Aretha Franklin

Aretha Franklin

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Stevie Wonder, Jennifer Hudson & More To Sing At Aretha Franklin's Funeral

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Stevie Wonder, Jennifer Hudson and Faith Hill are some of the all-star talent performing at the iconic singer's service on Aug. 31
Jennifer Velez
GRAMMYs
Aug 24, 2018 - 2:47 pm

A list of GRAMMY-winning talent will sing their goodbyes to the late Aretha Franklin during her funeral on Aug 31.

Aretha Franklin's GRAMMY Highlights

Stevie Wonder, Faith Hill, Jennifer Hudson, Fantasia, Shirley Caesar, Chaka Khan, and more will perform at the service that will take place at Greater Grace Temple in Detroit on Aug. 31, The Associated Press reports. The funeral will be limited to Franklin's family and friends only.

Other performers include GRAMMY winners Yolanda Adams and Jennifer Holliday, Ron Isley and Franklin's son, Edward Franklin. The service will honor the iconic singer's gospel background and will also feature performances by gospel stars that include GRAMMY nominees Marvin Sapp and Vanessa Bell Armstrong.

Smokey Robinson, Clive Davis, Rev. Al Sharpton and Former President Bill Clinton are among the scheduled speakers at the service.

Fans will be able to say their goodbyes to Franklin at a public viewing in at the Charles H. Wright Museum of African American History on Aug. 28-29. A public concert is also scheduled for Aug 30.

Franklin, who died of pancreatic cancer at 76, leaves a musical legacy that includes 18 GRAMMY wins, a GRAMMY Legend Award, Lifetime Achievement Award and five recordings in the GRAMMY Hall Of Fame. She will be buried at Detroit's Woodlawn Cemetery where along with other family members, including her father and sisters.

Catching Up On Music News Powered By The Recording Academy Just Got Easier. Have A Google Home Device? "Talk To GRAMMYs"

Queen Latifah

Queen Latifah

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Queen Latifah To Host Star-Studded Black Girls Rock Awards

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The rapper/singer/actress extraordinaire will lead the evening celebrating the achievements of an inspiring group of women
Ana Yglesias
GRAMMYs
Aug 22, 2018 - 12:51 pm

GRAMMY winner and all-around superstar Queen Latifah has been tapped to host the 2018 Black Girls Rock! Awards, which will honor an equally amazing cohort of women, including fellow GRAMMY-winning songstress Mary J. Blige, iconic supermodel Naomi Campbell, pioneering dancer/choreographer Judith Jamison, and #MeToo founder Tarana Burke.

The evening will also showcase a special tribute to the late GRAMMY-winning legend Aretha Franklin, featuring GRAMMY winner Yolanda Adams, GRAMMY nominee Tamia, up-and-comers H.E.R. and Victory Boyd, and Jacqueline Green of the Alvin Ailey Dance Theater. 

The inspirational star-studded event has been taking place since 2006 and is hosted by Black Girls Rock!, a non-profit "committed to empowering women through media and enriching girls through leadership, education, and positive identity development programs."

Latifah is no stranger to awards shows, nor to holding the role of master of ceremonies – she hosted the 47th GRAMMY Awards. She has been nominated for GRAMMYs in rap, jazz and pop categories and took home a win for Best Rap Solo Performance at the 37th GRAMMY Awards.

The awards event will take place on Aug. 26 at the New Jersey Performing Arts Center, and will air on BET the following week on Sept. 9.

Catching Up On Music News Powered By The Recording Academy Just Got Easier. Have A Google Home Device? "Talk To GRAMMYs"

Maluca Mala

Photo: J. Grassi/Patrick McMullan via Getty Images

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How Maluca Mala Is Flipping The Script With Her Daring Sound

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Meet the Bronx-born, Dominican singer who has been mixing Latin genres like merengue with dance beats and female-empowering lyrics
Jennifer Velez
GRAMMYs
Sep 21, 2018 - 6:31 pm

Maluca Mala's stage name carries weight. Meaning "bad woman" in Spanish, Maluca took a name that has a derogatory history and turned it into a powerful statement.

"I grew up being called Maluca. It was a very endearing name," she said in an interview with Latina. "But one time I searched its meaning, and I learned that it’s used in Latin American countries to describe a Black woman, or really like a woman in blackface, which is obviously bad and has a negative connotation. But, for me, it’s always been positive, never a way to put me down."

The singer, who is Bronx-born with Dominican roots, paired "maluca" with "mala" or "bad" in English—inspired by urban culture's use of bad as being powerful or "daring" as she told Latina—and became Maluca Mala.

Her sound is daring too. Throughout her career, Maluca has meshed genres like hip-hop, merengue – a musical genre deriving from the Dominican Republic – with electronic dance music and has been at the forefront of other genres like "tropical punk" and "ghetto techno." With lyrics in simultaneous English and Spanish, or Spanglish, she denounces European beauty standards, empowers Afro-Latinas to be confident with who they are, reclaims gender stereotypes or just sings about love with a fun and innovative beat.  

While being in the underground scene for years, Maluca has collaborated with big names in pop culture. She has been associated with Mad Decent, a L.A.based Record Label headed by GRAMMY winner Diplo, and been featured on tracks by GRAMMY-nominated singer Robyn and electro-music project Mexican Institute Of Sound.

Listen to the music below to learn more about Maluca Mala's sound:

"El Tigeraso"

The story goes that "El Tigeraso" was made after Maluca met Diplo at a karaoke bar. The song has a merengue influence that comes together with electro and lyrics boasts to men about "having it all."

"Mala"

Maluca embraces her blackness and her bold personality in "Mala." "I wrote the record as a way to highlight all the negative things people told me about myself," she told V Magazine. "You have bad hair, you're crazy, you're too tough...and embrace them. Yes, my hair is nappy and I look like a witch and I'm crazy, but you love it! I've had self-esteem issues for many years and now that I'm in my 30s I'm just really f***ing feeling myself."

"Trigger"

In "Trigger," Maluca sings about love over a raggeton beat: " Don't care what they all gonna say/ I just want a magnum love everyday/ Coming like a bang and you know I'm not afraid/ To pull that trigger, gonna pull that trigger."                                                        

READ:  Cuban-French Duo Ibeyi Are Leaving Their Mark On U.S. Pop Culture 

 

OutKast

Photo: Denise Truscello/WireImage

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'Speakerboxxx/The Love Below' Turns 15: What's Your Favorite Song?

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This month OutKast's double-disc album turns 15 and we want to know which song was your favorite
Jennifer Velez
GRAMMYs
Sep 21, 2018 - 12:21 pm

When Southern hip-hop duo OutKast dropped Speakerboxxx/The Love Below, we were blessed with a collection that embodied the eclecticism and innovation that only André 3000 and Big Boi bring to the table on their own. The double-disc is basically two different albums; one side features music by André 3000 and the other by Big Boi. Together it gave us bangers like "Hey Ya!" and "The Love Below" and won the duo Album Of The Year at the 46th Annual GRAMMY Awards—the second rap album to do so.

Polls

Which Is Your Favorite Song From OutKast's Speakerboxxx/The Love Below?

This month the album turns 15 and we're celebrating. We want to know which song off the double-album was your favorite. Did the light, funky beats from "Hey Ya!" get you dancing or was it the cool, soulful vibe from "The Way You Move" that got you moving? Or was it "Roses," "Take Off Your Cool," GhettoMusick," or "Flip Flop Rock" that you like the most?

"Hey Ya!"

"The Way You Move"

"Roses"

READ: Deep 10: OutKast's Speakerboxxx/The Love Below

Ibeyi

Photo: David Wolff - Patrick/Redferns

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Cuban-French Duo Ibeyi Are Leaving Their Mark On U.S. Pop Culture

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Meet French-Cuban twin sisters Ibeyi, who mix their Yoruba Cuban roots with electric hip-hop sounds and more, earning them notice from Beyoncé
Jennifer Velez
GRAMMYs
Sep 20, 2018 - 5:48 pm

French-Cuban twin sisters Ibeyi may have been born and raised in Paris, they spent sometime in Cuba too when they were small, but they are leaving footprints in U.S. pop culture in big ways--even if their first performance on American soil only happened four years ago.

Sisters, Lisa-Kaindé and Naomi Diaz, can be seen through the "All Night" video made as a part of Beyoncé's film Lemonade-- Lisa-Kaindé with her hair in a fro and Naomi with looser long curls. This is also the most obvious way you can tell the twins apart. More recently, the sisters can be heard on the third part of Lin-Manuel Miranda's August #Hamildrop Hamilton content series. 

Ibeyi have long known about creating music, however. Their late father, Anga Diaz, was a conga player and a GRAMMY winner. He was a Yoruba, Cuban percussionist who played in Buena Vista Social Club and Orishas. And it is evident that his spirit and culture lives through their music.

To begin to understand Ibeyi as artists, it's important to look at their name. Ibeyi means "twins" in the Cuban Yoruba dialect. Influence of their Cuban and Yoruba roots --Naomi can be seen playing the bata-cajon in performances-- are at the center of their music and mesh with synth beats, soul and hip-hop with lyrics in Yoruba, English and Spanish.

“Batas are religious drums," Lisa-Kaindé told Modern Drummer."So we take that which is from our culture, those songs and sounds that we’ve heard for so long, and we mix them with new music, music that we listen to every day. That’s an important part of Ibeyi—playing with the past and the future, or with the tradition and the new music.”

As teens they were signed by Richard Russell and the duo released their self-titled album in 2015. They released their lastest album Ash September of last year. Watch the videos below to learn more about Ibeyi's sound:

"Rise Up Wise Up Eyes Up"

The #Hamildrop is a music series that draws inspiration from Hamilton, Miranda's rap musical that remixes the life of Alexander Hamilton. We’re honoured to be able to share with you our contribution to the #Hamildrop," Ibeyi tweeted out about the song about consciousness and resilience.

 "River"

Beyoncé put on her followers to Ibeyi via an Instagram post with this song in the background back in 2015. The song is dedicated to the Yoruba goddess of sweet, fresh waters, Genius writes. "Carry away my dead leaves/ Let me baptize my soul with the help of your waters/ Sink my pains and complains/Let the river take them, river drown them/My ego and my blame," the song goes. "We want something that is twisted, we want something that is powerful," Lisa-Kiandé Lisa-Kia told Much about the video in which they had to hold their breath to shoot.

"Deathless"

If you listen closely, death is a theme throughout some of Ibeyi's songs. "Deathless" features Kamasi Washington and is a song about a racist encounter Lisa-Kiandé had with a cop, she told  "Song Exploder. 

READ: Princess Nokia Is Making Space For People Who "Don't Have A Voice Yet" In Music