Xposition - April, 2017

Attention!!!

The 2017 Radio Disney Music Awards 2017 was held in March where Fifth Harmony and Kelsea Ballerini were the big winners. Song of the Year however went to Shawn Mendes’ Treat You Better while Britney Spears was honored with the first Icon Award for her contribution to music. Some of the best performances of the night included Hailee Steinfeld’s medley of Most Girls and Starving, Train’s Play That Song, Julia Michaels’ Issues and of course the Spears’ tribute where a medley of Oops!... I Did It Again, Circus, …Baby One More Time and Till The World Ends were sung by Kelsea Ballerini, Sofia Carson, Hailee Steinfeld and Jamie Lynn Spears. The other significant winners of the night were:

·         Best Female Artist: Ariana Grande

·         Best Male Artist: Niall Horan

·         Best Group: Fifth Harmony

·         Best Band: DNCE

·         Breakout Artist of the Year: Alessia Cara

·         Best New Artist: Grace VanderWaal

·         Best Collaboration: Machine Gun Kelly & Camila Cabello – Bad things

·         Fiercest Fans: Harmonizers

·         Country Favorite Artist: Kelsea Ballerini

·         Country Favorite Song: Kelsea Ballerini – Peter Pan

Next up we have the 2017 Billboard Latin Music Awards where Nicky Jam made a massive comeback winning 6 awards where his song Hasta El Amanecer won the Hot Latin Song of the Year as well as Digital, Streaming and Latin Rhythm Song of the year. Artist of the Year was won by Late Juan Gabriel who also won the Top Latin Albums Artist of the Year – Male, Latin Pop Albums Artist of the Year – Solo and his album Los Duo 2 won Top Latin and Latin Pop Album of the Year. Enrique Iglesias took away 4 awards including Latin Pop Songs Artist of the Year – Solo and Latin Pop Song of the Year for his collaboration with Wisin on Duele El Corazon. Other winners of the night include:

·         Artist of the Year: New – CNCO

·         Tour of the Year: Marc Anthony

·         Social Artist of the Year: Jennifer Lopez

·         Hot Latin Song Artist of the Year: Female – Shakira

·         Hot Latin Songs Label of the Year: Sony Music Latin

2017 Academy of Country Music Awards was also held in April where Jason Aldean was awarded Entertainer of the Year. Meanwhile, ACM Song of the Year went to Thomas Rhett’s Die A Happy Man and Album of the Year was awarded to Miranda Lambert’s The Weight of these Wings. The other winners of the night were:

·         Male Vocalist of the Year: Thomas Rhett

·         Female Vocalist of the Year: Miranda Lambert

·         Vocal Group of the Year: Little Big Town

·         Songwriter of the Year: Lori McKenna

·         Single Record of the Year: Florida Georgia Line – H.O.L.Y

·         Video of the Year: Artists of Then, Now & Forever – Forever country

The world’s apparent greatest songwriter, Ed Sheeran has privately settled a case against him which was lodged last year. In 2016, Sheeran was sued by songwriters Martin Harrington and Thomas Leonard, writers of Matt Cardle's 2011 single Amazing, for USD 20 million for copyright infringement. US judge James Selna confirmed Ed’s case had been dismissed last month after the Suffolk born star reached an agreement with the writers, with no admission of guilt. Details of the settlement have not been made public. Following this saga, his titanic global hit Shape of You also came under fire as critiques alleged plagiarism from TLC’s legendary 90’s smash hit No Scrubs. Since then Sheeran has added both Kandi Burruss and Tameka Cottle who penned the R&B track as co-writers alongside the song's producer Kevin Briggs.

Glastonbury Festival 2017 has announced its full line-up where along with its headlining acts – Ed Sheeran, Foo Fighters and Radiohead, a number of other high profile artists such as Lorde, Shaggy, Katy Perry, Clean Bandit, Birdy and Stormzy are to perform. Glastonbury will take place at Worthy Farm, Somerset from June 23-25.

Good news for N-Dubz fans as the Hip-Hop trio have indicated that they will reunite in the near future. Fazer confirmed that the group was anyway only on a hiatus and that he along with Dappy and Tulisa will return to the studio to produce new music. When that will exactly be God only knows.

Moving onto chart news, in the US Ed Sheeran’s Shape of You remained unmoved at the top during the entire month accumulating 12 non-consecutive weeks at No.1. Meanwhile, Drake’s Passionfruit, Kendrick Lamar’s Humble and Harry Style’s debut single Sign of the Times all debuted in the top 10. Future’s Mask Off and Sam Hunt’s Body Like a Back Road also entered the top 10.  

In the UK, Sheeran’s reign with Shape of You was only interrupted when Harry Styles debuted atop the charts with his Sign of the Times.  During the month Julia Michaels’ Issues, Zedd & Alessia Cara’s Stay and Kendrick Lamar’s Humble all entered the top 10.  

Other songs which became popular during the month were: 

1.       Drake ft. Travis Scott & Quavo – Portland

2.       Future ft. Rihanna – Selfish

3.       Kyle ft. Lil Yachty – iSpy

4.       Zayn ft. PARTYNEXTDOOR – Still got time

5.       Stargate ft. Pink & Sia – Waterfall

6.       Lana Del Rey ft. The Weeknd – Lust for life 

Till the next beat...

At Ease!!!

Most Underrated Songs of 2016

Attention!!!

Underrated means undervaluing something or not giving something the recognition it deserves. In the music industry it is particularly difficult for new artists to make headway in the mainstream as they have to compete with the already established and popular artists. So when highly overrated artists spew album after album and single after single backed by their record labels the smaller and lesser known artists or the new ones find it almost impossible to gain ground in the music scene. Pop culture is such however, that sometimes even the best of songs do not necessarily get chart success. Some of these songs which do get radio airplay, counts for almost nothing compared to physical and digital sales as well as streaming.

The following songs are the inverse of overrated as I believe they should have performed much better than they did on the global charts. Dua Lipa’s Hotter Than Hell tops the list as although it was a minor hit, the song deserves much more when taking the production as a whole.  She has two songs on the list as her follow-up single also failed to make any mark on the charts although now she is a worldwide phenomenon and is one of the most sought after artists to be featured. So here are the 20 most underrated songs of 2016:

1. Dua Lipa – Hotter than hell
2. Pitbull ft. Enrique Iglesias – Messin’ around
3. Flo Rida – Zillionaire
4. Tim McGraw – Humble and kind
5. Thomas Rhett – Die a happy man
6. Dua Lipa – Blow your mind (mwah)
7. RedOne ft. Enrique Iglesias, R.City, Shaggy & Serayah – Don’t you need somebody
8. Zedd ft. Kesha – True colors
9. Hailee Steinfeld ft. DNCE – Rock bottom
10. Bebe Rexha ft. Nicki Minaj – No broken hearts
11. Years & Years – Worship
12. Anne Marie – Alarm
13. Troye Sivan – Youth
14. OneRepublic – Kids 
15. Fifth Harmony – That’s my girl
16. Selena Gomez – Kill em with kindness
17. Shawn Mendes & Camila Cabello – I know what you did last summer
18. Alan Walker – Sing me to sleep
19. Zara Larsson – Ain't my fault 
20. Alessia Cara – Wild things

Till the next beat...

At Ease!!!

Best Love Songs of 2016

Attention!!!

Well, 2016 was not the best when it came to the production of love songs. With the resurgence of Reggae in the form of Dancehall and the mainstream success of EDM, R&B and Rap in the yesteryear Pop songs took a back seat; and without Pop, there's no hope for love songs. There was no fan favourite Thinking Out Loud by Ed Sheeran or a staple wedding song like Wings by Birdy. With the usual love song junkies of Pop out of commission, we will have to make do with whatever that was released last year. However, it is an over-exaggeration to state that there were no good love songs produced as Thomas Rhett's Die a Happy Man is an awesome love song followed by Rihanna's over-the-top yet brilliant Love On The Brain as well as James Arthur's come back mega hit Say You Won't Let Go.

What is quite conspicuous is the fact that genres such as EDM and Dancehall also produced love songs alongside the usual Pop, Country and Soul. Ellie Goulding, Hailee Steinfeld, John Legend, Justin Bieber and Bebe Rexha all have two entries each. So here are the top 25 love songs of 2016:   

1. Thomas Rhett – Die a happy man
2. Rihanna – Love on the brain
3. James Arthur – Say you won’t let go
4. Kenny Chesney ft. Pink – Setting the world on fire
5. Hailee Steinfeld ft. DNCE – Rock bottom
6. Ellie Goulding – Still falling for you
7. Meghan Trainor ft. John Legend – Like I’m gonna lose you
8. Zara Larsson & MNEK – Never forget you
9. Charlie Puth – One call away
10. Nick Jonas ft. Tove Lo – Close
11. John Legend – Love me now
12. Martin Garrix ft. Bebe Rexha – In da name of love
13. Major Lazer ft. Justin Bieber & MØ –  Cold water
14. The Veronicas – In my blood
15. Hailee Steinfeld & Grey ft. Zedd – Starving
16. RedOne ft. Enrique Iglesias, R.City, Shaggy & Serayah – Don’t you need somebody
17. Little Mix ft. Jason Derulo – Secret love song
18. DJ Snake ft. Justin Bieber – Let me love you
19. Bebe Rexha – I got you
20. Florida Georgia Line – H.O.L.Y.
21. Ariana Grande – Into you
22. The Chainsmokers ft. Halsey – Closer
23. Inna – Heaven
24. Sigala ft. Imani & DJ Fresh – Say you do
25. Ellie Goulding – Something in the way you move

Till the next sonnet...

At Ease!!!

Best of Today’s First Dance Songs for Weddings

Attention!!!

Weddings are hectic, chaotic and extremely stressful. However, there are moments during this joyous occasion that are romantic and one such instance is the First Dance. The first dance is a precious moment that the couple shares at a wedding sometimes to their song but mostly to trending love songs that are about holding each other for the rest of eternity or loving some one with their whole heart and soul. The following ten songs are handpicked from this decade as the most popular ones on the dance floor by most newly betrothed and out of that Christina Perri's A Thousand Years is the most hyped up and loved by all. More recently we have Ed Sheeran's Thinking Out Loud storming the dance floors at weddings. Only One Direction has two entries on the list. So here are the top 10 of today's best first dance songs for weddings:  

1. Christina Perri ft. Steve Kazee – A thousand years part 2

This sappy yet romantic love song was initially written as a solo version for the fourth installment of the vampire love fest movie series – Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn Part 1. Perri re-recorded the song as a duet along with her husband Steve Kazee for the fifth installment of the series – Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn Part 2. While her solo version fared better on the charts, it is the duet version that is ideally cheesy for weddings.

Pick of the Lyrics: “I have loved you for a thousand years, I’ll love you for a thousand more.”

2. Ed Sheeran – Thinking out loud

A fan favorite at weddings and is indeed Sheeran’s legacy as an artist. This global smasher is taken from his album x, and has gone on to break chart records as well as earning the Song of the Year at the 58th Grammy Awards. It is one of the best-selling singles of all time and is now a clichéd first dance song at weddings

Pick of the Lyrics: “Maybe we found love right where we are”

3. Birdy – Wings

This is definitely the best song on the list and one of my favorites of all time. The haunting yet melodious vocals of Birdy can take the bride and groom to the most romantic atmosphere possible. This song describes a precious moment between a couple and what moment is better than the first dance at a wedding.

Pick of the Lyrics: “We’d remember tonight. For the rest of our lives”

4. Rihanna – Diamonds

This powerful love ballad is now one of the best-selling singles of all time. Penned by Sia Furler the song captures the essence of the backdrop needed for the first dance and this coupled by Rihanna’s vocals can take any grinch to a romantic place. 

Pick of the Lyrics: “So shine bright tonight, you and I, we're beautiful like diamonds in the sky”

5. One Direction – Night changes

This moderately successful hit for One Direction was the last featuring Zayn Malik who left the band to pursue a solo career few months later. A very mellow and slow paced track which sets the romantic mood perfectly for the first dance. 

Pick of the Lyrics: “Even when the night changes, it will never change me and you”

6. John Legend – All of me

This extremely whiny yet somewhat romantic song was a dedication by Legend to his wife Chrissy Teigen. It has goo-goo-gaga all over it and a note of caution as barfing from an overdose of love-sickening madness may be the result at the end of it. 

Pick of the Lyrics: “Give your all to me, I'll give my all to you, you're my end and my beginning”

7. Lindsey Stirling ft. Alisha Popat – We found love

Although the original is an uptempo EDM dance collaboration by Rihanna and Calvin Harris, Stirling managed to produce this masterful string cover with an African flavor. Stirling’s violin interludes are brilliant and provides the perfect rhythm for the first dance. 

Pick of the Lyrics: “We found love in a whole new place”

8. Thomas Rhett – Die a happy man

This is Rhett’s biggest hit to date. With a hint of Country flavor backing the track, the song does not go overboard with any hillbilly antics. With an almost acoustic feel to the song, Rhett’s calm and cool vocals is what all couples want to destress them during that first awkward dance.

Pick of the Lyrics: “Oh, if all I got is your hand in my hand, baby, I could die a happy man”

9. Ellie Goulding – Love me like you do

If you want a song that is gushing barfworthy lyrics throughout, then this is the first dance song you want. Taken from the controversial Fifty Shades of Grey soundtrack, it is Goulding’s best-selling single to date. 

Pick of the Lyrics: “I'll let you set the pace, cause I'm not thinking straight, my head's spinning around I can't see clear no more”

10. One Direction – Perfect

This is one of the more mature songs by One Direction released as a quartet after Malik’s departure. Commercially it enjoyed moderate success but won critical acclaim. The song is reminiscent of a love song from the 90s or 2000s such as those from Edwin McCain.

Pick of the Lyrics: “If you like to do whatever you've been dreaming about, then baby, you're perfect”

Till the next beat...

At Ease!!!