Attention!!!
The month of June started off with the girl group G.R.L. already devastated by the tragic death of its member Simone Battle parting ways. The group made up of Paula Van Oppen, Natasha Slayton, Lauren Bennett and Emmalyn Estrada announced the decision through their management.
The UK has released a list of the Biggest Selling Album of the Decade So Far with Adele's 21 taking the lead. Take That's Progress is at No.2 with Michael Buble's Christmas at No.3. Ed Sheeran X and + are both inside the top 10 with Sam Smith's In the Lonely Hour and Bruno Mars' Doo-Wops & Hooligans at No.9 and No.10. Olly Murs has his three albums Right Place Right Time, In Case You Didn't Know and self titled Olly Murs placed at No.16, No. 21 and No. 40 respectively. One Direction, Pink and Lady Gaga also have two entries each.
The UK thereafter released a list of the Biggest Selling Singles of the Millennium so far. On this Pharrell Williams' Happy tops the list with Will Young's Anything is Possible/Evergreen at a close second. Controversial hit Robin Thick ft. T.I. and Pharrell Williams' Blurred Lines is at No.3 and Adele's Someone Like You is at No.4. Rounding up the top 5 is Maroon 5 ft. Christina Aguilera's Moves Like Jagger which never actually even reached No.1 on the UK Charts.
We now have confirmation of the leading contenders of the year-end charts in the UK as they have released a list of the 40 Biggest Songs of the 2015 so far. Mark Ronson ft. Bruno Mars' global smash hit Uptown Funk is No.1 with Hozier's Take Me To Church at No.2. Rounding up the top 5 are:
3. OMI - Cheerleader (Felix Jaehn Remix)
4. Ellie Goulding - Love me like you do
5. Wiz Khalifa ft. Charlie Puth - See you again
The 2015 MuchMusic Video Awards were held on June 21, 2015. Good performances of the night included Fall Out Boy's Uma Thurman, Shawn Mendes' Stitches, Carly Rae Jepsen's I Really Like You, Nick Jonas' Chains and a double performance by Ed Sheeran with Photograph and Thinking Out Loud separately. The Video of the Year was awarded to The Weeknd's Often. The other significant winner were:
- Best Pop Video: The Weeknd - Often
- Best Rock/Alternative Video: Arcade Fire - We exist
- Best Hip Hop Video: P Reign ft. Drake & Future - DnF
- Best International Video: Ed Sheeran - Thinking Out Loud
- Fan Fave Video: Shawn Mendes - Something Big
The BET Awards were held on June 28, 2015. Nicki Minaj and Chris Brown led the nominations with six each followed by Beyonce and Lil Wayne with four each. Chris Brown & Tyga performed the hit Ayo while Omarion joined Breezy for the summer smash Post To Be. Ciara, Jason Derulo and Tinashe paid homage to the BET honoree Janet Jackson for her monumental contribution to the industry as she was awarded Ultimate Icon: Music Dance Visual Award. The winners of the night included:
- Best Female R&B/Pop Artist: Beyonce
- Best Male R&B/Pop Artist: Chris Brown
- Best Group: Rae Sremmurd
- Best Collaboration: John Legend & Common
- Best Female Hip Hop Artist: Nicki Minaj
- Best Male Hip Hop Artist: Kendrick Lamar
- Video of the Year: Beyonce - 7/11
- FANdemoniam Award: Chris Brown
It was Taylor Swift vs. Apple Inc. last month with the pop star coming out victorious against the corporate giant. With this achievement she has cemented herself as the most powerful personality in the music industry at present. The dispute was over the royalties that musicians and the ancillary creative contributors would lose due to the free trials granted by Apple's new streaming music service. After Swift posted a strongly worded Tumblr post Apple retreated and agreed to pay royalties on all music for the free trial period.
Meanwhile, Iggy Azalea wanted a piece of Britney Spears as she took to twitter and blamed Spears for the failure of their collaborated single Pretty Girls. Although Spears did not lash back directly she did tweet the fact that she cannot wait to get back to Vegas as she has a lot of shows to look forward to. This may be a sarcastic hint at Azalea's cancelled tour in comparison to Spears' ongoing multimillion dollar residency in Vegas.
At the end of the month Billboard announced its first ever Billboard Hot 100 Music Festival featuring the biggest artists on the charts as well as rising newcomers. The festival is to take place on August 22nd and 23rd at New York's Jones Beach.
June ended with a bang with Lily Allen burning a Fuck Off Kanye flag which was being carried around by a concert-goer at Glastonbury where Kanye West was supposed to perform. She burned the flag until only Kanye was left. Well at least one other female artist other than Beyonce likes Kanye.
With the hype of the airing of its video at the BBMAs behind it Taylor Swift ft. Kendrick Lamar's Bad Blood jumped from 53 - 1 dethroning Wiz Khalifa ft. Charlie Puth's rap ballad See You Again on the first week of June on the Billboard Hot 100 in the US. However, this peak was proved short lived as Khalfia's See You Again once again took over the top position and held on for the rest of the month. Meanwhile, David Guetta ft. Afrojack, Nicki Minaj and Bebe Rexha's Hey Mama peaked at No.8 and Andy Grammar's Honey, I'm Good and OMI's Cheerleader also entered the Top 10 during the month.
In the UK, Jason Derulo's Want To Want Me debuted at No.1 and topped the charts for the entire month. During the month Major Lazer & DJ Snake ft. MO's Lean On and Natalie La Rose ft. Jeremih's Somebody both peaked at No.2 and Walk The Moon's Shut Up and Dance and Deorro & Chris Brown's Five More Hours both peaked at No.4.
Other songs which became popular during the month were:
- Martin Garrix ft. Usher - Don't look down
- Alexandra Stan & Inna ft. Daddy Yankee - We wanna
- Ed Sheeran - Photograph
- Pitbull ft. Chris Brown - Fun
- Hilary Duff - Sparks
- Adam Lambert - Ghost town
- The Weeknd - The hills
Till the next beat…
At Ease!!!
