Coming down with an illness during album release week is probably one of the worst feelings for a music star. If you don’t cancel countless appearances, you’ll have to find a way to successfully manage back to back performances.

Leona Lewis, the usually spot-on live performer, was forced to lip-sync during her Dancing With The Stars results show performance earlier this week due to an illness and it looks like she isn’t quite over that sickness.

Although some portions of her Happy performance on the Ellen DeGeneres show looks and sounds live, all signs points to a pre-recorded backing track when several adlibs are missed. But Leona’s past track record gives her a pass.

Leona is busy promoting her new album, Echo, that landed in stores this week.

Oh, Marie Digby! How we love thee! She can take just about any song and flip it to make an acoustic masterpiece out of it. And, oh yeah, she also has two albums of original material, Unfold and Breathing Underwater, that are just as amazing as her covers.

Electro-pop breakout star Owl City is the latest artist to have a hit song Digby-fied. With her handy Macbook cam rolling and guitar in hand, Marie turned with sensitive, synth-filled “Fireflies” into an even more gorgeous, stripped down lullaby.

Check out her brilliant version above and keep watching until the end to see when and where you can catch Marie on the road.

Is rap not your thing, but you still want to get into that “Empire State of Mind”? Alicia Keys has got the answer for you.

During a performance for Clear Channel radio’s stripped sessions, the soul diva performed a new version of the song, sans Jay-Z, with all new verses. “Imma make it by any means/I got a pocket full of dreams/Baby, I’m from New York,” she sings before jumping into the original anthemic chorus.

You don’t have to be from the concrete jungle where dreams are made of to appreciate how gorgeous this piano-driven version is.

A more produced version of the track will be available on Alicia’s new album, The Element of Freedom, in stores December 15.

Chris Brown performs in LA - Getty Images

Chris Brown continued his trek to thank his fans for sticking by him this year, dubbed his “Fan Appreciation” tour, last night in Los Angeles with a sold out show at the Avalon.

This time around, he brought out some special guests including singer/songwriter Keri Hilson, who surprised the audience with a short medley of her own hits, and Ester Dean who joined Breezy for their club banger “Drop It Low.”

The show also included an epic dance tribute to Michael Jackson.

Check out a few shots from the show below:

additional photos: wireimage

Singer and guitarist Orianthi is ready to step from behind the shadows of the amazing artists she’s had the pleasure of playing  for (Michael Jackson anyone?!) and into the spotlight. To continue her quest to pop/rock super-stardom, she dropped by dance show So You Think You Can Dance’s results show to perform her rocking new single According To You.

According To You is taken from her debut album, Believe, that is in stores now. Learn more about Orianthi in our Limelight Spotlight.

Dancing With The Stars packed in some girl power tonight (November 17) when they had both Alicia Keys and Leona Lewis drop by for performances during their somewhat shocking semi-finals results show.

Leona performed Happy, the first single off her latest album Echo. Spot on vocals or excellent lip-syncing? Not quite sure. One thing was clear: Leona looked drop dead gorgeous!

In the next few weeks, Leona will be busy making TV appearances to promote Echo, which lands in stores today.

The pressure was on for the remaining contestants on Dancing With The Stars. Tonight’s (November 17) elimination shaped next week’s finals but before all the dirty work went down, they had a night full of musical performances to get to. One of tonight’s performers was Grammy award winning singer, Alicia Keys.

Alicia, dressed in black leather and the fiercest thigh-high blue boots, performed her new single Try Sleeping With A Broken Heart for the first time on TV. Try Sleeping… is the second single off Alicia’s new album, The Element of Freedom, due in stores December 15th.

Chris Brown kicked-off his highly criticized “Fan Appreciation” tour last night (November 14) at the House of Blues in Houston,TX, and as a big middle finger to the critics who prematurely reported the tour would fail astronomically, he did so in front of a sold out crowd.

The show was truly for the fans — if it was your mission to go and watch people leave in disgust or heckle the 20-year-old hitmaker, you were out of luck. Every song, dance move, anecdote was met with roaring screams by the mostly female audience.

Besides performing the old reliable hits from his past album, Breezy plucked some new songs from his upcoming album Graffiti to perform for the first time, like his latest single, the gorgeous ballad “Crawl.” He also debuted a snippet of “Sing Like Me” and had the crowd going crazy with “I Can Transform Ya.”

Watch: Sing Like Me/I Can Transform Ya/Drop It Low

With three of the biggest hits of this year all coming from the Black Eyed Peas, it was only right that they’d get a chance to perform them all during their appearance as musical guests on Saturday Night Live. Bucking the typical SNL two performance trend, BEP took the stage three times to perform their newest hit Meet Me Halfway and the Billboard Hot 100 chart toppers Boom Boom Pow and I Got A Feeling.

All three singles are taken from the Black Eyed Peas latest album The E.N.D., released earlier this year to critical acclaim and massive chart success.

Take a look at the Peas doing Meet Me Halfway above and view the others by reading more.

videos spotted at Rap-Up via Mr. World Premiere

Mariah Carey has been hard on the promotional trail pushing the powerful new movie “Precious,” wherein she has a small role as a very un-Mariah-like social worker.

She did a little more promo for the flick last night on the Late Show with David Letterman where she talked about the “torture” she endured getting into character for the movie. She also revealed that she got the role two days before shooting was supposed to begin because actress Helen Mirren dropped out at the last minute.

It wasn’t all movie talk, though. Mariah promoted her latest album, Memoirs of an Imperfect Angel, performing the fan favorite “H.A.T.E.U.” and tried to clear up the drama with Eminem and “Obsessed” one more time. “He continuously references me and I don’t know why,” she said. “I wrote a song that’s kinda like an anthem to all little girls or little kids that get their ponytails pulled or get abused because the boy really is in love with them and they can’t be with them.

“The song is not about anybody, and yet, it could be about anybody. You never know.”