INTRODUCING: Betty Who
She may have a name that sounds like it belongs near the end of a Knock Knock joke, but Australian-born Betty Who may well be the most exciting new pop star of 2013. So far all we’ve heard is a four-track EP – which she released for free on her website earlier this year – but it’s packed with enough irresistible pop hooks to place her firmly at the top of our ‘ones to watch’ list.
Combining ice-cool delivery with bouncy 80s synths and huge singalong choruses, songs like summer anthem ‘Somebody Loves You’ and ‘You’re In Love’ (she’s a big fan of love), sound like Katy Perry partying with Robyn in Madonna’s recording studio in the 1980s. Incredible, in other words.
She gives good video, too. Y’know how some pop stars today try to be a bit too cool for school these days – with their guitars, their aversion to dancing and their ‘serious musician’ facial expressions? Well, Betty’s Somebody Loves You video is basically the exact opposite of that.
Look how happy she is! Plus look how many classic signs of a great pop video she’s managed to crowbar in – Aerobics! Old-school telephones! Headbands! Arm-Wavey dance routines! Frankly, a party at Betty Who’s place looks like the best shindig ever, and here at MaximumPop! we’re itching for an invitation!
The Movement EP is available now from Betty’s Website.
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…
MTV VMA nominations announced – 1D, Bieber, The Wanted & Rihanna!
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The nominations for the 2012 MTV Video Music Awards have been announced, and it looks like it’s going to be Rihanna’s year! The Bajan superstar is nominated for five moonman gongs.
While Justin Bieber has been pitted against mentor Usher for the Best Male award, The Wanted and One Direction will be fighting it out in the Best New Artist category – if either boyband win, it’ll top off a great year for British pop in America.
The awards take place on September 6 in LA and One Direction have already confirmed that they will be performing on the night!
Here’s a summary of nominations for the top awards:
Video of the Year
Drake feat. Rihanna – ‘Take Care’
Gotye – ‘Somebody That I Used To Know’
Katy Perry – ‘Wide Awake’
M.I.A. – ‘Bad Girls’
Rihanna – ‘We Found Love’
Best Pop Video
fun. feat. Janelle Monáe – ‘We Are Young’
Justin Bieber – ‘Boyfriend’
Maroon 5 feat. Wiz Khalifa – ‘Payphone’
One Direction – ‘What Makes You Beautiful’
Rihanna – ‘We Found Love’
Best New Artist
Carly Rae Jepsen – ‘Call Me Maybe’
Frank Ocean – ‘Swim Good’
fun. feat. Janelle Monáe – ‘We Are Young’
One Direction – ‘What Makes You Beautiful’
The Wanted – ‘Glad You Came’
Best Female Video
Beyoncé – ‘Love On Top’
Katy Perry – ‘Part Of Me’
Nicki Minaj – ‘Starships’
Rihanna – ‘We Found Love’
Selena Gomez & The Scene – ‘Love You Like A Love Song’
Best Male Video
Chris Brown – Turn Up The Music
Drake feat. Rihanna – ‘Take Care’
Frank Ocean – ‘Swim Good’
Justin Bieber – ‘Boyfriend’
Usher – ‘Climax’
Best Choreography
Avicii – ‘Levels’
Beyoncé – ‘Countdown’
Chris Brown – ‘Turn Up The Music’
Jennifer Lopez feat. Pitbull – ‘Dance Again’
Rihanna – ‘Where Have You Been’
MP! meets One Direction and Katy Perry… kinda
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MP! went along to Katy Perry’s amazing ‘Part Of Me 3D’ premiere last week, and got to meet all the big stars. One Direction, Katy herself… well, kinda. Actually, to be honest, the most exciting chat we landed was a revealing tête-a-tête with a man in a giant yellow M&M suit. Find out what happened when our super-psyched host Luke Franks got stuck in to some pink carpet action in the below video…
CLOSED: Win! Katy Perry: Part of Me 3D Movie goody bag
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To celebrate the release of the Katy Perry: Part of Me 3D Movie, at cinemas everywhere tomorrow (cert PG) we have teamed up with Paramount Pictures UK to offer you the chance to win one of 5 Katy Perry goody bags which include a film poster, Eylure Katy Perry Lashes and The Sims 3 Katy Perry Sweet Treats Edition. Hit read more to find out how to enter.
GMD3 through on X Factor, Cheryl’s new single, Katy Perry premiere prizes, Lily Allen is BACK!
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Awfully named pop trio, leap-frog experts and all-round nice blokes GMD3 are through to the Boot Camp stage on X Factor 2012! Dan, Micky and Gregg, who are managed by The Wanted mastermind Jayne Collins, auditioned for the show last month and got 4 BIG YESs from the panel. One Direction 2013? We hope so.
After topping the charts with new single ‘Call My Name’ and almost topping the charts with third album A Million Lights, Our Chezza has announced the name of her new single. The Alex Da Kid-produced tuuuuuuuune ‘Under The Sun’ will be officially released on September 10th – over 3 months away. Come on Cheryl, get a move on. See an exclusive pic from the video here.
Who likes queueing? The oragnisers of Katy Perry’s: Part of Me 3D European film premiere have revealed that the first 100 people to arrive at 5.30pm on the day will win some Katy Perry goodies. We’re not exactly sure what they are, but are hoping for squirty cream and candy floss. The premiere will take place Tuesday 3rd July in London’s Leicester Square. Added bonus? You’ll get to see Katy, a bunch of famous faces and team MP! walking the red carpet, from behind the barriers. Oh, the glamour.
Pop ritiree and big fibber Lily Allen has announced she is back in the recording studio throwing shit at the wall. Forget throwing shit Lily, we want SONGS. *Ahem* Terrible jokes aside, we’re not going to say anything apart from yehaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa. More insightful commentary from MP! if you check back every day.
Katy Perry ‘Wide Awake’ video 5 things you might have missed!
Candy Queen Katy Perry is just weeks away from her first film, Part Of Me 3D, premiering in cinemas worldwide. It will be the absolute end of the seemingly never-ending Teenage Dream story – an era that has seen highs, highs and more highs as she smashed chart records and released amazing video after amazing video (after amazing video). “The Final Chapter”, ‘Wide Awake’, dropped on Vevo yesterday and you can watch the full, cinematic fairytale-themed vid here and then check out 5 things you might have missed in our gallery.
- "John" is Johnny Wujek. Katy's stylist. He designed a lot of her California Dreams Tour outfits.
- Katy shoots some fireworks from her chest in a reference to her song and video, 'Firework'. We think cream is more fun…
- Another cheeky video reference – this time Present Katy meets Young Katy. In 'The One That Got Away', future Katy met Present Katy in a similar scene.
- Would it have been too obvious if he looked like Russell Brand?
- Katy is transported back to her dressing room where she sets a butterfly free. It's a metamorphosis metaphor. A metaphorphosis.
The winners are… one of 3 pairs of tickets to Capital’s Summertime Ball
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Oi you impatient lot. Here are the 3 people who’ve won a pair of tickets to this year’s biggest pop gig. Jess Stickley, David Rewes, Stephen Buckingham. We’ve sent you an email with details for claiming your tickets. Everyone else, another Comp of the Day coming up soon…
In just 11 days some of Planet Pop’s biggest names are heading to London’s Wembley Stadium for the pop gig of the year. Coldplay, Conor Maynard, Cover Drive, Example, Ed Sheeran, Flo Rida, Jessie J, Justin Bieber, Katy Perry, Kelly Clarkson, Lawson, Pitbull, Rita Ora, Usher and The Wanted will be performing at London’s SOLD OUT Summertime Ball. And we’ve got 3 pairs of tickets up for grabs. For your chance to win these money-can’t-buy tickets for you and a VERY lucky mate simply.
THIS COMPETITION IS NOW CLOSED.
Katy Perry, The Wanted, Kelly Clarkson & more: Who was good and who was bad at the BMAs?
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Last night’s Billboard Music Awards dealt up a bum-numbing amount of performances from the biggest and best names in pop. So, to save you rifling through them all, allow us to break down which ones were good and which should be forgotten.
Katy Perry – ‘Wide Awake’
The 94th single from Katy’s Teenage Dream album was performed for the first time, and though the whole production of it was quite ambitious, it didn’t quite catch on the way we thought it would. Firstly, Katy probably learned the important lesson that mid-air acrobatics don’t make life easy when it comes to singing live, and secondly once you’ve seen them spin around once or twice, you’re kind of over it. Great song, not a great performance. Miss
Bad news :( Capital FM’s Summertime Ball is SOLD OUT
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Want to see Coldplay, Justin Bieber, Usher, Katy Perry, The Wanted, Jessie J, Ed Sheeran, Flo Rida, Kelly Clarkson, Example and Pit-Bull all on the same line up? Tough. 80,000 tickets for Capital FM’s Summertime Ball – which has one of this year’s best line-ups – have sold out in just 2 days, with the last pair going just before 6am this morning. Capital’s Summertime Ball will take place at London’s Wembley Stadium on Saturday June 9th.
And if you consider an incredibly lucky person then make sure you tune into Capital FM nationwide for the chance to win tickets.
