Beyonce Set To Perform At 2011 BET Awards

Singer joins performers Chris Brown, Lil Wayne, Drake and others at the live June 26 show.
By Jocelyn Vena


Beyonce
Photo: Jeff Kravitz/ FilmMagic

Two days after her album 4 is officially released, Beyoncé is set to perform at the 2011BET Awards, which air live from Los Angeles at the Shrine Auditorium on June 26.

The "Run the World (Girls)" singer, known for power--packed performances, hasn't announced what she'll sing yet, but as it turns out, she's also nominated for an award at the show. The singer is up against Rihanna, Jennifer Hudson, Keri Hilson and Marsha Ambrosius in the Best Female R&B Artist category.

According to EW.com, Mary J. Blige, Kelly Rowland and Trey Songz are also slated to perform on the awards show. And "The Voice" judge and "F--- You" singer Cee-Lo Green will make a special appearance on the show, the website reported. Previously announced performers include Jill Scott, Alicia Keys, Lil Wayne, Drake and Chris Brown, who's up for six awards.

Other big nominees for the night include Lil Wayne with 5 nods, as well as Kanye West, Drake and Rihanna, each with four noms. There's a surprising mix of contenders in the Video of the Year category, including Willow Smith for "Whip My Hair," Marsha Ambrosius' "Far Away," B.o.B's "Airplanes," Brown's "Look at Me Now," Hilson's "Pretty Girl Rock" and West's "Runaway."

Fans will have their say that night when they'll be asked to decide on the Coca-Cola Viewers' Choice Award. Competing in that category are Brown ("Look at Me Now," featuring Lil Wayne and Busta Rhymes), Rihanna ("What's My Name?"), Lil Wayne ("6 Foot 7 Foot," featuring Cory Gunz), Mindless Behavior ("My Girl"), Nicki Minaj ("Moment 4 Life," featuring Drake) and Trey Songz ("Bottoms Up," featuring Nicki Minaj).

Are you excited to see Beyoncé perform at the BET Awards? Tell us in the comments!

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Source: http://www.mtv.com/news/articles/1665873/beyonce-set-perform-at-2011-bet-awards.jhtml

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Usher To Donate Gadhafi Money To Charity

'I will be donating all of my personal proceeds...to various human rights organizations,' singer says of concert linked to Libyan dictator.
By Shawn Adler


Usher (file)
Photo: Getty Images

R&B superstar Usher announced Friday (March 4) that he was donating to various charities proceeds from appearing at a private event at St. Barts linked to Libyan dictator Moammar Gadhafi, according to a statement made to the Associated Press.

The Grammy award winner's renouncement comes after similar announcements from singers Mariah Carey, Nelly Furtado, and Beyoncé, all of whom were revealed to have performed at private concerts linked to the Middle Eastern leader, who has faced open revolt and major political uprisings since February.

"I am sincerely troubled to learn about the circumstances surrounding the Nikki Beach St. Bart's event that took place on New Year's Eve 2009," Usher said of the concert, at which he appeared alongside Beyoncé but did not perform. "I will be donating all of my personal proceeds from that event to various human rights organizations."

Usher has already begun the process, having made a donation to Amnesty International, the AP reports. The exact size of the donation is not known.

The New Year's Eve gig was reportedly for Moammar's fourth son Muastassim, who an unnamed music industry source told MTV News has a history of throwing lavish parties "jammed" with supermodels.

Beyoncé, who sang at the event, donated all proceeds from her performance to the Clinton-Bush Haiti Fund, established in the wake of the Haitian earthquake.

"All monies paid to Beyoncé for her performance at a private party at Nikki Beach St. Barts on New Year's Eve 2009, including the commissions paid to her booking agency, were donated to the earthquake relief efforts for Haiti over a year ago," the "Halo" singer's publicist said in a statement to The Huffington Post. "Once it became known that the third-party promoter was linked to the Qaddafi family, the decision was made to put that payment to a good cause."

Singer Nelly Furtado tweeted February 28 that she plans to make similar amends.

"In 2007, I received 1million$ from the Gadhafi clan to perform a 45 min. show for guests at a hotel in Italy," she tweeted. "I am going to donate the $."

The leader of Libya since a successful military coup in 1969, Gadhafi has reportedly lost control of much of his country as a result of widespread uprisings. The United Nations voted unanimously to refer the dictator to the International Criminal Court for crimes against humanity.

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Source: http://www.mtv.com/news/articles/1659301/usher-donate-gadhafi-money-charity.jhtml

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Neil Gaiman Reflects On 'American Gods,' 10 Years Later

Author talks about his 2001 book as a 10th-anniversay edition is released and with a TV show on the way.
By Rick Marshall


Neil Gaiman
Photo: MTV News

Neil Gaiman's award-winning novel "American Gods" first hit shelves back in 2001, sweeping up readers in a cross-country adventure that explored a world in which the gods of old struggled to remain relevant in modern American culture. Ten years later, "American Gods" is returning to shelves in a new form, celebrating its anniversary with an expanded, "author's preferred text" edition and the announcement of an upcoming television series based on the book.

"The truth is, as an author, all you are is grateful if you turn around 10 years after you wrote something and it's still in print," Gaiman told MTV News of all the fanfare surrounding the novel's 10th anniversary. "It makes me ridiculously happy as an author, but mostly it makes me ridiculously happy that my book is being read."

For Gaiman, "American Gods" offered a way to put words to his own experience in moving to America from England and the difference between how people view America from the outside and the eccentricities you discover from the inside of American culture.

"All of the things that I loved about America that just seemed weird went into 'American Gods,' " he laughed. "I was fascinated by the way people coming to America tried to become 'American.' The idea of using old gods as a way of talking about what people bring with them when they come to America was a really fun one."

Gaiman recalled one particular discovery he made upon moving to the Midwest that was a prime example of the sort of local norms that informed "American Gods."

"There were weird little things like people driving cars out onto the ice in the winter on frozen lakes and then taking bets on when they'd go through the ice when the snow melted," he explained. "Little things like that, where I would turn around and go, 'Does anyone else here think this is weird?' And everyone else would go, 'Nope, This is how it is.'

"[When] I moved to America, I thought that I knew what America was," he said. "I'd been writing stories set in America for seven to eight years, I'd been coming to America for visits, and more importantly, I grew up watching American television and reading American books. And then I moved to America and found it was really weird, in ways that nobody had told me."

Along with giving readers a chance to revisit — or encounter for the first time — all of that aforementioned weirdness, the 10th-anniversary edition of "American Gods" will also feature more than 10,000 words omitted from his initial draft of the novel. The extra material will consist of expanded chapters, essays and even a few interviews he chose to include.

The audio counterpart to the new edition will also receive a full cast recording as opposed to a solo narrator — something he decided to do after participating in a podcast with filmmaker Kevin Smith.

"About six months ago, my wife Amanda Palmer and I were being interviewed by Kevin Smith for his Smodcast, and Amanda did some songs, and I thought I should do something that's fun too," he said. "So I printed out a scene from 'American Gods,' and I narrated it and made Kevin and Amanda act. At the end of it, I walked away going, 'That was really good!' It was just meant to be this mad, goofy thing we did, but it was really good."

And just in case the best-selling original version of the book, the new 10th-anniversary edition or both audio versions don't put "American Gods" back on the mainstream radar, there's also the upcoming HBO television series based on the novel. Gaiman is attached to write and executive-produce the series with Tom Hanks' Playtone production studio developing the adaptation. Renowned cinematographer Robert Richardson is attached to co-write the pilot with Gaiman.

"The overall plan right now is that the first season would essentially be the first book, with a few interesting divergences," Gaiman said of the television series. "You don't want people who've read the book to be able to go, 'I know everything that's going to be happening here.' [They will] know a lot more than anybody who's starting from here, but we will do things that will surprise [them] too."

With Gaiman indicating that the first season of the television series will encompass "the first book," it was only natural to ask about his plans for an "American Gods" sequel.

"I've been [planning] to do a second 'American Gods' book since the first 'American Gods' book," he laughed. "What I basically have right now is a boxful of stuff. Things go into it. I always knew there was going to be more story.

"The first book was very much about the grifters and the lowlifes, and you don't really get to see much of the new gods and you don't really get a sense of those gods who are doing incredibly well in America," he said. "In the second book, I definitely want to go into both of those things."

Source: http://www.mtv.com/news/articles/1666281/neil-gaiman-american-gods.jhtml

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Britney Spears Drops Official 'Till The World Ends' Remix

New track with Nicki Minaj, Ke$ha follows leaked version, plus Brit tweets single's cover art.
By Jocelyn Vena


The "Till the World Ends" Femme Fatale remix
Photo: Jive

Just days after it was leaked on Friday, Britney Spears and her femme fatales, Nicki Minaj and Ke$ha, dropped their official remix of "Till the World Ends."

The new version of the song was produced by Dr. Luke and Dream Machine. Brit half-whispers " 'Till the World Ends' remix" before the beat kicks in and Nicki hits her verse hard. She spits fierce lines like, "Sniff, sniff, cries/ I done slayed your whole entire f---ing life."

Then Britney's sex-kitten vocals kick in for the song's first verse. "That's Britney, bitch! I'm Nicki Minaj and that's Ke$ha," the Queens MC declares before K sings the chorus. The beat is harder, the loops are sassier and the song is grimier than the original version, which was the second single from Femme Fatale. The newly added dubstep portion takes the one from "Hold It Against Me" to a new level by adding in bass-heavy synths.

Ke$ha, of course, wrote the track for Britney, and the ladies certainly don't seem to mind sharing the spotlight with each other. The official track isn't much different than the version that leaked over the weekend, though Spears did have something brand-new to share with her fans just as the song dropped on iTunes and streamed on her website.

Spears tweeted the artwork for the single, which features the original press photo of Spears along with separate photos of Nicki on the left and Ke$ha on the right. Spears wrote, "@NickiMinaj @Keshasuxx Too much fierceness for one cover! Thanks for lending your voices girls... #TTWEREMIX — Brit"

Spears and Minaj have been hanging out a lot in the lead-up to their summer tour. They hung out at the Factory nightclub on Friday night after Minaj's show in Los Angeles. Spears later wrote, "Early rehearsal after a late night with my girl @NickiMinaj. Can't WAIT to get out on the road with you."

What do you think of the "Till the World Ends" remix? Tell us in the comments!

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Source: http://www.mtv.com/news/articles/1662596/britney-spears-kesha-nicki-minaj-till-the-world-ends-remix.jhtml

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