The Biggest Party in Toronto is Coming: 2011 MMVAs

What's going on Live.Laugh.Love readers?!

While Live.Laugh.Love. is about discussing music and pop culture, we also love to highlight some of the biggest events in Toronto. That being said, what better way than to discuss perhaps the biggest and most interactive party going on the streets of Toronto... The MuchMusic Video Awards! 

Drake

If you are not familiar with the MMVAs - basically every year MuchMusic shuts down Queen West and John Street, in order to put on the biggest and most interactive live show. It is a place where fans can get up close to some of their favourite artists. In previous years, the MMVAs have had some of the biggest names in music and pop culture such as: Lady Gaga, Drake, Miley Cyrus, Katy Perry, Kanye West, the cast of Twilight, and Justin Bieber.  

Down With Webster

This year's show is no exception with Selena Gomez as co-host and performer, as well as performances by Lady Gaga, Avril Lavigne, Bruno Mars, The Black Keys, and City and Colour. This week, MuchMusic released the list of nominees. Overall, I am pleased with the nominees, as they seem pretty well-rounded as well highlighting some of the incredible talent we have right here in Canada. Click here to check out the full list of nominees!

JLS

Last year, Jackie and I attended the award show, and got to see some of our favourite artists like Down With Webster, Katy Perry, and Drake on the red carpet - keep in mind these are just a few of the artists. We even had the chance to meet the guys from British group JLS! 

  

Ultimately, the MMVAs are an incredible event that also relies on the opinions of fans with the UR Fave categories. Voting has started and you can vote until the day of the MMVAs, click here to vote for UR Fave Artist! 

JLS

Keep your eye on Live.Laugh.Love, as we will be highlighting some of our favourite nominees all leading up to the big show! 

The MMVAs air on MuchMusic, Sunday June 19th, at 9PM! Red carpet starts at 8PM!

Katy Perry

Will you be attending this year's show?! Who are you rooting for?! Which performances are you looking forward to?! As always, leave a comment or send us a tweet @jackieopoku @sinemtekin

- Sinem Tekin-

Movie To Watch: PROM

PROM

There are many stories that we observe in Disney's latest release
PROM. The film's main character, Nova, states that prom is where the

people you have gone to school with meet under one roof and the last

four years does not mean anything; all that matters, is what the
future holds in store. Prom explores the issues that high school
students deal with prior to leaving high school. Primarily it deals
with independence, self-discovery, and relationships - as some unravel
and while others ignite. This movie is great to watch with the little
ones. As we grip onto our seats we watch as they face all the
insecurities that come along before high school's most important event
- prom.


Sinem and I got a chance to attend a private screening - before the
movie hit theatres, and met up with the cast when they dropped by
New.Music.Live for an exclusive interview. During the interview, three
of the film's stars, talked about their experiences on-set and what it
meant to them being a part of a Disney movie. Prom did a good job
making me relive my high school prom days in 90 minutes. But the most
important message of this movie is to be yourself, live life, and
always follow your heart .If you want that high school nostalgia -
like falling in love, then this is definitely the movie to see.

Seen the film? Let us know your thoughts!

Blake McGrath "Time to Move"

There are a lot of celebrities, Sinem and I have had the pleasure of meeting; 
the same can be said for the amount of live performance we 
have seen. That being said, Live.Laugh.Love. recently had the pleasure 
to see Blake McGrath perform some songs off his debut album, 
Time To Move. Blake performed two incredible songs,

his smash-hit 'Stage Fright' and his latest single 'Love Sick'. There

is no denying, the boy can move. In addition, he can sing.

I'll admit, I had a bit of a fan girl moment while he briefly sang

'Stage Fright' - I think it had a lot to do with the fact that he was

staring right at me for that brief moment *sigh... Moving on, Blake's

personality is very playful and calm; and yes ladies, his swagger

gives a very powerful performance with a bit of sex-

appeal.

More importantly. Blake is very dedicated to his fans and took the
time to sign autographs and take pictures, with fans inside and the
people waiting out in the cold outside New.Music.Live. What I loved
about the performance is his carefree attitude and confidence. His
performance truly stole the show, Blake was able to feed off the
energy that was consistently coming from the audience. My only
complaint is that I would have loved to hear more about him in an
interview. Questions I would have loved answered would be: 1. What
were his inspirations with this album? 2. What statement did you want
to make with this album? Lastly, 3. Who would you love to work with in
the future, musically?

Blake's album called Time To Move, is a master-piece of dance and
love. My personal favorite tracks are 'Lullaby' (which is dedicated to
his fans), 'Love Sick', 'Penthouse', and 'Stage Fright'. I won't lie,
I find myself listening to 'Stage Fright' on repeat, wishing and
wanting to be that girl in that video, dancing into the night with
quote on quote “the one”. I highly recommend this album and I give it
5 stars out of 5. I’m excited to hear his next album and you know
Live.Laugh.Love will be at the front of the line to watch him perform.

Backup dancer from "So You Think you can Dance"

Be sure to check out the album Time To Move on iTunes, and follow
Blake McGrath on Twitter @blakemcgrath


As always, let us know what you think, and never forget to Live.Laugh.Love.

By: Jacqueline Opoku 

Adele to Rolling Stone "I don't make music for eyes. I make music for ears."

Hello Live.Laugh.Love readers!


As many of our readers probably know by now, Jackie and I have been fans of Adele for quite sometime! If you are new to the blog, or are unfamiliar with Adele click here to read more.


I am so incredibly happy to learn that Adele is gracing the cover of Rolling Stone for their Best of Rock 2011 issue!  Nice way to redeem yourselves Rolling Stone; am I the only one still confused about the whole Snooki scenario? 


Moving on, the issue hits news stands this Friday April 15th! Inside, Adele talks about the ex who inspired her to pen material for her latest album '21' - which I'm happy to say has had massive success worldwide! In addition, she mentions her father, her weight, getting stage fright, and thoughts on female pop stars.


Here are some excerpts of the interview with Rolling Stone contributing editor Touré.


On her weight: "My life is full of drama and I won't have time to worry about something as petty as what I look like... I don't like going to the gym. I like eating fine foods and drinking nice wine. Even if I had a really good figure, I don't think I'd get my tits and ass out for no one."


Her thoughts on the image of pop stars Lady Gaga and Katy Perry, compared to her music: "I love seeing Lady Gaga's boobs and bum, I love seeing Katy Perry's boobs and bum. Love it. But that's not what my music is about. I don't make music for eyes. I make music for ears." 


To learn more click here. To read the whole interview pick up a copy of Rolling Stone when it hits news stands Friday!


As always let us know what you think! Leave a comment or hit us up on twitter @jackieopoku and @sinemtekin


- Sinem Tekin 

New.Music.Live And Emily Osment

 

Any experience at New Music Live at the  299 Queen Street West studio, is always exciting and unforgettable. It is a chance to sit and listen to great interviews of artists and groups, with hosts Phoebe and Lauren Toyota. The production team at New.Music.Live is more like a team committed to creating a great show for the audience.  When you are at the show, you get a sense of family from not just the hosts, but hype man Chris Ronchon, JP, Kwame, Brian, Kathleen, and countless others. If you love music, to dance, have a good time, and are in Toronto - Sinem and I strongly recommend attending a live taping of New.Music.Live. Be sure to follow them on twitter @NML.

Recently Live.Laugh.Love. got a chance to meet Emily Osment when she stopped by NML for an interview and performance. If you don't know, Emily is an actress and more recently, a singer. Osment had expanded into the pop music scene where she integrated the sounds of alternative indie rock. Though Osment is far from just an electro pop star; in her interview she mentioned to being fans of alternative artists as well like Damien Rice and Bon Iver.  During her interview, she talked about her new album called Fight or Flight. The album was released in Canada on September 28, 2010. She described the album as dance-pop, incorporating electropop with a little techno. Listening to her album her lyrics have a consist theme to it; love, freedom, and just living your moment.  Listening to her interview at New.Music.Live she gave details about the album, such has she co-wrote all of the songs, with several songwriters. In fact, more recently Osment tweeted about working in the studio with Marianas Trench frontman, Josh Ramsay; an indication that Osment has a strong and eclectic career ahead of her.

My personal opinion, it is very hard not to love this album. It has a classy, electropop to it. It is a party on a disc and a great listen. The album has met and gotten great reviews from critics. Emily was given praise saying her sound was like of a little star we know as Katy Perry.

Are you a fan? Let us know what you think! nd Don't forget to follow Emily Osment on Twitter on @EmilyOsment  .

- Jacqueline Opoku

E.T. has landed..

Greetings Live.Laugh.Love readers!

Jackie and I have not posted for quite sometime! The month of March has been a crazy one!! Jackie and I attended numerous events around the city - including the 40th Annual Juno Awards, which you can expect a posting about soon! 

Alright, so today Katy Perry's brand new video for E.T. - the fourth single off her sophomore release 'Teenage Dream' - was released. The video features Kanye West. This post will briefly discuss some thoughts about the video.

                            

So the opening shot has viewers looking at an artistic junkyard if you will, with a futuristic-version of the tin man (while some retro music plays in the background)... With that, cue Kanye! Now when I heard that Perry and Kanye were collaborating, I was pretty excited to hear the results, as I am a fan of both respective artists. But it seems like Kanye's verses just seem out of place all throughout this song, which sadly seems to go with the overall tone of the video.. 

In the next scene, we are introduced to an alien descending from the sky, transforming into Extra-Terrestrial'fied Katy Perry. Visually, the video is quite stunning. The art direction is quite impressive and the hair and makeup is top-notch. Ultimately, you can really tell that a lot of time, effort, and money was put into this video. Also, it's nice to see Perry try something new. I would not be surprised if people commented that the video seems a bit Gaga-esque; however, the song is called "E.T.", so you can't really expect Katy Perry to be wearing daisy-duke's and a bikini top. Also, Gaga is not the only contemporary artist that should be given the right to create a video outside of the box. Overall, I appreciate the effort Katy; but I feel like Kanye did not really need to be in the video...

To watch the full video, click here. As always, let us know what you think! Leave a comment or hit us up on twitter @jackieopoku and @sinemtekin 

Hope you are all well! And remember to Live.Laugh.Love.

- Sinem Tekin   

My Top Love Songs-Perfect For Valentines Day

“When you're in love you never really know whether your elation comes from the qualities of the one you love, or if it attributes them to her; whether the light which surrounds her like a halo comes from you, from her, or from the meeting of your sparks.  ~Natalie Clifford Barney”.

There many ways in expressing love. Love is expression through feelings, songs, poems, letters, and flowers. The list is endless. I’m sure we all have crawled up in our bedroom, wishing upon a star how our crush would recreate the famous balcony scene from Romeo and Juliet - which we have so long imagined and long for. Or maybe we’re walking through the hallways of our schools or workplace and he walked through the door singing the ultimate love song. Ok, maybe too many viewings of Moulin Rouge and High School Musical. But let's face it, we all have our favorite love songs that we play repetitively. 

Like any good musical period, the 80s until now had its fair share of love songs. Live.Laugh.Love fans I do warn you the following selections of songs have been know to be heart felt and cheesy; but in my opinion, might make you cry. Almost every artist has dotted down one or more beautiful creative love song. So, if you are trying to seduce someone here is a list of love songs to get you started.

Top 80’s Love Song

• Endless Love, Diana Ross & Lionel Richie
• Whisper, George Michael
• Up Where We Belong, Joe Cocker & Jennifer Warnes
• Against All Odds (Take a Look at Me Now), Phil Collins
• Do That To Me One More Time, Captain & Tennille
• Lady, Kenny Rogers
• Lionel Richie-hello
• Sexual Healing, Marvin Gaye
• Greatest Love Of All, Whitney Houston
• Wind Beneath My Wings, Bette Midler 
• Take My Breath Away, Berlin
• Lady In Red, Chris De Burgh
• (I Just) Died In Your Arms, Cutting Crew

Top Love Songs of the 90’s

• All My Life by K-Ci & Jojo
• Baby, I Love Your Way by Big Mountain
• Back At One  by Brian McKnight
• Because You Loved Me by Celine Dion
• Can You Feel the Love Tonight by Elton John
• Can't Help Falling in Love by UB40
• (Everything I Do) I Do It For You by Bryan Adams
• From This Moment On by Shania Twain
• Have You Ever Really Loved a Woman by Bryan Adams
• How Do I Live by LeAnn Rimes or Trisha Yearwood
• I Believe In You And Me by Whitney Houston 
• (I Do) Cherish You by 98 Degrees
• I Don't Want to Miss a Thing by Aerosmith
• I Knew I Loved You by Savage Garden
• I Will Always Love You by Whitney Houston
• I Will Remember You  by Sarah McLachlan
• I'd Do Anything For Love (But I Won't Do That) by Meatloaf
• I'll Make Love to You by Boyz II Men
• I'll Stand By You by Pretenders
• I'm Your Angel by Celine Dion and R. Kelly
• Kiss from a Rose by Seal 
• The Power of Love  by Celine Dion
• Truly, Madly, Deeply by Savage Garden
• You Mean The World To Me by Toni Braxton
• You Must Love Me by Madonna
• You Were Meant for Me by Jewel
• You're Still the One by Shania Twain
• You'll Be In My Heart by Phil Collins
• Dream Lover by Mariah Carey
• I Drive Myself Crazy by NSYNC
• As Long As You Love Me by Backstreet Boys
• I Will Always Love You by Whitney Houston

Enjoying the sounds ? Well come back tomorrow to continue the love and I will have my favorite top hit love songs from 2000-2010. And remember to always live,laugh, love.

-Jacqueline Opoku-