.jpg "This Year, \"American Idol\" Will Be Won By A Dude Named David (But You Knew That Already)")
Idolator
This weekend the BBC unveiled the best-selling singles of 2007, and not one but two contestants from U.K. reality TV singing contest X-Factor, with Leona Lewis' "Bleeding Love" even outselling Rihanna's "Umbrella," a tune that might have been inescapable for Americans this summer but haunted rainsoaked Brit listeners' dreams. The Top 20 is after the jump, but first we gotta ask: a comedy version of the Proclaimers' "(I'm Gonna Be) 500 Miles" in the Top 10? Really? Hang your heads, people of Great Britain. Hang them lower than your standards for novelty pop tunes.
THE GOOD: Idolator's beloved Sugababes at No. 6, the somewhat overlooked (in the U.S., obviously) Amy Winehouse collaboration from that much-maligned Mark Ronson album at No. 9, and of course "Umbrella" in the runner-up slot.
THE BAD: Inflicting the wussy Braffery/wussy mall emo of the Fray and Plain White T's on England now makes us about even for the whole unfortunate James Blunt episode.
THE WHAAA?: Both Leona Lewis and Leon Jackson—the 2006 and 2007 X-Factor winners, respectively—finish in the Top 5 despite their singles only having been released in December. That's got to make every recent American Idol winner, even the successful ones, briefly wish they had been born across the Atlantic.
1. Leona Lewis - Bleeding Love
2. Rihanna ft. Jay-Z - Umbrella
3. Mika - Grace Kelly
4. Leon Jackson - When You Believe
5. Take That - Rule The World
6. Sugababes - About You Now
7. Timbaland ft. Keri Hilson & DOE - The Way I Are
8. The Proclaimers ft. Brian Potter & Andy Pipkin - (I'm Gonna Be) 500 Miles
9. Mark Ronson ft. Amy Winehouse - Valerie
10. Kaiser Chiefs - Ruby
11. The Fray - How To Save A Life
12. Beyonce & Shakira - Beautiful Liar
13. Gwen Stefani ft. Akon - The Sweet Escape
14. Plain White T's - Hey There Delilah
15. Sean Kingston - Beautiful Girls
16. Timbaland ft. One Republic - Apologize
17. Kate Nash - Foundations
18. Take That - Shine
19. Kanye West - Stronger
20. Avril Lavigne - Girlfriend
The Official Top 20 Biggest Selling Singles Of 2007 In The U.K. [Poptimists]
Comments
@jess: ...from that much-maligned Mark Ronson album...
Really? I recall that most of the reviews I saw liked that record. I happen to think it's great, myself.
And, as the resident Amy Winehouse fanboy around here, I have to add my opinion that "Valerie" is the stand-out track on the record. YMMV.
Oh, just wait until later this year when the Brit charts are filled with this guy: [www.youtube.com]
We will never be even for the Bluntacolypse. Never!
Also, how in the hell did Take That-light end up with two top 20 songs? Somewhere in America the Backstreet Boys are crying over their piss-poor four person reunion.
C'mon, the Leona Lewis song is great.
The bigger of the two Take That single starts out like George Michael and ends up a bit like Coldplay. And the other one sounds like Mika crossed with the Feeling boosted by an almost ELO production. I think the former is OK, but the latter is quite good, and both trump anything on the last two stinky Backstreet albums. If Backstreet put out an album as appropriate for America as Take That's reunion album was for England with songs on the level of the two TT singles, they'd still be huge.
(And I gave the Mark Ronson a positive review.)
Leona Lewis's single "Bleeding Love" was released in mid-October and spent the first 7 weeks in the charts at number 1 posting huge sales figures, and then the last three weeks she's been in the top 3. As such selling more than Umbrella which was released in the summer during a notoriously fallow sales period isn't that surprising.
What did shock everyone was she came back with such a truly great cutting-edge single - Idol/X-Factor winners are meant to sell masses of the first ballady single in the immediate aftermath of winning the competition than flop around the charts hoping for salvation (see Leon 12 months hence). It looks like sales of Bleeding Love will overtake that of her winner's song in the next two weeks, a feat no other contestant has come anywhere near achieving.
The real story though is her album sales: 1.55 million in 7 weeks - the equivalent of 4.5-5.5m over the other side of the Atlantic. It's the quickest selling million seller by a solo artist in UK chart history.
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