In December 2008, 19-year-old singer Diana Vickers was prematurely eliminated from the fifth season of the U.K.'s The X Factor. Within months after her departure, however, the young singer was already creating a healthy amount of buzz around her debut-nearly enough to overshadow the efforts of her former competitors, Alexandra Burke and JLS.
As a massive cloth banner sporting the singer's name was hoisted into the air, strange alien noises began spewing from the speakers.
With My Best Friend Is You, it seems Kate Nash has decided to shy far, far away from the sweetly sung, Lily Allen-tinged ditties on her debut.
Lights is the debut album released March 1 by Ellie Goulding, the 23-year-old British electro-pop chanteuse recently awarded (or damned with, depending on your interpretation) the title of BBC's Sound of 2010 Artist.The distinction stems from a list compiled at the start of each year by the broadcasting network responsible for predicting the next movers and shakers in the industry (Little Boots topped the list in 2009, Adele in 2008).With the title also comes a responsibility to deliver, something that has always seemed to plague the shortlist of winners with an impossible amount of criticism and hype before their debut ever reaches shelves.
On Utada Hikaru's last tour, 2006's Utada United tour in Japan, the average audience size per venue varied from 20,000 to 50,000 attendees nightly.
It's difficult to appreciate Heidi Montag as a human being.At first glance, she isn't much more than your typical blonde bimbo socialite: a plastic Barbie making bank from a talentless role on a "reality" show gallivanting around Los Angeles to fill the narcissistic need for attention like a spray-tanned crack addict with a flesh-colored beard creeper of a husband.
Congratulations, it's 2010! Who's ready to drink?That's the lasting, ever-present theme of Animal, the long-awaited debut album from Ke$ha.
In the aftermath of the Chris Brown incident, Rated R could have gone one of three ways for Rihanna: A schlocky, inspirational and ballad-filled account of her experience; an ignorance-is-bliss continuation of her winning 2008 dance-floor formula; or something much, much more daring than anything she's ever done before.
As Torrance Shipman once said in the 2000 classic Bring It On, "Missy's the poo, so take a big whiff."While that quote doesn't really apply here (aside from suggesting that Lady Gaga is indeed "the poo"), the point is this: As the driving force behind the writing and recording process of her music, the creative director of her album artwork, music videos, tour visuals, merchandising and just about every other facet of her career, Lady Gaga is a very new kind of pop star-one that sings live, writes and records, dances, styles photo shoots and waxes poetic about the lifestyle of the artiste.While many have managed to break the market on their own terms, I can't think of a single mainstream female pop artist in recent times who has exercised nearly as much creative control in both the audio and visual departments as Lady Gaga.
"Happiness hit her like a train on a track, coming towards her stuck / still no turning back," Florence Welch whispers above the lulling ukulele of "Dog Days Are Over," the opening track off of her first full-length release.
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