Bruno Mars

The cover photo of a gorilla locked in a tender embrace with a jukebox, looking as if he wants nothing more than to buy it a glass of pinot and take it to an early showing of "Les Miz," should be a dead giveaway: "Unorthodox Jukebox," his impeccably made and compulsively listenable sophomore release, is not your mother's Bruno Mars album. For one thing, there's the song "Gorilla," on which the formerly mild-to-the-point-of-possibly-being-dead Mars maps out a night of romance. It begins with "a body full of liquor with a...

HIGHLIGHTS Ben Affleck hosts the season finale of "Saturday Night Live" (NBC at 11:30 p.m. Saturday) with musical guest Kanye West. Sunday talk shows: "Fox News Sunday" (Fox at 9 a.m.) hosts White House senior adviser Dan Pfeiffer, Rep. Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) and lawyers Victoria Toensing and Joseph diGenova; "White House Chronicle" (WETA at 9) has U.S. News & World Report's Brian Kelly, Yahoo News's Olivier Knox and The Post's Joe Davidson; "State of the Union" (CNN at 9)

LOS ANGELES — Nominees announced Wednesday in top categories for the 54th annual Grammy Awards: Record of the Year: "Rolling in the Deep," Adele; "Holocene," Bon Iver; "Grenade," Bruno Mars; "The Cave," Mumford & Sons; "Firework," Katy Perry. Album of the Year: "21," Adele; "Wasting Light," Foo Fighters; "Born This Way," Lady Gaga; "Doo-Wops & Hooligans," Bruno Mars; "Loud," Rihanna. Song of the Year: "All of the Lights," Jeff Bhasker, Malik Jones, Warren Trotter and Kanye West, songwriters (performed by Kanye West, Rihanna,...

Little Big Town probably didn't expect that the phrase " Tornado " — the name of its recent top-selling album, current headlining tour and rising single — would so accurately describe the band's trajectory over the past several months, but it's a fitting piece of luck. Members of the country quartet, which performed a sold-out show at the 9:30 Club on Valentine's Day, are in the middle of a blustering whirlwind of success like they've never experienced during 14 years of ups and downs in Nashville.

HIGHLIGHTS Ben Affleck hosts the season finale of "Saturday Night Live" (NBC at 11:30 p.m. Saturday) with musical guest Kanye West. Sunday talk shows: "Fox News Sunday" (Fox at 9 a.m.) hosts White House senior adviser Dan Pfeiffer, Rep. Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) and lawyers Victoria Toensing and Joseph diGenova; "White House Chronicle" (WETA at 9) has U.S. News & World Report's Brian Kelly, Yahoo News's Olivier Knox and The Post's Joe Davidson; "State of the Union" (CNN at 9)

Little Big Town probably didn't expect that the phrase " Tornado " — the name of its recent top-selling album, current headlining tour and rising single — would so accurately describe the band's trajectory over the past several months, but it's a fitting piece of luck. Members of the country quartet, which performed a sold-out show at the 9:30 Club on Valentine's Day, are in the middle of a blustering whirlwind of success like they've never experienced during 14 years of ups and downs in...

Kelly Clarkson famously broke out of record label captivity with "My December," her tepidly received '07 Alanis Morissette homage, and she's been atoning for it ever since. Perhaps as a result, "Stronger" doesn't venture far from Clarkson's wheelhouse: punchy pop songs overloaded with drama, and resentment. Clarkson can make anything sound good, usually without trying very hard, and she knocks down these lightweight Top 40 anthems and mid-tempo ballads as if she were swatting flies.

In 2009, when Melanie Fiona released her debut album, " The Bridge ," she joined an elite group of Canadian vocalists (including Deborah Cox and Tamia ) who are infuriatingly capable of holding their own with the best American R&B singers. The well-received album of retro soul tracks nabbed Fiona a 2010 Grammy nomination. Just this February, she won her first two Grammys for her vocal on Cee-Lo Green's throwback soul song "Fool for You," beating out, among others, the great Betty...

"The Adventures of Bobby Ray," the 2010 major label debut of Georgia rapper B.o.B, was immediately embraced by pop fans won over by the sweet R&B rap hit "Nothin' on You," featuring Bruno Mars. But it did not receive the same reception from die-hard hip-hop fans, many of whom heard the dizzyingly eclectic, guest-filled project and wondered, "What are Hayley Williams and Rivers Cuomo doing on this album, and what have they done with B.o.B?" On "Where Are You (B.o.B vs. Bobby Ray)" a track from "Strange Clouds ,"...

In the almost three years since "American Idol" Season Eight runner-up Adam Lambert released his debut, " For Your Entertainment, " he has sold more albums than his season's actual winner, Kris Allen, briefly joined Queen (a natural fit, what other group could contain him?) and, at least until now, avoided the "Idol" curse, which basically involves making flavorless albums that nobody buys. Most ex-contestants sound better with the more albums they put between themselves and their "Idol" handlers — Carrie...

Some artists — with and without trophies — outshined others at the 55h Grammy Awards Sunday. Chris Richards writes about the unofficial winners and losers at the awards ceremony: J.T. wasn't up for any awards, but he probably knows that at the Grammys, hardware isn't always paramount. There are still millions of hearts and minds to win from behind the microphone. The Grammys telecast reinforced that idea, with more than 30 performers but only 11 trophy presentations.

Well, that was kinda fun. And that was definitely fun. — the Gotham pop-rock troupe — up on stage Sunday night at the 55th Grammy Awards in Los Angeles, snatching some of the evening's most coveted prizes, including awards for best new artist and song of the year. But for the first time in too long, the Grammys telecast was a good time in and of itself — a refreshingly coherent celebration of our increasingly incoherent popscape. There were A-game performances,...

Five winters this has been going on, a story that has infuriated, sickened, exhausted, a story that can't seem to wrap itself up in any kind of bow, no happy ending, no ending at all because it keeps finding new ways to disappoint us. It starts with a pop star repeatedly punching, then choking, then biting another pop star. She was unlucky enough to be sitting in his car on a Saturday night in February 2009, unlucky enough to be in love with him. The sun rose over Los Angeles the next morning, and...

The cover photo of a gorilla locked in a tender embrace with a jukebox, looking as if he wants nothing more than to buy it a glass of pinot and take it to an early showing of "Les Miz," should be a dead giveaway: "Unorthodox Jukebox," his impeccably made and compulsively listenable sophomore release, is not your mother's Bruno Mars album. For one thing, there's the song "Gorilla," on which the formerly mild-to-the-point-of-possibly-being-dead Mars maps out a night of romance. It begins with "a body full of...

In the almost three years since "American Idol" Season Eight runner-up Adam Lambert released his debut, " For Your Entertainment, " he has sold more albums than his season's actual winner, Kris Allen, briefly joined Queen (a natural fit, what other group could contain him?) and, at least until now, avoided the "Idol" curse, which basically involves making flavorless albums that nobody buys. Most ex-contestants sound better with the more albums they put between themselves and their "Idol" handlers — Carrie...

"The Adventures of Bobby Ray," the 2010 major label debut of Georgia rapper B.o.B, was immediately embraced by pop fans won over by the sweet R&B rap hit "Nothin' on You," featuring Bruno Mars. But it did not receive the same reception from die-hard hip-hop fans, many of whom heard the dizzyingly eclectic, guest-filled project and wondered, "What are Hayley Williams and Rivers Cuomo doing on this album, and what have they done with B.o.B?" On "Where Are You (B.o.B vs. Bobby Ray)" a track from "Strange Clouds ,"...

Some artists — with and without trophies — outshined others at the 55h Grammy Awards Sunday. Chris Richards writes about the unofficial winners and losers at the awards ceremony: J.T. wasn't up for any awards, but he probably knows that at the Grammys, hardware isn't always paramount. There are still millions of hearts and minds to win from behind the microphone. The Grammys telecast reinforced that idea, with more than 30 performers but only 11 trophy presentations.

Well, that was kinda fun. And that was definitely fun. — the Gotham pop-rock troupe — up on stage Sunday night at the 55th Grammy Awards in Los Angeles, snatching some of the evening's most coveted prizes, including awards for best new artist and song of the year. But for the first time in too long, the Grammys telecast was a good time in and of itself — a refreshingly coherent celebration of our increasingly incoherent popscape. There were A-game performances,...

In 2009, when Melanie Fiona released her debut album, " The Bridge ," she joined an elite group of Canadian vocalists (including Deborah Cox and Tamia ) who are infuriatingly capable of holding their own with the best American R&B singers. The well-received album of retro soul tracks nabbed Fiona a 2010 Grammy nomination. Just this February, she won her first two Grammys for her vocal on Cee-Lo Green's throwback soul song "Fool for You," beating out, among others, the great Betty Wright . On her...

The 54th annual Grammy Awards were held on Sunday night in the shadow of the death of musical great Whitney Houston. Performers and presenters gave tributes to Houston between celebrations of this year's winners. As Chris Richards reported : Whitney Houston's unexpected death on the eve of Sunday's 54th Annual Grammy Awards turned the music industry's biggest night into a tone-dizzy exercise in grief, joy and show-must-go-on gusto. Even as the show was rolling on, details of...