Beyoncé performed at tonight’s MTV Europe Music Awards in Berlin, Germany. The singer took to the stage in a daring red bodice and garters to perform her hit single ‘Sweet Dreams’. Shortly, the world premiere of her new music video for ‘Video Phone’, starring Lady Gaga will be screened live to 532 million viewers watching live around the world. Whilst we wait patiently, here is the performance:

I’m completely bamboozled.

As the performance ended so abruptly, can we even call this a performance? From what I saw of it, the lady in red did good. The choreography was solid, vocals were flawless and I liked her little breakdown towards the end. The performance itself was slow to start off with so I felt that maybe the audience could not be engaged as much as they could have been.

Beyonce, who was at the ceremony with rapper husband Jay-Z picked up the EMA for Best Song for ‘Halo’. She beat Lady Gaga’s ‘Poker Face’ and David Guetta and Kelly Rowland’s ‘When Love Takes Over’ to the prize.

Her former Destiny’s Child pal had a bigger song in Europe I think but ‘Halo’ IS a better track so I guess it’s well deserved.

UPDATE: As I type this, the show is still airing and Beyonce has just won the gong for Best Female.

Wooo! These Mariah Carey updates sure are coming in thick and fast. Peep some new photos of the singer on the set of her new music video for ‘H.A.T.E U’. The video, as reported previously, is being directed by Brett Ratner and took place yesterday on Malibu Beach in Los Angeles, California:

I’m not going to say the infamous ‘f’ word because her body is realistic for a woman of almost 40 and to be honest with you, she does not look bad at all. But let’s just say she needs to preserve better judgement for choosing things that accentuate her curves a little bit better. I’ve posted her Larry King interview after the jump.

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Good Morning America showed a snippet of Rihanna’s interview with Diane Sawyer a short while ago. In the interview, she spoke out about the night her then-boyfriend Chris Brown beat her up, saying it was “humiliating” and “traumatizing” to admit the assault took place and that it was “wrong” that she went back to him afterwards. Peep the clip below:

Rihanna looked like she expressed herself extremely well in the interview. In fact, she was so emotional, she was close to tears. The full interview will air on ‘20/20′ at 10 p.m. E.T. Friday, Nov 6th. Rihanna finally speaks out and becomes the voice to all the young girls who have encountered domestic abuse. Something not to be missed.

We didn’t think it would happen but it has. Amerie finally managed her very first TV performance to promote new album ‘In Love & War’, which was released this week. Amerie took to the stage on Wendy Williams to perform her second single ‘Heard Em All’. Watch the performance below:

I liked it.

Amerie has never been much of a technical dancer so she did what she could with the limited choreography. I liked the end part when she was wildly thrashing around that gorgeous (and very real) hair of hers (Beyonce will be proud).

Now about her poor promotion. I feel bad for her because this was meant to be her week, and she got totally eclipsed by label mate Rihanna(not that I’m complaining because I’m loving it, but I don’t agree that Amerie had to suffer in the process).

It’s such a lowdown dirty shame that today is Thursday and we’ve only seen one televised performance. I know Amerie isn’t pleased with Def Jam especially since her album was late for itunes availability (she complained about this on her Twitter). ‘In Love & War’ is in my top 5 for best R&B album of the year and sadly, I just can’t see her getting good first week sales.

Meanwhile, check out her ‘Complex’ spread:

Hotness. That first picture is absolute fire.

Call this post a Janet Jackson haven, but Ms Janet sure is serving up the goods and is back on her grind with the heavy comeback trail. I don’t even know what I should report on first. There is just too much to post on so I’m going to break this post down in different parts. I’ll start with the:

‘WHY DID I GET MARRIED TOO’ TRAILER

The trailer for Tyler Perry’s ‘Why Did I Get Married Too’ aired on Entertainment Tonight last night. Janet stars in the sequel to 2007’s box office smash ‘Why Did I Get Married’ and is scheduled to be released in April 2010. Peep the trailer below:

Sadly for Janet, she was on the movie set when she was informed about the passing of her King of Pop brother Michael in June. Amazingly enough, Janet was back on the set three weeks later to continue shooting the movie. Janet’s scenes look really good! I actually watched the first movie and surprisingly enjoyed it (moreso for Jill Scott’s performance), so I’ll definetely be checking this one!

UPCOMING TELEVISION APPEARANCES/PERFORMANCES

Janet will be performing on the UK’s X Factor on Dec 6th! On that very same date, she will be headlining the Jingle Bell Ball in London’s 02 Arena. It has also been confirmed this week that an hour-long Janet Jackson primetime special will air on November 18th via ABC. The special will air one day after her forthcoming ‘Number Ones’ compilation is released in the United States. Janet will sit down with ABC’s Robin Roberts which will be filmed in her Malibu home. Then to top it off she is rumoured to be performing at The American Music Awards on Nov 22nd. Until we get official confirmation, treat this strictly as rumour. Everything else I’ve just reported is 100% official.

UPCOMING MUSIC VIDEO FOR ‘MAKE ME’

Moving along to the next big piece of Janet news. The music video for ‘Make Me’ was filmed this week with Robert Hales serving as the video director. The song is lifted from Janet’s ‘Number Ones’ compilation. If you’re not familiar with the work of Hales, he is a graphic designer and music video director from the United Kingdom and has directed music videos for artists such as The Veronicas (‘Everything I’m Not’), Scissor Sisters (‘Kiss You Off’), Snow Patrol (‘Open Your Eyes’), Justin Timberlake (‘LoveStoned/I Think She Knows’), Britney Spears’ (‘Break The Ice’), Nine Inch Nails (‘Starsuckers, Inc.’) and Gnarls Barkley (‘Crazy’, ‘Smiley Faces’). This will be the first time Hales has worked with Janet. So we should be seeing a music video before the year is out. I can’t wait!

NEW PARTNERSHIP WITH A&M/INTERSCOPE

Janet was pictured last month with the president of Interscope/A&M Records at the Staples Center UFC Fight:

Secrecy surrounds her new partnership with A&M/Interscope but all looks set to be made official before years end. Here’s hoping Janet gets a much better deal at her new label.

RODNEY ‘DARKCHILD’ JERKINS SPEAKS ON NEW ‘2010′ JANET ALBUM ONCE AGAIN

In a new interview with Singersroom, Rodney ‘Darkchild’ Jerkins has said that in the studio they are targeting Janet’s old sound while trying to incorporate new sounds too from around the world. He also reveals that one track he is working on with Janet is “African inspired”:

Singersroom: In regards to Janet Jackson’s new album, what new direction are we going to see?

Rodney Jerkins: We’re really playing around and trying to really target her fans. You know old school Janet is what we as fans knew her as, so we’re really trying to target that sound. While still trying to mix it in with something new; be able to touch it to different world types of sound like: Brazilian music, Latin music, you know just different sounds from around the world; there’s one that’s African inspired. Just real high energy for Janet, some soul…it’s a real tight project.

Interesting.

Trey Songz finally premieres his new music video for latest single ‘I Invented Sex’ off his latest album ‘Ready’. The explicit visual sees Trey and his woman getting up to some steamy antics in the bedroom. Watch the black and white video below:

The video looked cheap and was definetely on that recession budget. Call me a prude but it didn’t interest me at all and was very predictable. Maybe because I’ve seen better quality videos of a similar nature (Usher’s ‘Trading Places’, Eric Benet’s ‘Chocolate Legs’, etc). Shhhh, don’t tell nobody but I could have done a better QUALITY softcore porno with MY man.

Mariah Carey’s new remix song, the Trey Songz-assisted ‘Inseparable’ has finally surfaced. The track is lifted from her ‘Memoirs of An Imperfect Angel remix’ album. And now you can listen to the new remix below:

The clappy midtempo joint does not detract too much from the original but Trey adds a nice touch to the song. I’m not that fussed about a remix album, if I am completely honest. It just seems like a waste of time and money. Rather than spending more of that limited budget on new remixes, she should be concentrating on her original ‘Memoirs’ project, the one that is fast disappearing into oblivion.

Then again, I might have spoken too soon because it has just been confirmed that video director Brett Ratner (who previously constructed her previous videos ‘It’s Like That’, ‘Heartbreaker’, ‘Touch My Body’ and ‘We Belong Together’) will direct her forthcoming music video for her third single ‘H.A.T.E.U’. Don’t even ask me what is going on with the music video for the Hype Williams-directed ‘I Want To Know What Love Is’. I guess in time, we’ll be seeing it eventually.

Meanwhile, MC appeared on The Ellen Degeneres Show yesterday to promote and discuss a couple of projects (music, Precious, new fragrance, and pretty much the same ole subjects expected in an MC interview). Watch the interview after the jump, as well as my added 2 pence.

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Another new promo photo for Rihanna’s new album ‘Rated R’ surfaced today. The vibrant picture was shot by famed photographer Ellen von Unwerth who also photographed her dark-natured black and white album cover. Peep the fierce new photo below:

Picture source.
At last I can say there’s colour and some light at the end of her musical tunnel. All of this darkness was getting a bit much. Meanwhile, I’ve posted her ‘Glamour’ spread after the jump and…

I look at these drop dead gorgeous photos which were shot by Matthias Vriens-McGrath and then I look at the new promo video for her Good Morning America interview (inside), and I have to say how horrible the blonde mullet looks. In promo shots (like the one above), it doesn’t look that bad. With a considerate amount of airbrushing, anything can look like perfection. But once you see unairbrushed visuals, it’s messy.

Usually, her wacky hair styles are ones that she can pull off flawlessly. Yet, folk would be appointing us to the nearest mental institution should we be audacious enough to attempt them. Not even Rihanna can grace her stylish magic on such a disastrous look.

Ditch! Now!

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A new song from Alicia Keys‘ forthcoming new album ‘The Element of Freedom’ (out on Dec 15th) has now surfaced in snippet form. The track is titled ‘Dreaming’, and now you can listen to the HQ 35-sec snippet below:

It might only be 35 seconds but I’m totally loving how the dreamy ballad is sounding. Her vocals are flawless especially when she’s not singing out of range. This could easily have been lifted from her debut album ‘Songs In A Minor’. The overall vibe is reminding me so much of ‘Butterfliez’. I am glad we are finally getting back some of oldschool Alicia because much of her soulfulness was watered down with the last album, and now she’s bringing back that fire.

Update: The song will serve as a B-side for the UK release of ‘Doesn’t Mean Anything’. Thanks guys.

Urban magazine Vibe temporarily came to an end back in June, but now it’s being revived, both online and in print. The first edition of the new print Vibe will feature Chris Brown on the cover. The other half will feature rapper Drake. The print edition of the magazine is due to hit stands Dec 8th, the same day as his new album ‘Graffiti’. Breezy announced via his official twitter site that his album has been pushed forward and will no longer drop on Dec 15th. This is NOT the Vibe cover, but a sneak peak. Check it out below:

Everybody is running away from Dec 15th today. Now he’ll be competing with HIS biggest competitor Usher.

Not that I’m doubting Breezy’s selling power, because he has proven that he actually still has it. Whether you still loathe him or love him, people are still interested in what he has to bring to the table this time.

Breezy looks like he’s in it for the long haul and there’s not a damn thang you or anyone else can do about it.

Mary J Blige has pushed back her forthcoming album ‘Stronger’ to December 22nd (Christmas week). The album was originally slated for Nov 20th before moving to Dec 15th, and now Dec 22nd. The album’s lead single, the Drake-assisted ‘The One’ only peaked at #63 on the Hot 100. Now word has it that she is targeting the Ryan Leslie-produced ‘Said & Done’ as the follow-up.

It could be a strategic play to benefit from those Christmas sales. Or another cop-out simply because she does not want to compete with her biggest competitor Alicia Keys. But since Christmas is gift season, it might just be a gamble that pays off. Whatever happened to some exciting diva-on-diva competition? Booo!

The second episode of Monica’s new reality show ‘Still Standing’ aired last night on BET. I have BET at home but I didn’t watch it as I had to go somewhere. I did catch it eventually. And to those that didnt, you can watch the full episode below:

This episode shows us the dedicated church girl Monica truly is and the connection that she has with the fans.

Monica is gorgeous. As a person, it’s very hard not to like her. She came across as really sweet and sincere. Not many artists would go out of their way to meet the fans that couldn’t get into their show, but Monica did. Some artists treat their fans like sh*t and would not have even bothered. I hope her new album does really well.

Anyway, here’s some good news. Last week’s episode pulled in 3.2 million viewers! Massive congrats Monica!