The Sunreports that Barack Obama has asked Joss Stone to write a theme song for his campaign.
Democrat candidate Mr Obama approached her personally because he was impressed by her appeal to both black and white voters in America.
A source said: "Joss is a big supporter of Barack Obama and was very excited to be asked to do this for him.
"He sent a personal message asking her to get on board.
"He has always admired her music and thinks she is the perfect choice because of her unique appeal to black and white voters.
"She believes he is going to be the first black American president and she is honoured to be a part of that."
Joss is a household name in the US, where she spends up to nine months a year.
Vibe confirms the story in The Sun. Alicia Keys and Jay-Z have also written songs for Obama reports The Sun. Ludacris wrote a rap for Senator Obama but Barack Obama denounced it. Will.i.am also made a couple songs including "We Are the Ones" supporting Obama during the primaries.
Isaac Hayes played Chef on South Park and wrote the amazing Shaft theme (see below) but these were just a couple of his many accomplishments. Hayes was also an accomplished singer/songwriter and acted in over 30 films. Here are some of his accomplishments as described in a statement from Stax Records and Concord Music Group.
To the world he was Black Moses, Ike The Ripper and, later, Chef from TV's South Park. To the rest of us who had the extraordinary opportunity to work with him in recent years, he was just Isaac. He was humble, unpretentious and refreshingly down-to-earth. Not bad for a man who delivered a record-setting seven #1 albums to the Billboard R&B chart, scored numerous awards (including multiple Grammys and 2 Academy Awards), appeared in over three dozen films and was named a Royal King of Ghana along the way.
In the '60s, the Covington, Tenn. native helped define the Stax Records sound, co-writing with David Porter such hits as "Soul Man," "Hold On (I'm Coming)," "B-A-B-Y," and "When Something's Wrong With My Baby" for Sam & Dave, Carla Thomas and Johnnie Taylor, among others.
He took soul music in a new direction with his 1969 album Hot Buttered Soul, which featured expansive re-interpretations of Jimmy Webb's "By the Time I Get to Phoenix" and Bacharach and David's "Walk On By." The music's impact was matched only by the visual impact of the record's cover, which featured Hayes' signature bald head, gold chains and bare chest.
Two years later, his "Theme From Shaft" exploded on the pop and R&B charts, putting him on the map as an artist and icon. The rat-a-tat of that lone high-hat, that cultural-shifting kick of the wah-wah pedal -- no other piece of music signaled the true end of the '60s, ushering in the gritty 1970s than Isaac Hayes' theme from Shaft. The song won him not only a Grammy but two Oscars, for "Best Song" and "Best Score" in 1972. That same year he won a Grammy for his double album Black Moses. The hits continued for Hayes throughout the '70s.
In later years, Hayes' career took some other directions. He became the voice of Nickelodeon's Nick at Nite and later the voice of Chef in the animated series South Park. He had a role in the upcoming movie Soul Men with stars Samuel L. Jackson and Bernie Mac (who also died this past weekend).
In 2007, Hayes participated in the Stax Records 50th Anniversary celebration shows in Memphis, Austin and Los Angeles. Despite health problems that slowed him down in recent years, he continued to tour the world. He had proudly returned to Stax Records, both as an artist and as an advisor in planning the reactivation of the imprint in 2007 by Concord Music Group. Isaac was also in the process of recording a new album for Stax.
To borrow a phrase from the man himself, he was "one bad mutha." And through the music he so generously left behind, the world will be talking about him and more importantly listening for lifetimes to come.
Tina Dico is a singer/songwriter from Denmark who is starting to get some buzz. Below is the music video for "On The Run." Tina's description under the video says it was shot in Joshua Tree National Park.
This is a little video for On The Run which was the first single in Denmark. I was in L.A. in June with an afternoon to kill and me, my manager and his girlfriend drove into the Joshua Tree National Park to play around with her new camera. It was 45 degrees on this particular day and with all the running I was starting to hallucinate strange things towards the end. What do you think?
Pop singer/songwriter Lisa Lavie received over 1 million views in just 5 days after posting the video for her song "Angel." Lavie was discovered by songwriter/producer Ben Margulies - who had three number one hits with Mariah Carey.
Ben was handed her demo while visiting a recording studio in Las Vegas 3 years ago. After just one listen, Ben recalls it was "like the first time I heard Mariah." Calling her magical voice "one in a million," he knew Lisa had
everything it takes to record a hit album. Fortunately for her growing fanbase, they will not have to wait much longer. Knowing the value of her fans, Lisa endeavored to respond to the more than 10,000 encouraging comments left on
YouTube. The web page thought Lisa was a computer program and suspended her account. 48 hours later, she was back on YouTube after her fans started a petition to "Bring Lisa Back."
Lisa Lavie's channel on YouTube now has over 9.000 subscribers. She also has a MySpace page here. Below Lisa's "Angel" video. Her song Save Your Breath is also worth a listen - it will be on her upcoming album.
Artist Stephanie Dosen writes songs for ghosts but people enjoy them as well. Dosen toldThe Age how she started as a songwriter but wound up on the stage.
Deciding "you only live once", Dosen threw herself into songwriting, which in turn led her to performing.
"I feel as if I've never really sought the stage but just ended up here. I think a lot of songwriters are, like me, just people who like to compose songs and aren't necessarily born for the stage," she says.
"It's the number one fear of people: getting up in front of an audience. People are more afraid of getting up on stage, talking in front of other people, than they are of death. Most people would rather die than do what I do."
After moving to London while making A Lily For the Spectre, Dosen ended up playing most every night. "It's like camping in your high heels," she says of touring.
Dosen's latest album is called A Lily for the Spectre. An entry on her Myspace page says the new album is filled with "driving cradlesongs for ghosts gone astray."
Stephanie Dosen was raised on a peacock farm in Wisconsin. One day while sifting through flotsam in the attic, she found an old guitar covered in dust. It was her secret prize. During the feather harvest, when everyone was busy, she would sneak up into the attic to compose songs for boys at school. She also wrote many lullabies for her two favorite pets, a swan and a fox.
Stephanie now writes mostly for ghosts with a rusty tape player named jean-pierre that follows her everywhere. He has made it through 7 states and 2 minor sets of injuries but still holds onto her twilight written songs with happiness. The influence of the nightly peacock mewing and swan swimming can still be heard in her music.
Her new record a lily for the spectre is filled with driving cradlesongs for ghosts gone astray. She has recently teamed horses with Simon Raymonde (Bella Union Records, Cocteau Twins) who blesses a lily for the spectre with bass and filigree sounds for lost peacocks.
Dosen looks kind of ghost-like in this music video for her song "Only Getting Better."
Universal Music claims Sa Dingding has become the first Chinese singer/songwriter to cross over to Western markets. Full Phatt, who has worked with Usher, Outkast and Christina Aguilera, has remixed the title song from Sa dingding's album Alive.
Sa Dingding combines different kinds of Eastern and Western music. The track "Alive" combines Chinese Folk Music and Western electronica. Sa Dingding was signed to Universal Records. Iain Snodgrass, a Marketing Director for Universal Records said "No other Chinese singer/songwriter has received the level of worldwide interest that Sa Dingding is generating. Sa Dingding is very special and well chosen to lead China onto the world stage."
Born in Mongolia to a Mongolian mother and Chinese father, Sa Dingding developed a fascination for ethnic minority music at an early age. She has interests in buddhism, dyana yoga and sanskrit. Sa Dingding released her debut album in China at age 18. In her own country Sa Dingding is a regular performer at prestigious events such as the MTV Style Gala and CCTV-MTV Video Music Awards.
Here is an "Alive" video from YouTube labeled as the sanskrit version.
The Sun 
Isaac Hayes played Chef on South Park and wrote the amazing Shaft theme (see below) but these were just a couple of his many accomplishments. Hayes was also an accomplished singer/songwriter and acted in over 30 films. Here are some of his accomplishments as described in a statement from Stax Records and Concord Music Group.
Pop singer/songwriter Lisa Lavie received over 1 million views in just 5 days after posting the video for her song "Angel." Lavie was discovered by songwriter/producer Ben Margulies - who had three number one hits with Mariah Carey.
Artist Stephanie Dosen 
Universal Music claims Sa Dingding has become the first Chinese singer/songwriter to cross over to Western markets. Full Phatt, who has worked with Usher, Outkast and Christina Aguilera, has remixed the title song from Sa dingding's album Alive.
