interview: niall horan talks manchester, tough times, and how his guitar gets him through

Niall Horan [formerly of One Direction but we don't really say that anymore or something] came in to the studio and as expected- it was silly.

Girls had been going nuts on Twitter, getting 1200 RTs in a few hours just to get a pass in.. they were messaging me trying to get his hotel or dinner plans, and one even jumped in front of my moving car to get my attention and win her way in.

Note to anyone ever trying to win: Jumping in front of a moving car is not winning. You will die and lose.

Luckily I didn't kill anyone that day. Or any day, I mean.

He came in to join the Kane Show live, then answer a few more questions with Toby and me. Intern John put him on the spot by asking how you describe what the song "Slow Hands" is about if his girl's dad is asking. It got awkward.

It wasn't nearly as awkward as when one mom blurted out that she had made her daughter, who was there, while listening to R Kelly's album.

Toby and I asked him about the first time he picked up his guitar [it was his brother's but his brother never played], the toughest time in his life [realizing his life would never be normal again] and his thoughts on the event in Manchester earlier this week.

Here's the entiiiiire thing: [The explanation of the song happens at about 5:10, the R Kelly word vomit convo starts at 17:44.]



And a clip of the Manchester convo for easy access. You're welcome.



Being a human who is really good at facial expressions and getting caught in them, I mostly enjoyed this look that I relate to when your boo is telling a completely made up story but you don't wanna interrupt or call them out so you try and keep quiet:

It's fun making little girls scream.* And talking to people who are already a big deal but are kinda starting over again.

love,
elizabethany

*only females can say something like this.

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photo diary: jingle ball 2014

Last year, Jingle Ball was kind of a "welcome home and to your dream job" event for me. I had only been back a couple months and Kane introduced me on stage. This year, it was truly a year end celebration. We had the biggest artists of the year and a team that is truly my family. I took the stage alone [and damn near wet myself over it] but also felt very comfortable.

Though I don't get to see much of the show that everyone else sees, there's a whole other show happening backstage... and that's what I'm here to share.

There's meet and greet rooms, a press room that we hang in, a thousand hallways to run through where you could run into any one of the artists and/or their significant others, and a bunch of crazy radio people also trying to steal the show.

First of all... in case you're clueless, let's meet some important people.

The man, the legend... Kane. Host of our morning show, the guy I interned for that ultimately made me decide to get into radio, and the person who got me through a bit of a hiccup that night that I'm beyond grateful for.

Toby Knapp. Afternoons on our station and a big brother type mentor through my entire career. We typically tag team.... the interviews, duh.

Rose and Danni, the ladies of the Kane Show, making us the ladies of HOT 99.5 and Z104.3! They're beautiful people inside and out.

Now, for the stuff you probably care about.

You may have heard me talking about telling Calvin Harris about my sex dream I had of him, and that I did! This is the moment it happened. I'm pretty sure he's undressing me with his eyes. 

Heyzeus, he's fun to look at and smell.

Another funny interview moment was the near-fight between Lil Jon and Kane.

There were some surprises for us, as well. 5 Seconds of Summer showed up as a bunch of old people and were hilarious and quirky as usual.

And Rixton brought us the most amazing onesies from their company OnePiece. You best believe this is going to be my Christmas morning outfit.

I was able to sit in or conduct just about every interview. The only people I missed [which I'm really sad about] were Iggy Azalea, Demi Lovato, and Meghan Trainor. Not bad considering a 16-act line-up!

CharliXCX

Jessie J... right after I shocked her with how loud my "radio voice" is. Mah bad, gurl!

There are also some pictures that make me laugh. 

Why is Kane so jealous of my hand-shaking with some of the guys?! I can't even tell if he's my overprotective boyfriend or theirs, but he's not about it.

Also, Danni and I clearly hate each other and are going to fight. 

And if you were there, you miiiiight have noticed me awkwardly carrying my phone on stage with me. I didn't wanna stop down and take a picture or video, so I just recorded as I went out. It's a mess, but that's pretty accurate. My memory/brain at the time was just as blurry and cluster-effed. 

Yeah, that's really just a terrible video. Here's another shot.

It was a sold out show with 15,000 of our friends. [Well, maybe like 1,000 of those people pretend to hate us.] Insanely incredible.

Thank you to everyone who came, to my coworkers who help me out every step of the way in this business, to my family and friends who came to support, and every single person who tuned in or called in or did anything to interact with my show to make it #1 for the year. I love you for allowing me to have these "best days of my life." 

love,

elizabethany

PS thanks to Getty for some of those pictures! 

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photo diary: jingle ball 2013

Is it really over?! I've been looking forward to this year's Jingle Ball before I even knew I'd be working for the station...

It was easily the biggest event I've ever been a part of. Robin Thicke, Miley Cyrus, Flo Rida, Enrique Iglesias, Jason Derulo, Fall Out Boy, Paramore, Austin Mahone, and Fifth Harmony were in the building to perform, along with over 10,000 people to watch and some big wigs of the company.

For the first two hours, I was handing out free tickets to just about anyone who came by a tent outside the venue. I tweeted about it, but people thought I was kidding. Sucks to be you if you didn't come get some freebies.

Then we rushed into the broadcast room where we were doing our shows live from backstage and interviewing all the artists! Unfortunately, I missed out in some of them because of timing issues, but I did get to talk to Austin Mahone! As far as I can tell with his body language and reactions... he's definitely dating someone on the tour... or at least has one of those "when I get the balls, I'm gonna ask her out" crushes. 

[hopefully we'll get the full interview up soon!]

I decided selfies were the way to go for the night... 

....until I ran into Enrique and this happened... but didn't have a chance to retake it.

Everything was super planned out which was a very new experience to me. I'm used to a bit of a messy situation/schedule backstage full of boozy people... so next I rushed to the stage to get ready to announce Flo Rida with Kane. He asked me if I had looked out at the stadium yet.... and when I did.. 

...I freaked! In a good way, luckily. I wasn't nervous, just amazed. HOW IS THIS MY LIFE?! 

This was my view of the show, which looked pretty freaky when Fall Out Boy's fire was all crazy.

Full circle moment... from Kane Show intern, to officially introduced by him as the new night jock. Woah.

We decided to capture the moment with this... thanks Kane!

Robin Thicke happened to be walking by and I was all "Hey, Robin..." and he responds with something along the lines of "of course we can take a picture with you and that dress!"

So obviously we took a prom picture, right after I teased him about getting his swoon on without me having to ask for it at all.

I was also really pumped to finally get to hang with the girls of The Kane Show! We got to introduce Enrique together, so we obviously shared stories of sexy boys ahead of time.

This was honestly one of my favorite moments. I was walking down the hall, following Miley, and she runs into Jordin Sparks and Jason and they talk about how they're hunting down different people who are performing but don't know how to find them yadda yadda. It's just neat to see them all be friends outside of cameras etc. 

I didn't get to see much of the show because of everything going on in the back... but based on the pictures, stories of Flo making it rain with real dollars, Enrique going into the crowd, fans twerking on stage.... It sounds like it was pretty incredible. I also got to hear all about it when I was back in the studio for the end of the show, when everyone called in to share how exciting it was. 

As for what I wore, I got my dress from Kohl's! It's by JLo, it's got some sparkles, but was totally "winter," covered some massive bruises I got over the weekend, and paired perfectly with my new red shoes from Marshall's and red lips. 

So I guess I have to wait 360-some days for the next one to happen which is just torture... but luckily I like my job every day. 

If you were there, lemme know what you loved!

love,

elizabethany

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