I'm Back!

After a three month hiatus, I am returning to post all relevant music news! Hope you all are excited.

-SoulmusiK

Rihanna's "Rude Boy" Music Video Premiere

The world premiere of Rihanna's third single, "Rude Boy," for her album Rated R hit the web a moment ago. Directed by Melina Matsoukas, the video incorporates dance-hall elements to compliment the caribbean theme of the video and tone of the song.

This is by far the most valiant effort brought forth by Rihanna with this album in terms of music videos and shows the West Indian dancing and gyrating in suggestive and provocative moves, which actually enhance the video's fluidity. It has an authentic island feel to it and brings Rihanna close enough to her island roots to evoke 2005 memories when Rihanna was known as "that girl with the Pon-de-whatever song," but still reflects the boldness that this Rated R-era has ushered in. Great video, visually stimulating, aesthetically pleasing, and a definite A- or A in my book.

Sade to Debut at #1 on Billboard 200

After a 10 year hiatus, British R&B/Soul band Sade is expected to storm up the album charts in America, with Hits Daily Double predictions suggesting that 400,000-425,000 copies of their latest effort, Soldier of Love, will be purchased this week based on Tuesday sales.

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If that isn't great enough news for the band's FOURTH decade of music, the lead single and title track is performing phenomenally, currently at #29 on iTunes and currently rising. The album has been receiving acclaim from critics as some of their finest work to date.

I couldn't be more excited to see the success for their new album and the album maintains the earthy and mellifluent soul vibe that had ushered in their success from the 1980s, and clearly continues to this day. I will be posting an album review shortly. To purchase the album or the single from iTunes, click here.

UK Haiti Charity Single Shattering Records

What happens when you combine Simon Cowell and the UK's top pop stars in the midst of a natural disaster: a recipe for a record-shattering charity single which has proven to live up to the hype it has created. The remake of R.E.M.'s 1993 song "Everybody Hurts," which includes vocals from respected artists Leona Lewis, Rod Stewart, Mariah Carey, Mika, James Blunt, Jon Bon Jovi, Alexandra Burke and Susan Boyle amongst other huge names, was released a day early (Sunday) due to high demand and that push-up seems to be paying off.

The touching single has sold more than 200,000 copies of the single in its first two days of sales, and is on-pace to be one of the fastest selling singles of this century and perhaps of all time. All proceeds from the sales of the single will go directly to charities supporting relief efforts in Haiti.

The song will undoubtedly end up at number one the UK Singles Charts this upcoming week due to the remarkably strong sales and such success couldn't go be for a better cause.

"Rude Boy" Music Video Stills

Stills from the set of the music video for Rihanna's third U.S. single off of her platinum-certified album Rated R has been posted online by Def Jam showing the Bajan princess striking up an assortment of different poses in front of a green screen.

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The dance-hall queen inspired music video features Rihanna sporting different costumes intended to evoke a Caribbean mood and rhythm, which she has described as being "unlike" the other music videos from the Rated R era. This video is described to utilize a lot of color and visual effects, differing from the darker toned music videos that have accompanied the previous two singles.

Fashion-wise, the music video does look like it will be laying the fierceness on extra thick, the aesthetics look amazing, and the long brown hair from the pictures bring back memories of the pre-Good Girl Gone Bad Rihanna, with her heavy Bajan accent and undeniable island appeal.

The video will see its premiere Thursday, February 11th on RihannaVEVO, the YouTube channel for Rihanna music videos. I am quite excited!

Below are more images on the video set.

Lady Gaga Dedicates Tat to Her Fans

After taking home two Grammy awards and plowing through the year with hit after hit and album and after album, Lady Gaga decided to add a permanent message on herself to reflect her gratefulness and appreciation for her fanbase.

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The tattoo was needled on the singer's arm just one day after her Grammy wins, consisting of the words "Little Monsters," a nickname appointed by Gaga to her fans during her Fame Monster Ball tour this year. Hollywood's Shamrock Social Club tattoo parlor greeted the singer with the tattoo, which she posted on her twitpic page, with an attached message reading "look what I did last night. Little Monsters forever, on the arm I hold my mike." In music news, the video for "Telephone" has been shot and has received a premiere date of Febrary 10th (next Wednesday). For images on the scene, click here.

52nd Annual Grammy Awards Winners

Whether or not the 52nd Annual Grammy Awards was a referendum on male singers of the past year is debatable, but there is no debate as to which gender dominated the awards yesterday evening. With female artists doing their damage on most of the major awards, the ceremony was marked by a mixture of intriguing performances and record-breaking feats with Beyonce, Taylor Swift, The Black Eyed Peas, Jay-Z, Kings of Leon and Lady Gaga all taking home at least two awards for the night. But the ceremony was clearly dominated by two female artists who couldn't be any different musically.

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Beyonce emerged from the ceremony as the big winner in terms of the number of awards, winning a record-breaking six golden gramophones, the most trophies awarded by a female artist in one night. The most prestigious of the awards won by Beyonce was Song of the Year, in which the #1 hit single, "Single Ladies (Put a Ring on It)," received its due honor. When accepting her award for Best Female Pop Vocal Performance for "Halo," the nervous singer thanked her family and her husband, while expressing her amazement at the awards she has won.

While Beyonce may have taken home the most awards, some of the biggest awards of the night made for some record-breaking news. Country-pop sensation Taylor Swift took home the coveted Album of the Year award for her enormous hit album Fearless, which garnered the most sales of any album in 2009 and has spent an astounding 53 weeks within the Billboard 200 and counting. At 20 years old, she was the youngest artist to earn the ceremony's most prestigous award. The singer-songwriter was a winner of four awards and her appreciation and organic excitement was most evident upon accepting the two primetime televised awards she won.

Other big winners of the night included Kings of Leon, whose "Use Somebody" earned the Tennessee rock group three awards, including Record of the Year, while Jay-Z three awards, one for "D.O.A. (Death of Autotune)" and two for "Run This Town," sharing the latter two awards with R&B/pop singer Rihanna and a noticeably absent Kanye West. The Black Eyed Peas also took home three awards, including Pop Vocal Album. Lastly, dance queen Lady Gaga earned two awards at tonight's ceremony, taking home awards for Best Dance Recording for "Poker Face" and Best Electronic/Dance Album for The Fame.

The ceremony's performances were the highlights of the show, with Lady Gaga opening the ceremony, singing her hit song "Poker Face", before joining Sir Elton John on the piano with smeared black makeup on their faces adding to the performances artistic premise. Energetic and proof of her inherent talent, the performance was met with resounding applause and cheers from the crowd.

Beyonce took the stage to sing a mashup of her song "If I Were a Boy" and Alanis Morrissette's "You Oughta Know," while Pink paraded her mastery of trapeze artistry with a physically demanding performance of "Glitter in the Air" off of her album Funhouse. The Black Eyed Peas performed their hit song "I Gotta Feeling," but not before they energized the crowd with an abridged performance of their new single "Imma Be," which had raced to number one on iTunes shortly after the performance.

While the show included many more performances, the 3-D glasses-assisted Michael Jackson tribute, which included vocals from Michael Jackson in "Earth Song" and additional vocals contributed by singers Usher, Smokey Robinson, Celine Dion, Carrie Underwood and Jennifer Hudson, was one of the highlights and most highly anticipated performance of the night.

The ceremony lasted about 3 hours and 30 minutes.