Yesterday, 07/07/07, was marked by the ‘Live Earth’ concert series. With an aim to raise awareness of global warming, concerts were held in eight cities around the world – Sydney, Tokyo, Johannesburg, Shanghai, London, Hamburg, New Jersey, Washington and Rio de Janeiro. A host of artists performed at the events, check out some of the performances:

Of all the performances, Alicia Keys was a standout for me – she did great. I thought John Legend did pretty well too.

What do you think of the performances?

Kelly Rowland stopped by BET’s 106 & Park on Friday to promote her new CD ‘Ms. Kelly’. The interview, recorded live in New Orleans, was pretty interesting. As well as her album, Kelly discussed her BET Awards performance and some of her embarrassing moments. Liking the little acapella version of ‘Like This’ she did at the end..the crowd was loving it. ‘Ms Kelly’ is out now.

What do you think of the interview?

Following a breif hiatus, B5 are set to release their sophomore album ‘Don’t Talk Just Listen’ on September 18th – with ‘Hyrdolic’ serving as the lead single. The video for the song premiered on BET’s Access Granted earlier this week. Having heard (and posted) the track several months back, the video turned out pretty much how I expected – average. I’m still getting a vibe of ‘little boys tryna be grown’ with the track and vid. The choreography is really on-point though.

What do you think of the video?

R&B singer Bobby Valentino has expressed his feelings over Def Jam’s special treatment of label-mate Ne-Yo. Speaking to SOHH.com, the ‘Anonymous’ singer had the following to say:

“I think Ne-Yo’s the face of the label and, of course, by him being the face of the label, he gets a little bit more. I see he gets a lot of extra support, a lot of bells and whistles. Sometimes, people need those things to put them over the top.

“My album, you know what it is,” he continued. “When you see me at the shows, you know what it’s about. There’s nothing sugar-coated about me. Not saying that there’s something sugar-coated about Ne-Yo, but, it’s all good.”

Considering I felt Bobby’s current album ‘Special Occasion’ was pretty good, I agree with him about getting lost in the shuffle. Despite releasing two great singles – ‘Turn The Page’ and ‘Anonymous’ – the album hasn’t shifted many units. I don’t recall there being much promo and there were next-to-no performances. Still, there may be hope yet with upcoming single ‘Rearview’ which features Ludacris – although I doubt it.

Do you agree with Bobby?

It has been confirmed that ‘That’s What U R’ will serve as the first official US single from Amerie’s new album ‘Because I Love It’. Current single ‘Gotta Work’ will be for the European market only. ‘Because I Love It’ – the singer’s third album – will see its US release this summer; the CD is out now in Europe and other territories.

Though ‘That’s What U R’ isn’t the best track on Amerie’s new album, I’m liking the fact it was chosen as a single. It doesn’t sound like a rehash of her biggest hit to date ‘One Thing’ – whilst ‘Gotta Work’ arguably does. I’m hoping the song gives her the recognition she deserves; she’s a star over here in Europe, yet she struggles to crack the US.

What do you think of the single choice?