Xposition - September 2015

Attention!!!

September was not such an interesting month. In the wake of the aftermath of the MTV Video Music Awards 2015 where hell always breaks lose, September proved to be quite somber. The month kicked off with the announcement that Avril Lavigne and Chad Kroeger are separating after two years of marriage. 

Yes, the summer is over and it is time to check the anticipated Songs of Summer. The coveted crown in the US went to OMI's Cheerleader beating Wiz Khalifa's See You Again in the final week of the tally. Taylor Swift's Bad Blood came in at No.3 followed by The Weeknd's Can't Feel My Face and Silento's Watch Me. In the UK, the Biggest Selling Songs of Summer 2015 were revealed with Jason Derulo's Want To Want Me. At second place was Lost Frequencies' Are You With Me followed by OMI's Cheerleader and Tinie Tempah's Not Letting Go. 

September also revealed the next artist who will sing the next James Bond. The title has gone to Sam Smith. The announcement ended months of speculation in which the likes of Ed Sheeran, Ellie Goulding, Adele, Lana Del Rey, Lorde, Noel Gallagher and even Radiohead were tipped as candidates to helm the new Bond song. Smith's Writing On The Wall is to be featured in the film Spectre.

Taylor Swift's conquests continues as she leads the nominations in this year's MTV Europe Music Awards. The singer has nine nominations including Best Song, Best Pop Artist, Best Female Artist and Best Live Act. Alongside Taylor Swift ft. Kendrick Lamar's Bad Blood the following have also been nominated for Best Song:

Ellie Goulding: Love Me Like You Do

Major Lazer & DJ Snake ft. MØ: Lean On

Mark Ronson ft Bruno Mars: Uptown Funk

Wiz Khalifa ft. Charlie Puth: See You Again

Meanwhile, the UK has compiled the lists for the Top 40 Biggest Albums of 2015 So Far and the Top 40 Biggest Songs of 2015 so Far. Ed Sheeran's x leads the albums list followed by Sam Smith's In The Lonely Hour and Taylor Swift's 1989. The 5 biggest songs so far are:

1. Mark Ronson ft. Bruno Mars - Uptown funk
2. OMI - Cheerleader (Felix Jaehn Mix)
3. Hozier - Take Me To Church
4. Ellie Goulding - Love Me Like You Do
5. Wiz Khalifa ft. Charlie Puth - See You Again 

September also witnessed Sam Smith's debut record In The Lonely Hour notch up a record-breaking 67 consecutive weeks in the Official Albums Chart Top 10 – the longest unbroken run ever for a debut album. The LP hasn’t left the Top 10 since its release in May 2014, where it debuted at Number 1. The chart record was previously held by Emeli Sande, whose debut Our Version Of Events tallied 66 consecutive weeks in the Top 10 between February 2012 and May 2013. Prior to Emeli, the record was held for almost 50 years by The Beatles’ Please Please Me (62 weeks).

In chart news, in the US, OMI's Cheerleader stayed atop the charts during the first week and was replaced once again by The Weeknd's Can't Feel My Face which replaced it earlier in August. However, this proved short lived as Justin Bieber's global smash hit What Do You Mean? debuted at No.1 the following week. But The Weeknd did manage to grab the top spot in the final week. By this feat The Weeknd became the first solo male to top the Artist 100, Hot 100 and Billboard 200 in the same week as his album Beauty Behind The Madness had topped the album chart as well. Only one other act had achieved the same feat earlier and it was Taylor Swift with her Shake It Off at No.1 on the Hot 100 and 1989 at No.1 on the Billboard 200 and herself at the helm of the Artist 100. Meanwhile, Fetty Wap ft. Remy Boyz' 679, Ed Sheeran's Photograph and R.City ft. Adam Levine's Locked Away all entered the Top 10 during the month. 

In the UK, Rachel Platten opened the month with her debut hit Fight Song at the top. This was replaced by Bieber's What Do You Mean? which was replaced by Sigala's Easy Lover in the third week only to be overthrown by Bieber in the fourth week and he remained at the top during the final week. Demi Lovato's Cool For The Summer, Galantis' Peanut Butter Jelly and Felix Jaehn ft. Jasmine Thompson's Ain't Nobody (Loves Me Better) all entered the Top 10 during the month. 

Some of the other popular hits during the month were:

• Taylor Swift - Wildest dreams
• Sam Hunt - House party
• Lana Del Rey - High by the beach
• Pia Mia ft. Chris Brown & Tyga - Do it again
• Nick Jonas - Levels  
• Alessia Cara - Here
• Disclosure ft. Sam Smith - Omen 
• Rita Ora ft. Chris Brown - Body on me 

Till the next beat...

At Ease!!!

Xposition - May 2015

Attention!!!

The 2015 Billboard Music Awards was held on 17 May 2015 at the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas hosted by Ludacris and Chrissy Teigen. This was definitely Taylor Swift's night as she grabbed 8 out of 14 nominations including Top Artist, Top Female Artist, Top Hot 100 Artist, Top Billboard 200 Album and Billboard Chart Achievement Award. Moreover, she premiered her much anticipated video of her latest single Bad Blood featuring Kendrick Lamar and a host of super stars in the video. 

Some of the great performances of the night included Nick Jonas with Jealous, Wiz Khalifa, Charlie Puth and Lindsey Stirling with See You Again, Hozier with Take Me To Church, Nicki Minaj and David Guetta with The Night is Still Young and Hey Mama and Little Big Town and Faith Hill with Girl Crush. Mariah Carey took the stage with a medley of Vision of Love and her newest single Infinity, marking the first time she has performed on the Billboard stage since 1998. Britney Spears and Iggy Azalea performed their new single Pretty Girls which was less than mediocre and Kanye West was booed when he got on stage for his medley of All Day and Black Skinhead. Some of the significant winners of the night were:

• Top New Artist - Sam Smith
• Top Male Artist - Sam Smith
• Top Duo/Group - One Direction
• Top Hot 100 Song: Meghan Trainor - All about that bass
• Top Streaming Artist - Iggy Azalea
• Top Country Song: Jason Aldean - Burnin' it down
• Top Dance/Electronic Artist - Calvin Harris
• Top Dance/Electronic Song: DJ Snake & Lil Jon - Turn down for what
• Top Latin Song: Enrique Iglesias ft. Descemer Bueno & Gente de Zona - Bailando
• Top R&B Song: Pharrell Williams - Happy
• Top Rap Song: Iggy Azalea ft. Charli XCX - Fancy
• Top Rock Song: Hozier -  Take me to church
• Top Soundtrack - Frozen 

The 60th Eurovision Song Contest was held in Vienna, Austria, following Conchita Wurst's victory in 2014. The finals were held on 23 May 2015 where Sweden's entry Mans Zelmerlow's Heroes (365 points) beat Russia's entry Polina Gagarina's A Million Voices (303 points). Russia became the first non-winning nation to score over 300 points in the contest. 

Some musicians also passed away during the month of May including B.B. King aka King of the Blues  suffering from ill health in recent months and Errol Brown, the lead singer of the popular 70s band Hot Chocolate who died of liver cancer. 

Taylor Swift ft. Kendrick Lamar's Bad Blood which premiered at the Billboard Music Awards broke the Vevo 24-Hour viewing record garnering 20.1 million views, surpassing the record previously held by Nicki Minaj's Anaconda with 19.6 million views. The song for once is not about an ex-lover but about her ongoing cat fight with Katy Perry, whom she says dislikes her for an unknown reason. The video directed by Joseph Kahn features Swift's BFF Selena Gomez, Ellie Goulding, Ellen Pompeo and a host of super models including Cindy Crawford. The song with its backstory and star studded video will start bidding for its place at the top of the charts from June. 

In the US, Wiz Khalifa ft. Charlie Puth's See You Again continued its reign for the entire month of May completing six weeks at the top. Britney Spears & Iggy Azalea's much hyped Pretty Girls failed to reach even the top 20. David Guetta's new single Hey Mama featuring Nicki Minaj and Afrojack is  rapidly climbing the charts. The single which initially did not credit the vocals of Bebe Rexha finally changed the credits to feature Rexha after the performance at the Billboard Music Awards and the premiere of the video, which however only features Nicki Minaj (that too as a hologram). Jason Derulo's newest single Want To Want Me and T-Wayne's Nasty Freestyle entered the top 10 while Fetty Wap's Trap Queen peaked at No.2 and WALK THE MOON's Shut Up and Dance peaked at No.4 during the month.

In the UK, See You Again was at the top for only during the first week of May as OMI's Cheerleader (Felix Jaehn Remix) displaced it during the second week and continued at the top for the remainder of the month beating out heavy competition by LunchMoney Lewis' Bills which peaked at No.2 and Carly Rae Jepsen's I Really Like You which peaked at No.3. Major Lazor & DJ Snake ft. MO's global hit Lean On, Clean Bandit's Stronger and Taylor Swift's Bad Blood all peaked at No.4 and Iggy Azalea ft. Jennfier Hudson's Trouble peaked at No.7.

Some of the other songs which became popular during the month of May are:

• Andy Grammar - Honey. I'm good
• Galantis - Runaway (U & I)
• Blonde ft. Alex Newell - All cried out
• Omarion ft. Chris Brown & Jhene Aiko - Post to be
• DJ Snake & AlunaGeorge - You know you like it 
• Silento - Watch me
• Echosmith - Bright 

Till the next beat…

At Ease!!!