Billboard Update

Rihanna's sixth studio album Talk That Talk leaked the past week, but the lead single We Found Love has managed to collect another week atop the Hot 100, while Bruno Mars rockets into the Top 10 at #9 with It Will Rain, trailed closely by Taylor Swift's new tracks If This Was a Movie at #10, Ours at #13 and Superman at #26 while Katy Perry's The One That Got Away rises up to a new peak of #15. Christina Perri's A Thousand Years is also on the move up, moving up to #46. Jessie J's Domino moves up to #58 while Glee's Uptown Girl debuts at #68. Rihanna is genuinely the queen of the Hot 100 right now, with her new single You Da One arriving at #73 while Adele's Set Fire To The Rain re-enters at #89.

Mac Miller is at #1 on the albums chart while Michael Buble's annual album chart fest is in full swing with his Christmas album collects the Greatest Gainer Title and flies up to #2. The unstoppable Adele is a non-mover at #5 while Mariah Carey's Merry Christmas II You re-enters at the other side of the chart at #194.

One Direction - What Makes You Beautiful + Gotta Be You live @ Children In Need

One Direction have gotten everything right so far. They brushed up their looks, and genuinely improved since their shitty X Factor days when they were literally the worst boyband then, with no clear musical direction whatsoever. They decided to avoid the clubby/pop/dance genre dominated by JLS, and the straight up pop that The Wanted have nailed, and gone for a pop/rock sound, although a lot more pop than rock.

What Makes You Beautiful was ridiculously catchy enough to warrant the attention of casual buyers to make it become the fastest selling single in the UK this year. With Gotta Be You, it seems Rihanna has stolen their #1 lead when the latest midweek chart prediction came in. And thankfully she's done that because Gotta Be You is rather dire, especially the studio version.

Nevertheless, One Direction got to open the Children In Need show and failing to do as spectacularly as Cheryl Cole did last year, with What Makes You Beautiful and returning with Gotta Be You. Liam and Harry in particular sounded spectacular, Zayn was okay, Louis and Niall were disposable as always. You didn't even hear them at all.

But we saw that coming anyway.

The Saturdays - My Heart Takes Over live @ Children In Need

It's release week of My Heart Takes Over for The Saturdays, which is sitting at #13 on the midweek chart, and if it remains there, it would be their first single to miss the Top 10 since the fabulous Work in June 2009. So to drum up some sales, The Sats dropped by Children In Need to give a showing of the new single with Frankie present. She missed out on promotions for the single when they did Daybreak and Loose Women. My Heart Takes Over might look like it's a disaster for The Saturdays, breaking their Top 10 streak, but bear in mind their upcoming fourth album On Your Radar drops next week, so most casual buyers would be holding out to get the album. Furthermore, Westlife's lead single to what seems like their very last album, ever, Lighthouse is doing even worse than My Heart Takes Over. And when you're a boyband that's been around since forever and what could be your last single does even worse than a girl group that hasn't had a fraction of your sales, suddenly things don't look so bad.

But back to the Children In Need performance. Those dresses didn't flatter the girls, I'll have to admit. But since the One Direction boys got to open the show and performed two songs, I feel a bit miffed for The Sats. They should've knocked out All Fired Up to get the crowd going. In fact, that would've been a perfect opening to the show. Pfft. Boybands always have it easier.

Anyway, check out more of their recent live performances of My Heart Takes Over below. Their new album is good too. Apart from the singles, check out Faster, Get Ready Get Set, The Way You Watch Me (feat. Travie McCoy), Do What You Want With Me, White Lies and Last Call. Oh and if you don't like My Heart Takes Over, replace the album version with the Rokstone Mix. It's MUCH better.

Rihanna - We Found Love live @ The X Factor USA

Rihanna's We Found Love is genuinely SLAYING everywhere, what with snatching a #1 single away from boybands The Wanted (Lightning), JLS (Take a Chance on Me), and One Direction (Gotta Be You) if the latest midweek chart prediction holds true on the UK Singles Chart, while in the US she literally has no chart competition with Adele's Someone Like You starting to fall down the chart.

And she only just started promotions for the single.

The Bajan megastar took to The X Factor US stage to give the very first live showing of We Found Love. Coupled with a loud backing track and an oddly puffier face (not in a 'SHE GREW FAT'! way, mind), Rihanna jumped around like how you would at a rave when We Found Love starts blasting through the speakers.

Overall, it was an alright performance, rather messy at points, but for the first live showing of the song, it was good.

Selena Gomez - Hit The Lights [Music Video Premiere]

I'll admit, I don't really like Selena Gomez' latest album When the Sun Goes Down because it is what it is, a bunch of songs bigger pop artists rejected. Who Says was fine till she destroyed it with the awful live performances, Love You Like a Love Song was overrated and too robotic, but I'm afraid I'm quite liking the THIRD single Hit the Lights. It's remarkable because Hollywood Records tends to give up on an album after its second single, and promotion for the second single is usually rubbish so it flops (see: Hilary Duff's Stranger and Miley Cyrus' Who Owns My Heart). But Selena's fanbase has taken very well to Love You.. and sent the song to become another hit.

So Hollywood Records have finally started acting like an actual record label and released a third single. It's a move further into electro/pop territory and the further she ventures into this subgenre, the more I like it. Hit the Lights is very much a carefree number about living your life etc. without coming across cheesy to the point where its cringeworthy. And as with every Gomez video, there's always one look where she looks flawless and the rest I'm not too fond of. But overall, I don't like some of the camera angles and the behind the scenes video of the disco ball in the forest and the flashlights party in the middle of the road showed that they could've looked a lot better than those scenes actually did in the video.

Now if only Demi would hurry up with a second single already. All Night Long please.

Katy Perry - The One That Got Away [Music Video Premiere]

Katy Perry, after a successful 5 singles run of which all got to #1 in the US, and 2 of them, namely E.T. and Last Friday Night had Katy underhandedly bringing on rent-a-rappers to the tracks to help push the songs to #1. Ever since the overplayed disaster that is Firework, I've been terribly sick of anything Katy Perry, but what she has done, is excel at putting out truly stellar music videos to ease the pain our ears went through the many many times we turned on the radio to hear it playing Firework.

And with The One That Got Away, Katy's genuinely wrapping up the Teenage Dream era. The video, however, is very much Thinking of You 2.0, of which Thinking of You is by far better than anything she's done. And the tacky beat in The One That Got Away certainly doesn't help. But her stripped down performance of the track on The X Factor UK has made this song incredible, and just behind E.T. as her best single from this album era.

The video is painfully dramatic, but while Thinking of You was brutally sad, The One That Got Away tries its best and comes across second rate compared to Thinking of You. The only unexpected moment of the video came when "the one" drove off a cliff (anyone notice how the boulders in the road were perfectly placed RIGHT SMACK in the middle of the road?), and I would've started tearing if I didn't predict he'd die somehow or if I was a 13 year old girl. This video, much like Britney's Criminal, tries too hard to be overly dramatic to the point where all emotion is stripped away.

Also, someone needs to get rid of that cheap beat in the song.

Big News: MRAs 2011 polls open!

It's time to get voting! The polls for MRAs 2011 are up!

Billboard Update

Rihanna's We Found Love snags another week at #1 on the Hot 100, without even properly promoting the track and she's got a new single along the way. #SinglesQueen Bruno Mars collects the Digital Gainer title and rockets up to #12 with It Will Rain, while Kelly Clarkson falls five spots down to #15 with Mr. Know It All. With the music video imminent, Katy Perry is fiercely gaining serious ground, vaulting up to #18 from #34 with her new track The One That Got Away. Christina Perri is also flying up the chart, with delicate ballad A Thousand Years moving up to #59 while Colbie Caillat inches up to #62 with Brighter Than the Sun. Jessie J's new Stateside single is also on its way up to #67 with Domino. With Glee's return to television screens after a short break, it also marks a return to the charts, with Last Friday Night making its way to #72. Daughtry's new by the numbers track Crawling Back To You moves up to #87 while Scotty McCreery's new single The Trouble With Girls re-enters at #98.

The slew of new entries on the album chart including Justin Bieber's Christmas album, Wale, Miranda Lambert, Susan Boyle and Florence + The Machine spell bad news for other chart entries with Coldplay tumbling six spots to #7 while Kelly Clarkson's Stronger falls eight spots to #10.

The Wanted - Warzone [Music Video Premiere]

If The Wanted weren't a boyband with an army of fangirls and their music was shit, they'd be screwed by now.

The Wanted told press that their previous single Lightning was a "filler" single, and I'm sorry, but which pop act says they put out a "filler" single? Especially since Lightning wasn't released too long ago and the interest for the song would naturally diminish and the song would plummet down the chart. Not to mention they said they had plans to re-issue their upcoming album Battleground with one of the tracks as a duet with an American female recording star. Their album is out now and apparently has started falling down the iTunes chart.

LET ME MANAGE THEM.

Nevertheless, The Wanted have trotted out a new music video when Lightning was released not too long ago, and it's for the new single Warzone, set to be released.... (wait for it).... In January next year. This is a tactic most British pop artists use, except the norm is a month between video release and digital release, but The Wanted have gone for about two months. Fine. Let's hope anticipation for Warzone doesn't die by the time we reach January.

Thankfully, Warzone ticks all the right boxes, and besides being the group's best single lifted off this project, it's also the clear standout song on the album. And let's admit, The Wanted's worse song beats JLS' best song by a clear mile, so you can be reassured Warzone is typical quality The Wanted stuff.

The tune is a moody ballad about being cheated on, with Nathan sounding like sex to your ears on the first verse while Max storms the first chorus. Jay leads the second verse before it becomes a Max/Nathan fest again, which I'd be quite worried for Tom. Being one of the group's more prominent vocalist, and perhaps second vocalist behind Max during their first album era, we don't see or hear much of Tom on Warzone. Even Siva gets more screen time in the clip. And the clip is actually rather simple. From the same director that gave you Glad You Came, Warzone follows their previous two videos in having a scene where the boys are intimate with their girls, which just comes off as a bit sleazy, especially in the Glad You Came video, but in Warzone, it's a quite a good fit and you wouldn't struggle to see why. The video starts off with Nathan seeing the "girl of my dreams cheating on me" with another man and as the video progresses, it leads to the boys catching their lovers red-handed in bed with another lover, and being all dramatic.

Simple, clean, but it works. Now if only they'd let me manage them.

The Saturdays - My Heart Takes Over live @ Alan Carr

Pop girl group The Saturdays are looking to cash in the Christmas holiday season, releasing their fourth album On Your Radar November 21st, the same week as Rihanna, One Direction, Kate Bush, and possibly the last Westlife release ever. Tough competition, not to mention the fact earlier weeks see Pixie Lott, The Wanted, JLS and Susan Boyle trotting out new albums.

However, judging by the album teaser, On Your Radar sounds massive, with the girls turning to electro/pop and stepping it up in terms of production, where their previous hits like Higher, Up and Just Can't Get Enough get exposed for being such basic pop tracks that they are. So even though they're still the biggest girlband in the UK by default, their music's starting to improve too.

But with The Saturdays, their fanbase is always able to clinch good first week sales, then the girls just plummet down the charts the weeks after, and is evident by the album's first two singles Notorious and All Fired Up which have just sunk further and further down the charts, which is a shame because their music's far better than the likes of JLS and Jessie J, so here's hoping On Your Radar makes them massive again like how Chasing Lights managed to make the girls the most exciting new girlband back in 2008.

Of course, nothing sells albums like a good ballad, so the girls have decided to go for a big ballad in the form of the Steve Mac/Ina Wroldsen-penned ballad My Heart Takes Over. To drum up anticipation, the girls dropped by Alan Carr: Chatty Man to perform a remixed version of My Heart Takes Over, which no worries, is FAR better than the remix they did of Missing You on Alan's show last year. The girls had some help on the chorus, but you could still hear Vanessa which is always a good thing.

One Direction - Gotta Be You [Music Video Premiere]

English boyband One Direction have had it pretty easy, with the catchy What Makes You Beautiful introducing the boys to the boyband crowd but doing power pop and pop/rock intead of the club/dance genre JLS have embraced or the straight up pop that The Wanted are excellent at doing.

Gotta Be You follows What Makes You Beautiful and is set for release in November along with their debut album Up All Night. The video for Gotta Be You has the boys outdoors again, and while they look good, there's an overdose of dreary fall/winter fashion like the coats which honestly doesn't suit them as much and too much Liam. Clearly Niall and Louis are the Frankie Sandford and Mollie King of this band.

The song itself is alright, isn't half as interesting as What Makes You Beautiful but they could release Rebecca Black's Friday and steal a hit with it.

Boybands just have it ten times easier.

Billboard Update

Predictably, Rihanna and her Calvin Harris collaboration We Found Love has sailed to the top of the Hot 100, marking it Rihanna's 11th #1 hit, and I will cry when she beats Mariah's record of 18 #1s, which will happen soon. Get on with some hits, Mariah! Rihanna's sail to the top also means Adele's Someone Like You has been pushed down to #2. Meanwhile, Kelly Clarkson sees a massive resurgence for Mr. Know It All, which we all thought was going to flop seeing its massive drop down the chart in its second week. However, the soulful pop/rock midtempo has bounced back up nine spots to #10. Being one of the massive pop superstars on the planet right now means everyone will be ringing you up, and Coldplay did that with RiRi, and their duet on Princess of China arrives at #20 on the chart this week. Also seeing a resurgence is Bruno Mars' It Will Rain, which has risen to a new peak of #21, while Katy Perry's sixth(!) single off Teenage Dream, The One That Got Away, has shot up to #34. Obvious album standout What Doesn't Kill You (Stronger) off Kelly Clarkson's new album Stronger, crashes the chart at #64 while Colbie Caillat's Brighter Than The Sun follows right behind at #65. Jessie J's new American single Domino is also on the rise, moving up to #81 while Christina Perri's A Thousand Years plummets to #91.

Over on the album chart, the unstoppable Coldplay fights off competition from pop heavyweight Kelly Clarkson and pop/jazz crooner Michael Buble to land at #1 with Mylo Xyloto while Stronger lands at #2 while Buble's Christmas album sits at #3. American Idol Season 10 winner Scotty McCreery's Clear as Day seems to have some serious holding power (not Adele terms of holding power, but you get what I mean), as the album stays strong at #7. The runner-up of the same season Lauren Alaina doesn't seem to have as much luck, with her debut album Wildflower falling to #24 despite being released a week after Scotty's album.

Jason DeRulo - Breathing [Music Video Premiere]

Over time, Jason DeRulo has proven himself to be quite reliable to give us some good tunes, some occasionally horribly trashy tracks (Don't Wanna Go Home, Whatcha Say, Ridin' Solo), but this is from the man that gave us In My Head, so he is somewhat forgiven. That said, for his second album Future History, he hasn't been able to produce a hit as massive as In My Head yet, and has already released two singles off the album - the clubby Don't Wanna Go Home and the by the numbers Bruno Mars type of song with It Girl, except without the raw gutsy vocal of Bruno.

Both ultimately forgettable numbers. Now he's on his third single, titled Breathing. Yes, Breathing is another one for the clubs, now that that's out of the way, by mainstream club tracks standard, this is actually decent. There's always the fear of the song going to shit thanks to cheap, generic production ala Nicole Scherzinger's new tune Try With Me, but it just never does. It just gets terribly worryingly close to it. The video for the track itself seems like Jason's a little over four days late for Halloween with the Halloween-themed clip.

Eh, it's no In My Head, but it'll do.

Matt Cardle - Starlight [Music Video Premiere]

I wouldn't blame you if you hated Matt Cardle. After all, for a man who does a lot of talking about how he's credible and has put down The X Factor, the show that was his launching pad, numerous times, yet released a totally generic by the numbers pop/rock single Run For Your Life, co-written by Gary Barlow, with the song showing off the wrong sides of Matt's voice.

Of course, there's the pressure to not become another Leon Jackson or any other male winner of The X Factor, to be dropped as soon as a new X Factor winner comes along. However, seeing the way Run For Your Life has plummeted down the chart, his label are rushing out a new single. Smart move. And it appears to be the markedly better Starlight. But that's not anything to go by because Run For Your Life was really terrible, so anything after that would be an improvement. That said, it's still quite a forgettable tune. But at least it's a likeable forgettable tune. The music video doesn't have much going on either, but if you haven't heard it yet, there you go.

Big News: MRAs 2011 nominations!

Well it's that time of the year again, where the nominations for MRAs are out for the year! This year, I'm revamping some categories, scrapping Comeback Album of the Year, introducing Band/Group of the Year and Summer Anthem of the Year! Check out the nominations below and as usual, the polls will be up around mid-November.

Best Newcomer:
Scotty McCreery
One Direction
Cher Lloyd
Katy B
Ed Sheeran
Christina Perri

Tour of the Year:
Rihanna - Loud Tour
Katy Perry - California Dreams Tour
The Saturdays - Headlines! Tour
Britney Spears - Femme Fatale Tour

Live Performance Of the Year:
Bruno Mars - Runaway Baby (The X Factor UK)
Jennifer Lopez - On The Floor ft. Pitbull (American Idol)
The Wanted - Lightning (Strictly Come Dancing)
Demi Lovato - Skyscraper (America's Got Talent)
Adele - Someone Like You (BRIT Awards)

Song Of The Year:
Adele - Rolling in the Deep
Demi Lovato - Skyscraper
Britney Spears - Till The World Ends
Ke$ha - Blow
The Saturdays - All Fired Up
One Direction - What Makes You Beautiful
Kelly Rowland - Motivation
Lady Gaga - Judas

Summer Anthem of the Year:
The Wanted - Glad You Came
Jennifer Lopez - On the Floor ft. Pitbull
The Saturdays - Notorious
Katy Perry - Last Friday Night (T.G.I.F.)
Nicola Roberts - Beat of My Drum
Maroon 5- Moves Like Jagger ft. Christina Aguilera

Debut Album Of The Year:
Lauren Alaina - Wildflower
Scotty McCreery - Clear as Day
Jessie J - Who You Are
Katy B - On A Mission
Matt Cardle - Letters
Nicola Roberts - Cinderella's Eyes

Album Of The Year:
Lady Antebellum - Own The Night
Kelly Clarkson - Stronger
Adele - 21
Britney Spears - Femme Fatale
Lady Gaga - Born This Way

Music Video Of The Year:
Rihanna - We Found Love
The Saturdays - Notorious
Pixie Lott - What Do You Take Me For? ft. Pusha T
Jennifer Lopez - I'm Into You ft. Lil Wayne
Katy Perry - Last Friday Night (T.G.I.F.)
Britney Spears - I Wanna Go
Rihanna - Man Down
Ke$ha - Blow

Artist Of the Year:
Rihanna
Jennifer Lopez
Katy Perry
Adele
Kelly Clarkson
Demi Lovato

Band/Group of the Year:
The Saturdays
The Wanted
One Direction
Lady Antebellum

Thoughts?

David Cook - Fade Into Me [Music Video Premiere]

RCA Records are really pissing away David Cook's This Loud Morning album campaign aren't they? They first kicked off the campaign with The Last Goodbye which was not radio-friendly and hardly had any crossover appeal which helped him get hits from his platinum-selling debut album such as Light On and Come Back To Me. Furthermore, with the dance trend taking over the charts, artists like David Cook have it even tougher to break onto the charts.

After The Last Goodbye underperformed, RCA have decided to release the completely forgettable and album-filler track Fade Into Me. The video itself is one of those "tour memories" kind of videos with clips of David on tour between clips of just David singing. It's obviously a low budget affair, but the good thing is it doesn't look it. Nevertheless, I would rather RCA release Circadian than this standard, generic, MOR rock midtempo.

Big News: The Wanted premiere "Warzone"!

It's pretty full on for Britain's boybands, with JLS releasing their summer #1 She Makes Me Wanna in July and now on their Bruno Mars-aping second single Take A Chance On Me, while teen heart throbs One Direction had their first single clocking in the highest first week sales of 2011 with What Makes You Beautiful effortlessly sailing to #1 and have moved on to their second single Gotta Be You, wintery like The Saturdays' My Heart Takes Over, while The Wanted also hit the #1 spot back in July with the club banger Glad You Came, then with just performed the second album Battleground's second single Lightning on The X Factor and Strictly Come Dancing, The Wanted boys have premiered their new single Warzone on radio.

I disliked Glad You Came for being everything I didn't want a Wanted track to be - clubby. Then they were back in my good books with the anthemic Lightning, with Warzone continuing this streak of good songs. Both Lightning and Warzone sound like more mature takes on the songs tackled on their #4 debut album released last year. Warzone is a moody ballad with Nathan and Max sounding incredible on it.

If you still, however, haven't tired of Lightning, check out the boys donning yellow contacts to perform a "Halloween-themed" version of the single on Strictly Come Dancing and an acoustic version below it.

JoJo - Disaster [Music Video Premiere]

After ten years, JoJo has finally released the music video for her new pop/rock/R&B-tinged single Disaster which has only just been released to radio. The song debuted at #87 on the Billboard Hot 100 for a week, before quickly disappearing, but let's hope with this, the girl will be on her way up again, back into the upper reaches of the Top 10 where she truly deserves. (Whether that can happen in 2011 is another story altogether though)

The video for Disaster is relatively simple, with JoJo in a dysfunctional relationship, playing her guitar to drown on her partner's shouting, and singing her wee little heart out with her band. Typical JoJo video then.

Nothing groundbreaking, but here's hoping somehow or another, this becomes a MASSIVE hit.

Nicole Scherzinger on Alan Carr + Try With Me [Music Video Premiere]

Well apparently miracles do happen. Remember how Nicole Scherzinger was on The Graham Norton sometime back, one of the funniest British talkshows EVER, and she managed to be completely boring to the point where it'd be more interesting to watch paint dry for 40-odd minutes? And then I started disliking her intensely after Cheryl-gate.

But imagine my surprise when I watched her interview with Alan Carr. Nicole actually showed personality by the bucketload, and is one of her interviews I actually laughed along with. Part of it could be due to Alan himself, but even he couldn't make Jessie J's interview half interesting. This interview brought me back to PCD days where I actually liked her, and quite a big deal too. So check out Nicole returning to old Nicole in the interview above, where Nicole does a spot-on Britney imitation and then teaching Alan how to yodel.

---

But the real reason why she jetted off to the UK amidst being a mentor on the US series of X Factor, is that she's got a new single out called Try With Me. The music video premiered some days back, and was shot in a rainforest in Mexico, where the song opens as a beautiful ballad, with Nicole singing angelically over the lush track.. Right before the trashy and cheap dance beats kick in and everything goes to hell. Eh. It should've stayed a ballad, or should've been better produced. It's not a great track either. But Try With Me is the lead single off the re-release of her debut album Killer Love.

Of course, Nicole had to do some singing while in the UK. She hit the X Factor UK to do some singing, where my issue with the song being a ballad for the entire song still stands. It's not embeddable, so check out Nicole still doing a better job of Cher Lloyd singing live on the stage here.

But just the track wise, With Ur Love >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> Try With Me

Christina Perri - A Thousand Years [Music Video Premiere]

Two of the world's biggest singer/songwriters at the minute, Jar of Hearts singer Christina Perri and Grenade crooner Bruno Mars, are each contributing to the soundtrack of the upcoming Twilight film - Breaking Dawn Part I. Bruno was the first to charge ahead with moody ballad It Will Rain but the music video is delayed, which means Christina Perri's similarly moody ballad will go first. Titled A Thousand Years, this fits Christina perfectly, and I remember saying when she first debuted, her music was so appropriate for moody and dramatic shows like The Vampire Diaries and Twilight.

Hey ho, fast forward to October 2011, here we are. A Thousand Years isn't as good as It Will Rain, but Christina has had a few vocal issues lately so she probably doesn't want to strain it on this track. The clip itself is pretty simple with Christina with candles all around whenever scenes from Breaking Dawn aren't playing.

It's no The Lonely, but it'll do.

The Wanted - Lightning [Music Video Premiere]

I know I'm late to the party but it's because I forgot to post it. Anyway, UK boyband The Wanted are onto their sophomore album Battleground's second single Lightning which follows the massively successful #1 lead single Glad You Came. (No I don't consider the Comic Relief Single Gold Forever a proper single off Battleground.) If you hated The Wanted's shift into the clubby Ibiza rave-vibe, have no fear as Lightning harks back to classic The Wanted territory with the song marrying electro, pop and a slice of pop/rock as well, before the anthemic chorus erupts and all is good in the world.

The video doesn't exactly do much for me, it's just the boys standing around looking pretty while Nathan blows up a car, but it sounds a lot better than the disastrous radio rip which sounded like an unfinished demo. The song's #2 on the UK Chart midweeks, overtaken by Rihanna's We Found Love (thanks to that incredible video), but it should go on to become a winner for them.

Billboard Update

Adele's monster ballad Someone Like You is still unstoppable, reigning at #1 on the Hot 100 for yet another week. Rihanna picks up the Airplay Gainer title and rises up to #6, and hopefully after that amazing music video, she'll be heading further upwards. Kelly Clarkson's Mr. Know It All seems to be seeing a resurgence, rising back up to #24 this week while Bruno Mars' It Will Rain vaults up to #47 this week. Also heading up is Colbie Caillat, as Brighter Than the Sun floats up to #65. After dropping the music video, Britney Spears' Criminal makes a debut at #92 on the Hot 100 while fellow pop tarts Katy Perry and Jessie J's latest tunes The One That Got Away and Domino arrive at #94 and #96.

Over on the albums chart, Evanescence' self-titled album debut at #1 while Adele's 21 holds at #2. American Idol Season 10 finalists Scotty McCreery and Lauren Alaina see their debut studio albums Clear as Day and Wildflower at #4 and #5 respectively.

Rihanna - We Found Love [Music Video Premiere]

In four and a half minutes, Rihanna has explored every bit of love, from the fights, the sex, the club raves, the drugs, the unhappiness, and the utter bliss, and has delivered basically the best pop video of the year. The clip for We Found Love starts off slow and introspective, with a very Skins UK ring to it, with a narrator saying "It’s like screaming, but no one can hear. You almost feel ashamed that some one could be that important, that without them, you feel like nothing. No one will ever understand how much it hurts. You feel hopeless, like nothing can save you. But when it’s over, and it’s gone, you almost wish that you could have all that bad stuff back, so that you could have the good."

Before the song starts in a surprising, almost celebratory element to the video, where Rihanna and her lover go through different phases of the relationship. Both sad and fun at the same time.

RiRi's landed herself another winner.

Britney Spears - Criminal [Music Video Premiere]

Oh Britney. As a whole, the Femme Fatale has been a hit and miss for me. The styling of the entire era was a bit generic, the album itself left me cold, but it did bring us the fabulous bonus tracks Up N Down and Scary. Britney's already easily scored three other top 10 hits with Femme Fatale and now onto her fourth single Criminal, Brit Brit dropped by London to film the unnecessarily dramatic music video.

The clip starts off with Socialite Spears getting bullied by her English husband, before getting slapped by him with real life beau Jason Trawick stepping in as Mr. Criminal to save her. Then the unnecessary drama starts, with B shoplifting and a whole lot of sex scenes and running off with Mr. Criminal and the police fail to catch them.

Like I said, unnecessarily dramatic, especially since Britney isn't the finest actress we've seen around doubling as massive popstars, and overall, the clip doesn't do much for me.

Still, I would like to see this become a hit since it's one of the songs I immediately liked from Femme Fatale.

Billboard Update

Adele's Someone Like You still reigns over the Hot 100 while Rihanna moves up to #7 with new single We Found Love. Kelly Clarkson's Mr. Know It All is finally seeing a small resurgence, moving up to #27 from #30 last week. Daughtry's new single Crawling Back To You makes an entrance at #41 amidst Glee's entries this week with Fix You starting off at #53, and Run The World (Girls) at #91. Bruno Mars' contribution to the Twilight movie Breaking Dawn Part 1 takes a massive tumble to #64 after it's debut at #28 last week while Colbie Caillat stays fixed at a sexually suggestive #69 with Brighter Than The Sun. This week also sees Beyonce's Party debut at #95 and Jennifer Lopez' Papi making an appearance at #96.

The tenth American Idol Scotty McCreery has broken a record for being the youngest male artist in history to debut atop the Billboard 200 Albums Chart in terms of debut albums, and the first country act to debut at #1 with their first studio album. And as usual, Adele holds strong right behind at #2.

Olly Murs - Dance With Me Tonight [Music Video Premiere]

British pop singer/songwriter Olly Murs has done pretty well for himself post The X Factor, spinning out a far more successful pop career compared to winner Joe McElderry who's found success in Opera-styled music (the lad has a really good voice, so if you're bored with nothing to do, YouTube him). Last year, Olly picked up a #1 single and his self-titled debut album went double platinum. This year, he scored yet another #1 with his upcoming second album In Case You Didn't Know's lead single Heart Skips a Beat. With a new job on the X Factor as the Xtra Factor host, it's full speed ahead and will release his new single Dance With Me Tonight in November.

As usual with British artists, the music videos are unveiled a month before the single release, so now that we're in the middle of October, here we have Olly in the video for Dance With Me Tonight. The clip starts off with Olly getting sent to jail. "SAY WHAT OLLY HAS BECOME A BAD BOY?" Unfortunately, it's not exactly shaving his head and attacking the paparazzi with an umbrella. In a romantic gesture, Olly took a car for a spin, to show up at a girl's house inviting her to dance with him, what with fireworks and all. Of course, it's in the night, so the poor Granny next door can't take all that noise, calling the police in. Hey ho, Olly's in jail.

"Help! Someone help! We can't breathe!" - Olly Murs' testicles in his tight pants.

The Saturdays - My Heart Takes Over [Music Video Premiere]

Usually when it comes to proper anthemic ballads, filming a music video, especially one for a girl group has a pretty standard fomula, chuck the girls into a pretty country with a pretty backdrop as scenery while they look wistfully into the camera drowning their sorrows in song.

And it's exactly what The Saturdays have done for the music video for their brand new single My Heart Takes Over which will be released a week before their upcoming fourth album On Your Radar will hit stores. The song by itself is strong, but a little bland and forgettable, but the video is absolutely stunning and suits the song very well, with Vanessa emoting really well while the other girls look either stunning (Una, Mollie) or in pain from the harsh weather (Frankie, Rochelle). Nevertheless, Queen Vanessa owns the entire clip and song.

Amazing.

Billboard Update

After the release of the music video for Someone Like You a while back, it's put the Adele track right atop the Hot 100 once again, pushing Maroon 5 and Moves Like Jagger to #2. Thanks to Airplay Gains, Rihanna vaults straight into the Top 10 at #9 this week with We Found Love after its debut at #16 last week. Jason DeRulo sneaks into the Top 20 with It Girl moving up to #18 this week while Bruno Mars' new track It Will Rain for the Twilight film debuts at #28 with Kelly Clarkson's Mr. Know It All two places behind at the rim of the Top 30. Colbie Caillat's Brighter Than The Sun moves to a new peak of #69 this week, then there's the weekly Glee chart invasion with Somewhere at #75.

Over on the albums chart, J. Cole runs to #1 with Adele sitting at #3 behind the new Blink 182 album. Demi Lovato's Unbroken takes a ten spot slip to #14.

Pixie Lott - What Do You Take Me For [Music Video Premiere]

This week saw Pixie Lott premiere the music video for her new single What Do You Take Me For which features Pusha T and comes after her UK chart-topping but totally generic All About Tonight. What Do You Take Me For takes things into a more soulful direction, dabbling with a bit dubstep without being desperate (Sugababes' Freedom) and is completely snazzy and all sorts of amazing. I'm even liking the album title of Young Foolish Happy now. Girl just needs to use a different picture for the album cover.

Nevertheless, the music video sees Pixie sometimes rather awkwardly trying to pussy pop and everything, but she still looks hot. Well, when she's not looking awkward. The music video as itself is quite stylish, with some part looking like high fashion photoshoots rather than a new music from one of Britain's most talked about female pop artists.

It's a good video, yes. It's an even better song, yes. However, I can't help but think all the personality and soul has been sucked out of her. What happened to the 2009 Pixie Lott?

Big News: Listen to Kelly Clarkson's "What Doesn't Kill You"!

When people were anticipating, Kelly Clarkson's comeback, everyone was hoping she'd return with another manbashing tune ala Since U Been Gone or a ginormous pop song with a stadium sized chorus in the vein of My Life Would Suck Without You. And with reports the first single to be released off her fifth studio album Stronger was called Mr. Know It All, speculation hit the roof.

However, with the soulful sounds of Mr. Know It All being instant radio food and a slow grower, the single has so far done a peak at #18 on the Hot 100 in its debut week and has started to shuffle down the charts. People started to turn away from softly sassy Kelly, but Kelly has recently uploaded album cut What Doesn't Kill You (Stronger) to her YouTube channel, saying a lot of variations of this song has been leaked online and wanted everyone to hear the real one - basically what she's saying is this is the real one, it's the new single, now listen to it.

And it's good. It's not as outrightly pop/rock as Since U Been Gone or Never Again, though it may start out like it could, once it hits the chorus, it takes a more pop lane right smack into P!nk territory.

If people didn't like Mr. Know It All, they might warm right back to Kelly with this. Take a listen below.

Big News: The Saturdays unveil album title + tracklisting!

The Saturdays are getting bigger and bigger with each release, as evident by the first week sales of their last track All Fired Up which managed to shift about 70, 000 copies, landing at #3 on the UK Singles Chart behind Pixie Lott's 88K-selling #1 All About Tonight and Hot 100 #1 Maroon 5's Moves Like Jagger. Clearly, their label are trying to place the girls in the competitive chart release weeks so when they finally get a #1, it will actually mean something unlike some of JLS' mindless tunes that nab top spot easily.

The girls have announced the album title for their fourth album, which takes a line from All Fired Up, and is officially called On Your Radar. Personally, it's a bit of a meh title, it doesn't hit hard like Chasing Lights, Wordshaker or Headlines!. Personally, if they were going to take the title from a lyric, then in my opinion, Against The Speakers would be slightly better. But no worries.

The Sats have also unveiled the album's tracklisting which you can take a look below:
1. All Fired Up (Xenomania and Space Cowboy)
2. Notorious (Ina Wroldsen and Steve Mac)
3. Faster (Ina Wroldsen and Steve Mac)
4. My Heart Takes Over (Ina Wroldsen and Steve Mac)
5. White Lies (Ina Wroldsen, Carl Falk and Rami Yacoub)
6. For Myself (TBA)
7. The Way You Watch Me - Tanya Lacey and Lucas Secon
8. Do What You Want With Me - (Jaz Rogers and Bryn Christopher)
9. Promise Me - (The Saturdays, Steve Daly, Jon Keep and Ali Tennant)
10. Wish I Didn't Know (The Saturdays, Steve Daly, Jon Keep and Ali Tennant)
11. Get Ready, Get Set (TBA)
12. Last Call (Una, Lucie Silvas and Chris Holmes)
13. I Say Ok (The Saturdays, David Eriksen and Nina Woodford)

A lot of "me, myself, and I" going on here. Eh?

Nevertheless, the girls will be releasing the album on November 21st, a week after third single My Heart Takes Over gets released, where the album will face competition from JLS and Pixie Lott the week before, then One Direction and Westlife on the release week itself. Hopefully The Saturdays know what they're doing because that massive competition could spell danger for the album's chart run.

The album cover should be unveiled any time soon, but meanwhile, check out the girls blasting Forever Is Over for Ireland's Arthur's Day.

Billboard Update

The Christina Aguilera-assisted single Moves Like Jagger may be still on top of the Hot 100, but come next week, Adele and Rihanna could overthrow Maroon 5 and Xtina, especially with Adele's Someone Like You collecting the Airplay Gainer Title while staying firmly at #2. Rihanna's new single We Found Love makes a Top 20 appearance, debuting at #16 this week while Jason DeRulo's new track It Girl rises to #24. Kelly Clarkson's Mr. Know It All takes a three spot slip down to #38. Disney starlets Demi Lovato and Selena Gomez move up the chart with Demi's Skyscraper standing at #55 while Selena's tune Love You Like A Love Song is right behind with #56. Glee is back for a new season and so are its tunes, with It's Not Unusual debuting at #65, You Can't Stop The Beat at #67 and We Got The Beat at #83. It's the release weeks of Demi Lovato's Unbroken album, and album cuts Fix A Heart and title track Unbroken land on the chart at #69 and #98 respectively.

Over on the albums chart, Tony Bennett's Duets II album opens at #1, trailed by Lady Antebellum's Own The Night, Adele's 21 and Demi Lovato's third studio album Unbroken in that order to #4.

Big News: Diana Vickers co-writes new Enrique Iglesias single!

Moments ago on Twitter, British singer Diana Vickers tweeted some exciting news - she co-wrote Enrique Iglesias' new single Mouth2Mouth featuring Jennifer Lopez!

It's a big deal considering Diana's status. The pop darling rose to fame on The X Factor, finishing fourth, before putting out her debut #1 album and single Songs From The Tainted Cherrytree and Once respectively. Unfortunately, the campaign took a beating when follow-up single The Boy Who Murdered Love fell short of the album and first single's success, stalling at #36 on the UK Singles Chart. Then back into the studio Diana went, before releasing My Wicked Heart, the first single released off a revamped version of Songs From The Tainted Cherrytree. However, despite landing a massive gig on The X Factor, the poor girl only made #13 on the UK Singles Chart. Then, the reworked album was scrapped, and Diana "parted ways" with RCA Records, which basically means she was dropped.

Cue tears.

Since then, Miss Vickers has kept herself busy, working on some new music in LA with various writers and producers to be released on an EP due out either later this year on early next year.

However, with Diana Vickers landing a songwriting cut on Enrique Iglesias' new single, will record labels start to be interested again? It's encouraging a pop artist like Diana herself is starting over again by building up her name writing for other artists. Not something you'd catch Rihanna or Selena Gomez doing. In a way, the pop industry needs people like Diana, pop artists that know what a good pop track should be about.

Get 'dem songwriting royalties Diana.

Take a listen to Enrique Iglesias' Mouth2Mouth featuring Jennifer Lopez below, and then some all of Diana's ace singles of her own.









Also, if you've missed Diana's speaking voice, you can take a listen to Diana confirming the Enrique co-write.

Adele - Someone Like You [Music Video Premiere]

No colour, half a year late, shot in Paris. Really, what else were you expecting?

Big News: The Saturdays unveil new single "My Heart Takes Over"!

At a Polydor record label meeting, The Saturdays' upcoming third single was mentioned and rumours started flying, with the title supposedly being Heart Takes Over, before The Saturdays confirmed yesterday that the official title is My Heart Takes Over. Everyone was hoping Mollie would land an angelic middle eight, and that the girls would get themselves their own Girls Aloud's Call The Shots/Pussycat Dolls' I Hate This Part. However, the girls premiered their single on Radio 1 just moments ago, with Mollie phoning in herself to premiere the track.

And hey ho. What everyone thought it was, isn't. I always thought Missing You was their I Hate This Part/Call The Shots, and their new single isn't exactly Issues Part II either, it bites a lot harder than the tender, singalong track that Issues was, with Vanessa starting things off with an amazingly angelic verse, before the anthemic chorus hits you in the face like a ton of bricks with all five girls singing in perfect harmony. Rochelle starts the second verse, before the POWEERRRRRR chorus again, then we have Vanessa on the bridge again, before some belting and we launch into the final chorus.

I can't deal with how good Vanessa sounds on this. Let's hope she doesn't disappoint live.

The girls are flying to Iceland for this week to shoot the video, so expect a Christmassy video, much like Blue's Breathe Easy clip.

Peep the full track and official single cover below.

They're really not letting Pixie off with snatching their #1 earlier this month are they, with Pixie just premiering her new single and The Saturdays stealing her thunder now with this.

Also, the girls have squashed rumours they'll be taking a break with Una being pregnant. #SLAY

Big News: Pixie Lott unveils new single "What Do You Take Me For"!

Apart from being a little sore Pixie Lott beat the likes of The Saturdays and Leona Lewis from getting the UK #1 spot on the Singles Chart, especially since All Fired Up and Collide >>>>>>>>>>>> All About Tonight, and with things being a little quiet over at Sats camp and Leona pushing the release of her album till early next year with Collide doing unexpectedly rather badly by Leona's standards, Pixie has unleashed her new single on us.

The next single isn't out till November 6th, but like how she released the video for All About Tonight ten years before its release, What Do You Take Me For looks set to do the same. Radio 1 premiered the track and honestly, I actually do quite like this one. I loved Pixie to bits when she was on her first album era, then she just milked Turn It Up all she could, shoving ten average to terrible songs onto the tracklisting to make a Turn It Up Louder. All About Tonight also didn't deserve the #1, but What Do You Take Me For is jazzy and sassy. All that I didn't like about the track is that never needed those features, and her voice sounds overly gruff when the chorus comes along.

Still, The Sats + Leona >>>> Pixie 2011

Kelly Clarkson - Mr. Know It All [Music Video Premiere]

Kelly Clarkson premiered the video for the official music video for her new soulful tune out battling with the likes of Rihanna and Katy Perry on radio called Mr. Know It All. Promotion is already underway and following a few live performances, the video is finally here. The simple video shows Kelly singing in front of a "wall of doubt" which has the usual negative Kelly headlines ("Too fat", "still single" etc.) before we see her tearing them all down to walk towards a brighter future. It's a nice enough video, and she looks uber hot, but damn, couldn't they at least have filmed another scene with something happening instead of Kelly standing there looking pretty in front of a green screen?

Billboard Update

Maroon 5's Moves Like Jagger collaboration with Christina Aguilera is still dominating the Hot 100, trailed by Adele and Someone Like You at #2, picking up the Airplay Gainer Title. Rihanna just premiered her new single We Found Love, but last single from previous album Loud, Cheers (Drink To That) has just risen to a new peak of #8. Jason DeRulo's It Girl has gone up 8 spots to hit a new peak of #30. Kelly Clarkson's new single Mr. Know It All has fallen off the rails a little, dropping to #35 this week after a debut at #18. Hopefully with promotions in full swing, Kelly's single heads up next week. Colbie Caillat's Brighter Than The Sun is inching its way up, with the summery track hitting #71 this week while Adele's Set Fire To The Rain stays put at #72.

Lady Antebellum's Own The Night sits comfortably atop the Album Charts, while Adele's 21 holds strong at #2.

Big News: Rihanna premieres "We Found Love"

She may have only dropped Cheers (Drink To That), the last single off her last studio album Loud, but one of the world's biggest popstars Rihanna is back with a new lead single. In between going on a world tour and single releases, Rihanna found the time to record a whole new album full of songs and is going ahead with the Calvin Harris produced We Found Love to lead into the new album era.

On first listen, We Found Love is underwhelming, but it's noticeably more dance than all the fusion of dance/pop at the moment. But it's not TOO house that radio would snub it. On repeated listens, it does get better, but there's no sugar rush ala Only Girl (In The World), and this song's longevity on the charts might suffer because of that.

It's a pleasant song, but I'm just tired of this type of sound dominating the charts.

Sara Bareilles - Gonna Get Over You [Music Video Premiere]

Things have been on the quiet side for jazzy singer/songwriter Sara Bareilles, who even though released a #1 album last year with Kaleidoscope Heart with a big hit of a lead single, the smart and snazzy King of Anything, has been laying low ever since her last single Uncharted flopped due to its terribly lazy music video.

However, hoping to revive the album, Bareilles and her label have decided to breathe some life into the project, releasing a third single from the album called Gonna Get Over You and putting it out on iTunes with OneRepublic frontman Ryan Tedder whom she's collaborated with before on the achingly beautiful Come Home.

But back to Gonna Get Over You, Sara has dropped the video for it hoping to get people interested again, with the lovesick but positive Sara crooning about getting over someone soon, spreading joy and positivity throughout a grocery store with her hair up in a ponytail, heavy eye make up and leather jacket completing her fierce look.

Brilliant.

Kelly Clarkson - Mr. Know It All + Since U Been Gone live @ Ellen

Promotions for Kelly Clarkson's most recent Top 20 hit Mr. Know It All kicked off recently with the soulful songstress hitting up the Tonight Show with Jay Leno and it appears Kelly's continuing the talkshow rounds, this time dropping by The Ellen DeGeneres Show to perform Mr. Know It All and specially for the Internet viewers and studio audience, a blast back to past with her massive hit Since U Been Gone. It's clear to see Kelly's voice isn't as great as it used to be, and she definitely can't sustain notes for such a long time now, but she looks gorgeous and is still an engaging performer.



Also, check out a teaser for the Mr. Know It All video which drops Monday.

Nicola Roberts - BBC Breakfast Show Interview

Nicola Robert's interviews have been pretty much the same lately, with the British singer being asked "how was it like stepping out of Girls Aloud? Were you nervous?" etc. and Nicola hasn't really had the chance to talk about just herself and her solo music. However, on Nicola's recent visit to BBC's Breakfast Show, sticks + stones' lyric video was played and they spent half the time properly getting into the song's personal subject matter of being called "ugly", which she spoke about openly so it's an interesting insight into Nicola's world.

Then there's her totally cute interview at The Crush earlier this week.

Kelly Clarkson - Mr. Know It All live @ Tonight Show with Jay Leno

It appears the promotional campaign for Kelly Clarkson's new single Mr. Know It All has finally kicked off with the American Idol alum debuting the soulful single on television for the first time last night on the Tonight Show with Jay Leno. Unfortunately, while Mr. Know It All is amazing as a track by itself, but it doesn't really work live. Perhaps it was just Kelly debuting herself again with a new album era, but it wasn't as confident as some of Kelly's better performances but hopefully after a few more performances with Mr. Know it All live, Kelly will start properly rocking the stage again.

Jennifer Lopez - Papi [Music Video Premiere]

J.Lo may have hit the big ol' 40, but the Latina is still stopping traffic and the object of desire of many men in her new video for Papi and in real life. The video starts off with Jenny taking a bite out of a love cookie, before heading out the next day to be chased by every heterosexual male that sets eyes on her, and Jenny has the impossible task of running away from the group of guys in her white Fiat, before being dragged out of her car and having a dance breakdown with the guys.

However, I could've dealt with another high fashion, full of lens flare, exotic theme to the Papi video, but it was already utilised for the I'm Into You video. So unfortunately, Team Jenny have run out of a few ideas and pulled this one instead, which felt like a long running 5 minute commercial for Fiat than a new music video for Jennifer. Make no mistake, the video had it's entertaining moments, but it's not a great MUSIC video.

Demi Lovato - Skyscraper live @ ALMA Awards

You may have heard Demi Lovato perform her Top 10 single Skyscraper before, but she's never performed it like this before. The interesting thing about Demi is how her growth as a performer is staggering, when she used to stand and flick her hair to the music. These days, it seems the teen starlet is actually putting some effort in making each performance a special one. Her first televised performance at the Do Something Awards had her rising from the stage, and the second at America's Got Talent played around with fire, and now, we've got Demi performing the second verse and chorus of the song in Spanish, bringing out a choir and then rising "like a skyscraper" at the end of the performance.

Brilliant. Oh, and Demi's album has leaked. Nothing exceptional minus Skyscraper and All Night Long. It might need some time to grow on me.

Billboard Update

It seems the MTV VMAs can only do so much. Maroon 5 and Christina Aguilera's Moves Like Jagger dethrones Adele's Someone Like You from the #1 spot after only one week with Maroon 5 and co. picking up the Digital Gainer title while Adele settles for #2. Rihanna just sneaks into the top 10 of the Hot 100 with her bland new single Cheers (Drink To That) at #10, making it upteenth Top 10 single on the Hot 100. Despite RCA screwing her over and over, time and again, Kelly Clarkson powers through as her new single Mr. Know It All debuts at #18 on the chart this week. Jason DeRulo's It Girl is really leaping up the chart, vaulting up to #38 up from #61. Demi Lovato is still continuing on a upward trend as Skyscraper rises to #60. Poor Beyonce. It seems being pregnant only gets you so much press, and Love On Top plummets half the spots of the Hot 100, falling from #20 to #70 this week. Adele's got another track round the corner as Set Fire To The Train makes a new peak of #72. Colbie Caillat's latest Brighter Than The Sun moves up to #82 while American Idol winner Scotty McCreery lands himself at #84 with The Trouble With Girls. After a multiple year of absence on the Hot 100, everyone's favourite childhood pop star JoJo has finally made a return with the pop/rock stomper Disaster debuting at #87.

Over on the albums chart, Lil Wayne holds strong with Tha Carter IV hogging the top spot, closely followed by Brit sensation Adele at #2.

Big News: Demi Lovato debuts All Night Long

Skyscraper may be just picking up those radio spins, but Demi Lovato's moving on soon. The Disney starlet promised she'd be doing some hawt R&B/Pop/Dance in the vein of Rihanna and Keri Hilson. Then she laid a smackdown on us with the most sincere ballad from an American artist released this year with Skyscraper.

Now though, she's actually bringing the R&B/Dance fusion with her upcoming album Unbroken's lead single All Night Long. The song is a bratty track that isn't actually dancey, but it's bold and different from anything Demi's done before. The chorus subtly hits but you know when it hits, and the repetitive "all night long" hook keeps the song stuck in your head. In true R&B fashion, Demi's got a rent-a-rapper on board, with Missy Elliot sounding more like Lil Wayne than herself on the track.

It's a good track, but overall, a little messy. Looks like we're getting half of Demi's musical tastes from her previous work (Skyscraper), and keeping up with the trends with All Night Long for her upcoming album. Also, besides the fact that Alexandra Burke has a single with the same title, it actually sounds very Alexandra Burke-ish. Something I see her doing for her next album era.

You can check out the track in all its medium quality glory below.

Big News: The Wanted premiere "Lightning"!

When boyband The Wanted went on their headlining theatre Behind Bars Tour earlier this year, they debuted a new song called Lightning which had an interesting sound to it - where it had a little rocky sound to it and had an amazing chorus that seemed to stop time. They continued playing the song at subsequent gigs. And above is Lightning receiving its radio debut. While I was head over heels for their live version, I'm not jumping about for this track in the studio version.

The verses seem very clogged up with haphazard production beats, and it's only when the beats and production clear up at the chorus that the song starts to shine. It might need some time to grow on me.

But to remind you this song is actually half decent, you can watch their performance of the same song on the iTunes Festival this year that sounds a billion times better than the radio rip.

Big News: Nicola Roberts unveils "sticks + stones"

Firework. Raise Your Glass. Born This Way. Who Says. All of those songs above were released by Katy Perry (ridiculously successful pop artist with a gorgeous face and a lovely pair of tits); P!nk (an outspoken pop rebel that's scored with the masses); Lady Gaga (2009's breakout pop artist that have people believing she's a God); Selena Gomez (produced by the Disney machine and selling by the millions to little girls across the world). Then you have Nicola Roberts. Now, while Nicola's music and voice combined beats all those pop tarts I just mentioned, she hasn't exactly found success as a solo act, away from Girls Aloud.

But just yesterday, Nicola premiered a ballad called sticks + stones off her upcoming debut solo album Cinderella's Eyes. First single Beat of My Drum didn't go down well with British audiences, stalling at #27, and as for her upcoming second single Lucky Day, no one really knows how it's going to do.

But this is different. See, while Katy may be screeching BAABBYY YOU'RE A FIIIIIIIRRRREEEWOOOOOOOOORK off the top of a castle in Europe, Selena Gomez running around the streets telling her little fans "Who says you're not perfect?" etc., Nicola's telling the tale as the one getting taunted. And it's not that difficult to see why, since Nicola's always got a bit of a reputation as the "ugly one", "quiet one", "angsty one" in Girls Aloud, and has experienced this massive criticism in the public eye.

But through this album cut, Nicola tells the tale through her eyes. The simple piano-backed ballad has lyrics directly referencing to those comments such as:

Couldn't you tell lies to me? / Couldn't you say I'm pretty?
Sticks and stones hurt just a little
With all the mean words they're ugly / Starting to see I'm lucky
How funny that I was too young for so many things / Yet you thought I'd cope with being told I'm ugly / Over and over I'd read it, believe it
I am pretty in my mirror, easy to pretend

Then there's the line that directly reference to joining Girls Aloud and winning Popstars: The Rivals when she was 17 with:

17 and I thought I'd won the jackpot / Seems I didn't read between the lines of this one

I'm still gobsmacked by this brutal honesty, tbh

Billboard Update

After landing a slot at the Video Music Awards, Adele soared straight to the top of the iTunes Chart and is now standing proudly at #1 on the Hot 100 as well, pushing last week's #1 Maroon 5's Moves Like Jagger to #2. Rihanna remains entrenched outside the Top 10 at #11 with Cheers (Drink To That). Also after a VMAs slot and the use of her pregnancy as publicity, Beyonce's Love on Top debuts at #20 while Lady Antebellum's promo single Dancin' Away With My Heart enters the chart at #50. Another Adele track is picking up speed as Set Fire To The Rain rises up to #80.

Lil Wayne tops the Billboard 200 Albums Chart with his latest Tha Carter IV selling close to a million records while Adele and Beyonce enjoy some sales resurgence after the VMAs with Adele staying strong at #3 and picking up the Greatest Gainer Title and Beyonce's 4 pulling up to #7. Jessie J's debut album Who You Are makes a re-entrance at #79.

Nicola Roberts - Lucky Day live @ Sainsbury Super Saturday

Growing in confidence with each live performance is Nicola Roberts, who's moved on from her tanked debut single Beat of My Drum to the safer in comparison second single Lucky Day. The summery pop tune was televised live for the first time at Sainsbury Super Saturday where Nicola turned in one of her better live performance, with much emphasis placed on her vocals, sung along to a backing track that doesn't get too loud, since Nicola tends to get ahead of herself and let her warbling opera-tic vocals run amok.

Also, I'm slayed by that intro. And my Ginger Princess is really looking gorgeous now.

The Saturdays - Jonathan Ross Interview

British girl group The Saturdays still have about a day left to claim the #1 spot away from Pixie Lott and her generic single All About Tonight, so on Saturday night, the girls dropped by The Jonathan Ross Show for a little chat and they're starting to really up the fashion stakes and look amazing now. Apart from looking pretty, the girls also discussed Rochelle's keen sense of smell with Jonathan. Ha.

Although who are we kidding, a #2 or #3 spot is more likely now.

Big News: Leona Lewis talks upcoming album 'Glassheart'

Just over a week ago, pretty much everyone thought Leona Lewis was going to bag the #1 by the end of the week with the anthemic club banger Collide to be debuted on Simon Cowell's new show Red or Black? which attracted millions of viewers, easily beating out Pixie Lott's new single All About Tonight and The Saturdays' new tune All Fired Up. However, when all three singles hit iTunes, The Saturdays pulled ahead quickly, making mincemeat of Pixie Lott and especially Leona Lewis. However, after hitting #1 on iTunes, The Saturdays took a dip, overtaken by Pixie Lott while Leona Lewis took her own sweet time to crack the upper reaches of the Top 10 on iTunes. However, over on the Irish Singles Chart, Leona beat Pixie and The Saturdays, landing at #3 while The Sats arrived at #6 and Pixie at #10.

Nevertheless, Leona Lewis had a chat with Digital Spy and we've learnt a few things about her upcoming third studio album Glassheart to be released at the end of the year and upcoming single promotions.

1. Leona will be heading overseas to promote Collide.
For Collide, Leona will be dropping by "Japan, Australia and maybe Germany; just travelling and taking it week by week", no sign of the States there then?

2. The much buzzed about title track off the album is another Tedder tune.
Ryan Tedder may have given her her best work so far in the form of Bleeding Love, but there's no excuse for the terrible Happy. So to see Leona's booking studio time with the OneRepublic frontman is very much an ugh thought. Nevertheless, the title track, "we wrote, I remember, when I was a little bit down. I went to Denver to hang out with Ryan - to see him and his family - and see if we could come up with something nice. I remember just not wanting to sing a ballad or anything that would make me more sad. I was like, 'Can you give me a song where I can just dance and jump around?', and he was like, 'What about this?' - he played this beat and it was really hypnotic. So I was like, 'Yes! We have to do this'." As for the track itself, you can take a listen to it below when Leona premiered it performing at G-A-Y.



3. A track called Trouble might be the next single.
"Yes, I think 'Trouble' will be the second single. I can't wait for everyone to hear it. I'm really excited about it. It's one that I really love."

4. Glassheart will have only ten tracks on it.
When an album has only ten tracks, it might seem like a rip-off as it'll probably be priced at the same cost as the album sitting next to it on the shelf with two, three, maybe four more tracks. But, Leona wants Glassheart to be a strong body of work. "I want the strongest [tracks] and that's it - no fillers or anything. I want the strongest songs and I think we have them." No fillers? Leona, I'm holding you to your word.

5. There will be at least one collaboration on the album.
"I've a song called 'Fireflies' which I really, really love and hope we get to do as a single. it's a really good one. And it's got a guy on it!"

So it's a collaboration with someone we know?
"Yes! But I'm not saying who! [laughs]"" Hmm.

6. Contrary to reports, she didn't actually work with British duo Hurts.
"Not yet! I love them so much. I'm obsessed with them. I love their album and their sound. And I want to meet them!" So no gothic diva then?

Read the full interview here.

Avril Lavigne - Wish You Were Here [Music Video Premiere]

Pop rebel Avril Lavigne has always released at least one slow ballad as a single during every album campaign and for her latest moderately successful fourth album Goodbye Lullaby, the acoustic album standout Wish You Were Here has been lifted as the album's third single following the happy-go-lucky lead single What The Hell and pop/rock anthem second single Smile. Of course, it's not going to set the charts on fire, but I think this song'll stick around on the charts a longer time than Smile ever could, and could be on heavy rotation on radio, picking up those Hot AC spins.

The Saturdays - All Fired Up live @ Alan Titchmarsh Show + Pixie Lott - All About Tonight live @ Red or Black

It's single release week for The Saturdays and they're battling it out with Pixie Lott's All About Tonight and Leona Lewis' Collide on iTunes at the minute. So hoping they can overtake Pixie Lott on the iTunes Chart, the girl group dropped by the Alan Titchmarsh Show to perform the Xenomania-produced club banger. It's pretty much the same as their performance on British breakfast show This Morning, with the same pre-recorded vocals except in black dresses this time. So they sounded good, looked the part, and when they hit the final chorus, there was a surge in energy and volume as well. Brilliant.

---

Then we arrive at Pixie Lott's performance of All About Tonight on that new Simon Cowell gameshow to keep his reign over British telly and a slot where his favourite acts can pimp their new singles. If The Saturdays don't land an X Factor promotional slot, I will cut him. Nevertheless, Pixie managed to land herself this performance slot a night after Leona Lewis debuted Collide, and it's unfortunate Pixie didn't do great with this performance.

The whole performance was rather cheesy, starting off with Pixie standing in the middle of four other Pixie holograms, and lip-syncing her way through the performance until she left her holograms and walked out towards the crowd. Shame. Then there was that shameless dubstep dance breakdown a la Cheryl Cole where Pixie tried to show she could dance as well. No, it wasn't impressive. It came off as contrived.

Overall, it was a bland performance. I want Mama Do and Boys And Girls Pixie Lott back. And since she keeps harping on the fact her upcoming sophomore album will be more soulful, I'm going to take her word for it. Or else she'll be lost in the shuffle of generic British pop stars.

Matt Cardle - Run For Your Life [Music Video Premiere]

When a person wins a reality tv singing competition watched by millions every week, it's quite a scary step to take when you release your first single outside of the hype machine. Particularly when you're Matt Cardle. The former painter in his late 20s falls into what I'd call "the perfect X Factor winner" stereotype. He appeals to a different kind of audience. The older demographic that's less iTunes-savvy, more "oh this lad's got a lovely voice, I think I'll vote for him", but this fanbase isn't a strong fanbase to fall back on.

Also, while you may have heard of Leona Lewis or Alexandra Burke who've all gone on to do rather well for themselves, you have the male winners who've all been screwed over by Simon's label and either faded into the darkness (everyone minus Joe McElderry and Shayne Ward) or found other ventures to go into (Joe McElderry - opera singing. The boy's got a good voice, you can't deny that).

So who's to say this bearded chubby guy with a rather bland personality (if I'm being totally honest) will do otherwise?

Introducing Run For Your Life, the first single lifted off his debut album Letters. The Gary Barlow-penned track talks about not being good enough for the one you're with. Perfect if you're lovesick and having messy emotions then. But the track itself feels more like a theme to a movie like Twilight or the kind of song that gets played in the background on The Vampire Diaries. It's a good song, but it's not great. But for those that thoroughly enjoyed his X Factor coronation single When We Collide and wanted more mushy big ballads from the mushy big guy, they've gotten their wish.

Adele - Turning Tables live on The Jonathan Ross Show

British talkshow host Jonathan Ross returned to British television screens yesterday with a new studio and a star-studded line up including Hollywood actress Sarah Jessica Parker, Formula 1 racing driver Lewis Hamilton and British breakout star Adele. Adele has had a massively successful year, but she hasn't done much promo recently, but dropped by The Jonathan Ross Show to perform Turning Tables and have a little chat. She came down with a flu, but still soldiered on, performed and confirmed during her chat she'll be hitting the recording studio to do a one-off song for a theme, which Internet readers have said to be for the upcoming James Bond movie.



With her trademark black dress and big, coiffed up hair, she also talked about being at the VMAs where she felt out of place and wished she was "at home with my girlfriends", which was visible during the ceremony even though she performed her new US single Someone Like You. She seems most at home in the UK, definitely.



Next week, The Jonathan Ross Show will have The Saturdays on, but he mentioned in the clip above Red Hot Chilli Peppers would be performing. So no performance of All Fired Up then?

Leona Lewis - Collide live @ Red or Black

It's single release week for Leona Lewis, Pixie Lott and The Saturdays so it's promo promo promo for the race to get Sunday's #1. So here we are with Leona Lewis performing her new single Collide on Red or Black. Beats me, I've never heard of the show either.



Nevertheless, it's clear to see Leona was a bit nervous performing the anthemic Kelly Rowland-esque dance number on a big stage, her vocals were a little shaky and hey ho, she almost couldn't catch her breath at certain points. But overall, she nailed the big chorus and brought some life and energy to the stage, something we could never say when she performed the rather dreary Happy.



Collide, All About Tonight or All Fired Up for #1? I'm rooting for The Saturdays right now but things could turn around by the time Sunday comes.

Big News: Leona Lewis unveils Glassheart album cover!

It looks like British singing sensation Leona Lewis has gone for a retro look for her new album artwork for upcoming third disc Glassheart to be released later this year on the 28th of November. This artwork follows the single cover for Collide which also has a vintage feel to it.



Interesting. And if you haven't seen it already, the video for Collide has premiered. Nothing groundbreaking, but she looks good.

Billboard Update

Maroon 5 and Christina Aguilera launch to the top of the Hot 100 with Moves Like Jagger and they have nothing but The Voice to thank. They're trailed by Party Rock Anthem following closely at #2 while last week's #1 Last Friday Night (T.G.I.F.), Katy Perry's own summer anthem, takes a tumble to #5. OneRepublic hit a new peak of #8 with Good Life. Rihanna picks up the Digital Gainer Title for her new single Cheers (Drink To That) and sits comfortably outside the Top 10 with the track hitting an all time high so far. Lady Gaga and Adele both see bumps to the Top 20, with Gaga's You And I flying from #35 to #16 while Adele's ballad Someone Like You vaults from #34 to #19. Demi Lovato is slowly rising again with Skyscraper rising a few notches to #60 this week. David Guetta's promo single with Jennifer Hudson Night of Your Life debuts at #81 while Colbie Caillat follows closely behind at #82 with Brighter Than The Sun. Adele's anthemic track Set Fire To The Rain re-enters the Hot 100 at #92 while singer/songwriter Christina Perri's Arms re-enters as well at #97.



Over on the Billboard Albums Chart, Game's The R.E.D. Album bows at the top with Adele at #3. Rihanna's Loud picks up the Greatest Gainer Title and rockets to #20 up from #38.

The Saturdays - All Fired Up live @ This Morning

It's release week for The Saturdays and that means nothing but promotion. The British girlband hit Radio 1 over the weekend for a little interview, but dropped by British breakfast television show This Morning to perform All Fired Up. While it might seem weird to hear a club track blaring on a breakfast television show, the girls actually stayed really in tune. Backing track? Obviously, the choreography wasn't mindblowing but they did well with what they had.



You can watch their pitch-perfect performance above and interview below.

Big News: Britney's new single to be Criminal!

Britney Spears has had a relatively successful album era for seventh disc Femme Fatale, collecting her third Top 10 single from the album with I Wanna Go, picking up 2 MTV VMAs, and now ready to launch her third single to follow #1 hit Hold It Against Me, Top 3 hit Till The World Ends and the aforementioned Top 10 I Wanna Go. Previously, she got her fans to vote for what they wanted to see as the next single, but then came rumours that Trouble For Me was to be the next single, rendering the earlier poll meaningless.



However, Britney herself confirmed the ballad/midtempo Criminal would be the upcoming single. Take a listen for yourself below, I've got a feeling this could be shaping up to a new twist to the Femme Fatale era.







Omgzzzz! A new ballad from Brit Brit?! Omggggg!!!!!!!!11!1!111!

Big News: JoJo returns with Disaster!

It's been a long time coming. Messy label problems aside, JoJo has given us an insight to what her next album era could be like, flipping Drake's Marvin's Room to a female perspective and cursing up a storm while doing so, singing about making love in the paint with Travis Garland, crooning about being someone's lover only in the bedroom with The Other Chick and releasing the "edgy" mixtape that was Can't Take That Away From Me last year.



Now, however, JoJo has returned to her roots with her angsty breakup song to smash JoJo back into the charts and into the ears of the new dance/pop music loving generation. Disaster has been described as reminiscent to her smash single Too Little Too Late back in 2006, and it's true. It's guitar-driven and has a huge swept up production sweeping the chorus in the same way Joe Jonas' See No More does too.



Queen JoJo's back and better than ever.

Billboard Update

Yes yes let's just get this part out of the way, Katy Perry's Last Friday Night (T.G.I.F.) is still #1 on the Hot 100, followed by LMFAO's Party Shit Anthem at #2. Now for the more interesting part, Christina Aguilera and Maroon 5 have collected the Airplay Gainer title for their collaboration on Moves Like Jagger, standing strongly at #4. Britney's I Wanna Go rounds out the Top 10 at #10. Rihanna shoots up to #17 with latest single Cheers (Drink To That) while the single is still rising up the ranks on the iTunes chart. Lady Gaga picks up the Digital Gainer Title and You And I skyrockets to #35 on the Hot 100. Lady Antebellum's rather bland single We Owned The Night debuts at #47 while Jason Aldean and Kelly Clarkson's Don't You Wanna Stay re-enters at #50. Demi Lovato's ballad Skyscraper is starting to make its way up again, rising to #76 this week. They keep tryna make this girl happen: Nicole Scherzinger's new US single Don't Hold Your Breath did really well in the UK, but now being plastered all over VEVO, Scherzinger's landed at #86 on the Hot 100. Colbie Caillat's Brighter Than The Sun finally makes an appearance on the Hot 100, arriving at #90 this week.



Jay Z and Kanye West's collaboration album Battle of the Egos Watch The Throne is still #1 on the Billboard 200, but Adele's 21 picks up the Greatest Gainer at #2 and holds firmly at #2.

Rihanna - Cheers (Drink To That) [Music Video Premiere]

Rihanna's on tour. She also has a new single. Therefore she's done of those tour music videos thing that looks more like a fanmade documentary than anything.



*Yawn*



"OOH AVRIL LAVIGNE!" Oh wait, she's gone now.