Actually, her name's Marina

Huge congratulations are due to Marina and the Diamonds, who have taken second place in the BBC's Sound Of 2010 poll.

Through a process of bribery and open threats, I was lucky enough to go down to Marina's studio and interview her for the BBC, and she was everything you want a pop star to be: Spirited, smart, eccentric, funny, gifted and beautiful. Her album will blow your socks off, if you are wearing a pair of socks. If you are not wearing a pair of socks, it may well damage your ankles, leaving you a bit wobbly on your feet for up to seven minutes.

But see if you can spot something incongruous in the following sequence of events.

Marina, BBC News Website, January 7th 2010, 07:30 GMT:
"A lot of the interviews and acoustic sessions and other things that artists fill their time with are really pointless."

Marina's record label, via email, January 7th, 2010, 10:23 GMT:
"Marina releases her debut album, The Family Jewels, next month via 679/Atlantic on the 15th February, preceded by the wonderful Hollywood (1st February) - for which we have a brand new acoustic video."

Hooray for that joined-up piece of media planning. Luckily, the video is excellent - essential viewing, as opposed to box that needed to be ticked on some marketing department spreadsheet - so here it is:

Marina and the Diamonds - Hollywood (acoustic)


Also, here is a very charming (and absolutely not based on printing out the online coverage) chat Victoria Derbyshire had with Marina on BBC Radio 5 Live this morning.

Tweet