Beyonce was spotted dancing up a storm in Trinidad and Tobago recently. The singer concluded her ‘I Am…’ world tour in Trinidad’s capital city, Port of Spain, and held the show’s after party at the infamous Zen nightclub. Beyonce joined the crowd and partied to what seems to be her favourite local song ‘Palance’ by Bionic Blaze and JW, which she also remixed during a tour performance of ‘Check On It’. The song recently won Trinidad and Tobago Carnival’s Road March title for being the most played song during the nation’s annual Parade of the Bands competition.

It looks like Beyonce, who is still in Trinidad, has joined the extensive list of celebrities, including Jay-Z, that have fallen in love with my country. Soca is one of the most fast-paced yet addictive genres of music. Add that to Trinidadians’ ability to party harder than any other culture in the world, and it’s a completely intoxicating combination. My country’s Carnival is the largest of it’s kind and has inspired similar events around the globe including the West Indian parade during New York’ Labour Day and London’s Notting Hill Carnival.

With Janet Jackson experimenting with Soca music on her new album, I have no doubt that Beyonce will do the same as she seems completely enticed by the flare of the genre. If you think that ‘Single Ladies’ was a fast song, “you ain’t seen nothing yet!”

Sidebar: In case you’ve been wondering where I was all week, I was in the middle of Carnival!

Thoughts?

Jennifer Lopez made a guest appearance at the 60th Annual Sanremo Music Festival in Sanremo, Italy yesterday. Jenny from the block performed a medley of her biggest hits including ‘Jenny from the Block’, ‘Waiting for Tonight’, ‘Love Don’t Cost a Thing’, ‘Get Right’ and ‘Let’s Get Loud’. Lopez also did a rendition of ‘What Is Love’, a new song which is supposedly from her new album, ‘Love?’, which hits stores in April.

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Mariah Carey‘s ‘100%’, which was featured on the ‘Precious’ movie soundtrack, is also being used to promote the 2010 Winter Olympics and severs as the centre piece of the AT&T Team USA Soundtrack. The video for the Jermaine Dupri produced cut premièred a few moments ago. Check it out above…

Pretty standard peformance-esque video, with purposeful footage inter-woven. It does help that the song is one of the best things I’ve heard from Mariah in a long while, though (not that that’s saying a whole lot). Still, a good effort.

What do you think of the song / video?

During his stay here in the UK for the BRIT Awards this week, Hip-Hop star Jay-Z also made a stop at BBC’s Friday Night With Jonathan Ross. You can check out the hilarious interview above, as well as his performance of ‘On To The Next One’ after the jump…

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A new song from Janet Jackson has finally surfaced! The Darkchild-produced track, entitled ‘Heartbeat Love’, features Pitbull, Rock City and Trinidadian Soca titan Machel Montano. Jackson’s new album will be released later this year.

This song is amazing! It is completely different from anything that she has ever done before and will definitely stand out amongst everything else on radio today. For those of you who don’t know what Soca music is, it is a genre that comes from my country of Trinidad and Tobago and is hybrid of Calypso (which also comes from my nation) and Chutney. If Jackson wanted a worldly vibe to this album, then she certainly found it with this track. Montano is one of Trinidad and Tobago’s most successful artists because of his energy; something that he undoubtedly lends to Jackson on this record. Great stuff!

Hit or Miss?

Ludacris premiered the video for his new song ‘My Chick Bad’ today. The clip, which features Nicki Minaj, is actually the first of two videos for the single. The second installment will be a remixed version featuring Eve, Trina and Diamond. Ludacris’ 7th studio album, ‘Battle of the Sexes’, hits stores on March 9th.

While the video is far from ground-breaking, it serves the track well. Minaj’s Freddy costume was actually a nice (and hilarious) touch. The beat on the record is ridiculously good and it’s obvious why the chose this as the followup to ‘How Low’ which peaked at #6 on the Billboard Hot 100.

Thoughts?

International star Kelly Rowland seems to be everywhere these days! It’s unsurprising, though, considering that her Universal Motown debut is but a months away from release (first single dropping in April…confirmed). The 29 year old performed at Las Vegas’s renown Haze Nightclub last night (February 18th). Event organisers also presented the Destiny’s Child alumni with a cake to commemorate her birthday (February 11th) and her recent Grammy win for ‘When Love Takes Over’.

Check out red carpet and performance pics below (Ms. Kelly pole danced!!)

Your thoughts?

Teen Pop star Justin Bieber has set the charts alight with hits such as ‘One Time’, ‘One Less Lonely Girl’, and ‘Baby (ft. Ludacris)’ – the video of which premièred a few moments ago on VEVO. Check out the Ray Kay directed clip above. Bieber’s friend and fellow Canadian Drake makes a cameo…

Good video!

Granted the 15 year old’s music doesn’t necessarily rock my world, I must give props where props are due; Bieber is vocally gifted (for his age) and is serving up material, which dually manages to appeal to his age range as well as older listeners (working with producers/writers such as The-Dream and Tricky Stewart). A great move by his label Island (who are backing him B-I-Gtime), as doing so will ensure his longevity.

Tidbit: Biber’s album ‘My World’ is being released rather interestingly as a two parter. The first half was released as an EP back in November last year, while the second half will be released on March 23rd.

What do you think of the song / video?

Singing sensation Alexandra Burke strut her stuff on the runway at last night’s ‘Fashion For Haiti’ event here in London. The 21 year old was one of many celebrities who participated in fund-raiser, which was organised by supermodel Naomi Campbell.

In other Burke news, she is set to film the video for new single ‘The Silence’ this weekend.

Check out more pics after the jump….

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The video for Timbaland‘s latest single ‘Carry Out’ has premiered. Featuring Justin Timberlake (whose absence from the music scene has been well noted), the song is one of the better cuts on the producer’s otherwise underwhelming ‘Shock Value 2’ LP. As for the Bryan Barber directed clip, it’s nothing to scream about, yet it serves purpose I guess.

What do you think of the video?

Cash Money’s (soon-to-be) latest addition Sabrina Washington is creating quite the buzz with catchy new single ‘OMG (Oh My Gosh)’ (out March 22nd). The video for the track has been out for a few weeks now and is on rotation on several networks; check out a behind the scenes look at how it all came together (above).

Tidbit: Glass stiletto’s?!

Your thoughts?

Janet Jackson‘s former boyfriend, Jermaine Dupri, has opened up to MTV about the superstar’s forthcoming single ‘Nothing’, which is lifted from the ‘Why Did I Get Married Too’ soundtrack – the movie of which Jackson stars in. Check out what he had to say about the cut – which he produced:

Jermaine Dupri recently told MTV News he had produced a new Janet Jackson song for the upcoming Tyler Perry film in which the singer also stars, “Why Did I Get Married Too?”

According to the So So Def boss, the track is slated to be the first single from the movie’s soundtrack — the film is scheduled to arrive in theaters April 2.

“I watched the movie with [Jackson and Perry] and it’s incredible,” Dupri said. “I’m not married but married people go through what I seen in this movie. I think Tyler hit it on the head again. But the song is perfect for the movie and it’s a good record.”

The producer was tight-lipped about the track, only revealing that the title was “Nothing.” He promised, however, that the song will showcase a Jackson that fans haven’t seen in a while.

“I can say this — y’all haven’t heard her sound like this in a long time,” he teased.

Granted I’ve been punk’ed by many a producer touting how ‘amazingly different’ a song is going to be enough times to greet such promises with pessimism, I am admittedly uber excited about this. This really is Janet’s time to silence the naysayers and re-position herself as a musical force, which I’m confident she will if the material, label situation etc is right. In any case, ‘Nothing’ should be premièring any time from now…

Tidbit: A little birdy has informed us that Ms. Jackson’s new label, Interscope, will likely include ‘Nothing’ on her as-yet-untitled LP which is pencilled in for a May/June release – if it performs well.

Your thoughts?