Billboard Hot 100 Top 10:
1- "Despacito" - Luis Fonsi & Daddy Yankee featuring Justin Bieber (=) -- After a whirlwind of change at the top of the charts over the past month, "Despacito" has settled in and earned a second week at the top. Your fun fact of the week is "Despacito" is only the third song this year to be No. 1 for more than a week after "Bad and Boujee" and "Shape of You." And I think it's going to stay for a while. It's still climbing in sales and streaming, even though both are pretty high, and radio is starting to pick up for it. Being that it's a mostly Spanish song, it makes sense for radio to be a bit slow on normal pop radio. But it's a good sign of you are No. 1 for multiple weeks without radio while seeing that radio slowly rising. That means once sales and streaming start dropping, the radio will have caught up and will help it stay consistent.
2- "That's What I Like" - Bruno Mars (=) -- Is Bruno Mars ever going to get more than one week at No. 1 with "That's What I Like"? That's a good question. It's still a possibility, but if not then seven weeks and counting at No. 2 is still pretty darn good and it's also now spent 11 weeks in the top three. That's good enough for third best song of the year so far and soon to be second best. It's also worth noting that Bruno performed "Versace on the Floor" at the BBMAs on Sunday, which has been announced as his third single from "24K Magic," so I'm expecting that to re-enter the charts soon and make it's way up the ladder. I'm curious to see how high that one can get.
3- "I'm the One" - DJ Khaled featuring Justin Bieber, Quavo, Chance the Rapper & Lil Wayne (=) -- After debuting at No. 1 two weeks ago, this song has leveled out. Radio is catching up for some unknown reason why sales are slowly falling and streaming remains essentially even. I'm predicting that this becomes this year's "Can't Stop the Feeling," a song that debuted at No. 1, fell a bit the next week, and even though it never returned to No. 1 it stuck around for a long time. Or maybe that's hopeful thinking on my part because I don't want this to return to the top.
4- "Shape of You" - Ed Sheeran (=) -- Yeah, the whole top five is stuck this week as well as most of the rest of the top 10 for that matter. That means Ed celebrates yet another week in the top five while "Castle on the Hill" managed to stall out this week in the 30's. Ed performed "Castle on the Hill" at the BBMAs, so hopefully that helps it start climbing again. We need that song back in the top 10!
5- "Humble." - Kendrick Lamar (=) -- I certainly don't mind this song sticking around. It was falling one spot each week since it debuted. It would be wonderful if it got enough traction to at least jump ahead of the two songs in front of it as this is easily the best song in the top five right now.
6- "Something Just Like This" - The Chainsmokers & Coldplay (+1) -- The Chainsmokers and Future just can't make up their mind as "Something Just Like This" and "Mask Off" keep switching spots, but neither can seem to get back into the top five. At the very least let's hope The Chainsmokers stay ahead of Future from now on.
7- "Mask Off" - Future (-1) -- In fact, not only would I love it if this stayed below The Chainsmokers, I would love it if it went away completely.
8- "XO Tour Llif3" - Lil Uzi Vert (=) -- This needs to go away, too.
9- "Stay" - Zedd & Alessia Cara (=) -- And sadly I'm now rooting for Zedd to go away, too. Come back with something better. And bring back Kygo, please? Both Kygo and Zedd do have a 69 cent discount placed on them at iTunes right now which is causing a huge sales boost for them. So realistically I am expecting this to jump a few spots next week even though I'm not super happy about it.
10- "Malibu" - Miley Cyrus (+54) -- I'm so happy to see this in the top 10 this week! After debuting at No. 64 last week, it skyrockets up to the top 10 after its first full week of sales. Unfortunately that means next week it will hit its second week drop, like most big debuts. I just hope that drop isn't super big. Perhaps her performance of the song at the BBMAs will help mitigate that a bit. My hope is for this song to eventually recover and get back to the top 10 to stay. I would even love it if this gave Miley another No. 1 hit. I think this is the perfect relaxing summer song, a very pleasant surprise from Miley after four years of being gone from the Hot 100.
Rising on the Hot 100:
11- "Say You Won't Let Go" - James Arthur (+2) -- I imagine that this will replace Miley in the top 10 next week. I won't be too upset about that because I do enjoy this song as well. But I would prefer this to replace Future, Lil Uzi or Zedd instead. And even though Kygo fell a bit this week, I'm hope that its iTunes discount can also send it to the top 10. Or maybe Kygo will jump James Arthur, causing him to get stuck here at No. 11. I'd be fine with that.
24- "Unforgettable" - French Montana featuring Swae Lee (+5) -- Our obligatory rap hit rising on the charts since "iSpy" is gone from the top 10 while "Mask Off" and "XO Tour Llif3" are stagnant. This one I don't mind. I won't be upset at all if it missed out on the top 10 or even got stuck before hitting top 20, but it's fine.
29- "Redbone" - Childish Gambino (+7) -- "Redbone" surprising me yet again, this time by breaking into the top 30. It's been quite the unique run for this song. Can it take yet another step and enter the top 20?
32- "There's Nothing Holdin' Me Back" - Shawn Mendes (+8) -- Oh sure. Reject all the decent pop hits, but embrace Shawn Mendes with open arms with another below average pop slog. Pop radio really annoys me sometimes.
36- "Swalla" - Jason Derulo featuring Nicki Minaj & Ty Dolla $ign (+5) -- I keep hoping this song gets stuck, but it keeps on managing to slowing sneak its way up the charts and now I'm starting to get nervous. We DON'T need this as a summer anthem for 2017!
45- "Attention" - Charlie Puth (+8) -- Again, lots of decent pop songs for pop radio to choose from, but they are also rekindling their annoying love affair with Charlie Puth. He's NEVER produced anything more than an average pop song as a featured artist. So why are we turning him into a superstar instead of sending him into musical purgatory where he belongs?
49- "Look At Me" - Xxxtentacion (+5) -- This dude released an album recently. I'm guessing that's why this song got a boost into the top 50 this week as I was enjoying the fact that it was starting to fade. If this becomes a hit, I'm seriously going to start questioning the state of humanity.
85- "Drinkin' Problem" - Midland (+12) -- A boring, cliche country snooze getting a good boost after its debut last week. Why am I not surprised?
New Arrivals:
62- "Rollin" - Calvin Harris featuring Future & Khalid -- Calvin Harris has a new album that will be dropping on June 23 called "Funk Wav Bounces Vol. 1" and we've now heard three songs from that album. Surprisingly I was on board for "Slide," but I didn't like "Heatstroke" and I'm not a huge falling "Rollin." Calvin Harris isn't my favorite DJ, but he's usually fairly formulaic and his songs are often catchy enough to grow on me and fun enough to play at a dance party. This song is not catchy and is certainly not a song that will ever be played at a dance party unless you find someone that does a remix of it that actually has a drop and a beat to dance to. And it is concerning that Calvin has featured Migos, Young Thug and now Future on three consecutive tracks from this album, each teamed up with a pop star to try to balance them out. It worked on "Slide," but like with "Heatstroke," it doesn't work here. I'm glad everyone is now becoming friends with Khalid, but he's fairly boring on this track. And Future isn't as bad as he usually is, but him and Khalid don't provide enough of a balance to make this song any interesting and all that's happening in the background is a mellow, boring beat. This song is just a big snooze-fest and I hope the rest of the album isn't like this as well.
80- "Bad Liar" - Selena Gomez -- I obviously love Selena's current song with Kygo, but I give most of the credit there to Kygo. Selena by herself has been hit and miss for me, especially since she's tried way too hard to prove the world that she's now a grown up woman instead of focusing on making good music. But man, this song has me stumped. Lyrically it's nothing special. She's just trying to talk herself out of liking this guy that she's starting to develop feelings for only to realize that she's a bad liar. She even uses a comparison to the battle of Troy, which feels off. But musically this song has a lot going on that makes this song feel different from what Selena usually does. She's very soft in the song with a groovy, simple production. Then she has the moments where she stretches a few lines in an interesting way and does other things that feel clever that I kinda find myself grooving to the song. I also envision this as a song that continues to grow on me over time. If this is a lead-off single to a third album, she has my attention.
92- "Whatever it Takes" - Imagine Dragons -- Another promotional single from Imagine Dragons' upcoming third album "Evolve." The more I hear from this album, the more nervous I get. "Believer" has grown on me a bit and "Thunder" isn't bad, but neither are on par to their first album magic. And "Whatever it Takes" is the least interesting song of the three. It's not big and bombastic like many of Imagine Dragons' music is. In fact, it kinda makes me appreciate "Believer" and "Thunder" more. This song has Dan Reynolds either rapping or singing his verses really fast. That doesn't work. And I keep thinking the song is going to build to something, but it never does. There's slightly more depth to these lyrics just because there's more of them with how fast he talks, but they still don't make things interesting. Just a very forgettable Imagine Dragons song. The type of song that if they hadn't released it as a promotional single, I would've never remembered it existed after listening to the album. That's not what I'm supposed to get from an Imagine Dragons song.
93- "Felices Los 4" - Maluma -- If I were to inform you that there is one artist that has four songs in the top 20 most viewed YouTube music videos of 2017, how many of you would guess that this artist is Maluma? If you are Latino, then maybe you would have because this guy is essentially a Latino superstar right now. In addition to his own "Cuatro Babys" and "Sin Contrato" he was also featured on Shakira's "Chantaje" and Ricky Martin's "Vente Pa' Ca." Yup. Those are the four songs. These Latino songs are really big on YouTube. And despite having 10 No. 1's in his home country of Colombia, seven of which are as a featured artist, this is only his second trip to the U.S. Billboard Hot 100 and first as a lead artist, with the other one being the previously mentioned "Chantaje" by Shakira, which peaked at No. 51 here. After listening to this song, I can understand why this guy is so popular in the Latino world. I'm not going to bother to translate this song, but Maluma has a very likable singing voice and this is a very smooth, groovy song. I'll root for its success!
95- "No Promises" - Cheat Codes featuring Demi Lovato -- Well here's something I've been waiting a long time to talk about. Cheat Codes have finally crossed over onto the U.S. Billboard Hot 100. Yes, I follow the EDM charts, too. I just don't talk about them here. But Cheat Codes dominated those charts last year and have become a sensation in the EDM world. This started with their hit single "Sex," which hit the top 30 in about 20 different countries, but couldn't crack the Hot 100 here. Since then, they've had four other songs last year that did quite well on the EDM charts, the best of the bunch being "Queen Elizabeth." And just like Kygo finally found success by collaborating with Selena, Cheat Codes finally crosses over thanks to another pop superstar, Demi Lovato. This song was released back in March and has been climbing the EDM charts ever since, so I was wondering when it was going to show up, if at all. Now if you want to know my secret, I'm not madly in love with Cheat Codes. They have their moments, but more often than not they are fairly mediocre. This is one of those songs that doesn't light me up. Demi has done better and they've done better. It's a song about the beginning of a relationship, which is fine. The groove is decent, but nothing that memorable. I don't hate it, but I don't love it either. I am glad that Cheat Codes finally has a Hot 100 hit, though, because hopefully that will open a door for their better songs to do well.
98- "Ghost in this House" - Lauren Duski -- I don't follow "The Voice." Sorry. I'm just going to throw that right out there so that you know that I'm not the best judge for this song. In my many years of watching "American Idol," I know that it's important to be aware of the contestant's journey and strengths in order to best judge a specific performance because then you can look at things like song choice as a good metric to judge by in addition to the vocal performance. I don't know any of that when it comes to Lauren Duski because I've never watched "The Voice." I just watched this performance out of context, learning in the process that we are in the semi-finals. I also learned that "Ghost in this House" is a 90's country song by a group named Shenandoah. I listened to that first and enjoyed it. Then I really enjoyed Lauren's cover of it. She has a great voice and great stage presence. It's a simple, yet emotional song that she totally owned. I would say she's a country singer that country radio could use more of, which probably means she won't amount to anything because country radio only plays the boring country music and not the good country music.
100- "Me Enamoré" - Shakira -- Speaking of Shakira, I mentioned her earlier in this post when talking about Maluma. And now here she is sneaking in at No. 100 with a new song of her own. If I'm being perfectly honest, my personal preference when it comes to Shakira is her English music simply because I can understand what she's saying. But I totally respect her doing another Spanish album because that is her roots, of course. I just can't personally relate to it as much. Nothing wrong with that, right? Although Spanish or English, I love Shakira most when she is able to make me get up and dance and "Me Enamoré" does just that. Perhaps not as much as some of her other songs, but I still enjoy it. I actually think I prefer it over "Chantaje." And it doesn't take a native Spanish speaker to know enamoré has something to do with love. Turns out "Me Enamoré" translates to "I Fell in Love." So using my detective skills, combining my knowledge of Shakira with the common sense of where any song might go with a title like that, I can make a pretty good guess as to what this song is talking about. And I totally dig it! Hopefully this can chart at least as well as "Chantaje."
