R&B star Alicia Keys features on the cover of the latest issue of Entertainment Weekly. With the news of her record-breaking first week numbers, there really seems to be no stopping Alicia. more power to her…
R&B star Alicia Keys features on the cover of the latest issue of Entertainment Weekly. With the news of her record-breaking first week numbers, there really seems to be no stopping Alicia. more power to her…
How has your label treated you?
Er, you probably don’t even want to ask me that right now. That’s how I feel abut it. I personally love some of the people that work here in the UK; my publicist Shoshanna and Simon… but I really don’t want to talk about it cos I want to keep it all positive, you feel me?Well, it seems the album didn’t really perform as well as it should have?
Cos they’re not pushing it like they should.Why aren’t they?
We want to release Crush, but they feel there’s a lot going on. This is my thing; I’m an artist and this is not rocket science. Take Control was going good, so we knew we had to schedule the video for Gotta Work. But you need money to do a video, and by the time we got it cleared, it was late. They didn’t feel like that, but anybody with half a brain could see it was late. So then Gotta Work was going up, but it peaked and rapidly started coming down, so we knew we needed to do Crush. They said ‘Wait.’ I love the business and I studied the business and I told them we needed to do the other video, because you need to have another single when your other track is peaking. They’re talking about doing it next year, but I’m not doing it next year! So I don’t know what to tell you. I get that everyone’s filled with good intentions, but the road to perdition is filled with good intentions. There should have been no gaps.
I’m kinda surprised (yet pleased) she was so open about the whole thing. I guess, one can only be dragged through the dirt for so long. It’s a shame too as ‘Because I Love It’ is a really solid record – one of my favourites from this year.
R&B singer Kelly Rowland is set to star in NBC’s ‘Clash of The Choirs’ special airing throughout the holiday season. The show pits Rowland against stars such as Patti Labelle and Michael Bolton to create a choir that will go head to head with the other choirs led by artists on the show. It looks pretty interesting and it’s good to see Kelly still keeping her name out there.
Will you be tuning into ‘Clash of the Choirs’?
ThatGrapeJuice.net wishes all of our US visitors a very Happy Thanksgiving! I hope you’re enjoying the day with your family and friends – stuffing yourselves too!
What are you thankful for this Thanksgiving? Drop a comment in the comments section….
Ashanti performed the US national anthem ‘The Star Spangled Banner’ earlier today at the NFL Thanksgiving Game (The Dallas Cowboys vs. The New York Jets). For the record, I like Ashanti and know she can sing, but that was a mess. Just horrible. Aside from the fact that it was real pitchy, that last high note…what the hell? Here’s hoping she steps up her live performing game by the time she drops her new album ‘The Declaration’ (due early next year).
What do you think of Ashanti’s performance?
Superstar songstress Mariah Carey stopped by The Ellen Degeneres Show on Wednesday to promote her new fragrance ‘M By Mariah Carey’. She also briefly touched upon her forthcoming album which is due out ‘at the top of next year’. Mariah’s always entertaining to watch and came across well.
Any thoughts?
Check out the new iPod commercial featuring Mary J. Blige. ‘Work That’ is playing in the background. The track will apparently serve as her next single.
What do you think of the commercial?
What do you think of the pics?
…But Ne-Yo now says that he was told to tell people his being dropped was due to financial and contractual issues. But actually it was because he challenged some of the goings on behind the scenes of the tour. And that may or may not (he purposely remained vague on the issue)have led to contractual obligations not being fulfilled. He discussed how simple things like a dressing room were not given to him and his dancers because R. Kelly wanted all 7 of the dressing rooms to himself. He also said that R. Kelly and his people were quite unprofessional and demanded Ne-Yo’s rehearsal times be cut short. Basically he wasn’t feeling the respect level given to him and said “No” to many of the unplanned and slightly disrespectful changes. And apparently, after Keyshia Cole threw a fit and threatened to not perform on opening night because she didn’t like that R. Kelly’s people slated her to go on before Ne-Yo, they didn’t drop her for challenging their decisions. And Keyshia still ended up not performing that night. Ne-Yo says all that wasn’t cool and he’s being treated unfairly.
He says he definitely still respects R. Kelly musically, but not as a man. Sounds like The Kells’ divatude is back in play…reminiscent of the Best of Both Worlds Tour with Jay-Z. And we all know how that ended up. Ne-Yo was asked about whether any lawsuits would come of this and he responded with the typical “We’ll see what happens” response. He also says now that he has all this free time on his hands, he’s trying to put something together on his own for his fans.
Whatever the real reason, it was pretty messed up to drop him from the tour – especially after Keyshia Cole’s rumored behaviour. all of this makes me question R. Kelly’s logic; I mean, with his trial coming up soon, he’s gonna need every bit of good press he can get and this definitely isn’t a good look.