Most Inspirational Songs of 2017

Attention!!!

Now more than ever people need inspiration in their lives. What began as a one-off compilation for 2013, has now become a staple year-end list. 2017 was a year where there were so many tragedies, particularly in the music industry where we witnessed sad suicides, devastating bombings and cold blooded shootings. Ariana Grande's Somewhere Over The Rainbow is a tribute to those who lost their lives in the Manchester Bombings and a whole host of artists in the UK united to raise funds for the families of the victims of those who died in the Grenfell Fire by singing Bridge Over Troubled Water for charity. 

However, in terms of inspiration 2017 belonged to The Greatest Showman soundtrack. Never has a soundtrack been more motivational as more than ninety percent of the songs in the film were inspirational; and this is clearly reflected in the top tier of this compilation with 6 songs from the soundtrack featured on the list. Other significant entries include Kesha's comeback hit which is an empowering anthem on how to get over obstacles in your life. This song may be a reflection of her ongoing legal battle with producer Dr.Luke. 

Imagine Dragons have 3 entries on the list followed by Alessia Cara, Keala Settle, Zac Efron, Zendaya, Hugh Jackman, Michelle Williams and Ariana Grande each with 2 entries. Other soundtracks featured on the list include Wonder Woman, Sing and The Fate of the Furious. In terms of genre, Pop rules with almost all the entries with Country, Rap, Alternative Rock and EDM having a few entries. Taking this year's top spot is Oscar Nominee for Best Original Song and winner of the Golden Globe Award for Best Original Song, This is Me by Keala Settle. This is followed by two songs from the soundtrack Never Enough sung by Voice Season 3 finalist Loren Allred and Come Alive by the ensemble cast. So here are the 30 most inspirational songs of 2017:   

1. Keala Settle – This is me (The Greatest Showman OST)
2. Loren Allred – Never enough (The Greatest Showman OST)
3. Hugh Jackman, Keala Settle, Zendaya, Zac Efron & Daniel Everidge – Come alive (The Greatest Showman OST)
4. Kesha – Praying
5. Ariana Grande – Somewhere over the rainbow
6. Imagine Dragons – Believer
7. Rachel Platten – Broken glass
8. Imagine Dragons – Whatever it takes
9. Shawn Mendes – There’s nothing holdin’ me back
10. Zendaya & Zac Efron – Rewrite the stars (The Greatest Showman OST)
11. Little Mix ft. Stormzy – Power
12. Hugh Jackman, Michelle Williams & Ziv Zaifman – Million dreams (The Greatest Showman OST)
13. Michelle Williams – Tightrope (The Greatest Showman OST)
14. Sia ft. Labrinth – To be human
15. Artists for Grenfell – Bridge over troubled water
16. Logic ft. Alessia Cara & Khalid – 1-800-273-8255
17. Dua Lipa – New rules
18. Keith Urban & Carrie Underwood – The fighter
19. Auli'i Cravalho – How far I’ll go
20. Imagine Dragaons – Thunder
21. Louis Tomlinson & Steve Aoki – Just hold on
22. Machin Gun Kelly ft. Hailee Steinfeld – At my best
23. Alessia Cara – Scars to your beautiful
24. Starley – Call on me
25. Bebe Rexha ft. Lil Wayne – The way I are (dance with somebody)
26. Martin Garrix & Troye Sivan – There for you
27. G-Eazy & Kehlani – Good life 
28. Rag ‘n’ Bone Man – Human
29. Miley Cyrus – Inspired
30. Stevie Wonder & Ariana Grande – Faith

Till the next beat...

At Ease!!!

Xposition - September, 2017

Attention!!!

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!!!

Xposition - June, 2017

Attention!!!

The 2017 CMT Music Awards were held in June with Keith Urban as the top nominee and taking home the coveted Video of the Year and Male Video of the Year for Blue Ain’t Your Colour and Collaborative Video of the Year for The Fighter alongside Carrie Underwood.  Other big wins of the night included:

• Female Video of the Year: Carrie Underwood – Church bells
• Duo Video of the Year: Florida Georgia Line – H.O.L.Y.
• Group Video of the Year: Little Big Town – Better man
• Breakthrough Video of the Year: Lauren Alaina – Road less traveled
• CMT Performance of the Year: Jason Derulo & Luke Bryan – Want to want me

Following the horrific bombing at the Manchester Arena in May, Ariana Grande returned to Manchester but this time to the Old Trafford Cricket Ground in order to pay tribute to her fans who died in the blast. She did not come alone as guest artists included Miley Cyrus, Black Eyed Peas, Justin Bieber, Take That, Coldplay, Katy Perry, Little Mix, Niall Horan, Pharrell Williams, Liam Gallagher and Robbie Williams. Proceeds from the event which exceeded £12 million went to the We Love Manchester Emergency Fund established by the Manchester City Council and the British Red Cross. The funds were to help the victims and their families.  

The Summertime Ball returned to the Wembley Stadium in London on June 10, for the eighth consecutive year headlined by Bruno Mars and Little Mix.  All the contemporary megastars took center stage as Clean Bandit, Sean Paul, Julia Michaels, Stormzy, Dua Lipa, Ed Sheeran, Charlie Puth, Shawn Mendes, Louisa Johnson, Olly Murs, Zara Larsson etc. with guest appearances from Hailee Steinfeld, Craig David, Imani Williams and Ella Eyre. 

Sir Paul McCartney, Emeli Sandé and Ed Sheeran have been recognized in Her Majesty the Queen’s Birthday Honours’ List which will see the artists receive the prestigious MBE for their contributions to the arts and society. 

It is the end of the Black Eyed Peas as we know it as Fergie has officially left the Hip-Hop group. Although not in the original line-up Fergie’s addition saw the group rising to new heights and making a massive breakthrough into the mainstream Pop, Rap and Hip-Hop industry. Her powerful vocals gave the group the much needed sync with the rapping of will.i.am, apl.de.ap and Taboo. All in all Black Eyed Peas will never be the same, and her last contribution was to the fittingly reworked #WHEREISTHELOVE which is a charity song the proceeds of which was to will.i.am’s non-profit foundation i.am.angel, which funds educational programs and college scholarships.  

Boyzone are to celebrate their 25th anniversary next year with an arena tour. They have also teased about new music, although it is unclear whether they will release a new album with fresh music or a greatest hits compilation with a few new singles. 

Moving onto chart news, in the US, Luis Fonsi & Daddy Yankee featuring Justin Bieber’s Despacito continued at the top of the charts throughout the month, with no competition whatsoever. There was hardly any activity at the top of the charts during the month with Miley Cyrus’ Malibu and Post Malone featuring Quavo’s Congratulations being the only two songs to crack the top 10. 

In the UK too, Despacito reigned supreme until the cover of Bridge of Troubled Water by Artists for Grenfell peaked in the final week. The latter song was a charity single released to raise funds for the families of the victims of the Grenfell Tower fire. During the month Liam Payne featuring Quavo’s Strip That Down, Niall Horan’s Slow Hands, David Guetta featuring Justin Bieber’s 2U, Little Mix featuring Stormzy’s Power and Jonas Blue featuring William Singe’s Mama all entered the top 10. 

Other songs which became popular during the month were:

1. DJ Khaled ft. Rihanna & Bryson Tiller – Wild thoughts
2. Katy Perry ft. Nicki Minaj – Swish swish
3. Fifth Harmony ft. Gucci Mane – Down
4. Olly Murs & Louisa Johnson – Unpredictable
5. Imagine Dragons – Thunder
6. Selena Gomez – Bad liar

Till the next beat...

At Ease!!!