The first solo release from Mandy from Misterwives is a bit of a pop monster. In the absence of Chappell releasing a new album yet, this will do very nicely indeed, brilliant chorus.

On choosing the name Cherry Bomb, Mandy said:

"I had the name for a couple years just sitting in my notes. When I’d make music that didn’t feel like Misterwives, I knew it felt like Cherry Bomb. I knew I wanted a moniker for the project because I came from the band world and I love that separation between the project and yourself. It gets to be larger than life. I loved that Misterwives had that. Cherry Bomb is a tribute to my nicknames growing up, like Firecracker. Plus, Ginger Spice was taken!"

Edited January 26Jan 26 by gooddelta

Yes, it’s great, isn’t it Rich? Really really good.

not you revealing hendinia’s next flop

It's as good as their BJSC winner from two years ago

TikTok is pushing it to me every second video at the moment so it's making a splash, for sure. Or maybe it's just my algorithm.

No but seriously, this is a superb pop song and I know Ava Max is out there somewhere ruing the fact that this didn’t find its way to her. It does remind me of So Am I melodically in quite a few places but the Chappell reference makes sense too.

True, it is very Ava too. In BJSC terms I figured it wouldn't get in anyway due to Misterwives' recent win (or I'd be trying it for myself I can assure you!), but also Chappell sounding stuff pretty much always famously flops in the contest for some reason?

Chappell herself never breached the top ten with any of her four entries (Pink Pony Club was a DNQ), and soundalikes like Cassie Henderson and MARIS had entries that underperformed against expectation, albeit the latter's more recent entry did better. There is something about the sound that puts some of the pop bloc off (and alt don't tend to go near it).

January has been insanely great for good new music, the clearest indication to me ever that Q1 is the new Q4. And this song is one of the big pop highlights.

Presumably for a lot of major artists, it's beneficial to have an early year hit to get as high as possible in the end of year chart, if many of them care about that. March looks absolutely stacked with huge albums and comebacks that were announced this month.

fs I heard this yesterday and knew it was BJSC fodder

But yes, love it x

Nice to know we’ve found our first Pop Forum Song Contest: Best of 2026 entry as early as January 26th x

Watch it be the new Fleeting

Commenting for the veto

(Not my thing at all usually but she’s a banger)

NOOOOOOO!!!!! Definitely had this down for my next entry!!!!!

It’s so so soooo good. Very Chappell recording ‘Primadonna’ by Marina to me.

Race ya

I’d have gone for it too if I thought I’d get away with it (with Fleeting I did not get away with it) so it would be on at least three confirmations, and probably way more by the time next month rolls around.

We really all get our pop from the same place here don’t we 😂

I was hoping she'd say "I got my name from the Kylie Minogue b-side"

Ok, I know to steer clear of this next month then 😂

At least the hivemind is being exposed publicly ahead of time again like with Grace Davies

(I did see this on the new releases list but didn't know it was related to MisterWives - I'll check it out some time x)

The way this has all the ingredients of pop songs I typically hate, and yet

'Cause you love to make 'em suffer
Oh, you m★therf★cker

Oh my, the way this popped up on my IG the other day and added straight to my potential list

i don’t get the hype