Jennifer Lawrence has an unexpected Top 20 hit on her hands with her haunting rendition of The Hanging Tree from the The Hunger Games: Mockingjay, Part 1. She has already won an oscar, she is one of the most powerful celebrities in the world and now she can add just one more string to her bow. Is there anything she can’t do?
The Hanging Tree, which appears on the movies official soundtrack, was arranged by John Newton and is currently sitting at Nº17 on the UK charts and at Nº8 on the UK’s midweek iTunes chart, despite the fact that it hasn’t even been released as a single yet! As we write this (November 29) it continues to climb the charts.
In this track her singing voice sounds like her speaking voice – its not a soaring vocal performance, but that’s exactly the point. “It shouldn’t sound like a professional,” said director Francis Lawrence. “It should sound like a real girl singing. So she did it. She did it all day. And she has a really cool sound to her voice. There’s kind of a raspy texture to it. So it was not terrible in the slightest.” Earlier this month, on the David Letterman Show, Jennifer had described her voice as a “tone deaf Amy Winehouse” and she was really anxious about having to perform the song, saying to the director that she would prefer Lorde to sing it.
“I knew she didn’t love the idea of singing, but I didn’t realize how nervous she was until when we started the first take, and she was in tears. Not totally broken down, but she was unhappy,” the director said in a recent interview. “She would have much rather we used somebody else’s voice. I think she said she wanted Lorde [who sings the movie’s theme song] to do it!”
One of the most highly-anticipated films of next year has caused quite a sensation over the last few days whilst fans have been chomping at the bit waiting to feast their eyes on the first official trailer. There have been live blogs charting every fake trailer, rating the fake trailers, refreshing the iTunes page where it was first uploaded – something close to hysteria really. Well, the trailer finally arrived today (November 28) at 15:15 GMT and it’s much, much better than you were are hoping for!
The 88-second trailer will be shown in selected cinemas across the US over this holiday weekend – and we’re sure there will be thousands of people going to the cinema and leaving 88 seconds later! Starwars.com has a full list of cinemas’s where the trailer is being screened.
Directed by J.J. Abrams, the film reunites original Star Wars actors Mark Hamill, Harrison Ford and Carrie Fisher and introduces new ones including Oscar Isaac and Adam Driver along with newcomers Daisy Ridley and John Boyega.
In a worldwide release, Star Wars: The Force Awakens hits cinemas 18 December 2015.
Bastille have released an absolutely mental music video for their latest single Torn Apart. It’s fun but kind of creepy, inspired by Michael Jackson’s Black or White video. There are plenty of WTF moments, the worst probably being the scene where two aliens have sex. Weird moments aside the video is exceptionally well done and the message a worthy one – love can happen everywhere and anywhere to people from all different backgrounds and creeds.
The video opens with a young couple performing a flawless dance routine in their home. Suddenly, they morph into other people and the changes keep happening all the way through the video until they end up as themselves again. The couple’s are hilarious – except the aliens which we didn’t like at all! The video was directed by Keith Schofield, known for pushing boundaries. You can always expect pretty strange videos from Bastille.
Torn Apart will be released on November 30 and is the first cut from their new mixtape VS. (Other People’s Heartache Pt. III) available December 8, following their previous two mixtapes of the same series.
Bastille are currently on a sold-out US tour, having sold over 3 million copies of their debut album Bad Blood.
Megan Davies is a Nashville-based singer/songwriter originally from Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. At 24, she recently graduated from Belmont University, where she studied songwriting and classical guitar. Spending her days in classes and her nights recording in her room, she has amassed dozens of demos culminating in the release of two EP’s: Writing On The Walls in 2008, a collection of acoustic songs written during high school, and Apartment Sessions in 2011 which consisted of demos recorded in her dorm room while studying at Belmont University.
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In the summer of 2013, Megan began uploading covers to YouTube – collaborating with both her younger sister Jaclyn and other singer-songwriter friends in Nashville. Since then, she has amassed over ten million views and one hundred thousand subscribers. The Coffee House on XM Radio voted Megan and fellow artist Emily Hackett’s cover of Lorde’s Royals the Best Cover of 2013. Her covers have also been featured on websites such as RyanSecreast.com and Buzzfeed.
Megan is inspired by everything from commercial pop to indie folk to experimental rock. Currently she is playing shows and working on writing and recording more songs. Most of which are posted on her SoundCloud and YouTube.
When did you first discover YouTube and how big of a part of your life has it become? I’ve always been a fan of YouTube, way before I started posting videos. A lot of what I know on guitar came from watching my favorite players on YouTube and trying to learn what they were doing. It can be an incredible learning source for so many things. Nowadays it’s become a huge part of my life, in addition to adding this whole other visual component to what I do.
With almost 10.5 million video views, you’ve got yourself a huge internet fan base. Did you ever picture yourself taking off like this? Never in a million years. I still remember being excited when Jaclyn and my mashup of Radioactive and Pumped Up Kicks hit 1,000 views.
Your sister Jaclyn can be seen in a lot of your videos singing with you. Were you two singing together growing up, or is this something you discovered later on? Yeah we sang a lot together growing up. I was always writing songs and wanting her to sing them with me.
You’re currently living in Nashville, but originally from Pennsylvania. What sparked the move and how has Nashville living been treating you? I originally came to Nashville to study guitar at Belmont University. I absolutely love the city. There are so many talented people around, it’s inspiring to live here as a young artist.
Along with posting videos to your channel, making music and everything else, you also do shows. Where can people go to catch one of your shows? Right now the majority of my shows are in the Nashville area. However, I’m planning to do some out of state touring in 2015. The best place to stay up to date with those shows is on my Facebook.
Your enchanting song Dive In is a smooth mixture of melancholy piano, and heartfelt lyrics. Where did the inspiration for this song come from, and what came first; the words or the melody? Thanks for the kind words. For that song the melody and lyrics came at the same time, which is a rare thing for me. But I think because I knew what I wanted to say, that made it a lot easier. The message is about taking risks and not fearing the unknown, which is something I’m trying to do more of these days.
If you could describe your own personal sound in three words, how would you describe it? Raw, Passionate, Acoustic
Do you feel that your sound has fully formed with a strong, definite identity, or do you see yourself evolving? Evolving, but towards a definitive identity. This past year has been the biggest growth for me musically. When you discover an audience, it gives you confidence to be who you are. You stop second guessing yourself, and you just create.
We love your new cover of Heroes (We Could Be) featuring Landon Austin. How did you two meet each other and can we expect more collaborations with him in the future? Thanks. Landon and I actually went to the same school, though he was a few years ahead of me. Being the YouTube newbie I am, I reached out to him when my channel started growing just to get some advice. A few months later we did two covers together, one for each of our channels. It was a fun experience, and I hope there will be more in the future.
Who in the music industry has influenced you the most throughout your musical growth? So many. Musically I love Imogen Heap, Radiohead, and more recently Ed Sheeran. Some of my favorite guitarists are Tommy Emmanuel, Jerry Reed, and Kaki King.
What can fans expect from Megan Davies in 2015? Lots of new music!
Finally, looking back over 2014, what memories make you the happiest? Working with friends. I love creating on my own, but everything is more fun with friends.
Ricky Martin Live at Viña del Mar, Chile, earlier this year, was a sensational show. The show was so good it’s one to keep in your collection – download it with Creation 5 and watch it when you’re traveling or off line.
Ricky opened the first day of the festival to an audience who were chanting, shouting, cheering – the atmosphere and anticipation was intense. Ricky did not disappoint with his performance – he had over 10 different costume changes, sang 18 hits and the choreography and lighting were absolutely brilliant.
During this 2 hour show he performed all his latest hits, plus a few of his old chart toppers, performing 3 songs in English “Come with Me”, “She Bangs” and “Shake Your Bon-Bon”.
The 42-year old Puerto Rican star was actually quite disarming with his sensual dancing and had both men and women fawning over him. He won two awards at the festival, a Silver Seagull and the coveted Golden Gull award. The press called his performance ’triumphant’.
The 55th International Festival of Viña del Mar, a town 120 kilometers northwest of Santiago, was transmitted to over 20 countries in Latin America by Chilevisión. Thanks to them we have this HD video to enjoy.
Set List 1-Come With Me 2-Shake Your Bon-Bon 3-It’s Alright 4-Vuelve 5-Livin’ la Vida Loca 6-She Bangs 7-Loaded 8-Fuego de noche nieve de día 9-María 10-Medley: El amor de mi vida / Fuego contra fuego / Te extraño te olvido te amo 11-Frío 12-Más 13-La Bomba / Lola, Lola 14-Pégate /Por Arriba, Por Abajo 15-The Cup of Life 16-Tu recuerdo 17-A medio vivir 18-Tal vez
Happy thanksgiving to our popstars that top the bill of delivering the biggest fashion turkeys of recent years…Check out the badly dressed line up of pop & rock princesses doing their worst in the style wars. It’s one thing to go on stage in some crazy get up but when you decide what you’re going to wear to an event (or are even styled in a certain way) it is quite incredible some of the outfits the stars convince themselves are a good idea!
Britney Spears
Oh Britney, what did you do? This is one of her more demure outfit choices but it’s nasty and should never have happened.
Miley Cyrus
There were literally SO many to choose from when it comes to our Miley, but this one – in keeping with the theme of feathered birds – caught our fashion faux pas eyes.
Nicki Minaj
Yet another one of the music world’s fashion disasters who has supplied us with a whole host of outfit mishaps…however, we thought this one summed up her styling pretty well. This picture was taken at the MTV Music Awards in 2011.
Lady Gaga
She’s so famous for her crazy outfits but this one just took the biscuit, put the icing on the cake and almost the meat on the barbie. Her outfits often leave a lot to be desired and not much to the imagination, and remember the meat dress? That was a different kettle of fish, HOWEVER we decided to go for a worse, yes worse, get up which is in tune with our thanksgiving theme. It’s just HORRIBLE and let’s not even talk about the beak!
Katy Perry
Pop princess, popsicle type wardrobe…it’s just too sickly sweet. It was very, very hard to choose between these two, so we’ll leave this one for you to decide.
Kelis
It’s hard to believe this is actually Kelis, she looks scary, shiny, spikey and those shoes are practically extra terrestrial. What were you thinking Kelis?
Jessie J
She’s not the best when it comes to the style stakes, but this little number just hurts our eyes.
Madonna
The most famous pop chameleon of all time, Madonna, has changed her look more times than the Pope has prayed but when it comes to dressing herself for an event, this recent get-up just made us wonder…why?
Ke$ha
This one is classic. It’s neon, it’s a mess, it’s a horror story turned into an outfit and then dragged through a hedge backwards. Ke$ha; really? This looks like a Jane Fonda slasher movie gone wrong.
Rihanna
Last and definitely least here is Rihanna showing off a little more than necessary. No, the stole does not cover anything!
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The long-awaited, first full trailer for Jurassic World has arrived! How do you protect the world from genetically modified dinosaurs? Send in a Star-Lord of course – well, Chris Pratt anyway. Released a couple of days early, the trailer for the fourth Jurassic Park film has notched up over 11 million views in just 24 hours!
The movie might not win awards for his scientific accuracy – its already facing tons of criticism from palaeontologists – but this sci-fi blockbuster does look like a thrilling ride. The sequel takes place 22 years after the events of the the very first Jurassic Park film, released in 1993. A new dinosaur safari park, Jurassic World, has been built out of the ruins of the original park on Isla Nublar.
As the trailer shows, visitors to the park can ‘enjoy’ all sorts of activities, like kayaking down a river with giant herbivores grazing on the banks, watch a Mosasaurus – an enormous prehistoric crocodile – eat dead sharks in a typical SeaWorld kind of show and ride around in ‘Gyroshperes’ allowing you to get real close to the dinosaurs.
Then it all starts to go terribly wrong when a genetically modified hybrid arrives. This lab-made creature is highly intelligent, can climb 40 foot walls and will kill anything that moves…As Chris Pratt’s character Owen says “You just went and made a new dinosaur? Probably not a good idea.”
Written and directed by Colin Trevorrow the film also stars The Help actress Bryce Dallas Howard. Steven Spielberg, who directed the first two films and was executive producer on the third, will executive produce this four-quel as well.
We’ve just been hit by a Sledgehammer and it felt pretty good! After weeks of waiting the American girl group, Fifth Harmony, have finally released a music video for their latest single. The girls enthusiasm is very infectious – and the song has to be one of the most joyful pop singles of the year.
The video is not quite as energetic as their Bo$$ music video but the girls – Ally Brooke, Normani Kordei, Lauren Jauregui, Camila Cabello and Dinah Jane – are obviously having a blast. Joining the 1990’s revival that has been in full swing for a while now, this video reminds us of the Spice Girls in their glory days. “It’s cool because we’ve never released a single that’s about love —a happy, cute love song,” Cabello told Billboard in a recent interview.
The 5 girls were brought together and mentored by Simon Cowell on the 2nd season of The X Factor USA in 2012, where they finished third. Following their time on the Fox talent show, Fifth Harmony signed a joint record deal with Cowell’s Syco label and LA Reid’s Epic.
The single is the second to be taken from their upcoming debut album Reflection, slated for a January 27, 2015 release.
Eminem has just released a cinematic new music video for his empowering anthem Guts Over Fear which tells the story of a boxer on the path from poverty to redemption. Released yesterday it already has over 1.5 million views!
This past August Eminem released this triumphant single Guts Over Fear and now, with the release of this video, the track has the perfect visual counterpart. The Syndrome-directed clip chronicles the tale of a down-on-his-luck Michigan man who overcomes personal hurdles to become a professional boxer.
Model Winnie Harlow (born Chantelle Brown-Young) lip-synchs Sia’s vocals — a very touching move given that the former America’s Next Top Model contestant suffers from the rare disorder called vitiligo, which causes the skin to lose its pigment. She wears the blonde “Sia” bob as she shows how she relates to Marshall Mather’s tale of rising above all the odds that might come against you. It’s very inspirational.
Guts over Fear is currently at Nº22 on the Billboard Hot 100. The track is included on the just-released Shady XV and the 2 disc, 28-song compilation album celebrates the 15th anniversary of Shady Records. Included are some of the labels greatest hits plus new songs from Eminem, Slaughterhouse, Bad Meets Evil, D-12 and Yelawolf. Eminem also supplemented the release with the free, career-spanning mixtape Shady Classics, a 66-track collection curated by DJ Whoo Kid.
It’s not even Christmas yet and Beyoncé is already dishing out presents – ALL the remaining 13 videos from her self titled album were uploaded to her YouTube channel last night! Also, to mark the release of her Platinum Edition of Beyoncé, she has made the repackaged collection available to stream on Spotify! This Platinum edition includes six extra tracks with collaborations from Nicki Minaj, Pharrell Williams, Kanye West and the Mr Vegas remix of Beyoncé’s H&M track Standing on the Sun.
It was virtually a year ago when Beyoncé changed the game and shocked the music industry by releasing Beyoncé last December. Continuing in the same vein she has surprised us all again. There has been no promotion surrounding the release of these 13 music videos – no prior teasing or social media pumping up, Beyoncé has just put the videos on Vevo and lets her supportive fan base spur the publicity.
Taylor Swift caused controversy by removing her album from Spotify yet Beyoncé is very happy to have her entire record collection available online.
The special platinum edition box set is available for purchase on Amazon and iTunes.
To watch any of the videos in Creation 5 just tap the title of the video.
