Lemar’s very Taio Cruz-sounding new single ‘The Way Love Goes‘ is released – appropriately enough – on 14th February 2010. It is followed by a career-spanning hits collection – called, er, ‘The Hits’ – on 1st March.

More info at Lemar-Online.com.

It’s been a busy year in pop, and WAPS has been delighted to guide you through it!

Looking back over our articles prompted us to compile a rundown of 2009’s best pop songs – you know, because there really aren’t enough lists flying around at the moment…and with this in mind, we whittled a shortlist of almost 200 tracks down to 50. There were arguments, believe us, but here they are.

We hope you’ll agree that our selection represents the year in pop rather well, and we apologise if your favourite song or artist fell by the wayside. The list is presented in alphabetical order by artist because we think each track is equally important (not very scientific, but there you go.)

Finally, to celebrate our Top 50, Nokia Music have generously supplied us with two vouchers – worth 50 songs each! – which we are giving away to two lucky readers (one per winner). If you’re a winner you could download our entire Top 50 from the Nokia music store – or 50 entirely different tracks, the choice is yours!

To be in with a chance of winning*, all you have to do is leave a comment telling us your favourite track of 2009 and why you love it. The winners will be selected at random.

* Nokia Music Store is only supported on PC with Internet Explorer. Prize draw open only to UK residents. Competition closes at 31st December 2009. Terms and conditions apply.

	Alexandra Burke ft Flo Rida – Bad Boys With the public behind her and celebrity backing from Beyonce, X Factor 2008 winner Alexandra Burke couldn’t go wrong with her first ‘proper’ single, ‘Bad Boys’ -and yet for some curious reason Flo Rida was roped in for a cameo. If you’re reading, Flo, she’s not called Alexander. Mispronunciation-issues aside, ‘Bad Boys’ was a pop song you couldn’t help but bounce along to. Swanky video, too.
	Alphabeat – The Spell Exuberant Danish pop group Alphabeat bounced back from label limbo with their strongest single to date. ‘The Spell‘ was an irresistible take on early 90s dance acts such as Black Box and Snap, but sadly failed to translate into mega chart succes
	Beyonce – Halo Although ‘Halo‘ pretty much marked the point that Ryan ‘One Republic’ Tedder’s sound became overly familiar to the world and his wife, nobody minded because the sound was coming from Beyonce. Emotional pop of the highest order.
	Beyonce – Sweet Dreams A ferocious slab of electropop that showed Beyonce – sorry Sasha Fierce – at her most deadly. Ms Knowles stole the show with her rendition of this single at the 2009 MTV Europe Music Awards.
	Black Eyed Peas – Boom Boom Pow WAPS declared BEP’s ‘Boom Boom Pow‘ almost unlistenable the first time round, yet by the end of the summer it was rarely off our ipods. A bizarre dancefest of epic proportions that kickstarted six months of world domination from the Peas.
	Britney Spears – 3 An odd year for Britney – her ‘Circus’ tour ran to 97 dates and made millions, while its star released a series of increasingly lackluster singles that she failed to promote. ‘3‘ was the only new one, and was intended to showcase her frankly unnecessary ‘Singles Collection’. The pervy ode to threesomes divided fans, but WAPS loved it.
	Calvin Harris – I’m Not Alone Scottish producer/electro-bod Calvin Harris was unavoidable in 2009, and unfortunately so were his vocals – but his refusal to hire a guest vocalist didn’t stop ‘I’m Not Alone’ from storming to the top. His mega-wacky Jedward stage-invasion, however, may yet become his defining career moment. D’oh.
	Cheryl Cole – Fight For This Love What is there to say about Cheryl Cole that you haven’t heard already? How about: ‘Fight For This Love‘ is actually brilliant and deserved to be a number one smash. It also resulted in one of the best X Factor performances of the year. Shame her album’s a bit ropey, but hasn’t she got lovely hair?

(more…)

No Other One - the new single by Taio Cruz

Spelling-fan Taio Cruz isn’t worried about matching the success of his recent number one ‘Break Your Heart’ – he’s got a ton of pop aces up his sleeve. Here’s his latest release, ‘No Other One‘, which unsurprisingly follows the noughties equation of synths + autotune = generic hit.

‘No One Other’ is out November 30th 2009.

Kesha at her debut London show at Centro

Ke$ha’s in town, bitches!

WAPS was lucky enough to catch ‘TiK ToK’ singer Ke$ha at her London showcase yesterday, and she kindly found time afterwards to sit down and have a chat with us. Delightful!

Read on to find out about her forthcoming debut album, what she thinks of P Diddy and Flo Rida, and what her Halloween costume of choice is. Loving your work, Ke$ha.

WAPS: Hi Ke$ha, first things first – excellent gig this week.

Ke$ha: I had so much fun, thank you for coming!

W: It was our pleasure. You’re also supporting Calvin Harris during this visit, aren’t you?

K: I am. I’m playing again with him again tonight [at London’s Forum] but then I have to go back to the states to finish my record.

W: Any plans to collaborate with Calvin?

K: I hope so, I would love to – this record is pretty much almost done but I’d love for him to do a remix, or something for the next record.

W: Calvin does give good remix.

K: Oh yeah.

http://myspacetv.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=vids.individual&videoid=63499852

W: We also spotted you in Katy Perry’s ‘I Kissed A Girl’ video. Are you two friends, then?

K:  Totally, we were actually friends from before she was successful. We just knew each other from being out and about and we worked with some of the same people in Los Angeles.

W: Nice. So, we were listening to the tracks on MySpace and they seemed more poppy than your live show, which was a bit more rocky and full on. What can we expect from your debut album?

K:  Well I definitely think with the live show, I wanted it be rowdy and really fun, and hopefully dance-inducing. I think the whole record has a bit of a rock edge because it’s pretty rowdy [as well], and y’know, the lyrics are pretty straightforward…

W: They really are!

K: Haha. I think that gives it a bit of a rock edge but it’s definitely an electropop, dancey, magic kinda sound.

W: So no ballads then?

K: There might be one or two, but I wanna keep…even if it is a slower song it’ll still have that four-on-the-floor to keep the heads moving.

W: Cool. On ‘TiK ToK’ you sound like a little bit of a wild child – what’s the last outrageous thing you did?

K: Well last night I did have seven trannies join me on stage. That might classify as something outrageous from the last 24 hours. I’m totally interested in the tranny lifestyle.

W: Mmm, glitter.

K: I do love glitter.

W: So apart from trannies what inspires you?

K: Honestly? I get it from everything and anything – you can get inspired from certain people you meet, guys, girls…like ‘Backstabber’ is about a girl who stabbed me in the back, ‘Dinosaur’ is about this old guy hitting on me, ‘TiK ToK’ was written about a really epic, fun night out with all my friends. You know, across the board, I think there’s a pop sing in pretty much anything.

W: Did you actually work with P Diddy or did he just record a cameo for ‘Tik Tok’?

K: He just did a cameo on the song but I met him and he was a total sweetheart, which was weird ‘cause I thought he was going to be intimidating and he was the nicest guy ever.

W: Interesting! So if you were going to a desert island and you could take either P Diddy or Flo Rida, who would you take and why? (Ke$ha is the voice of Flo Rida’s ‘Right Round’.)

K: Haha. I don’t know, they’re both great for different things. Er…I’d probably take Diddy because I’ve spent less time with him. He’d definitely have some interesting stories to tell.

W: Good answer. And which female artists do you rate at the moment? We heard you’re not into ‘vanilla’ pop.

K: No, I’m not.  Let’s see, I love Beyonce. I think she’s the classiest woman on the planet. I really like Lily Allen – she’s rad. I like Katy Perry, I’m really happy for her success.

W: Are we going to get a Katy ‘n’ Ke$ha duet?

K: Who knows? Anything could happen!

READ MORE FROM KESHA AFTER THE JUMP! (more…)

Taio Cruz

Trevor Nelson gave us a sample of Taio Cruz‘ new song ‘Dirty Picture‘ on his radio show the other day. Taio, who’s topping the charts with his current hit ‘Break Your Heart‘, teamed up with up-and-coming star Ke$ha. Let’s hope she didn’t listen, because rude pics always leak (if you’re a celeb that is)!