Maple Ridge singers in running for bling

Names of three young Maple Ridge women and one very talented father keep popping up again and again on the shortlist of finalists for this year’s BC Country Music Association Awards.

Carly and Britt McKillip, along with their father and industry legend Tom McKillip, were revealed as finalists on Friday, when the BCCMA shortlist was made public.

The Maple Ridge siblings, who make up the group One More Girl, are up for album, duo, songwriters, website, and video of the year.

As well, independently, Carly is a finalist in the keyboard category, while Dad is up for producer and country music personality of the year. His company, McKiller Music, is also up for recording studio of the year.

But these are not the only local names on the BCCMA shortlist.

Roosters Cabaret in Pitt Meadows is once again up for country club of the year, while Chris Rolin of Rolin Sound is also in the running for recording studio of the year.

And in the country music person of the year, Hammond's own Geoff Dueck is in the running, along with the senior member of the McKillip family.

And in the drum category, Pitt Meadows resident Jerry Adolphe is a finalist.

Last, but definitely not least, up-and-comer Madeline Merlo of Maple Ridge has burst onto the country music scene in a big way in the past year and a half, garnering numerous BCCMA nominations as well.

Merlo, who’s performing a few hometown concerts in the next few weeks, is up for three awards, including female vocalist, and songwriter of the year, as well as the Ray McAuley Horizon Award that is given to the best newcomer on the provincial country music scene.

"I'm really honoured to be nominated and can't wait to go," Merlo told The TIMES, noting she's off to Nashville after the BCCMAs to do a little more writing and recording in anticipation of releasing her first full-length album in January or February.

"It's kind of like they're welcoming me into the BCCMA family, and the country music industry in this province. It's amazing," she added.

The BCCMA winners will be announced at a special awards show at Hard Rock Casino in Coquitlam on Oct. 19 [tickets available at 604-533-5088].

In the meantime, Merlo said she's still shaking her head in disbelief at how much her life has changed.

Earlier this month, she was in Edmonton, performing at a number of industry award events during the Canadian Country Music Awards, and she was at London Drugs in Abbotsford and Coquitlam in the past week performing to help celebrate the release of her debut, self-titled EP.

This weekend she's performing a free and intimate concert followed by a meet-and-greet on Saturday, Sept. 20, from 2 to 3 p.m. at the London Drugs in Valley Fair Mall.

And, she will also be performing at home again on Oct. 4, at 9:30 p.m. in The Well pub at Chances Maple Ridge (the new gaming centre) at Lougheed Highway and 227th Street.

"This year has been really amazing for me," Merlo explained, comparing it to a whirlwind. "Every day, I remind myself how incredibly lucky I am. I wanted, since I was a young girl, to pursue music. It always seemed like an impossible dream, but now it's becoming a reality."

Finalists list revealed

The BC Country Music Association is proud to announce its final nominees, in no particular order:

• Album of the Year

Chad Brownlee – The Fighters (Langley)

Dallas Smith – Tippin’ Point (Langley)

Karen Lee Batten – Cause A Scene (Langley)

Me & Mae – Off The Rails (Langley)

One More Girl – The Hard Way (Maple Ridge)

• Country Club Act of the Year

Appaloosa (Chilliwack)

Chris Buck Band (Burnaby)

Me & Mae (Langley)

Smith & Jones (Langley/White Rock)

Whiskey Jane (Vancouver)

• Country Club of the Year

Cactus Annies – Merritt

Cactus Jacks – Kamloops

OK Corral – Kelowna

Roosters – Maple Ridge

• Country Music Person of the Year

Curtis Pope (Abbotsford)

Geoff Dueck (Maple Ridge)

Jim Cressman (Penticton)

Linda Corscadden (West Kelowna – Langley for 40 years)

Tom McKillip (Maple Ridge)

• Country On-Air Personality (Area Code 250)

Roo Phelps/Casey Clark – Country 100.7 Penticton

Howie Reimer – Country 103.1 Kamloops

Louis McIvor – Country 103.1 Kamloops

Tim Tyler – Country 103.1 Kamloops

• Country On-Air Personality (Area Code 604)

Barbara Beam – Country 93.7 Vancouver

Chris Coburn – Country 107.1 Abbotsford

Curtis Pope – Country 107.1 Abbotsford

Docc Andrews – Country 93.7 Vancouver

Jaxon Hawks – Country 93.7 Vancouver

• Entertainer of the Year

Aaron Pritchett (Langley)

Chad Brownlee (Langley)

Dallas Smith (Langley)

Karen Lee Batten (Langley)

Kenny Hess (Mission)

The Matinee (Coquitlam)

• Fans Choice Award

Aaron Pritchett

Chad Brownlee

Dallas Smith

Karen Lee Batten

Todd Richard (Harrison Hot Springs)

• Female Vocalist of the Year

AJ Woodworth (Vancouver)

Hayley (West Vancouver)

Karen Lee Batten

Mackenzie Porter (Vancouver)

Madeline Merlo (Maple Ridge)

• Gaylord Wood Traditional Country Award

High Bar Gang (Vancouver)

Jackson Hollow (Surrey)

Kenny Hess (Mission)

Mike Sanyshyn (Surrey)

Trevor Murray (Langley)

• Group Duo of the Year

Austin Belle (Mission/Delta)

GB Roots ( N Vancouver)

Me & Mae (Langley)

One More Girl (Maple Ridge)

The Matinee (Coquitlam)

• Male Vocalist of the Year

Aaron Pritchett

Chad Brownlee

Dallas Smith

Gord Maxwell (Port Coquitlam)

Kenny Hess (Mission)

Todd Richard (Harrison)

• Mike Norman All Star Band – Bass

Craig Alan Mack (Coquitlam)

Dennis Marcenko (Vancouver)

Kirby Barber (N Vancouver)

Rob Becker (Vancouver)

Scott Cooke (Aldergrove)

• Mike Norman All Star Band – Drums

Geoff Hicks (Vancouver)

Jerry Adolphe (Pitt Meadows)

Pat Steward (Vancouver)

Ryan Vikedal

Tobi Duquette (N Vancouver)

• Mike Norman All Star Band – Guitar

Darren Savard

David Barber

Hayley

Jay Buettner (Port Coquitlam)

Mitch Merrett (Surrey)

• Mike Norman All Star Band – Keyboard

Carly McKillip (Maple Ridge)

Daryl Havers (Burnaby)

John Dean (Surrey)

Marc Gladstone (Richmond)

Simon Kendall (Vancouver)

• Mike Norman All Star Band – Special Instrument

Eric Reed – Mandolin/Banjo (N Vancouver)

Jeremy Breaks – Banjo (Vancouver)

Julie Kennedy – Fiddle (Victoria)

John Ellis – Steel Guitar (Vancouver)

Matt Rose – Mandolin/Banjo (Coquitlam)

Scott Smith – Steel Guitar (Vancouver)

• Producer of the Year

Jay Buettner (Port Coquitlam)

John Ellis (Vancouver)

Mitch Merrett (Surrey)

Paul Shatto (Vancouver)

Scott Cooke (Aldergrove)

Tom McKillip (Maple Ridge)

• Radio Station of the Year

Country 107.1 – Abbotsford

Country 103.1 – Kamloops

Country 100.7 – Penticton

Country 93.7 – Vancouver

• Ray McAuley Horizon Award

GB Roots (N Vancouver)

Lisa Nicole (Surrey)

Mackenzie Porter (Vancouver)

Madeline Merlo (Maple Ridge)

Me and Mae (Langley)

Wes Mack (Vancouver)

* Recording Studio of the Year

Armoury Studios (Vancouver)

Blue Frog Studios (White Rock)

McKiller Music (Maple Ridge)

Rolin Sound (Maple Ridge)

Studio Downe Under (Abbotsford)

• Roots Canadiana of the Year Award

Angela Harris (N Vancouver)

Carli & Julie Kennedy (Victoria)

GB Roots (N Vancouver)

The Matinee (Coquitlam)

Washboard Union (Vancouver)

• Single of the Year Award

Boat on the Water – Aaron Pritchett

Cause a Scene – Karen Lee Batten

Fallin’ Over You – Chad Brownlee

If You Ask Me – Mackenzie Porter

Tippin’ Point – Dallas Smith

Why Baby Why – AJ Woodworth/The Matinee

• Socan Songwriter of the Year Award

AJ Woodworth/The Matinee – Why Baby Why (Louise Burns & Dave Wilson)

Amanda Thate – Hit & Run (Britt & Carly McKillip, Kathleen Higgins)

Austin Belle – Just Drive (Stacey McKitrick, Jesse Wainwright & Jeff Johnson)

Chad Brownlee – Just Because (Chad Brownlee, Mitch Merrett, Brian White & Phil Barton)

Madeline Merlo – Sinking Like a Stone (Dan Swinimer & Jeff Johnson)

Me and Mae – Watcha’ Wearin (Shawn Meehan)

• Video Director of the Year Award

Cliff Hokanson (van)

David Tenniswood (Van)

Gene Greenwood (surrey)

Stephano Barberis (surrey)

Wes Mack (Vancouver)

• Video of the Year Award

Aaron Pritchett – Boat on the Water

AJ Woodworth/The Matinee – Why Baby Why

Chad Brownlee – Fallin’ Over You

Dallas Smith – Tippin’  Point

Karen Lee Batten – Cause A Scene

One More Girl – Love Like Mine

• Website of the Year Award

Chris Buck Band – Chris Smolko www.chrisbuckband.com

Karen Lee Batten – Ali Adab www.karenleebatten.com

Mike Sanyshyn – Robert White/Tianna Lefebvre Sanyshyn www.mikesanyshyn.com

One More Girl – Andrew Lorimer www.onemoregirl.com

The Matinee – Noel Planet www.thematineemusic.com

• Humanitarian of the Year Award

Chad Brownlee – Tim Hortons

Kenny Hess – Kids Forever

Linda Corscadden – Journey On Cancer Foundation/FCK Cancer

Todd Richard – Run for the Cure

- See more at: http://www.mrtimes.com/entertainment/updated-maple-ridge-singers-in-running-for-bling-1.1379540#sthash.PXx4bzTv.dpuf

Jhené Aiko, Marsha Ambrosius, Ledisi, and other brilliant women of R&B

Jhené Aiko, Marsha Ambrosius, Ledisi, and the other brilliant women of R&B who aren’t getting their due in 2014.

In 2011, the only person stopping R&B singer Marsha Ambrosius from topping the Billboard album chart was Adele. Ambrosius, the songwriter behind Michael Jackson’s “Butterflies” and former lead singer of Floetry, would’ve gone No. 1 with her album Late Nights and Early Mornings if its release didn’t coincide with the sales peak of the Adele juggernaut 21. Four years later, her follow-up Friends and Lovers tells a different story: Released a couple months ago, the album debuted with less than a fifth of Late Nights’ sales, and didn’t crack the Top 10.

What happened? Don’t blame the sales downturn on the album—it’s wonderful. Instead, a subtle shift in the way Billboard counts its song charts has had a dramatic effect on Ambrosius and a whole swath of female R&B singers like her. Because of that shift, for the last two years, the Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs chart has acted as a virtual mirror image of the Hot 100. These changes have made this R&B chart a safer, whiter, and more boring place. And it’s making it hard to be a black woman singing R&B.

In 2012, the music industry’s oldest trade journal started counting digital and streaming sales, not just sales of physical CDs, chartwide. To understand what this means to female R&B in 2014, consider Billboard’s contorted history of assessing black consumer data. Until bar-code scanning of albums and singles became the norm on the album and Hot 100 singles charts in 1991, industry analysts relied on gentlemen’s agreement confirmations from retailers who often, to be polite, misrepresented sales. The result: Purchased albums were often undercounted. When Billboard applied this tracking system, known as Nielsen SoundScan, to what was then called the Hot R&B Singles chart in 1993, it confirmed what American kids had known for years: Hip-hop was our rock ’n’ roll. This led to instant results on the Billboard album chart. What many listeners remember as a golden age of hip-hop and R&B—Tupac, Nas, Mary J. Blige, TLC, and so on—happened in part because Billboard reflected with accuracy what the majority of white and black consumers bought.

But we call ages “golden” in retrospect. Slow to respond to the Internet and downright reactionary when it chose to regard Napster as a threat, the record industry saw a diminution in album and single sales after an early 2000s peak. As a kind of OK-you-win gesture, in 2005 Billboard included digital sales on the Hot 100 and album charts but, dithering, not on what was now called the Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs. For a while, the black charts could still boast an identity, a parallel world in which communal listening spaces occasionally overlapped with white pop culture.

Billboard decided in 2012 to count digital and streaming sales of singles so that they registered on every chart. Slate contributor Chris Molanphy’s meticulous and depressing account in Pitchfork of how the Hot R&B chart has evolved—and devolved—explains the impact. Now the Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs chart looks a lot like the Hot 100. To achieve sales and radio parity, Molanphy writes, “Billboard also incorporated airplay across all radio formats into the genre charts; so airplay from Top 40 or adult-contemporary stations of, say, an R&B song would now count for the R&B chart, of a country song would count for the country chart, and so forth.” The inclusion of digital and streaming data skews all charts toward pop hits—a cataclysmic impact on the R&B chart. “Elsewhere it’s created a drive to find the songs that get the biggest and broadest audience response, which often are pop songs that can work as cross-format smashes,” noted an article published in Billboard itself last spring. Playlists at black stations have tightened as programmers switch to playing Lorde and Rihanna.

The effects of this change have been crafty and far-reaching. It may surprise readers that Rihanna’s R&B chart presence before 2012 had been miniscule. A mere week after the changes, as Molanphy noted, “Diamonds” zoomed from the 60s to No. 1. Her R&B and pop success were now indivisible. While Pharrell’s “Happy” and John Legend’s “All of Me” suggest a black resurgence on the Hot 100, and it’s heartening to watch Miguel cross over (“Adorn” lingered a record 20 weeks at No. 1 on the R&B/Hip-Hop Airplay chart in 2012), for artists like Ambrosius and Ledisi, it’s small consolation. To distinguish the Rihannas from the Ambrosiuses, Billboard publishes an “adult R&B” chart as a programming equivalent to a halfway house. In other words, female R&B artists have had a rough two years. It’s true that sales are stagnant for everyone, but without charting, these women have trouble getting played on a more and more homogenized pop radio; without general airplay, these women stand little chance of selling or streaming the numbers commensurate with building careers. For Rihanna, selling or streaming fewer units is one thing; she already has a global audience. For an artist promoting a second album like Marsha Ambrosius and getting no pop radio play, it’s devastating. There’s no such thing as career development when pop stations won’t take a chance on her latest single; fewer people are going to download or stream her material.

Ambrosius’ sophomore release may rate as a sales disappointment, but it’s only a hair’s breadth less wonderful than the first. Far from demure and averse to shading her demands, she specializes in carnalizing the domestic life. Octave leaps and flutters, electric pianos and martial drums—Friends and Lovers puts traditional R&B in the service of a career woman who cooks breakfast in her lover’s shirt and can’t wait for another night of 69ing. To hear a woman in her late 30s like Ambrosius bask in the glow of a satisfying relationship as she does in “Love” or “Shoes” is a special pleasure.

Released in March, Ledisi’s The Truth offers similar visions of happiness, but girded by a sensibility that’s closer to anthemic. Her song “I Blame You” already sounds like a classic: Over finger snapped percussion and a voice with a physical range as deep as its emotional one, Ledisi describes a mature, fulfilled relationship, inverting the expectations created by the title. (Actually, she blames her lover for being so awesome.) It’s the kind of relationship that never stops surprising sexually and emotionally, and the song has made no pop impact. The adult R&B crowd agrees: In that format it’s one of the year’s biggest hits.

For a couple of years, fans of R&B blogs have touted Jhené Aiko (née Jhené Aiko Efuru Chilombo). A different strain of R&B history courses through her music: the synthed-out landscapes of Stevie Wonder’s Fulfillingness’ First Finale and Angela Winbush’s late ’80s hits. Her debut album, Souled Out, expands and deepens the sound of last year’s EP, Sail Out: a languid blend of acoustic and electronic instruments—as woozy as a bottle of red wine after sex—over which Aiko lays her crisp, cool vocals. It should appeal to those who’ve made radio hits and critical favorites of the productions of Chicago veteran No I.D. (Drake’s “Find Your Love,” Jay-Z and Justin Timberlake’s “Holy Grail”) and Los Angeles newcomers Fisticuffs (Miguel’s “Quickie”).

Lingering affectionately over polysyllables as if fingering a necklace, Aiko masters a quiet speak-song suggesting that little fazes her. With its submerged beats, acoustic strumming, and multitracked vocals holding notes into infinity, “Spotless Mind” conjures Tweet’s “Smoking Cigarettes” as much as Minnie Riperton. “It’s on you, it’s cool,” she repeats on “It’s Cool,”—a motto, not a mantra. Yet Aiko’s aversion to euphoria stems from her commitment to see the romance through; relationships last when people of good will understand each other without living from climax to climax, crisis to crisis. “Eternal Sunshine” describes the kind of romance in which flying kites and weekends on the beach unfold as an everlasting present. To write about relationships that don’t vacillate between emotional binaries is some feat, and her submerged piano lines and midtempo vamping can repel friction; she can be a bore. But at least half the songs on the album boast a hook, verse, or musical detail to treasure. 

Sustaining a career in 2014, however, requires more than small hits. As Beyoncé has discovered, it takes a shrewd promotional and release strategy for even a superstar to coax a response from pop radio. Sure, you know and love “Countdown” and “Love on Top,” but those songs peaked at Nos. 20 and 71 on the Hot 100; “Drunk in Love” was her first Top 5 single since 2009.

No lack of commercial propulsion should stop us from listening to and thinking about any of these artists and others. If country music, as it’s often said, tells stories, R&B chronicles romance and its discontents, with sex as salve and weapon, often in the same tune. John Legend and Usher will do OK. But we need these women. We need their stories.

Anyone interested in female R&B should check out Jennifer Hudson, going for an early ’90s house vibe on “Dangerous”; Sinead Harnett and producer Snakehips hopping up crackling electro arrangements on “No Other Way”; and Keyshia Cole enjoying the taste and feel of another woman with the help of a fractured DJ Mustard beat on “She.” And once in a while the old ways work. The No. 3 peak of Aiko’s Souled Out resulted from a classic career build: a recent No. 1 called “The Worst” from her last EP. It’s made me curious to see how well Mary J. Blige: The London Sessions does this holiday season too. After bangers like 2005’s “Be Without You” and 2007’s “Just Fine” her pop presence has waned, but whether this is a result of the Billboardchanges or simply Blige entering one of her regular pop chart lulls—it’s happened before, in 1999 and 2003—we’ll soon see.

And there’s Jhené Aiko, who doesn’t sound like any of these women. Nor should she: R&B isn’t a genre, really, but an ethos—the turning world, not the still point. These singers will survive—thrive—so long as we keep looking for their music, even if the deck looks stacked against them. “That’s why I keep going,” Aiko sings on “W.A.Y.S.” “I gotta keep going.”

How to Lighten Dark Lips?

Feel that your mouth is too dark compared to your face? Do you want a pink perfect pout?

You are not alone. Millions of women worldwide suffer from this entirely treatable condition. So, look no further for your dermatologist-recommended tips to lighten your lips!

1. Stop licking your lips: Many people suffer from a repetitive habit of licking their lips. This repetitive friction and irritation causes a darkening of the lips and even the surrounding skin. Why does this occur? Usually, people with this habit have lips that continually dry and they repeatedly lick their lips to moisturize it. Unfortunately, the more you lick your lips, the more water evaporates from the lips, ultimately making them even drier. This ultimately perpetuates a never-ending cycle! So stop this habit for a lighter and healthier pout!

2. Exfoliate your lips: A lot of people with dry lips will have excess skin that makes your pout look rough, uneven and discolored. Luckily, there is a natural remedy for this. You can gently rub your lips with your toothbrush every morning! Or, for an extra effective exfoliation, you can mix sugar, honey and olive oil and apply it to the lips as a gentle scrub and then wash it off. Do this a few times a week and be amazed at the results.

3. Moisturize regularly: Dry lips are darker lips, likely because light is not able to reflect properly off an uneven surface. Moist lips will look healthier and pinker, so moisturize regularly with a strong lip balm at least 5-6 times a day! Make sure the lip balm has shea butter in it, as it is highly effective at moisturizing your pout.

4. Apply sunblock: Yes, lips can get tanned too! In fact, the sun can damage the skin on the lips, making them appear darker and rougher. Look for a lip balm with SPF30, and apply it at least 5-6 times a day to make sure it does not wear off.

5. Try lasers: If natural remedies do not work, then you can try a KTP Laser for your dark lips. This safe and painless procedure uses a targeted light therapy to attack excess color on the lips. Typically, KTP requires 2-4 sittings, depending on how dark your lips are. Talk to a certified dermatologist about it to learn more.

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Why do women have to be naked to sing a song? - Sharon Corr

Singer and former Voice of Ireland judge Sharon Corr has hit out at female singers wearing little or no clothes on stage.

Speaking about her new album on the Ryan Tubridy Show on 2fm, the Louth native explained her frustrations.

"I see so many overtly sexualised images these days and I wonder why women have to be naked in order to sing a song.

"My new record is a female album, I feel very strongly about representing women in a way that's not negative; that tries to progress the female cause forwards rather than backwards."



The former Corrs singer is currently promoting her solo album The Same Sun, and spoke about how the songs on her new record promote female sexuality.

"Women are extremely stereo-typed, my songs are not about being unfaithful, it's about expressing the normal things that we feel and we think.

"Women are not shy and retiring about wanting our husbands or our partners or whoever it is. I don't feel that way, it's just that I hate the stereo-typing, women are so much more liberated than that."

The mum of two also spoke openly about her battle with anxiety following the birth of her two children.

"We came off the road in 2005 and I had two babies back-to -back and I was sleep deprived. I started to become a bit anxious. When other people tell me they've been through that, it makes me feel a lot better.

"I would find myself in very bizarre situations where I'd be getting my hair done and I'd start to panic, and I'd be terrified," she said.

"It happened in the silliest situations, I was super tired and super stressed and a terrible worrier and I'm not now.

"I glad I'm out the other side of it, I had to look after myself, make sure I was getting enough sleep, not drinking too much alcohol because that'll put me over the edge. I have to be good and kind to myself in order to not go back there."

With two young children - her son Cathal is eight and her daughter Flori is seven - Sharon admits it can be difficult to juggle her young family with her music career.

"I love my kids so much, they are the most important thing to me but I can't live without my music.

"I have this constant tug of war between them both, I try to balance it all and I have a very supportive husband.

"I want to show them what women can do in life and how you can succeed when you take life by the horns."

What with being so busy, the 44-year-old likes to let her hair down at home.

"I never wear make up or heels when I'm at home. I love cooking, it's a quick fix, you create something and you get immediate gratification."

Riff Raff starts random feud with Sam Smith after singer crops him out of Katy Perry

Riff Raff is rarely acknowledged this side of the Atlantic.

In fact, so little attention is usually paid to the rapper – best known, at least by us, as "Bono with cornrows" – he attempted to pull off the lamest publicity stunt in recent awards history when he turned up to the MTV VMAs dressed as a double-denim Justin Timberlake circa 2001, with Katy Perry as his Britney Spears.

It was a poor look then, and an even worse spectacle in the year 2014.

Yet that didn’t stop him from berating British singer Sam Smith for doing him the huge favour of cropping him out of an Instagram photograph he took with Perry and Charli XCX.

“So amazing to see my girl @charli_xcx last night!! Smashing it so hard #STORTFORD,” Smith captioned the image.

Little did he expect the somewhat angered response he got back from Mr Raff, clearly perturbed by the fact he hadn’t been included.

As of yet, Smith is yet to respond to Raff’s comments. And probably never will, because they are, lets face it, ridiculous.

Despite her questionable choice of date and attire, Katy Perry was honoured with the Best Female Video Award (yes, they still have gender categories for music videos) for her controversial visuals for “Dark Horse”.

The video caused much controversy when it was initially released in February.

An online petition signed by more than 50,000 Muslims demanded it was pulled from YouTube because of an offending scene, which shows an Islamic necklace burned by lightning shot from Perry’s fingers.

Ariana Grande: 'Nothing's going to stop me'

When Ariana Grande heard the final version of Bang Bang, her diva showdown with Jessie J and Nicki Minaj, she remembers falling to the floor and blurting, "Holy Lord, thank you for this moment!"

Grande, 21, has enjoyed a lot of big moments leading up to today's release of second album My Everything, fueled by four songs that already have sold 4 million downloads and racked up 200 million streams.

With Break Free at No. 4, Problem at No. 7 and Bang at No. 10 this week, the singer/actress joins Adele as the only female lead artists to lock up three slots simultaneously in the top 10 of Billboard's Hot 100 singles chart.

"She's set up for a great debut," says Keith Caulfield, Billboard associate director of charts/sales, who predicts a No. 1 bow based on industry forecasts.

Compared to many of her peers, "she seems way brighter and more pop-culture savvy," Caulfield says. "Her voice echoes Mariah Carey, but she has a wide taste in music and can channel a lot of sounds and styles."

The singer, acclaimed for her supple pipes, says her biggest weapon is drive.

"When I'm working on my music, I submerse myself," she says. "Nothing's going to stop me. It fulfills me. I want to express my feelings, keep it real and progress as a person."

Music wasn't the Florida native's first calling. She acted in 13 on Broadway in 2008, then in two Nickelodeon sitcoms (Victorious and Sam & Cat) before releasing 2013 debut Yours Truly, a chart-topper propelled by hit The Way.

"I'm such a theater geek and would love to go back to live theater, but I want to do pop music forever," Grande says, citing the "weird combination" of India Arie, Madonna and Imogen Heap as her heaviest influences.

Grande hijacked the summer with Problem, a song she initially wanted to yank from the album. The sassy bubblegum tune featuring Iggy Azalea has sold 2.9 million downloads. On first listen, Grande didn't hear a hit.

"I had the opposite reaction," she says. "'I don't like this song. It annoys me.' But when it was done, I realized it was so special."

For Grande, Problem's hot streak ended when her grandfather died in July. She scrapped three weeks of career commitments to be close to her tight Italian-American clan.

"I'd have moments of celebratory happiness but nothing is more real than that pain," she says. "It was a reality check. Nothing is more important than family."

She also finds solace in Kabbalah and attends classes every Friday. Raised Catholic, she left the church at 13 "hand in hand" with her gay older half-brother, actor/producer Frankie Grande.

"I went with him because he had his heart broken by our faith," she says. "I fell in love with Kabbalah. It's a positive, beautiful way of life."

Grande hasn't expressed her political and social views in songs yet, "but I may do that down the line," she says. "Music is a perfect vehicle to tell any story. I'll tell all my stories."

MTV VMAs: Beyonce's performance dominates the night

Beyonce, Ed Sheeran, and Ariana Grande took home prizes, and Miley Cyrus, who won the video of the year prize, ceded the stage to a man who spoke about homelessness.

The MTV Video Music Awards included wins for singer Beyonce, who was also honored with the Michael Jackson Video Vanguard Award, while Miley Cyrus, 5 Seconds of Summer, and others also took home awards.

Beyonce took the stage at the end of the show and was widely acknowledged as having delivered one of, if not the, best performances of the night, with the Guardian calling her performance a “show-stopper… [she] brought the house down” and Associated Press writer Mesfin Fekadu writing that she was “the reigning queen… her performance easily outdid her competition throughout the night.”

Singer Nicki Minaj performed her song “Anaconda” and Taylor Swift sang her new single “Shake It Off,” while Minaj also performed the song “Bang Bang” with singers Ariana Grande and Jessie J.
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Social issues were also addressed during the show, with rapper Common, who was giving out the award for best hip-hop video, speaking about the situation in Ferguson, Mo. Common asked that the crowd have a moment of silence.

“Hip-hop has always been about truth and has been a powerful instrument of social change, from Melle Mel to Public Enemy to Kendrick Lamar,’’ he said, according to the Associated Press. ‘‘Hip-hop has always been presented a voice for the revolution.” 

MTV also aired a short clip that included a quote by writer James Baldwin that said, “Nothing can be changed until it is faced.” “It's a call to action to our audience that we have to confront our own bias head-on before we can truly create change,” MTV president Stephen Friedman told the AP.

In addition, Cyrus sent someone else on stage for her when she won the video of the year award for her song “Wrecking Ball.” The man introduced himself as Jesse and said, “I am accepting this award on behalf of the 1.6 million runaways and homeless youth in the United States who are starving, lost, and scared for their lives right now. I know this because I am one of these people. Though I may have been invisible to you in the streets, I have a lot of the same dreams that brought many of you here tonight."

Beyonce, who also won the best cinematography prize for her song “Pretty Hurts” and the video with a social message award for the same song, was given her Michael Jackson Video Vanguard Award by her husband Jay-Z, who joined her onstage with their daughter Blue Ivy.

“I have nothing to say, but I'm filled with so much gratitude,” Beyonce said, according to the Los Angeles Times. “I thank God for this moment. I love y'all.”

Other winners included the group Fifth Harmony taking the artist to watch award, Ed Sheeran winning the best male video award for his song “Sing,” Katy Perry winning best female video for the song “Dark Horse,” and 5 Seconds of Summer winning best lyric video for their song “Don’t Stop.”