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.
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Idolator
The Guardian's Susan Tomes is horrified that the BBC's Young Musician Of The Year program treats classical wunderkinds like they're on Pop Idol. "The stupid interviews, the trivial questioning of the players and their families, the way the players had been asked to 'reprise' a movement of their concertos from the previous night - which saw the pianist having to start halfway through Rachmaninov's Rhapsody on a theme of Paganini. An interviewer larking about with the judges, trying to trip them into saying who they thought was best when we hadn't heard them all yet. The judges larking back, eager to show they were not stuffed shirts." Classical musicians shouldn't have to charm the rabble like some unpracticed harlot singing "Vision Of Love!" Classical music is difficult! It takes maturity! Kneel!
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So it turns out BBC's Radio 1 isn't gonna bleep (or "fade out," whatever) the word "faggot" in the Pogues' "Fairytale Of New York" after all. Gay rights folks are already calling the move hypocritical, however: "I doubt that the BBC would take the same relaxed attitude if this song included the n-word, or abusive language like 'Paki' or 'yid'." [