Duet: Lady GaGa and Cher confirm collaboration on “The Greatest Thing”
August 24, 2011 by Beatweek · Leave a Comment
by Music Staff
Those who’ve wondered what a duet between Lady GaGa and Cher would sound like are about to get their way. This is no mere rumor: both musicians announced their joint studio collaboration via Twitter today, with the latter referring to it as a “surprise” despite there having been buzz that GaGa would lend vocals to the title track for Cher’s upcoming new album The Greatest Thing. Lady GaGa was the first to spill the beans, tweeting last night “Who knew a year ago when I was crying in her arms after she gave me an award, that today we would record a duet.” She added, “Cher, You are The Greatest.”
Cher then followed up an hour later with more punctuation involved, tweeting “Can hardly wait 4 GT 2 Come Out! Was XCITED ‘Bout Making New cd, But Wasn’t Expecting BIG Surprises…& THEN…… SURPRISE ! GAGA ! DUET !” The award ceremony which GaGa referenced, incidentally, happens to be the night which saw her debuting the ‘meat dress’ while Cher re-upped her ‘If I Could Turn Back Time’ regalia. The Greatest Thing will be Cher’s first album of new material in a decade, while GaGa set sales records with her new album Born This Way earlier this year.
Lady Gaga Returns to Jimmy Kimmel Live in Support of Her New Album ‘Born This Way’
July 29, 2011 by Dana Feldman · Leave a Comment
by Dana Feldman
Lady Gaga returned to ABC’s ‘Jimmy Kimmel Live’ on Thursday, July 28th for the first time since making her late night network television debut on the show back in October of 2008. It’s an understatement to say that a lot has happened to the five-time Grammy-winning pop singer-songwriter in the years since.
In support of her new album ‘Born This Way’ she preceded her live performance on Kimmel’s Outdoor Festival Stage in Hollywood, CA, with a chat with her old friend, Kimmel, about how her life has been since her first appearance not too many moons ago.
The enthralling live performance that followed can best be described as an epic block party of massive proportions. Kimmel shut down the entire city block behind his studio in order to accommodate Gaga’s legion of loyal fans, some of whom waited for over twenty hours to see a glimpse of her. They showed up en masse and were already wrapped around the block by 4PM. An estimated two thousand people were able to attend the free concert.
Included in the line-up was Gaga’s late-night television debut of her newest hit single You and I. In true Gaga style, as well as in pure adoration of her fans, whom she lovingly refers to as her ‘little monsters,’ she performed six songs even though she was only scheduled to perform three. In addition to You and I, she performed The Edge of Glory (which features the late and legendary Clarence Clemons on Sax), Judas (single 2), Born This Way and Hair.
Gaga has joined quite an elite club of musical artists who have managed to shut down the surrounding streets of Hollywood in anticipation of their performances on Kimmel. Other members of this musical royalty include the likes of Coldplay, Jay Z and Depeche Mode.
Learn more: LadyGaga.com • JimmyKimmelLive.com
Lady GaGa teams with Justin Timberlake for SNL, sees fans camp out
May 19, 2011 by Beatweek · Leave a Comment
Lady GaGa is gearing up to serve as musical guest for this week’s episode of Saturday Night Live with host Justin Timberlake, and fans are lining up outside 30 Rock already for the chance to be in the SNL live audience. GaGa posted a picture to her Twitter account of “monsters” who were camped outside NBC Studios more than forty-eight hours before the episode is set to take place, saying that the sight made her cry and that she’ll be “sending treats.” Separately, she posted a picture (left) of her with Timberlake on set with him in what appears to be a hooded in nun costume, saying that she “laughed so hard today I cried.” While nothing is confirmed, the comment suggests that GaGa will be participating in one or more sketches with Justin; it’s not clear whether GaGa’s or Timberlake’s attire is from a sketch.
Lady GaGa is set to release her second full length album entitled Born This Way next week, with the title track and other singles including Judas, The Edge of Glory, and Hair having already been released digitally through iTunes. The new album follows her 2008 debut The Fame, along with the supplemental 2009 EP The Fame Monster. GaGa spent much of 2010 touring on The Monster Ball tour. Justin Timberlake has a long history of SNL appearances, whether he was hosting at the time or not.
Grammy album of year nods: Lady Gaga, Katy Perry, Eminem, Antebellum, Arcade Fire
December 1, 2010 by Beatweek · Leave a Comment
“There’s no many other fantastic performers and artists that could be in this category,” Katy Perry said when she learned that her new album Teenage Dream had been nominated for Grammy Album of the Year. Lady Gaga, whose The Fame Monster was released late last year, was also nominated. Eminem made the cut for his new album Recovery, Arcade Fire scored for The Suburbs, and another “Lady” also made the nomination list as Lady Antebellum scored for Need You Now.
The pairing of Lady Gaga and Katy Perry, two of the biggest female pop stars of their generation, in the same category in the same year is a quirk of the schedule as their sophomore albums were released nearly a year apart.
Lady GaGa disappears for nearly two weeks
October 15, 2010 by Beatweek · Leave a Comment
Lady GaGa finally surfaced today after disappearing from Twitter for nearly two weeks. There’s more likely time for a musician to go quiet than when new material is actively being worked on, which GaGa affirmed today when she returned to Twitter and told fans that she’d been “working so hard” for them on her new music, along with a linked photo of her sitting at a piano in a studio. GaGa released her debut album The Fame about two years ago, and then followed it up with The Fame Monster, a nearly full-length companion piece, about a year ago. GaGa has said that she won’t be releasing new material in 2010, but she’s clearly working on it.
Lady GaGa is the world’s most popular Twitter user, now approaching seven million followers. She doesn’t necessarily tweet every day, but disappearing from the social network for a full twelve days is a stretch by her standards. Of her still-in-progress album-to-be, GaGa, simply told fans that she “can’t wait for u to hear the new music.”
Beatweek Magazine #78: The Black Crowes, Secondhand Serenade, iPad bags, Puddle of Mudd, iPhone cases and more
August 3, 2010 by Beatweek · Leave a Comment
In this seventy-eighth issue of Beatweek Magazine:
• The Black Crowes cover story interview
• iPad bags and iPhone cases reviewed
• interviews with Secondhand Serenade, Puddle of Mudd, and Pierce The Veil
• hands on look at Disney’s new TRON app
• classic interview with Lady GaGa
Read this issue nowLady GaGa says she wants to be in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame
July 14, 2010 by Beatweek · Leave a Comment
Lady GaGa, Taylor Swift offer Fourth of July wishes
July 4, 2010 by Beatweek · Leave a Comment
Lady GaGa is the most popular person alive (according to Facebook)
July 2, 2010 by Beatweek · 4 Comments
Interestingly, Lady GaGa is merely the third-most popular Twitter user, with Britney Spears and Ashton Kutcher both having more than five million followers and GaGa having a mere 4.7 million, although the growth rate of each of their follower counts suggests that GaGa could surpass them both on Twitter before 2010 is over.
It’s a far cry from a mere year and a half ago, when we put Lady GaGa on the cover of Beatweek Magazine (yes, we were the first) and many of you said “Who’s that?” In any case, you can read our original cover story interview with Lady GaGa right here.
Ozzy Osbourne likens Lady GaGa to early Elton John
June 28, 2010 by Beatweek · Leave a Comment
Ozzy Osbourne admits he doesn’t “go out and watch new bands” but he’s gotten a glimpse of Lady GaGa to have decided that he likes the “vibe she puts out” when it comes to her performances. In fact Ozzy says that GaGa’s “craziness” and eccentricity remind him of another star from his own generation, saying that her act reminds him of what “Elton John used to do years ago.” In contrast Ozzy’s seen enough of the talent show contestants who paint themselves as “vocal acrobats” in an attempt to rip off Mariah Carey. But Ozzy laments that even as unique as Lady GaGa’s act is, it’s something that “everyone else has started copying.”
It’s just one of several topics Ozzy Osbourne touched on in Beatweek’s cover story interview (most of the others relating to his new album Scream and his 2010 tour plans which include Ozzfest), which you read right here. You can also read the entire Ozzy issue of Beatweek Magazine for free in digital format right here.
Lady GaGa Beyonce Telephone wins BET award for best video
June 28, 2010 by Beatweek · Leave a Comment
Ozzy Osbourne: the Beatweek interview
June 22, 2010 by Beatweek · 2 Comments
“Funnily enough, it wasn’t intentional,” Ozzy Osbourne says of the fact that his new album Scream is a heavy record even by his standards. And with the album out the door today, he’s looking forward to hitting the road – if only because it means he can’t be pinned down into starring in yet another television show. His touring schedule for 2010 includes the resurrection of Ozzfest in amongst a bevy of solo dates. It doesn’t take long for Ozzy to reveal his first surprise of the conversation, which is that his new song “Let Me Hear You Scream” was originally about the death of Michael Jackson.
“I think we did six different versions of it,” he says of the lead single. “We were gonna call it ‘Peter Pan is Dead’ and it was about Michael Jackson dying. But that’s fucking horrible, how can you do that, you date your album when it’s not that long after someone passes away. It becomes old history, you know? So then it was ‘Superman is Dead’ then it was someone else, then someone else. In the end it stuck as ‘Let Me Hear You Scream.’”
Scream sees a few changes from Ozzy’s modus operandi, the first being that he “took time” making the record as opposed to his previous routine of taking a brief break after coming off the road and then getting with his band to “jam a bit, and then whatever comes of it we’d take into the studio.” But it’s the band itself that’s seen perhaps the most significant change, as Ozzy finally got around to finding a new guitarist after asking Zakk Wylde to continue to pull double duty for years even after Wylde’s own band Black Label Society took off.
“Zakk has got his own band. He doesn’t need me,” Ozzy says of the friendly professional parting. “He’s got a great band of his own and he’s a great talent on his own, and I have the greatest respect of Zakk, and we’re still very good friends. What happened was, at the end of the day, well actually I knew I had to get a permanent replacement cause he was doing his band and mine and one or the other would start to encroach on the other, you know. I was starting to sound a little bit like I was playing with his band, which is natural, it’s not the end of the world.”
After dreading the audition process but ultimately giving into it after Wylde’s relentless two-band touring schedule pushed him into ill health, Ozzy settled on the twenty-nine year old Gus G. Of the fact that his new guitarist is less than half his age, Ozzy claims that he “never, ever thought about it” and points out that he recently jammed with an eleven year old virtuoso – although he does laugh heartily when he realizes that he’s currently the oldest member of his own band. “I’m older than all of them put together,” he jokes.
In fact the Prince of Darkness is in something of a joking mood, quipping that it’s still “too early in the day” despite the fact that we’re chatting in the middle of the afternoon. But seemingly nothing gets under Ozzy’s skin as quickly as the thought of ever having to be a part of another television show after one too many season of participating in The Osbournes. In fact he’s looking at hitting the road as a relief for just that reason. “I’m hoping we can do a few good shows on this tour. The fucking TV thing got on my nerves. I can’t stand doing that TV shit, you know. I’m glad I’m back on the road for the simple fact they can’t get me to do a fucking TV show. I hate it.”
He’s quick to point out that he doesn’t mind watching television (provided that he doesn’t have to see himself on the TV screen), but “I don’t go to clubs, I don’t go around to bars, I don’t go and watch new bands, I don’t know what the fuck goes on apart from me.”
Still, Ozzy managed to get word of the story of the Latimer mercy killing, which he turned into the song “Latimer’s Mercy” and it might be the most controversial track on the new album. He relays the story of Robert Latimer as he understands it: “It was a farmer who had a really fucked up kid born with everything wrong with it, and she was in constant agony. She wasn’t in pain. Agony. And she had seizures, and the seizure medication she was taking, if she didn’t have it she would fall apart or whatever, so they couldn’t give her pain medication. So the only thing she could take for pain was fucking Tylenol. And he ended up killing her because he couldn’t stand to see his daughter. I stopped and I thought to myself, fuck, that must be a really heavy decision to have to make.”
Ozzy still hasn’t made up his mind which songs from the new album will make it into his 2010 setlist beyond the title track; at present he’s more focused on making sure he’s got flexibility once he hits the road. “I could fucking do a five hour show,” he says of his decades-long back catalog. “I know one thing, with the Sabbath stuff I’d love to be doing some different songs instead of Iron Man, Paranoid, and War Pigs every fucking tour, when you do the same set every fucking night. So this time we’re rehearsing a lot of songs so we can call a different song up any given time. That way you can’t run through the same set. I’ve been switching songs around you know. I think we rehearsed thirty-three songs yesterday, old stuff.”
Speaking of Black Sabbath, it’s been a mere month since the passing of the guy who replaced Ozzy in Sabbath three decades ago. “I have a great deal of respect for him as a singer,” Ozzy says of the late Ronnie James Dio. “I was a bit pissed off thirty years ago, but then a lot of water’s gone under the bridge, and it’s just sad that he’s died. I went to an awards show a few weeks ago and I met Vinny Appice, the drummer. Cause when I heard that Ronnie got sick, I immediately sent a message out, if he needs anybody to talk to, just contact me. Cause I mean when Sharon got diagnosed with cancer a few years back, what hit me was I didn’t know anything about it. Everybody I knew who had cancer died. And then somebody said to me ‘I had the same cancer as Sharon and I survived.’ That was the first glimpse of hope that I had, that I found this guy to talk to, cause I used to think it was bullshit, cancer plus patient equals death. I said to Vinny, tell Ronnie I’m thinking of him. If he needs to call me, then call me, you know. Then the next thing you know, he passed away, which is very sad. He was a good singer.”
Another piece of Ozzy’s past is coming into play now that Motley Crue have signed on to co-headline the 2010 edition of Ozzfest. “They’re old friends of mine,” he says of his former tourmates, but “I can tell you now it’s not gonna be a rerun of the fucking 1994 tour I did with them. I don’t think any of us are even up to that debauchery that we did on that tour.” As if to emphasize the fact that his parting with Zakk Wylde was a friendly one, Black Label Society is also on the Ozzfest 2010 roster.
After Ozzfest was whittled down to a single show in 2008 and went dormant altogether in 2009, Ozzy and Sharon are bringing it back cautiously this year, with a modest six tour dates to see if the touring festival still has a place in this new decade. “If it takes up again, it takes up again. If it doesn’t, we had a great run with it anyway. Fifteen years is long enough, I think. It’s been one of the greatest things in my life, Ozzfest, the success of that. The amount of bands spawned off Ozzfest is phenomenal.”
Since we talked, a seventh Ozzfest date has been added to the schedule, this one at the vaunted O2 Arena in London, perhaps a sign that the festival has a future after all. Ozzy’s own tour schedule remains packed, with most of his 2010 tour dates being solo gigs. He says you’ll get the same show whether you catch him on Ozzfest or solo: “I don’t don a different hat. It’s just me, you know. The Ozzfest Ozzy is the same as the arena Ozzy.”
I’ve heard Ozzy mention Lady GaGa in a positive capacity enough times in other interviews over the past year that I can’t help but ask him specifically what it is about her that caught his attention at a time when he’s admittedly not paying much attention to new artists. “She puts a bit of interest in what she does. You’ll find now, you watch these talent shows, you watch these kids singing away, and everybody tries to be the next Mariah Carey, or fucking vocal acrobats, I call them. And then all the sudden somebody like Lady GaGa comes, I don’t think I’ve ever heard a song, but the vibe she puts out, I like the fact that she’s not just going up there dressed in a fucking skirt and dripping with diamonds singing. She puts some panache into it. She puts a bit of craziness in there, eccentric stuff, you know. Like Elton John used to do years ago.”
But then he laments: “Everyone else has started copying the thing now.”
I found myself feeling a bit silly in hindsight for having asked the heavy metal pioneer for his take on the latest pop star, but if Ozzy was annoyed at the question, he certainly didn’t show it. In fact he was one of the more courteous interview subjects I’ve chatted with, making sure to remember my name and ending the conversation with “God Bless.” If four seasons of The Osbournes suggested to the world that Ozzy is a gentle yet passionate musical giant, then our conversation all but confirmed it.
So what of Ozzy’s return to his native England in 2010 for a few solo dates and now also for Ozzfest? “I’m just as comfortable over there as anywhere else to play, you know. As long as they enjoy it, it’s a mad thing, you know?”
Learn more at Ozzy.com • iTunes • MySpace • Facebook • Twitter
Paramore’s Hayley Williams invests in Lady GaGa and Deftones
June 12, 2010 by Beatweek · 2 Comments
Paramore lead singer Hayley Williams decided to share the results of her day of shopping with her fans via Twitter updates today. Her loot included the new Deftones album Diamond Eyes (Paramore and Deftones recently played the same festival in Los Angeles), with Hayley remarking that she’s not sure what “took me so long” to finally buy it. She also picked up the Lady GaGa Heartbeats earbuds, along with the less-fascinating items of “a charger for my camera, shampoo travel bottle.” Finally, Hayley revealed that she bought the WEN cleansing conditioner from the Home Shopping Network and that “So far, it absolutely rules.”
The reason for Hayley’s sudden shopping binge is that the real news is that she and her Paramore bandmates are headed overseas for a series of European tour dates starting June 18th in Germany.
Lady GaGa says “I cannot be broken”
June 7, 2010 by Beatweek · 2 Comments
Lady GaGa defends her fans’ wardrobe rights
June 3, 2010 by Beatweek · 2 Comments
Lady GaGa says she tested “borderline positive” for lupus, no symptoms
Lady GaGa does have a history of opening for veteran artists; she was the opening act for New Kids on the Block back in late 2008 when we first spoke with her.
Lady GaGa talks with CNN’s Larry King tonight
June 1, 2010 by Beatweek · Leave a Comment
GaGa is the only officially listed guest for tonight’s one hour episode of Larry King Live, which airs at 9:00pm on the east coast and 6:00pm on the west coast. If you need to kill time before tuning in for Larry, you can read Beatweek’s interview with Lady GaGa right now.
Lady GaGa has to answer to London fans today
May 30, 2010 by Beatweek · 6 Comments
Lady GaGa releases Alejandro remixes EP
May 21, 2010 by Beatweek · Leave a Comment
Lady GaGa has released eight new remixes of her current single Alejandro, spun by DJs including Bimbo Jones and Afrojack, as an eight-track EP in iTunes. Alejandro is the third single from GaGa’s latest album The Fame Monster and has already seen controversial national exposure from her American Idol performance of the song earlier this month, a performance which was edited by the network with GaGa’s consent.
Additional remix artists for the new Alejandro release include Rusko’s Pupuseria, Dave Aude, Skrillex, Kim Fai, The Sound of Arrows, and Kleerup. Fans can hear the song performed live by Lady GaGa on the Monster Ball tour in 2010 and 2011, with a full list of tour dates available at LadyGaGa.com. Alejandro (Remixes) is available in iTunes. The original version of Alejandro is currently at number four on the iTunes pop singles chart.
If you’re looking for Beatweek Magazine’s cover story interview with Lady GaGa, it’s right here.
Christina Aguilera calls Lady GaGa a “newcomer”
May 16, 2010 by Beatweek · 3 Comments
Christina Aguilera has referred to fellow pop star as a “newcomer” and “really fun to look at” in the upcoming issue of Out Magazine, according to Perez Hilton, who has an advance copy of the issue and posted a page from the Christina interview online. Third parties have frequently compared Christina and GaGa over the past year and a half since the release of the latter’s debut album, often citing similarities in two stars’ styling and apparel. While Perez (who is a friend of GaGa) is livid over Christina’s comments, a perusal of the posted segment of the feature story (which is only one page of what appears to be a several page story) suggests that the GaGa comments represented on a small fraction of the overall interview. We’ll withhold judgment until we can see the comments in their full context.
