Billboard.com will be hosting a live Q&A with country superstar Carrie Underwood tomorrow at 2:30PM ET. She’ll be answering fan questions live on camera, so they can tweet your burning questions to @Billboard using the hashtag #bbcarrie.
Tune into the chat here.
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Lionel Richie has the best-selling album in the nation this week with Tuskegee, his country duets project that has claimed the No. 1 spot on the overall Billboard Top 200 albums chart. Tuskegee also sits at No. 1 on the Billboard Country Albums chart for the second week.
With the week’s sales of 128,553, Tuskegee is now the best-selling country album of 2012. With overall sales of 422,856, the album is quickly approaching the 500,000 in sales required for a gold certification.
This is the album’s third consecutive week in the Top 5 of the Billboard Top 200. The album was released on March 26 and debuted at No. 2 on the Billboard 200 with sales of 198,892, becoming the best-selling debut by any country artist this year. It debuted at No. 1 on the country albums chart and was his best sales week since SoundScan began tracking sales in 1991.
“I love the feeling!” Richie says. “You cannot beat the feeling of sitting on top of the charts. I had almost forgotten what it feels like, but now that I am there, I know exactly what it feels like. It feels great! It is really a very exciting time and I am enjoying the ride.”
Richie is quick to thank the 13 duet partners who graciously joined him on this album.
“With a record like this, you can’t take the bow alone,” he says. “You take it with the wonderful talent that came onboard and believed in this project. It is just amazing to have all of the very talented artists, producers and musicians who participated in this. This was one big family reunion, as far as I am concerned. We take the bow together because it was an outstanding group effort.”
“I would also like to thank my spectacular Mercury Nashville staff. They are the ones who took my hand and led me in the front door. I couldn’t have done this without the patience and diligence of Mercury Nashville.”
But most importantly, Richie thanks the fans.
“They are the ones who made this possible,” he says. “This unbelievable result could not have happened without them. They are the ones who have stuck around forever with me. For the new ones and the old ones, it’s great to have them onboard.
“To the fans, thank you for allowing me to enjoy what I do for all of these years, and for enjoying what I do. I thank you for being a part of my story.”
Richie will be inducted into the Apollo Legends Hall of Fame on June 4. He serves as a mentor on the new ABC summer show Duets.
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Posted in Country Music News 
Tags: Billboard, Country Music Charts, Lionel Richie, Tuskegee 
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Carrie Underwood is literally getting ‘Blown Away’ on the cover of Billboard magazine. I guess, that’s the clever way to discuss her upcoming album of the same name. This is the first new music from Carrie in a while, and she’s certain fans will think the wait was worth it.
“I’ve taken all of my albums into as many different directions as possible, while still keeping them coherent. This is just a whole new level of that. I really do think there’s something for everyone.”
Carrie wasn’t taking a conscious break from music, but she insists she was just living her life. Married to hockey husband Mike Fisher, Carrie was simply living her life and gaining inspiration.
“It seems like people have an album out every year and they are on a ‘perma-tour’ is what I call it. They tour permanently, all the time. I think I just made that word up,” she says with a smile. “They live on tour and when they aren’t on tour, they are making an album. To me, if you have no life in between albums, you have nothing to write about . . . I have to live.”
You can read more from Carrie’s interview here.
Got some country music gossip and don’t wanna be a tattle tale? Email me, Tawny Tucker, Tawny@countrymusictattletale.com Don’t miss a country music beat! Sign up to receive free email updates or subscribe to CMTT via RSS today!
Posted in Carrie Underwood Tags: Billboard, Carrie Underwood, Country Music, Mike Fisher, Nashville No Comments »Dolly Parton recently sat down with Billboard’s ’615‘ to discuss music, life, and Whitney Houston.
“I think it’s wonderful,” she said. “I thank God, first of all, for that song. I thank Porter Wagoner second. But I thank Whitney Houston for doing such a performance on that song. I have never heard a better performance than that on anybody’s song by any artist. That song is the link that put us together and I think it’s wonderful.”
Dolly’s latest project is An Evening with Dolly brought to you by Cracker Barrel. Click here to see more of the interview.
Got some country music gossip and don’t wanna be a tattle tale? Email me, Tawny Tucker, Tawny@countrymusictattletale.com Don’t miss a country music beat! Sign up to receive free email updates or subscribe to CMTT via RSS today!
Lionel Richie is the subject of Billboard‘s recent cover story. His album, Tuskeegee, hits stores on March 26th. The pop icon is going country for his upcoming project, and although it seemed like a shocking step to some…Lionel always knew it would happen.
The idea just came along. We didn’t sell this,” Richie says. “I always knew I was going to do a country album with maybe one or two duets but not starting here. Then I thought the best thing to do is, ‘Let’s take three steps back, connect country to what I’ve already done, and then we go forward.’”
What happened was a full duet album filled with some of country music’s biggest stars. The roster includes Sugarland’s Jennifer Nettles (“Hello”), Blake Shelton (“You Are”), Tim McGraw (“Sail On”), Kenny Chesney (“My Love”), Willie Nelson (“Easy”), Kenny Rogers (“Lady”), Darius Rucker (“Stuck on You”), Jason Aldean (“Say You, Say Me”) and Rascal Flatts (“Dancing on the Ceiling”). The set’s first single, “Endless Love” with Shania Twain — who, owing to vocal paralysis, hadn’t recorded or performed live in seven years before “Tuskegee” — debuted at No. 24 on Billboard’s Adult Contemporary chart, where it’s No. 22 this week.
Artists jumped at the chance to sing just about anything Lionel handed to them.
“If I had to add a subtitle to ‘Tuskegee,’ it would be, ‘You will now hear all the songs I was told would ruin my career,’” Richie says with a laugh. “But it shows you just how far these songs have come. Once a song is embraced, people don’t care who the hell did it. They love the song.”
You can read the full article here.
Got some country music gossip and don’t wanna be a tattle tale? Email me, Tawny Tucker, Tawny@countrymusictattletale.com Don’t miss a country music beat! Sign up to receive free email updates or subscribe to CMTT via RSS today!
Posted in Country Music News Tags: Billboard, Blake Shelton, Darius Rucker, Jason Aldean, Lionel Richie, Rascal Flatts, Sugarland, tuskeegee, Willie Nelson No Comments »
