‘American Boy’ is one of my this year’s favorites. The massively successful hit has brought Estelle’s album Shine for the Mercury Prize nomination. Unfortunately Londoner songstress lost to Elbow, and their The Seldom Seen Kid.

But Estelle won’t give up as she is set to get over her Mercury Prize disappointment with big wins at the Mobos after being nominated for five awards.

Estelle has more nominations than Leona Lewis, who recently became the first British woman to reach #1 in the US singles charts for more than 20 years.

Estelle’s Nominations include:

Best UK Female

Album

Song

R&B/Soul

Video

The ceremony will be in October hosted by former Spice Girl Mel B.

In the Best Female category, Estelle and Leona Lewis will be competing with Adele, Duffy, and MIA.
International Mobo nominees include Kanye West, Mariah Carey, Chris Brown, Rihanna, Jay-Z, Mary J Blige, Ne-Yo, Usher, Akon and Alicia Keys.

The 13th annual Mobo Awards will take place at the Wembley Arena in London on October 15th, and winners are chosen by public votes.

Watch the ‘American Boy’ video Estelle featuring Kanye West and oh, other cute American boys!!! Love the boys.

As Adele and Duffy will both go head-to-head with Estelle for the best UK female award, they do remember the headlines she made on Duffy’s and Adele’s music. That was so damn bitchy! Here it is:

It’s hilarious. I’m not mad at ‘em - but I’m just wondering, how the hell is there not a single black person in the press singing soul? Adele ain’t soul. She sounds like she heard some Aretha records once and she’s got a deeper voice - that don’t mean she’s soul.

As a songwriter, I get what they do. As a black person, I’m like: you’re telling ME this is MY music? F*** that! They keep trying to tell me in the media what soul music is and I’m like, we KNOW what soul music is, stop f****** around with us! You’re taking the piss out of every black person in the country!”

I have to disagree… There are also black people singing white music and they get awards for that. Anyways, who fuckin’ cares if its black or white singer as long as it sounds fantastic like Duffy’ ‘Mercy’?

Music Of Black Origin Awards – at the root, it is strange to me. Why to divide music and call the awards ceremony that way, it could be called Soul Music Awards.

What do you think?

And here comes the good news for Britney. Though losing custody battle to get her children back, she stands all chances to win the Moon Man at this year’s MTV Video Music Awards on September, 7 as she’s one of the nominees for Best Female Music Video for ‘Piece of Me.’

It will be a hot battle as Spears will have to compete against Katy Perry for ‘I Kissed a Girl,’ Rihanna for ‘Take a Bow,’ Mariah Carey for ‘Touch My Body’ and Jordin Sparks for ‘No Air’ to get the statuette.

Britney’s vid was chose via on-line voting at vma.mtv.com. This is the 15th nomination for the VMA award in her career. Last month it was reported Britney could be also invited to perform at the show.

The MNT VMA show will be hosted by British comedian Russell Brand, and air live from LA.

The nominees for Best Male Music Video are T.I. for ‘What You Know,’ Usher for ‘Love in the Club,’ Lil Wayne for ‘Lollipop,’ Chris Brown for ‘With You’ and Flo-Rida for ‘Low.’

Watch Chris Brown’s ‘With You’ here

Seen the new Rihanna lately? Oh, the girl is just pumpin’ it louder and wilder. The pop superstar is also is number one on In Touch Weekly’s Best Hair in Hollywood List.

Listen to Rihanna’s newest latest song ‘Disturbia’. Absolute hit.

Other exciting news on Rihanna:

She has been unveiled as the face of a Unicef camping being run in conjunction with Gucci to raise money for children’s charities across the world. Ri fronts her own charity The Believe Foundation. Singer is now expected to appear in a series of global adverts for the campaign.

Just an interesting fact: New demographics for labels is – prison

According to a recent Billboard story, record labels have picked up more than $5 million from federal, state and local prison systems since 2003. Meaning a million each year. Although that figure may seem small, Bob Paris of North Hollywood-based Pack Central says “I have dodged every conventional bullet that has hit most music retailers. I don’t have to worry about downloading, legal or illegally.”

Rihanna’s “Good Girl Gone Bad” album is on the companies best sellers list among Mariah Carey’s “E=MC2”, Lil Wayne’s “The Carter III,”and Usher’s “Here I Stand”.

According to the U.S. Department of Justice, more than 2.3 million people were locked up in federal, state or local systems at midyear 2007.

I have always loved Usher, but now I love him even more. As far as I’m concerned he’s the only celeb parent who refuses to sell his infant son Usher Raymond V’s pictures to a magazine. “In no way would I ever pimp out my child for money,” Usher told Page Six.

R&B superstar and his wife Tameka, the owner of Swanky Image Group and Hides & Dungarees denim and leather collection, welcomed their son on November 26, 2007.

The pop singer is reported to be upset by rumors he was trying to sell photos of his son. “I am livid that people talk about my child,” Usher added in the interview.

But you know what? He’s actually posed for a magazine. It was Essence’s Father’s Day cover. And it was for free. It’s so nice to know people in Hollywood still know what it’s like to do something for free.

And I love this:

What makes you a man more than being a father to your child?”

Oh, it’s so sweet.