Alicia Keys dethrones Rihanna from Billboard top spot

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - American R&B singer Alicia Keys scored her fifth No. 1 album on the Billboard 200 album chart on Wednesday with "Girl on Fire," unseating reigning chart queen Rihanna.Keys' fifth studio album sold 159,000 copies, according to Nielsen SoundScan, which was the lowest opening week of sales for any of the soulful singer's career.Keys, 31, held off country-pop starlet Taylor...

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"The Message" deemed greatest hip hop song ever

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - The 1982 hit "The Message" by Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five was named the greatest hip hop song of all time on Wednesday, in the first such list by Rolling Stone magazine to celebrate the young but influential music genre."The Message," which tops a list of 50 influential hip hop songs, was the first track "to tell, with hip hop's rhythmic and vocal force, the truth...

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Kathie Lee Gifford's "Scandalous" musical to close after three weeks

LOS ANGELES (TheWrap.com) - So much for Kathie Lee Gifford's career as a playwright. The former "Live!" co-host's Broadway musical "Scandalous: The Life and Times of Aimee Semple McPherson," is shuttering a little after three weeks after it opened.The musical, which opened November 15, will have its final performance December 9 at the Neil Simon Theatre in New York.Gifford wrote the book and lyrics...

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A Minute With: Scottish DJ Calvin Harris hits big time in U.S

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Scottish DJ Calvin Harris may not be the most recognizable face in the U.S. music scene, but after writing Rihanna's biggest chart hit and with two other top 20 singles, Harris is fast becoming a chart staple.Harris, 28, found success in the UK over the last five years before storming the Billboard Hot 100 earlier this year with "We Found Love," a dance-infused dark love song...

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Justin Bieber's manager throws Twit-fit over Grammy nominations shutout

LOS ANGELES (TheWrap.com) - Apparently, Justin Bieber's manager is unfamiliar with the concept of being gracious in defeat.Scott "Scooter" Braun, the man who deserves the credit (or blame, depending on your view) for bringing the "Boyfriend" singer to prominence, had a Twitter meltdown Wednesday night, after his client was left out in the cold in this year's Grammy nominations.In a fairly lengthy...

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Boehner, Obama Meet Face-to-Face in Fiscal Cliff Talks

For the first time in more than three weeks, President Obama and House Speaker John Boehner met face-to-face Sunday at the White House to talk about avoiding the fiscal cliff.White House Principal Deputy Press Secretary Josh Earnest would offer no details saying only, "The lines of communication remain open."Erskine Bowles, the co-creator of a debt reducing plan, who was pessimistic a couple weeks...

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Ghana's Mahama wins election - electoral body's Facebook page

ACCRA (Reuters) - Ghana incumbent President John Dramani Mahama was elected to a new term with 50.7 percent of votes cast, according to results posted on the Electoral Commission's Facebook page on Sunday.It was not immediately possible to verify the results with an Electoral Commission official.Mahama, who became president in July after the death of ex-leader John Atta Mills, was facing top rival...

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Twitter to Start War on Instagram In Time for Christmas

Holidays seem to be Instagram's bread and butter, so it makes sense that Twitter would fire their first shot in the war on Instagram when the app is at its most vulnerable. RELATED: Why You Can't See Instagram Photos on Twitter AnymoreIf we learned anything from Thanksgiving, it's that people love to Instagram their holidays. Turkeys, stuffing, table settings: you Amaro'd it all. It was the service's...

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Top Google executive forced off Twitter

Working at Google (GOOG) has its benefits — for one thing, the company’s reputation as an innovator is nearly unmatched — however things aren’t always as simple as they look. After making a joke on Twitter about Microsoft and Nokia’s Windows Phone partnership, Google’s senior vice president of engineering Vic Gundotra was told to stop using the micro-blogging site. Gundotra  had been using the...

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The Era of Twitter Without Instagram Has Now Begun

We know everyone is a little bummed about all those filtered photos disappearing from your Twitter streams this weekend, but let's not get all worked up about it: They are disappearing, and there is no scandal.RELATED: Why You Can't See Instagram Photos on Twitter AnymoreTechCrunch's  Drew Olanoff got a little too excited on Friday and thought a single in-stream photo meant that Instagram was...

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