//Ne-Yo Update: Promotional Appearances//

If the sight of Ne-Yo causes a tidal wave of joy in your pants, then we’ve got good news for you. Shaffer is going to be all over your TV and magazine racks as he begins promoting his new single “Closer” and new album “Year of the Gentleman.”

 

The video for “Closer” premieres today on BET and will be playing at the top of the hour, every hour all day long. Above is the cover for the single, now available on iTunes and Amazon.com for downloading.

 

Ne-Yo will also make his daytime TV acting debut–well, sorta. The crooner will be making two appearances on the daytime soap staple All My Children on May 21st and 22nd. He will perform his current single and a new song, “Stop This World,” during the wedding of AMC characters Angie and Jesse Hubbard.

 

Now why couldn’t this have been Days of Our Lives? Now I have to betray my soaps. Damn!

 

More spicy Ne-Yo news on the other side!

 

 

It doesn’t end there, folks! Ne-Yo is also on the cover of this weeks Billboard magazine. He talks about his new album, life as a singer/songwriter, and his post-Jay-Z position at Def Jam.

 

On the new album:

“I wanted the third album to be something a little different from the first and second as far as the essence and the sound of what I was doing,” he says. “So I was going to chill for a minute and really take some time to figure out what I wanted that to be. Fortunately, it didn’t take me that long, which is why the album’s coming out now.”

 

On being a songwriter and singer:

The way the business is today, if you’re just a singer or just a rapper or just a producer, you’re not making as much money as you used to. You’re almost not making any. With an artist that’s just a singer, the way that they’re conducting deals now, with this whole 360 thing, they’re taking a piece of not only your album sales, but your marketing, your tour, your merchandise. They got their hands in all of it, so if all you do is sing and you’re into the label for $2 million and you ain’t recouped yet, you ain’t seen a thin dime. It’s kind of sad.

 

I’m aware of the fact that at some point it is a possibility that people will not want to hear Ne-Yo sing a song. And to be completely honest with you, I’m cool with that. I understand that the business is very fickle and that one day you’re hot, one day you’re not. But the beauty of songwriting is that I can be 90 and write a song for somebody, and it wouldn’t matter. I feel that I’ll always be here in some way, shape, form or fashion. I’m going to do this artist thing as long as they’ll allow me to, but as a songwriter, I’ll never die.

 

On his career at Def Jam without mentor, Jay-Z:

My label has always been a huge supporter of me in every aspect of my career. Def Jam has always made sure that I was well taken care of, be it Jay-Z personally doing it or L.A. Reid or the team of people that they have there spearheading my projects. And that hasn’t changed. Honestly, I’ve received even more support lately. They want to prove, “We wasn’t riding with you just because of Jay-Z. We ride with you because we dig you.”

 

photo credit: amazon.com, AP, urbanscanz

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