"I met [Lil Wayne] a few months ago, and he's honestly — I don't even know if he'll want people to know that he's incredibly polite and respectful. He's so talented and very funny. And really optimistic, and super supportive of me, which I've really, really appreciated so much. I sent him a couple of my songs. He's been diggin' on them for a while. Then he heard ['Make It Rain'], and he was like, 'All right, I'm gonna kill it!'"
-"Gossip Girl" star Leighton Meester, announcing that she recently collaborated with Young Money CEO Lil Wayne on a song called "Make It Rain." Before her performance at last night's event for the opening of the new American Eagle store in Times Square, Meester told MTV News that the legends about Wayne's unconventional work ethic have not been exaggerated. "It was like, literally, 4 o'clock in the morning," Meester said of one of their sessons. "He was so sick — he didn't even write anything down. He just, like, vibes to the music and dances. I don't even know how he does it; he's amazing." Meester's musical career has already gotten off to a strong start, as she has had notable, head-turning collaborations with Cobra Starship, Robin Thicke and now Weezy. Her full-length debut doesn't have a release date yet but is expected to hit the streets some time in January of 2010. In the meantime, she'll keep things feisty as Blair Waldorf on "Gossip Girl."
Leighton Meester plays fashionista Blair Waldorf on "Gossip Girl" every week, so her image in the new video for her single, "Somebody to Love," isn't much of a stretch: Meester casts herself as love-starved, clothes-conscious, jet-setting starlet pining for gong guest Robin Thicke.
In the a sneak peek for the video, Meester sits in the back of a town car with a black newsboy cap and spangled cut-out romper, writhing around while singing about looking for love. In other scenes, a more sultry Meester sings in a club and wraps herself in the curtains of her boudoir. Let's not forget the video also has the prerequisite rolling-around-in-the-bed scenes. What is a video about love without shots of a singing starlet writhing amidst her soft sheets?
Meester recently explained to MTV News the video isn't about the glamour shots of her and Thicke. Rather, what it's really about is the clothes. "It's basically going through my day, a sexy day in my life. We start off in the car we come in I keep on fantasizing and dreaming that I'm with somebody I can love," she explained. "He kind of comes and goes he disappears. It's mostly about the clothes and the looks so that's exciting for me. I've had a lot of fun with that."
By Rya Backer
Growing up watching MTV, I was always a big fan of the show "Making The Video." (Favorite episodes: Blink-182's "All The Small Things" and Lindsay Lohan's "Confessions of a Broken Heart (Daughter to Father)" — so tragic!) Now that I work at MTV and I get to visit the sets of music videos, it's always a real exciting coup.
On Sunday, fellow MTV Newsfolk Lisa Millstein, Saimon Kos and I headed to the SubMercer to check in on Leighton Meester and Robin Thicke's video for Meester's debut single "Somebody to Love." It may not be a Queen cover, but it's some great pop music. (If it played at my little cousin's Bat Mitzvah, I'd be on the dance floor in a big way.) The premise of the video involved Leighton trying to find — you guessed it — somebody to love. Thicke shows up at a hotel, in a crowded club and on the street looking to love her. I'll keep it vague, as it'll be out soon.
More importantly: Costumes. Thicke was wearing a really well-tailored black suit made out of an unconventional-looking material (it looked like hammered silk). When I further pressed him on what his suit was made of, he explained that it was the skin of an exotic land and sea animal (he was kidding). But Leighton was totally wearing animal: a short, black leather dress with buttons going up the back and a pair of 99-inch silver Galliano heels that wrapped around her leg. I feel like she cheated death with every step she took.
Elaborate music videos take a long time to shoot, and there is a lot of "hurry up and wait." That's a lot of what we did while waiting to grab some footage. However, there's something to be said about what happens when they do start to roll camera, as you're watching television magic happen!
It's worth noting that one of the coolest women who every smart girl needs to look up to, Zoe Cassavetes, directed the video. She's Sofia Coppola's BFF, and together they starred in "Ciao, LA" (also featuring three guys "from the hit series 'Sabotage'"). So, Zoe, if you're reading this, I'm a really big fan. And when I apologized because I accidentally knocked my bag into your side, I totally froze up and couldn't tell you why.
"Gossip Girl" star Leighton Meester has become the latest actress to unleash a song on the masses in an attempt at a crossover. The track, "Somebody to Love," features a guest spot from Robin Thicke and is the first single from Meester's forthcoming debut full-length album. It's bright, shiny dance beat (produced by Mike Caren and Oligee and written by Usher collaborator Rico Love) borrows heavily from classic Madonna tracks and provides a good base for Meester's shape-shifting voice. The track is also miles away from the type of music that "Gossip Girl" castmate Taylor Momsen has been producing with her band Pretty Reckless.
We know what we think, but what do the people thing? We decided to hit the street outside of MTV News headquarters, play the tune for some folks and get their initial reaction to it. It's a chilly day in Times Square today, but did Meester's "Somebody to Love" help provide some warmth?
The delightfully unscientific results are in, and the majority have sided with Meester and "Somebody to Love." 72 percent of the people we talked to in Times Square said that they were on board with it, citing the propulsive beat and the subtly catchy melody. Even the 28 percent who didn't like the track wanted to let Meester down easily. "I like the song, but she's better as an actress," said one respondent.
What do you think? Does "Somebody to Love" deserve heavy rotation or the old heave-ho? Leave your thoughts in the comments or head over to Your.MTV.com to make your voice heard!
The red carpet at the 2009 MTV Video Music Awards welcomed a number of high-profile arrivals to Radio City Music Hall, including Pink's entrance on a fire truck, Cobra Starship's double-decker bus and Taylor Swift's "Cinderella"-esque horse and carriage. One of the great arrivals you didn't get to see on Sunday night was Leighton Meester's approach in a Jaguar convertible. MTV News' Kim Stolz picked up Meester at New York City's London Hotel and cruised through the evening with the top down for a stylish VMA entrance befitting of everybody's favorite "Gossip Girl" star.
Meester's arrival was only the start of her eventful evening. On her way down the red carpet, she stopped to chat with "Twilight" star and fashion correspondent Ashley Greene, who said "You look incredible. I thought you were going to be on the best-dressed list, and I'm sure that you are." Meester was wearing a gorgeous sequin dress by Christian Cota and forward-thinking heels on her feet. Later in the show, she helped Jack Black pray to Satan (as well as present the award for Best Rock Video, which was won by Green Day). Meester looked a little thrown by Black's fake muscles and deep metal voice, but she rolled with the punches and looked good doing it. Check out more photos of Leighton Meester and the rest of Kim Stolz's photo diary here!
We're only a handful of hours away from the start of the 2009 MTV Video Music Awards, and we're even closer to the start of the VMA preshow, which will beam to you live from the Radio City Music Hall red carpet starting at 8 p.m. ET. (You can also follow the live blog right here at the Newsroom blog.) At last year's Video Music Awards (which were live from Hollywood), a handful of superstar acts made grand entrances (Tokio Hotel in a monster truck, T-Pain on an elephant), and there have been rumblings all week that another group of big stars would be kicking it up a notch again this year and showing up to the red carpet in grand fashion.
But how will everybody enter? The folks over at Buzzworthy got the inside scoop on a few of the big arrivals, and needless to say, it's an impressive and mind-blowing list. We still don't know exactly which stars will arrive in which ways, but we do know that Taylor Swift, Pink, Leighton Meester and the All-American Rejects will all make big arrivals via fire truck, Jaguar convertible, parade float and horse and carriage. But which artist will match up with which arrival? The idea of Taylor Swift on a parade float (after all, she does seem like America's favorite beauty queen) or the All-American Rejects on a fire truck (because they're hot!) is pretty enticing. But no matter what, it's going to make for a series of interesting and memorable moments to start the evening off right.
The MTV Video Music Awards are just a few short days away, and though there is all sorts of buzz surrounding the performances, the parties and the New York-centric stunts that will be happening all this week into Sunday's broadcast, it's important to remember that the reason the biggest stars in music will gather in Radio City Music Hall is to see who wins the coveted Moonman in each of the 15 categories. We'll be taking a look at each of the top categories, continuing today with the Best Pop Video award. The nominees are Beyoncé's "Single Ladies (Put A Ring On It)," Britney Spears' "Womanizer," Cobra Starship's "Good Girls Go Bad," Lady Gaga's "Poker Face" and Wisin y Yandel's "Abusadora."
Perhaps more than any category at this year's VMAs, the Best Pop Video race seems like it's the most wide open. Each video makes a strong case for the Moonman, as the five clips nominated all have a tremendous amount of buzz surrounding them.
Of course, Best Pop Video is one of several battlefields upon which Beyoncé and Lady Gaga will go head-to-head at this year's top nomination-getters (each scored nine). Gaga is competing for her first set of VMAs, while Beyoncé already has a number of awards under her belt. Britney Spears is the only nominee to ever win in this category before (last year, she took home the prize for Best Pop Video for "Piece of Me").
You would think that Cobra Starship would have an uphill battle ahead of them in the pop category, but there is a precedent for rock bands winning this Moonman, as No Doubt have taken home the prize twice (for "Hey Baby" in 2002 and "It's My Life" in 2004). And then there's Wisin y Yandel, who are making their first VMA appearance but are no strangers to winning awards, as they've taken home a number of Latin Grammys in their distinguished career. Could they be the big underdog that ends up on top this year, the way that Panic! at the Disco did in 2006? There's only one way to find out, and that's to tune in to the MTV Video Music Awards Sunday night.
Every day a multitude of stars wanders through the halls of MTV News to talk about their latest projects and goof around with staff members. But sometimes we catch stars elsewhere, and that's why we put together Spotted!, a daily compendium of stars in the wild.
"Spotted!" favorite Hilary Duff was out yesterday looking pretty glam. But it isn't necessarily a shift in her personal style — rather, she was headed to the set of "Gossip Girl," where she will spend the coming television season playing a movie star who goes to NYU looking to test drive a more normal life. With "Gossip Girl" co-stars Taylor Momsen and Leighton Meester both getting involved in music careers (Momsen has a band called Pretty Reckless, Meester has an album coming out and can currently be heard on Cobra Starship's Top 10 hit "Good Girls Go Bad"), perhaps we can look forward to some sort of three-way collaboration between the three ladies. Think they jam in the trailers?
Duff wasn't the only foxy lady hitting the streets yesterday. Jessica Alba took her daughter shopping at the Prada store in Beverly Hills, while Lo Bosworth also indulged in some retail therapy in Hollywood. Click here for these photos as well as the full "Spotted!" archive, which includes shots of Beyoncé, Madonna, Justin Timberlake, Britney Spears, Lady Gaga, Pete Wentz and the cast of "New Moon"!
Leighton Meester has already made a name for herself as a TV star as Blair Waldorf on "Gossip Girl," and her upcoming film "The Roommate" could very well represent her big crossover into movies. But Meester also has a music career she's trying to develop: She signed a record deal with Universal back in April and is currently working on an album. Meanwhile, she does a guest spot on Cobra Starship's new single "Good Girls Go Bad." The video for that track doesn't debut until next week, but MTV News' Jim Cantiello gave a sneak peak to a handful of fans waiting to get into today's episode of "It's On With Alexa Chung," and here's what they had to say.
Meester is surrounding herself with the right kind of talent (including hit songwriter and "American Idol" judge Kara DioGuardi) and doesn't seem to take herself too seriously. As long as she doesn't attempt to put out a "meaningful" concept album or become obsessed with prog rock, she should do just fine. What do you think? Do you approve of Meester's multi-tasking or should she stick to TV?
I have to admit there's something catchy about "Gossip Girl" star Leighton Meester's leaked single, "Birthday." It has great bassline, a strong beat and isn't some cheesy, overly electro-sounding song.
The song, which was leaked on Perez Hilton's Web site, is about a girl who likes a boy and warns him not to hurt her (which makes me wonder why it's called "Birthday," but I digress). It's a really tried-and-true pop-song theme, but “Gossip Girl” star Leighton, who claims to have "always done [music]," also seems to be embracing what she calls an electronic-rock hybrid sound for the track.
She says her musical inspirations for the album are M.I.A. and Gwen Stefani. To me, it sounds closer to Stefani, and I'm not sure we want to hear Leighton rap. But it's definitely a formula that works for her and her sweet voice. She recently spoke to eTV about the album, saying that she's currently hard at work on the album and that "I'm figuring out everything, so I can't tell you too much."
She added, "I've been working on it my whole life, obviously. There's a first time for everyone [to release music], and I really love it." Well, we have to say that if the rest of the album sounds like this, she's one actress we might not mind listening to — we just wonder what Blair Waldorf would have to say about it.
