I'm embarrassed to say I didn't know that Adele had help in writing her material and when I found this out on a thread on here I also found out that lots of similar acts don't fully write their own music.

So that made me wonder do the likes of Katy Perry, Rihanna, Amy MacDonald, Pixie Lott, Eliza Doolittle and Jessie J write all their own material or get help? I am pretty sure Amy Winehouse did but what about pop queens like Madonna?

I'm sure Pixie writes her own music. She definitely did on her Young, Foolish, Happy album anyway.

That's not saying much.....

Adele and Jessie J definitely do...Katy Perry and (occasionally) Rihanna co-write their material...

It was better than I thought actually as I read lots of negative reviews about it before buying. I've only really become a fan since she flopped for some reason.

I actually liked Turn It Up as an album and she wrote a good track for Alexandra Burke...but when I heard her album I was like WTF happened....

Also either her voice has gotten worse or it just doesn't suit the songs she's writing because she sounds terrible, especially live....the only tracks I liked off the album were Kiss The Stars and All About Tonight...

The rest of the album annoyed me with stupid lyrics and boring songs....even she sounds bored singing them (especially Dancing On My Own...it's soooo boring and the uh uh uh uh sounds get annoying really quickly)....

I was expecting a great album after her debut but she failed to deliver...even her songwriting was worse..

I remember Pixie saying she wrote the single "Turn It Up" when she was 14. Thats probably one of my favourites of hers too!

I'm pretty sure Adele wrote Hometown Glory on her own which is not a bad song but Katy Perry interests me in that I find her stuff not just bland but awful except for ET I suppose which is quite good. With such bad material imo I wonder if it's all hers or did she get help from some expert to come up with such dull songs?

Of the girls in your OP, Amy McDonald writes all her own stuff too, not too sure I'd put her down as a pop princess though?

Pixie Lott writes a lot of her tracks, but her better ones are written by others.

Katy Perry writes most of her songs (including the singles), but also has writers helping her out with parts.

Jessie J writes most of her songs, but like Katy, has help. Sometimes too much help, as it means she doesn't really have an identity with her sound.

Some others:

Ke$ha writes all of her tracks.

Nicki Minaj writes all her own raps, but has writers for some of her singing songs.

Kelly Clarkson writes most of her songs, but the singles are usually written for her.

There is very little artists these days that will write all there music on their own. There will sometimes be at least 1 song on an album that they have wrote on their own. Most artists co-write. Surprisingly, Ke$ha writes a lot of her album, even though it's co-wrote. I wouldn't exactly say Rihanna co-writes much of her album because she doesn't really have much input even on her albums. In saying that, Rihanna is pretty much a performing Ester Dean considering that's who most of her music comes from...

I don't know about any of the others but Madonna has had a hand in writing a lot of her own stuff (well the lyrics anyway!). She has had a lot of great collaborators though.

She didn't however write any of her better known hits like Like A Virgin/Holiday/Material Girl/Dress You Up/Crazy For You.

Ester Dean is amazing.....she wrote Firework with Katy Perry, Turn Me On for Nicki as well as basically the whole of Loud for Rihanna...

The list of tracks she has written is astonishing....she is a hitmaker...

Apart from her first three albums...Madonna has penned and co-penned every song Like A Prayer album onwards. Though she did write the majority on LAV, TB and TFA.

And also co-produces too

Agree 100% I seen on TheGrapeJuice that Ester had previewed a song and they called it "a Rihanna rip-off" that pissed me off. How can you rip of Rihanna, when Ester is the one who basically does Rihannas work for her. She is pretty much the core of Rihanna's career. And a part from Rihanna, some of the biggest R&B/Pop hits are from Ester Dean.

I also just noticed Lana Del Rey wrote a lot of her album. And Taylor Swift basically took full control of her album by writing all songs and composing them, which is a rare thing to happen imo.

Wow! That answers that my question somewhat.

I find this hard to believe as it is a cover.

I'd say Stargate are more responsible for Rihanna's success than Ester Dean. Ester Dean has written a lot of her songs, but not that many. Rihanna uses a wide range of songwriters. Chris Brown wrote Disturbia, for example, and Ne-Yo has written a load of songs for Rihanna too, such as Russian Roulette.

Nicki Minaj writes almost all her material. She writes all her raps anyway. Ke$ha writes a lot aswell.

It isn't though is it. Make You Feel My Love was a Bob Dylan cover, she wrote Hometown Glory herself.

I don't think so. Stargate send their instrumentals to a range of songwriters.....it's the writer that makes their songs as most of their tracks aren't especially different production wise....It's Ester that turned tracks like S&M and What's My Name into hits because she wrote them....

Stargate of course must take some of the credit....Rude Boy and What's My Name are slick productions, but at the end of the day it's the hook that people remember most of all....

Ester Dean wrote Nicki's latest hit Turn Me On...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HqFf5WxirgU

Rebecca Ferguson writes her own material.

Definitely, Stargate have done wonders for her. I just think she loses a lot of credibility with a lack of input on her album. funny thing is, if you look at Talk That Talk and didn't know it was Rihannas album, if you look at the credits you'd think it was Esters. I guess it's better for Ester to give music like that to Rihanna because Rihanna is globally huge, but Ester must be rollling in it as well

Oh of course Ester is getting PAID.....I laughed at the Loud credits because so much of it was written by Ester... Another one is Bonnie Mckee.....she basically wrote all of Katy Perry's main hits, and nearly all of Femme Fatale....I'd be interested to see how much input these artists actually have in the writing process....I suspect artists like Ester and Bonnie do nearly all of the work....

And then of course there was all the scandal surrounding Beyoncé stealing songs off BC Jean and Ne-Yo and trying to buy herself writing credits....

Amy Winehouse had co-writers on both Frank and Back To Black, but the material was so personal and I know she berated Mark Ronson publicly on twitter when she thought he was taking credit for her song writing - that I suspect she probably had a bit of help here and there and nearly all of the material was her own.

I think if a singer makes out they are a song writer, we look for more authenticity in their work and see them as more of credible artist, if the later find out they were one of many writers we often feel "misled" and this can sometimes take away from the artist, it kind of makes them feel less "real" i suppose.

Alicia Keys has written some beautiful songs, but she has still turned to people like Emile Sande to hep her to write new music, so it all depends on your own view point. Some people write brilliant songs, but can't sing them because a) they don't have the ability b) do not meet industry standards or c) prefer to stay in the background - so it's not always a bad thing.

Amy had co-writes too what does it matter though if someone has co-writes or not ????

Rihanna barely writes any of her material. She co wrote a few songs on A girl like me, Rated r and Talk that talk but she is always listed as the third or fourth writer, never the first. Rihanna isn't a songwriter as much but some people are not. She is more of a producer in how she has a say of what she wants and what she wants to be.