Here some of the more interesting music news shorts:

-Mariah Carey performed five songs during a brief concert at a Hollywood shopping mall on Thursday. How cool is that!

-Philip Morris International, the original sponsor of Alicia Keys’ gig in Jakarta last tonight, pulled down all its promotional billboards and posters after the singer spoke out against the tobacco company’s sponsorship of her show.

-Miley Cyrus’ non-Hannah album, Breakout, broke onto the charts at No. 1, selling 371,000 copies for the week ended Sunday, according to Nielsen SoundScan data released today.

Have a rock’in weekend, especially my Canadian readers you are off on a long one……

The BBC will air a long lost Beatles interview featuring John Lennon and Paul McCartney talking about the day they met and their songwriting partnership.  The amazing film interview lay forgotten for over 44 years in a garage in south London until film fan Richard Jeffs realized a piece of pop culture history at his fingertips. Experts were quite surprised to find the audio portion still usable for radio broadcast.

The nine-minute interview was recorded at the Scottish Television studios in April 1964 during the early days of Beatlemania. It will be broadcast for the first time on BBC Radio 4 on Tuesday and repeated later this week.  On the tape, Lennon tells how he was playing with a skiffle band outside Liverpool when McCartney introduced himself.  I am really looking forward to hearing this historic interview.

So he will probably win it all, that cute guy, David Archuleta.  He was even a really cute baby, sort of…..he looks like most other babies.

Ok, Kristy Lee is gone and I am a little sad but she made it very far and I am sure she has a solid career ahead of her.  Big surpise last night, Brooke goes home….I think she was the best singer in the competition and I am very surprised Jason is still there…maybe girls think he is cute?  I personally think he should have been out at number 11 or 12.  It still looks live David Archelleta is the one to beat and I don’t think any of the other remaining contestants have a chance.  I really thought Brooke, Carly or maybe Johns might have been the dark horses to beat David but without them I think he has it all wrapped up.

Convicts in Peru sing-off at a prison in Lima to their own, jail-house version of the popular TV show “American Idol.”  Augusto Flores was the winner of the first prize for a song he wrote called “Your Visit,” about waiting for news from his family and friends.

He won a guitar, a trophy and a pair of shoes. Winners of “American Idol” competitions, which gives ordinary people a chance at stardom, win recording contracts and global fame.  Not all of the contestants made it to the finals of the “Melodies of Freedom” competition, billed as a settling of scores between a dozen convicts from prisons across Peru’s biggest city.

Juan Jose Gutierrez, under house arrest after being released on parole, sent in a choppy music video. Promoters jazzed it up by flanking the screen with psychedelic lights and a smoke machine.

Others said they were just happy to be there.  “This is like a day of freedom,” Javier Casal, who sang an original song called “Freedom,” said. “And that’s the best prize we can get.” Excerpts from the contest were shown on the local television news.

British singer and tabloid start wins song and record of the year but loses album of the year in a huge upset to Herbie Hancock. Kayne West wins four Grammys including rap album of the year.

Winehouse, nominated for six awards, lost the final prize in a shocker when Herbie Hancock took album of the year for “River: The Joni Letters.”

For a while it seemed impossible that Winehouse would perform at all. She recently entered a drug rehabilitation center after months of erratic behavior and canceled performances, not to mention the anthemic “no, no, no” resistance of her hit song.

Let’s hope that the support of her mom is enough to keep her clean for now.

As far as her parents are concerned, Britney Spears needs to be shielded from the folks in her entourage. And from herself. With Britney under observation in the psych ward of UCLA Medical Center, Jamie and Lynne Spears headed to a Los Angeles courtroom Friday to obtain a legal order empowering them to make decisions on her behalf.

Britney and her estate were placed under Jamie’s temporary conservatorship by Court Commissioner Reva Goetz. The order, which only lasts through the weekend, gives the father control over his troubled 26-year-old’s treatment and her finances, and a say in who can have access to her home and hospital room. At the same time, the family was granted a temporary restraining against Sam Lutfi, effectively banishing Britney’s manager and confidant.

To avoid appearances that they themselves might have ulterior motives, Jamie and Lynne petitioned the court to appoint a third-party coconservator to serve as an independent monitor. Goetz, who specializes in probate matters, selected an attorney, Andrew Wallete, for the role. The next hearing in the case is set for Monday—the same day lawyers for Britney and Kevin Federline are due in another courtroom to tangle again over custody issues.  So the saga continues, poor Britney.

I know it might be a bit pre-mature and it is probably based on the fact that Kristy Lee is so darn sexy but I think she has a good shot at making it to the finals!  Go Kristy go!

Jessica Simpson is in the early stages of recording a country album in Nashville, a project slated for a May/June 2008 release via Columbia Records.Simpson said she had always wanted to make a country album, but was waiting until the right time.

“I think there is a strength in female country artists,” Simpson said, citing Martina McBride, Shania Twain, Faith Hill and Reba McEntire as some of her inspirations. She said she would be involved in the creative process.

“Writing is a release for me,” she said. “It’s a way for me to tell my story. That’s not to say I wouldn’t record a song that I didn’t write.”

Her last album, “A Public Affair,” spent just nine weeks on the Billboard 200 in 2006. Her most recent movie, “Blonde Ambition,” was recently released in a handful of theaters in her native Texas en route to DVD stores.

One of my favorite things to do lately is to find cool remix videos of popular music on YouTube. There are so many cool and creative folks out there that do a fantastic job at creating these vids. One of my favorite (I am posting below) is a couple of hot sexy babes named Lynne & Tessa, they do tons of great fun remixes and they even have their own website. I have also been know to spend time checking out the latest movies archive when the mood strikes.