Check out Jennifer Hudson!

The Grammy, Oscar, and Golden Globe winner turned heads at BET‘s annual Black Girls Rock extravaganza in New York last night. For, gone are the lengthy locks and in its place, a short, new pixie crop that has set many tongues wagging.

With new music on the horizon, it appears J.Hud is keen to pair it with a fresh new image. We like. Do you?

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Ever keen to broaden our musical scope, recent months have seen That Grape Juice venture into a number of new musical landscapes including, most recently, gospel.

Spearheaded by well-received interviews with gospel singers Yolanda Adams, Hezekiah Walker, Fred Hammond, Kierra Sheard, Dorinda Clark Cole, Israel Houghton, Marvin Sapp, and more, TGJ is now offering readers ‘The Overflow’ – a collection of the top gospel-themed news stories from the week.

Tuck in below for the latest news on Micah Stampley, Faith Evans, Lecrae, Michelle Williams, Marvin Sapp, and more…

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We’re celebrating yet another amazing talent on this week’s From The Vault.

Taking it way back to the late 80’s, Lisa Stansfield‘s classic ‘All Around The World’ is our pick.

Helmed by the songstress, husband Ian Devaney and Andy Morris, ‘World’ is a soul-dance hybrid that caught the world by storm in 1989. Chosen as the second single from the British siren’s debut effort ‘Affection’, it proved to be a wise decision as it charted inside the Top 5 of most of the territories it’s been released in. After hitting #1 on home soil, it achieved the same fit on the Billboard Hot R&B/Hip-Hop tally and peaked at #3 on the Billboard Hot 100.

A film-noir themed video by French director Philippe Gautier helped the song gain “landmark status”. A regular on music videos channels, the visual saw the short-haired diva lamenting over the loss of her “baby” while “touring” the world. A very literal take on the song’s now classic lyrics.

Proving that the amount of “Soul” you have within yourself has nothing to do with the tint of your skin, Ms. Stansfield remains a tremendous talent that surely helped the Blue-Eyed Soul movement become a ‘thing’, paving the way for the likes of Robin Thicke, Adele and Christina Aguilera.

With the songbird sounding as angelic nowadays as back then, we’re eagerly anticipating her soon to be released ‘Seven’ album. Who knows, with qualitative music – and to an extent blue-eyed soul – seemingly on the up, this very project could be the one that sees Lisa shifting similar numbers to her “students” on this side of the new millennium.

Your thoughts?

The latest series of The X Factor UK continued in fine form last night tonight. With the Live Show segment of the season in full swing, the hopefuls are tasked with pulling out all the stops to progress onto the next week. Judging the hopefuls are  Gary Barlow, Nicole Scherzinger,  Louis Walsh, and returning panelist Sharon Osbourne.

Less than eight weeks before the release of his new album ‘X’, Pop Prince Chris Brown has reportedly been arrested in Washington DC for the assault of a man outside of Starwood Hotel‘s and Resort’s Worldwide ‘W Hotel’.

Upsetting news below…

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Surprise!

The above was no doubt what Lady GaGa gave her fans last night, when she premiered her brand new number ‘Venus’ during her set at London’s ‘G-A-Y’.

Released to the world as to encourage pre-order sales of her new LP ‘ARTPOP’ , the jam touched down hours before the star arrives on the X Factor UK to deliver the first televised performance of her new Urban single ‘Do What U Want’.

Listen below!

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Boasting cuts that are nothing short of impeccable comes Janelle Monae‘s ‘The Electric Lady‘, the  game changing album dominating many a R&B lover’s playlist this year.

Last night, the Monae and the LP made a new friend in NBC’s ‘SNL‘, who welcomed the pair to its stage to perform the cut of the same name… ‘Electric Lady‘.

A distant cousin of TLC‘s ‘Creep’, there’s no doubt ‘Lady’ has the potential to become Monae’s biggest hit to date- sure to reach such heights if she serves more performances like the one waiting for you below!

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She’s the R&B royal whose critical acclaim and occasionally untapped commercial pull makes her the unsuspecting envy of many of a Urban hopeful.

So, perhaps in recognising his potential as one of the genre’s trendsetters, the year has seen Keyshia Cole lend her expertise in the field to Roc Nation’s Elijah Blake, with whom she collaborated with on her latest LP ‘Woman To Woman’ and has enlisted to produce its hotly anticipated follow up.

Now peep what the ‘I Changed My Mind’ singer had to say on Blake’s skill as a live act below…

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 Power 99’s  Powerhouse 2013 showcased the height of Hip Hop & R&B recently, inviting some of the genre’s brightest stars to rock the annual event for this year’s audience.

On the guest list? Well, alongside Meek Mill, Kendrick Lamar and Sevyn Streeter, came K.Michelle, Nicki Minaj, Chris Brown, Rick Ross, 2 Chainz and Big Sean– all of whom took to the stage to deliver must see performances!

What they got up to on the night?

Check ’em out below!

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With Lady GaGa‘s ‘ARTPOP’ set to land in stores in a mere matter of weeks, the Pop superstar is cranking her promotional push into overdrive.

Presently in the UK to plug the ‘Applause’ led set, this morning saw the singer unveil a new commercial for the LP in conjunction with one of Britain’s biggest phone giants – O2.

A major coup for the campaign, the ad (which features the project’s second single ‘Do What U Want’) will run on primetime UK TV in the run-up to the global release of ”POP’ on November 11th.

Check it out after the jump…

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Hours before she was set to serve a Stadium set in Kuala Lumpur, ‘Backstabber’ beauty Ke$ha has seen a spanner thrown in her works, after Malaysian authorities pulled the plug on the show- citing the star’s music as their cause for doing so.

Want the full story?

Step into our office…

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It’s Ciara’s birthday weekend!  In honor of one of our favorites, this week’s That Grape Juice Cover Star is Ashleigh Paylor singing ‘Sorry’ from Ci’s latest critically acclaimed self-titled set.  Watch below:

As ‘Sorry’ continues to ring as one of our favorite numbers from Cici, we always love to hear a cover that does the tune justice.  And, Paylor did just that and then some!

Uncannily sounding just like the ‘Promise’ singer in parts, Paylor was able to capture the emotion and sincerity of the lyrics without drowning them out or attempting to overcompensate with with dramatics and theatrics (see:  excessive melisma, volume, etc).

To that, we say bravo!

For more on Ashleigh Paylor, check out her Youtube page.

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Want to be featured on That Grape Juice’s ‘Cover Star’? Drop an email to rashad@thatgrapejuice.net

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Your thoughts?