John Legend replaces Kanye West

Music on American television can be a beautiful thing to watch. The soundtrack of True Detective, spearheaded by T Bone Burnett, the amazing music producer who also oversaw music for films like Walk The Line and Inside Llewyn Davis, is just one tiny example. The eclectic soundtrack of the James Spader-led The Blacklist is another one. Perhaps the biggest and most successful musical TV show in recent history is Fox’s Empire, which includes Timbaland as one of its executive producers. And now it’s the soulful John Legend who is making the transition to television. prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" />

John Legend, the multiple Grammy-winning singer-songwriter, who also picked up an Academy Award this year in the Best Original Song category for Selma’s ‘Glory’ has just replaced Kanye West for WGN’S upcoming slavery drama, Underground. According to TVLine, when the project was given a green light earlier this February, Kanye West was originally considered for the position. But the gig has landed with John Legend, who will executive produce and oversee all music-related parts of the show.

The 60-minute drama, set for the year 2016, follows the story of “a group of slaves who plan a daring escape from a Georgia plantation to cross 600 miles to freedom, aided along the way by a secret abolitionist couple running a station on the Underground Railroad.”
Underground just might have enough juice to make a run at the Emmys next year given the number of people involved with the show. The show comes from creators/executive producers Misha Green (Sons of Anarchy), Joe Pokaski (Heroes), as well as Akiva Goldsman (A Beautiful Mind, Fringe). The cast is a star-studded affair with many familiar faces making a return to television including James Lafferty from One Tree Hill and Marc Blucas from Buffy the Vampire Slayer.

Abhishek Bachchan, Raghav and Nelly getting together for a summer single

In 2006, actor Abhishek Bachchan showed off his musical side by rapping on the song ‘Right Here Right Now’ from the entertaining Rohan Sippy film, Bluff Master. Since then, many actors in Bollywood have taken the plunge in the musical side of things. Farhan Akhtar crooned in Rock On while Sonakshi Sinha performed at IIFA Rocks concert earlier this year. Alia Bhatt, Priyanka Chopra – the list of actors who can sing is constantly growing. And the actor who started the trend for new-age Bollywood, Abhishek Bachchan, is all set for another musical outing. What’s different is that the song is not part of a film but is a collaborative effort between American rap’s Nelly (‘Hot In Here’, ‘Dilemma’ and ‘Work It’ fame) and the artist known as Raghav. The unlikely trio will feature on Raghav’s track, ‘Until The Sun Comes Up’ on which Abhishek will show off his rapping skills once again.

In a press release about the track, Raghav wrote, “I hope people will look years from now at this song being a singular moment when east and west collaborated in a way that has a true global musical impact. And performing it with Nelly (who is a legend) and Abhishek (who is the most talented human I’ve ever met) makes this song even more special to me.”

Meanwhile, Abhishek Bachchan, the actor is also back in the spotlight with a new family drama called All is Well in which he is starring opposite Asin. Abhishek was last seen (over) acting in Farah Khan’s Happy New Year.