Tamar Braxton performs Gladys Knight Tribute on Soul Train 2011
I remember the first time I met the Braxton Sisters, the singing siblings of superstar Toni Braxton. The chance meeting occurred in a hotel suite in Charlotte, NC in 1996. I was there to shoot a music conference for VIBE magazine, and I bumped into LA Reid’s brother, Bryant Reid, in the hotel lobby.
At the time Bryant was managing the Braxton Sisters, so he paid me to shoot a party he was having for the girls in his suite that night.
The picture on the right is one that I took in 1996. At the time, the group consisted of Towanda, left, and teenagers Tamar, 19, center, and Trina, 17. They had just released an album, titled So Many Ways, on Atlantic Records.
Last night, BET aired Soul Train Awards 2011 which was pre-taped in Atlanta on Nov. 17. Tamar was the highlight of the night as she sang a rousing tribute to Soul legend Gladys Knight, with Dave Hollister, Kenny Lattimore and Freddie Jackson backing Tamar up as the honorary Pips for the night.
Tamar’s performance surprised and electrified social networking sites like Twitter.com, where users compared her sultry vocals to her sister Toni Braxton, and even Beyonce!
Below are just a few of the thousands of positive tweets about Tamar’s performance from Twitter.com! By the way, Tamar’s sisters, Towanda and Trina Braxton will chat live with Sandrarose.com readers via Ustream right here on Wednesday! So check back for that.
Watch Tamar’s performance after the break!
Love Was in the Air at the American Music Awards 2011
Love was in the air last night 2011 American Music Awards held at the Nokia Theater in LA. Lovebird couples such as singer John Legend and girlfriend Christine Teigen, (above), and Mary J Blige and her hubby/manager Kendu Isaacs (below) couldn’t keep their hands or lips off each other.
After performing “Mr. Wrong”, Mary paid tribute to rapper Heavy D, who passed away on November 8, of unknown causes.
“Rest in peace to my dear friend, my loved one, my brother, the loveable and great Heavy D,” Mary said. “I miss you so much, brother. God bless.”
Nicki Minaj Pulls Stunning Upset Over Jay Z and Kanye at AMAs
Cartoon rapper Nicki Minaj walked away with two trophies during last night’s 2011 American Music Awards held at the Nokia Theater in LA. Nicki pulled a stunning upset over Jay Z and Kanye West by winning Best Rap/Hip-Hop Album for Pink Friday, easily defeating the much-hyped album, Watch The Throne.
The 29-year-old rapper, wearing a shiny speaker suit, performed her hits “Turn Me On” and “Super Bass” backed up by DJ David Guetta.
The night’s other big winners included Taylor Swift (Artist of the Year); Beyoncé (Soul/R&B Female Artist), Bruno Mars (Pop/Rock Male Artist), Rihanna (Soul/R&B Album) and Jennifer Lopez (Latin Music Artist). Unfortunately, Rihanna’s abusive ex-boyfriend, Chris Brown, didn’t win a thing as he had hoped.
Brown, who has over 5 million followers on the social networking site Twitter.com, deleted his entire timeline after a follower questioned him about Rihanna last Thursday.
The troubled singer tweeted “Don’t say s*** to anybody and everyone feels its cool to attack me. GROWN ADULTS!!!! That s*** happened three years ago.” He followed that up with other angry tweets, including a reference to last night’s American Music Awards, where the delusional singer had hoped to finally earn some respect.
“I wake up thinking of living my life….. YOU wake up thinking of me! NOW I REALLY CAN’T WAIT FOR THE AMA’s! U dont have to respect me now… but u will.”
Photos: Wireimage.com
American Music Awards 2011 – Inside, Performance & Portraits
Nicki Minaj performing
Troubled singer Chris Brown performed last night, but he lost the Soul/R&B Album trophy to his ex-girlfriend Rihanna. Brown had hoped that the AMAs would redeem his fractured image and gain him the respect that he thinks he deserves. But that will never happen. Sales of Brown’s album F.A.M.E. has stalled at around 700,000 copies sold, and it doesn’t appear to be even close to going platinum. All of this leaves Brown very frustrated and in need of mood altering medications. The 22-year-old went on another one of his patented rampage on Twitter.com last Thursday that ended when he deleted his entire timeline and appears to have left Twitter for good.
American Music Awards 2011 – Arrivals
R&B legend Mary J Blige looked like a vision of beauty of beauty on the red carpet at the 2011 American Music Awards held at Nokia Theatre L.A. last night in Los Angeles.
Cartoon rapper Nicki Minaj stole the AMA Album of the Year award from Jay Z and Kanye West who are currently on the Watch the Throne tour. That bites!
More Pics from the 2011 Soul Train Awards – Arrivals
Here are more pics from last night’s 2011 Soul Train Awards held at the fabulous Fox Theater in Atlanta. These pics are courtesy of celebrity blogger Tami of Talkingwithtami.com who took better pics than the so-called professional photographers.
How embarrassing that singer Miguel looked prettier than most of the females on the red carpet?
Celebs Attend the 16th Annual GQ “Men Of The Year” Party
Aging rapper Jay-Z attended the 16th Annual GQ “Men Of The Year” Party at Chateau Marmont in Los Angeles, CA yesterday. Jay Z was chosen as one of four Men of The Year by GQ.
I laughed out loud when I saw these photos of TV personality La La Vasquez and her Metrosexual NBA husband, Carmelo Anthony. Can you tell she reads the blogs? If you think blogs don’t affect the lives of these celebrities, think again.
