Rihanna Announces Fall Release For New Album

Pop singer hints that the studio effort will include dubstep influences.
By James Dinh

Rihanna
Photo: James Devaney/WireImage

After teasing details about her upcoming album earlier this week, Rihanna continued delivering details about the record on Friday (September 16) when she tweeted that her sixth studio album will drop this fall.

When one of the Barbados beauty's Twitter followers asked, "When's the next album due?" Rihanna exuberantly replied, "THIS FALL!!!!!"

With the singer's celebratory party anthem "Cheers" currently riding high on radio airwaves, Rihanna hinted that the forthcoming LP may include dubstep influences as heard on her 2009 effort Rated R. "You KNOW how I been lovin Dubstep since Rated R," she tweeted.

Don't expect the songstress to take a break from the biz anytime soon either. Asked if she can take some time off, the 23-year-old chart topper wrote, "Yes, when I'm tired!!!"

Collaborators for the forthcoming project began dishing details on the LP months ago. Back in July, producer Verse Simmonds, who worked on the Rihanna's reggae-infused hit "Man Down," talked to MTV News' Mixtape Daily about the album's progress.

"From what I understand, she's closing the album up now, and we did two records for her that she really, really loved, and I'm really excited about them as well," Simmonds said. "They are records that we wrote and produced as the Jugganauts."

Simmonds admitted that he was "99.999 percent" his Jugganauts' contributions will make the final cut, adding that his tunes on the LP will not sound similar to "Man Down."

Are you excited for Rihanna's new album? Tell us in the comments.

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Track By Track: Lady Gaga's Born This Way

Track By Track: Lady Gaga's <i>Born This Way</i>

MTV News caught up with Gaga producer Fernando Garibay to get inside information on the album.

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Photos | 2011 Billboard Music Awards Red Carpet

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Justin Bieber, Lady Gaga, Katy Perry Nab MTV EMA Nods

Gaga leads Europe Music Awards nominees with six nods, including Best Video and Biggest Fans at November 6 show.
By Jocelyn Vena

Lady Gaga
Photo: MTV

Lady Gaga is ruling the 2011 MTV Europe Music Awards nominees list.

Mother Monster, who nabbed six EMA nominations, is followed by Katy Perry and Bruno Mars with four noms; Adele, Justin Bieber and Thirty Seconds to Mars are each up for three.

Gaga is up for Best Female, Best Live Act, Best Pop Act, Best Song and Best Video for "Born This Way." She scored the sixth nom in the Biggest Fans category, an honor she'll share with her Little Monsters if she wins.

American and Canadian audiences can vote for the North American nominee for the Worldwide Act award, who will represent the continent at the EMAs against contenders from across the globe.

So, who will go head-to-head with the superstar? Adele's unstoppable "Rolling in the Deep," Bruno Mars' "Grenade," Jennifer Lopez's "On the Floor" (featuring Pitbull) and Katy Perry's "Firework" will go up against Gaga for Best Song.

For Best Pop, Britney Spears, Bieber, Perry, Rihanna and Gaga are set to face off, while Adele, Beyoncé, J.Lo, Katy and Gaga also made the final cut for Best Female.

Battling it out in the Best Male category are Bruno Mars, David Guetta, Bieber, Kanye West and Eminem, who's also up for Best Hip Hop alongside Lil Wayne, Jay-Z and Kanye West (a.k.a. the Throne), Pitbull and Snoop Dogg.

Coldplay, the Foo Fighters, Linkin Park, Kings of Leon and Red Hot Chili Peppers are up for Best Rock. And the night's big prize, Best Video, features the most eclectic mix of nominees: Adele's "Rolling in the Deep," the Beastie Boys' "Make Some Noise," Beyoncé's "Run the World (Girls)," Justice's "Civilization" and Gaga's "Born This Way."

On Monday morning (September 19), Bieber reacted to the nods on Twitter, writing, "Just got word that we got 3 MTV EMA Nominations for Best Male, Best Pop, Biggest Fans!! THANKS SO MUCH! LEt's VOTE!!!"

Well, those fans better take note. Beliebers voting in the Biggest Fans category will face off against his girlfriend Selena Gomez's followers, Thirty Second to Mars' devotees, Paramore's biggest admirers and, of course, Lady Gaga's Monsters.

The MTV Europe Music Awards air live on November 6 from Belfast, Ireland. For a complete list of nominees and to vote for your favorite artists, check out the MTV EMA website. Stick with MTV News as we roll out more information on performers and presenters.

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Florence And The Machine Almost Went Gaga On Ceremonials

In new interview with Billboard, Florence Welch reveals she nearly worked with Lady Gaga and Katy Perry's hitmaking teams.
By James Montgomery

Florence Welch on the cover of <i>Billboard</i> magazine
Photo: Billboard

Florence Welch graces the cover of the new issue of Billboard magazine (on stands now), and inside, she talks about the making of Ceremonials, her brand-new album with the Machine due November 1 here in the States.

Welch began work on Ceremonials (the follow-up to their 2009 breakout Lungs) more than 18 months ago, and during those early stages, they toyed with the notion of making the new album with the same hitmakers responsible for Lady Gaga and Katy Perry's success. But eventually, as she told the magazine, Welch decided against it because it would be too much of a departure.

"I love Lady Gaga and I love Katy Perry and R&B and rap music. ... I love big, American pop music. ... So the label said, 'Do you want to go over to America to work in that scene?' And I was like, 'Yeah, OK. Maybe I could bring my own take on it,' " she recalled. "It got put in the diary to go out for a week, to start writing the new record. And then the diary got sent to me, and I looked at it and just went, 'No ... I can't do that. This is too weird. I can't just suddenly leave behind everything that made Lungs.' "

Instead, she decided to work with producer Paul Epworth (most recently known for Adele's multi-multi-platinum 21), and yet, sessions kept getting delayed due to Florence's continued success in the U.S., thanks in no small part to her show-stealing performance at the 2010 Video Music Awards. Eventually, with Epworth working on tracks in his London studio and Welch recording vocals in U.S. studios during days off from her tour, the duo finished some 40 tracks, 12 of which made the cut for Ceremonials (a total of 20 will be included on the album's deluxe version, Billboard reports).

"I'm pretty surprised at how prolific I've been, to be honest. When making the first album, I think I wrote a song about every six months," Welch said. "The first album was so much about the vocals carrying it. This time I really wanted to give the music space to breathe and for the band to be able to experiment."

Of course, though she was under the gun to finish the new album, Welch says she never felt pressure -- mostly because she'd already felt it during the making of her first album.

"Nothing could have been harder than making the first record, so I was prepared for the onslaught this time," she said. "There was a huge amount of media scrutiny on me. ... Those conditions of people waiting and waiting, that expectance, everyone talking about you ... those are the conditions that I did my first album in. This one, by comparison, is much easier. I came into it having a much clearer idea of what sound I wanted to make and a much clearer idea of what was going to happen after the record was finished."

What are you expecting from Florence's next album? Let us know in the comments!

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Lily Collins Is Our New Class' 'Ass-Kicking Girl Next Door'

With 'Mortal Instruments' and 'Snow White' still to come, the badass-yet-relatable actress is destined for mega-fame.
By Eric Ditzian, with reporting by Kara Warner

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Photo: MTV News

We called it way back in January: Lily Collins was an actress to watch in 2011.

At that point, her career was just heating up following a turn as Sandra Bullock's daughter in "The Blind Side." An impressive series of castings in high-profile films followed: "Priest," "Abduction" opposite Taylor Lautner and an adaptation of the best-selling YA series "The Mortal Instruments." A few months later, she landed the role of Snow White in Relativity Media's Julia Roberts-starring take on the fairy tale.

Collins is making good on our predictions, which is why we've selected her as part of our New Class — a collection of young talent about to rise to the top of Hollywood, including her "Mortal Instruments" co-star Jamie Campbell Bower. With her badass-yet-relatable roles, Collins is our New Class' "Ass-Kicking Girl Next Door."

Though she's had all of 2011 to get used to the spotlight, the whole celebrity thing continues to feel odd.

"It feels very surreal," she told us at the "Abduction" red carpet. "It's weird getting out of a car and people are saying my name. It's still a weird concept to me."

Give her time. Collins told us she'd like to model her career after Keira Knightley, Kate Winslet or Meryl Streep. "I like that none of them have stuck themselves in a box," she said. "They've done all sorts of roles — comedic, dramatic, they've gone from indies to big motion pictures. I love their choices."

And she's a fan of the New Class itself, which includes not only Bower, but Emma Watson, Josh Hutcherson, Julianne Hough and Nina Dobrev.

"It's an honor to be placed in the New Class of actors," Collins said. "I'm doing what I love, and I'm having the best time."

For more on all the up-and-comers who make up MTV's New Class, go to TheNewClass.MTV.com.

For young Hollywood news, fashion and "Twilight" updates around the clock, visit HollywoodCrush.MTV.com.

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