Last night was American Idol’s charity television special Idol Gives Back, which featured some stellar performances from urban musics finest such as Alicia Keys (“Unthinkable” “Empire State of Mind”), Mary J. Blige (“Stairway to Heaven”), Black Eyed Peas (“Rock That Body”) and soul singer Joss Stone (“I Put a Spell On You”).

I’m still not a fan of MJB’s “Stairway to Heaven” cover, but it’s hard to knock the Queen of Hip-Hop/Soul when she’s nailing it live with that amazing voice of hers. Orianthi and Randy Jackson on the guitar was the standout moment of the performance though.

Seeing Alicia perform her stellar R&B hit “Unthinkable” was a definite treat, but having to sit through yet another rendition of Empire State of Mind would’ve had me heading to the kitchen for a popcorn break if I was watching it live.

The less said about the Black Eyed Peas ‘singing’ the better, and as usual Joss Stone was amazing.

Anyways check out all the performances below, via Mr  World Premiere.

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As part of the international re-release of her latest album Stronger with Each Tear, the undisputed Queen of Hip-Hop/Soul, Mary J. Blige, has covered two rock classics with Led Zeppelins “Whole Lotta Love” and “Stairway to Heaven”.

Originally released in 1971, “Stairway to Heaven” is not just considered one of the greatest songs ever made, but the epic guitar solo is generally rated as the best guitar solo of all time.

For Mary’s take on the classic she’s enlisted the help of Blink 182 drummer Travis Barker on drums (duh), American Idol judge Randy Jackson, Steve Vai and Australian rocker Orianthi to tackle the guitar solo.

“Whole Lotta Love” is probably Zeppelin’s second best known song after “Stairway to Heaven”, and it also has it’s spot on several “Greatest of All Time” lists from the likes of VH1 and Rolling Stone magazine.

Mary’s version of the song is actually produced by GaGa’s main man RedOne, and despite it sounding much rockier and organic than his other productions the Swedish recycler makes sure he injects an underlying dance beat into the song.

Both covers are noble and enjoyable efforts on Mary’s part, with “Whole Lotta Love” easily being the better of the two, but I think she set her sights way too high with these. The original tracks are perfect and I don’t see the need for anybody to cover them, especially “Stairway to Heaven” which didn’t add any new or fresh elements to the song leaving it as simply a pale imitation of the original.

The U2 cover of “One” with Bono was cute. MJB’s take on “Stairway to Heaven”… not so much.

Check em all out below and let me know what you think.

[MJB - Whole Lotta Love]

[Led Zeppelin - Whole Lotta Love]

[Mary J. Blige - Stairway to Heaven]

[Led Zeppelin - Stairway to Heaven]

Last night R&B diva Mary J. Blige proved that she probably flunked geography worse than I did when she welcomed the Italian audience at the Sanremo Song Festival by saying “Bonjour!”

Say au revoir to your dignity Mary!

Aside from MJB’s embarrassing mishap the Queen of Hip-Hop/Soul performed her song “Each Tear” which is scheduled to be the first international single from the re-release of her latest album Stronger with Each Tear. {source}

The one and only Mary J. Blige was on Letterman earlier to perform her hit single “I Am” and to promote a free online webcast concert she did.

The only problem with this interview was that David Letterman didn’t seem to know anything about the Queen of Hip-Hop/Soul, leaving a surprised Mary to fill in the blanks about where she was from and how she got started in the music industry.

Come on David, this is the Grammy-award winning Queen who has sold 40 million worldwide! Step ya game up!

R&B diva Mary J. Blige is set re-release her latest album Stronger With Each Tear internationally with a new sound that will better appeal to audiences outside the States.

The first single from the re-release will be a new version of the album cut “Each Tear”, which has now been re-recorded as a duet with popular Australian singer Vanessa Amorosi. A video for the song was shot in L.A. over a week ago so expect to see it premiere soon.

Blige has also recorded a cover of the Led Zeppelin classic “Stairway to Heaven” which is looking like it’ll be the next international single after “Each Tear”.

The update of the rock classic was produced by Ron Fair and features a live band made up of Blink-182 drummer Travis Barker, American Idol judge Randy Jackson, Michael Jackson guitarist and solo artist Orianthi and rock veteran Steve Vai.

To top it all off Mary has also done the inevitable and tacked on a RedOne produced track titled “Whole Lotta Love”.

“Stairway to Heaven” is considered one of the greatest and most iconic and influential songs of all time so I hope MJB knows what she’s doing, but if her stellar cover of U2′s “One” is anything to go by then she shouldn’t have any problems.

The international edition of Stronger With Each Tear is set to be released on March 15. Below the cut you can listen to the original version of “Stairway to Heaven”, and you can also watch Mary’s recording the song with her band and discussing the re-release.

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[Listen to "Tonight"]

After disappointing results with her first single “The One”, followed by some reasonable success with “I Am” (#10 R&B charts) Mary J. Blige is now moving on to the next single from her new album Stronger With Each Tear.

“Tonight” produced by The Runners & Konvict Muzik will officially impact urban radio on January 26th.

As much as I absolutely love “Tonight” I don’t exactly think to myself ‘#1 hit!’ when I listen to it, so I’m shocked that it’s getting the single treatment. MJB isn’t exactly in the position to be taking any chances right now, so I think she should’ve gone with The-Dream & Tricky produced “Kitchen” which sounds like a big R&B hit waiting to happen with plenty of crossover potential.

Luckily though no other information has been released except for the radio release date, so I’m crossing my fingers that MJB will reconsider and go with “Kitchen”.

What do you think Mary should release as her next single?

Mariah Carey’s incredible inflating breasts reached gigantic new proportions today when the diva strutted her stuff on the red carpet at the 67th Annual Golden Globe Awards.

She may not have taken home an award, but I’m sure she’s more than happy with the two Golden Globes on her chest.

Mimi’s been had her hands full lately touring around the country and preparing for the release of her remix album Angels Advocate, which was recently pushed back to March 9th.

One of the many guests on Angels Advocate will be R&G Queen Mary J. Blige, whom Mariah spoke about during a recent concert show.

“This next song [It's a Wrap], this is about, basically, relationships. We’re dealing with relationships here. It’s like when you’ve waited all night long for somebody to come home and they finally come home, and it’s the morning and… you yourself are like, ‘Where is this MF’er?’ … I’m talking about a serious subject here. This is a serious situation that I’m talking about. This is from, well I told you we’re remixing the album and I’m singing this with Mary J. Blige and I’m really excited about it.”

I guess Mary no longer feels like Mariah is “too mainstream” for her after making some comments back in 2007 that mainstream music worked for Mariah and Beyonce, but her her music was more organic.

[source: Mariah Daily]

Susan Boyle shows no signs of slowing down in her fourth week on the charts, with HitsDoubleDaily reporting that the Scottish singer is set to sell another 520k of her debut album I Dreamed a Dream, pushing her total sales to over 3 million copies in the States alone.

This may be good news for Auntie Susie, but it’s not so great for Mary J.Blige who’s new album Stronger With Each Tear now has to settle for a #2 debut with roughly 340k sold.

Alicia Keys, who debuted last week at #2 with her new album The Element of Freedom, stands at #3 with 270-280k, down just slightly from last week’s 417k bringing her two-week total close to 700k.

Carrie Underwood is also set to sell another 150k of her third album Play On, which is easily enough to give the album a Platinum certification for sales of over 1 million.

Susan has now destroyed MJB and AK, and it looks like Taylor Swift will be her next victim because the two are currently neck-and-neck for the top selling album of 2009. Good on her!

[Download Link]

Mary J. Blige does her best impression of Terius Nash on “Kitchen”, a new The-Dream & Tricky produced track from her upcoming album Stronger With Each Tear.

I could swear that this is Love vs Money leftover because I don’t think that I’ve ever heard a more Dream-a-fied song than this one. It’s contemporary, fun, and even a little soulful, with MJB proving that you can still evolve your sound without sounding like a desperate diva clinging to the last remnants of her fading youth.

No that statement was not meant for Mariah. It was at many stars in general. Calm down lambs.

Anyways get it Mary!

[Download Link]

Mary J. Blige shows off a new side of herself on “Tonight”, a Runners produced track from her upcoming album Stronger With Each Tear (Dec 21).

This is a very different style for Mary, both vocally and musically, and it works! A lot of people are a little sceptical about this new album of hers, but from what I’ve heard so far I think she’s really evolved her sound and tried new things, whilst still keeping the classic MJB for her old-school fans.

Are you going to buy her new album?

Mary J. Blige runs around on the beach and still manages to keep her clothes on in the video for her new single “I Am”, which is lifted from her upcoming ninth studio album Stronger With Each Tear (Dec 21).

Ever since MJB left her old lifestyle behind she’s always kept things classy and this video is no exception. It definitely suits the song which has already reached #39 on the R&B charts before it’s official digital release date (which happens to be today).

Mary really needs a hit right now because her first single “The One” flopped, and it’s a tough time for female artists at the moment — just ask Mariah, Leona, Rihanna, and even Alicia Keys.

The Queen of Hip-Hop/Soul Mary J. Blige goes for a classic look on the cover of ninth studio album Stronger with Each Tear, which drops December 21.

Peep the official tracklisting below.

1 I Am

2 The One feat. Drake

3 Good Love feat. T.I.

4 I Love U

5 In The Morning

6 Kitchen

7 Hood Love feat. Trey Songz

8 Said And Done

9 Feel Good

10 Tonight

11 Each Tear

12 I Can See In Color

The tracklisting looks promising with the only song that I don’t love so far being “Hood Love” with Trey Songz.

Sales-wise however I don’t think we’ll be seeing a repeat of the Queens former chart toppers like The Breakthrough or Growing Pains, which sold 629k in it’s first week back in 2007.

Will you be buying this, or is MJB going to follow in the footsteps of fellow divas Mariah Carey and Leona Lewis and have a dud album?