#DALEYPOP X JULY 2026

Music has been embedded in my life ever since I was in the womb, my mum and dad basically raised me on music, especially POP music! I grew up listening to Madonna, Mariah Carey, Kylie Minogue, Spice Girls, Britney Spears and even AQUA and I’ve always been obsessed with pop culture and Eurovison! I love yapping about my favourite songs and album of the month every month with the world from Scene HQ!

Katy Perry - Watch It Burn

People seriously need to stop sleeping on my favourite triple Scorpio, Katy Perry. Watch It Burn is a fiery pop rock anthem (taken from KP7 hopefully) and sounds like the moment someone finally decides they've had enough and refuses to hold back any longer. It's super catchy too!

Built around themes of anger, self worth and emotional release, the track sees KP embracing raw honesty as she confronts past hurt and reclaims her power. The soaring chorus reminds me of some of her biggest empowerment hits but there's a grit and vulnerability here that makes it feel even more personal and refreshing. The official music video is just as compelling. Directed by the ever brilliant Christian Breslauer, the visual leans into themes of destruction, transformation and liberation, perfectly mirroring the song's message of leaving the past behind and emerging stronger than ever. There's lots of Easter eggs too as per for us KatyKats....and the KatyRats and SmartyKats.

Rarito - BATHHOUSE

I won’t pretend to know a huge amount about Rarito because I've only stumbled across him last week but from what I can tell, he’s an emerging independent artist making a real statement with his latest track, BATHHOUSE. Oh and he's got like 39.6K followers on TikTok.

He's undeniably handsome so I can see why but looks aside, BATHHOUSE is a bold, pulsing celebration of queer history wrapped in an irresistibly catchy pop sound and honestly it's bloody brilliant. Rarito's vocals are effortlessly smooth, carrying the track's infectious hooks and playful energy with ease while a deeper message flows beneath the surface.

Rarito shared on Instagram (and TikTok), that BATHHOUSE pays tribute to the LGBTQ+ community, the spaces that fostered connection and belonging and the activists who fought for visibility, acceptance and freedom long before those conversations entered the mainstream. Rarito is one to watch I reckon!

LaRoux - BabyLine

Elly Jackson better known as La Roux is back baby! I had a feeling new music was on the horizon especially with her joining Hilary Duff on tour. I was already excited to see Hils but now knowing La Roux will be there too with fresh material in tow, has taken my excitement to a whole new level. If I finally get to hear Bulletproof, In for the Kill and I'm Not Your Toy live ​I may never recover. Just saying.

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The second single from upcoming album Old Flames, BabyLine is a shimmering pop gem driven by Elly's unmistakable vocals and a euphoric chorus. There's a real sense of renewal running through the track, capturing that moment when you leave a difficult chapter behind and start finding your way back to yourself. Elly describes it as a song about "finding your way out of the woods and back to yourself," so yeah, and that optimism absolutely shines through. While previous single Cabin Fever was a bop in its own right, BabyLine feels lighter and full of hope.

Rêve - Devour

Singer songwriter Briannah Donolo aka Rêve's sophomore album, Delusions of Grandeur is set to arrive later this year and if Devour is any indication, we're in for something special.

In fact, a random thought just crossed my mind: Canada has officially announced today, on Canada Day, that they're participating in Eurovision, Rêve would totally own that stage. I'm choosing to manifest it now. Back to Devour though, Devour is already making a strong case for itself as one of the year's most commanding pop releases IMPO. It's Europoppy (honestly super perfect for Eurovision hehehenxnjsma) and erm meaty, and bursting with confidence. It's one of those songs that grabs your attention straight away and refuses to let go. If this is the direction Rêve is heading in, then Delusions of Grandeur has every chance of becoming one of the standout pop albums of the year.

Carly Rae Jepsen - On Wires

YAY new Carly Rae Jepsen music! On Wires is the first taste of her upcoming eighth album, Day and Night, a double album by the way! It's a gorgeous return. Blurring the line between friendship and romance and rather than relying on her usual glossy pop formula, the track captures emotional uncertainty with dreamy ease as Carly's vocals float over a lush mix of jazz, pop and rock influences. It's a creative risk that pays off stunningly.

The accompanying official music video adds even more depth, exploring the tension between motherhood and career as Carly literally drags a microphone cord through different scenes, symbolising the constant pull between competing roles, ambitions and desires. </3

The Irrepressibles - Sweet & Unique - Pride Version

While Pride Month may have passed, Brighton Pride is around the corner and there's no better time for The Irrepressibles to return. Jamie Irrepressible's latest single, Sweet & Unique is a radiant celebration of queer identity, individuality and attraction and I love it! Blending sun soaked 1960s R&B and glam rock flair, Sweet & Unique is bursting with joy. Gospel harmonies, lush strings and Bolan inspired touches make it an irresistible summer anthem, while a captivating duet with longtime Irrepressibles violinist Elliot Lyte adds warmth, chemistry and an extra layer of queer storytelling.

The accompanying music video (above), directed by Samuel McGuire and shot in Los Angeles is just as charming and....hawt. I'm definitely gay. Featuring an entirely queer cast, it follows two couples on a playful journey across the city capturing themes of desire, self expression and community. Set against a sun drenched backdrop, it's a vibrant and feel good visual that perfectly complements the song's carefree spirit and celebrates the simple joy of being unapologetically yourself.

AOTM: Madonna - Confessions II

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

Now for the main event. Album of the Month. Don't be a vibe kill. It was always going to be this. CONFESSIONS II feels like the album Madonna has been building towards her entire life. The one and only Queen of Pop is finally giving the gays, girls, guys, dolls and the entire world exactly what we've been waiting for!

In some ways, it feels like a greatest hits collection except it isn't. Somehow M has distilled every era, reinvention and iconic moment of her career into a brand new body of work that feels nostalgic yet completely fresh. The best way I can describe it is this: CONFESSIONS II feels like the long awaited biopic transformed into an album or the Celebration Tour reimagined as a studio record. Also, every song on the album feels like a snapshot from a different chapter of M's extraordinary career, woven together into a cohesive and dancefloor ready statement. I can't get over that it's been seven years since 2019's Madame X by the way. Wild.

CONFESSIONS II though, Madonna's fifteenth studio album since her debut in 1983, arrives following the release of the singles I Feel So Free, Love Sensation and Bring Your Love (with Sabrina Carpenter). I'm still not over when M joined Sabby C on stage during her Coachella headline set earlier this year, adding another exciting chapter to the pop icon's ever evolving legacy....this was one for the pop HERstory books.

Is CONFESSIONS II as good as 2005's Confessions on a Dance Floor? Honestly, yes. Absolutely. 100%. And it's addictive! I'll admit I was a tiny bit nervous when Madonna casually announced CONFESSIONS II last year, especially after her famous reductive/look it up comment....

I really didn't want that to bite her on the bum but nope it definitely hasn't, phew. Thankfully those fears were completely unfounded. If anything, she's delivered something that honours the original while confidently carving out its own identity. I refuse to choose between CONFESSIONS II and Confessions on a Dance Floor. They're more different than they are similar. The original was a sleek, uninterrupted journey through the dancefloor while CONFESSIONS II feels erm well sleek and uninterrupted too but it feels broader in scope, a celebration of everything Madonna has been, is and continues to be!

This album literally has it all: her lifelong devotion to club culture, her self-empowerment philosophy, her origins, her family, her sexuality, her spirituality, and her decades long refusal to let anyone tell her who she should be. Don't tell her to stop bitches! It's a record that reflects every facet of Madonna's story while still sounding urgent, contemporary and completely alive and futuristic. I feel like even non Madonna fans can't slag this album off. As M says on Read My Lips (with Feid)....shut your mouth. Despite a career built on constant reinvention and an extraordinary capacity for resilience, Madonna's life has also been marked by deep personal loss. She was only five years old when her mother, Madonna Fortin died from breast cancer. A devastating experience of course, that would profoundly influence both her personal life and creative work for decades to come.

The impact of that loss is perhaps most poignantly captured in the iconic 1991 documentary Madonna: Truth or Dare where she visits her mother's grave and speaks candidly about the grief, longing and sense of abandonment that helped shape her identity. It remains one of the most revealing moments of her career, offering a glimpse into the vulnerability behind one of pop music's most formidable figures. Loss continued to cast a long shadow over Madonna's life. Remarkably, her debut single Everybody was released just days after the term AIDS entered mainstream public awareness in the early 1980s, placing the beginning of her career alongside a crisis that would devastate the communities she would spend decades championing both publicly and personally.

From the outset, Madonna refused to stay silent. Long before many major pop stars were willing to address the epidemic, she used her platform to advocate for compassion, awareness and research. In 1987, Madonna raised hundreds of thousands of dollars for AIDS research through a benefit concert and her commitment never wavered. More than three decades later, during The Celebration Tour she delivered one of the show's most powerful moments with a performance of Live to Tell, accompanied by images of those lost to AIDS projected across massive screens....

Alongside the death of her mother, the AIDS crisis stands as one of the defining forces that shaped Madonna's worldview, artistry and activism. On CONFESSIONS II, Madonna revisits those formative years through the stunning Danceteria, named after the legendary New York nightclub where her journey truly began. It really did though, watch the video below!

Back to Danceteria (the new track from CII) though, against a propulsive beat, she vividly recounts her earliest days in the city: "Then I see Mark Kamins is the DJ, he's the DJ, hide the cocaine. He played my tape Everybody, this is how we start the party." The track serves as both a personal memoir and a love letter to a vanished era, with references to the people and places that helped create the Madonna we know today.

Among those mentioned is Martin Burgoyne, her best friend at the time, roommate and collaborator, who died from an AIDS related illness in 1986 at just 23 years old. His inclusion gives the song an added emotional weight, transforming it from a nostalgic look back into a tribute to those who never had the chance to grow older alongside her. Beyond its emotional resonance though, Danceteria is simply one of the album's standout tracks. It's upbeat, exhilarating and packed with references and quotable quotes that devoted fans (like me) will obsess over. Much like the accompanying CII film, it's overflowing with Easter eggs with countless nods to M's history, mythology and enduring legacy.

As for the album itself, I can't choose a favourite song from the album because the whole album is one of those rare, skipless, start to finish journey albums. I wasn't ready for the emotional devastation of this album's final stretch. Fragile hits like a punch to the face and basically caught me off guard. She invokes her estranged brother, Christopher Ciccone who died in 2024. The little star reference that opens The Test with her daughter Lourdes "Lola" Leon is stunning. You'll only fully get it though if you're a true Madonna fan I reckon though. Then comes Betrayal to finish the job, wrestling with her complex and lingering trauma of her childhood and the unresolved resentment she held towards her stepmother, Joan Ciccone. I genuinely went into L.E.S. Girl expecting it to be the album's fun, chaotic B-Day Song or S.E.X. moment. (I love both of those by the way no matter what anyone says). Instead I'm sitting here glassy eyed....especially when she sings "Everything fades away...." which just lingers long after the music stops.

Madonna and Stuart Price knew what they were doing saving some of the album's deepest emotional blows for the end! I just love how she pays tribute to those who've danced alongside her over the past five decades. Beyond scenes from her youth and reflections on a troubled family life, CONFESSIONS II is an homage to the space that most helped Madonna endure: the club. Both lyrically and via BPM, mother has always beckoned her loyal listeners to let it out on the dance floor. On CONFESSIONS II, she goes further, speaking candidly about the disco as a site of processing, memorialisation and coping.

On Love Without Words she tells us that music itself can be a form of intimate care. In sharing with us how she survived enormous loss, CONFESSIONS II becomes a guide for survival, an obelisk to endurance. Proof that even after five decades in the spotlight, Madonna is still finding new ways to tell her story and somehow helping the rest of us make sense of ours too.

While her blueprint is personal, it’s by no means solitary. On the second track, Good for the Soul, she reminds us that life’s hardships are not meant to be faced alone. I love the lyrics “The ones you love will keep you above,” and when she sings about hoping to be reunited with those she’s lost. I know I said I can't choose a favourite song from the album but I do really love Good for the Soul, surely it's one of her best songs ever?! It's the same with One Step Away. It's just sublime and sounds like classic Madonna but also fresh. I literally got goosebumps the first time I heard her sing that long "freeeeeedooooom" near the end.

What I think elevates CONFESSIONS II even further is the way the album flows as a complete piece of work. Every song melts seamlessly into the next, creating the feeling of one continuous journey rather than a collection of individual tracks. The transitions are immaculate, the pacing is flawless and by the time the album reaches its emotional final act, you're completely immersed. It's a masterclass in album sequencing, the kind of cohesive listening experience that's becoming increasingly rare and one of the many reasons CONFESSIONS II feels so special.

There are honestly too many sonic and lyrical callbacks to Madonna's back catalogue on CONFESSIONS II to count but not in a relentless way I promise! References, melodies, themes and visual cues from every era of her career are woven throughout the album, creating a rich tapestry that rewards both casual listeners and lifelong fans. For an artist who has spent more than four decades reinventing herself and refusing to look backwards, this level of self reflection feels significant.

I can't help but wonder whether a combination of factors led Madonna here. Revisiting her past while developing the long discussed biopic project, experiencing the loss of people closest to her and surviving her own life threatening health scare seem to have inspired a period of deep introspection. Madonna's examining the triumphs, the heartbreaks, the mistakes and the memories that made her who she is. Because beneath the mythology, the headlines and the title of Queen of Pop, Madonna is human after all.

I have to mention one more thing that perfectly captures Madonna's enduring magic. Last month, she turned Times Square into one giant dance floor with a surprise performance that brought thousands of fans together in the heart of New York City. It felt like a fitting extension of everything CONFESSIONS II represents: community, celebration, resilience and the unifying power of music. More than forty years after arriving in New York with little more than ambition and a dream, she's still capable of stopping the city in its tracks and getting everyone to dance. Some things never change!

ICONIC. Honestly I wish I'd been there. Can you imagine experiencing that in person?! I would've been shook, this was the kind of pop culture moment people talk about for years and years. Still, I'm not complaining too much because I've had CONFESSIONS II on constant repeat ever since and every listen reveals something new. So thank you mother! Now if you'll excuse me I've got CONFESSIONS II to listen to again. For about the twentieth time today. Oh and thank you Stuart Price and Rafael Pavarotti if you ever read this.