to her Twitter to post pictures of her kitten Meredith or homemade Christmas snow globes that there's nothing else to say other than "That's so Taylor!" Her genuine niceness and innate wholesomeness stands in sharp contrast with the behavior of most of her celebrity peers and it's something we're thankful for. There are, after all, only so many Kardashian divorce posts a blogger can write before he loses his mind. So, Taylor, thank you for being so authentically you all the time. You're a breath of fresh air!

The country-pop superstar ruled the charts in 2011. Speak Now, which was actually released in late-October of last year, kept on chugging along on the strength of several hit singles (and videos) and ended 2011 as the second biggest album of the year. Swift released five video off her well-reviewed album, which we think was shafted out of nominations in some of the bigger categories for next year's Grammys, in 2011.

Which one is the fan-favorite? Check them out ("Back to December" is above, the rest are below) and vote in our poll after the jump! Read more...

Tags Newsroom Poll, Taylor Swift, video

By Christina Garibaldi

The boys of Big Time Rush have been going non-stop since they released their second album, Elevate. They are gearing up for "Better With You," their first US headlining tour, in February and their new movie "Big Time Movie" hits theatres next year.

Now, we know that these boys have a very loyal fan base, which is why when they stopped by MTV News recently, we had to ask them YOUR questions.

We asked you to submit Twitter questions and out of the hundreds we got, we narrowed them down to three! So check out the video below to find out how they picked out the name for their second album, which song off the album means the most to them and if they got the opportunity, who is the one person they would switch places with for a day.

Read more...

Tags big time rush, Twitter, video

By Carly Kilroy

Don’t know what to get your favorite Little Monster this holiday season? Well, you may want to check out the items Lady Gaga, Tony Bennett and Vanity Fair contributing photographer Annie Leibovitz are auctioning off on Lady Is a Tramp" for Bennett’s newest album, Gaga posed nude for both Bennet and Leibovitz during a Vanity Fair photo shoot. Leibovitz shot photos for the January 2012 cover while Bennett drew a charcoal portrait of the "Marry the Night" singer, which will be one of the many items on the auction block. All proceeds will be donated to Bennet's non-profit organization Exploring the Arts (ETA), as well as the Born This Way Foundation, a non-profit Gaga co-created with MacArthur Foundation and Harvard University to empower youth through self‐confidence, well‐being, anti‐bullying measures, mentoring and career development.

The auction started this morning at 8AM EST and continues through Monday, December 19. Check out the items being auctioned off after the jump and visit ebay Celebrity to bid on the items. Read more...

Tags Charity, Lady Gaga, tony bennett

It's that time of year.

Whether you 're the boss of a quiet little company in Omaha, Nebraska, or you're a busy city dweller with a tight urban family and too much work piled up to travel over the river and through the woods, the holidays mean one thing: PARTY! (Actually, they mean a lot of things, like love and family and giving, but just go with it.)

That means it's time to boogie! From an official company affair to just having a bunch of friends over to swill one-too-many bottles of Three Buck Chuck, if you're hosting a shindig, you have to have a playlist that is going to get everybody up and moving.

Here are some required (not recommended, mind you) singles from the year that was that demand to be spinned at your holiday fiesta.

>>>"Till The World Ends," Britney Spears
It's Brit's biggest single in years and it's maybe one of her best. "You want a party song, call a partier," Rolling Stone said in its three-and-a-half star review. "Written by Ke$ha (with Max Martin and Dr. Luke), the second single from Femme Fatale is ginormously pumping uber-Euro uber-disco: sky-sucking synth streaks, a beat that sounds like blimps f**king and a thousand shirtless drunken sailors chanting along on the chorus." In dance music language, that's pretty much the highest possible compliment. Plus, we're about a year out from the Mayan apocalypse, so ... you know ... dance till the world ends, y'all!

>>> "We Found Love," Rihanna
It's been the No. 1 single in the country for the last SIX consecutive weeks (and counting) and pretty much everyone loves it to pieces. If you don't play "We Found Love," your friends or employees will know just how out of step with pop culture you really are.

Read on for more! Read more...

Tags best of 2011, Holiday, Party, Year End 2011

By Zachary Swickey

With Christmas officially less than two weeks away, it’s about time that procrastinators like myself get off the couch and do some final shopping for the holiday season. If you don’t feel like getting 26-pound gummy bears for your whole family, then why not consider the gift of music? Don’t go the lazy iTunes gift card route either. Instead, put some thought into this to show how much you care and try to gift someone with tunes they’ve probably never heard but you think they will fall for. They'll never forget the guy or gal who introduced them to their favorite new band, and they’ll appreciate the fact that you seem to know them pretty well.

Here in the MTV Newsroom, we always want to do our part, so here are some albums that would make ideal stocking stuffers from some of our favorite Bands We Like artists we showcased this year. Read more...

Tags Bands We Like, best of 2011, Holidays

It's been a big year for Katy Perry. She broke long-held music industry records, scored a bunch of Grammy nominations (and is up for even more in 2012), won a boat load of awards and, very importantly, made some great music videos.

(This weekend, she also hosted "Saturday Night Live" and was pretty damn funny!)

While the video that won her the VMA for Video of the Year, "Firework," was actually released in 2010, she kept the quality level high with the three clips she released in 2011. But which one was her fans' favorite? Check 'em out below and vote in our poll after the jump!

"E.T."

Read on for "Last Friday Night (TGIF)" and "The One That Got Away" and to vote for Katy's best video of 2011. Read more...

Tags Katy Perry, Newsroom Poll, video