Papa might not preach. But Kelly Osbourne can certainly expect a lot of paternal advice from the Prince of Darkness over how to proceed in the music biz.
Hot off the surprise success of her punk-flavored cover of Madonna's "Papa Don't Preach," the pink-haired 17-year-old daughter of heavy-metal rocker Ozzy Osbourne is prepping her first album.
Epic Records, which just happens to be the label home of Ozzy, confirmed Wednesday that the younger Osbourne is due in the studio next month to record a solo album slated to debut this fall, timed to coincide with the second season of MTV's smash reality sitcom The Osbournes.
"Papa Don't Preach," the first single off The Osbourne Family Album (also released by Epic), helped push the soundtrack to a number-13 debut on the Billboard charts last week. Kelly Osbourne has been popping up everywhere from the MTV Movie Awards to Los Angeles' huge Wango Tango concert to perform the tune.
A team of songwriters will help her cowrite the songs for the album, which will be overseen by Epic executive Ric Wake, who produced Osbourne's "Papa" and helped launch the careers of such divas as Mariah Carey, Celine Dion and Jennifer Lopez. Kelly Osbourne tells USA Today that her album will be "nothing like" those other pop singers.
She also says daddy will help her out. "Of course my father gives me advice," she says. "I wouldn't be doing this if it wasn't for him."
"I think [Kelly's album] is going to be real edgy, with a lot of attitude," Wake tells USA Today. "Kelly hasn't had much experience, but she knows what she's doing. She's a chip off the old block."
Not bad for someone with misgivings about her voice and talent.
"I'm kind of crapping myself because I don't think I'm a very good singer," Osbourne told MTV News a few weeks ago, before "Papa" hit the airwaves. "I consider myself lucky, because I know there are people who can do it better than I can. I never wrote a song in my life until a couple of weeks ago."
"Papa Don't Preach" is at number 28 and rising in Top 40 radio airplay.
However, Michael Peer, music director at WXRK-FM in New York, says his station only played the single the first week of its release. He tells E! Online he's unsure whether Osbourne's success is a prelude to rock stardom or just a novelty.
"There's obviously a curiosity [about Kelly] since the show has become a pop phenomenon and every soccer mom in America knows The Osbournes now."
Posted by Jen on Thursday, June 27, 2002 @ 10:13 a.m.
Having your debut album take off like a shot — entering the albums chart at #8, currently at #5 and almost halfway to gold status after only three weeks in stores — can send even the most composed artist into an overly excited frenzy. But not every potential star is as calm, casual and cool as 17-year-old Avril Lavigne.
"I don't get overwhelmed," she said impassively, referring to the success surrounding Let Go. "I feel like I've kind of prepared myself for it. All my life, this is what I've wanted, what I've dreamed about and I knew this would happen. I've been singing ever since I was really young, and I've wanted this so bad, and I told myself I would do it — I would have to. I'm really chill about it."
Her laid-back take on her now closely watched career is indicative of the way she handles herself in most situations — she's confident, composed, coy and irresistibly charming. When stylists would attempt to goad her into playing dress-up for photo shoots, presenting high heels, tight tops and sequined skirts as wardrobe, she balked and instead wore the rumpled attire she brought with her in her backpack (see "It's Not 'Complicated' — 17-Year-Old Avril Lavigne Was Born To Rock").
"Well, [with] anything in life, I won't do it if it doesn't feel right," she said. "I always go with my gut and stand up for what I believe in. I'm a fighter. I fight for what I want."
Unlike some pop singers whose songs speak in metaphors only a seasoned songsmith could craft, Lavigne's carry diary-like admissions streamed directly from the heart. Her hit single, "Complicated," tells the all-too-familiar tale of what happens when things are going great until the boy suddenly gets "all weird."
Lavigne drops sappy relationship knowledge well beyond her years all over songs such as "Losing Grip," "Unwanted" and "Tomorrow." A skateboarding betty who favors baggy streetwear over the close-cropped costumes of her more pop-centric peers, Lavigne is like grrlpower Gwen meets Chris Carrabba's dashboard confessionals, with the result wistfully crooned from a hip-chick perspective. She-mo, if you will.
"When I write a song, I sit down with the guitar and write about what I'm feeling at that time," she said. "It just comes out. I don't decide, 'OK, I'm going to write a song about this.' It's not like that. It's just whatever's bugging me really comes out."
Her songs have all the inherent qualities of a teenager: spontaneity, rambunctiousness, self-assuredness that may lapse into know-it-all territory, and most importantly, immediacy. Like most teens, she's hardly the perfectionist. Instead of compulsively editing her songs until they're terse bundles of melody, she prefers to pour out her thoughts in an emotionally wrought torrent, like a best friend on a rant. And if the result isn't exactly neat around the edges, so be it. Why worry about minor details when the overall package is what ultimately counts.
"I just write songs right away," she explained. "I don't spend five million hours on it dissecting it. I just go ... When I start the lyrics, I just write them all the way through because I feel that way at the moment, so I just get it all out of me. It would be really weird if I spend one [whole] day on it."
Although they were created rather loosely, the 13 songs on Let Go don't sound like they were tracked off the cuff. The album sparkles with pristine production courtesy of a crop of knob-twiddlers including Clif Magness and upstart team the Matrix, with Arista Records head Antonio "L.A." Reid serving as executive producer.
After signing to the label at 16, Lavigne was handed prefabricated songs — "Celine Dion-type ballads," as she referred to them. Singing someone else's songs is an accepted fact of most young pop singers, but it was a condition to which this confident young miss had an immediate adverse reaction. Lavigne knew she was more than a sultry voice: She could pen her own material, too.
"They [label executives] were like, 'What? This 16-year-old singer wants to write her [own] songs!' " she remembered. "So they were really cool and I admire them for doing this. They let me have the opportunity. They gave me the chance to write and ... they liked the songs and that's what's on the album."
Let Go wasn't exactly an entirely hands-off affair. Lavigne was paired with a handful of professional songwriters who helped her sculpt the songs during sessions in Los Angeles and New York, where she moved from Ontario, Canada, after striking the deal.
One day, Reid dropped by the studio. While most were unnerved by the visit from the industry mogul, Lavigne, in a typical reaction, wasn't shaken by Reid's presence. In fact, she was almost completely unfazed.
"Everyone was freaking out," she recounted. "They were like, 'Are you going to be OK? You're not going to be nervous, are you?' I'm like, 'What? I'm just going to be singing, OK? I'm fine, I'm just doing my thing.' "
Together with Michelle Branch and Vanessa Carlton, fellow artists of a similar age who share her dedication and passion for her art, Lavigne has been touted by the media as the next wave of teen pop, among the sincere successors to the Britney and Christina clones. While that may be the case, it wasn't intended on her part. And while she prepares to release the LP's next single, "Sk8ter Boi," for which a video will be shot in late July, she keeps her image in check by staying determined not to be a flash in the pop-music pan.
"I'm different from what's been out there for a while, definitely," she said. "And I don't want it to be one of those things that just comes in and is a phase and leaves. When things are very real and honest, they don't go [away]. They'll be around for a while. I'm going to be around for a while. I'm going to make tons of records and keep on writing music and performing and reaching fans."
Spoken like a true teen — independent, indestructible and thoroughly in your face.
—Joe D'Angelo, with additional reporting by SuChin Pak
Posted by Jen on Thursday, June 27, 2002 @ 10:11 a.m.
BRISTOW, Va. -- Usher had sparks flying, pyrotechnic and sensual, onstage here ( * * * out of four).
The singer, who alternated between sizzling lover man and kinetic dancing machine, seemed to bring screams with every hip thrust and gyration Saturday night. His seven dancers earned their money just keeping up and covering for him, as he ran through almost as many outfits as hit songs.
Usher leaped onstage at Nissan Pavilion amid a blast of fireworks, becoming something of a limber-legged special effect himself as he moved smoothly in time with his dancers, singing I Don't Know and If I Want To.
Much to the delight of his female fans, he ripped off his shirt while slowly crooning I Can't Let You Go as flames shot up from the floor. But he was just beginning to turn up the heat. Bedtime came next (with a king-size bed onstage), followed by Nice and Slow, which ended in a cloud of billowing smoke.
Turning on his boyish smile, he called for a lady from the audience for a little up-close wooing. Singing I Need a Girl as he conducted his search, he finally settled on a quivering fan who identified herself as Chloe. After seating her on the bed and giving her a gift box stuffed with a pink nightie and a tour T-shirt, he danced for her and smooched a little before leading her offstage. He returned for the sexy U Got It Bad, the last slow number of the night.
From then on it was back to his groove-oriented hits: My Way, You Make Me Wanna, U Remind Me and U Don't Have to Call. During that segment, he donned a graffiti-covered tux and tails, an Allen Iverson jersey and a pair of glittering rhinestone sneakers.
That whimsical mood turned more somber, though, as he ended the show with Marvin Gaye's What's Going On, which he dedicated to fallen entertainers including Gaye, Curtis Mayfield, George Harrison, Tupac, Notorious B.I.G., Selena, Big Pun, Aaliyah and Lisa ''Left Eye'' Lopes.
Faith Evans opened the show with a 30-minute set, which she split between sweet ballads and bubbling funk workouts. She kicked off with the grooving Love Like This. The passionate I Love You mellowed things out, but then the rumbling bassline of You Gets No Love put the show back in high gear. She had the crowd on its feet with her emotional closing ballad, Never Gonna Let You Go.
Rapper Nas rocked the crowd with both vintage and current hits while giving only scant attention to his verbal feud with Jay-Z.
''We're not going to talk about that all night,'' he said after briefly exhorting the crowd to disparage his rival.
He warmed up with the cautionary Got Ur Self A . . . , then reached back for If I Ruled the World. He made his nod to the ladies with K-I-S-S-I-N-G and You Owe Me before digging into such heavier material as the powerful Hate Me Now. After briefly talking about various social issues, including racial profiling and police brutality, Nas got down on his knees to deliver a fervent One Mic.
Probably more than any song of the night, this one connected with the audience, and more than a few were moved to put a single finger in the air.
Posted by Jen on Thursday, June 27, 2002 @ 10:06 a.m.
(6/25/02, 10 a.m. ET) -- Arista recording artists Boyz II Men have enlisted the management services of Johnny Wright, CEO of Wright Entertainment Group, that also represents * NSYNC, Britney Spears, P. Diddy, Christina Milian, and others.
Boyz II Men is scheduled to release its Arista debut, Full Circle, on July 23.
Boyz member Shawn Stockman said the group is glad to link with Wright. "We feel that he is the best person for us at this time," Stockman said via statement. "His track record speaks for itself, and his accomplishments are unparalleled. We are happy to be a part of such an elite management team."
Wright added that he is equally excited about working with the group, which has sold more than 60,000,000 albums. "They are extremely talented individuals who have, in the 10 short years they've been singing together as a group, made pop and R&B music history," Wright said in a statement. "What they have already accomplished pales in comparison with what, I know, is yet to come."
Boyz II Men also includes members Nathan Morris, Michael McCary, and Wanya Morris.
-- Billy Johnson Jr., Los Angeles
Posted by Jen on Thursday, June 27, 2002 @ 10:05 a.m.
(6/25/02, 7 a.m. ET) -- Multiplatinum rapper Nelly's second Universal Records album, Nellyville, comes out Tuesday (June 25). The album is the follow-up to Nelly's Grammy-nominated 2000 debut, Country Grammar, which has sold more than 9 million copies worldwide to date.
The St. Louis-based rapper already has a firm grip on the top spot of the Billboard Hot 100 chart with the Neptunes-produced hit single, "Hot In Herre." And with some 2 million units of Nellyville shipped to retailers, it's likely that Nelly will replace Eminem ( news - web sites)'s The Eminem Show at the top of the Billboard 200 albums chart. The Eminem Show has topped the Billboard 200 for the last four consecutive weeks.
Nellyville features guest appearances by members of Nelly's St. Lunatics posse, including Ali, Murphy Lee, and Kyjuan. The set also includes guest performances from Destiny's Child singer Kelly Rowland (on "Dilemma") and *NSYNC ( news - web sites)'s Justin Timberlake (on "Work It").
Nelly hooked up with *NSYNC earlier this year for a remix of the group's hit single, "Girlfriend." He shared with LAUNCH his thoughts about working with Timberlake once again. "What we were trying to do there, man, was trying to make something that was believable, you know what I'm sayin'? I ain't gonna come on there and have Justin singing about six folds and switches, and my hood, and stuff like that because it's not believable. No one's gonna believe that s--t. So, it was, like, 'Yo, what can me and him go on that he's gonna feel comfortable--I'm gonna feel comfortable--and we're gonna do our thing?' And s--t, there was girls, so we was, like, 'Work It,' you know what I'm sayin?' And we came up with a hot little track in about, you know, a day or so. We put it all together on paper in about 12 hours and stuff, you know?"
Jay E. Epperson, who handled the production of Country Grammar, also produced the majority of Nellyville, along with Wally Yaghnam. Fans who purchase Nellyville can gain access to a special backstage VIP area on nelly.net to play the new Nellyville videogame, and also watch and listen to exclusive footage. In addition, album-purchasing fans will be able to pre-order tickets for Nelly's summer tour for a limited time through the online backstage area.
Nelly will open the second annual BET Awards ceremony on Tuesday evening with a live performance of "Hot In Herre," and he is scheduled to perform the song on NBC's The Tonight Show With Jay Leno ( news - Y! TV)'s Lincoln Garage Concert Series on Friday (June 28).
-- Jason Gelman and Yves Erwin Salomon, New York
Posted by Jen on Thursday, June 27, 2002 @ 10:04 a.m.
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