Hello people of the internet!!! On today’s ‘YouTube Wednesday’ we’re going to talk about everyone’s favorite part of Christmas…the music! It’s always so much fun to hear our favorite Christmas songs covered by amazing artists, so I thought that it would be fun to countdown ‘The Top 3 Christmas Covers of 2015’. One of these covers isn’t from an actual YouTube artist, but it was so amazing that I just had to include it. So now let’s get to the music! Ready? Ok, let’s go!!!
3) ‘Silent Night – Jason Chen x Marie Digby x Ana Free’:
The first cover that we’re going to talk about is Jason Chen, Marie Digby, and Ana Free’s cover of Silent Night. This is a true Christmas classic that has been covered by numerous artists, but never gets old. I really love his cover because we get to experience 3 amazing vocalists who are able to show us a unique rendition of this song that you will definitely not forget.
2) ‘All I Want For Christmas Is You – MINOR KEY! Kurt Hugo Schneider ft. Chase Holfelder’:
Ok I have to admit that I’m soooo obsessed with this cover, and trust me after listening to it you will be too! If you have heard any of Kurt Hugo Schneider’s covers then you know that he makes beautiful and brilliant musical arrangements, however this has to be one of his best ideas ever. ‘All I Want For Christmas is You’ is already an amazing song that we all love, but performing the entire song in a minor key gives the song a hauntingly beautiful quality that will have you pressing that replay button again and again.
1)‘Mary Did You Know – Cover by Jordan Smith’:
Now we’ve reached the #1 spot! Although Jordan isn’t a YouTuber, I couldn’t resist putting this INCREDIBLE cover on the list. This rendition not only shows off Jordan’s amazing talent and range as a vocalist, but also shows us that he is a true entertainer that can instantly mesmerize his audience. As soon as you see this incredible cover you will seriously want to hop over to iTunes and buy it because it is so insanely beautiful. The only thing that you will be left wondering after hearing this cover is how is he going to top this amazing performance. I know we all can’t wait to see!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M7Ux80jK3bI
All photos and information used in this blog belong to YouTube, thetimesweekly.com, Jason Chen, Marie Digby, Ana Free, Franz Xaver Gruber, Joseph Mohr, Kurt Hugo Schneider, Chase Holfelder, Mariah Carey, Columbia Records, Walter Afanasieff, Jordan Smith, The Voice, NBC, John de Moi, Mark Burnett, Audrey Morrissey, Stijn Bakkers, Lee Metzger, Ashley Baumann, Amanda Borden, Carson Daly, Keith Dinielli, May Johnson, Bart Kimball, Michael Matsumoto, David Offenheiser, Dan Paschen, Kyley Tucker, Teddy Valenti, Warner Horizon Television, Mark Burnett Productions, One Three Media, United Artists Media Group, Endemol Group, Talpa, Tien, Warner Bros. Television Distribution, Mark Lowry, Buddy Greene, Michael English, Gaither Vocal Band, all of the people, corporations, businesses, companies, etc mentioned and/or shown in any hauls and/or any videos used and/or mentioned in this blog post, and all other original owners. I do not own anything in this blog. If any people, corporations, businesses, companies, etc, were not previously given credit for their work, they are given credit now and their previous absence was unintentional. All opinions expressed in this blog are my own. I wrote this blog for entertainment purposes and no copyright infringement is intended.
Hello people of the internet!!! On today’s ‘Monday Memos’, we are going to recap the ‘2015 Billboard Music Awards’ (yay!!!). This year’s ‘Billboard Music Awards’ were hosted by rapper/actor Ludacris, and model Chrissy Teigen, and was definitely a show that we’ll be talking about for the rest of the year. One part of the show that we were all looking forward to was the premiere of Taylor Swift’s ‘Bad Blood’ music video. With a large cast of celebrities such as: model/actress Cara Delevingne, supermodel Cindy Crawford, and actresses Hailee Steinfeld, Selena Gomez, Lena Dunham, Zendaya, and many more. The music video was very action packed and had a very cool futuristic spy feel to it. This video was definitely unlike anything we have seen from Taylor, and really shows her evolution as an artist. Not only is Taylor an inspiration to all aspiring popstars out there, her impressive new video may also inspire any up and coming videographers that want to have their own success within the music industry. It can be tough to make waves in the music video scene, but one potential way to get ahead is by having the very best equipment in order to obtain the best shots possible. As a director, you could do this by investing in something like the Mavic Mini drone, as this could allow you to get shots that none of your competitors will be able to keep up with, and you may find yourself directing your own Taylor Swift video one day. Now let’s move on to the awards, and finally the performances (I’m only going to include a few of the awards & performances that were shown during the show, because if I included everything, I would have y’all here all day. If you want to see the full list of winners and performances, check out billboard.com). So are y’all ready? Ok, let’s go! Awards: Top Duo or Group: One Direction We all had to see this one coming because One Direction has been an unstoppable force ever since their first single dropped in the U.S. They have won tons of awards, broken numerous records, and were recently named the first band in U.S. Billboard history to have their first four debut albums debut at #1.
Top Billboard 200 Album: 1989 by Taylor Swift Ok now we all know how well 1989 did this year, but honestly what else would you expect from Taylor Swift!?! With hit singles that stayed in our heads all year like Shake It Off, Blank Space, and Style, it’s no wonder that 1989 has ruled 2015 so far.
Top Male Artist: Sam Smith Now if you’ve listened to the radio at all this year, you are very familiar with Sam Smith’s music. His debut album ‘In The Lonely Hour’ went platinum, and won Best Pop Vocal Album at the 2015 Grammy Awards. Needless to say he’s had an AMAZING year.
Top Female Artist: Taylor Swift With the success of 1989, it’s obvious that Taylor Swift would have a great chance of winning this award so I honestly don’t think that anyone would be surprised here.
Top Hot 100 Song: ‘All About That Bass’ by Meghan Trainor Now you know you’ve been singing along to this one ever since it first came out. The fact that ‘All About That Bass’ has gone platinum 6 times in the U.S. definitely proves that Meghan deserves this award. I honestly don’t see this song’s popularity dwindling, and we wouldn’t have it any other way.
Top Artist: Taylor Swift Again it’s Taylor Swift, she seriously ruled the radio waves this year so none of us are even surprised here.
Performances: Nick Jonas ‘Jealous’: So first of all we have to talk about is Nick Jonas’ performance of ‘Jealous’. This song was a really big hit for Nick this year, and the excitement of the crowd showed that this song is still a hit with fans. This performance had a lot of cool elements to it, such as awesome backboard graphics that really made this performance stand out. All in all this was a really cool performance that fans loved from beginning to end.
Mariah Carey ‘Vision of Love’ & ‘Infinity’: Mariah Carey wowed us next with a performance that had everyone’s attention. She began her performance with her debut hit single ‘Vision of Love’, which is a song that we all still hold near and dear to our hearts. Next up we got to hear her new track ‘Infinity’. This performance definitely showed that Mariah is still able to impact is with her music, and will be an artist that we’ll keep coming back to for infinity.
Wiz Khalifa feat. Charlie Puth ‘See You Again’: Ok now this is a song that we all have had on repeat for a while now and honestly you have to admit that you still cry whenever you hear it (Honestly how many times have you seen that music video featuring Paul Walker and just started to cry. #RIPPaulWalker). At the award show Wiz and Charlie were joined by YouTube star Lindsey Sterling who, as usual, blew us away with her amazing violin skills as. The vibe of the performance was very intimate and chilled which definitely made us all want to seriously cry. The emotionally charged lyrics were definitely front and center during this performance, due to Charlie and Wiz’s ability to deliver the song in a way that made us all feel the message of the song (seriously when Charlie started choking up during the song, I thought that I was going to lose it).
Britney Spears & Iggy Azalea ‘Pretty Girls’: This was another performance that everyone was looking forward too, because we love Britney, and we love Iggy, so when you put them together it’s just perf! This performance had a very 80s feel to it, and was such a fun number to watch. It was so interesting to see these two collab because their musical styles are so different, so it’s exciting to see what they will each do next.
Tori Kelly ‘Nobody Love’: The ‘Kia One To Watch Artist’ Tori Kelly was up next, and she really showed how talented she truly is. It was amazing to see her completely captivate the audience without any special staging or effects. It really made you feel like you were able to personally connect with Tori and fall even more in love with her music. This performance made me really excited to see what’s next for her.
Simple Minds ‘Don’t You (Forget About Me): This was certainly one of the night’s most talked about performance, due to the fact that the cult classic movie ‘The Breakfast Club’ turned 30 this year. This performance had a very rock concert sort of vibe and the crowd was just completely hooked from beginning to end. It’s really fun to see so many different people rocking out to their favorite song, and the energy was definitely brought up A LOT during the this performance.
Imagine Dragons ‘Stand By Me’ (Ben E. King cover): The last performance that we’re going to discuss is Imagine Dragon’s amazing performance of ‘Stand By Me’. This is a song that we all know and love, so it was so great to see that Imagine Dragons did their best to keep the original feel of the song intact, and molded their musical style to best fit the song. This was another tear jerking moment due to Ben E. King’s tragic passing recently, but I thought that this was a beautiful way for his incredible talent to be honored.
All credit goes to unrealitytv.co.uk, Billboard Music Awards, Taylor Swift, Ludacris, Chrissy Teigen, billboard.com, Cara Delevingne, Cindy Crawford, Hailee Steinfeld, Selena Gomez, Lena Dunham, Zendaya, One Direction, Syco Records, Columbia Records, 1989, Big Machine Records, Max Martin, Jack Antonoff, Nathan Chapman, Imogen Heap, Greg Kurstin, Mattman & Robin, Ali Payami, Shellback, Ryan Tedder, Noel Zancanella, Shake It Off, Republic Records, Sam Smith, In The Lonely Hour, PMR, Columbia Records, Method, Jimmy Napes, Steve Fitzmaurice, Komi, Naughty Boy, Two Inch Punch, Eg White, Fraser T Smith, All About That Bass, Meghan Trainor, Epic Records, Kevin Kadish, Nick Jonas, Jealous, Island Records, Jealous, Sir Nolan, Nolan Lambroza, Simon WIlcox, Mariah Carey, Ben Margulies, Rhett Lawrence, Narada Michael Walden, Columbia Broadcasting System, Sony Music Entertianment, Legacy Recordings, Eric Hudson, Priscilla Renea, Taylor Parks, IIsey Juber, Wiz Khalif, Charlie Puth, See You Again, Paul Walker, Lindsey Sterling, Atlantic Records, DJ Frak E, Andrew Cedar, Marcos de Silva, Britney Spears, Iggy Azalea, Pretty Girls, Rostrum Records, Taylor Gang Records, George Astasio, Jason Pebworth, Jon Shave, Maegan Cottone, Perrie Edwards, Jesy Nelson, Leigh-Anne Pinnock, Jade Thirlwall, The Invisible Men, Jive Records, RCA Records, Def Jam Records, Mercury Records, Grand Hustle Records, Virgin EMI Records, Tori Kelly, Nobody Love, Capitol Records, Savan Kotecha, Rickard Goransson, SImple Minds, A&M Records, Keith Forsey, Steve Schiff, Virgin Records, The Breakfast Club, Universal Pictures, John Hughes, Ned Tanen, A&M Films, Channel Productions, Imagine Dragons, Ben E. King, Stand by Me, KIDinaKORNER, Interscope Records, Atco Records, Stand by Me, Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller, Atco Records, Atlantic Records, Ichiban Records, all of the businesses, companies, people, and any other original owners that should receive credit for anything mentioned in this blog post, and all original owners. I do not own anything in this blog. If any people, corporations, businesses, companies, etc, were not previously given credit for their work, they are given credit now and their previous absence was unintentional. All opinions expressed in this blog are my own. I wrote this blog for entertainment purposes and no copyright infringement is intended
Hello people of the internet!!! On today’s ‘Monday Memos’ blog, we will be discussing an artist that has had an amazing year, and that I feel you need to keep an eye on her next year. Now who is this artist you ask? I’m glad you asked that! It’s the multitalented Ariana Grande (Cue the clapping!!!!!) 2013 was a very good year for Ariana, but she has worked for years to get to this point in her life, and she certainly deserves all the success she has had. So if for some strange reason you don’t know who Ariana Grande is, you will definitely know about her after you read this blog. Ready!? Well then let’s get started!
Ariana Grande:
Ariana was born on June 26th, 1993 in Boca Raton, FL. She began performing in local theater production and at local sporting events at a young age, and even at this time, she had an amazing voice, as well as a comfort and ease in front of large crowds. Here’s a link to a video of a then 8 year old Ariana performing the national anthem at Chicago Blackhawks vs. Florida Panthers hockey game in Sunrise, FL Ariana Grande at 8 years old singing National Anthem – YouTube (Watch the video and you’ll be impressed…did you watch it? It was great right?) In 2008 Ariana began work on the Jason Robert Brown musical 13 (which was a show that had a 105 performance run on Broadway). She played the character of ‘Charlotte’, and sang 3 songs (which included: ‘It Can’t Be True’, ‘A Little More Homework’, and ‘Brand New You’) on the show’s album.
In March of 2010 Ariana made her debut as a main cast member on the new Nickelodeon show ‘Victorious’ (the show stared Nickelodeon alum Victoria Justice, and Ariana’s former ‘13’ costar Elizabeth Gillies was also a part of the cast). Ariana played the role of ‘Cat Valentine’ on the show until ‘Victorious ended in February of 2013. ‘Victorious’ creator Dan Schneider was so impressed by Ariana’s work and fan reception on ‘Victorious’, that he cast her in a spin-off show called ‘Sam & Cat’, which also included ‘iCarly’ (another highly successful Nickelodeon show) alum Jennette McCurdy (who plays Sam on the girls spin-off show). ‘Sam and Cat’ aired in June of 2013, and is a situational comedy, which has been a huge hit for the network thus far. In August of 2013, Ariana starred as ‘Amanda Benson’, in the Nickelodeon movie ‘Swindle’.
Although Ariana has had great success as an actress, she is also an accomplished singer. She released a single in December of 2011 called ‘Put Your Hearts Up’, which was a pop song about how doing small good deeds can cause big changes in the world (Here’s a link to a lyric video of the song Ariana Grande – Put Your Hearts Up (+ Lyrics) – YouTube, I highly suggest checking out his song, it’s very inspirational and well sung). Ariana has also released many amazing covers over the past few years, such as a rendition of Mariah Carey’s hit ‘Emotions’( Emotions – Ariana Grande (Mariah Carey cover) – YouTube), Leona Lewis’ track ‘Bleeding Love (’Bleeding Love – Ariana Grande – YouTube), and Alicia Key’s hit track ‘If I ain’t got you’ (‘If I Ain’t Got You’ Ariana Grande 🙂). On September 3rd, 2013, Ariana released her debut album ‘Yours Truly’ through Republic Records. ‘Yours Truly’ sold 138,000 copies in it, making Ariana the first female artist since January 2010 (when Ke$ha’s album ‘Animal’) to have a #1 debut album. The overall sound of this album was much more R&B than Ariana’s previous song ‘Put Your Hearts Up’, and has caused her to be compared to strong female vocalist, such as Mariah Carey. Ariana has performed on numerous shows such as ‘The Today Show’, ‘Dancing with the Stars’, and the ‘MTV Video Music Awards’ pre-show. Ariana performed her song ‘Tattooed Heart’ at the 2013 American Music Awards, and also won ‘New Artist of the Year’ at the award show (here’s a link so y’all can see how awesome she was: .Ariana Grande performing at AMAs – YouTube). Ariana also released
2013 has certainly been an extraordinary year for Ariana Grande, and I foresee 2014 being an even better year for her. It is rumored that Ariana will release another album in 2014, and her show ‘Sam & Cat’ is still one of Nickelodeon’s highest rated shows. Ariana Grande has definitly proven in the last year that she is Hollywood’s newest “It” girl, and she certainly has the talent and fan base for a long and fruitful career. Her fan base is particularly astounding and she now has an incredible 159.9 million followers on Instagram, making her the second-highest followed star in the WORLD! Her posts and stories are amazing – if you are one of the many millions who follow Ariana on Instagram then you might be interested in igstories, an app that allows you to save Instagram stories.
All photos and information used in this blog belong to Ariana Grande, Dan Schneider, Republic Records, Universal Music Group, Victoria Justice, Nickelodeon, John Robert Brown, IMDB, YouTube, Jennette McCurdy, Chicago Blackhawks, Florida Panthers, The NHL, Elizabeth Gillies, Ke$ha, Mariah Carey, The Today Show, Dancing with the Stars, MTV, The American Music Awards, Alicia Keys, Leona Lewis, Columbia Records, J Records, Syco Entertainment, Zimbio.com, and all other original owners. I do not own anything in this blog. All opinions expressed in this blog are my own. I wrote this blog for entertainment purposes and no copyright infringement is intended.
music! It’s always so much fun to hear our favorite Christmas songs covered by amazing artists, so I thought that it would be fun to countdown ‘The Top 3 Christmas Covers of 2015’. One of these covers isn’t from an actual YouTube artist, but it was so amazing that I just had to include it. So now let’s get to the music! Ready? Ok, let’s go!!! 
