Tag Archives: Music

American Idol Champ Scotty McCreary Debuts At #1

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American Idol winner Scotty McCreery‘s debut album, Clear as Day, sold 197,000 copies in its first week–placing it atop the Billboard Top 200 chart.

Congratulations Scotty!

“My head is just spinning,” Scotty says.

He continued, “It started out kind of low: They said 100,000 maybe. Then every day I saw the numbers climbing. It’s wild: It wasn’t a year ago that I was a normal cat, and now I’m number one on Billboard. It’s insane, it really is.”

The only other Idol winner to debut at number one was Ruben Studdard who accomplished the feat in 2003.

PHOTOS: Demi Lovato Excited To Get Back On Stage

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SPOTTED: Demi Lovato at The Grove in Los Angeles on October 11, 2011 for an interview with Extra‘s Mario Lopez.

Demi, who is happy and healthy for the first time in a long time, is ready to get back on stage when her Unbroken tour takes off November 16, 2011 in Detroit. Her new tune, Skyscraper, is a “song about rising above your problems and …is supposed to inspire people,” Lovato said.

Lovato, who publicly battled bulimia and was involved in cutting herself, recently finished a three-month-long stint at a treatment facility. She said sharing her past ordeals is not only therapeutic for her, but it also lets her inspire people in similar situations to get help. “When you go through something like this,” Lovato said, “you really find out who your true friends are and [Kim Kardashian and Selena Gomez] were really there for me.”

Full list of Demi Lovato tour dates:
»November 16 – Detroit, MI @ Fox Theatre
»November 18 – Mashantucket, CT @ Foxwoods
»November 19 – Hershey, PA @ Hershey Theatre
»November 22 – Kansas City, MO @ The Midland by AMC
»November 25 – Houston, TX @ Verizon Wireless Theater
»November 26 – Grand Prairie, TX @ Verizon Theatre at Grand Prairie
»November 27 – New Orleans, LA @ Mahalia Jackson Theater for the Performing Arts
»November 29 – St. Louis, MO @ Peabody Opera House
»December 1 – Atlanta, GA @ The Cobb Energy Performing Arts Centre
»December 3 – Chicago, IL @ Rosemont Theater

Nicki Minaj: From Suicidal Struggling Artist To Cover Of Cosmopolitan

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Nicki Minaj has had a breakout year in 2011.  Her debut album Pink Friday has 7 singles on the Billboard Hot 100 charts at the same time–a feat never accomplished by any other artist. She is also the first female rapper to top the Hot Rap Songs charts since 2002.

The sultry artist now has another accomplishment under her belt: She is the first rapper in 11 years to grace the cover of Cosmopolitan magazine. 
Wearing a tight black leather corset dress, and adorned with a black feathered bracelet which travels up her forearm, Nicki is also only the second black woman to grace this mag’s cover in the last 3 years. (Rihanna has been on the cover, twice.)
The feature story, “How she beat the odds, and learned to rule her world” is a fitting title for an artist who until recently, struggled to make herself heard, being rejected by multiple record companies to the point that she found herself suicidal.

“It was one dead-end after another. At one point, I was like, ‘What would happen if I just didn’t wake up?’ That’s how I felt–like maybe I should just take my life.”

The Queens native says it was her horrible childhood, growing up with a violent substance-abusing father, which made her crave fame and wealth.

“I would pray to God to make me famous, so I could buy my mother a huge house,” she admits.

Of course, and thankfully, Nicki did not take her own life while she struggled, and now that she has arrived on the scene, the 28-year old star sees herself in a much brighter future.

When asked by the mag where she sees herself five or ten years down the line, the star rapper said,

“I’ll have hundreds of millions of dollars. I will have put out five albums and will have an Oscar and Grammys. And I will be getting married and, a couple of years after that, [I] will have a bun in the oven.”

Oh how I love dreamers….

First Listen: Willow Smith & Nicki Minaj Collaborate On ‘Fireball’

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Willow Smith no longer whips her hair. She’s also not a 21st Century Girl anymore.

Instead, for her third single, she’s entered into an unexpected collaboration with Nicki Minaj and became a Fireball.

Will and Jada’s daughter says she is the “Fireball of the party,” over and over in the song she premiered Wednesday on Hot 97’s The Angie Martinez Show.

Do you like it?

PHOTOS: 80’s Pop Rock Group The Bangles Are Back!

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The 80’s all female pop rock band, The Bangles, are back, three of them anyway, with the group’s first studio album of new music in eight years. Sweetheart of the Sun was released September 27, 2011 and is their first album on the new Model Music Group label.

Known for their mega-hits Manic Monday, Walk Like an Egyptian, Eternal Flame, If She Knew What She Wants and their cover of Simon & Garfunkel’s A Hazy Shade of Winter, the group returned to the studio in 2009 after a long hiatus to record the new album with songs going back to the stylish jangly pop sound which shot them to the top of the charts during the mid-’80s.

Only bassist Michael Steele is missing from the album and from the tour that brings The Bangles — Susanna Hoffs, and sisters Vicki Peterson and Debbi Peterson — on the road once again. 

Here are pictures from their in-store performance and CD signing at Barnes & Noble at The Grove in Los Angeles, CA:

FIRST LISTEN: Jennifer Lopez & Enrique Iglesias Go ” Mouth To Mouth” On New Duet

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Two of Latin pop’s sexiest crooners, Enrique Iglesias and Jennifer Lopez, are hooking up on a steamy new duet, Mouth to Mouth.

Take a listen below:

Mouth to Mouth is produced by Justin “DJ Frank E” Franks of “Yeah 3x” fame, and will appear on a repackaged version of Iglesias’ album Euphoria to be released in November.

Tyrese Gets Kicked Off Radio Interview For View Against Liquor Stores

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Tyrese is one of the coolest cats I’ve met. SO, when I heard he got kicked off of a radio interview mid stream, I had to wonder why?

The rapper and Fast Five actor claims he was asked to leave a a radio station in Delaware during an interview Monday because he expressed his distaste for liquor stores.
Invited on the show to promote his album, and new song, STAY, feat. Taraji P. Henson, Tyrese shared that he thought liquor stores should not be allowed near schools and that he just saw one close by. Amen Tyrese!
“Get them cats out of here … selling alcohol across from your kids school, homie. You gotta know how to put pressure on dudes selling in your hood,” he said.

Apparently, that offended the Program Director because when the show cut to commercial, Tyrese was asked to leave the building and told he was “disrespecting” the Delaware community. Say what?!?

Tyrese took to Twitter to rant:

“I just kicked out of a radio station frm a [program director] who had a problem w/ me speaking on liquor stores that are by elementary schools in Delaware.

In 17 years I hv NEVER been kicked out of a radio station.. Because I have a problem w/ liquor stores being across from elementary schools?

Wow! We just got kicked out of radio station for speaking the truth and wanting to uplift the community..[Tyrese ReTweet of BellaMatrix]

Was a rough day.. I was just tryna return the love to DE and got kicked out of te radio station

I was also told that the PD made them ERASE my interview so that NO ONE could HEAR me SPEAK on the issue of the liqour stores near kids.

Love is love y’all .. When you stand for something.. You will create a shift in the universe.. Salute to all of you for your support!

If you don’t STAND for something.. You will damn near fall for Anything.

If you don’t know WHO you are.. Or your purpose in life.. You will go your whole life with people TELLING you who you are..”

YOU TELL ‘EM HOMIE!
Tyrese also Tweeted this pic with the caption: “Killing my people.. I’m in the hood in Delaware I asked the local store for Gum he said NO GUM.. This is what he’s serving”:
Watch Tyrese’ new song, STAY feat. Taraji P. Henson:

Breaking Dawn: Soundtrack Songs & Artists Revealed

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Breaking Dawn hits theaters November 18 and you can watch the extended trailer here. But 10 days before the movie comes out, Twihards can buy the official movie soundtrack, which will feature the following songs and artists:

  1. The Joy Formidable, Endtapes
  2. Angus & Julia Stone, Love Will Take You
  3. Bruno Mars, It Will Rain
  4. Sleeping at Last, Turning Page
  5. The Features, From Now On
  6. Christina Perri, A Thousand Years
  7. Theophilus London, Neighbors
  8. The Belle Brigade, I Didn’t Mean It
  9. Noisettes, Sister Rosetta
  10. Cider Sky, Northern Lights
  11. Iron & Wine, Flightless Bird, American Mouth 
  12. Imperial Mammoth, Requiem on Water 
  13. Aqualung & Lucy Schwartz, Cold
  14. Mia Maestro, Llovera
  15. Carter Burwell, Love Death Rebirth

PHOTOS: Kristin Chenoweth In Concert & CD Signing

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SPOTTED: Kristin Chenoweth at The Grove in Los Angeles, September 21, 2011 for an interview with Renee Bargh of Extra.

Chenoweth also performed a couple of songs and took part in a CD signing for her newly-released country album, Some Lessons Learned. Chenoweth did not intend on recording a country album until songwriter Diane Warren told her she should. “She heard me do a track of Carrie Underwood’s for Glee called Last Name, and she said, ‘You’re a country artist.’ I said, ‘I do feel that, but I’m afraid I won’t be accepted.’ She said, ‘This is part of who you are. Go for it.'” And so, Chenoweth did!


John Mayer Cancels Shows, Postpones Album Release Due To Mass Found In Throat

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John Mayer has canceled his upcoming appearances with Tony Bennett in Los Angeles and at the iHeartRadio Music Festival in Las Vegas next weekend, revealing today that he has a granuloma, an inflamed nodule or tumor-like mass of tissue, near his vocal cords.

Mayer announced today, “I know there were people depending on me to be there and I’m sorry that I can’t be on those stages.”

“After several months of going week to week monitoring and hoping to correct the condition, I am forced to cancel my upcoming singing engagements due to something next to my vocal cords called a granuloma.”

As if this news was not bad enough, Mayer also wrote of his upcoming album, “Born and Raised is complete as far as music recording, song selection, and in some cases mixing, but because of this condition I couldn’t finish singing on several of the tracks. This means the record will be released next year instead of this fall or winter.”

Despite the sad news all around for Mayer fans, the singer is trying to look for the rainbow and the light at the end of this dark tunnel. “This is a temporary setback, though I’m not sure how long or short a period of time it will be,” he wrote. “I’ve got the best doctors in the country looking after me and I will be singing and touring again as soon as I get the all clear. Until then I’ll be spending time writing and composing more music and kicking an empty soup can around the West Village.

“I’m looking forward to seeing you again soon. Until then take good care.”