Music power couple has their first child

http://www.singleblackmale.org/2012/01/09/jay-z-beyonce-ivy-blue-and-the-importance-of-timing-in-love/jay-z-beyonce-pregnant-baby-bump/

Finally after many rumors about Beyonce and Jay-z's child, what has to be one of the most famous babies, has finally been born. Many, many rumors have been made about Beyonce and Jay-Z's newborn child, starting out with a rumor that the child was born around New Years. More rumors came when the child was born, saying that the couple rented out an entire floor for around $1 million in the NYC Lenox Hill Hospital to keep their privacy. Those were both just rumors, especially the first one because Beyonce gave birth to their first child/daughter Blue Ivy Carter on Saturday, January 7, 2012 at the NYC Lenox Hill Hospital. This baby was more famous then I'll ever be before she was even born! The anticipation for this child has been huge! I and I think many others, have been wondering what they would name her. After speculation on whether it was Ivy Blue Carter or Blue Ivy Carter, it was finally confirmed to be Blue Ivy. I think it's a beautiful name and defiantly unique which is perfect for the child of two of the most major hiphop artist of this century, known to be music's most powerful couple (click here for more info). Although the reason for their daughter's name has never been confirmed officially by Beyonce or Jay-z, people think they have thought of a reasonable explanation. Blue is supposedly Jay-z's favorite color and has defiantly been brought up by him before. Three of his albums have blue within the title, Blueprint, Blueprint 2: the Gift and the Curse, and Blueprint 3. The explanation for Ivy has been thought to be that it represents the Roman numeral IV which is an important number to the couple. Their birthdays both involve the 4th, (Beyonce's being September 4th and Jay-z's being December 4th). They got married on April 4, 2008 and supposedly they have the same "IV" tattoo on their wedding fingers. Beyonce's most recent album, her 4th album, is named 4. So there's obviously big significance in both Blue and Ivy. Beyonce and Jay-z both stayed pretty private about their daughter at first. The news of Blue's birth started by many close friends of the couple tweeting them congratulations. The couple announced their daughter's birth on Monday, January 9, 2012 and cleared up some rumors of Beyonce having a c section by saying that Blue was born naturally at 7 lbs. I'm so happy to hear about their daughter and I'm so happy for the couple. I think they deserve health and happiness for all three of them and I wish them all the best in the future. I can't wait to see and hear about Blue growing up having music's most powerful couple as her parents. She defiantly has amazing influences in her life because Oprah, who I think is the most powerful women in the world, is Blue's godmother. I'm excited to see if she grows up loving the spot light or being hidden from it, or if she grows up a singer like her parents. I get so caught up in this kind of news and I can't wait to see a picture of her. No pictures have been released yet, so fingers crossed they come out soon!! 

More information about Blue's twitter welcome can be found here, information about Blue's name can be confirmed here, and information about Beyonce and Jay-z's announcement of their daughter's birth can be confirmed here.

"Safe and Sound"

http://www.moviefanatic.com/gallery/the-hunger-games-safe-and-sound/

December 22 started out as a typical day during break for me and thousands of other Taylor Swift and Hunger Game fans, but once Taylor Swift started tweeting about an upcoming surprise she had for her fans, I knew it wasn't going to be another normal day. She then tweeted "And this is it, the big surprise... Go get it! #The HungerGames" With a link to a picture of the "Safe and Sound" cover. Here's Taylor's tweets hinting to her fans about the surprise.

http://theswiftagency.com/2011/12/23/safe-and-sound-taylor-swift-and-the-civil-wars-new-song-for-the-hunger-games/

Safe and Sound is a song on the Hunger Games, a upcoming movie, soundtrack sung by Taylor and featuring the Civil Wars. This news from Taylor on twitter started spreading and soon "Safe and Sound" was trending and became the top trending topic on twitter in the U.S. and the second most trending topic on twitter in the world. Soon enough, later that day, "Safe and Sound" became the number one song on iTunes, which Taylor later tweeted thanking her fans for doing. I was at a friend's house when i checked twitter and heard the news that Taylor had a new song out. The first thing I did when I got home was I went on iTunes and bought the song. I then listened to the song and was so shocked by what I heard. "Safe and Sound" is a completely new sound from anything I've heard Taylor do before. The song is an acoustic ballad and it is so beautiful to hear. The blend of her voice and the Civil Wars is just breathtaking. I then listened to it on repeat in my room from then on. I think the lyrics are amazing like every other song Taylor has written. The composers of the song are Taylor Swift, Joy Williams, John Paul White, and T Bone Burnett. The chorus is, "Just close your eyes, the sun is going down. You'll be all right, no one can hurt you now. Come morning light, you and I'll be safe and sound." My favorite song lyric though is, "Don't you dare look out your window darling everything's on fire. The war outside our door keeps raging on. Hold on to this lullaby, even when the music's gone." The full lyrics to the song can be found here. The music just moves me, you can listen to it by playing the video below. I really recommend you go and buy it on iTunes.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YFEDTtKaFzU&feature=player_embedded

Any facts in this post can be backed up here.

Taylor Swift's 22nd Birthday!!!

found on

It's December 13 and guess what that means?!?! It's Taylor Swift's birthday!! She's turning 22 today and in honor of her and her many, many achievements, I'm dedicating this post to her. It's no wonder her lucky number is 13 considering her birthday is on the 13th. Most people would take that as a bad luck sign, but not her, she seems to be getting all the luck these days with her amazing album, Speak Now, which has been out for over a year now, her unbelievable Speak Now World Tour, becoming a CoverGirl, and her amazing achievements and awards she's received recently.

found on

by me

Taylor Swift's amazing career all started when she was just 16 and released her first album Taylor Swift which is over 5 times platinum in the U.S.. Her career than really started going strong when she released her second album Fearless which is over 6 times platinum in the U.S. She than won four Grammys in 2009 including the biggest Grammy of then night, Album of the Year. By the time she was getting ready to release her third album, Speak Now, I had a countdown until October 25, 2010 when it was being released. I actually stayed up until midnight waiting to download it on iTunes. Speak Now sold over 1 million albums in the first week which is more than any other album has sold during it's first week since 2005 and is now listed in the 2012 Guinness Book of World Records for Speak Now being the fastest selling digital album by a female artist! She is named "Entertainer of the Year" by Entertainment Weekly, "Women of the Year" by Billboard magazine, Academy of Country Music award's Entertainer of the Year, American Music Award's Artist of the Year, Country Music Association award's Entertainer of the Year, Teen Choice Award's Ultimate Choice. That's just a few of the top honors Taylor has gotten or won in 2011, not including any achievements or awards from previous years for Fearless, Taylor Swift, or herself in general. Click here for a full list of achievements and awards Taylor has been nominated for or won throughout her career.

by me

So as you can see, Taylor has accomplished so much in her lifetime already and all before the age of 22. I think that's amazing! She's such a role model for me and she truly is my idol. She makes it so easy to relate to her through not only her songs, but her personality. I think she's such a sweet, funny person who truly loves her family, friends, and fans. She makes such a point to pay attention and thank her fans whenever she can. While some other artist might get annoyed with obsessive fans and try to disguise themselves when they go out somewhere, Taylor makes a point to walk up to those fans and give them a hug. Taylor makes video blogs for her fans to watch. Here's one of the many video blogs she's made.

Asia! (my February video blog)

You can find more of her video blogs here, on her official website. In both the Fearless and Speak Now World Tours, Taylor made sure she got to thanks fans for coming and supporting her by going out into the audiences and walk through the aisle hugging people, kissing them on the check, and saying "Hey! Thanks so much for coming!". I know she genuinely is thankful and appreciative of her fan's dedication to her. She even started a challenge between two adoring fans, Micheal Wekall and Ryan Leander, who started a website called "A Hug From Taylor Swift" with the goal of getting a hug from Taylor. Taylor saw their videos and responded to it with a video of her own, giving the guys a challenge to complete, walk an old lady across the street (find it here). Micheal and Ryan responded to the challenge, completing it (find it here), and then was given a second challenge (find it here), find the most create ways to use the number 13. They completed this challenge (find it here) and then Taylor finally gave them their third, and final challenge (find it here), get a group of people together to have the biggest karaoke of the song "You Belong with Me". Taylor then showed up there, at Micheal and Ryan's college, Auburn University, to give Micheal and Ryan a hug and give a little performance to the people who showed up for karaoke (find it here). This is just one example of Taylor's thoughtfulness to her fans. 

So to wrap this post up, I'd like to say Happy Birthday Taylor! Congratulations on all your success so far and I hope/know there will be so much more success to come.

(Any facts in this post can be backed up here)

2011 American Country Awards

http://www.last.fm/event/3112181+American+Country+Awards+2011/images/70814530

On Monday, December 5, 2011 there will be the second annual American Country Awards at 8:00-10:00 PM ET live/PT taped-delayed on FOX. This award show will be hosted by Trace Adkins and Kristin Chenoweth.

http://theacas.com/index.aspx#

The awards are fan voted online before hand. The voting for all the awards except Artist of the Year closed on November 11. People were able to vote for Artist of the Year until December 2, only three days before the show. I love fan voted award shows because you get to see how your voting has effected the winners. For me, I get more nervous and excited when they are announcing the winners at a fan voted show because I had control over who I voted for, so I get more into the award show. I have been voting and I'm excited to see who wins what awards. The nominees for the big award of the night, Artist of the Year, are Jason Aldean, Kenny Chesney, Lady Antebellum, Taylor Swift, and Zac Brown Band.

http://www.cmt.com/shows/events/artists-of-the-year/index.jhtml

This award show has many different award categories that award artists for their talent and hard work. Other awards that will be given out throughout the night are Artist of the Year: male, Artist of the Year: female, Artist of the Year: New Artist, Album of the Year, Music Video of the Year, Touring Headline Act of the Year, and many more. Here is a full list of the nominees for each award. Some artist that will be performing throughout the night are Blake Shelton, Pistol Annies, Thompson Square, Eli Young Band, the Band Perry, and more. Click here for more information about the 2011 ACAs. I love country music and I can't wait to see this. My favorite country artist is Taylor Swift, so I do hope for a big win for her, but I do love other country artist as well. I'm a fan of Scotty McCreery, Carrie Underwood, Brad Paisley, Jason Aldean, and many others as well, so I do hope they do well too. Overall, I think this will be a can't miss night for country music.

2011 AMA results

Taylor Swift was the big winner of the night, taking home the award for Artist of the Year. I think this is a huge accomplishment for Taylor because she's a country singer and won against Adele, Lady Gaga, Lil Wayne, and Katy Perry. Taylor Swift also took home two other awards, one for Favorite Country Female Artist and one for Favorite Country Album. I think Taylor Swift deserves every award she won that night, because I think her songwriting, performance skills, and singing are just beyond what every other artist has done this year.

http://blogs.wsj.com/speakeasy/2011/11/21/american-music-awards-2011-winners-losers-and-photos-of-the-night/

Taylor Swift was one of the two artists to take home the most awards. Adele also took home three awards that night including, Favorite Adult Contemporary Artist, Favorite Album, and Favorite Female Artist. Here is a full list of the winners that night. Katy Perry was honored with a surprise award achievement award for being the first female pop singer to have five number one singles off one album. I think Katy Perry has been so successful in her career that this award is just the start of great success to come.

  http://www.2space.net/news/article/392664-1321845605/

There were many performances throughout the night but I think that the best was the finale by LMFAO. They really pumped up the party and just gave a fun filled performance. Justin Bieber, David Hasselhoff, and Keenan Cahill made appearances in LMFAO's performance which really got the crowd excited.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W3rx4ZZyxQA

39th Annual AMAs

http://www.at40.com/news-article/at40-focus-the-2011-american-music-awards-nominee-list/20190

The 2011 American Music Awards will be live tonight, Sunday, November 20 on ABC at 8/7 central. This award show will again be a host-free night that awards musicians in many different categories. I think not having a specific host is a great way to have a more laid back, casual night.  Like previous years, all the awards are fan voted. Christina Aguilera, Justin Bieber, Mary J. Blige, Kelly Clarkson, Katy Perry, Pitbull, Maroon 5, Drake, and Ludacris will be performing throughout the night. Click here to see a video preview for the performers. The nominees up for the biggest award of the night, Artist of the Year, are Lady Gaga, Taylor Swift, Lil Wayne, Adele, and Katy Perry .

http://www.velvetv.com/2011/10/the-nominees-of-the-2011-american-music-awards-are/

Adele is also nominated for three other awards which makes her the artist nominated for the most awards for this evening. Click here for a full list of the nominees for each award. I think this night will be amazing, jam packed with celebrities and performances. I'm most excited to see all the live performances. It'll be interesting to see what songs each artist chooses to perform and how they'll perform it. I'm also excited to see what every decides to wear. I'm always amused by Lady Gaga's outfits. I voted and will be tuned in to watch this show and hopefully you will too!

CMA Results

The CMA 45th annual awards show was this past Wednesday, November 9th. The big winner was Taylor Swift who took home the biggest award of the night, Entertainer of the Year.

http://www.taylorpictures.net/displayimage.php?album=1542&pid=86942#top_display_media

This is the second time Taylor Swift has won this award, the first time she won this award was in 2009. Taylor performed "Ours" which has just recently become available on iTunes on November 8th. The Band Perry won big too and took home the most awards. They won for New Artist of the Year and their hit song "If I Die Young" won for Single of the Year and Song of the Year. Click here to see the other winners of the night.

Brad Paisley and Carrie Underwood were co-hosts again, and I think they worked perfectly together. They also performed the hit duet "Remind Me" for the first time live on national t.v., and it was one of my favorite performances of the night.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wPCllP05dNA

Another great performance was the tribute to Glen Campbell, who has won Entertainer of the Year in the past, is a Country Music Hall of Fame member, and has been diagnosed with Alzheimer's. Brad Paisley, Vince Gill, and Keith Urban performed this tribute with three of his songs. Glen Campbell and composer Jimmy Webb went on stage and got a standing ovation afterwards.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o0UhgYk7xlY

Any facts written in this blog post can be backed up here.