What Helen Of Troy... Has Learnt This Week

Celebrate, lead single from Madonna's third greatest hits package Celebration, is set to hit radio waves around July 28th. The two-disc album, and her last with Warners, will now feature two new tracks and not three as previously reported (though this may be subject to change).

ActionAid has unveiled a new single for their 6 Degrees project, which aims to highlight the charity's work on women's rights in poorer countries. The single is a cover of Chaka Khan's I'm Every Woman, and features Helen Of Troy... favourites thecocknbullkid, Micachu, and Roisin Murphy. You can download the track by registering here.

Ebony Bones releases her debut album Bones Of My Bones tomorrow! For those who don't have en effing clue who she is, hop on over to her MySpace page and marvel at her spectacularness now - We Know All About U and Don't Fart On My Heart are especially amazing.

And finally... Juliette Lewis has released a new vlog, which details news on the new album and tour, as well as bringing the lols with some quality dancing and flashbacks. Enjoy!

Spotysharing Part Four

Warning - this playlist is electro-tastic! Featuring Helen Of Troy... favourite Florence and the Machine with latest single Rabbit Heart (Raise It Up), Dismissed by the effing brilliant and ruddy rude Uffie, plus the sublime Lettin' Go courtesy of Ms Janelle Monae. Check it out here.

New Music: Daisy Dares You

There are many things that make Helen Of Troy... feel positively prehistoric, but perhaps none more so than hotly-tipped trendy teen, Daisy Dares You. At the ridiculous age of 15, Essex-born Daisy Coburn (aka Daisy Dares You) has already garnered a huge amount of interest from journos and bloggers alike. So much so, Jive Records - home to Britney Spears and P!nk - signed the peppy poplet up sharpish, and we can see why. Imagine Avril Lavigne, Lily Allen, and Alex Roots all rolled up into one and you'll start to get an idea of what DDY is about.

Songs featured on her MySpace page include the epic Number One Enemy, which has smash hit written all over it thanks to it's super slick production and catchy-as-fuck chorus. Self-titled track Daisy Dares You, is another big-hitter and easily our favourite of the lot, whilst Talk About The Weather and Next Few Minutes showcase a more soulful side to the youngster.

If this is what she's capable at 15, we can't wait for what's in store.

http://www.myspace.com/daisydaresyoumusic

He Was A Thriller

We've decided to make an exception to our 'female musicians only policy' for a truly exceptional man. Michael Jackson was one of history's greatest musical pioneers, he was an innovator and a visionary, and he will be greatly missed.

Hole-y Moly!

Late last night Helen Of Troy... stumbled upon this rather confusing article on the Guardian website. It seems chain-smoking chantress Courtney Love has decided to release her not-so-forthcoming album Nobody's Daughter under her old Hole moniker, despite being the only member of the seminal grunge outfit to be associated with it - Melissa auf der Maur's backing vocals don't really count as far as we're concerned.

So has the decision to revive the aforementioned moniker been made in a bid to help shift more units, or is it merely a statement that the raucous rocker feels Nobody's Daughter is a return to past form and merely wants to brand it as such? Either way, we're chomping at the bit for news on a final release date. C'mon Courtney, show us what you've got!

Just a Quickie

Helen Of Troy... would like to apologise dear readers, for the horrendous lack of updates you've been subjected to these past few weeks. Whilst we aren't completely blameless (designated blog writing days turning into all-day drinking sessions for example), there have been many changes and developments afoot within the Helen Of Troy... camp, that have left us with little time or energy to do anything else. With any luck, things will start to calm down a bit, and we'll be banging out more posts than your already overly-stimulated brains can deal with!

To tide you over until our next proper post, here's possibly one of the best music videos of all time...

X-Tina Fabulera!

Back in February, Helen Of Troy was astounded to hear that dirrrty girl Christina Aguilera had secured the services of 'lectro-poppers Ladytron and the gorgeous Goldfrapp. Imagine our surprise, then, when we discovered that the former Mouseketeer has also enlisted the help of the legendary Le Tigre to work on her forthcoming, as yet untitled, album.

While Helen Of Troy... is all about cultural cross-overs, we can't quite decide whether Ms Aguilera is working with these fantastic less-than-mainstream artists because she's a fan, or whether she's just buying cool by association. Either way, it's going to make for interesting listening. We've posted Le Tigre's finest moment Deceptacon below to remind y'all just how awesome they were. Let's see if they can top this with XTina.