Cee Lo Green

Fergie and Will.I.Am
Photo: Larry Marano/ Getty Images

The Black Eyed Peas had a lot to be thankful for on Thursday, namely, a major break from nearly non-stop touring and recording. The multiplatinum group announced before their show on Wednesday night at Miami’s Sun Life Stadium that they were going on indefinite hiatus to work on other projects. “Tonight is our graduation. It’s a very special night for all of us,” singer Fergie announced at the gig. “We’re so thankful to be sharing this night together.” The band didn’t go into the good night all alone, though, as they packed the show with appearances from a number of pals, including T-Pain, Sean Kingston, Cee Lo Green, Jason DeRulo and Queen Latifah. The past 10 months have been action packed for the hip-pop act, as they played the Super Bowl halftime show
 in February, recorded a video for Japanese tsunami relief in March and played the iHeartRadio Festival in July. They were slated to perform at the Michael Jackson Forever tribute concert
 in Cardiff, Wales, last month, but scratched at the last minute due to “unavoidable circumstances.” They made it official with an appearance on “The Ellen DeGeneres Show” on Wednesday morning, during which Will said that they “always have two cycles of records and then we take a break.” He explained that the quartet has lasted this long because they often take breaks to work on solo projects and get their personal lives in order and then come back and “make beautiful music.” It’s not like the Peas will be off the map entirely after three years of touring in support of The Beginning and The E.N.D. will.i.am just released a new single from his upcoming solo album, #willpower, featuring Jennifer Lopez and Mick Jagger, entitled “T.H.E. (The Hardest Ever).” Taboo plans to spend more time with his family and promote his book, “Falling Up,” while apl.de.ap will reportedly focus on being an education ambassador in the Philippines and Fergie will do more solo recording and perhaps start a family.

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Photo: Tim Mosenfelder/ Getty Images

As the October 8 date approaches, the Michael Forever tribute concert in Cardiff, Wales, in honor of late pop icon Michael Jackson has added two more headliners. On Friday (September 23), the Black Eyed Peas joined a lineup that is also slated to feature performances by Christina Aguilera, Cee Lo Green, Leona Lewis, Ne-Yo, Craig David, Pixie Lott, Alexandra Burke, Alien Ant Farm and Motown legend Smokey Robinson. The show, which is being presented by Jackson’s mother, Katherine, along with some but not all of the King of Pop’s siblings (and without the sanction of his estate), will be hosted by Oscar winner Jamie Foxx. Pregnant pop queen Beyoncé will appear in some form at the show via a pre-taped satellite segment. A press release also announced that Oscar-winning singer Jennifer Hudson has been added to the lineup as well. In a statement, Peas co-founder will.i.am — who spent time in the studio with Jackson prior to the singer’s June 2009 death — said of his band’s participation, “This show is going to be an incredibly personal and moving evening for me. Remember that Michael’s music, his great, great songs, have been an inspiration to my whole life and certainly formed the soundtrack to my childhood. When I was a little kid of six or seven growing up in Los Angeles, there was Michael recording Thriller, and all his early hits, just a few miles away across town — obviously I didn’t know him at that time, but I loved him as a fan.” One of the members of the original Jackson Five, sibling Marlon Jackson, will be on hand, and he expressed his excitement about the addition of the Peas. “We’re all really delighted and touched that the Black Eyed Peas are able to come and take part ” he said. “My brother rated Will.i.am and the original things he does in music very highly. I guess you could say it was a case of mutual respect.” Some members of the Jackson family, including siblings Janet, Jermaine and Randy, have complained about the timing of the show, which will take place in the midst of the manslaughter trial of Jackson’s physician Dr. Conrad Murray.

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Simon Cowell
Photo: FOX

Simon Cowell is finally opening up about the cast shakeups on “The X Factor” as well as about rumors that two very famous divas are in talks to join Fox’s reality singing competition.

Late last month, it was announced that judges Paula Abdul and Nicole Scherzinger and host Steve Jones had been fired from “X Factor” and would be replaced in its second season. The announcement came as a shock to fans, but Cowell tells “Extra” in an interview airing Wednesday (February that the decision was a long time coming and was ultimately made “at the beginning of the year — and we were told it had to happen straight away.” While her dismissal came as a surprise, Cowell says Abdul “was very gracious” about it. “She understands it’s business,” Cowell said of his real-life friend. “It’s never personal.” Scherzinger, according to Cowell, was “disappointed” with the producers’ decision to replace her. But the former Pussycat Doll insisted in a new “Access Hollywood” interview that she “had a wonderful experience on the show.” “What happened? Well, all I know is that I gave 110 percent to that show,” she said. “I know everybody’s talking about it, they’re saying good, bad, they love me or hate me, but the one thing you can’t say is that I didn’t give it my all.” Cowell also used his time with “Extra” to squash rumors that Beyoncé or Mariah Carey might be joining the “X Factor” team when it returns to Fox later this year. He seemed particularly amused by talk that the show was offering Beyoncé a nine-figure contract to join the judges’ table. “The budget for the show is $100 million. That would never ever happen. It’s absolute nonsense,” he told “Extra.” “No one is going to pay $100 million for someone. I genuinely haven’t had a conversation with her about it. Not at all.” The same can be said for Carey, who Cowell said he likes very much and would be a fine addition to the show but is an impractical choice because of the long hours involved. “I adore her, love her,” he said. “But you can’t expect someone who has just had two kids [and] has a record career to make the kind of commitment we would need on this show.” “X Factor” did not perform as strongly as expected in the ratings last fall, which many feel precipitated the planned revamp, though the ever-cool Cowell is not sweating the competition. In this latest interview, Cowell took on “The Voice,” which returned to NBC after the Super Bowl and delivered big ratings, saying the makeup of his judging panel is what sets “X Factor” apart. “I would ask how many records have they made, how many artists have they discovered?” Cowell asked of “The Voice” mentors Christina Aguilera, Cee Lo Green, Adam Levine and Blake Shelton. “That’s where we have to be different on the judging panel. It’s very important that you have people on the panel that have actually signed and made artists successful all over the world, not just have made hit records yourself.”

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Lady Gaga arrives at the 53rd Annual Grammy Awards
Photo: Jason Merritt/ Getty Images

The 54th annual Grammy Awards are just a day away and everyone in the MTV Newsroom is starting to get excited. Will Beyoncé” show up? How will Adele sound in her first major live performance since undergoing surgery to repair a vocal cord hemorrhage? What color will Katy Perry”‘s hair be? What will Lady Gaga” wear? We can’t wait to find out. But if last year’s show is any indication, it’s safe to say that just about anything could happen at Los Angeles’ Staples Center on Sunday night.

The quirk factor was high at last year’s Grammys, and it got started long before a single award was handed out. Lady Gaga’s red carpet arrival inside of a pearlescent egg carried by four scantily clad dudes wearing prosthetics on their faces and shoulders should have been reminder enough that the unusual is the norm at the Grammys. But in case it wasn’t, the show itself delivered Muppets and Katy Perry on a swing. We’ve rounded up five big moments from last year’s show to remind you why the Grammys are the craziest awards show of the year. » Lady Gaga arrives in that freakin’ egg, er, “vessel.”
Never one to just casually stroll the red carpet in a pretty dress, Lady Gaga went to great lengths to make every element of her Grammy appearance part of a larger art piece that culminated in the performance of her then-new single “Born this Way.” It all started on the red carpet, when she arrived already inside her “vessel,” later claiming to Jay Leno that she’d been in a state of artistic incubation inside it for 72 hours. (Did you just roll your eyes? We think you just rolled your eyes!) The pop star emerged to deliver a full-voiced — if otherwise joyless — performance of the song, which at the time was drawing heavy criticism for sounding maybe a little too much like Madonna’s 1989 classic “Express Yourself,” and went on to score three Grammys, including Best Pop Vocal Album for The Fame Monster. » Did Christina Aguilera fall down after that showstopping Aretha Franklin tribute?
Last year’s ceremony kicked off with an Aretha Franklin tribute featuring Christina Aguilera, Jennifer Hudson, Florence Welch, Martina McBride and Yolanda Adams. The ladies delivered a rousing group performance of “(You Make Me Feel Like a) Natural Woman” before launching into solos of “Ain’t No Way,” “Until You Come Back to Me,” “Think,” “Respect” and “Spirit in the Dark” and closing with “Sisters Are Doin’ It for Themselves” — tearing the roof off the Staples Center. Except all anyone wanted to talk about afterward was how Christina maybe slipped a little in her towering heels. The performance came just one week after Xtina botched “The Star-Spangled Banner” at Super Bowl XLV (luckily, Kelly Clarkson’s rendition this year went smoothly), and it seemed like the “Beautiful” singer and “Voice” judge had fully redeemed herself after the debacle, delivering a fantastic vocal performance … until she stumbled onstage, sending gossips into a tizzy that the singer may have been, we’ll say, out of sorts during the performance despite much evidence to the contrary. Or maybe people just like a good near-fall? People get very excited when an entertainer loses her footing — don’t they, Madonna? Anyway, while everyone tried to make Xtina’s mini-tumble a bigger story than it was, the ladies earned a richly deserved standing ovation for their tribute to Franklin, who was rather ill at the time but has since recovered, lost a bunch of weight, gotten engaged and ended that engagement. (A year in Hollywood time is like five years in normal person time … maybe that’s why everyone is so afraid of getting older!) » Bieber performs big, loses Best New Artist to unknown jazz bassist and vocalist Esperanza Spalding.
Justin Bieber’s medley performance began with an acoustic strum through “Baby” but quickly segued into a raucous take on “Never Say Never,” complete with breakdancing ninja acrobats, fire breathers and a cameo rap by “Karate Kid” star Jaden Smith. Biebs’ mentor Usher even joined in on the fun for a pop-and-lock-heavy dance-off to his hit “OMG.” But the real story with Bieber at last year’s Grammys was that he lost. To Esperanza Spalding. A critically acclaimed but otherwise unknown jazz performer. Bieber didn’t take the loss so well but his fans went even crazier, expressing the profound sadness they felt and bearing witness to their idol’s defeat by hacking Spalding’s Wikipedia page and changing her middle name to both “Justin” and “Quesadilla.” One fan wrote, “Justin Bieber deserved it go die in a hole. Who the heck are you anyway?” while another scribbled, “So the Esperanza Spalding has only 8 thousand followers on twitter and how many does Justin Bieber has?” It seems someone forgot to tell the Belieber army that the Grammys are not a popularity contest (well, they’re not supposed to be, anyway) and that one’s amount of Twitter followers is not taken into account when deciding the winners. Duly noted! » Katy Perry performed the ballad “Not Like the Movies” while on a swing, playing video from her wedding to Russell Brand.
If you needed further proof that a lot can change in just a single year, look no further than Katy Perry’s performance at last year’s ceremony. Much like she did on her California Dreams Tour, Perry performed her ballad “Not Like the Movies” while sitting on a swing as video from her elaborate October 2010 wedding to Russell Brand was projected behind her. Though one would think a sweet performance like Katy’s would shut the gossip mill down for at least a little while, the couple was already back to defending their strange union less than two months later when Brand co-hosted “Live!” with Kelly Ripa. By year’s end, Perry and Brand’s marriage was officially no more, and it made re-watching her performance from last year for the purposes of this article, um, kind of awkward. » Cee Lo performed “Forget You” with a bunch of Muppets (and Gwyneth Paltrow).
No, no one at your Grammy party spiked your drink. Cee Lo Green, wearing a crazy red bear suit and a rainbow fan of feathers (think peacock), really did perform his Grammy-nominated smash “Forget You” backed by a bunch of singing and dancing Muppets while Oscar-winning home health guru Gwyneth Paltrow writhed atop his piano. Oddly, the whole thing worked like gangbusters and was a big old ball of fun. (And when was the last time anyone associated the word “fun” with Gwyneth Paltrow? Such is the funky power of Cee Lo.) This year’s show has the potential to outdo last year’s in the water-cooler department with Rihanna and Chris Brown both set to perform under the same roof for the first time since, well, you know … in addition to plenty of interesting collabos, including a special electronic dance music performance set to feature the Foo Fighters (right?), and whatever Lady Gaga decides to get into. What are you most looking forward to at this year’s Grammys? Let us know in the comments below. Chaos! Profanity! Wardrobe malfunctions! Don’t miss our Grammy red-carpet live stream this Sunday, February 12, for a full three hours of mayhem, starting at 5 p.m. ET on MTV.com. And the fun doesn’t end Sunday: MTV News has you covered for all the Grammy red-carpet fashion, Grammy winners and Grammy news until the hangover wears off!

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