Maybe Akon should give up performing for a while. Less than two months after the hip-hop star made headlines for dry-humping an underage fan onstage, his concert behavior has landed him back in trouble. During a show in Fishkill, N.Y., last Sunday, the singer allegedly threw a fan from the stage, injuring someone in the crowd. Police have launched a probe to investigate the incident.
Just because the critics don't like R. Kelly and he's been indicted on child pornography charges doesn't mean people won't buy his records. The R&B Lothario's new album, "Double Up," went to No. 1 in its first week of release with sales of 386, 000.
It'll be interesting to see where Paul McCartney's new album, "Memory Almost Full," lands on next week's chart. In addition to being featured on the Home Shopping Network, the album is now being sold in Starbucks coffee shops all over the world -- part of McCartney's deal as the first artist signed to the java giant's Hear Music label. Initial reports have the album's sales at a solid, but not spectacular, 180,000.
Bono met with President Bush on Wednesday in advance of the G-8 summit at Heiligendamm, Germany. Accompanied by fellow musician/activists Bob Geldof and Senegalese singer Youssou N'Dour, the U2 frontman was hoping to convince G-8 leaders to keep their promises to increase aid to poor countries.
Record industry giant EMI took the unprecedented step of allowing people to listen to its catalog for free on the new Web site Lala.com. The site lets you stream music by acts like Amy Winehouse and Wilco. You still have to pay if you actually want to download the tracks, though.
Color-conscious rockers the White Stripes are giving music away too. Sort of. The band's "Rag and Bone" is being bundled as a 7-inch vinyl giveaway with the new issue of British music magazine NME. If you don't have a record player, you can check out the song (illegally) on this Web site.
-- David Marchese
Shares