Imagine, for a moment, having Jay-Z and Beyonce as your parents.

Imagine that your mother grossed $87,000,000 in 2010, headlined one of the biggest festivals in the world at Glastonbury 2011, accumulated no fewer than 16 Grammy awards throughout her ongoing career, and has been named Forbes’ number one most powerful and influential musician in the world. Imagine that your father has a net worth of $450,000,000, has sold roughly 50 million albums worldwide, co-owns an NBA basketball team, and holds the record for the most number one solo albums on the Billboard 200. Not so easy to imagine, is it?

Blue Ivy Carter, dubbed B.I.C., came into the world on January 7^th, 2012, and there is no doubt that the baby girl will be heir to fame and fortune…not to mention the rumor mill that already engulfs her famous parents.

Speculation has already begun circulating baby Blue, spanning from conspiracy theories regarding her name to the rumored $1.3 million dollar takeover of a New York City maternity ward, and the $1.5 million spent on toys for the newborn, neither of which is confirmed. Blue Ivy’s crying has already even been featured on a Jay-Z track, “Glory,” recorded to commemorate her birth.

Want to wish Beyonce and Jay-Z congratulations on their newborn? Click Here to comment on Beyonce’s fan page!

Aubrey Drake Graham is no stranger to the spotlight. The actor-turned-rapper began his celebrity career at age fifteen, playing a role in Canadian produced television show “Degrassi: The Next Generation,” and within half a decade had released his first commercially successful mixtape.

In 2007, Drake and his music were featured on American Black Entertainment Television. By 2008, Drake had begun touring with superstar hip-hop icon Lil Wayne. As of 2009, two of Drake’s songs were ranked among the top 10 tracks on the Billboard Hot 100…and he wasn’t even signed to a record label yet.

2010 found Drake in a position that few twenty-three year olds dare dream of: ready to release an official debut album on Lil Wayne’s “Young Money” record label, with never-ending tour dates lined up, and clearly rolling in cash. On a track entitled “9 AM in Dallas” off of Drake’s debut album “Thank Me Later,” the Toronto rapper spits out the line “People ask how music is going I heard it pays/I just came off making two million in thirty days/Damn I guess it does is what the message was/Sometimes I feel I be spending my money just because.”

Drake hit the world by storm, and even 2012 finds listeners trying to keep up with his whirlwind.

Drake’s enthusiasm for his lifestyle, along with his introspective perspective, is what makes his lyrical prestige so infectious. It seems that even as he climbs to super stardom, the ascent feeds him new material to work with along the way. If “Thank Me Later” documented Drake’s enthusiastic rise to fame and fortune, his latest studio release “Take Care” can be credited with documenting the trials, tribulations, and life lessons that get packaged along with a celebrity lifestyle, should one choose to accept it. The track “HYFR” is exemplary of what themes “Drizzy” Drake is currently coming to terms with: “She asked what have I learned since getting richer/I been working with the negatives to make for better pictures/I learned Hennessey and enemies is one hell of a mixture.”

“Take Care” carries a more somber, refined tone than Drake’s earlier studio efforts, but in combination with some of his more raw previous material, it’s almost guaranteed that this young Canadian will put on a phenomenally well-rounded and entertaining show when he comes to the UK in March.

Click Here to order tickets, you won’t be disappointed!

The Golden Globes are an annual awards ceremony hosted by the Hollywood Foreign Press Association, recognizing excellence in film and television. Music plays a big role, however, with award categories dedicated specifically to the music featured in both film and television. Most notable among these are the categories “Best Original Song” and “Best Original Score.”

This year, major names are attached to many of the nominations. Trent Reznor of the band Nine Inch Nails received a nomination in “Best Original Score” for his work on the score of “The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo,” and he’ll be competing against Ludovic Bource for “The Artist,” Abel Korzeniowski for “W.E.,” Howard Shore for “Hugo,” and John Williams for “War Horse.”

In the “Best Original Song” category, the competition is even fiercer. Music titans Madonna and Elton John are up against each other, John for his work with Lady Gaga on the song “Hello Hello,” and Madonna for her work on the song “Masterpiece,” which she wrote for the movie “W.E.,” which she also directed. Also nominated for Best Original Song are Chris Cornell‘s “The Keeper” from the film “Machine Gun Preacher,” Brian Byrne and Glenn Close’s “Lay Your Head Down” from the film “Albert Nobbs,” and “The Living Proof “from the film “The Help,” by Mary J. Blige, Thomas Newman, Harvey Mason, Jr., and Damon Thomas.

The Golden Globes will be broadcast in January 2012, but until then, cast your votes for your favorites in the comments!

It’s no secret that Christmas is the season for giving, and it appears that more and more people are giving the gift of music both to their loved ones and to themselves. Sales of holiday albums are up again, making Christmas music the most consistent seller in the music industry, which has faced sharp declines annually for the past ten years.

Holiday albums, specifically those made for Christmas, seem to be immune to the problems created for other genres by pirating and recession. Last year, consumers purchased 71.6 million albums during the holiday season, and it already looks like the trend is going to continue in 2011.

The sales boost an album gets for being Christmas-themed is often enough to make it one of the best-selling albums of the year, as has been the case for several artists in recent years. In 2010, Susan Boyle released a holiday album titled “The Gift,” which became the fifth best selling album of the year. Perhaps more notably, Josh Groban’s 2007 Christmas album, “Noël” sold enough copies to become the number one selling album in the country for the entire year, despite having been released late in the year in October and facing competition from big names like Taylor Swift and Kanye West.

Holiday albums don’t just do well in the year they’re released, either. If an album is popular enough, music analysts have found that it will continue to sell exceptionally well every holiday season for years after its release. An excellent example of this is Martina McBride’s “White Christmas,” which charted on Billboard at number twenty this holiday season despite having been released thirteen years ago.

Radio exposure is cited by many as a benefit to artists looking to sell Christmas albums, as many radio stations play exclusively Christmas music starting as early as November. This gives airtime to artists who may not have gained any radio exposure otherwise, and exposes listeners to artists they would have never gone out of their way to find.

Will you be giving the gift of music this holiday season? What is your favorite holiday album? Let us know in the comments!

Rapper and dance artist Example has been making music for nearly seventeen years, having gotten his start in 1994 releasing singles through his own label. He made his first chart appearance in 2009 with the song “Watch the Sun Come Up” from his second album, “Won’t Go Quietly” and from there his popularity only grew.

His third album, “Playing in the Shadows” brought the most commercial success, with two number one singles and a UK chart premiere at number one. It debuted in September 2011 and quickly became a favorite among both critics and fans. He almost immediately embarked on a critically and fan-acclaimed tour in the United Kingdom in November and December of 2011, which led to the announcement of his first arena tour which was set to begin in 2012.

The 2012 tour will cover several major European cities, including dates in London, Prague, Amsterdam, Brussels, Paris, and Milan. After that, he plans to spend time in Australia, where he has said he intends to work on his fourth album. While no official Australian tour has been announced yet, Example is scheduled to perform at the Australian New Year’s Day festival, Field Day.

You can buy your tickets to upcoming Example shows here on Fanshake, and be sure to check out his fan page for videos, pictures, and audio!

After a one-time joint performance in 2010, rumors started flying that popular 90s bands New Kids on the Block and the Backstreet Boys would be joining forces on tour. Both bands had recently reunited and started to produce new music again, and when they found themselves on stage together in New York City, it was what Backstreet Boys member Brian Littrell called, “a magical moment.” After seeing the overwhelmingly positive fan reaction online following the performance, it was decided by both bands that a tour would be a good opportunity to give back to the fans while simultaneously collaborating on new material.

The North American leg of the tour was hugely successful, selling out many of the concert dates across the United States and Canada and raking in millions of dollars at the box office. The setlist consisted of fan favorites, both old and new, and the show opened and closed with medleys combining hits from both bands.

The European tour was announced in October 2011, with tickets going on sale not long after. Nineteen tour dates are expected across Europe, including several gigs in the UK. A five-date Australian tour will kick off soon after.

Will you be going to the NKOTBSB European tour? Check out our contests page for your chance to win tickets to the London, Liverpool, Birmingham, Newcastle, and Manchester shows, as well as the fan pages for both the Backstreet Boys and New Kids on the Block!

Following the successful release of their fourth album, “Viva la Vida or Death and All His Friends,” Coldplay decided to take their music in an entirely new direction. This time leaning towards industrial rock, the band’s new album Mylo Xyloto is distinctly a concept album. Each song tells the story of two protagonists living in an oppressive, dystopian, urban environment, who meet one another through a gang and fall in love.

Coldplay has been working on Mylo Xyloto since before their last tour ended in 2009, and was finally released on October 24, 2011. The album was met with generally favorable reviews and huge commercial success. It debuted at number one on the charts in the United States, the UK, Australia, Canada, and Denmark, and was declared platinum International Federation of the Phonographic Industry within its first week.

Now, Coldplay will be taking the album on tour, performing across North America and Europe for the next several months. Tour dates are planned for Europe in May, August, and September, and the band will also play in the United States and Canada in April, June, July, and August. Some shows are planned for as early as December 14th, though most are not until 2012. Tickets for several of the shows go on sale on December 14th–19th, although many venues have already made seats available.

Some venues are already selling out, so be sure to get your tickets here on Fanshake, and don’t forget to check out Coldplay’s fan page here!

From the age of fourteen, Canadian singer Bryan Adams knew he wanted to be a musician. He washed dishes just long enough to earn enough money to buy his first guitar, and at the age of fifteen he quit school to play gigs in nightclubs. Three years later, when he was eighteen, Adams formed a songwriting team with Jim Vallance and soon began performing their songs as well. The rest is history.

While his first two albums, “Bryan Adams” and “You Want It You Got It” were successful within Canada, Adams’ third album “Cuts Like a Knife” was what gained him international popularity. With the next year came his next album, “Reckless,” which would quickly become his most successful. The single “The Summer of ‘69” from this album remains one of his best-known songs. He released another album, “Into the Fire,” in 1987 after an international tour that took him across North America, Europe, Australia, and even to Japan.

In the 1990s, Adams continued to release music. “Waking Up the Neighbours” featured the single “Everything I Do (I Do it for You)” which won Adams a Grammy in 1991. He continued touring, and during the next few years released “18 til I Die” and “On a Day Like Today,” though neither matched the earlier success of “Reckless.”

Since then, Adams has written hit songs for other artists, even ones outside his own genre such as the electronic dance music act Chicane. He also did extensive work on the soundtrack for the DreamWorks film, “Spirit: Stallion of the Cimarron.” In 2004 he released “Room Service” which was followed up in 2008 by “11.” Although he has not released any studio albums since then, he continues to make music and perform, making appearances at events like the winter Olympics and the Live 8 benefit concert.

In 2012, Bryan Adams will be starting a new tour, which kicks off in Chicago in January. There are several tour dates planned across the United States, followed by concerts in Japan and then finishing in Europe.

Will you be attending a Bryan Adams concert? Get your tickets here, and don’t forget to check out his fan page where you can listen to music, watch videos, and interact with other fans!

Noel Gallagher, perhaps best known for his position in the tumultuous band Oasis, will be hitting the road again soon, this time with a new band. Noel Gallagher’s High Flying Birds, the band name a tribute to the Jefferson Airplane album, will be performing as soon as December 6th in Paris, and will then have several tour dates across the UK and Ireland starting in early 2012.

Gallagher split from Oasis officially in 2009, after years of highly publicized arguments between band members, particularly Noel and his brother Liam. Fans were devastated, but group members maintain their lack of desire or willingness to get Oasis back together. Instead, Gallagher formed a new band, Noel Gallagher’s High Flying Birds. Their first self-titled album was released in October 2011, with Gallagher insisting that he wanted to start a tour as soon as possible.

The band has since maintained that they’ll be starting with smaller venues so as to gauge the band’s popularity, and will potentially increase the scale if there is enough interest. They have also stated that no Oasis songs will be played on the tour.

Get your tickets here on Fanshake, and check out Noel Gallagher’s fan page!