Will.I.Am

will.i.am 'Still Has That Fire' On 'This Is Love,' Eva Simons Says

18 May 2012 17:34:15 EDT

Dutch singer also teases the song's 'mad' video to MTV News.
By Jocelyn Vena

For his song "This Is Love," will.i.am enlisted Dutch singer Eva Simons to add some powerhouse vocals to the raging party track. The searing dance production is highlighted by Simons' diva-tude as her voice soars over will's creation, full of big chants, bumping beats and dirty synths.

Simons had already proved she had hook potential appearing on Afrojack's 2010 dance-floor anthem "Take Over Control," and given will's history of enlisting female pop singers to add a bit of sexy flair to his songs, Simons was a perfect muse to help shape his latest dance-pop track.

"He is super creative, and we kind of have the same energy: We can't sit still. We were in the studio, and he had this track," Simons recalled to MTV News about working with the Black Eyed Peas mastermind. "And he's like, 'Yo, Eva, would you like to do this song with me?' And we had been recording a couple tracks before, so he knows what I'm capable of and he trusts me, and we don't really know each other for that long, but he trusts me.

"I recorded it," she continued. "And he mixes it straight away from his laptop ... and it's done. That's so beautiful — not only is he super creative and knows what he wants, but he also sees when other people are creative as well. He's not afraid to collaborate."

This particular collaboration also included Swedish House Mafia's Steve Angello. "It's really a club-banger," Simons said, adding that will included "some piano intro in there and violins. ... He's always creative. It doesn't [just] work for the clubs, it works for the radio, it'll also work on a big festival, like him on the piano, some strings, some live drums."

will and Simons recently shot a video for the track, and she had this tease for fans when asked to give some hints: "Fireworks. Just like, 'What world is this? Like, where are we?' and 'What season is this?' " she said. "It's mad. It's pretty awesome."

Much of that awesomeness, she adds, stems from will directing the clip himself. "I'm just surprised. I'm not surprised, actually, 'cause that's him," she said. "He is also a super-geek. I'm a super-geek. I love technology, and he was like, he was directing the video and he was doing the motion-control of the camera and everything. He knows his stuff. It was pretty awesome to see."

Simons continued that it was refreshing to see that even with all his years in the industry, he still loves to do it. "I just admire him," she said. "After all those years he still has that fire, and that's just beautiful. But I feel like — 'cause I was big fan of the Black Eyed Peas, and I still am — and he seems like he's the same guy still that I see before."

Their song is expected to appear on will's long-teased solo album, #willpower, which also features Britney Spears, Jennifer Lopez, Mick Jagger and Nicole Scherzinger. No release date has been set for the album.

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Britney Spears Has 'Crazy' Cameo On will.i.am's Album?

30 Jan 2012 14:30:03 EST

Black Eyed Peas mastermind teases a collabo with the pop princess on #willpower, set for 2012 release.
By Jocelyn Vena

In a sea of A-list contributions for will.i.am's forthcoming solo album, the Black Eyed Peas mastermind recently dropped one name that will really get pop fans excited. Speaking with Capital FM, will teased that his Femme Fatale collaborator Britney Spears will make an appearance on the album, dubbed #willpower.

"I have a song with Alicia Keys — me, Alicia and Swedish House Mafia. I have a song with the Beats, which is pretty grand. Me and Shakira have been trying to finish the stuff we started, and me and Britney is really crazy," he said. "So we got a song with me, LMFAO and Eva Simons, a song with me and Busta Rhymes and Swizz Beatz — I got a whole other bunch of collaborations."

Spears and will.i.am last worked together on "Big Fat Bass," a spacey, grinding party tune complete with clapping noises and some rapping from will himself. Their recording session was featured on the MTV special "I Am the Femme Fatale." There's been no word yet from will's camp about the song and whether this is a new track or if he will be including "Big Fat Bass" on the album.

The rapper/producer's love for Brit is hardly anything new: He gushed to MTV News about the pop princess months after they recorded together. "[I discovered] her love for music. I never seen anyone, like, come alive, full of excitement and giggling and laughing behind the mic," will recalled to MTV News. "She was like a little kid when she was recording the song, and it just brought the whole atmosphere, it changed the whole atmosphere when someone really loves music. So it was great working with her."

His latest single, "T.H.E (The Hardest Ever)," featuring Jennifer Lopez and Mick Jagger, dropped late last year. #willpower, which also features "X Factor" judge Nicole Scherzinger, will be released later this year.

What are you expecting from will and Brit's collabo? Let us know in the comments!

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Justin Bieber Teams Up With will.i.am For Believe

13 Jan 2012 10:27:41 EST

Bieber tweets that he hit the studio with the Black Eyed Peas rapper for his 2012 album.
By Jocelyn Vena

He's already teased that Drake and Kanye West may make appearances on his next album, and on Thursday, Justin Bieber confirmed that another music industry heavyweight, will.i.am, will be assisting him on Believe.

Letting his fans know on Twitter that he's "gonna make that," the Black Eyed Peas frontman hyped up the collaboration further when he added, "let's make a hit tomorrow!! #collab. 'I gotta feeling this song is ganne be bigger than huge' #willpower."

The news comes as Bieber is deep in the studio working on his highly anticipated 2012 release. The team-up should make for an interesting track for the teen star. With Bieber hoping to recapture some of that Justin Timberlake/Timbaland magic from Timberlake's Future Sex/Love Sounds, will.i.am could bring some of that frenetic pop energy to Bieber's own work.

Last year, will made headlines when he worked with Britney Spears on her Femme Fatale song "Big Fat Bass."

Earlier this week, Bieber's manager, Scooter Braun, teased that what he's heard of Believe has been "ridiculous." Bieber will turn 18 in March, and his team is hoping to bridge the gap between the boy we met on "Baby" and the man he's growing up to be.

"The only conversation we've had about Justin's album that we're about to do is it's really important that it's the proper transition, because we've seen him [with] 'Baby,' now we're watching him grow up," Bieber's longtime vocal producer, Kuk Harrell, told MTV News in November. "And we can't just throw him into the adult game right away. It has to be the proper transition. There's a record in between."

Are you excited for Justin Bieber's collabo with will.i.am? Let us know in the comments!

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Lady Gaga, will.i.am Tracks Make Oscar Song Short List

20 Dec 2011 12:18:25 EST

Tracks from 'The Help,' 'The Muppets' also make list of 39 contenders.
By Jocelyn Vena

The Oscar nominations don't officially drop until January 24, but the short list for the Best Original Song has been released. On Monday, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences announced the 39 songs vying for the big prize at the Academy Awards next year.

Two of Elton John's "Gnomeo & Juliet" tracks — including his Lady Gaga duet, "Hello Hello" — made the list, along with multiple tracks from "The Muppets." will.i.am's "Rio" track, "Hot Wings," Mary J. Blige's "The Living Proof" from "The Help," and Zooey Deschanel's "Winnie the Pooh" track, "So Long," are all in the running.

More alternative fare like songs from "Machine Gun Preacher" (Chris Cornell, "The Keeper"), "We Bought a Zoo" (Sigur Rós' Júnsi, "Gathering Stories") and "Win Win" (the National, "Think You Can Wait") have also made the preliminary cut.

Noticeably absent from the list is Madonna, who contributed the track "Masterpiece" to her directorial effort, "W.E." Reuters reports that the song, which is up for a Golden Globe, does not qualify because it's placed a minute and a half into the end credits and not as "the first music cue," per Academy rules.

The songs will be narrowed from 39 when voters are sent three-minute clips or view the tracks at special Academy screenings and score the songs. To be eligible for the nod, the song must be scored a minimum 8.25 on a scale of six to 10. The show is slated to take place February 26 at the Kodak Theatre in Los Angeles.

What track should win the Oscar for Best Original Song? Sound off in the comments below!

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will.i.am And Jennifer Lopez Glow In The Dark At AMAs

21 Nov 2011 00:00:49 EST

Mick Jagger also appeared via video screen for debut performance of 'T.H.E. (The Hardest Ever.)'
By James Dinh

Sunday night's (November 20) 2011 American Music Awards were full of onstage collaborations, and one of the most entertaining was will.i.am, Jennifer Lopez and Mick Jagger's debut performance of "T.H.E. (The Hardest Ever)."

In between two life-size stereos, Jenny from the Block kicked off the bass-heavy number with the song's chorus line: "You can go hard or you can go home." Shortly into the performance, you could tell this hitmaking crew clearly went hard. Utilizing the pitch-black Nokia Theatre and performance group Fighting Gravity's lit-up ensembles, will.i.am delivered a complete glow-in-the-dark performance that included floating dancers, a headless will and even a blink-and-you'll-miss-it disappearing act.

Lopez played up her part as featured guest, and even though Jagger was missing from the action, the Rolling Stones frontman did appear via video for his portion of the dance tune. To conclude the number, glowing confetti filled the air.

"T.H.E (The Hardest Ever)" is the lead single from will's forthcoming solo album, #willpower, which is expected to drop next year. Produced by Audiobot, Dallas Austin and will himself, "T.H.E. (The Hardest Ever)" was released on iTunes immediately after the AMA performance. Rich Lee directed the video for the song, which was shot in Los Angeles and London; it is expected to premiere later this month.

What did you think of will.i.am's glow-in-the-dark performance? Share your thoughts below!

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will.i.am, Perry Farrell Talk Innovative Videos Before O Music Awards Debate

25 Apr 2011 15:06:20 EDT

Jermaine Dupri and Wayne Isham will help decide Most Innovative Music Video award today at 4 p.m. ET on OMusicAwards.com and MTV.com.
By Gil Kaufman

What makes for an innovative music video? You kind of just know it when you see it, really.

For weeks, fans have been voting for their favorite boundary-pushing, genre-expanding clip over at the O Music Awards site, and today (at 4 p.m. ET on OMusicAwards.com and MTV.com), they can watch as a winner is crowned — after some spirited debate from producer/ Global14.com creator Jermaine Dupri, acclaimed video director Wayne Isham, Mashable's Brenna Ehrlich, Popdust's Maura Johnston and MTV News' James Montgomery.

"The idea of a visual coupled with audio, it was the first time you would see your favorite artist who was played all over the radio," said the Black Eyed Peas' will.i.am about the early days of MTV and music-video artistry.

From Michael Jackson and Peter Gabriel to the Cars and A-Ha, the push to make groundbreaking music videos became an obsession of sorts among bands in the 1980s.

Elaine Bradley of Neon Trees remembered how innovative A-Ha's hand-drawn animated clip for "Take on Me" felt in 1985. "I remember being very, very little and just awestruck watching the video like, 'Oh my gosh, and now he's pencil, and now he's real!' "

With advances in technology and increasingly bigger budgets, acts like Madonna, Björk and, yes, Jackson continued to push the envelope. Even hard-rock bands got in on the action in clips such as Korn's "Freak on a Leash," which used the bullet-time effect from "The Matrix" to enhance their promotional videos.

The first decade of this century was a boom time as well, from the White Stripes' mind-bending Lego video for "Fell in Love With a Girl" to Cold War Kids' "I've Seen Enough," which allowed fans to interactively mute out bandmembers if they wanted to change the sound of the song.

The past decade has also proven that you don't need a lot of cash to make great videos, either. The best example is OK Go's "Here It Goes Again" treadmill classic, which made use of nothing more than a series of treadmills, some killer choreography and lots of patience to create one of the biggest viral music videos of all time.

"Very clever, the concept was really fun and quite genius," said Jane's Addiction co-founder Perry Farrell, who knows a thing or two about making great video art thanks to his band's beloved "Been Caught Stealing."

The O Music Awards debate for the Most Innovative Music Video, presented by FUZE®, will stream live on OMusicAwards.com and MTV.com at 4 p.m. ET today.

The inaugural O Music Awards will stream live from Las Vegas at 11 p.m. ET/8 p.m. PT on OMusicAwards.com. Tune in to see who will reign supreme in categories like Most Viral Dance, Funniest Music Short and NSFW Music Video!

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Britney Spears 'Comes Alive' In The Studio, will.i.am Says

19 Apr 2011 17:02:38 EDT

'She was like a little kid,' the 'Big Fat Bass' producer recalls to MTV News of giddy, 'giggling' Spears.
By Jocelyn Vena, with reporting by Sway Calloway

When will.i.am hit the studio with Britney Spears for her Femme Fatale track "Big Fat Bass," the producer and Black Eyed Peas frontman said the singer was completely engrossed in the recording process.

"[I discovered] her love for music. I never seen anyone, like, come alive, full of excitement and giggling and laughing behind the mic," will recalled to MTV News. "She was like a little kid when she was recording the song and it just brought the whole atmosphere, it changed the whole atmosphere when someone really loves music. So it was great working with her."

Spears expressed a similar sentiment about recording her chart-topping album during her recent "I Am the Femme Fatale" MTV special, which featured a cameo by will.i.am, who was finishing up the party track at the time.

"When you're in the studio, you're just really focused, you're really in your head and in your ears and on the notes," she explains in the show. "And when you're performing, it's more a connection on the outside and more of — like a tiger and more in your body."

Both Brit and will are now industry vets so the BEP singer said he didn't have much advice for the star.

"When someone's excited to go out and just do it, what advice? You don't need no advice. She's just turned on right now. She is [like], 'I like this part right here.' When I say [on the song], 'You all better get ready for the kick drum,' she was already anticipating what she was going to do onstage when that beat broke down," he explained. "Adding that type of perspective ... when we we're recording it, you don't need to give nobody [like Britney] advice."

What's your favorite Femme Fatale track? Tell us in the comments!

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Jamie Foxx And will.i.am Get 'Smooth' In 'Rio'

15 Apr 2011 18:31:27 EDT

'The first key to being smooth is, you don't necessarily always have to be smooth,' will says of their characters.
By Kara Warner

The new animated movie "Rio" has plenty of intriguing things going for it, including the wholesome love story of two parrots, bright colors, beautiful scenery and soothing samba music from composer Sergio Mendes. Even beyond that are the comedic stylings of the film's supporting characters, namely smooth operators/ ladies' birds Pedro and Nico, voiced by real-life ladies' men will.i.am and Jamie Foxx.

When MTV caught up with the jokesters recently at the junket for "Rio," we asked what lengths they would go to in order to impress a woman.

"I would do anything to impress women, because that's why we do whatever we do," Foxx said. "You actually think that we do this for money? That's nothing. If tomorrow they said that women love tomatoes, best bet, I would have 40 acres of a tomato farm, letting girls do tours, you know what I'm saying? So whatever a woman likes is what I like."

And regarding their key strategies to being smooth, will.i.am had some very creative advice that may or may not involve a loofah.

"The first key to being smooth is, you don't necessarily always have to be smooth," he said. "You feel what I'm saying? Girls know it. You need to be exfoliated. You can exfoliate with smoothness. You got to rub them rough edges, smooth 'em out. It takes roughness to make it smooth."

"Man, he said it," Foxx said when asked if his smooth operations were similar to will's. "Exfoliating was the word," he said with a chuckle. "I didn't see that one coming."

Check out everything we've got on "Rio."

For breaking news, celebrity columns, humor and more — updated around the clock — visit MTVMoviesBlog.com.

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Jamie Foxx And will.i.am Bring 'Hot Wings' To 'American Idol'

31 Mar 2011 22:15:43 EDT

Drum line and colorfully dressed dancers bring 'Rio' song to life on 'Idol' stage.
By Adam Graham

Jamie Foxx and will.i.am brought their "Hot Wings" to "American Idol" on Thursday (March 31).

The pair teamed up to perform their new single from the soundtrack to "Rio," the computer-animated flight tale in which they both voice characters. And they didn't come alone: They performed with a 12-member drum line and a full team of colorfully dressed dancers, while footage from "Rio" played on the video screens behind them.

Neither Foxx nor will.i.am are strangers to "Idol." Foxx was a mentor to the contestants in seasons eight and nine and also performed on the show during season eight, while will did "Just Can't Get Enough" with the Black Eyed Peas on the show just two weeks ago and also performed on the "Idol" stage with the Peas in seasons eight and nine. They both clearly know their way around the place by now and were comfortable shouting out the judges ("I see you, Randy!") mid-song.

The song is built around the repeated refrain "I wanna party, I wanna samba" and finds Foxx and will.i.am trading verses, in character as their "Rio" likenesses (Foxx plays Nico, a canary, while will.i.am plays a cardinal named Pedro). They entered the stage together via the "Idol" staircase, and Foxx — dressed in a black suit and dark shades — opened the song. Mr. i.am — dressed in a white jacket, red shirt and porkpie hat — chimed in during the second verse, rapping about ghetto blasters and speedy dance moves. The album version of the song also features the pair's "Rio" co-star Anne Hathaway, though the Oscar host was not in the Idoldome for the taping.

The performance featured elaborate choreography among the dancers (captured by the "Idol" crew via overhead cameras) and staged fighting on the side stage. At the performance's close, Foxx plugged "Rio" as "fun for the whole family."

The film hits theaters April 15, and the soundtrack — which is already available for download on iTunes — is due in stores Tuesday.

What did you think of the "Hot Wings" performance? Let us know in the comments!

Get your "Idol" fix on MTV News' "American Idol" page, where you'll find all the latest news, interviews and opinions.

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will.i.am Unveils Teaser Of Britney Spears Collaboration

28 Feb 2011 11:06:45 EST

'I can be the treble, baby/ You can be the bass,' Spears sings on the snippet of the track, titled 'The Big Fat Bass.'
By Jocelyn Vena

Will.i.am has posted a snippet from his collaboration with Britney Spears, and it might just have fans saying "OMG." The segment of the funky track, titled "The Big Fat Bass," is the latest teaser from Spears' upcoming March 29 release, Femme Fatale.

The snippet opens with the electronically altered voice of will.i.am singing, "Big fat bass/ the big fat bass," as a keyboard plays underneath. Then a beat kicks in.

Britney soon joins in, speak-singing in a bright and loud voice, "I can be the treble, baby/ You can be the bass/ You can be the bass."

In a blog message that accompanied the audio clip, Will wrote, "The big fat bass ... this is a taste ... this is the intro ... the bass is an important element to club dance music ... this song celebrates bass ... thank you Britney for collaborating it was a pleasure working with you ... thank you for trusting my instincts ... you're a doll ... i look forward on working with you again ... its an honor because you rarely do collaboration."

The Black Eyed Peas frontman revealed more information about the snippet on Twitter, where he posted on Sunday that he is loving the direction that the album's executive producers, Dr. Luke and Max Martin, are taking.

"Im editing the snippet. there are so many parts in this song. I have so many favorite parts. It's difficult to pick which part to show 1st," he wrote, going on to discuss all the things he loves about the tune while showing a series of screen images of the audio file. "There are soo many hot parts ... the second verse??? I love this section...the beat is nuts here and britney kills it ... or the 2nd hook? Because [on] the second half of the first hook the bass build up is crazy ... or the breakdown??? At this point a brand new beat is revealed. (The sickest beat) ... [that] section is my favorite...my favorite new beat...I'm excited to dj this section...

Will concluded the Twitter thread by saying, "Ok...I'm going to reveal the intro...I will give u a taste of the bass," including a link to the snippet.

Do you what you've heard of Britney and will.i.am's collaboration? Tell us in the comments?

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