Adele 'Can't Wait' To Sing Live At Grammys

Singer has not performed since undergoing vocal cord surgery in November.
By Christina Garibaldi

Adele
Photo: Jon Furniss/ WireImage

After months of vocal rest, Adele is returning to the stage for her first live performance, and she's doing it at the Grammys. The six-time Grammy nominee will grace the stage live on February 12 for the first time since undergoing surgery to stop bleeding from a polyp on her vocal cords in November.

Adele broke the good news to her fans on Tuesday (January 31) via Twitter. "Ima be, Ima be singing at the Grammys.

It's been so long I started to forget I was a singer!" Adele tweeted. "I can't wait, speak soon xx."

This will be the second time that Adele has graced the Grammy stage. She performed her hit song "Chasing Pavements" in 2009 at the annual awards show. That same night, Adele took home two awards, for Best New Artist and Best Female Pop Vocal Performance for "Pavements."

In a statement on Tuesday afternoon, the U.K. singer expressed gratitude. "I'm immensely proud to have been asked to perform at this year's Grammy Awards," she said. "It's an absolute honor to be included in such a night and for it to be my first performance in months is very exciting and of course nerve-racking, but what a way to get back into it all."

This year, Adele has plenty of company from other A-list nominees set to sing at the show. Rihanna, Coldplay, Taylor Swift, Paul McCartney, Foo Fighters, Bruno Mars, Kelly Clarkson, Jason Aldean and Nicki Minaj will all perform live at the 54th Annual Grammys, which will be hosted by LL Cool J, the first time in seven years that the show has featured a host.

Earlier this month, Adele expressed her excitement about the awards, tweeting, "Looking forward to @theGRAMMYs on Feb 12! #WeAreMusic."

Adele is up for six awards this year, including Song of the Year, Record of the Year and Album of the Year for her record-breaking 21. Just last week, the "Rolling in the Deep" singer's second album marked its 17th non-consecutive week at #1 on the Billboard albums chart.

The singer will follow her performance at the Grammys by taking the stage on February 21 at the Brit Awards, where she has three nominations. Earlier this month Adele took to her Twitter about the nominations. "F---ing happy, thank you for the nods xx," she tweeted.

Are you excited to see Adele perform at the Grammy Awards? Let us know in the comments.

• Adele's 'Magical' Road To Success

• 2012 Grammy Performers

• Adele

Florida's Young GOP Voters Confident In Mitt Romney

'He's a successful businessman, and that's what we need,' one supporter tells MTV News.

By Gil Kaufman, with reporting by Andrew Jenks

Mitt Romney after winning the Florida primary

Photo: Joe Raedle/ Getty Images

TAMPA, Florida — As you might expect, things were pretty upbeat at the Mitt Romney primary party Tuesday (January 31). With the GOP presidential candidate solidifying his front-runner status following a convincing win over Newt Gingrich, the former Massachusetts Governor's supporters had high praise as they poured out of the ballroom at the Tampa Convention Center.

After following Romney on his bus Monday and speaking with young voters about the potential impact of the controversial new voter-registration laws in Florida, MTV's Power of 12 wanted to hear what policies and campaign promises drew 18- to 29-year-old voters to cast a vote for Romney and how they think he may be able to help their generation.

Hillary Brunner, 19, said she was drawn in by Romney's stance on immigration policy. "I chose to vote for Mitt Romney because I really like his policy on the DREAM Act," she said of Romney's pledge to veto a long-stalled immigration measure that would create a path to citizenship for some undocumented immigrants. "And making it if you want to immigrate to this country you have to go to the military first instead of just going to college. I think the military is a great way to show that you really want to be an American and that you love this country and that you are dedicated to this country."

Her friend, Shelly Mittal, 19, was more drawn to Romney's character. "I think he has great family and moral values and he possesses a strong attitude towards good business, and I think he can get the economy back toward where it needs to be," she said.

Not only did Romney trounce bitter rival Gingrich by drawing 46 percent of the vote to the former House speaker's 32 percent, but in a turnabout from the three previous contests, CNN exit polls in Florida showed that he also finally broke through to young voters (18-29). While Romney had reliably scored with older voters, in Florida, he won 39 percent of the youth votes to 26 percent for Congressman Ron Paul, 23 percent for Gingrich and 12 percent for Rick Santorum.

One of those twentysomething converts, Dywan Washington, 22, said he believes Romney's extensive experience in the private business sector could be the remedy for the country's financial ills.

"The key people that we need in Washington, D.C., at any level of government [are] more business people," Washington said. "We can't keep going to career politicians who've spent 20 to 30 years in D.C. ... Governor Romney is a perfect example of executive leadership that we need. ... We need executive experience and business experience, and that's why I support Mitt Romney."…

Black Keys In Berlin: Back To Normal

Backstage during the Keys' European tour, Bigger Than the Sound discovers a band moving forward while still looking to settle old scores.
By James Montgomery

Black Keys' Dan Auerbach
Photo: Jakubaszek/ Getty Images

Berlin and Akron, Ohio, don't have much in common outside of graffiti, several McDonald's and Devo (who always struck me as rather Germanic), yet, for whatever reason, the Black Keys seemed rather at home there this past weekend.

This probably had as much to do with the venue they played on Saturday in Germany's capital city — the Treptow Arena, a cavernous, slightly crumbling brick-and-mortar hall that, in a previous life, served as a bus depot, but now holds the occasional concert (and the occasional auto show) — as it did with Berlin itself, since the Keys never really ventured any farther than the parking lot behind the arena. But on a makeshift stage, in front of a sold-out crowd, on the bleak banks of the Spree River, Dan Auerbach and Patrick Carney — plus their backing band — positively killed it, seemingly drawing inspiration from their decidedly industrial, dust-and-rust surroundings. Theirs is a sound that simply translates best in these kinds of places, after all: diesel-powered guitars and drums that chug along like an internal combustion engine, flecked with the odd bright moment of classic soul sheen, which recalls nothing quite so much as sunshine on an abandoned lot.

Or something like that. After all, the Black Keys are not exactly the kind of band that lends itself to flowery prose, even though their current status (one of the 10 to 15 biggest rock acts on the planet) and the rise to that status (a decade spent earning it on the road) seem to suggest otherwise. Instead, most folks tend to focus on their Akron roots and their willingness to talk sh-- about other bands, both of which are (admittedly) rather interesting parts of their story and make for killer headlines and pull quotes.

But that focus also reveals another, larger issue: The Black Keys are an exceedingly normal band, albeit one that exists in exceedingly odd times.

Which, I suppose, also makes them an anomaly, and they will be the first ones to admit it, as I learned firsthand when I (finally) sat down with Auerbach and Carney in Berlin, part of a larger MTV News project that we'll be revealing much more about very soon. They play workmanlike music and possess a workmanlike attitude. Because of that, they are, to say the very least, rather puzzled by both the current state of music and their continued successes within that state, which is pretty understandable. They also don't seem to understand why so many people find their backstory to be so compelling, which is slightly less understandable, considering it took them roughly 10 years to perform on "Saturday Night Live," and Lana Del Rey did it in something like 10 minutes.

They were, to varying degrees, willing to discuss both of those things, though you get the feeling they'd rather not. Of course, during our interview, I did raise the fact that the same writers who deride Del Rey for her lack of authenticity and unpaid dues are also the same people who largely ignore the Black Keys — even though they have authenticity coming out of their eyeballs and have racked up more miles in a van than the Scooby-Doo Gang. And, boy, did they (or, really, Carney, since Auerbach is soft-spoken and sort of reserved) have plenty to say about that.

Namely, they think those writers — mostly bloggers — are "pricks," and you can kind of see their point. They also have a few scores to settle with various members of the mainstream media they believe have slighted them over the years. They are the rare band that seems to take criticisms personally, or at least admit that fact (Carney is apparently keeping a running tally of perceived indignities in his head). And that sort of underscores my original point: The Black Keys are exceedingly normal. After all, who among us is willing to let every insult slide off our backs? Who possesses that kind of restraint? If — or, more probably, when — someone calls me a jerk in the comments of this story, I will more than likely want to choke that person. I do not think this makes me ill-adjusted. It makes me a human being. Admit it, you probably feel the same way.

Of course, hours after our interview, I got to spend more time with Carney in a smoke-filled dressing room, where we imbibed long into the night (or so it seemed) and discussed the Keys' contemporaries. I can't really remember everything that was said, and I'm fairly certain the stuff I do was off the record, but you can probably figure out where he stands on, say, Lady Gaga. It was a refreshingly unfiltered chat, one that was made even better by the presence of one of Carney's old Akron friends, who now lives in Istanbul with her boyfriend but flew into Berlin for the show. And long after the dissertations on the current state of popular music had ceased, I sat back and listened as the two remembered old high school acquaintances and laughed at ancient, inside jokes.

It was a pretty nice moment, and not just because I had been drinking Maker's Mark; two friends reunited, Carney, unguarded and at ease, reclining on the back of an easy chair, nodding in knowing ways, his friend ignoring the rather insane journey that occurred since both graduated from high school and just reminiscing. It was also, in a way, more proof that, no matter where they are, or how far they've come, the Black Keys are really just two average guys, a duo who have stumbled onto unforeseen success and are trying very hard to not be incredibly weirded out by that fact. You can say otherwise, but you'd not only be wrong — you'd also probably end up on Carney's hit list. And trust me, there's plenty of room on there. Which is completely normal.

Share your thoughts on the Black Keys and their success in the comments below!

• Bigger Than The Sound: Stories Behind The Bands

• The Black Keys Perform In Berlin

• The Black Keys

Reese Witherspoon Calls Taylor Swift 'Profound'

Actress opens up about her own role-model status and her 2011 MTV Movie Awards speech during 'MTV First: This Means War.'
By Jocelyn Vena, with reporting by Josh Horowitz

Taylor Swift and Reese Witherspoon
Photo: Christopher Polk/ACMA2011/Getty Images

At the 2011 MTV Movie Awards when Reese Witherspoon took the stage to accept her Generation Award, she used the moment to stand up for every young woman out there.

During her headline-making speech, she proudly told the girls watching the show that "I know it's cool to be bad. I get it ... but it's also possible to make it in Hollywood without a reality show." Now, many months later, Witherspoon sat down with MTV News on Tuesday (January 31) for "MTV First: This Means War." And, during the lengthy chat, she opened up about her speech.

"Well, I have a 12-year-old daughter, and I take it all very seriously. I think there's not a lot of positive images out there for young women, honestly," she explained. "I don't know, I just feel like shining the light on the good was an incredible move on MTV's part and that you don't have to sell yourself short and objectify yourself in order to be popular or liked or loved. And there's many different ways to the watering hole and you can maintain you self-respect and still accomplish things.

"I don't watch certain reality shows but there's ones where people are doing cool, interesting things, like 'Project Runway.' But I'm not into women hating on other women or hitting each other or beating the crap out of each other to make money for a bunch of other people," she continued. "I think that's not what I want my kids to see."

That feminist stance has made her the go-to role model for a new generation of stars, including Taylor Swift, who cites her as one of her idols. "I think it's an accumulation of life experiences and hopefully you handle yourself with grace and dignity and life and that's all you can hope for and hope to pass on to people," she said of her own role-model status.

"And I think [Swift is] just an exemplary young lady," she added. "It's kind of interesting to see what a profound songwriter she is. I don't even think anyone has realized, the long term is going to be the bigger revelation. It's incredible how quickly she writes songs. We've hung out a couple of times; we live near each other in Nashville."

• MTV First: This Means War

• Taylor Swift

'Chronicle' Rooted In 'Complete Reality,' Stars Say

'It's a movie about what would actually happen if teenagers got superpowers,' Dane DeHaan tells MTV News.
By Kara Warner

Dane DeHaan in "Chronicle"
Photo: Alan Markfield/ 20th Century Fox

In the buzzworthy action/drama hybrid "Chronicle," out Friday, three friends' lives are forever changed when they encounter an otherworldly substance and structure that somehow gives them extraordinary abilities.

The movie is shot mostly via the "found footage" or "POV" format and revolves around high school students Andrew (Dane DeHaan), Matt (Alex Russell) and Steve (Michael B. Jordan). When MTV News caught up with the three stars of the film recently, we asked them to explain how "Chronicle" is different from every other superpower and found-footage film out there.

"It's a movie about what would actually happen if teenagers got superpowers," DeHaan said. "And I think that, for the first time, it deals with that issue in modern day in complete reality, which is the person who gets the superpowers probably won't be the best person in the world and only want to save other people in the world from their problems."

"From the beginning, you're invested in Andrew and Steve and Matt," Jordan added. "It's not just, 'What monster is going to be popping out of this building?' You really follow the characters throughout the movie and care what happens to them."

Because the audience spends so much time getting to know the three main characters, Russell said it makes for an especially intense thrill ride when the boys discover just how powerful they are and things start to spiral out of control.

"It's action-packed, it's incredible in that way, but it in no way relies on that," Russell said of the film's impressive effects and aerial stunt work. "The characters are very layered, the relationships are complex and beautiful, and something you get really invested in it, and I think that makes it hit home so much harder when things start to go awry."

Check out everything we've got on "Chronicle."

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