Pop star Beyonce Knowles was shocked when people assumed her hit Ring the Alarm was about her boyfriend JAY-Z and singer Rihanna.
Reports falsely linked the hip-hop mogul to 18-year-old SOS singer Rihanna when he signed her to his Island Def Jam record label.
Beyonce explains: “The rumours that Ring the Alarm is about Jay - those things don’t bother me as much because they’re so silly.
It’s kind of obvious, like certain things are just obviously not true. When things are not true, you just don’t really think about it.
“It’s amazing. When you’re a new artist (like Rihanna), people are curious.
“That just comes with being a beautiful girl and a celebrity. People try to link you up with everybody!”
Napster, the pioneer of digital music, today announced the winners of the “2006 Napster Awards,” the first awards to honor artists and songs for accomplishments in digital music.
Most-Played R&B Song “Unfaithful” by Rihanna
Most-Played Reggae Artist Sean Paul
Most-Played Reggae Song “Temperature” by Sean Paul
In contrast to other music industry awards, the Napster Awards are determined by the actual listening behavior of music fans who subscribe to Napster’s industry-leading subscription service and play over one billion songs each year. Presented to the artists and songs that enjoyed the highest number of plays in the service between December 1, 2005 and November 30, 2006, the Napster Awards illustrate that there is a significant difference between the music that sells the most and the music that’s played the most when fans are in an unlimited access music subscription environment.
The 2006 Napster Award for “Most-Played Artist” went to singer-songwriter Jack Johnson, whose mellow acoustic grooves were a huge hit among Napster’s half a million subscribers who played his music more than any other artist’s. The Napster Award for “Most-Played Song” went to the pop/punk single “Dance, Dance” from Chicago’s Fall Out Boy. Punctuating the difference between sales figures and subscriber plays, Jack Johnson, Napster’s most played artist, was not recognized by the 2006 Billboard Music Awards which track sales and radio airplay and “Dance, Dance,” Napster’s most played song, was not among the top 10 tracks sold on iTunes in 2006.
Napster subscribers have on-demand, unlimited access to over 3 million full-length songs for one monthly fee without paying a dollar a track, so their listening activities are a measure of the songs and artists they actively chose to play most over the past year. Napster calculated the total number of plays of each song and artist in its vast catalog over the past year in each of the five countries where it offers its PC-based service to determine the recipients of the 2006 Napster Awards. Napster also created categories that go beyond the mainstream in order to reflect the diversity of music that fans chose when they had the freedom to discover, explore and enjoy without limits.
Underscoring that diversity and recognizing the importance of unsigned artists to Napster’s subscribers, Napster is honoring Southern California Hip Hop artist Jadox for being the service’s “Most Played Self Published Artist.” Napster’s massive database revealed that Scott Joplin was the most played artist whose last recorded release was the longest time ago, earning the ragtime legend a posthumous “Unstoppable Artist” award. Napster is also honoring the artist that had the most substantial increase in plays year over year with the “Breakout Artist” award, earned this year by digital phenoms Arctic Monkeys.
“The Napster Awards provide insight into how music fans behave when they can listen to an enormous variety of music away from restrictive radio playlists, limited retail shelf space and 30-second clip, buck a track digital stores,” said Chris Gorog, chairman and CEO of Napster. “When consumers are given unlimited access to music and are freed from having to pay for each individual song in order to hear it, it’s interesting to see how this freedom changes what they want to actually listen to. We congratulate all of the 2006 Napster Award winners, and look forward to continuing to honor the music Napster subscribers enjoy playing the most.”
Rihanna joined the likes of Lionel Richie, Cat Stevens, Simply Red and Paulina Rubio on stage to perform at the concert celebrating the Nobel Peace Prize in Oslo, Norway. The concert was staged to honor winner Muhammad Yunus’ efforts to relieve poverty. The laureate’s daughter was also there to pay tribute.
Yanus joked with a crowd of around 7,000 that “I feel like I should get the Nobel Prize every year. It’s so much fun.”
“We thought we were going to eradicate hunger throughout the world,” Lionel Richie said, urging his fellow stars in Oslo to join him. “Now it’s 20 years later and we’re still discussing the same issue.”
R+B singer Rihanna has joined fellow singers Brandy and Queen Latifah as one of the faces representing CoverGirl cosmetics.
The 18-year-old Barbados-born beauty, whose mother was a professional make-up artist, will appear in ads beginning in the summer of 2007.
She explains, “I’ve loved make-up and dreamed of being a CoverGirl since I was a little girl.”
“Growing up, my mother was a make-up artist and I was fascinated watching her apply lip colour, blush and mascara.”
“Now I get to be surrounded by all of my favourites from CoverGirl!”
THE FAIRYTALE ride by Barbadian recording artiste, Rihanna, continued Monday night when she capped a year of triumphs with three top Billboard Awards.
The 18-year-old Def Jam artiste indirectly gave Barbados a birthday gift – less than a week after the 40th Independence anniversary – by winning Female Artist Of The Year, Female Hot 100 Artist and Pop 100 Artist at the Billboard Music Awards held in Las Vegas.
These follow recent wins at the MOBO Awards in London, MTV Awards in Europe and Japan, and an amazing three-week stint atop the Billboard charts in May.
Accompanied by her mother Monica Fenty, Rihanna triumphed over tough competition – including Mary J. Blige who stole the show with nine awards and Beyoncé – for the Female Artist title.
“I really can’t feel my legs; this is phenomenal,” she said in her acceptance speech, sentiments echoed by her production team, whose members spoke to the MIDWEEK NATION yesterday.
“It’s just another amazing chapter in this fairytale, and it’s only her second year in the industry,” said one member, while another added: “You’re not No. 1 until you’re No. 1 on Billboard. With the Grammys, for instance, there’s a lot of voting from major players in the music business, but Billboard is the choice of the people and is based on airplay, sales and chart positions.”
High-spirited
Celebration was equally high-spirited among Rihanna’s family and friends in Barbados, Connecticut and New York. Through cable television, her grandparents Lionel and Clara Brathwaite, uncles Leroy, Lester and Leslie Brathwaite, aunts Marjorie and Marcelle Allstrop, and brothers Rorey, 16, and Rajad, ten, watched her success with millions worldwide.
“I feel great. Sometimes I hear people say she’s lucky, but she’s blessed. We’re all lucky to be alive, but to reach certain levels of achievement you have to be blessed,” said Leroy, who said their prayers were constantly with the February-born teen.
“My parents and grandparents have served God all their lives, and everything that has happened to us is by divine force. We pray for her every day, and I even pray that God will use her for His glory,” added Leroy, also known in music circles as Daddy I-Roy.
LG Electronics MobileComm U.S.A., Inc. (LG Mobile Phones) announced that they are bringing together two global sensations, Chocolate by LG and Rihanna, to launch their new Chocolate color phones. Chocolate by LG in white, mint green and cherry red were recently introduced to consumers last month.
Rihanna was chosen as the brand ambassador for Chocolate by LG because she embodies what the Chocolate phone is all about. She is fresh, sexy, vibrant, and a style icon.
Rihanna will kick off her new role as brand ambassador by performing at a star-studded post Billboard Music Awards event, titled “The LG Chocolate Party” at Las Vegas’ newest nightspot, Moon Nightclub, in the Palms Resort and Casino.
Additionally, in between sets from DJ AM and DJ Mom Jeans (A.K.A. Danny Masterson), Rihanna will perform several of her hit singles for guests in this intimate venue. Celebrity attendees include Paris Hilton, Ludacris, Carmen Electra, Chingy, Nas, Nickelback, Three 6 Mafia, Blue October Ne-Yo, The Killers, Chris Brown, Bow Wow and Young Jeezy.
Chocolate by LG is a work of art – both in looks and features – with its sleek, ultra thin minimalist style and silky-smooth slide design, users will be lured in by Chocolate’s glowing red touch sensitive keypad. Chocolate is the ultimate mobile phone, loaded with a MP3 player, IM and email capabilities, speakerphone and all of the hottest features all packaged within a smooth slider design.
For more information on the chocolate by LG, please visit http://www.lgusa.com.
Rihanna and Beyonce put to rest any reports that they’re feuding at the WMA. Beyonce’s boyfriend, Jay-Z, has been plagued by rumors that he cheated on his Dreamgirl with Rihanna. “Rihanna and Beyonce were chatting backstage,” Eonline’s source says. “They couldn’t have been friendlier. Rihanna just doesn’t understand where those rumors came from.”
Ne-Yo, Rihanna and Cassie are among the artists who appear on the soundtrack to the movie Save The Last Dance 2, which is in stores now.
The soundtrack’s co-executive producer was Ne-Yo, who wrote most of its original songs including Watch U Dance.
The album includes tracks by some of today’s hottest R&B and hip hop artists, including Joe, Ruben Studdard, T-Pain, Pitbull, Ghostface Killah, Ryan Toby (formerly of City High,) as well as newcomers Debreca, Noel, Jalen, Jaiden, Candace Jones, and Boxie.
Save The Last Dance 2 was released straight to DVD on October 10. The story continues in New York as Sarah (Izabella Miko) is one step closer to realising her dream.
She’s put to the test when she finds herself torn between her talent for classical dance, her passion for the urban/hip-hop scene and a sexy musician called Miles (Columbus Short).
