Parade - New album megamix featuring Stars!

OK, time to get really excited. I've been following hot new girl band Parade for a while now, and was overjoyed to hear them get their second Top 40 with Perfume a couple of weeks back.

Earlier in the day I caught up with the girls after an exciting exclusive performance at a flash bar under Chelsea's Stamford Bridge and they were all really thrilled with how well everything is going so far for them.

And now, with the release of their debut album on the horizon, they've released a new mega-mix of tracks from the album which you can download from their website now! How nice is that!

The mix features 'Perfume', 'Stars', 'Knock On My Door', 'Yes You Are', 'Just A Girl' and 'Like You' - All are brilliant, exactly the kind of fresh, modern pop I love and the band carries it really well. Seeing them increasingly frequently in the women's mags, they look stylish, trendy and every inch proper popstars.

Out of this crop though, I have to gush about Stars though because it's absolutely amazing - easily one of my favourite tracks the Parade girls have put out so far. It's something a little different for them, taking on a far more dancey angle, rocketing at you on a wave of trancey synths and feisty raps. Oh, and what's quite possibly my favourite lyric of the month: 'I've even got my own theme song!'

SO good.

(Video) Nicola Roberts - Beat Of My Drum

Allow me to introduce the world's new favourite popstar. Because that, surely, is what Nicola Roberts deserves to become.

With her delicate, model-like beauty and such an effortlessly charming personality, she gets the adorable-factor spot on, and never is it more evident in the video for her debut solo single Beat Of My Drum.

Throwing some moves down in a hall, accompanied by a troupe of dancers and drummers galore, she even finds time to come up with one of the best pop dance routines I've seen in a long time. 'L.O.V.E.' she raps out, spelling the letters out with her arms. I'm in love.

It's plain to see here that this is the moment Nicola has been building to all her life; and for a young singer making her first forays into the solo world after nearly a decade in a band, she carries it incredibly well. The video is fierce, fun and full of that distinct pop essence that we all felt only Nicola would be capable of creating.