Music News

Iggy Azalea has been nominated for six American Music Awards (AMAs).
The 'Fancy' hitmaker leads the nominations for the annual ceremony with nods including Artist of the Year, New Artist of the Year and Single of the Year, while John Legend, Katy Perry and Pharrell Williams are up for five prizes and Lorde is in the running for four.
This year has seen a change in the coveted Artist of the Year category, with the nominations expanded from five up to 10.
Iggy, John, Katy, Pharrell, Lorde, Beyonce, Luke Bryan, Eminem, Imagine Dragons and One Direction are all up for the honour but on November 13, the nominees list will be narrowed back to five based on votes cast up until that point, and the eventual winner will be based on the total number of votes during the full period.
Single of the Year has also expanded from three to five tracks, with Iggy's 'Fancy', John's 'All of Me', Katy and Juicy J's 'Dark Horse, Pharrell's 'Happy' and 'Rude' by Magic! contesting for the prize.
Jason Derulo and Charli XCX unveiled the nominations on 'Good Morning America' today (13.10.14) and voting online and via Twitter is open for all categories except New Artist of the Year, which opens on November 1.
The AMAs will broadcast on ABC live from Los Angeles' Nokia Theatre on November 23.

American Music Awards 2014 list of nominations:
Artist Of The Year:
Iggy Azalea
Beyoncé
Luke Bryan
Eminem
Imagine Dragons
John Legend
Lorde
One Direction
Katy Perry
Pharrell Williams

New Artist Of The Year Presented By Kohl's:
5 Seconds of Summer
Iggy Azalea
Bastille
Sam Smith
Meghan Trainor

Single Of The Year:
Iggy Azalea Featuring Charli XCX - 'Fancy'
John Legend - 'All of Me'
MAGIC! - 'Rude'
Katy Perry Featuring Juicy J - 'Dark Horse'
Pharrell Williams - 'Happy'

Favourite Male Artist - Pop/Rock:
John Legend
Sam Smith
Pharrell Williams

Favourite Female Artist - Pop/Rock:
Iggy Azalea
Lorde
Katy Perry

Favourite Band, Duo Or Group - Pop/Rock:
Imagine Dragons
One Direction
OneRepublic

Favourite Album - Pop/Rock:
Lorde - 'Pure Heroine'
One Direction - 'Midnight Memories'
Katy Perry - 'Prism'

Favourite Male Artist - Country:
Jason Aldean
Luke Bryan
Blake Shelton

Favourite Female Artist - Country:
Miranda Lambert
Kacey Musgraves
Carrie Underwood

Favourite Band, Duo Or Group - Country:
Eli Young Band
Florida Georgia Line
Lady Antebellum

Favourite Album - Country:
Garth Brooks - 'Blame It On My Roots: Five Decades of Influences'
Eric Church - 'The Outsiders'
Brantley Gilbert - 'Just As I Am'

Favourite Artist - Rap/Hip-Hop:
Iggy Azalea
Drake
Eminem

Favourite Album - Rap/Hip-Hop:
Iggy Azalea - 'The New Classic'
Drake - 'Nothing Was The Same'
Eminem - 'The Marshall Mathers LP 2'

Favourite Male Artist - Soul/R&B:
Chris Brown
John Legend
Pharrell Williams

Favourite Female Artist - Soul/R&B:
Jhene Aiko
Beyoncé
Mary J. Blige

Favourite Album - Soul/R&B:
Beyoncé - 'Beyoncé'
John Legend - 'Love in the Future'
Pharrell Williams - 'G I R L'

Favourite Artist - Alternative Rock:
Bastille
Imagine Dragons
Lorde

Favourite Artist - Adult Contemporary:
Sara Bareilles
OneRepublic
Katy Perry

Favourite Artist - Latin:
Marc Anthony
Enrique Iglesias
Romeo Santos

Favourite Artist - Contemporary Inspirational:
Casting Crowns
Hillsong United
Newsboys

Favourite Artist - Electronic Dance Music (Edm):
Avicii
Calvin Harris
Zedd

Top Soundtrack:
'Frozen'
'The Fault In Our Stars'
'Guardians of the Galaxy: Awesome Mix, Vol. 1'

Madonna gave MNEK a bag of lemons and some throat-soothing tea bags to help him keep his voice in tip-top shape.
The 19-year-old singer/songwriter has teamed up with the music legend on a song for her upcoming new album and admits the 56-year-old star gave him plenty of advice about how to look after his vocal chords.
He exclusively told BANG Showbiz: "She's really cool. So lovely and very motherly. She gave me a bag full of lemons and Throat Coat tea bags. They're pretty amazing."
MNEK is set to perform at a new music initiative, MUSIC CUBE, at shopping centre Westfield London, west London, alongside Neon Jungle later this month, and the star insists it is important for new platforms to be created to promote live music for up-and-coming talent.
He added: "I'm really excited by the MUSIC CUBE concept. I love performing live and it's great to see that Westfield has created a new way for people to experience and interact with live music.
"MUSIC CUBE is also about supporting up-and-coming independent talent so I'm looking forward to seeing the other new acts over the two weekends."
MNEK and Neon Jungle will take to the stage in a bespoke soundproof glass cube at MUSIC CUBE, which is exclusive to Westfield London (October 24-26) and Westfield Stratford City (October 31-November 2).
Free tickets are available now at: http://uk.westfield.com/london/musiccube for Westfield London
http://uk.westfield.com/stratfordcity/musiccube for Westfield Stratford City. The event will be also be streamed live via KISS FM's website.

Spandau Ballet have announced their first tour since 2009. The New Romantic band are heading on the road in 2015 for the 'Soulboys of the Western World Live' show, which they will take to 12 cities across the UK. The tour is named after their new doc...

Dave Grohl explored the "regional relevance of music" while recording Foo Fighters' new album.
The 'Monkey Wrench' rockers have travelled to various cities in the US to record tracks for their new album 'Sonic Highways' - with the process captured in an accompanying TV series with the same name - and the 45-year-old singer tried to explore the musical history of each area in the process.
He said: "Basically, the process is we come to a city and we spend a week and we start recording an instrumental, because I interview all of these different musicians from that city.
"I talk about the regional relevance of the music from that city, the cultural influence, that 'made-for-the-sound' of the music.
"There's no way that you can tell the history of a city's music in one hour, so we have to do it in a way that relates to the band and goes from point A to point B and becomes a song."
Dave thought travelling to record the album would make things more interesting than just being based in one recording studio.
In an extended trailer for the 'Sonic Highways' TV series, he said: "I thought rather than just go into a studio and make another record, we could go all over the country and make a record where each song was recorded in a different studio."
A number of guests appear on the show to talk about their hometowns and occasionally jam with the rockers, and the trailer showed these include Willie Nelson, Public Enemy's Chuck D, Dolly Parton, Queens of the Stone Age rocker Josh Homme - who Dave plays with in supergroup Them Crooked Vultures - Coldplay frontman Chris Martin, Kiss' Paul Stanley, the Black Keys star Dan Auerbach, Pharrell Williams and Mike D of the Beastie Boys.
Each episode of the eight-part series features a new city and song, and ends with a performance of the track.
Dave's bandmate Pat Smear says they chose to visit Seattle, Los Angeles, Chicago, Washington, D.C., New York, Nashville, Austin and New Orleans because they all had significance to the band.
He said: "Mostly we wanted to pick cities that meant something to us."

Gene Simmons has promised not to "sugarcoat s**t" with his new talent-search show.
The KISS rocker insists he will be getting "tough" on contestants taking part in 'Coliseum' and is ready to "shatter dreams" of budding rock stars.
He told The Hollywood Reporter: "You can't sugarcoat s**t, pardon me. You can mentor anyone you like, but it's a waste of time if they don't have the goods intrinsically.
"We want to open the trap doors of life and get tough. There will be heartbreak, and people are going to cry and their dreams will be shattered, just like in real life.
"Your qualification for being on this show is you can sing in the shower? Is that it, without paying any dues or writing songs or any stagecraft?"
The 'Crazy, Crazy Nights' hitmaker believes shows such as 'American Idol' and 'The Voice' are "fantasy" because judges won't get too tough on hopefuls because honest evaluations would be a turn-off for their family audiences.
He said: "TV shows are fantasy because they're selling soap suds. It's family entertainment, it's primetime, the kids are there, and they [broadcasters] don't want to get too realistic."
And the rocker admitted 'Coliseum' - which will mix and match artists competing to find the perfect act - will value image over vocal talent.
He added: "We want to create superstars, not just singers that get record deals."

U2 guitarist The Edge had "doubts" before they agreed for their album, 'Songs of Innocence' to be an automatic download.
The rock band caused a stir when they released their latest album, 'Songs of Innocence' as an automatic download for Apple users.
Now The Edge - real name David Howell Evans - had admitted that he was worried before they agreed to the deal with the technology firm.
Talking to The Observer's The New Review, he explained: "I absolutely had my doubts about it before we did it, and after, but it was the right thing to do. It was an opportunity that will only ever come around once for anybody. I don't think anybody would want to do it again."
U2 bass player Adam Clayton then added: "The plan wasn't to be controversial. In today's world there is so much chatter, so in order to get through the chatter I'm afraid we are destined to make a very loud noise ourselves."
When asked if the stunt had backfired on the band, U2's frontman Bono said: "No, no, no, that's the duality! Intimacies through large public address systems is what we do. That's what rock'n'roll is."
The 54-year-old musician then noted that he was used to being hated after enduring derogatory comments from the public for over 30 years. He shared: "We were already annoying people, it was already divisive, it was already, 'I can't stand them, I want to kill them'. It's the job of art to be divisive."

Ed Sheeran wants some time off.
The 'Don't' hitmaker has revealed that rather than begin work on a new album he intends to take some time off from work once he's finished his world tour next year.
He explained: "I haven't had any time off since before I signed my record deal and I want some! I'll do what I enjoy and it won't feel like work."
The 23-year-old star - who has enjoyed huge success with his debut album 'Plus' and its 2014 follow-up 'X' - has teased fans that he's been working on a Christmas song, but admitted it won't be released in time for this years' festive season.
He told The Sun newspaper: "[The Christmas song] won't be out this Christmas.
"I have 'Thinking Out Loud' as a single going into Christmas.
"If I saw an artist have a string of hits, an album that did well, a hit going into Christmas and then they did a Christmas single I'd think, 'Ooh, that's overkill'.
"If my song came out next year or the year after, when I haven't released anything for a while, it will be bigger."
Meanwhile, Ed has also confessed 'Thinking Out Loud' could be the last single he releases from 'X', as he hopes to mirror the success of other popular artists.
He added: "Three is a good number. I did six on the last album and it felt too much.
"You never go away and people get p**sed off. Bruno Mars did three. Taylor Swift did three. Adele did three.
"I'll probably end up with four singles so I have a song to go into the Brit Awards with next year."

Taylor Swift stayed sober to avoid "going off the rails" like other pop stars.
The 23-year-old singer has revealed that she didn't partake in underage drinking because she worried about the rumours that might spread if she was spotted out partying, but is adamant that she didn't miss out on anything.
She said: "[I was] completely sober until I was 21! Because I knew other people can make partying look cute and edgy but, if I did, people were going to twist it into this tragic, 'America's-sweetheart-goes-off-the-rails-and-loses-her-mind' thing. So I just made sure that could never be written about me, and I don't feel like I missed out."
The 'Shake It Off' hitmaker thinks being "firm" and not agreeing to everything is an essential trait in anyone's life.
She added to Britain's Vogue magazine: "Being firm and having the ability to say no, and not feel guilty about it afterwards, is really important in any aspect of your life. Even if it's when your 16 years old and everyone at the party is wasted and you don't really feel comfortable about it."

Union J's manager pops their spots.
The 'Beautiful Life' group - comprising Josh Cuthbert, J.J. Hamblett, Jaymi Hensley and George Shelley - don't mind who helps them when they have a blemish that needs busting from their skin.
George said: "Ben our tour manager had to squeeze a spot on my back when we had a photoshoot last week. I think he enjoyed it."
Jaymi added: "My boyfriend does pop the spots on my back sometimes."
The band shot to fame after competing on 'The X Factor' in 2012 and are so close, they regularly tell one another they love them.
George said: "At the end of every phone call, we're like, 'Love you, bye'. "
Josh added: "'Love you bro' is bandied around a lot."
However, Jaymi admits he finds it "annoying" if he feels prompting into expressing his feelings.
He told We Love Pop magazine: "I only say it when I mean it. I find it annoying if I feel I have to say it so it's fine if it just comes rolling off my tongue."
And J.J. is much more open about his emotions when he has been drinking.
George said: "J.J. loves a heart to heart when he's tipsy."
Jaymi added: "When J.J. and I lived together, he came downstairs once and was like, 'Don't ever change or lose who you are."