She strolled on stage in a slinky white robe to perform ‘Glitter in the Air’ from her Funhouse album at the 2010 Grammy Awards. For those of you hovering over the mouse wondering whether or not to watch this video, let me aid in your decision making. Shortly into her performance Pink drops her robe to reveal a flesh coloured bodysuit, is hoisted into the air where she gives one of her trademark aerial acrobatics displays before getting very…..wet.

Fronted by Sunday Tribune journalist Una Mullally (who also runs Thursday club night ‘Soundcheck’ at Spy), the programme will shine a light on up and coming Irish bands as well as interviewing well-known names like The XX and Passion Pit.

The Irish language programme is launching tonight with a bit of a bash and a special screening at Spy. It kicks off at 7pm and entry is free.

Born to a German mom and a Nigerian dad, the singer and guitarist describes music as “therapy” and compares performing on stage to “being in a church or in a shrine”. You couldn’t be blamed for getting Lauryn Hill flashbacks whilst listening to Nneka, whose head-bopping blend of hip hop/reggae is influenced by her upbringing in Nigeria. She describes it as “a very tough place” and as a result her lyrics are “very conscious” and “very political”.

She released her first album in 2005 -- ‘“Victim of Truth” -- which, despite being released in Germany, England, France, Netherlands, Nigeria and Japan, capturing the attention of critics, it went largely overlooked by the average Joe consumer. Her highly political second album, “No Longer at Ease“, brought her more success, with the lead single -- “Heartbeat” -- reaching the UK Top 20 Singles chart and earning her a MOBO Award for Best African Act.

After the release of the three disc ‘best of Nneka so far’-type album, “To and Fro“, in 2009, Nneka is now heading Stateside. She is releasing her first US album, “Concrete Jungle” in February in an attempt to “bring Africa to America”. The compilation album is likely to put Nneka on the map given the current lack of emerging hip hop stars, so expect to hear more of this:

• Jedward are twin teenage boys -- John and Edward Grimes -- from Lucan, Dublin who entered Simon Cowell’s ‘talent’ show last year
• It quickly became obvious that despite their quirky ‘There’s Something About Mary’ haircuts and cheese-tastic matching outfits, the twins could not sing
• They became the centre of attention, being booed at every live performance, with all talk focused on how they were lowering the tone of the competition
• With the resilience of cockroaches and a truly unbelievable and inexplicable performance of Britney Spears ‘Oops I Did it Again’ complete with matching skin tight red catsuits, the pair began to win the public
• Soon Jedward were the only reason to watch the show -- will they finally get voted out? What song will they murder? What will they wear?
• A ‘Jedward to Win’, “Jed we Can” campaign was launched to try and drive the twins to victory
• The campaign failed but not before they gave their ‘best’ performance of the show by bending the rules during ‘Queen week’ when they sang and rapped (Irish rappers!!) a version of ‘Under Pressure’ mixed with Vanilla Ice’s ‘Ice Ice Baby’ -  a song which samples the Queen song’s bassline.

It was reported today that Vanilla Ice saw the performance and is now keen to work with the Irish twins. They’ve also been rumoured to have been offered TV shows and modelling gigs so it looks like whether you love ‘em or hate ‘em, Jedward are here to stay (for a while at least!). Check out their attempt at ‘ Ice Ice Baby’ here complete with intro which gives a bit of a flavour of their ‘journey’ -- performance starts at 2mins 32

According to the bands MySpace: ‘The Midnight Beast version of “Tik Tok” espouses a liv- fast, die-young lifestyle of eating your dessert first, trying to catch glimpses of naked girls and avoiding the wrath of your parents. It’s all rendered with some amusing choreography and some rhyming in the style of The Streets.’

Clearly poor spelling is part of their charm!

The singer gave birth to her first child, Clodagh Henwood, a month ago and this new single, ‘Mommas Place’, marks a new chapter in the Irish electro-pop queen’s life. The song was the first written by Murphy whilst pregnant and, according to her, through the lyrics she’s telling her child “don’t think you can get one over on me, I’ve been there, I’ve done that: I’ve been as naughty as you can be.” Naughty eh!? I’d well believe it.

The song is Catchy with a capital C so motherhood certainly becomes her. It’s available to purchase in the UK on January 18th and in the US on January 19th. The album artwork certainly catches the eye and raises the eyebrow as it features a very pregnant Murphy who has clearly abducted Lady Gaga’s stylist.

Murphy has had various problems with record label EMI and is planning to record a range of tracks and send them out into the ether without the hullabaloo, and no doubt the pressure, that comes with big label promotion. In a recent interview with Entertainment Weekly she confirmed her plans saying:“…I haven’t recorded a new album as such. I’ve recorded a lot of songs, but I haven’t planned beyond just putting the songs out there and letting them have their own life, and see how the music lives on its own, without videos, without a big promotion. It’s more just about getting songs out there and letting them have their own life.”

Last week rough cuts of ‘Mommas Place’ appeared online. Writing on her MySpace page, Murphy wrote: “I hear there has been a leak of Momma’s Place. Oh dear, I am all for the freedom of the internet, it’d just that the quality control is sometimes a little amiss… and I’m funny about stuff like that. The rip that is available is not up to scratch. So, please wait for the real thing, it’ll sound way better! Coming soon…”

You can check out ‘Mommas Place’ here and below is a video of Roisin and her little pooch (a dog…not the baby) talking about the song.

The eccentic singer seemed to be a bit blue when tweeting to her 2518 followers -- not surprising since she lost legal guardianship of her 17-year-old daughter, Frances Bean Cobain, last month. Frances is now being cared for by Kurt Cobain’s mother and sister and is no doubt used to the scenario since it’s the second time Love has lost custody of little Bean (in 2003 when Love was treated for an accidental overdose).

It is 11 years since Hole were rocking out but they are now preparing to release they’re new album, Nobody’s Daughter, later this year. Love is the only remaining member of the original group. The band have recently launched a new website of the same name along with a YouTube page with such rivetting footage as Courtney NOT ransacking a hotel room but fiddling with her laptop on the bed or working on new tracks with guitarist and songwriting collaborator Micko Larkin. Watching paint dry may be a better alternative as, be warned, the car-crash videos get quite addictive -- If not only to ponder the question -- when will Courtney stop getting plastic surgery on her face?

Here’s a clip of the band working on a new track, Honey…definitely a work in progress:

We live in hope for a return of the Courtney of old a la ‘Celebrity Skin‘ or ‘Live Through This‘….remember the glory Hole days:

Johnson, 27, gave what was described as “singlehandedly, the best first audition I have heard” on the talent show according to show judge, Simon Cowell. However the compliment went to his head as he was frequently described as cocky on the show and was subject to a lot of bad press during the show with someone even declaring him “more hated than Hitler”. Clearly the guy that said that needs to pick up a history book and get out of the house on a Saturday night more – Hitler murder millions of people…Johnson only murdered a few songs!

Johnson is bisexual and stated in an interview with the Mirror: ‘I don’t like to conform or be put into one box or another… If I like someone’s personality it doesn’t really matter what they look like or what sex they are.’”

Can’t see myself dragging myself to the sausage-fest that will be this gig…particularly after listening to a track on his website…but it could be a good night -if you’re into that kind of thing!

Florence’ and Co’s critically acclaimed debut album “Lungs” was released in July 2009 and has since gone platinum in the UK. Florence also won the Critics Choice award at the Brit Awards this year.

Her cover of Candi Stanton’s “You’ve Got The Love” featured as the b-side to Florence + The Machine’s second single ‘Dog Days Are Over’. The original version was used in a documentary on obesity in the 1980’s before being remixed by DJ Eden and hitting the charts, reaching number 4 in the UK, in 1991.

Is this the best remix ever!?!?

Most people think of Shakespears Sister as an anaemic looking couple of goth girls, largely due to the video for their biggest hit -- Stay. But the band was set up as Fahey’s solo project after splitting from Bananarama. She picked up her pale companion, Marcella Detroit in 1989 and the duo went from strength to strength. They released a second album -- Hormonally Yours -- which earned Fahey an Ivor Novello Award in 1993. It was at the Novello’s that Fahey disbanded the group and according to uncited sources at Wikipedia, the pair haven’t spoken since.

Fahey hasn’t been knitting jumpers since Shakespears Sister left the scene. She set up her own record label, SF Records, and in 2003 released the album -- #3 -- which had been recorded in the mid 90’s. This was followed up by the release of a Best Of Shakespears Sister album in 2004 and a bunch of remixes and b-sides, Long Live the Queens!, in 2005. She’s been passing the time since as a DJ on the underground electro scene in the UK.

In February 2008 she revealed on her MySpace page:

“YES. I know its been a long wait, but i promise you i am now starting to apply myself to the job of getting the album out to all of you who have been waiting for so long so patiently (and in some cases,not so patiently) I am in talks to get it released online and probbly will manufacture some limited signed cd’s which will be available on my website!watch this space in the coming months for good news. at least i can say with hand on heart,you wont be disapointed by what you hear.”

She’s managed to get her act together and not only is the album ready for release, Shakespears Sister have lined up a gig on November 20th at the Underbelly in London.

Here’s an old video for one of the singles featured on the new album -- Bad Blood -- in which Siobhan has managed to accentuate her unnerving appearance with some jerky dancing and a stunning pink sequined dress -- I’d run away from her too!

Flash back 17 years and get in the mood for the return of Shakespears Sister check out the video for Stay. This track topped the UK charts for eight weeks and repeated this feat for 6 weeks in Ireland. The Sister’s also wowed the US market with this single, reaching number four on the Billboard Hot 100.