Billy Idol, Nick Jonas, Pitbull lead SunFest 2018 lineup

The lineup for SunFest 2018 is out and like with past years, it looks like festival organizers made it their mission to make sure every music taste is satisfied. On Wednesday (Feb. 21), the official lineup for the 2018 incarnation of the annual South Florida music festival was unveiled. Headlining the four-day music festival this year will be Billy Idol, Girl Talk, Zedd, Incubus, Logic, Rae Sremmurd, Nick Jonas, 311, and Mr. Worldwide himself, Pitbull.

“We create our lineup to appeal to a variety of people and musical interests,” SunFest executive director Paul Jamieson explained in a statement.

As with past years, Jamieson’s statement still rings true. This year’s roster does have a little bit for every particular music taste as well as those who are interested in stepping out of their comfort zone. Holding down the fort for the pop-loving crowd are acts like Pitbull, Nick Jonas, Zedd, and DNCE while hip-hop fans will be able to enjoy performances by Rae Sremmurd and PartyNextDoor.

For the older fans in the crowd, the music festival was able to secure legendary acts like Billy Idol, who will headline the first night of the event, and KC and the Sunshine Band, who will perform Saturday afternoon. For the rock-loving crowd, bands like Incubus, Grouplove, Dreamers, and 311 will hit the stage throughout the weekend.

SunFest 2018 will invade downtown West Palm Beach from May 3 to May 6. The multi-stage event will return to its home on Flagler Drive right on the waterfront in downtown West Palm Beach. Early bird tickets are currently available on the festival’s website here. Early bird tickets cost $37-$75 with prices increasing on March 9.

The complete artist roster for SunFest 2018 can be seen below while the daily schedule/performance times can be found on SunFest’s website.

Pitbull’s New Year’s Eve Party Announce Artists

Whether you like Pitbull or not, we all have to admit that “Mr. Worldwide” is making it his mission to actually be known as Mr. Worldwide, for real (unlike now, when it’s just his self-proclaimed title).

The rapper has announced the line-up for his New Year’s Eve party which will air on FOX to help bring in 2015.

As always, Pitbull will return home to Miami to host Pitbull’s New Year’s Revolution which will broadcast live from the Thompson Hotel (formerly The Crown) in Miami Beach on Dec. 31.

As of now, the performers of the evening will include his tour mate and close friend Enrique Iglesias, Fifth Harmony, Becky G. and two bands that do not seem to fit the bill; The Band Perry and Fall Out Boy.

For those tuning in, the show will air live from 8 p.m. to 10 p.m. with a one hour gap for the local news to air.

Then, the New Year’s Eve party will pick up once again at 11 p.m. for the celebration and wrap up at 12:30 a.m. well after the new year has begun. For those living in any other time zone, the show will be tape-delayed

Jennifer Lopez Bails on World Cup Performance

Jennifer Lopez was scheduled to perform at the 2014 FIFA World Cup, but now it has been revealed that Lopez will no longer perform at the tournament.
 
Lopez was set to join Pitbull and Brazilian singer, Claudia Lettie to sing their official World cup song, “We Are One (Ole Ola)” at the opening ceremony of the games.
 
Many were underwhelmed by the song, which reportedly took nine people to write, including Brazilians who are more offended by the fact that there is little to no Portuguese in the song though  Portuguese is one of the main languages in the country. Rather the song is predominately English and Spanish.

The song made its television debut last month during the annual Billboard Music Awards.
 
According to the Associated Press, the reason behind Lopez’s choice to forgo the tournament performance was because of unspecified “production issues.”

At present time, there is no actual reason as to why the pop star decided to not perform, just a few days short of the opening ceremony aside from the standard press release of  “regretfully Jennifer Lopez will not be attending this year’s World Cup opening ceremonies.”

But Pitbull and Lettie are not letting J.Lo’s bailing stop them from performing the song at the ceremony which will take place before Brazil takes on Croatia on Thursday (June 12) during the opening game in Sao Paulo.

Watch the Billboard Music Award Performances

If you missed a performance from tonight’s Billboard Music Award, you can see them all below including the opening performance by Pitbull, Jennifer Lopez and Brazilian singer, Claudia Lettie on their official FIFA song, “We Are One (Ole Ola),” Florida Georgia Line’s “This is How We Roll,” and the most anticipated, Michael Jackson’s tribute featuring a hologram-version of the King of Pop and dancer all dancing around him.

Pitbull, Jennifer Lopez and Claudia Lettie, “We Are One (Ole Ola)”:

http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x1viqnu_pitbull-ft-jlo-2014-billboard-music-awards_music

 

Iggy Azalea and Chali XCX, “Fancy”//Ariana Grande and Iggy Azalea, “Problem”

http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x1visjk_iggy-azalea-ariana-grande-2014-billboard-music-awards_music

 

OneRepublic, “Counting Stars”:

http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x1vis77_one-direction-2014-billboard-music-awards_music

 

Shakira, “Empire”:

http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x1viu3z_shakira-2014-billboard-music-awards_music

 

Florida Georgia Line feat. Luke Bryan, “This is How We Roll”:

http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x1vito4_florida-georgia-line-2014-billboard-music-awards-2014_music

 

Michael Jackson, “Slave to the Rhythm”:

http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x1vixpw_michael-jackson-experience-to-rock-2014-billboard-music-awards_music

 

Katy Perry, “Birthday”:

http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x1viwaj_katy-perry-2014-billboard-music-awards_music

 

Luke Bryan, “Crash My Party”:

http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x1vizoa_luke-bryan-crash-my-party-2014-billboard-music-awards_music

 

Ricky Martin, “Vida”:

http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x1viycm_ricky-martin-2014-billboard-music-awards_music

 

Carrie Underwood and Miranda Lambert, “Somethin Bad”:

http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x1vj1gi_miranda-lambert-with-carrie-underwood-2014-billboard-music-awards_music

 

Miley Cyrus and The Flaming Lips, “Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds” (Beatles Cover):

http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x1vj41e_miley-cyrus-from-manchester-arena-2014-billboard-music-awards_music

2014 FIFA World Cup Official Song Released

The 2014 FIFA World Cup is set to kick off in Brazil later this year and now, after months of waiting the theme song for the tournament has been released. The song, “We Are One (Ole Ola),” is collaboration between Jennifer Lopez, Pitbull and The Voice Brasil coach/Brazilian singer Claudia Leitte.

In January, FIFA and Sony Music first announced “We Are One” which was written and co-produced by Pitbull, would be the theme song though no one had heard the song nor knew just what it would sound like. Now we have gotten the full song which will be performed live during the soccer tournament’s opening ceremony on June 12 in Sao Paulo.

Paying homage to the trio’s backgrounds, the song is multilingual featuring verses in Portuguese by Leitte.

Pitbull took to Twitter to announced the track’s release as well as to link fans of the song to the FIFA World Cup album it will be featured on, One Love, One Rhythm. We can also now anticipate that the music video for the song will be released any day now considering that the music video was being shot in Ft. Lauderdale in February.

While “We Are One” is the official song for the games, Santana and Wyclef Jean’s soon-to-be-revealed “Dar um Jeito (We Will Find a Way) will be the official anthem.

iTunes Festival to Hit South By Southwest

The iTunes Festival will finally be making its way to the United States this year as part of South By Southwest. The iTunes Festival, which usually takes place in England, gives fans the opportunity to see some of the biggest artists in music at no cost; the only catch is that it becomes a raffle of who can get tickets to attend.

According to press release from Apple, the festival will take place from March 11-15 and will feature performances from Coldplay, Imagine Dragons, Pitbull, Keith Urban, ZEDD, and may more that are still to be announced.

“The iTunes Festival in London has become an incredible way for Apple to share its love of music with our customers,” said Eddy Cue, Apple’s senior vice president of Internet Software and Services. “We’re excited about the incredible lineup of artists performing and SXSW is the perfect place to debut the first iTunes Festival in the US.”

The shows will take place at ACL Live at the Moody Theater, home of Austin City Limits. “All five nights of the iTunes Festival will be available to enjoy for free as a live and on-demand stream via the iTunes Store® on your iPhone®, iPad®, iPod touch®, Mac® or PC. Performances can also be seen in the iTunes Festival app on your iOS device or with Apple TV® in stunning HD,” the official press release for the festival says about where you can watch the performances.

No word yet on how tickets will be distributed for this event.

“Timber”! Pitbull and Ke$ha’s New Video Premieres

Pitbull did a decent job this past Sunday at the American Music Awards while he took over the role of host of the evening. The Cuban rapper even took the stage to perform his new song, “Timber” which featured our favorite party girl, Ke$ha.

While the song has been floating around the internet for over a month, the video has finally surfaced. The rapper gave some of his fans on Facebook the exclusive first look at the video this past Sunday, in honor of him getting the chance to host the yearly, fan-voted award show

The video was filmed in Pitbull playground also known as South Florida (we should probably insert some “305” and dale in here, but we know how annoying that is, dale) including the saloon where Ke$ha’s part mostly takes place (except those parts when she’s with animals, coincidence, we think not) and Pitbull sticks to what he knows best, the beach.

Now who’s ready to watch some Coyote Ugly or Dukes of Hazard?

Anyways, check out the video for the track below:

“Timber” is the first single off Pitbull’s new EP, Global Warming: Meltdown which was released yesterday.

Pitbull and Ke$ha Australian Tour, Scrapped

Those looking forward to seeing Pitbull and Ke$ha in Australia might have to take a rain check on the shows because it looks like the plug has been pulled.

The two radio mainstays had been scheduled to have a tour in Australia that was scheduled to begin on October 30; now it has surfaced that the tour has been completely scrapped a little over two weeks from when it was supposed to begin.

The show was coined as the year’s “hottest double-act,” but it looks like the reception was a little on the luke-warm side of things.  The dates for the “Pitbull & Ke$ha – Live In Australia” tour included  Melbourne’s Rod Laver Arena (Nov. 1), Adelaide Entertainment Centre (Nov. 3), Perth Arena (Nov. 5) and wrap-up at Sydney’s Allphones Arena (Nov. 8).

The promoters for the event,  Dainty Group, confirmed the run was off, but the official reason for it has yet to be released. Some are starting to guess that it might have to do with the fact that ticket sales for the show had been mediocre at best.

Pitbull did take to his Facebook page to announce the cancellation, but like everyone else, has not given a definite answer for the cancellation. The rapper said the following on the social media site, “Regrettably the Promoter is cancelling the Australian Tour, refunds will be available at point of purchase. We hope to return to Australia in the not too distant future.”

Just last week, the label-mates released a joint song titled, “Timber” which currently has a music video in progress, at least according to Ke$ha’s Instagram pictures.

Instead of crying those glittery tears away, you can listen to “Timber” below.

Pitbull Weighs in on Jay-Z/Cuba Controversy

Coming in a week or so late to the party, Mr. Worldwide himself, Pitbull has sounded off on the Jay-Z in Cuba controversy by releasing his own freestyle about HOV’s visit to the communistic country.

For those not familiar with the story, Jay-Z and wife, Beyoncé went to Cuba to celebrate their fifth anniversary with his mother as well as hers. It’s against the law to go to Cuba as a tourist, but somehow the power duo and their mothers managed to do so.

Most of the reactions from people about the visit was negative that even an investigation was started by two Florida congresspeople as to why they were allowed to go there. The unofficial-official reason was that Jay-Z was in Cuba to scout for new talent for his recently created sports agency, Roc Nation Sports.

Due to the backlash, he released a song on his Life + Time blog titled “Open Letter” where he kind of responses to the accusations. He states: “Politicians never did shit for me / Except lie to me, distort history. Want to give me jail time and a fine / Fine, let me commit a real crime.”

Now Pitbull, a super proud Cuban-American from Miami has responded in his own freestyle saying the following: “Politicians love to hate  you / But then they run away when it’s time to debate you / Question of the night / Would they have messed with Mr. Carter if he was white?”

The freestyle can be heard below:

While the main question being asked is how they managed to get away with this, the real question should be WHY would they want to go to Cuba with a million other places to pick from, especially for something as special as a wedding anniversary.

Lindsay Lohan Loses to Pitbull

If you don’t know all the lyrics to “Give Me Everything” from Ne-Yo featuring Pitbull then you probably lived under a rock all of 2011 and most of 20112. In case you did, Pitbull recites a line that says:

“I’ve got it locked up, like Lindsay Lohan.”

Turns out, that the fallen star didn’t take to kindly to the rapper using her “likeness” in a verse that apparently made her look horrible. The funny part? It was probably the only good piece of publicity she had gotten during the last couple of years. In 2011, Lohan decided to sue Pitbull for not getting permission to use her name in the song. In turn, he asked her to be his date to the 2011 MTV Video Music Awards which she declined.

Yesterday, a New York federal court agreed with Pitbull saying that Lohan’s was way off when it came to the law. The  lyrics to the song qualify as art which is rightfully protected by the First Amendment. They also added on that she is barely even mentioned in the song for longer than three seconds, throwing out the claim that she should receive some compensation for the “emotional distress” she was under.