The Real Christmas Charts

The most recent press text launched by media control tries to give the feeling of unbelievable and astonishing chart entries in the sales week direct before Christmas (17th to 23rd of December). But there is no real news. Instead I could repeat the flashlight look from one week before. Highest new entry in the singles and the album list is Freddy Sahin-Scholl winner of Germany's edition of Germany Got Talent. Highest new entry sounds very well - look a bit closer no. 17 for album Carpe Diem and no.56 for same titled single … in other weeks of the year this would be an entry almost not recognized at all. Spoken more precise no.56 is the lowest "highest new entry" of the whole year 2010. Even new year's day offering New Day by Max Mutzke did better with entering no.40. Well there was a list in 2010 with no NEW entry. The charts of 8th of January saw only re-entries. Best one here were Sportfreunde Stiller with Ein Kompliment re-appearing at 41.
So Freddy Sahin-Scholl has one of the lowest highest new entries ever in chart history matching Sean Kingston's Fire Burning at 24th of July 2009.

Lazy German music buyers!

No wonder also the top 3 is completely static. Israel IZ Kamakawiwo'olespends its 12th week at the top with Over The Rainbow. Last male solo artist doing so was techno act U96 (aka Alex Christensen) which spended 13 weeks at the top with Das Boot from January to April 1991. Last single with at least 12 weeks at no.1 still is POker Face offered by Lady Gaga 2009.

Christmas-Charts: Michael is the King

Nothing really new within the German list published at 24th December 2010. A very static top with frozen top 5.
Highest signifcant climber lands at no.7. Rising from 18 the single Hold My Hand gives King of Pop Michael Jackson post mortem a 20th top 10 hit. It is the second time after his dead end of June last year that a track enters a position that high. In July it was Thriller the title-track of his 1982 album. Now for the first time since 2001 a completely new track is listed in the top 10. Last single doing so was You Rock my World leading single of Invincible. That makes Michael Jackson a star with top hits in four decades – unfortunately his releases within the 70ies did impact only the U.S. and UK not so in Germany. Don’T Stop ’Til You Get Enough only made no. 13 in 1979.

Hold My Hand is the leading single of his recent album Michael which this weeks enters the album charts straight at top position. So Michael is the King of Pop to most of Germans.

In statistics Michael Jackson's status looks like this: 20 top hits (no.10 or higher) – that's as much as The Bee Gees (19) and ABBA (21) had in Germany – good companion I guess. A more recent act to compare is German Scooter which has to date 23 top 10 hits under its belt.

Duetting partner Akon achieves with rising single Hold My Hand his 5th top 10 hit. It is the follow up to last year's Sexy Bitch which appeared a month ago in the list for the last time. In between Akon had a smaller hit alongside with Pitbull and a almost unrecognized solo try with commercial track Oh Africa. Seems that he has a lot homework to do for getting his announced album Akonic a real success. For now he did a good job.



Most sold German track still comes from UNHEILIG. Winter just climbs a place back to no.6.
And as the list is valid officially from 24th of December on one might expect several Christmas songs within it. Well – there are some but not as high as all the last years. Best sold track at this very moment is Wham! with Last Christmas sliding down a place to no.29. I guess the next issue will look quite different as it covers the week right before the festive days.

Flashlight: Popstars-Release fails

This is the Christmas Week and nothing changed at the top of the German charts. Israel IZ Kamakawiwo'ole is still no.1 with Over The Rainbow – finally the track also entered the French charts at no.4. As media control the chart compiling institution informs today also no.2 and no.3 in Germany are the same like seven days ago. The Black Eyed Peas with The Time (Dirty Bit) and Empire Of The Sun with We Are The People. That's what German people are listening to in the festive season.

And what's the biggest story of the week? It's a story of failure. December the 9th the final show of the TV casting Popstars was aired. The four winners now forming LaVive. Their debut single No Time For Sleeping is on sale since December 10th. It's a cover version of a Romanian eurodance track sung by Corina feat. JJ. As Romanian productions had some success in 2010 europewide (Edward May / INNA) the popstars management for sure hoped to launch a guaranteed hit. But the new version even fails to make top 10 in its release weeks. No.13 is not bad at all but again the popstars act misses the top 10 with its first release. Even worse: 2008 act Queensberry started low down at 23 but they had two more successful releases following. 2009 act Some & Any crashed down with Last Man Standing only climbing to no.16 in its first week and the duo separated a few months later in summer.

Decreasing sales stand in sharp contrast to the rising anticipation of the TV show. media control informed that the 2010 season of Popstars had 100.000 follower more on an average. There are some rumours around about high prices of the offered tracks especially on the digital market. Maybe the industry behind Popstars still want to sell physical CDs … but this is of course not clarified.

To summarize: the only casting show which really generates top sales now is Deutschland sucht den Superstar - the German version on Idols. Start of the new season will be end of february.


Original sung by Corina feat. JJ


New Version by LaVive

Best CD start in the week 10th to 16th of December was the new offering made by Taio Cruz. Higher is a collaboration with Kylie a well produced singalong pop track which was a sure hit. No.10 in its first week maybe is not completely the best position but it's enough to give Taio Cruz the third straight top 10 hit in a row - all of them were highest new entry of their week. With that Taio Cruz is one of only six artists to have a triple in a row and even better he's the only male artist. David Guetta and German band UNHEILIG had also three top 10 tracks but they appeared somewhere more low down in the charts in between. Talking bout Taio Cruz and the ending year one could mentioned him as the most successful newcomer in 2010. Finally one have to add cause his breakthrough in the UK came more than two years before.

Kylie appears for the 37th time in the German singles chart list under her own name. Although Higher is only her 9th track climbing to no.10 or higher. Having two tracks in a year doing so just once happened before. At the very beginning of her career in 1988 she managed having four singles in a row climbing top 10. 2010 seems to be one of the commercial more successful years in her career.

50/10: Pre-Christmas-Charts

Let's have a look to the list published today. 11 new entries, 6 re-entries – the market took off a little more speed three weeks before Christmas (the week covered by the list started Friday 3rd). Not too much as the highest new CD lands at no.11 with Katy Perry and Firework. There is more a rising interest in "The hits of the year" for new years parties supported by a lot of TV shows sprinting through the highlights of the now ending year.

There is a strong interest in already established sounds and music in Germany at this very time. Three tracks inside the top 10 are produced 2008 or earlier. Two of them at the very top: Over The Rainbow by Israel IZ Kamakawiwo'ole at no.1 (see detailed story here), We Are The People by Empire Of The Sun tumbling from no.1 to no.3 and finally Leona Lewis and her take on Run climbing back into the top 10 to no.8. Two further tracks are re-working well known themes: Duck Sauce is sampling Boney M. with their Barbra Streisand-track climbing again one place to nr. 4. And The Black Eyed Peas are beaming Dirty Dancing-Theme The Time into the 21st century at no.2. Well - these two tracks are big international smashes … not that surprising seeing them successful in Germany too.

Best selling German track comes again from UNHEILIG. Its track Winter climbing a place to no.8, the long selling hit Geboren um zu leben (Born for living) also climbs one place to no. 21 in its 45th consecutive chart week and even Unter deiner Flagge (Under Your Flag) is still selling well at position 42. Even more spectacular – the Winter-Edition of the Album Große Freiheit (Great Freedom) sits still at no.1 in the album charts. Probably UNHEILIG is the best selling German act 2010 at all having five tracks spending more than 100 weeks in the list - three of them top 10 hits.

The only new track within the top 10 is Freaky Like Me offered by Norwegian duo MADCON. It is their follow up single to the surprisingly very successful Glow giving the duo a third top 10 hit. Freaky Like Me has some support from the released album Contraband. So does Glow by rising 34 – 27 in its 27th week. But don't rate the impact of the album too big. Madcon is still a single selling act in Germany which never had massive sold albums here. Probably the new one could miss a broader audience also.

50/10: Nothing new at the top

Nr.1 Story
As usual media control announces the Top 3 of upcoming German sales charts today including a surprise. For a third time in 2010 a already very successful track returns to the very top. In june it was Eurovision winning Lena who took the Nr.1 position after a six weeks break - at this time it was already the most sold track of the year. A week later competitor K'Naan climbed back to the hot spot with Championship's anthem Wavin' Flag.

This time no significant event causes the return of Nr.1 track Over The Rainbow. The Haiitian artist Israel IZ Kamakawiwo'ole benefits for sure from recently aired "Best Of The Year" TV-shows where you could listen to the track permanently. Another reason for IZ's new rise could be the shocked TV nation as the sales period covered by this list starts with 3rd of december. On 4th of December Germany's probably most popular Saturday night show Wetten dass...? had an abrupt ending when the first bidding candidate met with an accident by jumping over driving cars. It was the first time in history of the show that it was not finished and following news brought the accident as the main story. The following days newspapers and TV magazins were full with reports about the young man's destiny.

Israel Kamakawiwo'ole might be a "winner" of the tragedy as his song perfectly fits to nationwide shock.

Back to statistics: It is IZ's 10th week at the top. As I mentioned two weeks before Lady Gaga was the last artist to do so. That was in 2009. Last time male artists had the hot spot for 10 weeks was in 2007 when DJ Ötzi & Nik P. occupied the nr.1 with their Ein Stern (der deinen Namen trägt) (A Star (which is called your name)) – still the track noted most weeks in the German list. The last solo male artist holding no.1 for at least ten weeks was Lou Bega in summer '99 which saw his Mambo No.5 11 weeks at the top.

The Black Eyed Peas on their march to the top
Whether Over The Rainbow can manage a further week at No.1? Well this race is still open. Best contemporary track ist The Time (Dirty Bit which climbs two places to no.2. Even this track is build around an old musical theme. (I've Had) The Time Of My Life is known from the movie Dirty Dancing released in 1987. It was the main theme of the box crashing smash never made a no.1. Now The Black Eyed Peas really have the chance of making it. In Great Britain they just had done so – in Germany it takes probably another fortnight.

For a long time The Black Eyed Peas seemed to be an U.S. act more successful in Europe than at home. This picture changed with their last album The E.N.D.. New album The beginning has yet to show its strength. With this first single it probably will match the success of its predecessor.



And finally: Best new track start comes from Katy Perry. Her Fireworks shortly misses the top 10. No.11 denies her the honour of having four top 10 hits in a row. Well - wait until next week. Usually the German Christmas business is missing strong new offers.

Chart-Flashlight: Empire Of The Sun at no.1

It's done! – Some of the very clever market watchers did predict it and now it comes true. The commercial track for a mobile phone company enters the no.1 spot and is now the most successfull track of the week in Germany. Australian Duo Empire Of The Sun is for sure very happy getting probably their first no.1 position worldwide. The track We Are The People of course had some chart success already. It was their second single after Walking On A Dream was a hit in their homecountry. Also in Europe it became popular hitting top 20 in several countries including Great Britain. German music sellers were kind of tentative. Walking On A Dream became only a minor hit in spring 2009 making the record company almost cancelling its plans of releasing We Are The People. The track first appeared as a download only track in the list creeping a few weeks through the downer regions. In clubs and on the street the duo was popular enough. No party without a track of them - together with MGMT they were THE band of 2009.

Now with proper advertisement, wide airplay and a full CD release the track finally hits the masses. Once again the music industry shows its blackout. The track available for one and a half year missed catching fire in the mainstream. A smart commercial producer (or maybe an agency) who knows what the kids are really listening to put the track to a product for making it "a phat thing" and finally the whole nation realizes how good the track really is.

Well – Empire Of The Sun are the act in 2010 which needed the most time for getting first time to no.1. But honestly one and a half year isn't that much, could be worse. Watching the ongoing struggle for next week's no.1 is highly tensed cause strong climbing Black Eyed Peas are challenging the Australian Duo heavily with The Time (Dirty Bit).

Week 48/10: No.1 and best CD start - UNHEILIG

Israel IZ Kamakawiwo'ole stands a ninth week at nr.1. His take on Over The Rainbow becomes slowly one of the longest running nr.1 hits. Last time we saw a track at least nine weeks on top was from March to May last year when Lady Gaga occupied with her Poker Face 11 consecutive weeks the top. After a three weeks break caused by last years superstar winner Daniel Schuhmacher she went back to the top for two weeks. Will IZ do the same? First signs of decreasing sales are obvious at the recent iTunes charts where Empire Of The Sun just a few days ago overtook the nr.1 position. The official charts compiled by media control for week 48 (covering the sales between 19th and 25th november) list We Are The People climbing to no.2. Maybe the power of TV commercials will lead the track finally to an official no.1 ...

UNHEILIG cements its status with Winter
Best CD sales start is not really a surprise. Last week the long time seller Geboren um zu leben (Born For Living) climbed back into the top 20 - in it's 42nd chart week and after 37 weeks within the Top 20. This new interest in the track was caused by the announcement of the winter edition release of UNHEILIG's very successfull album Große Freiheit (Great Freedom) which set a new record in summer as the German album with longest nr.1 run. Well - 19th of november was the day UNHEILIG with front man Der Graf (The Earl) again striked the music market by releasing this winter edition album and new single Winter at the same time plus a digital only release of an EP called Winterland. A lot of long time fans of the band are kind of annoyed about this hardcore outselling. The majority of music consumers does not mind be milked. The Album is climbing back to no.2, Winter starts its run at no.4. It is the third top 10 hit of the band and the second highest place ever reached.

UNHEILIG ranges with this as one of the most successfull German acts of 2010. It's competors are Culcha Cundela, Die Atzen (Frauenarzt & Manny Marc) and of course Eurovision winner Lena. But only culcha candela in this very moment is present with a recent track. Good requirements for the next year.


Unheilig -- Winter - MyVideo

The Beginning 2011: The Black Eyed Peas
2009 and 2010 were very successfull years for The Black Eyed Peas. The album The E.N.D. sold very well and generated four top 10 singles. I Gotta Feeling developed to some kind of long time seller, still noted in the charts in its 73rd consecutive week. And now - at the point to snatch the nervous Christmas selling the new album The Beginning is in stores. A week before leading single The Time (Dirty Bit) was released. And it seems The Black Eyed Peas will range at the very top even in 2011. The Time starts at no.7 - well some would have expect more but remember the start of Boom Boom Pow one and a half year ago.

The new take on the (I've Had) The Time Of My Life refrain misses shortly the position of the original by Jennifer Warnes & Bill Medley which peaked at no.5 for two weeks almost 13 years ago. So let's wait what happens around Christmas - maybe this electro style dance track catches fire with upcoming new year's parties.