Will.i.am is new Britney album producer. POP BITS.
Fresh off her not-at-all-cash-in stint as an X Factor judge in the US, Queen of Pop Britney Spears is on the track to releasing her eighth album, a follow up to the rather fantastic dance-pop album ‘Femme Fatale’.
However, it looks as though she’s recruiting some new friends to join the roster of producers as will.i.am has announced himself as the new executive producer of the album and declared it to be an ‘intimate’ record. Ooh-er!
Their partnership did produce the rather addictive ‘Scream & Shout’ and a catchy club song on ‘Femme Fatale’ called ‘Big Fat Bass’, so here’s hoping they can replicate the success of their previous partnerships on the album, which is expected to be dropped some time this year. POP BITS OUT.
Taylor Swift, Katy Perry, Justin Bieber – a guide to pop stars on Twitter!
- Lady Gaga: (@ladygaga) / Followers: 31 million / Follows: 137,000 / Famous follows: Barack Obama / Sample tweet: good story: monster in brazil gave me a necklace engraved with lyrics from The Manifesto of Little Monsters. Have never toured there :) / Conclusion: Gaga clearly loves her fans and uses it to engage with them all over the world. Top tweeting marks here.
- Justin Bieber (@justinbieber) / Followers: 30 million / Follows: 122,000 / Famous follows: Everyone from Lady Gaga and Katy Perry to Charlie Sheen and Kanye West, Justin has serious follower swag / Sample Tweet: "6 years ago today u all started to change my life. Thank u. Love u. #stillkidrauhl" / Conclusion: He may be the biggest teen idol on the planet right now, but Justin clearly hasn’t lost touch with his Beliebers. All those re-tweets clogging up your feed could get annoying though.
- Katy Perry (@katyperry) / Followers: 29 million / Follows: 117 / Famous Follows: Mostly fellow celebrities; Taylor Swift, Ellen DeGeneres, Lana Del Rey etc. / Sample Tweet: I think this lil' lady is going to be massive so if you haven't discovered her yet, jump on board: Jessie Ware. / Conclusion: With just 117 followers she’s a bit of a twitter snob, so you’ll be lucky to get a response from her, but her tweets are quite interesting and she has great taste.
- Rihanna (@Rihanna) / Followers: 26 million / Follows: 889 / Famous follows: Chris Brown / Sample tweet: My 3rd fragrance Nude will be available in the US at Macy’s next FRIDAY! / Conclusion: Lots of updates from her time on the road, plus plugs for her latest products. She’s not the most revealing tweeter, but good at keeping her fans in the loop.
![Britney Spears [@britneyspears] / Followers: 23 million / Follows: 411, 000 / Famous follows: Loads of fans but Rihannas a pretty good ace in the hole / Sample tweet: Spending a quiet New Years Eve in with my boys and little miss@hannahspears. Let's hear some interesting resolutions for 2013? / Conclusion: Fun, frequent and while theres nearly not enough about her music (and quite a few we reckon courtesy of her management team), shes still essential Twitter following.](http://www.maximumpop.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2013/01/twitter-britneyspears-150x150.jpg "twitter-britneyspears")
- Britney Spears [@britneyspears] / Followers: 23 million / Follows: 411, 000 / Famous follows: Loads of fans but Rihanna’s a pretty good ace in the hole / Sample tweet: Spending a quiet New Years Eve in with my boys and little miss@hannahspears. Let's hear some interesting resolutions for 2013? / Conclusion: Fun, frequent and while there’s nearly not enough about her music (and quite a few we reckon courtesy of her management team), she’s still essential Twitter following.
![Britney Spears [@britneyspears] / Followers: 23 million / Follows: 411, 000 / Famous follows: Loads of fans but Rihannas a pretty good ace in the hole / Sample tweet: Spending a quiet New Years Eve in with my boys and little miss@hannahspears. Let's hear some interesting resolutions for 2013? / Conclusion: Fun, frequent and while theres nearly not enough about her music (and quite a few we reckon courtesy of her management team), shes still essential Twitter following.](http://www.maximumpop.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2013/01/twitter-britneyspears.jpg "twitter-britneyspears")
- Taylor Swift (@Taylorswift13) / Followers: 20 million / Follows: 82 / Famous follows: Ed Sheeran, Gary Lightbody from Snow Patrol, Lily Allen / Sample Tweet: Walked into my AMA dressing room and there was this little bowl of candy in there. Literally shrieked with excitement. Need to tone it down. / Conclusion: A fun tweeter who really shows off her quirky personality, and seems to be well connected to the Britpop pack.
Back in the days of yore (i.e. the 90s) if you had a burning desire to get in touch with your favourite pop star, you had to find their address, write them a letter, buy a stamp, find a postbox and hope that their secretary wouldn’t just toss it out with the takeaway menus when it arrived. Tough times dear readers, tough times. We remember many a time sitting, waiting for a sign of affection from A1 or Steps but to no avail… *sigh*
Nowadays, of course, it’s so much easier. All you need to do is log in to twitter and you’ve got the entire celebrity world at your fingertips. But is your chart topper of choice likely to get back to you, or will you end up like us back in the 90s, still waiting for that postcard from Geri Halliwell? The lovely people at clickitticket.com have created a guide to the top tweeters in pop. Here’s what we learned when we took a peek…
JLS: album #4 – five things we have learned!
JLS are one of those groups who seem like complete work-a-holics… it feels like just yesterday they announced their previous album and now here we are in September 2012 with ANOTHER one on the way already. Still, we’re not complaining if the music stays as poptastic as it always has been!
JLS have had more number ones in the UK than any other X Factor act and have sold out over ten nights at London’s O2 Arena, a record matched only by pop icons Take That and the Spice Girls! But that’s old news, you want to find out what’s NEW on the good ship JLS, right? Right. So here it is:
Album #4 is called Evolution
It will be released on 5 November 5 and the lads chose the title because it explains their new sound. This will be their fourth album since graduating from The X Factor in 2008. An album per year! Wowzers.
Their new material is “very grown up”
JB, Aston, Oritise and Marvin describe the first single as being a sleek, modern club song which takes the group out of pop territory. Hang on a second – out of pop territory? Will we need our passports?!
The single? It’s called… ‘The Hottest Girl In The World’
…and according to the lads themselves, they “go in” on the high notes. Well, it just wouldn’t be a JLS track without a few acrobatic vocals thrown in for good measure, would it?!
They’ve worked with some pretty BIG producers…
‘The Hottest Girl In The World’ was produced by Bangladesh, who has worked with Beyoncé and Usher! That’s quite a pop pedigree. Other producers on the album include Rodney Jerkins (Michael Jackson, Justin Bieber, Britney Spears) and The Runners (Chris Brown, Rihanna)
A deluxe version of the album will be released too!
It will include bonus tracks and previously unreleased tracks! Rumour has it some acoustic versions of your favourite JLS hits might be on there too.
Stay tuned to Maximum Pop! as we bring you ALL the JLS news as we get it.
Are you excited for Evolution or do you think JLS should take a break? Have YOUR say in our comments box below or on Twitter @maximumpop
Do Marvin and the boys still make you wanna OH OH OH OH OH OH?
Britney confirms new will.i.am feature!
When we first heard the Britney Spears and will.i.am collaboration, ‘Big Fat Bass’, we predicted it would be the start of an exciting musical friendship… and we were right! After Mr i.am did the business producing their duet on Brit’s Femme Fatale album last year, Miss Spears is rumoured to be returning the favour by appearing on Will’s forthcoming album.
#willpower (yes, the hashtag really is part of the album title) is said to include a brit.i.am duet called ‘Sexy Sexy’. Something about the title tells us it’ll be quite a sexy track. Just a hunch.
Although no concrete details are known just yet, Britney did tweet this the other day:
Can’t wait for y’all to hear @iamwill’s next single featuring me. Coming very soon. Stay tuned people…
Oh, the little tease! Keep your ears peeled for this one – we’ve got a feeling they’ll have another hit on their hands!
New Carly Rae Jepsen!
Justin Bieber’s protege Carly Rae Jepsen is ready to release her debut album Kiss, and we’ve got all the goss for you!
After ‘Call Me Maybe’ sold an astonishing 1 million copies in the UK alone and spent 8 weeks at number one in America, the follow up, ‘Good Time’ (with Owl City), has had over 6m views on VEVO!
Carly Rae has been collaborating with a team of her “dream producers” including Max Martin (Britney Spears, P!nk), Dallas Austin (Sugababes), Toby Gad (Beyoncé) and Redfoo from LMFAO. She says of Kiss, “these are lyric and song ideas that I have been collecting over the years. The record is pop. It’s inspired by Robyn, The Cars, Madonna, and believe it or not, James Taylor. I can’t wait to share it with everyone!”
Ms Jepsen will be supporting Bieber on tour in the US and Canada, and hopes to make her way over to the UK soon. We can’t wait to hear this album!
A chap from Britney Spears’ first album auditions for The X Factor
If you’re old enough to remember Britney Spears’ 1999 opus …Baby One More Time, you may remember this song:
The male is Don Philip… remember all the big things he’s gone on to achieve since then? No, us neither, which is probably why he auditioned for The X Factor USA yesterday, coming face-to-face with Brit for the first time since they toured her first album over 10 years ago.
She apparently recognised him the second he walked out onto the stage, and comforted him as he broke down over his fear that she never accepted him for being gay. “I think it’s fine that you’re gay,” she cooed.
But despite clearing the air, awkwardness arose when, after all that, his audition wasn’t actually very good. Apparently Britney said: “Through the years, maybe you’ve gone through a lot of hardships and battles, and I think you’ve gone through that more than training on your voice, because your voice really isn’t up to the bar of the standards of The X Factor and what we want.”
By the sounds of it, however, that’s quite nice for her. The veteran hitmaker has been growing claws for the San Francisco tryouts, stopping one contestant mid-audition and saying: “You can’t ruin that song, sweetie.”
We’re probably looking forward to the US version more than the UK one this year.
The new Britney Spears Greatest Hits has the funniest tracklisting ever
Britney Spears has made it a habit lately of releasing more remix albums and retrospective collections than actual studio LPs. Following on from last year’s Top 171 smash B In The Mix: The Remixes Vol. 2 comes the rather cheap Oops I Did It Again.. The Best Of Britney Spears, her THIRD Greatest Hits release and easily the funniest excuse for a ‘Best Of’ tracklisting we have ever seen. EVER.
1. ‘Oops!…I Did It Again’
2. ‘…Baby One More Time’
3. ‘I’m a Slave 4 U’
4. ‘Born to Make You Happy’
5. ‘Cinderella’
6. ‘Brave New Girl’
7. ‘The Hook Up’
8. ‘Don’t Hang Up’
9. ‘One Kiss from You’
10. ‘Anticipating’
11. ‘What It’s Like to Be Me’
12. ‘My Baby’
13. ‘Out from Under’
14. ‘You Got It All’
15. ‘Showdown’
16. ‘That’s Where You Take Me’
That’s a grand total of four singles (five if you’re French) and twelve miscellaneous songs, most of which are average-to-poor album tracks. It’s a setlist so random they may as well put a song by a different artist on the end. They might as well finish it with a 5-minute audio clip of the M25 at rush hour. Why not put an Interlude in half-way through of a scene from EastEnders?
The set is £4.00 and is out on June 18th. If you think we’re making it up, click here.
Will Britney and Demi make good X Factor judges? MP investigates!
After weeks and weeks (and weeks and weeks) of speculation, Britney Spears and Demi Lovato have finally been unveiled as Paula Abdul and Cheryl Cole’s Nicole Scherzinger’s replacements on The X Factor USA’s judging panel. For Demi, still only 19 years old, an enviable $1 million payday. For Britney? A ridiculous $15 million. But will they be worth the cash?
In terms of media attention, of course they will – especially Britney. Every week there will be at least one story (most probably false) on a US gossip website claiming she’s having a meltdown, ignoring her acts, being a diva behind the scenes and/or sleeping with Simon Cowell. Demi may fall victim to reports of suffering from her broad array of personal demons (the poor girl’s had to deal with bulimia, bipolar disorder and addictions to substance abuse and self-harm over the past couple of years), but, at least for the first few weeks of the series, Britney will be all anyone will be talking about.
Will they be good panellists? For Britney, all we can do is hope. Since she infamously hit rock bottom in 2008, her recovery has consisted largely of being placed on a complete media lockdown. Every interview has been carefully scripted to the point where this particular radio chat from last year, where she flashes the occasional funny face and laughs the odd laugh, has become all too rare (check out her X Factor questioning as well – interesting!).
In all honesty, it’s Demi who we think might just steal the show. She’s fiesty, she’ll speak her mind, and if she ever performs during a live show, she’ll smash it. This is a massive opportunity for her and we’re nervously predicting that she’ll grab it with both hands and come out the other side all the better for it. We just have to hope that neither her nor Britney join Steve Jones, Nicole, Paula, Cheryl Cole, Kate Thornton and so many more on the pile of people who’ve been chewed up and spat out by the Cowell talent machine.
Demi Lovato and Britney Spears may or may not be confirmed for The X Factor today
Today’s (maybe) the day! Britney Spears (maybe) and Demi Lovato (maybe) could (maybe) be announced as new additions to The X Factor USA’s judging panel at the Fox Network’s Upfront presentations in New York. Maybe. US gossip sites suggest that both singers signed their final contracts over the weekend, and instead of doing something boring like releasing a press statement or saying “YEAH I AM DOING X FACTOR” on Twitter, producers apparently reckon it’ll be more dramatic if they turn up ‘unannounced’ to confirm it in person. Then again, we’ve lost count of the amount of times rumours have popped up saying an announcement is on its way, so who’s to say if this is just more baseless speculation? In the meantime, please enjoy our amazing photo (above) of what the panel might look like this time tomorrow…
The Wanted vs Britney & Christina: Are they making too many enemies?
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Yesterday The Wanted told a US radio station the story of when they supported Britney Spears on tour and were ordered to turn away while she passed them in the corridor. “We turned around and I faced a wall for about 10 seconds until she got really far away,” claimed Siva, before Jay hastily added that “When we actually met her person to person she was so down-to-earth”.
Today Britney’s rep has responded to the story with good humour, denying that the hallway incident ever happened and joking that “What’s even more interesting than the false allegations they made is the fact that they have claimed to be picked on by two female popstars in just a few days… Look out Lady GaGa – there are still three days left this week.” Yowzas!
Comments from fans of Christina, Britney and the boys themselves on various online message boards have been split, but everyone seems to have a strong opinion. Is it too soon in the band’s US career for them to start talking negatively about two of the world’s favourite pop queens? Are they getting themselves a bad reputation before they’ve even got going? Or are they just setting the world to rights, as only they know how?
Whether or not the Britney story is true or not is something we’ll probably never know for sure. Britney herself sure as hell won’t start speaking up on it any time soon. And it is pretty clear from what Jay said that they have nothing but admiration for her – it was her bouncers, not the lady herself, that allegedly told them to face a wall, after all. So whilst it all seems a bit blown out of proportion, we reckon the boys could do with toning down their famous honesty until they’re a bit more established in America. We love them for being straight-up with everyone, but if the American press get hold of any more quotes of them appearing to put someone else down, the backlash might not be worth it.
