Jason Derulo'Whatcha Say' Top Billboard Hot100

The 20-year-old R&B newcomer Jason DeRulo's momentum continues to grow exponentially, has knocked electronic artist Owl City off and has become the fourth artist this year to claim the top spot on the 'Billboard Hot 100' this week as well as #1 at Rhythmic Radio with his smash debut single "Whatcha Say". His "Watcha Say" becomes one of the year's strongest debuts for an urban pop star, thanks to increased airplay and a video premiere for the single.
"Whatcha Say" is a pretty unlikely chart-topper. The tune is built around a sample of Imogen Heap's "Hide and Seek," which is best known as a featured song on a season finale of "The O.C." a few years back. Derulo displays vocal skills that have pegged him as an exciting new artist to watch. The song is the first from his upcoming self-titled debut studio album, which is slated to be released in the first quarter of 2010, will be entirely produced by hit guru J.R. Rotem and will feature a new genre which fuses Pop, Euro Dance, and remarkable songwriting to create a groundbreaking sound.
Derulo, who penned his first track when he was just eight years old, has said in interviews that his galvanizing moment as a songsmith was seeing Michael Jackson perform for the first time. "I knew that's what I wanted to do. From then on, my goal in life was to express myself through song and to showcase it to the world," said he who has already written songs for the likes of Lil Wayne, Keyshia Cole, and Cassie. "I never wanted to be a songwriter -- it just kind of fell on my lap. I love writing, but I always wanted to be the voice, not just the pen," says Derulo. "I always yearned to sing my own song, and now, here I am doing just that."
The music video for the single was release a few weeks back, and has also been picked up as iTunes' Video of the week. The video shows DeRulo with his love interest and cuddling on the couch. Glenn Gamboa of Newsday wrote: "The new Jason DeRulo single liberally samples from the song and even uses Heap's chorus as his own chorus? Maybe hard to swallow. But DeRulo weaves easily in and out of Heap's parts and matches his AutoTuned vocals to hers pretty well to craft a catchy, if derivative, little number." It doesn't slow down for him as he joins Lady Gaga's "Monster Ball" tour, which will be the hottest ticket this winter. The new pop sensation will be opening up for Lady Gaga along with Kid Cudi starting December 27.

Satirical "Men Who Stare at Goats" Hits Theaters

The first-time director Grant Heslov has come up with something wackier and more whimsical, a quirky rapid-fire military comedy "The Men Who Stare at Goats" which has hit the nation's movie screens today. The movie offers a fitfully amusing adaptation and "inspired by" British journalist Jon Ronson's book, about the U.S. Army's exploration of New Age concepts and the potential military applications of the paranormal techniques, and purports to be closer to the truth than many people would suspect. A title card claims, "More of this is true that you would believe," indicating that Goats is just the tip of the absurdest iceberg.
You might not know that there's a silly side to the military-industrial complex, but the folks behind fhe film certainly do. In this quirky dark comedy inspired by a real life story, you will hardly believe is actually true, it set in Iraq, and follows a reporter, Bob Wilton (Ewan McGregor), who stumbles onto the story of a lifetime when he meets a special forces operator, Lyn Cassady (George Clooney). As they embark on a new mind-boggling mission, Lyn reveals his twenty-year involvement in a top-secret wing, psychic military unit and shares details of their activities, each more bizarre than the last.
The film has such a fantastically odd story that Heslov would have been well advised to stay out of the way and let the bizarre details stand on their own. He has tried to crowbar Ronson's anecdotes into a feeble story, and slips too easily into lackluster wrap-up mode down the stretch, but it still has enough serious satire to recommend it. Meanwhile, the screenwriter Peter Straughan hit on more juicy material than he knew what to do with when he adapted Ronson's controversial book and began researching the subject matter himself.
As the result, the film is merely a light-hearted approach, advocating peace and acid not war. It has a glorious good time satirizing the extravagant lengths to which the military and intelligence establishments will go if they think there's a payoff at the other end. However, the film somewhat disappoints because the narrative Straughan has come up with isn't that engaging? the best stuff is in the flashbacks where Clooney, Jeff Bridges and Kevin Spacey do battle for the future of the New Earth Army, which contains the most actual material from the original book.

Rihanna's "Wait Your Turn" Video Premieres

The R&B songstress Rihanna has finally premiered a dark and gothic themed music video for her latest and promotional song "Wait Your Turn (The Wait Is Ova)," on late Tuesday via the popstar's official site RihannaNow, and also released the tracklisting of 13 songs for her upcoming album "Rated R," which is scheduled for a release date of November 23. The song was written by The-Dream and produced by StarGate and co-produced with Chase & Status. The first play of "Wait Your Turn" was on Radio 1.
The grainy, raw, black and white music video "Wait Your Turn" was shot in Washington Heights, New York City on October 16, and was directed by frequent Rihanna collaborator Anthony Mandler, who also directed for Jay-Z's dark video "Run This Town". There's no plot to speak of, just Rihanna singing to the chorus, the clip features black-and-white scenes, capturing Rihanna wearing an eye patch and a high-necked jacket in one scene sporting her Road Runner hairstyle while traipsing around a desolate park, a rooftop overlooking Manhattan and a bridge. There are also scenes where the Barbadian songstress is sporting a black hoodie and singing the song in a church, and later, hugs a white statue of an angel, all while showing some skin in a black bustier, naturally.
"I was involved in a lot of the writing," Rihanna previously told Glamour magazine about her new album. "I put everything I've wanted to say for the past eight months into my music. The songs are really personal. It's rock and roll, but it's really hip-hop: If Lil Wayne and Kings of Leon like my album, then I'll feel good.""I would not change anything about it. Even if people don't love it, I made exactly the piece of art that I wanted to make. It's super fearless - which is exactly how I feel right now. I am in a really good place," she continued. Young Jeezy, will.i.am and Slash are confirmed as featured guests in the album.
In addition to "Wait Your Turn" video, fans can also expect another video from Rihanna coming out next Friday, November 13 on ABC following her "20/20" interview. Directed also by Anthony, this forthcoming video is aimed to promote her single "Russian Roulette", which is penned by Ne-Yo and picked up as the lead single.

Backstreet Boys Debut "Bigger" Music Video

The Grammy-nominated American vocal group Backstreet Boys have just released the music video for new song entitled "Bigger", which is the second official single from the boy group's latest highly anticipated album, "This Is Us." The mid­tempo single finds them re-teaming with their biggest hits "I Want It That Way" hitmaker Max Martin, the mastermind behind hits singles who recently produced tracks for Pink and Britney Spears.
The video for "Bigger" was filmed in early October, while the group was promoting their album "This Is Us," in Tokyo, Japan. The videos was directed by Frank Borin and released on the group's official YouTube account. The four members of the band is mainly seen performing the song through the streets of Tokyo to perform their new single. The group dines at maid cafes features several Japanese girls, visit ancient temples, and even perform their song with locals at a karaoke bar along with a bunch of locals. It ends with the crowd at the karaoke party singing the "la la la la la la" line of the chorus.
The boys will make appearance at upcoming X-Factor, and head to Japan again in 2010 to perform a string of dates on their "This Is Us" Tour. Kicking off February 5th with three dates at the Saitama Super Arena, the group also hits World Hall and the Nippon Gaishi Hall for dates that month. Fans can visit their official website to find more detailed info about their on-going tour.

Carrie Underwood's "Play On" Album Hits Stores

The four-time Grammy Award winner and country music star Carrie Underwood returns with today's release of her highly anticipated third album, "Play On" via Arista Nashville. It's been fewer than five years since the Oklahoma native won "American Idol," but Underwood's music career has been supernova hot since, has earned little critical praise despite moving over 10 million albums, garnering ACM and CMA awards and becoming the first Country artist in history to achieve ten No.1 singles from her first two albums.
Reality-show prodigy turned down-home diva, Underwood knew she needed to finish a new album this year. Luckily, she viewed the writing and recording process of "Play On" as a labor of love, rather than just one more thing to check off her huge to-do list. The new album is very solid from top to bottom, and it contains quite a wide range of music. The lead single from the album, "Cowboy Casanova" pop-country crossover hits has been established as the fastest-selling song in the past year of country music. While there, she also debuted three other songs included in the album, "Temporary Home," "Undo It" and "Mama's Song." The album's strongest classics track is "Someday When I Stop Loving You," a brooding tune framed beautifully by her delicate performance, while "What Can I Say," a collaboration with sibling trio Sons of Sylvia, is a simple, elegant declaration of longing. And the all-American girl even delivers a tart-tongued reading of the spunky, Shania-esque "Songs Like This."
The remaining 45 minutes, though, are more Hallmark than honky tonk. "Play On" is a tastefully-done pop pleasure, with little of the pretentious production that gutted much of her first two discs. Better still, Underwood's found new creases in her sweetly-Southern voice, an engaging instrument that's grown with each album. Underwood doesn't want you to call her music pop-country. "I'm not trying to move anywhere away from country music," Underwood said. "I love what I do. And let's say 'Cowboy Casanova' crosses over, it's going to cross over as it is - fiddles, steel and all. Growing up I never liked it when people would have a country song and then change it for a different format." "Play On," though saddled with its share of loose songwriting, is a convincing reminder of a blonde, budding talent.

Shakira Releases Her "Did It Again" Music Video

The Colombian pop star Shakira has premiered a music video for her brand new European single "Did It Again" on the German show "Neu" from VIVA on Friday. "Did It Again" is the second single off the third english studio album of "She Wolf" which is due for November 23 in the US with Epic Records. However, the single will not be released in the US market, and it will be released in Spanish mainly to Latin America and Spain, and be renamed "Lo Hecho Está Hecho", as was done with "She Wolf" with Spanish version "Loba". US fans will be treated with a song called "Give It Up to Me," which features Timbaland and Lil Wayne.
The Sophie Muller directed video shows the stunning Shakira singing and dancing in a similarly sensual way as she was in the previous video, and the sexy choreography is simply wonderful. Colombian beauty mixes martial arts, wearing only a black lingerie, Shakira goes wild in a music video promoting her new single "Did It Again". The video opens with Shakira in a steam room, surrounded by many women who bear a striking resemblance to her. It then cuts to a dimly-lit bedroom where the singer, dressed in a black nightie, and a male dancer put on what has been deemed the hottest dance routine ever to take place on a bed. They are lovers, the images tell the viewer, and they're having a very violent fight but, at the same time, they're also very passionate about each other. It leaves the viewer with only one thing on their mind. Her hypnotic dance moves are enough to make a man leave everything he loves behind for a shot to be with her.
"Did It Again" follows her massive hit "She Wolf," which remained in the UK top five for five weeks. Not only that, her current album also entered the album chart at #4 making it Shakira's fastest selling album to date in the UK. Shakira boasts a string of chart-topping hits in both English and Spanish and sales of over 50 million records. The Latin pop has already won two Grammy Awards, seven Latin Grammy Awards, and has been Golden Globe-nominated. As music critics put it, Proving she's what critics call "a real entertainer." Shakira is one of the few Latin artists to have managed to keep alive an English-language music career, as they usually have a single hit record in English and then continue to release only materials in Spanish. To continue with the long line of massive musical acts, the British TV program "The X Factor" have landed Shakira to perform her new single "Did It Again" on Sunday November 15.

Jay-Z & Alicia Keys "Empire State Of Mind" Video

Mogul-rapper Jay-Z and Alicia Keys have officially premiered a inspirational music video on YouTube channel for their new collaboration and much talked about New York City anthem, "Empire State of Mind," which was released as the third single from the rapper's latest #1 album "The Blueprint 3", and features guest vocals from vocalist and songwriter Keys. The song is an anthemic ode to Jay-Z's and Keys's native New York City, featuring sampling of "Love on a Two-Way Street" by The Moments. It also contains elements of electropop and orchestra pop. The song was first showcased live on-stage during the 26th annual 2009 MTV Video Music Awards on September 13, and also the duo stole the show during Game 2 of the 2009 MLB World Series at Yankee Stadium on Thursday night.
In the midst of what could be the most detrimental Hip-Hop beef in his career, Jay-Z makes another powerhouse move. The highly anticipated clip for the hit record "Empire State of Mind" was directed by Hype Williams, filmed on October 1 in Harlem, Times Square and around Ground Zero of the Big Apple, and is artfully produced in black and white. The clip features both artists at their best and the imagery and cinematography is just as amazing as a result of Hype Williams direction. Not only highlights the majestic boroughs and surroundings of NYC for folks to visualize, but brings forth somewhat of a revitalization of the Empire state.
The joint track was produced by Shux and co-produced by Janet "Jnay" Sewell-Ulepic & Angela Hunte. The record features the dynamic vocals of R&B-soul songstress Keys, complimented with some choice words on life perspectives from Jay-Z himself. Some of his best collaborative work to date with vocalists. It's the city's image personified by Jay-Z's words, which manage to tap the core of those still wearing Timbs because, deep down, everyone wants to reach the level of opulence that he has. Jay-Z continues to redefine himself as the #1 Hip-Hop artist time and again, he just beat us there & seemingly left us behind. Yet, he reminds that he's still connected to the city that never sleeps by going back and describing the life that lives there day and night.