Music News

Meghan Trainor is taking her parents to the Grammy Awards.
The 21-year-old singer is up for two prizes, Record of the Year and Song of the Year for her smash hit single 'All About That Bass', at the ceremony and will be accompanied by her father Gary and mother Kellie because she wants to share her special night with them as a thank you for their support.
Speaking to 'Access Hollywood', she said: "Both my mother and my father are coming and they're very excited. But my dad's going to be sitting right next to me. Dad has come to every event because he was a musician."
Meghan is looking forward to sharing the room with so many of her pop peers and she is hoping to run into her idol Beyoncé again.
The young musician first met the former Destiny's Child star at the Billboard Women in Music Awards and was stunned when Beyoncé told her she and her three-year-old daughter Blue Ivy were fans.
Meghan recalled: "She came up to me and held my hands and said, 'I love your music, my daughter and I listen to your songs every day and dance to them.' I freaked out. I was pretty much complete with life. I was like, 'Oh! That's it, Beyoncé likes my songs. I'm done.' "
The 57th Annual Grammy Awards will take place at the Staples Center in Los Angeles on Sunday February 8.
Other nominees include Sam Smith, Ed Sheeran, Iggy Azalea, Taylor Swift, Pharrell Williams and Miley Cyrus.

Carly Rae Jepsen is recording a new song with Dev Hynes and Ariel Rechtshaid.
The 'Call Me Maybe' hitmaker has been in the studio with British musician Dev - also known as Blood Orange - and former Foreign Born band member and acclaimed producer Ariel and says the track they've collaborated on is one of her favourites from her upcoming third album.
Carly posted a photo of the trio in the studio together on her Instagram account along with the caption: "Recorded one of my fav songs today with - @devhynes and @arielrechtshaid (sic)"
Carly, 29, has been busy working on her new LP - the follow up to 2012's 'Kiss' - and has been in the studio with producers Josh Ramsay, Ryan Stewart, Max Martin, Benny Blanco and StarGate as well as Dev and Ariel.
Dev and Ariel previously worked together on Sky Ferreira's 'Everything is Embarrassing' and Solange Knowles song 'Losing You'.
Ariel, 35, has produced successful records for numerous artists, such as Kylie Minogue, Charli XCX, Haim, Usher, Justin Bieber and Vampire Weekend.
The 2014 Grammy Producer of the Year nominee most recently worked with Madonna on her thirteenth studio effort 'Rebel Heart', which is out in March.
Carly's third album is due to be released in the first half of 2015.

Kelly Clarkson's daughter "loves" listening to her music.
The 'Since U Been Gone' hitmaker gave birth to her daughter, River Rose, in June, and despite the tot only being a few months old, she has already taken a liking to her mother's hits and cries when her mother stops singing.
The blonde beauty admitted: "She loves it.
"She's so weird man. She loves music to go to sleep to, she loves loud music. She's the perfect tour baby. She'll go to rehearsals and when we're all playing she like, loves it, and she can fall asleep, and then right when the music stops she starts crying."
However, the 32-year-old star - who is married to talent manager Brandon Blackstock - joked she hopes her daughter does not embark on a career in music because she wants her to work in healthcare.
She quipped: "Unfortunately I really want her to be a doctor or something but we're in the entertainment world so..."
On Monday (12.01.15), the singer premiered the first track, 'Heartbeat Song', to be taken from her forthcoming seventh studio album 'Piece By Piece', which she plans to release in early March.
Speaking about the LP, Kelly - whose last album 'Wrapped in Red' was released in 2013 - said she is eager for her fans to hear her new music and teased an "evolution" in her sound.
She told BBC Radio 1's Nick Grimshaw: "It's been finished for a while so I'm really stoked for everybody to hear it.
"It's really cool, it's got kinda everything on there, but it's kind of an evolution. I guess every album is for every artist."

The Prodigy wanted their new album to have a "sense of danger".
The trio will release their sixth studio album 'The Day Is My Enemy' on 30 March, and frontman Liam Howlett has said they were keen for their music to be an "attack," which is why the record sounds "so angry".
He said: "I can't tell you why this record came out so angry, I think it's just inbuilt in me.
"It's more about what I like music to do. I've always seen music I like as a form of attack. That's what I use music for, it's an attack."
Despite the hard-hitting electronic sound they are famous for on hits such as 'Firestarter' and 'Smack My Bitch Up', the 43-year-old musician said he wasn't trying to make a violent album this time around, but the result came as a result of his personal emotions.
He explained: "I didn't plan this album to sound violent, it's just the sound that came out of the studio, a kind of build up over the last 4 years. 'Anger is an energy', that's a lyric which always resonated with me. The tension is buried deep in the music right from the first drop. It's all about the sound having that sense of danger. That's what The Prodigy sound is about."
The band - which also features Maxim and Keith Flint - recently premiered their new single, 'Nasty', as well as announcing a 14-date tour which will take them across the UK.

The Prodigy's 2015 UK tour dates are:
4 May - Newcastle O2 Academy
5 May - Bridlington Spa
7 May - Birmingham O2 Academy
8 May - Cardiff Arena
9 May - Blackpool Empress Ballroom
11 May - Reading Rivermead
12 May - Brighton Centre
14 May - Bournemouth BIC
15 May - London Alexandra Palace
16 May - London Alexandra Palace

Lorde has written "amazing stuff" for her new album.
The 'Royals' hitmaker is currently working on the follow-up to her debut album 'Pure Heroine' - which was released in 2013 - and has been pleased and impressed by the lyrics she has written.
Speaking at the Golden Globes in Los Angeles on Sunday (11.01.15) - where she was nominated for Best Original Song for her contribution, 'Yellow Flicker Beat', to the soundtrack for 'The Hunger Games: Mockingjay - Part 1' - she said: "So I've written a lot of amazing stuff and I'm just tentatively starting to make it music."
The 18-year-old singer - whose real name is Ella Marija Lani Yelich-O'Connor - suggested it may be a while before the record is released however, because although she has written plenty of lyrics, she hasn't turned them into songs yet.
She explained: "For me I have to kind of write a project lyrically before I attack it musically."
On the subject of a planned release date, she admitted she is in no rush to release the collection but wants to make sure it is "different" from what she has done previously before she lets people hear it.
She told MTV: "I have no timeline. I really don't care. You have to be a different person and write a different record."
In November she joked she may wait a while before releasing new music in a bid to become a better musician, but added she may not like being at home with nothing to do, after a busy couple of years touring.
She said: "Part of me thinks that the longer I leave it, the better a musician I'll be. [Laughs] I used to do the same thing with homework! But I don't know if I'll be good at having time off."

Roger Taylor has nicknamed Adam Lambert 'Camp Elvis'.
The 32-year-old singer - who shot to fame after appearing on 'American Idol' in 2009 - now tours with Queen, and the band's original drummer says the flamboyant star reminds him of the 'Jailhouse Rock' hitmaking icon when on stage.
He joked: "My nickname for him is Camp Elvis.
"His presence and charisma reminds me of Presley in so many ways, the look, the showmanship, the overtly sexual attitude."
Although the 65-year-old musician noted Adam's resemblance to Elvis, he also admitted he thinks the singer is extremely similar to original Queen frontman Freddie Mercury, who died of an AIDS-related illness at the age of 45 in 1991.
He continued: "He is absolutely scintillating on stage, a voice in a million, and the same was true of Freddie. There are almost frightening similarities, especially socially, as an overtly gay man full of wit and banter."
Although Adam insists he has not "replaced" Freddie in the band - which is why they are billed as "Queen + Adam Lambert" when they tour together - Roger revealed he feels much closer to the late singer when he is performing with the singer-songwriter because of their similarities.
He said: "There are some moments backstage when it seems like nothing has changed at all."
Despite the faith Roger and guitarist Brian May place in the rising star, the 'If I Had You' hitmaker said he still finds it difficult performing for "die-hard" fans of the band.
Adam told the Sunday Telegraph newspaper: "I had a little bit of trouble with 'Don't Stop Me Now'.
"The guys would say, 'Hey, it's OK, you don't have to do it just like the record. Freddie used to modulate down and find ways to make parts easier for himself'.
"But Freddie was allowed to do what he wanted because it was his song. I have a different standard that I'm up against. I have to do the big note or they're gonna say I can't cut it."
[Sunday Telegraph]

Noel Gallagher laughed until he was sick when asked to pen an Oasis musical.
The 47-year-old rocker was approached to work on the "rags to riches tale" of his former band - who split in August 2009 due to tensions between himself and brother and bandmate Liam Gallagher - but couldn't take the proposal seriously.
He said: "Somebody did talk to me once about a musical, recently, an American dude. And after I'd stopped laughing, I realised that he'd walked off."
"After I'd belly-laughed and spewed up a drink, he wasn't there any more, so I don't think it'll be happening any time soon!"
While Noel doesn't want to write a musical, fellow musician Sting recently debuted 'The Last Ship' on New York's Broadway but the production closed after less than three months but the 'In the Heat of the Moment' singer doesn't have much sympathy for the former Police frontman.
Noel quipped to XFM: "Some people have no taste, I find that staggering that people would not go and see a musical about a Geordie fella who doesn't speak in a Geordie accent who used to be in a band with a jazz drummer whose dad was in the CIA about him growing up in a shipyard.
"The mind boggles."
Meanwhile, Noel also admitted he is keeping the weekend of Glastonbury Festival free even though he hasn't been asked to perform there, despite repeatedly airing his desire to play.
He said: "It's still very much up in the air as far as I know," said Noel. "If I'm not playing, I'm going! So I'll be there. I always keep that weekend free if I can. I will state again I'm available, I'm gonna be there, shall I bring my amp and guitar? Shall I?"

Mark Ronson gets "messed up" when he thinks about working with Stevie Wonder.
The 'Uptown Funk' hitmaker was left "speechless" when the legendary singer agreed to lend his vocals to 'Uptown's First Finale' - the first track on the producer's new album 'Uptown Special' - and still can't believe the 'Superstition' star agreed to the collaboration.
Discussing the track, he said: "The melody to this piece was completely inspired by the first set of lyrics that Michael [Chabon, novelist] sent me. And although I loved the lyrics, for some reason I kept hearing the melody as if it were being played by Stevie Wonder with his signature harmonica tone.
"His harmonica playing can really turn me inside out, just as his singing does.
"Anyway, I thought what the hell and sent a 'hail-Mary' letter to his manager with the song ... and a few months later, he recorded it!
"When I first heard it, it was one of the most emotional experiences I've ever had. I was dumbfounded, speechless, whatever word you want to use, I was all of those things.
"I still can't believe somewhere in a studio in Chicago one night, Stevie Wonder actually recorded a piece of music that I wrote. I've listened to it a hundred times and it still messes me up when I play it."
Mark also revealed another track on the album, 'In Case of Fire', was inspired by singer/songwriter Rufus Wainwright.
In a track-by-track guide to the album for the Guardian, he wrote: "I wrote this guitar riff while working on Rufus Wainwright's last album, 'Out of the Game'. It was partly inspired by a cello line he wrote for the song 'Jericho'. I really loved it but it didn't fit his record and I didn't know if I'd ever get to use it. But then a year or so later, I came up with the verse chords (inspired by some Michael Chabon lyrics that we never used) and everything seemed to fit together pretty well."

Fleur East has signed to Syco Records.
The 26-year-old finished second in the 'X Factor' after Ben Haenow won the competition last month, but Simon Cowell has decided to sign the star up to his record label, and hopes to release her debut album later this year.
The music mogul said: "Fleur proved what a star she was on the show last year and we now look forward to starting work on her record".
Confirming the news on social media, the company - who also have the likes of One Direction, Ella Henderson, Labrinth and Olly Murs on their extensive roster - wrote: "BREAKING NEWS: Fleur East signs to Syco. The X Factor finalist will release her debut album later this year."
The contract was reportedly finalised last week - less than a month after the end of the ITV singing competition - with the head judge keen to personally oversee her career.
An 'X Factor' insider told The Sun newspaper: "It's unprecedented for Simon to personally sign one of the runners-up. But it's a sign he believes Fleur is going to be a massive star."
The 55-year-old talent scout and producer was wowed by the rising star when she sang the Mark Ronson and Bruno Mars hit 'Uptown Funk' on the show, branding it "the greatest performance" he had seen on the programme, with the cover rising to the number one spot in the iTunes chart just 24 hours later.
Losing out in 2008, JLS went on to become a hugely successful pop quartet, and now former member JB Gill says he is sure Fleur has a prosperous career ahead of her.
He said: "Ben's great but Fleur's a really old friend. She was brilliant.
"She'll have a career. We came second and we did all right. Next year will be exciting for her."