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Get the party started, P!nk has returned

15 April 2016

Listen to Scott Mills introduce P!nk's new single, Just Like Fire

She's had quite the career, huh? The scary thing is she might just be getting started...

American popstar P!nk (real name Alecia Beth Moore) has been on Radio 1 and in the UK charts since 2000, scoring 24 UK top 10 hits, including 3 Number ones.

She's back today with new single Just Like Fire, from the soundtrack to Tim Burton's Alice Through The Looking Glass. It's her 35th single and her first since 2013.

We look back over her career, from her start as an R&B artist to writing the theme song for Ellen.

P!nk began her career in the R&B charts, with a hard girl image fitting with a wave of tough, blunt female artists of the time.

Her slightly futuristic style and luminous hair colour picked her out immediately and with the backing of a crowd of superstar producers (including Babyface and Tricky) she quickly generated a buzz around first single 'There You Go,' released at the very tail end of the last millennium, in December 1999.

Her first album, 'Can't Take Me Home' was a top 15 hit in the UK - not a bad showing for a new artist, especially as R&B was on the back footer in comparison to rap and rock in 2000. But popstars came and went a lot at the time, especially young women, in wave after wave of attempts to replicate the success of Britney Spears and Christina Aguilera and one successful album was no guarantee of another.

P!nk's aggressive image, mixed with a masculine/tomboy aesthetic, made her stand out - maybe too much so, as a sexier and more femme look dominated pop. Being an outsider has advantages but also makes you less likely to be booked as a support act on a world tour - the kind of leg-up it's almost essential for a new artist to get.

Then a surprise collaboration with Lil' Kim, Missy Elliot, Mya and Christina Aguilera on 'Lady Marmelade' happened - proving P!nk was not only a great popstar in her own right but someone it was great to work with. She seemed well on the path to R&B megastardom.

Which made it kind of surprising when she literally roared back with, instead of another tough, cutting track, certified enormo-banger 'Get The Party Started.'

A rock-y party song with a pure pop heart, 'Get The Party Started' sounded nothing like the cool, standoffish R&B of her first album. With a funny video and a new, dressed down and turned up image this seemed like quite a break in direction for P!nk.

It was a Number one in the US dance charts and a Number two on the Official UK Top 40, her biggest solo hit yet and setting up the success of the rest of the 'Missundaztood' album campaign.

Third single 'Just Like A Pill' went even further - with a guitar-based sound and deeply personal lyrics, it was a softer side to P!nk that resonated enough to hit the UK Number one. 'Missundaztood' had changed P!nk's sound - now a punkier, more emotional sort of pop - and delivered global success.

Following up on the punkier sound of 'Missundaztood,' P!nk actually got Rancid frontman Tim Armstrong in to help her write her third album, 'Try This.'

At the time, she was struggling with her record label and ten songs of the album were reportedly written in just a week - a punk concept but born of desperation to get out from label pressure.

Lead single 'Trouble' was originally written for Rancid but P!nk worked with Tim Armstrong to turn it into her own record. Her image changed around this time to, from the punk looks of Missundaztood, a hard, monochrome, burlesque look - the video for 'Trouble' saw her fighting a whole Wild West town. (Including Jeremy Renner if you look closely)

Although 'Try This' was P!nk's least successful album, probably due to the stress she felt during making and promoting it, it still went Platinum and she carried on touring worldwide.

After a two year break, P!nk came back in 2006, re-energised with a new record deal and back in fight mode. Lead single from the aptly-named return album 'I'm Not Dead' was 'Stupid Girls,' lampooning celebrity culture and taking aim at a range of famous partiers, from Paris Hilton to Lindsay Lohan.

The time away from releasing music hadn't made P!nk any less successful but had let her get back to some of the outsider status she first had, letting her get back to a much more aggressive stance and sound.

On 'U+Ur Hand' the more explicit tone she'd been toying with on her previous album's aesthetic came to the fore, with a confident, sexy track referencing the tough turn-downs of her earliest singles. 'Who Knew' saw more of the emotive, personal lyrics that had made 'Missundaztood' such a success - P!nk was back in a big way.

P!nk went straight on from 'I'm Not Dead' into follow-up, 'Funhouse' - although her return to music had meant she'd also returned to the public eye in a big way, with a tabloid scramble over rumors of her marriage breaking up.

Lead single 'So What' took the brash, almost-manic P!nk of 'Get The Party Started' and added personal lyrics as gossip-ready as any online rumour. By releasing an impossibly catchy, massive hit about it P!nk took back control of the narrative around her life - and scored a Number one in eight countries, including on the Official UK Chart.

The carnival-themed Funhouse tour was a worldwide success and with each single off the album a hit, P!nk was back to being one of the biggest stars in the world. Her emotional, funny pop had brought her back from outsider status but this time with her full identity retained.

After 'Funhouse' P!nk released her 'Greatest Hits... So Far!' with lead single 'Raise Your Glass' another worldwide hit - P!nk's outsider aspects had, through her honest, sympathetic lyrics, become a relatable star.

P!nk followed up with thoughtful, emotionally honest and painful album 'The Truth About Love'.

'Blow Me (One Last Kiss)' led with a wry look at the complications close to a breakup that never quite happens. The whole album revolves around decisions and discussions to make a relationship survive or crash and burn.

Follow-up single 'Try' showed P!nk's seriousness as an artist, with an emotive, expertly choreographed video showing the struggles of a relationship as an intimate, acrobatic dance performed by P!nk herself, demanding both huge physical skill and a clear vision of the video. It was praised as a sign of how much she continued to challenge - intense and boundary-pushing.

'Just Give Me A Reason,' with fun. vocalist Nate Ruess, was Number one in eight countries again, reaching Number two in the Official UK Charts.

P!nk toured the album for over a year and the songs continued to be massive successes for years. But it's been three years since she released a new single...

We've made her new single, 'Just Like Fire,' Track of the Day on Radio 1 - and it looks like you're loving it

Check out everything in Radio 1's New Music Friday