29. Military Wives with Gareth Malone - Wherever You Are (37-1-1) This has had a huge impact on you then to appear so high! It is a lovely song with a wonderful sentiment though

26. Sunday Girl - Love U More (9-3-4-2-4-6-13-16-31) One of the best cover versions of 2011, the latter part of the song is euphoric!

21. Chart Music - All My Life (3-2-3-3-4-8-14-19-28) Stunning track, such a shame it's so hard to trace and that so little is known about it!

 

Pleased to see Steps and Le Kid appear in the top 10 albums! Both will show up on my EOY chart, but in what order remains to be seen! Not a surprisingly #1 album, but it is really good, and far better than the debut which is rare these days!

29. Military Wives with Gareth Malone - Wherever You Are (37-1-1) This has had a huge impact on you then to appear so high! It is a lovely song with a wonderful sentiment though

26. Sunday Girl - Love U More (9-3-4-2-4-6-13-16-31) One of the best cover versions of 2011, the latter part of the song is euphoric!

21. Chart Music - All My Life (3-2-3-3-4-8-14-19-28) Stunning track, such a shame it's so hard to trace and that so little is known about it!

 

Pleased to see Steps and Le Kid appear in the top 10 albums! Both will show up on my EOY chart, but in what order remains to be seen! Not a surprisingly #1 album, but it is really good, and far better than the debut which is rare these days!

 

Thanks Ghosty :D

 

29. Indeed, if you look at my pop bars for Xmas chart week for example, it was WAY ahead of the rest of the pack, definitely one of my favourites of the year even after such a short time!

26. Agreed, maybe even my favourite cover of the year - tied with Wherever You Will Go but I like them both for very different reasons.

21. I couldn't agree more, I've uploaded it again in preparation for TBO final, and for posting it here, but it should be a worldwide hit :(

 

I thought you'd approve of those two and figured that they'd show up for you as well, I'm guessing top ten for both? Not sure what order though...

 

As a side note, if everyone's wondering why I've been writing essay posts for each one, it's all going on my blog as well as here :D

OH 21! Yes, very obvious :lol: Like I said, I blame my tiredness :P

 

Good number 1 album though, even if it's a tad overrated I must say it's great and Adele DEFINITELY deserves all the success it's had :wub:

Into the top 20, here are 20-11 :D

 

20. Nero - Me & You (6-2-1-3-6-10-17-22-33)

 

 

19. Lady Gaga - The Edge Of Glory (2-2-4-7-11-15-7-9-17-28)

 

 

18. Adele - Rolling In The Deep (20-13-10-7-8-13-3-2-8-11-9-13-19-28)

 

 

17. Katie Cole - Sunrise (2-1-2-3-5-7-12-23-31)

 

 

16. David Guetta feat Sia - Titanium (4-1-2-3-7-12-18-23-29-32-29-39-OUT-33)

 

 

15. Lise Karlsnes - Red Hot (3-2-1-1-1-5-9-18)

 

 

14. Sanna Nielsen - I'm In Love (4-2-4-3-1-3-5-10-15-22)

 

 

13. Adele - Someone Like You (22-32-1-1-3-4-8-11-14-18-33)

 

 

12. Sara Varga - Spring För Livet (14-8-1-2-4-3-4-6-11-19-33)

 

 

11. Ed Sheeran - Lego House (14-16-18-14-9-3-1-3-1-1-6-8-11-14-17)

 

 

Kicking off the top 20 of the year is the first chart topper of the year, dubstep act Nero's breakthrough hit Me & You, which went top 15 in the UK. Followed of course by bigger hits in Guilt and the chart topper Promises, they've yet to better this in my eyes. Sounding like retro video game music meets the 2011 music industry, I absolutely adore this song. And the last of the songs not to top my weekly chart, Lady Gaga's incredible The Edge Of Glory and Adele's Rolling In The Deep at #19 and #18 respectively. The former is probably in my top three favourite Gaga singles, only behind Bad Romance and Poker Face, a rousing anthemic track with a powerful message, chorus and sax solo, my favourite bit of the song melodically being the fantastic bridge :wub: And the lady of the year, from my album of the year, Rolling In The Deep was a huge statement of a comeback single, not a piano ballad which would have been the safer choice after the increased 2010 exposure of Make You Feel My Love, it was a song with blues and soul influence and completely different to anything else around. It therefore took me a while to get my head around it but finally peaked at #2 after two months inside the top 20! The song that beat it is still to come so not a regret that it didn't top my chart but it's a definite modern classic.

 

Kicking off the top 17, which is fully made up of #1 singles, is Australian singer Katie Cole with her debut UK single Sunrise. A BJSC entry for me, the bright pop anthem with a huge summery chorus finished a respectable 10th and I can only see a bright future for this lady. Staying in Australia with the legendary Sia who unexpectedly teamed up with generic French producer David Guetta to produce easily the greatest song of his career and definitely one of the best of hers. Gone were the recycled beats and 'in da club' lyrics and in were Sia's gorgeous vocals and a genuinely interesting song both lyrically and production wise. A hit across much of the world with no promotion to speak of, a video has finally been made for us lesser nations that require a video and constant airplay for a song to become a hit and hopefully it will become the huge hit it deserves to be during 2012!

 

Another of my BJSC entries and this one finished in 2nd place, only behind the unstoppable juggernaut that was Loreen's Sober. Perhaps in a weaker contest *cough XXXVII* it might have walked off with the title but I was extremely satisfied with 2nd for such a brilliant electro song. Norwegian Lise Karlsnes may have looked like Jessie J in a decade's time but the appeal of Red Hot is almost impossible to deny, an instant chorus, stunning 80s influenced production, a wonderful piece of music. Back to Melodifestivalen for #14, one of my favourite Swedish artists Sanna Nielsen was unlikely to disappoint with her 2011 entry. Did she? Of course not, a huge schlager anthem with a killer key change, some interesting presentation and Sanna's usual powerful vocals with a sweet edge, I'm In Love finished top five in the final, marking Sanna's 45th appearance at Globen, and she's only in her mid twenties! The biggest selling single of the year, despite being a BJSC winner for Hendinia last year and me giving it 7 points, it's fair to say that as with the majority of the country, Adele's piano ballad Someone Like You only properly clicked after THAT performance at the BRIT Awards. Dripping in genuine emotion, it was a breathtaking moment and the reason that Moves Like Jagger isn't the UK's biggest selling single of the year. Essentially quite a simple song, it's sung with such beauty and conviction that it's one of the best end of year chart toppers for a long time, and a deserved million seller.

 

Back to Melodifestivalen at #12 and instead of a piano ballad, here we have a shuffling guitar ballad with a charming flamenco intro. What's incredibly pleasant and easy to listen to musically was a real diversion for Melodifestivalen, the lyrics of Sara Varga's Spring För Livet actually referring to domestic abuse within a relationship, the song title meaning Run For Your Life in English. A lot more affecting than the Matt Cardle song of the same name I'm sure! Sweden seemed to take to it anyway and I certainly did, being my 2nd favourite song in the 2011 contest. I was mildly gutted when after showing such potential and seeing off Loreen in Andra Chansen, it went on to finish 9th in the final. At least it was a huge chart hit though, which is more than can be said for a lot of the finalists this year, perhaps the people that bought the song were doing other things that night...

 

And following in the footsteps of Colbie Caillat's Realize, H 'Two' O feat Platnum's What's It Gonna Be, Little Boots' Remedy and Boyzone's Gave It All Away amongst others, this year's song to fall at the final is Ed Sheeran's Lego House at #11! An instant album highlight, I was pleased to hear that it would be a single although unsure how it would be received by the general public. No need to worry as they clearly love ballad Ed, and it's become a huge top five hit! After yo-yoing around the top 20 for a while it eventually did the inevitable and climbed to the top of my chart, getting a second stint there too and becoming surprisingly the only song of this year to leave the top of my chart only to return later - in comparison every one of the songs in my top five of last year did just that!

Some wonderful songs there! In particular both your BJSC entries (I can't wait to hear Lise's MGP entry!) and Sanna and Sara. I'm In Love and Spring For Livet were amongst many highlights from a very strong Melodifestivalen! :D

Some wonderful songs there! In particular both your BJSC entries (I can't wait to hear Lise's MGP entry!) and Sanna and Sara. I'm In Love and Spring For Livet were amongst many highlights from a very strong Melodifestivalen! :D

 

Lise's entry is more or less the only thing I'm looking forward to about MGP, lets just hope some of the many unknowns have decent songs! It can't be any worse than MGP 2011 surely?

 

Agreed about MF, much better than last year :wub:

Some comments on the top 20:

 

Great to see Nero in the top 20 :wub: I have 4 Nero entries in my chart to come, however the competition has been so big this year so I don't think any of them will be top 20 with me :( Titanium is also my favourite David Guetta song of the Nothing But The Beat era (if you discount Sweat with Snoop Dogg that is) would love to see Ti... become a massive 2012 hit. Surprised that your whole top 17 topped your weekly chart :o I have a few weekly #2s in my top 10 let alone top 20. I also was expecting Ed Sheeran's Lego House to be in the top 10 [/flop loon] :P

Some comments on the top 20:

 

Great to see Nero in the top 20 :wub: I have 4 Nero entries in my chart to come, however the competition has been so big this year so I don't think any of them will be top 20 with me :( Titanium is also my favourite David Guetta song of the Nothing But The Beat era (if you discount Sweat with Snoop Dogg that is) would love to see Ti... become a massive 2012 hit. Surprised that your whole top 17 topped your weekly chart :o I have a few weekly #2s in my top 10 let alone top 20. I also was expecting Ed Sheeran's Lego House to be in the top 10 [/flop loon] :P

 

Usually I have a few songs that didn't top my weekly chart in my EOY top ten (my EOY #3 in 2006 was Rogue Traders' Voodoo Child which actually only peaked at #3 on my weekly chart!) but this year I seemed to get everything spot on :o As for Lego House, I wish it could have been top 10, I'd also liked to have found a place in there for Sara Varga but ultimately I like my #10 a lot more than Lego House so that's the way it goes. You'll note that his other two singles of 2011 are still to come, but he narrowly missed out on three in the top ten (I think he'd have been the first act since Delta Goodrem in 2003 to have achieved that had it happened, Kylie got two in the top ten last year).

10. Eric Saade - Popular (16-5-7-5-6-6-7-7-8-9-2-5-1-2-6-14-30)

 

 

Sweden's new prince of pop Eric Saade first came to everybody's attention in 2010 with 'buzz single' Sleepless and then the cheesy Manboy which finished 3rd in Melodifestivalen 2010 and came nowhere near my end of year chart last year. Fast forward a year and he was back, a year older and wiser, a huge fanbase and with a far better track. The result was a comfortable win in Melodifestivalen with Popular. Boasting extremely self indulgent lyrics (which prevent it from being perfect), the performance was high budget, incredibly energetic and basically amazing. Fast forward a couple of months to Eurovision in Dusseldorf and the hosts were completely unable to get right what Sweden had perfected, making the stunning glass smashing effect look very half baked with only one pane smashing each time (if he was lucky!). Coupled with a fairly ropey vocal, and forgetting that Eurovision is a SONG contest, and not a talent show, the usual internet naysayers (they know why they are) were expecting the usual Sweden Hi-NRG pop flop whilst others of us were keeping the faith.

 

Ultimately, on what was a DIRE results show with a forgettable winner that was a hit nowhere and a crap jury love-in runner up, Popular was just about the only good thing that did happen with Sweden being in contention for the win from the start to towards the end until Azerbaijan and Italy edged ahead. On the public televote he was just two points shy of the winners - what a crying shame that he didn't take the title, we could have all gone to Globen for 2012! But it was the standout track in Melodifestivalen - even if it did take months to top my chart - and my third favourite Eurovision entry of the year. Sweden's hopes for a 5th Eurovision win have been rejuvinated by Eric and I expect Melodifestivalen 2012 will be very special indeed, as Christer looks for that winner. With Ell & Nikki and Raphael Gualazzi interesting nobody and charting nowhere it was up to Eric, Jedward and Blue to provide the European smash hits for this year, Popular becoming a #76 Scandipop monster here in the UK and setting him up nicely for a Clubland TV career for years to come! HE WILL BE POPULAH!

9. Sheelah - The Last Time (2-1-1-1-2-6-6-8-11-15-20-13-20-30)

 

 

Haunted at the prospect of having to represent anybody other than FSR Rontvia at BJSC, Swedish female duo Sheelah sadly decided to split up a few months ago. Before making that heartbreaking decision though, they followed up my #15 of 2010 and BJSC winner Psycho with something that was somehow an even better song. What were the odds of that happening? Surely the perfect Scandipop single, a pounding electro intro gives way to subtle verses accompanied When Love Takes Over style broken piano chords before launching into a huge and anthemic chorus. Just when it seemingly can't get any better along comes the middle eight of the year as blonde member Emilie launches into a soaring vocal 'one last tiiiiiiiiiiiiiiime, before we say goodbye' before jumping back into that incredible chorus about pre break up sex (i.e. the part before The Vaccines' song takes place). Clocking in at near enough three minutes exactly, you have to assume that this gem was one of many of the annually leaked Melodifestivalen rejects. If so, what exactly were the producers thinking? You can try to deny the sheer brilliance of Sheelah but they've provided FSR Rontvia with two huge, record breaking winners and there was a reason for that; Pop. Perfection.

Much love for the two Adele entries and TEOG :wub: Also I love I'm In Love, fabulous Schlager! Lovely to see Sheelah top 10 as well, it's up there with Over You and Om Sannignen Ska Fram for me as one of your best BJSC entries of 2011!

8. Ed Sheeran - You Need Me, I Don't Need You (67-OUT-8-2-2-4-5-3-1-5-4-5-8-8-13-22)

 

 

The second Ed single in a row to enter my charts at #67 before eventually making it to the top, the singer/songwriter's second single was a reworking of what had previously been his most popular song by far amongst his fanbase. With this in mind it was clear to see why it was chosen as his second release. Sadly, what hadn't been anticipated is that The A Team had already shoehorned Ed into the singer/songwriter mould - god forbid a male artist should want to be versatile - and to those expecting more of the same, this was probably a bit of a WTF moment. To me I was just pleased that he was finally releasing this anthem and it duly spent three months in my top ten, reaching the top for a week halfway through. A far more beat driven song than his other singles, he sings the chorus but raps the verses, at some impressive speed at times! The original version had a more melodic bassline and fans complained when that was removed - I see what they were saying but I got used to the new production quite quickly (as a loon does) and the added lyrics discussing the hair products he uses and being 'up and coming like I'm in a f**king elevator' were surely worth the production sacrifices made? Maybe nobody else cares for this song much but it's easily one of my top ten of the year - he may well go down as a soppy UK version of Bruno Mars, if that's what the teenage girls want then the record company will make it happen, but this song proves that he is a lot more than that.

I actually much prefer YNM,IDNY to TAT but I do agree that it was probably too different to The A Team to be able to do as well.

7. Nadine Beiler - The Secret Is Love (3-1-2-6-7-4-5-5-5-6-7-3-4-9-16-26)

 

 

Despite usually limiting myself to the UK, Ireland, Germany and all of the Scandinavian Eurovision national finals due to time restrictions, this year I thought I might check out the candidates going forward for Austria too. Having listened to all ten of the finalists, there was one song that blew me away on first listen and that was this. It takes an incredible ballad to make an instant impact on me, most tend to be growers, but The Secret Is Love by Nadine Beiler reminded me of a fantastic timeless Christina Aguilera ballad with beautiful Disney-like verses and production and a soaring chorus and climax. I rushed off to download the song from iTunes and racked up about 30 plays of it in the first two days - unprecedented for me. I then tuned into the National Final, convinced that she'd fail to pull it off live, it being such a big song. Somehow she did exactly what I wasn't expecting and delivered a flawless vocal. To my surprise but delight she won the national final and then continued to give a stunning rendition of the track every single time she ever performed it.

 

She went through to the Eurovision final, marking their first appearance in the final since 2004 but then sadly it all fell apart. Despite another absolutely stunning rendition of the song, it failed to make any impact at all and wound up in the bottom half of the scoreboard. Further proof that it's a song contest and not a talent contest then (how many more times each year will I have to read 'experts' predicting the downfall of a favourite based on lacklustre vocals or bigging up somebody with a great voice and an average song) - I can accept that people didn't click with the song as I seemed to be fairly alone in my love for it but she was by far the strongest vocalist there. Certainly next to the ropey vocals of the winners Ell & Nikki! Perhaps her dire hairstyle scared the viewers off?

I actually much prefer YNM,IDNY to TAT but I do agree that it was probably too different to The A Team to be able to do as well.

 

Taking the loon glasses off and being objective, I can see why it flopped (well, in comparison to The A Team - nothing wrong with a #4 hit!). It must have sounded like two completely different artists, I doubt many people realised that both were by the same person. It's little wonder that they went with Lego House as the third single, I wonder if it had been planned that way or if it was a reaction to YNM,IDNY underperforming.

6. Blue - I Can (3-2-2-2-1-1-1-1-1-3-5-9-19-35)

 

 

Being the patriotic sort of guy that I am, quite often the UK's Eurovision entry will end up amongst my top three of the year. And attempting to be objective but probably not succeeding considering that I'm British, but I Can by Blue WAS one of the three best songs in this year's competition. Somebody at the BBC decided to rope in Blue, an R&B boyband popular in the UK between 2001-2004 (and basically JLS' predecessors) for representing us at the contest and it's fair to say that I wasn't exactly enthusiastic upon hearing the news. They had a few decent songs back in the day but nothing that I thought would work at Eurovision, so when they described the song as 'typical Blue' it seemed likely that it would be dated.

 

Upon first listen to the song my fears were blown away. A synthesised vocal intro leads into an incredibly strong, anthemic, contemporary pop song which wasn't at all dissimilar to Tinie Tempah's huge recent UK chart topper Written In The Stars but did indeed keep the 'sound' of classic Blue, just updating the sound a bit. To add to this, Blue had been popular in Europe during their reign and Lee aside, were competent live performers the majority of the time. What could possibly go wrong? Everything apparently - the vocals were indeed ropey, and the song proved hard to recreate live, but I'm not going to blame that because Azerbaijan put in a far more lacklustre vocal and won the contest! The performance sadly was a bit misguided. For four men still in their 20s or just early 30s, they seemed to be dressing as if they were cheap cabaret singers in dodgy blue suits that were far beyond their years. Simon being the stud that he is decided to wear an armless shirt and show off his abs to the whole of Europe. And behind this were some rather offputting LCD screens of the boys pulling poses.

 

Nevertheless, on the strength of the track as a damn good contemporary pop song, which went on to become a hit in many countries - including top 20 here and top 10 in Germany, I Can, which was in the top three of the bookies favourites pre-contest, finished a respectable 5th with the televoters. Juries however weren't so kind and placed Blue in the bottom five sinking the UK all the way down to 11th at the last minute, hardly a respectable showing for one of the best songs of the contest. Looking at the overall jury results though, there's no cause for concern, they were clearly all high this year and hopefully normal service will resume for 2012 after they got it so right in both 2009 and 2010! My #6 of 2011 and the highest placed Eurovision song of the year, it does however mark the first time since 2007 where nothing even remotely related to the contest has reached my top five, a poor showing after Lena's Satellite topped my EOY 2010 chart. Lets put that down to a poor year for the contest and move forward...

The top five will be revealed later on, no Eurovision entries, FOUR songs that feature in the UK top ten biggest sellers of the year (what a mainstream whore I am at the top end this year :o), and not a single one of them made its weekly chart debut in my top ten. It's the year of the grower!

 

Three of the top five boast a lead male vocal, whilst the remaining two feature males, all five then - plus #6, #8 and #10 being by male artists - yes, that's 80% of the top ten. There are zero solo females in the top five and three mixed gender collaborations.

Eric Saade is doomed to a Clubland TV career along with September, Velvet, Agnes, Inna. :lol: Inlike his new single (though I heard that on Chart Show TV. :P) do hopefully that's a sign that he'll break away... :D

Some really good songs at this stage. Out of what you've revealed in the top 20 so far, lovely to see Titanium making it so high, You Need Me has become my favourite Ed song, and The Last Time is really amazing, a real pop gem. :wub:

 

I can't see anything other than The A Team going to victory at this point, can't think what else is in the top 5 though, I know one of them, I think... Oh wait, make that 3/5. Still can't think of the other two.

 

As for the albums, good choice of #1 album. I thought it was underwhelming as a whole at first, but most of the tracks clearly needed time to grow on me, I'll Be Waiting and Rumour Has It especially, didn't think much of them at first, love them now.

Eric Saade is doomed to a Clubland TV career along with September, Velvet, Agnes, Inna. :lol: Inlike his new single (though I heard that on Chart Show TV. :P) do hopefully that's a sign that he'll break away... :D

 

Was that Hotter Than Fire with Dev? That only narrowly missed my EOY top 100 and is another very good song of his, I'd say it could be a hit with Radio 1 support but 'generic club pop song feat Dev' is a bit 9 months ago isn't it :lol:

 

Some really good songs at this stage. Out of what you've revealed in the top 20 so far, lovely to see Titanium making it so high, You Need Me has become my favourite Ed song, and The Last Time is really amazing, a real pop gem. :wub:

 

I can't see anything other than The A Team going to victory at this point, can't think what else is in the top 5 though, I know one of them, I think... Oh wait, make that 3/5. Still can't think of the other two.

 

As for the albums, good choice of #1 album. I thought it was underwhelming as a whole at first, but most of the tracks clearly needed time to grow on me, I'll Be Waiting and Rumour Has It especially, didn't think much of them at first, love them now.

 

Pleased that you love The Last Time, it's stunning pop :wub:

 

I shall reveal the #1 shortly!