Lyfe Jennings

NEW YORK, Aug. 23 - The urban/pop/soul musician Lyfe Jennings is back on the charts as his new album, The Phoenix, enters the Billboard Top 200 at #2, having SoundScanned 136,065 pieces its first week in the stores. The Phoenix has also debuted at #1 on the R&B Album Sales chart, according to SoundScan.

The Phoenix is the eagerly-awaited successor to Lyfe's breakout debut album, Lyfe 268-192." Released in August 2004, Lyfe 268-192 peaked at #39 on the Top 200 nearly a year after its release and went on to achieve an RIAA platinum certification (for sales of 1,000,000 records) in January 2006.

It's been an amazing couple of years for Lyfe, who brought down the house at "Good Morning America" on August 17 with a passionate performance of "Goodbye." Lyfe's recent duet with Alicia Keys, a soul-shaking version of the Curtis Mayfield classic, "People Get Ready," may be heard in the Jerry Bruckheimer film, "Glory Road."

Lyfe closed out 2005 with his highly successful "Lyfe Experience" headline tour, which included guest artists Goapele and Vivian Green. Lyfe spent the larger part of summer 2005 on tour with his Grammy-winning Columbia Records labelmate John Legend.

A two-time #1 Billboard Heatseekers album (2/20/05 & 3/6/05), Lyfe 268-192 was released on August 17, 2004 and immediately established the worldly and poetic Lyfe as an aesthetic force of nature with mainstream and underground support.

Rolling Stone (Nov. 11, 2004) found Lyfe's songs "... eloquent in their depiction of struggle ... ."

"Filled with a genuine rawness reminiscent of Sam Cooke or Donny Hathaway," wrote the edgy New York taste-making YRB, "'Lyfe 268-192' is a thought-provoking journey into the soul of a man whose lyrics tell a melodic story of the everyday realities that affect us all, yet allows us to exhale because somebody finally gets it."

Lyfe brings the full force of his songs to his concert audiences, winning converts wherever he plays. "Bringing only an acoustic guitar to the hallowed 125th Street venue," wrote the hip-hop bible The Source (July 2004), "Lyfe won over the notoriously demanding Apollo crowd and dominated the Amateur Show competition, winning five straight times."

Source: Sony Urban Music/Columbia Records