I love exploring and finding new music.  This month, I discovered a song by Katharine McPhee.  She was the runner up the 5th season of American Idol and she is 28 years old. Her first album debuted as #2 on the Billboard 200 hits back in January of 2007.  She now has a new single off the upcoming “Smash” soundtrack on Columbia Records. You’ve probably heard that “Smash” is a pretty popular, new TV series.  If you are a fan, you know she stars as the sorority sister on this hit musical drama.  Ryan Tedder wrote Katharine’s new song, called “Touch Me”.  He has also written for Adele, Kelly Clarkson, Beyonce’, as well as his own band, One Republic.  “Touch Me” was available online around March 16 and it is scheduled to be performed on Episode 8 of “Smash”. This is a super club hit, reminds me a little of Rihanna…I really like it, hope you do too!

Top 40 Hits

01 Smash Cast f Katharine McPhee – Touch Me
02 Jennifer Lopez f Pitbull – Dance Again
03 Play N Skillz f Pitbull – Richest Man
04 Akon f French Montana – Hurt Somebody (Warning Content)
05 CeCe Peniston – Celebrate
06 Rihanna – Where Have You Been
07 Bassnectar f Lupe Fiasco – Vava Voom (Clean Edit)
08 David Guetta f Sia – Titanium
09 Nelly Furtado – Big Hoops (Bigger The Better)
10 Adam Lambert – Never Close Our Eyes
11 Young Jeezy f Ne-Yo – Leave You Alone (Clean Edit) (Warning Content)
12 Bob Sinclar f Pitbull – Rock The Boat (Radio Edit) (Warning Content)

Country Hits

01 Blake Shelton – Drink On It (Radio Edit)
02 Lady Antebellum – Dancin’ Away With My Heart
03 Zac Brown Band – No Hurry
04 Rascal Flatts – Banjo (Radio Edit)
05 Montgomery Gentry – Where I Come From
06 Kenny Chesney and Tim McGraw – Feel Like A Rock Star (Radio Edit)
07 Scotty McCreery – Water Tower Town
08 Rachele Lynae – Party ‘Til The Cows Come Home
09 Montgomery Gentry – So Called Life (Breaks My Back)
10 Sean Patrick McGraw – Git Yer Cowboy On

This month I’m highlighting Chris Brown for his new song “Turn Up the Music”.   The 23 year old is an amazing dancer, actor, singer and songwriter.  He was 16 years old when he made his recording debut and a big hit that topped the Billboard Hot 100 was “Run It” – hope you remember that one!  This made him the first male artist to have a single on the top of the charts since 1997, when Puff Daddy had that same honor.  Chris’s album was certified double Platinum and then his second studio album was released in 2007, it was called “Exclusive”.  The single “Forever” (another one of my huge favorites) was released on a deluxe version of the “Exclusive” album which was titled “The Forever Edition”.  He actually earned the Grammy Award for Best R&B Album at the 54th Grammy Awards show for his fourth album titled “F.A.M.E.”  It’s obvious how talented he is, I wonder if “Turn Up the Music” will become one of your new dance music favorites??

Top 40

01 Chris Brown f Rihanna – Turn Up The Music (Remix)
02 Wanted – Glad You Came (Bassjackers Remix Edit)
03 Madonna – Girl Gone Wild
04 Far East Movement f Justin Bieber and Redfoo – Live My Life (Party Rock Remix) (Warning Content)
05 Rihanna f Chris Brown – Birthday Cake (Clean Remix Edit) (Warning Content)
06 Jump Smokers f Pitbull – Spring Break (Radio Edit)
07 Meiko – Leave The Lights On (Radio Mix)
08 Selena Gomez and Scene – Hit The Lights
09 Justin Bieber – Boyfriend
10 Nicki Minaj f Chris Brown – Right By My Side (Clean Edit)
11 Pitbull – Back In Time
12 U.V.U.K. – Blink (Radio Edit)
13 Rihanna – You Da One (Dave Aude Radio)

Rock

01 Gotye f Kimbra – Somebody That I Used To Know
02 Shinedown – Bully
03 Seether – No Resolution
04 Van Halen – She’s The Woman
05 Cake – Mustache Man (Wasted)
06 Black Stone Cherry – In My Blood

Country

01 Carrie Underwood – Good Girl
02 Megan Redmond – Falling (Radio Edit)
03 Eric Paslay – If The Fish Don’t Bite
04 Martina McBride f Pat Monahan of Train – Marry Me
05 Toby Keith – Beers Ago
06 Eric Lee Beddingfield – Come On
07 Greg Bates – Did It For The Girl

Melanie Amaro… you may recognize her name.  She’s the Season one winner of the X Factor USA, and won a $5 million recording contract.

Melanie was born in Fort Lauderdale & raised by her grandmother in Tortola; currently she lives with her family in Florida.  She has 2 brothers and a younger sister; she’s just 19 years old and a college freshman.  Her mom says she started singing in her crib at age 6 months and as she grew up, I read that she used a hair brush as a microphone whenever she danced around the house singing.    She was 11 years old when she realized how much she loved singing and acting and is grateful to her Mom for pushing her to pursue a singing career.

I saw the Pepsi commercial during the Super Bowl and loved her version of “Respect” (my pick for this month).  I think she’s got a great future ahead of her, very talented young lady and an incredible voice.

01 Melanie Amaro – Respect
02 Calvin Harris – Feel So Close (Radio Edit)
03 Chris Brown – Turn Up The Music
04 Madonna f Nicki Minaj and LMFAO – Give Me All Your Luvin’ (Party Rock Remix)
05 Taio Cruz – Troublemaker (Warning Content)
06 Karmin – Brokenhearted
07 Katy Perry – Part Of Me
08 Red Hot Chili Peppers – Look Around (Radio Edit)
09 Baby Bash f Miguel – Slide Over
10 One Direction – What Makes You Beautiful

Top Country

01 Chris Young – You (Acoustic Version)
02 Matt Stillwell – Ignition
03 Easton Corbin – Lovin’ You Is Fun
04 Brad Wolf – Too Many Mondays (Not Enough Saturday Nights)
05 Lauren Alaina – Georgia Peaches
06 George Strait – Love’s Gonna Make It Alright
07 Brad Paisley – Camouflage (Radio Edit)
08 Taylor Swift – Ours
09 Farm – Home Sweet Home
10 Craig Morgan – This Ole Boy (Radio Version)

Extra Songs

Glee Cast – Moves Like Jagger Jumpin Jack Flash
Glee Cast – Wanna Be Startin Somethin

Singer-songwriter Duncan (Adam Michael Duncan) is from Denver.  I read he placed in the top three of two nationwide talent searches, one of them searching for the next R&B star.  He recently joined A&M/Octone Records.  He is in good company with other well known artists like Maroon 5 and he’s the most recent addition to A&M’s roster.  His name probably doesn’t sound familiar, that’s because he’s very new to the scene.  He’s received some great national attention since the movie “New Year’s Eve” came out.  His first single “Light Up the Sky” is featured in the trailer in this great movie that stars Aston Kutcher, Katherine Heigl, Jon Bon Jovi & Zach Efron just to name a few.   Take a listen and feel free to leave a comment on whether you like it.

01 Duncan – Light Up The Sky
02 Ali Lee – Keep It Right There
03 Chris Brown f Kevin McCall – Strip (Clean Edit) (Warning Content)
04 Dev and Enrique Iglesias – Naked
05 Rihanna f Jay-Z – Talk That Talk (Clean Edit)
06 Flo Rida f Sia – Wild Ones
07 Girls’ Generation – The Boys
08 Nickelback – Lullaby (Pop Remix)
09 T-Pain f Ne-Yo – Turn All The Lights On (Clean Edit) (Warning Content)
10 Beyoncé – Love On Top (Video Edit)
11 Jason Derulo – Breathing
12 T-Pain and Chuckie f Pitbull – It’s Not You (It’s Me) (Warning Content)
13 Glee Cast – We Found Love
14 Glee Cast – Without You

Avicci’s song “Levels” is my hot pick for this month.  Tim Bergling known as Avicci (along with many other names) is a 22 year old DJ from Sweden, who enjoys being a record producer and remixer too.  He had a debut single that reached the top 20 in many countries and “Levels” reached the top 10 in several European countries.  He  also ranked # 6 on the Top 100 DJs list.

When he was 18 he did his first remix, he loves electronic, synthetic tracks.  He also worked with David Guetta on a song that was nominated for a Grammy award in the Best Dance Recording category.

A couple of his tracks have been sampled by Flo Rida and Leona Lewis.  He did his first world tour in 2010 and performed in some major cities:  Chicago, Miami, San Francisco, LA, New York and Las Vegas – just to name a few.
Avicci is a rising star, hope you take a listen to “Levels”.

Top 40/Urban

01 Avicii – Levels
02 Nick Carter – Burning Up
03 David Guetta f Nicki Minaj – Turn Me On
04 Drake f Rihanna – Take Care (Clean Edit)
05 Adam Lambert – Better Than I Know Myself
06 Selena Gomez and Scene – Love You Like A Love Song (Dave Aude Radio Mix)
07 Kelly Clarkson – Stronger (What Doesn’t Kill You)
08 Eva f Tyga – Body On Mine (Clean Edit)
09 Sean Paul – She Doesn’t Mind
10 Childish Gambino – Heartbeat (Clean Edit) (Warning Extreme Content)
11 Cobra Starship f Mac Miller – Middle Finger (Put Your Finger Up)Prince Malik – Cara De Angel

Country Hits

01 Oak Ridge Boys – What’cha Gonna Do
02 Steve Holy – Until The Rain Stops
03 Levi Riggs – My Best Friend’s A Girl
04 Josh Turner – Time Is Love
05 Ronnie Dunn – Let The Cowboy Rock
06 Blake Shelton – Drink On It (Radio Edit)
07 Lady Antebellum – Dancin’ Away With My Heart
08 Tim Dugger – Way Past My Beer Time
09 Taylor Swift – Ours

This month I’m highlighting Jessica Sutta, former member of the Pussycat Dolls. She left the group in January, 2010 to begin
her own solo career. She’s working on finishing her debut solo album – it’s due to be released in 2012.

Jessica is well known as a dancer, showgirl, singer, model, actress and recording artist.

She was born and grew up in Florida and began dance classes when she was 3. She was also a child model, performed ballet and studied all
kinds of dance. After tearing the ACL on both her knees, she decided to change gears and study theater.
When she returned to dance, she joined the NBA’s cheerleading squad for the Miami Heat in 1999.

In 2003, Jessica moved to LA and eventually met a choreographer who cast her with the Pussycat Dolls the same year.

2010 was finally time for her to break out on her own. She released “Show Me” back in August and the song peaked
at number one on the Hot Dance Club Songs in the United States, becoming Sutta’s first number-one single as a solo artist.
Take a listen, hope you like it!

Top 40 / Urban
01 Jessica Sutta – Show Me
02 Wiz Khalifa and Snoop Dogg f Bruno Mars – Young, Wild and Free (Warning Content)
03 Karmin – Crash Your Party
04 Freesol f Justin Timberlake – Fascinated (Clean Edit)
05 Big Time Rush f Mann – Music Sounds Better With U
06 Lady GaGa – Marry The Night
07 Erin Bowman – Problem
08 Beyonce f J. Cole – Party
09 Adele – Set Fire To The Rain
10 Rihanna – You Da One
11 Far East Movement f Rye Rye – Jello (Warning Content)

Christmas Music
01 Justin Bieber – Mistletoe
02 Trans-Siberian Orchestra – Christmas Eve – Sarajevo
03 Cyndi Lauper and Norah Jones – Home For The Holidays
05 Tommy Joe Wilson – Overdrawn Over Christmas
06 Britney Spears – My Only Wish (This Year)
07 Justin Bieber f Usher – The Christmas Song (Chestnuts Roasting On An Open Fire)
08 Michael Buble – It’s Beginning To Look A Lot Like Christmas
09 Lisa Matassa – The Christmas Song (Chestnuts Roasting…)

Extra Music
Glee Cast – Last Friday Night (T.G.I.F.)

This month I wanted to highlight some country music (for a change) along with my usual Top 40 and Urban picks.
You may have heard of this group recently: Gloriana; brothers Tom and Mike Gossin founded the group, in 2008.
There are 2 female members of the group also. Tom & Mike were born Utica, NY and both took piano lessons starting at age 6.  Tom also studied guitar. Their first debut single was called “Wild At Heart” and came out in February 2009.  It became a Top 15 hit on the US Billboard Hot Country Songs chart and also became the highest selling country debut single of 2009.
This year they released the single “Wanna Take You Home”, which is off their second studio album.  The band won the American Music Award’s Breakthrough Artist of the Year in 2009. They also won the 2010 Academy of Country Music’s Top New Vocal Group award. In August, 2010 “Wild at Heart” was certified Gold by the album titled “A Thousand Miles Left Behind” It’s the groups’ 4th Top 40 hit.  Hope you take a listen to “Wanna Take You Home”, feel free to leave a comment.

Country Hits

01 Gloriana – Wanna Take You Home
02 Kenny Chesney – Reality
03 Shane Yellowbird – Bare Feet On The Blacktop
04 Keith Urban – You Gonna Fly
05 Scotty McCreery – I Love You This Big
06 George Strait – Here For A Good Time

Top 40 / Urban hits

01 Katy Perry – The One That Got Away
02 Havana Brown f Pitbull – We Run The Night
03 Joe Jonas f Lil Wayne – Just In Love
04 Outasight – Tonight Is The Night
05 Pitbull f Chris Brown – International Love (Clean Edit)
06 September – Party In My Head
07 Taio Cruz f Flo Rida – Hangover (Super Clean Edit)
08 Avril Lavigne – Wish You Were Here
09 SuperHeavy – Miracle Worker
10 Marians Trench – Haven’t Had Enough
11 Maverik – All Night

Dustin is an up and coming artist from Pennsylvania, he graduated from Pottsgrove High School.  It’s obvious he loves making music, entertaining and being creative.  He’s also worked for a humanitarian organization, feeding the homeless, helping drug addicts & mentoring youth.  Music started out as a side project, but as he continued this work, he realized the impact he was able to have, because of that music.  He’s already been in the studio with Justin Bieber, The Dream, Tricky Stewart and many other world renown producers and artists.

While Dustin was recording an album in Atlanta he decided to start a buzz by making videos for YouTube.  He’s pretty impressive, all his videos are produced and edited by him.  They’ve been recorded in his home town and he’s even included his grandmother.
His songs are also written, produced and performed by him.
He’s proud of where he came from & stays involved; back in March Dustin performed at a fund raiser for the PTO of Pottsgrove Middle School.

01. Dustin Tavella – We Got The Summer
02. Flo Rida – Good Feeling
03. Leaf f Sky Blu Of LMFAO – Uh Oh (Came Here To Party) (Clean Edit)
04. Beyonce – Love On Top
05. Dev f 50 Cent – In The Dark (Clean Remix Edit)
06. Jennifer Lopez – Papi
07. Lil Wayne f Enrique Iglesias – How To Love (Spanglish Remix)
08. Razah f Ne-Yo – My Girl
09. Timbaland f Pitbull and David Guetta – Pass At Me (Radio Edit)
10. Enrique Iglesias f Pitbull and Wav.S – I Like How It Feels
11. Rihanna f Calvin Harris – We Found Love
12. Ellie Goulding – Lights

Songs to check out

Kelly Clarkson – Mr. Know It All
Bei Maejor f J. Cole – Trouble (Clean Edit)
Britney Spears – Criminal (Radio Mix)
Jay Sean f Lupe Fiasco – Say Yeah
Phyllisia f Yung Joc and Jah Cure – I Love You (Clean Edit)
Glee Cast – We Got The Beat
Hot Rod – Hot Girl (Clean Edit)
Madame Mayhem – Addicted To You
Miranda Brooke – Hater

K Drew

K Drew is a success in many areas: singer, songwriter, producer, remixer, and plays multiple instruments. His father was a drummer often on tour, but eventually went into DJing. Hid Dad’s musical talents defintely rubbed off on him. Although, K was a fantastic athelete, by the time he was a Jr in high school, he began composing music full time. He wrote lots of songs for his school sports teams. He calls his K Drew sound “pop/R&B hybrid with a beat, unique blend of harmony and attitude”. Check out my number 1 pick this month: “Body and Soul”, sure hope you like it.

01 KDrew – Body and Soul (She Got Control Club Mix)
02 Rihanna – Cheers (Drink To That)
03 Katy Perry f Missy Elliott – Last Friday Night (T.G.I.F.) (Remix) (Warning Content)
04 Nicole Scherzinger – Don’t Hold Your Breath
05 Kelly Rowland f Big Sean – Lay It On Me (Clean Edit)
06 Nayer f Mohombi and Pitbull – Suave (Kiss Me) (Clean Edit)
07 Lady GaGa – You and I
08 LMFAO – Sexy and I Know It (Radio Edit)
09 Nicole Scherzinger – Wet
10 Lil Playy f Matthew Koma – Birthday Dress (Clean Edit) (Warning Content)

22 year old Pia Ann Rose Toscano was my favorite American Idol contestant this past season (she’s Italian, what can I say?). You can imagine how shocked and upset I was, when she was eliminated… I really thought she’d go all the way. She had tried out 4 times prior to this season’s Idol. I read a lot about her and found out she began performing when she was just 4 years old. Prior to Idol she had a career as a make-up artist and a singer in a wedding band called “Current Affair”. She has officially signed with Interscope Records and this month I am excited to highlight her brand new single “This Time”. She’s set to release her debut album this fall; if you want to see her, she’s currently on the 2011 American Idols Live Tour which began in Utah last month and will finish up Sept. 20th in the Philippines.

1. Pia Toscano – This Time
2. Maroon 5 f Christina Aguilera – Moves Like Jagger
3. Rihanna – California King Bed (Goon Rock Remix)
4. Chris Brown f Justin Bieber – Next To You
5. David Guetta f Taio Cruz and Ludacris – Little Bad Girl
6. Jason Aldean w Kelly Clarkson – Don’t You Wanna Stay (Remix)
7. Selena Gomez and Scene – Love You Like A Love Song
8. Kristina Maria and Laza Morgan – Co-Pilot
9. Michael Africk – Make It Loud
10. Bad Meets Evil f Bruno Mars – Lighters

Extra’s

1. ‘Weird Al’ Yankovic – Perform This Way
2. Baby Bash f Jump Smokers – Vegas Nights (Clean Edit)
3. Serrano – Already Yours (Mickey G. Newstyle Radio Edit)
4. Wynter Gordon – Til Death
5. Hot Chelle Rae – Tonight Tonight (Riddler Radio Edit)
6. Sean Paul f Alexis Jordan – Got 2 Luv U (Radio Edit)
7. Kelly Rowland f Lil Wayne – Motivation (Warning Content)
8. Red Hot Chili Peppers – The Adventures Of Rain Dance Maggie