ARETHA FRANKLIN: Stevie Wonder will appear on her upcoming album
Aretha Franklin has started work on her upcoming album. But the big excitement will take place next month when Stevie Wonder joins her in a Detroit studio.
Aretha Franklin tells WDIV TV about Stevie Wonder's role in her next album:
[courtesy WDIV Detroit]
"We don't have the title yet. We're starting it in April and that is Stevie is coming in. He's gonna bring some new music for me. Productions, he's gonna write and he's gonna produce."
The Queen of Soul adds that singer-actor Jamie Foxx will also be involved. Actually, she's already begun recording. WDIV-TV filmed Franklin working with a newcomer she has big plans for -- her 17-year-old granddaughter Victory Franklin has been cutting backup vocals for the production.
MARIAH CAREY: Star may be looking for a new deal
Mariah Carey may be having a vision of...unemployment!
Whispers out of her record label's office say that Mimi's recent flops are taking a toll -- and may get her dropped from the roster any minute. Showbiz411 gossip maven Roger Friedman says that Epic Records was freaked out by the fallout from Mariah's New Year's Eve disaster, and even more upset by the failure of her last single, "I Don't."
Friedman says the label had no idea Mimi was planning to record a new song and didn't feel the tune was up to par, but released it because her team demanded it -- only to have it go belly up. Friedman writes, "There is no work being done toward an album, and no conversations are taking place between Epic and Carey’s team. [Label head] L.A. Reid can’t reach her. That’s really bad.”
OTHER BIG MUSIC NEWS HEADLINES...
Grand Funk Railroad, Peter Cetera and The Zombies will ber among the performers at the inaugural aTrolla Music Festival in Dallas on May 6th. The bill also promises KC and the Sunshine Band, Dionne Warwick, Tower of Power, Survivor, The Spinners, War, The Romantics, Delbert McClinton and BJ Thomas.
Rumor is Eddie Brigati of The Rascals will play four shows at the Cutting Room in New York between late March and April.
Tommy Shaw of Styx sang an acoustic version of “Blue Collar Man” at the T.J. Martell Foundation Nashville Honors Gala on Monday.
Ace Frehley has signed on for the Psycho Las Vegas festival August 18th through the 20th at the Hard Rock Hotel and Casino Las Vegas.
Bryan Adams is working on a photo exhibition for Canada's 150th birthday in May at the Royal Ontario Museum.
Farm Aid 2016 will premiere March 19th at 10 p.m. ET on AXS-TV. Featured performers on the 90-minute highlights show include organizers Neil Young, John Mellencamp, Willie Nelson and Willie’s son Lukas Nelson.
Dan Aykroyd and Jim Belushi appeared as The Blues Brothers Tuesday night to host the grand opening of a new House of Blues in Anaheim, California.
Cher had added 18 nights to her Classic Cher Las Vegas residency. The new shows run between August 2nd and 19th, and November 8th and 25th at the Monte Carlo.
30 years ago this week Bruce Willis was starring in TV's Moonlighting -- and moonlighting on the pop charts with a Top 10 remake of "Express Yourself." These days he’s lined up two films -- Acts of Violence and Reprisal -- that will be shot this year in Ohio.