To celebrate the release of Janet Jackson‘s career-spanning ‘Number Ones’ compilation (due November 17th), Flash Mob America organised a Janet Jackson flash mob to take place today in Los Angeles. For those unaware of what a ‘flash mob’ is, it’s generally when a group of people break into uniform dance in the random-est of places and usually in front of unsuspecting passers by.

The participants in la Jan’s flash mob, who have been practising for weeks, launched into some of the iconic choreography from some of Janet’s biggest hits including ‘If’ and ‘Nasty’ right there in the middle of the street at The Grove. Kudos to all those involved; they killed it.

A bigger kudos, however, goes to Janet’s team, who have been on fire with her promotion as of late. They’re on some Papa Knowles ish (for Bouncy alone, of course!!! LOL). Loving it 🙂

Tidbit: Janet herself was watching this from the rafters. Click here to see

Your thoughts?

The drama that is the Pussycat Dolls‘ reality shows no sign of subsiding. Member Kimberly Wyatt has sensationally gone on record to reveal an apparent rift between herself and lead /only singer Nicole Scherzinger. According to Wyatt, she and Scherzinger have not spoken in months, effectively since the band went on ‘hiatus’. Here’s what she had to say:

“I haven’t seen Nicole at all. I stay in touch with the other girls but not with her. I did send her a couple of emails but I haven’t heard back.

I never really had the chance to do a lot on the creative side, but now I’m working on my own thing. I have no idea how long the break will be or if we will get back together” {Source}

Wow…you’ve got to love her honesty, which is rather refreshing in an age of media-trained responses and the same interview duplicated a million times over. While I’m sure there is a lot more to this Pussycat Dolls hoo-harr than meets the eye (i.e. why Nicole is continually pushed to the forefront when the public are sick of her), I can’t see how so publicly airing out their drama is going to allow anyone to believe any notion of solidarity they may try and fake should they ever come back. What’s funnier is that their creator Robin Antin seems hell-bent on insisting to anyone that will listen that the group is staying together, yet evidently things are crumbling apart for everyone to see. Denial, much?

Your thoughts?

Many thanks to the thousands of you who entered our Nokia-sponsored competition to win tickets to see Rihanna perform live in London this coming Monday (November 16th).

See the answer to the our given question below:

Rihanna’s 2007 smash ‘Umbrella’ was #1 in the UK for how many weeks?

c) 10

The 5 winners who will each receive a pair of tickets to see Ms. Fenty live at a secret location here in London are:

1) George Valez

2) Nathan North

3) Sophia Semambo

4) Ezania Bennett

5) Jonelle Roberts

Congratulations!

We *MAY* have a an extra pair of tickets to give-away on Monday in a ‘ONE MORE CHANCE’ billed give-away. In the event that it actually takes place, this will be a Twitter-only competition (similar to the Sean Kingston ticket give-away we ran on Twitter recently). Therefore to be in with a chance…

Click here to join That Grape Juice on Twitter!

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Peep episode 3 of Monica‘s BET reality show ‘Still Standing’. I loving this show and how legitimately real Ms. Arnold keeps it. More power to her!

Your thoughts?

Check out the official TV commercial for the hotly anticipated American Music Awards, which air next Sunday. With Janet, Whitney, Rihanna and co on the bill, it’s hands-down the most exciting award show in a long while…and it hasn’t even happened yet! Can’t wait!

Tidbit: Music feels so exciting again: Janet, Whitney, Mariah, Alicia, Beyonce, GaGa, RiRi, Usher, Chris Brown, Leona, Alexandra…all out at the same time!

Tidbit 2: Kudos to UK group the The Noisettes for landing this year’s show theme tune with ‘Don’t Upset The Rhythm’.

Tidbit 3 (lol): Janet stans, what do you hope she performs as part of her medley? I’m a sucka for some of Ms. Jackson’s ‘newer’ material, hence would love to see a little ‘Feedback’ in there, as well as ‘All Nite’.

Your thoughts?

You can now listen to snippets of Lady GaGa‘s hotly anticipated ‘The Fame Monster’ LP ahead of it’s November 23rd release (which as I’m typing I realise is the same day as Rihanna’s ‘Rated R’ hits stores. Things that make you go ‘hmmm’).

In any case, judging by the clips…

Hit or Miss?

Peep this brief preview of the video for Shakira‘s Lil’ Wayne-assisted single ‘Give It Up To Me’. While I’ll reserve judgement until seeing the video in its entirety, it’s quite refreshing to the 32 year old (bet you didn’t know that LOL) engage in choreography in the traditional sense. Clip looks real cool.

Your thoughts?

Diva Mariah Carey continues to promote her ‘Memoirs of an Imperfect Angel’, earlier this week stopping by the Late Show With David Laterman for a chat (about the album, ‘Precious’ and Eminem) and to perform new single ‘H.A.T.E U’. You can watch the performance above and the interview below, both of which aired a few hours ago. Great interview, great performance:

Your thoughts?

Your thoughts?

Do you know which song spent the most weeks at #1 on the Billboard Hot 100? Do you know which song was the first to debut at the top spot? That Grape Juice has you covered! ‘Back In The Beat’ is our brand new feature, which each Friday takes a look back at the songs that topped the Billboard Hot 100 at this exact point in time in years of past.

Covered by me, Trent, it provides the opportunity to not only take a ‘trip down memory lane’, but remember some of the monumental songs that molded the present day sound of the music industry. So get out your pen and paper because class is officially in session!

In the year 1998, Hip-Hop legend Lauryn Hill stormed the charts with her now classic song ‘Doo Whop (That Thing)’, which was written and produced by Hill herself. The second single from her monster album ‘The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill’, the track hit #1 on the Billboard Hot 100 on November 14th where it remained for at the top 2 weeks.  Additionally, the song peaked at #3 on the UK Singles Chart; a rare feat for a Hip-Hop/R&B act. Furthermore, not only was the single a major commercial success, but the record also earned Hill 2 Grammy Awards, included in the 5 that she won at 1999 ceremony, where she became the first woman to win that many trophies at one event. The video for the song was also a big winner at the 1999 MTV Video Music Awards where it received top honors in 4 categories including ‘Video of the Year’.

This song is brilliant in every sense of the word. It shows why Hill is still considered to this day to be one of the most talented artists of our time. How many acts can you think of that can deliver such an intricate vocal performance as well as spit rhymes with such conviction? Chameleons like her emerge so rarely that we sometimes forget that such talent exists. If some of the artists in today’s generation had a 1000th of her ability then maybe the music industry wouldn’t be in such a horrible position. Yes I said it!

One of music’s biggest Icons, Mariah Carey, has released her long-awaited video for ‘I Want To Know What Love Is’. The video was directed by Hype Williams, who reportedly clashed with MC’s label over the concept and production of the clip. ‘I Want To Know What Love Is’, which is said to be the album’s “first official single”, failed to climb pass #60 on the Billboard Hot 100 despite being successful on the Adult Contemporary format by peaking at #10 on said chart.

Why Mariah…why? In the words of the diva herself “who approved this?!” This easily ranks as one of the worst videos in her entire career. The song itself is already corny to the bone but the supporting clip is even worse! The CGI, the  cliche appeal of the onlookers, the lighting and of course the horribly edited green screen effects; every element was of utterly poor taste. The only reason that I won’t hold Mariah herself responsible for this mess is because of her continued expressions of disgust toward this song being chosen as a single. I applaud her for not going Naomi Campbell-crazy and attacking everyone on the set when she saw the finished product.

As a matter of fact, I will forget that I even saw this video. It is officially being placed into the box at the back of my mind along with the Rihanna’s ‘The Wait Is Ova’ and Beyonce’s ‘Sweet Dreams’ clips.

Note: the guy at the 2:12 mark is from my country!

Sam note: Just saw this now. Hot A** Mess. Mimi, no….just no.

Thoughts?

After being rescheduled numerous times, Usher’s forthcoming album has finally been given a concrete release date. The tentatively entitled LP, ‘Raymond vs. Raymond’, will now hit stores on December 21st as confirmed by the singer’s label, LaFace/Jive Records. This places Usher in direct competition with Mary J. Blige who is also dropping her new album, ‘Stronger’, on the same date. The first ‘buzz’ singe from ‘Raymond…’, ‘Papers’, has thus far peaked at #32 on the Bilbboard Hot 100 and #2 on the Hip-Hop/R&B charts.

It seems that Usher’s label is anticipating a strong sales bonus from the Christmas shoppers. Although a brilliant maneuver to garner high sales rates, it does raise several questions. Primarily, one might wonder if Jive uncertain that Usher is unable to generate strong sales without the boost of the season, especially given the mediocre performance of his last record. Only time till tell if Mr. Raymond still possess the golden touch and if he can outshine Mary J, who is particularly known for consistently high first-week sales.

Thoughts?