It's the beginning of the dry season for awards as we only see the 2016 CMT Awards in June. Carrie Underwood and Tim McGraw were the big winners of the night with Underwood grabbing both the Performance of the Year and Female Video of the Year for Smoke Break and McGraw snatching the Video of the Year for Humble and Kind. Other winners include:
- Male Video of the Year: Thomas Rhett - Die a happy man
- Group/Duo Video of the Year: Little Big Town - Girl crush
- Breakthrough Video of the Year: Chris Stapleton - Fire away
- Social Superstar of the Year: Blake Shelton
The dry season continues for artists in their personal lives as well. Breakup season unfolds as Taylor Swift and Calvin Harris the most powerful/influential/wealthy couple in the music industry part ways (this could possibly lead to another potential hit by Swift). This is followed by the breakup of Demi Lovato and Wilmer Valderrama after a six year long relationship.
The X Factor UK 2016 confirmed the judging panel for the auditions to kick off later in the month as Simon Cowell, Sharon Osbourne, Louis Walsh and Nicole Scherzinger. Louis and Sharon made up the original X Factor judging panel with Simon 12 years ago - while Nicole has appeared on both the US and UK lineups.
The music industry was shocked as Christina Grimmie was shot dead in Orlando when she was signing autographs after a show at the Plaza Live Theater. Grimmie, 22, a Vlogger with a major fan following on YouTube at first made her mainstream career on sixth season of The Voice US and finished in third place. Her shooter was a deranged fan, who proceeded to shoot himself. The incident brought back the horrific memories of the murder of famous singer Selena in 1995 by an obsessed employee/fan.
The murder of Grimmie was followed by the mass shooting at Pulse, a gay nightclub in Orlando where 50 people were killed and more than 50 were injured. The 70th Annual Tony Awards was dedicated to the victims of the horrific massacre.
Meanwhile, the UEFA Euro 2016 kicked off in style with David Guetta rocking the house down with his newest single and the official song of the football championship - This One's For You featuring Zara Larsson. And more news about official tracks is that Rihanna released Sledgehammer which serves as the title track off the film Star Trek: Beyond.
Moving on to chart news, in the US Drake ft. Kyla & Wizkid's One Dance once again regained the crown from Justin Timberlake's Can't Stop The Feeling and continued at the top for the rest of the month. The Song of the Summer chart was launched during the third week of June and One Dance crowned the chart in the last two weeks of the month. The Chainsmokers ft. Daya's Don't Let Me Down and Calvin Harris ft. Rihanna's This Is What You Came For both reached new peaks within the Top 10 and Pink's Just Like Fire from the soundtrack of Alice Through The Looking Glass entered the Top 10.
In the UK, Drake's One Dance accumulated an impressive 12th week at the top and claimed the longest running No.1 in the digital age. Moreover, Drake ft. Rihanna's Too Good also managed to enter the Top 3 during the month. Meanwhile, struggling at No.2 throughout the month was Kungs vs. Cookin' 3 Burners' This Girl which could not overthrow One Dance. Other songs which entered the Top 10 include Clean Bandit ft. Louisa Johnson's Tears, gnash ft. olivia o' brien's i hate u, i love u and Sigala ft. John Newman and Nile Rodgers's Give Me Your Love.
Some of the other songs which became popular during the month include:
- Ariana Grande - Into you
- Dua Lipa - Hotter than hell
- Jonas Blue ft. JP Cooper - Perfect strangers
- Adele - Send my love (to your new lover)
- Fifth Harmony ft. Fetty Wap - All in my head (flex)
- Meghan Trainor - Me too
- Calum Scott - Dancing on my own
- Cheat Codes and Kriss Kross Amsterdam - Sex
Till the next beat...
At Ease!!!
