Lady Gaga's fall tour (which is decidedly free of Kanye West) has been officially announced, and it's called "The Monster Ball." She'll begin the 22-date trek in Montreal on November 27 and stay on the road until she closes up shop with two shows at Radio City Music Hall (a stage she knows pretty well) on January 20 and 21, 2010. Her show, which she describes as a "pop-electro opera," will highlight songs from her debut album The Fame and its expanded edition The Fame Monster, which contains eight new songs (including the just-released single "Bad Romance").
Gaga also raised the curtain on the official poster for the tour via her Twitter feed. Like anything related to the 23-year-old postmodern diva, it's decidedly fashion-forward, theatrical and totally bizarre. Dressed in a black bikini bottom and a silver top that looks like a warrior's chest plate, Gaga is surrounded by an apparatus that looks a lot like a gyroscope (and, on further inspection, is actually connected to the top). She's surrounded by drunk, shirtless revelers, but she appears remote and squeaky clean as though she just arrived from another planet where all the women have immaculate, wind-swept hair. It's a pretty striking image, and certainly another definitive piece of Gaga-related art. Follow the jump for the full-size image of the poster.
Read more...
Last night, Pink brought her fantastically theatrical Funhouse tour to Madison Square Garden for a bright, booming and (as promised on her Twitter) loud show. Pink, who seemed fully recovered from the shoulder injury that she complained about on the early dates on the tour, sang her way through a plethora of hits, performed stunts along the lines of her MTV Video Music Awards performance and, of course, flew through her set of costume changes — including MTV News' personal favorite, which involves a pink heart, a yellow marching band jacket, a purple leotard and a captain's hat.
Pink's set included her cover of Queen's "Bohemian Rhapsody" and also an especially intense rendition of "Don't Let Me Get Me." She now has some down time (where she can enjoy the fall weather in New York) before the tour resumes at the end of next week in Dublin, Ireland. From there, she'll play shows all over the U.K. before heading out to the rest of Europe (including stops in Sweden, Germany, Switzerland and Denmark). The tour is in support of her still-going-strong album Funhouse, which was released nearly a year ago and is still kicking around the upper echelon of the Billboard album chart (she's moved 1.3 million copies of the record). At the end of October, Funhouse will get a re-release, which will feature two bonus tracks ("This Is How It Goes Down" and "Push You Away") plus a DVD featuring videos and commentary from Pink.
Click here for more photos from Pink's Funhouse tour stop at Madison Square Garden in New York City!
Miley Cyrus' new Time of Our Lives EP is in the Billboard Top 10 again this week, and her big tour supporting the Wal-Mart exclusive release (which features her latest gigantic single "Party in the U.S.A.") is under way and rolling across the country. Last night, her bus stopped at the Staples Center in Los Angeles for a run through her already-huge catalog of hits.
Cyrus' big shows consisted of over two dozen songs (including hits "The Climb," "7 Things," "Breakout" and "See You Again") along with a handful of excellent set pieces, including a giant floating motorcycle.
Click here for more photos from Miley Cyrus' Wonder World tour!
Elsewhere in the show, she changed into an elaborate dress and later shifted to a more traditional Daisy Duke look. The highlight? During "Fly on the Wall," Cyrus flew over the crowd like the titular fly. She also dropped in a brief tribute to Michael Jackson's "Thriller," complete with zombie dancing and the Vincent Price laugh that closes the song.
After stepping briefly off the grid for a while, Cyrus has been back in the public eye constantly. Her new EP dropped, she delivered some memorable performances on "VH1 Divas" and her new video for "Party in the U.S.A." will premiere on tonight's episode of "Dancing with the Stars."
By Rahman Dukes
The MTV News crew made our way to the Toyota Center to catch up with the million-dollar wunderkind Drake to chop it up on his first major tour alongside his Young Money captain Lil Wayne, Young Jeezy and Soulja Boy.
After sitting through Weezy's performance, rap's most-wanted man Drake finally arrived at the venue. Dressed in a dark colored hoodie and shades, Drake stood at the center of the empty venue staring at his boy Wayne tearing it down. One thing I noticed: Drizzy was walking freely without a cane — pretty good for a cat with a torn ACL. The way he was moving about, you'd never know he was injured.
You'll get much more on the entire rehearsals from my man S Dot when he files the full report later this evening. Drake pretty much consolidated his set into Wayne's, but I can tell you fans will not be disappointed. Drake and Nicki Minaj were in full form, performing a string of their individual hits.
Following his performance of "Best I Ever Had," we spoke with Drake for a few. He told us that despite his injury he was very excited to witness the tour. Shortly after our interview Drake went back to the stage for the Young Money performance "Every Girl."
The launch of "Americas Most Wanted" tour goes down on Monday, and your boys at MTV will provide you will complete access. Fasten your seat belts: This is sure to be one for the record books.
Britney Spears has taken her Circus across the pond and kicked off the European leg of her tour Wednesday night at London's O2 Arena. But instead of just bringing over the same tour she had Stateside, the singer has some new song remixes of old favorites and some new looks as well.
According to her Web site some of the remixed tracks include "Baby One More Time," "Do Something," "Piece of Me," "I'm a Slave 4 U" and "Womanizer." After the show, Britney Tweeted excitedly, "Just wrapped my first show in London. I love all the remixed tracks and new costumes!"
Although we're sure Spears' loyal fans loved the show, the same can't be said of some of her critics. The reviews are in, and some professional concertgoers described it as dull. The Sun said of Brit's performance, "Madonna is twice her age and does double the dancing." Read more...
By Ashley Mastronardi
Britney's Circus tour wouldn't have been complete without her barely there bodysuits, glitter, hats, feathers and pasties. The Britster's costumes ran the gamut of sexy: she was a corseted cop, a domineering drill sergeant, a ringmaster in red and even a fire-wielding welder in a sleek black one-piece.
But most fans seemed to rate Brit's costumes in terms of how they complemented her body, which has been under a microscope since Britney hit the public eye. "She rocked the house with her body!" Dawn Carson said of Spears' fashion.
These were the overwhelming favorites at Brit's Pittsburgh concert Saturday:
5. Welder Britney
Britney hit the stage as a sexy welder in a slimming black one-piece, sunglasses and ankle boots for "Do Something" and "Slave 4 U." "She's keeping up with the latest fashion trends in this look," one fan said. "It made her look really cool."
(More outfit descriptions and photo gallery, after the jump!)
Read more...
The only thing missing behind the scenes at Britney Spears' Circus tour is a clown car. And who knows, maybe they've got one of those hidden around here somewhere ...
Minutes after Britney and her entourage arrived (at precisely 6:32 p.m. local time, btw) in a fleet of black SUVs, I was escorted through a labyrinth of corridors beneath the New Orleans Arena, past stagehands pushing platforms, dancers limbering up, crates of wardrobe, stressed-out makeup techs and stern-looking security guards to the nerve center of the entire operation: Britney's dressing room.
Of course, no photos were allowed, and I wasn't even here to talk to Britney ... I was there with the night's opening act, the Pussycat Dolls.
The Dolls were a bit tired -- after all, they had just flown in from Eastern Europe last night, and they were still working the kinks out of the evening's routine -- but I managed to ask them about the challenges of performing on an “in the round” stage, which gives the audience a 360-degree view of the action.
"The problem is, someone in the audience always has a view of your heiney," lead Doll Nicole Scherzinger explained.
Good to know. And while we'll have more on our chat with PCD tomorrow, I have to jet ... we're being led up to the press box right now. Looks like the Circus is about to begin!
By Whitney-Gayle Benta
Like my colleagues Rahman, Shaheem, Erica and Yasmine, I have many fond memories of Kanye West's early days as he transitioned from producer to musician. The story that sticks out the most was during his first tour.
In 2004, the same year Kanye released his debut album, The College Dropout, he was also asked to join Usher's the Truth Tour as the opening act.
Read more...
Sorry, Janet fans. If you were expecting to catch one of Janet Jackson's seven postponed tour stops, you'll be waiting a long time.
Jackson's tour organizer Live Nation has said she will not be making up the shows in Montreal; Boston; Philadelphia; Greensboro, North Carolina; Fort Lauderdale, Florida; Uncasville, Connecticut; and Verona, New York she was forced to cancel last month, because of sudden onset migraine-associated vertigo. She did manage to perform makeup dates in New York City and Atlanta.
There's no word yet on when or how fans will be able to seek a ticket refund for the nixed shows.
Read more on Janet Jackson's tour troubles here.
Bruce has done it. Jay-Z and John Legend have done it. Now, it's the Beastie Boys' turn to hit the road for some election-year shows in battleground states. The veteran hip-hop trio have announced Get Out & Vote '08, a tour which will drop into Virginia (October 28), Minnesota (November 1) and Milwaukee (November 2) with a gang of bold-faced support acts in tow.
The Richmond, Virginia, date at the Richmond Coliseum will find the Boys joined by Sheryl Crow, Jack Johnson, Norah Jones and Santogold; while Ben Harper and Tenacious D will share the stage in St. Paul, Minnesota at the Roy Wilkins Auditorium. The D and Harper will also be along in Milwaukee at the US Cellular Arena, in addition to a pair of folk icons, David Crosby and Graham Nash. According to a press release announcing the trek, more shows will be added soon.
Representatives of Rock the Vote will be distributing information at the gigs on local polling sites and early voting locations.
