“R&B Divas” is back! Keke Wyatt, Monifah, Faith Evans, Nicci Gilbert, and Syleena Johnson are all back for another season of TV One’s hit reality show and they’ve brought some new ladies with them — Latocha Scott and Angie Stone.

The network just dropped a trailer for the upcoming season and we’re definitely planning on rearranging our schedules to catch every single episode. Beware: There is a lot of diva going on here. Season 2 premieres May 1 at 10pm on TV One. Check out the trailer above.

Will you watch?

WENN

Relationships are never easy but for these celebrity women cupid has been just a smidge more brutal. Whether they were subjected to cheating boyfriends or unappreciative mates, these famous ladies have been through the wringer when it comes to their love lives. Sure, some finally found happiness, but we’re sure the scars from their early lovers will never quite disappear.

We filled you in a couple days ago on the fact that Essence has a MAJOR lineup in order for this summer’s annual music festival. From Beyoncé and Jill Scott to Maxwell and Brandy, the hitmakers are headed to NOLA this July. And did we mention that their recent cover boy, LL Cool J, is also performing as well? Here’s to hoping his performance will be a bit more entertaining than what he did at the Grammys….Anyhow, we now can add Bey’s sister Solange and R&B stud Trey Songz into the mix, as Essence just revealed that they have been added to the lineup. They’ve also tapped the very underrated Tamia and Faith Evans to perform as well. While Solange and Trey will probably hit a main stage, Tamia, Evans, as well as the additions of Mali Music and singer Rachelle Ferrell, will perform in the festival’s superlounges.

And if you’re hoping to take part in changing that body from within instead of just shaking it down to the ground, the festival will of course have opportunities to speak with and learn from life coaches, fitness experts, members of the clergy and more through something called the Essence Empowerment Experience. There you can get fed with the help of the brilliant Iyanla Vanzant, as well as Steve Harvey, and I don’t know, maybe get some business advice or something from Kenya Moore (?) of Real Housewives of Atlanta. They’re also bringing in other big names to help, including John Lewis, Denise Warren, Karen Peterson, Kim Burrell, Kurt Carr and many others.

Once again, if you’re trying to be a part of all this fun, the Essence Music Festival is from July 4-7, and weekend packages are already for sale online. Get moving!

TV One’s reality show “R&B Divas” was a proven hit last season. One thing that really caused it to stand out among the clutter of the heap of reality shows that television networks dish out is that it was one of the few shows that actually documented the lives of real celebrities. You know, people who were famous prior to being featured on a reality show. It appears that TV One is taking full advantage of that unique aspect of the show and are continuing to build on it. According to a press statement released by the station, they will be building upon that spectacular star power by adding soulful songstress Angie Stone and founding Xscape member, LaTocha Scott to the season two cast. The ladies will be joining the show’s original cast members, Faith Evans, Nicci Gilbert-Daniels, Monifah Carter, Syleena Johnson and Keke Wyatt.

As you may already know, this isn’t Angie’s first reality television experience. Years ago she appeared on VH1′s “Celebrity Fit Club 4″. Since then, she has launched a full-fleged campaign entitled FACE (Fearless African Americans Connected and Empowered), in an effort to “inspire behavioral changes in African Americans, who are disproportionately affected by diabetes,” which is an illness Angie was also diagnosed with back in 1999.

Since LaTocha’s Xscape days, she has acted as the pen behind various songs that appeared on popular movie soundtracks, in addition to launching the Goldyn Girl Foundation, which is an organization with the goal of cultivating self-love and self-esteem in young women. She is currently preparing for the release of her debut solo album as well as penning a tell-all book about her experiences during her time with R&B girl group Xscape.

The two new additions to the cast are sure to mix things up a bit and is certainly a way to add potential drama to the storyline. This is looking like an excellent formula for reality television. I’m sure many are curious and excited to see both Angie and LaTocha returning to the spotlight.

The new season is set to premiere around the Spring of 2013.

What do you think of LaTocha and Angie being added to the cast?

Photo courtesy of WENN

Jazmine Denise is a news writer for Madame Noire. Follow her on Twitter @jazminedenise

WENN.com

It’s tough being a celebrity. Why you ask? I mean how are you supposed to choose from the many, many attractive men and many, many smokin’ hot women who throw themselves at you? Easy, you can’t. Celebrities are only human, after all. And while their inability to keep their lust to themselves could cause some problems in their personal life, it provides endless entertainment for the rest of us. So for your viewing, thank God I don’t have all that drama going on, pleasure, here are 15 of the craziest celebrity love triangles.

I’ve been perplexed and dismayed for a few months now when thinking about the current state of music. We’re living in the era of music that relies too heavily on free downloads, more beats than thought-provoking lyrical content and shocking ‘announcements’ to drive album sales.

I just started listening to the radio again at the beginning of the summer. Was I happy with what I was hearing? Meh, maybe 75 percent as opposed to the good 90 percent of the late 90s and early 2000s. The cause, I realized, was that every song pretty much sounded the same. If I wanted the depth and relatable sounds I had grown up on, the SWV, Jagged Edge, Guy, Brian McKnight, Aaliyah, and Joe, then I would have to dig deep, reach back and pretty much forsake much, if not all of what is being played right here and now in 2012.

R&B was a mainstay for me growing up. There was soul there. Though I couldn’t completely relate to Faith Evans telling her man that she would never let him go, or Babyface outlining just exactly how fierce his girl’s “Whip Appeal” was, I saw R&B as a goal. I wanted to know love like that and yes even in some silly way I wanted to know the heartbreak of it too. R&B was what we came home to after pop, rock and rap amped us up for the day. Now, the house is no longer a home because R&B has been kicked out to fend for itself outside the realm of the mainstream music industry.

It’s been kicked out by everyone in the house: First of all, consumers. We complain that “Don’t nobody sing about nothin’ no more,” yet we twiddle our thumbs and look everywhere but to the music shelves in our local retailers when great R&B albums are released. When do we come out of pocket? For a Jay & Yeezy concert? Okay, that’s cool if that’s truly your preference. But honestly, Carl Thomas and Tamia, two of the brightest voices of R&B for YEARS, have put out absolutely phenomenal albums this year and I had to go in search of reviews for both. We say we want it, but do we support it? I’ll never forget how people used to wait in line to buy whole albums. To get that CD in their hands. To support the artistry that spoke the most into their lives. Now we pick apart these artists’ hard work and effort, barely ever spending that little $9 to $12. I’m guilty of it.

Secondly, R&B has been kicked out by the new generation. And to be fair, it’s not entirely their fault. When I was coming up, R&B was good music because it was relatable. People were in love. It wasn’t corny or foolish to put yourself out there for the sake of love. It was real, honest, respected. Grown folks could see themselves in the music and us young folks had something beautiful to look forward to. Nowadays, people mostly look to music to live a life vicariously that they’ll never get to experience firsthand. I will never know the life of a bada** rockstar. I’ll never know the lifestyle of a foul-mouthed, bootylicious Barbie but Rihanna and Nicki Minaj give me an all-access pass into that world. No shade. They’re getting theirs. But the depth they’ll deliver to me is few and far between. And so it is with the newer generation. “Love” and all of its highs and lows is for the birds to them. It’s wack. They can’t relate to a love song, but they can sure get with a jam about sex. People who thought the 90s were hyper-sexualized and overly gaudy are probably crapping bricks right now. Where we used to love music we could relate to, we now love music we pretty much know nothing of the lifestyle except in fantasy. People are not openly proclaiming that they are in love and everyone is cynical about the possibility. The real R&B artists who are STILL MAKING MUSIC, as an amazing musician friend of mine pointed out, aren’t being supported and won’t draw a cult following like Nicki Minaj because nowadays the masses want crazy, flashy sex in their music instead of easy, sweet adoration. We cling to heavy beats and synths instead of deep, poetic lyrics.

Thirdly, the music execs and DJs have abandoned R&B. Raphael Saadiq’s Stone Rollin’ album last year was the bees knees. It brought a sense of balance from new and old school back to today’s music. How much press did he and his ridiculously talented band get? How much promo did he get? How much air time did he get? DJs play the same four songs in the heaviest of rotations DAILY. Where’s the pressure for them to be more open to a wider range of music? DJs have a larger amount of power than they let on and we, AS THE LISTENERS, even believe.

The blame can’t be placed on any one group. All of us, consumers, execs, DJs, lovers and friends have done our part to push R&B out to make way for anything and everything that will “cross over.” Anything that will make a fist pump, and anything that can become a dance jam for a club where they twirl around glow sticks and dance off beat. It’s time we start making our way back to the artists who are still making music of substance before we look up and realize too late that one of the greatest genres has become extinct.

La Truly is a late-blooming Aries whose writing is powered by a lifetime of anecdotal proof that awkward can transform to awesome and fear can cast its crown before courage. Armed with the ability to purposefully poke fun at herself and a passion for young women’s empowerment, La seeks to encourage thought, discussion and change. Her blog: www.hersoulinc.com and her Twitter: @AshleyLaTruly.  

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Image: BlackFilm.com

Antonique Smith, perhaps best known for playing Faith Evans in the Biggie Smalls biopic Notorious, is launching a real-life music career with help from Kickstarter. Over the weekend, the actress exceeded her fundraising goal of $50,000 (by $27). The money will cover the cost of finishing and promoting her debut album “Speechless.”

Smith has a solid acting career, having also appeared on Broadway in the musical Rent and in the movie Abduction (starring Twilight’s Taylor Lautner). This year, she’ll appear opposite Zoe Kravitz and Gabourey Sidibe in the film Yelling to the Sky. She talks with Black Enterprise about the risks and benefits of embarking on a music career that’s been crowdsourced.

“It’s not just fundraising; it’s also the growth and awareness of the brand. We don’t want to just do an album and put it out in a couple of months,” she tells the site. “We are creating the anticipation. We are centralizing my fan base.”

There is a rule about returning all of the money if you don’t reach your goal by the campaign deadline. But she was able to build a group of 217 “core supporters,” some who donated in excess of $7,500.

“Some people were from random countries like Austria and Finland who gave large amounts. Some are family and friends and people I went to 5th grade with. It was good to see names I haven’t seen in years,” she tells the site.

For more about Antonique Smith and her Kickstarter campaign, click here.

Source: Brown Girl Next Door

Apparently there’s a limit on just how much of a diva one can be to maintain a spot on TV One’s new hit reality show, “R&B Divas,” and according to RadarOnline, Nicci Gilbert has just about reached her max.

The former Brownstone singer stars on the show alongside Faith Evans, Keke Wyatt, Monifah Carter, and Syleena Johnson and though she’s appeared to be sensible from the first two episodes, word is she’s something of a mess off-camera. That’s why she may be getting a pink slip if and when the show returns for a second season. A source told RadarOnline:

“Despite doing interviews with her whole message of positivity, Nicci was a terror to work with on the show. Publicly, she says she wanted this show to be the anti- Housewives, but privately her actions made her a fit for Oxygen’s Bad Girls Club.”

That’s pretty harsh. I honestly would have expected that type of behavior from Syleena just because of the way she comes off on camera, but Nicci was ready to rip that seamstress a new one when she didn’t show up for her fashion show on time on the last episode. Maybe that’s her real persona.

Rumor has it producers already have a replacement in mind too, singer Kelly Price, and they’ve already met to discuss the possibility. While this all sounds like a done deal, there is the issue of Nicci being one of the co-executive producers of the show. The anonymous source says that’s not as big of a deal as it may seem though, saying producers will  ”just pay her a producer credit and cancel her talent contract.”

She better get it together quick — if it’s not already too late.

What do you think about Kelly Price replacing Nicci Gilbert on “R&B Divas?” Have you been watching?

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Source: bossip.com

You might know her most as the ex-wife of hip-hop superstar Notorious B.I.G. You might also know her as the platinum-selling songstress on hits like “You Used to Love Me” and “You Gets No Love.” Faith Evans has stood the test of time, riding the wave of triumphs and challenges in the music industry and overcoming her own personal and professional losses to reemerge as a survivor.

Black Enterprise TV host Shannon LaNier caught up with Evans to talk her first gig, her latest ventures, balancing motherhood and her new show, “R&B Divas,” which airs on TV One tonight at 10 p.m. EST.

Watch Faith’s interview at BlackEnterprise.com.

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Source: raycornelius.com

TV One’s new reality show “R&B Divas” looks like it might be the perfect mix between “Real Housewives” and “Hollywood Exes” with women grown enough not to throw fists or drinks at one another but entertaining enough to keep our attention. The show will make it’s season debut August 20 and the trailer foreshadows good reality TV in the making.

Episodes follow R&B singers Faith Evans, Nicci Gilbert, Syleena Johnson, Monifah and KeKe Wyatt’s professional lives as well as their personal relationships. From the promo, it seems KeKe may have some trouble balancing her marriage with her career, not unlike Rasheeda and Kirk on LHHATL perhaps. Monifah also makes a surprising revelation that she’s in a relationship with another woman and struggles with her daughter Akemi’s lack of acceptance of her sexual orientation. Though for most of us, we’ll see this exposure as her “coming out” so to speak, the “Touch It” singer told Essence in it’s September issue she doesn’t see it that way.

“I hate the term,” she says, “because I’ve never been anything but who I am and I’ve lived my authentic life.”

It’ll be cool to see how that authenticity plays out in front of the cameras. Check out the season trailer here. Will you watch the debut August 20th on TV One?

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

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