Sean Kingston's debut album certified for sales of seven million copies worldwide

Sean Kingston's debut self-titled album has to date sold more than seven million copies worldwide. Discovered on the popular social networking site, MySpace, Kingston has become a force to be reckoned with since his debut outing was released in July of 2007 via Epic Records.

In a just five months, Kingston has accrued more than seven million worldwide sales of ringtones, ringbacks, singles and albums in physical and digital sales for songs including his global chart topping single Beautiful Girls. That song went to number one in 21 countries around the world. His second hit Me Love was also a gold-certified hit. His latest top ten hit Take You There has also gone gold. That single is currently number ten on the Billboard Hot 100.

Additionally, Sean is featured on Natasha Bedingfield's latest hit Love Like This.

Kingston is now wrapping up a national US tour with Grammy-nominated R&B singer Chris Brown, following a national tour with Gwen Stefani. In March, Sean will kick off an international tour performing throughout Europe, Australia and Asia. That tour will run until Spring.

Kingston has been nominated in the "Outstanding New Artiste" category for the 39th NAACP Image Awards that will air live on Thursday, February 14 on FOX. Kingston recently won the US Teen Choice Award for Choice R&B Track for Beautiful Girls. Last year he won the UK MOBO Award for Best Reggae Act.

On the local scene, Kingston has earned nominations in the Irie FM Music Awards and the Excellence in Music and Entertainment Awards.

Freddie McGregor speaks on Stephen McGregor's success

Young producer Stephen McGregor who has been nominated in the Best Dancehall Producer and Best Dancehall Riddim categories of the inaugural staging of the 2008 Reggae Academy Awards, has been enjoying a wave of success.

McGregor, the offspring of reggae ambassador Freddie McGregor, and whose brother Chino is making a name for himself in dancehall music circles, is barely out of his teens.

His most recent projects include the Tremor, Darker Shadow, Shadow, Bee Hive, Chiney K and Power Cut rhythms.

When this column caught up with Freddie recently, he spoke at length about his son's success. "Stephen has been doing very well and it's a result of hard work and discipline. He has the accessibility of a studio at his disposal and he works tirelessly in there," said Freddie.

Freddie further added "Stephen is a very talented youth and he can also sing. We have a lot of songs with him waiting to be released."

Demarco's Fallen Soldiers shoots to the top in St Vincent

Demarcos Fallen Soldiers single is the number one song this week in St Vincent and the Grenadines. More good news for Demarco as the song is also number one in St Lucia.
Demarco performed last weekend in Freeport, Bahamas.

Mr Vegas teams up with Destra, Trey Songz and others

Kat Deluna and Lil' Kim are featured on a remix of Vegas' smash hit Tek Weh Yuself. Vegas is currently riding the charts in Trinidad and Tobago with the song On the Floor which features Destra Garcia.

Vegas is also featured on a remix of R&B singer Trey Songz' current Billboard charting single I Can't Help But Wait.
He is scheduled to embark on a US college tour this Spring to promote his recently released album Hot it Up.

Mavado records Jehovah Guide Me single

Mavado has recorded three hot new tracks: Money Changer for producer Shane Brown's Juke Boxx label; Mi Hennessey for the SSMG label; and Jehovah Guide Me for the Baby G label.

Jehovah Guide Me premiered on Jamaican radio earlier this week and the reception has been quite positive. It is an adaptation of the gospel track of the same name, with Mavado's unique vocals and lyrical content. With choir harmonies and references to the police and army invasion of his party and an appeal for the cessation of violence in the country, Mavado has carved out another surefire anthem.

Plans are already underway to shoot a video for the song and the long-awaited Little X-directed video for Last Night is also nearing completion. The clip will receive its Jamaican premier in two weeks time.

Caribbean entertainment bits

Up-and-coming Bahamian reggae artiste Sammi Starr has scored a hit song with his one drop single Good To Know You. Sammi Starr operates through his own label Starrboy Inc which is affiliated to Frontline Productions, both driving forces in the developing Bahamian music industry.

The island of St Lucia will on February 29, host the first ever St Lucia Music Awards. The awards are being produced in conjunction with the St Lucia Association of Musicians and Performers. There will be presented in 23 categories. Music interests have all welcomed the ceremony, seeing it as a much-needed boost to the industry. The have applauded the event organisers and the sponsors for making this possible, and pledge to provide their support by participating in the awards.

Over in Trinidad and Tobago, the Mighty Diamond is the 2008 Calypso Young King, having won the title recently in the finals of the competition. Calypsonian, Patrick Purcell Lewis, performed Crime Issues, exploring the various facets of crime that have been slowly crippling the nation over the past decade.

Barbados soca artiste Peter Ram, the man who last year brought us the mega hit, Woman By My Side, is yet again making musical waves with his current chart climber, Pumpin, and its accompanying music video. The video was directed by Jay Will.

Pumpin is on the Nirvana riddim and is the collaborative effort of producer Darron Grant of Underground Studios and Cory Jordan (keyboardist for the band Krosfyah).

Macka releases Dandy Shandy video

Macka Diamond has been busy of late. She recently completed a remix of Wukking Up with soca artiste Patrice Roberts which went to number one in Trinidad and Tobago. Macka just returned to the island from a performance in New Rochelle, New York.

Additionally, she just shot the video for the song Nuh Bada Mi featuring Toots Hibbert, which was directed by Asha. Macka's video for the song Dandy Shandy was released recently.

Chart Updates

Etana's Roots continues its reign at the top of the New York Reggae Singles chart. Meanwhile over on the Canada Reggae Chart, Busy Signal's Nah Go a Jail is the top song for the third straight week.

In Trinidad and Tobago, the number one song is Make Love by Machel Montano, while Praise God by Little Hero is number one in the British Virgin Islands.

Those Days by Shaggy featuring Nasha is number one in Aruba this week.

Seen and Heard

Why are press launches becoming more of a social swirl than what they were initially intended for? What happened at the launch of the Irie FM Music Awards was quite inexcusable. The highlight of the night had to be the terrorist invasion of the stage by LA Lewis.

So Barbee is jetting off to Africa. "My father is from Nigeria so that's why I am going there," she told this column recently. By the way, Barbee is the opening act for the BET College Tour this Spring.

I almost fell off my chair last week. While watching the Schools Challenge Quiz, one of the schools was asked to finish the following sentence. "Lloyd Parkes and the." The team responded by saying "and the Beatles". Things that make you go hmm. Have a great weekend. Email kevinjacksonkj@gmail.com.

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