Matthew Knowles released a statement yesterday confirming that Beyonce will, in fact, be performing at the 50th Annual Grammy Awards, which will be held Los Angeles on February 10th.

After a string of poorly selling albums, Christina Milian was unceremoniously dropped from Def Jam back in 2006. Over the past year, Milian has maintained that she was in serious negotiation with another label – whilst working on her new album, yet she remained tight lipped on who exactly they were. It has now been revealed that the ‘Dip It Low’ singer has signed up to MySpace’s new label (which is in partnership with Interscope Records). Like myself, initially, I’m sure some of you are thinking ‘MySpace…wtf?’ However, who knows; the label is a new venture for the company and with Milian on board from the onset, it could really be a good look for her. {Source}

Here’s hoping she delivers an album that is worth anyones money this time around, because that ‘So Amazin’ LP was straight garbage (IMO ‘It’s About Time’ is her only solid effort). Producers on the as-yet-untitled CD include, among others, her boyfriend Dre of Cool & Dre, Nate ‘Danja’ Hills, Ryan ‘Alias’ Tedder and Evan ‘Kidd’ Bogart.

With the new season of Making The Band set to kick off in a couple of weeks, Danity Kane are giving the public the opportunity to pick their new single. You can listen both tracks, ‘Damaged’ and ‘Pretty Boy’ below and follow the link to cast your vote. I, personally, went for the Danja produced ‘Pretty Boy’. The uptempo track does a good job of encapsulating the group’s Pop/R&B sound with Danja’s trademark Hip-House sound that seems to be all the rage these days. What’s more, the girl’s are doing different things with their voices – in terms of vocal arrangement, the hook etc. Great track. Not really feeling ‘Damaged’.

It has been confirmed that teen R&B star Chris Brown is to release ‘Picture Perfect’ as the next single from his current album ‘Exclusive’. Though I think the will.i.am produced track is pretty solid, I’m kinda baffled as to why he/the label are overlooking better tracks as singles such as ‘You’. Still, I’m sure Chris’ CD will continue to shift units well into the year; since dropping ‘Exclusive’ back in November, the album has sold through a very impressive 1,121,800 copies according to Nielsen SoundScan. Anyway, you can check out the single – of which a remix featuring Bow Wow and Hurricane Chris will debut soon – below. {Source}

The above pic is supposedly the cover of Mariah Carey’s forthcoming album ‘That Chick’ (due in April). Though some may complain that she’s whipped off the clothes yet again, I think the cover looks great – tasteful. My only gripe is that terrible album title; aside from being…well…rubbish… it seems totally mismatched with the the cover itself.

Actress/singer/rapper Queen Latifah has hit out at the mounting level of negative press she’s been receiving as of late.

Amy Winehouse was snapped walking the streets of London on Wednesday. I have no words…

{Click pics to enlarge}

After just two weeks of marriage, actor Eddie Murphy and media mogul Tracy Edmonds have called it quits on their marriage. The couple, who tied the knot on New Years day in the French Polynesia, released the following statement to PEOPLE.com:

Word has it the couple have been fighting for a while – with a report claiming that Eddie, 46, was heard yelling at Tracy, 40, at the actual wedding ceremony. It kinda has me wondering why they bothered getting married in the first place. You’ve got to know that Johnny Gill is somewhere rejoicing right now lol lol. Let me stop…

Check out this Behind The Scenes look at rapper Trina’s brand new video for ‘Single Again’, the first single to be lifted from her forthcoming album ‘Still Da Baddest’ (now due April 1st):

A press listening session for both Mariah Carey’s latest effort and Janet Jackson’s ‘comeback’ album ‘Discipline’ was held here in London recently. The preview below, via DiscoPop, reveals a number of things about each project, including the title of Mariah’s LP, ‘That Chick’. It’s a long, yet interesting read, which should give an indicator about what one can expect from both projects {Thanks L. Thompson}:

In London, England, Def Jam boss Antonio “L.A.” Reid was showing off the two female jewels in their crown today with playbacks of the new Janet Jackson and Mariah Carey albums.

Label boss Reid seemed very excited about both of them, although that is his job, and mentioned plans for six singles from Mariah’s That Chick, which hits the stores in April.

Janet Jackson – Discipline
First up, though, was Janet’s Discipline. If you’ve heard the single, Feedback, you’ll have a pretty good idea of what to expect from the album. It’s crisp, danceable R&B lavished with Janet’s trademark velvet harmonies.

The stand-out track was probably Tonight, a bubbling club track which can only be Jackson’s response to Rihanna’s Don’t Stop The Music. Reid mentioned that some of the tracks weren’t finished – and this one sounded like it was missing a sample somewhere in the mix. Once that’s added, this could be Janet’s biggest dance success since Together Again.

Love, Love, Love and This Can’t Be Good saw the lyrical return of the sweet singer who first raised her head on Let’s Wait Awhile – all coy and bashful while falling head over heels in love.

But the sleazy siren of 20 YO is also present. Title track Discipline is a gruesome plea for fetishistic S&M sex – with Janet referring to her lover as “Daddy” while asking to be tied up and disciplined. Given that her father is a well-documented control freak who used to beat his kids, this is more than a little uncomfortable.

Speaking of family connections, there’s long been a rumour that Janet and Michael will team up again (as they did on 1996’s Scream) this year. Well, nothing I heard today confirms that rumour – but there is a track called Rock With You that appears to sample the single of the same name from Off The Wall. Could the finished version feature guest vocals by the former King of Pop? I genuinely hope not.

The remaining two tracks, Rollercoaster and Greatest Ex Ever, didn’t really set my world alight – but you never know what’ll happen on repeated listens.

The main thing seems to be that Janet is back on form, vocally and lyrically. The record is very safe and commercial, although I’m not sure where they’ll go for the third single (Tonight surely has to be the second). But as a first step towards career rehabilitation Def Jam has made a strong play for their newest diva.

Mariah Carey – That Chick
Their old diva (in terms of contract, not age, of course) is Mariah, who is riding high after the 7xPlatinum-selling Emancipation Of Mimi.

We got to hear 10 tracks from the follow-up, That Chick, which I have to say sounded more polished and commercial than Janet’s effort.

One track in particular is set to make big bucks, and that’s Bye Bye – a torch song for people “who lost they grandmothers”. I guarantee that Simon Cowell will be sick of hearing badly-realised auditions of it by the end of the year.

Lyrics were never Carey’s strong point, mind you, so her paean to loss is summed up with not-very-insightful Hallmark platitudes like “I’d give the world to see your face” and “Life goes on”. Profound, eh?

Still, at least it’s better than when she desperately attempts to prove how bang up to date she is. In Touch My Body, she purrs to her lover: “If there’s a camera up in here then I best not catch this flick on youtube (youtube)”. Not exactly the sexiest boudoir come-on you’ve ever heard, is it?

But there are plenty of good tunes to counter the awesomely bad lyrics. Migrate, about a night out with Mariah while she wears jeans (“yeah, they fit”, she informs us) is sure to be a candidate for heavy MTV rotation, although I hope to God they excise T-Pain’s hopelessly strained vocals. Lovin’ You Long Time, meanwhile, is a strutting uptempo number very much in the style of It’s Like That.

So, what have we learnt from this listening “event”? Well, I wasn’t overwhelmed by the music – despite (or perhaps because of) the fact it was played so ear-splittingly loud that it felt like I was being punched repeatedly in the ears by a cyberman. Both artists have turned in a tuneful, competent set of R&B songs, but I’m not sure that any of them have the charisma or vitality to compete with the Rihannas and Beyonces of this world.

Both albums: 6/10 (scores may go up or down after further listens at levels tolerable to the human ear).

After reading this preview and seeing that ‘she cannot-be-serious’ album title, I’m real anxious to see what Mariah’s album will serve up. Although I’m not looking for her to simply re-create ‘The Emancipation’, that album should stand as an indicator of what people want from her. This kinda has me thinking the album will largely be a collection of ‘Shake It Off’/’Get Your Number’ type tracks – which, IMO, were not the strongest on the last album. Only time will tell, I guess.

I must say that Janet’s album is looking more appealing to me at the moment. The project just seems a lot more focussed sounding. Saying this, considering Janet, herself, confirmed the album to be mainly ‘uptempo’, the previewer sure did note quite a few syruppy ballads (not neccessarily a bad thing). Again, I’ll reserve (as is logical) full judgement until I’ve heard the album(s) for myself.

The US version of the video for Kelly Rowland’s new single ‘Daylight’ premiered yesterday on her official MySpace. Though the video is pretty much the same as the version that debuted last a couple of weeks ago, the lack of crappy edited-in movie scenes makes a lot of difference – this serves as a much better clip.

Pregnant singer Jennifer Lopez has ended her relationship with veteran manager Irving Azoff. There seems to be confusion, however, as to who ditched who: