Arista Scores 3 Albums Inside Top Ten, 2 Inside Top Five This Week!

Business Wire, June 12, 2002

Entertainment Editors

NEW YORK--(ENTERTAINMENT WIRE)--June 12, 2002

Arista:

- Donell Jones' 3rd album, Life Goes On (with #1 Most-Added Urban track "You
Know That I Love You") hits Billboard 200 album chart at #3; Top R&B album
chart at #2!

- Teen rocker Avril Lavigne's debut, Let Go (with TRL fave, "Complicated")
skates onto Billboard 200 album chart at #8!

- Along with P. Diddy & Bad Boy Records Present...We Invented The Remix, Arista
lands 3 albums inside Top Ten

Veteran Urban hitmaker Donell Jones (with Life Goes On) and teen rock discovery Avril Lavigne (with Let Go), two uncompromising singers and songwriters who have carved out places for their music in pop's competitive marketplace, won impressive simultaneous Soundscan debuts this week for their new albums (both in-store June 4th), it was announced today by Antonio "L.A." Reid, president and CEO, Arista Records.

Along with P. Diddy's newest album (released May 14, 2002), Arista lays claim to 3 albums inside the Top Ten (and 2 albums in the Top 5) on the Billboard 200 Album chart (issue dated June 22).

RIAA platinum artist Donell Jones' Life Goes On, his third album, with first week scans of 110,425 units, bullets onto the Billboard 200 pop album chart at #3 and the Top R&B/Hip-Hop album chart at #2. The numbers nearly triple Donell's previous highest first-week scan (of 39,000 for his second album, 1999's Where I Wanna Be); and represent his all-time highest rank on the Billboard 200 Album chart. The album builds on the acceptance of its lead track, "You Know That I Love You," #1 Most-Added at Urban and Urban AC (Adult Contemporary) radio stations upon its release in April. The promotional video, directed by Chris Robinson (Busta Rhyme's 'Pass The Courvoisier;' Alicia Keys' 'Fallin'), is enjoying strong rotation at MTV Soul, BET and regional outlets across the board. "Jones manages to express male vulnerability without sounding whiny or trying to cover it up with rampant machismo," raved USA Today in their 3-star album review.

At the threshold of her career, 17-year old Avril Lavigne's Let Go earned first week scans of 62,350 units, winning the #8 debut spot on the Billboard 200 Album chart this week. Characterized by Mr. Reid as "one of the best new artists of this year," the self-styled sk8er punk has been the 'go-to' girl ever since May 8th - the day after Carson Daly first picked "Complicated" for MTV's "TRL" Countdown program.

Avril performed the song on "TRL" and followed up with a date on NBC's "The Tonight Show" with Jay Leno last week; an appearance with Craig Kilborn is scheduled for this week (June 13th) and Avril has just been added to the roster of the Nickelodeon concert special (August 4th). The "Complicated" video, which has been a "TRL" Countdown staple for just over a month, was directed by the Malloys, known for their previous clips with Blink 182 and American Hi Fi.

Chicago's Donell Jones takes a giant step with Life Goes On, showing off his ever-expanding talents as singer, songwriter, arranger and producer, best-known as the co-writer of such hits as "Think of You" for Usher, "Can We Get It Together" for 702, and "However You Want It" for Silk. Donell burst on the R&B scene with his first album in 1996, the RIAA gold My Heart featuring the top 20 Urban hits "In the Hood" and his cover of Stevie Wonder's "Knocks Me Off My Feet."

The stage was set for Donell's emergence as a major player in 1999, with the #1 R&B/#7 pop crossover smash "U Know What's Up," featuring the late Lisa 'Left Eye' Lopes of TLC. The RIAA gold single, which spent more than a half-year on the charts, was the centerpiece of Donell's million-plus selling second album Where I Wanna Be, whose success enabled him to win the American Music Award for Best New R&B Artist of 1999. Life Goes On finds Donell once again working with production collaborators Kyle West, Sheldon Goode and Edward `Eddie F' Farrell, while pursuing more hits with new producers Route 80 and Teflon.

From Ontario, Avril Lavigne is a true wild child, a self-taught guitarist who wrote her first song at age 12. She was 16 when she was signed to Arista by "L.A." Reid and first moved to New York to work on her debut album and songwriting. After flipping coasts to Los Angeles and hooking up with producer/songwriter Cliff Magness (and later, the Matrix production team), new songs started to flow. Let Go began to take shape, with Mr. Reid serving as executive producer.

Now handled by Nettwerk Management (who have steered the careers of Sarah McLachlan, Coldplay, Dido, Barenaked Ladies, and Sum 41), Avril is touring with her own sk8er punk band. She has won praise from USA Today ("already a tunesmith to be reckoned with," raved their 3-star album review), the Boston Globe ("a pocketful of original, bristling pop tunes"), and Entertainment Weekly (who described "Complicated" as "flawless radio pop"). Anything but ordinary, as Billboard summed up, "all signals point to 'go' for Lavigne."

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