Queen Latifah has signed a multimedia deal with production company Creative Battery, promoter AEG Live and Vector Recordings, Billboard reports exclusively in the Oct. 11, 2003, issue. The one-off deal is for an album, 20-city tour and a television special and video release.

The album, due next summer, will be a collection of classic songs produced by Arif Mardin. Also collaborating on the set will be Monica Lynch, former president of Tommy Boy Records, and Joe McEwen, former senior VP/director of A&R of Warner Bros. Records. The album will be released by Vector.

"For this album, I will choose songs that have shaped me artistically and affected me emotionally," the Grammy-winning singer/songwriter/rapper says in a statement. Queen Latifah previously recorded for Motown and Tommy Boy.

The tour is set for fall 2004, followed by the release of a home video/DVD documenting the outing. Negotiations with possible television and cable network partners are in the works.

Established in 2002, Vector Recordings is headed by co-founders Jack Rovner and Ken Levitan and is also home to Damien Rice and former Black Crowes frontman Chris Robinson. "There are only a few artists out there with whom you can really create a true event," says Rovner, the former president of RCA Records. "It's a new world, and the music business is looking for new models. This project could be deemed as one of those new models."

On the heels of her mainstream crossover success in the movies "Chicago" and "Bringing Down the House," Latifah is currently filming "Taxi" with Jimmy Fallon.