Sunday at 09:425 days I liked With Every Heartbeat at the time but it wasn’t a huge favourite of mine and I went off it in the following years. Now however I really enjoy it, it’s such a magnificent song.
Sunday at 09:435 days Also if I’m following along correctly then there’s two absolutely brilliant songs to come and I can’t complain about the finishing order.
Sunday at 11:415 days Robyn is my top rated track so far on the list, big number one for me, classy and understated.
Sunday at 12:574 days “With Every Heartbeat” would be #1 for me definitely - a case of the Buzzjack love for a song being totally justified. You can feel every bit of her pain through the song. It has all the soul that most current dance pop is missing.The positions for “Grace Kelly” and “Shine” are both pretty fair. “Shine” did get overplayed but it has a great retro feel - could almost be Beatles. “Grace Kelly” is a complete one off but also an incredibly well written piece of music and his classical training shows. Shame the rest of his work wasn’t up to the same level.
Sunday at 22:234 days Author Two #1s left to reveal and they just so happen to be the two biggest-selling singles of 2007 and the year's two longest-running #1s! Furthermore, the only two singles to sell over half a million copies during the year. I don't think an end-of-year top 2 has ever aligned so perfectly with my tastes - before or since. Anyway, with that said, Number 2 is coming imminently.
Sunday at 22:584 days I think one of your top two has held up much better than the other, so hoping that one wins.
Sunday at 23:394 days Author Ok, I’m clearly too tired to write coherent sentences so will post the final 2 tomorrow PM. 🤦😂
Monday at 11:284 days Author 2 Leona Lewis Bleeding Love#2s kept off #1: Rule The World (Take That), Heartbroken (T2, Jodie Aysha) When Leona won the third series of The X Factor back in December 2006, it was instantly felt that she was going to break the mould of a talent show winner. The live finals saw Simon, Sharon and Louis gush over her exceptional vocal ability every week and often singling her out as a cut above the rest in the competition. Even after her duet with the newly-reformed Take That during the final, Gary Barlow remarked to Simon: “you’ve got a big responsibility, because this girl is probably 50 times better than any contestant you’ve ever had on this show. It’s your responsibility to make her the best record you can” (a comment he may have regretted 10 months later ).Fortunately, Simon could see Leona as a long-term investment (by Syco’s standards), and instead of spending Spring 2007 promoting a rushed Mother’s Day release full of covers, Leona was meeting with the American music bigwigs in order to sign a lucrative multi-million dollar deal. She settled with J Records, owned by Clive Davis – the man behind Alicia Keys and Whitney Houston to name a few, and was put straight to work in the studio, working with some big-name talent including Dallas Austin, Salaam Remi and Ne-Yo. With her album slated for a Q4 release, Leona kept a super low profile for most of the year while anticipation quietly built.There was one scare, however. During the Spring, Leona’s pre-fame recordings were leaked online, after previous label UEG were attempting to cash-in on her newfound popularity. The album Best Kept Secret was ultimately blocked from release but I remember stumbling upon It’s All For You on Limewire, believing it was her actual lead single for a month. It’s a cute, breezy R&B mid-tempo, but a laughable choice knowing what came instead.By the summer of 2007, recording was well under way with Leona’s debut album Spirit, but the lead single still remained elusive. At one point eventual-third single Better In Time was planned to be the lead but Simon was still uncertain. Meanwhile, then-unknown pop maestro Ryan Tedder was writing for ex-Dream Street member Jesse McCartney’s third solo album when they cooked up the behemoth Bleeding Love. McCartney’s label Hollywood disliked the track, which Tedder thought was crazy. Around this time, Ryan was shown clips of Leona singing and, despite refusing to work with American Idol talent, was taken by her voice. He decided to rework the track to fit Leona before sending it to Simon who instantly loved it.Bleeding Love premiered on the Radio 1 chart show in late September and quickly scaled the airplay charts ahead of its October 22nd release. There was one obstacle however. Rule The World, Take That’s first new song since the previous year’s comeback album, was being released the same day and was outperforming Bleeding Love on airplay in the weeks leading up to release It was without a doubt the chart battle of the year! Simon Cowell had an ace up his sleeve, however, utilising the week 1 results show of The X Factor’s fourth season as Leona’s Bleeding Love performance debut – a marketing tactic that would become an annual fixture for the show for the next decade or so.Bleeding Love became an absolute monster of a hit, selling 218,000 copies in its first week to debut at #1 and in the process beating Take That by 120,000 copies. It also managed to outsell the rest of the top 5 combined! The song spent 7 consecutive weeks at #1, selling in excess of 100k in each of its first three weeks and finished the year as the UK’s biggest-selling single, managing to sell 787,000 copies in just two months during a relatively low sales climate! The song would go on to dominate the world throughout the start of 2008, topping the chart in 35 countries – including a month at #1 in America (the first by a British female solo artist in 21 years)! The success of Bleeding Love propelled the phenomenal sales of her debut album Spirit, which opened in the UK with 375,000 copies sold – the fourth-fastest selling album ever at the time. Spirit also gave Leona a number 1 album in America and went on to sell over 7 million copies worldwide.Where do I start? This is just an incredibly constructed pop ballad through and through. It ticks all of the boxes of what a Leona Lewis career-launching single should be. It stays truthful enough to her 90s diva “brand” without ever coming off dated. The Tedder production that he would become oh-so-famous for by the end of the decade sounded fresh and original here. That organ at the beginning makes it known we're in for something big and then that stripped-back almost-acapella first verse as Leona sings about being disillusioned by love is gorgeously restrained. Then once that drumbeat hits, the story becomes one of a tortured romance: shifting to Leona finding love, only to be met with disapproval by those around her. The tortured lyrics paired with Tedder's haunting production really helped set it apart from the ballads it was looking to emulate and tbh it gives it a bit of a macabre edge. But the addition of Leona's vocals truly elevates it into something spectacular. She has this emotive, fragile quality to her tone that perfectly suits a song like this. There's something about it that hits an emotional spot in me the likes of Mariah, Whitney and Beyonce could never manage. The song is just everything a Leona fan of the time would've wanted as her popstar introduction to the world. Credible, polished, powerful, distinctive. The whole campaign remains one of my fondest music memories of the decade. She may not have set the charts alight for many years, but at this point in time it felt like she was on a one-way-ticket to superstardom. Unfortunately, label mismanagement, complacent US promo and a widely-perceived mediocre lead single would see Leona's sophomore era underperform on a worldwide scale. From then on, her career would never reach the same heights again, though festive bop One More Sleep keeps her name out there each year. I hope when late-00s nostalgia kicks in Leona can have a bit of a renaissance. Bleeding Love’s chart dominance coincided with an increasingly competitive market and unusually high sales. Take That, who managed two #1s with ease within the last year, had to settle for a month at #2 for what would have otherwise been a massive #1 for them. Usual shoe-ins for #’1, McFly, had to settle for #3 with their The Heart Never Lies. Sales were so competitive during the Leona/Take That battle week, the much-hyped comeback single from Britney, Gimme More, fell from 3 to 6 despite doubling its sales from the previous week, and the Sugababes fell from 1-4 despite sales of over 36,000! A truly wonderful time to be a chart fan!!While Take That sat at #2 for four of Bleeding Love’ seven weeks at the summit, the other three weeks saw the Number 2 occupied by T2 & Jodie Aysha’s Heartbroken, a bassline/garage track that was a part of a mini chart revival of sorts for the genre during late 2007/early 2008. Out of Rule The World and Heartbroken, my preference is 100% the latter. I think her voice grated on me at the time but it’s so infectious and always makes me want to break out into a dance. Rule The World is good enough but dare I say a bit bland, besides that fantastic chorus of course. A trip down Buzzjack memory lane:Sunday chart predictions:
Monday at 12:123 days Oh wow, I was totally sure that would be your #1 since the beginning!Absolutely storming debut (proper) single though.
Monday at 12:293 days Author 13 minutes ago, Jessie Where said:Oh wow, I was totally sure that would be your #1 since the beginning!Absolutely storming debut (proper) single though.Fair! Tbh the top 2 are pretty much on par with each other in my affections but the #1 on this list captured me in a way no other song did at the time. More on that later of course!
Monday at 13:053 days "Bleeding Love" is not among my favourites - I found it always a bit too unspectacular compared against other #1's of the year and, thus, it is only #10 in my ranking. #10 is actually the place where I start liking the songs. We share the #1. ;)1. XXX2. Kaiser Chiefs - Ruby3. MIKA - Grace Kelly4. Timbaland; Keri Hilson; D.O.E. - The Way I Are5. Beyoncé; Shakira - Beautiful Liar6. Timbaland; Justin Timberlake; Nelly Furtado - Give It To Me7. Robyn; Kleerup - With Every Heartbeat8. Take That - Shine9. Kanye West - Stronger10. Leona Lewis - Bleeding Love11. Sugababes - About You Now12. Leona Lewis - A Moment Like This13. Katie Melua; Eva Cassidy - What a Wonderful World14. Sugababes; Girls Aloud - Walk This Way15. McFly - Baby's Coming Back16. Sean Kingston - Beautiful Girls17. The Proclaimers; Andy Pipkin; Brian Potter - I'm Gonna Be (500 Miles)18. Leon Jackson - When You Believe
Monday at 16:163 days I think I was probably hoping that Leona would win out of the two left, both are songs I'd never choose to put on but when I do hear Bleeding Love I do at least think it is a really strong single... where as the one that's left to come is one I've always been a little baffled by in terms of how successful it was, it's okay enough but I wouldn't class it among my faves from her.
Monday at 16:533 days Robyn <3 One of my favourite No.1 moments ever for the reasons many others have detailed above; the shock factor, the comeback factor, and because it was so fully deserved for being such a beautiful, emotional and fragile piece of music. Completely unlike any other UK No.1 really. I love her, one of my favourite songs ever.Absolutely love Bleeding Love too, thought it was a really special track when I first heard it and I still think it's great. Amazing that it got to No.1 in the US too. I'm so glad they waited to launch Leona with decent music and didn't rush a cover out in March.Bad luck for Rule The World though - one of the best songs of the 00s, and my favourite single of theirs. A masterstroke of bad timing. I bought both on the day of release though myself. Edited Monday at 16:563 days by gooddelta
Monday at 17:163 days Rule The World >>>>> all top 4 combined. Edited Monday at 17:163 days by Last Dreamer
Monday at 18:083 days Author 51 minutes ago, Last Dreamer said:Rule The World >>>>> all top 4 combined.
Monday at 18:593 days 'With Every Heartbeat' is great. Not as much of a massive fave like others here but still really like it a lot. Was a strong era for Robyn.'Bleeding Love' was also one I really enjoyed at the time and it was on top of my own chart for the same amount of weeks as the official chart but I'm actually less huge on it nowadays. Still a strong proper launch for Leona nonetheless.
Monday at 20:583 days Absolutely love Bleeding Love, it's such a sensational pop song and the perfect way to not only launch the career of a talent show winner but any pop career. It still sounds brilliant even today.Funnily enough though I wasn't a huge fan of it at first. I remember catching the end of it on radio on a Sunday afternoon in late 2007 (before it's official release in Australia) and they said after the song finished that it was the debut single from X Factor UK winner Leona Lewis and I thought 'oh yes, another flash in the pan'. From the moment I heard it in full though I was fully hooked!Strangely I did have a feeling this would be your 2nd place getter.
Monday at 23:323 days The top 2 have turned out in the order I hoped they would, but maybe wouldn't have expected! 'Bleeding Love' deserved to be huge though, a mid-tempo ballad that hits differently to anything The X Factor had endorsed up to that point, and Leona certainly had the voice to sell the most out of it. Is it bad that it brings to mind Simon's text alert from The Inbetweeners though and these days I prefer her Christmas perennial, but this was certainly one of the essential chart moments of 2007.
Monday at 23:383 days It was a huge moment when she unveiled “Bleeding Love” on X Factor and it was the perfect song for her at the time. These days I don’t love it though - I think it’s very of its moment, and I much prefer “Rule The World”.Your #1 is great and would be my #2 behind Robyn. I’ll do a full ranking in a bit.
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