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Music News

The latest music news on female musicians. Upcoming albums and current releases.

Natalie Finn - E! Online
Hilary Duff Denies Lip Synching Rumors

Hilary Duff's Dignity is intact, her camp says. The Most Wanted singer is adamantly denying rumors she wasn't all there during a stop on her 2008 Dignity tour in Monterrey, Mexico, this weekend, after footage of the concert, in which she appears to be mouthing words into a microphone, made the Internet rounds. "She was not lip-synching," Duff's rep said in a statement confirmed by E! News. "It was faulty equipment. There was no sound coming out, but she was singing." They were relying on locally provided equipment during Saturday's show, the rep said. The mike was accidentally set on mute for a few seconds, after which the problem was solved and Duff's voice carried the day. The Cinderella Story star does her own singing in concert, her publicist said. So, spare the comparisons to Ashlee Simpson, Britney Spears and the various popsters who have in the past needed a little electronic enhancement onstage. Hilary Duff has three more stops in Mexico this week, including a show Monday night in Puebla, before moving on to Brazil and Australia. The 20-year-old former Disney Channel star is slated to return to the big screen this year in the coming-of-age drama Greta, costarring Ellen Burstyn and Evan Ross, in which she plays a headstrong waitress whose family doesn't condone her interracial romance. Duff has also lent her voice to the self-explanatory animated tale Foodfight!, also due in theaters this year.

Hilary Duff Bio Photos and Video

Meet Bubbly Colbie Caillat

Colbie Caillat began singing with serious intent at the age of 11 after hearing Lauryn Hill's version of Killing Me Softly. "I think her voice is absolutely beautiful and it made me want to start singing so I entered a talent show and of course I sang a Lauryn Hill song." As she grew older, however, her father offered one crucial piece of advice. It was all very well having a great voice, he pointed out, the people who command real respect in the music business are the songwriters. "I thought about that for a long time", she says. In truth, it took some time coming - but when it did, the floodgates opened. "I needed to play an instrument to write songs and although I had piano lessons as a kid, it never went anywhere because I was never in the right state of mind to practice," she recalls. Surprisingly, it wasn't until she was 19 - little more than two years ago -that she eventually took up the acoustic guitar. "I wrote my fist song after my very first guitar lesson and then it just all flowed out," she recalls. "If something's biting me I hold it in because that's the kind of person I am. Then it comes out in songs. Things builds up inside of me and I'll write three songs in a weekend. It's a release. I don't choose what to write about. It's just there." Along the way, she found two key collaborators in Mikal Blue, who hired her when she was 15 to sing some songs he'd written for a fashion show, and singer/songwriter Jason Reeves. Together, they helped to craft the songs on "Coco," which Blue also produced. "The songs always start put with me," she explains of the collaborative process. "I'll be sitting around at home getting bored and something will come out. Then if I get stuck, I can take it to Mikal or Jason. Having people you trust to bounce ideas around keeps the creativity flowing."

Colbie Caillat Bio Photos and Music Video

NEW YORK (Billboard)
Jessica Simpson Going Country on New Album

Jessica Simpson is in the early stages of recording a country album in Nashville, a project slated for a 2008 release via Columbia Records. Jessica Simpson said she had always wanted to make a country album, but was waiting until the right time. "I think there is a strength in female country artists," Simpson said, citing Martina McBride, Shania Twain, Faith Hill and Reba McEntire as some of her inspirations. She said she would be involved in the creative process. "Writing is a release for me," she said. "It's a way for me to tell my story. That's not to say I wouldn't record a song that I didn't write." Her last album, "A Public Affair," spent just nine weeks on the Billboard 200 in 2006. Her most recent movie, "Blonde Ambition," was recently released in a handful of theaters in her native Texas en route to DVD stores.

Jessica Simpson Bio Photos and Video

By Clover Hope NEW YORK (Billboard)
Janet Jackson Hopes New Album Ends Sales Slide

After failing to crack the million mark with her last two albums, Janet Jackson is wary of using the "c" word to describe her upcoming release, "Discipline," which hits stores on February 26. "I think a comeback is when you leave and then you ... come back," Jackson said with a laugh during a recent interview. "People are always quick to use that word 'comeback,' but I never went anywhere, really." Discipline marks her 10th studio disc, and her debut release for Island Def Jam after more than a decade at Virgin Records. Her last album, 2006's "20 Y.O.," stalled at 648,000 units in the United States, according to Nielsen SoundScan, while 2004's "Damita Jo" moved 999,000. After a round of underwhelming singles from those albums, the lead single Feedback has been gaining momentum at urban and pop radio formats, thanks to its robotic bassline and voice-modulated effect tailor-made for the clubs. It jumped 32 places to No. 52 on the latest Billboard Hot 100. "This song is definitely one of those feel-good, make-you-get-up-out-your-seat, maybe dance-on-the-table-a-little-bit type songs," said Deon Cole, music director of urban WPEG Charlotte, N.C. If "Feedback" keeps rising, it could become Jackson's first top-10 hit since 2001's "Someone to Call My Lover," which peaked at No. 3.

Janet Jackson Bio Photos and Video