NEW TIFFANY EVANS PROMO’S // NEW ALBUM ENTITLED ‘PONYTAIL KRUSH’…..

It was only earlier this year that 16-year-old Tiffany Evans released her self-titled debut album. I even did a review for it. With lukewarm sales and lack of promotion, Tiffany has been given a second chance to come correct. She will release her sophomore album ‘Ponytail Krush’ in the first quarter of 2009. Here are some brand new promo’s for the new album:

Here’s what she says can be expected from the forthcoming project:

“When I sat down with my manager and the record label, I told them I did not want to be limited in the type of songs I recorded this time around. I want to make music for everyone. I describe this album like turning a radio dial and no matter what type of music the station plays, you can find a Tiffany Evans record on the playlist”.

I think it’s cool she wants to experiment with her sound outside of the commercial R&B-pop she’s known for but can’t see anyone taking her seriously with an album title like ‘Ponytail Krush’. Apparently, she came up with the name because: “Anybody can wear a ponytail. No matter the age, male or female—ponytails are for everybody—just like my music is for everybody”. Hmmmm….It sounds like the title of a poem written by a 13-year-old school girl. Variation is definetely good and I’m all for new music from the fiercly talented Ms Evans.

R&B SINGERS OUT & ABOUT // ROSCI SUSPENDED FROM 106…..

After Mya caused uproar little over a week ago back in Barbados, the 28-year-old was back at events looking absolutely stunning last night. She was seen at Marquee Nightclub:

I love those sophisticated curls and the way she works the HELL out of a dress. ANY dress for that matter. Mya was certainly on fire that day. Go girl!

When you get over a split, you chill out with pals and that’s exactly what Cassie did after she confirmed her split with Diddy recently. The 21-year-old was seen having lunch at Bar Pitti in NYC’s West Village with her girlfriends yesterday:

Did she hire Rihanna‘s stylist or something? Rihanna has a similar T-Shirt and Nike high tops. Cute.

Last night, Aubrey from Danity Kane attended the Vitamin Water In Style with the Best in Baseball and Music event:

Next!

It seems 106 & Park are getting a series of new female R&B co-hosts for the week, after Rosci walked out last week. As previously reported Rosci walked off the set after Terence humiliated her live on air. Yesterday’s co-host was R&B singer Keri Hilson. The newest co-host is R&B chick Tiffany Evans:

She interviewed rapper LL Cool J who was also a guest on the show. As for the Rosci situation, Internet reports claim she has been suspended for a week for walking off the set and not returning. That’s really unfair considering that Terrence was the one who did all the insulting and acted unprofessionally, so if anyone should have been suspended, it should have been him. She may as well have told him to kiss her ass on air if that were the case. I know I would have.

Yesterday, Usher attended the 4th Annual Camp New Look at the The Georgia Tech campus in Atlanta, GA:

He says his wife is NOT envious of his legions of female fans, insisting she understands it is these women who buy his records. He also claims she has since adjusted to the fact her husband has scores of amorous female admirers. He explains, “Tameka doesn’t mind when the fans throw their underwear at me. Being a sex symbol pays the bills. And she knows that”. Who is he kidding?

Check out more pics of Chris Brown performing at the 3rd Thisday Africa Rising Festival – Day 2 in Nigeria:

Nice. Wouldn’t have minded being there to check that out myself.

Mary J Blige also performed on day 2 at that very same event and let’s just say she was looking a real fright:

No, Mary, noooo!

SPLASH // WENN // WIREIMAGES

CELEB SPOTTINGS: R&B SINGERS OUT & ABOUT….

Ashanti attended the New York premiere of the new ‘Indiana Jones’ movie, yesterday afternoon. The show was hosted by BET’s 106 & Park:

Ashanti didn’t look so appealing at yesterday’s event. Her make-up was really overboard. What was she thinking?

Michelle Williams was there too:

Whoa at Michelle! Looks like someone is starving themselves. It’s making her look soooo aged. My own grandmother looks younger than Michelle at this rate. She looks so emaciated and sickly. I would love to spend the evening with Michelle and fill her up with a couple of McDonald cheese burgers. She’s always been slim, but I don’t recall her being THAT skinny. EVER. She looks like a rake ready to snap in two. ‘Chele was looking mad gaunt and very thin causing her to look far and beyond her 27 years. Someone needs to put her ass on a high-carb diet or something. I’m serious. She has not one curve on her body.

Estelle, Tiffany Evans and Ryan Leslie were there:

Ryan was looking real dapper.

Leona Lewis attended Logo Network’s first ever Awards Show for the best in LGBT pop culture on Monday night:

Leona looked sleek and trendy in her slimming black ensemble. She looked amazing. Right now, that chick can’t do no wrong in my eyes. From her sophisticated sandy coloured curls, well-decorated eye-make-up and cute smile, this chick was certainly all about it. Leona’s album Spirit has been sitting high on the U.S. charts along with her #1 smash Bleeding Love also dominating the top spot for several weeks.

Michelle hit up that very same event:

Michelle will always look weird in a dress, because of her non-existent frame. Her new album Unexpected is due in stores and online August 12th.

Yesterday, Christina Milian attended the 56th annual BMI Pop Awards in Beverly Hills, California:

H&M dress? I have no idea what has happened to her style but she was looking waaay better before splitting up with Nick Cannon.

Dawn of Danity Kane attended the Gen Art’s 10TH Anniversary Design Competition at Cannes on Monday night:

I like that dress, just not in that colour. And her crap boss Diddy was there as well.

I posted the performance of when Fergie performed on the ‘Today’ show yesterday in New York City. Here’s a couple of pics:

Fergie was showing off her flexibility during her performance of Barrucuda. I am salivating over her boots in that last pic right about now. Yum.

And the biggest hot stank ghetto mess award goes to Fantasia Barrino when she was spotted in a blazing RED wig as she shopped away at the Paige clothing store on Monday:

Ew.

Bad Boy artists Cassie and Mario Winans (both pictured with Tichina Arnold) attended a party at Diddy‘s Den during the Grand Opening Weekend Celebration at MGM Grand at Foxwoods Resort & Casino on May 17, 2008 in Ledyard, CT:

Another one bites the dust.

WIREIMAGES // BUZZFOTO

WHY DIDN’T THEY SELL?

I look at today’s record industry like the trappings of a loan shark to being in debt. You get a budget but the record label is hoping that all funds will be recouped back in record sales. It’s like taking a gamble really on both accounts. A gamble has already been taken the day you get signed, and then, when you’re given a budget, you have to gamble with certain decisions you make to ensure that it’s used wisely (the producers you pick, costumes, etc).

However, if that mission fails miserably, you get dropped and fade away and never become heard of again. In fact, it’s not all sugar and candy being a pop star. You’re no different to being a sales person knocking on somone’s door trying to sell something. You really need to have marketability prowess in your skill to sell a product. You really need to know how to sell yourself as a sales person, or, you just won’t sell and you’ll lose your job. Some people have the gift of the gab and others don’t. Take Rihanna for instance. Not the greatest of singers; I can admit that. But her beauty and cleverly marketed image and well-packaged pop songs have taken her far, and her promo has been groundbreaking. However, when the record label doesn’t put much effort into your promotion, well, what was the point? And that’s been exactly the case with poor Tiffany Evans who only sold 4,700 copies of her debut album last week placing her at #134 on the Billboard 200. It didn’t matter that the 15-year-old is much talented than her peers and that her album was stellar with some of the tightest producers in the game. Lack of promotion played a big factor why the album did triple toilet water. Estelle‘s album ‘Shine’ did get some promotion in the US. She’s done interviews and appeared on a couple of high-profile TV shows, but I guess the Americans didn’t see the appeal as she only pushed 14,000 copies this week and is now certified double plastic. Lil Mama did slightly better but also had crap sales only managing to shift 19,000 copies, now certified as aluminum. So the question is, why aren’t they selling and who’s really to blame?

TIFFANY EVANS: TIFFANY EVANS [ALBUM REVIEW]….

New artist Tiffany Evans finally unveiled her self-titled debut album via Sony Music/Columbia Records last week. The promo surrounding it has been virtually non-existent causing the sad prospect of a glorified talent to end up going unnoticed and becoming nothing more than a meaningless entity brushed and swept underneath the rug. The album sees polished production from the likes of The Clutch, Beau Dozier, Rodney ‘Darkchild’ Jerkins, Cristyle ‘The Ink’ Johnson, Soulshock & Karlin and Ne-yo. The project opens up with the joint About A Boy, with The Clutch on writing duties. The midtempo cut engages you with it’s melodious guitar riffs. When Tiffany recorded this album, she was under 15 so I find it completely out of realm that she’d be getting all sad and depressed over a boy who wasn’t into her as much: “this one’s about a boy, I used to love” she stresses “no happy endings”. In the gutsy Again, she questions whether she can “fall in love again”.

At 15, Tiff is waaay too young to even know anything about love, let alone experience it. The heartbreak and relationship fears goes even further on tracks such as Can’t Walk Away infiltrated by an electronically-powered keyboard throughout the chorus and the contemporary R&B track Favorite Broken Heart, which surprisingly is quite upbeat, and not quite the slushy tear-stained track you’d expect. Both tracks were crafted by Beau Dozier. What on earth happened to worrying about exams, homework, acne and whatever else most girls her age get themselves in a tizzy over? Then again, times are changing now when little girls are growing up a lot faster than they should. Tiffany heavily emphasises this on the infectiously Darkchild-produced I’m Grown, which opens up with that pounding drum beat. The song features Bow Wow funnily enough. Tiff croons “I’m grown now, I got my own money!” That line is definitely subjective, when there’s so many things she can’t do to validate that grown-status.

I wonder what her mother thinks of the overly mature lyrics that the album imposes. On a defensive note, at least she’s not talking about sex, but she’s one record away from doing just that. On the very upbeat dance-driven ‘Promise Ring’ (The Clutch) which features her idol Ciara, the song is more on level of what Tiffany should be engaging; rocking promise rings which is an ode to a young girl’s childhood. Tiff models herself after Ciara quite a lot when Tiff is the one who could be teaching Cici a thing or two. To prove this point Tiff heavily puts Ciara to vocal shame on the track. Tiff’s vocal range is reflected to great capacity on the gospel-tinged Angels On Earth, where she basically takes you to church and instantly empowers you with that stunning 20-second note. You almost forget she’s 15 with her extraordinarily-mature vocal delivery. On the track, she’s backed by a choir and it emphasises being faced with trouble or encountering an intense moment, and having an angel to help you out in the most compromising of situations. A track which has Granny-approval stamped all over it.

The Clutch produced Girl Gone Wild is wildly fierce but has a completely different mood. She is catechizing another school girl for dressing up too provocatively and “impersonating grown folks”; the type of wild chick that the other girls should feel threatened by should she come into contact with their boyfriends. I love this one, and her swagger on the track is just brilliant and packs attitude. The retro-fitted R&B-pop cut Impossible was written by Ne-yo and it addresses the haters where she defiantly sings “doubt me, I want you to” because she has that faith in herself and she’s determined to prove the naysayers wrong. The aggressive beat adds to the war-like tone of the song. Another track Tiff excels on is the very old-skool Thinkin’ About (Soulshock & Karlin) and without a doubt, it’s one of the most soulful offerings on the CD.

Lay Back And Chill is a contagious uptempo heavy hitting club joint which sees the vocal teen express what is required from a boy in order for him to get into her good books. The track provides that hotness, and it’s just mad infectious. Sounds like something Cassie would do. I just love the overall vibe of the song. Standouts on the album would be I’m Grown, Again, Lay Back And Chill, Girl Gone Wild and Favourite Broken Heart. Vocally, she had a few off-standish moments but the girl clearly has a set of pipes on her and with the right promo she could be huge. Her voice is very powerful and once she can exercise her vocal prowess to bigger and better challenges, she can become a phenomenon. Overall, this was a pretty solid debut.

Rating: 3/5

CELEB SPOTTINGS: R&B SINGERS OUT & ABOUT….

Rihanna took her raunchy Good Girl Gone Bad tour to Moscow on March 23th. Here is the sexy Umbrella singer dressed up in patent leather at her show:

I’d like to know who makes her outfits. I’ve been curious about this for quite some time now. In other news, Irish singer Sinead ‘O Conner could be on course to pen Rihanna’s next hit. The singer admits: They want to send me some backing tracks that they’ve already put together so that’ll be a great help…But I’ve been studying her and I feel daunted actually by it because I don’t know how to write pop songs, no matter how hard I try I cannot write a pop song you know… So it’s a challenge but I have to do it coz my son is in love with her!” [SOURCE] And who isn’t these days? Even if you hate her, there’s something about Riri which is quite intriguing.

During her stop in Europe, on that same day, Rihanna paid a visit to Europa Plus Radio Station in Moscow on March 23:

Rihanna will re-release her album Good Girl Gone Bad on May 27th.

Day 26 had their album release party at Room Service in New York City last night. Their MTB4 jump-off Donnie also attended as well as 106 & Park host Terence:

OK, these pictures did it. Neither of them make me …. thirsty. They’re probably the least attractive group to come out in recent years, lol. Terence on the other hand…. Anyway, their self-titled album went on sale today. With Sunday’s finale, I’m expecting them to do decently in first week sales. My guess is somewhere around 200k which would be pretty good considering the fact that they’re newcomers.

Last night, Mariah Carey performed “Touch My Body” and “We Belong Together” at the after party, for the premiere of The Hills which aired live from New York City:

CLICK HERE to watch both performances. You can tell Mariah was working out loads because her body hasn’t looked this good in ages, and she just seemed really happy.

Chris Brown (as we already know) was in London over the weekend. He was actually in the UK to promote latest album Exclusive and did two sell-out gigs over here. Here he was at his London gig, just before he was spotted leaving a hotel and partying the night away at Maya nightclub with his gal pal Rihanna (or so they say):

He’s no doubt a cutie but he is in the Shemar Moore club. A hottie but by default, his teeth are a letdown. Nothing that braces can’t sort out right? Hopefully, in time, he’ll get those fixed.

Beyonce was spotted in the audience cheering on her boyfriend Jay-Z at his joint ‘Heart of the City’ tour with Mary J Blige:

Supposedly, she arrived in L.A. (Sunday) to work with some producers for her new album but also attended the tour when it hit on Saturday night.

Tiffany Evans attended the Project Sunshine ‘Beauty and the Beat’ event at the Morgan Stanley Childrens Hospital on Friday in New York City:

The talented 15-year-old was doing her bit for the community. Her debut album is due on April 22nd.

CELEB SPOTTINGS: R&B SINGERS OUT & ABOUT….

Last night, Christina Milian (and Kristen Bell) attended the Sony Cierge Spring Preview at Palihouse in West Hollywood:

Christina looked casually cute and not overly done. The event was an invitation-only which basically took a sneak peak at the latest Sony cameras, PCs and TVs.

Tiffany Evans was spotted at club Love in Washington D.C. over the weekend when she helped Bow Wow to celebrate his 21st birthday:

Tiff looked cute. But I am more shocked at how fast Bow Wow has grown. It only seemed like yesterday that he was 13.

Mario hung out with fan Marquisha Swain when he launched his Do Right Foundation last night at Challengers Boys and Girls Club in Los Angeles:

Mario was looking proper cleeeean in that outfit. Anyway, he’ll be prepping himself to appear on the first installment of Dancing with the stars next week. This should be really interesting. Can’t wait to see the clips on YouTube.

TIFFANY EVANS: I’M GROWN [NEW VIDEO]….

Tiffany Evans finally premiered the video for her infectious Darkchild-produced single ‘I’m Grown’. The song features Bow Wow and it was produced by Rodney Jerkins:


I get ‘mini Ciara‘ vibes from Tiffany, except she is more talented and she can dance her ass off as well. I’m relieved the video is finally out considering that we’re in March now and the song leaked back in December, and since then this song has been getting constant rotation on my Creative Zen. Tiffany’s self titled album is scheduled for release on April 22nd.

CELEB SPOTTINGS: R&B SINGERS OUT & ABOUT….

Ciara took time out from her busy schedule to attend the 5th Annual Hip-Hop Summit Action Network’s Action Awards last night in New York City:

The pretty ‘Promise’ singer was there because she was actually honoured by the hip hop summit action network. The awards recognises the outstanding corporate and artistic contributions of hip-hop icons, as well as their dedication and commitment to community service and empowerment. The event was presented at an exclusive fundraising dinner.

More flicks:

Other R&B singers who arrived at the scene included Tiffany Evans and Chrisette Michele. I don’t think I like Chrisette’s new look. And I would not have worn that dress if I had her shape. Tiffany looked cute though. Real mature. I look forwards to whatever she hits us with when that new album drops.

You’ve see the performances (Feedback, That’s The Way Love Goes and Rock With U), and here is how Janet looked in full detail when she performed on Good Morning America earlier today:

Janet looked terrible. Her outfit was not flattering and her wet wig didn’t do her face any favours. The only thing that was hot about Janet’s appearance was that belt.

Jordin Sparks hit up TRL:

She looked cute. And it also looks like she’s losing the weight as well. Since she’ll be supporting Alicia Keys on her ‘As I Am’ tour, I guess it makes sense that she wants to keep in shape.

Amerie hit up the Children Uniting Nations’ 9th annual awards celebration and viewing dinner held at the Beverly Hilton hotel on February 24, 2008 in Beverly Hills, California:

She looked great. I still prefer the black hair though. Overall, everyone was looking good.

TIFFANY EVANS PREPS NEW SINGLE…..

Remember Tiffany Evans when she debuted her first single ‘Promise Ring’ which featured Ciara last year? Well, the 15-year-old will follow it up with a brand new video for latest new single ‘I’m Grown’, and the video shoot will take place on February 5th:

Tiffany Evans: I’m Grown
The song leaked a couple of weeks ago, but in the infectious ‘Darkchild’-produced track, Tiffany croons “I’m grown now, I got my own money!” Well, the only thing grown about Tiff is her mature-like vocal abilities. Age-wise, she’s still off limits! But at least she’s not doing a Teairra Mari on us talking about ‘nigga’s knowing how to make her feel good’. The beat slightly reminds me of Umbrella especially when the song opens up with that pounding drum beat. It appears that Umbrella will be the no 1 replication this year as folks try to profit on the major success of that sound. I hope not though. Tiff will release her self-titled debut album in April.