Xposition - August 2015

Attention!!!

The month did not start with drama but it sure ended with a bang. The 2015 Teen Choice Awards were held in August with One Direction being the biggest winners of the night winning 8 out of their 10 nominations including Music Group: Male, Summer Music Star: Group, Summer Tour, Music Single: Group and Love Song. Top notch performances included Rachel Platten's Fight Song, Little Mix's Black Magic and 5 Seconds of Summer's She's Kinda Hot. Other winners of the night in music were:

• Male Artist - Ed Sheeran
• Female Artist - Demi Lovato
• Music Group: Female - Fifth Harmony
• Music Single: Female - Ariana Grande - One Last Time
• Music Single: Male - Ed Sheeran - Thinking Out Loud
• Breakout Artist - Little Mix
• Song From a Movie/TV Show - Wiz Khalifa ft. Charlie Puth - See You Again (Furious 7)

Of course the drama that we all anticipated, may be scripted may be not, went down at the 2015 MTV Video Music Awards hosted by none other than Miley Cyrus. Nicki Minaj and Taylor Swift settled the score for their pre-VMA twitter spat on stage when the two performed on stage with Nicki Minaj's Trini Dem Girls and The Night is Still Young and Taylor Swift's Bad Blood. Other good performances included The Weeknd's global smash hit Can't Feel My Face, Justin Bieber with a medley of Where Are U Now and his newest single What Do You Mean and Demi Lovato with her new single Cool for the Summer accompanied by Iggy Azalea. 

Before we get to the awards let's talk about the drama. Before the ceremony Miley Cyrus earlier commented about the Nicki Minaj-Taylor Swift twitter spat in her interview to the New York Times and it was not in favour of Minaj, so when Minaj came on stage to accept her award for Best Hip-Hop Video for Anaconda, she asked Cyrus who was on stage what the bitch's deal was in making comments about her to the press. Cyrus as a host was too much to take with her partial nudity and language and at one point she even flashed the crowds. 

But the icing on the cake was when an inebriated Kanye West, the recipient of the coveted Michael Jackson Video Vanguard Award announced his candidacy for the 2020 US Presidential Election. Other highlights included Taylor Swift premiering her video for the newest single Wildest Dreams and also Miley Cyrus' surprise release of her newest album Miley Cyrus & Her Dead Petz accompanied by the performance of her newest single off the album - Dooo It!

Now getting back to the awards, Taylor Swift proved her might by winning the Video of the Year for Bad Blood and she also won three more awards including Best Female Video and Best Pop Video both for Blank Space and Best Collaboration for Bad Blood with Kendrick Lamar. Some of the other significant recipients were:

• Best Male Video: Mark Ronson ft. Bruno Mars - Uptown Funk
• Artist to Watch: Fetty Wap - Trap Queen
• Best Rock Video: Fall Out Boy - Uma Thurman
• Best Video with a Social Message: Big Sean ft. Kanye West & John Legend - One Man Can Change The World
• Song of Summer: 5 Seconds of Summer - She's Kinda Hot 

Now moving onto the charts, in the US OMI's Cheerleader (Felix Jaehn Remix) continued to reign for three weeks at the top only to be replaced by The Weeknd's Can't Feel My Face for one week which was again taken over by Cheerleader in the fifth and final week. It is evident that The Weeknd will dethrone OMI in the weeks to come. Rachel Platten's Fight Song peaked at N.6 during the month while Major Lazer & DJ Snake ft. MO's Lean On peaked at No.4. Meanwhile, One Direction's newest single Drag Me Down debuted at No.3 the highest debut for this year. It has been a great year for Fetty Wap with his first three singles reaching the top 10 of the Billboard Hot 100. He sets a record in the US as he is the first act to simultaneously chart first four charting singles in the top 10 of Hot Rap Songs. 

In the UK, Little Mix's Black Magic continued their reign from July through to the first two weeks of August only to be replaced by One Direction's Drag Me Down. This was followed by Charlie Puth ft. Meghan Trainor's Marvin Gaye and Jess Glynne's Don't Be So Hard On Yourself with the fourth and fifth weeks respectively. With her latest hit, Jess Glynne matches Cheryl Cole's record for the most number of Number One hits by a British Female Sole Artist on the UK Singles Chart. 

Some of the other popular hits during the month were:

• Sigma ft. Ella Henderson - Glitterball
• Fetty Wap ft. Remy Boyz - 679
• Shawn Mendes - Stitches 
• X Ambassadors - Renegades
• Meghan Trainor ft. John Legend - Like I'm gonna lose you 
• Hailee Steinfeld - Love myself 
• Elle King - Ex's & Oh's 

Till the next beat...

At Ease!!!

Xposition - July 2015

Attention!!!

July was a month of controversy. It all started when Donald Trump, a Republican candidate for the US presidency made defamatory remarks about Hispanic immigrants which lead to many artists pulling out of the Miss USA Pageant which is organized by the Trump owned Miss Universe Organization. Among them were Flo Rida, Natalie La Rose and J. Balvin. 

Then we move onto Ariana Grande who went on a famous donut licking rampage which almost landed her in jail. Moreover, during the incident she went on to say "I hate America, I hate Americans" which resulted in a heavy social media backlash against the artist who has since apologized for the whole incident. One thing for sure, Grande won't be licking anything for a while. 

Next up, the MTV Video Music Awards 2015 is to be held on August 30, 2015. Since the organizers cannot let Miley Cyrus perform on stage after the blurred lines debacle of 2013, the producers of the awards show have asked her to host the damn thing. Well, let's hope there's no bong on stage because we all know she smoked a joint once when accepting an award.

The VMAs announced their nominations and Taylor Swift is nominated for nine including Video of the Year. Ed Sheeran is nominated for six while Hozier, Nicki Minaj and Ariana Grande have all been nominated for multiple awards. But Minaj felt snubbed for her videos Anaconda and Feeling Myself alongside Beyonce which were both snubbed by MTV. "If your video celebrates women with very slim bodies, you will be nominated for vid of the year" tweeted Minaj. Swift however took this personally and tweeted "I've done nothing but love & support you. It's unlike you to pit women against each other. Maybe one of the men took your slot.." While the two exchanged barbs back and forth social media and the fan armies of the two artists took the war to another level leading to a huge debate about Black Fat Women vs. White Slim Women. However, since then Swift has apologized on twitter for reading too much into the post and misunderstanding and Minaj has accepted. Await another hit single next year by Swift motivated by the Minaj incident. 

The Teen Choice Awards 2015 is also around the corner with Ludacris, Josh Peck and Gina Rodriguez hosting this year. Some new categories such as Choice Web Star, Social Media King, Social Media Queen and Choice Twit have been introduced. Swift and the ladies from Pitch Perfect 2 are leading the nominations with each nominated for six categories.

Tomorrowland 2015, was also held in Boom, Belgium from 24-26 July 2015 with headlining acts from Steve Aoki, David Guetta, Martin Garrix, Hardwell, Alesso, Armin Van Buuren and Afrojack. This time with the festival was following the new theme Melodia. 

Well, I guess there is only one way for a Brown to go. Bobby Brown and Whitney Houston's daughter Kristina who was found face down in a bathtub earlier this year was under a medically induced coma after which in late July she passed away. Her mother Whitney Houston died under similar circumstances but the coroner in her case concluded that there was evidence of substance abuse prior to drowning in the bathtub. RIP Kristina.

Moving on to chart news, in the US Wiz Khalifa ft. Charlie Puth's See You Again held on to the peak position for the first three weeks of the month and tying for the longest leading Rap No.1 on the Billboard Hot 100 alongside Black Eyed Peas' Boom Boom Pow. However, OMI's Cheerleader (Felix Jaehn Remix) claimed the top spot during the last week of July thereby preventing Wiz Khalifa from breaking the record. During the month Selena Gomez ft. A$AP Rocky's Good For You, Diplo & Skrillex ft. Justin Bieber's Where Are U Now, Rachel Platten's Fight Song, Silento's Watch Me and The Weeknd's Can't Feel My Face all entered the top 10. 

In the UK, the month started off with Tinie Tempah ft. Jess Glynne's Not Letting Go at the top followed by Lost Frequencies' Are You With Me and David Zowie's House Every Weekend peaking in the second and third weeks respectively. However, it was Little Mix's newest single Black Magic which crowned the last two weeks of July. During the month Flo Rida ft. Robin Thicke & Verdine White's I Don't Like It, I Love It, Rita Ora's Poison, Years & Years' Shine, Avicii's Waiting For Love, Fifth Harmony ft. Kid Ink's Worth It and James Bay's Let It Go all entered the top 10.

Other songs which became popular during the month were:

• Krept & Konan ft. Jeremih - Freak of the week
• Birdy - Wings
• Calvin Harris with Disciples - How deep is your love
• John Newman - Come and get it
• Demi Lovato - Cool for the summer 
• Fall Out Boy - Uma Thurman 
• Sam Feldt ft. Kimberley Anne - Show me love 

At Ease!!!