Official 'Hollywood Tonight' remix coming to Miami Music Week. By Akshay Bhansali
Chuckie Photo: Jason Ano/ One and Only Productions
Leaving the South by Southwest festival, Lavo New York and Las Vegas' Marquee in his wake, house DJ Chuckie has his sights set on the week ahead. With Miami Music Week now upon us, Chuckie plans to seize the opportunity to debut new material. Fans will be tickled to know the Dutch producer has tracks in the can with Kelly Rowland and T-Pain, but when MTV News caught up with him Friday in New York, Chuckie shared the achievement of which he's most proud.
"I did a Michael Jackson remix, which was really scary — to touch Michael Jackson vocals," Chuckie said. "I did this remix for this track 'Hollywood Tonight.' I couldn't say it for a minute: The label called me, and they said, 'You can't say nothing about this. It's kind of a secret project.' It's gonna come out anytime now."
"Hollywood Tonight" was originally produced by Teddy Riley for Jackson's posthumous Michael album, and Chuckie's mix of the song will be the sole official remix of the track.
"I will play it Miami," Chuckie revealed. "I told them this is the best week to launch the remix. So it feels really good. I'm the only one remixing that Michael Jackson track, and they are considering it a single. For me, especially, it's an honor to remix the King of Pop because he died on my birthday."
So, will the mix be a thundering Chuckie Dutch house banger or will it have a melodic progressive house feel, like his Marquee remix of Diddy-Dirty Money's "I Hate That You Love Me"? Well, according to the "Let the Bass Kick" producer, fans will be getting a healthy dose of both.
"I had to bring in the raucous," Chuckie confessed. "Yeah, I did the Chuckie flavor, but then again, I wanted to make it really musical, so I went progressive (house) on it."
Chuckie will be performing twice at Miami Music Week: at the Cr2 Records Party at Wall Lounge on Wednesday, and then headlining "No Sugar Added" at Nikki Beach on Friday.
Are you excited to hear Chuckie's remix of Michael Jackson's "Hollywood Tonight"? Let us know in the comments below!
'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
will.i.am Photo: MTV News
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!
American Idol might be a heck of a lot of fun to watch, but things aren't always as pleasant when you're the sitting in the judge's chair. In an interview with Matt Lauer on the Today show Tuesday morning, Grammy-nominated songwriter and former Idol judge Kara DioGuardi opened up about her new memoir, A Helluva High Note: Surviving Life, Love and American Idol (in stores now), and her experiences on the top-rated show.
In the book, DioGuardi describes her two-season stint on American Idol as "torture," elaborating to Lauer: "It took viewers awhile to understand why I was there. It was like I broke up the Beatles." Comparisons to Yoko Ono aside, DioGuardi says on Today, "(The producers) wanted the chemistry to be fresh, but it was difficult to come into something that was so established." Watch the interview below!
In the interview, Lauer repeats the speculations that DioGuardi was brought on the show to "keep Paula Abdul in line, so that she wouldn't go cray in contract negotiations" -- and DioGuardi demurs, saying: "I don't know that that was completely true. They wanted to mix it up." She adds the Idol experience -- which, in the book, she calls "mentally, physically and emotionally challenging" -- was ultimately a growing experience, and she hopes that sharing her story might "help others." In fact, DioGuardi says, "I have to say I have nothing but love for American Idol. I came through it. I'm stronger for it. I got to face some really big fears."
DioGuardi also reveals in the book that she was repeatedly molested by a teenage family friend when she was young, and her mother did nothing about it. DioGuardi tells Lauer, "It was a time when there were no Oprahs ... I think it was very hard for her to deal with."
The traumas continued in adulthood when she was date-raped by a "fairly well-known" producer. DioGuardi writes in the book, "The thing about date rape is you don't know it's happening until it's too late." Again, DioGuardi told no one, in the fears that she might hurt his career. Of her decision to include these traumatic experiences in the book, DioGuardi tells Today: "These are all things that affected my songs. Going through an experience like that is so difficult... a lot of those experiences ended up in kind of angry songs. For me, it was important to express why I got into these bad relationships. But... following my dream is what saved me."
As for why she doesn't name the producer who date-raped her, DioGuardi says: "It's not about that person. I don't want it to become about that person. I want it to become about all the other people who have been through this experience and tell them that you can get through it and you can be stronger for it."
