Team Hot Press’ winter blues have been banished by the news that one of our big hopes for 2012, Azealia Banks, is making her headlining Irish debut in Whelan’s on February 6. Tickets are €15 and go on sale on Friday January 6.

A former student at LaGuardia High School – a.k.a. The Fame Academy – where Liza Minneli, Al Pacino and Nicki Minaj were among her alumni, the London-based New Yorker is currently recording an album with Paul Epworth of Adele, Florence + The Machine and Plan B fame.

She can also be heard on the new Scissor Sisters single, ‘Shady Love’ under the pseudonym Krystal Pepsy.