In an emotional new interview Mariah Carey has opened up to reveal a side of herself that she rarely shows to the public, admitting that she used to believe she was going to die.

“Honestly, I never thought I’d live this long.” she tells In Touch.

“I have always been grateful for everything I had, but my personal life was a mess. So many artists just exist for their careers and then burn out quickly. That was me before I met Nick, and he helped me. I always thought that I wouldn’t be here at this point. I was thinking, ‘Okay, I’ve got another year of my life left. This has got to be the end of it.’ Finally, he was like, “Stop talking like that.”

“I have been obsessed with the whole Marilyn Monroe thing my whole life – all those artists who died young,” she says. “Michael Jackson. At one point, we talked about that stuff. I can’t reveal what he thought. But yes, we had a conversation about it once.”

The star, who will turn 40 next year, also revealed her insecurities about her age, something she believes is focused on far too much in Hollywood.

“I find it offensive,” she explains. “It unfairly taints women in particular, and makes people look at you differently. I lived with that my whole life.”

It’s not all doom & gloom though, with the diva stating that her and hubby Nick are now happily married and “very close” to starting a family.

Some people would be quick to label this a publicity stunt or say that it’s just Mariah being over-the-top, but I believe that she’s 100% sincere. There’s a lot of people out there who probably feel like their lives are hopeless and that they have no future, so I think it was really brave of Mariah to speak out about this publicly.

These statement really don’t surprise me though, and I’ve always gotten this vibe from her. In fact it’s one of the things that originally drew me to her when I first became a fan.  She often keeps this side well-hidden but if you listen closely to her music you can see this part of her coming out in a few select songs, such as Breakdown, Petals, The Roof, My All, Looking In, and even Candy Bling from her latest album.

I’m really glad that she’s happy now and feeling secure enough to be able to speak about these types of things. Ever since she married Nick she’s had an undeniable glow that I had never really seen before.

Here’s the latest video for alternative hip-hop group The Roots. “How I Got Over” is the firts single from the bands ninth studio album of the same name, which drops October 20th. Check it out.

That was really good, I loved how they showed all the different parts of the streets from the one persons perspective. They really just let the background tell the story instead of following some big plot. Love it.

American Idol winner Kris Allen has enlisted the help of producer/songwriter Eg White for his upcoming debut album.

Eg White has written and produced with several pop artists before, including Kylie Minogue, Sophie-Ellis Bextor, Sam Sparro, Jamelia, James Blunt and Mutya Buena.

However he’s actually best known for his work with a number of the UK’s latest soul divas, including Adele (Hometown Glory), Duffy (Warwick Avenue), and Joss Stone (You Had Me).

Eg joins a growing list of high-profile collaborators on Kris Allens debut disc, including Claude Kelly, Salaam Remi, The Fray, Toby Gad, and Chris Daughtry.

This is AMAZING news, and I’m just crossing my fingers that his music goes more the way of Adele then it does Kylie Minogue. I’m a little scared to get my hopes up too much though because Idol contracts are highly controlled, we actually learned about them in class, so if the label choose they can give Kris zero control over the record and just make him churn out some commercial trash.

I’m loving his new single “Live Like We’re Dying” but to me it isn’t as good as the indepently self-released album he did a few years back called Brand New Shoes. Anyways he has a huge amount of talent and I’d love to see him doing soul like Adele & Duffy, but with a bit of an acoustic-rock edge. He seriously needs to be more soul than pop/rock though, that’s ESSENTIAL.

According to official predictions from HitsDoubleDaily, Mariah Carey’s new album Memoirs of An Imperfect Angel may miss the #1 spot on next weeks Billboard 200.

Mimi is currently projected to sell about 160k-170k for the week, whilst emo-rock band Paramore’s third album Brand New Eyes is on track for about 180-190k.

The news comes as a surprise considering that Mariah’s coming off the back of a huge single “Obsessed” which has sold close to a million copies, whilst Paramores new single “Ignorance” has only managed to reach #67 on the Hot 100.

If Mariah fails to secure the top spot on the Billboard charts, this will make it her first album to do so since 2002’s Charmbracelet.

It would also give her less sales than fellow diva Whitney Houston who topped the charts with 305k of her comeback album I Look To You, and Janet Jackson who managed 181k of her album Discipline.

Carey’s last album E=MC2 gave her the biggest first-week sales of her career with 463k.

The critical response for Mariah’s Memoirs has so far been a mixed, with reviews ranging from dismal, to mediocre, to fantastic.

I haven’t heard Paramore’s new album yet so I don’t know what it’s like, but I do prefer their new single “Ignorance” over both of Mariah’s new singles combined. Overall though I definitely like Mariah more as an artist so I don’t really care which of them make #1, I’ll be happy either way. I would put Memoirs down as one of her worst albums, but she’s set the bar pretty high so her worst doesn’t necessarily make it bad like it would for many other artists.

People do need to remember though that Mariah hasn’t always had #1 albums. Rainbow & Emotions never topped the charts and look how much they sold? I guess we’ll see what happens though.

It’s not that much of a shock though that the single is out-performing the album, I mean Mariah is one of my faves but I’ve always considered her more of a singles artist whereas certain other divas I rate as albums artists, like Whiteny & Janet. That’s probably because they always take more time on their records though, whereas Mariah likes to churn things out quite quickly.

Despite fears that her serially-delayed third studio album Spirit In The Dark would never see the light of day, tabloid staple Lindsay Lohan has confirmed via her new twitter account that the album is in fact still going ahead.

When asked when her new single & album would drop, the bombshell replied that she’d be finishing it up when she got back to New York with her label.

The album was originally set to drop sometime last year, but after countless delays Lindsay admitted in an interview that she had stopped returning calls to her label Motown after crumbling under the pressure.

It’s also currently unknown if Lindsay will re-record material, or stick with the previous star studded collaborations she had on board which included Pharrell & The Neptunes, Timbaland, Ne-Yo, JR Rotem, Stargate, Akon, Snoop Dogg, Bloodshy & Avant and more.

Following last years buzz single “Bossy”, the first single was last confirmed as being “Playground” featuring Pharrell.

I hope she releases this soon. I think she’s got an interesting voice and she’s working some really good people so I think she could make a hot album. I’d rather see her ditch some of the poppier producers though and go with some edgier urban stuff with the Neptunes, similar to the stuff they did with Kelis, but mixed with a Britney-vibe. “Bossy” was a really good track so she seriously needs to get her act together.

Her acting career seems to be down the toilet so what does she have to lose by doing another album? Maybe herself and her management are scared that if it flops then it’ll just be another flop added to her resume. Hmm.

If you’ve always wanted to know what Mariah Carey sounds like on a Timbaland track then here’s your chance. “Skydiving” was left off of Mimi’s latest album Memoirs of An Imperfect Angel after the diva decided to let The-Dream & Tricky take care of all the albums production.

Mariah Carey – Skydiving
[Prod Timbaland]

I really like this, in fact it’s probably one of my favourite songs from the Memoirs… sessions. It doesn’t sound 100% finished, like maybe it still needs to be mastered once more or something, but you can definitely hear the potential. It reminds me a bit more of her TEOM sound, but pulled into 2009. The production is very clearly Timbaland though, which is a little unfortunate because lately his best songs are the ones that you wouldn’t pick as being him, such as Bjork’s “Innocence” for example.

I really love Mariah’s dreamy whispers (I’ve never cared if she whispers or saaaangs, just as long as the song is good), and the production is really uplifting.

Hearing this only makes me wish that she had used a few more producers on the album to diversify it a bit. I’m all for an artist using one producer, but if you’re going to do that you need to make sure the results are good, and to me Memoirs is a very mixed bag.

According to HHNM this is the official cover for Ryan Leslie’s sophomore album Transition, which is due to hit stores November 3rd.

The albums lead single “You’re Not My Girl” has so far reached #72 on the R&B/Hip-Hop singles chart, and the second single is supposedly on it’s way.

I love the cover, it’s very futuristic. Is it just me though or is everyone leaning towards futuristic stuff now? I don’t know. Anyways I love R-Les and I want this album to do well, but I’m shocked that “You’re Not My Girl” hasn’t blown up. It’s easily one of the best songs of the year, yet it’s failing in the charts. It’s so unfair.

Sexy beast Shakira has performed a brand new track “Gypsy” from her upcoming album She Wolf on Walmart Soundcheck. The album drops November 17th in the US so hopefully this new track can tide you over till then.

She did a really good job and I liked the chill vibe of the performance. She sounded beautiful and proved that she can be just as sexy sitting down barefoot as she can on stage shaking her ass.  The song sounds pretty good to, I like the world sound it has on it.

Former Sugababe Mutya Buena has done a sexy photoshoot to show off her brand new body, which includes 34E breast implants and butt implants to match.

The 24-year-old is currently recoding her sophomore solo album which is due later this summer, and she’s also been in close contact with former bandmate Keisha Buchanan about possibly working together.

She looks really good, but it’s so strange seeing her do this because I never pictured her as the type to get her gear off in the papers. She probably feels like she has something to prove though, because during her time with the Sugababes she was always considered the “ugly but talented one” of the group. I’ve always thought that she was really pretty though, just in a different way to your average bimbo.

It seems like Ashanti isn’t the only one performing “Somewhere Over The Rainbow” lately, with diva Jennifer Hudson taking a stab at the classic during a concert in central park earlier tonight celebrate the 70th anniversary of the iconic film The Wizard of Oz. Check it out above.

J-Hud really isn’t one for subtlety is she? Usually I like her over-the-top performances but that was just way too much. I love the original version and I really didn’t need to see it Church-a-fied and turned into a gospel screaming match. And was her weave busted to pieces or was that just her hair? SMH. Less is more honey!