R&B songstress Jazmine Sullivan released her Grammy nominated LP ‘Fearless’ internationally this week. Peep her rendition of Seal’s classic ‘Kiss From A Rose’ during a promotional spot on France’s Taratata show. 

Awesome performance! I really enoyed this; not over-done and complimenting to her vocals, as well as musical style overall. 

Jade Ewen, the UK’s entry for the Eurovision Song Contest took to the stage a few moments ago, giving her rendition of the Andrew Lloyd-Webber composed ‘My Time’. 

While I hope she does win, I must say I think Jade is head and shoulders above the contest and should, in reality, be competing with the likes of Alexandra and co on the charts as opposed to this tacky contest. That said, the cliche ballad has grown on me and Jade knocked it out of the park with her performance. 

Check back in this post to see how Jade fared in the scores…

A radiant looking Jennifer Hudson appeared on the Today Show…today LOL. The Grammy and Oscar winner stopped by to promote her tour with Robin Thicke as well as her debut self-titled LP. Aside from Jennifer’s great-as-usual performances, which you can see below, the interview with the show’s host Matt Lauer was real interesting. Interesting in that it was unnerving and totally uncalled for; despite Jennifer’s best efforts to move on to another topic, Lauer was adamant on talking about the well-documented tragedy which struck the Hudson’s last October. What an a**! Anyway, peep the performances below:

We’ve received official word from LeToya Luckett’s team that ‘She Ain’t Got Sh!t’ on me is the album’s next single. Click here to listen to the song, if you’ve not heard it yet…

I’m glad they went with this; it’s the best I’ve heard from LeToya’s new material thus far.

In other LeToya news, check out Ms. Luckett belting out the US national anthem at the Lakers vs Rockets basketball game last week: 

American Idol winner Jordin Sparks returned to the show which propelled her to stardom last night to perform ‘Battlefield’, the lead single from her as-yet-untitled sophomore album. 

As one that has never really been big on Jordin, I must say she gave a great performance; she’s definitely matured as a live performer. Good stuff.

Perez Hilton literally just posted these exclusive shots of Whitney Houston on the set of the shoot for the cover her forthcoming album! I actually received word that the shoot would be taking place this week, however, as with most Whitney updates, I took it with a grain of salt. After all we’ve been waiting for an eternity for this ‘comeback’.

I must say, though, that I am pleasantly surprised with the surfacing of these pics. She looks great! Above all, I’m really feeling how the pics are age-appropriate too; I’ve forever felt that Whitney has an advantage over some of the other 40 something divas (Mariah, Janet etc) in that she never sold sex as her appeal, hence nothing drastic as such would be needed to perfect a comeback. By that I mean, Whitney could easily drop something along the lines of her ‘My Love Is Your Love’ album today and still be as relevant and chart-worthy as the younger crop of talent populating music scene at present. Enough of my rambling…welcome back Whitney!

Peep Ciara’s performance of ‘Love Sex Magic’ on the Ellen Degeneres Show yesterday above. As with the Saturday Night Live rendition of the song, Ciara killed it. Awesome performance.

In other Ciara news, the singer’s 3rd studio album ‘Fantasy Ride’ debuts at #3 on the Billboard 200 this week, with sales of 81,000. Christette Michelle claimed the top spot with her new LP ‘The Ephiphany’, which sold 83,000. Hannah Montana’s annoying self sits at #2 LOL. I really think it’s important to note that Christette’s album was retailing for a paltry $3.99, which I guess could explain what is no doubt a chart shocker. 

That said, there is no shying away from the fact that higher numbers for Ciara were expected. Interestingly, our interview with CiCi was supposed to take place last week, however was conducted just before she did Ellen yesterday and we were able to ask her about her thoughts on sales (which were being counted as we were speaking). Look out for the interview later this week!

Word has it, the label have opted for a double release for the follow-up to ‘Love Sex Magic’ and ‘Never Ever’, with ‘Like A Surgeon’ being serviced to the Urban market and ‘Work’ to Pop. IMO they couldn’t have picked two better singles. Great choices.

The ladies of legendary EnVogue performed a medley of their hits on The View this week to promote their forthcoming US tour. As ever, it’s great to see the original line-up still going strong after the awkward years of drama and whatnot. Pretty good performance; ‘Don’t Let Go’ gets me every time.

As The Saturdays prep the video for their new single ‘Work’, the single/radio mix of the cut has surfaced. Though not all that different from the original, the single version of the rousing Pop/R&B/Funk cut was mixed by producer Phil Tan – who has mastered over 19 #1 singles on the Billboard Hot 100 including Mariah’s ‘We Belong Together’ and Rihanna’s ‘Disturbia’. You’re probably wondering ‘well, what the heck does that mean?’ LOL. It means the track sounds a lot slicker, has extra ad-libs and is ready prepped for the US market. Great, great song.

The nominations for the BET Awards 2009 have been announced. Additionally, Beyonce, Ne-Yo and Maxwell are the first confirmed performers for the June 28th show, which is being hosted by Jamie Foxx. You can check out who made this year’s nominee list below:

Best Male R&B Artist
The Dream
Jamie Foxx
Ryan Leslie
Neyo
T-Pain

Best Female R&B Artist
Beyonce
Keyshia Cole
Keri Hilson
Jennifer Hudson
Jazmine Sullivan

Best Group
Day 26
GS Boyz
NERD
The Roots
Three 6 Mafia

Best Collaboration
Jamie Foxx ft T-Pain-Blame It
Keri Hilson ft Lil Wayne- Turnin Me ON
Jim Jones & Ron Browz ft Juelz Santana-Pop Champagne
TI ft Rihanna-Live Your Life
Yung LA ft TI & Young Dro- Aint I

Best Male Hip Hop
Lil Wayne
Rick Ross
TI
Kanye West
Young Jeezy

Best Female Hip Hop
Lil Mama
MIA
Trina

Best New Artist
Keri Hilson
Kid Cudi
Ryan Leslie
MIA
Jazmine Sullivan

Best Gospel Artist
Regina Belle
Shirley Caesar
Mary Mary
Smokie Norful
Trin I Tee 5:7

Video Of The Year
Beyonce-If I Were A Boy
Beyonce- Single Ladies
Jamie Foxx ft T-Pain-Blame It
TI ft Rihanna- Live Your Life
Kanye West-Heartless

Best Actor
Common
Idris Alba
Samuel L Jackson
Will Smith
Jamal Woolard

Best Actress
Angela Bassett
Rosario Dawson
Taraji P Henson
Jennifer Hudson
Beyonce Knowles

Best Male Athlete
Kobe Byrant
LeBron James
Reggie Bush
Dwayne Wade
Tiger Woods

Best Female Athlete
Tamika Catchings
Lisa Leslie
Candace Parker
Serena Williams
Venus Williams

The majority of the list doesn’t really come as a surprise IMO, yet it kinda drives home how lacking the music scene has been in the way of major smashes/videos/undeniable break-out stars etc this past year.

The first single from Amerie’s forthcoming Def Jam debut, ‘In Love & War’, ‘Why R U?’ premiered today. With it’s ‘Old Skool Amerie’ vibe, The Buchanan’s-produced breezy mid-tempo is very much reminiscent of the sound the songstress first hit the scene with with her debut ‘All I Have’.

Perhaps due to loving her Electro/Pop/R&B fusion of  a third album ‘Because I Love It’, this – on first, second, and third listen – kinda pales in comparison. I’m definitely not eyeing this one as first single material. Here’s hoping the rest of her new material lives up to expectations…because this really doesn’t IMO.

Tidbit: Amerie will be shooting the video for this later this week with director Ray Kay – whomost recently directed Christina Milian’s ‘Us Against The World’ clip.