Los Angeles: Billed by MTV as the Video Music Awards "dream team," Paramore, Bruno Mars and B.o.B. had some fun on stage as they rehearsed the three-song medley they'll perform on Sunday's show.
During Saturday's rehearsal, Mars crooned "beautiful squirrels" instead of "beautiful girls" as he and rapper B.o.B. prepared to run through their hit, Nothin' on You.
Later, Mars entertained himself and a few dozen workers inside the Nokia Theatre by singing The Police's 1978 hit So Lonely.
"Why are you trying to sing higher than me?" Paramore lead singer Hayley Williams asked playfully over the microphone.
"Sorry," Mars sheepishly responded.
Not to be outdone, B.o.B. chimed in with a few verses from Cee Lo's expletive-laden new single. Mars accompanied him on piano.
Mars and B.o.B. also beat-boxed between performances of their medley, which also includes the rapper's Airplanes and the rockers' The Only Exception.
Williams confessed that she got a little turned around on the show's expansive, space-age set with its sloping canopies and multiple video screens.
"I thought the stage was over there," she said, running to her spot in front of the band. "I was lost, but now I'm found."
The three young entertainers are among a slate of performers expected at Sunday's ceremony, including Kanye West, Eminem, Usher and Mary J. Blige.
Meanwhile, visitors to Staples Centre and the adjacent LA Live plaza were treated to an unannounced free concert on Friday when Justin Bieber took to an outdoor stage to rehearse his performance for the VMAs.
A crowd slowly gathered as the teen sensation and his team of dancers and musicians rehearsed for about two hours. MTV representatives said they hadn’t announced Bieber’s outdoor rehearsal to avoid drawing the swarms of fans who have crowded the 16-year-old pop star’s public appearances around the world.
Wearing a red varsity jacket with a sparkly “B” on the front, Bieber practiced his arrival to the outdoor stage in a cherry red 1957 Chevy Bel Air, chased by a pack of precast girls. Then, backed by a team of dancers and musicians, Bieber moonwalked and made a heart shape with his hands as he belted out his hit Baby.
“What’s wrong with my drums? Like, I don’t hear anything and it should be loud,” he said after practising a drum solo. “This has to be, like, an epic moment. It’s ending the song.”
