Into the top ten, which I shall reveal one by one. It includes;

 

> Seven dance songs

> Three songs by one artist

> Two instrumentals

> Only two songs with no male involvement

 

So, in a nutshell, male dance music ruled the year!

10. Passenger - Let Her Go

 

Chart run: 13-10-12-13-8-1-1-2-7-3-4-8-12

 

 

I couldn't decide whether have this or Applause as the final song in my EOY top ten but in the end I went for this, as the delightful Passenger is from my home town of Brighton, and I actually can't recall any other time that somebody so local got a million selling single! I first heard this song absolutely ages ago, at some point last year but it slowly grew in my affections early on in the year, and hit No.1 for two weeks a few months before it became popular in the UK. A classic love song with a brilliant chorus, it's almost certain to go down as one of the most remembered songs of the year although with his acquired taste of a voice, and the fact that it's so MOR, I hope people don't look back at it in disgust like they do with James Blunt's You're Beautiful. A shame that it never quite hit No.1 in the UK, despite getting there in so many other countries, but it was a nice antidote to all of the dancier stuff dominating my tastes this year and deserves a place in my top ten, that impressive chart run happening even during the thick of Eurovision season!

1 of those instrumentals is obviously Martin Garrix. It can't not be.

 

Yay for Let Her Go :cheer:

9. Michael Woods - Platinum Chains

 

Chart run: 1-1-2-1-1-3-12

 

 

Another BJSC entry of mine, Platinum Chains by Michael Woods was an electro house instrumental of the highest order and quickly leapt from outside the top 20 to the top of my chart on its second week, where it spent four non consecutive weeks. A blistering stormer of a track from a dance veteran, it finished a highly respectable 4th in the contest. There's not really much more to say other than it's a complete anthem.

1 of those instrumentals is obviously Martin Garrix. It can't not be.

 

Yay for Let Her Go :cheer:

 

Animals was #88 :P

8. Rivaz - Colors

 

Chart run: 2-1-2-3-2-2-3-4-6-10-16

 

 

Aaaaand onto the BJSC entry that followed Platinum Chains, and managed to outdo it by one place, finishing third for me, it's Italian producer Rivaz and his incredibly uplifiting slice of euphoric trance, the instrumental track Colors. Managing to sound like the best of 1999 rolled into one with clear Gouryella, System F and Binary Finary influences, Colors smashed straight into my top three where it stayed for seven weeks, even literally during Eurovision week, where it was practically the only song I was listening to besides Eurovision on my lovely trip to Malmo! Despite having sent the three minute version to BJSC, it's actually the above extended version that I've listened to far more due to the extra buildup and breakdown just adding to the brilliance of the track. I'd say that it deserves to have a vocal treatment and become a major UK hit, but then I've just realised that this already exists, and I'm not sure on the below version's hit potential...

 

Animals was #88 :P

Oh :lol: well I must've not heard of the 2 instrumental tracks then :P

7. Avicii - Wake Me Up

 

Chart run: 20-OUT-15-13-2-1-1-1-1-2-3-8-10-17

 

 

Having first heard a rough version of Wake Me Up back in May, that was enough to send it straight into my top 20, I was instantly impressed by the unusual fusion of soul singer Aloe Blacc, singing in a country/folk vein, alongside Avicii's trademark dance sound. As soon as I got hold of it in HQ it started to leap up my chart and became his third No.1 of the year in the summer, spending four weeks in a row at the top. It became (and remains) the fastest selling single of the year in the UK and is deservedly now a million seller. It's also been a huge worldwide smash, even going top 5 in the US! For I Need A Dollar one hit wonder Aloe Blacc, it was fantastic to see him get some more success, and with a record so different to his first, it's just a shame that he wasn't officially credited on it. The song has bought back the Techno-country sound to the fore for the first time since Cotton Eyed Joe by Rednex with acts such as Pitbull and Britney Spears using it on recent songs, as well as Avicii himself again on current single Hey Brother.

Oh :lol: well I must've not heard of the 2 instrumental tracks then :P

 

Listen to them if you get a chance, Colors especially :D

Wake Me Up at #7 :o I honestly expected that to be top 5 for you. Okay I'll check them out when you post them ^_^

Edited December 24, 201311 yr by Rob Rudolph

6. Avicii vs. Nicky Romero - I Could Be The One

 

Chart run: 18-7-1-1-3-6-10-12-14-20

 

 

Despite a relatively poor chart run compared to Wake Me Up, with only two weeks at No.1, it did clash with Eurovision national final season, and the song has a slightly bigger place in my heart. A collaboration with Dutch DJ Nicky Romero (Holland doing very well themselves on the chart scene again this year!), I Could Be The One was a UK chart topper early on in the year. Beautifully sung (and naturally uncredited) by Swedish singer Noonie Bao, who also

, the song also has arguably one of the best music videos of the year, as all of his videos have been in fact (thank GOD the mid 00s bikini girls writhing around dance video fad is over). A stunning melody, I've literally 'lost it' every time I've heard it in a club this year, and it really put Avicii properly on the map for me, even though he'd had big hits before 2013 in my chart with Silhouettes and Collide. The real crime of the year is the fact that it wasn't featured on his debut album True! It takes a brave (and incredibly talented) man to leave your recent debut No.1 single off your debut album!

Woah :o :o I didn't expect that to show up yet either. Hmm I wonder what your number 1 is going to be now lol.

Wake Me Up at #7 :o I honestly expected that to be top 5 for you. Okay I'll check them out when you post them ^_^

 

Woah :o :o I didn't expect that to show up yet either. Hmm I wonder what your number 1 is going to be now lol.

 

Seems like Avicii's done a little worse than expected with his singles, but his album got the EOY #1 at least! The top five were way ahead so he had no chance of either of these two finishing higher, even though I absolutely LOVE both of them. I'll start the top five after Eastenders!

5. Janet Leon - Heartstrings

 

Chart run: 16-1-2-4-4-4-3-5-5-7-7-9-11

 

 

Clearly this was the song that Christer Bjorkman wanted Sweden to send to Eurovision. Former Play member Janet Leon (who first had a top 20 hit in my chart in 2009 with ballad Let Go) was given the huge string drenched pop anthem Heartstrings to sing in the ultimate pimp slot. Sadly, she either wasn't a big enough star, the performance/staging put people off (Janet certainly sounded breathless at times) or the song just didn't connect. Sounding like a lost Agnes classic, I've never actually worked out what song it reminds me exactly of, but it does remind me of *something* an awful lot in the disco-pop production. The spiritual love-child of S Club 7's Don't Stop Movin' and the aformentioned Agnes' Love Love Love and Secret Love, it failed spectacularly, crashing out straight away and Sweden threw away by far the best song they had in their national final in one fell swoop. It stayed in my affections for quite a while after hitting #1, spending 11 weeks in the top ten, incredibly rare for a song that failed instantly!

4. Cascada - Glorious

 

Chart run: 7-5-11-20-19-2-2-5-8-14-13-7-6-3-4-6-5-5-1-1-3-5-7-9-13

 

 

One of my favourite acts since 2006, Cascada have topped my singles chart in 2009 with Evacuate The Dancefloor (my #8 of 2009) and with three of their albums, the other three albums and a clutch of their singles peaking at No.2. So when I heard that they were trying out for Germany for Eurovision, I was ecstatic, especially considering I was whipped back into Cascada hysteria at the time having loved their Xmas album this time a year ago. The song seemed like a typical Cascada eurodance anthem, but quickly attracted comparisons to the previous Eurovision winner Euphoria by Loreen. To my ears I can hear certain structural similarities but that's about it. The song won the German NF and I was hoping for another top ten finish for the country, after they'd done so well the previous three years with Lena x2 and Roman Lob. As it happened the song completely flopped on its arse, finishing outside the top 20 in the final but having Natalie Horler walk over my head waving to the crowd over the bridge at Eurovision was quite a moment and I'm so glad that they kept the dance breakdown in the Eurovision version as it sounded SO good hearing it live in the arena. Hence the sympathy climb to the top immediately after the contest to give them a belated second No.1 19 weeks after it first charted! Had this chart been based on points, I'm sure Cascada would have won with ease, but Eurovision songs do tend to chart for longer but I try not to let the runs affect my final view in my EOY chart, hence not using a points system.

Oh wow, I forgot about Cascada, I know you a huge fan of them but for some reason didn't think Glorious would get that high. Brilliant to see though. Unfortanetly I can reveal Glorious is not very high on mine :(

Edited December 24, 201311 yr by Rob Rudolph

3. Lorde - Royals

 

Chart run: 20-13-9-9-7-5-2-2-4-5-7-10-5-1-1-1-2-4-6-11

 

 

Not waiting quite as long as Cascada did, but nevertheless taking a good slow trot to No.1 was breakthrough New Zealand teenager Lorde with her global smash hit Royals. Not exactly a breeding ground for international stars, I noticed this at No.1 on iTunes New Zealand near the beginning of the year and thought it was a pretty cool song, just missing my top 40 when it was soon after sent to BJSC by Isconia. I assumed it would do very well, giving it top five odds and it managed to flop completely after reaching the final, as it became evident that this was a very divisive song. A divisive song won't often do very well in BJSC if 50% of 50 people hate it, however if 50% of the world's population hate a song then that potentially leaves a hell of a lot of people that will still buy it. And buy it they did, particularly in America where it took off before here, spending months at the top of the Billboard chart. Curiously, the minimalistic indie-pop song did get to No.1 in the UK too, but has performed quite modestly in comparison, and been on a decline ever since entering without ever causing as much hype as expected. For me it was the ultimate slow burner, growing on me bit by bit each week until it reached No.2. It slowly dropped away before hearing it on the radio more and more made me fall even more in love with it before, the hypnotic clicking beats and Lorde's brilliant vocals worming their way through my head at every given moment. It made No.1 for three weeks and has only just started dropping away, out of the top ten this week after 17 straight weeks inside it!

2. DJ Kent feat The Arrows - Spin My World

 

Chart run: 4-1-1-4-6-8-10-1-1-2-3-3-7-10-11-18

 

 

I'm sure I'll get absolutely crucified for how high this is, considering it literally has like two other fans, but this has truly been one of my defining singles of the year, certainly of the last few months of it. Having slowly become hugely interested in the South African music scene, with artists like Jody, Jamali, Blackbyrd and Nadine, this single absolutely topped it all off and made me fall in love completely. Browsing the South African iTunes store one evening I noticed this song in the top three, went to investigate and almost instantly fell in love with the throwback garage production combined with one of the most heartbreaking piano toplines that I've ever heard in dance music. It seemed an obvious choice to send to BJSC and managed to provide me with a third DNQ in a row, having been met with indifference by almost everyone. I didn't care too much about the other two DNQ's but I fell so hard for this that I literally couldn't understand how other people had missed its beauty.

 

Nevertheless, it started a slow decline down my top ten until BAM, the video was released. Rarely do videos increase my enjoyment of music but the video to Spin My World around is just perfect. The quirky duo The Arrows with lead singer Pam and her croissant shaped hair and Christie and her turquoise bob fronted an absolutely gorgeous video set on Durban seafront and in a local funfair. And ever since watching the video Durban has become my most wanted to visit place in the world, it looks so gorgeous, despite the reports of high levels of violence! Combined with a lovely storyline featuring two teenagers deeply in love, it just seemed so much more positive and happy lyrically and visually than most songs/videos. The song vaulted back to No.1 for an extended run at the top and in the top ten and I never get bored of it, even if everybody else has never even 'got it'. Hopefully a miracle will happen and Radio 1 will pick it up (an international hit from South Africa, yeah right!), Radio 1Xtra have already played it so there are tiny fragments of hope, and then everyone else can fall in love with it as they should have done already!

I only like I Could Be The One out of the Top 10 so far :(

 

But what a glorious song it is, so much better than any of this country dance shite Avicii has been putting out this year. So uplifting! :wub:

1. Avicii & B & B And Choir - We Write the Story

 

Chart run: 5-2-1-1-1-2-1-2-3-3-3-5-8-12-16

 

 

And from a song with about three fans to a song that only me and Johnkm seem to like, my No.1 of the year, by an absolute mile is this. By a country mile my favourite artist of the year is Swedish producer Avicii, who topped my EOY abum chart and has also topped my EOY single chart, although not with a song people might expect. When I first heard that he would be involved with the opening theme for Eurovision, alongside ABBA's Benny and Bjorn, I thought nothing of it and in fact forgot all about it. That was until I heard the song of course, and that moment was when I was standing watching the afternoon dress rehearsal for the Eurovision final. This incredible piece of choral dance music started playing above me and I thought 'what on earth is this beauty'. As the song continued to play, a bridge dropped down over my head and all of the Eurovision artists started walking over it, waving down. It was truly euphoric and this song soundtracked the moment perfectly.

 

Later on that day I went back to watch the final and got to enjoy the moment again, having perfectly remembered the song from earlier and making a note to download it instantly when I got home. Probably THE most perfect opening to any Eurovision ever, it combined my loves of dance music, Avicii inparticular, ABBA (it was an amazing year for fans to have this song by Bjorn and Benny and to have Agnetha back on form) and my strange love of choral music (check out my Xmas #1 of 2011 - Military Wives for proof!). It appealed to literally nobody else as anything other than forgotten showpiece, but it became by far my most played song of the year, despite being over 6 minutes long. The way it opens slowly before building to the choir and then Avicii's incredible production, before building up in a rockier way towards the end thanks to 'B&B's input, everything about this song to me is pure magic. So for a second year in a row a song related to Eurovision tops my end of year chart, but this year the song is not actually an entry! Congrats to rising star Avicii, legends Benny & Bjorn and the gorgeous vocals of 'Choir'!

 

It tops what is pretty much my most uncommercial end of year top ten ever (well, aside from the three UK #1's and the million sellin Let Her Go :lol:) but unknown and/or unappreciated dance music has basically been my true love of 2013, so it's quite reflective overall.