6weeksatnumber7

I think it's very jaunty and a nice change of pace which is what she needed. You can't keep churning out ballads. But it's no Bleeding Love but then again it's not the lead single off an album which almost has to be spectacular these days. It's merely a closing chapter. How will it do, well you have to factor in Hero which will still be #1 and Girls Aloud continuing impressive sales. However it's the top pre-order physical this week and shot up iTunes faster than Girls Aloud in Ireland on release so it should make top 5 with some ease. On the new single front Norma, are you a bit disappointed with the new Take That single? It's a bit weak compared to both Patience and Rule The World and if it wasn't for the already huge fanbase I'd worry about its performance.

Both GA and Hero still well ahead of the rest though. And you have to think most of Hero's sales is physical? Can see them staying top two next week as well.

Lull before the storm - Britney added Sunday, Leona. Christina, Beyonce on Monday.

Albums 225k and up in 2007 and 2008: 2007 29 April Favourite Worst Nightmare Arctic Monkeys 227,922 18 November Spirit Leona Lewis 375,872 16 December Spirit Leona Lewis 228,504 23 December Spirit Leona Lewis 286,437 2008 15 June Viva la Vida or Death and All His Friends Coldplay 302,074 Westlife and Kings of Leon just miss out.

It's the digital era, things have changed. And truly great singles can still sell loads - look at Crazy, Bleeding Love, Rule The World, Mercy ...

That rumour was a spoof by Jonathan King that one of the tabloids swallowed hook, line and sinker. It was immediately denied by the BRITs committee.

Let's be honest, there's little difference between Will and Leona. And dressing it up by pretending he wasn't a reality star and thus didn't gain much of his fanbase from the Idol exposure doesn't cut it. It's as much a fact as Leona using X-Factor to get into the business after working really hard before deciding to go for the audition. In my opinion they're both extremely talented. They've both worked/ing hard at songwriting. They're both clearly a cut above anyone else who has come out of these shows. Whether Leona can continue along the Will vein it is hard to predict, but she, like he, needed the reality show boost in a UK music industry whose AnR is too often fixated with middle-of-the-road indie dross for the sake of credibility, when 99% of all these bands barely have more than one decent single.

So what you're really saying is if you like an act, you're happy to ignore the fact that they came from a reality show ;) :D

They do a lot in the States as massive digital sales are dwarfing airplay, so you can be #1 on digital sales and #51 on airplay and still be #1 on the Hot100. It's a pity we didn't have access to the raw data for sales for the top 50 and airplay.

TomKay - I think it's the Scottish Children In Need song based on the 1982 World Cup song.

Why didn't Will find his way "just fine" then? Surely by your logic if he was so talented he wouldn't need a TV show?

How are you doing the calculation for each song? E.g. the Sugababes song?

It's just lazy research and shoddy journalism. The "biggest hit of the decade" comes from The Sun and they've combined it with the HMV quote which doesn't say this at all.

The way the BB Hot100 works is a song on the chart on average has its chart points collected from 55% airplay, 40% sales and 5% streaming. That ratio will vary for each individual song, but the general trend is towards those ratios. How to calculate it for each individual song Ok take the following song (we'll ignore streams): Rrrrandom Rrrrapper feat. Rihanna - Vote Obama Or The Rabbit Gets It Last week: #7 in airplay, #18 in sales Airplay = 78m Sales = 52k Chart points = 78m/1,000,000 + 52k/1000 = 140 chart points (in effect you ignore all the extra zeros) Similarly: Madrasonna - 4 Minutes To Cook This Nan Last week: #197 in airplay, #2 in sales Airplay = 10m Sales = 208k Chart points = 10m/1,000,000 + 208k/1000 = 218 chart points ------ Airplay is called AI (audience impression) in the States. Not sure if ther eis a readily available UK source for this each week.

What a strong chart that was - mostly a superb top 10.

All profits go to charity so I'm not sure Cowell is making a penny off it bar the publicity afforded the show, a standard trade-off in these charity efforts.

Thought I read ages back that it marks the end of her contract with Mike Batt - but I could be making it up ...

Take That are releasing a weaker song this year, but then again their competition is also much weaker. It's not often anyone will come up against such a brilliant song as Bleeding Love.

I'm starting to find this very screechy.

Leona is released digitally and physically the week after the charity song.

1 week at number 1. Sales of around 80k and then a sharp decline.

I think Girls Aloud have #1 wrapped up for this week and with the way the popularity bars look might even have the momentum to hold off the X-Factor "Hero" single next week.

I'm not a fan of the song. It was merely a factual comment based on the speed of their rise up iTunes and the large popularity bar lead. How you equate that to "worship" I struggle to understand.

Think it's clear Girls Aloud will be number 1 this week - very impressive early sales. We could be looking at the biggest download sales of the year.

Didn't Girls Aloud also appear on X-Factor on Saturday or was it a mirage?