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It's really good that they have kept a strong relationship over a 5-year period. No marriage. No kids. Just a rock-solid loving relationship, which is what I like to see.
Mariah Carey was spotted out and about again yesterday. This time it was at the Claiborne Presents "Magnum Photos: Muhammad Ali," at 401 Projects to Kickoff the Magnum Festival:
The event was curated by Muhammad Ali's daughter Maryum Ali and long-time manager and friend Gene Kilroy. "Magnum Photos: Muhammad Ali" combines the iconic images of the great Muhammad Ali with the personal, rare glimpses of the man behind the myth. The exhibition features the work of Magnum photographers Thomas Hoepker, Abbas, and Alex Webb. A portion of the proceeds from print sales will be donated to the Michael J. Fox Foundation for Parkinson's Research. Mariah's charity ventures don't stop there either - she will be headlining at the European debut of SIR ELTON JOHN's charity concert One Mighty Party. The Without You hitmaker will travel to Paris, France for the gay and lesbian concert which benefits the Elton John AIDS Foundation on 29 June (07). Johnny Chisholm, founder and producer of the One Mighty Weekend events, says: "Mariah Carey is a worldwide musical superstar and we are thrilled to host her at our party." The One Mighty Weekend has been held at The Walt Disney World Resort Orlando for the past 14 years but will make its European debut in France.
Yesterday, Justin Timberlake debuted the video for third single LoveStoned taken from his latest album FutureSex/LoveSounds:
A lot of money went into previous video's SexyBack and What Goes Around but with this new vid, unfortunately, the same cannot be said. Filtered with nothing but blue digital sound waves throughout incorporated with JT himself singing in between, the video was a sheer disappointment. It basically had all the right embodiments to make you want to go sit in a dark room just to fend off a migraine after watching it. Above all, horrible video with low budgeting being the obvious factor in why the video looked cheap and lacks any sort of creative input.
Def Jam really did put in the work for Rihanna but it didn't really pay off as she didn't get the no1 spot this week. Final sales came in today and as predicted a week ago, Rihanna has sold only 162,168 copies of new album Good Girl Gone Bad only enough to get her to the no3 position on Billboard. Rihanna's performance at the MTV Movie Awards should have at least been a breakthrough for her as 1 billion people all over the world watched that show. It was a major performance which is why Jay-Z was crafted in to join her on stage.So what exactly do these sales mean for Rihanna?
Well, let me break it down. First-time sales, in my opinion don't really count. It's what the album actually sells overall. Rihanna's last album A Girl Like Me sold little over 100k and didn't do aluminium - it ended up doing platinum so I think Rihanna will do just fine. An artist may not have a high debut in the first week but that artist can be pretty consistent the following week and the week after that and so on. Also, the choice of singles plays a main factor as to how well an album may perform. Umbrella wasn't just a smash hit for Rihanna. It was Hong Kong meets Big Ben meets Monique kind of huge! And not just in the states, but all the over the world. And with that type of monstrous success, Good Girl Gone Bad should have at least debuted at 300k (Ciara almost did 400k in her first week with her sophomore album Ciara: The Evolution last December and lead single Promise was NO WHERE near as huge as Umbrella). I mean, Good Girl Gone Bad is a hot album so why Rihanna isn't getting those big numbers is quite mind boggling.
What will happen if her sales take a huge dip the following week?
Def Jam will most likely find a side avenue to make up for their losses and like how they've just invested $600,000 dollars on her second video, they will be looking for ways to recoup back that lump-some especially since illegal downloading has crippled the music business in recent years. Even if Def Jam had high expectations (which they did because they would not have splashed out so much money on a high-budgeted music video), such a move was pretty risqué as it has already been established on two occasions that Rihanna isn't a very strong album seller (on top of the fact that releasing 3 albums in 2 years isn't such a good look). Chris Brown is supposedly doing a concert at an arena in the coming weeks as part of his promotion for new album Exclusive which is scheduled to drop 28th August. He is trying to get Rihanna to tour with him. And the only other possible way to recoup back all the money they've put into her massive promotional campaign is to put her ass on tour because the REAL revenue isn't made from CD sales, it is actually made from touring, merchandise and endorsements. If it serves me correctly, an artist only gets 3 cents for each album sold and the rest goes to the record labels, advertisers, investors, etc.
Rihanna is the ONLY artist that Def Jam is going all out for. Teairra Mari was dropped some time ago. Chrisette Michele's album has been pushed back with very little promo and after new Def Jam artist Sterling Simms released his 2nd low-budget video, there has been no noise whatsoever surrounding his new album. In fact, dude seems to have disappeared entirely off the scene. The only other Def Jam artist who is enjoying massive global success right now is Ne-yo, and he did not fail to get to no1 and sell over 300k in the first week. It all works like this. You can NOT release an album if you are NOT making any money for the label because a business has to run on profit. So whenever an artist puts out a single, it becomes monitored as to how successful it becomes, how quickly it debuts on airplay alone and so forth. Once the single has been proven a success and the label is reassured that the artist could move units, they are then confident enough to give the artist a decent amount of promo.
Why do ya'll think Mya's wack ass cannot come out yet after her album was supposed to drop more than a year ago? Her single Lock U Down is performing badly. That Walka Not A Talka track is garbage and just doesn't cut it as a second single. Ride doesn't either. How much do you want to bet that we see no album come 18th September? How come her album cover hasn't been unveiled yet after all this time? Her album is one step away from being shelved. She is up there with the Christina Milian's and Teairra Mari's. I mean she's a pretty girl and has sex appeal despite being vocally challenged but her music (or the new tracks I have heard recently) have been absolutely garbage. There was even a blind item going around the Net this week about a listening party for the upcoming album of a sexy R&B singer. The event was attended by media people but the album got a very poor reception from journalists because the material wasn't up to par. The blind item is widely believed to be Mya as she had an album listening party last month which was attended by R.Kelly.
If Rihanna's bubble does burst one day, it may have to do with the fact that she can't sing well or dance, and most artists who lack in one area compensate for it in other areas. For example, Ciara, Mya, Aaliyah, Janet Jackson, Britney Spears and Jennifer Lopez can all dance their asses off but have very limited vocal ability. Whereas, Mariah Carey and Alicia Keys cannot dance to save their lives but their vocals are powerful and they are both vocally gifted. Ashanti cannot dance or sing and she has fallen off. Remember when she was huge with Foolish? And her debut album was also a big success which resulted in a Murder Inc scandal where it was reported that they bought most of the copies of her album just so that she could debut at no 1. And Ashanti's music career hasn't been all that consistent over the years, and I fear Rihanna could be going the same direction because she's just a pretty face with no stage presence or singing talent and those can only get you so far.
Upcoming R&B RELEASES:
Kelly Rowland (3rd July)
Mario (31st July)
Chris Brown (28th August)
Keyshia Cole (18th September)
Mya (18th September)
B5 (18th September)
Leona Lewis (September/October)
Cassie (October)
Danity Kane (December)
Usher (late fall)
Ashanti (late fall)
Mariah Carey (late fall)
Alicia Keys (late fall)
Chilli (summer/late fall)
Jennifer Lopez (summer/late fall)
Brandy (TBA)
Craig David (TBA)
Lastly, Mary J Blige is also working on her follow-up to her smash-hit album The Breakthrough.
She tells MTV: "It's like the difference between a rotisserie meal and a microwave dinner," she explained. "It takes hours to get right, but it's going to be really good and you won't forget it. I'm a nice rotisserie — caramel-colored and well-seasoned."
Stay tuned ....
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