Shontelle follows up Shontelligence with No Gravity

Bajan pop/R&B singer Shontelle whose singles T Shirt, Stuck With Each Other and Battle Cry scaled various Billboard and UK Singles charts, is back with a new album.

Entitled No Gravity, it is slated for a June 2010 release and will feature collaborations with Sean Kingston and Mr Hudson. According to previously published reports, the sophomore set will comprise a dance/rock sound with R&B and disco influences. There is a remake of Nickleback’s How You Remind Me and a dancehall track titled Pon Fyah.

The first single, Impossible, was released stateside on April 10 and debuted at number 88 on the latest Billboard Hot 100 chart. The second single Licky (Under the Covers) is to be released in June.

Shontelle’s debut album Shontelligence was released in 2008 and has to date sold more than 50,000 copies.

The music of Madonna invades the Billboard charts

The big news on the US album charts this week is the success of the soundtrack to Glee. Glee: The Music, the Power of Madonna moved some 98,000 copies to take over the penthouse on the Billboard 200 album chart.

Simultaneously, four songs from the covers collection debut on the Billboard Hot 100 chart. Like a Prayer leads the pack at number 27, while Border Line/Open Your Heart hops in at number 78, Like a Virgin slithers in at number 87, while 4 Minutes clocks in at number 89.

Previous Glee soundtracks which have fared better include Glee: Season One: The Music Volume 1 and Volume 2. Volume one debuted at number four on the album chart last November with 113,000 copies moved in its opening week. Volume two, which was released a month later, debuted at number three with 173,000 copies.

Combined, both volumes have sold some 1.4 million copies stateside.

Gyptian breaks the drought on Billboard

Gyptian’s stateside hit Hold Yuh has sailed from number 51 into the number 42 spot on Billboard’s R&B Hip Hop Singles & Tracks chart.

This is the first time in four years that any Jamaican reggae or dancehall artiste has reached the Top 50 portion of the Billboard R&B chart.

In 2006, Mavado peaked at number 27 with Weh Dem a Do, while Tony Matterhorn’s Dutty Wine danced its way to number 31. Sean Paul enjoyed a number 21 peak of the collaborative hit When You Gonna (Give it Up to Me), which featured R&B singer Keyshia Cole.

Elsewhere on the latest Billboard charts, Gyptian finds better luck on the Heatseekers chart as Hold Yuh Bullets jumps from 15 to land at number nine.

BITS AND PIECES

Ludacris, Jeremih, and TLC are coming. You read it here first!

Jade Promotions is staging an event called Ladies Rule at the Coast Parking Lot in Antigua on Sunday May 2nd. The event features Nadine Sutherland, D’Angel, Timberlee and Denyque.

Beenie Man recently teamed up with St Lucian singer Claudia on a new dance single titled Bad Girl, which was shipped to urban and club radio stations in the United States recently. Bad Girl is the first single from her forthcoming debut album Mic Check, which is to be released world-wide next month.

Sister Sledge member Kathy Sledge was recently in Antigua, where she and her team were scouting locations for a reality show that will air on a major US network.

Singer Anthony Cruz recently completed the video for the song Only the Father. It was directed by Smooth from Full Exposure Productions.