As the shocking death of The King of Pop Michael Jackson continues to reverberate around the globe, new pictures of the icon rehearsing for his ill-fated London ‘This Is It’ shows – just 2 days before his passing – have emerged. As sad as this whole episode is, it’s somewhat uplifting IMO to see MJ happy doing what he does best. Tour promoters AEG Live have confirmed that they have a full dress rehearsal of the show filmed. There is mounting speculation that a live DVD/CD of the show, and an accompanying live audio album of the set may be released at some point. Here’s hoping it does. {Photo credit: Kevin Mazur/AEG/WireImage.com}

What do you think of the pics?

As many of you know, the BET Awards 2009 took place last night at The Shrine Auditorium in Los Angeles. Long time readers will know that with the big award shows, That Grape Juice are at the forefront with live coverage and performance videos. However, with Michael’s passing really hitting me (and millions) to the core, the show kinda took a backseat in my mind, only regaining my interest when it began to be advertised as a Michael Jackson Tribute Show following The King of Pop’s sudden death. Check out the night’s performances below:

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Despite last night’s BET Awards being pretty much an exploitative joke (I won’t even get into that…shameful), the most poignant part of the show was when Janet Jacksoon took to the stage as a representative of the Jackson family. Fighting back the tears, the star paid homage to her brother Michael Jackson – declaring that his legacy will live on forever.

So, so sad.

Your thoughts?

It has literally, literally just been announced that Whitney Houston’s ‘comeback’ album will go by the title ‘I Look To You’. As previously reported the LP will hit stores September 1st (August 31st in the UK). Exciting stuff!

Akon recorded two songs with the diva, but it’s unknown if any will make her new album. One of those songs, “Like I Never Left,” leaked to the Internet last year. “After that song leaked, they pulled that back. That was officially supposed to be a single for her as well. But we’ll see what happens.”

Hmm…interesting. So ‘Like I Never Left’ was the previous official first single. One can only wonder how the song, which I must say is a grower, would have done. I mean it wasn’t very ‘I’m back, b*tches!’, was it. Anyways, roll on September!

Your thoughts?

Peep Beyonce’s Hamburger Helper commercial. Kudos to her for endorsing such a good cause…and of course snagging yet another endorsement deal.

Your thoughts?

In what must be a record for the 21st century incarnation of Bad Boy, roster members Day26 actually have actually released their…wait for it……..third single (yes, you read right!) ‘Girlfriend’, with the song’s accompanying clip premiering today. That’s pretty much where the ‘good’ starts and ends…

Boring, uninspired, pointless and undeniably a product of the recession, the vid offered little to nothing of interest – only further serving to highlight the many problems which underpin Day26 as a group as well as their label Bad Boy.

For too reliant have Diddy and the label become on Making The Band to push their top acts that nothing seems to go on promo-wise when the show is not on air. More so however, the sh*tty handling of the Danity Kane drama was IMO was the last straw as far as the public perception of Bad Boy as a label, as well as Diddy as a label head goes. Therefore, there is much ground to argue that the disbanding of Danity Kane is a major factor in the lack of public interest towards Day26 – a shame, as the guys are immensely talented. SMH…

What do you think of the video?

Your thoughts?

UK vixens The Saturdays performed their latest smash ‘Work’ on Loose Women this morning. Another pretty good performance, I must say.

That Grape Juice were in the house at the lady’s show at London’s Hammersmith Apollo last night as guests of main sponsor Microsoft (you know!) While the ladies may have a lil way to go on perfecting their television showings, they killed it live – something I didn’t think I’d ever be putting finger to keyboard to write about a female POP group. From top to bottom, a great, great show. The ‘unofficially official’ lead singer Vanessa drank a cup of Sasha Fierce, because she was on fire!

What do you think of the performance?

During a recent interview, singer/song-writer Keri Hilson lifted the lid on what’s going on behind the scenes with the Pussycat Dolls, revealing that lead (and only singer) Nicole Scherzinger was apparetly ‘forced’ into re-joining the group for their 2nd LP:

Keri Hilson has revealed that she believes that Nicole Scherzinger is “kinda forced” to remain a Pussycat Doll.

The R&B singer claimed that Scherzinger’s solo album Her Name Is Nicole has been pushed back several times in order for her to continue in the girl group, Ace Showbiz reports.

Hilson told the Daily Star: “I wrote ‘Alienated’, one of the songs on my album, for Nicole’s solo project. It was a good album but she decided to go back to the Dolls instead of releasing it, well she was kinda forced to I think.”

Scherzinger will reportedly leave the Pussycat Dolls to focus on her solo career after promotion for their Doll Domination LP is finished.

Speculation was fuelled further after the band’s single ‘Jai Ho!’ was released under the name ‘Pussycat Dolls featuring Nicole Scherzinger’.

In April, fellow group member Melody Thornton launched into a tirade about Scherzinger live on stage at a concert in Phoenix. {Source}

While I’m pretty sure there’s more than meets the eye with all this i.e. contracts etc, the whole drama surrounding the group isn’t a good look for Nicole’s already down-in-the-dumps solo career. For the over-emphasis on her has bred overexposure; put simply, people just ain’t checking for her like that – and the Dolls (as a collective) either because of it. The best cause of action at this junction IMO, would be to forget this solo thing (sorry, but the demand just isn’t there), hit the studio and give ol’ Melody some damn leads – at least to share.

Your thoughts?