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Ahead of the release of Revamped, a new album full of rock versions of her old pop hits, Demi Lovato brought their kinetic vocal energy to the VMAs stage — with some super-charged guitar riffs — at the 2023 MTV Video Music Awards, held at the Prudential Center in Newark, New Jersey on Tuesday night (Sept. 12).
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The performance previewed a bold new vision of Lovato’s top 20 smashes: “Heart Attack” got the first hard rock treatment, followed by a pummeling take on “Sorry Not Sorry” and ending with a rendition of “Cool for the Summer” that somehow made its effervescent hooks mosh-friendly. Throughout, Lovato, who was dressed in all black, commanded the stage as guitarists sent off spiraling solos and the stage pyrotechnics burst around her.
Lovato’s voice remained their guiding light, though, with the new arrangements still following the cues of the superstar’s vocal power. In the VMAs audience, Taylor Swift and Lil Nas X were among the stars captured grooving to the rock tracks by the MTV cameras.
Along with the hits Lovato performed at the VMAs, Revamped, due out this Friday (Sept. 15), features re-imagined hits like “Confident,” “Tell Me You Love Me,” “Skyscraper” and “Neon Lights.” Lovato hinted at the newfound focus on hard rock on Holy Fvck, her 2022 full-length.
Lovato last performed at the MTV Video Music Awards in 2017, performing a more pop-leaning version of “Sorry Not Sorry.” Their music video for “Swine” was nominated for two awards at this year’s VMAs.
Cardi B and Megan Thee Stallion brought the big beat to the MTV Video Music Awards at the Prudential Center in Newark on Tuesday (Sept. 12), with a performance of their brand-new collaboration, “Bongos.”
Cardi kicked off the performance, as she was lowered to the stage on a giant disco ball, with her hair let loose like ’70s Donna Summer. She was accompanied by shirtless male bongo players upon her arrival, and dancers in neon green and blue two-piece bathing suits joined her once the song kicked in.
Megan then appeared on a separate stage, flanked by her own set of backup dancers and doing her signature twerking. After her verse, Cardi joined her to link arm in arm to walk back to the main stage for song’s high-intensity dance breakdown. Taylor Swift and Ice Spice seemed to enjoy the performance, as the show cut to them bouncing along in the audience.
The pair’s new single was released on Friday (Sept. 8), as their first teamup since the blockbusting “WAP” in 2020. That song debuted atop the Billboard Hot 100, and its culture-shocking video was nominated for four VMAs in 2021, though it was ultimately denied all four.
Cardi B and Megan Thee Stallion are also both nominees at this year’s MTV Video Music Awards. Cardi is up for best collaboration, for her guest turn on Glorilla’s “Tomorrow 2,” while Megan Thee Stallion’s “Her” video is nominated for three of the technical awards: best direction, best art direction and best cinematography.
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Lil Wayne kicked off the MTV VMAs at the Prudential Center in Newark, N.J., on Tuesday (Sept. 12) with an explosive medley to set the energy right.
The rapper welcomed fans to the awards show with a hood on his head before launching into “Uproar,” off Tha Carter V, followed by the title track off his 2023 album Kat Food, complete with pyrotechnics and high energy.
The performance comes just months after his Billboard cover story to celebrate the 50th anniversary of hip-hop, where he defended his musical abilities against the rising trend of artificial intelligence. “They were trying to tell me that A.I. could make a voice that sounds just like me,” he said. “But it’s not me, because I’m amazing. I’m like, is this A.I. thing going to be amazing too? Because I am naturally, organically amazing. I’m one of a kind. So actually, I would love to see that thing try to duplicate this motherf–ker.”
Among this year’s other performers are Anitta, Cardi B, Demi Lovato, Diddy, Doja Cat, Fall Out Boy, Karol G, Kelsea Ballerini, Maneskin, Megan Thee Stallion, Metro Boomin (featuring Future, A Boogie Wit Da Hoodie, Swae Lee and NAV), Nicki Minaj, Olivia Rodrigo, Peso Pluma, Shakira, Stray Kids and TOMORROW X TOGETHER.
Taylor Swift leads the 2023 VMA nominations with 11 nods, and is followed by SZA (eight nominations); BLACKPINK, Doja Cat, Miley Cyrus, Nicki Minaj, Olivia Rodrigo (six each); Kim Petras and Sam Smith (five each); and Beyoncé, Diddy, Drake, Ice Spice, Karol G, Metro Boomin, Shakira and TOMORROW X TOGETHER (four each).
When it came time for Olivia Rodrigo to storm the stage at the 2023 MTV Video Music Awards on Tuesday (Sept. 12), the pop star made sure to give fans a performance to remember.
Taking to the stage in a red halter top and skirt, Rodrigo kicked off her performance on a soft note, imitating the music video of her hit song “Vampire.” Laid out on the moss-covered stage, Rodrigo served pure melodrama as she crooned out the opening of her chart-topping hit.
But then, things began to break down — literally. Much like in her music video, Rodrigo watched in horror as the light rigging on the stage began to drop, as sparks began to shoot up from the stage around her, while even the camera appeared to drop to the ground. Being pulled off stage by what looked like a crew member, a glitching version of “Good 4 U” played behind her as the stage suddenly reset.
Once the chaos reached its peak, Rodrigo suddenly appeared back on the stage, surrounded by a series of backup dancers dressed in identical pink outfits to perform her Guts standout “Get Him Back!” Strutting up and down the stage, she belted out the catchy chorus to her latest single. “Oh, I want sweet revenge, and I want him again,” she sang. “I want to get him back, back, back.”
Rodrigo was nominated for six awards at the annual ceremony, including the evening’s much-anticipated video of the year award for “Vampire.” She was just one of a series of performers during the ceremony, including fellow stars Nicki Minaj, Cardi B, Demi Lovato and plenty more.
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Years back it seemed like A Boogie Wit Da Hoodie was going to be the next big thing out of New York and though he’s been keeping a low profile for a hot minute, the Bronx representative still has a dedicated fanbase that’s ready and waiting to eat up whatever the young rapper serves up.
Dropping off some new visuals for “Her Birthday,” A Boogie finds himself the victim of “Cupid” as his body is riddled with arrows courtesy of sharp shooting women who seem to have a bone to pick with the rapper. That looked painful.
Down South, Slim Thug is still rolling like a boss like it’s 2005 and in his clip to “Midlife Crisis” Thug shows off an impressive car collection on his front yard before taking to the booth where his ice glistens under the dimmed lights. That man is still living large.
Check out the rest of today’s drops including work from Icewear Vezzo, Nyck Caution featuring Joey Bada$$, and more.
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In September 1947, Ahmet Ertegun and Herb Abramson founded Atlantic Records with a $10,000 loan from Ertegun’s dentist. In 1948, Atlantic began putting out its first releases. Seventy-five years later, Atlantic remains one of the most storied labels in American history as home through the decades to such artists as Ruth Brown, Ray Charles, Aretha Franklin, Led Zeppelin, Genesis, Stevie Nicks, Matchbox Twenty and Crosby, Stills & Nash; and, more recently, Twenty One Pilots, Bruno Mars, Ed Sheeran and Lizzo.
This year, Atlantic is paying homage to its rich heritage with a multi-pronged, year-long campaign that celebrates some of its most iconic titles. Already started is the release of 90 classic titles, many on crystal clear, colored or recycled vinyl, curated by Atlantic Records chairman/CEO and noted audiophile Craig Kallman.
Among the releases in the 75th-anniversary commemoration are John Coltrane’s Olé Coltrane, Yes’ Fragile, Dusty Springfield’s Dusty in Memphis, Phil Collins’ No Jacket Required, Hootie & the Blowfish’s Cracked Rear View and Crosby, Stills & Nash’s self-titled album. More recent titles in the collection include Mars’ 24K Magic, Gucci Mane’s Mr. Davis, Lizzo’s Cuz I Love You, Sheeran’s Divide and Gayle’s A Study in the Human Experience. All titles are for purchase through Atlantic Records’ site and a number are available through various brick-and-mortar retailers.
Kallman began working on the project, which is running in conjunction with Rhino Entertainment, a number of years ago, printing out spreadsheets highlighting every significant title of the past 75 years. “It was stacks of paper making sure we didn’t miss anybody. It was painstakingly done. There was a lot of internal debating,” he says.
His mission was to cover the “breadth and scope of Atlantic’s history by genre,” he says. “We tried to include records that were culturally significant, that were groundbreaking for the company, that were blowout sales successes. It was about records that defined the label and the culture of the company.”
Though painstaking and extremely time-consuming, Kallman says the process “was a lot of fun and brings back a lot of memories because I was here for 32 years of it.” Kallman joined Atlantic in 1991 when the company purchased his dance label, Big Beat Records, and, in many ways, he had unintentionally been preparing for this moment. When he started at Atlantic, “I thought part of my responsibility was to really know and understand the history and legacy of the company so I can’t think of any [release] I didn’t already know about, but we wrestled with making sure that the depths of the early catalog were there,” he says. “My DJ’ing background also came in handy in making the selections.” Kallman’s personal collection numbers more than 2 million LPs.
While titles started rolling out a few months ago, forthcoming releases include Coldplay’s A Head Full of Dreams (including The Chainsmokers and Coldplay’s 2017 hit, “Something Just Like This,” as a bonus track) on Oct. 20 and Led Zeppelin’s Led Zeppelin IV on Oct. 27. The collection includes a number of titles that have been out of print, like Lil Uzi Vert’s Luv is Rage 2, as well as releases that have never come out on vinyl. All releases are tagged with a 75th-anniversary logo.
Kallman tried to keep the releases to 75, but ultimately, he could only whittle it down to 90. “We’re like, ‘Oh my God, this is too tough to narrow down,’ and we figured we could err on the side of going beyond 75 titles,” he says.
Courtesy Photo
The anniversary has several other components. Atlantic has partnered with high-end audiophile label Acoustic Sounds to release 75 classic titles in 180-gram, 45RPM black vinyl and SACD versions. That offering includes such Genesis albums as Selling England by the Pound and The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway, Coltrane’s Giant Steps and My Favorite Things, Otis Redding’s The Dock of the Bay and Buffalo Springfield’s self-titled set.
Another tie-in is with vinyl subscription service Vinyl Me Please (VMP), through which Atlantic will offer several titles through VMP’s record of the month program. Five titles will be available to VMP members as November selections, including Charles’ Ray Charles in Person, Lupe Fiasco’s Food & Liquor and Stone Temple Pilots‘ No. 4. Kallman says the deal could extend beyond the initial five titles depending upon the response.
Another component is a collection of remixes, available exclusively for streaming via DSPs. Among the selections are DJ Nora En Pure’s fresh take on Donna Lewis’ “I Love You Always Forever,” DJ Spinna’s remake of Roberta Flack’s “Killing Me Softly” and Italian DJ Luca Olivotto’s version of Yes’ “Owner of a Lonely Heart.”
The anniversary also includes a coffee table book from luxury art book publisher Taschen, which is expected to come out in 2024. “That’s been a labor of love,” Kallman says. “We’re excited to have a fitting chronicle of the history of the company with extraordinary photos and great essays.”
