ALTHOUGH facing strong competition from Robert Plant, Beck and St Vincent, the good money is on P!NK’s seventh studio album becoming this week’s number one album.

Madonna’s Rebel Heart Tour souvenir CD/DVD peaked at (by other’s standards) a healthy number eight. However, being Madonna’s fifth live collection, fans already have numerous versions of Vogue, True Blue and Like A Virgin in their collections.

Apart from the Rebel Heart songs, the only new songs are interpretations of Edith Piaf’s La Vie En Rose, and Smokey Robinson’s Tears Of A Clown. Fortunately, the set does include the film of Madonna’s lavish production, captured at Melbourne’s Forum Theatre.

Borrowing heavily from Madonna’s trailblazing blueprint, P!NK is a formidable vocal talent, a fearsome live performer, and using her family name (Alecia Moore) a prodigious writer willing to explore many genres, embracing a club sound for What About Us, pop rock for the title track and cod reggae rap for the witty Eminem collaboration Revenge.

Yet where P!NK truly excels is on the raw confessional ballads. Of these, Barbies will for many be one of the artistic and emotional highlights of 2017.