Kelly

Of course she does. Despite the complete flop of the GH, and relative underperformance of B2B's, Christina is still a huge worldwide megastar and dropping her would be an absolute catastrophy business-wise. Plus, she's stated herself that she's going for a more electro sound on the new album (due out in the summer, which already guarantees she's still with her label) which has been one of the huge sounds lately (see current #1 on both sides of the Atlantic - Lady GaGa.) and if she can do electro and do it well, then I imagine this project will be quite good for her. ^_^

Well, I don't know if any of you know this or not but Jermaine Dupri has left IDJ because of a big run in with L.A Reid apparently. This somewhat worries me for a few reasons: 1. Jermaine Dupri is Mariah's favourite collaborator and now with him gone from IDJ, will she not want to be loyal and follow him? 2. L.A Reid championed Mariah and produced both Mimi and E=MC2, the latter not being that successful, will he cut his losses? So what do we think? Do you think Mariah will leave Def Jam and follow JD? I, for one, hope she doesn't. They've given her a great platform to work on and creative freedom that she had at no other label she's been on. Plus I don't think it would do her any harm (at all) to find somebody else to collaborate with, as much as I love the JD stuff, some of the tracks taken from E=MC2 could have slotted straight into Mimi because they're so similar in style and production, because most of what she does is produced by JD. I think it COULD help her explore new areas and work with some new and exciting people if she strays from JD... Thoughts?

I actually really like this - and despite not being the biggest Lily fan in the past, I think this is a cool slice of new sounding pop music to usher in 2009. Well done Lily. ^_^

Yeah her voice sounds good on the track but i'm not too keen on the track itself at the minute. It's just too sweet, makes me feel a little sick. :heehee:

It's to help promote The Ballads, she'll be doing some appearances to promote it too... She's helping to promote the album because despite Mariah not being signed to that label anymore, because she wrote pretty much all of the tracks on the album she will get A LOT of money from the album doing well, through writing credits and whatnot. She did a new photoshoot for the album sleeve, she personally handpicked the songs to go on the album, re-recorded Hero and is going to promote it as well. Way to cash in Mariah! ^_^

Well i'm in 2 minds about the whole pregnancy, I want her to have a baby because she obviously wants one so I think it would be nice for her. However, I fear if she were to have a baby she would be gone for a LONG time, if you think she made us wait 3 years just because she was recording the next one, how long do you think she would take to have a baby, spend time with it, then write and record a new album? Long times... Plus maybe if she had one now it would save her from getting pregnant during the next album and screwing up yet another project? I truly believe that one of the reasons for this album underperforming was the severe lack of promotion (post-Touch My Body) and people seemed to get sick of this whole Nick Cannon thing, and to be honest I am a bit too. Since she's been married to him, he's featured in ALL of the videos she's done since (Bye Bye, I'll Be Lovin' U Long Time, I Stay In Love) and she needs to cut that out, people don't like Nick, end of story. Plus one thing that really bugs me is that she always said after Tommy she would never talk about her private life again... So what does she do? Make Nick the centrepiece of every little thing she does. :mellow: Interviews, videos, he's even been on stage with her during the odd performance. There's love, but please Mariah - keep it to yourself! I imagine the tour was cancelled because she had difficulty selling tickets for the Adventures Tour and that was coming off the back of a HUGE album that sold 10m worldwide pretty much and she had trouble for that. So how difficult would it be to sell tickets coming off the back of an album which sold what? About 2m worldwide at most? I was thinking about this the other day and usually after a flop album people are quick to rush out another album to save their credibility, a lot of people have done it, Rihanna, Kelly Clarkson (her last was released less than 18 months ago and she's already releasing a new album), Christina Aguilera (yet that failed) and Britney Spears - just to name a few. So I do hope she follows that trend, brings out a corker of an album and is prepared to give the project the attention it deserves.

I actually really like this version and prefer it to the original... :mellow: Hero, admittedly, is not one of my favourite Mariah tracks and I think it's very overrated but hey ho. She hits some big notes in this which I didn't think it was possible for her to hit anymore so i'm slightly pleased. BRING ON THE NEXT ALBUM. :arrr:

The-Dream just dropped his new single "My Love," which features Mariah Carey, but that's not all the two have been up to lately. The-Dream stopped by L.A.'s Power 106 with Big Boy In The Morning, and talked about his new album and the fact that he hadn't gone to sleep yet because he was up all night with Mariah working on new material for her. According to The-Dream, Mariah is already working on a new album and he's been producing some hot new tracks for her. As you may already know, The-Dream is responsible for producing Mariah's huge hit "Touch My Body" off her current album E=MC². ____________________________________________ EXCITEMENT! Although - less Touch My Body, more Migrate plz Mimiz.

"Crying Blood" has been on the River Island playlist since like FOREFFA. I saw her performing on SNP and thought "she's singing the song from work... WHO IS THIS!?!" and obviously it has now been confirmed. The end.

I was really intrigued to listen to Poker Face since everyone hyped it as being better than Just Dance (which I love by the way) and I was really disappointed and thought it was a bit :mellow: worthy...

Yeah just checked and according to Wiki (not that reliable but i'm inclined to believe it this time!) What About Us? was #4 in the UK. ;)

I think there may have been some errors in your chart stats for Brandy there... What About Us? was definitely Top10 in the UK, maybe #7, instead of #17. I definitely 100% recall it being Top10 though...

None of those were the artists biggest hits, except Shakira - of course. ;)

Brandy out? :cry:

I had the pleasure of watching this live as I spent the last week in Paris and I have to agree with Jake. Completely void of any emotion or feeling considering it was a finale, plus I think both of the finalists were absolutely DIRE by any standards. :lol:

I'm with him. ^ :teresa:

I've been reading that Run is going to be released in the US and then eventually worldwide? Apparently the Run video is available on both US and Canadian iTunes and is doing quite well on both, I also read that it's going for official adds on the 30th of December? Anybody clear this up for me? Ethereal? :P :D

Does anybody reckon Leona could eventually tackle James Blunt and be the best selling album of the century? :P I'm doubtful, but I would love to see it happen. ^_^

Up to #13 at least for Brandy! :D Deserves to be #1 though to be quite frank. Stunning album. :heart:

I've been waiting for Alexandra to win before I actually decided to comment on her. :lol: Alexandra IS a good singer, phenomenal? Not right now, I don't think. By comparison, Leona used to wow me every single week she was on the X-Factor, whilst the only time Alexandra really wow'd me was the Beyonce duet, now THAT was phenomenal, by any standard. Such an X-Factor moment! :heart: Listening to Leona sing live now by comparison to her performances on the X-Factor (as a contestant, obvs) she REALLY improved while she was recording her album and really eradicated all of the little bits that were "off" about her voice, learned real control, which to me is what Alexandra is lacking at the minute. She has the instrument but doesn't really seem to know how to play it properly, though I have no doubt Simon Cowell will fix that by the time she's really launched. One thing that always struck me about Alexandra as well was that her voice seems to sound tired and strained quite a lot and even Gary Barlow commented on how she really needs to protect her voice because belting away as she always does really does take it's toll and if she wants to sustain that level of vocal ability she needs to look after it, another thing I expect Cowell to fix. I automatically do compare her to Leona because they have similar voices, although I think Alexandra struggles hitting the high notes like Leona does. However, I think Alexandra seems to have a lot more personality and a real knack for putting on a performance, an area which I think Leona could use some work. Not that i'm knocking Leona, she's my favourite artist by a mile, but because of that I can see areas for improvement, personality-wise I just think she's quite a shy girl, end of story really. I'm excited to see where they go with Alex though, I have a feeling Simon will push her down the EXACT same route as Leona though and I don't think that's necessarily what's best for Alex. I think if Simon does indeed take her away for the best part of a year to record an album it could be a real corker of a debut, with a mix of uptempo's and ballads. Although I think people might be forgetting a little that Leona was given real QUALITY to work with, vastly due to Simon's collaborative effort with J Records (Leona's US label) and Clive Davis putting forward the cash and pulling strings to get the best producers to work with Leona. Leon Jackson wasn't given the same treatment and perhaps one of the many reasons why he's majorly underperformed. As far as we know, Alexandra hasn't been offered a US contract, so this could hamper her from working with the likes of the Ryan Tedders, Dallas Austin's of this world and so on and so forth. I don't see her matching Leona in terms of success though, I may be wrong but I think she'll be a bit like Shayne Ward and she'll do quite well domestically but I think she'll stay as a UK artist, whereas Leona is now some sort of worldwide sensation. I might be wrong, but just a feeling i've got. As for the single, well i'm quite a fan of the original (Leonard Cohen that is...) so I was a bit dubious of hearing it, the live performance worried me a bit because of all of the jingle bells toward the end which I thought was a bit off considering the lyrical content of the song. I have no doubt the meaning of the song will be completely lost because I think it'll now widely be considered as Alexandra's debut, but hey ho. Regardless, Alex's version is great and is growing on me more with every listen. It'll undoubtedly be #1 for weeks and break all kinds of records - and I would be shocked if it wasn't, afterall, it's expected now so I don't really count this as her launch, just like I didn't really count A Moment Like This for Leona, it's more of a close to their X-Factor careers as opposed to the beginning of their post-X-Factor careers. It's all about the album now! I expect it'll be immense if Simon knows what he's doing, and he does. So i'm keen to see what they come up with. :D

Yeaaaah! It was the first stand on the left, top shelf! :heehee: Poor Brandy, such a solid album as well. :(

I saw this today in HMV, right at the front on top of the stand. Not on import or anything, is this it's full release? :mellow:

One of which i've seen and thought it was pretty terrible. Shaky vocals and Ray-J screaming over the top of her. Each to their own I guess.

I would of course LOVE her to get them all, but I think she might get 1 if she's lucky. :( I thought Best New Artist was a deadcert though. :huh: Either way, 3 Grammy nominations are nothing to be sniffed at, afterall... Mariah didn't get a single one. :heehee:

Apparently Mariah has pushed I Stay In Love back until the 5th of January. LOL. Come on woman give it up, it ain't gonna be a hit on any continent! Drop the album now, go and frolic with your new vile husband and come back when you're ready to take your career seriously, it isn't just a hobby y'know. Thank you.