A couple months ago, That Grape Juice debuted a new promotional pic of Ciara. Now, one of the sexy songstress’ most popular fan networks, UltimateCiara.com, has provided us with the full collection. The shoot was conducted by famed photographers Steven Gomillion and Dennis Leupold. The images will be featured in the French magazine L’Officiel Magazine later this month. Peep all of the hotness below:

What do you think of the pics?

Elastic entertainer Ciara is reportedly being paid an astounding $2 million to perform this New Year’s Eve. The  singer will perform a set of her biggest hits at the event which will be held in Kazakhstan. Interestingly, Whitney Houston was also paid a similar fee when she appeared on stage at the same venue in July 2008.

New Year’s Eve has certainly set the stage for quite the wage war! First Rihanna gets paid to perform in Abu Dhabi, and now this. The real question is: which audience do you think will be getting more for their money? Those who turn up to hear Rihanna ‘sing’ or those who pay to see Ciara dance?

Thoughts?

Producer Timbaland stopped by the Ed Lover Show late last week to promote his current effort ‘Shock Value II’. In perhaps staying true to the album’s title, the 38 year old star voiced many a eyebrow raising comment during his banter on the show – the most interesting coming in the form of his opinions of Pop phenomenon Lady GaGa, as well as Ciara:

On Lady GaGa:

“What’s her name GaGa b-bla-bla? Yeah I wanna work with Lady GaGa, me and her are kinda the same style. I feel like she took my style (pauses) and ran with it… which is smart. I would do the same thing. I’ll put her on the re-package cos I’m a do a re-package”.

On Ciara:

There’s no more R&B, so all I listen to is “baby girl” (Aaliyah). I was excited about Ciara. I gave her my blessings because she was in the right footpath, the right footsteps as I would say. I think that she was going in the right direction and I love her to death. People would say “Oh Ciara is the next Aaliyah” – yes she is. She keeps my girl alive, so when I hear Ciara a tear come out my eye, coz I’m like “wow, she ain’t forgotten”.”

That sound is still gonna be heard. These kids who don’t know [and know] Ciara will go “Who she sound like? Baby girl Aaliyah” and then they go back and buy the Aaliyah stuff and be like “Aaliyah sound better than her” or somethin’. The point is Aaliyah won’t be forgotten”. {Source}

While Timbo’s comments are pretty harmless, I must say the back-handed nature of his praise for both GaGa and Ciara, make me question the legitimacy of his like for them. I mean ‘ What’s her name GaGa b-bla-bla’ for arguably the biggest star out right now, was an outright diss IMO. As for the Ciara / Aaliyah comparisons; how about Aaliyah be Aaliyah and Ciara be allowed to be Ciara. To be honest, I’ve never really seen the similarities between Ciara and Aaliyah. Yes, CiCi debuted with a similar tomboy style and swagger, but her dancing and lack of emphasis on vocals makes her an entirely different artist IMO. Surely Janet is a more fair comparison point, and even there I still see major differences. Just my 2 pence…

In any case, did anyone actually remember Timbaland has an album out?

Your thoughts?

Sexy siren Ciara spoke to ‘MTV News’ last evening while at the VEVO launch in New York City. The singer elaborated about the direction that  she will be taking on her next album, the follow-up to this year’s ‘Fantasy Ride‘. Ciara received a Grammy Award nomination for ‘Best Pop Collaboration With Vocals’ for her hit ‘Love Sex Magic’, which featured Justin Timberlake. The new LP hits stores in 2010.

This is certainly some interesting news. The fact that she is going to target “everybody” with this project is a very good indication that she will be developing material similar to ‘Love Sex Magic’, which saw her step out of her Urban niche and into the realm of Pop music. Ciara definitely has the potential to be an international act; with the potential to find success beyond the Hip-Hop/R&B format. Indeed, unlike many of her contemporaries (*hint hint*), she has both beauty and talent in her corner. I am eager to hear what she puts forward.

Thoughts?

Popular producer Rodney ‘Darkchild’ Jerkins has been hard at work in the studio throughout 2009. However, the musician, who will be releasing a 50 track medley of his greatest hits later this evening on  his official website, shows no signs of slowing down. In a recent announcement on his twitter page, Jerkins revealed that he has returned to the studio with Ciara, whom he collaborated with on her ‘Fantasy Ride’ LP on the track ‘Pucker Up’. ‘Fantasy Ride’ has sold a dismal 300, 000 copies to date.

This is some very interesting news. As one of people who largely enjoyed Ciara’s ‘Fantasy Ride’, I was very disappointed that the project failed to take off, especially given her extensive list of strong performances. Hopefully Darkchild will be able to give her the fire that she needs to propel herself to the top of the charts.

Sidebar: I am very happy that she decided not to let The-Dream and Tricky Stewart handle the entire project. Although Mariah Carey’s ‘Memoirs of An Imperfect Angel’ was a solid album, the sound got rather redundant half-way through.

Thoughts?

The ever sexy Ciara hit the red carpet at the 30th Anniversary of The Museum of Contemporary Art in Los Angeles recently. She looks fantastic! The old saying is that you can’t have both beauty and brains. Well in the music industry, it’s more about having beauty and talent, and Ciara is one of the few who have both.

What do you think of her look?

Peep R&B star Ciara starring in the commerical for Verizon’s new LG Chocolate Touch phone. The 23 year old singer recently signed a major dollar deal with the company to front their campaign (print and TV) for the the line of phones {Source}

More power to Ms. Harris for getting her endorsement on! In an industry which is ever-uncertain, it’s all about expanding your profile any which way possible.

Your thoughts?

Check out R&B star Ciara posing it up with photographers Steven Gomillion and Dennis Leupold in an outtake from her recent shoot for fashion label Express. Ms. Harris looks H-O-T!

Be on the lookout for the full shoot, which is set to surface very soon.

What do you think of the pic?

Bare with us guys….review up later…really!

Your thoughts?

R&B star Ciara tore down the house at Justin Timberlake’s charity concert in Las Vegas over the weekend. Backed by a troop of female dancers, the 23 year old performed hits ‘Love Sex Magic’ (w/ Timberake), ‘Goodies’ and ‘1, 2 Step’. To say she killed it, would be an understatement; she continues to prove why she is one of the best performers (notice I didn’t say ‘singers’) out today. Here’s hoping the sales of her upcoming 4th album (which she is working on exclusively with Tricky Stewart and The-Dream), reflect this. I mean, though not amazing, ‘Fantasy Ride’ deserved to perform better.

Tidbit: As a Janet stan fan, I can’t help but (and I know I’ll get some stick for this) wish she’d give me them ‘WOW’ moments that Ciara has been doing consistently in her videos and performances since ‘Promise’. Come on la Jan, ‘crank it up, give it to me some more, crank it up, give it to me some more’….

What do you think of the performance?

According to our good friends over at Rap-Up.com, Ciara has spent the last few months recording her 4th studio album with hitmakers The-Dream and Tricky Stewart. The record is said to be almost complete!

Christopher “Tricky” Stewart and his songwriting partner The-Dream have been secretly spending the summer in the studio producing the entire follow-up to Ciara’s Fantasy Ride. Stewart broke the news to Rap-Up.com in an exclusive interview. “We’re doing the whole project,” he reveals. “We’re pretty good into it at this point. We’re about 14 songs deep right now.”The 23-year-old ATLien relocated to the West Coast to work on the album with Tricky and Dream, who crafted “High Price” and “Like a Surgeon” off this year’s Fantasy Ride. “She came out to L.A. to work with us. We’re out here making this record ’cause it feels good and the vibe is good,” says the Grammy-winning producer.

The as-yet-untitled effort will feature danceable tracks that have become Ciara’s signature. “This record obviously is gonna have tempo to it, but I think it’s gonna have even more substance than the last record,” Tricky discloses. “She dances and we always want to bring out what she does that other people don’t.”

Although Fantasy Ride boasted collaborations with a who’s who of the industry including Justin Timberlake, Chris Brown, and Ludacris, the “Love Sex Magic” singer will be riding solo this time. “This album we wanted to take a few steps back and make it more about her, so the only feature is Dream. But the features that we do on this record will be remixes.”

The hitmaker even shared a couple song titles with Rap-Up.com. “I love ‘Speechless.’ I love this record called ‘Gifted.’ Those are two of my favorites. ‘Speechless’ is the record with her and Dream together.”

While there’s still the possibility of a release by the end of the year, it’s looking like 2010 will mark Super C’s return. “It’s a little up in the air, but there’s a chance that it might come this year. That was the goal, but at the same time, we didn’t want to rush anything. I think it’s looking more like a next year thing.”

Ciara is pulling out all the stops to make this her best work yet. “Right now, she’s on her grind, coming back, trying to make a better album than she made last time and get back to that mark where everybody knew that she was in the top tier of the female business.”

This definitely feels like it came out of nowhere; it’s a welcome surprise though. While ‘Fantasy Ride’ wasn’t a masterpiece, I definitely feel the project didn’t garner the success should have. What ever the reason for the album’s hate-to-say-it ‘tanking’, it’s great to see Ms. Harris dust her self and not waste time on redeeming herself with a new record. Here’s hoping she, The-Dream and Tricky serve up the hotness.

Your thoughts?