A mainstay at the top of charts, Brown is up for four Billboard Music Awards, including Top Male Artist. Earlier this year he won his first-ever Grammy Award for Best R&B Album for 2011′s “F.A.M.E.” The critically acclaimed album debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard 200, his first No. 1 album, and spawned three consecutive No. 1 singles. Brown’s eagerly anticipated new album, “Fortune,” is due out on July 3 and features his current hit single, “Turn Up the Music.” Capturing the song’s sonic energy, the 23-year-old entertainer made his directorial debut for the electrifying video which was co-directed by Godfrey Tabarez and viewed over 8 million times the week it premiered.

Finalists for the “2012 Billboard Music Awards” are based on key fan interactions with music, including album, single and digital sales, airplay, touring, streaming and social interactions on MySpace, Facebook and many of the other most popular online destinations for music. The awards will be based on the reporting period of February 28, 2011 through March 1, 2012.

The “2012 Billboard Music Awards” is co-executive produced by Richard D. Beckman, CEO Prometheus Global Media and Don Mischer Productions. The special will be shot in high definition and broadcast in 720 Progressive (720P), ABC’s selected HD format, with 5.1 channel surround sound. This program carries a TV-14,D,L,S parental guideline.

Visit www.Billboard.com/BBMA for a complete list of finalists and to apply for media credentials. Music fans can also follow news about the show or related events on Twitter at www.twitter.com/Billboard or Facebook at www.facebook.com/billboard.

The MGM Grand Garden Arena is home to concerts, championship boxing and premier sporting and special events. The Arena offers comfortable seating for as many as 16,800 with excellent sightlines and state-of-the-art acoustics, lighting and sound. Prominent events to date have included world championship fights between Evander Holyfield and Mike Tyson as well as Oscar de la Hoya vs. Floyd Mayweather and Manny Pacquiao vs. Juan Manuel Marquez; and concerts by The Rolling Stones, Madonna, Elton John, Bruce Springsteen, Paul McCartney, Bette Midler, George Strait, Janet Jackson, Phil Collins, Billy Joel, U2, Lady Gaga, Sting, Coldplay, Alicia Keys, Jimmy Buffett and the Barbra Streisand Millennium Concert. The MGM Grand Garden Arena also is home to the annual Academy of Country Music Awards, annual Billboard Music Awards and the Frozen Fury NHL
Read more: http://tv.broadwayworld.com/article/Chris-Brown-to-Perform-on-2012-BILLBOARD-MUSIC-AWARDS-520-20120515#ixzz1v1ZBbxYn

Lions Gate Entertainment Corp. said Tuesday it has sent a proposal for a combination with financially troubled Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios Inc.

Lions Gate said the combined company would be owned by its shareholders and by MGM’s creditors. These include billionaire investor Carl Icahn, who owns stakes in both studios.

Terms weren’t disclosed, though a report in the Los Angeles Times said the deal would give MGM’s lenders a 55 percent in the combined company. Lions Gate declined to comment.

ICahn said the deal is better than a current proposal to combine MGM with privately held production company Spyglass Entertainment.

Icahn has been trying to buy Lions Gate for more than a year but has been rebuffed by the boutique film studio. Icahn’s tender offer for Lions Gate worth $7.50 per share expires Oct. 22.

It is only valid if the extra shares that the company recently issued to Lions Gate director Mark Rachesky are rescinded or converted into nonvoting stock. In July, Lions Gate issued 16.2 million new common shares to Rachesky, boosting his stake to 28.9 percent, while diluting Icahn’s stake to 33.5 percent from 37.9 percent.

Lions Gate is based in Vancouver, Canada, though it operates out of Santa Monica, Calif. Its recent film releases include “The Expendables” and “The Last Exorcism.”

MGM, which is ridden with more than $4 billion in debt and plans to file for bankruptcy, owns rights to the James Bond movie franchise and is planning to make a two-part movie with Time Warner Inc.’s Warner Bros., based on “The Hobbit” by J.R.R. Tolkien.

The offer from Lions Gate comes after MGM had rejected a $2 billion cash offer made from Indian conglomerate Sahara India Pariwar and a $1.5 billion cash offer from Time Warner.

A representative for MGM could not immediately be reached for comment Tuesday morning.

Shares of Lions Gate slipped 6 cents to $7.42 in morning trading Tuesday

Solomon Burke, a pioneering singer-songwriter of so-called sweet soul music whose powerful ballads in the 1960s were a major influence on a generation of rock, R&B and pop vocalists, has died. He was in his early 70s.

Burke died early Sunday morning of natural causes at an Amsterdam airport, his family announced on his website. He had flown there from Los Angeles for a concert.

“He was the founding father of what was defined as soul music in America in the 1960s. He was a major player,” Tom Reed, author of the 1992 book “The Black Music History of Los Angeles: Its Roots,” told the Los Angeles Times on Sunday.

Sam Moore of the R&B duo Sam and Dave pronounced in Rolling Stone magazine in May: “There will never be another Solomon Burke.

“When I first saw him, I couldn’t believe that one man could have a voice that big,” Moore said. “He could rock a house. He was that good.”

That voice was responsible for some of classic soul music’s most essential songs of the 1960s, prime examples of the sweet soul music that harnessed the earnestness of the Southern gospel tradition in which Burke was raised to create emotionally charged R&B moments.

Among his career highlights were “Tonight’s the Night,” an R&B and pop hit, and “Cry to Me,” an ode to loneliness and desire that is remembered for its use in a seductive scene in the 1987 film “Dirty Dancing.”

His 1964 hit “Everybody Needs Somebody to Love” was covered by the Rolling Stones and Wilson Pickett, among many others. It too achieved heightened fame in a movie, 1980′s “The Blues Brothers” with Dan Aykroyd and John Belushi.

When Burke was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2001, his rendition of the song stole the show from Aerosmith, Steely Dan and other inductees, pop critic Robert Hilburn wrote in the Times in 2002.

His signature single was 1965′s “Got to Get You Off of My Mind,” which stands as one of the premier soul hits of the 1960s, according to the Hall of Fame. Written by Burke, it features his smooth, solid voice lamenting the death of a love affair.

In 1961, he signed with Atlantic Records, which was looking for church-trained singers with commanding voices. Over the years, the label has been home to Otis Redding, Pickett, Ray Charles and many others.

Even with his talent-heavy roster, producer Jerry Wexler of Atlantic once described Burke as “the best soul singer of all time.”

Although Burke toured regularly in the U.S. and Europe in the 1970s and 1980s, he was averaging less than a dozen shows a year by the 1990s.

Still, Burke consistently delivered new songs both secular and gospel and received a late career boost with a comeback recording, “Don’t Give Up On Me,” which received a Grammy Award in 2003.

Since he was 7, Burke had also been a preacher. He was preparing to deliver a sermon in 2002 at the church he founded and ran – the House of God for All People in Los Angeles – when he discovered the microphone wasn’t working.

The singer, whose voice matched his more than 300-pound frame, responded by saying: “So what? I wasn’t born with a microphone. I was born with a voice.”

He was born James Solomon McDonald in Philadelphia on March 21. He said he was born in 1940, but several biographical references give his birth year as 1936.

His surname came from his stepfather, Vincent Burke, who loved him “as his own,” the younger Burke later said. He had no memory of his biological father, and he was always on the run from his temperamental mother, Burke said in the Rolling Stone article.

He often ended up a few doors away at the home of his grandmother, a spiritual healer who had formed her own church.

In his youth, he was so charismatic in the pulpit that he was known as the Boy Wonder Preacher. The first sign of a royal persona was evident in the cape that he wore only on Sundays that was made from his “blankie.”

By age 13, he was hosting a gospel program on Philadelphia radio and broadcasting from a church of his own.

The power of his on-air voice caught the attention of the wife of a Philadelphia disc jockey, which led him to record for the Apollo label in his teens.

When Burke realized that a business manager in the 1950s was pocketing some of Burke’s concert fees, the manager threatened to blackball him, and the singer found it hard to get concert dates.

To support his family, he went to mortuary school and worked in a Philadelphia funeral home owned by his aunt. After he became successful musically, he invested in a chain of funeral homes.

“Solomon Burke knock you dead from the bandstand. Then he gift-wrap you for the trip home,” fellow soul vocalist Joe Tex said in the 1994 book “Nowhere to Run.”

Burke’s family would grow to include 14 daughters, seven sons, 90 grandchildren and 19 great-grandchildren, according to his website. He was married at least three times.

At his home in Los Angeles, Burke greeted visitors from a red velvet throne in his living room, where he kept his Grammy and Rock and Roll Hall of Fame awards on a nearby mantel.

Read more: http://www.kansascity.com/2010/10/10/2296630/solomon-burke-pioneering-soul.html#ixzz121QoKNyN

S.O.L.A.R. Records founder Dick Griffey was one of the most successful independent black recording moguls of the post-Motown era, a dynamic entrepreneur who, directly or indirectly, played a crucial role in the discovery of countless R&B and pop acts. Yet despite his tremendous influence, it’s safe to say that many people outside of the music industry were not aware of the recording pioneer, who died Friday in Los Angeles from complications of quadruple bypass surgery.

According to reports, Griffey leaves behind his wife, Carrie Lucas Griffey; daughters Regina Hughes and Carolyn Griffey; sons Lucas Griffey and Che Scelsa; adopted son Haile Williams and five grandchildren: Curtis, Devin, Paula, Reggie and Kennedi.

Though Griffey operated quietly behind the scenes, his work is well known to the millions of music lovers who snapped up the posh funk hits his label generated. From its 1977 inception throughout its 1980s heyday, S.O.L.A.R. issued an impressive series of family-friendly hits performed by acts like the Whispers, Shalamar (featuring future solo stars Jody Watley and Howard Hewett), Midnight Star, Lakeside and others. S.O.L.A.R. hits like “A Night To Remember” (Shalamar), “I Miss You” (Klymaxx), “And The Beat Goes On” and “Rock Steady” (The Whispers) are essential listening for any lover of funk-era R&B.

Griffey’s cultural impact is formidable. He was first to recognize the talents of songwriter/producer Leon Sylvers III, who went on to craft many S.O.L.A.R. hits, as well as chart-topping tracks for the Spinners, Gladys Knight & The Pips and others. A number of the singles generated by Griffey’s S.O.L.A.R. and Constellation Records labels became crossover hits, penetrating the R&B, pop and adult contemporary charts.

Grammy-winning singer, songwriter and producer Kenny “Babyface” Edmonds was a modest guitarist in a band called The Deele when Griffey discovered him. He remembered Griffey as a “complicated” man with stringent standards and a sharp eye for talent.

“Personally, Dick was responsible for bringing me out of the shadows,” Edmonds told BlackAmericaWeb.com. “It was Dick’s decision for me to be a solo artist. I would do demos and sing all the time, and he would say, ‘Why aren’t you doing this yourself?’ He pressed that. I would not be a solo artist if wasn’t for Dick.”

Singer Walter Scott of the Whispers remembered Griffey as a “brilliant” man who was fair and candid.

“He was first guy to explain to us that artists were the last guys on the totem pole in the eyes of (most) record companies,” Scott told BlackAmericaWeb.com. “You wouldn’t think that a guy who owned a record company would admit those kinds of things to an artist, but that’s the kind of guy that he was.”

Though his self-promotional skills were no match for Berry Gordy’s, Griffey nonetheless shaped S.O.L.A.R. Records into a model of Detroit-style efficiency. Just as Motown turned its working class Detroit connections into a marketing point, so did S.O.L.A.R. proudly promote its Hollywood affiliations. Indeed, the S.O.L.A.R. name is a brilliant concept. The name — an acronym for “Sound Of Los Angeles Records” — seems to veritably burst with meanings, from its implied allusion to soul to its literal reference to the sun.

In a 1995 interview with Brenda T. Myers, Griffey said he entered the entertainment business in the mid-60s after experiencing a revelation: “I started thinking how entertainers come and go, but business people are always here,” he said.
Beginning his career as a nightclub booking agent, he founded Dick Griffey Productions and quickly established himself as one the nation’s most prominent black managers/concert promoters, overseeing domestic and international tours for world-renowned acts like Stevie Wonder and The Jacksons.

Mary J. Blige and Jazmine Sullivan are set to hit the road together for a fall tour. Blige announced the trek — also scheduled to include Miguel — during an appearance on BET’s “106 & Park.”

The tour will begin October 2 in Atlanta and feature stops in New York (October 11 and 12); Atlantic City, New Jersey (October 8); and Virginia Beach, Virginia (October 3).

Blige told the “106 & Park” studio audience that Sullivan was “one of the most amazing female singers out right now in this generation, and of course, she’s got to be a part of my generation.” She added: “She’s my sister. I love this girl’s voice and spirit. Jazmine Sullivan is for real, and she’s going on the road with me.”

The Philadelphia-born Sullivan’s Missy Elliott-produced “Holding You Down (Goin’ in Circles)” remix, which features Blige and Swizz Beatz, dropped Monday. The track samples several hip-hop and R&B hits, including Slick Rick’s “La Di Da Di,” rap supergroup the Firm’s “Affirmative Action” and Blige’s “Be Happy.”

Sullivan is set to release her sophomore project, Love Me Back, in October; Miguel is finishing up his debut, All I Want Is You, for release next year.

Tentative Mary J. Blige and Jazmine Sullivan tour dates, provided by Live Nation:

» 10/1 – Mobile, AL
» 10/2 – Atlanta, GA
» 10/3 – Virginia Beach, VA
» 10/5 – Raleigh, NC
» 10/7 – Washington, DC
» 10/8 – Atlantic City, NJ
» 10/10 – Mashantucket, CT
» 10/11 – New York, NY
» 10/12 – New York, NY
» 10/15 – Detroit, MI
» 10/16 – Chicago, IL
» 10/19 – Los Angeles, CA
» 10/20 – Los Angeles, CA
» 10/22 – Las Vegas, NV
» 10/23 – Oakland, CA

The crime drama “Takers” was the top film in U.S. and Canadian theaters over the weekend, earning $20.5 million for Sony Corp.

The film moved into first place after final Sunday sales numbers were tallied, displacing “The Last Exorcism,” researcher Hollywood.com Box Office said today in an e-mailed statement. “The Last Exorcism” took in $20.4 million.

“Takers” features singer Chris Brown and Hayden Christensen leading a group of bank robbers chased by a veteran detective played by Matt Dillon. “The Last Exorcism,” along with “Takers,” had an unexpectedly strong opening weekend for late August, said Gitesh Pandya, chief executive officer of Box Office Guru.com.

“The end of August is a dumping ground for weak movies that don’t work,” Pandya said. “It shows that there’s still a lot of interest out there in moviegoers to see something different.”

“The Last Exorcism,” from Lions Gate Entertainment Corp., was filmed as a mock documentary and doesn’t feature a Hollywood superstar. Rated PG-13, the movie depicts a camera crew assigned to follow a preacher performing his final exorcism before quitting the practice.

“The Expendables,” also from Lions Gate, finished third with $9.5 million after two weeks at No. 1. The film, directed by and starring Sylvester Stallone, follows a group of mercenaries paid to overthrow a South American dictator. The cast includes Jet Li, Mickey Rourke, Jason Statham and Steve Austin. It has taken in $82 million since opening on Aug. 13.

‘Eat Pray Love’

“Eat Pray Love,” featuring Julia Roberts, dropped to fourth place from third in its third week of release with $6.8 million for Sony Corp. Roberts plays Elizabeth Gilbert, who wrote a memoir detailing her divorce and world travels.

“The Other Guys” remained in fifth with $6.3 million. The buddy-cop spoof starring Will Ferrell and Mark Wahlberg has earned $99 million for Sony in four weeks.

“Vampires Suck” was sixth with $5.2 million for News Corp.’s Fox studio. The movie parodies the recent vampire phenomenon, specifically Summit Entertainment LLC’s “Twilight” series.

The rereleased “Avatar” had $4 million in sales, finishing in 11th place. The take pushed the movie’s domestic total to $753.8 million. The 3-D film from director James Cameron originally was released in December.

Next Week’s Debuts

Three films debut next week, including the Wednesday opening of George Clooney’s “The American” from NBC Universal’s Focus Features. Warner Bros. will attempt to draw in romantic-comedy fans with “Going the Distance,” starring Drew Barrymore and Justin Long,, while Fox’s “Machete” targets the adventure seekers.

Weekend sales for the top 12 films fell 8.5 percent to $100.4 million from $109.8 million a year earlier, Hollywood.com said. Year-to-date receipts total $7.53 billion, up 4.1 percent from $7.23 billion. Attendance has fallen 1.5 percent this year.

The following table has figures provided by studios to Los Angeles-based Hollywood.com. The amounts are based on actual ticket sales for Aug. 27-29.

                     Rev.             Avg./    Pct.   Total
Movie               (mln) Theaters  Theater    Chg.   (mln)  Wks
================================================================
1 TAKERS             20.5    2,206    9,298     --     20.5    1
2 THE LAST EXORCISM  20.4    2,874    7,087     --     20.4    1
3 THE EXPENDABLES     9.5    3,398    2,804    -44     82.0    3
4 EAT PRAY LOVE       6.8    3,108    2,193    -44     60.5    3
5 THE OTHER GUYS      6.3    3,181    1,976    -38     99.0    4
6 VAMPIRES SUCK       5.2    3,233    1,615    -57     27.8    2
7 INCEPTION           4.9    2,070    2,356    -38    270.5    7
8 NANNY MCPHEE        4.7    2,798    1,685    -44     17.0    2
9 THE SWITCH          4.6    2,017    2,272    -46     14.8    2
10 PIRANHA 3D         4.3    2,491    1,727    -57     18.3    2
11 AVATAR: SPECIAL    4.0      812    4,936     --    753.8    1
12 LOTTERY TICKET     3.9    1,973    1,954    -64     17.3    2

‘Takers,’ directed by John Luessenhop, revolves around a notorious group of criminals (Idris Elba, Paul Walker, T.I., Chris Brown, Hayden Christensen and Michael Ealy) who continue to baffle police by pulling off perfectly executed bank robberies. They are in and out like clockwork, leaving no evidence behind and laying low in between heists. But when they attempt to pull off one last job with more money at stake than ever before, the crew may find their plans interrupted by a hardened d

When Lauryn Hill gives a live performance as well-received as the one she did at the Rock the Bells tour’s Aug. 21 stop in San Bernardino, Calif., it’s worth paying attention. It’s not that she’s never given concerts over the past decade. (Pictured to your left is her performance this January at Sydney, Australia’s Raggamuffin Festival.) But since Hill’s de facto retirement, fairly or not, it’s often been said that her live act has become inconsistent, unreliable, not what it once was. Consider her Rock the Bells performance this weekend a major piece of evidence against that theory.

Hill joined a dream team of rap legends in San Bernardino. Snoop Dogg, Slick Rick, the Wu-Tang Clan, A Tribe Called Quest, Rakim, and others each performed one of their best-loved albums start to finish. Hill only has one solo studio album to her name, of course, but she didn’t stick to that limitation, performing a selection of Fugees and solo hits. MTV News’ on-the-scene report makes it sound like a pretty great set list, including sped-up versions of “Lost Ones,” “Doo Wop (That Thing),” “To Zion,” “Ready or Not,” and “Fu-Gee-La.” “This was not a woman who some reports had labeled ‘crazy,’” writes MTV’s Shaheem Reid. “Lauryn was lucid and dancing and appeared to be enjoying herself.”

One solid concert doesn’t necessarily mean Lauryn Hill is ready to return to public life full-time. The same goes for the recent Billboard debut of ”Repercussions,” a leaked tune of indeterminate age whose No. 94 spot on the Hot 100 marked the first time she’d been on that chart as a lead artist since 1999. Still, it’s hard not to see these as good signs. Let’s hope this latest flurry of news heralds a major comeback, complete with new music worthy of being mentioned in the same sentence as The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill or even her underrated MTV Unplugged set.

Abbey Lincoln, a jazz singer and songwriter known for her phrasing, emotion and uncompromising style, died Saturday in New York at age 80.

She had been declining in health for the past year. Her death was confirmed by friend and filmmaker Carol Friedman, who has been working on a documentary on Lincoln’s life.

Lincoln made records and acted in films in the 1950s and ’60s, then saw her career surge again in the 1990s when she found new voice as a songwriter.

Over her long career, Lincoln acted with Sidney Poitier and collaborated in music with the drummer Max Roach, whom she married in 1962 and later divorced.

In later years, she had chart-topping albums with “You Gotta Pay the Band,” which she recorded with Stan Getz, and “Devil’s Got Your Tongue,” in which she rebuked some rappers, comics and filmmakers for profiting from the denigration of black culture.

As a young woman, Lincoln made a splash not only because of her voice, but her beauty. Early album covers featured her in slinky dresses, and she appeared in a Jayne Mansfield movie wearing the dress worn by Marilyn Monroe in “Gentlemen Prefer Blondes.”

But after falling under Roach’s influence, Lincoln turned her back on that image, casting herself instead as a civil rights advocate, dressing in African-inspired clothing and hairstyles, and making music with a political tone.

Her 1960 collaboration with Roach and Oscar Brown Jr., “We Insist! (Freedom Now Suite),” was a testament against racism.

Explaining her image makeover in 1993, Lincoln told The Associated Press, “This dress was more important than I was. People in the audience were looking at my exposed breasts and the shape of my body, and it didn’t have nothing to do with the music.

“… It wasn’t a dream of mine to be a star, so Max came along at the right time to help save me from myself. Otherwise, I would have become an alcoholic and unhappy.”

Born Anna Marie Wooldridge in 1930, Lincoln was the daughter of a handyman and grew up with 11 brothers and sisters in rural Calvin Center, Mich. She discovered music early, teaching herself piano and singing in music and school.

Lincoln worked as a maid as a teenager, but continued to sing, and eventually worked her way on to the nightclub circuit in Honolulu and then played supper clubs in Los Angeles in the early 1950s, performing under the name Gaby Wooldridge, and then Gabby Lee. Her manager and songwriter eventually came up with the stage name Abbey Lincoln.

Her work with Roach began in 1957 with the album “That’s Him.”

In the 1960s, she had several film roles, starring in the independent film “Nothing But a Man,” a story about a black railroad worker in the South in love with a preacher’s daughter, and then opposite Poitier in “For Love of Ivy” in 1968.

Lincoln’s career fell quiet in the 1970s and ’80s, after her marriage to Roach ended. She recorded on small independent labels, but she found new fame and acclaim when she signed with Verve Records/France and released “The World Is Falling Down,” in 1990, an album that featured such jazz stars as pianist Hank Jones and trumpeter Clark Terry.

She released nine more albums for Verve, the last, “Abbey Sings Abbey,” which featured reinterpretations of her own compositions, in 2007. Lincoln also acted again for the first time in decades, with a brief role in the 1990 Spike Lee film “Mo’ Better Blues.”

In 2003, the National Endowment for the Arts recognized her with its Jazz Masters Award, the nation’s highest jazz honor.

“I’ve done what I please, told people to go bug off and exercised my independence,” Lincoln told the AP in 1993.

Friedman said the world had lost “an amazing genius.”

“There are gorgeous women, there are spirited women, there are genius women – Abbey Lincoln was all of that,” she said. “You don’t find an artist that embodies this kind of level of physical beauty and cerebral magnificence in one package.”

(This version CORRECTS Lincoln’s output on Verve in the 1990s to 10 albums, instead of 9.)

Sylvester Stallone has proven that he’s not quite expendable yet at the box office. Stallone and his pumped-up pals lifted the 1980s-style action romp “The Expendables” to a No. 1 debut with $35 million. The movie features such action stars as Jet Li and Jason Statham – along with cameos from Bruce Willis and Arnold Schwarzenegger – in a tale of mercenaries aiming to overthrow a dictator.

While the macho “Expendables” lured male audiences, Julia Roberts delivered a crowd-pleaser for women with “Eat Pray Love,” which opened at No. 2 with $23.7 million. Adapted from Elizabeth Gilbert’s best-selling memoir, the movie stars Roberts as a woman traveling the world in search of enlightenment after her divorce.

The previous weekend’s top movie, Sony’s cop comedy “The Other Guys,” slipped to third place with $18 million, raising its 10-day total to $70.5 million. The Warner Bros. blockbuster “Inception” was fourth with $11.4 million, lifting its total to $248.6 million.

Opening in fifth place with $10.5 million was Universal’s graphic-novel adaptation “Scott Pilgrim vs. the World,” starring Michael Cera as a slacker caught up in duels to the death with his new girlfriend’s seven evil ex-boyfriends.

“The Expendables” continued a box-office uptick for Stallone, who has had a career resurgence in recent years revisiting his past with fresh sequels to his “Rocky” and “Rambo” franchises.

The movie features such action stars as Jet Li and Jason Statham – along w