Yes, we know lots of up-and-comers perform covers to get attention, but we still applaud Hassle (an emerging Swedish talent) and “Girl Wonder” Goulding (a Welsh chanteuse) for displaying some great taste. Have a listen after the jump:

Ellie Goulding And Erik Hassle - Be Mine!

Meanwhile, if you’ve been sitting around thinking, Gosh, Robyn should really take some time out of her extremely busy schedule to whip together her own hourly radio program devoted to Afro-Funk music, then—yippee!—you’re in luck.

Turns out this Sunday is the premiere of Cherrytree Radio’s The Afro-Funk Hour hosted Robyn, where we’re told she’ll be spinning the likes of Franco & TP OK Jazz and Fela Kuti.

Now if only she’d get around to finally releasing another album… (Soon? Maybe.)

Wait, this is how to defuse controversy? Oh that’s right—they’re not really trying to. Adam Lambert’s council of advisors picked a rather opportune moment to release the vid for his lead single, “For Your Entertainment.” The vid — which initally looked plenty debaucherous — is a lot less provocative than his American Music Awards performance. But there’s certainly no shortage of seductive smirks, eyebrow raises, male-and-female flirting, and tons of snake-handling—no, not that snake handling. Check out the sex-ay video after the jump.

With a-ha’s Magne Furuholmen on guitar, Mew’s Jonas Bjerre on vocals and Berryman on bass, Apparatjik will release its song “Electric Eye”, along with their debut album, on November 30 via their website. The band has also contributed a very Coldplay-esque song, “Ferreting,” to the soundtrack for the BBC’s “Amazon” documentary.

As Spinner noted, Chris Martin—not Berryman—seemed to be the Coldplay member with the a-ha fixation. But either way, it will be fun to see the Norwegian influence (and the Danish influence!) on the Coldplay template. We hear a little “The Sun Always Shines On T.V.” in that track — but it’s still not a far cry in tone from Coldplay’s typical mid-tempo pop. (Makes us kind of wonder what Berryman’s getting out of this collaboration—but hey, stick to what you’re good at, right?)

As for the other members of the mellow British band’s plans during their hiatus? They’re apparently using their time off to actually relax as opposed to gunning on their own side projects. Sort of. Chris Martin will be visiting Springfield and possibly the courthouse, while drummer Will Champion is reportedly “experimenting with electronic rhythms.” And Jonny Buckland just got hitched to his longtime partner. Sounds like a fun break to us, especially after a grueling world tour.

But back to a-ha. Just because:

As a pre-Thanksgiving weekend treat, The Jim Henson Company has gifted the world with The Muppets covering Queen’s “Bohemian Rhapsody,” complete with their own take of the iconic video. Why? Who cares why. It exists, and you should be thankful just for that.

Amazing video after the jump (though, to be nitpicky, we’re curious what the Muppets could do with the more current “Bad Romance” or “Russian Roulette” vids).

Hey, Jason Segel, can you hurry up with that Muppet movie you’re working on already?

“Given his controversial live performance on the AMAs, we were concerned about airing a similar concert so early in the morning,” an ABC spokesperson told Rolling Stone, confirming the cancellation. That move followed reports that the Walt Disney Co.-owned network had received some 1,500 complaints about Glambert’s S&M-lite-themed performance. (Hey, ABC—cowboy up, we get that many every day.)

Meanwhile, in the wee hours after Sunday’s performance, Lambert posted the following to his Twitter: “All hail freedom of expression and artistic integrity.”

The glam bad boy has yet to tweet away on this latest controversy, but will undoubtedly weigh in on the matter when he shows up for a hastily-scheduled appearance on CBS’s Early Show tomorrow morning (he’s also now scheduled to perform on CBS’s Late Show With David Letterman). In the meantime, he told Ryan Seacrest, “It’s too bad, I think there were a lot of fans who were excited to come see me. They probably had a lot of pressure coming at them from certain people who weren’t happy about it. I respect their decision—I don’t necessarily agree with it, but they need to do what they need to do.”

The last-minute dumping of CB’s vocals from Timbaland’s “The One I Love” was mutual, says a rep for the producer. A spokesman told E! Online it was a “mutual decision since both artists were at the time working on their solo projects.” (Seriously?)

Anyway, that was the explanation after TMZ (eye roll, we know) first reported that Tim and his crew (much as they “love Chris”) opted to ditch the song, previously known as “Maniac,” due to the “drama” surrounding him.

Did Timbaland’s moral compass compel him to jump off the Forgive Chris Brown train? Or was he just making a business decision? It might’ve been a smart one, given the popular reception to Brown’s most recent work: his new single “I Can Transform Ya” slipped to #24 on the most recent Billboard Hot 100. What’s more, his “Fan Appreciation” tour (and how pandering a name that is) hasn’t exactly been the comeback concert he was hoping for—even though he’s playing smaller venues than he might have in past tours, Brown is still not putting butts in seats.

But not everyone’s scared of working with him. Soulja Boy Tell’em is happily collaborating with Chris on his album Graffitti with a track called “Bad.” And Ciara kept CB’s vocals on “Turntables,” from her May release Fantasy Ride, despite that fact Brown was still in the middle of facing a domestic abuse case. Ciara explains:

“I wanted to focus on the music and leave it at that, because it’s a record that I’ve had for a while, I love the way it sounds and it’s one of my most favorite records on the album. And if I alter it, it’s not gonna sound the same. So for me, really it’s nothing more than about the music, so I kept it there.”

Atalanta rapper New Yung Joc wasn’t afraid, either, to feature Brown on the song “Choose Me” off his free album Grind Flu. Says Joc:

“Why are we still ridiculing this man? He had a problem with his girl. I’m not condoning abuse. But they both got into it and they both got over it. Why can’t the world?”

The rest of his career hasn’t taken too much of a hit either. Chris is still part of the ensemble cast of action/crime movie Takers (also starring Zoe Saldana and Hayden Christensen) out in February, and he’s slated to star in two other films (currently in pre-production), the dramedy Caramel and Phenom, playing a hotshot basketball player. It will be interesting to see how well these films do at the box office, and how much its potential success or failure will be attributed to Brown’s involvement.

Chris Brown might be off Timbaland’s album for good, but he’ll have to face him sooner than later—Brown’s Graffiti drops Dec. 8, the same day as Timbaland’s Shock Value sequel. Wanna bet whose will come out on top?

“I’m a little too fat right now—the zip busted in the back!” she explained once the song had finished. “They wanted to stitch it up, but I couldn’t.”

That’s what fat looks like? Excuse us while we jump on a treadmill for the remainder of our lives. Watch Rihanna perform “Wait Your Turn” on GMA after the jump.

How long do you think it took her to perfect that diva pose at the end there?

The white dress is quite a contrast to the dark subject matter and imagery revolving around Rihanna’s Rated-R album, just one of the army of new releases trotted out yesterday. Guess we’ll have to wait and see if all the emotional flip-flopping pays off for her in this week’s chart battle.

In the meantime, here’s RiRi doing “Russian Roulette” on GMA:

Although, “belt” might not exactly be the proper term. It sounded like Timbaland was sing-rapping over a guide track (or three), but you could still hear his live voice despite all the advanced technology. As for Nelly Furtado—well, you be the judge.

Would you call that whispering or mumbling? Maybe Nelly’s just resting her voice for her next performance. On the flip side, SoShy sounded quite lively.

And at least all the promotion is working. As of today, “Morning After Dark” is currently up to #36 on the iTunes Top Songs chart.

Lady Gaga went on The Jay Leno Show last night to promote The Fame Monster and tossed out a few flip answers to the nighttime host’s questions. When asked how the nuns reacted to the music she performed while still a Catholic school student, she replied, “Well, my music was different when I was in high school. I was singing about love—things I don’t care about anymore.”

Leno also inquired as to what Gaga plans to wear when she performs for Queen Elizabeth II in December. Her reply: “Latex and fishnets.”

Watch the full interview and Lady Gaga’s performance of “Bad Romance” below.

Rumors had begun flying in recent days that Grammy rules would somehow be modified in the eleventh hour so that Lady Gaga could nab a Best New Artist nomination—despite “Just Dance” being in the Best Dance Recording category during the previous ceremony. However, yesterday Pop & Hiss, the Los Angeles Times music blog, reported that a spokeswoman for the Recording Academy said the ballots had already been returned for this year. No go, Gaga.

“Technically, just due to songwriting and things, I’m not a new artist,” the singer told Leno, brushing it off. “But it’s okay. I’ll tell you, the biggest reward for me has been my fans.”

Below is Lady Gaga performing “Bad Romance” on The Jay Leno Show. And is that a pillow shoved up the back of her jacket?

“This is a solid album that we believe in,” said the label contact. “We want to give it a proper launch.”

This is all starting to sound extremely Lil Wayne-ish. Meanwhile, it was only on November 13 when a press release from the label was circulated touting the December 21 date. Ironically, that’s the day Weezy’s much-delayed Rebirth is now supposedly seeing the light of day.

So far, Usher’s first single off Raymond v. Raymond, “Papers,” has landed at #2 on Billboard’s Hot R&B/Hip Hop Songs chart. However, it only managed to scrape its way to #31 on the Hot 100.

And to think, it was only five years ago when he scored four #1 singles off his Confessions album. “Burn,” indeed.