Katy Perry, Sugarland & Nicki Minaj Announced for Special 'VH1 Divas' Tribute

Vh1′s long-running annual Divas event will take a new tack in its thirteenth year: honoring the military, rather than themselves, through spangled lady-song.

Featured performers Katy Perry, Nicki Minaj, Sugarland, and Keri Hilson are scheduled to tape the event before troops at San Diego’s Marine Corps Air Station Miramar while Paramore satellite in from a military base in the Middle East.

For two participants it’s a family cause: Hilson’s father served in the Army, and Sugarland’s Jennifer Nettles’ brother is currently in the Air Force.

Nettles had already made a joking threat to don a historic talisman of diva/military relations for the show: She told press that she’s “hoping to wear” Cher’s butt-floss body stocking in 1989′s battleship-set video for “If I Could Turn Back Time,” which the now-64-year-old Divas alum famously revisited last month at the VMAs.

Vh1 Divas Salute the Troops premieres December 5th and will also be broadcast internationally on the Armed Forces Network.

Overdose No Accident, Says Fantasia – 'I Wanted Out'

Two weeks after being hospitalized for overdosing on aspirin and a sleep aid, singer Fantasia Barrino says she knew exactly what she was doing. She wanted to die.

"I didn't have any fight in me. I didn't care about anything. I just wanted out," the American Idol winner, 26, tells VH1 in a new Behind the Music interview, airing 9:00 pm (ET/PT) Tuesday, the same day her new album, Back to Me, is released. "At that moment, I wanted out. I wanted it to be over with – all of it, all of that [expletive]."

She continues: "I just sat in the closet and looked at the mirror and took all the pills in the bottle. I wanted to go to sleep and just be at peace. I knew exactly what I was doing. You can't accidentally take a whole bottle of pills."

Barrino's manager, Brian Dickens, recalls finding her lying on the floor in her room. "Her emotions were extremely low," he says. "She'd been crying all day. Fantasia was just numb. Fantasia texted me, saying 'I love you.' I wrote back, 'I love you more.' Then it hit me."

"I wrote, 'You better not do anything or think about doing anything stupid.' And I left it at that. About 10 minutes later, Fantasia texted me back, and she said, 'Already did.' I went into Fantasia's room and saw her on the floor, and my heart just dropped."

What made the successful singer, who's preparing to release her third album, want to end her life? "I was tired of people doing me wrong, constantly, over and over again, dealing with my family – my father, dealing with men and their [expletive] – I was tired," she says. "My head was hurting me. I was over it."

Affair with Antwaun Cook

To complicate matters even more, Barrino is now being threatened with a lawsuit by Paula Cook, the wife of Antwaun Cook, with whom Fantasia had been having an affair.

"When I met him, he was separated ... wasn't living in his home. He didn't want to be back with his wife – that is what I was told," Barrino says. "I remember waking up in the hospital [and thinking], 'It didn't work, I'm still here in this hellhole. Still here with all this drama going on.' "

Ultimately, the singer says the saving grace was her nurse. "My nurse Melanie was a blessing into my life because she didn't tell me what I wanted to hear," she says. "She told me what I needed to hear. And she looked at me and said, 'You gotta get up, and you've gotta get out of here, 'cause you haven't fulfilled your destiny.' "

"I realized how people end up in the grave. Because that one moment [snaps her fingers] of just breaking or feeling like I can't, I can't go on, it's too heavy. That was somewhere I don't ever want to go again."

Jennifer Hudson: Family Murders 'All a Blur'

She's kept quiet about the brutal 2008 murders of her mother Darnell, brother Jason and nephew Julian. Now, Jennifer Hudson is finally speaking out.

"It's all a blur, it was surreal," she says on VH1's Behind the Music: Jennifer Hudson on Monday night. "It was like I was outside of myself."

As her very public nightmare unfolded, the Oscar-winning actress says she went into seclusion.

"For almost two weeks straight . . . [I was] inside one room with just family and friends coming in and out," she says. "I prayed when I'd get up in the morning and prayed before I laid down at night."

Hudson barely addressed the murders until the 2009 Grammys, where she performed a poignant, moving rendition of "You Pulled Me Through."

"I was definitely thinking of my family when I was singing that song," she says. "I could hear my brother in my head, like, 'Jennifer, you need to kill this, you need to get up and do it.' I knew he would be disappointed if I didn't do it justice."

Today, "I feel like I've lived about three or four different lives," she says, adding that her 11-month-old son David (with her fiancé David Otunga) has helped her heal.

Little David, "reminds me of my nephew," says Hudson, and he also helps her remember her mother. "In so many ways I channel her because she was such a great mom."

Her son, she adds, "makes me feel like the most special person on earth. I want him to get the same love and the same upbringing my mother gave us."

Madonna's "Sticky & Sweet Tour" Concert Tour Coming Soon

The long awaited release of Madonna’s ‘Sticky & Sweet’ Concert Tour on DVD/CD and Blu-Ray/CD will arrive to worldwide stores on March 30th. The US release is delayed by one week and will be arriving to stores on April 6th.

To coincide with the release, Madonna’s ‘Sticky & Sweet' Tour will be broadcasted on VH1 on April 2nd, as part of the channel’s "Friday Night Alright" series.

You can pre-order your copy at Amazon.com.

Jordin Sparks Dons Milk Mustache

Jordin Sparks and the National Milk Mustache “got milk?” Campaign partnered with VH1 Save the Music to launch the ‘Drink Milk for a Change’ program.

The 19-year-old American Idol champ is on a mission to “spark” some change by inspiring teens to make a difference. For every Milk Mustache photo created on www.bodybymilk.com, one dollar will go to support VH1 Save The Music. Do it now!!!

VH1 Divas Live Concert - Leona Lewis &Cyndi Lauper

Last night we had the pleasure of listening to a new generation of "Divas" at the resurrected VH1 Divas Live concert.

Here is Leona Lewis & Cyndi Lauper's "True Colors" performance:

VH1 Divas Divas Video

VH1 Divas Live Concert - Jennifer Hudson &Stevie Wonder

Last night we had the pleasure of listening to a new generation of "Divas" at the resurrected VH1 Divas Live concert.

Here is Jennifer Hudson & Stevie Wonder's "All in Love is Fair" performance:

VH1 Divas Divas Video

VH1 Divas Live Concert - Kelly Clarkson &Melissa Etheridge

Last night we had the pleasure of listening to a new generation of "Divas" at the resurrected VH1 Divas Live concert.

Here is Kelly Clarkson & Melissa Etheridge's "Bring Me Some Water" performance:

VH1 Divas Divas Video

VH1 Divas Live Concert - Adele

Last night we had the pleasure of listening to a new generation of "Divas" at the resurrected VH1 Divas Live concert.

Here is Adele's "Hometown" performance:

VH1 Divas Divas Video

VH1 Divas Live Concert - Jordin Sparks

Last night we had the pleasure of listening to a new generation of "Divas" at the resurrected VH1 Divas Live concert.

Here is Jordin Spark's "S.O.S. (Let the Music Play)" performance:

VH1 Divas Divas Video

VH1 Divas Live Concert - Kelly Clarkson

Last night we had the pleasure of listening to a new generation of "Divas" at the resurrected VH1 Divas Live concert.

Here is Kelly Clarkson's "Already Gone" performance:

VH1 Divas Divas Video

VH1 Divas Live Concert - Jennifer Hudson

Last night we had the pleasure of listening to a new generation of "Divas" at the resurrected VH1 Divas Live concert.

Here is Jennifer Hudson's "Spotlight" performance:

VH1 Divas Divas Video

VH1 Divas Live Concert - Paula Abdul

Last night we had the pleasure of listening to a new generation of "Divas" at the resurrected VH1 Divas Live concert, hosted by Paula Abdul.

Here is Paula Abdul's Medley of Hits performance:

VH1 Divas Divas Video

VH1 Divas are Back!

VH1 will air VH1 Divas LIVE from the Brooklyn Academy of Music Howard Gilman Opera House in Brooklyn, New York, on Thursday, September 17th.

It’s been four long years since the last legendary Diva’s performance and VH1 is promising the same amazing stars, unforgettable live performances, and memorable presenters you’ve come to expect from the spectacular shows of years past.

“Now more than ever, the time feels right to re-launch this beloved show as a new generation of talented female artists has come to the forefront of music,” said Lee Rolontz, Executive Producer for “VH1 Divas” and Executive Vice President, Music Production for VH1. “We’ve heard our viewers, and we promise to deliver a live show that will generate the same ‘Divas’ excitement as in the past -- while also infusing some new twists along the way.”

In the past, Divas have graced the stage such as Diana Ross, Patti Labelle, Tina Turner, Cher, Mariah Carey, Celine Dion, Aretha Franklin, Mary J. Blige, Shania Twain, Faith Hill, Whitney Houston, Beyonce, Chaka Khan and many more.

Who would you like to see perform at this years spectacular Divas Live musical event? VH1 is taking votes now to choose the enigmatic female performers to be this years “VHI Divas”.

Go to Divas.VH1.com now to leave your comments about who you’d like to see on stage this year.

"Idol" champ Fantasia to star in reality series

Former "American Idol" star Fantasia Barrino will return to reality television in a new unscripted series on VH1.

The nine-time Grammy nominee has received a series commitment from the network for a show, as yet untitled, that will premiere in early 2010.

The project will chronicle Fantasia's life as a recording artist and young single mother.

The North Carolinian rose to fame as the winner of the third season of "Idol" and has gone on to a successful career as a recording artist. Her autobiography, "Life Is Not a Fairy Tale," led to a Lifetime movie in which she played herself.