Deadmau5 and Rihanna were among the featured acts last night at the House of Blues in L.A., where a major fundraiser was held for Children’s Hospital Los Angeles. The Canadian electro star headlined the wee-hours gig with tickets ranging from $250-1,000. Rihanna took the stage for only seven minutes, but made them count. Rocking a mini-dress and blonde Farrah Fawcett ‘do , she jumped, fist-pumped and maybe even sang her way through “Where Have You Been” and “We Found Love.” Calvin Harris, who produced and co-wrote “We Found Love,” and two backup vocalists accompanied Rih. Harris later took the stage for nearly an our at the shindig. Confetti fell from the ceiling during the climax of the latter tune, and like that, Rihanna was gone, good deed done and no doubt some after-after-party to get to. At the actual Grammys, Rihanna joined Coldplay on “Princess of China,” while Deadmau5 and fellow electro-star David Guetta followed Chris Brown’s performance . [Photos: WENN.com]
The body of Whitney Houston is on its way to New Jersey. Insiders tell TMZ the singer is actually being transported east on Tyler Perry’s private jet, as that movie mogul offered up its services as soon as he arrived at the Beverly Hills Hilton on Saturday. According to NBC New York, meanwhile, a funeral will take place later this week in Newark, where mourners have already gathered, leaving flowers and signs outside the church Houston sang at as a child. No other details are available at this time, though The Newark Star-Ledger reports Whigham Funeral Home, which has organized services for several of Whitney’s family members, will handle the arrangements. Based on the latest leaks, Houston died inside her hotel room on Saturday as the result of mixing multiple prescription pills with alcohol . Her body, submerged in bathtub water, was discovered by the artist’s aunt.
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
Bobbi Kristina was rushed to Cedars-Sinai Hospital in Los Angeles twice after hearing news of her mother Whitney Houston’s death. She has been released from the hospital and TMZ reports that her father, Bobby Brown, has abandoned his New Edition concert in Nashville to be by her side! Bobby was swarmed by media at LAX airport when he landed in Los Angeles but he didn’t respond to any questions and was quickly ushered into a waiting vehicle. RELATED: Jennifer Hudson Sings Whitney Houston’s “I Will Always Love You” At Grammys [VIDEO] New Edition On Whitney Houston’s Death: “We Are Shocked And Saddened” Bobby Declares Love For Whitney On Stage [VIDEO] Whitney Houston Found Underwater In Bathtub [UPDATE] Whitney Houston’s Last Interview [VIDEO] Whitney Houston Dead At 48 [BREAKING NEWS]
Despite having acted in only a handful of movies before her death on Saturday at the age of 48, Whitney Houston left a lasting legacy with the few film projects she did release during her reign as arguably the best-known female pop singer of her generation. 1995’s Waiting to Exhale earned her a NAACP Image Award nomination, and 1996’s The Preacher’s Wife won her the award (and made her the highest-earning African American actress in Hollywood at the time); this year’s Sparkle was set to be Houston’s comeback after a well-documented and public period of substance abuse and personal decline. But no film is as indelibly linked to Houston’s legacy as her debut in 1992’s The Bodyguard , and the record-breaking soundtrack it spawned. After Houston’s debut album Whitney Houston and her sophomore effort Whitney made her a global, award-winning recording star, the singer selected her first foray into film, signing on to director Mick Jackson’s romantic drama-thriller-musical The Bodyguard . Sure, she was nominated for a Razzie for her turn as Rachael Marron, an internationally renowned pop star/actress who falls for her stoic bodyguard (Kevin Costner) — and critics widely panned the film, citing the cold chemistry between Houston and Costner and the fact that the character didn’t seem much of a stretch for Houston. But The Bodyguard ‘s heavy musical element, and the potency of its chart-topping soundtrack, went a long way in enhancing Houston’s screen performance and turning it into something of a phenomenon. Released in the fall of 1992, The Bodyguard went on to gross $410.9 million worldwide owing largely to Houston’s popularity and the soundtrack to which she contributed six songs; buoyed by the Dolly Parton-penned powerhouse ballad cover “I Will Always Love You,” its soundtrack became the bestselling soundtrack album of all time, and with good reason. With “I Will Always Love You” Houston recorded a defining song of the decade, one that meshed her soulful chops, extraordinary voice, and the R&B-inflected mainstream appeal that had already made her a breakout star across genre lines. Where Parton’s original version carried a sweet country lilt, Houston added power and a bombastic sense for drama that not only fit her character’s storyline and explained the film’s bittersweet ending, it also showcased her strengths as a singer and performer. I always loved the way the song’s opening lines wafted in over Rachael and Frank’s farewell scene, beginning as Rachael’s plaintive inner voice then swelling as she sings her feelings so urgently she has to stop the plane just to run out to give him one last smooch. Cut to some time later, as he’s moved on to his next job and she’s onstage performing “I Will Always Love You” — thinking of him, we know, every time she performs it. Who can care that Houston and Costner’s flirtation is stiff for the first half of the movie when you have a love ballad like this, roiling with bittersweet emotion, giving you closure and catharsis? In addition to “I Will Always Love You,” two other Bodyguard singles (“I’m Every Woman” and “Queen of the Night”) peaked at number one on the U.S. Dance charts. But for my money the better songs on the album were “I Have Nothing” (which hit number one on the Adult Contemporary charts) and “Run to You,” both original ballads that went on to nab Oscar nominations for Best Song. More importantly: as with “I Will Always Love You,” it’s in the familiar environs of the music videos for these singles where Houston’s expressiveness as an actress really came alive. The video for “I Will Always Love You” featured a fierce, confident Whitney in a power suit singing to an empty theater while looking far more comfortable emoting to her music than she did opposite her co-star; one could imagine she was Rachael Barron, years removed from her relationship with Frank Farmer, sitting with her memories while rehearsing for her latest tour. Similarly, the music video for “I Have Nothing” also allowed Houston to channel the character through her music. Placing Houston as Rachael in performance in a nightclub set, director Steve Barron ( Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles , Michael Jackson’s “Billie Jean”) evokes a rich atmosphere while drawing real nuance and emotion out of Houston in close-up, a performance of a performance, and probably the most glamorous and gorgeous of the soundtrack’s videos. “Run to You,” meanwhile, featured Houston as Rachael in dreamy, heavenly white, declaring her love and longing so passionately that Frank, watching it on television late one night in the film, feels a flutter. If you had trouble buying Houston’s character in the film, these supplemental videos gave her the chance to demonstrate a much more vivid inner life — and everyone of a certain generation watched the hell out them back in the day. Houston also contributed popular soundtrack singles to her later films, the Grammy-winning “Waiting to Exhale (Shoop Shoop)” from Waiting to Exhale and the Grammy-nominated “I Believe in You and Me” from The Preacher’s Wife , but neither achieved the confluence of movie and music that drove The Bodyguard to its successes. Following 1997’s musical telefilm Rodgers and Hammerstein’s Cinderella (opposite Brandy), Houston’s next film project was to be a remake of the 1976 R&B melodrama Sparkle , to star Houston and Aaliyah. Back on track and recast almost a decade later with Jordin Sparks playing the lead role, the musical was filmed last fall and will be released this summer, marking Houston’s final screen performance. Share your favorite Houston performances, scenes, or songs below. Follow Jen Yamato on Twitter . Follow Movieline on Twitter .
‘I Will Always Love You’ is the #1 song on iTunes, and the pop legend is likely to re-enter Billboard top 10. By John Mitchell Whitney Houston Photo: Kevin Mazur/ WireImage Sales of Whitney Houston ‘s albums and singles have soared since news of her death arrived late Saturday afternoon, so much so that the late pop superstar’s 2000 hits package, Whitney: The Greatest Hits, is expected to re-enter the album charts this week in the top 10. Billboard is projecting that Houston’s Hits package likely moved 50,000 copies in the day-and-a-half window between when news of her death was first reported and the close of Nielsen SoundScan’s business week. “In terms of sales impact, it won’t quite be like Michael Jackson, but it will be big,” Billboard ‘s associate director of charts Keith Caulfield told MTV News of the spike in sales for Houston’s albums and songs. “Most big pop stars have a perfect great hits and Whitney doesn’t, and that could factor into how the sales play out. I do think her track sales are going to be really big.” Houston released only one greatest hits package in the U.S., and it has been the album fans have turned to since her passing. It is, however, considered “a flawed greatest hits to a lot of people,” Caulfield said. “Half of it is remixes of her dance songs, so it’s not the familiar version of ‘I Wanna Dance With Somebody.’ It’s not the perfect greatest hits package for fans to turn to, so I don’t think it’s going to sell as well [as Jackson’s].” A look at the iTunes song and album charts reveals that Houston’s back catalog is indeed in demand: The singer currently has 28 tracks on the iTunes top 100 sellers list, including the #1 song (“I Will Always Love You”), and her 2000 hits package is the #2 album, trailing only Adele’s 21, which is itself experiencing a post-Grammy surge. Only one of Houston’s six studio albums (2002’s Just Whitney ) is not currently charting on the iTunes top 100 albums chart. The three soundtrack albums (“The Bodyguard,” “The Preacher’s Wife” and “Waiting to Exhale”) that feature her prominently, however, do appear. Seven of the top 10 titles on Amazon’s album chart also belong to Houston. It is, of course, not uncommon for a musician’s records to re-emerge on the charts in the wake of a tragic passing. Last summer, Amy Winehouse’s two albums , Frank and Back to Black, both leapt back onto the charts after the star’s death. Back to Black even reappeared in the Billboard 200 top 10 for several weeks, and sales of her most popular singles surged, with more than 111,000 digital track sales rung up in just the first week after her passing. The previous week, Winehouse had moved 5,000 downloads. However, nothing compares to the massive sales spike experienced after Michael Jackson’s death. Jackson died on June 25, 2009, and in the six months that followed, his back catalog moved 11 million digital downloads and 8 million albums. Two years later, those numbers had increased to 16.3 million downloads and 10.6 million albums, respectively, according to Billboard. Etta James also recently saw a sales surge following her passing from leukemia and other ailments. How long Houston’s albums will continue to play strongly on the charts remains to be seen, and Caulfield noted that Jackson’s massive posthumous sales had a great deal to do with the iconic nature of his earlier works and the “well-curated” hits packages that were released during his lifetime. “Michael had a couple of albums that were de facto greatest hits album, like Thriller, Bad or Off The Wall . They were self-contained greatest hits albums, in a way. Whitney’s earlier albums are much the same but they don’t have that iconic status,” Caulfield told MTV News. “Being the biggest-selling album of all time has a certain impact that, no matter how many hits [another album] has, it’s not on the same level on a global scale.” “The second thing, Michael had the #1s album, which was a very easy, obvious choice for people to purchase because it had all the big hits, or you had The Essential Michael Jackson, which had all that and more. There was even a box set,” Caulfield added. “There was a wealth of well-curated greatest hits albums for casual fans of Michael to purchase, and Whitney doesn’t have that.” 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 Whitney Houston’s Music Video Style Remembered Whitney Houston: A Life In Photos Related Artists Whitney Houston
Chicago rapper Twista recorded a special verse in memory of Whitney Houston for Hot 107.9! Hot 107.9 and the Radio One Atlanta family joins the rest of the world in mourning the loss of the legendary Whitney Houston. She will truly be missed! Our thoughts and prayers go out to the entire Houston and Brown families. Rest in peace Whitney! RELATED: Whitney Houston May Have Died From Combination Of Xanax & Alcohol [REPORT] Jennifer Hudson Sings Whitney Houston’s “I Will Always Love You” At Grammys [VIDEO] New Edition On Whitney Houston’s Death: “We Are Shocked And Saddened” Bobby Declares Love For Whitney On Stage [VIDEO] Whitney Houston Found Underwater In Bathtub [UPDATE] Whitney Houston’s Last Interview [VIDEO] Whitney Houston Dead At 48 [BREAKING NEWS]
I just watched the Grammy’s so I’m gonna go out on a limb here and say that they photoshopped 74 pounds off her…. See I get that Adele is a talent, I have ears…I hear it…but when she performs I wish I didn’t have eyes…I wish I was Stevie Wonder up in here…because as a hater of fat chicks…all I could wonder is how much soft serve ice cream she already ate out of her Grammy within the first hour of having it…. I’m judgemental and feel there is an importance in giving women a negative body image in order to lower their self esteem as well as encourage their fitness and starvation as to not be fat…all while getting me laid…. It’s simple logic….and here is Grammy star winner Adele’s simple cleavage….probably the highlight of her body….possibly the reason her boyfriend dumped her to inspire her award winning album….who cares…
If you’ve seen this clip of KIM KARDASHIAN SUCKING BLACK DICK TO BECOME THE FAMOUS TWAT SHE IS TODAY …thanks to her mother’s encouragement….her spoiled brat hunger for money and to be the center of attention….then you may know that the black dick she’s sucking was rumored to be fucking Whitney Houston leading me to think that maybe the drowning…with the help of Paris Hilton….who has the master key of all Hilton hotel rooms….which coincidentally is where Whitney drowned….and where later that day Kim Kardashian brought out huge cleavage and her ethnic face….for the cameras and a Britney Spears photo opportunity….it only makes sense she fucking did it…..at the scene of the crime, angry Whitney was into her man, only to try to steal some of the attention from Whitney to shine the bright lights and cameras on her….it’s an egotistical, narcissistic, Kim Kardashian perfect murder…. Here are her tits celebrating her getting away with it.
Whitney Houston’s family was told by L.A. County Coroner officials the singer did not die from drowning, but rather from what appears to be a combination of Xanax and other prescription drugs mixed with alcohol, reports TMZ . TMZ also reported that water was found in Whitney’s lungs, but it was not enough water to lead to the conclusion that she drowned. TMZ reports that the family was told Whitney may have died before her head was submerged in water. The site also reported that it was actually Whitney’s aunt, Mary Jones, who discovered Whitney’s body in the bathtub. Initial reports suggested Whitney’s body would be flown back to Atlanta, where she lived for several years with Bobby Brown and daughter Bobbi Kristina, but CNN is now reporting that Whitney’s mother, Cissy Houston, wants Whitney’s body flown to New Jersey, where Whitney was born. RELATED: Bobbi Kristina Released From Hospital As Bobby Brown Arrives In L.A. Jennifer Hudson Sings Whitney Houston’s “I Will Always Love You” At Grammys [VIDEO] New Edition On Whitney Houston’s Death: “We Are Shocked And Saddened” Bobby Declares Love For Whitney On Stage [VIDEO] Whitney Houston Found Underwater In Bathtub [UPDATE] Whitney Houston’s Last Interview [VIDEO] Whitney Houston Dead At 48 [BREAKING NEWS]
