Britney Spears Among Nominees for VMA's Video of the Year

It's shaping up to be A Tale of Two VMAs for Britney Spears. A year after the singer had the audiences eyes rolling with a jaw-droppingly-bad performance of "Gimme More," Brit will have a shot at redemption at this year's VMA as she's up for Video of the Year after her "Piece of Me" was named among the five nominees. Joining Spears in the top category are the Jonas Brothers' "Burnin Up," Chris Brown's Wrigley-sponsored "Forever," the Pussycat Dolls' "When I Grow Up" and the Ting Tings' "Shut Up and Let Me Go." Spears role at the awards show is still undefined, but her nomination likely guarantees she'll be appearing at the September 7th live broadcast from Los Angeles. It's not like she's on tour or anything. She is crafting her "best work ever," however.

• 
  MUSIC Exclusive Live Chat With Linkin Park and Incubus
• 
  MOVIES & TV Peter Travers: 'The Avengers' Has it All
• 
  POLITICS Matt Taibbi: Jon Corzine Is the Original Zimmerman
• 
  VIDEOS Exclusive Premiere: Tenacious D's 'Tinnitus'

Song Stories

“Piano Man”

Billy Joel | 1973

Billy Joel’s first hit, “Piano Man,” was – ironically – an autobiographical lament about how his first album wasn’t a hit. When Cold Spring Harbor didn’t take off, Joel briefly became a lounge pianist in Los Angeles, and this song, about that experience, expressed his frustrations and fears at the time: “And they sit at the bar and put bread in my jar/And say, ‘Man, what are you doing here?’” “It was all right,” Joel said later, about the gig. “I got free drinks and union scale, which was the first steady money I’d made in a long time.”

More Song Stories entries »

Twitter