How about a No. 1 single for Christmas? That's Reba McEntire's (booking agent, manager) gift as "Consider Me Gone" scrambles into the top spot for the last week of 2009, dislodging Lady Antebellum's (booking agent, manager) long-running "Need You Now," which scoots back to No. 2.

But Lady A can take comfort in knowing that its "American Honey" is the highest-debuting song of the week. It flows in at No. 47.

Taylor Swift (booking agent, manager), on whom the universe still beams, obviously played her Christmas cookies well, too. Her album Fearless ends 2009 just as it began it -- solidly at No. 1.

Phil Vassar's (booking agent, manager)Traveling Circus is the only new album to chart this week. It enters at No. 29.

There are two other new songs: Swift's "Fearless," bowing at No. 50, and Gretchen Wilson's (booking agent, manager) "I Want a Hippopotamus for Christmas," rumbling in at No. 54.

Rounding out the Top 5 albums, in descending order, are Carrie Underwood's (booking agent, manager)Play On, Lady Antebellum (booking agent, manager), Tim McGraw's (booking agent, manager)Southern Voice and the Zac Brown Band's (booking agent, manager)The Foundation.

The No. 3 through No. 5 songs are Luke Bryan's (booking agent, manager) "Do I," Dierks Bentley's (booking agent, manager) "I Wanna Make You Close Your Eyes" and McGraw's "Southern Voice."

That's it, folks. Here's hoping you avoided wreath rage and chestnut burns.

Reba McEntire agent | Reba McEntire manager | Reba McEntire booking agent

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Martina McBride (booking agent, manager) has designed a toilet seat that is currently on display in Times Square in New York City as part of Charmin's Enjoy the Go promotion. McBride's toilet seat is colorfully decorated with the title of her 2003 hit, "This One's For the Girls." The toilet paper manufacturer is also sponsoring free restrooms during the shopping season.

For each visitor, the company will donate one dollar to the celebrity's charity of choice, up to $10,000 per celebrity. McBride is donating her earnings to loveisrespect, a national teen dating abuse helpline. Other celebrity designers include comedian Mario Cantone, actor Mario Lopez and actress Sherri Shepherd.

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Shania Twain (booking agent,manager) will appear as a celebrity judge on American Idol on Jan. 19 during the series' ninth season. Twain stepped in as a preliminary judge in Chicago in August, along with judges Simon Cowell, Kara DioGuardi and Randy Jackson, as well as host Ryan Seacrest.

The ninth season debuts Jan. 12 on the Fox network, with the first four weeks devoted to auditions in various cities. The Hollywood rounds will begin Feb. 9. Other guest judges include Victoria Beckham, Mary J. Blige, Kristin Chenoweth, Neil Patrick Harris, Joe Jonas, Avril Lavigne (booking agent,manager) and Katy Perry (booking agent,manager).

 

 

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The Black Eyed Peas (booking agent, manager) had a positively colossal 2009, and that's putting it mildly. They topped the Billboard Hot 100 chart for 26 consecutive weeks with back-to-back singles "Boom Boom Pow" and "I Gotta Feeling," breaking a record that had stood since the mid-'90s. Their album The E.N.D. debuted at #1 on the Billboard albums chart, has sold more than 1.5 million copies to date and, as the year drew to a close, earned them six Grammy nominations.

Over the past few weeks, MTV News has been asking some of the biggest names in music to name their favorite artists, songs and albums of the past year, and it isn't exactly surprising — given their general largesse in '09 — that pretty much everybody has mentioned the Peas. They were inescapable — and the music industry definitely noticed.

And while they've earned tons of praise from their fellow artists, the Black Eyed Peas (booking agent, manager) are quick to return the props. You'd think, given the hectic year they had, that the Peas wouldn't have had time to discover any other acts, but you'd be wrong — something we found out when we caught up with the group's first lady, the lovely Fergie, and asked her to name some of her faves of 2009. She only had a minute (it was on a red carpet, after all), but she still managed to name quite a few.

Artists of the Year
"Oh, there's so many ... Drake (booking agent, manager), I love. MGMT (booking agent, manager), it was a while ago that I got their album, but I'm still obsessed. There are so many. Kings of Leon (booking agent, manager) did such a great job this year. Lady Gaga killed it this year, there's so many musicians who had incredible years."

Black Eyed Peas agent | Black Eyed Peas manager | Black Eyed Peas booking agent

With her far-out costumes and jaw-dropping performances, Lady Gaga (manager, booking agent) probably strikes many people as nothing more than a character. But the singer, currently out on her Monster Ball Tour, tells MTV News that her vision for the tour goes far beyond being eye candy and revolves entirely around her fans. She says she ultimately wants nothing less than to change the lives of her audience.

"No, it's not a character, but what it is ... it's a devotion and a loyalty to the music, and preparing myself for the moment so that I may fully be free and fully give myself to the audience," Gaga told MTV News.

"There's so many things that we have to do," she continued, explaining her pre-show mindset. "We have to free our insecurities so that we can be strong and powerful; we have to be centered. Our throats have to be cleared so we can speak eloquently. My voice must be warmed up; my mind has to be rested and focused so that I don't fall off the stage, or I don't lean the wrong way."

Whether onstage or off, the singer hopes to continue to create a connection that'll make fans "feel alive." "What I do is, in essence, create an atmosphere for my fans where they don't leave loving me, they leave loving themselves," the singer explained.

The theme of Gaga's Fame Monster is a big part of helping her create that performer/ audience relationship. "When I say things like, 'Do you love me? Do you want to f--- me? Come on, Hollywood, take my picture,' it's the ultimate epitome of what that fame monster is," she said. "And somehow, if you make fun of it or you make it a bit more tangible, fame is something that my fans can have for themselves. It's not quite so poisonous."

Gaga noted that her onstage progression provides the narrative to the tour, which hit San Diego earlier this week.

"I'm evolving through time. As a fashion story, the clothing begins in the sort of warbly, blue amoebic state, with lots of light, and it's kind of spacey, and then I grow bones, and then I grow hair, and then I grow horns, and then I become a sexy, full-bodied woman in a world full of war and military," she described. "And then I become myself, by the end of the show, and it's this sort of apocalyptic rebirth when I appear in the orbit and I've done it again."

The Monster Ball Tour is currently being revamped, and the new show will hit the U.K. in February.

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Adam Lambert (booking agent) may have been dropped from "Dick Clark's New Year's Rockin' Eve With Ryan Seacrest," but the pop star just announced he's got a new gig to ring in the New Year. But if you want to see him play as the clock strikes midnight, then you'd better buy your tickets. The show isn't going to be televised.

Lambert is set to play the annual Gridlock New Year's Eve concert in Los Angeles. The show will be hosted by Pamela Anderson. Lambert has been billed as the night's headliner and a Web site for the event notes that Lambert will perform at the stroke of midnight. Kevin Rudolf is also tapped to play the New York-themed bash, which will be held on the Paramount Pictures Studio Backlot.

Lambert, who will be playing the Times Square Stage at the show, tweeted, "Unfortunately Gridlocked NYE will NOT be filmed/ televised/ streamed. It's a live event only. Hope to see you there!!"

Meanwhile, Lambert collaborator and pop superstar Lady Gaga (booking agent) is currently one of the biggest draws for New Year's Eve. Her gig at the Fontainebleau in Miami Beach is currently the hottest New Year's Eve ticket on the market, according to NewYearsEve.com, reports "Extra," despite ticket prices that range from $425 to $25,000.

Although they'll be spending New Year's Eve apart, Lambert recently spoke to MTV News about hitting the studio with Gaga for his song "Fever" off his album For Your Entertainment. "Gaga! Working in the studio with Gaga was a trip," he said. "The Haus of Gaga came in at the end to say hi. She was just there. We were working with her and Jeff Bhasker and we recorded the song, and she egged me on and it was crazy."

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While fans wait to see Taylor Swift (booking agent) and Taylor Lautner fall in love on the big screen in "Valentine's Day" when it opens February 12, they can hear a bit of Swift's new song, "Today Was a Fairytale," in a leaked featurette for the film.

In the new song for the soundtrack, which will be released just days before the film on February 9, Swift sings about a magical day. Her song "Jump Then Fall" will also be on the soundtrack, according to celebrity-mania.com. The featurette also includes a brief scene of Swift swinging her hair while a TV crew stands around watching her.

The Web site posted a full track list for the soundtrack. Leighton Meester's duet with Robin Thicke, "Somebody to Love," made the cut, as well as "Cupid" by Amy Winehouse, Maroon 5's "The Way You Look Tonight" and "4 and 20" by Joss Stone.

In the featurette, members of the ensemble cast — including Julia Roberts, Ashton Kutcher, Jessica Alba, Anne Hathaway and Jennifer Garner — discuss the film and the ups and downs of Valentine's Day. "Valentine's Day ... it's like birthdays. People either love them and love to celebrate and get caught up in it or you just hate it," Roberts says. "Valentine's Day is tricky."

Jessica Biel also discusses the day of love in the clip, saying, "Valentine's Day makes people crazy." In the film, Biel plays Kara, who doesn't want anything to do with hearts or love or Cupid. Biel added, "It makes you feel like you should have someone."

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Is it a warning shot? 50 Cent (booking agent) announced in an overseas interview Monday (December 28) that there will soon be "a visual" for his track "So Disrespectful."

The track, produced by Tha Bizness, is from the rapper's Before I Self-Destruct album and features some choice lines directed at friends-turned-foes, including the mother of his son and former G-Unit cohorts the Game and Young Buck.

"Come on, Game, you'll never be my equal/ Your homies shoot dogs, my homies shoot people," 50 raps on the song. "See, me, I'm what you never gonna be/ I'm in that tax bracket you're never gonna see."

"There will be a visual for it," 50 told Dutch outlet Big FM. "The record is working by itself, that one. It just plays with no assistance from the record company, because people like it and personally enjoy it. I wrote that record about people I had issues with that were pretty cool, but at some point, I felt like they crossed me. So I wrote those different things, and it came out good. People enjoy it."

In an interview with MTV News earlier this year, Game appeared open to reconciling, even going as far as to publicly apologize to 50. But the G-Unit boss didn't seem to accept Game's pleas, despite Dr. Dre having patched things up with his Compton protégé.

"You shouldn't really hold your breath," 50 said about collaborating with Game again. "If Dre decides to work with him, that's Dre's prerogative — his album, he can do what he wants. He's Dre."

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Consider it a late Christmas present from Hova Claus. Jay-Z (booking agent) announced Monday (December 28) that the next video from The Blueprint 3 will premiere during "NBC's New Year's Eve With Carson Daly."

The Brooklyn MC is set to debut a clip for "On to the Next One," a futuristic number produced by Swizz Beatz. The video arrives on the heels of the Anthony Mandler-directed "Young Forever," which hit the Internet last week. That video was serviced for overseas use only, according to a representative for Atlantic Records, which distributed the Roc Nation project.

The clip for "On to the Next One" will be the fifth from The Blueprint 3, following "D.O.A. (Death of Auto-Tune)," "Run This Town," "Empire State of Mind" and the aforementioned "Young Forever."

Jay-Z will also appear on NBC's New Year's Eve special, alongside Rihanna. The two pre-taped performances of "Umbrella" and "Run This Town" a week ago in New York at Rockefeller Plaza during a snowstorm. In addition to Jay-Z (booking agent) and Rihanna (booking agent), Green Day (booking agent) are also scheduled to appear on the Carson Daly-hosted celebration.

"The real star of any New Year's Eve show is New York City, and Jay-Z is New York," Daly said in a statement. "Green Day and Rihanna were already an impressive lineup, and now, with the addition of Jay-Z, it's our most exciting lineup yet."

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There's a chill in Billboard's country charts this week with no new albums and only two new songs to report. But Taylor Swift (booking agent) and Lady Antebellum (booking agent) are still red hot as her Fearless and their "Need You Now" continue their multi-week reigns as the No. 1 album and song, respectively.

Swift's Fearless now has 5 million copies in the retail pipeline.

Not surprisingly, the two new songs are both Christmas ditties, which mean they face a relatively brief chart life. Rodney Carrington's tension-titled "Camouflage and Christmas Lights" debuts at No. 52, while Darius Rucker's "Candy Cane Christmas" (not to be confused with Dolly Parton's "Hard Candy Christmas") slides down the chimney at No. 60.

Two familiar album titles return to the list this week: the Cracker Barrel restaurants' edition of the Zac Brown Band's The Foundation (popping back at No. 63) and Joey & Rory's The Life of a Song (edging in at No. 74).

Trailing Swift in the Top 5 albums cluster are Carrie Underwood's Play On, Sugarland's Gold and Green, Lady Antebellum's self-titled album and Tim McGraw's Southern Voice, in that order.

Songs No. 2 through No. 5 are Luke Bryan's "Do I," Reba McEntire's "Consider Me Gone," Craig Morgan's "Bonfire" and Dierks Bentley's "I Wanna Make You Close Your Eyes."

Now ask yourself, "Have I done my part to ensure Taylor Swift a merry Christmas?"

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