Jennifer Hudson Gets Engaged According to People.com, Oscar winner Jennifer Hudson is engaged to boyfriend David Otunga who she’s been dating for little under a year:

Jennifer Hudson and boyfriend, David Otunga, have gotten engaged, her rep tells PEOPLE exclusively.

“I can confirm that Jennifer got engaged to her boyfriend David on Friday night in L.A.” says the rep.

Otunga, who is known as “Punk” from the reality show I Love New York 2, popped the question with a Neil Lane diamond ring on the Dreamgirls Oscar winner’s 27th birthday.

The couple, who have been dating less than a year, both hail from Chicago.

Professionally, it is a busy time for Hudson as well. Her debut solo album, Jennifer Hudson, will be in stores Sept. 30, and her next film, The Secret Life of Bees opens on Oct. 17.

No doubt, this one will raise a few eyebrows. In any case, congratulations to Jennifer and David.

Any thoughts?

The video for Leona’s 3rd UK single ‘Forgive Me’ premiered today. I must say, the clip for this Akon produced track is pleasantly surprising. Sans the gowns and big ballads Leona manages to serve up her best video yet IMO. Bright, colourful and visually engaging, this one is definitely a winner. The International star actually appeared to have been choreographed for the first time too. Good stuff.

What do you think of the video?

Rihanna Talks Money, Relationships & New LP In a recent interview with the UK’s Daily Mail newspaper, Rihanna spoke about her finances, being in the spotlight as well as shedding light on the direction of her new album. Check out extracts from the piece below:

On Her Finances

“You can’t get away from the business side. It takes over. The minute you get into the business side, it becomes you. I get business reports all the time because it’s my money. And I stay on top by living it, breathing it, thinking about it every day and every night.”

On The Paparazzi Following Her Home

“Barbados should be off-limits. It should be a getaway for me. My family lives there. It’s sacred. But these people follow me all the way to my home, all the way to the beach. It sucks. I spend most of my life in the public eye, but I don’t want to do that all the time. I don’t always want to be in front of a camera or looking my best. Sometimes, I just want to be me. But that’s hard when people wait outside my house and chase me. They follow me, they yell at me, and I can’t stop them.

On Being Overworked

I don’t want to work like a horse any more. When I first started, I didn’t know what to expect and I went with the flow. I got burned out, but I thought that’s how it was supposed to be. Even Jay looked at my schedule and thought it was crazy. I don’t ever want to hate what I do. I don’t ever want to say, ‘Ugh! Another day of this!’ I just want a gentler pace that allows me to recuperate and still love and enjoy it.”

On Relationships

It’s tough to have a relationship and be famous. And even if I’m not in a relationship, people want to match me up, or be in my private life all the time. It makes things difficult.”

“I want happiness. I want to have someone who is willing to grow with me, respect me, and I will give that back. They need to be a good person to me. That’s all.”

On Her New Album (Due Early Next Year)

I’m not going to give anything away but it’s going to be very edgy. Good Girl Gone Bad definitely spoke to a year in my life, a year of attitude. It stood for who I am – the attitude, the edge. My next album will take it up a notch. I want to keep growing. I don’t want to get stuck. I want to change.” {Source}

I’m sure the finances part was to combat the rumors of her being broke – which is all well and good. I maintain, however, that the girl still requires a little more media training as the ‘live and breathing the money’ part is easy to misinterpret as Ms. Fenty doing it all for the money – though I’m sure that’s not what she meant. Anywhoo….hurray…another Rihanna album…

Your thoughts?

Beyonce Shoots New Video Apologies for the slow go over the weekend; That Grape Juice has “A LOT” in store for you guys this week, starting from today (all will be revealed later….mwahahhahahahaha lol).
Anyway, Ms. Beyonce shot the video for one of her new singles ‘If I Were A Boy’ in New York, late last week in this cop get-up. Looks interesting…
‘If I Were A Boy’ was produced by Toby Gad, who was at the helm of Fergie’s ‘Big Girls Don’t Cry’. The song along with Bey’s other single ‘Single Ladies’ debut on October 7th…

Your thoughts?
Competition: Win Tickets To Def Comedy Jam's UK Tour (Reminder)!

As many of you know, That Grape Juice has teamed up with Live Nation UK to offer you the chance to attend the sold-out Def Comedy Jam UK tour, which will be making stops in Manchester, Birmingham and London. Click here to enter, if you’ve yet to already. Competition ends tomorrow (Sunday 14th September).

The Billboard Hot 100 All-Time Top Artists To celebrate their 50th Anniversary, Billboard have released the list of Hot 100 All-Time Top Artists. Consisting of stats and chartings from all of Billboard’s charts, the list below certainly provides many a surprise:

(more…)

Jermaine Dupri has once again given the masses an insiders look at Janet’s already-acclaimed ‘Rock Witchu Tour’, this time documenting the show’s opening night in Vancouver yesterday. Check it out:

The more footage I see of the tour, the more I’m hoping for a European leg/or set of dates. Word has it, Ms. Jackson may be hitting this side of the pond (Europe basically lol) early 2009. Watch this space…

Any thoughts?

Continuing along the promo trail for her sophomore effort ‘Sol-Angel & The Hadley Street Dreams’, Solange stopped by the Jimmy Kimmel Live show yesterday. She was interviewed and spoke on the Beyonce comparisons, ‘that’ Fox News interview and more. Peep her performance of ‘I Decided’ below:

Both the Knowles ladies definitely know how to work a stage, as Solange shows here. Great performance.

Your thoughts?

Kanye West Arrested At AirportRapper Kanye West was arrested today after a scuffle LAX airport in Los Angeles:

Kanye West has just been arrested at LAX for felony vandalism. A still photographer was trying to take pics of Kanye at the American Airlines terminal. According to our guy on the scene, Kanye allegedly confronted the photog and smashed his camera to the ground.

Our photog then began videotaping the scene when Kanye’s assistant grabbed our camera — a struggle ensued and the assistant threw the video camera to the ground, breaking it. When Kanye realized our camera guy had videotaped the incident, he rushed our guy and yelled, “Gimme that f**king tape!”

Both Kanye and his assistant have been arrested and will be booked. {Source}

My girl Necole Bitchie summed it up when saying: “Out of all days to be flipping out at an airport, this is definitely not the best one..”

…SMH…

Your thoughts?

Diva Mariah Carey took to the stage on Canadian Idol last night. Check out her performances of ‘I’m That Chick’ as well as ‘We Belong Together’ below:

Yawn. Yes this was marginally better than that Fashion Rocks performance of ‘I’m That Chick’ from earlier this week (she actually moved this time around), but I was still left short-changed. With both performances it was wildly obvious she was lip-synching 95% of the time (though ‘We Belong Together’ was decent-ish). This for a singer who is renown for her voice. I was even thinking the other day; all this talk of Mariah getting older being the reason for her voice being near-enough shot is without any ground IMO. I mean, one need not look further than vocalists such as Patti Labelle’s and co, who way into their old age can still blow as well as they could before.

Mariah already has her name etched in history for what she once was. However, my interest in what she currently is, is fast disappearing.

Anyway, in other Mariah news, she has announced that she has ditched manager Benny Medina. Instead of functioning as her manager, Medina will serve as more of a ‘creative director’ for the singer. Mariah will now be managed by her own company Maroon Entertainment. Ineresting… {Source}.

Your thoughts?

The season premiere of the Tyra Banks Show aired yesterday, with the supermodel-turned talk show host addressing the issue of skin bleaching in the black community. Check out Tyra talking about one of the show’s guests – a woman who bleaches the skin of her 3 young children -while doing the promo rounds for the show. Check it out:

It’s such a shame that in this day and age, such closed minded notions of what beauty/good looks mean are still prevalent. SMH…

Your thoughts?

MOBO Awards 2008 Nominations That Grape Juice was on hand at the MOBO Awards 2008 Nominations Launch at the swanky Beach Blanket Babylon restaurant here in London yesterday. As I’m sure many of you know, the annual show celebrates the undeniable presence of Music of Black Origin in the contemporary music scene. The event, which was largely populated by press outlets, saw the nominations announced, as well as the show’s hosts – Mel B aka ‘Scary Spice’ and Rev Run.
Estelle leads the field with the nominations, notching up 5 noms. Check out the full list below:

BEST UK MALE

Dizzee Rascal
Jay Sean
Sway
Taio Cruz
Wiley

BEST UK FEMALE

Adele
Duffy
Estelle
Leona Lewis
M.I.A

BEST UK NEWCOMER

Bryn Christopher
Chipmunk
DJ Ironik
Skepta
T2

BEST INTERNATIONAL ACT

Akon
Alicia Keys
Chris Brown
Jay Z
Kanye West
Mariah Carey
Mary J Blige
Ne-Yo
Rihanna
Usher

BEST REGGAE

Beenie Man
Busy Signal
Etana
Mavado
Tarrus Riley

BEST JAZZ

Courtney Pine
Guy Barker
Lizz Wright
Tony Kofi
Yolanda Brown

BEST GOSPEL

Ekklesia
GreenJade
Jahaziel
Kirk Franklin
Tye Tribbett

BEST AFRICAN ACT

9ice
Asa
D’Banj Mo Hits Allstars
Faze
Hip Hop Pantsula
Jozi
Jua Cali
Magic System
P-Square
Wahu

BEST SONG

American Boy – Estelle
Dance Wiv Me – Dizzee Rascal
Lollipop – Lil’ Wayne
Low -Flo Rida
Wearing My Rolex – Wiley

BEST R&B / SOUL

Chris Brown
Estelle
Jay Sean
Ne-Yo
Usher

BEST HIP HOP

Dizzee Rascal
Jay Z
Lil’ Wayne
Lupe Fiasco
Wiley

BEST VIDEO

Bashy – Kidulthood to Adulthood
Estelle – American Boy
Leona Lewis – Bleeding Love
Tinchy Stryder – Stryderman
Will.i.am – Heartbreaker

BEST ALBUM

Alicia Keys – As I Am
Estelle – Shine
Leona Lewis – Spirit
Lil’ Wayne – The Carter III
Usher – Here I Stand

The 2008 MOBO Awards take place at Wembley Arena, London on October 15th; and will air live on BBC Three at 9pm.

Your thoughts on the nominations?

**