Ron Browz Hits #1 For First Time; Headlines Apollo Celebration

The week is only halfway over, but it's already been a big one career-wise for rapper/producer Ron Browz. The latest artist to find success with the autotune phenomenon, Browz has topped a Billboard chart for the first time in his career as a rapper.

"Pop Champagne," the infectious urban-pop hit that is set to appear on both Browz' Ether Boy/Universal Motown debut, and Jim Jones' Columbia Records debut Pray IV Reign, entered the #1 position on Billboard's Urban Mainstream chart.

The song, released September 4, has also charted at the #3 position on the Top 40 Rhythm Monitor, which, like the Urban Mainstream chart, monitors a song's success at radio.

In addition, the Juelz Santana-assisted "Champagne" is currently #3 on the Hot Rap Tracks chart, the #4 Hot Hip-Hop/R&B Song, and #11 on the Billboard Hot 100.

To top off his success on the charts, Browz, a Harlem native, has been selected as the feature performer to lead the 75th Anniversary celebration of the Apollo Theater's Amateur Night.

Tickets for the event, set to take place tonight (January 28) went on sale Tuesday (January 27), with the first 75 tickets sold for $7.50.

Despite being a segregated venue when it was first opened in 1914, the Apollo Theater grew to become an important part of urban music history.

One of the first winners of the 'Amateur Nite Hour' competition when it started as a radio show in 1934 was none other than Jazz great Ella Fitzgerald, who was 17 at the time.

Since then, the Amateur Night competition has seen artists from Stevie Wonder to the late James Brown to the Jackson 5, Luther Vandross, Lauryn Hill and many more testing their skills in front of a live audience, to varying degrees of success.

The 75th Anniversary celebration will continue with a year-long series of exhibits, open houses, special events and performances.

In April 2010, The Smithsonian Institute will collaborate with the Apollo to kick-off a touring exhibition titled "Jazz, Jump and Jive: The Apollo Theater and American Entertainment."