YES!

The official announcement came out last week that after MONTHS of speculation, Nicola Roberts — 1/5 of the super-pop phenomenon Girls Aloud — will finally be launching her solo career next month with the single, “Beat of My Drum” followed by the full album, “Cinderella Eyes” later this fall.

She’s even released a promo video of her in the studio to prove it, too! I sure hope this song has something to do with her album because it’s definitely weird and it’s definitely killer — two things we definitely love at RSotB, especially when they’re put together.

With fellow band mate Cheryl Cole holding on strong at the top of the heap with her solo career, Nicola has a tough mountain to climb. As evidenced by Nadine Coyle and her solo album flop, the tumble off the pop mountain can be a bruising one. (Just a word on this: I actually loved Nadine’s album, and think it was unfairly mauled by the critics. There, I’ve made my peace with it.) There’s something about Nicola though that can only be classified as “underdog” — and so you can’t help but want to see her succeed. And if her promises of a very different sound and image are true, then her ability to grab the fan’s attention may just catapult her to the top of the charts.

With ALL of that said, I’ll be sitting here with great anticipation, waiting patiently to hear the first snippets of both “Beat of My Drum” and “Cinderella Eyes”. There’s so much potential here, I can’t wait to see how Nicola unleashes it on the world of pop music…

-B

P.s. We’ve just read that Nicola is going to be interviewing Lady Gaga for MTV News on the 23rd of May, which is a major notch in the self-promotion belt. Kudos to her team for nailing that one…

P.p.s. A clip of the song has been released on iTunes and as suspected, the music in the video above is in fact “Beat of My Drum”. Coupled with Nicola’s vocals, it’s an absolutely epic pop masterpiece. Well done, Nicola…