Fierce? Nah, She's Just Too Good

Set to break Eagles' Greatest Hits figure

(NEWSER) - Buoyed by the singer’s passing, Michael Jackson’s Thriller looks set to match the Eagles’ Their Greatest Hits 1971-1975 as the bestselling album ever in the US, Billboard reports. The Eagles compilation was certified 29 times platinum in 2006, having sold at least 29 million copies—but Billboard says the sales boost from Jackson’s death and Sony’s marketing have probably pushed album shipments past that figure. More»

(NEWSER) - The Jonas Brothers are cautiously courting a more mature audience with their new album, but they don’t want to leave their teeny-bopper past totally behind. “We are working to make that trade without having to give anything up,” Kevin Jonas tells Rolling Stone, but the pop sensations have no illusions. “It will take time, because of where we came from.” More»

Performs 20-minute composition before receiving US award

(NEWSER) - Stevie Wonder performed an original classical piece last night at the Library of Congress, where he is due to receive the second Gershwin Prize for Popular Song tomorrow, the Washington Post reports. He played piano, keyboard, and harmonica along with a 21-piece ensemble performing “Sketches of a Life,” an autobiographical composition he began writing in 1976 but hadn’t performed before. More»

Will be singer's fifth No. 1

(AP) - Britney Spears' latest CD, Circus, has landed her back at a familiar position—No. 1. The singer's comeback CD—make that her second comeback CD—will top the album charts next week, according to her label, Jive. Though Nielsen SoundScan does not release its official figures until today, estimates have the record selling as many as 500,000 copies in its first week of release. More»

Diva shows split personality on new double album

(NEWSER) - Beyoncé’s latest, I Am … Sasha Fierce, consists of two discs: one with “some lovely ballads” and the other “aggressive, sexual, and, well, fierce,” writes Leah Greenblatt in Entertainment Weekly. But despite a few gems, “the collection might have been better served had she edited it down to one disc, rather than belabor what ultimately seems like a marketing gimmick,” Greenblatt notes. More»