Various Artists News

(5/12/00, 6 p.m. ET) - 'N Sync singer and $125,000 Who Wants To Be A Millionaire? winner Lance Bass will spend Mother's Day (May 14) at Planet Hollywood in Nashville, where he will officially announce his new record company, Free Lance Entertainment, and his new label deal with Mercury Nashville. Bass's mother Diane Bass and his first Free Lance recording artist, country singer Meredith Edwards, will join him at the Planet Hollywood press event. The rest of 'N Sync will also be in town to perform a concert at Nashville's Adelphia Coliseum later that evening.

Bass told LAUNCH all about his Free Lance Entertainment. "I have two artists, Meredith Edwards and Jack DeFeo," he said. "Meredith is with Mercury Records in Nashville and she's actually recording her album as we speak. Jack is unsigned right now. We've had a lot of offers and he probably will be signed in the next couple of weeks, and then we'll start working on his album this summer."

Bass told us he wants to expand his horizons to the worlds of rock, pop, and R&B with his next act. "There's several people that I'm looking at right now. I'm not going for country next," he explained. "I want to go for either rock or pop or R&B. We're having a big talent search this summer and we're going to go to different cities around America and have a huge talent search."

On Mother's Day, Bass will officially announce the national talent search, dubbed "Outback Mountainboards presents Free Lance Entertainment Search 2000." The national search for the next big Free Lance act starts May 15, and it will run until July 29. The singer's press conference on Sunday will reveal more details. For now, LAUNCH does know that potential Free Lance recording artists must be 18 years old or older, and can audition at one of the following Planet Hollywood locations on the following dates:

June 10, Dallas
June 11, Las Vegas
June 24, Atlanta
June 25, Orlando
July 9, Nashville
July 15,16, New York

-- Jason Gelman, New York

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