Today, Vevo, the world’s leading all-premium music video and entertainment platform, announced that Aminé will be joining El Paso singer/songwriter, Khalid, as one of 2017’s Vevo LIFT artists– an artist development program that identifies and elevates emerging musicians into household names. The announcement coincides with the release of a new exclusive video teaser Aminé filmed in partnership with Vevo, and featuring Leon Bridges, to get fans excited for his “Red Mercedes” music video available to view Friday, April 7th.
‘LIFT’ is a six-week concentrated campaign in which Vevo gives fans a first-hand look into each artist’s journey – from intimate performances, video premieres, to behind-the-scenes content. As the second artist to participate in this year’s program, Aminé and Vevo will release a series of exciting footage throughout April and May including “Becoming,” a short film which allows artists to tell their story in a unique way. Vevo will also release original programming titled “Stripped,” which will feature an intimate performance by Aminé.
Previous ‘LIFT’ artists include Halsey, Shawn Mendes, Tori Kelly, Alessia Cara, Sam Smith, Lorde, Kendrick Lamar, One Direction and more.
Alessia Cara reflects on growing up in the brand new visual for her single “Seventeen.”
Off her album Know-It-All the song delves into the idea that as children we have this deep longing to be older and we don’t really take the time to appreciate the journey of growing up.
The video opens with a young Cara riding the bus with her father. Eventually she becomes a spunky teenager riding the bus solo and with friends, a young adult, a new mom, the mother of a teenager, and finally her kid becomes an adult too; bringing the whole thing full circle.
Throughout the progression of the video Cara continues to age and eventually understands all that comes with getting older.
“I was too young to understand what it means,”
she sings.
“I couldn’t wait ’till I could be seventeen / I thought she lied when she said take my time to breathe / Now I wish I could freeze the time at seventeen.”
Watch Alessia literally show her growth in “Seventeen” below.
The MTV Video Music Awards announced the nominees for this year’s ceremony via Facebook live this morning. Leading the pack was Beyoncé with 11 nods for her Emmy-nominated visual album Lemonade.Adele follows with 8 nominations for her record-breaking album 25. The songstress’ will be competing for Best Female Video along with Rihanna ft. Drake “Work”, Sia “Cheap Thrills,” and Ariana Grande “Into You.”
Beyoncé performing at the 2014 MTV Vide Music Awards Credit: Mirror
The award show returns to the Big Apple this year. Grande landed 5 nominations along with Drake who nabbed Video of the Year, Best Collaboration, Best Hip-Hop Video, Best Male Video, and Best Art Direction. Kanye West received two nominations for “Famous” while his foe Taylor Swift on the other hand garnered zero nominations. The pop star’s “1989” album came out in 2014 so her recent singles “Wildest Dreams,” “Out of the Woods” and “New Romantics” were ineligible.
Taylor Swift at the 2015 MTV Video Music Awards
West’s infamous track features naked images in the likeness of the rapper and other celebrities, including his wife Kim Kardashian, Swift, Donald Trump, and Bill Cosby. ‘Famous” is at the heart of the current feud between the Chicago emcee and Swift. Kardashian recently delivered receipts; leaking audio of Swift giving West her blessing to the lyrics, “I feel like me and Taylor might still have sex.” The “Wildest Dreams” singer originally denied West’s claims he reached out to her prior to releasing the song. She quickly changed her tune, now claiming West did not play her the entire track or reveal the lyrics in full omitting the line, “Why? I made that bitch famous.”
Kim Kardashia and Kanye West attend the 2015 MTV Video Music Awards at Microsoft Theater on August 30, 2015. Credit: Frazer Harrison/Getty Images
West’s video for the controversial “Famous,” garnered the Video of the Year nomination and will be facing-off with Beyonce’s “Formation,” Adele’s “Hello, “Justin Bieber‘s “Sorry,” and Drake’s “Hotline Bling.” Newcomers Bryson Tiller, Desiigner, Zara Larsson, Lukas Graham, and DNCE, will battle it out for the Best New Artist award.
Drake at the 2013 MTV Video Music Awards at the Barclays Center on August 25, 2013. Photo Credit: Dimitrios Kambouris/WireImage)
The late David Bowie, who died from cancer earlier this year, earned four nominations in the categories of Best Direction, cinematography, art direction and editing for “Lazarus.” The video featured the icon frail and lying in bed, eyes bandaged and was released several days before his Jan. 10 death.
Others artists who earned multiple nods include Alessia Cara, Calvin Harris, Coldplay, Desiigner, Fergie, FKA Twigs, and The Weeknd.
Voting opened online Tuesday. Nominees for best song of the summer have yet to be announced. The MTV VMA’s will be airing live from Madison Square Garden on August 28 at 9 p.m. ET. Will you be tuning in?
Alessia Cara debuts her touching new visual that reflects on the subject of acceptance and self-love. The titled track is called “Scars To You Beautiful,” which was birthed from her current album Know-It-All.
In the video, guests speak their truth from all walks of life like: cancer survivors, transgender people, those speaking about obesity and shape, bullying, and more.
During the visual, a special message was displayed towards the end of the moving video:
Alessia also spoke with our Fly Friend, Kathy Iandoli of Cosmopolitan where she premiered the video:
It was such a powerful video, but the song alone is powerful too. It’s kind of like a contemporary version of TLC’s “Unpretty.”
Yeah, yeah! Even like Christina Aguilera’s “Beautiful.” A couple of female artists have done it in the past, and I wanted to put my own spin on it because I feel like you can never have too many reminders and too many songs talking about those things. It was important to put that in my own words and remind people that they are beautiful no matter what.
About singer/songwriter JoJo being apart of the project:
JoJo is also in the video. How did she come to be a part of it?
Oh my gosh, she’s amazing. We have the same management team and we’ve known each other for a little bit now. She’s been supporting my music for a while and I’ve loved her since forever, so we just asked her to be in it and she was like, “Yeah!” It was really cool to have [her] too, because I felt like it was important to have a public figure in the video. A lot of the time, people don’t realize that public figures have these insecurities too. They’re always in the spotlight and they may seem like they have it all together, but they don’t always have it all together, you know? It’s actually very difficult to be in the public and to be a female and to feel confident every day with all the social media and all these opinions of people.
Smack has always been the center of house music! Now, their back with an EDM remix of the pop hit “Wild Things” by Alessia Cara.
You don’t want to miss this unique sound. Smack has released new music over the years to keep listeners on their toes, taking their soul house trademark, and splashing it with some EDM flavor. Get excited for this visual sound and jump on their journey, as you hit the dance floor!
Alessia Cara has been blessing us with nothing but cover this year from likes of — Drake‘s “Hotline Bling”, Nicki Jonas‘ “Level”, The Weeknd‘s “I Can’t Feel My Face” and Justin Bieber‘s “What Do You Mean?”.
Today, the young talent sensation taps on JB’s door yet again with another dope cover of his Purpose hit tune “Love Yourself.” Constantly reminding us that she might forget the words, Alessia still kills the cover the best way she knows how — she’s just simply talented.
Just on the brink of her upcoming debut album Know-It-All (Nov. 13th), rising star and singer Alessia Cara premieres a new tune entitled “Wild Things.”
Over a drum-patterned uptempo beat, the Canadian singer shifts in rebellion mode, adding her casual flare and relative lyrics, stating that she just simply does not want to hang around the cool kids. Driving down her own lane, Alessia expresses that she goes by her rules — not the average.
Check it out below:
Know-It-All is now available for pre-order on iTunes HERE.