Chris Brown is working on new music and a sample of the new offering has just been released. It’s his new single called Fine China and you can see the video above. Funky track… Hopefully he’ll be making good music like this to heal his ‘broken heart’, in light of his recent split from Rihanna
Rihanna performed her new single, Stay on SNL recently. It’s taken off her number one album, Unapologetic. The album has really grown on me and I find myself choosing this one over Ne-Yo, Taylor and Alicia if I’m honest. I’m surprised that this was the second single off the album, but it really shows a different side to the star and I’m liking it. Plus, for all the haters who believe she can’t sing, the video above proves otherwise.
Rumours are doing the rounds that Rihanna is the next star who will be gracing South African shores this year. Let’s hope so. It will be her first tour as a headliner, so I look forward to hearing more from the promoters.
Another year… another album. World superstar, Rihanna will release her new album, Unapologetic on the 19th of November. This will be her seventh studio. She certainly knows how to make hay while the sun shines. The first single off the album is called Diamonds. It debuted on Billboard’s Hot 100 at number sixteen, which isn’t great for the star, but the song is slowly but surely gaining momentum, airplay at traction in the market, so watch out for it. If you haven’t heard the song yet, have a listen below:
Is the album shamelessly an admission of her reuniting with Chris Brown? Well while the couple/ she is keeping mum about the ‘romance’, we’ll be sure to hear all about it on the 19th of November 
Chris Brown‘s new album, Fortune is brilliant. It has songs for days and if you don’t have yourselves a copy as yet, best you hit up iTunes or head to your local music store. My personal favourite off the album is a song called, Don’t Judge Me. It shows off a softer, raw side and in my opinion is an instant classic. The video for the song is finally out and you can watch it above.
News is out that the star is heading out to South Africa at the end of the year, as part of his Carpe Diem tour. When he sings this song, there will no doubt be a bunch of ladies weak at the the knees. More details on his tour coming up, but I do know that tickets go on sale on Monday.
UPDATE: 15 Dec JNB at the Coca Cola Dome
17 Dec DBN at the Outer Fields, Moses Mabhida Stadium
19-20 CT at the Grand West Casino
Pretty surprised that he is only doing one gig in Jozi and two in Cape Town, when the latter is known to be slower in terms of sales. Jozi sells fast and it sells out! Alas, he’s coming and that is pretty cool.
The annual MTV VMAs took place at the Staples Center in LA last night. Unfortunately we didn’t have a live stream in South Africa, but if you were able to watch the awards in your part of the world, let us know what the show was like. I hear Rihanna’s performance was superb and a great way to open the show. She performed her song Cockiness alongside A$AP Rocky. Taylor apparently closed the show with her hit, “We Are Never Getting Back Together”, which by that point everyone was like uh, whatevs Taylor imma drink myself stupor… Na’mean Ha! Here’s a list of the winners from this year’s VMAs:
Video of the Year: Rihanna, “We Found Love”
Best New Artist: One Direction, “What Makes You Beautiful”
Best Female Video: Nicki Minaj, “Starships”
Best Hip-Hop Video: Drake, featuring Lil’ Wayne, “HYFR”
Best Male Video: Chris Brown, “Turn Up the Music”
Best Pop Video: One Direction, “What Makes You Beautiful”
Best Rock Video: Coldplay, “Paradise”
Best Video With a Message: Demi Lovato, “Skyscraper”
Best Electronic Dance Music Video: Calvin Harris, “Feel So Close”
Most Shareworthy Video: One Direction, “What Makes You Beautiful”
Best Choreography: Chris Brown, “Turn Up the Music”
Best Editing: Beyonce, “Countdown”
Best Visual Effects: Skrillex, “First of the Year (Equinox)”
Best Cinematography: M.I.A., “Bad Girls”
Best Art Direction: Katy Perry, “Wide Awake”
Best Direction: M.I.A., “Bad Girls”
Who watched Oprah‘s Next Chapter with Rihanna or rather Robyn Fenty last night? Apparently it was brilliant. If only it was made available online to those outside of the United States. I’m sure there will be clips from that interview, especially the ones relating directly to the subject of Chris Brown. If and when that happens, I’ll be posting them up here.
Sidebar – this is what Oprah is good at and thrives on. Interviews is her calling!
Chris Brown continues to win back his fan base with something that he is really good at… his music! The star’s latest album is called Fortune and it’s currently this week’s number one album in the US. The album debuted at number one, selling over 174 000 copies in its week of release. Now this isn’t as big as Bieber, who sold over 370 000 of his new album Believe, but Brown still has reason to celebrate. Well done to him.
Let me tell you this album is amazeballs. I was expecting a lot of ‘dancy’, electro vibes on the album, in light of the first two singles, Turn Up The Music and Don’t Wake Me Up, but let me tell you it’s quite the opposite. Those two songs are rad, but the rest of the album is oozing with R&B classics. In fact I’m just going to say it. This album will make an awesome make-out album Look out for songs like Please Don’t Judge Me, Mirage (which features Nas) and the absolute cracker of a song called 2012.
Other good songs: Strip, which features Kevin McCall and Till I Die. This monster of a song is good, not my best but it works. Brown has enlisted the help of Wiz Khalifa and Big Sean on the track. I actually can’t fault Brown on the album at all. The packaging is great. The fans will love it and should this be his last album, as her alluded to at the recent BET Awards, then he bows out in true style.
Have a listen to Please Don’t Judge Me below:
In the space of two weeks I’ve received the new Justin Bieber, Usher and Chris Brown albums and the one that stands out from the rest definitely is this one. Bieber starts off well with a more grown up sound, but then he slips back into that teeny bopper; my dear fans lets sing along together vibe. That isn’t a bad thing but I’m just not the demographic he is targeting and that is fine. Plus he’s rocking the charts and the album scored him his fourth number one at the tender age of 18, so I’ve got mad respect for him. Usher’s album I’m going to need to listen to again to make more of a judgement, but then that would require that I take Brown’s album out of my CD player 
Next week R&B star Chris Brown releases his fourth studio album. It’s called Fortune and it releases next week. If you’re a big fan and you can’t wait, have a listen to the tracks above.
This year Usher, Chris Brown, R Kelly, Justin Bieber and Nelly Furtado are just some of the big names releasing new albums. While I’m looking forward to hearing all of them, here’s another one that I really am looking forward to hearing. It’s the new offering from Flo Rida. The star will release his fourth album called “Wild Ones” on Monday next week.
We’ve already heard several songs off the album, which have become some of the year’s biggest anthems including Wild Ones and Good Feeling. His latest single Whistle is making its way onto the charts now too. In the build up to the album’s release, Flo’s camp put out a digimix of some of the tracks you’ll be able to hear on the album. Have a listen below:
A few years ago I got to interview Flo when he was in Birmingham. I’d seen him perform the night before in London and then off myself and my friend Melanie Ramjee (@Hypress) went to interview Flo. Watch:
Looking forward to bringing you more on this album in the weeks to come. For more information,
visit:
02:00- The Billboard Music Awards are live. The show opens with party rockers, LMFAO and a medley of some of their biggest hits including the Shuffle song (Party Rock Anthem), Sorry for Party Rocking and I’m Sexy and I Know It.
02:05- Modern Family‘s Ty Burrell and Julie Bowen are the hosts for the award. I love these two. The showed their “cred” by showing us their hip-hop video. Julie makes a superb video ho Ty has it down… yo. They then went into a country track with a series of Billboard beeps
02:10- Julianne Hough presents the Social Artist of the Year. The award goes to Justin Bieber. “Thank you. First of all I just want to say how much of a blessing it has been. The past three or four years growing up in front of everyone. The Internet is where it started for me and I want to thank all my fans. Thank you so much to my mom, my dad and to God. Thank you so much, fans I love you, everybody”.
02:19- A short tribute to Robin Gibb, who lost his battle to cancer earlier.
02:20- Katy Perry gets the Spotlight Award, which was presented by Lisa Marie Presley. In addition to thanking her record label EMI for their ongoing support, Perry said, “The people that have the power, so I want to say thank you to the glittering and gorgeous fans out there. Thank you my ‘Kitty Kats’. I want to say one last thing. The real rockstar here is my grandmother. She’s 91 and she’s from Las Vegas, I can’t wait to go and do shots with you after this.”
02:24- Kelly Clarkson debuts her new song “Dark Side”. She’s looking gorgeous in her red dress.
02:32- The Wanted take to the stage. They’re performing their track Chasing the Sun.
02:38- Miley Cyrus presents the Best New Artist Award to Wiz Khalifa. He scored four top ten hits on Billboard last year. Here’s what he had to say, “I got to thank God first. God is amazing. I also want to thank my mom first, my dad, everyone who lets me do this. I’m up here shaking man. Atlantic for letting me do what I do. All the DJs. My beautiful fiancé because she’s my world. Everyone for supporting me. Thank y’all”.
02:44- Brandy introduces “her boy” Chris Brown. He is lip syncing and very badly if you ask me, but his dance moves make up for it I guess.
02:49. Natasha Bedingfield is up to show homage to the late great Donna Summer. The tribute was very short and in my opinion lame. They cut to a “coming up” clip. I know this is live TV and time is short, but wow they could’ve done a lot more to honour the Queen of Disco.
02:55- Time to look back at 22-year-old Taylor Swift’s very successful year (well and career). She is Billboard’s Woman of the Year. On accepting the award from Zooey Deschanel “That was so nice. The first time I ever saw my song on the Billboard chart I was 16. That seems like forever ago. Thank you to everyone. I’m so humbled by this. Thank you for Chris Chrisopherson and Zooey Deschanel for coming out. Thank you to the fans.”
03:00- The Far East Movement introduce the legend that is Usher. He’s performing his new track Scream.
03:12- Jason Derulo is up now Hot 100. He presents the Billboard Hot 100 Song of the Year to LMFAO for their song “Party Rocker Anthem”. On their win the twosome said, “This is amazing. This is a dream come true. We want to thank Ian Fletcher our manager. Q, Sky Blue baby. Jimmy. Will.i.am, the DJs. Dance music is back baby”. What would the awards be if the two didn’t thank each other, “I want to say thank you to you man. I love you man. And the fans. If you believe in yourself no matter what they say. You can do what you love.”
03:15- Ty Burrell has been inoculated for “Bieber Fever“. That’s right it’s time for Bieber to perform his track ‘Boyfriend’. The sound is crap, he sounded crap… The performance was cool. His performance was followed by Carly Rae Jepson, also out of Canada.
03:30- The virtual versions of Ty and Julie went on a tour of Vegas. They visited Gordon Ramsay’s restaurant, the spa, Caesar’s Palace, The Venetian, the Four Seasons and other places in the city. Fun times and Sophia Vegara’s viritual double made an appearance too.
03:31- Wiz Khalifa presents the award for Top Duo or Group. Before presenting the award, he wanted to thank the Beastie Boys. LMFAO wins this one too. “
Yeah. I love this. I love everybody here. I love everyone who loves music man. It’s like you think of what you want. We used to dream about this moment. We had an Easter egg trophy and we were like thank you for this. I just really want to thank the Party Rock crew. You guys are all amazing. Sky Blue, be be you. We Love you.”
03:35- Carrie Underwood is up on stage now to perform her track Blown Away. Looking regal and beautiful in red, like her fellow American Idol friend Kelly Clarkson.
03:43- Gladys Knight is up to present the Male of the Year. The award goes to Lil Wayne. He couldn’t be there apparently so she accepted on his behalf. Swizz Beatz welcomes to the stage Linkin Park. It has been a while since we’ve seen the rockers on a stage like this. Their new album drops soon and I predict it’s going to be a winner. There are rumours doing the rounds that they’ll be in SA in the not too distant future, let’s wait and see.
03:55-Eric Bennett and Monica present the award for Best R&B to Chris Brown. Bennett obviously had to use the platform to promote his new album. Is that the only way people will actually know about it? Nobody cares dude, so sit down! Brown was stoked and grateful to all in Team Breezy. His speech was then followed by a performance by the lovely Katy Perry
04:05- Whoopi Goldberg is hear. “Like so many people around the world, I adored Whitney Houston”. She remembers meeting Whitney at the Nelson Mandela tribute concert in London. John Legend and Jordin Sparks are up to sing for Whitney. He’s leading the tribute with a beautiful rendition of “The Greatest Love of All”. Fantastic. Jordin Sparks is now singing “I will always love you”. Superb performance from Jordin, really fantastic!
Whoopi passes on the award to Bobbi Kristina and the rest of the Whitney family. “This is truly an honour. We thank you for honouring Whitney. We thank you Billboard, Jordin, John. Tonight the one person who should be accepting this award is the one Whitney loved most. Her daughter Bobbi.”
Bobbi Kristina said, “I just really want to say thank you to everyone who supported us through it all. Not just through the hard but the good too. I’m just blessed to have been in such an incredible woman’s life. I thank you all so much”.
04:21- Cee Lo Green is up now. There’s a soldier dancing around with his crouches. His leg has been amputated but damn that isn’t stopping him from breaking it down. They’re performing “Fight for your right to party” in honour of Adam Yauch of the Beastie Boys fame. Now this is what I’m talking about. Does it take two amazingly talented fallen stars to pass on in order to have performances like this?
04:27- Taio Cruz presents the award to the Battle of the Bands winner. He’s wearing his sunglasses indoors, what a chop. Anyway. I don’t know who Patent Pending is, but they’re rocking the stage.
04:36- Gavin Degraw introduces my girl Nelly Furtado, who is performing her new track “Big Hoops (Bigger the Better). It’s love. I love her and the native Indian American influence! I’m happy now!
04:46- Alicia Keys up. She says, “I am here tonight to say thank you Stevie. Thank you for bringing us joy. Thank you for bringing us so much soul. I’m here tonight to honour Stevie Wonder with the Icon of the Year award.”
The icon takes to the stage to perform alongside Alicia. He says, “Didn’t she sound incredible? Alicia Keys. Alicia love, lets keep it real. My birthday was last Sunday. I want you to give me a birthday gift. I want you to sing me Empire State of Mind a Capella,” which she does.
He then accepts the award. “I wanted to say to all of you. Alicia, everyone in the audience. Every single person this award belongs to you and to the Almighty God. We’re in a place where we have to commit ourselves to one thing and that is to love. Love will always prevail over hate and peace over war. We have approximately 7 billion people around the world and I would like you to put your best life forward. We can change the world by being as one. Please”
