Shontelle’s new single following up her smash “Impossible” has been recently announced as ‘Perfect Nightmare‘ – which is also set to feature a mysterious male artist! (stay tuned!)

The track was produced by Rodney ‘Darkchild’ Jerkins, who has worked with artists including Lady Gaga, Britney Spears, The Pussycat Dolls, Beyoncé and more.

‘Perfect Nightmare’ is the second song from Shontelle upcoming sophomore album “No Gravity” and will impact mainstream US radio stations on August 31, according to reliable source All Access. “No Gravity” is due to be released September 21st (US & UK).

R&B singer Shontelle attended and performed at the 2010 WEEN Awards tonight (Women In Entertainment Empowerment Network) at the Asia Society on September 2, 2010 in New York City. Keep checking back for more pictures!

Shontelle recently told DigitalSpy that she was “living” the heartbreak-filled lyrics of ‘Impossible‘ and it’s safe to presume she’s not alone. A year and a half since the likeable-but-still-slightly-aggravating ‘T-Shirt’ hit the top ten, the Bajan songbird is back with a more mature sound – one that’s already paid off, as this Whitney-sized tale of heartbreak has become her biggest hit yet across the pond.

It’s not tricky to see why, with everyone involved in ‘Impossible’ delivering like they’ve got Sue Sylvester’s protein shake-scented breath warming their necks. Arnthor Birgisson’s Stargate-style production has a very appealingly restrained, Ina Wroldsen’s lyrics are blunt and utterly relatable, and Shontelle gives her strongest vocal performance yet without ever overdoing it. The result? A treat for everyone except the peeps at Greenpeace, who might not approve of a song that requires at least two Kleenex mansize every time you play it.

Impossible is due to release on UK Amazon & iTunes, September 9th.

(rated 5 stars)

Finally, the full interview from Shontelle’s recent appearance on FuseTV has surfaced. Watch the above 3 part video to find out the story behind her hit single “Impossible”, it’s success, songwriting and more! If you missed the photos from this day, click here to check them out.

• Shontelle’s is off to LA to prepare for her “Perfect Nightmare” video shoot tomorrow (Sept 1st) with director Colin Tilley, who has worked with artist such as Chris Brown, Lil Wayne, Justin Bieber, Tyga, and more! Yesterday, he tweeted “doing alot of interesting set design for this shoot on Wednesday. Gonna spend tomorrow overseeing the building process of a very stylized boxing arena.” – This should be interesting!
• UK group JLS’s next single due for release in America on September 14th, will feature Shontelle. Production duo ‘The Runners’ posted a message on Twitter announcing that she will be featured on their track entitled ‘Ay Mama’. Click here to listen to the solo version JLS performed a few weeks ago. Love it!
• “Perfect Nightmare” cracked the Top 100 on Mediabase (Radio) earlier this week before it’s official radio impact release date, which is today! Look out for a newly designed request page coming soon!
• Check out this great backstage photo of Shontelle and David Archuleta at the recent Arthur Kids Day event, posted on her facebook – thanks to Christie!
• In celebration of ShontelleOnline’s almost 2 year anniversary and the release of Shontelle’s anticipated new album “No Gravity“, we’re preparing to relaunch with a new design and many more sections on September 25, 2010. Get ready!

Six Flags Great Adventure and Coca Cola presented R&B singers Shontelle and Charice live at the Northern Star Arena yesterday, Sunday, August 29. Shontelle’s performance included her smash hit ”Impossible” along with songs from her upcoming album “No Gravity”.

Pictured above are Shontelle and Z100 radio personality Skeery Jones. Many more pictures and videos coming soon – keep checking back!

WJFX-FM / HOT 107.9 recently held their second annual “Downtown Street Party” free concert event which took place in Downtown Fort Wayne, this past Saturday (August 28th). Watch the performance clips of “No Gravity”, “Perfect Nightmare” and “Impossible”, below.

Interviews & pictures coming soon!

Barbadian pop singer Shontelle attended and performed during the Arthur Ashe Kids Day event held at the USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center in Flushing, New York on August 28, 2010. Check out the full set of photos below, other celebrities present were David Archuleta, Jonas Brothers, Demi Lovato and more!

Red Carpet / Backstage Access

Stage Performance

Press Assistance: Thanks Rodrigo & Edson!

Shontelle and her band performed at a ‘Back2College’ concert in Utica (NY) last night, to a sold out audience! The catch about this particular gig was that literally hours afterwards, we received tons of emails from people showing support and say how “amazing” it was.

According to the stories we’ve been getting, she must’ve really put on a good show! The setlist  (in no particular order) was “Licky”, “Say Hello to Goodbye”, “Perfect Nightmare”, “No Gravity”, “DJ Made Me Do It”, “Impossible” – mixed “T-Shirt” with a little bit of “Your Love” by Nicki Minaj and also did a little covers/sing-a-long section with short clips of “Airplanes” , “Rude Boy”, “Love the Way You Lie”, “OMG”, “I Gotta Feelin’”, and “Love is Gone”.

So far we’ve managed to get hold of a great performance clip of SHTG that was sent to us, hopefully more videos from the concert surface soon. Keep checking back for more! But in the mean time, watch the videos below shot from great angles, thanks to the videographer Tone Spliff and Matt Musacchio.

Say Hello To Goodbye (Acoustic Live)

DJ Made Me Do It / No Gravity / Roll It

Shontelle’s sophomore album ‘No Gravity’ (due September 21, 2010), is already reaping success with her second RIAA Platinum Certification (sales of 1 million units in the USA) for her lead single ‘Impossible’ which was released just under 8 months ago.

As some may remember, at the 2010 Barbados Music Awards earlier this year (January 2010), she was awarded proudly for achieving her first Platinum status for ‘T-Shirt’ – also now ranked as Barbados’ second best-selling female of all time!

Congratulations Shontelle, SRP/SRC/Universal Motown, and of course the people who make it all happen, YOU the fans! 2 down… many more to come.

This mashup by Mochi Beats has been making a little buzz around the internet lately, and I thought it was quite brilliant to share with SO’s readers. It’s a mix of Two Door Cinema Club’s “What You Know”, Drake’s “Forever”, Iyaz “Replay”, and our girl Shontelle’s “Impossible”. She sounds a little different here tho, must be a mixing thing, but good nontheless!

If things had gone a little differently, Shontelle might perhaps have been Beatweek’s attorney instead of our cover girl. The songwriter had almost finished law school when the music industry discovered she could sing too – and now that her hit song “Impossible” has spent most of 2010 near the top of the charts, her new album is set to drop next month. The Barbados native tells us all about where she came from and where she’s headed…

Shontelle Layne’s new album is less than a month away from release, and yet she’s been in the studio working on it as recently as the day before we speak – something of a surprise, seeing as how the not-yet-finished album entitled No Gravity has already generated the biggest hit single of her career. The artist who had until this year been best known for her early hit “T-Shirt“ is now even more closely associated with the ballad “Impossible.” The song’s overwhelming success over the past several months makes it seem like an obvious choice for a single in hindsight, but that decision wasn’t so clear at the time.

“To tell you the truth,” Shontelle says as her pet dog Bubbles enters the room, “Impossible for us was a big gamble because when we released it everything on the radio was just up tempo four on the floor stuff, a lot of dance type stuff. And we were like, there’s a high possibility that this song will get swallowed up by all that. And so we were just hoping that the opposite would happen where it just stood out as a very strong song with a real message.”

As it turns out, the gamble has paid off, as the song still sits among the top twenty pop songs in iTunes nearly half a year after its release. But that hasn’t stopped the overachiever in her from continuing to try to improve No Gravity right up until the point where “you have to, today, submit a tracklisting.” The late sessions with producer Rodney Jerkins, whom she says she “always wanted to work with,” ultimately generate what is about to become the album’s next single, Perfect Nightmare. The song threatens to be a ballad for its first minute, but ultimately explodes into a dance-friendly number.

(Read more…)

Blackweb, a popular website who’s mission is to bring wealth of exceptional innovation, talent, and ambition of Blacks in the technology and new media industries, recently compiled a list of the “100 Most Powerful Black Women” on Twitter right now – using two powerful online reputation measurement tools and research. Women could only make the list if they have gained a tremendous amount of influence on Twitter by amassing a large number of followers, retweets, and memberships on user lists.

Shontelle made a striking #60 spot among big names you wouldn’t imagine! – you can check out the full list here. TBH I think she should at least be in the Top 30 compared to others I see listed, but nontheless, it’s nice she was part of the movement.

Make sure you follow @Shontelle_Layne on Twitter!

Shaking off the T-Shirt tag may be as much of a struggle for Shontelle as proving that she and countrywoman Rihanna are actually friends, but with the 24-year-old’s new single ‘Impossible’ a certified hit across the pond, we gave her a call to find out how she fancies her chances of repeating the feat over here.

Congratulations on your success with ‘Impossible’ in the US.
“Thank you so much. First of all, I love Digital Spy and I check the site all the time! Oh my gosh though, the single’s success is great because it’s really challenging breaking the US. It’s probably more challenging than breaking anywhere else, so going top ten is pretty exciting for me.”

Did you know the song would be a hit when you first heard it?
“You know, I knew it had potential but there are so many things that go together to make a song work – from the artist to the timing to having some luck! There are so many different factors, but I just really hoped people would like the way I deliver the song… and luckily it seems they did!”

Have you heard rumours that it was turned down by both Leona and Rihanna’s teams?
“You know, I’ve heard those rumours, though I’ve never had them confirmed. I don’t know for sure, but I’m really glad I recorded it!”

What’s the inspiration behind the song? Can you relate to it personally?
“Yeah, I’m literally living it right now myself. Sometimes you’re in love and it doesn’t work out and it breaks your heart – especially when it’s a person you never saw that coming from, someone you thought could be The One. I think everyone has a heartbreak story and I definitely can relate.”

And the video – it tells that story really well.
“Thank you. When we were thinking about the video, we thought about how the economy’s been crap of late, labels are cutting budgets because no-one’s buying music, and lots of videos aren’t how they used to be. You know how they’d be like mini-movies and tell a full story? We wanted to accomplish that with ‘Impossible’ and I think the director, TAJ Stansberry, did a great job.”

Of course, Lady GaGa is a big fan of the mini-movie style videos you mention. Would you be keen to make your own nine-minute promo?
“Oh my gosh, if I had that kind of budget, I’d do it too! I remember Michael Jackson’s videos used to be like that. MC Hammer too – you’d never forget his videos! Who knows, maybe we can get back to those days?”

(Read more…)

Gay Men’s Health Crisis (GMHC) presented their 20th Annual House of Latex Ball last night at the Roseland Ballroom in New York City. The event included categories for competition in exuberant expressions of dance, vogueing and modeling of fashion designs. During the past 20 years, GMHC has been able to use the Latex Ball as a great tool to reach out to thousands of attendees from the tri-state area to help raise awareness for HIV/AIDS by providing HIV testing and educational materials.

Bajan R&B/Pop singer-songwriter Shontelle was a judge for a special vouguing competition. After doing her part on the stage Shontelle had this to say via her twitter… “So I rocked Hernan Lander shoes & jacket, Max Azria top, Rachel Roy shorts & Chrissy L jewelry. STILL can’t compete w the kids @ LatexBall!”