Usher to help kick off NFL season with concert (AP)

NEW YORK - Like the NFL teams beginning their new seasons, Usher is hoping to go all the way to the Super Bowl.
The R&B singer will perform the season's kickoff concert on Thursday in New York's Columbus Circle along with Keith Urban and Natasha Bedingfield. The 3 p.m. concert will be held just before the season opener, when the Washington Redskins take on the Super Bowl champion New York Giants.

Like the Redskins and Giants, Usher is aiming for the big game in February. The game might be the destination of all football players, it's also one of the most sought-after gigs in music.

"I don't think it's too early to consider it," said Usher, speaking from Atlanta. "Certainly being associated with the organization makes that a lot more possible. There have been conversations for a lot of years about me being part of a performance at a Super Bowl."

He added: "I'm hoping that this leads, definitely, to that. This whole process is basically you scratch my back, I'll scratch yours."

Usher feels that he's sufficiently built up his "brand" over the past decade — it can sometimes be easy to forget that the 29-year-old singer has been around that long. Recent Super Bowl performers include Prince and Tom Petty.

Last year, Usher married Tameka Foster and the couple had a son, Usher Raymond V. The onset of family life has brought out a more mature side of Usher, whose 2008 album "Here I Stand" deals considerably with growing into adulthood.

At the kickoff concert, which will stream on NFL.com, Usher plans to perform "Here I Stand," "Changing Places" and "What's Your Name" with guest star will.i.am.

Usher, who spent much of a his childhood in Tennessee, counts himself a Titans fan, and vividly recalls being at the 1999 Super Bowl and watching the Titans' Kevin Dyson fall one yard short of the end zone as time expired.

An expert dancer, Usher gives props to Randy Moss and Terrell Owens' endzone dances, but says their moves still fall short of another.

"The greatest end zone dance of all time has to be Cuba Gooding Jr.," said Usher, referring to the actor's dance in "Jerry Maguire." "The greatest of all time."

___

On the Net:

http://www.nfl.com

http://www.usherworld.com/

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Cuban punk rocker fined for disobedience (Reuters)

HAVANA (Reuters) - A Cuban punk rocker whose songs have ridiculed the Cuban government was fined for public disorder on Friday after prosecutors reduced a more serious "social dangerousness" charge that could have sent him to prison for four years.
Gorki Aguila, 39, was ordered to pay 600 Cuban pesos, or about $30, for playing his music too loud during rehearsal, his father Luis Aguila said.

The bushy-haired rocker was arrested on Monday as his band, Porno para (for) Ricardo, was recording its latest album.

News of the arrest quickly spread through the blogosphere and on Friday a crowd of foreign diplomats, foreign correspondents, government press officials and Aquila supporters waited in the street outside the court.

His songs have fiercely criticized Cuba's communist government and its leaders Fidel and Raul Castro, which band members blamed for his arrest.

The Cuban government has said nothing about the case.

The group's CDs are banned in Cuba but copies are circulated underground.

Aquila, who was led into court in handcuffs, was freed after the hearing, which was closed to the press.

The original charge of social dangerousness pertains to people who authorities believe are likely to commit crimes, and can include such things as habitual drunkenness, drug addiction and anti-social behavior.

Aguila went to prison previously on drug charges he said were the result of entrapment by the Cuban government.

The illegal but tolerated Cuban Human Rights Commission said its preliminary investigation of the latest charge found Aguila committed no crime and called for the case to be dismissed.

The human rights commission recently issued a report saying the Cuban government had 219 political prisoners behind bars and that short-term detentions of government opponents had increased dramatically in the first half of 2008.

Cuban officials view dissidents as mercenaries working with the United States to subvert its government. The United States has had a trade embargo against Cuba for 46 years and its diplomats in Havana openly work with the opposition.

(Reporting by Jeff Franks and Esteban Israel; editing by Michael Christie and Eric Beech)

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T.I. "Likes" Making Hot 100 History (E! Online)

Los Angeles (E! Online) - House arrest has paid off big time for T.I.
The rapper, who recorded his forthcoming Paper Trail while confined to his Atlanta-area home, made chart history as his album single "Whatever You Like" rocketed 70 spots to No. 1 on Billboard's Hot 100. This sets a new record for the biggest jump to the top slot, besting Maroon 5's record-setting 63-spot jump for "Makes Me Wonder" back in May 2007.

T.I.'s track rocketed to No. 1 thanks to downloads, selling 205,000 copies in its first week in online stores. That gives "Whatever You Like" the biggest digital sales debut by a rap artist since Nielsen SoundScan started tracking downloads five years ago.

The single got a boost from the iTunes' "Countdown to Paper Trail" promotion, in which a new T.I. single or video is released each week leading up to the album's Sept. 30 street date. All purchases count toward buying the full album upon release. (Just make sure to buy the new "Whatever You Like" and not his prior Nicole Scherzinger collaboration of the same name.)

Although T.I. previously topped the charts as a guest on Justin Timberlake's 2006 hit "My Love," "Whatever You Like" is the rapper's first solo No. 1.

T.I. had been confined to his home awaiting trail on gun charges; he eventually copped a plea in March and was sentenced to 1,000 hours of community service and up to one year in the pen.

Pink, meanwhile, scored the week's biggest bow with her new Max Martin-produced single "So What." The lead single to her forthcoming Funhouse, set for a Halloween-week debut, sold 117,000 digital copies for a No. 9 launch.

Also making waves are a pair of opportunistic cover songs. With Kid Rock yet to release "All Summer Long" as a digital single, the Hit Masters' version continues to gain traction. In its second week, the single jumped 46 spots to No. 19 on 96,000 downloads.

And now that Estelle has pulled "American Boy" off iTunes, the Studio All-Stars' take debuted at No. 85 this week, while the original dropped 26 spots on the Hot 100 and 53 spots on the Hot Digital Songs chart.

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Wanted: Female Celebrity to Kiss Katy Perry! (E! Online)

Los Angeles (E! Online) - Madonna and Britney Spears did the girl-on-girl thing at MTV's Video Music Awards years ago, but can you ever really get enough celebrity same-sex smooching?
Katy Perry is apparently working on finding a female celeb to kiss during this year's live telecast of the awards show on Sept. 7.

Who does MTV want to match her up with? Read on to find out...

Lindsay Lohan!

"Producers are really working hard on it," a source exclusively reveals to me. "They'd love it to be Lindsay, and they're actually going to ask."

Like that will ever happen. Even if Ms. Lohan has signed on to be a presenter, I highly doubt she's gonna be lockin' lips with the "I Kissed a Girl" hitmaker anytime soon.

But if Ms. Perry can't find anyone, there's always Tila Tequila!

Reps for Perry and MTV did not comment.

Now, let's hear from you: Who do you think Perry should kiss on the big night? Leave your comments below.

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Panettiere Premieres First Single

(July 16) - "Heroes" starlet Hayden Panettiere premiered her first single on a Los Angeles radio station Tuesday morning, telling host Ryan Seacrest how "very excited" she is to launch her music career."Wake Up Call", a reggae-flavored pop bit, is the debut track from Panettiere's upcoming album, which will hit shelves in early 2009.


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