Swizz Beatz, Melanie Fiona and Robin Thicke also performed at Keys’ hometown show.
By James Dinh

Alicia Keys and Jay-Z perform at Madison Square Garden on Wednesday night

Photo: Matt Harper/ MTV News

It was a night of soaring vocals, positive messages and surprise guests when Alicia Keys’ Freedom Tour stopped in her hometown of New York City on Wednesday evening at Madison Square Garden. The singer, who was joined onstage by Jay-Z, Beyoncé and Swizz Beatz, performed a string of songs from past to present and even showcased some of her dance skills.

Before the songstress emerged onstage, fans were treated to the soulful sounds of opening acts Jermaine Paul, Melanie Fiona and Robin Thicke. Paul, who has previously served as a background singer for Keys, was enthusiastic in his efforts to hype up the audience. Fiona kept the momentum moving with her powerful vocal range and charismatic smile while she performed songs like “It Kills Me” and new single “Ay Yo.”

When Robin Thicke made his way to the stage, it was clear he was aware of his legions of female fans. Decked out in a dark suit and sunglasses, the singer crooned his way through his set, which included the thumping “Shakin’ It 4 Daddy” and “Lost Without U.” Thicke remained playful as well by ending his set with a sing-along to Lil Wayne’s “A Milli.”

Shortly after 9:30, the lights went out and the beginning of Michael Jackson’s “They Don’t Care About Us” filled the air. The drums of the 1996 track intensified as the night’s main attraction appeared before fans on towering video screens.
“I’m a renegade. I’m a truth seeker. They told me I would never make it and I did. They told me I wasn’t strong enough but I am mighty. The element of freedom is tattooed on my heart,” Keys announced.

Alicia Keys appeared in a chain-wrapped cage amid the smoke that slowly flooded the stage. She began the show with a medley of her track “Caged Bird” and “Love Is Blind.” She whipped her hair from side to side until she made her way out of the spinning entrapment and happily towards the front of the stage.

“New York, you feeling good?” she asked the roaring crowd. There was no hesitation — the jam-packed arena was ready. Dressed in a tight black top, sparkling pants and a red coat with tails, Keys made full use of the stage by fluttering from side to side with her dancers during “You Don’t Know My Name.” She continued with songs like “Fallen,” which she changed around vocally, and her rocking Jack White collaboration “Another Way to Die.”

	Alicia Keys, Beyonce, More In Concert

Opening act Jermaine Paul took the stage once again when Keys sat down at her piano for “Diary.” While the two played vocal acrobatics around each other during the song’s bridge, it was evident that they shared onstage chemistry. After a quick costume change into a sleek white dress, she performed “Superwoman” and “If I Can’t Have You.”
The songstress took several moments throughout her show to explain the importance of believing in yourself.

But after another outfit change, it was her performance of “Put It in a Love Song” that really got fans riled up. Keys performed her way through the dance number, then introduced Beyoncé, who descended from a staircase and joined Keys for the remainder of the song, ending with a dance breakdown. This marks the very first time the two artists have ever performed together onstage.
Keys slowed things down after the powerhouse female duet with songs like “Unthinkable” and “Try Sleeping With a Broken Heart.”

And with Beyoncé making a surprise appearance onstage, it was only fitting that her husband do the same. As Keys momentarily stopped playing piano, Swizz Beatz ran onstage and was soon followed by none other than Jay-Z. Times Square and the city skyline engulfed the arena as scenes of the city shined brightly for the sea of people. There’s something especially moving about listening to the ode to New York City “Empire State of Mind” while actually in the city itself.

Keys is always a master on piano, but her evening in New York proved her ability to put on a show with massive vocals, strong imagery and a powerful message.

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‘Even though I’m a bubbly, happy person, not every song that I sing is gonna be uptempo,’ she says.
By Katie Byrne

Lacey Brown

Photo: FOX

Lacey Brown had an “American Idol” Cinderella story. In season eight, she just missed the cut for the top 36 when the judges opted for another quirky singer, Megan Joy, instead. Well, this was her year. Not only did she get past Hollywood Week to the top 24, she even made it to the top 12 and the big stage.

Unfortunately, her performance of the Rolling Stones’ “Ruby Tuesday” didn’t cut it, and she was the first finalist to get the boot.

We caught up with the 24-year-old Texan on Thursday (March 18) to talk about why she decided to try out again this year, the judges’ conflicting advice and what’s next.

Q: The judges have been offering a lot of conflicting advice this season. Do you think that made it harder to show America what kind of artist you want to be?

A: It’s difficult with the criticism this year, because it has been a little bit confusing, and therefore I would change things week to week, which can leave the audience kind of questioning who I am. I would say I’m a very different artist. I have a very different voice that’s not suited for a lot of different genres, but I really see myself doing more of a pop/folk mix. I definitely can see myself making an album soon. I would love to do that, if I get the chance to. I just want to give people the chance to hear something that’s fresh and new and different. There’s not a lot of voices like mine right now on the radio, so I kind of take pride in the fact that I’m a lot different. I’ve always been a little bit more unique and individual, and I try to embrace that, and I tried to show that in my performances. Hopefully people can get that, and hopefully they like it. I’m looking forward to writing some new music that fits my voice and that people really like.

Q: What made you come back this year after making it so far last season?

A: I’m one of those people that gets very competitive. [Laughs.] And I decided that it’s way too much of an experience to not try again, to try to get further. If I would have made it into the top 36 last year, I wouldn’t have been able to come back this year. So I’m really glad I got a second chance. I’m really glad I decided to come back, because I needed to work on a couple things and come back and get further in the competition. That wasn’t a hard decision at all, because everybody that’s involved in this show — all the contestants, all the relationships — everything about this has just been a blast for me. So I just decided, “I’m gonna do it twice!” [Laughs.]

Q: Can you pinpoint your downfall in the competition?

A: I would probably have to say energy. They kept asking for energy in my songs, and I kept trying to give it, and they kept saying it was a sleepy performance. They wanted to see a little bit more energy, because [I have] a happy and bubbly type of personality, and they just wanted to see that transferred into my music. The issue that I was having is, I really love to sing ballads. I love telling a story with a song. I love the emotion of the song. I’m very artsy, so that side of me comes out when I sing. I think I kept picking songs that I really loved to sing and really felt, and maybe it didn’t transfer as well onstage. Maybe that was it. But I wouldn’t have changed any of it, because that’s who I am. Even though I’m a bubbly, happy person, not every song that I sing is gonna be uptempo.

Q: Did you get a chance to talk to the judges after the results show?

A: All the judges came up afterwards. I think they genuinely care about the contestants. Sometimes it’s hard to hear their critiques, but they’re there to help you. It’s a fine line between taking what they say personally and taking what they say and applying it to fix yourself and work things out that you need to work out. When they came up afterwards, they had nothing but nice things to say, things like, “This is just another step into your career. You have great vocals. You’re very unique.” They’re just full of compliments, because they want to see us succeed. And they don’t want us to feel like all hope is lost, because it’s not. I’m in the top 12 right now, and even though I got voted off, this is not the end-all for me. This is a great opportunity to jump-start my career. I think that’s the point they were trying to make.

Q: Who are some of your musical influences, and would you ever like to work with them?

A: I have a lot of influences right now. One of my biggest influences is Patsy Cline. Unfortunately, I won’t be able to work with her. I learned a lot from her performances, like how to tell a story in a song to make you feel like you’ve fallen in love again or make you feel like your heart’s broken. She was a great performer. … Also, there’s new and upcoming people who I’ve been following for a couple years like Pete Yorn, who’s just an amazing musician and singer that has a great vibe, and not a whole lot of people know who he is yet, but I think he’s an upcoming huge deal. I have a lot of indie bands that I like, and I got a couple country bands that I really like right now. I’m finding influence from everywhere.

Were you sad to see Lacey go? Will you follow her post-”Idol” career? Let us know in the comments below!

Get your “Idol” fix on MTV News’ “American Idol” page, where you’ll find all the latest news, interviews and opinions.

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The two met when they starred in ‘The Secret Life of Bees’ together.
By Jocelyn Vena

Alicia Keys and Dakota Fanning at “The Secret Life Of Bees” premiere on September 5, 2008

Photo: Alexandra Wyman/ WireImage

In 2008, Dakota Fanning and Alicia Keys starred in the movie “The Secret Life of Bees” together. And meeting Keys gave Fanning an opportunity to do something she had never done before: go to a concert.

“I never went to concerts until very recently, and I was doing a movie with Alicia Keys so I went to her concert,” Fanning, who hits the big screen this week playing rocker Cherie Currie in “The Runaways,” told MTV News about her first concertgoing experience.

And Keys was happy to oblige. “Yes, that’s true. She came to my L.A. show for my last tour and it was her first concert,” she recalled on Wednesday night in New York City, where she was playing a show at Madison Square Garden. “We had just finished a movie, ‘Secret Life of Bees,’ together … and I was so happy to be her first concert.”

Keys added that the actress, now 16, certainly has the chops to be working in Hollywood for many years to come. “She’s an amazing person, an incredibly talented lady. She’s gonna be someone we watch flourish for many years. And I’m glad she will always say her first concert was me.”

Also on Wednesday night, Fanning spoke about how very obedient to the rules she still is in her own life, even though she plays a wild child in her new movie. “Cherie kind of grew up with no restrictions or rules, kind of figuring it out for herself. It’s kind of different for me,” she shared. “I will never get to have that experience, so I kind of got to have it through the film.”

Check out everything we’ve got on “The Runaways.”

For breaking news, celebrity columns, humor and more — updated around the clock — visit MTVMoviesBlog.com.

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‘He rapped a cappella over the phone, and we matched up the beat to it in the studio,’ DJ Holiday tells Mixtape Daily.
By Shaheem Reid

Gucci Mane’s <i>BurrrPrint 2HD</i> mixtape

Photo: Brick Squad/Warner Bros.

The O.D.: A Mixtape Daily Exclusive

On Tuesday, we slid you the exclusive gem that Gucci Mane is putting out a mixtape album on April 13. While Gucci is in jail now for a probation violation, we have his main accomplice in all this, DJ Holiday, to let us in on the odds and ends.

“It’s the warm-up before Writing’s on the Wall 2,” Holiday said of The BurrrPrint 2HD. “I talk to him every other day. His spirit is up. He’s 1,000. He called me to get an update of what’s going on in the city. My tapes is crazy. Waka is the hottest thing out here. Nicki is on fire. He was like, ‘You think they miss our tapes?’ I was like, ‘Hell yeah.’ He said, ‘Let’s do something. [But] you know I can’t move like I want to.’ I said, ‘Let’s knock it out on some over-the-phone sh–.’

“They gonna really f— with the mixtape, because he’s really rapping on the tape from the phone,” Holiday continued. “We matched up a beat with Drumma Boy, and [Gucci] rapped on it. But he rapped a cappella over the phone, and we matched up the beat to it in the studio. It’s f—ing bananas. I thought it was creative. You know how Shyne was locked up and you’d get a freestyle from the phone? I said, ‘Let’s take it another step.’ We recorded him rapping on the phone in the mic … and went from there. Then we matched it with the beat Drumma Boy made. It came out crazy, and it sounds good too.”

“New Gucci Mane mixtape is going to be crazy!!!” Drumma Boy said. “Gucci kept tellin’ me how much of an impact he wanted to make with this mixtape, and with him being incarcerated, we had to be very creative in how we got this done. One of my favorite records and most difficult records that I’ve ever produced was BurrrPrint 2 off the mixtape. He called me one day I was in the studio making beats, and he told me he had written some new verses and wanted me to hear them. So I stopped doing what I was doing to listen. After five seconds of listening, I was like, ‘Stop. I’mma record you while you rap through the phone.’ I recorded his verses but later realized that there was no consistent tempo. This means I had to chop up each word for word to punch into tempo, which took me about five to six hours. After I had lined up his verses, I then began to add music around the verses, structure the build, and then create a hook that matched the intensity of his verses. Overall, I spent a good two days producing that record, and it’s a great feeling to see people’s reactions after them finding out I produced the record of Gucci Mane through the phone.”

The other records on BP2HD are unreleased records Gucci had in the stash.

“Anybody who knows Gucci, they know his work ethic in that studio is ridiculous,” Holiday said. “I got 10 songs in one damn day. All brand-new records, bruh. Maybe one record you might know. Everything else is brand-new. One song is with Ludacris called ‘Atlanta Is a Zoo.’ It’s a club banger. One song is crazy with Jim Jones. He’s got another one with Rick Ross and Yo Gotti. Heavy features on there. It’s a mixtape album. The label [Asylum] is going all out with it.”

Shawty Redd and Fat Boi are among those who contributed tracks. Drumma Boy handled most of the production.

Gucci’s camp is hoping BurrrPrint 2HD will tide fans over until Mr. LaFlare gets home. As soon as Gucci comes home from jail, he plans to record the sequel to his mixtape The Writing’s on the Wall and later put out his album (The State vs. Radric Davis: The Appeal). DJ Holiday’s next mixtape is Waka Flocka Flame’s Flockaveli. Holiday’s debut album will be released later this year and called either The Tape or We Working.

For other artists featured in Mixtape Daily, check out Mixtape Daily Headlines.

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‘Stepping outside your zone can jeopardize your brand,’ Drizzy says of Sade’s no-collabo policy.
By Shaheem Reid, with reporting by Matt Elias

Drake

Photo: MTV News

Drake said he wasn’t upset when he heard that Sade — an artist he had wanted to collaborate with on his upcoming Thank Me Later debut — said she’s not into guest-starring on anyone’s project.

“I don’t think they have contacted me,” Sade, 51, told Canada’s National Post last month. “I’ve never collaborated because I’ve always avoided working outside my safety zone — I can be exactly who I am and can fail or succeed within the moment. I feel safe working like I do. I wouldn’t want to work in a situation where I am expected to deliver, because I think I wouldn’t deliver.”

Drake said he might not get with her this time, but maybe on a future album.

“That’s great. Her brand is always protected. That’s why,” Drake said of her comments on the set of his “Over” video last week in California. “Other people’s visuals, other people’s songs, stepping outside your zone can jeopardize your brand. It can bring you down as opposed to bring you up. I personally feel we could have done something amazing. But I don’t think she really knows who I am, really, my genre of music. I put it out there. It was more of a hopeful thing. It was a very early stage where I was at when I said that I was hoping. One day. Maybe after this album comes out.

“I’m very influenced by her,” he added. “She does something that I do. She doesn’t do too much with harmonies, and she keeps her vocals very clean. Single vocals. Haunting melodies. I’m influenced by her a lot. One day.”

Would you like to hear a collaboration between Drake and Sade? Who else do you think Sade should hook up with? Let us know in the comments!

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