The influence of classic soul and jazz greats of yesteryear comes to mind when you hear British/Ghanaian Rhian Benson sing. Her songs are effortless, elegant and timeless in a way that is rare in this era of artists.

“It’s a very important song to me. It’s about being true to yourself and being able to find the inner you in the crazy world we live in,” Rhian says of the song. The theme of the song is also reflected in the video. “It’s a really exciting video, very epic, one of the most exciting videos I have done,” she adds.

With the help of Danish rising star production duo, Daniel Fridell and Jonas Rendbo, Rhian has diligently and lovingly cooked up the ingredients for her new album title ‘Hands Clean’, which was released in February. The exciting new sound she drapes her voice across is a stark and soulful collection of pulsating electronic grooves; a hidden ground where Sade meets DJ Shadow. The MOBO Award winning artist’s sophomore album -‘Hands Clean’- represents a strong evolution of her unique style and ventures into fresh and bold sonic terrain for the critically acclaimed singer/songwriter.

The gifted songstress, musician and writer co-produced her debut album, ‘Gold Coast’, in 2003 with Grammy Award-winning producers Bob Power (Chaka Khan, A Tribe Called Quest) and James Poyser (Lauryn Hill, D’Angelo).

Rhian’s self-penned debut single ‘Say How I Feel’ was a Top 10 R&B hit in the US and Top 30 in the UK national charts.  The video for the single featuring the model Tyson Beckford and an iconic looking Rhian instantly became MTV Base’s #1 Most Played video. The BR Gunna remix of ‘Say How I Feel’ went on to become an underground hip hop classic and saw Rhian collaborate with hip hop legends Slum Village.

Rhian has recently been the focus of a CNN documentary looking at her music heritage. The singer also features in a World Bank report on Young Africans Talk Development’ series, where she emphasises the importance of helping young entrepreneurs.

‘Be’ has been remixed by Goldilocks, Sioux City Boys  Club and Sona Vabos from indie label Southern Fried Records, which has previously worked with will.i.am, Dizzee Rascal, Kelis and Benny Benassi. The track was also recently featured in the The Right Track: Tunes to TargetCancer compilation and the 2010 Miami ADCOLOUR awards compilation.

Be is the new single from Rhian Benson featuring Jonas released on 6th June.

In addition to classic Sade songs, the must-have album will include three new, never-before heard songs, including Moon & The Sky (featuring Jay-Z). Here for the first time, fans can find all of their favourite Sade classics from all six of their studio albums, including songs from the Best Of collection and the greatest hits taken from Lover’s Rock and Soldier Of Love.

The final tracklisting for The Ultimate Collection will be announced shortly and in the meantime Sade have announced that they will support the album with a tour, opening in Nice, France in April and arriving in the UK at Manchester on May 27th.

The accomplishments of Soldier Of Love so far are astounding. The single, Soldier of Love – which Sade co-produced with Mike Pela, and was written by Sade along with longtime collaborators Andrew Hale, Stuart Matthewman, and Paul Spencer Denman debuted at number one for three weeks in America and made radio history.

Known for their one of a kind timeless sound, Sade have enjoyed phenomenal success both internationally and stateside throughout the span of their twenty-seven year career. Since the release of their debut album, Diamond Life in 1984 the band has seen all five of their studio albums land in the Top 10 on Billboard’s Top 200 Album Chart selling a total of more than 50 million albums worldwide to date.

They’ve been nominated for American Music Awards, MTV Video Music Awards and have won four Grammy Awards – first in 1986 for Best New Artist, then in 1994 for Best R&B Performance By A Duo Or Group for No Ordinary Love, again in 2002 for Best Pop Vocal Album with Lovers Rock and most recently in 2011 for Best R&B Performance By A Duo Or Group for Soldier Of Love.

SADE’S UK TOUR DATES:

MAY 2011
Friday 27th – M.E.N Arena Manchester
Sunday 29th – LG Arena Birmingham
Tuesday 31st – The O2 arena London

Asa - Beautiful Imperfection

On her second album Beautiful Imperfection, Asa once again manages to fuse her Nigerian roots with contemporary soulful pop with a wonderful collection of uplifting, intelligent and well crafted songs.

While her self titled debut album became the vehicle for Asa to sing about her ’state of mind’, writing songs about  social and political issues, Beautiful Imperfection is intended to ‘help people come out of sad moods and feel uplifted’ says the singer.

The album contains the soon to be released single Be My Man, an irresistible retro snapping soul groove pop song, which perfectly fits Asa’s intentions.

As a songwriter Asa stands tall amongst her peers on Beautiful Imperfection, creating wonderful pop melodies with soaring, infectious, sing out loud choruses that others might possibly die for.

The album is an outstanding collection of radio friendly style intelligent pop songs, featuring a singer who is without doubt on top of her game. Whatever style of music she adopts for each of these tracks, she puts her own individual mark on it, from jazz to soul to pop, Asa is a tremendous performer.

Beautiful Imperfection is one of the stand out pop album so far this year, it is like having several of your favourite female singers rolled into one, that’s Asa!

There isn’t a track that is possible to fault and equally as difficult to pick any stand out tracks, but if pushed I would have to say the Sheryl Crow-esque Ok, Ok is stuck in my head, the reggae beats and Hammond organ on Maybe and the foreign language track Bimpè.

Beautiful Imperfection by Asa is released on Dramatico Records on April 4th 2011.

Asa will be co-headlining with Tiken Jah Fokoly at the Barbican on April 4th as two of West Africa’s finest contemporary artists come together on one bill.

Asa – Be My Man

The single Be My Man by Asa will be released on March 13th.

Plan-B

Can there be any more tracks left on The Defamation of Strickland Banks that have not yet been released as singles? I guess not, as Plan B has announced the release of the next one, Writing’s On The Wall scheduled for March 7th.

The single is released days after Plan B kicks off his biggest ever UK tour which culminates in a massive show at London’s O2 Arena on March 10th.

Having collected an award for Best British Male Artist at the Brit Awards last month, the singer has every reason to look forward to another momentous year in 2011.

The next album, The Ballad of Belmarsh, which is understood to be a hip-hop album recalling a ’series of events’ that depict the story of the character Strickland Banks is promised soon, possibly through Ben Drew’s own independent label.

Plan B UK tour dates:

Mon 28th Feb – Dublin Olympia

Wed 2nd March  – Manchester Apollo

Thurs 3rd March – Wolverhampton Civic Hall

Fri 4th March – Blackpool Empress Ballroom

Sat 5th March – Doncaster Dome

Mon 7th March – Swindon Oasis

Tues 8th March – Plymouth Pavilions

Wed 9th March – Brighton Centre

Thurs 10th March – London O2 Arena

If you missed Plan B’s excellent fiery live performance at the Brit Awards in February, watch it here:

You can also watch the 90 second ‘Strickland Banks; The Story So Far’ video, which includes previously unheard material from Plan B’s next project, The Ballad Of Belmarsh, here:

Rhian Benson-Hands Clean

The effortless vocals of British Ghanaian singer Rhian Benson may recall the classic soul and jazz artists of a bygone era, her style is effortless, elegant and timeless and on her second album Hands Clean, the singer works her magic over another collection of wonderful songs.

The album Hands Clean is released today, February 14th and the exciting new sound she drapes her voice across is a stark and soulful collection of pulsating electronic grooves; a hidden ground where Sade meets DJ Shadow.

The MOBO Award winning artist’s sophomore album -Hands Clean- represents a strong evolution of her unique style and ventures into fresh and bold sonic terrain for the critically acclaimed singer/songwriter.

Having set her stall out with her debut album Gold Coast way back in 2003, Rhian Benson’s self-penned debut single Say How I Feel was a Top 10 R&B hit in the US and Top 30 in the UK national charts.  The video for the single featuring the model Tyson Beckford and an iconic looking Rhian instantly became MTV Base’s number 1 Most Played video. The BR Gunna remix of ‘Say How I Feel’ went on to become an underground hip hop classic and saw Rhian collaborate with hip hop legends Slum Village.

The latest album Hands Clean follows the release of the single Better Without You which went on sale last week and perfectly demonstrates the stunning content to be heard on this wonderful new collection of songs.

Rhian Benson – Better Without You

The album Hands Clean includes the single Better Without You and is available today, Valentines Day, February 14th

cover album BEAUTIFUL IMPERFECTION CMJN

In reference to her self titled debut album that brought her international attention through its contemporary soulful pop as well as its socially conscious lyrics, Asa says;

“The first album reflected my state of mind then, I had a lot to talk about – social and political issues. This time, I felt different. I wanted to create something that would help people come out of sad moods and feel uplifted. It is different from the first album, it has more brightness.”

The second album, Beautiful Imperfection is quite simply a beautiful album on which the young French born singer relieved of the angst of her debut excels in doing exactly what she set out to do.

First single ‘Be My Man‘, released 14th March, is a fine slice of irresistible soul-snapping retro groove that recalls Osibisa and a rock tinge inspired by The Clash, all marshalled by an astonishingly self-assured vocal turn.

The track Dreamer Girl recalls Asa’s childhood, performing to an imaginery audience and dreaming of musical stardom, the singer laughs; “When you catch yourself dreaming, you can sometimes sense that people nearby could hear you, and suddenly, you might feel like it’s a crime. But I’m actually the dreamer girl in that song.”

Asa will be performing a double headliner with Tiken Jah Fakoly on April 4th which will see Barbican Hall painted with a sonic wave of thoughtful lyrics and rare musical craftsmanship as two of West Africa’s finest contemporary artists come together on the one bill.

The album Beautiful Imperfection is released on that same day, April 4th, while the excellent first single Be My Man is available on March 14th.

Here is the video to accompany the new single,

Asa – Be My Man

Bruno Mars - photo Harper Smith

Already occupying the UK singles number one spot for a second week running with his second single Grenade, Bruno Mars has added a number one in the album charts following the release of his highly anticipated debut album Doo-Wops and Hooligans.

In an unprecedented turn of events the man with the smooth as silk voice is also sitting pretty at the top of the UK iTunes chart and incredibly the UK Airplay chart.

On top of that his recently announced Doo-Wops and Hooligans Tour which includes two consecutive nights at Koko has completely sold out, with both London shows selling over 3000 tickets in less than an hour.

Max Lousada, Chairman, Atlantic Records UK said:

“In 2010, Bruno co-wrote four number one singles and this year he’s already achieved the rare feat of a number one album and number one single during the same week, which shows what an extraordinary talent he is. Doo-Wops & Hooligans is packed with brilliant pop songs, and is set to make Bruno a superstar.”

With this handy ‘interactive’ video sampler, you can listen to samples of all the tracks on Doo-Wops & Hooligans by Bruno Mars:

nathan watson

The hotly tipped new soul sensation Nathan Watson follows the huge success of his recent live shows with an appearance at The Scala at 275 Pentonville Road, King´s Cross, London N1 9NL on December 6th, where he will be performing with his full band.

They will be on stage at 7.30pm as special guest of American artist Melanie Fiona. Tickets are £18.50 plus booking fee, but fanclub members will be offered a small discount.

The following night Nathan will be ditching the band for an unplugged performance- just voice and guitar-at Monzo Water Rats, where he will open for David Jordan.

Monzo Water rats can be found at Water Rats Theatre, 328 Grays Inn Road, WC1. Tickets are £6 in advance or £8 on the door.

And there will be a fantastic opportunity to catch Nathan performing at this Saturday’s pedestrian-only Christmas bonanza in Oxford Street. He plays an unplugged set at 2.30pm on November 27th at the junction of Regent St and Conduit St.

Lets hope it warms up a bit for that!

For further information visit the Nathan Watson website.

Bruno Mars ©Harper Smith

What a great year it has been for the smooth r&b/soul boy Bruno Mars, his debut single Just The Way You Are went straight to the top of the UK singles charts upon its release in September and has so far sold 580,000 copies since its release.

Having already featured on top selling songs for two other artists this year, in the form of another number one with B.o.B on Nothin’ On You and Billionaire with good friend Travie McCoy, the future certainly looks promising for the singer.

His second single Grenade is scheduled for release in January 2011. The official video has now been released and you can see it here:

Bruno Mars – Grenade

Bruno says of the new video: “Today, I get to share with you the visual companion piece to my new single, ‘Grenade.’ The song is about loving someone so deeply, and the pain of knowing that the person you love does not feel the same.”

You can see what went on behind the scenes during the making of the Grenade video here;

Having spent the past few years writing and co-writing songs for the likes of Flo Rida, Travie McCoy, Sugababes, Alexandra Burke and B.o.B, Bruno is now stepping out as an artist in his own right and if the success of Just The Way You Are is anything to go by… this Hawaiian native, now based in L.A, is set to take on the world.

The highly anticipated debut album from Bruno Mars, Doo-Wops & Hooligans is expected to be released in the early part of next year.

Plan B

London rapper turned soul boy Plan B has just released the latest video installment from The Defamation of Strickland Banks story ahead of the release of the single Love Goes Down which hits the shops on December 6th.

Having won the Q Award for Best Breakthrough Artist of the Year and MOBO for Best R&B and Soul Act, Plan B will end the year with the release of the single Love Goes Down.

The singer has just ended his biggest sell out headline tour to date and will follow up that success with an Arena tour in March 2011, including his biggest ever show at London’s O2 Arena.

It has proved to be an amazing year for Plan B with his album The Defamation Of Strickland Banks turning into the biggest selling album by a UK artist in the UK and Europe so far this year.

The album has been in or around the UK top ten album chart since its release, having topped the chart on two separate occasions.

Plan B – Love Goes Down

The 2011 dates:

Wed 2nd March  – Manchester Apollo

Thurs 3rd March – Wolverhampton Civic Hall

Fri 4th March – Blackpool Empress Ballroom

Sat 5th March – Doncaster Dome

Mon 7th March – Swindon Oasis

Tues 8th March – Plymouth Pavilions

Wed 9th March – Brighton Centre

Thurs 10th March – London O2 Arena