Montell Jordan & Dave Koz Tapped For Miss Universe

04/27/2000 6:00 PM, Yahoo! Music
Craig Rosen

(4/27/00, 6 p.m. ET) - Montell Jordan and Dave Koz will provide the musical entertainment for the 2000 Miss Universe Pageant, which will air live on May 12 at 9 p.m. ET/PT on CBS. The Mediterranean Island of Cyprus will play host to the 49th Annual Miss Universe Pageant, which is expected to draw 2.4 billion television viewers internationally. The Miss Universe Organization, producer of the Miss Universe Pageant, is a Donald J. Trump and CBS partnership, and Trump is expected to be in attendance at the pageant.

Jordan and Koz are good friends who first met last year at a songwriters' conference in Havana, Cuba. En route to a dinner party during the conference, Koz suggested that Jordan record a version of George Michael's hit "Careless Whisper" with him for his then-forthcoming album, The Dance. The song is one of the album's highlights, and Koz has abundant praise for Jordan's musical ability. "Coolest thing about Montell is that he is such an R&B staple and he's an incredible singer, but the true test of him is he's really a very sensitive, very wealthy musician-type of person," Koz says. "He's got a wealth of talent that people don't even realize; he is so talented and can do anything. I didn't say a word to him. I played him some tracks from my album. I said, "I want you to do this song and I want it just to fit on my album." He could have gone way, way R&B with it, but he did something that was so sensitive and so tasty that could fit on my album but staying true to the song, and also giving him a chance to show another side of him."

-- Jason Gelman and Lucy Tauss, New York

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