Ms. Scott
starts her 1st US tour
After touring the UK at least 3
times,
Hidden Beach/Epic new soul diva
Jill Scott
has at last planned to hit the
road on her first official U.S. tour, so reports Billboard.com. Ms.
Scott's debut CD, "Who
Is Jill Scott? Words And Sounds, Vol. 1,"
has garnered her 3 Grammy Awards, 3 Soul Train Music Awards and 2 Brit
Award nominations and has sold close to 700,000 copies of her album in
the U.S. alone.
Her tour, which kicked off this
past Saturday (1/27) in Atlanta will also take her to Baltimore,
Atlantic City, Boston, Norfolk, Oakland, Solana Beach, CA, Las Vegas and
will wrap up at Los Angeles' Universal Amphitheater February
22.
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Jill Scott, D'Angelo and
Carl Thomas amoung leaders of Soul Train Music Awards Nominees.
Speaking of
Jill
Scott, she,
alongside D'Angelo,
R. Kelly, and
Carl Thomas
lead the nominations bid
for the 15th annual Soul Train Music Awards
with three nods
each, so reports Billboard Bulletin. Other notables include Jagged
Edge, Lucy
Pearl, Mary
Mary,
and
Eminem each with two.
Jay-Z and Destiny's Child -- whose
"Independent Women Part I" is nominated for Best R&B/Soul
single by a Group, Band, or Duo -- will share the Sammy Davis Jr. Award
for entertainer of the year.
Ronald Isley will receive the
Quincy Jones
Award for career achievement.
The awards, determined by a panel of radio programmers, artists, and
retailers and are based on chart positions in national trade
publications. The syndicated show will be hosted by Queen
Latifah,
Mya, and "Soul Train" host
Shemar Moore. It will be taped Feb.
28 at Los Angeles' Shrine Auditorium for a later broadcast in various
other markets.
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Jennifer Lopez
takes record sales and movie sales by storm.
Who would of thought that she
would have the No.1 movie and album in the country all in the same week
but with her latest flick "The Wedding Planner
" No. 1 in U.S. theaters, she now has the top album in the country to match.
Jennifer Lopez's sophomore Epic album "J.
Lo" debuts at No. 1
on The Billboard 200 on the strength of more than 272,000 units sold,
according to SoundScan. therefore ending the eight-week run atop
of the stack for the
Beatles "1" (Apple/Capitol) collection, which drops
to No. 4.
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Aaliyah joins
'The Matrix' sequal cast, new album set for April release.
R&B songstress
Aaliyah
is on
her way to Australia this coming March to begin shooting the first of
two sequels to the box-office sleeper thriller "The
Matrix,"
according to the Hollywood Reporter. Her character's name will be Zee in
the films.
Like it's predecessor, both sequels will be directed by Larry
and
Andy
Wachowski and stars Keanu Reeves, Carrie-Anne Moss, Laurence
Fishburne,
and Hugo Weaving.
Filming on the third "Matrix" project will
begin as soon as production on the second is completed. Part two is
tentatively scheduled to hit theaters in the summer of next year.
Having made her film debut in last year's "Romeo Must Die",
her
song "Try Again," from the film's soundtrack, is nominated for
a best female R&B vocal performance Grammy. and the track became the
first ever to reach No. 1 on The Billboard Hot 100 without being released
as a commercial single. Her new, as-yet-untitled album is set for an April 24
release on Blackground/Virgin. Among the tracks will be the first single
"Loose Rap," "Never No
More," and "Steady
Ground."
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Bobby Womack returns
with a new album of new material.
The man's career has spanned the
better part of 3 decades and now hes
just put the finishing touches on a brand new album entitled Left Handed Upside
Down.
It features contributions from
Chaka Khan,
Teena Marie,
Gerald
Levert and - yea would you believe it -
Snoop Dogg!
The album is a departure from his
last release 'Back to my
Roots',
his first gospel set that
featured 3 songs done originally by mentor Sam
Cooke,
along side
Motherless Child,
and A Hundred Pounds of
Clay.
A tentative
date is set for late spring.