Hot Music Beat

Season 7 of American Idol may have the most talented group since the inception of the show – though that’s what they always say every season – but it hasn’t helped with the ratings any. The ratings are so down that the show is finding some new ways to get the cash to roll in. In a first, FOX is partnering with iTunes to offer Idol fans the opportunity to download the performances, both in audio and video format, of all the contestants the days after the show airs. Here’s a bit of my mind for FOX: no one would buy into this ploy. This is what TiVo and YouTube are for.

If you’re still in doubt, the 2007 American Music Awards held on Sunday should be all the proof you need that 2007 is the year of Rihanna. Not only did she rock the red carpet, she also rocked her performance and took some awards home while she’s at it.

Rihanna did a medley of two of her hits ‘Umbrella’ and ‘Hate That I Love You’. She performed a classical rendition of ‘Umbrella’ complete with the whole string section. Then, Ne-Yo came out to perform their duet. Later on in the night, the Barbados hottie picked up Favorite Female soul/R&B Artist beating out Beyonce and Fantasia.

Harry Connick Jr. walked through the Bourbon Street jazz club where he performed as a child, saying repeatedly how amazed he is that so little has changed.

“It’s exactly the same,” the singer-pianist said Wednesday at the Maison Bourbon, where more than 30 years ago he performed on piano with the Dixieland jazz band. “I remember the smell of Irish coffee in here. That’s what people liked to drink in here back then.”

Connick was elated to see the painting of a group of musicians marching through the French Quarter still hanging on the wall. He said he has a deep appreciation for much of what has remained intact in New Orleans since Katrina struck on Aug. 29, 2005, flooding 80 percent of his hometown.

Connick’s childhood home in the Lake view neighborhood was badly damaged by floodwater when the city’s levee system failed during Katrina. On Tuesday, he discovered the house had been demolished.

“It’s just an empty lot,” he said. “It’s sad because for me there’s a lot of sentimental value, but it’s good too because it means progress. It means that things are going to change.”

On Wednesday, the Maison Bourbon served as a gathering place for Connick, who turned 40 Tuesday, and a handful of residents from the Musicians Village — the project Connick launched with saxophonist Branford Marsalis after Hurricane Katrina to help displaced musicians.

Connick said the city’s recovery from Katrina has been painstakingly slow, but he is trying to stay positive.

“I try to focus on the good more than anything else, because there’s not much I can do about all the bad stuff,” he said. “The thing I think I can do better than anything else is keep the awareness in front of people and remind people how much work still needs to be done.”

Connick and members of Habitat for Humanity break ground Thursday on the multi-million-dollar Ellis Marsalis Music Center, named for the jazz pianist and patriarch of the Marsalis family. The center will include a performance hall and practice rooms and serve as a place for musicians of different ages and genres to mingle.

“It will ensure there will be a physical place where young musicians can go to learn from older musicians,” Connick said.

Avril´s performance of Girlfriend on teen choice awards 2007. She got it as the best vídeo 4 Girlfriend…
Avril Lavigne – Girlfriend, live teen choice awards

MTV may have lost Lily Allen’s performance due to her visa issues but that wouldn’t stop the fun from spreading. MTV has announced a whole new slew of additional performer’s for this year’s Video Music Awards which would air on September 9.

Added to the existing line up of Timbaland, Kanye West, Fall Out Boy, Chris Brown, Amy Winehouse, The Foo Fighters and Rihanna are Nelly Furtado, Gym Class Heroes, Lil’ Wayne, T-Pain, Cee-Lo and Daniel Merriweather.

Timbaland serves not only as a performer but also as the ‘maestro’ in charge of creating show-stopping artist collaborations. With the list that MTV has, collaborations will no doubt be just that.

Singer, actress, fashion designer – Jennifer Lopez’s diverse career and talents have made her one of the biggest stars in the world and the nation’s most influential Hispanic celebrity. To that impressive resume, she can now add Hollywood producer. “El Cantante,” a biopic about salsa legend Hector Lavoe that will be released on August 3, is the first movie from her production company, Nuyorican Productions. It also stars her husband, singer Mark Anthony, with the woman known as “J.Lo” playing his on-screen wife, Puchi. Lopez and Anthony had dated more than 10 years ago and were married in 2004 — his second marriage and her third. But Lopez said that she had decided to cast him as Lavoe shortly after she first got the script for the movie five years ago, before they had started dating again. Well this is nice to see that she wanted to cast him in the movie, this show that she has the right recipe to make her movie a box office damp squib. Like he is not a proven Hollywood actor and if she wants to be successful as a producer she better have the right guys performing. WHAT YOU SAY, AH!