Day in Pop Report: Top pop music news stories of the day

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Jonas Brother Marries- Brittany Murphy Dead At 32- Disney Resurrects Michael Jackson's Capt EO- Lil Wayne Pot Bust- Alicia Keys/Stephen Colbert Hit Duet and more

People magazine reported that the oldest sibling of pop group the Jonas Brothers and a former hairdresser have married. A heavy snowstorm bore down on Saturday's wedding between 22-year-old Kevin Jonas and 23-year-old Danielle Delesea at Oheka Castle. more

Actress Brittany Murphy, who starred in films such as Just Married, Clueless and 8 Mile, has died at age 32. The actress died on Sunday morning at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center near Beverly Hills, a hospital spokeswoman has confirmed. The LA Times said Murphy went into cardiac arrest, but hospital sources would not release the cause of death. more

"Captain EO" is moonwalking back to Disneyland. The theme park announced plans Friday to bring back the 3-D sci-fi film starring Michael Jackson next February, over 23 years after the attraction debuted in Anaheim, Calif. more

A star-studded Michael Jackson tribute concert has been cancelled. Set to take place at London's Wembley Stadium next June, the company who were behind the concert - World Awards Media - have gone into liquidation. more

Court records show LeAnn Rimes' husband Deane Sheremet has officially filed for divorce. more

Rapper Lil Wayne and 11 people traveling with him were briefly detained Friday night after U.S. Border Patrol officers found marijuana on two of his tour buses, authorities said. more

Alicia Keys/Stephen Colbert duet performance of "Empire State of Mind (Part II) Broken Down" on The Colbert Report this past Tuesday topped the Web Trends charts as the one of the most viewed clips on the web. Did you miss it? Check it out here

Bow Wow apparently is not satisfied with the way how his managers were handling his business. The young rapper recently revealed his displeasure over that matter on Twitter, saying he fires them all and is managing himself. more

Qwanell Mosley aka Que has been dropped from DAY26. He confirmed that matter on his Twitter writing, "Wow..im soo hurt RT now i just recieved a letter from day26 saying they r moving foward without me...im so confused..what did i do?........." more -

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Owl City Spring Tour

Owl City announces a Spring headlining tour of the US kicking off on March 30th in Boise, ID and hitting every major US market including New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, Atlanta, San Francisco, Denver, DC and more before ending on May 2nd in Milwaukee.

The tour will come on the heels of a headlining tour of Europe and the UK as well as a tour of Australia where they'll be joining up with Cobra Starship.

In addition, the Spring headlining tour will be Owl City's second Stateside headlining tour in 2010 as the band is heading out on a sold out Winter tour in January. - more on this story

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BET Give You Beyonce, Mary J Blige and More For Christmas

Kick off the holiday season with BET this year. On Monday, December 21, 2009 at 7:30 p.m.*, BET premieres Beyonce�I AM YOURS, a re-cut and never before seen version of Beyonce's worldwide I Am�Tour.

On Tuesday, December 22 at 7:30 p.m.* join Grammy-Award winning artist Mary J. Blige as she promotes the release of her latest album "Stronger" with an intimate 30-minute primetime special appropriately titled Words And Music With Mary J. Blige.

On New Year's Eve get cozy with BET's annual top 100 video countdown special, Notarized followed by the hottest New Year's Eve celebration, 106 & PARTY. - more on this story

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Lights Extends Tour Plans

Keytar-wielding synth-pop sensation Lights has extended her tour with Owl City. Beginning January 21st in Kansas City, MO, the dates will continue through May 2nd in Milwaukee, WI. The artists will also be making international stops in the UK, France, the Netherlands, Belgium and Germany.

Twenty two year-old singer, songwriter, producer and multi-instrumentalist LIGHTS crafts sparkling, otherworldly electro-pop that has already garnered her over 19 million plays on MySpace, a #1 hit in Canada and the 2009 JUNO for New Artist of the Year. LIGHTS was selected as an inaugural artist for MySpace's new Introducing program, and she stars in her own short-form motion-comic series Audio Quest: A Captain LIGHTS Adventure, which airs on MTV and MTV.com. Rolling Stone called LIGHTS a "retro new wave�keytar-rocking pixie," and the Toronto Star praised her as "the very epitome of D.I.Y. pin-up cool."

LIGHTS has also released Ice Pack, an exclusive remix EP. The EP features six unique versions of "Ice", an 80's influenced, irresistibly catchy track off The Listening. The Ice Pack is available exclusively online at www.iamlights.com. The EP features a diverse group of highly respected artists and producers: Rancid front man Tim Armstrong works his magic on "Ice", as does Nine Inch Nails/A Perfect Circle's Danny Lohner. Underground UK remixers Modernaire (La Roux, MGMT) and world-renowned producer and engineer Mark 'Spike' Stent who has worked with Bjork, Muse, No Doubt and more also contribute. Toronto-based LIGHTS enlisted her Canadian peers as well: award-winning Vancouver hip-hop artist K-OS and up & coming songwriter and producer Colin Munroe each personalize a version of "Ice." - more on this story

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Caravan Palace Plan U.S. Invasion

Parisian band Caravan Palace will make their live debut in the United States on January 10th with their performance at globalFEST 2010, happening at New York's Webster Hall.

With a sound that will please fans of eclectics like Brazilian Girls and St. Germain, the group will be whetting the appetites of a new audience in anticipation of the Spring U.S. release of their self-titled first album, which is already a Platinum smash in France.

Comprised of Charles Delaporte (bass, programming), Arnaud Vial (guitar, programming), Hugues Payen (violin, programming), Colotis Zo� (vocals), Toustou (electronics, trombone), and Chapi (clarinet), Caravan Palace is chiefly influenced by Django Reinhardt but also cites Vitalic, Cab Calloway, Justice, Lionel Hampton and Daft Punk as influences. The band originally came together when Arnaud, Charles and Hugues were hired to score music for some rediscovered silent pornographic films (!) from the early 20th century. After playing the end result to some friendly listeners, the feedback persuaded them to drop their individual projects and come up with a repertory of their own. - more on this story

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The Grascals Nominated For Six Spgma Bluegrass Music Awards

The Grascals received six nominations this week for the 2010 SPGMA Bluegrass Music awards. The 36th SPGMA Bluegrass Music Awards & 27th National Convention is scheduled for Feb. 4-7, 2010 in Nashville, Tennessee, where The Grascals are scheduled to perform.

The Grascals have earned a total of twelve SPGMA awards in years prior, including Album Of The Year (2009, 2006), Bluegrass Band Of The Year (2008, 2007), Instrumental Group Of The Year (2009, 2008, 2007, 2006), Banjo Player Of The Year (2009), Mandolin Player Of The Year (2008, 2006), Song Of The Year (2006).

The Grascals are putting the final touches on their upcoming Rounder Records album release (title TBD), due late March 2010. - more on this story

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Eric Hutchinson AAA Chart Topping

VH1 "You Oughta Know" artist Eric Hutchinson is the highest ranking new artist on Media Base's Triple A Year End chart and one of only two new artists in the Top 10. "Rock & Roll," the lead single from his full-length debut album, Sounds Like This, was #1 at Triple A radio last December - the only new artist with the honor.

In 2009, he scored two more hits at the format - the Top 5 "OK, It's Alright With Me" and his latest single, "Oh!," which is currently climbing at Triple A radio. "OK, It's Alright With Me" is now Top 40 at the Hot AC format. Eric joins Gavin Rossdale, David Cook and Lady GaGa in the short list of new artists to have a second single chart at Hot AC in 2009.

Hutchinson just wrapped up a three-month North American tour with Kelly Clarkson. In early 2010, he will be opening for her on a series of dates in Australia and New Zealand, where earlier this year "Rock & Roll" went platinum and hit No. 1 at Pop radio.He has been touring non-stop since Sounds Like This entered Billboard's Heatseekers chart at No. 1 in September of 2007. Released initially on his own label, Let's Break Records, then by Warner Bros. Records in 2008, Sounds Like This is now the second best-selling album on the Heatseekers chart. It has sold more than 145,000 copies and 550,000 singles. Sounds Like This Live 2, a digital EP featuring stripped-down versions of five songs from Sounds Like This, was released earlier this week. - more on this story

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The Seven Rays Brings New Experience To Literature With Its Own Soundtrack

(Submitted News) Along with the release of successful screenwriter Jessica Bendinger's (Bring It On, Stick It, Aquamarine) new book The Seven Rays, comes the first original soundtrack for a novel. In addition to enjoying the novel, book and music lovers can use the soundtrack to set the tone and mood during the story.

Jessica Bendinger combines her past filmmaking experience to give readers the a more complete sense of setting while actually reading the book. The songs featured on the soundtrack were hand selected by Bendinger to be paired with specific scenes in novel. Each song has a precise page number and section where readers may cue the song to enhance the overall experience. With both signed and unsigned artists, this unique collection cannot be found anywhere else. Bendinger explains, "The soundtrack is really an eclectic blend. I wanted to curate a line-up of known and unknown female artists. It's such a cool group of songs."

It includes thirteen diverse songs from artists such as Sofi Bonde, Krista, and Kate Earl. Well-known artists Lucy Woodward, a Billboard Artist of the Year in 2008, and Metric, a band whose album Blender Magazine described as "A deceptively pretty album with a dark heart," add to the eclectic tone of The Seven Rays soundtrack. Simultaneously released with the novel, The Seven Rays Soundtrack is available for purchase on AmazonMP3, and other digital distributors. - more on this story

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Wait there is more!

Read Today's Day in Rock report for even more music news!