Mariah Named Hunger Ambassador for Relief Campaign

Yum! Brands announced today the launch of its annual hunger relief effort to help stop world hunger.

This year, Mariah Carey, the most popular female singer in history, will be featured in World Hunger Relief restaurant posters as Hunger Ambassador with the quote, "The change from hunger to hope starts with you." Customers who donate to the World Hunger Relief campaign at participating KFC, Pizza Hut, Taco Bell, Long John Silver's or A&W Restaurants around the globe will receive a special, free download of her song, "Love Story" from her newest CD E=MC2.

Island Def Jam (IDJ) has partnered with the leading provider of digital download services, Neurotic Media, to support Yum!'s World Hunger Relief movement and Mariah Carey's "Love Story" song download giveaway. Neurotic Media generated the redemption codes for the giveaway, hosts the redemption mini-site, and delivers the MP3 globally for this promotion.

Click here to read the full press release.

Source: Business Wire via Yahoo! Finance

McAfee::"Most Dangerous" Celebrity

Internet security firm, McAfee Inc., has dubbed Brad Pitt and Beyonce the most dangerous celebrities to search for on the Internet because cybercriminals use their names to lure victims. Fans searching for information and pictures of Pitt, or downloads, wallpaper and screen savers, have an 18 percent chance of having their PCs infected with a virus, spyware, spam, phishing and adware, according to the company.

Below are the Top 5 celebrities on McAfee's "Most Dangerous" list.

1. Brad Pitt - When "Brad Pitt screensavers" was searched, more than half of the resulting Web sites were identified as containing malicious downloads with spyware, adware and potential viruses.
2. Beyonce - Inputting "Beyonce ringtones" into a search engine yields risky Web sites that promote misleading offers to gather consumers' personal information.
3. Justin Timberlake - Interest in his high-profile relationships makes him an easy target for spammers and hackers. When searching for "Justin Timberlake downloads" one Web site advertised free music downloads that were flagged as directly leading to spam, spyware and adware.
4. Heidi Montag - "The Hills" star is a popular search term when it comes to searching for wallpaper. A host of wallpaper Web sites contained hundreds of malware-laden downloads.
5. Mariah Carey - Spammers and hackers are using Mariah Carey screen saver Web sites to link to other sites proven to contain spyware, adware and other threatening downloads.

Source: McAfee via Reuters

UK Premiere of "Just Stand Up"

UK women's channel Diva TV has secured rights to a one-hour highlights special of Stand Up 2 Cancer which features the video premiere of "Just Stand Up," the all-star charity event single with a stellar cast of female recording artists including Mariah Carey, Beyonce, Mary J. Blige, Rihanna, Fergie, Sheryl Crow, Miley Cyrus, Melissa Etheridge, Ashanti, Natasha Bedingfield, Keyshia Cole, Leona Lewis, LeAnn Rimes and Carrie Underwood.

The special will air on Friday, September 12 at 9:00pm on Diva TV, which is available on Sky (channel 282) and Virgin Media (channel 192).

Source: PR Newswire

The Most Popular Song of Hot 100 Era

How's this for a twist: Of all the No. 1 songs in the 50 years of the Billboard Hot 100 chart, Chubby Checker's "The Twist" ranks as the most popular single.

Santana's "Smooth," featuring Rob Thomas, is the No. 2 most popular, followed by Bobby Darin's "Mack the Knife," Leann Rimes' "How Do I Live" and "The Macarena" by Los Del Rio.

The Beatles did make the top 10, coming it at No. 8 with "Hey Jude." But Olivia Newton-John's "Physical" and Debby Boone's "You Light Up My Life" are ahead of that hit. Rounding out the top 10: Mariah Carey's "We Belong Together" at No. 9 and Toni Braxton's "Un-break My Heart" at No. 10.

Geoff Mayfield, director of charts at Billboard magazine, acknowledged that the list might not jibe with some fans' personal thoughts of the most popular songs of the past 50 years.

"This is simply a chronicle of how each of these songs performed in their era on the Hot 100. We're not saying these are the most memorable songs of your life. That would be something that's almost impossible to determine," said Mayfield. "Everyone has a subjective frame of reference."

The Billboard Hot 100 chart measures airplay and sales information (and more recently digital downloads) in determining the nation's most popular songs. To determine the most popular song of the Hot 100 era, Billboard used a formula to determine the top song - not always relying on weeks at No. 1 since the data was reported differently in its early days.

Initially, Billboard relied on stations to report the most popular songs, and got sales surveys from record stores. But Mayfield said stations often stopped reporting on a song's popularity if it was no longer a priority for record labels. And in 1991, Billboard began relying on sales data from Nielsen SoundScan and airplay data from Nielsen Broadcast Data Systems. So Billboard weighted certain songs from different eras to make sure all songs were on an even playing field.

Source: Billboard via Associated Press | Noel

Fight Breaks Out At The Fashion Rocks Party

Justin Timberlake narrowly missed being punched in the face after a fan sneaked into a VIP area to take his photo. The singer, who was celebrating his duet with Beyonce Knowles at the New York Fashion Rocks party earlier on Saturday evening, was forced to dive for cover when a brawl got out of hand at the city's Rainbow Bar. His minder had snatched the admirer's camera phone and tried to delete the picture before the woman's friends stepped in to defend her.

Beyonce, her sister Solange and Mariah Carey screamed in terror as champagne glasses were smashed, while Rihanna and Chris Brown tried to avoid the flying glass. Justin's bodyguard was later thrown out of the club.

Source: 411mania

Photos: "Just Stand Up" Artists Perform On Stage

Photos: "Just Stand Up" Singers

Thirteen of the most talented female performers joined together on the stage at Fashion Rocks to sing "Just Stand Up!" the worldwide charity single benefitting Stand Up To Cancer. The song was created and produced by LA Reid and Kenny "Babyface" Edmonds. (Group Picture Left to Right) Keyshia Cole, Leona Lewis. Fergie, Ciara, Mariah Carey, Beyonce, Mary J Blige, Rihanna, Carrie Underwood, Miley Cyrus, Ashanti, Natasha Bedingfield, Nicole Scherzinger at Conde Nast Media Group's Fifth Annual Fashion Rocks at Radio City Music Hall on September 5, 2008 in New York City.

JUST STAND UP TO CANCER

What would it sound like if 15 of the hottest female singers joined voices? The answer will be revealed Sept. 2.

That's when "Just Stand Up" hits airwaves and iTunes. The song features Mariah Carey, Beyonce, Mary J. Blige, Rihanna, Fergie, Sheryl Crow, Miley Cyrus, Melissa Etheridge, Ashanti, Natasha Bedingfield, Keyshia Cole, Ciara, Leona Lewis, LeAnn Rimes and Carrie Underwood. All sales of the star-studded single will benefit cancer research.

The charity tune was conceived by Antonio "L.A." Reid, who produced it with longtime creative colleague Kenny "Babyface" Edmonds.

All 15 singers will share the stage to perform the song live on Sept. 5 during the "Stand Up to Cancer" television special, set to air simultaneously on ABC, NBC and CBS. Other stars expected to turn out for the hourlong fund- and awareness-raising program include Jennifer Aniston, Lance Armstrong, Katie Couric, Sally Field, Salma Hayek, Meryl Streep, Forest Whitaker and Reese Witherspoon.

Founded in 2007, Stand Up to Cancer is a program of the Entertainment Industry Foundation that calls on entertainment-industry people and platforms to help fight cancer.

Source: Associated Press