My Ten Favorite Songs of 2015: #1 Walk the Moon - Shut Up and Dance

Newcomer group Walk the Moon gets the #1 song of 2015 with their very first hit, Shut Up and Dance.

My Ten Favorite Songs of 2015: #2 OMI - Cheerleader

OMI's Cheerleader is the #2 song in my year-end countdown. It's the first and only #1 hit yet of OMI.

My Ten Favorite Songs of 2015: #3 Tori Amos - Selkie

Tori Amos has two top ten hits in my year-end countdown.  Wild Way was at #7. Selkie comes in at #3.  Both songs went to #1 this year.

My Ten Favorite Songs for 2015 #4 Jay Chou - Listen to Dad

I think it has been about a decade since a song in Chinese has landed in my year-end list. This year, a song from Taiwanese singer, Jay Chou, made a great impact in my personal countdown.

I think I was watching a movie in the Red Channel when I chanced upon the song and thanks to Youtube, its really pretty quick to check on songs nowadays.

I've tried to sing along with the song and it's been difficult but not impossible. I also don't speak a word of Mandarin so I've relied mainly on the translation and on the melody. It is quite an endearing song with unrequited love as the message, again!

My Ten Favorite Songs for 2015 #5 The Kronos Quartet - The Beatitudes

Once in a while, an classical instrumental song finds itself in my year-end list, and although the movie from where this song came was released a few years ago, I only discovered the song this year!

The movie is La Grande Belleza, Italy's Oscar-winning Best Foreign Language film and the end credits of the movie features this beautiful instrumental, as the camera meanders along the Tiber river at early morning, truly one of the most beautiful end credits of any movie made!

My Ten Favorite Songs for 2015 #6 Vladimir Martynov - The Beatitudes

Once in a while, I chance upon a beautiful contemporary classical composition, usually from a movie, and it makes a huge impact on my personal countdown.

This year, the two classical versions of The Beatitudes end in my year-end top 10 list, the first time this ever happened to a classical song. The choral version, arranged by composer Vladimir Martynov, comes in at #6.

My Ten Favorite Songs for 2015 #7 Tori Amos - Wild Way

It has been more than a decade since I last listened to a Tori Amos album.  I chanced upon her latest album, Unrepentant Geraldines, earlier this year, and I was rewarded by two very beautiful songs from that album. 

It's a wonderful album and shows the superb songwriting skills of Tori!  As usual, she's still unapologetic about her politics and how she views the world, and that's the reason why she's so wonderful to listen to!

She has two songs in my year-end top 10 list and the first one comes in at #7. I was actually singing this song in the gym one time, and my friend, who was beside me, was shocked, because the song had the lyrics "I hate you, I hate you, I do". 

It was a funny moment, because I had to explain to her the meaning of the song!

If you listen to the words in the whole context of the song, you'd realize "I hate you" actually means, "I love you", but taken only in that phrase, one can misunderstand what the song was really trying to say!

My Ten Favorite Songs of 2015 #8 Bjork - Stonemilker

Frankly, I don't know if some of my favorite artists could survive in today's pop climate. Take Bjork for example.  In today's disposable world of pop, I don't know if her kind of music would be able to find footing, if she came out today as a new artist.

It's an incredible realization though that this is now her third decade of making music.  As usual, most of the stuff she does would seem unpalatable but there's usually a gem or two of a song in each of her albums.

I chanced upon her last album, Vulnicura, and this is the song that welcomes you to this latest work from her.

Really nothing like Bjork singing to you about true love.  There's a bit of languid urgency and earnestness in her voice and how the words flow from her deliberate delivery.

My Ten Favorite Songs of 2015 #9 Pentatonix - Cheerleader

This year's top 10 is a curious mix because there are two songs which have two versions and all four versions are in the top 10, and there are two songs as well from a female singer that I admire, and it's not Madonna.

The first of the two similar songs comes in at #9. Frankly, it took me sometime to warm up to Cheerleader, but when I did, I quickly took a great liking to the song.

I heard this version during the wedding of the daughter of one of my friends in Body Jam. I knew instantly that it was the Pentatonix, because the arrangement was distinctly theirs.

I've heard a lot about this a cappella group and they even had a concert here in Manila already. I did not watch their show because I am not really into a cappella arrangements but next time they come to Manila, I will surely be there, if only to watch them do this song live!

My Ten Favorite Songs for 2015 #10 Deorro feat. Chris Brown - Five More Hours

Since I'm a big fan of the Les Mills exercise Body Jam, it is not unusual to find a song, or several songs for that matter, featured in the latest releases of Body Jam to end up in my year-end top 10.  

This year, DJ Deorro featuring Chris Brown's Five More Hours land at #10 in my 2015 year-end list.  This song just gives you the vibe to let go when you dance to it!