Fitness is something we all let slip during the holidays no matter our intentions. This year there are so many options for us to choose from with new fads popping out from every angle, but here is our list of celebrity favourites that are hot (literally) for this year.

HOT YOGA: Also known as Bikram Yoga, due to having been designed by Bikram Choudry, is a spin off using some techniques from the more traditional Hatha Yoga with an added twist that it is practiced in a “hot room” of around 40º plus a humidity of 40%. The benefits of this type of Yoga include enhanced strength, increased flexibility, improved posture, mental clarity, a balanced blood pressure and improved ability to concentrate, fewer toxins and impurities, and Bikram claims specific poses can help clean out the veins and arteries. This version has become extra popular due to its celebrity followers such as the mighty Beckhams, Maroon 5’s Adam Levine, Robert Downey Jr. and Ashton Kutcher (thanks to Demi Moore!).

SOUL CYCLE: This is a big craze sweeping the States following the popularity that spinning created. It started in New York and has spread like wildfire across the world. SoulCycle is a fast-paced indoor cardio cycle workout with a twist. It was founded on the belief that fitness can be joyful. It combines inspirational coaching, high-energy music and a workout that benefits the mind and body. It has been described as a dance party on a bike. So if you want to join the likes of Victoria Beckham & Tara Ramsay (see photo), Lady Gaga, Tom Cruise, Kelly Ripa, Anderson Cooper, and Katie Holmes, get on your bike.

PURE BARRE, BARRE 3, BALLET BEAUTIFUL; To name but a few of the ballet-inspired classes. These are the latest female fitness fad to be taking the world by storm. To achieve a lithe, strong and feminine physique – a la Natalie Portman in Black Swan – these intense fitness classes are all the rage right now.
Ballet Beautiful is inspired by the beauty and athleticism of classical ballet and a challenging and fun workout that anyone can do. Most workouts are one hour and include targeted toning, lots of reps, stretching and low impact cardio. The workout fatigues muscles and taps into parts of the body that get overlooked outside of a dance studio. Celebrity lovers of ballet beautiful include Miranda Kerr, Natalie Portman and Liv Tyler.

Barre 3 could be described as ballet meets yoga and Pilates. It utilizes a 3-step method where poses are held for longer periods with focus on small muscle movements. Sessions usually end with a cardio blast. Celebrity fans include Madonna.

Pure Barre utilizes a ballet barre, small ball and hand weights. It is a more fast paced activity incorporating cardio movements with the bar and Pilates-style methods. You’ll feel the burn in your hips, abdominals and glutes. Celebrities such as Kelly Ripa and Zooey Deschanel have been spotted at Pure Barre. It is certainly becoming one of the most popular of the bar-based classes world-wide.

SLT – If Pilates, cardio and strength training had a baby, it would be named SLT. The entire workout is done on an amazing piece of fitness equipment called the Megaformer. Using a system of springs, straps and bungee cords, the Megaformer systematically works your arms, legs, abs, obliques and glutes. Accompanied by great music and lots of instructor encouragement, expect a heart-pumping, muscle shaking, toe-tapping experience while working your entire body. Each move is done for at least one minute and is paired with other moves that work the same muscle group, pushing you to muscle failure. You move around the machine performing a combination of compound movements and those focused on a specific body part. Celebrity followers of SLT include Sofía Vergara, Chrissy Teigen, Kyra Sedgwick and Lo Bosworth.

BOXING WORKOUT: Kendall Jenner, Gigi Hadid and Hugh Jackman are all fans of this workout which encompasses all the fundamentals of boxing; footwork, proper punching technique and defense. This is high intensity and high cardio with an emphasis on proper technique.

RUNNING: Yes this is an oldie but a goodie. All you need are your legs and a good pair of running shoes to get started. Open the door and GO. Join the likes of Heidi Klum, Russell Simmons, and Gwyneth Paltrow(if you happen to be in Central Park, New York that is) in this now comparatively retro cardio activity!

PLAYLIST: This week’s workout playlist is inspired by the retro fitness fashions and ideas that we are experiencing the world over right now. The 80’s reigns supreme, so get your lycra on and get pumped up to our old school tunes.

Tap here to open the playlist in Creation 5.

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Saturday Night Live is one of the funniest and longest running comedy TV shows of all time. It began back in 1975 and is now in its fortieth season on NBC! The show has been the launch to many a long and successful career in comedy and film. Some of the best known names in show business have come from a Saturday Night Live background. For example; Chevy Chase, James Belushi, Dan Akroyd, Bill Murray, Eddie Murphy, Billy Crystal, Joan Cussack, Robert Downey Jr., and more recently Adam Sandler, Will Ferrell, Mike Myers, Jimmy Fallon to name but a few of the regular cast. Justin Timberlake’s acting career could well have been assisted by the performances he has given on the show. The following is a list of all the most current pop stars to have appeared on or hosted the show in the last ten years, and their comedy skits.

LADY GAGA: Hosted the show on November 16 2013. She playfully sang one of her own songs with new words to suit the opening of the show and featured throughout the programme in different skits. Gaga has appeared a few times and has the ability to laugh and make fun of herself and the industry while still showing off her musical talents…

SNL – Lady Gaga Opening Monologue

SNL Digital Short: 3-Way (The Golden Rule)

MILEY CYRUS: took a shot at hosting the show in October 2013. She poked fun at her own twerkiness and raunchy new attitude as well as her old country ways. Her controversial performances were the subject of the following skit…

SNL – VMAs Backstage Cold Open

JUSTIN BIEBER as host featured him appearing in nearly all the skits throughout the show and in a few of them impersonated Miley Cyrus, the following though is of him as a nerdy presenter…

Justin Bieber’s Nerd Skit on SNL

BRUNO MARS took a turn at hosting and performing on the show and did a hilarious skit as a girl named Melody…yes this is really him! He also performed his latest track, New Wild Girls for the first time on the show. The second video is a skit called Sad Mouse…check out Bruno’s first attempt at comedy!

SNL – Bruno Mars as Melody

SNL – Sad Mouse

Here’s a couple of TAYLOR SWIFT’s best moments as host on SNL in 2013. She also does a good job of laughing at herself whilst writing a cute little song to introduce the show, her musical monologue goes really well, her comedy timing is great and shows that she’s a pretty good little actress too…

SNL – Taylor Swift’s Monologue Song

SNL – Roomies

JUSTIN TIMBERLAKE has appeared on and hosted SNL a few times but here are a few of my favourite videos of his. He has so much talent for acting, singing, dancing and here we also see his superlative comedy skills.

SNL – Justin Timberlake Liquorville

Motherlover ft. Justin Timberlake

SNL – Target

SNL – Immigrant Tale

SNL – Justin Timberlake Monologue

BRITNEY SPEARS has also managed to fit in SNL in her busy life of ups and downs, here is an outtake of her appearance as host on the show…

SNL – Britney Spears Monologue

One person who it could be questionable as to whether they could take on comedy, especially as a reflection of self is JENNIFER LOPEZ. But, here she is hosting Saturday Night Live and doing a great job of not being a diva! She even comes on stage in her bathrobe…until she strips off to her Versace.

SNL – Jennifer Lopez Monologue : Not a Diva

SNL – Hollywood Dish: Jennifer Lopez

The December 6 2014 episode, hosted by James Franco, saw NICKI MINAJ showcasing her comedy chops and celebrity impersonation skills. The highlight was the Jingle Ballerz Special skit, a hip-hop version of the Nativity Story with many of SNL featured players pretending to be rap all-stars. It would have easy for Minaj to just play herself but instead she gave a Flawless impersonation of Beyoncé. The second skit – not quite as good as the Beyoncé impersonation – but excellent nonetheless was the Kim Kardashian impersonation. Minaj rivalled Franco in terms of screen time on the episode plus she performed three songs from her Pinkprint album.

SNL – Jingle Ballerz Special

SNL – Weekend Update: Kim Kardashian

Last but sort of not least on the list is our California Girl KATY PERRY as host on the show. She is seen here on a Finnish TV show…and later on Bronx Beat bouncing her boobies in an Elmo T-Shirt…

SNL – Finnish Talk Show

SNL – Bronx Beat: Maureen Diccico

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As we glide into the new year (hopefully leaving behind the tacky trail of mainstream songs and music videos which have been largely about big butts and twerking them) we can start to celebrate the great new sounds that some truly talented song writers and, quite frankly, underrated artists have created. Watch out for these guys in 2015!

Great New Sounds for 2015 – Tap on a video title to open it in Creation 5. If you want to grab all these songs as a whole playlist – you’ll find it at the bottom of the post.

George The Poet

A runner up in the Brit Awards for Critic’s Choice Awards 2015, George The Poet is a North West Londoner climbing the fame ladder. He always makes a point to send a strong positive message to his listeners. These are the kind of hip-hop artists we want the youth to be listening to. He’s studied politics at cambridge while pursuing the most important thing he can do; performing his poetry. Oh, and his smile is to die for!

1,2,1,2 – George The Poet

Rolling Stone (The Weeknd Cover) – George The Poet & JP Cooper // Mahogany Session

Years & Years

Genre: electronica. A three-man show, also from London, also shortlisted for the 2015 BRIT Awards – Critics Choice Award. The trio consists of keyboardist Olly, bassist Mikey and synth player Emre. What’s so great about them you ask? Just check them out:

Years & Years – Desire


Years & Years – Take Shelter

James Bay

The one who beat George The Poet and Years & Years to the first award of the season. Just a 23 year old from Hertfordshire with raw talent, an intriguing ‘chiselled by angels’ look, and a knees-weakening husky voice. How’s that for contrast? Oh, and he’s majorly skilled with his hands. (Guitar… what did you think?)

Hold Back The River – James Bay 


Let It Go (Burberry Acoustic) – James Bay

Until The Ribbon Breaks 

Until The Ribbon Breaks (awesome name isn’t it?) is another British trio that might not have as much recognition as Years & Years, but their music is like a fine wine you never knew could taste so good. The band consisting of Peter, Elliot and James just recently produced a goose-bump inducing cover of Blondie’s hit song One Way Or Another. The cover was featured on one of the latest episodes of Stalker, CBS’ new chilling series. We just have a feeling about this band.

Until The Ribbon Breaks – One Way Or Another (Blondie Cover)


Until The Ribbon Breaks – Goldfish

Kat Dahlia 

You say you a gangsta, that don’t impress me none – are the famous lyrics off her first single, appropriately titled Gangsta. This fierce rapper with cuban roots is all about the passion in life and she expresses that through her music (which she writes herself.) What we find intriguing is the fusion of her seemingly mainstream beats with these razor sharp lyrics and unique aggressive flow. Her album My Garden has it’s release date set for January 13 of 2015. She absolutely classifies as an up-and-coming in our books. A lot of people say she sounds like Miley Cyrus. Well, all press is good press right?

Kat Dahlia – Crazy 


Kat Dahlia – Mirror 


Buck 65

If you don’t know who Buck 65 is, we are so glad to be the introducer. Deep, intelligent and rough is one way to describe his music. More like a diamond in the rough that you never want cutting or polishing because it’s flawless as it is. In his most recent release Super Pretty Naughty he takes a stab at the mainstream mayhem of the music industry in this day and age. We found it hilarious and actually really good. There seems to be so much that needs explaining about him, but it’s always best to let the music do that for itself.

Buck 65 – Super Pretty Naughty

Buck 65 – Phil 


Fink

Fink, aka Fin Greenall, is a singer/songwriter/producer. Earlier on in his career he worked with a 17 years young Amy Winehouse of all people, and that’s a fond memory he carries with him to this day. He dabbles in the genres of blues, dub, folk and indie. Indie is where we found him, and where we fell in love. His song Looking Too Closely was competing for Song of The Year 2014 and blew up when it was featured in an episode of USAs Network hit series Suits. He will be touring globally throughout 2015 and hopefully showcasing new material. Watch his space.

Fink – Looking Too Closely


Fink – Shakespeare

Highasakite

This jazz-trained group of folk from Norway came together after their musical studies and formed one of the best groups in todays ‘underground’ indie scene. The fab five consisting of two gals, Ingrid and Marte, and three guys, Kristoffer, Øystein and Trond, recently have been nominated for 3 Norwegian Grammy Awards and have already had their album Silent Treatment named Album of the Year as well as their song Leaving No Traces named Song of the Year in Norway. They’ve undoubtedly been causing waves in the industry since their latest album release and we only see them moving on up from here. We had the pleasure of interviewing them for one of our Sunday Sessions earlier this winter. Check it out here.

Leaving No Traces

Since Last Wednesday

Kendrick Lamar

Not much has to be said about this artist. He’s not exactly a rising star, already being at the top and all and he shouldn’t really be in this list. We just had to have his new song i on our New Sounds for 2015 playlist though. This refreshing, uplifting and brutally honest track is one that will shape hip-hop and rap throughout 2015. Touching on some real trials and tribulations, it keeps a beautiful message throughout. Let’s all make a new years resolution to love ourselves. Time to get your dancing shoes on!

Kendrick Lamar – i 


Here is the playlist – tap here to open it in Creation 5:

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