Shakira "Can't Remember To Forget You" (feat. Rihanna)

Shakira is finally back on the music scene after an unexpected hiatus. The rumoured single "Truth or Dare" was supposed to be released last year, but Shaki was busy being a mom and re-re-recording her upcoming album. She has paired up with hitmaker Rihanna (most likely to latch on to her Navy fanbase and get Shakira a chart hit).

Rihanna "Stay" Music Video

After performing the song with Mikky Ekko at last night's Grammy Awards, which would have been a better single choice than the parrot job known as "Diamonds," the single is in the top five of iTunes and will definitely go #1 if she keeps sounding as great as she did last night. Now we have the visuals for the track. The video, directed by Sophie Muller, shows Ri-Ri in the bathtub while the song plays in the background. It reminds me of Avril Lavigne's "Wish You Were Here." I wonder what's up with Rihanna and water lately? Also, there are apparently 2 versions of the video, so I will update when version 2 is out.

Graded Performance: Rihanna and Emeli Sande on "The X Factor" UK Finale

Breakout star of 2012 Emeli Sande and pop staple Rihanna took to the stage to perform for the finale of The X Factor. Emeli performed her newest single, "Clown" while Rihanna gave the questionable "Diamonds" a rest to perform stand out ballad "Stay" and her biggest single to date, "We Found Love". How did each act stand out? Let's see...
Emeli Sande:
What I appreciate about Emeli is that she knows she has the voice, but she approaches her live performances with as much caution as possible. However this was not the case with "Clown". You can tell that the song is very personal to her so she allowed herself to be a bit more vunerable. I will say this, there were points in the performance where she didn't have to hold the notes. She looked very lovely by the way.  
Grade:A- Rihanna:
This may just be her best era (in terms of performances) to date. Rihanna decided to sing both of her songs sans back track and did very well, rarely missing a note. I would have liked a male (maybe one of the finalists) to do the male parts of the song to give it the effect the album version does, but I'm not complaining. Also there was that one instance near the end of "Stay" when she tried to hold the note and fell a bit flat but oh well. "We Found Love" was a different story, she got a bit too excited and sounded a bit off and that yelling at the end (no Rihanna,no) but I loved the energy. Grade:B