Cee Lo Green, who earned four Grammy Awards nominations, and win one in February, has been performing as an opening act on Rihanna’s tour in between his appearances on “The Voice,” the hit NBC talent show. But last week, the singer announced that he’s quitting Rihanna’s Loud tour motivating a too busy schedule and other commitments that needed to be honored. The Barbadian singer couldn’t remain without an official tour opener, so she has found a substitute for Mr. Green. Ri announced that she has chosen J. Cole, Jay-Z’s protégé as her “official” tour opener for the Loud that hits several cities in the US this month before heading for Europe in August and wrapping up in December.

Rihanna announced via Twitter that rapper J. Cole, who was already on the road with the singer, will fill Green’s shoes starting this month: “#GOODNEWS @JColeNC is our new official opener!” she wrote on Tuesday night. “@CeeLoGreen will no longer be a part of #LOUD tour due 2 commitment with ‘The Voice’ #Can’t miss it.”

Cee Lo Green left the tour because his schedule became too crammed with other commitments, including his judging gig on the hit NBC talent competition “The Voice,” which is also presenting a tour this summer. So his spokesperson said to The New York Times that Cee Lo “always puts 100 percent into his work and with the requirements and time commitment to ‘The Voice,’ on top of heading back into the recording studio and an upcoming book, he feels that he wouldn’t give his fans the show that they deserve.” Besides, once “The Voice” is over, Cee Lo will be busy recording a new album and working on a book.

Cole was happy to take Green’s place although he is also busy with finishing his debut album, Cole World: The Sideline Story, due to hit stores on September 27. Rihanna wasn’t too upset with the change, as she went through this situation last year, when Nicki Minaj pulled out at the last minute and was quickly replaced with Travie McCoy and Ke$ha as the “official” tour openers for her Last Girl On Earth Tour. Let’s just hope that Cole won’t change his mind as Green did and leave Ri in the uncomfortable position of looking for another tour opener.

This entry was posted on Sunday, July 3rd, 2011 at 11:33 pm and is filed under News.