The lineup for this year’s iTunes Festival in London has been announced, and Usher, Norah Jones, Jack White and One Direction will be among the featured artists at the star studded festival.

Unique among many of the festivals taking place this summer, the iTunes Festival is a series of free concerts that will run throughout the month of September at the iconic Roundhouse venue in London.

Usher will perform the first concert on September 1. The R&B singer will be supporting his upcoming album, Looking 4 Myself, which is scheduled to be released on June 12. That album has already produced the lead single “Climax,” which peaked at number 17 on the Billboard 100 singles chart.

Next up on the schedule will be a performance by English R&B singer Emeli Sande on September 5. She released her first album, Our Version of Events, in February of this year. U.S. fans may have become familiar with the singer when she provided support for Coldplay’s North American tour to support its album, Mylo Xyloto.

Jack White will play September 8, and will be supporting his recently released album Blunderbuss. The album is the first White has released under his own name, and it debuted in the number one spot on the Billboard 200 albums chart.

Norah Jones will follow White on September 10, and she also has a new album to support. Little Broken Hearts debuted at number two on the Billboard albums chart after it was released May 1. The album was only kept out of the top position by Carrie Underwood’s Blown Away album, which was released the same day.

And the final act currently scheduled to play the festival is British teen boy band One Direction, which will be playing September 20.

Supporting acts for each show will be announced soon. There has been no word yet as to whether other headlining acts will be added to the lineup.

Norah Jones latest album, Little Broken Hearts, was released last week, and it landed at number two on the Billboard 200 albums chart in its debut week. To celebrate, Jones has added dates to her already extensive U.S. touring plans later this year.

The new dates will begin October 7, when Jones brings performs at the Orpheum Theatre in Minneapolis. The newly announced dates will run nearly to the end of October, and the last date will be at the Mahalia Jackson Theatre in New Orleans on October 23. Other new cities on the tour include Milwaukee, Chicago, Des Moines, St. Louis, Houston and Dallas.

Jones will be performing a handful of European dates at the end of this month and in the beginning of June, and will kick off the American tour on June 20 in Indianapolis. The previously scheduled dates ran through August 23.

Little Broken Hearts was produced by Danger Mouse, also known as Brian Burton. The two were inspired to work together when Jones provided vocals on a collaboration between Danger Mouse and Daniele Luppi called Rome, which was inspired by the music of spaghetti westerns.

The album is Jones’ first official studio album since 2009’s The Fall, though the popular artist hasn’t been lazy since that time. In 2010 she released …Featuring, a collection of duets she had previously recorded with other artists. Additionally, her country music side project, the Little Willies, released their sophomore album For the Good Times earlier this year.

And, surprisingly, this year also marks a decade since Jones first burst onto the scene with her debut album, Come Away With Me. Sales of the album were spurred mainly by the hit single “Don’t Know Why,” and the album eventually went on to sell more than 10 million copies. It also was awarded eight Grammy Awards, including Album of the year.

An extremely eclectic lineup has been announced for this year’s Ottawa Blues Festival, and includes LMFAO, Norah Jones and Iron Maiden, among many others.

Now technically known as the RBC Royal Bank Bluesfest, the festival will be held in Ottawa from July 4-15. According to the official website of the festival, this year’s festival will be “Electrofied.”

Other notable acts playing the festival include Lauryn Hill, Skrillex, Mastodon, Alice Cooper, the Hold Steady, John Mellencamp, Seal, Billy Bragg and David Gray. Of course, the festival would not be complete without a slew of Canadian artists. This year’s local artists include Nickelback, Metric, K’naan, City and Colour and Weeknd.

This year’s festival will go “cashless,” which means festival goers will receive a “Bluesband” that can be charged with money and can be used like a debit card while at the festival. Funds on the bands that remain unused at the end of the festival will be refunded.

Last year’s Ottawa Bluesfest was marred by a stage collapse caused by a wind storm while Cheap Trick played the festival. Fortunately no one was killed in the incident, though five injuries were reported, and one was serious. Speaking to CTV news, Bluesfest executive Mark Monahan addressed the issue and said that the festival has hired an “independent engineer” from Toronto that specializes in outdoor structures.

“[The engineer] is going to be giving us sort of a stamp of approval on all the setup for the infrastructures in the park,” Monahan said. He added that an independent weather service will provide “very accurate” weather updates throughout the festival.

A Canadian Ministry of Labour investigation into the incident is currently under review by lawyers. After the review, it will be determined if any legal action will be taken concerning the incident. There is as of yet no word on how long the review will take.

Since announcing her upcoming fifth studio album, Norah Jones has confirmed a handful of dates for a tour to support the album, and now she has released the full itinerary of dates that will begin later this spring and keep her on the road for most of the summer.

In addition to previously announced dates in Rochester, N.Y. and the Hollywood Bowl in Los Angeles, Jones will play most regions of the United States and Canada, and also has scheduled a few European dates at the beginning and in the middle of the tour.

The jaunt will kick off May 25 in Paris, France, and the first North American dates will be June 20 in Indianapolis, Ind. The tour will run through August 23 when she plays Red Rocks in Denver. Other cities on the tour include Memphis, Tenn.; Atlanta; Nashville; Toronto; Los Angeles and Salt Lake City.

Little Broken Hearts, Jones upcoming album, will be released prior to the tour on May 1 and was produced by Danger Mouse. The in-demand producer, also known as Brian Burton, first worked with Jones when she sang on the Danger Mouse and Daniele Luppi album Rome. That project was based on the music of spaghetti westerns and inspired the two to work together on Little Broken Hearts.

Though she hasn’t released an official studio solo album since 2009’s The Fall, Jones has kept plenty busy in the meantime. In 2010 she released …Featuring, a compilation album of duets with other artists. And earlier this year, her country side project The Little Willies released a sophomore album called For the Good Times.

This year also marks the tenth anniversary of Come Away With Me, Jones’ breakthrough debut album that sold over 10 million copies and featured the single “Don’t Know Why.” The album eventually earned eight Grammy Awards, including Album of the Year.

This year’s South By Southwest lineup seems to be growing by the day, and Nas, T.I. and Norah Jones are the latest additions to the list. The festival will be held March 13-18 in Austin, Texas, and the lineup is likely to grow almost until the first day. Often, the biggest artists aren’t announced until a few days before the festival begins. Other notable recent additions include Santigold, GZA, B.o.B., The Cult, Jimmy Cliff, Tom Morello, Ben Kweller, Keane and Kaiser Chiefs.

Norah Jones will play three shows at the festival, and is expected to preview songs from her upcoming album, Little Broken Hearts, which will be released May 1. She will play her own songs on March 17 at La Zona Rosa, and will play twice on March 15 with her country band, The Little Willies. Little Broken Hearts is produced by in-demand producer Danger Mouse, and inspired by the music of spaghetti westerns. Though Jones has announced a handful of dates throughout the summer, a more extensive set of dates is expected soon.

Both Nas and T.I. are expected to release albums this year, though no official dates have been set for either as of yet. T.I.’ s upcoming album reportedly is called Trouble Man.

The first South By Southwest festival was held in 1987 and planned as a regional event. More than 700 attendees showed up to that festival, and it soon grew into the national and international festival it is now. In addition to music, there are also interactive and film portions of the festival. The interactive portion runs from March 9-13, while the film festival spans from March 9-17. The interactive portion of the festival concerns multimedia interests, such as mobile games and apps. It is now the most attended portion of the festival, and it is estimated that 20,000 people attended this portion last year.

Norah Jones has teamed up with producer Danger Mouse for her fifth official album, which will be released later this year. Little Broken Hearts will be released on Blue Note Records this spring, though no official date has yet been announced.

Two tour dates to support the album have already been released, and a press release says that Jones plans to tour “extensively” in 2012. The first two dates are June 29 at the Kodak Hall at Eastman Theater in Rochester, N.Y. and at the Hollywood Bowl on August 10.

Danger Mouse, aka Brian Burton, first worked with Jones when she sang vocals on the Danger Mouse and Daniele Luppi album Rome, a project based on the music of spaghetti westerns that also featured Jack White.

This year also marks the 10^th anniversary of Jones breakthrough debut, Come Away With Me. That album, featuring the hit single “Don’t Know Why,” went on to sell over 10 million copies and earned eight Grammy Awards, including Album of the Year.

Jones’ most recent studio album was 2009’s The Fall, though she also released a compilation of duets with other artists called …Featuring in 2010. Earlier this year, Jones country band The Little Willies released a sophomore album, For the Good Times, which mainly features of classic country songs.

Danger Mouse first became known for his album The Grey Album, which combined Jay-Z’s Black Album, with the self-titled Beatles album commonly known as the White Album. After that, Danger Mouse found success with Gnarls Barkley, his duo with Cee Lo Green, and Broken Bells, a group with James Mercer of the indie-rock group the Shins.

As a producer, Danger Mouse has produced records by Gorillaz, Beck and the Black Keys. He has won three Grammy Awards, including one last year for Producer of the Year. He is nominated for the same award at the Grammy Awards this year, which will be held next month.

Norah Jones and Jack White have been recruited by Danger Mouse to sing on the upcoming collaboration album of his with Daniele Luppi, Italian composer.

Brian Burton, the producer’s real name, and Luppi are calling their album “Rome.”  Over the last five years the two have teamed up during various times in Italy’s capital to record the set.

The pair says they recorded the album at Forum studios, which is a converted church.  The set was inspired by Italian film soundtracks from the 1960s.

The track listing and release date haven’t be revealed yet.  However Burton did explain why he has asked White and Jones to help with the lead vocals.

He said, I wanted definitely to have a woman and man.  The female vocals need to be soft and not polarizing.  However the male needs to have more angst.

When I was touring right after the first session, I played some music from the set for Jack White to show him what we were up to.  He liked it.  However at the time we weren’t thinking of him being on the album.  It’s Jack White, you know.

However finally I thought, he really likes it.  So why not?  Jack tried doing different voices- low voice, high voice.  I thought, why not just leave all of them in?  On the track “Rose With The Broken Neck,” there are a bunch of Jack’s vocals.  They don’t all sound like him.

In addition Danger Mouse also has been working on U2′s new album, which has the tentative tile of “Songs of Ascent.”

Danger Mouse this year has been touring as well with James Mercer from The Shins in Broken Bells.

Norah Jones has indeed established herself as one of the most talented, versatile and creative acts in music, both as a solo artist and as a collaborator.  As a matter of fact, Jones has teamed up with almost every act in the industry, regardless of genre and record label.

On November 2, the soulful artist will release “…Featuring” which contains some of the artist’s best collaborations.  Among those featured in the upcoming set are music icons Ray Charles (“Here We Go Again”) and Dolly Parton (“Creepin’ In”), hip-hop acts Outkast (“Take Off Your Cool”) and Q-Tip (“Life is Better”), alt-rock icons Foo Fighters (“Virginia Moon”), and Scottish act Belle and Sebastian (“Little Lou, Prophet Jack, Ugly John”) who Jones considers as one of her favorites, to name a few.

In a press release, Jones describes her music collaboration efforts as a creative and exciting venture that “takes you a little bit out of your comfort zone… You don’t know what to expect — it’s kind of like being a little kid and having a play date.”

Meanwhile, Jones will face the scorching summer heat on the road as she continues to tackle her west coast trek.  On October 2, she will be in Milwaukee, WI for the Farm Aid gig along with Willie Nelson, whose duet with Jones, “Baby It’s Cold Outside” also appears in the latter’s upcoming release.  Jones will also perform in the August 31 episode of “The Tonight Show with Jay Leno”.

Two years ago, Ben Chace, filmmaker, won a raffle. His prize was a free Jamaican cruise. He invited Sam Fleischner, a friend of his, to go with him and decided to make a film on the trip. Tickets were purchased for a sound man as well as the star of the film, songerwriter/singer Sean “Bone” Sullivan. Chace and Fleischner then took off for Jamaica from a ship in Brooklyn for their week long cruise. The film Wah Do Dem was the result, featuring favorite musicians both on the soundtrack as well as actors.

The film focuses on Max (played by Sullivan), a skateboarder from Brooklyn, who wins a free Jamaican trip. He plans to take Willow (played by Norah Jones), his girlfriend. However just two days before the trip she dumps him. Max goes on the cruise by himself. He gets lost eventually and doesn’t have his luggage. He is forced to wander through Jamaica’s countryside to reach the US embassy in Kingsport.

Ira Wolf-Tuton, member of Yeasayer, is one of the cast members in the movie, and a Suckers performance is also in the film along with an appearance by MGMT’s Ben Goldwasser. Music featured on the soundtrack is from the star of the film, Sean “Bones” Sullivan, The Congos and the Suckers. On October 26 the movie is coming out on DVD.

New summer dates have been lined up by Norah Jones to support “The Fall,” her newest studio album, including a couple of appearances on the Lilith Tour as the all-woman’s revived festival hits the road once again.

The current tour for the singer continues in Los Angeles on April 23 and runs through mid May. Jones will then take a break June and July, except for a couple festival appearances. She will be at the Celebrate Brooklyn Fest in Brooklyn, NY on June 9 and at the Bonnaroo Festival in Manchester, TN on June 11.

The next round of summer dates will kick off in Bethlehem, PA on August 7. Jones’ appearances with the Lilith Tour will follow, with appearances in West Palm Beach, FL on August 10 and in August 12 in Birmingham, AL.

“The Fall” was released last November. It was the fourth album from Jones and followed “Not Too Late,” her set from 2007. The album debuted in the No. 3 spot on Billboard’s 200 chart. During the first week of its release the set sold 180,000 copies.

For her new set, Jones brought collaborators in that she previously hadn’t worked with including engineer and producer Jacquire King (Tom Waits, Kings of Leon) and several collaborators for songwriting, including Will Sheff from Okkervil River and Ryan Adams.

Musicians backing Jones on her new album include guitarists Smokey Hormel (Joe Strummer, Johnny Cash) and Marc Ribot (Elvis Costello, Tom Waits) drummers James Gadson and Joey Waronker (R.E.M. and Beck), and keyboardist James Poyser (Al Green, Erykah Badu).

“Young Blood, the latest single from the album, was released in February to radio stations.