Barbra Streisand Strikes A Pose

The latest mix by Robin Skouteris combines Madonna's Vogue with Duck Sauce's Barbra Streisand. The video edit is by GiorgioSST. I think Vogue is one of Madonna's most perfect songs and is one that you can't really make better so it wouldn't be one of my most favourite mash ups by Robin but I could imagine this mix played v loud in a club.

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Beautiful Morning

From 1993 here's Sensation and the dance track Beautiful Morning.

Jerrod Niemann

Here's another gorgeous country music singer. Jerrod Niemann had two Billboard Hot 100 charting singles in 2010. Lover, Lover got to number 29 and the video is here. It was also a US country chart number one hit. His most recent single What do you Want is here. Thank you Sony for not allowing your videos to be embedded on other websites! So instead here are live acoustic versions of both songs. Here's Lover, Lover. and What Do you Want.

On The Floor

Back to the sound of the 90's with J-Lo with the release of On The Floor which features Pitbull doing what he does. Jennifer Lopez was never a stranger to using a sample of an older song in her own singles and I can't decide whether I like On The Floor in it's own right or the fact that the original song that it samples; Lambada by Kaoma was actually a very catchy song back in 1989. How could it be 22 years old!

Stan Walker

Stan Walker won Australian Idol in 2009. His debut single was Black Box which was a number one in New Zealand and it got to number 2 in Australia. He has had 4 other solo singles since then but this is the one I like the most.

Stuck Like Glue

Stuck Like Glue by Sugarland has been around for months now but I only discovered it recently. The video always makes me smile.

Getting Nowhere

In 2010 Magnetic Man had two top 20 hits in the UK chart. I need Air got to number 10 and the follow up single Perfect Stranger made it to number 16. Their newest single Getting Nowhere features John Legend on vocals and is released in February. John Legend has had three UK top 40 singles, the most successful being Ordinary People which got to number 27 back in 2005. The video to Getting Nowhere is one of the more interesting ones released at the moment. It also reminds me of the nuns in the 70's TV series Tales of the Unexpected.

Back To Old Fashioned Pop

The single version of Alexis Jordan's Good Girl is very good pop indeed but the Freemasons remix makes it even better and that made it my favourite song of all week. I was too tired to post my chart yesterday evening so it made me smile to see both the video and Freemasons mix featured here on Popjustice this morning. I do hope her record producers don't decide to send her down the Rihanna/ Ke$ha road in relation to both her music and image. Other songs that caught my interest are Going Nowhere by Magnetic man featuring John Legend and The Last Dance by Clare Maguire. I'm already bored of Britney's Hold it Against Me but I think On The Floor by Jennifer Lopez could become one of those songs I'll either love or hate. I dislike Pitbull with a passion and I think the song would be better without him. Strike Curious Poses Chart 24-1-2011 1(-): Good Girl (Freemasons remix) - Alexis Jordan 2(2): Give In To Me - Leighton Meester & Garrett Hedlund 3(1 ): Popalicious! - Robin Skouteris 4(3 ): Rolling in the Deep - Adele 5(6 ): Limit to your Love - James Blake 6(5): Me and you - Nero 7(4): I'm Here - Jennifer Hudson 8(-): Getting Nowhere - Magnetic Man featuring John Legend 9(17): Happiness - Alexis Jordan 10(7 ):Smoke a little Smoke - Eric Church 11(13) :The Art Of Love - Guy Sebastian featuring Jordin Sparks 12(14 ):The Way We Were - Beyonce 13(9 ): Love Long Distance - The Gossip 14(11 ): Somebody To Love Me - Mark Ronson featuring Boy George 15(12 ): Who's That Girl - Guy Sebastian featuring Eve 16(19 ): Black Box - Stan Walker 17(16 ): Something in the Water - Brooke Fraser 18(8 ): Get Outta My Way - Kylie Minogue 19(21 ): Stuck Like Glue - Sugarland 20( 20):Punching in a dream - The Naked And Famous 21(10 ): My House - Hercules & Love Affair 22(15): young Blood - The Naked and Famous 23(22): Stay - Hurts 24 (-): On The Floor - Jennifer Lopez featuring Pitbull 25(30): Jigsaw - Ryan Sheridan 26(- ): The Last Dance - Clare Maguire 27(18): Hold It against Me - Britney Spears 28(23): your Song - Ellie Goulding 29( 25):Sunday - Hurts 30(28 ):Pretty Girl Rock - Keri Hilson Here's Alexis Jordan and the Freemasons remix of Good Girl. And here's the single version.

Popalicious! & Country Strong

Here's my chart for this week. I've extended it to thirty songs as a top 30 always sounds more like a pop chart. Ten new songs this week. At the top is the latest mix by Robin Skouteris called Popalicious! It's a mix of all the pop artists that I now associate with Robin. My heart sank a little bit when I saw the Black Eyed Peas and their song The Time (Dirty Bit) was included as it's one of the worst songs of last year. However Robin has managed to make an awful song into something that works brilliantly within the mix. The video mix is by Panos T and it includes clips from artists who aren't even in the music audio mix which really adds to it. It's a perfect mix of old and new songs, in other words my kind of pop! The song at number two is Give In To Me by Leighton Meester and Garrett Hedlund. It's featured in the film Country Strong. The title song by Gwyneth Paltrow has gotten all the attention but I much prefer Give in To Me. It's unbelievable that the same actor is also starring in the remake of Tron at the moment. The video below is taken from the film itself and is just gorgeous. Both videos are below. Strike Curious Poses Chart: 17-1-2011 1 (-): Popalicious! - Robin Skouteris 2 (-): Give In To Me - Leighton Meester & Garrett Hedlund 3 (2 ): Rolling in the Deep - Adele 4 (1 ): I'm Here - Jennifer Hudson 5 (6 ): Me & you - Nero 6 (13): Limit to your Love - James Blake 7 (3 ): Smoke a Little Smoke - Eric Church 8 (15): Get Outta My Way - Kylie Minogue 9 (- ): Love Long Distance - The Gossip 10(8): My House - Hercules and Love Affair 11(7) Somebody To Love Me -Mark Ronson feat Boy George 12(5 ): Who's That Girl? - Guy Sebastian featuring Eve 13(18): The Art Of Love - Guy Sebastian featuring Jordin Sparks 14(- ): The Way We Were - Beyonce 15(4): young Blood - The Naked and Famous 16(9): Something in the Water - Brooke Fraser 17(11): Happiness - Alexis Jordan 18(10): Hold It Against Me - Britney Spears 19(- ): Black Box - Stan Walker 20(- ): Punching in a Dream - The Naked and Famous 21(- ): Stuck Like Glue - Sugarland 22(14): Stay - Hurts 23(12): your Song - Ellie Goulding 24(19): Higher - Taio Cruz featuring Kylie Minogue 25(20): Sunday - Hurts 26(17): Price Tag - Jessie J 27(16): Hello World - Lady Antebellum 28(- ): Pretty Girl Rock - Keri Hilson 29(- ): Oh My - Gin Wigmore 30(- ): Jigsaw - Ryan Sheridan Here's this week's number one Popalicious! as mixed by Robin Skouteris and video by Panos T. And Give In To Me by Leighton Meester & Garrett Hedlund.

Just Like A Bird Needs Sky Above

I'm sure I featured this song before but it's one of the smoothest remixes of the past few years. From the wonderful makeover period this is Jody Watley and her version of Chic's I Want your Love.

Who's Currently Singing About Dancing Girls?

Here's a real Tardis trip. It's an 1984 episode of the BBC show Pop Quiz which was hosted by Mike Read. One team is captained by Alvin Stardust with guests Kim Wilde and Morrissey and the other team is captained by Phil Lynott of Thin Lizzy and the guests are Nick Beggs of Kagagoogoo and Derek Forbes from Simple Minds. The whole episode is below in two parts. I would have been a brilliant contestant! It's both fab and bizarre to see Morrissey on a show like this and as one commenter on youtube noted he would have probably have hated most of the songs referred to on the show though he knows plenty of the answers. Kim is definitely the Hermione of the group!

Back To House

Hercules and Love Affair release their new single My House on January 24th. It's pure House and it's like it's 1989 all over again. My House is the first single from their new album Blue Songs which is released on January 31st.

Back in 1983

Here's a short MTV clip of a 'relatively new face' being interviewed. She's confident and fab and gorgeous. All the reasons why I've been a fan since the very beginning. In just a minute and a half she talks about so much that we now associate with her.

you Can Play it Safe or Play it Cool

Here's a performance of the song Heavy Cross by The Gossip on a German TV show last year. It's performed live and Beth Ditto really gives the song her all. I think it's one of the best songs from the past few years. The Gossip for most people is Beth Ditto but I think the band collectively are fantastic musicians and are role models for the next generation of bands.

My Own

One of the things that I miss writing the most about on this site is the Irish singles charts. I was posting the Irish top 40 for months until I realised that in order to continue I would have to pay IRMA a couple of hundred euro a year. Well, that was the end of that! I don't think that the Irish chart is that recognised around the world but I would have thought that the chart being blogged and read around the world would only help Irish music. I've decided that from this week on I am going to post my own top 20 chart. Paul on his website Fizzypop does so every week which I love to read. It will make me blog at least once a week and my chart will be comprised of songs that I've liked from the previous seven days. There are only four songs that are currently the UK chart in my first one. My weekly chart will include old songs and new singles that haven't been released yet. The idea is that if you see a song that interests you then you might like to check it out on youtube. The first number one is Jennifer Hudson and I'm Here which David posted here on his site last week so thank you David for that. I still haven't warmed to the new Jessie J song but I prefer her next single Price Tag more. Most of the other songs on the list I will post their videos over the next few days too. Strike Curious Poses Chart 10-1-2011. 1: I'm Here - Jennifer Hudson. 2: Rolling in the Deep -Adele 3: Smoke a little Smoke - Eric Church 4: young Blood - The Naked and Famous 5: Who's That Girl? - Guy Sebastian featuring Eve 6: Me & you - Nero 7: Somebody to Love Me - Mark Ronson feat Boy George & Andrew Wyatt 8: My House - Hercules & Love Affair 9: Something in the Water - Brooke Fraser 10: Hold it against Me - Britney Spears 11: Happiness - Alexis Jordan 12: your Song - Ellie Goulding 13: Limit to your Love - James Blake 14: Stay - Hurts 15: Get Outta My Way - Kylie Minogue 16: Hello World - Lady Antebellum 17: Price tag - Jessie J 18: Art of Love - Guy Sebastian featuring Jordin Sparks 19: Higher - Taio Cruz featuring Kylie Minogue 20: Sunday - Hurts. Here's Jennifer Hudson and I'm Here. .

To New Zealand

My friend Connell was home at Christmas. For over a year he has been living and working in New Zealand. We used to go to lots of concerts here in Dublin and of all of the people I've met while living in Dublin he is the person who most shares my love of pop music. Connell told me that there is some great pop in New Zealand and he recommended several singers and groups for me to look up on youtube. I'm going to post a couple of those songs over the next few weeks. The two songs that I liked the most were by the same group, The Naked and Famous. That name should increase my traffic! The first song young Blood was a number one in the New Zealand chart last summer and the second song Punching in a Dream got to number 11. They are both featured on their album Passive Me, Agressive you.

Here's young Blood. and Punching in a Dream.

Monday Mash Up

Here's a mash up by Mark Johce which features Dizzee Rascal's Flex, Ray Krebbs' The Gym and Duck Sauce's Barbra Streisand. The video is by VJBrewski.

Smoke A little Smoke

In recent months I've had little interest in much of the singles at the top of the Billboard charts. Sometimes some of the better ones are located in the 50-100 places on the chart. Songs stay in the charts for months. One song that has been there a while now is Eric Church and Smoke A Little Smoke. It's taken from his second album Carolina. At some stage of my life I want to live in America and when I do I would happily just listen to country songs both old and new. And Madonna of course. I liked this song the first time I heard it and I love his voice. I wish crossover songs like this were higher on the overall Billboard chart and in Europe too.

Britney's Back!

And so into 2011! Matt Cardle's When We Collide is down to number 2 in the UK and the second number one of the year is Rihanna featuring Drake with What's My Name?. I hate that song with a passion or specifically the chorus. Next Sunday's number one should be Bruno Mars and Grenade. The most blogged song this week however will be Britney's latest comeback single Hold It Against Me. Listening to the chorus I think Dr. Hook should get a few dollars for the lyric. This is going to be a song where all the critics and bloggers will be out in force but I like it, it's old fashioned Britney pop and nowt wrong with that. It's catchy and simple which is essential for pop. Hold It Against Me was released on the net a day early and it has also made me (and thousands others) sign up to Sound Cloud. I've never used that site before and the first song posted has already been taken down so here's the second posting now which I'm sure will be gone by tomorrow! Back to youtube! Britney Spears - Hold it against me by jimevivaldo