Xposition - June, 2018

Attention!!!

It's the 2018 Radio Disney Music Awards and the K-Pop band BTS is the big winner taking home Best Group, Fiercest Fans for the BTS Army, Best Song That Makes You Smile for DNA and Best Dance Track for Steve Aoki's Remix of their Mic Drop. Their was only one good performance of the night and that was by Kelly Clarkson who won the Icon Award whose medley included her hits Miss Independent, Since U Been Gone, My Life Would Suck Without You, Catch My Breath, Stronger and Heat. Other wins of the night included:

• Best Artist: Shawn Mendes
• Breakout Artist of the Year: Camila Cabello
• Song of the Year: Camila Cabello - Havana
• Best New Artist: Bebe Rexha
• Best Collaboration: Kygo ft. Selena Gomez - It ain't me
• Impact Award: Janet Jackson

The BET Awards 2018 were also held in June with Cardi B and Kendrick Lamar each taking 2 awards with the former taking Viewer's Choice Award for Bodak Yellow and the Best Female Hip-Hop Artist and the latter winning Album of the Year for DAMN. and Best Male Hip-Hop Artist. A tribute to Anita Baker saw Yolanda Adams, Ledisi and Marsha Ambrosious performing a medley of Caught Up In Love, Sweet Rapture and You Bring Me Joy. Other good performances of the night included Nicki Minaj with a medley of Chun-Li and Rich Sex and Migos' Walk It Talk It and Stir Fry. Other significant wins of the night included:

• Video of the Year: Drake - God's Plan
• Best Collaboration: DJ Khaled ft. Rihanna & Bryson Tiller - Wild thoughts
• Best Female R&B/Pop Artist: Beyonce
• Best Male R&B/Pop Artist: Bruno Mars 
• Best Duo/Group: Migos
• Best New Artist: SZA

With the 2018 FIFA World Cup taking place in Russia, the much awaited World Cup Anthem - Live It Up was released, a collaboration by Nicky Jam, Will Smith and Era Istrefi. This was such an abysmal attempt at creating an inspirational hit, that fell far short from much hyped up expectations. The song brought back a forgotten 90s rapper, combined it with a Kosovar artist to give it a Russian flavour and tried to wrap the whole melodic mess up with a popular Latin artist, exploiting the renewed Spanglish wave. Even the Coca Cola sponsored Colors by Jason Derulo is better. I don't even want to comment on the mediocre performance at the Opening Ceremony.  

In the latest developments in the lawsuit between Kesha vs. Dr.Luke, in a redacted document filed in court a text message to Lady Gaga by Kesha was found alleging that Dr.Luke had raped Katy Perry. Now in the defamation suit that is ongoing Dr.Luke is seeking damages for the harm caused by Kesha's alleged malicious falsehoods. However, Kesha is claiming that these may be already in public record via social media and even court filings and that an averse decision against her would have a detrimental future effect on rape and domestic violence victims. 

In other news, Boyzone announced its farewell tour marking their 25th Anniversary commencing from none other than Sri Lanka. Foreigner also announced their first ever reunion performance, this time featuring all the original members. The Cardigans also announced their 20th Anniversary Tour which would promote their new album Gran Turismo. Meanwhile, Britney Spears announced a mega collaboration alongside Pitbull and Marc Anthony. 

This month too, we bade farewell to a rising artist - XXXTentacion. Jahseh Dwayne Ricardo Onfroy whose stage name was XXXTentacion was shot at a motorcycle dealership, when he was leaving the premises in an apparent robbery. He was in critical condition before being pronounced death at the hospital. This 20-year old had a bright future ahead of him, as he was just starting his career and experiencing commercial success for his albums and singles. His lead single Sad! off his second album peaked in the US following his murder. 

In chart news, in the US, Drake's Nice For What returned to the top ending Childish Gambino's short reign with This Is America in the last two weeks of May. Drake was overthrown by Post Malone ft. Ty Dolla $ign's Psycho in the third week which he regained in the fourth week, but only to be displaced by XXXTentacion's Sad! which peaked following the latter's death. During the month Ella Mai's Boo'd Up, BTS' Fake Love and Maroon 5 ft. Cardi B's Girls Like You entered the top 10.

In the UK, Calvin Harris & Dua Lipa's One Kiss continued its reign for the first three weeks of the month accumulating 8 whopping weeks at the top which was then replaced by Jess Glynne's I'll Be There, which in turn was replaced by Clean Bandit ft. Demi Lovato's Solo. During the month George Ezra's Shotgun, Cardi B, J Balvin & Bad Bunny's I Like It and Years & Years' If You're Over Me all entered the top 10.

Other songs which became popular during the month were:

1. Kanye West - Yikes
2. Lil Baby & Drake - Yes indeed
3. Selena Gomez - Back to you
4. Rita Ora, Cardi B, Bebe Rexha & Charli XCX - Girls
5. Shawn Mendes - Nervous 
6. Juice WRLD - Lucid dreams 

Till the next beat...

At Ease!!!

Xposition - June 2015

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!!!

Xposition - June 2014

Attention!!!

Well June kicked off with several awards ceremonies. Miranda Lambert, her husband Blake Shelton and Carrie Underwood won big at the 2014 CMT Awards on 4 June 2014 at the Bridgestone Arena, Nashville, Tennessee. Carrie Underwood snatched the Video of the Year for See You Again while Miranda Lambert was awarded the Female Video of the Year for Automatic and Blake Shelton was awarded the Male Video of the Year for Doin' What She Likes. The other winners were:

• Group Video of the Year: The Band Perry - Done.
• Duo Video of the Year: Florida Georgia Line - Round Here
• Collaborative Video of the Year: Florida Georgia Line ft. Luke Bryan - This is How We Roll

The Much Music Awards Video Awards was held on 15 June 2014 in Canada. Hedley won the Video of the Year as well as Pop Video of the Year for Anything. International Video of the Year - Artist went to Lorde's Royals and International Video of the Year - Group went to Imagine Dragons' Demons. Other awards included:

• International Video of the Year by a Canadian: Drake ft. Majid Jordan - Hold on, we're going home
• Fave Video: Hedley - Anything
• Fave Artist - Justin Bieber 
• Fave International Artist - Selena Gomez

The BET Awards 2014 kicked off at the Nokia Theatre LA on 29 June 2014. Beyonce lead the nominations with 6 followed by Jay-Z with 5. Performances included Jhene Aiko's The Worst, Nicki Minaj's Pills N Potions, Trey Songz's Na Na, Chris Brown's Loyal and Beyonce's Partition. However, surprisingly there were performances by Iggy Azalea and Robin Thicke as well. The big awards included:

• Best Female R&B/Pop Artist: Beyonce
• Best Male R&B/Pop Artist: Pharrell Williams
• Best Group: Young Money
• Best Collaboration: Beyonce ft. Jay-Z - Drunk in Love
• Video of the Year: Pharrell Williams - Happy
• Best New Artist: August Alsina
• Best Actress: Lupira Nyong'o
• Best Actor: Chiwetel Ejiofor
• Best Movie: 12 Years a Slave

Pharrell Williams' Happy was overthrown by Iggy Azalea ft. Charli XCX's Fancy during the first week of June and continued at its peak uncontested for the entire month. Ariana Grande ft. Iggy Azalea's Problem peaked at number 2 and was also consistent throughout the month. With these two hits Azalea has the distinction of being the first act since The Beatles to have hits at No.1 and 2 at the same time. Magic!'s Rude and Calvin Harris' Summer are both still rising in the charts which could mean they could prove to be the ones to dethrone Azalea from her throne. 

In the UK SecondCity's I Wanna Feel was the first No.1 for the month which was then superseded by Ed Sheeran's Sing. Ella Henderson who finished 6th place at the The X Factor 9 in 2012 peaked with her hit Ghost which stayed at the top for two weeks. The last numero uno for the month of June was Oliver Heldens & Becky Hill's Gecko (Overdrive). 

Other songs which became popular during the month were:

• Sam Smith - Stay with me
• Tiesto ft. Matthew Koma - Wasted
• Little Mix - Salute
• 5 Seconds of Summer - Don't Stop
• Usher - Good Kisser
• Ellie Goulding - Beating Heart

Til the next beat…

At Ease!!!