Enrique Iglesias and Nicole Scherzinger have a 'Heartbeat' together - watch the video now!

Enrique Iglesias has become somewhat of a mainstay on the music scene, having been knocking around the charts off and on for over a decade in the US, and nearly 20 years in the Spanish speaking world.  Not so for Nicole Scherzinger, however, as her much-hyped solo career never really took off.  Originally launched by the famous-for-their-singing-talent girlgroup Pussycat Dolls, Nicole struck out on the solo path in 2007 and struck out quite literally on the charts.  None (seriously, not a single one) of her solo singles have charted in the U.S., and the best her collaboration with Will.i.am could muster was a middling #14 in the UK.

Speaking of Will.i.am, one can't help but feel that 'Heartbeat' is a bit of a rip off of his song with Cheryl Cole, '3 Words,' off her debut solo album.  Both have a similar vibe and male-female mix, and both are well on the right side of VERY GOOD.

The video itself is pretty simple, albeit with some big-budget lighting tricks having to do with hearts and beats and heartbeats and such.  It's adequately cool without blowing the doors off the place, but coupled with the song should help Enrique sustain his 'I Like It' momentum and give Scherzinger her very first US chart placing. 

Rihanna is ACTUALLY BACK with a BLAZING new single - listen to 'Only Girl' now in full!

Rihanna's brooding and challenging 'Rated R' experiment worked out about as well as Kylie's 'X' did (ie NOT VERY WELL AT ALL), proving that regardless of how big a star you are, naming your album based on a letter is just a stupid idea.  Sure it sold decently, but it moved nowhere near the numbers expected.  Worse, it tarnished the Rihanna brand a bit, as she had always been known for her 'jamz' and such.

Well all that mess is behind her, Proper Rihanna is back with a brand new single called 'Only Girl.'  It is dancy, anthemic and has "smash" written all over it with Dr. Pepper Bonne Bell lip gloss, and we couldn't be more pleased.  It's just the thing RiRi needed to give her career a kick and remind the casual listener just why she's such a huge superstar in the first place.

'Rated R' wasn't an outright disaster, of course, and it will add a certain credibility to her career from here on out (which is likely exactly why it was released), but much like Kelly Clarkson, whose 'My December' was also all dark and angsty and met with tepid sales, Rihanna's post-downer-period is shaping up to be her best.  It just goes to show, a pop star is never better than when they're on the comeback trail.




Welcome back, RiRi.

77: The Self-Empowered Woman: Sarah Bernhardt

Dear Followers,

As you know, I enjoy sharing the stories of a wide variety of women. To me, the era, country of origin, type of talent, or passion are not what's important. What matters is the struggle to fulfill a dream or survive challenges, and there seem to be an unlimited number of women who capture my attention ( and, hopefully, yours as well).

Today's woman worth knowing is the legendary actress Sarah Bernhardt, who was born in 1844 in Paris, and died 1923. She has often been called "the most famous actress the world has ever known."

Her birthname was Sara-Marie-Henriette Rosine Bernard; she was born in Paris as the illegitimate daughter of a Dutch courtesan - she never knew who her father was (1: No Paternal Safety Net). Much of her early life was spent in a convent (3: Belief In The Unbelievable).

When she was thirteen years old she entered the Conservatoire, the government sponsered French school of acting (2: An Early Sense Of Direction). In 1862, she entered the Nationaal Theater Company, the Comedie - Francaise, but the next year her contract was cancelled because she slapped a fellow actress (5: Life Is Not A Popularity Contest).

She left Paris and moved to Belgium where she had an affair with Henri, Prince de Ligne and had his son, Maurice, in 1864. Because his family disapproved of their relationship they ended their love affair. In later years she married a Greek-born actor (Jacques Damala) who became addicted to morphine, and had affairs with a number of men including Victor Hugo and the Prince of Wales (15: Forget About Prince Charming).

By 1866 she was back in Paris, and was soon popular not only in Europe but in New York, as well. She was known as " the Divine Sarah". In 1905, she was performing in Rio de Janeiro when she injured her knee during a performance. It never healed properly, gangrene set in, and her right leg had to be amputated. In spite of her loss, she continued to act even though she couldn't really move around the stage (12: Hard Times).

If you would like to know more about the amazing woman who was known around the world long before jet travel and the internet were available, I recommened Sarah: The Life of Sarah Bernhardt by Robert Gottlieb (Yale, $25.00).

Looking forward to your comments...

Girls Aloud's Nadine Coyle is 'Insatiable' in debut solo single - listen now!

Well that didn't take long, did it? 

It's been a full year since Girls Aloud announced their "one year" hiatus, and it's been about two full lifetimes since member Nadine Coyle (who has the enviable honor of being "the hot one" in a band consisting entirely of very, very "hot ones") announced her solo plans.  Accordingly, it came as quite a shock to us when we found out this whole "career launch" thing is going to ACTUALLY HAPPEN, and it nearly killed us when we learned a healthy snippet of Coyle's debut single 'Insatiable' had surfaced.  It's a rocking showcase for Nadine's vocals that chugs along with a fair amount of swagger  Like Coyle herself it's all sultry and seductive, and while it doesn't exactly shout "NUMBER ONE SMASH" from the rooftops, we're sure the song (and what is sure to be a steamy video) is going to make quite a few boys into men. 



The album and single are out in November on grocery store chain Tesco's new record label (?!)

Let's all take a look at how the Katy Perry album did, shall we? (Hint: NOT VERY WELL)

We here at ScopiSat have mixed feelings about Miss Perry and the ridiculous things she says/wears/does/has sex with, and apparently the record-buying public does as well. 

Just a week ago, "industry insiders" and the like were championing Katy Perry's new LP 'Teenage Dream' as one of the sure-fire can't-misses of the year.  Accordingly, her label EMI shipped a million physical copies to retailers all over the country, in the standard practice of shipping twice the product you expect to sell the first week out.  Analysts had predicted anywhere between 400,000 and 700,000 sales, so the million unit shipment would be about right on.

Well, we're guessing some of those analysts will be serving you your double tall mocha capp with no whip at Starbucks next week, because Miss Perry's first week album sales came in at....wait for it... 192,000.  Now, keep in mind this includes about 35,000 digital downloads of the long-play, meaning that out of those million units sent to shops, about 160,000 were sold.  That is.... less than spectacular.

It's a shame on one hand, because the album has some great moments on it.  On the other hand it's actually a perfect outcome - an album that is half good sold half of the projection.

Kylie's 'Get Outta My Way' video is SPECTACULAR - watch the full leaked video now!!

So Kylie had this big plan to premiere her new video tomorrow at 11am BST, but as most things of these sort tend to do it all went tits up and the clip has landed on the interwebs in its entirety.  She's probably not worried though, because it is ACTUALLY BALLS TO THE WALL BRILLIANT.  And not in that "we love everything Kylie does" kind of way because lets face it she's done a few mediocre things.  'Get Outta My Way,' however, is in no way mediocre.  It's what Lady Gaga might do if she had an ounce of restraint, and what Madonna would do if she could still move without a walker. 

There are LIGHTS and DANCING and WATER and some EPIC FINGERNAILS. 

Your new favorite popstar is Ed Drewett. Here is a song by him. You're welcome.

Ed Drewett is "up and coming" in that way that someone on a blog somewhere said he is "up and coming" and so he is already more famous than most people can hope to be in their lifetime.   He is also "up and coming" in the way that he hasn't had a hit or anything yet, but many people in the know are guessing this debut track 'Champagne Lemonade' is poised to change that.  It's got a very "now" sound about it, with electronic squiggles and effects somehow melding with a more organic sound.  It's sort of what a hipster discotheque on poppers would sound like if hipsters liked decent music and could afford to go to clubs.  In a totally good way.

Drewett - who is obviously quite objectionable, physically - is "tastemaker" Popjustice's number 1 pick on their sort of arbitrary and irregularly updated "PJ Almighty," thereby automatically placing him among the lofty ranks of SMASH HIT ARTISTS such as Dollyrockers, Same Difference (who have a new single we may soon tell you about, funnily enough), and Frankmusik.  Don't ring a bell?  Well if you want to remind yourselves, take a trip down to your local grocer where you can see any one of the aforementioned artists happily bagging up your baked beans and dandruff shampoo as they hum to themselves the tunes that made them the HUGE STARS that they are today. 

How about we don't let that happen to this one, alright?



"Alright."


...and yeah, we'd totally do him too.