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It's that time of year again as we begin to approach awards season. I personally love awards season, not just for the red carpets and the lavish ceremonies, but because it's also lovely to see music and the arts being celebrated.
I love the BRIT Awards and have been lucky enough to attend every year since 2014. I'm really excited for the 40th anniversary show this year and again I am lucky enough to be in attendance. Every year I make my nomination predictions, but I usually do this on Twitter. However, this year I thought I would make a change and post my predictions here instead! When I usually make my predictions, I stick to the amount of artists/songs/albums that are nominated in the category (for example, Best Female will have five nominations). However, this year I wanted to predict anyone who I think is a contender to be nominated and not count how many are on my list (some may say that it increases my chances of being right...). With a revamp of the categories this year, the BRITs have said that all categories are British unless it says otherwise, for example International Female and Male. There are also less categories this year and fans no longer have the chance to vote on certain categories, however it has been said that the fewer categories mean there is now more time for the musical performances - which is arguably just as important on the night! Take a look at my predictions below and let me know on Twitter (@Pop_Affairs) what you think! Male Solo Artist
Female Solo Artist
Best Group
Best New Artist (previously British Breakthrough Act)
Song Of The Year (previously British Single)
Mastercard Album Of The Year
International Male Solo Artist
International Female Solo Artist
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Every few months I do a round up of the best songs I've been listening to during the past month. The songs chosen may not have necessarily been released during the month, but they have still been on constant repeat on my playlist! Ranging from Lewis Capaldi to 2 Chainz, I've listed my favourite 10 songs that I've been listening to non-stop in March! Lewis Capaldi - Someone You Loved Lewis Capaldi has burst onto the music scene this year, with Someone You Loved soaring to the top of the charts. Zara Larsson - Don't Worry Bout Me Larsson's latest single, Don't Worry Bout Me, is sure to be a big hit this summer! Khalid - Talk Khalid's gorgeous voice is further shown off in his new track, Talk. Ariana Grande - break up with your girlfriend, i'm bored Straight off Grande's latest album, thank u, next, break up with your girlfriend, i'm bored is one of the catchiest songs that seems impossible to get bored of! Tom Walker - Just You and I Tom Walker has also burst onto the music scene recently with his mesmerising voice. His latest single, Just You And I, is a truly beautiful song. YUNGBLUD and Halsey (ft. Travis Barker) - 11 Minutes YUNGBLUD and Halsey's vocals compliment each other beautifully, creating the brilliant track 11 Minutes. I hope we get another collaboration from the pair soon! Rak-Su - Into It X Factor winners Rak-Su have just released their Rome EP. Into It is the first track on the EP and sets the tone for a great listen, proving why they won The X Factor! Lewis Capaldi - Grace Another Lewis Capaldi track has been on repeat for me, with Grace being just as stunning (if not better) than Someone You Loved. 2 Chainz (ft. Ariana Grande) - Rule The World 2 Chainz and Ariana Grande's latest collaboration is a great song, and while it may not seem like this pairing would work - they really do! Calvin Harris and Rag'n'Bone Man - Giant Rag'n'Bone Man's voice is in a league of its own! So pairing up with Calvin Harris for Giant, it's no wonder that this collaboration has been at the top of the charts for so long! What have you been listening to over the past month? Let me know on Twitter, @Pop_Affairs! On Wednesday I attended the BRIT Awards held in London's iconic O2 Arena. The night was just as incredible as always, with some of the best names in music taking to the stage. I really enjoyed each and every performance on the night, overall making it really hard to rank them! Therefore, rather than ranking them from worst to best, I’m ranking them from the best...to the very best! 8. The 1975 The 1975 are one of the biggest bands in the UK right now. I don’t usually listen to them, however, therefore I didn’t enjoy the performance as much as I could have. With that being said, the visuals and creative of the performance was great. 7. Calvin Harris (featuring Rag'n'Bone Man, Sam Smith and Dua Lipa) I loved having all four acts on one stage to do a massive performance. The vocals were all brilliant (particularly Rag’n’Bone Man’s), and I loved the visual transition between artists and songs. I think I would have loved this even more if at the end all three singers came together to sing together, I didn’t like the fact we didn’t see them together. 6. Jorja Smith Jorja Smith’s vocals are in another league. I don’t have much to say about this other than this performance was truly beautiful. 5. George Ezra Who doesn’t adore George Ezra? The whole performance was feel good, and I really loved the addition of The Hot 8 Brass Band joining George on stage! 4. Jess Glynne (featuring H.E.R.) This performance was incredible. The message behind it was beautiful and I felt genuinely touched after watching it. The fact that Jess Glynne took off her makeup live on stage may seem like a small gesture to some, but I believe it was truly powerful and one of her best performances ever. 3. Little Mix (featuring Ms Banks) Little Mix are incredible performers. Their vocals were brilliant as always, and the choreography incredibly impressive. Having the Ms Banks feature was a nice touch as it was something we hadn’t seen yet. I could sit and watch Little Mix perform all day! 2. Hugh Jackman I couldn’t think of a better way to open the show. I was sat watching this so shocked and so impressed. Everyone on the stage came together to make one of the best BRITs performances ever (in my opinion). I didn’t want it to end! 1) P!NK P!NK proved to be in a league of her own as she closed the show. The mashup was brilliant, and being joined on stage by Dan from Bastille was an excellent touch. P!NK’s vocals were effortless and she proved why she was so incredibly worthy of the Outstanding Contribution to Music award!
Overall, the whole night was incredible and I can’t wait for next year’s show! Ariana Grande has just released her latest album, thank u, next. Being the second album released in six months, thank u, next is completely different to Sweetener (which was released back in August last year). Sweetener was full of features and had the typical promo that management want for a new album. Whereas, thank u, next has no features and feels like it has Ariana’s stamp on it much more. Grande knows what she is doing, which is demonstrated by the fact that thank u, next is hands down her best album to date. Ariana’s personal growth between Sweetener and thank u, next is astonishing. As a listener you feel like you’ve been on this journey with her and can’t help but feel proud of the woman she has become. The third song on the album, NASA, explores the feeling of needing space, while ghostin lets the listener into her heartbreaking world of wanting someone else while still in a relationship. needy is another track on this album where Ariana opens up and appears to show her vulnerability, which I really respect. Although there are some slower songs on thank u, next, there are still plenty of upbeat and empowering tracks. bloodline, bad idea and the new single, break up with your girlfriend, I’m bored are just a handful of the more upbeat tracks on the album that are just as brilliant as the slower songs.  The lyrics throughout thank u, next are incredible, all of which can be relatable to the listener. I love the fact that Ariana hasn’t appeared to hold back at all in this album, making her much more relatable and human to her fans. There is no stopping Ariana at this point and there is no sign of her slowing down either. If anything, her talent seems to be constantly growing. thank u, next is brilliant and definitely Grande’s best album yet. If you haven’t listened to it already, I would definitely urge you to give it a listen! Watch the video for Ariana’s latest single, ‘break up with your girlfriend, I’m bored’ here: Last year I started a 'Throwback Thursday' series. Every week I would write about some of my favourite songs from the past, and I thought it was about time to bring it back! Pixie Lott's second single Boys And Girls, released back in 2009, was undeniably great. I remember being 11 years old and listening to this song practically every day. You only have to listen to it once and it ends up stuck in your head for the rest of the day! Listening to this song 10 years on, it still makes me feel as happy as it did back then. The beat in combination with Lott's beautifully unique voice, Boys And Girls is a song that just oozes fun! This year's BRIT Award nominees have been announced, and every year I predict who will win. In previous years I've had a mixture of correct and incorrect predictions, and this year we will find out if I'm right on February 20th!
Some categories this year are incredibly strong, therefore making it even harder to try and predict who will win. For example; British Female, British Group and International Male, I really struggled with choosing. Every year there are a couple of artists that stand out for taking home the most amount of awards, and this year I predict that both George Ezra and Jorja Smith will be the most successful. (Winner prediction is in bold) British Male Solo Artist:
British Female Solo Artist:
British Group:
International Female Solo Artist:
International Male Solo Artist:
International Group:
British Breakthrough Act:
British Single:
British Artist Video Of The Year:
MasterCard British Album Of The Year:
Hopefully this year I get most of my predictions correct! Let me know who you think will win by tweeting @Pop_Affairs. 2018 has seen the release of many great singles, from Ariana Grande, to Bastille, to Years & Years - this year has been a good year for music. I decided to do a countdown of my top 10 songs from 2018. If you haven't listened to any of the songs mentioned, I highly recommend that you do! 10) Is That Alright? - Lady Gaga 9) Quarter Past Midnight - Bastille 8) If You're Over Me - Years & Years 7) 2002 - Anne-Marie 6) Eastside - benny blanco (feating Halsey and Khalid) 5) High Hopes - Panic! At The Disco 4) No Tears Left To Cry - Ariana Grande 3) Shotgun - George Ezra 2) God is a Woman - Ariana Grande 1) Shallow - Lady Gaga & Bradley Cooper If the music released in 2019 is half as good as 2018, it should be a good year! Let me know your favourite songs from 2018 on Twitter (@Pop_Affairs)! It's getting to that time of year again...awards season. I love award shows like The BRIT Awards and the Grammys, because I love seeing artists getting recognition for their talents (although over the years, there have been some questionable winners!). I also love making my predictions about who will win and who will perform.
If you have read Pop Affairs in the past, you'll know that I love The BRIT Awards. I've been to every ceremony since 2014, and every year I like to make my predictions. When the nominees are announced I'll publish who I think will (or should) win, but for now I'm going to predict who will be performing on the night. Performer predictions:
I really hope some of my predictions are right, as I believe this would make for a great show! Hopefully performers are announced soon, and I'll be able to see just how right (or wrong...) I am. Let me know who you think will perform at the BRITs on Twitter (@Pop_Affairs)! The BRIT Awards 2019 will be held at the O2 Arena on February 20th 2019. Last Friday, Little Mix released their new album LM5. The promo for the album was more stripped back than we're used to with Little Mix, but I absolutely loved it. It's great for the girls to show their young fans what natural beauty is like, and how you don't need gimmicks to be successful. The only problem I have however, is the name of the album. If you're a Little Mix fan on Twitter than you would understand what the album title means, but if you're not, it doesn't make much sense. When fans are speculating about their favourite artist's new record, they will often use the artist's initials and the number album it will be. Therefore, when discussing Little Mix's fifth studio album, fans would refer to it as 'LM5'. On the one hand I do actually like the fact that they named the album LM5 because it's like a tribute to the fans, however by doing this they have almost limited themselves to just Twitter, as many other people may not understand what it means. Coming away from the title, the whole album is brilliant. This is the maturest we've seen Little Mix, with what feels like some of their most honest lyrics. I really loved their last album, Glory Days, so my expectations were very high for LM5. The variety of tracks on LM5 is impressive. From Strip, to Notice to Joan of Arc, this album offers a selection of songs for everyone to enjoy. As previously mentioned, the lyrics are raw and honest, allowing fans to truly connect with the band. I took to Twitter to ask Little Mix fans what they thought of the new album by running a number of polls. The first poll asked if fans had listened to LM5 yet, with 195 votes, 91% voted yes. I then asked if they had already listened to LM5, what did they think about it? Again, out of 188 votes, a huge 98% said that they loved it.  LM5 has three songs with features, therefore I asked fans what their favourite feature was out of Strip (ft. Sharaya J), Woman Like Me (ft. Nicki Minaj) and More Than Words (ft.Kamille). The results of this poll were a lot tighter and out of 192 votes, the overall favourite was Woman Like Me (ft. Nicki Minaj) getting 38% of the votes. Both Strip and More Than Words received 31%. The final question asked if LM5 was their favourite Little Mix album and unsurprisingly out of 183 votes, 95% voted yes. Overall, LM5 is my favourite Little Mix album to date. Little Mix seem to constantly improve with every album they release and there doesn't seem to be anything stopping them and their success! If you haven't already, definitely give LM5 a listen! Check out all the music videos from 'LM5' on YouTube so far: Ariana Grande has just released her new single, Thank U, Next. Although her latest album Sweetener has only been out since August, Ariana took to Twitter to let fans know that her fifth studio album is actually finished. So why wait to release it? We found out yesterday that the album is also called Thank U, Next and it should be out very soon! I woke up this morning to see that Ariana had unexpectedly released the lead single, Thank U, Next. The main thing that blew me away about this track were the lyrics. In the first part of the song she named all four exes, yet rather than shading them, she talks about what they taught her and how she’s thankful for them. I really love this approach to writing about exes. It’s very common to have a song talking about how bad your ex is, but Ariana turning this around and giving a more positive and self-loving vibe is beautiful.  I really love Ariana’s attitude to the heartbreak that she’s faced and the way she’s dealt with it is nothing but inspirational. Showing her fans that although you can lose people and be hurt, the important thing is what you learn from it and what you take away to make yourself an even better person. Another great thing about this track is how catchy it is. The chorus will be stuck in your head from the first moment you listen to it, but that's not actually a bad thing, because the song is great! Fans are lucky to have Ariana as a role model and I really can’t wait to hear what the rest of the album will sound like! Thank U, Next is out now. |
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