Women love Beyoncé, and men love Katy Perry

At least according to Spotify!

Spotify has released a list of the most streamed female artists worldwide and divided the list by gender. It turns out that among women, Beyoncé is the most streamed, and among men, it's Katy Perry!

The lady that takes the cake, cake, cake, cake though is Rihanna, who was named the most streamed woman of all time worldwide for the third year in a row.

Here's a source for the info and here are the lists:

All-Time Most Streamed Female Artists, Worldwide
01. Rihanna
02. Katy Perry
03. Beyoncé
04. Lana Del Rey
05. Lady Gaga
06. Ariana Grande
07. Nicki Minaj
08. Ellie Goulding
09. Taylor Swift*
10. Lorde

All-Time Most Streamed Female Artists By Women, Worldwide 
01. Beyoncé
02. Katy Perry
03. Lana Del Rey
04. Rihanna
05. Ariana Grande
06. Lorde
07. Miley Cyrus
08. Taylor Swift*
09. Ellie Goulding
(No, this is not a mistake, there is no #10 on any source I could find)

All-Time Most Streamed Female Artists by Men, Worldwide 
01. Katy Perry
02. Lana Del Rey
03. Lorde
04. Ariana Grande
05. Rihanna
06. Beyoncé
07. Ellie Goulding
08. Miley Cyrus
09. Lady Gaga
10. Iggy Azalea

What I found particularly interesting was that Lady Gaga was not even in the top ten of the All-Time Most Streamed Female Artists in the U.S. She doesn't even appear in the top ten for women listeners, and among men, she's last on the list. Here are the lists with U.S. data:

All-Time Most Streamed Female Artists, U.S.
01. Lana Del Rey
02. Beyoncé
03. Katy Perry
04. Lorde
05. Ariana Grande
06. Rihanna
07. Nicki Minaj
08. Taylor Swift*
09. Miley Cyrus
10. Ellie Goulding

All-Time Most Streamed Female Artists by Women, U.S.
01. Beyoncé
02. Lana Del Rey
03. Katy Perry
04. Ariana Grande
05. Lorde
06. Rihanna
07. Taylor Swift*
08. Miley Cyrus
09. Nicki Minaj
10. Iggy Azalea

All-Time Most Streamed Female Artists by Men, U.S.
01. Lorde
02. Lana Del Rey
03. Katy Perry
04. Beyoncé
05. Rihanna
06. Nicki Minaj
07. Ellie Goulding
08. Iggy Azalea
09. Taylor Swift*
10. Lady Gaga

*Taylor Swift removed her music from Spotify last year 


So, what do YOU think of these lists? 

Why is Lady Gaga still so desperate for praise?

Lady Gaga's newest supporter is none other than talk-show radio host and political commentator Glenn Beck.

Beck spewed out FOUR minutes of verbal vomit about Gaga on his radio show, calling her a "master craftswoman", a "genius", that she's "the way artists should be", and blah, blah, blah... and of course, Gaga got wind of it and retweeted his "review" along with a link to his site:

Can we just step back for a minute and see why this is such a big deal?

Glenn Beck, for those who don't know, is a self-described "conservative with libertarian leanings", and although he says he supports same-sex marriage and LGBT rights, he also thinks that anti-discrimination laws are a bad thing.

According to this source, when asked about a hypothetical shop owner refusing to serve someone in the LGBT community, he argues that "it's their right" to, and that aside from emergency services, anyone should be able to refuse to serve someone else based on their sexuality, ethnicity, religion, or race.

"Anybody who says you want to talk about rights, you must stand for the person on both sides. This is, ‘I have a right to get a cake from a bakery, not this specific bakery, but a bakery. Bakeries have a right to make cakes for homosexual couples getting married, period, and this particular bakery has a right to say, ‘I’m not gonna make it.’ That’s how rights work."

Oh wow! So in Beck's world, unless you're bleeding to death, the whole world can tell you to GTFO  just because they don't like the fact that you're gay or of a different religion than they are.

Is Lady Gaga really so desperate for praise that she'll retweet and promote anyone who kisses her ass? 

She's an activist for gay rights, and claims to be bisexual herself, yet she's fine with linking/promoting someone who thinks it's okay to slam the door right in a person's face just because they're gay.

But it's all about the clicks, right Gaga?

Bet she'd change her tune pretty quickly if she found out people were being turned away from buying her flop albums or smelly perfumes.

Lady Gaga lives for the Applause...

...Even when that Applause belongs to someone else.

 

Lady Gaga and Tony Bennett performed the title track to their duet album Cheek to Cheek together at the Grammys last weekend after winning the Grammy for Best Traditional Pop Album.

The performance itself was definitely not the highlight of the night okay, but the reactions afterward were probably not what they'd hoped for - at least that's what the official VEVO video seems to say.

The official video of the performance on Lady Gaga's VEVO channel was edited to change the reaction shot of the ending of it from THIS:

                                


To THIS:

                                

So where did the excited reactions in the second gif come from?

Madonna's Living For Love performance!

Well, if the audience looking at the wrong stage was any indication, then the happy looks on their faces should have given it away. No one looks that jazzed over a mediocre jazz performance. And not only that, but do you notice how the people in the second gif are looking up? That's because at the end of Madonna's performance, she was hoisted up into the air. They're watching her be 'lifted up' (like the lyrics in the song say, 'love's gonna lift me up'). Why else would they be looking that way?

And why would the lights be blue in that shot, when the rest of the performance was dark (besides their spotlight)? At the end of the performance, the house lights went up. At no point during their performance did they have blue lights like the ones in the second reaction shot. Check out these two screenshots - including timestamps - of the lights before and after the performance:

You can even see the ridiculousness for yourself.

Lady Gaga's official VEVO performance video can be seen HERE (Fast forward to 3:00)
and Madonna's performance video can be seen HERE (Fast forward to 5:30)


Really gives new meaning to the phrase "stole the show", doesn't it?

Let the bragging commence!

This just in: Lady Gaga and Tony Bennett have won a Grammy for Cheek to Cheek.

Oh boy! So despite selling only 1/3 of the number of albums that Streisand did, and despite the fact that Cheek to Cheek couldn't even last 5 months on the charts, they managed to win the Grammy for Best Traditional Pop Vocal Album.

And lucky Lady Gaga is taking the news oh so humbly, as is her nature.

Post-Grammy update:

Billboard ranked the 23 Grammy performances from "Worst to Best" here.

They ranked Sia all the way up to #3, saying this of the performance:

"Their set was astounding, and Wiig's dancing was surprisingly on point. You gotta give it up for Sia -- she comes up with a unique twist on the "Chandelier" live performance every time. Sorry, Gaga, this is the real Pop Art"

Billboard ranked Tony Bennett and Lady Gaga's performance all the way down at #15, but literally have nothing to say about it: 

"The Irving Berlin-penned "Cheek to Cheek" is the title track to their duets album, which won the Grammy for best traditional pop vocal album this year. It's been a while since a straight-up jazz performance hit the Grammys, and it was a welcome change of pace."

Translation: YAWN.

                               


So, what did YOU think of the results? Were you surprised that Tony/Gaga won?

And how about that performance? 

Is Cheek to Cheek another career misfire for Lady Gaga?

There was no doubt about it: in 2009 and early 2010, Lady Gaga was pop's new "it" girl.  You couldn't go anywhere without seeing her face or hearing her voice. But now? You'd be lucky to hear anything from her last two solo albums on the radio at all (well, maybe "lucky" is the wrong word).

Here's an official chart to show you just how her two last albums have fared on the charts. The top row are her releases (including promotional singles) from ARTPOP and the bottom row are her releases from Born This Way.

Billboard official releases/chart positions. From left to right - most recent to least recent.

Despite the fact that these two albums hit the number one spot, we can see that the later singles from each album did not do well on the charts at all. The final release from Born This Way couldn't even reach top 20, and well, do we really need to discuss the epic flop that was G.U.Y.?

She is considered to have three solo albums (pictured below), however she has also released several EPs and compilation/remix albums, most of which either never charted or charted very poorly (Born This Way: The Remix, for example, peaked at #105).

Yes, there are two number one albums and a number two. But despite that, her album sales have decreased over time. The Fame sold ~15 million worldwide, Born This Way sold ~6 million worldwide, and ARTPOP only sold ~2.5 millon worldwide (source here).

Even Lady Gaga's music videos have gone down in popularity. Ranked from most to least watched, here are her videos:

If you can't see the viewcount, you can always look for yourself on her official VEVO channel here. 

What do you notice about the viewcounts? That, on the whole, her earlier work is watched way more than her later work? That the last release from Born This Way (Marry The Night) and from ARTPOP are her least watched videos? (Note: she has other videos up on her channel, but none of them are official solo singles so I did not include them.)

And if Google Trends (USA) is to be believed, she's not even being written about or searched for one TENTH of what she was at her peak:

So what does this tell us? That Lady Gaga is falling hard and falling fast? That she needs something or someone to come along and save her?

Enter Tony Bennett.

When Gaga announced that she would be working with Bennett, the press praised her and she got a chance to prove that she could sing and that she was more than just a pop star - or so she'd hoped.

The album that Bennett and Gaga recorded together (Cheek to Cheek) had some mixed reviews; some saying things like "Gaga is a wonder", and others saying it's "unbearable", "desperate", and if not for the work of the musicians, would sound like "glorified karaoke".

Cheek to Cheek was nominated for a Grammy award and debuted at number one on the charts... but alas, there seems to be trouble in Paradise for the Lady. 
 

The album only lasted 17 weeks on the charts. It took a freefall as soon as the holiday season was over, and as of right now hasn't even sold a million copies worldwide (latest estimate I could find is ~915,000) whereas its biggest competitor, Partners by Barbra Streisand, has sold ~1,600,000. 

Not only that, but the singles (Anything Goes and I Can't Give You Anything But Love) have failed to chart, and the official music videos only have ~3.8 million and ~2 million views respectively, which is, in my opinion, absurdly low for someone with her 'star power' and connection to her fans who are more than willing to F5 her videos until their fingers fall off.

Now, onto the tour: Lady Gaga and Tony Bennett are currently touring the album (The "Cheek to Cheek Tour") and will be playing around Europe (7 dates) and North America (23 dates) in the spring/summer for a total of 30 shows. 

They have played only two shows so far (December 30th and 31st, 2014) and already there are reports that some audience members walked out early during one of them. 

So what could this mean for Gaga? 

Lady Gaga called Cheek to Cheek the "most important album" of her career. Despite that, we haven't seen any indication that Cheek to Cheek is actually helping her in any way. It actually looks like it's repeating the same pattern as her last two albums... 

But could it really be another career misfire ala ARTPOP? Or has her career already stagnated? Could making a jazz album have been a mistake, or did it make no difference?

Will she ever be on top again?

What do you think?

Lady Gaga working with new producer for upcoming album

Lady Gaga is set to head into the studio again for her upcoming solo album. She's going to be working with Giorgio Moroder, an Italian record producer, songwriter, performer, and DJ who is credited with pioneering synth disco and electronic dance music.

According to NME News, he already has "five or six" tracks prepared for her, but he also hopes she'll collaborate with him on his own upcoming album, 74 Is The New 24. Other confirmed artists that will feature on his upcoming album, his first in 30 years, include Charli XCX, Sia, Britney Spears, Kylie Minogue, Mikky Ekko, and Foxes. He's said in the past that he's also wanted to work with Nicki Minaj and Rihanna, so who knows what the final album will end up looking like?

Either way, for a pop album, this guy might not be a bad person to work with. He's credited for many of Donna Summer's biggest hits in the 1970's, he's worked with David Bowie, Blondie, Kylie Minogue, Daft Punk, and many others, and the duet partners on his upcoming album are some of the bigger names in pop at this time.

To me, this is a big, clear sign that Gaga does NOT want another flop to her name.

And synth disco?  Does that mean she wants to return to the sounds of The Fame?


What do you think? Will working with Moroder be a good move for Lady Gaga?

Lady Gaga works out in a Funhouse

Remember when Lady Gaga launched that "Body Revolution" back in 2013, imploring her fans to be proud of themselves and their bodies? When she said things like, "I am proud at any size"?

And then again, four months ago, when she brought up the Body Revolution again and said, "Proud at any size, because the inside is what really counts"?

Well, she's either going back on what she said, or she's been working out in a Funhouse. She's been posting pictures of herself to Instagram, here and here that have very clearly been altered so she looks thinner than she really is.

In the latest photo (above) I've circled the most glaring signs of photo manipulation: the wonky floor, the wonky mirror, and the weird, blurry, triangular stomach she's trying to pass off as real.

Yes, a few other websites are showing off the photo, but no, they're not calling her out on doctoring it, even though it's super obvious. I guess they're saving that kind of scoop for someone famous, like the Kardashians or the Biebs.

Well, you're one of those things for sure, Gaga.