‘It’s not narrative at all, and it involves animals,’ director Yoann Lemoine tells MTV News of new clip. By Tomika L. Anderson Rihanna and Drake Photo: NBAE/Getty Images Capturing the chemistry between Drake and Rihanna on the set of their new video wasn’t very hard, the director of the clip, Yoann Lemoine, told MTV News. The video for “Take Care” was shot during the Super Bowl. “They seemed to be super close and that’s what I wanted for the video,” Lemoine, best known for directing Katy Perry’s “Teenage Dream,” Taylor Swift’s “Back to December” and Mystery Jet’s “Dreaming of Another World,” told us. “They fit together pretty well so it was just easy.” Lemoine said the three-day shoot — which took place in a studio as well as a park — had a “very minimal” and “mellow” vibe, even though the track itself is decidedly more upbeat. “Visually, it’s a very humble video … it’s not crazy,” the alternative indie musician who also goes by the stage name Woodkid said. “It’s actually the most indie video I’ve done my whole life. It’s probably the most famous artists, and they were so open to a project that was so minimal.” “There’s a lot of space in the video and I wanted the visuals to pay tribute to that,” he continued. “It pays tribute to nature. When I listened to the track, I was seeing a landscape … involving animals and massive landscapes. I won’t say too much, but it’s very surprising that there are very few elements in it. It’s very simple but there’s this big sense of emptiness in it. It’s not narrative at all, and it involves animals.” The French filmmaker does not know when the video will air, but he did say that the editing process is going in a “very good direction.” Lemoine — who tweeted a picture of himself with the rap-and-R&B duo last week — admitted that they all watched the Super Bowl on the set between takes, but that there weren’t very many other distractions. “There’s something very minimal and very delicate [about it] in a way,” he added. “And it was very symbolic too.” Related Artists Drake Rihanna
Hudson’s stirring cover of Houston’s ‘I Will Always Love You’ was an emotional homage to late singer. By Gil Kaufman Jennifer Hudson performs at the Grammys on Sunday Photo: Kevin Winter/Getty Images There is a whole generation of modern divas who grew up worshipping at the altar of Whitney Houston . Everyone from Mariah Carey to Christina Aguilera, Kelly Clarkson, Rihanna and Beyonc
Preliminary ratings put Sunday’s show as second highest-rated Grammys ever. By Gil Kaufman Jennifer Hudson performs a tribute to Whitney Houston at the Grammys on Sunday Photo: Robyn Beck/AFP/Getty Images Sunday night’s 54th annual Grammy Awards were a ratings smash thanks to the televised return of the night’s big winner, Adele , as well as a thrilling tribute to Whitney Houston by singer Jennifer Hudson . In fact, the performance-packed three-and-a-half broadcast scored the second-highest rating in history for the show, second only to the 1984 eight-trophy coronation of Michael Jackson for his landmark Thriller album. According to preliminary ratings from Nielsen that combine live viewing with DVR figures, 39.9 million viewers tuned in to the show, putting the telecast behind the 51.67 million who watched the 1984 program. The dramatic ratings uptick followed two years in which the numbers were clustered in the 25 million to 26 million range after what Billboard reported were five years of low-20-million numbers. The show boasted a 14.1 rating among adults 18-49, a 41 percent increase in that demo over last year and the best ratings returns since 1990. Those viewers were rewarded with a diverse roster of performers that ranged from rock icon Paul McCartney performing twice, to the Foo Fighters , a tribute to electronic dance music , Taylor Swift , Nicki Minaj , Chris Brown and Rihanna . The night’s emotional highlight was a stirring tribute to Houston — who died Saturday at the age of 48 — by Hudson, who performed Whitney’s most iconic song, a cover of Dolly Parton’s “I Will Always Love You.” The other major buzz moment was the return to the stage of Adele, who sang at a major industry event for the first time on Sunday after career-saving vocal-cord surgery last November. Stick with MTV News all for all the Grammy red-carpet fashion , Grammy winners and performance recaps until the hangover wears off! Related Videos 2012 Grammy Awards Show Highlights Related Photos 2012 Grammy Awards: Press Room Related Artists Adele Jennifer Hudson Whitney Houston
Stop me if you’ve heard this one before: The Artist made off with Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actor, and and fistful of other hardware at tonight BAFTA Awards ceremony in London, its final stop before the silent film’s Oscar express pulls into the Kodak Theater terminus on Feb. 26. Meryl Streep also won a key awards-race victory as the institute’s Best Actress, while Octavia Spencer and Christopher Plummer continued their own hot streaks in the supporting categories. Read on for all of 2012’s winners, and drop back by Movieline on Wednesday to find out how the latest developments affect our Oscar Index . BEST FILM THE ARTIST OUTSTANDING BRITISH FILM TINKER TAILOR SOLDIER SPY OUTSTANDING DEBUT BY A BRITISH WRITER, DIRECTOR OR PRODUCER TYRANNOSAUR — Paddy Considine (Director), Diarmid Scrimshaw (Producer) DIRECTOR Michel Hazanavicius, THE ARTIST LEADING ACTOR Jean Dujardin, THE ARTIST LEADING ACTRESS Meryl Streep, THE IRON LADY SUPPORTING ACTOR Christopher Plummer, BEGINNERS SUPPORTING ACTRESS Octavia Spencer, THE HELP FILM NOT IN THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE THE SKIN I LIVE IN DOCUMENTARY SENNA ANIMATED FILM RANGO ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY Michel Hazanavicius, THE ARTIST ADAPTED SCREENPLAY Bridget O’Connor and Peter Straughan, TINKER TAILOR SOLDIER SPY ORIGINAL MUSIC Ludovic Bource, THE ARTIST CINEMATOGRAPHY Guillaume Schiffman, THE ARTIST EDITING Gregers Sall and Chris King, SENNA PRODUCTION DESIGN Dante Ferretti and Francesca Lo Schiavo, HUGO COSTUME DESIGN Mark Bridges, THE ARTIST MAKE UP & HAIR Marese Langan, Mark Coulier and J. Roy Helland, THE IRON LADY SOUND Philip Stockton, Eugene Gearty, Tom Fleischman, John Midgley, HUGO SPECIAL VISUAL EFFECTS Tim Burke, John Richardson, Greg Butler and David Vickery, HARRY POTTER AND THE DEATHLY HALLOWS – PART 2 SHORT ANIMATION A MORNING STROLL SHORT FILM PITCH BLACK HEIST THE ORANGE WEDNESDAYS RISING STAR AWARD (voted for by the public) ADAM DEACON ### [Top photo of (L-R) Artist star Jean Dujardin, producer Thomas Langmann and director Michel Hazanavicius via AFP/Getty Images]
Wiz Khalifa, Ne-Yo, LL Cool J and ‘Sparkle’ co-star Tika Sumpter all pay tribute to the late icon. By Kelley L. Carter Clive Davis and Diddy onstage at the pre-Grammy Gala and Salute to Industry Icons Photo: Kevin Winter/Getty Images Saturday night (February 11) before the Grammys is supposed to be a celebration. Instead, on the red carpet at LL Cool J ‘s pre-Grammy dinner party and Clive Davis’ annual soiree, tribute was paid and tears were shed after the news that Whitney Houston was found dead earlier that day. With the news so fresh in their minds, Houston’s celebrity friends were feeling the loss immensely. “I remember hearing her voice and thinking it was the most amazing and powerful voice I’d heard in my life. To this day, it can’t even be matched,” rapper Wiz Khalifa told MTV News on the Clive Davis red carpet. ” … We’re going to celebrate her life and the great things that she’s done. This is her night.” Inside the Clive Davis party, Houston’s mentor took a moment to share some words about his most famous discovery. “Whitney loved music and loved this night that celebrates music,” he told the crowd of celebrities and industry insiders. “Whitney was a beautiful person with talent beyond compare. She gave so many memorable performances here over the years. Her family asked that we carry on.” Diddy shared his memories of Houston onstage: “If you sat next to Whitney anywhere, you knew she was in for a good time. … She gave you a grandma hug that shook your body.” When Alicia Keys performed at Davis’ party, she spoke of her “kindred sisterhood” with Houston, whom she has collaborated with in the past. “The same man who helped her dreams come true helped my dreams come true,” Keys’ said of sharing mentor Davis with the late singer. Tony Bennett also toasted Whitney, singing in her honor Frank Sinatra’s “Music Never Ends,” which he said “Frank asked me to sing. … Dedicated to Whitney, the greatest singer I ever heard in my life.” “There was nothing she couldn’t do except conquer that demon that we all were aware of,” former late-night talk-show host Arsenio Hall told MTV News at the LL party. “Whitney could sing. Whitney could act. Whitney was incredibly funny. I remember nights hanging out with Whitney and just laughing until your stomach hurts.” LL, who had just come from his final rehearsal before hosting Sunday’s Grammys , said the show will be changed to honor Houston. He didn’t want to divulge specifics, except to say “of course it affects it. How could it not affect it? But we’ll, as a team … everybody involved with the Grammys, we want to give her respect. We’ll do something.” The rapper and actor also talked about Houston’s rich legacy, saying, “She was the pop queen. All the little girls wanted to sing like her. She was just like a member of a lot of people’s families. It’s devastating. … A great artist, great person. We go through so many ups and downs in life, but you just remember that voice.” At the Clive Davis event, singer/songwriter Ne-Yo echoed LL, saying, “Any little girl that wanted … to be a real singer — not a pop star, but a singer — there’s no way that that little girl can say that she wasn’t influenced by Whitney Houston. No possible way.” NBA legend Magic Johnson said he was longtime friends with Houston. He smiled when thinking about her and said he rarely missed a show when she performed in Los Angeles. Johnson said Houston had recently performed “Happy Birthday” for his wife, Cookie. “That’s who she was. She had a good heart. We shared so many moments with her. She thrilled us with being onscreen with her movies and everything. She always wanted to know how my theaters were doing, especially when she had a movie. She’d check and be like, ‘How’d it do at the box office?’ She was a great woman. It’s sad that this had to happen. This is tough for everybody,” Johnson said. Actress Tika Sumpter, who recently worked with Houston in the forthcoming “Sparkle,” was crying and said it was hard to smile on the red carpet. She plays one of Houston’s daughters in the film, alongside Jordin Sparks and Carmen Egojo. Sumpter said she hadn’t spoken with any of her castmembers since learning of Houston’s death earlier that day. “It’s so hard to talk about this right now. I got to work with her. And she’s an awesome woman. I thought of her as a second mom, and she thought of us as her daughters,” she said. “I’m excited for people to see how brilliant she is in it. I’m just happy that I was able to play her daughter.” Join us for a tribute to Whitney Houston with non-stop music videos on MTV Hits and MTV Jams, all day Sunday. Share your condolences with Whitney’s family and friends on our Facebook page. Related Videos Whitney Houston: Life And Music Of An Icon Related Photos 2012 Grammy Awards Pre-Parties Whitney Houston: A Life In Photos Related Artists Whitney Houston Diddy
From seating-chart plotting to all-star sound checks, we take you behind the scenes at Grammy run-throughs. By James Montgomery Adam Levine rehearsing for the 54th Annual Grammy Awards Photo: Rick Diamond/ WireImage LOS ANGELES — Everywhere you turn inside Staples Center, there are people (and things) in motion: Set pieces are being noisily constructed (and just as noisily deconstructed ), lights are raised to the ceiling, focused, then lowered again, cameras on cranes swoop in and nearly scrape the stage, walkie-talkies crackle, security guards shift their weight from one foot to the other, musicians scramble down hallways, techs assemble drum kits and tune guitars, directors shout instructions and stare intently at their clipboards. If there’s a method to all this madness, it is not readily apparent. Mostly, you just try to stay out of the way. It’s all in preparation for Sunday’s 54th Grammy Awards , of course, and if everything goes according to plan, you probably won’t even notice the intricate details (camera movements, presenter cues, etc.) that were rehearsed time and time again or think twice about just how they get all those massive video screens to work in perfect synchronization. The goal is to make these things all appear to be seamless, effortless, nearly invisible. Which is why, in the days leading up to the big show, the Staples Center is one continuously buzzing hive of activity. Onstage, Foster the People , Maroon 5 and the recently reunited Beach Boys are working out the kinks for their Sunday-night performance, which, at the moment, include monitor malfunctions, a de-tuned organ and a wayward timpani drum. Maroon frontman Adam Levine stands stage left, fiddling with his in-ear and humming his harmonies over and over again. At one point, a stagehand saves him from being smashed by a gigantic LED screen, which is being lowered directly above his head. Stage right, Mark Foster has his arms crossed, a gigantic smile creased across his face, marveling at the sheer spectacle of the thing. Eventually, after an army of producers and techs have crisscrossed the stage, the Beach Boys amble up, take their places and, without a moment of rehearsal, positively nail the wide-screen harmonies of “Good Vibrations.” Levine can’t help but laugh at the display, and as the song lilts along, he mimes the crashing timpani drums and mouths the chorus. Of course, the action onstage is only part of the production (though it is a part that truly never ends; LL Cool J and Nicki Minaj are set to rehearse Friday (February 10), and there are rumors that both Paul McCartney and Bruce Springsteen will share the stage at some point too). While instruments are tuned and harmonies perfected, an army of production assistants are busy plotting the Grammy seating chart — a bit of well-planned politicking that’s nearly as important to the attendees as actually winning a gilded gramophone. Seatmates are meticulously plotted by producers, and how close you sit to the stage itself (and who you’re sitting with ) is a pretty good representation of just how much clout you’ve got. Which means that, on Sunday, the front row will be populated by Katy Perry, Rihanna and Fergie. Heavily-favored Adele will sit in row two, next to Bruce Springsteen. Taylor Swift shares a row with Nicki Minaj, Lady Gaga is seated next to Miranda Lambert, Bon Iver is across the aisle from R. Kelly (imagine the possibilities!), and Chris Brown will rub elbows with the indomitable Diana Ross. Of course, all of this could change — these are just the rehearsals after all. And as the countdown to the big show continues, there’s still a whole lot of rehearsing to do. Even after the show goes live, that constant blur of motion inside Staples is likely to continue unabated. This is music’s biggest night, after all. Chaos! Profanity! Wardrobe malfunctions! Don’t miss Sway and James Montgomery live from the Grammys red carpet this Sunday, February 12, for a full three hours of mayhem, starting at 5 p.m. ET on MTV.com. And the fun doesn’t end Sunday: MTV News has you covered until the Grammy hangover wears off! Related Videos A Guide To The Grammys 2012 Related Photos 2012 Grammy Rehearsals Related Artists Rihanna Katy Perry
‘It had hit songs and just had quality tracks all the way through,’ Legend says of My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy. By Kelley L. Carter Kanye West Photo: Chris Hyde/Getty Images John Legend is bummed that his buddy and collaborator Kanye West isn’t up for one of the biggest awards at the Grammys . The rapper and producer is the most nominated musician going into Sunday, but his work is missing from the coveted Album of the Year category. “Well, I was rooting for Kanye and Jay-Z [ Watch the Throne ] to be nominated for album of the year or Kanye’s album [ My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy ] to be nominated for album of the year. So I’m a little disappointed that it’s not,” Legend told MTV News. “I really thought [ MBDTF ] was the best work that was done in popular music this year, as far as a great album that you could listen to all the way through and really enjoy. It had some hit songs and just had … quality tracks all the way through.” That said, he’s tossing his support behind critical favorite Adele . The Brit has many celebrity fans, and many of her musical colleagues are rooting for her to take home the night’s top prize. “I’m really happy for Adele. I think she’s an amazing artist and she seems to be the odds-on favorite to win a lot of awards and she deserves it. And we’ll see what else happens,” Legend said. “It’s hard to call these awards. Sometimes you think you know who’s going to win, but they surprise you.” And what about West? Is he upset that his work didn’t get nominated for Album of the Year? “I don’t want to speak for him,” Legend said, adding, “I was upset that he didn’t. I really felt like I heard a lot of music this year and this was my favorite album. I just think he made two exceptional albums that were both eligible this year. … Maybe they canceled each other out. I wish he was up for Album of the Year.” Chaos! Profanity! Wardrobe malfunctions! Don’t miss Sway and James Montgomery live from the Grammys ; red carpet this Sunday, February 12, for a full three hours of mayhem, starting at 5 p.m. ET on MTV.com. And the fun doesn’t end Sunday: MTV News has you covered until the Grammy hangover wears off! Related Videos A Guide To The Grammys 2012 Related Photos 2012 Grammy Nominees 2012 Grammy Rehearsals Related Artists Kanye West John Legend
We’ve come to the point where hand-drawn animation almost seems like a forgotten art, lost in the gaudy shuffle of motion-capture slickness a la The Adventures of Tintin and the sleek technical sophistication of pictures like Rango and Kung-Fu Panda 2 . That’s why it’s such a glorious relief to greet the arrival of an old-school -– but very grown-up — animated picture like Fernando Trueba, Javier Mariscal and Tono Errando’s Chico & Rita , a romance that opens in late-1940s Cuba and uses a thumbnail history of midcentury Latin jazz as its backdrop. It’s gorgeous to look at — the images are stylized and detailed at once, as fluent in capturing the movement of human bodies as they are in portraying the luxe deco excitement of ‘50s Havana, New York and Las Vegas. And the story, sultry and bittersweet, is bracingly adult: This is the kind of sophisticated storytelling you rarely get even in live-action movies these days, full of unexpected turns and unruly human complications. There is also, of course, the music, much of it performed by Cuban jazz pianist, bandleader and composer Bebo Valdés, whose own life provided the rough inspiration for the film. Chico & Rita is the story of aspiring jazz pianist Chico (voiced by Emar Xor Oña) who meets the woman of his dreams one evening in a Havana club. Rita (Limara Meneses) is a singer, and Chico falls hard both for her voice and for her knockout figure, but he comes on too strong for her liking — she immediately brands him a country boy. Before long, though, they’ve tumbled into bed and into an on-again, off-again affair as well as a professional partnership. Together, with the help of Chico’s pal and manager, the charming, level-headed Ramón (Mario Guerra), they win a talent contest and embark on a blazing career as a duo, complete with a hit record. But Rita is lured away to New York with big dreams of success, and though she wants Chico to accompany her, a misunderstanding separates them. Chico eventually does make his way to New York on his own, where he slips into divey basement clubs to bask in the presence of his idols, people like Charlie Parker and Dizzy Gillespie. (Their cartoon versions are wonderful and charmingly accurate, even if Parker is drawn playing a tenor and not an alto.) There, Chico also joins the ranks of other Latin artists like Chano Pozo and Machito, performers who made their way to New York and met with quick and explosive fame during the midcentury Latin jazz craze. Chico and Rita’s careers occasionally intertwine, only to once again veer off into separate corners. The plot doesn’t follow the standard rags-to-riches template (though it wouldn’t be a liability if it did). Instead, the story — the script is by Trueba and Ignacio Martinez de Pisón — treads softly but boldly into unexpected places, touching upon, for example, the fast living and violent death of Chano Pozo, and giving some sense of what the Jim Crow laws of the pre-Civil Rights-era South meant for black jazz musicians. Trueba is the director of the 1992 Belle Epoch; he also made the 2000 Latin jazz documentary Calle 54 , the development of which brought Valdés to his attention. (Like so many musicians of his generation — and like so many from his culture — Valdés had, by the 1990s, lapsed into obscurity: He was forced out of Cuba after the revolution and moved to Sweden, where, years later, he was rediscovered playing piano in a Stockholm restaurant.) Calle 54 also marked the beginning of Trueba’s professional partnership with Spanish artist and graphic designer Mariscal. (Mariscal designed Cobi, the half-bear, half-possum mascot of the 1992 Barcelona Olympics.) Together with animator Errando, Trueba and Mariscal worked out the look and feel of the film, reconstructing a vision of the vibrant, long-lost 1950s Havana (with the help of archival photographs kept by the city government) and re-creating a grayish, bustling ‘50s New York whose chief source of color is an aural one — in the movie’s vision, it’s a place where the music flows from basement clubs like a life-giving river. The music in Chico & Rita is just as vital as the visuals are: When Chico sits down at the piano, it’s Valdés’s notes that stream out, leaping and shimmering like trout in a stream. Idania Valdés (no relation to Bebo) provides Rita’s singing voice, luminous and smoky at once. The music that these characters make, separately and together, is as much a part of them as their own blood, and the drawing in Chico & Rita captures that essence: Just after their first meeting, Chico takes Rita to a bar that’s been closed for the evening and sits at the piano, ready to prove himself to her. She likes what she hears and begins to dance — her yellow dress swirls around her legs, her swiveling hips. Chico keeps playing, but he can’t, of course, keep his eyes on the keys. How do you portray something as delicate as a sexual frisson in a cartoon? Somehow, Chico & Rita pulls it off. The picture has a seductive, casual eroticism. Chico & Rita – which was released in Europe last year but is only just now appearing in the United States — has been nominated for an Academy Award, in a category that has snubbed much more lavish features like Cars 2 and Rio ; a recent Hollywood Reporter article suggested that we may be seeing a backlash against motion-capture and other kinds of computer animation. ( Chico & Rita is mostly hand-drawn, though it does use some computer imaging.) There may be no need to draw such a stark dividing line in the sand: Computer animation certainly has its uses and benefits, and the spirit of any piece of animation depends so much on the guiding sensibility behind it, anyway. But Chico & Rita is organic and vital in a way that it might not be had it been fully composed on computer screens. There’s so much depth and warmth in both the story and in the drawing: This is animation that implies movement instead of merely showing it. It also keeps the spirit of this one particular branch of the jazz canon burning in its heart. Chico & Rita may, in its deceptive simplicity, be the wave of the future. At the very least, it’s something to be grateful for in the present, a picture that conjures new life out of old grooves. Follow Stephanie Zacharek on Twitter . Follow Movieline on Twitter .
Channing Tatum tells MTV News the sequel is ‘wildly different.’ By Christina Garibaldi Channing Tatum Photo: MTV News Super Bowl Sunday: A time for an intense football matchup, million-dollar commercials and for movie studios to show off what blockbuster flicks they have in store for the rest of the year. Paramount Pictures was banking on fans being ready for the next installment of “G.I. Joe: Retaliation” when it presented the trailer to the more than 111 million people expected to tune into the game Sunday night (February 5). The thirty-second Super Bowl spot for “Retaliation” hit the web Wednesday, featuring intense ninja swordfights, a revamped Cobra Commander, Snake Eyes’ exploding motorcycle and, of course, Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson and a machine-gun shooting Bruce Willis . Yet, there was one thing noticeably missing: Channing Tatum . Tatum, who plays Duke, only appeared in the first trailer a handful of times, and with no appearances in the short Super Bowl clip, speculation is growing that he might be making an early exit from the Jon Chu-directed flick. MTV News caught up with Tatum at the set of “Saturday Night Live” as he geared up to host the show for the very first time, and he revealed he has yet to see the new “Retaliation” trailer, but hopes fans are ready for an action-packed sequel. “I hope they like it better than the first one. I think it’s wildly different,” Tatum said. “Jon Chu: I really do think he’s got his finger on the pulse of the hip younger generation. He did the ‘Step Up’s and what not, so I’ve got to work with him before. I think he’s got a really hip vibe to him.” So now that Tatum has probably recovered from his stint as host on “SNL,” we imagine he tuned in Sunday to catch the “Retaliation” trailer. Which team will he be rooting for during the game: the New York Giants or the New England Patriots? “I just really want it to be a good game. Neither one of them are my teams, but I don’t really have a pro team,” he admitted. “It’s always a bummer when the last game of the season is a landslide, so I want it to go into overtime and be the craziest game ever, but I don’t know how you can compete with the last three games; I don’t know how you keep going. The law of averages will probably say it’s not going to be as good of a game.” What did you think of the “G.I. Joe: Retaliation” trailer? Let us know in the comments! Check out everything we’ve got on “G.I. Joe: Retaliation.” For breaking news, celebrity columns, humor and more — updated around the clock — visit MTVMoviesBlog.com .
Nicki Minaj, M.I.A., LMFAO and Cee Lo Green help pull out all the stops for elaborate show featuring Cirque du Soliel and high-tech staging By John Mitchell Madonna performs at the Super Bowl XLVI Halftime Show Photo: Win McNamee/ Getty Images Madonna promised pom-poms for her Super Bowl XLVI half-time performance but she delivered a whole lot more, a high-energy spectacle packed with Roman warriors, Cirque du Soliel dancers, marching bands, cheerleaders and some very famous guests. She made quite an entrance, that’s for sure, riding onto the field at Lucas Oil Stadium on a throne dressed in full-on Cleopatra mode pulled by dancers dressed like Roman warriors. Decked out in a gold cape and massive headpiece with banners flying behind her, Madonna took the stage to “Vogue” as the song’s title flashed among the images on the high-tech LED stage and amazing digitized field below her. Cirque du Soliel’s theatrical presentation and acrobatic dancing were apparent throughout, but never more so than during “Vogue,” when the lavish staging met with tight choreography and Madonna sounding and looking great for an inspired spectacle and perhaps one of the biggest and boldest live performances of its kind ever attempted. She displayed none of the nerves she’d uncharacteristically been copping to in the lead-up to the event, tearing through her hits with plenty of superstar swagger and hitting all her dance moves just right. She had a good reason to be nervous though: Tonight’s (February 5) game in Indianapolis, Indiana is expected to be the most-watched television event of the year. Last year’s Super Bowl drew over 162 million viewers in the US alone. Next up, Madonna and a team of dancers, now a bunch of Adidas-wearing b-boys, met on some light-up bleachers for an athletic take on “Music” that segued straight into a dance-heavy remixes of “Party Rock Anthem” and “Sexy and I Know It” featuring guest’s LMFAO , proving that the 53-year-old pop legend can still keep up (and then some) on the dance floor. The promised pom-poms Madonna surfaced when she lit into her new single, “Give Me All Your Luvin,” along with a blonde Nicki Minaj and a, ahem, bird-flipping MIA . That’s right, the lone bit of controversy around the often provocative Madonna’s Super Bowl show will most like have to do with the Sri Lankan singer briefly flipping off the camera. The otherwise slickly produced show went off without a hitch. The Queen of Pop gamely picked up some gold pom-poms to cheer alongside Minaj, M.I.A. and a team of cheering dancers during the track, giving off the look and feel of the recently released clip for the song. Minaj and M.I.A. both got a chance to shine too, rapping their parts on the track’s breakdown. As expected, she performed three vintage tunes (“Vogue,” Music” and “Like a Prayer”) and one new one, “Give Me All Your Luvin,” the lead single from her forthcoming 12th studio album, MDNA . She partnered with a creative team from Cirque du Soleil, her longtime choreographer/creative director Jamie King and multimedia artists from Moment Factory, to plan the spectacular show. For the finale, Cee Lo Green marched on stage as the drum major to a large marching band, starting briefly into small bites of “Open Your Heart” and “Express Yourself before suiting up into sparking robes for a full-voiced rendition of “Like a Prayer.” Madonna and Cee-Lo were joined for a choir for the performance, which saw Madonna falling to her knees as she sang her classic track. She then stepped to the back of stage and vanished into a cloud of smoke, disappearing beneath the stage and leaving the still-cheering stadium wanting more. Did you love Madonna’s Super Bowl half-time performance? Let us know in the comments below! Related Photos Super Bowl XLVI Performance: Madonna And Kelly Clarkson Related Artists Madonna Lmfao Nicki Minaj Cee Lo Green M.I.A.
