Most Inspirational Songs of 2018

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They say that music gives a soul to the universe, wings to the mind, flight to the imagination and life to everything. This effect is quadrupled when the songs in themselves carry a message of inspiration. This compilation has been an inherent part of this blog since 2013. The soundtrack to The Greatest Showman monopolized the echelons of the 2017 compilation. However, for 2018 we have a smorgasbord of genres and soundtracks. 

The crown goes to none other than Panic! At the Disco's comeback hit High Hopes, which is a pop rock anthem which has now gone on to become their greatest hit yet. In second place we have the critically acclaimed Shallow by Lady Gaga and Bradley Cooper from the soundtrack to A Star is Born, which won Best Original Song at this year's Academy Awards, Golden Globe Awards and Critics' Choice Awards and the Best Song Written for Visual Media at the Grammy Awards. In third place is Lauren Daigle's contemporary Christian hit, You Say.

Pop, of course rules the list as always followed by EDM and Latin music. Several soundtracks appear on the list including Deadpool 2, Bumblebee, Aquaman and RBG. There are 4 songs produced for the 2018 FIFA World Cup although Nicky Jam's Official Song is quite an dismal attempt at an inspirational song. David Guetta, Sia and Jonas Blue are the only ones with two entries each. So here are the most inspirational songs of 2018:

1. Panic! At the Disco – High hopes
2. Lady Gaga & Bradley Cooper – Shallow (A Star is Born OST)
3. Lauren Daigle – You say
4. Jonas Blue ft. Jack & Jack – Rise
5. Jess Glynne – I’ll be there
6. David Guetta & Sia – Flames
7. Rita Ora – Soul survivor
8. Claire Richards – On my own
9. Celine Dion – Ashes (Deadpool 2 OST)
10. Hailee Steinfeld – Back to life (Bumblebee OST)
11. Mike Posner – Move on
12. Skylar Grey – Everything I need (Aquaman OST)
13. Avril Lavigne – Head above water
14. Jason Derulo & Maluma – Colors (Coca Cola Anthem for 2018 FIFA World Cup)
15. Jennifer Hudson – I’ll fight (RBG OST)
16. Kesha – Here comes the change (On the Basis of Sex OST)
17. Carrie Underwood – Love wins
18. Gabrielle – Shine
19. Shawn Mendes ft. Khalid & Jessie Reyez – Youth
20. Nicky Jam ft. Will Smith & Era Istrefi – Live it up (Official Song for 2018 FIFA World Cup)
21. Ciara – Dose
22. Jonas Blue ft. Joe Jonas – I see love (Hotel Transylvania 3: Summer Vacation OST)
23. All Saints – Love lasts forever
24. Natalia Oreiro – United by love
25. LSD – Mountains
26. Jennifer Lopez – Limitless (Second Act OST)
27. Calum Scott – No matter what
28. Sia vs. David Guetta & Afrojack – Helium
29. Dean Lewis – Be alright
30. RedOne ft. Adelina & Now United – One World 

Till the next symphony...

At Ease!!!

Xposition - September, 2017

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The month of September opened with the announcement of the nominations for the 51^st Annual CMA Awards with Keith Urban and Miranda Lambert leading with five nods each competing against each other in 3 categories: Music Video of the Year, Single of the Year and Song of the Year. Little Big Town is close behind with four nods which also helps Taylor Swift garner a nomination at the awards in three years after her transition from County to Pop for her songwriter credits for Better Man. The awards will take place on 08 November hosted by Brad Paisley and Carrie Underwood.

The coveted Mercury Prize 2017 was awarded to Sampha’s Process. His win is quite significant as he battled for this award against the short listed fan favorites Ed Sheeran and Stormzy as well as 9 other nominees including Blossoms, J Hus, Kate Tempest and The xx. Actor Idris Elba gave Sampha his £25,000 prize at a ceremony with performances from the shortlisted artists at the Eventim Apollo in Hammersmith, London.

The Latin Recording Academy has decided to bestow Lifetime Achievement Awards on the Macarena hit makers Los Del Rio along with Lucecita Benitez, Ilan Chester, Victor Heredia, Guadalupe Pineda, Cuco Valoy and Joao Bosco as a prelude to the 2017 Latin Grammy Awards which will be held in November.

The Corrs announced their much awaited comeback through their seventh studio album Jupiter Calling which shall be preceded with a show at the Royal Albert Hall. The Corrs are not the only ones who had returned to the studio, as Shania Twain announced her fifth studio album Now 14 years after her last album.

Linkin Park announced that a special show in honor of their former member Chester Bennington titled Linkin Park and friends will be held in October to celebrate the life of the 41 year lead vocalist of the band who committed suicide earlier this year.

Meanwhile, Demi Lovato was named a Global Citizen Ambassador at the 2017 Global Citizen Festival. She along with the fund will expansion of a Save the Children pilot program, Healing and Education through the Arts, to violence scarred youth living in Iraq’s Kirkuk and Salah al Din areas.

The latest victims of copyright law suit are Taylor Swift and Mark Ronson. The songwriters behind 3LW’s Playas Gon’ Play Sean Hall and Nathan Butler has sued the female superstar over her hit Shake It Off. This may be a tough one for the songwriters to win as the Copyright Act does not protect short phrases including catchwords, catchphrases, mottoes, slogans or short advertising expressions. Ronson was sued by Lastrada Entertainment Company Ltd, the music publishing house that holds the copyright for Zapp’s More Bounce to the Ounce, which claims that most parts of the 2015 year-end no.1 was copied from Zapp’s 1980 classic. Lastrada is seeking damages of up to USD 150,000 per infringement, a permanent injunction against profiting from the alleged infringement and a jury trial on the matter.

Avril Lavigne has been named the most dangerous person online. Cybersecurity firm McAfee said that Lavigne is the most likely celebrity to land users on websites that carry viruses or malware. Bruno Mars was second on the list followed by Carly Rae Jepsen, Zayn Malik and Celine Dion.

Moving onto chart news, in the US, Luis Fonsi & Daddy Yankee featuring Justin Bieber’s Despacito continued its reign at the top accumulating 16 weeks at the top and tying the record of Mariah Carey and Boyz II Men’s One Sweet Day for the most number of weeks spent at No.1 in the US. Despacito could have broken this record by spending a 17^th week at the top if not for the ascension of Taylor Swift’s Look What You Made Me Do, which soared to the top of the charts with huge sales in its second week. It remained at the top for the remainder of the month. During the month Liam Payne featuring Quavo’s Strip That Down, Yo Gotti featuring Nicki Minaj’s Rake It Up and Logic featuring Alessia Cara and Khalid’s 1-800-273-8255 all entered the top 10.

In the UK, Taylor Swift’s Look What You Made Me Do started off the month at the top which effectively ended the reign of Dua Lipa’s New Rules. Swift was dethroned in the third week by Sam Smith’s Too Good at Goodbyes which ruled for the next two weeks of the month. During the month Demi Lovato’s Sorry Not Sorry, Zayn & Sia’s Dusk Till Dawn and Camila Cabello featuring Young Thug’s Havana all entered the top 10.

Other songs which became popular during the month were:

1.       Taylor Swift – …Ready for it?

2.       Post Malone ft. 21 Savage – Rockstar

3.       Avicii ft. Rita Ora – Lonely together

4.       Macklemore ft. Kesha – Good old days

5.       Mabel ft. Kojo Funds – Finders keepers

6.       Maroon 5 ft. SZA – What lovers do

7.       Khalid – Young, dumb & broke

Till the next beat...

At Ease!!!

Top 20 Songs About Being Young

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We may be growing old but all of us want to be young at heart. Maturity is a pretty subjective characteristic, as the most mature person can end up doing the most juvenile thing. There are songs about being young and the experiences one goes through when you were a kid. I have excluded those songs which reminisce the thought of how it felt to be young, because those are downright depressing. We have Fun. ft. Janelle Monae's We Are Young at the helm which although I am not crazy about actually sums up how the lives of today's youth are led. This is followed by the anthem, Young, Wild & Free by Snoop Dogg & Wiz Khalifa ft. Bruno Mars. 

These songs are more or less based in pop with several rock and R&B songs and two indie and one EDM. Kesha is the only artist with two entries. I placed Jay-Z ft. Mr.Hudson's Forever Young which is a sampled version of Alphaville's original of the same name on higher position as I believed Jay-Z's rap verses are more relevant to our times. Songs like I'm Just A Kid, Cool Kids and Teenagers are more about what you go through when you are young. So here are the best songs about being young:

1. Fun. ft. Janelle Monae – We are young
2. Snoop Dogg & Wiz Khalifa ft. Bruno Mars – Young, wild & free
3. Kesha – Die young
4. The Corrs – So young
5. Jay-Z ft. Mr.Hudson – Forever young
6. Tulisa Contostavlos – Young
7. Avril Lavigne – Here’s to never growing up
8. Rod Stewart – Forever young
9. Hardwell ft. Chris Jones – Young again
10. Simple Plan – I’m just a kid
11. Kesha ft. will.i.am – Crazy kids
12. Wheatus – Teenage dirtbag
13. My Chemical Romance – Teenagers
14. Echosmith – Cool kids
15. One Direction – Live while we’re young
16. Bob Dylan – Forever young
17. Katy Perry – Teenage dream
18. MGMT – Kids
19. The Undertones – Teenage kicks
20. Alphaville – Forever young 

Till the next beat...

At Ease!!!

Whiniest Songs of All Time

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There are those songs which when you hear them, you want to pull out your hair one by one and then cause irreversible damage to your ears. These are those pathetic, whiny, sad and lamenting songs sung by losers and bitter exes in order to get over their hurt feelings or to show that they are obsessively still in love with them. Sigh… Yes, there are such people in this world. U2's With or Without You takes the crown for the whiniest song of all time as the lover clearly is whining about how he cannot live without the one he loves and he is debating on that as well, GET OVER IT. Some artists have numerous hits on the list such as Taylor Swift, Celine Dion, Enrique Iglesias, Avril Lavigne, Justin Timberlake, Bruno Mars, Michael Bolton and everybody's favorite Justin Bieber. These songs are overflowing with emotions, the listeners would want to shoot the artist and then themselves as well. So let's not whine more about these songs and see what the others are:

1. U2 – With or without you
2. Bruno Mars – It will rain
3. Miley Cyrus – Wrecking ball
4. Justin Bieber – Baby
5. Arash ft. Helena – Broken angel
6. Mariah Carey – My all
7. John Legend – All of me
8. Enrique Iglesias – Hero
9. Sam Smith – Stay with me
10. Air Supply – All out of love
11. Daniel Bedingfield – If you’re not the one
12. Justin Timberlake – Cry me a river
13. Leona Lewis – Bleeding love
14. Celine Dion – Think twice
15. Phil Collins – Against all odds
16. Avril Lavigne – When you’re gone
17. Harry Nilsson – Without you
18. Rihanna ft. Mikki Ekko – Stay
19. Michael Bolton – How am I supposed to live without you
20. Fergie – Big girls don’t cry
21. Akon – Lonely
22. Meatloaf – I would do anything for love
23. Foreigner – I want to know what love is
24. David Guetta ft. Usher – Without you
25. Lady Antebellum – Need you now
26. Taylor Swift – You belong with me
27. Bruno Mars – When I was your man
28. Enrique Iglesias – I have always loved you
29. Celine Dion – My heart will go on
30. LeAnn Rimes – How do I live
31. Rascal Flatts – What hurts the most
32. Ne-Yo – So sick
33. Beyonce – If I were a boy
34. Chicago – If you leave me now
35. Great Big World ft. Christina Aguilera – Say something
36. Mariah Carey – We belong together
37. Sam Smith – I'm not the only one
38. Roy Orbison – Crying
39. Mandy Moore – Only hope
40. Backstreet Boys – Incomplete
41. Alicia Keys – If I ain’t got you
42. Demi Lovato – Heart attack
43. Eric Carmen – All by myself
44. Jason Derulo – The other side 
45. Ricky Martin – She’s all I ever had
46. Jennifer Heart – The power of love
47. Maroon 5 – She will be loved
48. OneRepublic – Apologize
49. Journey – Open arms
50. Sinead O’ Connor – Nothing compares 2 u
51. Justin Timberlake – Mirrors
52. One Direction – Story of my life
53. Enrique Iglesias – Heart attack
54. Adele – Someone like you
55. Roxette – It must have been love
56. Ne-Yo – Let me love you
57. Katy Perry – Thinking of you
58. Maroon 5 – Love somebody
59. Backstreet Boys – Show me the meaning of being lonely
60. Carrie Underwood – Jesus take the wheel
61. Avril Lavigne – I'm with you
62. Take That – Patience
63. Bruno Mars – Grenade
64. Don McClean – And I love you so
65. Skeeter Davis – End of the world
66. Dixie Chicks – Not ready to make nice
67. Trey Songz – Heart attack
68. Jewel – Foolish games
69. Demi Lovato – Give your heart a break
70. Britney Spears – Perfume
71. Justin Bieber – As long as you love me
72. Shania Twain – It only hurts when I’m breathing
73. Arash ft. Helena – Pure love
74. The Moffats – Miss you like crazy
75. OneRepublic – Say (all I need)
76. Kelly Clarkson – Hear me
77. Whitney Houston – I will always love you
78. Jason Derulo – Fight for you
79. Michael Bolton – Murder my heart
80. Alicia Keys – No one
81. Mandy Moore – Cry
82. Hoobastank – The reason
83. Lana Del Rey – Young and beautiful 
84. Simple Plan – Perfect
85. Ricky Martin ft. Christina Aguilera – Nobody wants to be lonely
86. Pitbull ft. Ne-Yo, Afrojack & Nayer – Give me everything
87. Rihanna – Unfaithful
88. Roy Orbison – In the real world
89. Righteous Brothers – Unchained melody
90. Bryan Adams – Please forgive me
91. Bonnie Tylor – Total eclipse of the heart
92. No Mercy – Please don’t go
93. No Doubt – Don’t speak
94. Linkin Park – Numb
95. Dido – Don’t leave home
96. Selena Gomez & The Scene – A year without rain
97. Beyonce – Best thing I never had
98. Jojo – Too little too late
99. Mario – Let me love you
100. Kelly Clarkson – Because of you

Till the next beat…

At Ease!!!