Big News: The Wanted premiere new song "Lightning"!

Taking a leaf out of The Saturdays' book, The Wanted have premiered a new song Lightning, co-written by Ed Drewett, on their debut headlining UK tour - the Behind Bars Tour. Lightning is an anthemic pop/rock number and to be honest, I think it's pretty good and I'd love to hear some new music.

The Wanted - Animal (Neon Trees cover) live @ Radio 1

The Wanted slayed Neon Trees' Animal. They slayed their solos in a way I'd never seen before. Holy mother of balls. That was pretty much amazing.

The Wanted - Gold Forever [Music Video Premiere] + Comic Relief

A couple days ago, the boys of The Wanted premiered the video for their Comic Relief single Gold Forever, a slice of electronica-infused pop that starts out slow as a nice ballad before bursting into a ginormous, infectious electronica tune. But my first impression of this song wasn't great. Meh, I thought. Sounded old/tacky (especially the electronica-infused part), but nevertheless, it has somewhat grown on me. The music video unfortunately, isn't great. What was supposed to be a rather belated Christmas house party looked like a cheap studio built up to look like a house. Hmmmm. Guess Alexandra Burke did better with that one for her All Night Long video.

Nevertheless, while the video has completely no link to the actual song, the boys brought their energy to the Let's Dance for Comic Relief show and debuted Gold Forever on TV. Their vocals didn't sound half bad too. Definitely infectious.

The Wanted - All Time Low live on Graham Norton

The Wanted were on the Graham Norton Show to perform their BRIT-nominated single All Time Low, followed by a short interview afterwards. Of course, the fivesome did okay and it was just the usual The Wanted performance. Yes, the music industry is painfully slow these days.

Big News: Cheryl Cole nabs two nominations at this year's BRIT Awards!

The BRIT Awards have finally released their nominations and the multi-platinum selling X Factor judge Cheryl Cole has managed to nab two nominations for British Single for her swell pop tune future classic Parachute and British Female Solo Artist. Jessie J has also won BRIT's Critic's Choice, while Alexandra Burke, The Wanted and Matt Cardle have all managed to get a nod for All Night Long, All Time Low and When We Collide respectively in the British Single Category.

Check out the entire list of nominations: HERE

The Wanted - Lose My Mind live @ The Sun

After a debut #1 single and a #2 follow up, a #29 peak position for their latest single is not what The Wanted are gunning for. So of course, more live performances are in order to get this pop tune with a chorus that's chunkier than a bloody chunky box, much higher than a.. Measly #29. Where their vocals faltered on The X Factor, the boys have made up for a certain sweetness the original tune could never muster. The boys did it acoustic for The Sun and I have to say, that was quite impressive pretty much close to amazing.

Big News: 2011 in Music Part II - British Invasion

2010 has been a successful year for boybands, with JLS' continued success, McFly's bloody awesome Shine A Light of a single, Take That's coming back together and #1 album, X Factor's One Direction taking third place in the final etc. Also, there's a new British band, namely The Wanted, who aren't strangers to the #1 spot on the UK Singles Chart, or #2 for that matter, after All Time Low and Heart Vacancy peaked respectively at those positions. Their latest single Lose My Mind, though, hasn't been doing too well. After a performance on The X Factor, Lose My Mind peaked a little too early at #29 in the UK. I blame the premature performance on The X Factor. Nevertheless, Siva of The Wanted talked to Digital Spy earlier about the band's plans for next year.

First off, the boys are going to tour next year and they said that a funfair theme seen in the Lose My Mind video might be incorporated into the tour. You can "expect a lot of wacky shows", and they "want to entertain and put as much of us into the performance as we can".

Secondly, the boys ARE planning to invade America. They've apparently lined up two weeks of recording and writing with various producers and writers. That's for a second album by the way. The boys have been signed to Def Jam over in the States and "hopefully try to release All Time Low".

When questioned about a fourth single lifted from their debut album, Siva said he wasn't too sure and that most likely there wasn't going to be another single. Pity then, their debut album has so much potential - Replace Your Heart, Hi And Low, Weakness and Made could rocket The Wanted to superstar status if they all became hits. Mismanagement screws up the album. Where have we seen this before.. *coughTheSaturdayscough*

Next up is Alexandra Burke who won The X Factor in 2008 and has skyrocketed to pop superstardom in the UK - with #1 singles Hallelujah, Bad Boys feat. Flo Rida and Start Without You. Her debut album Overcome has also managed the same feat over on the albums chart and has gone double platinum. Naturally, Burke has started talking about her second album.

On Twitter, she announced she was in New York to record with producer/songwriter Autumn Rowe and Qiana Conley. Talking about the new material for her sophomore set, she's said that "it's going to be a lot sexier and a lot more fun. None of the songs I've recorded that were meant for Overcome will make it onto album two". Thank goodness for that, we don't want some random weak material on the second album..

Also, the plan's to take the sophomore album to the States. To be honest, I think she can really make it in the States because she's the most charismatic performer after Leona Lewis.

When asked about her upcoming debut headlining tour, Burke said "I cannot wait for this tour! It's going to be something very, very special. When I go out to a club, I love dancing to uptempo songs and letting my hair down, so that's what I want the audience to have when they come to the tour. I want them to get to know me a little bit better, but at the same time I want it to be a night out for them. I want it to be fun, vibrant, bubbly and exciting! I want them to feel how I feel when I go out and that's why I've called it the 'All Night Long Tour'."

2011 in Music Part III - British Invasion II will be coming up soon.

The Wanted - All Time Low + Lose My Mind live at the Jingle Bell Ball

One of the best pop boybands to emerge from the UK this year are The Wanted who have already scored UK #1 and #2 singles and the band joined a star-studded line-up at the Jingle Bell Ball, performing All Time Low which you can check out above and their latest offering Lose My Mind and their interview backstage which you can check out below.

Big News: Nicole Scherzinger for UK #1?

Boy, did The X Factor do wonders. Pussycat Dolls frontwoman Nicole Scherzinger has been desperately trying to carve out a name for herself as a solo artist for years now, and Poison could be the track to seal the deal. After the high-profile appearance, Scherzinger is battling with The X Factor contestants themselves for a #1 when the Singles Chart is released on Sunday. The X Factor's charity single, Heroes, is set to spend another week at the top spot, but you never know. Meanwhile, boyband The Wanted who also performed their latest single Lose My Mind on the results show, are set to debut at #28. Not exactly a fantastic number, but it doesn't get released as a single till later in the month.

The Wanted - Lose My Mind live on The X Factor

To plug their latest single, hit boyband The Wanted (aka the boyband Simon wants One Direction to be) took to the X Factor to perform Lose My Mind. Recreating the bumper cars of the music video, the boys did a solid job as usual. But I'm still not sure they can properly work a big stage. Still, it's another hit for sure, I don't think they're sorry.

The Wanted - Lose My Mind [Music Video Premiere]

British boyband The Wanted is no stranger to success. After the while #1 debut single All Time Low, they followed it up with #2 single Heart Vacancy. Now they've a new single in the pipeline Lose My Mind. The woah-oh-woah-oh chants at the beginning are a bit intoxicating, and it's yet another earworm/hit for the boys. It's not as good as the bloody brilliant All Time Low or as strangely good as Heart Vacancy, but fans are sure to eat this one up for sure.