It’s August 15. Are you wearing your Gavin DeGraw t-shirt?

The singer/songwriter instituted a day for his fans to break out their GDG duds to show their love and appreciation for him. But it wasn’t just to feed his ego. A Flikr account was set up for fans to upload their photos and videos with the fan with the most creative tee getting to strut their stuff for Gav’s millions of fans on his official website, Facebook, and Myspace.

Maybe the day sounds a bit silly, but there are plenty of reasons to show your GDG pride all year ’round. Here are just five:

1. He’s an amazing singer. One YouTube search will yield more than enough live performance results to back this as the No. 1 reason to love Gavin. This is one of our favs.

2. He’s an incredible songwriter. Read the lyrics to the song “Glass” from his third album, Free, and tell us you’re not moved by how impeccably he tells the tale of how fragile we all get in relationships. Oh, and he wrote the song when he was only 19. IN-CRED-IBLE!

3. He’s a kick-ass performer. Gavin loves his guitar and piano, but don’t expect him to stay glued to them during his show. He gets up and gets sexy (!!!!) from time to time.

4. He loves his fans. Gavin is known to make the whereabouts of his after-show bar-hopping known so he can get to know his fans in a more intimate (and fun) setting. If they’re too young for the bar experience, there is usually always a meet-and-greet before or directly after the show.

5. He’s a philanthropist with a huge heart. Gavin is an ambassador for VH1’s Save The Music which works to restore music programs in schools that can’t afford it. He supports Musicians on Call, an organization which brings live music to the bedsides of ill patients in hospitals around the country. And last April, Gavin visited Uganda to help fight the spread of Malaria with the Nothing But Nets campaign and fundraiser.

So, wear your GDG t-shirts proudly. We know we will! Let us bow…

The problem with casually lurking on fansite message boards is you never know what information is officially from an insider or just the thoughts and creations of mega-fans.

The same thing can happen when you browse through Flickr for images. A fan-made cover for Lady GaGa’s The Fame: Monster — the re-release of her hit album The Fame — recently made its way around the internet, and now it’s Rihanna’s turn.

Today an uber-hot album cover claiming to be the official artwork for Rihanna’s upcoming fourth album was plastered all over blogs. The problem? It was made by a fan — the incredibly talented Ruben, a staff member of the pop diva’s most popular fansite RihannaDaily.com.

The glorious piece of Photoshop hawtness bears the title “Rated R,” which may (or may not) be the name of Rih’s highly anticipated album — another tidbit that originated at Rihanna Daily.

Nothing official has been announced about Rihanna’s new album, but Ruben could very well have a job awaiting him. When Photoshop is done right, it should be appreciated. Let us bow down.

I’m confused folks. Confused by the wave of hate that follows any mention of Ciara’s latest album Fantasy Ride. The hateration hovers over Ciara threads on message boards like a dark cloud during a storm. It’s enough to make a weak CiCi fan go into hiding.

Sure, sales aren’t exactly stellar at this point. I’ll blame that on the current state of the industry. Sure, Ciara slightly changed up her sound. But not enough to alienate her core fanbase. Besides, due to this more Pop sound, Princess Ci has some of her best material to date.

Like her hit single Love Sex Magic with that dreamy singer Justin Timberlake, the Britney Spears-esque Pucker Up (kiss my swag!) and the completely epic Tell Me What Your Name Is.

Ciara sings about getting confident and making the first move to approach a guy. The song’s beat sounds like something out of a video game. The song isn’t bogged down with excessive adlibs and runs. It’s simplistic brilliance!

So hold those heads up high and continue to stan the freak out Ci Ci lovers. Especially if your stanning is directed at this song. Let us bow!

Ciara – Tell Me What Your Name Is [CLICK HERE TO LISTEN]

I witnessed something last night at the Essence of R&B concert held at Baltimore’s historic Hippodrome Theatre that completely blew my mind: singers got on stage and without distracting pyro, flashy dancers, ass-out costumes, and over-the-top choreography they came out and put on a great show. Like, who does that these days!? Not a lot of people from this era of music I concluded.

The bill was stacked high with R&B artists whose heyday was in the 1990’s.

Freaky five-some Silk sexed up the stage with their hits including “Freak Me,” “Meeting In My Bedroom,” and “If You.” Kelly Price slayed with her massive vocals on “As We Lay” and debut hit “Friend of Mine.” Carl Thomas and Jon B. were also on the bill, but in all honesty, while they showed great vocal chops, their performances overall were not very entertaining.

But it was the headlining Sisters with Voices a.k.a. SWV that put on the best show. The budget had to be scant — there were no dancers, no fierce stage wear, and nothing but a DJ playing the instrumental tracks to some of their biggest hits, but what made the night so electrifying was seeing all three original members (Coko, Taj, and Lelee) together and sounding amazing like time never passed them by.

They ran through hits like “I’m So Into You,” “Use Your Heart” (LeLee filled in for Taj who was suffering from bronchitis), “Rain,” “Right Here,” “Anything,” and their debut and most memorable hit, “Weak.”

It was an honor to see and hear. Ladies and gentlemen, I bow down to SWV. You should, too. Without them many of the girl groups who came after them would be nowhere.

Enjoy the video for “Weak” below.

It’s so hard being a Rihanna stan these days. Not only do we have to constantly defend her against the forces of evil (some Beyonce, Britney Spears, and/or Chris Brown fans), we have to sit by and suffer through the first summer since 2005 with no Rihanna single!!! She blessed us with “Pon de Replay” in 05, saved summer radio with “SOS” in 06, owned with a tiny little song called “Umbrella” in 07, and got spooky with “Disturbia” in 08.

The princess of edgy-chic is currently in the studio working on new music reportedly with Kanye West, Jay-Z, and Justin Timberlake but a single isn’t expected until Fall. Epic sadness! What’s summer without Rihanna!?

Thankfully for us, some new-ish music from Rihanna leaked online earlier this year that will keep us going until the new album drops. One of those songs is the painfully catchy “Whipping My Hair.”

Looky here, I already know the song is not a classic by any means. In fact, when I first heard it, I thought it was complete garbage — the lyrics (courtesy of The-Dream) make absolutely no sense (”I just might have what you need/Sprinkling you with pieces of me/Now lets make it a sight to see”), the synthtastic club beat is far more Britney-ish than Rihanna, and the overall quality of the song is about 3,000 steps back for the new pop queen (probably why it was never supposed to see the light of day), but there is something about Rihanna’s delivery of the flimsy lines and the unique charm of her voice that makes the song not only bearable, but worthy of repeated plays on my “Music for the Summer” mix on the ol’ mp3 player.

That’s power, people. Bow down to “Whipping My Hair.” Take a listen if you haven’t already:

Rihanna – Whipping My Hair [CLICK HERE TO LISTEN & DOWNLOAD]

The internet gossip circuit was set on fire this week when Howard Stern played a clip of what was touted as raw soundboard feed from Beyonce’s November appearance on the Today Show concert series. In the clip, Beyonce sounds as if she is struggling vocally to get through her hit “If I Were A Boy.” If you haven’t heard it yet, take a listen. It was later revealed that the audio was indeed altered.

More hilarious than the actual clip is the number of people who truly believed it was real and came out to say things like, “See! I told you Beyonce couldn’t sing live!” As much as I felt Beyonce’s manager dad Mathew Knowles went off the unprofessional end a bit with his response to the ridiculous controversy, I have to agree with him.

Beyonce is no new singer. She’s been around for 12 years. She’s performed hundreds of timse on television and in concert. For those years of amazing performance to all of a sudden get pushed aside in the minds of some listeners because of one “off” moment shows how much some people just want to find major fault with the Mighty B.

Question anything else you want — her songwriting, her acting — but there’s no denying Bey is a REAL singer. I bow down to B’s live singing ability and you should too. Check out some epic live moments from Bey below:

Be With You

Irreplaceable

Star Spangled Banner at the Super Bowl

At Last at the Neighborhood Ball

When we decided to do random appreciation posts–which will be known on Neon Limelight as our “Bow Down To” feature–we had no idea what to start with. Should we talk about a song we’ve been listening to over and over? Should we stan openly for a certain pop goddess (as if we don’t enough already!)? What about praising the electro-pop trend that is, thankfully, showing a bit more creativity these days thanks to people like Lady GaGa? All great choices. But yesterday I found the answer while checking out updates on my Twitter page: Folks, bow down to Willie Taylor of Day26.

I’ve always appreciated Willie for his ability to be the pillar of strength in Day26. When random acts of bitchassness occurred, he was always the one to bring his bandmates back together. And did I mention the voice? And the BODY? Uh, yes…all appreciated. But it wasn’t until he got Twitter that I got to see another side of him. His e-thug side, if you will, and every girl likes a bad boy.

A “fan” thought it would be cute to make a deragotory pun out of the band’s name while asking Willie a silly question: “GAY 26 WHATS GOOD ARE YOU CRYING TODAY ?” Willie took it to the commentor: “N*GGA I’LL BEAT YO ASS, YOU GOT A PROBLEM DONT FOLLOW ME, DONT EVER COME TO MY PAGE AND DISRESPECT ME!!! SAY IT IN MY FACE!! IM BACK!” Realizing he should be above the insults, he came back with, “SORRY YA’LL ,LOL I SHOULDNT HAVE LET THAT DIRTY ASS DUDE GET TO ME,,, LOL IT WILL NEVER HAPPEN AGAIN !! LETS BE POSITIVE!!!” Gotta love a man who can admit his mistakes. Swoonarific!

If you don’t have a problem, go ahead and follow Willie for more great tweets at www.twitter.com/willie_day26 and enjoy Day26’s latest video for their new single “Imma Put It On Her” from their new album Forever In A Day, in stores now: