Xposition - November, 2016

Attention!!!

The awards season is once again in full swing as the 2016 MTV Europe Music Awards was held in November, hosted by Bebe Rexha. Some good performances of the night were DNCE’s medley of Body Moves and Cake By The Ocean, Zara Larsson’s medley of Lush Life and Ain’t My Fault, The Weeknd’s Starboy and Bebe Rexha’s I Got You. Justin Bieber was the big winner of the night winning the Best Song for Sorry and for Biggest Fans. Martin Garrix, Shawn Mendes and Twenty One Pilots also received two awards each with Garrix receiving for Best Electronic Artist and Best World Stage Performance and Mendes receiving Best Male and Best Canadian Act, and Twenty One Pilots receiving Best Alternative and Best Live Act. Green Day was bestowed with the Global Icon Award. Some of the other significant wins included:

·         Best Video: The Weeknd ft. Daft Punk – Starboy

·         Best Female: Lady Gaga

·         Best New Act: Zara Larsson

·         Best Pop: Selena Gomez

·         Best Rock: Coldplay

·         Best Hip-Hop: Drake

·         Best Push Act: DNCE

·         Best UK Act: Little Mix

·         Best Norwegian Act: Alan Walker

·         Best Australian Act: Troye Sivan

·         Best US Act: Ariana Grande

Next up we have the 2016 American Music Awards hosted by Gigi Hadid and Jay Pharoah. Justin Bieber was the winner of the night grabbing four awards including Video of the Year for Sorry. Drake managed to garner 3 awards from his record-breaking 12 nominations and Rihanna too managed to take away 3 awards. However, Ariana Grande fended off heavyweights such as Adele and Bieber to seize the Artist of the Year award. The show opened with a fantastic performance by Bruno Mars of his newest hit single 24K Magic. There were also awesome performances by Fifth Harmony with That’s My Girl, Ariana Grande and Nicki Minaj with Side to Side, Twenty One Pilots with a medley of Stressed Out and Heathens, John Legend with Love Me Now and Lady Gaga with Million Reasons. The other significant wins include:

·         New Artist of the Year: Zayn

·         Favorite Pop/Rock Male Artist: Justin Bieber

·         Favorite Pop/Rock Female Artist: Selena Gomez

·         Favorite Pop/Rock Song: Justin Bieber – Love yourself

·         Favorite Pop/Rock Album: Justin Bieber – Purpose

·         Favorite Country Song: Tim McGraw – Humble and kind

·         Favorite Rap/Hip-Hop Song: Drake – Hotline bling

·         Favorite R&B/Soul Song: Rihanna ft. Drake – Work

·         Favorite EDM Artist: The Chainsmokers

·         Top Soundtrack: Purple Rain

·         Collaboration of the Year: Fifth Harmony ft. Ty Dolla $ign – Work from home

·         Tour of the Year: Beyonce - The Formation World Tour 

The curtains closed on the Country Music Association Awards 2016 co-hosted by Carrie Underwood and Brad Paisley for the ninth consecutive year as the show celebrated its 50th edition. Beyonce made a special appearance at the CMAs where she performed her song Daddy Lessons taken from her newest album Lemonade alongside the Dixie Chicks. Moreover, Garth Brooks who won the coveted Entertainer of the Year performed a medley of hits including Jackson, Rose Garden and Golden Ring. Dolly Parton was bestowed with the Willie Nelson Lifetime Achievement Award before which Jennifer Nettles and the Pentatonix performed her hit Jolene followed by Reba McEntire singing 9 to 5. Some of the other significant wins included:

·         Song of the Year: Tim McGraw – Humble and kind (written by Lori McKenna)

·         Single of the Year: Thomas Rhett – Die a happy man

·         Album of the Year: Eric Church – Mr. Misunderstood

·         Male Vocalist of the Year: Chris Stapleton

·         Female Vocalist of the Year: Carrie Underwood

·         Vocal Group of the Year: Little Big Town

·         Musical Event of the Year: Dierks Bentley with Elle King – Different for girls

·         Pinnacle Award: Kenny Chesney

Forbes has released the list of highest paid women in music and it is none other than Taylor Swift who tops the list with a whopping US$ 170 million. Far behind Swift at second place is Adele with US$ 80 million. The rest are as follows:

3. Madonna – US$ 76.5 million

4. Rihanna – US$ 75 million

5. Beyonce – US$ 54 million

6. Katy Perry – US$ 41 million    

7. Jennifer Lopez – US$39.5 million

8. Britney Spears – US$ 30.5 million

9. Shania Twain – US$ 27.5 million

10. Celine Dion – US$ 27 million

It was a disappointing outcome for many artists as their endorsements of Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton fell short, when Donald Trump triumphed at the 2016 Presidential Election. The likes of Beyonce, Jay-Z, Katy Perry and Lady Gaga supported Clinton and now will have to wait what happens when Trump takes oaths, if there will be repercussions for those who took sides in the bitter race.

BBC Music has revealed its long list of the Sound of 2017. The following 15 acts have been tipped for success next year. This annual list was compiled by 170 influential music industry experts where former winners include Years & Years, Sam Smith, Ellie Goulding, Keane and 50 Cent:

1. AJ Tracey
2. Anderson .Paak
3. Cabbage
4. Dave
5. Declan McKenna
6. Jorja Smith
7. Maggie Rogers
8. Nadia Rose
9. Rag 'n' Bone Man
10. Ray BLK
11. RAYE
12. Stefflon Don
13. The Amazons
14. The Japanese House
15. Tom Grennan

Meanwhile, legendary singer and songwriter Leonard Cohen passed away at the age of 82. Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau led tributes to Cohen who was buried in a simple pine casket at a cemetery at Mount Royal in Montreal. 

Moving onto chart news, in the US the Chainsmokers’ featuring Halsey’s Closer reigned supreme for three weeks becoming the longest reigning number one of 2016 with 12 weeks at the top. However, Rae Sremmurd featuring Gucci Mane’s Black Beatles toppled the EDM duo in the final week of November to grab the crown. Black Beatles received a big boost from its usage in the viral Mannequin Challenge videos which sparked off from an October 26 tweet showing students at Jacksonville, Florida’s Edward H. White High School in mannequin poses (though that clip did not feature this song). Another viral rap song Juju On That Beat (TZ Anthem) by Zay Hilfigerr and Zayion McCall propelled through to the Top 10 after fan made videos flooded YouTube with its unique dance steps.

In the UK, Little Mix’s Shout Out To My Ex ruled for the first two weeks in November before being overthrown by Clean Bandit’s new single Rockabye which is a mammoth collaboration between Sean Paul and Anne Marie which continued to be at top for the remainder of the month. As Christmas week gets closer we get ready for the biggest battle on the UK Charts which is for the coveted Christmas Number One. The contenders were revealed at the end of November and of course on top we have the X Factor winner’s single which has grabbed the crown in the past but have also failed in the recent years. It would all depend on the winner as well as the song. It could also be a charity single which are always released during this time such as last year’s A Bridge Over You by Lewisham and Greenwich NHS Choir which claimed the number one with help from Justin Bieber who promoted the single despite his Love Yourself being removed from the top position.

Other songs which became popular during the month were:

1. Lady Gaga – Million reasons
2. Drake – Fake love
3. Maroon 5 ft. Kendrick Lamar – Don’t wanna know
4. Zara Larsson – I would like
5. NEIKED ft. Dyo – Sexual
6. Sigma ft, Birdy - Find me 

Till the next beat...

At Ease!!!