2008 BET AWARDS TONIGHT 8PM ET

Each year, all of Hip Hop and R&B await the summertime for the BET Awards. This is the only one that counts. Where artists like Common, Rick Ross and Estelle can be nationally recognized. Here's a quick rundown of the awards, airing tonight 7pm Central / 8pm Eastern on BET. This year's host will be funny man DL Hugley. In years past the BET awards' audience have been a younger crowd. Let's hope DL's jokes hit home. I'm sure they will. It can't be as bad as Damon Wayans a couple years back. His jokes were made for an older crowd.75 Year old music legend Quincy Jones has been selected as the 2008 recipient of BET's Humanitarian Award and will receive the honor at the “BET Awards” on June 24. Past winners of the award include Earvin “Magic” Johnson, Denzel & Pauletta Washington, and Don Cheadle, who were bestowed the award in 2007. Some of this year's performers are... 1. T-PAIN 2. KANYE WEST 3. AL GREEN (WHO IS THIS YEARS RECIPIANT OF THE LIFETIME ACHIEVEMENT AWARD) 4. KEYSHIA COLE 5. MARVIN SAPP 6. YOUNG JEEZY 7. RIHANNA 8. NEYO 9. CHRIS BROWN 10. NELLY 11. ALICIA KEYS 12. USHER 13. LIL WAYNE SHOULD BE PRETTY INTERESTING. I AM HOPING THESE LIVE PERFORMANCES WON'T INCLUDE A BUNCH OF LIP SYNCING AND VOICING OVER TRACKS. (T-PAIN AND YOUNG JEEZY) I SAW A CLIP OF JEEZY REHEARSING ON ACCESS GRANTED LAST NIGHT, AND HE WAS RAPPING OVER HIS OWN VOICE. WHICH IS WACK. BE AN EMCEE MAN... WE KNOW YOU ARE THE KING OF ADLIBS, SO I CAN UNDERSTAND THE ADLIBS BEING NECESSARY IN THE BACKGROUND. BUT, HOW YOU GONNA RAP OVER YOUR OWN VOICE FOR THE WHOLE SONG? ANYWAY, LETS HOPE FOR AN ENTERTAINING FIGHT FREE TURNOUT. I AM REALLY LOOKING FORWARD TO HEARING MARVIN SAPP SING. I HAVE BEEN A FAN OF HIS VOICE FOR A LONG TIME.

NEW PICS: EXCLUSIVE PICS FROM ALICIA KEYS' NEW VIDEO "TEEN-AGE LOVE AFFAIR"

Expect the video to be released later this month. If you are a die hard fan and want to see more pics, click here.

ALICIA PERFORMS LIVE AT THE GRAMMYS 2008

ALICIA FT. FRANK SINATRA

JUST SPLENDID!! ALICIA PERFORMS "NO ONE"

ALICIA KEYS NORTH AMERICA TOUR DATES...COMING TO A CITY NEAR YOU

AS I AM U.S. TOUR DATES

The North American itinerary is: April 2008

19 - Hampton, VA - Hampton Coliseu

20 - Philadelphia, PA - Liacouras Center

22 - Pittsburgh, PA - Peterson Events Center

24 - Rosemont, IL - Allstate Arena

26 - Columbus, OH - Value City Arena at Schottenstein Center

27 - St. Louis, MO - Scottrade Center

30 - Minneapolis, MN - Target Center

May 2008

1 - Kansas City, MO - Sprint Center

5 - Los Angeles, CA - venue to be announced

7 - San Diego, CA - San Diego Sports Arena

9 - Las Vegas, NV - MGM Grand Garden Arena

10 - San Jose, CA - HP Pavilion at San Jose

12 - Phoenix, AZ - Jobing.com Arena

14 - Grand Prairie, TX - Nokia Theatre at Grand Prairie

18 - Houston, TX - Toyota Center

22 - New Orleans, LA - New Orleans Arena

24 - Tampa, FL - St. Pete Times Forum

25 - Miami, FL - American Airlines Arena

28 - Atlanta, GA - Philips Arena

30 - Greensboro, NC - Greensboro Coliseum

31 - Cincinnati, OH - US Bank Arena

June 2008

3 - Detroit, MI - Joe Louis Arena

5 - Cleveland, OH - Wolstein Center at Cleveland State

6 - Toronto, Ontario - Air Canada Centre

8 - Montreal, Quebec - Bell Centre

11 - Boston, MA - TD Banknorth Garden

13 - Washington, DC - Verizon Center

15 - Baltimore, MD - 1st Mariner Arena

17 - Newark, NJ - Prudential Center

18 - New York, NY - Madison Square Garden

ALICIA KEYS PERFORMS AT PRE-SUPERBOWL SHOW

NEW AUDIO: ALICIA KEYS "TENDER LOVE" FORCE MD'S COVER FROM '85

Alicia Keys- Tender Love (Force MD's Cover)

ALICIA SINGS "NO ONE" LIVE AT NEW YEARS EVE SPECIAL

ALICIA KEYS TO PLAY LENA HORNE IN BIOPIC

Looks like Janet Jackson’s dream of playing music legend Lena Horne is officially dead, because Oprah Winfrey has taken control of the project and cast Alicia Keys in the title role. During an interview for her new film, The Great Debaters, Oprah revealed that while she’s never going to act again, she’s taken to producing like a billionaire fish to water. “We’re going to start filming next year,” Oprah said of her Lena Horne biopic. “And we’ve got Alicia.” Now, unless she’s talking about one-time Batgirl Alicia Silverstone (please, no), it’s pretty much a given that the Grammy winner nabbed the role. Especially when you consider that Oprah told Alicia in 2005 that she would love for the 27-year-old to slip into the legendary singer's shoes.

The casting makes perfect sense since Lena and Alicia share more than a passing resemblance. Both were born in New York, both conquered the music industry quickly and both share a passion for philanthropy. Alicia is a spokesperson for several AIDS organizations, while Lena (below) dedicated her life to the civil rights movement.

Lena has been heavily involved in the casting of her life story since she famously asked for Janet Jackson to remove herself from the project (when it was set up as a TV movie at ABC) following her wardrobe malfunction at the Super Bowl. What an honor for Alicia: to not only have the blessing of the powerful Oprah, but the legendary lady as well.

It's so funny because my brother and I saw Alicia this morning on the View and talked about how much she looks like Lena, and if they were to ever do a movie they should cast her!! Damn, Oprah, you need to hire me and my brother...Great minds think alike!

ALICIA COVERS THE DEC/JAN ISSUE OF GIANT MAG

ALICIA KEYS KEEPING THE PACE ON THE CHARTS; GHOSTFACE...NOT SO MUCH

On the chart's this week Alicia Keys stayed strong while the critically acclaimed new album "Big Doe Rehab" from Ghostface Killah debuted low. Alicia Keys holds on to the #2 (234,000 sold) position on this week's Billboard chart as her sales continue to climb. She is joined in the top 10 by American Idol runner-up Blake Lewis whose debut album landed at #10 (98,000 sold). But the real story on this week’s chart is the debuts of some big Hip-Hop releases. Scarface leads the pack with his new album "Made" coming in at #17 (63,084 sold) while DJ Drama's first retail mixtape "Gangsta Grillz: The Album" landed at #26 (48,848 sold). New albums from Wyclef Jean and Ghostface Killah, while critically acclaimed, disappointed sales wise on the charts with their albums coming in at #28 (46,519 sold) and #41(35,671 sold) respectively. Styles P.'s new KOCH distributed album "Super Gangster, Extraordinary Gentleman" landed at #52 (29,047 sold). It was also clear this week that while fans may still love 2Pac, they aren't too interested in purchasing another hits album from the legendary artist. Two new 2Pac hits releases, "Thug" and "Life" hit the charts this week and sold 22,539 and 18,943 copies respectively. One of the week's biggest Hip-Hop gainers was Soulja Boy whose album "Souljaboytellem.com" was up 29% in sales and came in at #32. The week's #1 album was once again Josh Groban's "Noel" selling another 568,000 copies.

MUSIC NEWS: ALICIA KEYS SLIPS TO #2 SPOT, FREEWAY DEBUTS AT #42...ouch!

Alicia Keys slipped to #2 on the Billboard charts this week but sold enough to go platinum in only 2 weeks. The week's #1 album was from Josh Groban whose Christmas album "Noel" sold 405,000 copies. According to Billboard.com, her new album "As I Am" sold 349,000 copies this week bringing its 2 week total to over 1 million records sold. Chris Brown's new album "Exclusive" saw a resurgence this week, possibly helped by his appearance in the new film "This Christmas, as the album rose 10% in sales moving 121,000 copies and coming in at #9. Although it has been called one of the best album's of the year, Freeway's new album "Free At Last" debuted poorly on the charts selling only 36,000 copies and coming in at #42. reports this week, the top 11 albums all sold more than 100,000 copies, helped by the first week of the post-Thanksgiving shopping season. However, sales this week (13.94 million units) are down 18.1% from the same week last year (17.02 million). This week's sum is up 19% from last week's.

ALICIA KEYS COVERS ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY

ALICIA KEYS DEBUTS AT NO. 1

Nine-time Grammy winner Alicia Keys continues to make musical history as her fourth album As I Am debuts at #1 on Billboard’s Top 200 Albums and R&B Albums charts with first week sales of 742,426 units, according to Nielsen SoundScan. Released November 13th on MBK Entertainment/J Records, As I Am, Alicia now holds the prestigious title as the biggest debut for a female R&B artist in SoundScan history, and the highest selling debut for a female artist since 2004. As I Am is also the second highest selling debut week of any artist over the past 2 years, behind Kanye West's Graduation. This release marks Alicia's fourth consecutive #1 debut and her biggest sales week to date (her previous chart-topping debut was 2003's Diary of Alicia Keys which scanned 618,335).

QUIK PICS FROM ALICIA KEYS ALBUM RELEASE PARTY

Alicia and boyfriend/producer Kerry “Krucial” Brothers

Alicia striking a pose with RnB duo "Black Buddafly"

Fly guys John Mayer & Talib Kweli

Alicia, DJ EQ, Talib Kweli

Her release party was held at "The Grand" in New York City. Among the guests were John Mayer, Swizz Beatz, Talib Kweli, Kerry “Krucial” Brothers, and Black Buddafly.

NEW VIDEO: ALICIA KEYS "LIKE YOU'LL NEVER SEE"

YOUR GIRL CO-HOSTED 106 & PARK... A SMART PUBLIC RELATIONS MOVE..IT SHOWS SHE IS RELATABLE...AND IT HELPS THE KIDS TO REMEMBER THAT HER ALBUM CAME OUT TODAY...!! SO GO OUT AND SUPPORT YOUR GIRL.

Like You’ll Never See Me Again

NEW AUDIO: ALICIA KEYS f. KANYE WEST "NO ONE" REMIX

Alicia Keys ft. Kanye West- No One (Remix)

NEW PICS: CHECK OUT ALICIA...

SPORTING ONE OF THE HOTTEST TRENDS THIS FALL.. COLORED DENIM (YES IT HAS MADE A COMEBACK) I LOVE ALICIA... EVEN THOUGH IN THE LATEST ISSUE OF SISTA/SISTA (OR WHATEVER THAT MAG IS CALLED) KE KE WYATT WAS DOGGING HER SINGING STYLE.. SAYING "SHE JUST SCREAMS AND YELLS ON AND OFF KEY..." THEY DIDN'T MENTION A.KEYS NAME BUT THEY MADE KEY IN HER QUOTE BIGGER AND BOLDER THAN THE REST OF THE ARTICLE. KE KE SAID SHE CHALLENGES ANY FEMALE SINGER OUT TODAY AND SHE WOULD EASILY BLOW THEM OUT THE WATER! SHE'S PROBABLY RIGHT, BUT ALICIA WRITES HER ON SONGS... HA! NOW WHAT YOU GOT COMING KE KE??

Alicia Keys, who looked fabulous in a pair of tight turquoise jeans, waves to fans and signs autographs as she enters the BBC studios in Maida Vale, London.

NEW AUDIO: 3 NEW TRACKS FROM ALICIA KEYS

Alicia Keys- I Need You

Alicia Keys- Superwoman

Alicia Keys- Sure Looks Good To Me

ALICIA PERFORMS HER HIT SINGLE "NO ONE" ON THE JONATHAN ROSS SHOW + AN EXCULSIVE INTERVIEW

I AM LOOKING FORWARD TO HEARING HER WHOLE ALBUM. SHE ALWAYS DELIVERS GOOD MUSIC!! CHECKOUT HER INTERVIEW HERE

NEW PICS: ALICIA KEYS, FANTASIA, MAINO

Alicia Keys performed at the Heineken Red Star Soul event in NYC on Tuesday. Fantasia and Maino were among attendance.

Alicia is working hard for the money…

Fantasia TAT, TAT, TAT IT UP....TAT IT UUUUUUUPPPP! LOL!

Maino was there to show support.