Fired in the US, hired in the UK: Nicole Scherzinger signs X Factor contract

June 12, 2012 in TV with 0 Comments

Reports are emerging tonight that X Factor producers have not granted our wishes and hired yesterday’s guest judge Anastacia for a full-time role on the show. Goshdarnit!!!

Instead they have gone with Nicole Scherzinger, and the axed X Factor USA judge is said to have just finalised a $1 million contract to be on the show starting from the Judges’ Houses stage. She was a guest judge in London last month.

Anastacia proved overwhelmingly popular with audiences at Glasgow’s tryouts yesterday, but it looks like it may have been too little, too late – Nicole has been in contract talks for a couple of weeks.

The ‘Poison’ hitmaker went down great when she appeared as a guest judge in 2010, and even contributed to the decision to form One Direction out of five rejected soloists. However she failed to connect with US audiences last year when she was hired as a replacement for Cheryl Cole on the North American incarnation of the talent show, and was fired along with Paula Abdul in December.

Rita Ora, Mel B, Geri Haliwell and Leona Lewis also served as guest judges, so it could have been worse, right?

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Bad news, Anastacia fans: Nicole Scherzinger is the new X Factor frontrunner

June 2, 2012 in TV with 0 Comments

Well our jubilation yesterday over the rumours of Anastacia being a contender to join The X Factor has hit a slight snag, in that this week’s guest judge Nicole Scherzinger is now the frontrunner.

The ‘Try With Me’ hitmaker impressed at O2 tryouts on Wednesday, despite being unceremoniously dumped from the US edition after a series of annoying gaffes during the live shows. Need we mention Rachel Crow?

A source tells The Sun:

“We are talking to Nicole about taking on the job full-time. She is the only person in the frame. It’s now down to money and whether she can commit to the show, which takes up most of the rest of the year. She has given us positive signs. But no-one is counting their chickens after what happened with Dannii Minogue.”

JUST LET ANASTACIA HAVE A GUEST STINT! PLEASE GOD!


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There’s an important X Factor lesson Britney Spears can learn from Dannii Minogue (apart from ‘don’t shag Simon’)

April 16, 2012 in TV with 0 Comments

Now that Publicist To The Stars Max Clifford has confirmed that Dannii Minogue was indeed ‘getting it on’ with Simon Cowell during her first year at The X Factor, there’s an important lesson Britney Spears should take on board before confirming (if she hasn’t already) her involvement on the second season of the US show. And I don’t mean “don’t let Simon enter you” (though presumably that’s a given).

It’s that an alarming majority of the talent signed up to present or judge the show fail to leave with their head held high. Most are sacked, and those who leave on their own terms are either humiliated later on or driven to leave by a shitty working relationship with bosses.

This ‘article’ isn’t about bashing The X Factor as a show or its effect on the music industry, but of all celebrities who could do without the inevitable scandal and scrutiny that such a high-profile and high-pressure job entails, Britney Spears has to be among the the most vulnerable.

Here is a comprehensive list of on-screen talent who have escaped from The X Factor unscathed.

  • Sharon Osbourne (kinda). Is only former judge to have left on her terms.
  • Holly Willoughby. Quit The Xtra Factor after a couple of good years.

Here is a comprehensive list of on-screen talent who have not escaped from The X Factor unscathed.

  • Sharon Osbourne (kinda). May have quit rather than been sacked, but she said on numerous occasions she felt pushed aside by Dannii, and now we know why.
  • Dannii Minogue. Left on her terms, only to be thrown to the lions by Cowell’s biographer one year later as revelations about their fling are unveiled without her consent, and in the middle of her heartbreaking split from her long-term partner.
  • Cheryl Cole. Enjoyed a couple of years as the diamond in the show’s crown before being shat out very publicly and very embarrassingly after working on the US edition for a matter of days.
  • Nicole Scherzinger. Replaced Cheryl, became Public Enemy No. 1 for sending Rachel Crow’s elimination to deadlock, was swiftly sacked. Dreams of a lucrative solo career in the US dashed.
  • Paula Abdul. Maintained her dignity on the Twittersphere but was also sacked after one series, despite being one of Simon’s dearest friends.
  • Steve Jones. Was hired despite not really having enough experience for such a major gig. Was bad. Was fired after saying in numerous interviews he was under the impression he’d be back.
  • Kate Thornton. Was absolutely devastated when sacked at the end of the show’s third season, despite being told her job was safe.
  • Ben Shepherd. Walked out when not given Kate Thornton’s role. Was very bitter about it.
  • Fearne Cotton. Replaced Ben Shepherd. Rumoured to have fallen out with Cowell. Did not return for a second series.
  • Konnie Huq. Replaced Holly Willoughby. Said in numerous interviews she was under the impression she’d be back for a second series, despite negative public reaction. Was not back for a second series.

So, Britney can note that statistically there are very few judges and hosts who will escape from The X Factor smelling of roses.

And after everything she’s been through since 2007, and all the work she and her loved ones have put in to bring her back from the brink, is this job really the best way to show people she’s still the same girl? Or is it an accident waiting to happen?

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Nicole Scherzinger hints at joining Andrew Lloyd Webber’s Superstar?

February 9, 2012 in TV with 0 Comments

It was an ongoing joke back in the Over The Rainbow days that if Andrew Lloyd Webber decided to do a hunt for Jesus Christ Superstar it’d be funny if Graham Norton proclaimed the standard “You could still be Jesus!” during the results show, and/or if the eliminated hopefuls did a themed elimination and got left on a cross ‘or something’.

But now that this could all potentially become a reality (I KNOW RIGHT???), rumours are circulating about who’ll be on the judging panel.

Nicole THE SCHERZINATOR Scherzinger is being linked to it left, right and centre, and appears to have dropped a hint or two in a new interview.

“Last year I sang Phantom of the Opera for the royal family and for Sir Andrew Lloyd Webber. So that reignited me to want to be back in the theater again, so I think I’m going to do some more theatre work this year.

“I grew up in musical theatre and I’ve always dreamed of playing Christine and Sir Andrew Lloyd Webber asked me to play Christine in Phantom of the Opera for the royal family at the Royal Variety Show. So I’m going to get back to theatre this year.”

Once you wade past all the “MY SOLO CAREER’S NOT WORKING OUT SO THEATRE IT IS” undertones, there is a hint there that “theatre work” could mean Superstar. Isn’t there? (yes yes it’s very tenuous)

Nicole has acted in Rent and The Rocky Horror Picture Show.

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Top 25 Pop Albums of 2011

December 26, 2011 in Music with 0 Comments

Here are our 25 favourite “commercial pop” albums of the year.

They’re not ranked strictly on the star ratings they’ve been given as the year has gone on, but rather in a post-Christmas “ahhh but it was a corker, wasn’t it” kind of way. For example, Lady GaGa’s Born This Way was given 4 stars when we reviewed it back in May, but in this list it features above a couple of records we gave 5 stars to because, as time has gone on, it has stayed amazing to the point where, in a situation where all music ever was about to be deleted off the face of the Earth and it was either BTW or, say, the 5-star Florence album we were allowed to keep, we’d actually probably take BTW. MAKING SENSE?

There are also a couple of albums that have the odd corker on them, but were just too disappointing as a whole body of work to be classed as a highlight of 2k11. The artists responsible – Beyonce and Pixie Lott – have therefore featured in our Top 50 singles list, but not on the albums list. Along similar lines, there are LPs from artists we are fond of that we’d love to have squeezed in, but 25 is quite enough thanks very much and they’ll just have to try even harder in 2012. Still, honorable mentions are in order for The Wanted, Emma’s Imagination, Melanie C, Alexis Jordan, Example, Jennifer Lopez and Matt Cardle.

But anyway, that’s enough of that. Here are the best 25 albums of the year in pop. A better list than the 2010 one, we think you’ll agree.

LOOK AWAY NOW, LMFAO.

25. Nicole Scherzinger – Killer Love
March, chart peak #8
It takes a lot for an album housing a song titled ‘Club Banger Nation’ to be considered one of the best of the year, but in spite of ‘Right There’ Killer Love was a well-produced pop record. Opening with the explosive ‘Poison’ and closing with the piano ballad ‘AmenJena’, via amazing midtempo corkers like ‘Don’t Hold Your Breath’ and ‘Desperate’, The Scherzinator didn’t deliver the perfect solo disc but she certainly hit the ground running, packing more than enough punch to earn a place on the outskirts of our year-end highlights.

24. Jessie J – Who You Are
February, chart peak #1
If there’s one thing Jessie needs to do for her second album, it’s CALM DOWN A BIT. The two factors that hindered Who You Are were her tendency to comically over-sing every last crotchet, and the annoying way of over-pushing every ‘message’ she wants to get across – i.e. “HAHAHA I’M REALLY GOOD” on ‘Who’s Laughing Now’. Of course this is all sounding negative and we’ve made Who You Are the 24th best pop album of the year, so obviously the rest of it is all very good. Note especially ‘Price Tag’, ‘L.O.V.E.’ and the platinum edition’s ‘Domino’.

23. Cher Lloyd – Sticks + Stones
November, chart peak #4
The person who decided to release ‘Swagger Jagger’ as Cher’s lead single needs both a raise and a swift firing. The latter because, obviously, the song is bad, but the former because, for one reason or another, it got to No. 1. But whatever you think of that particular track, the rest of the album does actually make a lot of sense. It’s far from perfect, but the songs on which she doesn’t take herself too seriously and embraces her spunky youthfulness are commendable. ‘Grow Up’, ‘Over The Moon’, ‘End Up Here’ and next single ‘Want U Back’ won’t be to everyone’s liking, but credit where credit’s due – the girl did good.

22. Ed Sheeran – +
September, chart peak #1
After centuries of honing his craft, Ed finally made his mainstream breakthrough in 2011 with a handful of radio-friendly singles and a rather lovely debut album. + sagged a bit in places, but it certainly had its highlights. ‘You Need Me, I Don’t Need You’ had some smart lyrics despite its biting-the-hand-that-feeds-it theme, and ‘Lego House’ is simply one of the best singles of the year. At times Ed’s tuneage sounds like it could soundtrack those annoying  dating website ads where the girl’s on the other platform and the guy serenades her, but generally the record has far more + than – (GEDDIT?).

21. Susan Boyle – Someone To Watch Over Me
November, chart peak #1
SuBo put out a surprisingly brilliant third album, and yes, you could say “Well she’s always been a  good singer, hasn’t she?”, and you’d be right, but if you’re going to say that then you may as well say “well Jade Ewen’s got a good voice, ergo Sugababes’ ‘Freedom’ is brilliant”. The (tenuous) point is that it was the production that made STWOM a really good record, and a restained vocal from Susan that complemented it. The way that ‘Enjoy The Silence’ and even ‘Unchained Melody’ were made to sound was commendable and, at times, this was a disarmingly haunting listen.

20. Rizzle Kicks – Stereo Typical
October, chart peak #9
Among the very few good things Olly Murs has done for pop music over the past couple of years is the boost he gave to Rizzle Kicks on summer anthem ‘Heart Skips A Beat’. The cameo allowed the duo to gain more exposure for their brilliant ‘Down With The Trumpets’ and album Stereo Typical. It’s a riot – their lyrics are both clever and fun (take note, Dappy!), with ‘Miss Cigarette’, ‘Prophet’ and ‘Mama Do The Hump’ being particular faves. Interviews give the impression that they were talked into “going commercial” for their debut by their record label, so let’s hope that when they inevitably “mature” on their second album the quality doesn’t drop.

19. Kelly Rowland – Here I Am
November, chart peak #43
Yes, yes, how dare Kelly be featured but not Beyonce etc etc. Well the answer is that, as an overall body of work, Here I Am works a lot better than 4. The UK edition united the club and urban sounds a lot better than the original US release, with tracks like ‘Lay It On Me’, ‘I’m Dat Chick’ and even ‘Down For Whatever’ stringing together nicely in a non-stop tirade of ‘putting it down’. The sheer horniness of ‘Motivation’ isn’t for everyone, but the fact it performed better in the US than any of Beyonce’s 2011 singles speaks volumes.

18. Katy B – On A Mission
April, chart peak #2
Typically speaking, there isn’t really room in the mainstream market for any more solo females, so it says a lot about the appeal of Katy B that she’s made such a great start for herself in a hugely saturated market. ‘On A Mission’ was one of the best club hits of late 2010, and set a good tone for the album of the same name. ‘Broken Record’, the third single, is arguably the best song on the set, but the whole blend of garage, dubstep and just the right amount of pop to keep “serious” critics happy got the LP rightly nominated for the Mercury Music Prize.

17. Selena Gomez & The Scene – When The Sun Goes Down
July, chart peak #15
Selena Gomez being Selena Gomez, the brilliance of When The Sun Goes Down went by largely unnoticed – especially, it must be said, by the rather critical Trash Lounge review. But actually, it’s really good. ‘Love You Like A Love Song’, ‘Bang Bang Bang’ and ‘Whiplash’ (written by Britney!) have got the same kind of muted brilliance as some of the recent Kylie Minogue stuff, and even though ‘Who Says’ is a load of shit, Pixie Lott collab ‘We Own The Night’ is one of the year’s best pop songs, full stop.

16. The Saturdays – On Your Radar
November, chart peak #23
The Sats are the definition of a manufactured pop group, but as long as they have the right producers and songwriters at their disposal, they’ll also be one of the best. On Your Radar may have had the odd filler – not least the Travie McCoy collab ‘The Way You Watch Me’ – but the Xenomania-produced amazingness of ‘All Fired Up’ and ‘Get Ready Get Set’, the gloriously camp ‘White Lies’ and the euphoric ‘Faster’ made it their best album since Chasing Lights. Of course the challenge now is continuing to stay on the A-game despite the record’s weak chart reception, and the arrival of “next big girlband” Little Mix.

15. Bruno Mars – Doo-Wops & Hooligans
January, chart peak #1
‘The Lazy Song’ was so polarising that many preferred ‘Friday’, but take that to one side and Doo-Wops is what you’d call a “solid debut”. ‘Just The Way You Are’ and ‘Grenade’ are both brilliant, ‘Count On Me’ is sweet and ‘Runaway Baby’ is bang on where Bruno should be as an artist. Oh, and late addition ‘It Will Rain’ is a slightly under-appreciated stroke of goodness. One of the UK’s Top 5 best-sellers of the year, it’s easy to miss (what with Adele n’all) the impressive fact that the record has never been out of the Top 15 in the almost-a-year since it was released. FACT.

14. Natasha Bedingfield – Strip Me Away
May, did not chart
Who knew Natasha Bedingfield bought an album out this year?! Absolutely nobody, that’s who.  But it’s so good to hear her again. Ryan Tedder masterpiece ‘Strip Me’, the uplifting ‘Weightless’ and the heart-wrenching ‘Can’t Fall Down’ all show her at the very top of her game, and there’s a lot to be said for ‘Little Too Much’ (as featured on the Something Borrowed trailer) and ‘Neon Lights’ as well. Those who found her strong empowerment themes a little over-wrought in her earlier stuff won’t change their minds now, but the fact she’s still the same girl she was back in the 00s is lovely and somehow re-assuring to hear.

13. One Direction – Up All Night
November, chart peak #2
It’s easy to dismiss One Direction as a bunch of unugly boys shamelessly targeting the teen market, but lest we forget that behind the loudly-coloured trousers and romances with older women there is a team of highly qualified songwriters and producers who are more than capable of bashing out the occasional smash hit. ‘What Makes You Beautiful’ hits the nail on the head, as does the title track, next single ‘One Thing’ and the Kelly Clarkson-penned ‘Tell Me A Lie’. Up All Night does fall flat on its arse occasionally, but it’s the best boyband LP of the year by a fair distance.

12. Rihanna – Talk That Talk
November, chart peak #1
Six albums in six years is an impressive work rate, and Talk That Talk kept the tunes coming thick and fast for restless hitmaker Ms Fenty. ‘We Found Love’ is a career highlight, thanks to Calvin Harris, and there’s more amazingness to be found in ‘Where Have You Been’, ‘Talk That Talk’ and ‘Farewell’. Lyrics like “suck my cockiness, lick my persuasion” are becoming a little laborious now, but play TTT on a good stereo system with massive fuckoff speakers and you’ll find the urge to move hard to beat.

11. Will Young – Echoes
August, chart peak #1
If Will Young could literally never stop making music, that would be great. Echoes is top-notch from start to finish, opening with the incredible ‘Jealousy’ and continuing onwards via the brilliant ‘Come On’, ‘Happy Now’ and ‘Silent Valentine’ to name but a few. Beautifully under-stated and marvellously produced by the likes of Richard X, it shows that even after a decade in the business there is absolutely no sign of the quality dipping or the willingness to take risks fading. WHERE THERE’S A WILL THERE’S A WAY, ISN’T THAT RIGHT LADIES AND GENTS.

10. Avril Lavigne – Goodbye Lullaby
March, chart peak #9
After letting her hair down on 2007′s The Best Damn Thing, Avril returned after a four-year wait with her ‘Serious Singer-Songwriter’ opus, Goodbye Lullaby. Fun trailer single ‘What The Hell’ was a one-off: the rest is all no-dancing-please straight-facedness, but it’s still very good indeed. ‘Push’ is one of the best tracks she’s ever recorded, ‘Wish You Were Here’ is right up there with ‘When You’re Gone’ and ‘I’m With You’ in the Avrilballad stakes, and finale ‘Goodbye’ is a thing of wonder. If anyone affiliated with her record label is reading this, please don’t make us wait another four years for Album Number 5.

9. Demi Lovato – Unbroken
September, no UK release
It’s all well and good saying Demi “arrived” with Unbroken after two LPs obeying the strict Disney pop-rock rulebook, but even when she was aiming squarely at the tween market she still showed flashes of potential brilliance. And this record is fantastic – ‘Skyscraper’ deserved all the hype it received, ‘Lightweight’ proves that Timbaland hasn’t run out of tricks just yet, ‘Hold Up’ is the kind of loud down-the-line pop music Katy Perry or Ke$ha would be proud to put their name to, and next single ‘Give Your Heart A Break’ is a simple, no-frills-attached slice of gold. OK, so the collabs with Iyaz and Dev could have been done without, but the rest is all incredible.

8. Florence + The Machine – Ceremonials
October, chart peak #1
What was great about 2011 was the way so many artists (Pixie Lott notwithstanding) avoided ballsing-up the notoriously difficult second album. Florence Welch was no different, offering up another platter of wailing wonders on Ceremonials. ‘What The Water Gave Me’ sent everyone outside the NME readership to sleep, but it’s on its own – from the haunting ‘Never Let Me Go’ to the hands-aloft ‘Shake It Out’, Flo was simultaneously all over the place and impressively cohesive on her sophomore set, and even though it went to No. 1, it deserved much higher sales figures.

7. Kelly Clarkson – Stronger
October, chart peak #4
The brilliant thing about Kelly Clarkson is the way she disappears for an infuriatingly long time, then returns with an album of 17 tracks (none of that pathetic 10-track bullshit, no sir!) that never slip below par. Most of Stronger is of a typically high standard, with the three songs produced by Greg Kurstin – ‘Dark Side’, ‘Honestly’ and the title track – being the runaway favourites. The strong suit of the record is the way the classic Clarkson pop-rock has matured rather than drastically changed, for instance ‘I Forgive You’ is like a grown-up ‘what happened next’ sequel for the likes of ‘Since U Been Gone’ and ‘Behind These Hazel Eyes’. It’s SO good to have her back.

6. Nicola Roberts – Cinderella’s Eyes
September, chart peak #17
Critics agreed unanimously that Cinderella’s Eyes is by far the best Solo Aloud album to date, but sadly the essential radio stations didn’t seem as enthusiastic. But thanks to some effortless cool from Nicola and some quality production from the likes of Diplo and Metronomy, the Team Ginge frontwoman’s first foray into lonesome hitmaking was a triumph, with tracks like ‘Say It Out Loud’, ‘Lucky Day’, ‘Gladiator’ and ‘Sticks + Stones’ contributing to an honest, original, self-assured and above all confident record.

5. Lady GaGa – Born This Way
May, chart peak #1
This time two years ago, GaGa was the latest American fad working her way over the Atlantic, with her debut single ‘Just Dance’. Now, she’s not only one of the world’s biggest-selling artists but also one that critics generally agree is fucking ace. Born This Way is packed with massive choruses, strong vocals and unique lyrics: ‘Americano’ is a song only GaGa can pull off, ‘Heavy Metal Lover’ is darkly brilliant, ‘The Edge Of Glory’ is just exceptional… the whole thing is exceptional. It’s loud, it’s proud and its shortcomings are more than compensated for by the simple fact that, as a whole, it’s amazeballs.

4. Coldplay – Mylo Xyloto
October, chart peak #1
An album so commercially-friendly even Rihanna’s on it, Mylo Xyloto has led to many people who didn’t particularly give a shit about Coldplay to begin with claiming they have “sold out” just by adding a few more swishy electronic sounds to their music. But that bollocks doesn’t seem to have dented their selling power in the slightest: housing two of the year’s best singles, Mylo is different to their earlier work without being any less sensational, and one that packs a fair amount of emotional punch, too. As affecting and heartbreaking as it is euphoric, it’s bound to sound even better live than it does on record.

3. Britney Spears – Femme Fatale
March, chart peak #9
Giving Britney all the credit for Femme Fatale is like giving Dermot O’Leary all the credit for The X Factor. She may be at the front of it all doing a good enough job of linking it all together, but it’s the knob-twiddlers that make this one of the best records of her twelve-year career. Perhaps her first ever LP to feature absolutely no bad songs, it’s the classy night out to Blackout‘s tits-out booze-fest, and the Deluxe Edition extends the amazingness by exactly four songs. ‘Till The World Ends’ is officially our favourite single of the year, and the rest of the set is pretty epic too. If there is to be a fifth single (unlikely), might we suggest ‘Inside Out’?

2. Rebecca Ferguson – Heaven
December, chart peak #3
So much has been made by the broadsheet critics of Rebecca Ferguson’s debut being “really, really good for an X Factor contestant” that focus has been lacking on the fact that, X Factor or no X Factor, Heaven is exceptional. Each of its ten tracks is sensational, from the restrained anguish of ‘Shoulder To Shoulder’ to the wistful glee of ‘Mr Bright Eyes’, and from the vulnerability of ‘Teach Me How To Be Loved’ to the confident finger-wagging of ‘Glitter & Gold’. It’s all capped off by the no-frills beauty of its lead single, ‘Nothing’s Real But Love’, a song that perfectly justifies Heaven‘s status as the best début album of 2011.

1. Adele – 21
January, chart peak #1
Who else?! Labelling 21 as Album of the Year may be a bit predictable, but there’s a reason why critics have loved it and it’s sold over 12 million copies around the world: it’s phenomenal. Themes of love and heartache are so common across most genres of music that it’s fantastic how Adele has managed to make all 11 of the songs on her sophomore album so refreshing, emotionally satisfying and easy to relate to. Its two squillion-selling singles sum up the variation nicely – book-ending the whole disc are the venomously wrathful ‘Rolling In The Deep’ and the utterly devastating ‘Someone Like You’, two songs that do perfect justice to the album they represent. ‘Turning Tables’, ‘Rumour Has It’, ‘Take It All’, ‘I’ll Be Waiting’, ‘One and Only’… genuinely every single song is incredible. It’s so rare for an album to connect with so many, and though it may be an obvious choice for 2011′s best pop LP, there really is no alternative.

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Top 50 Singles of 2011: 20-11

December 22, 2011 in Music with 0 Comments

Catch up with Nos 50-41? Catch up with Nos 40-31? Catch up with Nos 30-21? Good. We’re firmly into the business end of the year’s list now, and before we crash into the all-important Top 10, here are the pop hits from the past twelve months that make it as far as Nos 20-11.

Check back tomorrow for Numbers 10-6, and Christmas Eve for the all-important Top 5.

20. The Saturdays – ‘Notorious’
June, Peak #8
The Sats leapt on-trend in 2011 with their most floorfilling efforts to date. ‘Notorious’ wasn’t everyone’s cuppa, but with a chorus that kept on teasing right until the unashamedly auto-tuned finale, it stilleto-stomped its way towards being one of the year’s most repeatable anthems. Like a greasy burger, it ain’t healthy or particularly good for you, but it’s miiiiighty tasty.

19. Lady GaGa – ‘Born This Way’
February, Peak #3
GaGa made her triumphant return in 2011 with new album Born This Way and this lead single. It split opinion upon its release, but it remains a must-play on radio stations and commercial club playlists on both sides of the Atlantic. It gets a tiny bit of extra merit purely for Kitty Brucknell’s last-minute rendition of the chorus upon her elimination from The X Factor – all kinds of horrifimazing.

18. Nicola Roberts – ‘Lucky Day’
September, Peak #40
NicRo went a little 60s for her second solo outing, and despite an outstanding critical reaction the track could only limp as far as No. 40 upon its release in September whilst Dappy simultaneously went to No. 1. OH THE INJUSTICE. ‘Lucky Day’ is, like ‘Beat Of My Drum’, bonkers in all the right places – she “wa wa wa”s to her heart’s content and lets her accent seep through on lines like “‘Ow com’ ya tease me?” An under-appreciated few minutes of perfection from the best Solo Aloud.

17. Nicole Scherzinger – ‘Don’t Hold Your Breath’
March, Peak #1
Who’d have thought this time last year that the likes of Jennifer Lopez and Nicole ruddy Scherzinger would be able to bag a No. 1 single?! For The Scherzinator, topping the charts was more a case of it being a quiet week for big new singles more than anything, but that’s not to say ‘Don’t Hold Your Breath’ isn’t arguably the year’s best rave-ballad. The title line in the chorus demands a finger-wagging dance move to match, and the video where everything needlessly starts getting blown around a bedroom is just… brilliant.

16. Nicki Minaj – ‘Super Bass’
May, Peak #8
Nicki Minaj must be one of the cleverest artists to hit the scene since Lady GaGa. She’s got her image and her musical styling perfected, and she’s got buckets of personality to go with it. ‘Super Bass’ is certainly her best single release to date, with a sweet and infectious hook and vocals that allowed her to prove she can sing just as well as she can rap. Boom badoom boom boom badoom boom brilliant.

15. Coldplay – ‘Every Teardrop Is A Waterfall’
June, Peak #6
Chris Martin and co teased their epic opus Mylo Xyloto a few months prior to its release with this euphoric masterpiece. ‘Every Teardrop’ was a must-see for pretty much every single festivalgoer over the summer,  and proved that, even after all these years, the band still know their way around a fantastic alt-rock-pop melody. Of course, there will be some who will never be Coldplay fans, but for the rest of us, this was epic.

14. Adele – ‘Set Fire To The Rain’
June, Peak #11
2011: the year Adele took over the world. The queen of the break-up’s sophomore album 21 is now owned by pretty much every single person on the face of the planet (twice), and third single ‘Set Fire To The Rain’ was just one of many highlights. A big, sweeping chorus and some big instrumentation helped it become an anthem that demanded to be played at top volume. Hands up who tries to add the extra sass on “WAAAAtch it pour…”…?

13. Bruno Mars – ‘Grenade’
January, Peak #1
One of 2010′s hottest emerging singer-songwriters cemented his place as one of the world’s most lucrative crooners in 2011, with another couple of No. 1s and one of the year’s Top 5 best-selling albums. ‘Grenade’ is arguably his strongest single to date; a little melodramatic to say the least (all that grenade-throwing and train-jumping is a bit OTT) but production considerably darker than ‘Just The Way You Are’ and ‘Marry You’ made for a kind of haunting listen.

12. The Saturdays – ‘All Fired Up’
September, Peak #3
And lo, Xenomania vent all the musical energy they’ve been saving since Girls Aloud “went on hiatus”, and vomit all over The Saturdays what could easily have been a cut from 2007′s Tangled Up. The verse/chorus structure you’d come to expect from a conventional dance-pop tune is out the window, the lyrics are somehow generic in an original way (“We make the party super naughty” really shouldn’t work as much as it does) and all in all it’s a lot classier than you’d expect from knowing The Sats are “going dance”.

11. Florence + The Machine – ‘Shake It Out’
October, Peak #12
Succeed in listening to ‘Shake It Out’ without having your hands firmly aloft for the entire duration and you’re a stronger person than I. The arrival of ‘What The Water Gave Me’ didn’t particularly set pulses racing ahead of Flo’s second album Ceremonials, but ‘Shake It Out’ made up for it in spades. Like Coldplay above, Florence has her detractors, and her wobbly vocal certainly isn’t for everyone. But fuck it: ‘Shake It Out’ is uh-may-zing.

Check back tomorrow when we veer into the lower half of this year’s Top 10. In numbers 10-6 you’ll find one song that made waves worldwide despite never being released in the UK, one of the most critically acclaimed X Factor finalists ever, and three acts who have already appeared with other songs elsewhere on the list.

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X Factor USA rumour: Steve Jones axed, Nicole Scherzinger to present

December 20, 2011 in US TV with 0 Comments

The first season of The X Factor USA isn’t even over for another couple of days, but already reports are flying around about what will change in time for the already-confirmed second outing next Autumn.

Unsurprisingly, word is that Steve Jones has been sacked as host. Brilliant and charismatic as he was on UK TV, he just hasn’t settled in on the US one, looking uncomfortable and lacking in charm.

“Steve keeps saying that living in LA is a dream come true,” a source told The Mirror. “He loves the weather and the women, and he loves working on X Factor – it’s just a shame that the US public has not warmed to him.

“He got terrible reviews from critics when he started and things haven’t got better. There have been mistakes and he just doesn’t seem to have the knack for dealing with contestants.

“The executives at Fox have already decided not to renew his contract and so, short of a miracle happening, it is pretty much a done deal that he will not take part next season.”

His replacement? Well, apparently it’s Nicole Scherzinger, who was originally signed up to co-host with Steve before Cheryl Cole got dumped. She, like Steve, has been subject to bad reviews in her role.

But she said at a press conference that her sole focus at the moment is getting her finalist Josh Krajcik through to the end. She said: “For me, what’s important is to live in the moment. I’ve got to get Josh through this and to come out swinging. So I’m just going to focus on doing a really good job with Josh here.

“I’ve had a lot of fun this season. The reason I took this job is I wanted to mentor, first and foremost… It has been very hard on me, the elimination process. It’s something I could never have been prepared for.”

Nicole off the panel sounds good to me…

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Top 50 Singles of 2011: 40-31

December 19, 2011 in Music with 0 Comments

On Saturday the Trash Lounge Top 50 Singles of 2011 began, starting with Jennifer Lopez at No. 50 and wrapping up with Charlene Soraia at No. 41. Catch up in full here.

The list continues today with a handful more of the year’s finest pop hits, and if you have any issues to raise then remember the voting is still open on the readers’ poll – you decided the shortlist, and you’ll decide the winners.

So, here we go with Numbers 40-31…

40. Katy Perry – ‘Last Friday Night (T.G.I.F.)’
June, Peak #9
Katy continued to milk Teenage Dream for all it was worth in 2011, with a further three singles. Two of them appear in the TL Top 50, and here’s the first. With a video featuring cameos ranging from Glee’s Artie to Rebecca ACTUAL Black, ‘Last Friday Night’ was another effortlessly cool, bright and breezy slice of Perry Pop. Singing about the nights out we all enjoy (or rather, wish we all enjoyed), Katy writes another killer chorus and puts her own quirky quirkiness on it by chucking in a saxophone solo.

39. One Direction – ‘What Makes You Beautiful’
September, Peak #1
The band you know you should hate but you just can’t, One Direction propelled to No. 1 in September with this ‘Summer Nights’-esque tune written by Glee favourite Savan Kotecha. Does it cynically aim for the target audience knowing damn well it’ll make thousands of pounds from them? Yes. But is it hands-in-the-air sing-a-long-able anyway? Yes. The term ‘guilty pleasure’ often sounds ridiculously snobby, but in this case it couldn’t be more fitting.

38. Selena Gomez & The Scene – ‘Love You Like A Love Song’
July, Peak #58
The TL review of Selena Gomez “& The Scene”s latest album When The Sun Goes Down – their THIRD UK LP release in just over a year – was, in hindsight, a little too harsh. It didn’t set a new boundary for pop music as we know it, but it was a lot more of a slow-burner than it was given credit for, and ‘Love You Like A Love Song’ is a stellar example of a track that is, quietly and without anyone really noticing, rather brilliant. With fantastic production that makes the most of Gomez’s limited vocal ability, it’s “the band”s best single release so far.

37. Ed Sheeran – ‘Lego House’
October, Peak #5
Ed made an impressive début in 2011, and though he’s not quite as un-commercial as he sometimes gives the impression of wanting to be, his tunes are undeniably lovely. ‘The A Team’ and ‘You Need Me, I Don’t Need You’ may have been very different but equally very good, but it’s ‘Lego House’ that is his personal best so far. Simple, effective and heart-warming, it shows off the ever-growing talents of one of Britain’s most promising emerging artists.

36. Beyonce – ‘Love On Top’
December, Peak #22
The first half of Beyonce’s comeback album 4 was a massive let-down, but then, as if from nowhere, the second half was freakin’ brilliant. ‘Love On Top’ is the highlight, not least because it showed the happily married Lady B taking a break from singing laborious break-up songs and just being happy. With a deliciously uplifting FIVE key changes, it may not have set the charts up in flames, but it certainly deserved to.

35. Nicola Roberts – ‘Beat Of My Drum’
June, Peak #27
The baby of Girls Aloud took her Team Ginge mantra to the masses in 2011, as she launched her tepidly-received solo career. Commercially she may not have done anywhere near as good as Cheryl Cole, but by critics she was universally applauded. Sounding like a slightly maturer Daphne & Celeste single, ‘Beat Of My Drum’ got her off to a flying start, with a gloriously bonkers chorus and a bizarre-but-cool video to match. Let’s hope her record label look at the reviews rather than the sales figures, and let her make more tunes like this.

34. Lana Del Rey – ‘Video Games’
October, Peak #9
Bombarding the international One To Watch lists for 2012 is Lana Del Rey, an intriguing American songstress with a haunting vocal and a penchant for harps that only Florence Welch can really understand. ‘Video Games’ arrived in the Autumn with masses of critical acclaim, and with a slot on Jools Hollands’ show to get her off the ground, her status as an Officially Cool Maker Of Pop was secured. To everyone’s liking? No. But you’ve got to be at least a little bit curious as to what she’ll do next…

33. Calvin Harris – ‘Feels So Close’
August, Peak #2
Progressing his sound from the whacky space-out-pop of ‘I Get All The Girls’ etc, Calvin pulled off a corker with ‘Feels So Close’. Falling victim to the fanbase-heavy appeal of Olly Murs, this was a deserving No. 1 that may have been lyrically basic, but the sound of it spoke for itself. Good enough to make us forget that he occasionally comes across as an arrogant nob in the media, it was a good go-to for anyone who found Kelis hook-up ‘Bounce’ a little too weird.

32. Nicole Scherzinger – ‘Try With Me’
November, Peak #18
The X Factor performance may have been bizarrely all over the place considering it was just her, the music and a small platform, but The Scherzinator’s under-appreciated ‘Try With Me’ proved that, despite the naffness of ‘Right There’, she has a good ear for a properly good pop tune as well. Written and produced by the brilliant duo Nervo, this brilliant track started as a twinkly piano ballad before exploding into an all-out electropop floorfiller, without losing an ounce of its emotional resonance.

31. Rihanna feat. Calvin Harris – ‘We Found Love’
October, Peak #1
Ah, Rihanna. In case you’ve been living under a rock all year, she’s a relentlessly hard working popstar who’s developed a would-be-tiresome habit of bringing out a new single every 14 minutes. That’s “would-be” because, as ‘We Found Love’ shows, she still has the odd tendency to be amazing. Thanks to some more fantastic work from Calvin Harris, this chart-invader stayed at No. 1 for what felt like a thousand years, but never felt over-played. At least not to these ears.

Coming up in Nos. 30-21, two ladies who made impressive debuts in 2011, two very different bands, and one of our best-loved talent show winners. Find out who they are on Wednesday…

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Watch: Nicole Scherzinger performs new song Pretty on X Factor USA

December 16, 2011 in Music with 0 Comments

Nicole Scherzinger “did a Cheryl” and stepped out from behind the X Factor judges’ table last night.

The singer, nursing a fragile reputation after spinelessly prompting Rachel Crow’s elimination last week, performed her new song ‘Pretty’, taken from an American re-issue of her Killer Love album.

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The X Factor USA Live Show 1: Don’t hold out for 2012, Nicole…

October 27, 2011 in TV, US TV with 0 Comments

Airdate: Friday 28th October 2011, ITV2

The auditions went down in much the same way as the UK edition, and the Judges’ Houses varied only slightly. But the real test for The X Factor USA was always going to be the first live show.

Well, the ratings certainly speak for something. Viewing figures rose to their highest since the series première last month, and continued to rise as the show progressed. Who knows what US viewers made of it, but for a UK viewer watching how Uncle Simon translated his lucrative format for the Stateside crowd, it left me a little cold.

The current problem with our own X Factor series is that it’s all a bit too much – the production, the bickering between the panel, the melodramatic rumours in the papers – but conversely, the US equivalent seems to actually be lacking a certain something.

It’s hard to pinpoint exactly what that is, but I can certainly conjure up a few possible factors. Steve Jones is really not good. At all. His opening segment was wooden and lifeless; and perhaps the nerves got to him but he didn’t crank up the charm or charisma in the slightest as the program progressed.  The sense of humour he had on T4 must be somewhere at the bottom of the Atlantic.

There’s also something about the American arena that seems better suited to the Idol format. Maybe it’s just that the humbler, simpler nature of Idol shows up XFUSA‘s style-over-substance approach, or maybe – like indeed the UK version – it needs a series or two to get into the swing of things.

But either way, the only thing that’s really going for XFUSA is Simon Cowell. His quips out-do all three of other panellists combined (“You were like a racing driver and L.A. [Reid] put you into a tractor”), and the major weak link at this point, sadly, is Nicole Scherzinger. She certainly shouldn’t hold her breath for any kind of contract renewal in 2012, at least not if the first live round is anything to go by.

For the first part of the show she seemed only interested in sucking up to Paula Abdul, and from then on she was constantly defending herself against Simon Cowell. He absolutely slammed her mentoring after two of her acts performed – Leroy and Stacy – and then, when he did compliment the song choice of one act, she cattily quipped, indicating herself, “No props over here?”. Simon could only scowl. The highlight was when she said to Stacy of her performance “It gave you wings,” to which Simon interrupted brilliantly with “What does that even mean?!”

At the top of the episode when the judges first made their epic entrance and Nicole imitated a certain someone’s familiar salute gesture, four words sprang to mind that I wasn’t expecting to think… Bring Back Cheryl Cole.

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