Our favourite Latin pop glam ma Gloria Estefan is out to make a killing tonight.
‘Hotel Nacional’ is the second single lifted from the 90s pop diva’s newest album Miss Little Havana, which enjoyed some very modest success in the States when it was launched last year. Where her last single ‘Wepa’ felt more like an unapologetic Latin dance record, ‘Hotel Nacional’ is more of a continental affair blending heavy synths that recall the best of modern Europop and some 1920s swing music.
The music video itself is a reflection of the song’s hybrid soundscape, bearing a camp affair of lights, drama and shitloads of killer dance moves, courtesy of the massive cast.
Gloria herself is not looking a day over 50 as she oversees the whole procession from the stage. You can’t fault mama for trying with those lethal hooker stilettos and arresting leather jacket and skirt. The outfit actually looks like something Michelle Obama would wear to a fetish party, no shade.
This is Gloria’s hotel. You’re just in it.
I am so pleased to see Countess Gloria making an entrance like that. Did you see the way she flipped that coat and started strutting with the fervour of a supermodel going after the last free Victoria Secret sample?
Speaking of supermodels, I love how Gloria had her own drag queen competition to find the finest female impersonator to star in the video. You can spot the stunning competition winner, Puerto Rico’s own April Carrion here rocking a long ponytail, writhing on the bar and playing in front of the mirror. Werk! Look at Mama Gloria breaking drag talent all over the world.
While we’re on the subject of the cast, you might spot a certain former soap star Susan Lucci also making an appearance. Hell, if Gloria namechecked me in her song, you can bet your ass I’d be begging to be in the video.
You rock a hair hat, I rock a chandelier on my head. I win.
Well I’m certainly not here to play games with you about who’s rocking the wilder hat. Gaga evidently has nothing on Gloria‘s inspired decision to stand under a chandelier and pose wildly like it was a unique creation from Donatella‘s own jeweller.
It’s time for hoochie coochie.
I have to admit, the video looked like a fun but borderline tacky spectacle right up to this point. The dance breakdown complete with strobes and an extended instrumental bridge absolutely upgraded the experience. Right now, it’s all about the display at the 3:27 mark.
Watch the video for Gloria Estefan‘s ‘Hotel Nacional’:
Footnotes:
Gloria Estefan‘s ‘Hotel Nacional’ managed to make #1 on the US Billboard Dance/Club play chart a few weeks ago.
“There shouldn’t be much to report on this week’s Chart Feed because Beyoncé had her baby and nothing else would be on the news, right?” Sometimes I feel like my little brother is the only one who gets the way the world should be run.
On this week’s Chart Feed, the festive season’s definitely been canned now with Michael Bublé‘s career-defining Christmas album freefalling out of the Top 20 everywhere. We all knew it would come to this. Meanwhile, Empress Adele returns to top the US and UK album charts and comes closer to breaking more records, Kelly Clarkson discounts her way back up the charts, and I have a fit over the new Will Young, The Saturdays and Rebecca Ferguson single choices.
Happy new year, y’all. I don’t know who approved my time off last Monday but I’m sorry for leaving y’all without a Christmas week chart feed.
I am back on the grind tonight because I know we need to start this year right. It’s such a traditionally quiet time of the year for music sales, technically all your underachieving faves should be making the Top 10 with no effort at all. But of course, there aren’t ever any surprises when you’re expecting it.
This week’s chart highlights include Michael Buble‘s record-breaking Christmas sales that has cancelled everything he’s put out before this year, Sia‘s third consecutive Aussie Top 30 appearance in five months, Havana Brown‘s American crossover, and shit loads more.
Reece Mastin was almost licking it on both sides this week with his winning single ‘Good Night’ returning to #1 and album debuting at #2 on our ARIA charts. Reece Mastin – a compilation of choons the kid purveyed on X Factor Australia – is the biggest new album in the country, instantly certified platinum for shipments of over 70,000 copies.
Needless to say, the fastest selling artist to ever come out of the local talent show franchise. The kid rocker’s cover of Maroon 5‘s ‘She Will Be Loved’ managed to break the ARIA Top 100 at #87 based on track downloads alone.
Timomatic‘s ‘Set It Off’ skyrockets to a new peak of #22 on our ARIA charts, marking another key success for Aussie pop this year. The man, who’s best known as the singer/dancer who came second on this year’s Australia’s Got Talent series, co-wrote ‘Set It Off’ with DNA – the same Sydney songwriting/production duo who’s responsible for Marvin Priest‘s ‘Own This Club’. DNA also currently has two songs in the ARIA Top 10 in Reece Mastin‘s ‘Good Night’ and Guy Sebastian‘s ‘Don’t Worry Be Happy’.
Matt Corby‘s experiencing some chart wonder with his EP Into The Flame climbing to a new peak of #33. This is the strummy la la artist’s biggest commercial success yet. He really is the new Lisa Mitchell-style success story from our Idol franchise.
Watch Matt‘s video for ‘Untitled’, a track featured on his Into The Flame EP. Side bar: I would totally do him.
Pink‘s beige ballad ‘Bridge of Light’ plummets to #34 on our ARIA charts – not surprising given its diminishing radio rotation. Her last single to miss our Top 20 was ‘I Don’t Believe You’, which peaked at #23 back in 2009.
Ricki-Lee‘s glorious ‘Raining Diamonds’ is probably set to retire soon. The underrated smash falls to #39 this week after clocking six weeks in our ARIA Top 50. Our gurl can still probably treat herself to a few Gasp dresses this Christmas – ‘Raining Diamonds’ has been certified gold sales for selling over 35,000 copies.
Cher Lloyd‘s summery smash ‘With Ur Love’ rises to a new peak of #43 on our Aussie charts. Snaps to the ‘Swagger Jagger’ singer for snagging herself an American recording contract with L.A. Reid‘s label Epic Records. I’m sure you’ll agree that her seriously on point debut album Sticks + Stones deserve some proper Stateside attention – check out where it lands on my Feed Limmy Top 30 Albums of 2011 list.
Watch Cher Lloyd do one of my favourite tracks ‘Want U Back’ acoustic style:
will.i.am‘s ‘T.H.E. (The Hardest Ever)’ blasts back into the ARIA Top 100 at #57 this week, thanks to interest surrounding the A-grade music video. Over in the States, ‘T.H.E.’ sinks to #193 on the Hot Digital Songs chart but we’ll see this Thursday if it cops a resurrection there too.
Lady Gaga‘s Born This Way album returns to our ARIA Top 50, probably thanks to the Christmas rush. Same goes for Katy Perry‘s Teenage Dream. Y’all know there are loads of unimaginative grown ups buying these records for their nieces and daughters. Meanwhile at the singles bar, Gaga’s two recent singles ‘You and I’ and ‘Marry The Night’ exit the Top 100 while ‘Born This Way’ and ‘The Edge of Glory’ keep selling. Born This Way: The Remix sinks to #100 on our ARIA Top 100.
Little Mix‘s winner’s single ‘Cannonball’ debuts at #1 in the UK, clocking 210,000 opening week sales to become the fastest selling single of 2011. The recently crowned British X Factor champs made history this week as the first girl group to go #1 in the UK since Girls Aloud‘s ‘The Promise’ in 2008. Damien Rice‘s original ‘Cannonball’ rides on the coattails back to #19 on the UK charts this week.
Leona Lewis‘ new single EP ‘Hurt’ enters at #8 in the UK, making it the second biggest new release there this week. It is also incidentally Leona‘s eighth UK Top 10 placement.
Watch an acoustic performance ‘Hurt’, which was recorded on the star’s recent webchat:
Jessie J‘s ‘Who You Are’ is bowled out of the UK Top 20 this week, tumbling from #9 to #21. Speaking of drastic drops – the latest X Factor charity single ‘Wishing On A Star’ sinks from #2 to #17, and Emeli Sandé‘s ‘Daddy’ falls from #43 to #76.
Kelendria Trene Rowland‘s Here I Am nosedives from a tepid peak of #43 to #63 on the UK charts this week. Totally not surprised to see it go down that hard. Meanwhile, the smash single ‘Down For Whatever’ leaves the UK Top 20.
Take That‘s Progress Live tour DVD is still the biggest selling music DVD in the UK but over in the US and Australia, Adele‘s Live at The Royal Albert Hall continues to reign on top. Lady Gaga‘s The Monster Ball tour sits at #13 on the UK music DVD charts but does better at #2 in Australia and #3 in the US. Beyoncé’s Live at Roseland DVD falls from #8 to #18 in the UK and from #4 to #6 in Australia but stays strong at #2 in the US.
Check out Queen Bey performing the life-defining ‘I Was Here’:
Michael Buble‘s Christmas album continues to rake in the chips with a 64% sales increase in its third week on top of the US Billboard 200. The lucrative seasonal album sold 479,000 copies in America in the last week, making it the crooner’s biggest #1 album yet. You really wonder why he hadn’t put out a Christmas album before. Buble‘s Christmas is also simultaneously topping the UK and Australian album charts.
The Black Keys have the highest selling new album in America with El Camino debuting at #2. It’s remarkably the rock band’s biggest commercial success yet – clocking over 206,000 first week sales. This is very much an improvement on last year’s Brothers, which entered at #3 with 73,000 copies.
Amy Winehouse‘s posthumous album Lioness: Hidden Treasures debuts at #5 in the US, off the back of 114,000 opening week sales. This is the late soul singer’s biggest chart debut ever. Mind you, Back to Black entered at #7 but eventually climbed to #2 on the Billboard 200.
Watch a mini doco about Amy Winehouse‘s Hidden Treasures:
Glee‘s season three Volume 7 album gives the franchise their lowest first-week sales yet for a regular compilation (ie. Volumes 1 – 7). The record comes in at #9 on the US Billboard 200 with 58,000 copies sold. The only other Glee releases to have opened with fewer copies were the Rocky Horror Glee EP (48,00) and The 3D Concert Movie soundtrack (20,000). We done here.
Robin Thicke‘s Love After War album debuts at #22 on the US Billboard 200, making this the sexy soul man’s first album to miss the Top 20 since his 2006 breakthrough. Love After War opened with 42,000 first week sales – a far cry from his last album Sex Therapy, which opened with 123,000 copies almost exactly two years ago.
Katy Perry‘s ‘The One That Got Away’ is starting to show its desperation to go #1. There’s the introduction of a rent-a-rapper remix featuring B.o.B. now impacting media – a trick she’s run up on with the last two singles (see: ‘Last Friday Night’ with Missy Elliott and ‘E.T.’ with Kanye West).
But then there’s also a drastic price slash on iTunes! All up, the discounted price managed to only push ‘The One That Got Away’ up to #6 on the US Digital Song chart with a 24% sales increase (117,000 copies). In the UK, ‘The One That Got Away’ rises to #20 but remains at its current peak of #27 in Australia for the second week in a row.
Listen to the odd new B.o.B remix of ‘The One That Got Away’:
Kelly Clarkson‘s ‘I’ll Be Home For Christmas’ enters the US Billboard 100 at #93. Meanwhile her next actual smash ‘What Doesn’t Kill You (Stronger)’ drops to #200 on the US Digital Song charts.
That kinda fuckery’s not tolerated here in Australia because we evidently can’t get enough of the song. ‘Stronger’ has been all over radios and it’s also thankfully rising up the ARIA charts to a new peak of #37.
Estelle‘s ‘Thank You’ leaps to #47 on the US R&B/Hip Hop song chart. It’s obvious that the British hip hop/soul siren’s been struggling to make an impact recently. Her last few singles ‘Freak’, ‘Fall in Love’ and ‘Break My Heart’ have all flopped, relegating the album to be pushed back for a February 2012 release.
Listen to Estelle‘s amazingly personal ‘Thank You’:
Jennifer Hudson‘s uplifting new single ‘I Got This’ plonks itself at #91 on the US R&B/Hip Hop song chart this week. Apart from ‘Where You At’ which made a meagre #64, none of the other I Remember Me singles have cracked the US Billboard Hot 100. Don’t hold your breath for this one. At least she can lay claim to one more appearance in ‘Night of Your Life’ (with David Guetta), which peaked at #81 a few months ago.
Beyoncé‘s ‘Countdown’ reigns wild at #1 on the US Billboard Dance/Club play charts. I sense that this single – as amazing as it truly is – will never see the mainstream success it deserves. ‘Countdown’ is out of the US Billboard Hot 100, overshadowed by ‘Party’ which is placed at #55. Over in the UK and Australia, ‘Love On Top’ takes precedence.
Wynter Gordon‘s flawless ‘Buy My Love’ has risen to an exciting new peak of #2 on the US Dance/Club play charts. Fuck me, this is gonna be bigger than ‘Til Death’. I am so happy for my gurl. Hopefully this will lead to some long awaited mainstream crossover in the States. Over in the UK, ‘Dirty Talk’ moves up to #35 on the dance charts this week. Very interesting belated development given that the song’s already been moving all year round.
Gloria Estefan‘s ‘Hotel Nacional’ debuts at #29 on the US Dance/Club play charts – making it the highest new entry there this week. I am so glad they went with this as her next single. It should speak to lovers of ‘We Speak No Americano’ and hopefully drive more people to check out Miss Little Havana, which made Feed Limmy’s Top 30 Albums of 2011.
Listen to a preview of ‘Hotel Nacional (Ralphi Rosario Club Mix)’:
I have to say, the arse end of my Top 30 albums list was harder to get right than the all-important Top 10. There are so many splendid LPs and mini-albums that I’ve connected with this year – it wasn’t easy to objectively assess and rank which ones were “better”.
What makes an album worthy of the Feed Limmy Albums of the Year list is overallquality and how well the tracks play together as a collection. There are some artists that make great singles but absolutely flop at getting it together for an album. I’m not here for that.
2011 served some top-notch pop albums with dance/pop persuasions and that has in turn set the tone for my year’s soundtrack. Even though I went through months of “emoting” to break up ballads – see: Clare Maguire‘s ‘Bullet’ – there was always a fun party record or trashy pop album on rotation to keep me going.
As for the quality of the dance/pop releases – it’s hard to stand out in this pack when everyone’s cashing in on the movement. Our eardrums have been rattling to RedOne and David Guetta beats for years now, the hands-in-the-ayer dance urban fusion is quickly losing its summer sheen and we desperately need a revolution. We need dance/pop music with some major heart and soul, y’all.
Feed Limmy‘s Albums of 2011 (#30 – #21) features a number of uptempo pop albums that boast melodic extravagance, cohesion, and a good range of lyrical themes. There should technically be a song for every mood and occasion up in here.
One Direction has the highest selling new single in Australia this week with ‘What Makes You Beautiful’ debuting at #15. I feel like X Factor has become my minor in this great school of pop music commentary, in which I have already acquired adequate majors in Sophie Ellis-Bextor, Girls Aloud and Sugababes disciplines. Every corner I turn, I seem to be asked or be offering unsolicited spiels on X Factor contestants circa 2010/2011.
One Direction was formed on last year’s ultra defining UK X Factor series and it’s truly a testament to their global appeal to have their first single lapped up like that. ‘What Makes You Beautiful’ still holds the record for fastest selling single in the UK this year, pulling opening week sales of over 153,000 copies in September.
Jessica Mauboy and Stan Walker‘s ‘Galaxy’ debuts at #28 in Australia this week, serving what I’d consider to be a pretty satisfactory chart position given that most of their core fans would’ve already purchased the track when Jess relaunched Get ‘Em Girls. There are basically two reasons why ‘Galaxy’ will never be as big as its preceding single ‘Inescapable’: one – ‘Inescapable’ is a better song and has radio-readiness coated all over, two – ‘Inescapable’ wasn’t available prior to its first media impact so almost everyone had to buy it. ‘Galaxy’ is also the most added new song to Aussie radios this week.
Watch Jess and Stan outwail each other in the first televised performance of ‘Galaxy’:
Ricki-Lee‘s A-grade single ‘Raining Diamonds’ is hanging by the arse hairs of the ARIA Top 100 right now. I am clutching my pearls in shock, struggling to comprehend how her team had failed to schedule in proper promo to fanfare this comeback. ‘Raining Diamonds’ dives from #55 to #96 in its third week and fingers crossed her X Factor appearance tomorrow night will help turn fortunes around.
Havana Brown‘s ‘Get It’ makes a big leap back into the ARIA Top 50 as predicted. Her fierce X Factor Australia performance sent the club-ready single to #39 and resurrected her breakthrough ‘We Run The Night’, which re-entered this week at #66. Similarly, Stan Walker‘s appearance helped his flailing single ‘Light It Up’ finally debut at #45.
Katy Perry‘s ‘The One That Got Away’ drops to #40 on our Australian ARIA charts and sinks to #61 in the UK – the obvious lack of radio support right now is what’s kinda killing the sixth Teenage Dream single. Meanwhile over in the States, ‘The One That Got Away’ manages to move up to #34 on the US Billboard Hot 100.
Check out the trailer for the forthcoming ‘The One That Got Away’ video, which will premiere in full on 11 November. Look who’s trying to recapture the essence of RiRi‘s ‘We Found Love’:
The Wanted‘s ‘Lightning’ shoots to #79 in Australia in its second week, proving that there’s still a chance for these lads to sustain a second smash Down Under. The Wanted‘s new album Battleground arrives on UK store fronts today, setting us up for what’ll surely be an epic chart battle between these guys and Cher Lloyd. Over in the States, The Wanted sees their smash ‘Glad You Came’ bullet to #33 on the US Billboard Dance/Club charts after playing a gig in New York.
Lana Del Rey‘s ‘Video Games’ rises to #81 in Australia in its third week, still gaining momentum from viral recommendations. The bewitching single also makes its way back up the UK charts this week to #12 probably thanks to a placement on CW’s drama Ringer, which started airing in the UK over a month ago?
Listen to ‘Video Games (Club Clique for The Bad Girls Remix)’:
Wynter Gordon‘s ‘Buy My Love’ drops out of the ARIA Top 100 this week. I don’t wanna strike panic in the hearts of Wynter Warriors in the UK but there’s more bad news as both ‘Buy My Love’ and album With The Music I Die have been crossed off the November release schedule. Over on the US Billboard Dance/Club charts, ‘Buy My Love’ shoots to #26 in its second week. There’s promise of new material around the corner so perhaps ‘Buy My Love’ will be the last gem lifted from With The Music I Die.
Florence + The Machine‘s Ceremonials debuts straight on top in Australia and the UK, making this the second consecutive week where we’ve matched Mother England in #1 debut albums. The indie pop diva’s sophomore album managed to sell 38,000 copies in the UK in just two days and wound up with opening week sales of over 90,000 copies. In Australia, Flo‘s current single ‘Shake It Out’ bullets to #36 on our ARIA charts, making this her fourth Top 40 smash here.
Watch the classy video for ‘Shake It Out’ here:
Darren Hayes‘ Secret Codes and Battleship sustains its second week in our Aussie Top 20 with a placement at #15. I’m sure the three-date Aussie tour he served last week helped inspire some more buzz around the record. The Secret Tour was very much a one man show of wonders, mixing unexpected moments with a healthy dose of nostalgia propelled by Savage Garden hits. Dazza’s current single ‘Bloodstained Heart’ drops from #80 to #88 on our ARIA charts.
Washington‘s Insomnia EP plummets from #24 to #51 in its second week. Speaking of tragic Aussie pop drops, Sneaky Sound System‘s From Here to Anywhere sinks from #48 to #80 – will it still be here in our Top 100 next week?
Ronan Keating is once again capitalising on his X Factor gig. Last week’s performance not only sent his recent covers album WhenRonan Met Burt back into our ARIA Top 100 (#70) but also rekindled interest in his greatest hits compilation: 10 Years of Hits (#62). Just imagine what Hot would sell if Mel B had so much popped a squat to a medley of ‘Tell Me’/’Feels So Good’/’I Want You Back’.
Cher Lloyd‘s ‘With Ur Love’ is the biggest selling new single in the UK this week, debuting at #4. At the time the midweeks were published, ‘With Ur Love’ was on course to become Cher‘s second chart topper with just a 1,000 copies ahead of its nearest competitor. By the second half of the week, the likes of Professor Green, Rihanna and Labrinth had overtaken her on the sales board.
The 18-year old feisty femmecee’s debut album – Sticks & Stones – drops today and being a typically “front heavy” artist, her best promo strategy is to actually sit back and let her hard core fans drive the first week sales, then go to work in the second week to sustain the record’s chart debut. Sticks & Stones is currently going for a discounted price of £6.99 at HMV – that has got to help.
Watch Cher Lloyd perform an acoustic rendition of her current smash ‘With Ur Love’:
Nicole Scherzinger‘s new recording ‘Try With Me’ debuts at #18 in the UK this week, making this the ex-Pussycat’s fifth solo Top 20 smash in the region. Her trashy last single ‘Wet’ deserves a mention for peaking at #21 but with that being the only Killer Love single Nicole didn’t promote in the UK, you can kinda see why it didn’t fare as well as it could’ve.
Matt Cardle‘s lead single ‘Run For Your Life’ is completely over, it seems. The track sinks from #52 to #96 this week, completely validating his label’s response to issue another single before Christmas. I don’t think the man’s gonna be getting a lot of support from his label after the peak buying periods. They might as well milk it now while Christmas is around the corner and the X Factor‘s still on air.
Watch the video for Matt‘s second single ‘Starlight’, which comes out on 5 December in the UK:
Melanie C‘s brand new single EP ‘Weak’ is actually #1 on the Greek iTunes album chart right now – believe it or not. The Old Spice just launched her second international Sea single yesterday but fans in Germany, Switzerland and Austria will be treated to ‘Let There Be Love’ instead on 2 December.
Rihanna‘s ‘We Found Love’ dethrones Adele to top the US Billboard Hot 100, making this the Barbadian bombshell’s 11th #1 smash. As I said last week, the only thing really standing between ‘We Found Love’ and ‘Someone Like You’ was radio airplay, which RiRi picked up a significant amount of in the last week. The stronger airplay coupled with second week as the nation’s most downloaded song led ‘We Found Love’ to an overall #1 victory.
‘We Found Love’ racked up 243,000 sales in its second week on top of the digital charts, pushing the accumulated sales to date to over 1 million. This is Rihanna‘s 20th song to cross the million-download sales mark. Rihallah also co-signs on the biggest new entry on the digital charts – ‘Princess of China’ with Coldplay, which debuted at #8 with 105,000 downloads. ‘We Found Love’ is also the biggest gainer on the US Billboard Dance/Club play charts, now cracking the whip at a new peak of #5.
Coldplay‘s Mylo Xyloto breaks into the US Billboard 200 at #1 with opening week sales of 447,000 copies. How unsurprising and barely newsworthy. Nevertheless, there are a couple of cool accomplishments for this album that deserve nods. This is the third biggest first week sales in the US this year – only outdone by Lady Gaga‘s Born This Way (1.1 million copies) and Lil Wayne‘s Tha Carter IV (964,000 copies). Mylo Xyloto also clocked the biggest weekly sales for a rock album since U2‘s No Line On The Horizon debuted in 2009.
Mylo Xyloto may be the third Coldplay album to debut straight at #1 in the US but it’s actually their lowest selling #1 yet. Viva La Vida or Death and All His Friends opened with 721,000 copies back in 2008 and its predecessor X&Y did 737,000 in 2005.
Watch the video for Coldplay‘s ‘Paradise’:
Kelly Clarkson‘s Stronger is the second biggest new entry on the US album charts, debuting at #2 with 163,000 opening sales. It’s not quite on par with the success of her last album – All I Ever Wanted – but hey, by the time that album arrived it was already well supported by a top-selling single (‘My Life Would Suck Without You’). Stronger, on the other hand, is only seeing fortunes turn around for its lead single ‘Mr Know It All’ now.
‘Mr Know It All’ managed a 60% sales increase in the last week with 106,000 download sales. It finally cracks a new peak of #10 – making this Clarko’s ninth single in the US Billboard Hot 100’s Top 10. Elsewhere, the wig-snatching future single ‘What Doesn’t Kill You (Stronger)’ debuts at #64 – based solely on interest surrounding the new record. Stronger – the album – drops to #7 and #14 in its second week in Australia and the UK respectively.
Michael Bublé‘s first full-length Christmas album – imaginatively titled Christmas – hits #3 in the US, selling 141,000 copies to be the biggest seasonal record for now. I expect for the crown to be well snatched by Justin Bieber‘s Under The Mistletoe, which will debut sometime later this week. Elsewhere, She & Him‘s A Very She & Him Christmas debuts at #12 on the US Billboard 200.
Kaskade‘s Fire & Ice debuts at #17 on the US Billboard Hot 200, making it the biggest dance/electronic album in the country. The American DJ/producer is known for turning out #1 club play remixes of Lady Gaga‘s ‘Bad Romance’, Justin Timberlake‘s ‘LoveStoned’ and Nelly Furtado‘s ‘All Good Things (Come To An End)’.
Jessica Sutta, the only ex-Pussycat Doll that matters right now, grabs her first ever solo #1 smash this week with ‘Show Me’ topping the US Dance/Club play charts. Following close behind is Sutta’s rival and former team leader, Nicole Scherzinger, with ‘Don’t Hold Your Breath’ edging to #2.
Watch Chairman Sutta‘s ‘Show Me (Alex Gaudino and Jason Rooney Remix)’ video:
Gloria Estefan‘s ‘Wepa’ is sadly migrating south of the charts. Despite the red-faced commercial flop of Little Miss Havana, The Estefun‘s comeback appears to have successfully reconnected her with old fans and gays. ‘Wepa’ drops to #28 on the US Billboard Dance/Club play charts after making #1 last month. Speaking of memaws moving prosthetic hips on the floor, Taylor Dayne‘s ‘Floor on Fire’ plummets from #7 to #20 on the dance charts this week.
Leann Rimes scores the biggest new entry on the US Billboard Dance/Club play this week with ‘Give’ charting at #43. Remixes of the country song is obviously proving to be a smash with party people. Never would I have expected for a country/inspirational Leann Rimes song to snatch wigs like this.
Watch Le Rimes‘ touching ‘Give’ music video. Have some Kleenex close by.
Jennifer Lopez‘s ‘Papi’ debuts at #38 on the US Billboard Pop Songs charts but disappears from the overall Billboard Hot 100. The addictive Latin-flavoured dance smash is also painfully denied radio airplay with most American stations still preferring to bump ‘On The Floor’. It’s pretty much the same sitch everywhere else in the world.
Kelly Rowland‘s ‘Lay It On Me’ is struggling to match the flash success of ‘Motivation’. The arguably more radio friendly single is not garnering enough airplay and is rapidly falling down the US R&B/Hip Hop songs chart. ‘Lay It On Me’ tumbles to #68, behind ‘Motivation’ (#22) and her sister Bey’s singles ‘Party’, ‘Countdown’ and ‘Love on Top’.
Beyoncé‘s ‘Party’ is outselling ‘Countdown’ in the States. ‘Party’ moves up to #57 on the US Billboard Hot 100 while ‘Countdown’ sinks to #83. The media’s not embracing ‘Countdown’ for some reason, even though it’s long been a fan fave ever since 4 came out. Peeking over in the UK, ‘Countdown’ rises to #35 and ‘Love On Top’ is still etched for a 12 December drop date.
LMFAO has the biggest selling single in Australia this week with the charming and timeless jam ‘Sexy and I Know It’. The American dance duo managed to dethrone Kelly Clarkson after her one-week reign on top with ‘Mr Know It All’. This is LMFAO’s second #1 hit here following the massive ‘Party Rock Anthem’. Fun fact: ‘Party Rock Anthem’ is the second longest running #1 single Australia has had in this century – reigning for 10 whole weeks. The longest staying #1 single we’ve had since 2000 is still Eminem‘s ‘Lose Control’, clocking 12 weeks. That’s the one to beat.
Beyoncé‘s ‘Love On Top’ rises to a new peak of #21 in Australia this week. We remain as the only territory to have picked up this track and run with it. Over in the US, ‘Love On Top’ makes its way back up to #82 on the US Billboard R&B/ Hip Hop charts. Other Bey singles to be making waves right now include ‘Party’ (featuring André 3000) – cracking the US Billboard Hot 100 at #93 and seeing this success naturally reflected on the R&B/Hip Hop charts, where it rose to #9 – and ‘Countdown’, her third official single, rising to #66 on the American R&B charts. Over in the UK, ‘Countdown’ leaps from #171 to #77.
Ed Sheeran‘s ‘The A Team’ debuts at #32, becoming the highest charting new entry on our ARIA Top 50 this week. Elsewhere, major pick up from the following three singles who all managed to crack the Top 50 in their second week – Simple Plan ‘Can’t Keep My Hands Off You’ (#45), Katy Perry ‘The One That Got Away’ (#48) and Nicole Scherzinger‘Wet’ (#49).
Watch Katy Perry performing an acoustic run down of ‘The One That Got Away’ on X Factor:
Cody Simpson‘s ‘On My Mind’ enters at #51 in Australia this week. It must really irk his minders to not see this at least crack the Top 50 after all the promo and Skyping he’s had to endure in the last seven days. On the plus side, the blonde teen’s album Coast to Coast rises ten spots to #16. I suppose he is winning after all.
Speaking of winning Aussies, Vanessa Amorosi‘s ‘Amazing’ finally cracks the Top 100 at #83 this week – no doubt thanks to the X Factor performance last week. Meanwhile, other Australian pop new releases like Natalie Bassingthwaighte‘s ‘All We Have’ and Stan Walker‘s ‘Light It Up’ have yet to show up in the ARIA Top 100. Change might be coming Nat Bass’ way, though. ‘All We Have’ suddenly enjoys some radio pick up, becoming the fifth most added new song to our airwaves this week. Shannon Noll‘s ‘Switch Me On’ plummets to #71 this week. People probably stopped buying it because they knew the album was coming [Editor’s note: in fact, A Million Suns as it is called came out on Friday].
Wynter Gordon‘s stunning ‘Buy My Love’ finally cracks the ARIA Top 100 at #77 after what has seemed like an eternity since the single was first issued to radios. I am not sure what’s inspiring the sudden pick up of late, but I’m sure glad it’s happening. It would be great to see this go Top 20 eventually just like its predecessors ‘Til Death’ (certified gold sales) and ‘Dirty Talk’ (last summer’s #1 which went on to be certified four times platinum sales). The album With The Music I Die shamefully remains well outside our Top 100.
Watch Wynter Gordon‘s ‘Buy My Love’ video:
360‘s debut album Falling & Flying tumbles to #10 in its second week. Meanwhile, over on the ARIA Top 100 – two of his tracks surface: ‘Boys Like You’ featuring Melbourne singer Gossling (#81) and his current single ‘Killer’ (#88).
Lana Del Rey‘s eagerly anticipated breakthrough single ‘Video Games’ debuts straight in at #98 this week. We all kinda saw this doing well ever since it started appearing on the iTunes charts based on pre-orders alone. ‘Video Games’ comes out in the UK this week, so check back next Monday to see where she lands on the British charts. LDR really is one of the best discoveries 2011 has brought to date. You can peruse reviews and pick up so many great descriptors of her style (eg. “gangster Nancy Sinatra“) but the package is probably best first experienced by watching the ‘Video Games’ video.
Here it is, in case you haven’t already been clued in on the Lana Del Rey movement:
Gotye‘s Making Mirrors remain as the biggest selling Australian album out there right now – sitting at #4 this week with a shiny new double platinum accreditation. The ‘Somebody That I Used To Know’ warbler has earned seven 2011 ARIA Awards nominations including Single of The Year, Best Male Artist and Highest Selling Single for the aforementioned track with Kimbra. Gotye has also been confirmed to perform at the award ceremony on 27 November. Looking on the UK release schedule, I was surprised to find ‘Easy Way Out’ etched in for a 28 November release. Dude, this song is like less than two minutes long.
Sneaky Sound System‘s From Here to Anywhere debuts at #11 in Australia this week – becoming the third biggest new entry here. Other debuts ahead of the Aussie duo include Chris Isaak‘s new one Beyond The Sun coming in at #3 and Evanescence‘s much-touted self-titled comeback at #5. Meanwhile, the Sneaky’s current smash single ‘Big’ moves to a new peak of #58. It’s actually the second week in the row that the song has jumped ten places up the chart. At this rate, they should be well in the ARIA Top 50 by this time next week – right?
Bjork‘s Biophilia enters at a humble #48 this week in Australia and #21 in the UK – making this the lowest charting positions ever for her in both territories (I am, of course, only comparing this with her other studio albums – not greatest hits package, remix albums etc). Biophilia wound up with only 9,872 first week sales in the UK. I’ve come to expect a bit more from Bjork given all the publicity and attention she has garnered for this project’s multimedia elements. The experimental artiste definitely has more of a cult following, which usually means heavy first week sales, then you fall off the charts. If this is as good as it gets for the first week then we might be in trouble.
Watch the video for Bjork‘s newest single ‘Moon’:
Steps scores a comeback #1 album with their Ultimate Steps collection scorching up the UK charts this week, meaning the band can now proudly say they’ve had a #1 album in every one of the last three decades. But before we start toasting, Ultimate Steps pulled a humble 34,200 first week sales to go #1 – making it the second lowest selling #1 in the UK this year. Back in their hey day, Steps managed three million-selling albums – Step One (1.39 million, even though it never actually made #1), Steptacular (1.28 million) and Gold: The Greatest Hits (1.11 million). Could the Ultimate Steps collection gather enough momentum to reach those heights come their April reunion shows?
Evanescence‘s self-titled third album looked so certain to go #1 in the UK when the midweeks came in but by the week’s end, it finished the race at #4 with a total of 26,221 copies sold.
Adele is still canceling every other ho in the game here. The British soul siren is on course to become the first artist to score both biggest selling album and single in both the US and UK since The Beatles did it in 1964. Over in the US, ‘Rolling In The Deep’ is still unmatched as the biggest selling single of the year so far. ‘Someone Like You’ is hands down the biggest selling single of the year so far in the UK – clocking over 1.2 million copies. Y’know, at this rate, I don’t even think this year’s British X Factor winner has a chance of outdoing that come the finals in December. If you wanna compare, last year’s series winner Matt Cardle managed 810,000 copies to go #1.
Looking on the album charts, Adele has not only got the biggest selling album in UK this year with 21 (hitting 3.1 million sales), she’s also got the second biggest in its predecessor: 19. The third biggest selling album in the UK so far in 2011 is Bruno Mars‘ Doo-Wops & Hooligans. Rihanna‘s mega hit album Loud and Lady Gaga‘s Born This Way rank at fourth and fifth place respectively.
Watch Gaga getting caught up in a little ‘Bill Romance’ just for Bill Clinton’s Decade of Difference Concert:
Rihanna‘s ‘We Found Love’ surprisingly holds on to the #1 spot for its second consecutive week. This is basically the first time since July that we’ve had a single stay longer than a week at #1. The Brits are going hard for RiRi. ‘We Found Love’ registered at 20% sales increase in its second week, taking home over 106,553 sales. Meanwhile, Maroon 5 and Christina Aguilera‘s ‘Moves Like Jagger’ clocks its seventh week at #2. Apparently this is only the second single in history to have spent seven weeks at #2 (and never go #1). The last one was All-4-One‘s ‘I Swear’ back in 1994.
Gym Class Heroes and Adam Levine have the highest selling new single in the UK this week with ‘Stereo Hearts’ debuting at #3 with 68,287 first week sales. This is Gym Class Heroes‘ highest charting position there since their breakout single ‘Cupid’s Chokehold’ in 2006. That one also made #3.
X Factor winner Matt Cardle didn’t go stomping into #1 after all. His new single ‘Run For Your Life’ – which was written by Gary Barlow – debuted at #6, selling 39,633 copies to become the second biggest new release on the charts. Consider this, the previous year’s winner Joe McElderry also clocked #6 with his first original single ‘Ambitions’.
Watch Matt Cardle performing his next single ‘Starlight’ at an album showcase gig:
One Direction sees their hit single ‘What Makes You Beautiful’ drop to #10 in its fifth week. The X Factor formed boy band is primed to launch their second single ‘Got To Be You’ on 14 November in the UK, a week before their debut album Up All Night arrives. The album features a track titled ‘Tell Me A Lie’ which was reportedly co-written by Kelly Clarkson. There’s also a RedOne produced track called ‘Save You Tonight’.
This year’s UK X Factor finalists will release their charity single – a cover of ‘Wishing On A Star’ – on 21 November. These charity records have all gone #1 and traditionally sold quite generously as well. The very first one, a cover of Mariah Carey‘s ‘Hero’ recorded by the 2008 finalists, went double platinum in the UK.
Scotty McCreery – the latest American Idol winner – has made history in his own way, y’all. The 18-year old’s debut album Clear As Day enters at #1 on the US Billboard 200, making him the youngest man to have a debut album enter at #1. The last record holder was R&B singer Omarion who saw his first album O debut at #1 in 2005 when he was aged 20.
Amazingly enough, Scotty is also the first American Idol winner since 2003 to have a debut album enter at #1. Clear As Day sold a meek 197,000 copies to top the charts. The last Idol winner to have an album debut at #1 – Ruben Stannard – pulled off 417,000 first-week sales. Just saying.
Gloria Estefan‘s comeback album Miss Little Havana made something of a death drop, y’all. After debuting at #28 – selling something like 17,000 first week copies – the Latin dance/pop album sank to #129 in its second week. I mean, damn. It’s almost enough to make a girl vow to never dance again. I love how the forums are crying murder now, blaming the album’s “Target exclusive” deal for the commercial floppage. Basically, if she had done a Walmart exclusive – which a lot of stars manage – instead of a Target one, things wouldn’t have looked this dismal. There are reportedly over 4,700 Walmart stores around the US and only 1,800 Target branches. There you go. Less Mami Gloria CDs to go around. Meanwhile, looking on the US dance/club charts, Gloria’s current single ‘Wepa’ tumbles from #1 to #7.
Watch Gloria going on The View to promote the new record and perform ‘Wepa’:
Taio Cruz‘s new single ‘Hangover’ (featuring Flo Rida) debuts at #62 on the US Billboard Hot 100. Meanwhile, further down, J.Lo‘s ‘Papi’ returns at #96 – possibly pushed by stronger club plays? The ‘Papi’ remixes move up to #3 on the US Billboard Dance/Club charts. Speaking of dance hits, Nervo‘s debut recording artist single ‘We’re All No One’ moves up to #31 on the US Billboard Dance/Club charts.
Monica‘s new single ‘Until It’s Gone’ makes a surprising leap in its second week to #55 on the US R&B/ Hip Hop charts. Its superb predecessor ‘Anything (To Find You)’ has done pretty well for a buzz single to reach #25 there. Old Mo’s seventh studio album New Life will drop on 29 November in the US.
Kelly Rowland‘s ‘Lay It On Me’ drops a few place back to #47 on the US Billboard R&B/Hip Hop. Wait a minute, shouldn’t it be moving up and not the other way? Here I Am [International Version] is slated for a UK release on 7 November, a week after the dance/pop single ‘Down For Whatever’ drops. Make what you will of this “international version”. She told That Grape Juice that it’ll be a revised tracklisting with more dance-oriented material but who knows, there hasn’t been any more information teased.
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