Annie could well be the next big thing in pop with this brilliant new single which soared into my top 10 of the year so far when I heard it for the first time a few weeks ago. Annie is a pretty, young blonde from Norway but unlike the Norwegians I've posted before (Maria Mena, Venke Knutson) she is more 80s bubblegum electro-pop than mellow and guitar-based. You might know her from her guest appearance on Richard X Presents The X-Factor, his 2003 album and Richard has actually produced this catchy new single, and if you have a very good memory she did have a dancier Madonna-sampling single out called The Greatest Hit a few year ago. The best bits of Chewing Gum (which worrying was a recent NME single of the week!) include the cute "Oh no!"s in the chorus, the self-referencing "hey Annie"s in the first verse, and the middle 8, "I don't want to settle down, I just wanna chew gum". Whether this will do as well as it deserves to is yet to be seen, but I am firmly on the bandwagon!