She wolf Shakira jingles 02's bells

As years go, it’s been a pretty good one for pop.

Michael Jackson may no longer be with us, but our airwaves have rarely been blessed with such an abundance of quality music.

The evening’s no-nonsense formula — play the hits, then hit the road — meant that its 14 acts turned over at quite a pace, even if it was rather exhausting at four hours long.

La Roux took the stage early on with her ubiquitous hit In For The Kill. While she ably hit the song’s soaring high notes, it was performed with a detachment to suggest the singer would rather have been somewhere else.

For the next half an hour, it was a sentiment that I shared with her. Strictly Come Dancing’s Alesha Dixon scored a nine for footwork but only a five for singing, while the appearance of Swedish Pop Idol winner Agnes wasn’t so much a coup as a "who?"

In pictures: Jingle Bell Ball

With the night rapidly heading south, Flo Rida appeared and promptly stole the show.

From the moment the American rapper bounded on to stage to the chest-pounding beats of Low, to the moment he left it carried shirtless on the shoulders of his security guard, he thrilled with his rapid-fire delivery and electric stage presence.

If things were threatening to get a bit too rowdy for some of the mums in the audience, then their patience was rewarded with the arrival of the Backstreet Boys. The American boy-band revisited the hits from their Nineties hey-day, prompting a mass sing-along for their smash hit I Want It That Way.

Dizzee Rascal followed soon after. Once an underground grime star, the Londoner is now a fully paid-up member of pop’s glitterati and after Dirty Cash got the crowd on its feet, giant beach balls were thrown into the audience for the euphoric Holiday.

It wasn’t high art — or even particularly seasonal — but it was hugely entertaining.

So too was the set from Shakira. The bum-wiggling, yodelling Colombian owned the stage from the moment she set a stilettoed-heel on it.

Hips Don’t Lie was a sassy slice of Latino pop, while the synth-heavy She Wolf included the winning refrain: "Darling, it’s no joke: this is lycanthropy."

Those in search of a deeper musical experience should steer well clear. But taken on its own terms, this was an enjoyable evening of frivolous, festive fun.

In pictures: Jingle Bell Ball

Jingle Bell Ball
The O2 Arena
Peninsula Square, Greenwich, SE10 0DX