YouTube is the go-to place for artists to promote their material and try desperately to attain that “viral” status that is now so coveted. And, just as the world is starting to let go of the chart-topping hit “Gagnum Style” and the dance that goes along with it, there’s a new craze in town. It’s called “Harlem Shake” by trap producer Baauer and thanks to YouTube, it’s now landed on Billboard’s Hot 100 list.

The song consists of very few lyrics, but a techno beat and tons of digital scratches that will quickly make it as big a club hit as it is a YouTube Sensation. Recently reaching over 400 million views on the video social network, it was this feat that caught the attention of Billboard. Just last week Billboard announced that they would now be including YouTube streaming data that’s based out of the U.S., on their charts. And the number of views he’s received equates to 262,000 video influenced sales on the charts.

It’s an incredible amount of attention for the producer, and to think that it’s for a song that he released last May. Now he’ll not only join the list of new YouTube sensations such as Psy but also Rihanna, who’s “Stay” is also currently on the charts; and Drake, who just reached the top 10 with his “Started from the Bottom.”

Now all that’s left to do is for even more fans to watch the YouTube video, and then join the millions already creating their own versions of the “Harlem Shake!”

Kacey Musgraves grew up in Golden, Texas. It’s a small town about 80 miles east of Dallas. Golden is close enough to Big D, but “kind of in the middle of nowhere” as Musgraves would put it. She joins a long line of many other successful country music musicians to come out of East Texas, which includes Miranda Lambert from Lindale, Texas, just a short drive from Golden.

Musgraves released three albums herself before she participated in the competition Nashville Star in 2007. She placed seventh, but it introduced to her to Nashville and before long she left Austin for Nashville to pursue songwriting fulltime. It was here that she gained some early label interest and continued to write and pursue her own sound. She wrote the first single of her latest album Same Trailer Different Park “Merry Go ‘Round” with on a writer’s retreat in Strawn, Texas.

Musgraves spent 2012 touring with some of the top names in country music today. She opened for Willie Nelson and toured with Alison Kraus and then headed to Europe for a tour with Lady Antebellum. She returned in September for the release of “Merry Go ‘Round.”

2013 is looking good for Musgraves as well. She is appearing as a special guest on Little Big Town’s “The Tornado Tour” and also as an opener for Kenny Chesney’s “No Shoes Nation” tour through the spring and summer. Other bands on the “No Shoes Nation” tour includes the Eli Young Band, Zac Brown Band and Eric Church.

Tickets for the “No Shoes Nation” tour featuring Kacey Musgraves can be found now on GameStub.com. Shows begin in March and will extend through August at locations all across the country.

Kacey Musgraves has also been nominated for New Female Vocalist of the Year for the 48th Annual Academy of Country Music Awards.

Just a year ago, Mindy McCready posted a personal message of hope and determination, claiming that while she had had her struggles, they were behind her now and she was ready to move forward. To continue fighting. To still be here. But a lot can happen in a year, and last night the world learned it had become too much for Mindy. Tragically, she is no longer here after apparently committing suicide.

Last year Mindy’s message to her fans read, “I haven’t had a hit in almost a decade. I’ve spent my fortune, tarnished my public view and made myself the brunt of punch line after punch line. But I’m still here. I’ve been here before. I’m a fighter. I’m down, but I’ll never be out.”

But while McCready had seen her fair share of the battles over the past ten years, not even she could have predicted what was coming. After breaking onto the country music scene in 1996, she quickly fell into the downward spiral that so many stars do. Plagued with substance abuse problems, depression, and even spending time in jail, McCready was a star that people continued to root for, even though it seemed she was about to lose it all.

Then in the past few years, she truly did.

In 2011 she kidnapped her oldest son, after losing custody of him to her mother. That boy is the child of Billy McKnight, who went to prison for attempting to murder McCready back in 2004 — around the same time she was charged with trying to illegally obtaining OxyContin.

McCready also had a 10-month old son, who was the son of record producer David Wilson. Just last month, Wilson committed suicide on the porch of their Arkansas home. With the pain obviously being too much to bear, last night McCready sat on that same porch and apparently killed herself with a shotgun, just like Wilson. It was sadly her fourth suicide attempt since 2005.

People are still talking about the show put on last year for the MTV European Music Awards in Frankfurt, Germany. But this year’s show is going to top even that, with the new home the EMAs have found in Amsterdam! Very few details have been given just yet, but it has been confirmed that on November 10 the ceremony for the 20th annual European Music Awards will be held at the Ziggo Dome in Amsterdam. And everyone is very excited!

“We’re very excited to partner with the city of Amsterdam, a true world class music city and top destination for artists,” said Bruce Gillmer, Executive Vice President of Talent and Music Programming/Events at Viacom International Media Networks. “Each year the MTV EMA celebrates the biggest names in music from every corner of the globe and showcases unbelievable performances from today’s most exciting acts.”

And he’s not wrong. Last year Justin Bieber, One Direction, Taylor Swift, Rihanna, and The Killers were just some of the most notable names in attendance, with many of those same performers taking the stage. This year, the ante on those performers could be pushed even higher considering the stage on which they’ll take place.

“Amsterdam, and the cutting edge Ziggo Dome, with its state of the art facilities, will be the perfect setting for what will be a very memorable and spectacular 2013 MTV EMA,” said Gillmer when confirming the location yesterday.

Last year the nominations weren’t announced until September, with performing acts being even later. So it will likely be several months before we get much more word than that. Who do you think will be performing and/or nominated? And do you think Heidi Klum will host again? If so, how many outfits do you think she’ll wear this time? (It was six last year!)

We all fell in love with Scotty McCreery during the tenth season of American Idol, of which he was crowned the winner. Shortly after that season McCreery went out on the road with some of his own biggest country idols including Brad Paisley and The Band Perry. But fans wanted more. They wanted to see Scotty in his own headlining tour and now, they’ve got it!

Scotty’s first headlining tour is called the “Weekend Roadtrip Tour 2013,” and it will all kick off on Valentine’s Day, February 14, in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania. From there he’ll visit some of the biggest cities in North American including Niagara Falls, Kansas City, and Atlantic City to name just a few. It all wraps up on May 12 in Morristown, New Jersey, and you can find all of Scotty tour dates and cities at StubPass.com.

But while fans may be pumped about seeing Scotty take the stage on his own, no one is more excited than the artist himself.

“I’ve been lucky enough to play a lot of great cities over the last year with Brad Paisley and some other great country artists,” he said when announcing the tour. “This time I get to play some new places with a show that’s all my own. I can’t wait for my fans to see what we’ve lined up for them.”

Unfortunately, the tour is probably going to be too early for fans to hear any of the new music off his sophomore album, which is to be released later this year. But, Scotty says, that record will be one more chance for fans to get to know him as an artist.

“I just want people to really see me this time,” he said. “I don’t want to get caught up in sappy love songs; those are important, but I want them to get a feel for who I am as an artist and sing about real things in life. Hopefully we’ll get that with the songs and have some fun with it as well.”

If you want to have some fun with Scotty, get your tickets for his headlining tour today!

Tim McGraw is going on tour this summer, and it might just end up being one of the coolest experiences his fans have ever had. Hitting up some of the biggest amphitheatres in some of the biggest cities, McGraw will also be bringing some big guests along; and is relying on fans to spread the word during promotion.

The Two Lanes of Freedom tour kicks off on May 2 in Birmingham, Alberta and from there McGraw will travel through Charlotte, Tampa, Pittsburgh, Indianapolis, Salt Lake City, and Boston, to name just a few. It will wrap up on July 7 in Virginia Beach, and a full listing of dates and cities can be found here.

The tour will support Tim’s latest album of the same name, which is due out in February. And just as all the stars are doing these days, McGraw took to his YouTube channel earlier this week to announce the tour; and the unique way that fans can help.

“This album marks a new sense of excitement and artistic freedom for me and I really wanted to extend that same feeling to the tour and create a cool vibe for the fans,” McGraw said. “We’ve started working up new songs from the album, and there’s some really cool stuff we’ll be able to pull out this summer.”

Some of that “cool stuff” the country singer has drummed up for fans is the “Fanticipation” program. Through this tour element, certain fans will be contacted by Tim McGraw himself via Tumblr to let them know when tickets will be going on sale in their hometown. He’s counting on fans to spread the word through Tumblr and other social media outlets, allowing them to have full control of the process.

Brantley Gilbert and Love & Theft will be supporting Tim on the tour; and in the meanwhile, Tim will be busy with other gigs. Those include joining his wife, Faith Hill, onstage at the Venetian in Las Vegas for a handful of Soul2Soul shows. While fans wanted the couple to take this show on the road, too, Tim says they’re just enjoying what they have for the moment.

“We just couldn’t do it,” he told Billboard earlier this month. “This was a way we could play together and only be gone one or two nights a month.”

On Tuesday, David Bowie celebrated his 66th birthday, and he rang his newest year in with fine style. Coming as a complete surprise to fans, Bowie released a new single — the first music to be heard from the iconic rocker in a decade! And now, fans are eagerly anticipating the album from which the new track came from.

The first song from the album, The Next Day, is titled “Where Are We Now?” an appropriately titled track since fans have largely been wondering where Bowie’s been for the past ten years. To go along with the song, a video was also released which is strange and artistic, and moving and mysterious all at the same time. You can view the official version posted on YouTube here.

Tony Visconti, who’s been producing Bowie’s work since early in his career, says that the “Where Are We Now?” track is a very slow ballad depicting a very “inward” look at Bowie. He also says that fans shouldn’t expect this from the entire album, as it mostly consists of the pure good rock and roll that fans have come to expect from Bowie.

Fans will find out for themselves though, after the album is released on March 12. There has currently been nothing said from Bowie’s camp as to whether or not this album will have an accompanying tour. But, after getting fans so excited with this newest music, would David Bowie really stop there?

Bob Seger, popular classic rocker, takes his show on the road this spring with dates across the Mid-West and Canada.

Bob got his start in 1961 with a local band called “The Decibels.” They were a local favorite, and recorded a demo called “The Lonely One” at Del Shannon’s studio. Seger’s first original song, it was also the first song of his to be played on the radio, airing once on an Ann-Arbor, Michigan station.

Once this band broke up, Seger joined the Town Criers, another local band that became crowd favorites with Bob on lead vocals. From here, he moved on to a variety of other bands until he started his own band “The Last Heard”, which soon became “The Bob Seger System”. This band was signed to Capitol Records, and their second single, “Ramblin’ Gamblin’ Man” was a hit, reaching #62 on the charts and giving Seger his first real taste of success.

Seger released a solo album in 1970, and began forging relationships with long-time collaborators Alto Reed, Shaun Murphy, and the Muscle Shoals Rhythm Section. However, he was becoming frustrated and began searching for another band. In 1974, he began the Silver Bullet Band, and kicked of the era that saw his greatest success as a musician.

By 1975, Seger was receiving strong airplay in radio markets around the country and had a mild hit with “Katmandu”. But, in 1976, Bob Seger released “Live Bullet”, the album that would catapult Bob and The Silver Bullet Band to stardom. Live Bullet would eventually sell 5 million albums and stay on the charts for 168 weeks. By 1976, the album “Night Moves” had been released, which was not only commercially successful, but was loved by the critics as well for the dramatic tale spun by the song. With numerous albums and hits under his belt since then, Bob Seger has become a legend among classic rock fans, and his songs are staples on radio stations around the world to this day.

If you want to see what real rock and roll is all about, then you need to catch Bob Seger live in concert this spring, and enjoy the music of a musical legend.

Emmy award winning illusionist David Copperfield displays his unique style of storytelling through illusion twice daily at the MGM Grand’s Hollywood Theater in Las Vegas Nevada in 2013.

Copperfield, one of the most successful magicians in history according to Forbes magazine, has earned a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, been knighted, and received 11 Guinness World Records during a career that has spanned 3 decades and counting.

Copperfield performs over 500 shows a year and has sold over 40 million tickets and grossed $3 billion dollars, more than any entertainer in history.

A History of Magic

David began performing at age 10 around his neighborhood in Metuchen, New Jersey as “Davino the Boy Magician”. By the age of 12 he was admitted to the Society of American Magicians, becoming the youngest person ever to have done so.

David saw magic as a way of getting girls, and fitting in with the other kids when he would otherwise be too shy to talk to anyone. David first appeared on television in 1977, on a show called “The Magic of ABC”. Between 1977 and 2001, there would be 20 David Copperfield TV specials, and most of his TV appearances were on his specials or as a guest on another program.

His Broadway show is 1996 broke box office records, and during this time he also collaborated with Dean Koontz, Joyce Carol Oates, and Ray Bradbury for an anthology of fiction called David Copperfield’s Tales of the Impossible. A Sequel called David Copperfield’s Beyond Imagination was released in 1997.

According to Copperfield, his childhood heroes weren’t magicians, but were stage performers like Gene Kelly and Orson Welles. “They took their individual art forms and they moved people with them… I wanted to do the same thing with magic” says Copperfield. “I wanted to take magic and make it romantic, and make it sexy, and make it funny, and make it goofy… all the different things that a songwriter or a filmmaker gets to express.”

Get tickets and catch David Copperfield show, twice daily at the MGM Grand’s Hollywood Theater, and let him move you with magic like only he can.

With all of the career success (and personal trouble) that he’s seen in the United States over the past few years, it’s little wonder that Lil Wayne hasn’t yet had the chance to travel across the pond to Europe. Now, after a short stint of being drama-free, he’s taking the opportunity to bring his music to fans all throughout Europe; and he’s bringing a new record with him, too!

That record will be I Am Not a Human Being 2, Wayne’s tenth studio album. Die-hard fans have already gotten a taste of the record with the first single from it, “No Worries,” that’s been sitting on the Billboard charts for the past several weeks. The album in its entirety will be released on February 19, 2013.

Just a few short weeks after the album release, Lil Wayne will head to Dublin to play in the O2 Arena on March 8, 2013. Remaining in Europe for most of the month, the rapper will travel to some of the biggest stops across the continent including the Netherlands, France, Denmark, Norway, Sweden, Germany, and Belgium, to name just a few. The tour will wrap up at the Ziggo arena in Amsterdam. Lil Wayne will also be bringing some company along with him for the ride, including Mac Miller and 2 Chainz.

If you haven’t had the chance to see Lil Wayne in concert yet, you may want to take this opportunity. He’s recently stated that his love of music is slowly wearing off, and that he’s becoming interested in other things — namely skateboarding.

“I know y’all want me around for a little bit,” the rapper recently stated in an interview. “But I’ve been rapping since I was 8 years old; I’m 30 now. That’s a long time and I like to do so many more things. And [when] I love to do something, I’m fully focused on it and it only. And music sometimes is not that ‘it.'”