Lady Gaga has told Newsbeat her new album, Born This Way, will be her "most innovative" work so far
Speaking backstage on the final night of her UK Monster Ball tour, she confirmed an as-yet-untitled new single would be released in February 2011, with the album arriving "shortly after".
She described the album as "a marriage of electronic music with major, epic, dare I even say, metal or rock 'n' roll, pop, anthemic style melodies with really sledge-hammering dance beats."
"It's finished and all, it's just fine-tuning everything," the pop megastar added.
'More poetic'
"It's kind of like the post-operative stage of the album. I've already done the full heart surgery. I'm just sewing myself back up again," she laughed.
During the gig she showcased one new song set to appear on the album, You And I, a piano-led rock song featuring a Guns N' Roses-style guitar solo.
"I think that lyrically this album is more poetic," she explained.
"It's really written by the fans, they really wrote it for me because every night they're funnelling so much into me.
'Mother monster'
"So I wrote it for them. Born This Way is all about my little monsters and me, mother monster," she continued.
Gaga said she would perform her new single on UK TV in 2011.
The London gig rounded off a very successful 2010 for the singer, which saw her winning three Brit awards, two Grammys and eight prizes at the MTV Video Music Awards.
And with the Monster Ball tour due to resume in north America, Canada, and Mexico from February to May 2011, Gaga is not expected to tour with a new production in the UK again until 2012.
"It's the last time I'm going to perform here until you guys hear Born This Way," she said before the gig. "It's very exciting,"
But the pop megastar revealed she will be in the UK "between February and March 2011" to debut her as-yet-untitled new single on TV.
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Ciara has revealed that her close friend Kim Kardashian is planning a new career in pop music.
The singer confirmed various rumors linking the reality TV star with a move to pop, saying that Kardashian is "fascinated" with the music business.
The 'Goodies' star told MTV: "I told her if she needs me, I'm here. She really, really is fascinated with the music video process and stuff like that. She's a very, very glamorous girl.
"She really loves that whole idea, and so she joked about it like, 'I wanna shoot a music video, but I don't want people to take it too serious. I would just like to have fun with it'."
Kardashian recently praised her latest E! reality show Kourtney And Kim Take New York!.
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Standing just over five feet tall in her trademark saddle brogues, Janelle Monáe has achieved a cultural impact in 2010 that is disproportionate to her size.
On stage, the Kansas-born singer is a blur of black and white. Her signature Afro quiff routinely comes undone. She flings off a black, grim reaper cowl to reveal a white, high-necked, Victorian, ruffed shirt paired with tuxedo trousers. It's a smart retro look utterly at odds with the hyper-sexualised standard for female R&B acts, one that has made her a favourite on the pages of Vogue. But has anyone – stylists, photographers – tried to change her?
"This year? No," she smiles. when we met after her show at Shepherd's Bush Empire last month. "Previous years? Absolutely! They want to be the ones to get Janelle Monáe in a mini and stilettoes. But that's not the point of Janelle Monáe."
Monáe is one of the few artists who can get away with talking about herself in the third person. She is the frontperson of an Atlanta-based ideas collective, the Wondaland Arts Society, whose mission statement mixes mischief with high ideals. "We believe truth can be broken down with the following formula – "Truth = Love x Imagination. We believe songs are spaceships. We believe music is the weapon of the future. We believe books are stars."
They are also something she calls "thrivals". "A thrival is what I consider myself to be, and everyone [who is] a part of the Wondaland Arts Society," Monáe clarifies, "individuals who won't allow race or gender to be a barrier to them reaching their goals."
How does the collective, responsible for all her videos and a forthcoming graphic novel, work? "The best idea wins," Monáe replies, in a southern molasses purr. "Egos, they go on vacation."
In her debut album, The ArchAndroid, released in May, Monáe channels the playful sass of Outkast's Andre 3000 with the righteousness of Lauryn Hill. The ArchAndroid is an ambitious work, an extended sci-fi fantasy, that has ended the year with a Grammy nomination and a Soul Train award (it also topped the Guardian's poll of albums of the year). As Monáe's profile has grown, she has jammed with Prince and played with Stevie Wonder.
It was at a Thrivals event that she met one of her biggest heroes, the tightrope walker Philippe Petit, whose story was told in the film Man on Wire. "He came to my soundcheck looking for me," she beams. "And his pants were like, way up here, and they were stripy! He had heard of me from a Parisian fan – 'Do you know Janelle Monáe? She has a song called "Tightrope".' He's one of the most fearless men to exist."
Monáe was in Dublin when she heard about her Grammy nominations for "Tightrope" and The ArchAndroid, having just arrived after a trip to Moscow at the invitation of designer Karl Lagerfeld. "I was glad, 'cause it is always something on an artist's mind. Not when I'm creating, though. I don't think, 'I wanna create because I want to win an award.' Those aren't my goals."
When you ask what those goals might be, Monáe sounds more like an activist than a pop star. "What I'm focused on is uniting people. When I looked out on to the audience tonight I saw so many different shades of people out there. That's what I want to create – something like what Barack Obama says, a purple state. Not just catering to a red or a blue state but combining those colours," she says, warming to her subject. "Music is the common denominator that brings us together. I want to celebrate our differences more. And do away with these categories! When I have children I really want them to live in a world where menswear and womenswear don't exist. If my son wants to put on a skirt, I don't care."
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Britpop group Blur will spend some time in a recording studio in January 2011 and hope to release a new album by the end of the year.
Blur will record a new album in 2011.
Although the Britpop group had previously played down rumours they would record an album after reforming for a number of shows in 2009, they have now scheduled recording sessions for January, and hope to release new material by the end of next year.
A source said of the band: "The lads will be getting in the studio early next year. There's no concrete plans regarding what they will do with the material, but if they're all agreed it could become the first full Blur album to feature all four members in over a decade."
The 'Song 2' group - frontman Damon Albarn, guitarist Graham Coxon, drummer Dave Rowntree and bassist Alex James - have reportedly been considering the reunion for some time after they got together to record a limited edition single, 'Fool's Day' earlier this year, but Damon's world tour with his other band, Gorillaz, meant they had to be put on hold.
The source added to The Sun newspaper: "When they went into the studio earlier this year everyone was pleased to discover that the old magic was still there.
"They would have liked to have done more, but Damon could not take part due to his commitments with Gorillaz. Now that he's finished touring he has more time on his hands."
Damon last week confirmed he will work on other projects in 2011, saying of Gorillaz: "I'm putting it back in a box for a while. Just putting it back on the shelf. I've got other stuff."
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