New Music Mix: Interview with Janelle Monae, Benny Benassi on Tour, New Robyn Video, and More!

TOUR NEWS

Benny Benassi at The Mid

This week I attended my first ever House Music DJ set at Chicago’s The Mid featuring none other than legendary DJ and Producer Benny Benassi. The venue was ideal for this kind of event, which sold out immediately and was jam-packed. With an air cooler machine shooting down cold air onto the audience I danced my bum off to Benassi’s classics like “Satisfaction” and “California Dreaming.”

Benassi is currently gearing up for the release of his new album Electroman out June 7, featuring his track “Spaceship” with Kelis & The Black Eyed Peas’ Apl.d.Ap as well as his latest single “Cinema” with U.K. singer Gary Go. Benassi has also teamed up with Chris Brown on Brown’s latest album F.A.M.E. on the track “Beautiful People” which is slowly turning into my summer anthem and has the power to revive Brown’s stagnant career.

Check out the rest of Benassi’s Summer Tour Dates below:

JUNE
6/25 Electric Daisy Carnival - Las Vegas NV

JULY
7/1 The Vault - Gainseville FL
7/2 (Miami show TBC)
7/3 Guvernors Island - New York NY
7/15 Global Dance - Kansas City MO
7/16 Global Dance - Denver CO

SEPTEMBER
9/2 Electric Zoo - New York NY
9/4 North Coast Festival - Chicago IL + Labor or Love @ Guvernment - Toronto

The crowd reacts to Benassi's set at The Mid

INTERVIEWS

Janelle Monae

I can’t recall the exact moment that I first heard about Janelle Monae. That’s what happens in this day and age with new artists rising (and falling) practically every week. I do know though that when I first listened to Monae’s song “Sincerely, Jane” off her debut EP Metropolis: Suite I (The Chase) sometime in the summer of 2007, I knew there was something extra-ordinary about this young Atlanta artist and I wanted more of her unique music. Her debut EP wound up garnering Monae her first Grammy nomination for the track “Many Moons.”

On May 18, 2010 Monae released one of, if not the most heralded albums of 2010: The ArchAndroid (Suites II and III), which consists of the second and third parts to her Metropolis concept piece. The album went on to produce the hits “Tightrope” and “Cold War” and garnered a Grammy nomination for Best R&B Album as well as Best Urban/Alternative Performance for “Tightope.” Like Lady Gaga, Monae somehow wound up being robbed the nomination for Best New Artist; however, always the optimist, she states having the chance at performing during the 53^rd Annual Grammy Awards in 2011 alongside Bruno Mars and B.o.B more than made up for the lack of a nomination and she’s thrilled that her close friend Esperanza Spalding took the win this past year.

While Monae’s story starts in her hometown of Kansas City, Kansas, it was in the Big Apple where she studied theatre and pursued a career on Broadway. She changed her mind though, deciding to pursue music, an art form she states has the power to change the world, and she soon moved south to Atlanta, signing with Sean “Puff Daddy” Combs’ Bad Boy Records, a signing Diddy calls one of the most important of his career.

Over the weekend I had the chance to finally catch Ms Monae perform live as she tours with Bruno Mars on their Hooligans in Wondaland Tour across North America. The show was spectacular on both artist’s counts and more than blew me away with their stage presence and delivery. At one point Monae covered The Jackson 5’s “I Want You Back” with such perfection that you could almost hear a young Michael shine through her interpretation of his track.

I was given the opportunity to chat with this 25-year-old starlet discussing everything from what’s on her iPod, to her message to her gay fans. The answers might surprise you...