Mariah Carey

Can We Please Stop Comparing Miguel to Prince?

When you rake in the second-highest ratings for Saturday Night Live this season and Mariah Carey's gushing about how much she loves you, you know you're doing something right--and that's exactly how things went down for Miguel (and Vince Vaughn, too, but c'mon) on the show this week. The addition of ... More >>

Solange - Bowery Ballroom - 12/18

About halfway through her set at the Bowery Ballroom last night, Solange unhooked the mic from behind her ear, gently disentangling it from her signature cloud of hair before slipping into "Cosmic Journey," an ethereal waft of a song from a few years ago. "Where do we go, on this wide and traveling ... More >>

The Next EP-isode

The long(ish) player gets reborn in the digital age

11 Somewhat Fourth Of July-Appropriate Songs That Are Way Better Than Katy Perry's "Firework"

Tomorrow is the fourth of July, which means the celebration of American independence from Great Britain, which means Americans gathering in various wide-open spaces in order to watch things blow up. The big New York fireworks party is sponsored by Macy's, with the featured entertainment being none o ... More >>

"Ertra, Ertra, Ertra" And The Problems With Patriotism Performed At A Shrill, Unpleasant Register

THE SONG: "Ertra, Ertra, Ertra." THE YEAR: 1993. THE REASON: Unbearably shrill second half; ruined all Uncanny X-Men back issues featuring Siryn and/or Banshee. To write that the Eritrean national anthem sounds as though the Horn of Africa has severed ties with its mainland and receded into the Re ... More >>

SOTC's March Madness: The Quintessential New York Musician Tournament

Sound of the City's monthlong tournament to determine the quintessential New York City musician (since 1955, the year of the Village Voice's founding) is taking over our site all March. The full schedule and results (as of March 23) below; you can also follow along with our bracket.

Avoiding the Holiday's Most Cloying Carol

Hold the drumming, boy

100 & Single: Rihanna's Post-Millennial Strategy For Setting Chart Records

​Pop-chart record-keeping can be as contentious as baseball's, and we've got quite the steroids-style asterisk forming atop Billboard's Hot 100. On the most recent chart, the most pervasive radio star of the last half-decade brushed past a couple of legends into the hall of fame. And like Barr ... More >>

Busta Rhymes Drags "The Little Drummer Boy" Into The Twitter Age

​"Drummer Boy," another song from the forthcoming Justin Bieber Yuletide album Under The Mistletoe, has made its way online; a rework of the classic hymn "The Little Drummer Boy," it's been retrofitted with sharper drums and rap verses to make it sound like it could be dropped into top-40 stat ... More >>

Radio Hits One: VH1 Takes On The '00s Pop Canon

VH1 spent last week counting down what the channel, and its panel of celebrities and "experts," consider The 100 Greatest Songs of The '00s. They certainly haven't been the first to assemble such a list—Rolling Stone and Pitchfork and every blog under the sun had their say about two years ago, ... More >>

Audra McDonald Remembers Some Crazy High Notes

Multiple Tony winner Audra McDonald can hit notes only Mariah Carey can hear, so I was surprised to learn she had to be coaxed to go even higher a couple of times. In her foreword to the new edition of funnyman/musician Seth Rudetsky's anecdote-filled book Broadway Nights, Audra -- who's Broadway-b ... More >>

The Top 5 Worst Baby Names in Recent History

​As humans who generally don't name ourselves, we're all prone to wanting another name at some point or another. Sometimes we reject what our parents decided to call us in favor of something better, more likable, or often, more popular. For example, names like Kate or Nicole or Natalie, anythi ... More >>

Kim Kardashian Ruins A The-Dream Song: Behold the Sad Spectacle of "Jam (Turn It Up)"

​We had hopes for this song. We had such fucking hopes for this song. We had so many hopes and dreams for this song we wrote a whole musical about it. And instead it's come to this: a club trifle that in the hands of its creator, pop savant The-Dream, would probably look something a lot like a ... More >>

Was 2010 The Best Year For Music Ever? Death To Chris Brown

Welcome to Sound of the City's year-in-review rock-critic roundtable, an amiable ongoing conversation between five prominent Voice critics: Rob Harvilla, Zach Baron, Sean Fennessey, Maura Johnston, and Rich Juzwiak. We'll be here all week! America's preeminent lady-beater weeps. Photo via Word Up!& ... More >>

Best Of NYC: Worrying About Nicki Minaj

Poppin' it so crazy kooky

American Idol Season 9, Idol Gives Back: Shut The Fuck Up, Alicia Keys

I don't want to be too cynical about "Idol Gives Back", the big annual charity-drive American Idol episode, because God knows the thing does more good with ten minutes of on-air banalities than I will ever do with anything in my life. But every year now, the thing is just sitting in the middle of ... More >>

Music Sales Are In Free Fall Right Now, and That Fact Still Matters

Can this man get Ted Leo paid?​This week's album chart is topped by Justin Bieber, with the Canadian idol's My World 2.0 bubbling back into the No. 1 slot despite a 65% sales drop from the previous week. World moved 102,000 copies, enough to best last week's No. 1, Usher's Raymond Vs. Raymond, ... More >>

Oscar Nominees Announced; Extended Best Picture List Includes Up, Inglourious Basterds, A Serious Man

In another February 2 ritual, the 2010 Oscar Nominees were announced this morning. The Best Picture list, expanded to ten nominees this year, are: An Education Avatar The Blind Side District 9 The Hurt Locker Inglourious Basterds Precious: Based on the Novel "Push" by Sapphire A Serious Man Up U ... More >>

New Year's Eve 2010: New York Shows

Yeah it's Christmas, but it's also the dawn of the first of many, many maddeningly inconclusive conversations you're about to have about your New Year's plans. Let this guide help you. We're out of here for the day, and back on Monday. Enjoy the long weekend. May your holidays look a lot like this. ... More >>

Free Gucci, Fuck Diplo, and the History of "Free _____"

​Gucci Mane's new album, The State vs. Radric Davis is in stores today, but the insanely prolific, remarkably consistent Atlanta rapper has been in jail since November 12th. This is Gucci's second stint in jail for a parole violation this year. Both sentences stem from a 2005 incident in which ... More >>

MJ in LA: Smokey, Gospel, Pastor, Mariah

About a half-hour ago Smokey Robinson made a nice speech and conveyed regrets from Diana Ross and Nelson Mandela, who counseled the family to "stay strong." Then there were several minutes of nothingness, during which Fox anchors blabbed. Now a gospel group is singing "We Are Going to See the King ... More >>

Found: World's Least Persuasive Apartment-Share Ad Reply

So we've all heard that one silver lining to the whole economic meltdown is that New York is

Less Money, Fewer Hits at Midpoint of Sundance 2009

The Greatest: a mourning-family turkey with all the trimmings What is the shape and size of a human soul? Does it look like a chickpea? A gumdrop? A pet rock? And if you could somehow extract your soul from your body, what would be left? Would you still be you? These are among the concerns taken u ... More >>

iVoice: Glen Hansard and Marketa Irglova Re-Enact Once Live

Idol Gives Back 2: A Running Diary

Will Oldham Finds Blissful Surrender in Danzig and R. Kelly

The New Jay-Z Album: A Bad Idea?

Thursday 8/10

American Idol Will Destroy Your Soul

Awards for Awards

Fashionable highlights and lowlights from last night's Golden Globes

Pretty Hate Machines

The sick, sublime joy of celeb-bashing blogs

Does Kanye West Deserve the Grammy?

A Running Diary of the Billboard Music Awards

The American Music Awards: A Running Diary

Mega Huge

'Mommie Dearest' and sultan of Brunei run with Scissors

Vive la France!

Election night parties go sour; say heckno to techno, R.I.P. sonic groove

NY Mirror

NY Mirror

Hey Ladies!

Tween-Pop Suppressed!

Five-Girl Armies and Finnish Martians Fall Through the Cracks

Horoscope

Striving for Ease

Randy Travis Stays With Us

NY Mirror

NY Mirror

Drag Queen on My Face

NY Mirror

Marked Woman

Will You Scrub Me Tomorrow

NY Mirror

Limelight's updated layout is sort of like Jocelyne Wildenstein's new face— not better or worse, just different.

Consumer Guide