Manny Pacquiao knocked out David Diaz in the ninth round to claim the WBC lightweight championship. Held at the Mandalay Bay Events Center in Las Vegas, Pacquiao in his new added five pound weight captured the title belt of his fourth weight class. This, once again, proves that Manny Pacquiao, at any weight in any ring, is the best pound-for-pound boxer in the world.

Read the accompanying article related to this post.

See Ne-Yo’s rocking performance on Soundcheck.

Colplay is sitting pretty at #1 on the Billboard Hot 100 charts with “Viva La Vida” after peaking at #2 last week. The single is helped by the 246,000 digital sales and marks Coldplay’s first #1 on the chart. The last British group to hit #1 on the Billboard Hot 100 was the Spice Girls with “Wannabe” in 1997.

Coldplay gets another reason to celebrate as their fourth studio album, “Viva La Vida Or Death And All His Friends”, is expected to debut at #1 on the Billboard 200 chart.

If there’s anyone else who should be celebrating for chart success, it would be Coldplay’s record label – Capitol. Their (Capitol) own Katy Perry moves from 4 to 2 with “I Kissed A Girl” garnering the greatest sales and airplay. This marks the first time Capitol occupies the first and second slot on the Hot 100 in the same week since Bobbie Gentry’s “Ode To Billie Joe” and the Beatles’ “All You Need Is Love” at #1 and #2 respectively back in September 2, 1967.

Here’s the list of top ten singles on the Billboard Hot 100 chart.

#1 Colplay – “Viva La Vida”

#2 Katy Perry – “I Kissed A Girl”

#3 Lil Wayne – “Lollipop”

#4 Leona Lewis – “Bleeding Love”

#5 Rihanna – “Take A Bow”

#6 Natasha Bedingfield – “Pocketful Of Sunshine”

#7 Jordin Sparks – “No Air”

#8 Chris Brown – “Forever”

#9 Usher – “Love In This Club”

#10 Metro Station – “Shake It”

The “Lollipop” rapper’s biggest sales week was 238,000 back in 2005 for the release of “Tha Carter II” which entered at #2 on the Billboard 200.  “Tha Carter III” is Lil Wayne’s first #1 on the Billboard 200 and it is propelled by the smash single “Lollipop” featuring Static Major.

Other notable debuts on the Billboard 200 include the following:

Plies, “Definition Of Real” at #2

N*E*R*D, “Seeing Sounds” at #7

Alanis Morissette, “Flavors Of Entanglement” at #8

Evil Urges, “My Morning Jacket” at #9

Montgomery Gentry, “Back When I Knew It All” at #20

Emmylou Harris, “All I Intended To Be” at #22

Jakob Dylan, “Seeing Things” at #24

iCarly Soundtrack at #28

DJ Skribble, “Total Club Hits” at 30

We love y’all.

XOXO

We all know that “Heroes” is still in hiatus and we are all anticipating for its comeback season but do we know that the famous cheerleader we all loved in the TV series is launching a music career? Oh, I didn’t see this coming and I have no idea that Hayden Panettiere can carry a tune or two. 

According to billboard.com, Candie is teaming up with Hayden to promote “Wake Up Call”, the lead single from Panettiere’s upcoming yet still-untitled debut album slated for 2009. 

Candie is known to link its teen clothing line to a young female music act with the likes of Fergie, whom was the last deal last summer and whose songs “Big Girls Don’t Cry” and “Glamorous” were promoted in Candie’s TV commercials.  The ad campaign for Panettiere will begin airing at the end of July.

“Wake Up Call”, not the Maroon 5 single, is a reggae-flavored pop song that was written by Andreas “Quiz” Romdhane and Josef Larossi, will be released digitally on August 5.

Sounds like Claire Bennett got a lot of things to do aside from cheerleading and saving the world.  She also has to practice singing, rehearse lip synching, go out on tour and of course, make tons of TV appearances in promoting her album. 

Hayden Panettiere can sing? I’m interested to hear her.  Oh I hope she wouldn’t break a leg – I mean her leg like it did in the series.  It will definitely hurt a lot.  But still, save the cheerleader, save the world!!!

Well, what do you know? Jessica Simpson made a good decision after all. 

As reported, Jess moved to country music and her debut country single, Come on Over, makes a historic debut at #41 on Billboard’s Hot Country Songs chart this week.

The song, which is described to be flirtatious and uptempo, was written by Simpson with Rachel Proctor and Victoria Banks.  The single is getting positive responses from both the radio and the listeners.

The feedback overwhelms even Jessica who finds the process of recording and releasing a country album exciting.  “I feel like a brand-new artist”, she said.  “It’s a great feeling”.

 “I look in the mirror and I know I’m doing the right thing with my career and my life,” she added. “It’s a great place of comfort.”

You sure did Jess!  You’ve got an early gift for your birthday!

Here I Stand, Usher’s fifth studio album, debuts at #1 on the Billboard 200 with 433,000 copies sold in the US, enough to be the second biggest debut this year behind Mariah Carey’s E=MC² with 463,000 figure. 

This is the second time Usher reaches the summit after four years when “Confessions” made a whopping 1,096,000 start and topped the penthouse for nine weeks.  The said album went on to be the best-seller back in 2004.

Love in This Club, the lead single from “Here I Stand” featuring Young Jeezy, spent 3 weeks at #1 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart.

Other notable debuts include:

Sex And The City Soundtrack at #2

Al Green’s “Lay It Down” at #9

Cyndi Lauper’s “Bring Ya to the Brink” at #41

Fergie’s “The Dutchess:  The Deluxe E.P.” at #46

Congratulations Usher!

Here’s the list of winners from the recently concluded 2008 MTV Movie Awards:

BEST FEMALE PERFORMANCE

Ellen Page – Juno

BEST FIGHT

Sean Faris vs. Cam Gigandet – Never Back Down

BEST SUMMER MOVIE SO FAR

Iron Man

BEST MALE PERFORMANCE

Will Smith – I Am Legend

BEST COMEDIC PERFORMANCE WINNER

Johnny Depp – Pirates of the Caribbean:  At World’s End

BREAKTHROUGH PERFORMANCE

Zac Efron – Hairspray

BEST VILLAIN

Johnny Depp – Sweeney Todd

BEST KISS

Briana Evigan and Robert Hoffman – Step Up 2 the Streets

BEST MOVIE

Transformers

What a sweet night for Johnny Depp.  He now owns 2 popcorn trophies for his comedic and villainy performances for Pirates of the Caribbean and Sweeny Todd, respectively. 

Oh, Zac Efron won too.  I didn’t feel him when I watched Hairspray though.

And hooray for Transformers!  It finally got the recognition for being the best movie last year.  For me, it really was the best…

Still from Men’s Heath is the worst fast-food chicken meal in America.

Chicken Selects Premium Breast Strips from McDonald’s (5 pieces) with creamy ranch sauce

The reason:

830 calories
55g fat
(4.5g trans fat)
48 g carbs

What they advise: 

Change Your Chicken.  20 McNuggets have the same impact. Instead, choose Mickey D’s six-piece offering with BBQ sauce and save yourself 530 calories.

Change my chicken? Oh, that may be easy to say but really hard to do.  Needless to say, Mickey D’s chicken is very tempting and irresistible, makes me think of dining in later as soon as I get out of the office.  Yum!!!