April 24th 2015: English Raop On Top

Still at number 1: See You Again by Wiz Khalifa Feat. Charlie Puth taken from the movie score to Furious 7.
As with lead appearance of rapper Wiz Khalifa the song should be a sap song–indeed it is more a romantic ballad–let's have a look on rap no1s: the last one occupied the top almost exactly a year ago in May 2014 in the face of CRO and his Traum holding firm for a full month. It is for sure no coincidence having Traum as a so called Raop-Song something that is basically Rp but with a strong pop appealing.
And even the last US-American rapper at no1 was a combination of rap and pop as Pitbull duetted with KE$HA on Timber that had a three weeks run at number 1 on the change of 2013/14.

Also highest new entry is a pop song combined with some rhymes. Norwegian MADCON duetting with Ray Dalton launch their Don't Wory directly at number 3. It is the third Top3 hit coming from Norway within 14 months. Adding the number 6 hit Wicked Wonderland by Martin Tungevaag the Scandinavian country seems back in global pop business.
For the MADCON duo Don't Worry marks a new peak in its chart career. So far its biggest chart success was the Eurovision flashmob song Glow that gained number 4 in 2010. All in all the duo has five Top 10 hits under his belt starting in 2008 with Beggin.

DJ Felix Jaehn serves as best selling German act since February due to his remix of OMI's Cheerleader. Still the track sits pretty at number 4 in its 16th chart week. Three ranks behind follow up Ain't Nobody (Loves Me Better) (featuring Jasmine Thompson) enters the Top 10 and eclipses the success of Rufus & Chaka Khan in 1989 who reached number 9 back than.
Also in Switzerland the new version is the most successful ever as the original never entered the list.
With Felix Jaehn entering the Top 10 we have four German productions inside–a feat last seen in September 2014 when Robin Schulz, Mark Forster, Andreas Bourani and Helene Fischer had songs under the first ten..


Casting show impacts
Once again DSDS ain't the show with the biggest impact on sales. It is this current week The Voice Kids. The second show was aired on Friday April the 10th 2015. Most impressive performance was shown by Elinor, Liv and Cosma. The three interpreted Angel originally recorded by Sarah McLachlan. The song re-appears at number 72–it is the fourth chart week for the song. All of them were achieved after a performance on a casting show.

Hot Spot 05-31-13

Here they are: Daft Punk (Featuring Pharrell Williams) climb to number 1 with Get Lucky after their album Random Access Memory was released and shot to number 1 on the album list also. It took the French men five weeks to land their worldwide smash at the top in Germany also. And it took them a whole 16 years to gain Nr.1 for the first time. So far they reached only once the Top 10 with One More Time in 2000.
The last Nr.1 coming from a French artist was back in summer 2011 when Lucenzo infected the country with his take on Danza Kuduro.


This week the survey counts 24 new entries–it is far and away the most amount of new songs in a single week for years. This result comes due to a big event taking place in Malmö on 18th of May. Most successive act ain't a Eurovision contestant but a band performing in Hamburg after the screening of the event. Frida Gold presented their new single Liebe ist meine Rebellion live. The party was broadcasted nationwide–so the track lands now at number 4. It is the first Top 10 hit for the band starting its career two and a half year ago.

Right behind Frida Gold the winner song Only Teardrops by Danish Emmelie de Forest lands. It is right now commercially more successful than the last winner song coming from Denmark Fly On The Wings Of Love in 2000. Additionally Only Teardrops is the best performing song coming from Denmark since March 2012 when Aura Dione released her single Friends.

The third new entry inside the Top 10 again is a song presented at the after show party in Hamburg. Madcon had their biggest success in 2010 when they delivered the soundtrack for the Eurovision flash mob dance. In 2013 the song One Life is more down to earth–the connection to the Contest seems be kept.

All in all there are 12 songs from the contest entering the list this current week. Never before the contest had that much impact on the sales charts. Except places 2 and 3 the whole Top 10 of the contest finds its way into the media control survey. The German entry Glorious by cascada completely failed in Malmö. It ended up at a low 21st place–the worst result since five years. Even the German audience was not really convincend. When the song was chosen it landed at number 6–not that bad. Now after it was performend in Malmö it can only reach number 33 in its second chart run. A sad result.

The song voted most in Germany on the night of the show was Kedvesem performed by Hungarian ByeAlex. A real surprise. On sales the song comes in as the third at number 39.


What else goes on in the list? A week before The Fast & Furious 6 started at theatres the first track from the soundtrack enters the list. It is We Own It by 2 Chainz feat. Wiz Khalifa. The track starts at an impressive number 28.

In theatres on May 16th The Great Gatsby sends two cuts of his soundtrack onto the list. Most loved song is A Little Party Never Killed Nobody (All We Got performed by Fergie • Q Tip • Goonrock. The track goes straight to number 41. At nubmber 74 lands Lana del Rey with Young And Beautiful.

After My City was re-released as a CD on the new label Epic Germany Follow Your Instinct see their track re-entering the list. The track starts its second chart run at number 42. The first one back in March propelled the track to number 24.

Finally the announced upcoming single Counting Stars by OneRepublic rises up the list and lands at number 51 in its second chart week. The official release date so far is not scheduled properly.

Slow Charts – Long Running Hits

Seeing Marlon Roudette spending an eighth week at the top of German charts means New Age is the song spending most weeks at number 1this recent year. It is very certain that no other song will beat the resultas there are only nine chart weeks being left until the year ends.
Right behind the British singer American MAROON 5 ranks still at number 2 with Moves Like Jagger. It is already the sixth week in a row the boys accompanied by Christina Aguilera land at the runners up position.

Two British acts are new in the German Top 10: example with Changed The Way You Kissed Me (8) and Adele with her third Top 10 Single Someone Like You (10)

The highest new entry is Helluva Nite by Norwegian duo Madcon. It is the fourth single lifted from the album Contraband. At the album the track features rapper Ludacris – for the release in Germany the band added a rap part made by Itchy of Culcha Candela. To me Madcon now sounds like a light version of The Black Eyed Peas five years ago … can’t help myself.



Sky And Sand – the long time seller by Paul & Fritz Kalkbrenner stands for an 80th chart week in the list. It is now the tenth longest running hit of all times. It just left Dieser Weg by Xavier Naidoo a week behind. Right now the DJ is on tour promoting his album Icke wieder. Probably that’s the reason why this issue of the charts sees the track jumping up again 62–43 – reaching its third highest position in its one and a half year s long chart career.



X Factor Stories
Monique Simon sings Price Tag at the 1st live show – Jessie.J storms up the list 90–44. Probably next week we will see that effect even growing.

A Sporty Week

Most exciting story of the week probably is the rise of David Guetta featuring Taio Cruz Ludacris into the Top 5. Last week the new single from electro DJ of the moment Little Bad Girl made its debut at number 12. Now – still as a digital release only – the track attracts much more music lovers. It is the fourth track on which David Guetta appears as an artist and that managed at least once a Top 10 position this year. It is only Rihanna the other act doing so.
With the proper release still some weeks ahead David Guetta seems having all chances to be the next number 1 hit.

Watching the Top 10 closely I now can report Pitbull overtaking Bruno Mars as the artist having most appearances inside the Top 10 in 2011. The result so far: 25 weeks – for comparison: last years best performer Rihanna collected 32 weeks over the whole year.

German tracks
There are some small changes going according the preferences of German productions. Most loved song at the moment is Nur noch kurz die Welt retten (Just have to save the world) by Tim Bendzko. The very authentic song now dethrones the commercially clean and shallow I Miss You by Sarah Engels & Pietro Lombardi (+ Dieter Bohlen of course). Track number 3 favoured by the audience is Still by Jupiter Jones. The ballad yoyos back 16 – 14.

Interest is raising on Wovon sollen wir träumen (What we might dream of) by Frida Gold. The track is used by German public TV ZDF for backgrounding all reports and broadcasts of the FIFA womens world championship. Due to that heavy rotation it climbs 25 – 19 reaching a new peak in its 14th chart week. Seeing the German team fail in the quarter final 7 days ago the track might loose in attractivity. The band at least has reached Top 20 status für the very first time.



There are a lot of remixes of the track around right now. One of the most mass appealing is the one by Michael Mind. Check it out and decide for yourself which one is the best.



Having four tracks inside the Top 20 Germany is the most successful home country of the German chart right now. Third one is France. This recent week we count three tracks, last week there were even four tracks. Of course that’s an effect of above mentioned success of David Guetta. But also a second DJ named Lucenzo performs strong these days. His Danza Kuduro featuring Puertorican Don Omar is jumping 19 – 11.


A few days ago I dropped some words ’bout the lazy German music industry. No really new releases meaning no exciting new entries in the charts. Due to that fact the highest new track is an old one. The Red Hot Chili Peppers were back in the mind of music fans by there announcement of a new album at the end of August called I’m With You plus a new tour end of the year through Europe. Unfortunatly tickets are very expensive – at least that’s what a lot of fans wrote at the official fan page of the Peppers.

Why they are back in the charts after a four years break is due to a TV spectacle at 2nd of July. That was the date of the final boxing fight for world champion title of IBF, WBO and IBO. The fight took place at the Imtech Arena in Hamburg featuring Wladimir Klitschko vs. David Haye. It was an highly advertised event broadcasted live by private TV channel RTL. There are reports that the transmission of the fight had the highest rates a Klitschko fight ever had. Believe it or not – the song of Klitschko’s ring entrance re-enters the list after the fight. It is Can’t Stop – the 2003 single of the Red Hot Chili Peppers. Although that track is one of the signature songs of the band it never went higher than number 58 in its original chart run 8 years ago. Now the track enters at number 48 and marks the highest peak ever for that track.

Watch the ring entrance plus Klitschko introduction from the TV airing:



TV appearances causing re-entries within the charts is a quite common thing. Much more seldom a re-entry (or re-rise) is caused by a tour or single stage appearance. It happened just now to Norwegian Madcon. They were part of the warm up show for German comedian Mario Barth who had a stadion show in Leipzig at 2nd July. 42.000 guests were celebrating meanwhile rainy weather. It had to be a crazy performance – Outrun The Sun is re-entering the list at 58 after a three weeks pause, Glow is rising again 86–76 in its 57th week and Freaky Like Me re-enters at 99. The upcoming Madcon-Tour Contraband will probably benefit from such hysteria also.

Summer time means exciting party time. We witness stupid Mallorca tracks entering and rising the list as well as a few electro tracks. One of these tracks appearing every few years in a new remix is the meanwhile classic Cafe Del Mar by early 90ies trance project Energy 52. Last seen as a minor hit three years ago it had a renaissance this year in May when digital label Flying Circus released remixes by German DJ Ricardo Villalobos. They are much more minimal as all remixes before – the main title only appears as an echo. After almost two months on sale the track catches fire at dancefloors and starts the sell copies again. It enters the German charts at number 86 counting its 15th chart week all remixes together.




That’s it – isn’t it funny how many stories one vould find within a chart almost completely static? Well ... see ya next week

Having two new entries inside the Top 10 overshadows all other movements a little. There are two climbers worth to notice. Dutch singer Caro Emerald rises two places to number 4 after her song A Night Like This was presented within the TV show Let’s Dance. The plot of the show is watching VIPs trying to do standard dances like rumba, cha cha cha, waltz et al. A Night Like This was used as the music for the Cha-cha-cha. For Caro Emerald number 4 is the highest place she ever managed to climb on. It took the song 11 weeks to get here.

The second climber is the all star crew around Pitbull. Give Me Everything in its second chart week can „break“ into the Top 10 giving leading Pitbull a follow up to his recent Number one On The Floor (alongsides main star JLO) and a fourth Top 10 hit as a credited artist. NE-YO after an almost three years break can return to the Top 10. Give Me Everything is no more than his second chart hit climbing that high. For the really first time Afrojack & Nayer can reach the upper 10 ranks.

A big jump up the list is done by Aloe Blacc. After Loving You Is Killing Me appeared as a background track at Germany’s Next Top Model the song climbed to number 16 two weeks ago. The interest in the song died soon – last week Loving You Is Killing Me tumbled down to number 30 again. Until it was performed in the semi final of DSDS by Ardian Bujupi – the looser of that almost last episode. Suddenly a huge fan base of the TV show recognised the song as worth of be buyed. Loving You Is Killing Me ranks now at number 12 – making it the best performing song of the show within the chart. And I really wonder why Ardian had to leave the show ...



Final winner Pietro Lombardi only can propell Wenn das Liebe ist (If it is love) by Glashaus (Glass House) to position 61.

A future hit is arriving within the Top 20 this recent week with Set Fire To The Rain by Adele is climbing four further places to number 20. Set Fire To The Rain is set to be the third single from her album 21. In Belgium, the Netherlands and in Italy the song already went to top hit status climbing into the Top 5. In Germany the interest for the song is grewing steadily finding ist way to the Top 20 as an digital album cut without any officially announced release date. That’s in fact a very unusual chart career. Most of the tracks listed are proper set and supported by commercials, TV adverts or similar presence in the media. Not so Set Fire To The Rain – probably another sign of possible democratization of the charts.


The German acts
Finally they did it! Jupiter Jones grab with their ballad Still the crown of being the most sold German production. It took the band 9 weeks and of course the four guys benefit from the lack of very strong German releases. In the official list by media control they slide 18 – 19 being the only German track within the Top 20.

Number 2 of the interne German tracks sales chart is Groove Coverage and their take on Angeline. I dropped a few words about it already last wednesday.

Leading the survey for six weeks the heydays of Strobo Pop are history right now. Die Atzen mit Nena drop 17 – 23 officially standing here as the third best sold German track.

The most successfull album by a German artist is still Schiffsverkehr (Ship Traffic) offered by Herbert Grönemeyer. New in the list is Cassandra Steen with her third album Mir so nah (So Close To Me) which lands at position 5 in the album chart. Supported by this success the leading single Gebt alles (Give All) is jumping back the singles list up to position 36.

These days Europe is looking at Dusseldorf. The Eurovision Song Contest takes place and the attention of the medias is huge. Since it was announced that Dusseldorf will host the contest some articles have been wrote why that boring city? Is it really the capital of pop music? – Probably it is not the German capital, but it aint at all a no go area for popular music. Probably most known the synth electro band Kraftwerk that had a few hits in the 70s and early 80s. These days a further band is bringing Dusseldorf back to the musical map of Germany. Broilers (meaning broiler / roast chicken but is used in Germany only regional; funny: the English plural S) are a fun punk band playing music for more than 15 years. 2011 they moved to a new label: JKP – and now finally entering their first chart hit. Harter Weg (Hard Way) starts its life at position 41. Probably real punk fans might say the new sound of Broilers is too fun, too commercial … well, real punk never made its way into German charts. It was always a funny or ironic version … or even worse, a mainstream adapted cleansed kind of punk. I am not here to judge about that – find your own opinion:



After start of the movie Kids Turbo the soundtrack of it also rises up the list. Though Scooter’s Friends Turbo can’t impress that much jumping only 59 – 43. It is so far the lowest charting track in their whole career.


Assuming that there is something like a continental connection and productions from Europe should have a stronger link to Germany than others I always have a special look at European releases. In the case of Romanian INNA the link to Switzerland, France or the UK seems much stronger than the one to Germany. At least what the official charts can tell. Sun Is Up is listed in the dance charts and in the iTunes charts for weeks . It never made the way into the official charts. After being used on TV in the Germany’s Next Top Model show the track can enter the list. Sun Is Up jumps to number 26 on downloads only. It is this the highest place INNA made in her two and a half year long chart career.



Norwegian duo MADCON released a third single from their album Contraband. For Outrun The Sun they took also Maad*Moiselle into the studio. The single starts right now at position 27 just in the moment when Freaky Like Me slides down 34 – 46 in its 24th chart week. Even last year’s Glow is still appearing in the charts tumbling down this week 49 – 65. Certainly the new track will not match the success of its two predecessors.

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.