Melody Plant

Vanessa Hudgen’s new CD ‘Identified’ dropped in stores this week and it debuted to disappointing numbers. Disappointing is actually an understatement. The album is more of a disaster if you ask me. It looks like America hates her. Even when she was a relative unknown, her last CD debuted with 34,000 units sold. Now that she’s a pretty big star, her sophomore album only sold 22,000 copies. That has got to hurt. I bet that her embarrassingly bad first single ‘Sneakernight’ didn’t help any. The only thing that could help her now is an amazing opening for ‘High School Musical 3’ and maybe signing up for a ‘High School Musical 4’.

The album cover for Clay Aiken’s new album ‘On My Way Here’ has just been released. His new studio effort will hit stores on May 6 but that’s not going to stop the singer from performing all new songs on Monday, April 28 at 7PM on QVC. The American Idol alum commented on his album unveiling saying “Starting my career on national, live television, it seems fitting to be unveiling my new album live on QVC. To be able to connect with QVC’s viewers and broadcast my performance to over 93 million households is an amazing opportunity.” Whatever floats your boat.

While Leona Lewis is the first British musician to have gone to the top spot of the American charts with her album in around 20 years, Mariah Carey’s album is predicted to have one of the biggest opening weeks on any album in recent years. Leona’s album ‘Spirit’ has sold 205,000 copies this past week in the US. Mariah’s new album ‘E=MC2’ opened with sales of 154,000 in the first day. And as I previously said, she is predicted to go over the 500,000 mark with first week sales. Mariah is hot on Leona’s tail and the curvaceous diva is pretty set to kick the Brit’s pretty butt off the top spot.

Mariah Carey’s new album ‘E=MC2’ is set to come out on April 15. Madonna’s new album ‘Hard Candy’ will be dropping in on April 29. Mariah’s been on 1, maybe 2, magazine covers and was obviously photoshopped. Madonna’s been in 4 now and she’s fiercer than ever. While Madonna has her own Sunsilk ad, Mariah has to share the spotlight with the likes of Martha Stewart, Carlos Santana and Gabriel Aubry. The 38-year old curvaceous diva will debut in a spot for Macy’s next week. And like I’ve said before, she needs a new stylist. It’s no wonder why she’s losing to Madonna on this one.

Dropping music sales are making it hard for musicians to pay for getting a record made but if you’re Jill Sobule, you can find a way around it. The musician is taking things into her own hands as the one-hit wonder is turning to fans for help with her next record. She has actually set up a website where fans can donate money to her album effort. Jill’s goal is to raise $75,000 and she’s already raised $54,000 in just a month. Contributors can choose their pledges ranging from $10 to $10,000 – each pledge getting a certain type of benefit like a free digital download of her disc to getting to be a guest singer on the album.

After a 16-week break which was forced by the writer’s strike, Saturday Night Live is coming back. And on their first night back, Grammy award winning Carrie Underwood has been asked to make her second appearance on the show. The 24-year old will perform hits from her new double platinum selling album ‘Carnival Ride’.

Saturday Night Live alum Tina Fey will be the host of the returning show and ‘Juno’ star Ellen Page will host next week. It looks like they’re bringing in the big guns for the show. It’s a smart move. The big names will get the people interested and the ratings up.

Scarlett Johansson can sing. She’s proven that by singing for the ‘Unexpected Dreams’ charity album back in 2006 and she also made a surprise appearance last April with the Jesus & Mary Chain at Coachella festival. But now, she’s doing her own thing. The actress turned singer’s debut album ‘Anywhere I Lay My Head’ will officially drop on May 20, a Tuesday. The record will be released via Rhino Entertainment’s Atco Records and will feature 10 Tom Waits covers and 1 original track.

The 23-year old spent 5 weeks last spring recording the album in Louisiana. She also has song collaborations on the album with Yeah Yeah Yeahs’ guitarist Nick Zimmer, Celebration’s Sean Antanaitis and TV on the Radio’s Dave Sitek, who produced.

She had the biggest selling album of 2005 and everyone has been wondering when she would be back. After several delays to her album, we now know when Mariah Carey would officially be back.

There has already been a listening session in London for her new album which pretty much confirmed that her album would be out soon. Billboard now has a few more details and even mentions the release of Mariah’s new record on April 1st, and that’s no joke. They also have more info about specific songs and if that’s anything to go by, it looks like her album is a very promising one.

Leona Lewis is on the cover of the February issue of Harper’s UK and she is looking mighty fine! She deserves the front cover of a big magazine because the X-Factor champ’s debut album ‘Spirit’ was one of the top three selling albums of the year in the UK for 2007. The other two favorites were Mika and Amy Winehouse.

Leona is also set to take over the other side of the pond as her album is finally coming out within the next couple of months in the US. Harper’s was bold enough to say that “She’ll break the States without breaking a sweat.” I say, good luck to you Leona!

Britney Spears’ latest album ‘Blackout’ is already on the fourth week of its release and it has literally blacked out. Her album has already dropped to a very disappointing 41st place this week in the US according to the new Soundscan charts.

What’s far more disappointing is that Brit’s album has only sold a total of 466,834 copies. That means that her latest effort will not be selling more than a million copies unless some sort of miracle happens. ‘Blackout’ will be the only Britney CD to date that will not go to platinum.

Well that has to suck for her. But I doubt that she really cares.

American Idol’s most recent champion Jordin Sparks’ debut CD is expected to come in at #2 this week, so say some industry projections. She would come in behind Alicia Keys who’s expected to dominate the charts for the entire holiday season.

Jordin’s album is expected to sell between 90,000 to 100,000 on its first week. While the numbers aren’t that bad, those projections would actually make Jordin’s album have the lowest debut for an American Idol winner – ever! Yes, it’s worse than Ruben’s. A lot of runners up sold even more than that in their first week. That has got to hurt.

Leona Lewis’ debut record ‘Spirit’ officially took the #1 spot in the UK albums’ chart this week and it broke records on the way there. Her album because the UK’s fastest-selling debut of all time selling an amazing 375,872 copies!

Leona was up against the Spice Girls, Led Zeppelin and Celine Dion. She actually beat the #2 Spice Girls by over 300,000 copies. Wow! Leona’s current single ‘Bleeding Love’ is #1 on the singles’ chart for the fourth consecutive week, seeling a total of 563,702 copies.

Leona’s album ‘Spirit’ is now scheduled for release in the US on March 18th.

It just goes to show that you can never be too young to be successful. The Jonas Brothers’ debut disc, ‘Jonas Brothers’ under Hollywood Records has now officially gone gold by selling over 500,000 copies.

15-year old Nick, 18-year old Joe and 20-year old Kevin are definitely headed for the big time as they’re now appearing with big time artists and even performing on big time shows. On Tuesday, the pop rock group of brothers joined Alicia Keys on TRL. And come Sunday, November 18, the rest of the world can see them perform at the 2007 American Music Awards.

Singers need more than the spotlight though, and even ones who have sold over 200 million albums still want to feel like they have something to offer. So she’s left the lights of Vegas behind, stepped back into the real world and in fairness to her, brought along a clutch of songs that actually may change a few people’s opinion.

Amongst the list of luminaries who twiddle a knob, knock out a lyric or strum a guitar for her are the all-conquering Timbaland, king of R’n’B balladry R Kelly, ex-Evanescence axe wielder Ben Moody, Christina Aguilera and Pink co-writer Linda Perry… and the always entertaining Dave Stewart, whose influence stretches so far that there’s even a lyrical snip of The Eurythemics’ “Here Comes The Rain Again” woven into the title track.

The highlights are two very different songs. In the power ballad corner, she shows off her larynx with a belting take on Heart’s endless queen of soft rock, “Alone”. Up against it for the title is the more contemporary “Shadow Of Love”, a song with enough disco and fun for Kylie to sing it.

Taking Chances doesn’t quite do what the title suggests, but it does push Celine Dion to the edge of her comfort zone and show an artist who not only wants to remain relevant but is prepared to work hard to stay that way.

Everyone predicted that Carrie Underwood’s CD would sell a lot and would go to the top of the charts but it actually did even better than any prediction made. ‘Carnival Ride’ is currently the #1 album in the US and has sold over 527,000 copies during its debut week. This is the American Idol alum’s first #1 album and also bested her previous effort ‘Some Hearts’ which sold 315,000 units in its first week.

Her record sales is also the best sales week for a female country artist since Shania Twain’s ‘Greatest Hits’ release back in November 2004. Carrie’s debut is also double what Kelly Clarkson’s ‘My December’ CD sold in its first week.

Congratulations Carrie!

Jive Records is officially giving up on trying to get Britney Spears to promote her new album. They’re not even planning a tour despite her single “Gimme More” topping the charts. The label realizes that Britney doesn’t care and is apparently becoming fed up with her antics. Her label should understand that she is basically in turmoil right now and she is clearly unfit to be on tour right now. What if she goes on a tour promoting the album and during an interview she starts crying because there is some bad news that coming from her custody trail. Then the media and her record would be at logger heads, her record label would have to defend her because she is in a way representing them when on tour and that paparazzi as usual needless to say would be out there in their full numbers trying to blow up the story by saying she is mentally ill. Best that she doesn’t tour right now.

Carrie Underwood released her sophomore album on Tuesday of this week. And based on the first day sales and projections, she is headed for the top spot of the charts and could sell up to 450,000 copies in the first week of release.

If you compare those numbers to the numbers of Kelly Clarkson’s latest CD ‘My December’, Carrie clearly wins because Kelly only sold 291,000 copies in its first week and then took a nosedive. Carrie’s radio-friendly disc is expected to ‘have legs’ as music industry people say for albums with longevity.

Congratulations goes out to Carrie and a better luck next time goes to Kelly.

With record stores going on respirators with the falling record sales, it shouldn’t be a wonder why a lot of artists are going digital with their releases. And it doesn’t apply to just the new artists. Take the Spice Girls as an example.

The 90s super girl group recently announced that their new Greatest Hits album wouldn’t be sold in traditional retail outlets. Their new record will only be available at online retailers, like iTunes, and Victoria’s Secret stores. Ladies, don’t forget to buy some lingerie while you’re at it.

Maybe they’re getting money from the store too just like a lot of artists being sponsored by retail brands.