This video is amazing. I’ve watched it about five times now. It makes me cry every time and I want to keep watching it over and over again.

Remember when Susan Boyle first sang on Britain’s Got Talent in 2009? I do, and I remember being mesmerized by her talent. Before Susan there was Paul Potts, but no singer has ever quite captured the worlds’ interest like Susan – until now. Meet Jonathan Antoine, an overweight 17 year-old who comes across as shy and admits on camera that he was bullied as a child. He sang on Britain’s Got Talent over the weekend along with his friend, 16 year-old Charlotte Jaconelli, at the urging of their school music teacher. When the two of them came on stage both the judges and audience were skeptical. Like Susan Boyle, once Jonathan started singing it was immediately obvious that he has a voice for professional opera. It’s incredible to watch. Here’s more on this story, thanks to Ace Showbiz:

One contestant has emerged as a standout in the sixth season of “Britain’s Got Talent”. In a Saturday, March 24 episode of the reality series, Jonathan Antoine stole the show after taking the stage to perform Celine Dion and Andrea Bocelli’s “The Prayer” with his vocal school classmate, Charlotte Jaconelli.

Appearing on the stage in a faded shirt and baggy trousers, Jonathan earned a cynical comment from Simon Cowell who judged him based on his plain look before listening to his voice. “Just when you thought it couldn’t get any worse,” he told fellow judge Carmen Electra.

The judge on “The X Factor (US)”, however, was left stunned after watching Jonathan’s performance. “You’re a future star,” the British producer praised the 17-year-old boy, who has since drawn comparisons to Susan Boyle and earned a new nickname “SuBoy”.

When Simon expressed his worry that Charlotte would hold him back, Jonathan refused to dump her and insisted they would remain as a duo. All four judges, including David Walliams and Alesha Dixon, gave “yes” to the two singing hopefuls, with Simon finally realizing that Charlotte complements Jonathan.

Being interviewed after the performance, Jonathan opened up that Charlotte gave him confidence. “I really didn’t think I’d be going up on stage today if I didn’t have Charlotte by my side. Charlotte has been a really big help for me in terms of confidence,” he admitted.

[From Ace Showbiz]

I thought that was sweet that Jonathan insisted on staying with Charlotte. She’s obviously a dear friend to him and I loved what she said about how she would always defend him. Given what he said, it’s not likely he would have auditioned without her. Charlotte can sing but you can tell that she’s not on the same level as Jonathan. Almost no one is, that kid is amazing.

The one thing that might hold Jonathan back, and I’m not being facetious, is the fact that the YouTube videos featuring him singing have the embedding disabled. People will find ways around that, like I did, but it’s a shortsighted move by ITV and Britain’s Got Talent. It doesn’t matter though, this kid is on his way to fame and riches, and I hope that it all goes very well for him.

On a side note, look at Simon Cowell’s face at 3:20 into the video. He looks like he’s adoring this kid. Simon knows he’s got his next moneymaker.

Here are Celine Dion and Andrea Bocelli singing “The Prayer”

This has an F bomb toward the end, but you have to listen to it!

Back in 2005 when Paris Hilton was getting sued for defamation for leaking a false story about a woman attacking her at a club, she said, in a sworn deposition that “whatever I write in email, it doesn’t mean anything. It is just words I write.” Well now Paris is relaunching her music career with a song and video based on the same premise called “Drunk Text.” The video for the song, a pedestrian effort in which Paris baby talks over a club beat, has been leaked online. Her people tried to pull all the copies from YouTube, but it’s all over the place and even E! Online is running it.

I watched the video expecting it to be just dumb or mildly interesting, and it wasn’t – it was absolutely hysterical. It’s like the best Funny or Die parody you’ve ever seen. I was laughing uncontrollably the entire time. I’ve watched it three or four times now.

I can’t capture how awesomely funny this video is, so if you can please watch some of it (above), it’s so worth the giggles. Here’s a description from E! Online, and I’m grateful to them for decoding some of the things Paris mumbles. The lyrics really add to the hilarity of this ridiculously funny video.

Hmm…it’s almost as though someone doesn’t want the world to see it? Luckily, even if you missed it the first two times, photographic evidence lives on, and nestled among the lyrics were such hear-’em-to-believe-’em bon mots like, “If you take the word ‘sex’ and mix it with ‘texting,’ it’s called ‘sexting’/When you add drunk sexting, the words just don’t make sense.”

Having completed the bizarre mathematical portion of the song, she set her sights on grammar.

“It’s a hot mess of misspelled obscentities, body parts and run-on questions/I’m not sure what he means to ask.

“Behind my eyes, I was begging for things my lips would never ask/And my mouth kept pouring desperate clauses of random intent.” OK, then.

“No one is safe from the Twittersphere anymore.” Certainly not Paris, and not after this.

“It’s just another moment, one stupid reply can lead to the walk of shame,” she intones. “And I’ll be damned if I end up in some lame diner after this/last night’s lingerie in my purse/it was just a drunk text…this is the last time I’ll ever drink and text.”

[From E! Online]

“No one is safe in the Twittersphere anymore” LMAO!

Damn this made my morning. I’ll tell you, I didn’t hate “Stars Are Blind” and I actually found it tolerable and somewhat catchy. This song is enjoyable for a completely different reason.

Paris’ latest reality show may have been a flop, but she can still make money being herself. She just needs to realize that she can be the Charo of our generation, except with a limp noodle body, dead eyes and a flat affect. Once she embraces that and starts making fun of herself, she can cash in a little more. Barring that, she can stick to making cheap shoes, purses and hair extensions.

Video via Idolator. Story and screenshots via E! Online.

I’m not sure why we didn’t do a story on Pres. Obama recent Al Green cover – CB reminded me that she just made it the lead morning link that day, but in retrospect, it probably deserved its own story. Should we do the video now? Why not:

Cute, right? After he did that, Michelle Obama told a reporter, “He sings to me all the time!” When I told my mom that, she said, “Awwww…” Pres. Obama will heal us with his Al Green covers.

Anyway, last night, PBS released footage of Obama hosting a White House blues concert in honor of Black History Month. BB King was there, as was Mick Jagger. And towards the end of the evening, it seems like BB King was goading the president into singing again – and Obama took the bait with a little bit of “Sweet Home Chicago”.

Is it wrong to like the Al Green cover more? I don’t mind this – it’s cute. But he was way cuter with “Let‘s Stay Together.”

And just to be bi-partisan, here’s Mitt Romney singing “America the Beautiful”. Just think, I could have embedded his version of “Who Let The Dogs Out?”

Photos courtesy of WENN.

Another day, another story about Chris Brown doing his best to piss all over the inexplicable second, maybe third chance his industry is giving him to make millions of dollars singing and dancing despite the fact that he’s a well-documented abusive douche. Only now Rihanna may be willingly going down with him, perhaps literally if we read too much into the lyrics of this new song they jointly released.

For several days I’ve been hearing rumors that Rihanna and Chris brown were doing a song together called “Birthday Cake,” to coincide with Rihanna’s birthday. I thought that they might be working on something in the studio, but that there was no chance in hell that industry execs would taint Rihanna by letting any of their work together get out. Sadly I was wrong. They put out “Birthday Cake” together in which they sing about eating cake as a stupid sex metaphor, and Rihanna also sang vocals for a remix of Chris’ “Turn Up The Music.” Here’s more on that “Birthday Cake” song. This is from MTV’s blog:

It was only a matter of time. For the past few weeks the world has been at a stand still with rumors swirling of one time lovebirds Rihanna and Chris Brown working with each other again. Just in time for her 24th birthday C Breezy and Rihanna made their reunion official releasing the remix to Ri’s “Birthday Cake” track.

On the Internz/The-Dream produced record, Breezy adds his melodies to the song crooning about his fantasies to blow the candles out on Rihannas cake.

“Girl I wanna f–k you right now. Been a long time I been missing your body” Brown sings on the remix. “Lemme, lemme turn the lights down. When I, when I go down it’s a private party.”

During the 2012 Grammy Awards weekend word began to spread that Rihanna and Brown were spotted at the same event with some reports suggesting the two were seen holding hands. A day later “Cake” producers Da Internz hinted Rihanna was getting ready to release a “big” remix with a special guest that would “shock the world.”

“We got the Rihanna ‘Birthday Cake’ coming out in a week,” a bespectacled Kosine told MTV News on the red carpet of the Pepsi-sponsored ASCAP Rhythm and Soul Brunch, held over the Grammy weekend.

“It’s gonna be crazy,” his production partner, Tuo, said shaking his head.

“And the feature on there is gonna shock the world,” Kosine chimed.

[From MTV]

This really turns my stomach. Maybe it’s the link between cake and sex and imagining Chris Brown’s scary O face. D-Listed explains the disgust better than I can. These two are “professionally” collaborating and they’re also tweeting to each other. Chris sent Rihanna a happy birthday message yesterday and she tweeted back “thanks.”

Meanwhile Chris is still writing asinine sh*t on Twitter and then deleting it. WWE wrestler CMPunk Tweeted that he wanted to “curb stomp” Brown, and then Brown tweeted back that the guy must be impotent. “@CMpunk needs more followers. He’s such a leader! Not to mention the roids hes on has made it utterly impossible for him pleasure a women.” Chris later deleted that and just replaced it with a snotty message about how he would have his assistant send the guy an autographed photo.

Is Rihanna going to see fallout from this? People are saying that she looks like she’s having issues, and she does look burnt out lately. I hope she’s ok and that she can walk away from this. It looks like she’s getting played by her abuser again, and it’s sad.

Rihanna is shown out in London yesterday for her birthday on 2-21-12. She’s also shown out the day before. She’s wearing the same shorts and garters combo that we saw Miley Cyrus sporting recently except Rihanna tucked her long flannel shirt into her shorts and it’s hanging out the bottom. Chris is shown at the beach on 2-17-12. Credit: FameFlynet and WENN

Troubled singer Sinead O’Connor was on the Graham Norton show on Friday. (Video above) It was the first interview I’ve seen with her since she got married, announced her marriage was over a month later, got back with her husband, and asked for help via Twitter after a suicide attempt. Sinead, 45, has been struggling with bipolar disorder and admitted a few months ago, prior to getting married after knowing the guy for a few weeks, that she’d gone off her meds. In her brief appearance on Graham Norton, Sinead seemed in good spirits and came across well, although she rambled a little and you could tell she was nervous. She had a few things to say about the way the press treats people with mental illness. She admitted that the people at her record company don’t want her to talk about it though, and I think she tried to temper her words.

Sinead has a new CD coming out, How About I Be Me (And You Be You)? and she still has the same amazing pipes she had in the 90s. She performed her new song, “The Wolf Is Getting Married,” and she really killed it. Here’s some of what she said on Graham Norton:

Sinead to Daniel Radcliffe: One of my children had many imaginary baths with you… I didn’t recognize you with your clothes on.

To Graham Norton: That’s not the cover of my record, where’d you buy that? [Takes the cover off] There isn’t even one [CD] in it!

Graham to Sinead: How are you? Are you alright? People worry about you, we’ve read all these things about you.

Sinead: I don’t know how I’m supposed to answer those questions. In one way I want to talk about music. In another way the only thing that does bother me about all of this stuff is that I’ve kind of dealt with 25 years of this, everybody treating me like a crazy person and it’s a great source of amusement and entertainment. We live in a world where crazy is a term of abuse, which I frankly think should be outlawed… I know you don’t mean anything… I adore you. You’re lovely, it’s a weird question.

I’m a bit of a nervous wreck about interviews to be honest. On one hand I’ve got the record company quite rightly going ‘Don’t say anything.’ On the other hand I’m like… That’s why I sing. When I sing, I make sense.

Well she made a good point about how people are finding amusement in her issues, but I think that more people just worry about her because we admire her talent and want her to do well. Her 1987 album, The Lion and The Cobra, was one of the first albums I owned (and it was a record back then, although I was on the very tail end of vinyl). When I was 17 I saw her perform, and I still remember how she bitched at the people in the front rows for smoking and potentially bothering her voice. I love her music and I want this CD to do well for her.

Listen to this song, “The Wolf is Getting Married,” it’s absolutely beautiful.

Here’s a much older single, from the 1993 film In The Name of The Father. It’s “You Made Me The Thief Of Your Heart.”

And here’s a link to her performing a song from the 90s that she’s featured in that I love. It’s a remix of “I am Stretched on Your Grave.” I remember this from college.

Sinead is shown on 12-18-11. Look at those nails! Credit: WENN.com. Graham Norton videos via ONTD.

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This news came out yesterday, but that just goes to show how much we pay attention to Nicki Minaj, even when she’s making headlines for yet another stunt. So Nicki took a page out of the Madonna/Lady Gaga handbook and went for shock value with a religious-themed exorcism and alter ego performance at The Grammys. Not only was it a bad copy of something we’ve seen other artists do to death, it was also predictably offensive to religious groups. The girl showed up at the Grammys in a Red Riding Hood nun costume with a Pope lookalike in tow. Of course she expected this kind of backlash and she was surely hoping for it in order to extend whatever mileage she could get out of her performance. It worked, sort of. I’m not thinking she’ll be around much longer, but that was my assumption about Katy Perry circa 2008′s “I Kissed a Girl” and I was so wrong about that. Here’s more on the controversy:

Nicki Minaj is known for her over-the-top stage persona, but her performance at Sunday’s 54th Annual Grammy Awards took things to a whole new level.
Wearing an Oscar de la Renta dress, the 29-year-old shocked viewers when she performed her new song “Roman Holiday” for the very first time. Channeling her alter ego Roman Zolanski, Minaj’s performance pushed religious boundaries.

“I had this vision for Roman for him to be sort of exorcised,” she explained on Ryan Seacrest’s KIIS-FM radio show Monday. “People around him tell him he’s not good enough because he’s not normal and he’s not blending in with the Average Joe.”

The Grammy nominee’s performance included a Catholic confessional, demonic possession, dancing monks and a levitation scene.

“The people around him are afraid because they’ve never seen anything like him. He wanted to show that not only is he amazing . . . but he’s never going to change. He’s never going to be exorcised,” Minaj said. “Even when they throw the holy water on him, he still rises above.”

The rapper’s performance angered the the right-wing Catholic League, who issued a press release condemning it Monday. “Whether Minaj is possessed is surely an open question,” president Bill Donohue said, “but what is not in doubt is the irresponsibility of The Recording Academy. Never would they allow an artist to insult Judaism or Islam.”

“It’s bad enough that Catholics have to fight for their rights vis-a-vis a hostile administration in Washington without also having to fend off attacks in the entertainment industry,” Donohue seethed. “The net effect, however, will only embolden Catholics, as well as their friends in other faith communities.”

[From US Weekly]

A male alter ego named Roman Zolanski, really?

I’m a former Catholic, so I’m probably not the person who should be commenting on this, but you know I will anyway. In theory I don’t have a problem with making fun of Catholicism. It’s not like they’re some persecuted religion struggling for recognition. They’re a huge, powerful religion with a history of abusing their power. Nicki’s performance was incredibly over the top, though, and unlike Madonna or Gaga she didn’t just use a few religious props – she threw the whole lot at us in one sensory-assaulting go. It’s like a church threw up all over an 80s music video. Some people are saying that this performance wasn’t just offensive to Catholics, but to Christians in general and that it was inappropriate for the Grammys. Personally I’m not offended, but I can see how people would be.

My issue with this performance is how much it sucks and uses religion for cheap shock value. It starts with a confessional booth and an exorcism and takes place in a faux church complete with dancing monks and altar boys. They even have the stained glass windows “shatter.” Give me a break. At least she’s singing live and not lip syncing.

Video via VH1′s Tuner

Carrie Underwood looked incredible at last night’s Grammys in a high neck long sleeve white and silver sequin Gomez-Gracia gown. It was demure yet sexy and featured a subtle cut out at the back. Our friends at Red Carpet Fashion Awards write that her black clutch was “too heavy for this look,” but I disagree and find it kind of striking against the white. I like her poofy hair and her heavily done eyes paired with neutral lips. In some shots her eyelashes look like caterpillars they’re so huge. It’s overdone but somehow Carrie pulls it off. Carrie was up for Best Country Solo performance, for “Mama’s Song,” which went to Taylor Swift for “Mean.” She performed a duet last night with Tony Bennett, “It Had To Be You,” which was flawless. (You can watch it here.) I loved her performance gown as well and she switched up her hair for that too, opting for flowing waves.

Kate Beckinsale was done to the hilt as usual, only this time she attempted a more “casual” look that’s just as constructed as everything she puts out there. I think Kate looks gorgeous, as she always does, and I like that she has her hair pulled up in loose curls. It highlights her pretty face instead of bringing attention to all the fake hair she has. Kate was in a short Zuhair Murad one-shoulder cream gathered gown with a black ribbon detail. It also featured a trailing chiffon scarf-like loop at the side. It was a decent dress and appropriate for the event but it looked like it should have been knee length instead of so short.

Miranda Lambert was in a peachy-biege embroidered cap sleeve Pavoni gown that had some superficial features in common with Taylor Swift’s dress. I don’t love it and found it somewhat predictable, but it looks nice on Miranda and I like her styling. Kaiser and I were talking about this dress and she thinks it’s very pageanty and similar to a lot of the other tacky dresses Miranda wears. It’s not bad for what it is I guess. What’s up with her shoes, though? Look at her toes peeking out under her dress.

Julianne Hough really rocked a tight sleevess black and grey Kaufman Franco with abstract bamboo-like stripe detail. I love this dress and find it both contemporary and very flattering. Julianne’s styling leaves something to be desired, though. Her makeup could be bolder and her hair is kind of underwhelming with that center part that ends halfway down her scalp. Still, one of the better dresses of the night.

On the other hand Alicia Keys took contemporary too far in this Alexandre Vauthier Couture. Red Carpet Fashion Awards has a photo of the dress on the runway and Alicia paired it with the exact same shoes the designer used. Her feet look crammed in there and like her toes are trying to escape. That’s just the design of the shoes, and it’s so unflattering. Those padded shoulders coupled with that poofy hair just looks ridiculous. Plus she had the worst accessory of all.

Photo credit: Apega/WENN.com and KM/FameFlynet Pictures

Is a new Madonna video enough of an event that I should blog my reaction to each and every second of this catastrophe/masterpiece? I would do that for Lady Gaga – does Madge deserve the same treatment? I think yes. Especially when it’s her first single in a long time, and especially since Madonna’s new video for “Give Me All Your Luv” is so… interesting. Please note: It didn’t even register to me at first that “Give Me All Your Luv” was the name of Madge’s NEW single. I really just glossed over that at first, thinking Madonna had already done a song called “Give Me All Your Luv.” Doesn’t it feel like she’s already had a similar-sounding song title? Right?

Anyway, here’s the video. My thoughts are below:

0:13 – Wait, M.I.A. is in here? Is anyone else startled by a collaboration between two pop stars who know so little about international politics yet both front like they’re experts?

0:24 – Madge looks like she was about to fall down and break her hip as she came out of the doorway. Excellent trench coat too.

0:31 – MADONNA BUTT CHEEK. REPEAT: MADONNA BUTT CHEEK.

0:37 – Just noticed Madge’s glove-lets. She really hates her hands these days.

0:50 – In the part where Madge is wearing the black two-piece leotard, her hair looks great.

1:02 – I don’t get the “high school football game” imagery. Why cheerleaders? Why football players? Why is Madonna so desperate to surround herself with jailbait-y images?

1:20 – God, this song SUCKS.

1:24 – Madonna dances like she’s afraid she’s going to pop a hip too.

1:50 – Grandma hip thrust! Gross. Why all the closeup cutaways to her crotch?

2:02 – We get it, Madge. You like to be carried around by nubile young beefcake.

2:10 – OH DEAR GOD. Madonna tries the Marilyn Monroe crap again, only this time she’s looking especially drag queen-y.

2:20 – M.I.A. and Nicki Minaj are doing Marilyn too. I’m so embarrassed for both of them.

3:24 – WATCH YOUR HIP!!

3:34 – Butt cheek.

3:36 – Baby toss? Terrible. Basically, this is just awful.

Additional pics by WENN.

This is painful in so many ways. Look, you know that I LOOOOOVE Joseph Gordon Levitt. He’s adorable, he’s incredibly talented, and he was robbed of an Oscar nomination this year for his beautiful performance in 50/50. In the past, I’ve had mixed feelings about his “music” but since I love him so much, I’ve accepted the “music,” especially when it involves JGL flashing his dimples at Zooey Deschanel while they sing “What Are You Doing New Year’s Eve?”

….But now I have to call a timeout. Because Joseph Gordon Levitt went to Sundance, and he got up on stage at an event and he covered The Beatles classic “Hey Jude”. And he killed it. Not “killed it” as in “Damn, that was good.” “Killed it” as in “JGL just completely trashed a classic song that you should only cover if you’re drunk or stupid.” Here’s the video:

This performance makes me uncomfortable. His eyes are closed, he’s concentrating, he’s really trying to sell this, and… he’s trying way too hard. Maybe if he had done it with a wink and a nudge? Maybe if he wasn’t on stage, acting like he was auditioning for American Idol? For God’s sake, JGL. STOP IT.

Thanks to Gawker for the tip!

Photos courtesy of WENN.

I love this story so much. I adore Hall & Oats and remember first hearing them when I was a kid. Their music is so catchy and fun. If you get one of their songs stuck in a loop in your head (like “Private Eyes” is for me now), it somehow manages to uplift you instead of irritate you. So it’s nice to hear that Hall & Oates aren’t sue happy like nearly the entire recording industry. Some guy started a “Callin’ Oates” hotline where you can call a regular phone number and listen to one of the duos 80s hits for free. Instead of sending the guy a takedown notice, their spokesperson issued a tentative statement that they’re very happy that people still love to listen to their music.

You might think Daryl Hall and John Oates would have a problem with their music being played for free through the crazy popular Callin’ Oates service — but it turns out the guys are thrilled about it … so far.

For the uninitiated … Callin’ Oates is a phone number you can call when you have a “Hall & Oates emergency.” Dial the number ( 719-26-OATES) press a button, and you have a choice between “One on One,” “Rich Girl,” “Maneater,” or “Private Eyes.”

The guys behind the site aren’t affiliated with Hall & Oates at all, but a rep for the group tells us they’re thrilled so many people are calling the number and listening to their music.

The rep tells us, “We had nothing to do with it and we’re still trying to to process what the company’s intentions are. But we’re always happy when people are interested in our music.”

[From TMZ]

They forgot “Kiss on My List,” “I Can’t Go for That (No Can Do)” and “Out of Touch“!

Like all good memes, it wasn’t exactly clear how and why this one got started or if it was an advertisement for something. It turns out to have been a project by a new employee at a company called Twilio, which provides a platform to build voice and text messaging applications. The Atlantic Wire has an article which explains how “Callin’ Oates” came about. Creator Michael Selvidge told The Atlantic that he spent his own money to fund the hotline and keep it running (he wouldn’t say how much, but hinted that it was substantial) and added that he did it as a fan, not someone who wanted to poke fun. “I do sort of recognize the cheesy factor but I actually do appreciate their music and I do actually listen to it and they are one one of my favorite bands. It’s definitely an affectionate thing.” Aw, that kind of warms my heart, just like Hall & Oates’ music.

Here’s a video showing how the hotline works. You can call it yourself at 719-26-OATES. This video will only play in the US, which makes me wonder if some RIAA honcho is going to step in and put the kibosh on this any day now.

Here’s Hall & Oates performing Maneater in 2008. They’ve still got it.

Header photo via Wikipedia and from 2009. Other images are of Hall and Oates performing in 2010. Credit: A. Gilbert / PR Photos