Tonight sees the awarding of the sixth annual Choice Music Prize, with a live event at Vicar St (also broadcast on Today FM) featuring performances from nine of the ten nominees. At around 10.45pm we’ll discover the winner but in the meantime State’s editorial team offer their thoughts on this year’s list.
In alphabetical order:…

“Can’t wait any longer, single coming Friday.”…
Lady Gaga was due to unveil her new single ‘Born This Way’ at the Grammys this Sunday but as the tweet above suggests, it’ll see the light of day somehow on Friday whether it’s by download as her site suggests, preview stream or some other fashion.
Speaking of

Britney’s people have revealed her album is to be called Femme Fatale….
Pretty standard name by all accounts. The PR says the title is a tribute to “bold, empowered, confident, elusive, fun, flirty women and men.”
She also considers it “her best album to date”. Who would have known?
A release date and a

The German Amazon website has listed the new U2 album for release on May 27th, although there is no title as of yet. Although the band have confirmed that they are working on a new record, they won’t be drawn on a release date but May would seem to fit in with their plans to…

The ten albums in the running for this year’s Choice Music Prize have been revealed. Place your bets on one of these…
Adebesi Shank
Cast Of Cheers
Cathy Davey
Fight Like Apes
Halves
Imelda May
James Vincent McMorrow
O Emperor
Two Door Cinema Club
Villagers
The judging panel is as follows:
Aidan Cuffe (Goldenplec.com)
Ray…

Two Door Cinema Club have always made a point of supporting other local artists. As the band at the head of the queue when it comes to Irish breakthrough acts in 2010, they’re in a great position to do so, too, and the inclusion of Belfast’s Not Squares and our very own up and coming…