Ne-Yo and Jessica Sanchez's Tonight Top My Personal Countdown This Week

Tonight is Ne-Yo's ninth #1 hit and Jessica Sanchez's first in my personal countdown.  The song moves from #2 to #1 this week.

Here are my ten favorite songs for the week ending May 3, 2012 -

#1 Ne-Yo ft Jessica Sanchez - Tonight (#2)

#2 fun. - Sight of the Sun (#4)

#3 Britt Nicole - Gold (#3)

#4 Alexis Jordan - Hush Hush (#1)

#5 Judy Collins - Song For Judith (#11)

#6 Vincent Ingala - Wish I Was There (#12)

#7 The 1975 - Chocolate (#10)

#8 Nelly - Hello Porsche (#19)

#9 Pitbull ft. Christina Aguilera - Feel The Moment (#20)

#10 Psy - Gentleman (#35)

My Weekly Top 40 May 3, 2013: #10 Psy - Gentleman

Psy's follow up to his monster hit Gangnam Style, Gentleman, moves up from #35 to #10.  It's his second appearance in my personal countdown.

Psy

Psy has two top ten hits in my personal countdown.  The mammoth hit Gangnam Style went to #1 last year.  This week, Gentleman, moves from #35 to #10.

Psy Tops the 3rd MyFABEMusic Awards

 
Ten new categories were added to this year's MyFABEMusic Awards.  This was to accommodate the enlarged top 40 weekly countdown and the expanded top 100 songs of the year.  Right now, there are 22 awards already and more should be added next year as the jazz and Christian/gospel categories are starting to assert themselves.

Breakout Korean rapper Psy tops this year's awards with four wins including International Song, Hip Hop/Rap Act, Hip Hop/Rap Song and Dance Song of 2012.

Madonna romped off with three awards including the coveted Artist of the Year award.  She also won Pop Act and Dance Act of 2012.

Carly Rae Jepsen also won three awards including the coveted Record of the Year and New Artist of the Year awards.  She also won Pop Song of 2012.

Several artists took two awards including Taylor Swift who got the country category awards, Gotye, for Alternative Song and Collaboration of 2012, the Japanese band Sakanaction, for International Artist and Alternative Act, and Beyonce, who swept the R&B category awards.

Natasha Bedingfield got the coveted Album of the Year award for her Strip Me album.

3rd MyFABEMusic Award: Record of 2012

Here are the nominees for the 3rd MyFABEMusic Record of the Year award -

Beyonce - Love On Top

Carly Rae Jepsen - Call Me Maybe

Gotye/Kimbra - Somebody That I Used to Know

Psy - Gangnam Style

Taylor Swift - We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together

And the 2012 Record of the Year award goes to Carly Rae Jepsen - Call Me Maybe

3rd MyFABEMusic Awards: Pop Song of 2012

Here are the nominees for the Pop Song of the Year -

Carly Rae Jepsen - Call Me Maybe

Ed Sheeran - Lego House

Gotye and Kimbra - Somebody That I Used to Know 

Jason Mraz - I Won't Give Up

Psy - Gangnam Style

And the Pop Song of 2012 is Carly Rae Jepsen's Call Me Maybe.

3rd MyFABEMusic Awards: International Artist of 2012

The International Artist of the Year is a new category for 2012 which features the top non-English speaking act of the year.  This means that the act has to be nominated for songs whose overall content is less than 50% in English, regardless of the act's nationality.

Here are the nominees for the International Artist of the Year -

BB Brunes (France)

Carlos Vives (USA) 

Gocho (USA) 

Psy (South Korea)

Sakanaction (Japan)

And the International Artist of 2012 is Sakanaction (Japan)

 

3rd MyFABEMusic Awards: International Song of 2012

The International Song of the Year is a new category which we have introduced this year to honor the top international songs of the year - songs which have less than 50% English lyrics, regardless of the act's nationality.

Here are the nominees for International Song of the Year -

BB Brunes - Coups et Blessures (France)

Gocho - Si Te Digo La Verdad (USA) 

Psy - Gangnam Style (South Korea)

Sakanaction - Boku to Hana (Japan)

Sakanaction - Yoru to Higashigawa (Japan)

And the International Song of 2012 is Psy - Gangnam Style (South Korea)

 

3rd MyFABEMusic Awards: Hip Hop/Rap Act of 2012

As mentioned in an earlier post the hip hop and the rap artists have been separated from the R&B artists this year into this new category Hip Hop/Rap Act of the Year.

Here are the nominees for the Hip Hop/Rap Act of the Year.

Azealia Banks 
Big Sean
Jay-z
Kanye West
Nicki Minaj  
Psy 

3rd MyFABEMusic Awards: Hip Hop/Rap Song of 2012

The Hip Hop/Rap Song of the Year is not really a new category.  For the past two years, they have been lumped together with the R&B artists in just one category.  This year though, with more hip hop and rap acts in my personal countdown, we just had to break them off into their own category.  And deservedly so!

Here are the nominees for this year's Hip Hop/Rap Song of the Year -

Azealia Banks - 212

Kanye West, Big Sean and Jay-z - Clique

Nicki Minaj - Marilyn Monroe

Nicki Minaj - Whip It

Psy - Gangnam Style

And the Hip Hop/Rap Song of 2012 is Psy - Gangnam Style

 

3rd MyFABEMusic Awards: Dance Song of 2012

The Dance Song of the Year is a new category we are introducing in 2012.  However, my definition of 'dance' may vary a bit from how the Grammy views it so there may be some pop or even rap songs here.  The important consideration is that they were huge hits on the local dance floors here in Manila.  

Here are the nominees for Dance Song of the Year.

Cheryl Cole - Call My Name
Florence + the Machine - Spectrum
Loreen - Euphoria
Madonna - I'm A Sinner
Psy - Gangnam Style

and the Dance Song of 2012 is Psy's Gangnam Style. 

My Ten Favorite Songs of 2012: #2 Psy - Gangnam Style

2012 is one of the rare years where my year-end list exactly matches most of the major music publications including the revered Billboard magazine.  I guess my nose was just at the right time and at the right place when these megahits came out of the woodwork.

I know many of you are already sick of Psy's Gangnam Style.  I know I am but I still remember when I first heard of the song.  It was actually in Nelly Furtado's concert here in Manila - and I remember that only a few in the audience actually knew the song!  I too wasn't too familiar with it, at that time.

The song, at that time, was still a hit only in Korea (I think it was on its fourth week at #1), and I remember, there were "only" 50 million hits in Youtube.  And I remembered, OMG, that's huge, because this is not a song in English, and South Korea's population is well, only around 50 million too!  So for it to achieve that many hits, is impressive.

Of course, six months later, it became the first song to breach 1 billion views!!  Impressive!

Like billions around the world, the first time I saw the video, I just couldn't resist it.  It was funny, and the horse steps were just perfect for the song!  And to think, at that time too, I just opened my countdown to Korean songs, so in a way, I was still a "baby" observer of Korean music.  But this song, just made me embrace Korean music more.  Towards the end of 2012, it was not unusual to have six Korean songs in my weekly Top 40 countdown!!  In any given year, 40 English songs would've been the norm.  Not in 2012.

The song ends as my #2 favorite song of 2012.  It's pure pop after all!   

Chart Performance: Psy

 

Psy becomes the first Korean act to go to #1 in the UK charts with his song, Gangnam Style.  The song has already become a worldwide hit thanks to Youtube and thanks also to its quirky dance steps.  This week, the song slips to #9. 

The same song storms the US charts and peaks at #2.  This week, it falls down to #10.