New Music

Nelly Furtado - 'Big Hoops'

Following an extended long break Nelly Furtado is back and BIGGER than ever. Yes, that was very cliché but hey, I just had to.

The Canadian singer was strong on the music scene with ‘Maneater’ and ‘Promiscuous’ back in 2009 produced by her partner in crime, Timbaland and now she brings us a summer anthem contender which goes by the name of ‘Big Hoops (Bigger the Better)’.

Nellys brings her signature chants to the song as she sings “the bigger the better” over the thumping bass produced by Rodney "Darkchild" Jerkins. This empowering song is a great comeback track and the best part of the song has to be the drum and bass breakdown towards the end.

Watch the video below and the live performance at the 2012 Billboard Awards.

Nelly Furtado - 'Big Hoops' Music Video

'Big Hoops' Live Billboard Awards 2012 Performance

Kanye West & Jay-Z

'Watch TheThrone' Review

On the opening night of ‘Watch The Throne’ Kanye West modestly said “I guarantee this will be the greatest concert of your life”. Four days into the o2 tour, after I witnessed the 3 hour show myself, I concluded Mr West was not at all far off the mark.

'Watch The Throne' was far more than a concert, it was a celebration and union of 2 of the greatest Hip Hop artists coming together to share their booming music catalogue with a sold out o2 arena.

The tag team approached show begun with Jay-Z and a head to toe leathered Kanye West rising on two platforms covered in videos of slow motioned rottweilers and sharks as they rapped ‘H.A.M’ and ‘Who Gon’ Stop Me’.

As the two rappers rose 20 feet above their adoring fans on their platforms the pair held their positions and soaked in the screaming from the packed out arena as a sea of 20,000 hands rose towards the rappers like magnets throwing up the infamous Roc sign.

From that moment on and throughout, the 3 hour enthralling set delivered nothing but back to back hits combining their own classics such as Jay-Z’s “Izzo” and Kanye’s “Through The Wire” with more current collaborative efforts from their Watch The Throne album such as “Otis”.

Kanye West put his heart and soul into his solo performances sweating from his eyeballs, although this could have been down to all the leather. On the other hand, Jay-Z worked the crowd effortlessly without a sweat bead in sight as he oozed charisma with every stride he took on stage.

Right before Kanyes solo piece of ‘Runaway’ and ‘Heartless’ he bought out his pint sized, high profile girlfriend Kim Kardashian, holding hands as the crowds turned into a frenzy, frantically tweeting of her presence. Well, perhaps the frantically tweeting part was just me. Other than that moment, I did not look at my iphone once as I was completely captivated by the show from start to finish and amazed by the overwhelming pyrotechnics and laser visuals.

I would argue Kanye’s songs were much better suited for a show of this magnitude, particularly the songs from his latest album My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy, such as “Power” and “Monster”.  However, Jay-Z is without a doubt, the more experienced and accomplished performer with a presence on stage that is second to none as he boldly filled the arena with ease. Jay-Z’s best received solo performances were ‘Big Pimpin’ ‘Empire State of Mind’ and '99 Problems'

The banter and ‘spontaneous’ chat between Kanye and Jay-Z felt a little rehearsed and forced, however this is about the only complaint I could find of the mammoth show.

As soon as the screen read N****as In Paris the arena went insane and the song was encored a whopping 6 times. Somehow, the energy stayed strong throughout the reruns and the excitement intensified everytime Jay-Z demanded ‘Again’.

The 40-song strong show was an experience and truly criminal to have missed out on the hottest ticket in town. Jay-Z and Kanye own the Throne and everybody is watching.



Delilah covers Rita Ora's - 
'RIP'

One of Londons fastest rising stars Delilah has beautifully covered the UK Number one smash ‘RIP’ by Roc Nation’s newbie Rita Ora.

The French born, London raised singer who is best known for her song ‘Go’ performed the cover during a Radio 1 Live Lounge session and absolutely owned the song.

Alongside the perfectly harmonised backing singers and instrumentalists, Delilah softened and slowed the track right down, stripping it of all its pop elements.

Personally, I prefer this cover of the Drake penned track, as Delilah brings the song new meaning and in fact her version sounds like an entirely different song, making it difficult to compare to the original.

Watch the mesmerising Live Lounge performance below.

Delilah covers 'RIP' - Live Lounge

Up and Coming Artist Alert!

Lianne La Havas

Lianne La Havas. Ring any bells? I thought not.

This 23 year old songstress has been slowly but consistently building a fan base on both sides of the Atlantic. 

Rather than trampolining herself into the charts as an unknown artist, La Havas who is from Streatham, South London (my neck of the woods) has been quietly showcasing her talent by releasing songs with accompanied videos online via her website and Youtube.

Similarly to my experience of discovering the late Amy Winehouse during a Jools Holland performance back in 2005, I was truly captivated whilst Lianne La Havas sung ‘Age’ on the show. This lead me to search for more songs from the half Jamaican, half Greek singer.

Her latest track is a great definition of Lianne La Havas as an artist. ‘Lost & Found’ is deep, sultry and soulful and while it would be easy to compare her vocal style to Corrine Bailey Rae and Erykah Badu, this surely can not be denied.

The sweet melody of the song is soothing in contrast to the raw emotion heard as she sings of a destructive relationship, “You broke me, and taught me to truly hate myself”

'Lost & found' is from the compelling and liberating EP 'Live In LA'. If she continues to bring out this class of music, she is certainly the one to watch.

Lianne La Havas - 'Lost & Found' Music Video

Cheryl – 'Call My Name'

Following being dropped from US Xfactor by Simon Cowell, our Cheryl has decided to drop ex-husbands surname Cole and come back with new song ‘Call My Name’.

The video for Call My Name begins with a quote from French philosopher Marquis de Sade, which reads "The only way to a woman's heart is along the path of torment."

For all Twitter and Tumblr budding philosophers I’m sure this will go down a treat and all bitter females out there can update their Facebook status, BBM status and Tweet their heart out with the quote and lyrics from the song. (Yes, I have already done this)

Calvin Harris, the hottest guy in music production right now, wrote and produced the dance track, which quite frankly on the first listen bored me before I’d even reached the half way mark. However, with the accompanied video, I must say my views have changed. Not just because Cheryl is dancing with a bunch of hot male dancers or because she looks stunning as she seductively flaunts herself against a wall in tight hot pants....ok ok for those reasons alone I gave it a second, third and fourth chance.

The song is a grower for sure and once the catchy chorus has got cold of your ears, it will not let go. Cheryl has been quiet for a little while, but no doubt she will be bombarding our airwaves real soon with tracks from upcoming album ‘A Million Lights’ with hot collaborations with Lana Del Rey, Alex Da Kid and her boss Will.I.Am.

Cheryl - 'Call My Name' Music Video

New Video!

Justin Beiber - 'Boyfriend'

I will get this out the way now and confess. I have become a new Justin Beiber fan. Not quite ‘Beiber Fever’ status, but a fan nonetheless. Glad I got that out the way.

Beibers latest single ‘Boyfriend’ is a hot track. Anyone who disagrees is simply just hating on the lad! ‘Boyfriend’ reflects his maturing vocals and his style is clearly heading into R’n’B and away from pop. Beiber’s singing is solid but he really should have taken out the silly attempt at the rap, it is far too cringe.

The track is written and produced by the very talented Mike Posner and has elements of Justin Timberlake and Ying Yang Twins style whispering. The video which is uncanny of N’Sync ‘Girlfriend’ video striked a whopping 8 million Youtube views in less than 24 hours! Those Beliebers of his are something else!!

Watch the video below and his live performance at The Voice US.

Justin Beiber - 'Boyfriend' Music Video

'Boyfriend' Live Performance 

 Rihanna's no Role Model

Rihanna has made it very clear in the past that she has no desire in being a role model. The pop singer wears t-shirts and jewelry emblazoned with dirty words and regularly reminds us via Twitter that she does not care about being a role model for her fans who are predominantly young impressionable girls.

In a 2009 interview, the pop star addressed her violent encounter with then boyfriend Chris Brown and explained that she made the decision to walk away from the relationship for the sake of her female fans saying "Even if Chris never hit me again, who is to say that their boyfriend won't? Who's to say that they won't kill these girls? These are young girls and I just didn't realize how much of an impact I had on these girls' lives until that happened."

The 24 year old is clearly aware of her strong influence on her fans, in case she had forgotten, she was reminded earlier this year when Time ranker her a Number #.... 100 Most Influential People List.

It seems that Rihanna is desperately trying to do everything she possibly can to move away from this responsibility telling Vogue Uk "See, people – especially white people – they want me to be a role model just because of the life I lead. The things I say in my songs, they expect it of me and being a role model became more of my job than I want it to be. But no, I just want to make music. That’s it.”

Her actions have gone on to prove her lack of interest in being a role model as she took to Twitter/Instagram and posted images of herself doing something that is most likely illegal on top of a bald guy's head at Coachella Festival.

In an attempt to prove just how rebellious and controversial she is, today Rihanna posted pictures of herself dancing with a female stripper and throwing cash on another female stripper as she captioned the pictures “ROCstarshit my daddy would be proud” and “RoleModelShit”

Ok Rihanna we get the message, you’re trying to live like a ‘rockstar’ and show us all that you’re bad ass. But surely, it kind of defeats the purpose where you are posting these pictures yourself?

HOT New Couple -

Kim Kardashian & Kanye West

Kim K and Kanye West step out together for the first time

For months on end the rumours have been rife. Are they? Aren’t they? Are they? Yes, they are.

Reality star Kim Kardashian and new beau, rapper Kanye West have stepped out hand in hand for the first time to the opening of Scott Dissicks restaurant in NYC last week following a string of speculation.

Since then they have of course taken every opportunity to be papped as they gaze at eachother lovingly arm in arm to show the world just how happy and together they are.The pair who have known each other for almost a decade were rumoured to be dating while both still in serious relationships, however both camps failed to address the whispers.

Kanye’s ex Amber Rose branded Kim Kardashian a ‘homewrecker’ and “one of the main reasons why me and Kanye are not together” in an interview with RadarOnline, claiming Kim would send Kanye inappropriate messages and pictures of herself.

Kim K wears her new boyfriends initials on earing

Some have labelled the union of Kim and Kanye as a ploy to gain attention, but, why would one of the biggest artists in music and one of the most sought after reality TV stars need any more attention than they already have? Following this case of romantic celebrity musical chairs Kanye rapped on 'Theraflu' "And I’ll admit, I fell in love with Kim‘Round the same time she had fell in love wit’ him”. “Him” being Kris Humphries whom Kim shared a swift 72 day marriage with.

Since revealing their relationship, the high profile couple have been seen at many events and on many dates together. It is rumoured that Kim will be joining Mr West on his European tour of ‘Watch The Throne’ later this month alongside Jay-Z. Who knows, perhaps Kim Kardash and Beyonce may become BFF’s. (Yeah, I highly doubt that too)

Sof's Song of the Week

Coverdrive - 'Sparks'

This new four piece group known as CoverDrive are the latest musical export from Barbados who have been riding high in the charts with tracks ‘Lick Ya Down’ and ‘Twilght’.

The groups set up mirrors 90’s group No Doubt and the Black Eyed Peas with  a 3:1 boy:girl ratio. Their lead singer Amanda offers a sweet vocal on my song of the week ‘Sparks’.

The Caribbean-Pop track brings a feeling of warmth and sunshine. If you close your eyes you can imagine yourself on a beach sipping a cocktail as she sings ‘Happy to see you, setting me off like sparks. You ignite all the colours inside my heart’ over the piano keys and smooth synths. Once you have heard the catchy summery chorus over the repetitive clappy beat it will be hard to shake off.

Perhaps the UK’s dreary, grey and dull weather at the moment has influenced my song choice of the week! Check out the summery, fresh video and escape with CoverDrive for approximately 3 minutes.



CoverDrive - 'Sparks' Music Video