Jordin Sparks

quote of the day

thu 10/1/2009

 
Jordin Sparks performing live in a white dress.

"I'm only 19 so I'm not that much further from that, girls being mean. You don't have to be mean to somebody else just to make yourself feel better. Girls definitely have to go through it – it's definitely going to be there. You come out stronger afterward and it makes you who you are."

- Jordin Sparks.

 
 

pass or fail

daily dos

fri 9/11/2009

 

Jordin Sparks is getting her shine on in a new video, "S.O.S. (Let The Music Play)."

 
 

Halo or Battlefield?

song showdown

tue 8/11/2009

 
A collage of Beyonce and Jordin Sparks.

"I can feel your halo, halo, halo, I can see your halo, halo, halo, I can feel your halo, halo, halo, I can see your halo, halo, halo."

Artist: Beyonce

Song: Halo
Album: I Am… Sasha Fierce
Produced by: Evan "Kidd" Bogart, Beyonce and Ryan Tedder

Beyonce breaks down the walls around her heart over thumps, claps and synths.

OR

"Why does love always feel like a battlefield, a battlefield, a battlefield?"

Artist: Jordin Sparks
Song: Battlefield
Album: Battlefield
Produced by: The Runaways and Ryan Tedder

A misunderstanding leads to a war in Jordin Sparks' bombastic single.

 
 

Chris Brown's most popular video collaborations

peep this

thu 5/29/2008

 
Chris Brown in a fitted hat and camo gear.

Chris Brown is on fire. Blessed with good looks and radiating the charisma that has earned him comparisons to Michael Jackson, the 19-year-old singer-dancer has already earned two platinum albums. But he didn't do it alone. From his beginnings as a small-town song and dance prodigy to his current pop superstar status, Breezy has never been afraid to share the spotlight.

Here's a look at Chris Brown's most popular video collaborations:

"Run It" featuring Juelz Santana:

In 2005, Chris Brown was an unknown 16-year-old from Tappahannock, Virginia when he dropped "Run It!," a high-octane club jam featuring Dipset's Juelz Santana. The single, reminiscent of Usher's Dirty South Yeah, was number one in the U.S. for five weeks.

"Gimme That" (Remix) featuring Lil Wayne:

After following "Run It!" with the puppy love ballad Yo (Excuse Me Miss), Brown decided to move butts and hearts with "Gimme That." Lil Wayne shows up on the remix to kick one of his signature so-lazy-it's-good verses.

"Kiss Kiss" featuring T-Pain:

Brown's self-titled 2005 debut spawned three top ten singles. Two years later, on "Kiss Kiss," the second single from his second album, Exclusive, Brown enlisted the help of T-Pain, the commercial genius behind "Buy U a Drank" and "Bartender" featuring Akon. Well played, Breezy, well played.

"Shawty Get Loose" by Lil Mama:

In early 2008, Chris Brown reunited with T-Pain to guest on Lil Mama's "Shawty Get Loose," an electric track that finds Brown and Teddy P switching things up: T-Pain drops a rap verse while Breezy adds a vocoder&B chorus between Lil Mama's rapid-fire flow.

"No Air" by Jordin Sparks:

By the time Chris Brown teamed up with American Idol winner Jordin Sparks, he already had two back-to-back hits under his belt. With her second single, "No Air," Brown chalked up another hit and Sparks reached number one on the Billboard chart.

 
 

hy-bridging the gap

daily dos

tue 4/22/2008

 

Jordin Sparks has temporarily dropped out of the Alicia Keys tour after suffering from what her record label described as "vocal problems." The "American Idol" champ is scheduled to rejoin the tour in May.

 
 

Jordin Sparks

whodat

mon 3/17/2008

 
Jordin Sparks dressed in yellow in front of a pink background.

David Archuleta isn't the first toothy teen singer to win over America on national TV. Last year, Arizona native Jordin Sparks became the youngest Idol winner ever. She was 17.

A devoted Christian, Sparks credits her faith and her father, retired football pro Phillipi Sparks, for keeping her grounded during her years as a child performer.

After competing on TV shows like "America's Most Talented Kid" and singing the national anthem in stadiums, Sparks auditioned for "Idol" in Los Angeles but didn't make the cut. Undeterred, she earned a spot on a local version of "Idol" and another chance to impress Paula, Randy and Simon. And impress she did. Her spot-on rendition of Celine Dion's Because You Loved Me prompted Randy Jackson to exclaim: "You're a natural." A few months later, a record-setting 74 million voters chose between finalists Jordin Sparks and Blake Lewis, with Sparks the winner. In a few months, she'd sign to Jive Records, the home of Justin Timberlake, R. Kelly and UGK.

Sparks' first single, Tattoo, went platinum but her self-titled debut registered the lowest first-week sales (119,000 copies) of any "Idol" champ. No Air, a dramatic duet with Chris Brown featuring dark synths and a thumping backbeat, quieted naysayers by reaching the top 10 and selling over half a million digital units. Sparks' debut has since gone gold and she's been tapped to join Alicia Keys and Ne-Yo on a three-month tour that kicks off in April.

 
 

see thru

daily dos

fri 2/29/2008

 

American Idol winner Jordin Sparks and Chris Brown battle cold weather in a new video, "No Air."

 
 

Jordin Sparks, Amy Winehouse, The Hives and Daft Punk.

the music press

tue 11/27/2007

 
A collage of Jordin Sparks, Amy Winehouse, The Hives and Daft Punk.
  • American Idol winner Jordin Sparks releases her self-titled debut. Rolling Stone loves its diversity but thinks the album is too naïve for its own good: “She's the kind of pop star who writes 'Nobody puts baby in a corner' on her MySpace blog and means it.” Slant Magazine is thoroughly impressed, calling Jordin Sparks "one of the strongest Idol debuts yet.”
  • Amy Winehouse's debut album, Frank, makes its way to the U.S. long after its 2003 U.K. release. Back then, Musicomh.com was singing its praises: “Frank is a superb debut album that announces Amy Winehouse as a major young talent.” Four years later, Popmatters agrees: Winehouse’s success … is based on pure talent rather than good producers or gimmicks.”
  • Swedish garage rockers The Hives return with The Black and White Album, an LP featuring “less of an emphasis on garage spit-and-venom, replaced by forays into ballads and lounge soul,” according to The Village Voice. The geeks at The Onion's A.V. Club give the album a "B+" and breathe a sigh of relief: “[I]n a world gone mad, it's nice to know that at least one band remembers what rock 'n' roll is all about.”
  • French electronic duo Daft Punk releases its live album Alive 2007, a set that "blends all their biggest hits into one enthralling, seamless mash-up of pumping bass lines, steady drumbeats, and cooing vocoders,” writes Entertainment Weekly. Billboard.com thinks Alive 2007 "comes pretty darn close" to matching the "in-person thrills of the current Daft Punk live experience, what with the robot costumes, onstage pyramid and body-rattling beats radiating out into the blissed-out faithful.”