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Who would have thought Trey Songz would be a movie idol? It seems he is the reason why Texas Chainsaw 3D  cashed in at the box office last weekend, despite bad reviews.

Exit polls conducted by research firm Marketcast found that one in three Chainsaw ticket buyers under 25 said they went to the movie because of Songz.

And get this. When the director, John Luessenhop, told Hollywood studio execs they wanted to cast Songz as the leading man, most had never heard of the R&B singer.

“People at Lionsgate were uncertain, saying, ‘We’ve never heard of him. We don’t know who he is,’” Luessenhop told the LA Times. And according to the newspaper, after Tim Palen, the studio’s chief marketing officer, Googled Songz, and found he “was a two-time Grammy nominee with 5.6 million followers on Twitter and 14 million fans who ‘like’ his Facebook page,” the studio backed Luessenhop’s decision.

Luessenhop’s gamble paid off. The movie debuted with $21.7 million. It is not the first time Luessenhop pulled in urban music artists for his movies. In the past he has cast both Chris Brown and T.I., helping them to transition into the film world. The horror film director told the Times he first saw Songz at the 2011 BET Awards and was so impressed with his performance and presence, he tracked down Songz’s agent.

Songz has already completed his second film gig; he will next appear in this summer’s dramatic comedy Baggage Claim.

Songz has been heavily promoting ‘Chainsaw’ on his Twitter account, reminding his fans to head to the movie theater and retweeting positive reactions to the film.

Turns out Songz, who has made an impressive return to music with Chapter V (which was Grammy nominated this year) wasn’t just satisfied with merely acting in the movie. He was hands on in the marketing campaign  as well. According to the Times it was Songz who asked Lionsgate to create a custom 90-second trailer of the film that would play prior to his song “Don’t Be Scared” during his Chapter V Worldwide Tour, which hit the road in November.

“I wanted [Lionsgate] to know that this film was truly a priority for me,” Songz wrote in an email to the Times from Germany, where he is currently on tour. “The fan reaction could not have been better. They loved the clip. They were scared for themselves, they were scared for me, it worked out perfectly.”

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While the old adage suggests that the third time is a charm, it appears that the fifth time is more fitting for R&B singer Trey Songz who recently landed his first number one album with, “Chapter V.”

According to Nielsen SoundScan, the crooner’s fifth studio effort managed to move 135,000 copies within its debut week, beating out last week’s number one album from Atlanta-based rapper 2 Chainz, “Based On A T.R.U. Story, which slipped to the number 2 slot selling 48,000 copies.

The Virginia native’s latest release comes two years after his last opus “Passion, Pain & Pleasure.” Since then, Trey has appeared to have a change of heart in his ongoing feud with R&B titan, R. Kelly. During a recent interview with MTV News he professed his admiration for Kelly.

Read more at Huffington Post

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Source: courtneyluv.com and bonnerfideradio.com

Beyonce doesn’t do too many collabos these days unless she’s letting her hubby jump on a track, which is why it’s sort of surprising Trey Songz claims he has something in the works with the Queen, or at least he did.

In an interview discussing his upcoming album, Chapter V, he spoke on a few of the artists who will be featured on the tracks like T.I., J. Cole, and Big Sean, but the interviewer threw another interesting name into the mix—Beyonce—and Trey had this to say.

“Beyonce, she had the baby. I thought about that last year because I’ve been making this album for a long time but she was on the road  and pregnant and now she’s had the child. I very much respect her space, being that I have a friendship with their family, and I want to make sure that comes first before anything so that when the time is right for us to make a record it will be done.”

So he’s still basically in the hoping, wishing, and praying stage. I did forget that Jay-Z label mates do get first dibs on the queen—or king, I forgot which she’s going by these days—hence her work with Kanye and J. Cole’s mysterious new verse on “Party.” Considering Trey Songz is a part of the Roc-a-Fella fam we could see this collaboration come to light.

There’s another mama Trey has on his wish list, which is Swizz Beatz’ wife Alicia Keys. The singer said he had a track he thought would be perfect for her a little while back but she was also pregnant at the time so it never happened. Looks like babies bring Tremain bad luck.

Check out the rest of his interview here. Would you like to see Trey and Bey work together?

Brande Victorian is the news and operations editor for madamenoire.com. Follow her on twitter @Be_Vic.

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