10 December 2009 Our first '00s Irish number one was the world's biggest pop star, a young white American woman, with 'Born To Make You Happy'. Now we're almost at the end of that decade with the world's biggest pop star, a different young white American woman, and 'Bad Romance'. Had anything changed in the … Continue reading Lady Gaga – ‘Bad Romance’ →

22 October 2009 It came with a collective hiatus rather than an individual departure, but Cheryl's imminent career move seemed to loom over her group for an age. She made a success of it too, with more solo number one singles in the UK (five) and Ireland (four) than Girls Aloud managed in either territory. … Continue reading Cheryl – ‘Fight For This Love’ →

15 October 2009 It's that time of year in the '00s again. Four of the final five number one singles of 2009 in Ireland, occupying 11 weeks out of 12, are by acts from UK TV talent shows. The last of those four, our 2009 Christmas number one, will be in extraordinary circumstances. Before that, … Continue reading Alexandra Burke ft. Flo Rida – ‘Bad Boys’ →

27 August 2009 Donal Skehan completists coming to 'Burn' will find it thin gruel indeed - their man just gets a few cute-one pouts and some backing vocals. The other three do all the main singing here. Even more noticeably than with their previous chart-topper, 'My Baby's Waiting', the group never appear together in this … Continue reading Industry – ‘Burn’ →

16 July 2009 Here's one of the biggest singles in Irish chart history. 'I Gotta Feeling' by The Black Eyed Peas spent 12 weeks at number one in Ireland, more than the eleven weeks of '(Everything I Do) I Do It For You', the ten weeks of 'Maniac 2000', and every other chart-topper of the … Continue reading The Black Eyed Peas – ‘I Gotta Feeling’ →

25 June 2009 "There are no second acts in American lives" is an F. Scott Fitzgerald line that gets trotted out in news articles whenever someone does have a second act in their lives, which is quite often. Even within the narrow scope of Irish singers who had an Irish number one single and whose … Continue reading Industry – ‘My Baby’s Waiting’ →

18 June 2009 In France everything is political. The '00s wave of French superstar DJs, with their rive droite nightclub bling lifestyle, were generally suspected to be on the conservative centre-right, at least by association. Sure enough, David Guetta played fundraising gigs for Nicolas Sarkozy's victorious 2007 presidential campaign - in Irish terms, imagine him … Continue reading David Guetta ft. Kelly Rowland – ‘When Love Takes Over’ →

11 June 2009 Is this the first Irish number one single from a computer game? I'm casting around for reasons why a 2007 song from an unknown Australian punk-pop act topped our charts in 2009 and I see it was featured on FIFA 09. I'm not a gamer, so I don't know if it even … Continue reading The Veronicas – ‘Untouched’ →

7 May 2009 Tinchy Stryder's 'Number 1' isn't the first Irish number one single with 'number 1' in the title: that'd be Zig and Zag's 1990 Christmas number one 'Christmas No. 1'. More acts should try this sort of nominative determinism. Granted, fall short of topping the charts ('Number One' by X Factor finalist Tabby … Continue reading Tinchy Stryder ft. N-Dubz – ‘Number 1’ →