Welcome back John Mayer

Aah yes… Welcome back John Mayer. The star has just released his new single, Paper Doll and you can hear it above. The song is taken off Mayer’s forthcoming album, Paradise Valley. While Mayer is still in studio working on this album, he’s also hard at work prepping for his world tour, which kicks off next month. The tour is called Born and Raised World Tour, which is the title of his last album, but no doubt fans will get to hear a lot of the new material when he hits the road.

I’m loving the first single, so I’m sure he and Don Was will be making a lot more magic as they wrap up production in the studio. If you’re a Mayer fan and you’re wanting to see him live, check out the tour dates below:

The Great Gatsby soundtrack

I’m a little embarrassed to admit this, being an entertainment journalist and all, but I haven’t seen Baz Luhrmann‘s The Great Gatsby yet. I’ve heard mixed reports, mostly positive but some weren’t so fond of it. I guess movie watching is very subjective and what I like, you might not enjoy. That’s the way of the world I guess. I will watch it though and I will share my thoughts when I get around to it. One thing I feel most of us will love is the soundtrack… WOW! Jigga, Bey. Gotye, Jack White, Sia, Florence + The Machine and Lana Del Rey just to mention a few of the many artists on this record. The album is co-produced by Anton Monsted, who served as executive music supervisor too. He, together will Luhrmann and Jay-Z, have created something I can only describe as a masterpiece in itself.

I’ve had brief listens to all of the tracks and I’m absolutely loving them. As for the ones I’ve got on repeat? Tjo, hotness. What I love about this album is that it’s got that swing, jazzy vibe but it’s funked up with some electro thrown in there. Rocking! Here is the official track listing:

1.   100$ Bill – JAY Z

2.   Back To Black - Beyoncé x André 3000

3.   Bang Bang - will.i.am

4.   A Little Party Never Killed Nobody (All We Got) – Fergie + Q Tip + GoonRock

5.   Young And Beautiful – Lana Del Rey

6.   Love Is The Drug - Bryan Ferry with The Bryan Ferry Orchestra

7.   Over The Love - Florence + The Machine

8.   Where The Wind Blows – Coco O. of Quadron

9.   Crazy in Love - Emeli Sandé and The Bryan Ferry Orchestra

10.  Together – The xx

11.  Hearts A Mess - Gotye

12.  Love Is Blindness – Jack White

13.  Into the Past – Nero

14.  Kill and Run - Sia

If you’re an Amy Winehouse fan, I’d love to hear your thoughts on Beyonce and Andre 3000′s version of Back to Black. I love it, but share your thoughts below.

The Dave Matthews Band heads to SA

Finally, the Dave Matthews Band is heading to South Africa.  The news was announced a little earlier on regional stations, 94.5 Kfm and 94.7 Highveld Stereo. Matthews and his band will be performing on the 30th of November in Cape Town and on the 3rd of December in Johannesburg. The Dave Matthews Band will be supported by South Africa’s Vusi Mahlasela. Tickets go on sale at 09:00 this morning through Computicket and Big Concerts’ website. More details below:

Tour Itinerary

Cape Town
Saturday 30 November 2013
Grand Arena, GrandWest
Tickets: R400 – R600

Johannesburg
Tuesday 3 December 2013
Coca-Cola Dome
Tickets: R400 – R675

Hot gig alert: Get Dirty with Converse and others

Jozi peops, are you looking for something to do this weekend? Get Dirty with the likes of BLK JKS, Zebra & Giraffe, Shadowclub, DJ Danger Ingozi, Matthew Mole and the folks from Converse. The event takes place at Mary Fitzgerald Square in Newtown. Get your tickets at Webtickets now.

J. Cole all set to release Born Sinner

There are a lot of hot tracks on radio and TV at the moment and one of those is the one you can see above. It’s the new track from J Cole and it features Miguel. Man oh man I’m loving it. And judging by early reviews and word online, 2013 is shaping up to be a good year for J. The star will release his second album, “Born Sinner” on the 18th of this month. Will it hit number one like his debut? Most probably… I’m just saying. Although…

Watch: Kelly Clarkson – People Like Us

New music, new video from one of the best pop singers in the business. It’s Miss Kelly Clarkson’s new video, People Like Us. Dig it!

Metro FM responds to ‘ #UnathiGate ‘ and other matters

PRESS STATEMENT

22nd May 2013, Johannesburg.

METRO FM Station Management would like to address two unfortunate programming incidents that have happened
on-air in two of our shows respectively, ie. The First Avenue as well as the The Touch Down Show. The stance that we
as a station are taking on both the issues is as follows:

OPEN LETTER TO UNATHI MSENGANA

An open letter addressed to the host of METRO FM’s First Avenue breakfast show Unathi Msengana has been doing
the rounds on social Networks and this particular letter is now in the possession of the station. It is written by a
clearly disgruntled listener of the show and we as a Station hold the contents of the letter in high esteem. Each and
every listener of any of our Show’s on METRO FM is respected and appreciated by the station, hence our stance.

We would like to request that the public at large, our audiences as well as the media allow us as the Station’s Management
to investigate the strongly worded letter and the contents thereof accordingly. Over and above that allow us the time
to engage our presenter Unathi Msengana on her views and outlook in the matter at hand, after which we will make our
findings as a Station known accordingly. We trust that our request will be viewed favorably.

UNSAVORY INTERVIEW ON “THE TOUCH DOWN” SHOW ON 21st May 2013

As of today, the entire team of the Touch Down Show will not be scheduled on-air until further notice by Management.
Yesterday afternoon the team unfortunately conducted an interview which was a clear contravention/transgression of
Radio Policy. The interview was regrettably that of explicit nature which is an unfortunate violation of our mandate.
We are a station that informs, educates, entertains and that operates within strict confines of Broadcasting
Regulations and we intend to do just that in a professional and respectful manner.

Please note that team has not been suspended, but are merely not scheduled until we have gone through our internal
processes and procedures. A decision will then be made following the findings of the investigation and we will then
communicate these accordingly. Once again, we request that the public, our audiences, as well as the media allow
us as a station to manage this process the best way we can and revert back to you once this is complete. We trust that
our request in this regard will receive your favorable understanding.

METRO FM, its where you’re at!

Unathi on the cover of TRUE LOVE

One of my favourite people in the industry is the lovely Unathi Msengana. She makes up one third of Metro FM’s breakfast show, as well as the Idols judging panel. She’s a singer, a mother, a wife and what a lot of people wont know is that she’s heavily involved in the behind the scenes of a massive TV show too. Multitalented much?

She’s been a friend, an inspiration, a mentor to me throughout the years and I’m grateful/ honoured to know her.

Unathi covers the June issue of TRUE LOVE magazine and might I say they did a fantastic job with this one. Looking gorgeous Mrs Msengana! There has been a little bit of drama around Unathi’s apparent “tendency of making listeners look small” (read the open letter here) this week. My view on this? All morning DJs have personalities; all DJs have their fans and their haters. Nobody can go through life having everyone agree with their views, their gestures, their mannerisms and their actions. It’s not humanely possible.

I listen to a lot of the morning breakfast DJs everyday on my way to work. Let me use Gareth Cliff as another example. He cuts people off all the time. He is known to be rude too. He’s also extremely intelligent, opinionated and entertaining. Fans will listen constantly, but so will the haters. The reason? They want to hear what he or she says so that they can nail them. Snore fest really. Bottom line, if you don’t like him/ her or any of the other DJs in the morning, best you go and buy yourself a CD and listen to that on your way to work. If I know Unathi though, she will respond and engage with this listener, so watch out for that.

The open letter will get spark a conversation. It will drive engagement and a debate. It will get the show more listeners and it’ll probably get Unathi a lot more followers on social networking sites like Twitter and Facebook. Plus TRUE LOVE will probably shift a few more copies too. So who wins at the end of the day?

Related articles

• Dear Unathi Msengana, (namsunrestricted.wordpress.com)

Danny K releases Brown Eyes video

SA star, activist Danny K is back with a brand new single. It’s called Brown Eyes and it’s blazing at the moment. The song has been added to most of the radio playlists and with the video’s release, it’s bound to get loads of TV time and Internet views too. Good work Danny. Nice video too.

Miguel ‘kneeds’ you

Firstly, let me just say I’m happy the person on the receiving end of Miguel’s knee is okay… That said, how funny is this? Miguel got a little excited and misjudged the distance between the stage platforms. As a result his long jumping ways fell short resulting in him kneeing some helpless fan at this year’s Billboard Music Awards. Thank goodness she’s okay.

Sidebar, Miguel should have a song “I Kneed you, LEG go” Ha.