Upspeeding Charts With A Small Swiss Invasion

The Christmas rush started. The industry is releasing new material and the audience is buying. The German single’s charts dated November 25th counts 15 new entries. It is the biggest turnover of the list with completely new material. Of course we saw the two first weeks in March 21 resp. 20 tracks entering the charts – back than 10 resp. 6 of that tracks were re-entries. This recent week we do have 15 completely new tracks entering the list. The last time that happened was in February 2010 – almost 2 years ago. So the charts are speeding up right now. Of course there is a lot to tell you about – let’s start right at the top.


With a huge jump Flo Rida enters the number one with his new single Good Feeling. It is the 6th number 1 hit coming fromm an U.S. act in 2011. The states do rule the German (and European) music market. Even after an unusual four month break during late summer nothing really changed. Flo Rida is displacing Rihanna and it’s quite significant that Good Feeling also features an European producer. It is actually Swedish AVICII (Tim Bergling) who milked the formula used for his own Levels once again. It gives both rapper and producer the first ever Number 1 in Germany. Flo Rida took three and a half years reaching the top. It’s a way some others had gone before, however it is far and away from the very common career of storming the top within the first year with one of the first three singles of an act. It took Flo Rida a full 13 singles to get that much interest. He first appeared within the German charts with Low (featuring T-Pain) in 2007. Two years later he had his first big hit with Right Round (featuring Ke$ha). The big boost came late 2010 when his single Club Can’t Handle Me (produced by David Guetta) went number 4. Since then three singles were released crediting him as a performing artist. All three went Top 10. Now Good Feeling as the leading single to his upcoming album Only One Rida (Part 2) is breaking all walls. By climbing to number 1 Flo Rida is definitely one of the big male U.S. stars of now. Only Taio Cruz is someone who has similar popularity right now.


The highest new German release enters the list at position 5. It is the recent single of Rammstein lifted from their upcoming Best of album Made In Germany 1995-2011. As always the track is controversial, ironical and disambiguitive. The title Mein Land (My Country) refers to a strong self-assertion on one hand and to really right wing nationalism on the other hand. As always the band identifies itself as unpolitical – the video by Jonas Åkerlund is a comic strip on a 60s beach party. Trying to encode the signs and quotes leads nowhere. It is an empty style using a lot of clichees – it’s your own turn to love or hate it.



Usually the hits of Rammstein only spend some few weeks in the charts. Certainly also Mein Land will leave the list before the change of years.

Maybe we will see the new song from Pietro Lombardi a few weeks longer. Goin’ To L.A. is only the third single and it is completely new material – however the track misses the top 20. Is the career of the 2011 superstar over after only six months? Well – all the teenies and casting addictives are waiting for the winner of the Supertalent show. No need for stars of the springtime at all.



Another participant of the DSDS casting in springtime finally starts a career by releasing singles. Ardian Bujupi – the number 3 although he was far and away the best performer of the crowd – appears with This Is My Time. It is teen pop as well however it surprises by using strongly dancehall beats and effects. In terms of music this single is the most interesting a contestant of the last DSDS season had released. In terms of sales he unfortunately fails by only reaching position 40. Hopefully he himself does have enough strength for releasing further material. He really might become a popstar.



There is a next casting format starting on German TV. The Voice of Germany differs the most by the choice of the jury. Besides Nena, Xavier Naidoo and Rea Garvey the two front men of German country band BossHoss try to find the most amazing voice. Possibly they are the most unknown inside the show – they never had a commercial hit single although their five albums all reached the upper ranks at the album charts – only the first one missed narrowly the Top 10.

A week before the show starts on TV the band releases a new single. Don’t Gimme That immediately enters position 42. It is so far the second highest rank the band ever reached missing the result of the very first single Hey Ya! by only one place.



Let’s switch from an upcoming TV event to a past one. On November 10th the ceremony of the BAMBI awards took place. Once upon a time it was the most important German award in media and music business. Meanwhile there are doubts ’bout the importance of this „event“. The well planned scandal of this year’s BAMBI was the decoration of rapper Bushido with the award for integration.

The relevance of the award to music business shows up with sales right after the show. As an effect of her performance at the show (plus decoration with the price as Best international Artist) Lady Gagas new single Marry The Night enters at a low position 44. – Gagamania seems kind of cooled down. The lady is on tour in Europe to promote her new single and fails even in Britain (#18 after a performance at an X Factor result show !!) Well, it is the fifth single from her Born This Way album. Almost everybody owns a copy, isn’t it? – The full CD single release of Marry The Night is scheduled for 2nd December. The prospects of becoming a huge hit are very small.



Somewhat like an comeback can be witnessed at position 45. Singer Christian Franke had a hit in 1982 with Ich wünsch dir die Hölle auf Erden (I Wish You To Hell). Two follow up medium hit singles were released in 1982 and than a long silence broke down around him. In 2009 a short appearance back in the list with new material and now – again 2 years later – it seems the singer is back for real. Der Apfelbaum (The Apple Tree) is a kitschy ballad asking why people do all the bad things on earth: nuclear weapons, wars, environmental pollution, injustice ... The video shows star actor Heiner Lauterbach trying to explain that cruel world to his child. A serious topic, unfortunately produced to death by David Brandes and drowned in panpipe sound by Edward Simoni. I guess the result doesn’t change the world … it’s a pity.



A funny story full with trivias can be found around Ilhama. The singer from Azerbaijan won the national casting for the Eurovision Song Contest in 2011 – however Ell/Nikki participated in Düsseldorf and won. Ilhama finally also enters Europe with her version on Bei mir bist du scheen a classic tune grown famous by The Andrews Sisters. The track alone wouldn’t find any new fan – combined with a beat and fitted to recent electro-swing hype the Azerbaijan singer can enter the German list at position 48. Producer of the hit is German DJ OGB. I guess the track might have a chance of growing.



Lowest German new entry can be found at position 82. Tom Lüneburger is a young German singer songwriter who right now announces his second album. As lead single he offers we are one a duet with the voice of Silbermond Mrs. Stefanie Kloß. It’s a combination copying the formula young singer plus well known voice/face like heard before with Revolverheld feat. Marta Jandová or Bosse & Anna Loos. Well, it works again.




Let's have a look to Germany's neighbour Switzerland. Right now it sends some popular releases into the hit list – leading the bunch is still DJ Antoine with two hits Welcome To St. Tropez and Ma chérie. Mike Candys & Evelyn ft. Patrick Miller are still strong in sales with their One Night in Ibiza. This week two further Swiss productions join the club.

DJ Remady is hard on the heels of his famous colleagues and launches a second hit in Germany. Give Me A Sign is a late follow up to I’m No Superstar showing up in the lists last year. The new offer enters at position 58 – it is the highest rank so far for the DJ.



And finally an old mate is back: In 2011 DJ BOBO gave his 1001st concert. It was in Las Vegas and Mr. Bobo was quite impressed by the city – his next album is to be called Dancing In Las vegas. The first single taken from that release is Everybody’s Gonna Dance.If you love to listen to DJ Bobo you will for sure love the track too. So far the single performs bad. Position 70 is one of the worst placing ever. Only Colors Of Life stalled 5 places lower in 2001.



If you can count properly you get 5 Swiss productions inside the German chart. I guess that's quite a novum … if you do have closer informations, please let me know.