Laura Mvula scores her second #1, as Nile Rodgers-featuring “Overcome” passes former chart-toppers Adele and Cam to take the top spot, while the rest of the top ten holds steady. Kris Allen’s “Waves” is the highest debut at #14; below the top fifty, the chart also adds debuts by Céline Dion, The Knocks featuring Walk The Moon, Mayer Hawthorne (whose “Cosmic Love” also re-enters), Fleur East, Yuna, and Hannah Grace.
Nile Rodgers
Adele stays “Young” at #1 with Cam and Laura Mvula/Nile Rodgers holding in the top three. Lissie moves into the top ten with “Don’t You Give Up On Me.” Charles Kelley adds another top-twenty song with “Leaving Nashville,” while also debuting another three songs from The Driver. Rihanna, however, scores the highest debut for a second week in a row as ANTI closer “Close To You” vaults in at #42.
Cam holds off Adele for another week, while Laura Mvula and Nile Rodgers rise to #3 with “Overcome.” Montaigne makes it a second week in a row with a top-ten debut, as her new single “In The Dark” enters at #9. Lissie and Birdy each jump ten places into the top twenty. The 1975 score their first song to chart with “The Sound,” in at #45. Also leading the pack among this week’s debuts are songs by Joel Adams, another from Lissie, Chairlift, Alex Newell, and Charles Kelley.
The year’s first big debut comes from Laura Mvula, who recruits Nile Rodgers on new single “Overcome,” in at #5. Lucius continues climbing 9-7 with “Born Again Teen,” while new Good Grief track “Madness” also debuts at #66. The week’s biggest mover is Charles Kelley’s “Lonely Girl,” up 26 spots to #49; Grizfolk’s “Cosmic Angel” (#41) and “Bounty On My Head” (#59) each follow with a 24-spot jump (they also debut “Bohemian Bird” at #94 this week). Additional debuts include a new Lissie track, Wild Belle, Mree, Mayer Hawthorne.
The top ten stays mostly steady again, with AIR BAG ONE being the sole disruptor as “1992” jumps 15-10 in its fourteenth week on the chart. Duran Duran score the top debut with “Pressure Off,” featuring Janelle Monáe and Nile Rodgers, in at #27. Beck is the week’s biggest mover as “Dreams” vaults from its #63 debut last week to a new peak of #42; MKTO also makes a large 20-position jump as “Bad Girls” moves from #56 to #36. Additional debuts include several tracks from Adam Lambert’s The Original High and a pair of Tori Kelly tracks, along with new songs from Josh Dorr, newcomer Cam, Leon Bridges, and Atlas Genius.
The GRAMMY Awards are often described as Music’s Biggest Night. While the awards ceremony typically lives up to the moniker with star-studded performances and gramophone trophies for hundreds of artists across many genres each year, iTunes charts also show how music sales are impacted, providing the year’s first prominent sales increase following the post-Christmas bump fueled by gift card redemptions. Many of the songs featured during the 56th GRAMMY Awards broadcast on January 26 received significant jumps on the iTunes song chart throughout and following the show, and numerous songs heard in its music-centric commercials felt the benefit of exposure as well. The statistics below reflect positions on the US iTunes chart of about 1500 songs, tracked from the beginning of the broadcast in the Eastern time zone at 8:00pm to the end of the Western time zone broadcast at 2:40am Eastern. Continue reading “iTunes sales surge for Daft Punk, John Legend, and more following the 56th GRAMMY Awards”
These are one hundred songs that stayed in my heavy rotation throughout 2013. In a year that saw personal advancements including eight weeks studying abroad in France and graduation from college, these songs soundtracked my year, each song appealing to me through instrumentation, lyrics, or just its overall mood. Read on for descriptions of each track, access the whole playlist on SoundCloud to listen, and judge away.
Continue reading “Kurt’s 100 Favorite Songs of 2013”