Blacc to Perform at This Year’s MLB Home Run Derby

Posted on July 9, 2014 by Tom Castaneda

Aloe Blacc has scored a game-winning gig…

The 35-year-old Panamanian-American singer, who recently announced plans to release an enhanced version of his latest album Lift Your Spirit, will perform during baseball’s big weekend.

Blacc will take the stage during Major League Baseball’s Home Run Derby on July 14. The event will air on ESPN.

No word yet on what song or songs Blacc will perform during the festivities.

Meanwhile, Tony-winning performerIdina Menzel will sing the national anthem at the MLB All-Star Game on July 15 in Minneapolis. She’ll also perform during the pre-game ceremony, including a cover of Bob Dylan‘s “Forever Young.”

The game at Target Field will air on Fox, where country singer Joe Nichols will sing “God Bless America.”

MLB All-Star week will also include a Saturday concert by Grammy-winning rockers Imagine Dragons at the TCF Bank Stadium. A day later, Panic! At the Disco will perform at the All-Star Legends & Celebrity Softball Game at Target Field.

Blacc to Release Repackaged and Enhanced Edition of “Lift Your Spirit”

Posted on July 8, 2014 by Tom Castaneda

It appears Aloe Blacc is ready to lift your spirits even further…

The 35-year-old Panamanian-American singer, riding high this year on the success of his third album Lift Your Spirit and the singles “The Man” and “Wake Me Up,” tells Billboard that he and his record label, Interscope, “are going to repackage the album” this summer for a uniform collection comprised of all the songs he released globally during the campaign.

“I recorded about 40 songs, and you can only release 10 or 12 of them at a time,” Blacc explains. “The European version of the album had a different set of songs than the (American) version, a couple of songs that were different, so we’re going to get them all together and release all of the songs from across the world so that everybody gets every song and no territory is complaining about not having any particular song.”

Blacc adds that, “It was never my intention to release so many songs. I wanted to just have 10, but we had way more material than we expected that we considered worthy. But I think that’s OK. I think it’s OK to give people more than they expected.”

Blacc hopes to have the set ready “by the end of the summer or, probably, the beginning of the fall.”

Meanwhile, he says he’d like to release a follow-up to Lift Your Spirit “hopefully early next year” but acknowledges “maybe that’s too soon. It depends on what the label says. I’m definitely ready to release more music, because I’ve just got so much stuff recorded and so many other songs that I’m eager to record.”

Blacc has had no trouble staying busy outside of the study, with heavy touring — including dates opening for Bruno Mars — and a spot as a guest coach on Adam Levine‘s team during the latest season of The Voice.

He’s also featured on the track “The World is Ours” from the One Love, One Rhythm FIFA World Cup album, and he’s getting ready for his film debut in Get On Up, the James Brown biopic in which he plays Famous Flames guitarist Nafloyd Scott.

“That was a different challenge, it really was,” Blacc says. “Acting is something that requires a lot of patience, a lot of skill, a lot of internal reflection. It’s a whole new muscle I’m going to continue to develop, either writing screenplays and my own scripts or finding the best roles out there to challenge this new skill.” A dearth of information about his character, meanwhile, actually proved to be a blessing for Blacc.

“I had to learn it all,” he explains. “there isn’t much information about that time in (Brown’s) career available, no photos I could find of Nafloyd Scott on Wikipedia or anything. He wasn’t really part of the meteoric rise of James Brown — he quit the band because of personality conflicts, before it really took off. So it was all about having to learn from the script and some of the archival footage that was available. But it did make it a little bit easier to create my own character, which was nice for the first time doing this.”

Carey Scheduled to Kick Off the Toyota Concert Series on NBC’s “Today” Show

Posted on April 29, 2014 by Tom Castaneda

Mariah Carey is preparing to rock the Rock…

NBC‘s Today show has announced its lineup for the annual Toyota Concert Series on Today, now in its 19th season, with the 44-year-old half-Venezuelan American singer kicking things off on May 16 in Rockefeller Plaza.

It will mark Carey’s sixth concert for the morning show and gives the singer, who recently notched her 17th No. 1 on the Billboard‘s Dance Club Songs chart, a chance to promote her new album, expected to be released in late May.

But Carey isn’t the only Hispanic artist slated to appear on the Today show…

Camila Cabello, Lauren Jauregui, Ally Brooke Hernandez and their Fifth Harmony band mates will also take part in their first-ever Toyota Concert Series on Today. The all-girl group, recently named the favorite band on social media at the Shorties, will perform on July 11.

Meanwhile, Aloe Blacc, who lends his voice to Coca-Cola’s World Cup anthem “The World is Ours,” is set to make his debut performance as part of the concert series. The 35-year-old Panamanian American singer-songwriter is scheduled to perform on August 1.

Other artists scheduled to perform includeTim McGraw, Jennifer Hudson, Fall Out Boy and Usher all in the mix.

The concerts take place on Friday unless noted. More performers will be announced at a later date.

Here’s a look at the complete schedule:

MAY
16 Mariah Carey
23 Tim McGraw
26 Austin Mahone (Monday)
30 Rascal Flatts

JUNE
5 Pharrell (Thursday)
6 Sara Bareilles
13 Train
17 Little Mix (Tuesday)
20 Fall Out Boy
27 Phillip Phillips

JULY
4 Ed Sheeran
11 Fifth Harmony
18 Jason Mraz
25 OneRepublic
29 Jennifer Hudson (Tuesday)

AUGUST
1 Aloe Blacc
8 TBD
15 Neon Trees
22 TBD
29 Ariana Grande

SEPTEMBER
1 Maroon 5
5 Usher

Blacc Lends His Voice to Coca-Cola’s World Cup Anthem “The World is Ours”

Posted on April 16, 2014 by Tom Castaneda

The world is Aloe Blacc’s… At least when it comes to the upcoming 2014 World Cup.

The 35-year-old Panamanian American singer-songwriter is adding a little soul to a new version of Coca-Cola’s World Cup anthem, a mash-up between the Coke campaign theme “The World is Ours” featuring David Correy and an original song by Blacc.

Following his second appearance at Coachella this Friday (April 18), Blacc will join Correy in a performance of the song at L.A. Live on Saturday when the FIFA World Cup trophy tour makes its final stop in Los Angeles.

“A World Cup song in any capacity is a fantastic opportunity to share music with the entire world,” Blacc tells Billboard. “It’s a blessing for me, especially because it’s the kind of music I want to make, uplifting and inspirational. It just fit right, it made sense to get involved.”

Blacc, who appears on Avicii‘s “Wake Me Up” and has earned a current Billboard Hot 100 Top 10 single “The Man,” brings his vocal muscle, melody and some new lyrics to Coke’s Brazilian-rooted, club-friendly soccer song.

More than twenty versions of the anthem have already been recorded by Correy, Brazilian percussionists Monoblanco and a team of international artists.

“The World is Ours by David Correy X Aloe Blacc,” available on Spotify and iTunes as a single, will be included on the official World Cup album, On Rhythm, One Love, due out May 12.

“The way I wanted to do it was to write my own song,” Blacc says of his contribution to the Coke anthem. “Something that felt a little bit more like me, that wasn’t too much of a dance song.”

Blacc’s album Lift Your Spirit, debuted and peaked at No. 4 on the Billboard 200 chart, and rose to No. 1 on the R&B Albums chart. One track on Blacc’s album was produced by Rock Mafia, who produced “The World is Ours,” and provided Coke’s connection to Blacc.

“It was great to do a mash up between my song [“Hello World“] and David Correy’s song,” Blacc adds. “The message that I wanted to convey was oneness. I’ve been lucky enough to have my music accepted in countries all over the world. And everywhere I go I recognize music, sports entertainment being something that brings us all together. Football, soccer is something that makes us all one; its like a religion in a lot of places.”

Growing up in Orange County, where he was raised by his Panamanian parents, Blacc played soccer, in addition to learning the trumpet, and later, getting involved with hip hop.

“Almost all of the guys I went to school with played soccer in some form or fashion so it doesn’t escape anybody,” he says, adding that in his case, playing the sport was inevitable. “My Dad was the coach, I had to.”

Mars Named a Finalist in Three Billboard Music Award Categories, Including Top Artist

Posted on April 10, 2014 by Tom Castaneda

He’s Billboard’s reigning Artist of the Year… And now Bruno Mars leads the Latino pack of finalists for the 2014 Billboard Music Awards.

The 28-year-old part-Puerto Rican singer-songwriter has been named a finalist in three categories, including the big prize: Top Artist.

Mars is up against Miley Cyrus, Katy Perry, Justin Timberlake and Imagine Dragons for the top award.

In addition, the Super Bowl Halftime Show standout is nominated for Top Male Artist and Top Radio Songs Artist.

But Mars isn’t the only Latino artist to be named a finalist in multiple categories…

Romeo Santos, who recently broke Billboard records with his No. 1 single “Odio,” is a finalist in three categories, including Top Latin Artist and Top Latin Album. Puerto Rican/Dominican American singer is also a double-finalist in the Top Latin Song category for his collaboration with Enrique Iglesias, “Loco,” and his single “Propuesta Indecente.”

Prince Royce and Marc Anthony, who will perform at the Billboard Latin Music Awards later this month, have both been named finalists in the same three categories: Top Latin Artist, Top Latin Album and Top Latin Song.

Other Latino finalists include Aloe Blacc, the late Jenni Rivera, Gerardo Ortiz, Pitbull, Alejandro Fernandez and Daddy Yankee.

The awards will be broadcast live from the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas on Sunday, May 18, on ABC from 8:00 –11:00 pm ET.

Billboard Music Awards finalists are based on key fan interactions with music, including album and digital singles sales, radio airplay, touring, streaming and social interactions on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, VEVO, Spotify and other popular online destinations for music. These measurements are tracked year-round by Billboard and its data partners, including Nielsen Entertainment and Next Big Sound. The awards are based on the reporting period of March 11, 2013 through March 9, 2014.

The six finalists will be narrowed down to three finalists, who will be announced on Billboard’s website on April 21. Voting will then continue through the first two hours of the live 2014 Billboard Music Awards broadcast, culminating with the announcement of the award winner during the last hour of the show.

Here’s a look at the categories with a Latino nominee:

Top Artist
Bruno Mars
Miley Cyrus
Katy Perry
Justin Timberlake
Imagine Dragons

Top Male Artist
Luke Bryan
Drake
Eminem
Bruno Mars
Justin Timberlake

Top Radio Songs Artist
Imagine Dragons
Lorde
Bruno Mars
Katy Perry
Justin Timberlake

Top Rap Artist
Drake
Eminem
Jay Z
Macklemore & Ryan Lewis
Pitbull

Top Latin Artist
Marc Anthony
Gerardo Ortiz
Jenni Rivera
Prince Royce
Romeo Santos

Top Latin Album
Marc Anthony, 3.0
Alejandro Fernandez, Confidencias
Jenni Rivera, 1969-Siempre: En Vivo Desde Monterrey: Part 1
Prince Royce, Soy El Mismo
Romeo Santos, Formula: Vol. 2

Top Radio Song
Avicii feat. Aloe Blacc, “Wake Me Up!”
Lorde, “Royals”
Katy Perry, “Roar”
Robin Thicke feat. T.I. & Pharrell, “Blurred Lines”
Justin Timberlake, “Mirrors”

Top Rap Song
Eminem feat. Rihanna, “The Monster”
Jay Z feat. Justin Timberlake, “Holy Grail”
Macklemore & Ryan Lewis feat. Ray Dalton, “Can’t Hold Us”
Macklemore & Ryan Lewis feat. Wanz, “Thrift Shop”
Pitbull feat. Ke$ha, “Timber”

Top Latin Song
Marc Anthony, “Vivir Mi Vida”
Daddy Yankee, “Limbo”
Enrique Iglesias feat. Romeo Santos, “Loco”
Prince Royce, “Darte Un Beso”
Romeo Santos, “Propuesta Indecente”

Top Dance/Electronic Song
Avicii feat. Aloe Blacc, “Wake Me Up!”
Daft Punk feat. Pharrell Williams, “Get Lucky”
Icona Pop feat. Charli XCX, “I Love It”
Lady Gaga, “Applause”
Zedd feat. Foxes, “Clarity”

Blacc Earns Two iHeartRadio Music Award Nominations

Posted on March 27, 2014 by Tom Castaneda

It’s a nice Wake (Me) Up moment for Aloe Blacc…

The 35-year-old Panamanian-American singer, songwriter is the leading Latino finalist for the first-ever iHeartRadio Music Awards, which will air live on NBC on May 1 from the Shrine Auditorium in Los Angeles.

Blacc earned two nominations for writing and performing vocals on Avicii‘s “Wake Me Up,” which has charted at #1 in 22 countries.

Blacc, who is set to perform at the upcoming Nickelodeon‘s Kids’ Choice Awards, is nominated in the EDM Song of the Year and Best Lyrics categories.

But Blacc isn’t the only Hispanic artist nominated…

Pitbull and Ke$ha picked up a nomination for Best Collaboration for their chart-topping hit “Timber.”

The 32-year-old Cuban American rap superstar reached the summit on the Billboard Hot 100 chart, as well as the Pop Songs chart. It has sold more than 2.5 million downloads, according to Nielsen SoundScan.

Meanwhile, Demi Lovato is nominated in the Best Fan Army category. The 21-year-old part-Mexican American singer/actress has 21.5 million followers on Twitter, as well as 4.4 million followers on Instagram.

The iHeartRadio Music Awards telecast will feature “this year’s biggest artists and songs” along with “live performances, never-before-done duets and collaborations,” including performances streamed from other venues in Los Angeles.

Nominees for the awards were based on results from the newly introduced iHeartRadioChart, which compiles airplay-based listener feedback and performance data, digital streaming data from the iHeartRadio platform and sales, social video data and tags from Big Champagne and Shazam. The data was compiled by Mediabase based on data from the past 12 months.

Here are this year’s nominees:

Artist of the Year:
Imagine Dragons
Justin Timberlake
Macklemore & Ryan Lewis
Maroon 5
Rihanna

Song of the Year: 
“Hold on We’re Going Home” – Drake ft. Majid Jordan
“Mirrors” – Justin Timberlake
“Radioactive” – Imagine Dragons
“Stay” – Rihanna ft. Mikky Ekko
“The Monster” – Eminem ft. Rihanna

Best Collaboration:
“Holy Grail” – Jay Z ft. Justin Timberlake
“Stay” – Rihanna ft. Mikky Ekko
“Suit & Tie” – Justin Timberlake ft. Jay Z
“The Monster” – Eminem ft. Rihanna
“Timber” – Pitbull ft. Ke$ha

Best New Artist: 
Florida Georgia Line
Icona Pop
Imagine Dragons
Lorde
Macklemore & Ryan Lewis
Passenger

Country Song of the Year:
“Boys ‘Round Here” – Blake Shelton
“Highway Don’t Care” – Tim McGraw with Taylor Swift
“It Goes Like This” – Thomas Rhett
“Mine Would Be You” – Blake Shelton
“That’s My Kind of Night” – Luke Bryan

Hip-Hop/R&B Song of the Year:
“Blurred Lines” – Robin Thicke ft. T.I. & Pharrell
“Hold on We’re Going Home” – Drake ft. Majid Jordan
“Holy Grail” – Jay Z ft. Justin Timberlake
“Pour It Up” – Rihanna
“Started From the Bottom” – Drake

EDM Song of the Year:
“Get Lucky” – Daft Punk ft. Pharrell
“Stay the Night” – Zedd ft. Hayley Williams
“Summertime Sadness” – Lana Del Rey ft. Cedric Gervais
“Sweet Nothing” – Calvin Harris ft. Florence Welch
“Wake Me Up” – Avicii feat. Aloe Blacc

Alternative Rock Song of the Year:
“Demons” – Imagine Dragons
“Do I Wanna Know?” – Arctic Monkeys
“Pompeii” – Bastille
“Royals” – Lorde
“Safe and Sound” – Capital Cities

Best Lyrics:
“Wake Me Up” – Avicii (Vocals by Aloe Blacc)
“I Love It (ft. Charli XCX)” – Icona Pop
“Say Something” – A Great Big World feat. Christina Aguilera
“Same Love” – Macklemore & Ryan Lewis
“Wrecking Ball” – Miley Cyrus

Best Fan Army:
Arianators – Ariana Grande
Little Monsters – Lady Gaga
Lovatics – Demi Lovato
Mahomies – Austin Mahone
Rihanna Navy – Rihanna
Swifties – Taylor Swift

Blacc to Perform at the Nickelodeon Kids’ Choice Awards

Posted on March 12, 2014 by Tom Castaneda

Aloe Blacc is set to make his first appearance at the 2014 Nickelodeon Kids’ Choice Awards.

The 35-year-old Panamanian-American singer will perform at the March 29 fan-voted awards ceremony, which will be hosted by Mark Wahlberg.

Blacc, best known for his single “I Need a Dollar,” will perform a medley of his recent hit songs “Wake Me Up,” which he co-wrote with Avicii, and “The Man.”

“Wake Me Up” has charted at No. 1 in 22 countries.

“Looking forward to my very first Kids Choice Awards performance. Can’t wait to sing ‘Wake Me Up’ and ‘The Man’ with all my fans,” said Blacc.

Blacc’s most recent television appearances include The Voice, The Ellen DeGeneres Show and Dancing with the Stars.

Tribeca Film Festival Launches Music Film Challenge Using Blacc’s “Ticking Bomb” Track

Posted on January 29, 2014 by Tom Castaneda

Here’s your chance to create a special music video for one of Aloe Blacc’s songs.

The Tribeca Film Festival has launched a music film challenge, in which content creators and storytellers can create interactive music videos for songs by the 35-year-old Panamanian American singer, Ellie Goulding and Damon Albarn.

The winning project for each artist will be screened at the 2014 Tribeca Film Festival, which takes place from April 16 to 27.

Starting Tuesday, participants can go to genero.tv/Tribeca to create a music video set to a song by one of the three artists, using Interlude‘s self-service interface Treehouse.

Filmmakers can select from Blacc’s “Ticking Bomb,” Albarn’s “Heavy Seas of Love” and Goulding’s “Dead in the Water.”

Submissions are due by March 27. A jury will then select finalists for each of the three songs, with the artists helping to select the winners.

The winning filmmakers will receive $10,000 each and a trip to attend the Tribeca Film Festival.

“New technologies are unlocking a world of storytelling opportunities for filmmakers to captivate, engage, and entertain audiences,” Tribeca Film Festival co-founder Jane Rosenthal said in a statement. “We are always looking for ways to introduce new technology to the filmmaking community at the Festival.”

Blacc, who provided vocals for Avicii‘s “Wake Me Up” added: “I’m excited to see how ‘Ticking Bomb’ is interpreted by Genero‘s community of directors. Whilst the song is meant to shed light on an issue close to my heart, I’m interested to see how the song inspires and translates through Genero’s community. I’m definitely not expecting videos that offer a literal interpretation of the lyrics, and I’m looking forward to seeing what you come up with!”

Genero.tv connects musicians with a global community of more than 250,000 filmmakers, providing a platform for artists to find video directors.

The Genero community has created more than 5,000 videos, including official clips for Moby, M83, James Brown, Muse, John Mayer, Duran Duran, David Bowie, David Guetta, Passion Pit and Linkin Park.

The finalists’ films will be showcased during the Tribeca Online Festival and displayed throughout Festival venues and lounges via interactive kiosks.

Mars Announces Dates for the Second Leg of His “Moonshine Jungle” Tour

Posted on January 16, 2014 by Tom Castaneda

Bruno Mars is ready for a little more Moonshine…

The 28-year-old part-Puerto Rican singer, who will be performing at this year’s Super Bowl with the Red Hot Chili Peppers as his special guest, has announced plans to launch the next leg of his popular Moonshine Jungle tour — and on select dates, he’ll be joined by fellow hitmaker Pharrell Williams.

Mars will kick off the newest set of concerts this May, following two April shows in Mars’ hometown of Honolulu, Hawaii. Pharrell, a music producer and featured artist on two of 2013’s biggest songs, Robin Thicke‘s “Blurred Lines” and Daft Punk‘s “Get Lucky,” will join Mars in five cities — Los Angeles, New York, Toronto, Ottawa and Montreal — while appearing behind his upcoming solo release with Columbia Records.

Panamanian American soul singer Aloe Blacc, best known in U.S. as the vocalist on Avicii‘s “Wake Me Up,” will open for Mars for majority of dates where Pharrell will not perform.

The Moonshine Jungle tour’s next leg will begin May 27 at Fresno, California’s Save Mart Center, running over 40 total dates before concluding Aug. 17 in Englewood, Colorado at Fiddler’s Green Amphitheatre.

Mars, Billboard’s Artist of the Year in 2013, is touring in support of his sophomore album, Unorthodox Jukebox, which was released in December 2012. The album has spawned two No. 1 singles on the Billboard Hot 100 — “Locked Out of Heaven” and “If I Was Your Man,” as well as the No. 5-peaking “Treasure” and “Gorilla,” which hit No. 22.

He’s also received multiple nominations at the Grammys later this month, including nods for Song of the Year and Record of the Year for “Locked Out of Heaven.”

See the full list of tour dates at Mars’ official site.

Mars Performs First-Ever Show at The Cosmopolitan’s The Chelsea

Posted on December 31, 2013 by Tom Castaneda

Bruno Mars has christened a new venue in Las Vegas in what could be a warm-up for his upcoming Super Bowl halftime show…

The 28-year-old part-Puerto Rican singer performed for an intimate crowd of 3,000 people at resort casino and hotel The Cosmopolitan of Las Vegas’s new theater The Chelsea on December 30 — Mars’ first of eight shows at the space throughout 2014.

An energetic Mars riffed on an electric guitar, dressed casually in a black blazer and graphic tee and accompanied by his band members The Hooligans outfitted in suits and suspenders.

Once the youngest Elvis Presley impersonator when he was 4 years old, Mars delivered more than his hits. He earned a few laughs as well.

“I have so much hairspray in this shit right now, you have no idea!” he joked.

Later, he said to widespread protest, “When I was a kid, I wanted to be a man so bad, I just wanted to rip my shirt off onstage. But I’m too short and I’m too fat!”

Along with performing his hit tracks like “Just the Way You Are,” “Locked Out of Heaven” and “Treasure,” Mars performed covers of songs like Barrett Strong‘s “Money (That’s What I Want)” and Travis McCoy’s “Billionaire,” as well as Aloe Blacc‘s “I Need a Dollar,” Bobby Brown‘s “Every Little Step” and Janet Jackson‘s “That’s the Way Love Goes,” among others.

Mars returns to the newly christened stage for New Year’s Eve, Feb. 15-16, May 23-24 and Aug. 22-23.

Set List:
Money Make Her Smile Treasure Money (That’s What I Want)
Billionaire
I Need a Dollar  / Show Me  / Our First Time
Pony
Ignition  / Marry You  / If I Knew
It Will Rain  / Runaway Baby  / Your Love
Poison
This Is How We Do It
Every Little Step
Let’s Talk About Sex
Candy Rain
That’s the Way Love Goes /  Waterfalls  /When I Was Your Man  / Billie Jean
Dirty Diana /  Just the Way You Are

Encore:
Locked Out of Heaven

Hispanically Yours

Celebrating the Latino Influence

Tag Archives: Aloe Blacc