Rihanna - Where Have You Been

The joy with Rihanna is that she's one of those preciously rare artists that can release pretty much anything and be sure of a hit. But as far as Rihanna hits-in-the-making go, Where Have You Been is a pretty good one, recapturing the darker overtones of her Rated R album via a hauntingly ambient guitar intro reminiscent of Photographs. This all builds into an apocalyptically chaotic trance section that spurts a load of synth twiddlings over the listener like a burst fire-hose. It's a wildfire, explosive cocktail but inherently fun in that way Rihanna does so well, eg. you just know that if she were to perform it on the X Factor, it'd come with a bonkers, racy-as-hell routine. But on a more serious note, on an album which could have very nearly been a misfire (see the execretable Birthday Cake), Where Have You Been is reassuringly like the Rihanna of old.

Where Have You Been is set for a June release date.

Rebecca Ferguson covers Drake's Take Care

We were already mega-excited for Rebecca Ferguson's tour, but after seeing this sublime cover of Drake's Take Care, we're positively counting down the days to the date we're going to. Rebecca's smoky, sultry vocals suit the song perfectly and we love the arrangement of the track she's gone for - very classy indeed!

[Official Video] Rihanna - You Da One

My lasting impression of Rihanna's Talk That Talk album was of a record that only just managed to paper over its deficiencies with the ample reserves of RiRi's sheer force of personality. The most remarkable thing was not that it was a bad record, because it wasn't - but that Rihanna, simply through *being* Rihanna, could turn something that was such a repetition of past successes into an LP with genuine merit. Despite the lingering sensation that we've heard it all before, Talk That Talk felt undeniably good.

And much can be said of new single You Da One too - its lilting slow-jam rhythms hit a heady mid-point between the cock'sure stride of Rude Boi and the sleek sensuality of What's My Name. It's classic RihannaPop (surely a genre in its own right by now), tapping in to her Bajan side to deliver a more mellow follow-up to balls-to-the-wall rave-athon We Found Love.

The video is pretty perfunctory - it's Rihanna, as always, doing what she does best: singing and looking hot. She gets to show off her new, rather fetching blonde haircut and does a bit of hip thrusting. Oh, and most of the video is in black and white - de'rigeur language these days for 'this is supposed to look a bit arty'.

In terms of Rihanna singles - You Da One falls short; again, not because it's bad, but because she's set the bar so high in the past. But if anything, it stands as proof of the all conquering pop behemoth she has become these days, that precision tooled creation that right now is leaving pretty much every other popstar for dust.

You Da One is released on the 2nd January.

Rihanna - You Da One

On first listen, You Da One felt like the first faltering steps for Rihanna after years of unimpeded pop glory. While by no means a bad tune, it felt like a predictable rehashing of past RiRi tropes - a safe middle ground between the Bajan lilt of Rude Boi and the sensual rhythms of What's My Name.

But in time it's done much to grow on me. Like some of Rihanna's best moments, You Da One is a real slow burner, and sometimes the tracks need to strike you just at the right tangent to ring true. At this time of year, the song's blatant summery vibes feel out of place, thematically dry - but the promise is there, a tantalising urging to seek out promised pleasures. As Rihanna sings, 'You da one I dream about every day...'

As an ode to that imagined, perfect sweetheart, You Da One captures the magical swirling of such feelings perfectly - as a sharing of communal affection, it's nice to see Rihanna going for a more cheery brand of sensuality than the S&M uber-sexed flavours of past singles for a change.

You Da One is released on the 2nd January.

Drake - Take Care (feat. Rihanna)

Drake's Thank Me Later is hands up one of my favourite albums of recent years, a rare example of an album's quality genuinely matching up to every bit of hype floating around the ether about a new artist. Over here in the UK, the reception to the record was middling - a few of the singles received decent-ish airplay, but any overall impression was minimal.

Hence, the buck falls to new single Take Care to propel Drake into the upper echelons of the chart, and the public consciousness. Put simply, this guy is too talented to be ignored. As far as hip-hop goes, Drake exists on another level, and its a deliriously good-sounding place.

Just like the best moments of Thank Me Later, Take Care is dreamy, hazy - the smoke-screen of an all-time best high. With Rihanna carted in for guest vocal duties, and the club-accented thump, thump of the drums, the track's crossover appeal is immense. If any track exists to break Drake to the public at large, it's this one.

RiRi sounds softer than usual, more sultry - it's a nice change from her usual dominatrix stylings and allows her to slide herself more easily around Drake's raps. Take Care is the sound of a lost African jungle, that tribal percussion underpinning a beautifully elusive synth hook. It's quick-silver magic, twisted and beaten to Drake's will.

Coldplay - Mylo Xyloto

Over a decade since Parachutes and the eternally popular Yellow first graced our ears, do Coldplay have any right to still be selling albums in quantities that’d make your average band think about shutting up shop and going home? New record Mylo Xyloto makes a surprisingly strong case that yes, they absolutely do.

Fronted up by the formidable duo of singles Every Teardrop and Paradise, Chris Martin and co. return to the soaring hooks and Eno-inspired sounds of Viva La Vida. Oh, and they’ve even roped in pop starlet Rihanna for a great little turn on synth-heavy number Princess of China.

Cover Drive - Lick Ya Down

Bajan pop eh? Needless to say, there's one very special lady cornering that market right now, and she goes by the name of Rihanna. But Polydor-signed Cover Drive stand to provide a fresh alternative to 2011's Queen of Pop with their fantastically titled debut single Lick Ya Down.

The track comes on like a close relative of TI's massive hit Live Your Life, all machine-gun beats and chants. Band member Manda takes the lead with the lion's share of the vocals on the track with her three accompanying boys - Barry, Jamar and T Ray - playing guitar, bass and drums respectively.

It's a big, bolshy package, bursting with energy and colour - something that's very much reflected in the frenetic drive of the single itself.

The band also do a very nice cover of J Lo's I'm Into You - all stripped back and acoustic, the track really shines and plays to the best element's of the group's unique style. The phrase 'summery' is thrown around a lot, but for Cover Drive, it feels genuinely earned.

So pull on the shades, soak up the sun, and enjoy... I reckon we're going to be seeing a lot more of these guys over the coming months.

Lick Ya Down is released on the 28th August.

Rihanna on the cover of Cosmo mag

Sometimes you don't need words. Not even because the picture tells it all, but because you can't tear your eyes away from that picture to describe it. But suffice to say, Rihanna is one of the hottest popstars around at the moment and her new Cosmopolitan magazine cover is absolutely jaw-dropping stuff. Just WOW!

We shared a lot of love over the video for her brilliant new single California King Bed, and this cover just backs up how on-form Rihanna is at the moment. Keep up the good work girl!

(Video) Rihanna - California King Bed

Rihanna, looking as amazingly hot and sexy as ever, takes to rolling around in - yes, you guessed it - a king sized bed in the video for her new single California King Bed. Now, putting aside what a random title this is for a passionate love ballad, the track is pretty damn good and it's refreshing to see RiRi turn the pace down a notch after all those up-tempo dance tracks. It gives us time to catch our breath a bit (we're still pretty in awe her X Factor performance last year).

The video is all very tastefully done; lots of pastel shades, soft lighting and Rihanna's hair still looking as vibrantly red as ever. In many ways, California King Bed shows the both sides of Rihanna at their most obvious - the glamorous eye-candy of the video being a self-explanatory showpiece for the woman this week voted into FHM's Top 10 sexiest women. And then you have the song itself, allowing the pop starlet to show how she's actually an incredibly gifted singer, easily possessing to vocal chops to pull off a big, epic chorus like this.

Also, if that luxury suite is going spare after the video's finished, we'd quite like to have it (unfortunately, I don't think Rihanna comes included with the room...)

California King Bed is released on June 12th.

Nicole Scherzinger - Right There

So, the new Nicole video - for a song where she repeatedly instructs us to put 'it' right there, and other such saucyness. As such, the video is very much as you'd expect, Nicole walking around, doing a bit of dancing, generally looking hot. So far, so average. The video seems more in line with Nicole's look when she was still part of PCD. Gone is the epic, superwoman-like flowing hair and dramatic posing we'd perhaps grown accustomed to from the performances of her last two singles.

I'm inclined to say that Right There even sounds a little dated, like a Nelly Furtado track from six years ago or something like that. Fine at the time, but now, it just doesn't have that sheer 'verve' to stand out on its own like some of the others tracks on the album too. Poison was a big, riotous dance anthem that bowled you over with its intensity, but this just seems to simmer on the back-burner instead.

I can see why they went for this track as a single, it's got that sultry urban groove to it that made Rihanna's What's My Name such an immense hit - but this isn't Nicole's strength. She's at her best on the empowered club bangers - to coin one of her own track titles. I'm still waiting for Killer Love, the title track from the album to get its single release. That's the one to watch out for.

Right There is released on June 5th and you can pre-order the digital EP (featuring a version with 50 Cent) from iTunes here.

Cher Lloyd to get 'In The Zone' with Britney Spears?

A spokesperson from Cher's record label has let on to some rather exciting goings on regarding the singer's debut album. Artists like Rihanna and Lady Gaga have been asked to participate in collaborations, but personally I'm most excited about Cher potentially turning her swag on with Britney Spears.

Reports in The Sun say rapper Busta Rhymes is already set to feature on one of the tracks already.

Cher's album is out on the 12th September and can already be pre-ordered from HMV.

Let's not forget that Cher covered Britney's epic ballad Everytime on the X Factor live shows last year...

Britney Spears - Till The World Ends (Featuring Nicki Minaj & Ke$ha)

After cropping up on Rihanna's S&M remix, it's now Britney's turn to head into the mix as forthcoming tour buddy Nicki Minaj and wild party girl Ke$ha feature on an extended remix of Till The World Ends.

Rather fitting, in a way, seeing as Ke$ha co-wrote the track. Nicki's rap is suitably fierce, as you might imagine, but I'm yet to be completely sold on this version. Take a listen below though and see what you think:

Nicola Roberts wants us to 'Dance To The Beat of My Drum' apparently...

Aside from Metronomy's Joe Mount feeding us tit-bits of info about Nicola's solo project, details regarding her music have been fairly thin on the ground. This tweet by fashion stylist Joel Dash possibly tells us a little more however...

"Previewed Nicola Roberts first solo single 'Dance To The Beat of My Drum' (produced by Diplo & Switch).. New sound = MAEHJOREEE!"

All very exciting. And we love the usage of 'MAJAH', as previously employed on Twitter by Rihanna... (and others)

Diplo and Switch are also behind the new Beyonce track, which was made available on iTunes earlier today.

Cheryl eyes up some hot collabs & Girls Aloud are a FIVE forever

Yup, it's time for the latest round of Girls Aloud news.

Reports today suggest that Cheryl wants to work with Rihanna, Katy Perry and Nicki Minaj on her next album. Let's face it, who wouldn't want to work with a trio of amazingness like those lovely ladies! These high profile collabs are apparently to help launch Cheryl in the US.

An insider revealed: "Cheryl's management want her to become the next big popstar in America and are working on securing some A-list names for the album. A Rihanna duet is a certainty and Will.I.Am is trying to convince Minaj to work on the LP too. Katy Perry has also been in talks with Cheryl about a duet, as she is a big fan."

We like to imagine will.i.am as one of those super-cool guys who's always on his phone lining up various business deals and meetings, and in this dream scenario, hooking Chezza up with the best in US female pop. There's even reports that Cheryl wants to work with Britney and Beyonce too.

Turning our attention back to Girls Aloud as a whole... this afternoon, the awesome-threesome of welovepop, supersonicpr and polydorrecords all tweeted this message:

"Time to set the record straight after another ridiculous story. Girls Aloud will always be, Sarah, Nadine, Kimberley, Cheryl and Nicola."

Which throws cold water all over Heat's super-silly story about them wanting to continue as a four-piece.

Rihanna & Christina X Factor perfomances get the all clear from Ofcom

Hearing the news that Rihanna and Christina Aguilera's performances from last year's X Factor had been cleared by Ofcom, I breathed an immense sigh of relief. After over 2800 complaints that their performances had apparently been 'too sexy', Ofcom had launched an investigation into the whole matter.

I still find it utterly bewildering that anyone could take such offence at a pop performance. Sure Rihanna and Christina might not wear many clothes and pull out some sexy dance moves, but is this kind of thing any more sexually explicit than some of the stuff in TV dramas going out in similar time-slots? I'm sure even soaps like Eastenders or Hollyoaks have featured stuff just as racy in the past.

I've expressed my views in the past at my utter dismay at the pitiful complaints culture that currently seems to be sweeping the UK, where over-opinionated viewers see fit to make knee-jerk complaints to try and excersize some small amount of power that is clearly lacking in their own lives. It's all a bit silly isn't it? I dread to think how these people deal with day to day life if they can't even cope with a bit of sexy dancing on X Factor!

The funniest/most shocking thing - depending on how you look at it - is that about 2000 of the complaints only came after the Daily Mail had run an article on the performances including zoomed-in pictures focusing in close on the female singers. Make of that what you will...

On a brighter note, let's enjoy Rihanna's 'sexy' performance again:

Rihanna as a judge on US X Factor would have been amazing...

There have been reports in the papers today that Rihanna was asked to be a judge on the new US X Factor but had to turn it down due to her tour schedule.Speaking on an American radio show Rihanna said:

"I just heard about it actually and yes, it's something I would have loved to do but our schedule doesn't allow it. We're going to be on tour for the rest of the year. It is a demanding schedule to be in that show and you have to be around for a long time, months at a time - which would've been impossible for me."

Fair enough, RiRi's a busy lady, but let's just imagine for a moment how awesome it would be if Rihanna had taken on the job...

Like most of the world, we're properly in love with Rihanna and as confirmed by her 18 nominations in the upcoming Billboard Music Awards, she really is one of the biggest superstars around right now. Plus, her music is amazing. Her presenting X Factor would have been a further extension of that enchanting Rihanna brand, a further boost to an already massively successful career.

By far the best thing would have been more Cheryl and Rihanna love-ins though (if Cheryl is indeed confirmed for a role on the US panel), following on from their very public display of affection for each-other at the BRIT Awards. 'Team CherRi' really are awesome.

We can all dream...

R&B (Come On!) The Rihanna & Britney S&M collab...

I'm not going to lie, when I saw Rihanna tweet about doing a collab with Britney, I had high hopes for some kind of amazing new song. Can you imagine it, two of the most amazing forces in pop coming together to team up on some mind-blowing future-pop track....

The reality is an S&M remix, featuring Britney. Not quite what I hoped for, but accepting it as what we're going to be given, still pretty nice. At the end of the day, Britney and Rihanna in any format is Pretty Damn Awesome.

One thing I really like is Rihanna's take on it all. This whole thing was prompted by a fan-driven vote where Rihanna asked who people would like to see her collaborate with. Now, considering RiRi has over four-million followers, that's a hell of a lot of people voting. Remember she got the fans voting for the fourth single off her Loud album too. Pop, run democratically! I like it!

We'll have to wait a little longer to hear what this remix turns out like, but suffice to say, it'll add another chapter to the already significant story of S&M (what with the whole radio edit butchering censorship affair). As for Rihanna, she certainly sounds excited, tweeting about the collab: 'Its BRITNEY BITCH!!!! One of the biggest worldwide popstars! U gangsta #EPIC.'

We're loving the use of the '#EPIC' hashtag!

George Michael, please do True Faith justice...

So, what we know: George Michael is doing a song for Comic Relief, but the best thing is that it'll be a cover of New Order's 1987 hit True Faith. Now, New Order are in my top five favourite bands of all time and True Faith is one of my favourite singles of theirs, so I'm really, really hoping George can do proper justice to the track. I haven't been this excited about a Comic Relief single since Girls Aloud and The Sugababes released their cover of Walk This Way. Good ol' Red Nose Day obviously has a fancy for classic 80s hits.

Anyway, please could this be more like the amazingness that was Rihanna sampling New Order's Blue Monday on Shut Up And Drive and not some boring middle of the road Radio 2 friendly re-hash of the track. George himself has brought out some great dance-pop tracks in the past so please can his True Faith cover continue in this tradition.

Oh, and all the proceeds from the single go to charity, which is always nice.

True Faith is released 13th March.

Wonderland - Only Girl In The World (Rihanna cover)

Wonderland are one of the most exciting things in pop music right now. They're gearing up to release their debut single very, very soon - but in the mean time they've treated us to this amazing cover of Rihanna's Only Girl In The World. It shows off the girl group's vocals perfectly and it's nice to see the song work so well in an acoustic setting, so far removed from the all out floorfiller that is Rihanna's original.

Check out the girls' website here.

Best girl-crush ever - Rihanna and Cheryl

In addition to Take That's amazing performance of Kidz, my other BRIT awards highlight was without a doubt all the hard-core fan-gurling going on between those pinnacles of popstar hotness; Cheryl and Rihanna.

When Cheryl took to the stage to present Rihanna with her award for Best International Female and declared RiRi 'her girl crush', it was seriously the most adorable thing ever. (Definitely helped by the fact Cheryl endearingly seemed to be perhaps a little tipsy as she professed her love).

The best was yet to come though as Rihanna tweeted: 'Can Cheryl Cole NOT be so yummy??? Just ONCE!!!'

Wow. Just imagine that image in your head now... Yup.

Team CheRi FTW we say.