Hot Music Beat

Stone Temple Pilots lead singer Scott Weiland suffered a seizure while flying from Los Angeles to Miami last Friday night. The rock star, who has reportedly had a history of seizures, was on an American Airlines flight when the seizure occurred. The plane was forced to make an emergency landing at Dallas Fort Worth International Airport where Scott was rushed to the hospital for “precautionary measures”. He insisted on continuing on to Miami where Scott debuted his ‘Weiland for English Laundry’ line on Saturday night. Mind you, he even took the stage to perform just under 24 hours since his seizure.

Universal Music Publishing Group (UMPG) has just announced that they will be renewing Mariah Carey’s contract in an exclusive worldwide publishing agreement. The diva is sure to make millions by signing the contract with the company which will continue to publish Mariah’s songs and future records. In a statement, the Chairman and CEO of UMPG David Renzer said “Mariah Carey is well known for her incredible voice, but we also celebrate her incredible strength as a songwriter and the fact that she has co-written most of her best known songs.” He also mentions how honored they are that Mariah agreed to renew her contract.

America’s most famous trio of virgins, The Jonas Brothers, performed for 750 shrieking fans at Kimball Middle School in Elgin, Illinois on Friday morning. 15-year old Nick, 18-year old Joe and 20-year old Kevin want kids to eat healthy so they announced their new breakfast initiative with Breakfast Breaks. One lucky winner will get the chance to get to star with the brothers in a national commercial. Kevin says “Breakfast Breaks is an awesome product that is a nutritious way to make sure kids eat breakfast every morning so we are really excited to be working together with them on this initiative. Our fans always surprise us with how creative they are, so this contest will be awesome. We can’t wait to meet the winner.”

Much like John Mayer, country singer Carrie Underwood is aware of the power of YouTube. The American Idol alum has launched her very own YouTube page at YouTube.com/CarrieUnderwood. Check the page every so often for more updates which may include some footage from backstage at the Opry from last Sunday.

And unlike Oprah who prevents embedding on her YouTube channel, Carrie’s videos are embeddable-friendly. That is how you win fans over – when you give them what they want. Carrie is such a sweetheart for doing that! I wonder if she’ll be posting any personal videos and video blogs too. Now that will be something.

A lot of celebrities chose to party the night away in celebration of 2008 but Madonna chose to celebrate it differently. The singer has been enjoying a low-key holiday since she and her family arrived in India from the Maldives on a chartered jet on December 31.

On Thursday, Madonna and family went on a two-hour horse ride in the Rajasthani desert. “Madonna spent New Year’s Eve with her family at a wilderness camp in the desert,” said Siddarth Singh, whose family owns the nearby Rohetgarh Fort and helped organized the entertainment which included traditional Rajasthani dance, folk music and even a dancing horse show.

Disney’s newest singing sensations comprised of 20-year old Kevin, 18-year old Joe and 15-year old Nick, collectively known as the Jonas Brothers, know no rest. After rocking in the New Year on Dick Clark’s Rockin’ New Year’s Eve Party the night prior, they get mobbed by dozens of fans on Tuesday as they make their way to their limo outside New York City’s Trump Hotel at Columbus Circle. What a way to spend New Year’s Day.

The trio of brotherly singers actually left New York to catch a flight to California as they are going to be in Sacramento for a Verizon in-store signing and performance at the Verizon Store.

When in Rome, do as the Romans do. And that’s what singer Shakira and her long-time boyfriend Antonio dela Rua did when they chose to spend a romantic holiday on Saturday in Rome. The lovely couple hired a guide to show them around the city. They saw Popolo Square, Campidoglio, the Forum ruins, the Pantheon, Hadrian’s Village and the Capitolini and Barberini Museums.

Shakira is a UNICEF (United Nations Children’s Fund) Goodwill Ambassador and visited Bangladesh recently and met with women and children whose lives have been affected by Cyclone Sidr. She deserves the romantic vacation that she’s on.

Jonas Brothers will be taking the stage at Dick Clark’s New Years Rockin’ Eve! Nick, Kevin, and Joe are set to join Miley Cyrus and Carrie Underwood during this year’s bash live in Times Square. The party ushering in 2008 will be hosted by Dick Clark and Ryan Seacrest.

Rihanna’s hit single ‘Umbrella’ has been the biggest single of the year which merited a lot of covers from different artists representing different genres. It’s actually the most covered single of 2007. It’s so big that even Rihanna has done her own cover of her own song!

Rihanna actually went back in to the studio and recorded an amazing acoustic version of the song. Her acoustic version features a new arrangement and even a few added lyrics. It’s incredible! Maybe this would be the end of the ‘Umbrella’ covers. It’s already gone back to where it all started – Rihanna herself.

Please check out the new video for the infectious track “All Over You” from The Spill Canvas. The song can be heard on their Sire Records debut No Really, I’m Fine.

Youtube: youtube.com/watch?v=DV3tLQ2uGzs

Fans now have the opportunity to follow Ashley through an intimate behind-the-scenes look at the making of Headstrong. These 45 minutes of exclusive nonstop footage give a glimpse into Ashley’s hectic life including promoting her album and touring with the High School Musical cast. The DVD also contains a three song video trilogy featuring songs the “He Said She Said”, “Not Like That” and “Suddenly” from her album Headstrong. Ashley has been busy promoting the DVD with a cross-country mall tour sponsored by Red by Marc Ecko.

The video for the first single off of Headstrong, “He Said, She Said,” has become a Youtube sensation with nearly 5 million views. It also reached #1 status on MTV’s TRL countdown thanks to the support of Ashley’s fans.

“He Said, She Said” video:

Beyonce was snapped giving a warm hug to a hanbok-clad (traditional national costume) girl who brought her bouquets of flowers at Incheon Airport on Thursday in Seoul, South Korea.

The singer is scheduled to play her first set of concerts ever in Korea on the 9th and 10th of November as part of her B’Day World Tour. Before jetting off to Korea, Beyonce also performed at a concert in the Philippines where she played to a sold out crowd at the Fort Bonifacio Open Field in Metro Manila.

I’m guessing that the only reason people are still fawning over her in other places is because she’s from some place other than theirs and their not being saturated with her stuff.

The Plain White T’s new video for “Our Time Now” makes its premiere today on MySpace. The follow up to international smash hit “Hey There Delilah” from Every Second Counts can be seen Here:

You can also catch Plain White T’s on tour with Fall Out Boy, Gym Class Heroes and Cute Is What We Aim For on the Young Wild Things tour.

Check out Armor for Sleep’s new video for “Williamsburg” off of their new album Smile For Them that hit stores today. Fans can rock out to the stand-out track while getting a lesson in Hipster 101 from the band. “Williamsburg” is currently available for voting on MTV’s TRL at mtv.com/ontv/dyn/trl/TRLvoting.jhtml.
Smile For Them is out now on Sire Records.

YOUTUBE LINK:

URL: youtube.com/watch?v=JA4W1EwtyRM

The Plain White T’s along with 30 other bands across the country will Rock for Darfur in an effort to aid the United Nation’s effort in what’s said to be “the world’s greatest humanitarian crisis.” A portion of ticket sales from the Plain White T’s November 10th show in Bridgeport, CT will go directly to the Rock For Darfur cause. To see what you can do to help, find a concert near you to go to on November 10th. Go to myspace.com/rockfordarfur for more information.

Rap star 50 Cent said that if he didn’t beat Kanye West in terms of record sales when their new releases came head to head, he would retire. Well, Kanye beat him and there’s still no retirement announcement from 50.

It seems that 50 found a way around his retirement saying to Gatecrasher that his album “was No. 1 internationally the week it came out. It was the No. 1 European album!” Apart from teaching us how to go back on our word, 50 also teaches us a good geography lesson.

But if you want to get technical, he does have a point. He did beat Kanye to the top spot on the album and singles chart in Europe.

Blake Lewis is the popular runner-up on the sixth season of American Idol. Born in Redmond, Washington, Lewis started singing at age five and competed in statewide talent contests while in high school. He became a beat-boxer at 17, inspired by the then Seattle-based a cappella group M-Pact. I love the single. It was everything I expected. And what’s more he looks cute too, so that all makes for an interesting new superstar in the making. I also like it when there are newer people on the horizon to replace the old sagging music artist that have been around for eternity and never with of retiring from the music scene. It’s kinda always refreshing to see new kids on the block trying to make a name for them in this bloody shit cut-throat mouth wagging all but insulting world.

You know you love Ricky Martin, that Latin heartthrob who blew onto the scene and sung to us about “Livin’ La Vida Loca” and won himself countless female fans in the process. Thanks to this great performer, you can rest assured that you are going to be in for an awesome showcase when Ricky Martin open the 8th annual Latin Grammy Awards. He will also be hosting with some help from the Blue Man Group and there will be plenty of other artists at this scenario too.There are various other artists who will perform in this awards ceremony including the likes of Ivy Queen, Andrea Boccelli, Pepe Aguilar, Miguel Bose, Call 13 and Cunjunto Primavaera as well as Juan Luis Gerra. Other artists will join in on these festivities taking place at the Mandalay Bay Events Center in Las Vegas including Intocable, La Quinta Estacion, Orishas and Jesse & Joy among others.

Don’t risk missing out on this great event, make sure you get yourself tickets

Australian country music star Keith Urban is on the cover of the upcoming issue of People magazine. In the interview that accompanies the cover, Keith admits that he “wouldn’t be here without [wife Nicole Kidman]. He apparently credits his music and Nicole for getting him through the roughest year of his life.

Keith also just turned 40 this past Friday. Wife Nicole threw a party at their favorite Bondi restaurant, Icebergs. A guest list of 45 family and friends included the likes of Hugh Jackman and his wife and director Bas Luhrmann.

This past Sunday also saw Keith dedicate his ARIA award to Nicole during his acceptance speech.

As its title suggests, this balls-to-the-wall album finds Kid Rock latching onto the verities of sex, drugs and rock & roll as a path to redemption — both his and the country’s. He’d never admit it, but hurt over losing Pamela Anderson fuels his appetite for salvation. She’s the target of the hilarious country romp “Half Your Age,” which proclaims Rock’s new girlfriend to be “half your age and twice as hot.”

Rock shows his wistful side, too. “All Summer Long” takes its inspiration from “Night Moves,” by Bob Seger (Kid’s Michigan idol), mashing up the piano lick from “Werewolves of London” with bits of “Sweet Home Alabama” for a story of sexual awakening. It’s stirring stuff. And “Amen” imports a gospel choir to denounce religious hypocrisy, racism and pointless soldiers’ deaths in Iraq. There’s straight country, hard-edged rock, big soul balladry and rhymes declaimed over metal guitar. Throughout, Kid Rock extends the Seger-Mellencamp tradition of heartland rock — its swagger as well as its vulnerability — into a new era.

Kid Rock is the first to admit that he’s “no saint” — his immortal couplet (from “So Hott”), “I don’t want to be your friend/ I want to fuck you like I’m never gonna see you again,” amply makes that point. But his good-hearted faith in rock & roll delivers a powerful kick. As he well knows — and Rock N Roll Jesus proves — roaring guitars, truckloads of attitude and an unquenchable lust for life make up for a multitude of sins.