Selena Gomez Talks New Album, New Ethan Hawke Movie

In an online video Q&A with her fans, Selena Gomez opened up about her edgier movie roles, including her next film with Ethan Hawke.

“I’m doing another movie called ‘The Getaway’ with Ethan Hawke. It’s really, really exciting,” she shared. “I go to Bulgaria and then I start filming. It’s more of an action movie, which is also different. So we’re doing that and then hopefully another movie, but that hasn’t really been confirmed yet. Then I’ll start working on my fourth album, which will be the best album I’ll ever do! But I’m just kind of halting music for a bit.”

She added that she’s “been really focused on more acting. For me it’s been fun to take risks and do things that are completely different. To be honest maybe some of you guys might not be comfortable with it. … I’m still the same person. Things that challenge me really excite me.”

Selena Gomez will also get the small-screen treatment on “Glee.” According to E! News, in the prom episode, shot last week, Lea Michele reportedly sings Selena’s track “Love You Like a Love Song.”

Justin Bieber’s “Boyfriend” Debuts at No. 2

Justin Bieber’s latest release “Boyfriend” has debuted at No. 2 on the Billboard Hot 100 Chart, following behind Fun.’s “We Are Young,” featuring Janelle Monae, which stays at No. 1.

“Boyfriend” opens atop the Digital Songs chart with 521,000 first-week downloads sold, according to Nielsen SoundScan. Since SoundScan began tracking digital sales (which first contributed to the Hot 100 the week of Feb. 12, 2005), only Flo Rida’s “Right Round” has debuted on Digital Songs with a higher total (636,000, the week of Feb. 28, 2009).

The opening digital sales total for “Boyfriend” is also the fourth-best for any song, debut or already charted. Here are the all-time top five digital sales weeks, according to SoundScan:
636,000 – “Right Round,” Flo Rida, Feb. 28, 2009
610,000 – “TiK ToK,” Ke$ha, Jan. 9, 2010
559,000 – “Grenade,” Bruno Mars, Jan. 8, 2011
521,000 – “Boyfriend,” Justin Bieber, April 14, 2012
509,000 – “Born This Way,” Lady Gaga, March 5, 2011

Justin Bieber and Carly Rae Jepsen Get Intimate for New Duet

Carly Rae Jepsen has snagged some recent success and recognition for her “Call Me Maybe” single, released under Justin Bieber’s label. But now the Canadian singer has revealed that she is collaborating on a track with Bieber himself.

“We collaborated on one song together, but in general, I was blown away by Justin,” Jepsen said to MTV News. “He’s so down-to-earth and very charming and very talented. It’s still a little top-secret, but it’s going to be coming out soon, I hope. It’s a really lovely song. The way he presented it was pretty cool. It was my first time meeting him. I was at the studio, and he basically just said, ‘What do you think of this song?’ and I was like, ‘Wow, I love it.’ “

From there, the “Boyfriend” singer asked her to collaborate on it, and she happily accepted the offer. “It’s pretty stripped-down,” she said. “It’s pretty casual. It’s not too dance-y; it’s more intimate. It’s a duet.”

Justin Bieber Turns 18

Today, Thursday, March 1, is the day that makes Justin Bieber legal. The international pop teen superstar has just turned 18 years old.

While Bieber has only been in the public eye for roughly three years, the singer has mounted a staggering list of accomplishments in that period, including three No. 1 albums and a Grammys performance.

Happy birthday, Justin!

Rihanna Tops Lady Gaga as Most Viewed Female on YouTube

Pop princess Rihanna has now passed Lady Gaga in total number of YouTube views, making her the most-viewed female recording artist on the go-to video viewing network. Over the weekend, RiRi boasted 2,068,076,591 (yeah, that’s billion with a capital “B”) official views to Gaga’s 2,044,728,691. Digital Journal reports Rihanna has been attracting over 3,000,000 views daily for most of the late fall and early winter on the strength of her singles from Talk That Talk, including an impressive 115.3 million views for her chart-topping smash “We Found Love.”

Gaga, by comparison, has seen her YouTube dominance dwindle. Recent singles “You and I” (49.4 million) and “Marry the Night” (31.3 million) are far from her 2010-11 peak, when one-time record holder “Bad Romance” commanded a staggering 443 million views and songs like “Telephone” (132.1 million), “Alejandro” (162.5 million) and “Born This Way” (88.3 million) regularly tallied massive numbers.

Neither starlet, however, has been able to catch up to the young king of YouTube, Justin Bieber, who has 2,275,845,406 views.

Late last year, Rihanna leapt past Janet Jackson and Stevie Wonder on the list of artists with the most #1 singles when “We Found Love” topped the charts, becoming her 11th #1 and tying her with Whitney Houston. Only the Supremes, Madonna, Michael Jackson, Elvis Presley, Mariah Carey and the Beatles have more chart-toppers. The single also helped the pop star make Billboard history as the solo artist to reach 20 top tens the fastest. It took her six years and four months to reach that total, five less than it took Madonna

Billboard Names Nicki Minaj as “Rising Star”

Billboard named Singing and rapping sensation Nicki Minaj as the 2011 Rising Star this past Wednesday after the incredible international success this year with her album, “Pink Friday.”

28 year old Minaj took the opportunity of Billboard’s announcement to confirm her next album on Twitter which is set to release on February 14, Valentine’s day next year, and will be called, “Pink Friday: Roman Reloaded,” after the rapper’s alter ego, Roman Zolanski.

The New York native stormed the Billboard charts this year, becoming the first artist to have seven songs in the Hot 100 singles chart at the same time, including hits such as “Your Love,” “Super Bass” and “Fly” featuring Rihanna, while “Pink Friday” reached No. 1 on the Billboard 200 album chart.

“Nicki Minaj has established herself as a force in hip-hop and pop music, and we’re thrilled to recognize her accomplishments over the past year,” said Billboard’s editorial director Bill Werde on Billboard.com.

Minaj is the fourth recipient of the award, following Jazmine Sullivan in 2010, Lady Gaga in 2009 and Colbie Caillat in 2008, and will join country music star Taylor Swift, who was named Woman of the Year, to collect the award at the annual Billboard Women in Music event in New York on December 2.

Billboard Picks Tik Tok As The Biggest Song in 2010

This should help Ke$ha (KESH’-ah) get over that Grammy diss: Billboard has crowned her “Tik Tok” as the No. 1 song of the year.

The Grammys didn’t give Ke$ha any nominations last week, but she not only had the top song of the year, she was also Billboard’s No. 5 artist of the year.

The top act? Lady Gaga, followed by Taylor Swift, Eminem and Lady Antebellum.

As far as top songs, following “Tik Tok” were “Airplanes” by B.o.B featuring Hayley Williams; Lady Gaga’s “Bad Romance”; Taio (TY’-oh) Cruz’s “Dynamite”; and Katy Perry’s “California Gurls” with Snoop Dogg.

Billboard’s top album was Susan Boyle’s debut, “I Dreamed a Dream,” followed by Eminem’s “Recovery,” Lady Antebellum’s “Need You Now,” Lady Gaga’s “The Fame” and Justin Bieber’s “My World 2.0.”

Lady Gaga Wins Big At MTV Europe Music Awards (Winners List)

Lady Gaga was the big winner at this years MTV Europe Music Awards. Check out the entire list of winners below!

Best Song — Lady Gaga for “Bad Romance”
Best Live Act — Linkin Park
Best European Act — Marco Mengoni
Best New Act — KE$HA
Best Female — Lady Gaga
Best Male — Justin Bieber
Best Push Artist — Justin Beiber
Best Pop — Lady Gaga
Best Rock — Thirty Seconds to Mars
Best Alternative — Paramore
Best Spanish Singer — Enrique Iglesias
Best Video — Katy Perry for “California Gurls”
Best Hip Hop — Eminem
MTV Global Icon — Bon Jovi
World Stage — Tokio Hotel

Justin Bieber to debut “Never Say Never” music video during World Series

Justin Bieber will debut the “Never Say Never” music video on Saturday during the World Series Game 3′s pre-show.

Game 3 of the World Series will be targeted to teenyboppers.

The best-of-seven series is between the Texas Rangers and the San Francisco Giants. The Giants won the first two games of the series in San Francisco.

Game 3 will take place in Arlington, Texas. Former “American Idol” champion Kelly Clarkson will sing the national anthem in her home state.

The 16-year-old Bieber sports gear from both teams in the “Never Say Never” clip, which was shot at Angels Stadium in Anaheim, Calif.

The song is from the platinum-selling singing sensation’s upcoming acoustic CD, due out on Nov. 23.

Are you just sooooo excited and you just can’t hide it?

Justin Bieber and Lady Gaga Are nearing 1 billion YouTube views

Justin Bieber and Lady Gaga are both approaching a major milestone of the new music industry: one billion all-time YouTube views.

Lady Gaga should pass one billion views around October 20 if she continues on her current pace, according to David Birch, communications director at TubeMogul. During September, she averaged almost 1.8 million views per day.

Birch says Bieber will surpass the 1 billion views milestone around November 1 if he keeps up his current pace. During September, Bieber’s videos were viewed about 3.7 million times per day.

After Lady Gaga and Bieber, the next closest artist is Michael Jackson at around 600 million views, says Birch.

Even though Lady Gaga will be the first to the one billion mark, TubeMogul data shows that lately Bieber has been the hotter of the two and has been YouTube’s most-viewed music artist. From July 1 to September 28, according to TubeMogul data supplied to Billboard, Bieber averaged 3.98 million daily views to Lady Gaga’s 2.04 million views per day.

Bieber has been hot since winter. Since February 28, Bieber has averaged 3.83 million daily views while Lady Gaga has averaged 2.53 million. To put their numbers in perspective, Kanye West has averaged 271,000 daily views in that time period.

But what really stands out is the consistent performance of Bieber’s videos. In April, TubeMogul began “Most Viral Videos of the Month” to highlight the most-viewed videos — including unofficial versions — in a given month. Nearly 9 in 10 of all videos to make the list have been music videos, and Justin Bieber has been the one constant month after month. He had four of the top 10 videos of the month from April through August.

Both artists have many of YouTube’s all-time most-viewed videos. Bieber’s “Baby” is YouTube’s most-watched video of all time with 345 million views. His “Never Let You Go” is No. 22 with 92 million views while “Never Say Never” is No. 28 with 86 million views.

Lady Gaga’s “Bad Romance” is No. 2 all-time at YouTube with 288 million views. “Just Dance” is at 11 with 123 million views, “Alejandro” is 26 with 87 million views and “Telephone” is 31 with 85 million views.

YouTube views include videos in the Vevo network but not Vevo videos viewed at Vevo.com. Vevo CEO Rio Caraeff has stated that YouTube accounts for about 90 percent of Vevo’s views. Videos by both Bieber and Lady Gaga are shown on Vevo.