Ella Eyre's new album is inspired by cheesy 90s pop bands.

Ella Eyre

Ella Eyre

The 23-year-old beauty grew up on the likes of S Club 7 and boy band Blue and while she spent months trying to decide what direction to take for her follow-up to 2015's 'Feline', she came back to what she knows best, "straight commercial pop".

She told the Daily Star newspaper: "It took me a long time to figure out what I wanted to do. But I just feel like saying: 'F*** it' - I used to listen to S Club 7 and Blue growing up, so I'm doing straight-down-the-line commercial pop."

And the 'Came Here For Love' hitmaker would love Ed Sheeran to pen her a cheesy pop number.

The 'Waiting All Night' hitmaker is part of the judging panel which selected the nominees for this year's Hyundai Mercury Prize Album of the Year Award and the flame-haired star's record 'Divide' made the list.

When asked who out of the nominees, which included the likes Stormzy, The xx, Blossoms, Sampha and J-Hus, she'd most like to collaborate with, Ella exclusively told BANG Showbiz: "I'd love to write a song with Ed Sheeran because that is my genre pop music, and who wouldn't."

Ella also defended the inclusion of the 'Shape of You' hitmaker in the shortlist, which recognises the best British albums from the past year, insisting there is no taking away how good he is at writing a "bloody good pop song".

She said: "He had one of the biggest albums of the year you can't deny that, you can't deny there's that many people who enjoy that album and I have to say you cannot deny that he can write a bloody good pop song."

The curly-haired beauty says one of the reasons she thinks the record was popular among the panel was because of how much "personality" the 26-year-old singer/songwriter put into the songs.

She said: "That album ['Divide'] there is a lot of personality on there. More so than the last two. You can't deny him the success with that album."

The winner of this year's Mercury Prize will be announced on September 14 at a ceremony held at Eventim Apollo, Hammersmith, in London.

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