ARIA Awards 2014

Photo from: Lola Fdez's Pinterest account

I know I have been neglecting my blog the past few weeks but I have had some exciting, new job opportunities, which have been popping up so in the midst of all that I have hardly had a moment to myself lately. It is great to finally take some time and do a new blog post! For those of you in Australia, you of course would know that the ARIA Awards were held last night at The Star Event Centre in Sydney and they were broadcast on Channel Ten. 

Back in the 90s and even early noughties the ARIAS were quite a large-scale event for the Australian music industry and most people tuned in to watch them on television. To be quite honest last night was the first time that I enjoyed watching the awards in about seven years. The awards were of a much higher standard this year than the past few years. Channel Ten's entertainment reporter, Angela Bishop made a good point last night at the ARIAS saying that Australian music has skyrocketed this year and I definitely agree with her! Some of the most popular artists in the world at the moment are Australian like, Sheppard, Sia, Iggy Azalea and of course teen music sensation, 5 Seconds Of Summer (5SOS), so our music industry awards need to be on a global scale to reflect the calibre of our talent, otherwise our homegrown talent will not want to attend the awards nor take it seriously. It is really amazing to see Australia become a real world player on the international music scene!

Anyway, enough of my ranting. Now onto this year's ARIA Awards themselves! Delta Goodrem got my vote for best dressed of the night by far! Her dress was classy and definitely suited her to a T! It was great to see The Veronicas aka Jessica and Lisa Origliasso back home on the ARIAS red carpet. I used to love The Veronicas a few years ago so it was a nice flashback to see them at the awards last night. 

Delta Goodrem at the 2014 ARIA Awards. Photo from: Delta Goodrem's Twitter account

   
I'm not usually a fan of 5 Seconds Of Summer (5SOS) but they did a great job of opening the awards show with their smash hit, She Looks So Perfect. 5SOS are actually the first Australian artists to have their debut album reach number one in the USA. I love Jessica Mauboy but I was not a fan of her performance of, Can I Get A Moment? last night. My favourite performances of the night were definitely Sheppard, with their hit song, Geronimo and One Direction with their latest song, Steal My Girl. To be honest I'm not normally a fan of One Direction either, but I have to give credit where it's due and that song is very good! 

The big awards of the night. Album of the Year and Song of the Year went to, Sia and 5 Seconds Of Summer respectively. It was a massive night for Sia because she also walked away with the awards for Best Female Artist and Best Pop Release. Chet Faker took out the award of Best Male Artist, as well as Best Independent Release. Iggy Azalea won the ARIA for Breakthrough Artist, Hilltop Hoods won the award for Best Urban Album, Sheppard walked away with Best Group and Keith Urban won Best Australian Live Act. 

I was surprised to see that Katy Perry or Beyonce' did not win the ARIA for Best International Artist, but then I realised with teenage girls in the audience and, also voting in that category it was pretty obvious who would win...yes that's right! The winner of Best International Artist was One Direction. To top it all off for me, I loved that Katy Perry was a special guest at the ARIAS! Katy Perry is one of my favourite artists of all-time so it was amazing to see her at our music awards. 

Of course, another big highlight of the night was Molly Meldrum's induction into the ARIA Hall of Fame. Most Australians would know that Molly Meldrum is a stalwart in the Australian music industry. He hosted Countdown, the most popular music program in Australian history, where he interviewed some of the most famous artists in the world including, Michael Jackson, Madonna, The Beatles and ABBA. The ARIAS did a fantastic tribute to this great man, who really put Australian music on the map.

Did you guys watch the ARIAS? I want to know your thoughts on this year's awards so feel free to comment away! Who was your pick for best dressed?, what were your favourite performances? etc.

For a full list of ARIA award winners and nominees click here

The Hot List: November 1, 2014

The Hot List is back this week, so here are the top ten songs on the Billboard Hot 100 chart, the top ten Australian iTunes music downloads and the top five movie box office results from Australia and the USA this week. Animals by Maroon 5 has jumped up the Billboard chart this week and Take Me To Church by Hozier jumps into the top ten, up from number 33 last week. The top iTunes music downloads have remained in the same position for the past few weeks.

Billboard Hot 100
1) All About That Bass- Meghan Trainor
2) Shake It Off- Taylor Swift
3) Habits (Stay High)- Tove Lo
4) Bang Bang- Jessie J, Ariana Grande and Nicki Minaj
5) Animals- Maroon 5
6) Black Widow- Iggy Azalea Featuring Rita Ora
7) Don't Tell Em- Jeremih Featuring YG
8) Hot Boy- Bobby Shmurda
9) Take Me To Church- Hozier
10) Stay With Me- Sam Smith



Top 10 iTunes Downloads
 1) All About That Bass- Meghan Trainor
2) Shake It Off- Taylor Swift
3) Live Louder- Nathaniel
4) New Thang- Redfoo
5) Bang Bang- Jessie J, Ariana Grande and Nicki Minaj
6) Freaks- Timmy Trumpet and Savage
7) Jubel- Klingande
8) Blame- Calvin Harris
9) Budapest- George Ezra
10) Ugly Heart- G.R.L.

Top 5 Box Office Results (USA)
1) Nightcrawler
2) Ouija
3) Fury
4) Gone Girl
5) The Book Of Life

Top 5 Box Office Results (Australia)
1) Fury
2) Gone Girl
3) This Is Where I Leave You
4) Tammy
5) A Walk Among The Tombstones

Information sourced from: Billboard, iTunes (Australia) and Box Office Mojo 

Happy Halloween!- My top 10 scary movie picks!

Boo! Well, I guess you can all tell what this blog post is about if the picture and title haven't already given it away! I know it's been a few weeks in between blog posts but, my little dog, Lassie has been very sick so my mind has been elsewhere. She is still very tired but she is slowly getting her energy back thankfully day by day. Lassie is very old, she's 16 so we'll see how she goes.

On a lighter topic and I know it's a bit late but Happy Halloween! Halloween is one of my favourite times of the year. To be honest in Australia Halloween isn't as big of a thing as it is in the USA, Canada and some other parts of the world but it is getting more popular here each year, with people having more Halloween parties, more children going trick-or-treating and more people just dressing up in spooky costumes for fun. Some Australians aren't fans of Halloween, because they feel it has nothing to do with our culture and that's true but in Australia we have people from all over the world, who have come to live here and their food, music etc have become popular, now Halloween is gaining more popularity and there's nothing wrong with that if people wish to celebrate it. I personally love Halloween as you can probably tell and I don't really see it as a cultural thing. I just see it as a chance to have a bit of fun!  Now in the spirit of Halloween I have chosen my top ten scary movies. Here they are in no particular order of spookiness:

1)  Jurassic Park- (1995)

Photo from: Safari Ltd's Pinterest account

I first saw Jurassic Park about a year after it came out in the cinemas. I was eight years old at the time and I thought it was the scariest movie ever. These days though I don't find it terrifying at all, but it's still a classic 90's movie!

2) House On Haunted Hill- (1959)

Photo from: Claire Larwood's Pinterest account

Some of you may know that Vincent Price is famous for his classic horror films. I am such a fan of Vincent Price's 50's horror movies. I saw House On Haunted Hill last Halloween actually and I loved it! It's a far cry from the horror films these days, because obviously the special effects in 1959 were not as advanced as today but the mood of the film is amazing!

3) Halloween- (1978)

Photo from: Louis Bridges's Pinterest account

To be honest I haven't actually seen Halloween all the way through, but I keep meaning to! The bits and pieces I have seen though are pretty scary and it seems like it has a good plot line.

4) IT- (1990)

Photo from: Kaitlyn Weiss's Pinterest account

Hmm...I'm not sure where to begin with this movie? (haha!) I saw IT when I was 12 years old at a sleepover. A movie about a clown who eats children. Well, you can imagine what that would do to a 12-year-old child can't you? I was so scared after I saw IT that I slept with my light on for about two nights. I'm still not sure how my mother let me watch it at that age. 

5) The Exorcist- (1973)

Photo from: Santino Micelli's Pinterest account

I saw The Exorcist last Halloween too. It's scary but not as much as I thought it would be. I think it's more the voice of the possessed girl, that creeped me out more than anything. 

6) The Others- (2001)

Photo from: Isabel Goncalves's Pinterest account

I saw The Others when I was 14 at a friend's birthday party. I found it to be more confusing than scary to be quite honest, because the movie left me wondering who the real dead people were. 

7) Child's Play- (1988)

Photo from: Carl Gustafson's Pinterest account

This is another movie I haven't seen all the way through, but even the opening credits with the blood and the skin going down the drain actually left me feeling quite queasy so I'm guessing the movie itself is pretty damn scary!

8) Bride Of Chucky- (1998)

Photo from: Joy Woods's Pinterest account

I haven't actually seen Bride Of Chucky, but any film about a creepy doll is thrilling and terrifying in my book!

9) The Sixth Sense- (1999)

Photo from: Susan Beadle's Pinterest account

I saw The Sixth Sense a few years ago when it was on television. I think it's a good movie, but for me again it was one of those films that had the hype of being so scary but it wasn't actually, except for the scene where Kyra Collins [Mischa Barton] vomits. I found that so gross!

10) The Ring- (2002)

Photo from: Cassie Ryan's Pinterest account

I only saw The Ring a few years ago but I was quite freaked out by it for a while, whenever I saw a strange ring shape somewhere I was a little scared to be honest.

So that's my top 10 scary movie picks for Halloween! I had a great Halloween by the way! I went to the movies with my sister and a few friends, because there was a special Halloween screening of Ghostbusters at Event Cinemas. It was so much fun! 

I'd love to hear what you all got up to on Halloween? Did you go trick-or-treating?, did you go to any Halloween parties? Also I'd love to know what some of your favourite scary movies are, because I may check them out sometime! So feel free to comment away people! Once again...Happy Halloween!