15 December 2011 First thing I checked: was there an anti-X Factor counter-movement behind the original 'Cannonball' at Christmas 2011? If there was, it didn't get far. Damien Rice's version re-entered the Irish charts at a mere no. 19 before gravity and nominative determinism took hold. (It had already entered the Irish and UK charts … Continue reading Little Mix – ‘Cannonball’
Tag: 2011
The X Factor Finalists ft. JLS and One Direction – ‘Wishing On A Star’
1 December 2011 This 2011 iteration of The X Factor's annual side-hustle forwent its usual militaristic poppy-kissing to raise money instead for a UK children's palliative care charity. The Irish record-buying public, who had magnanimously put previous X Factor collective singles like 'Ooh, Aah, Up The British Army' and 'Come Out Ye Talibans' to number … Continue reading The X Factor Finalists ft. JLS and One Direction – ‘Wishing On A Star’
Rihanna ft. Calvin Harris – ‘We Found Love’
13 October 2011 The unlikely roll call of women who've achieved notoriety by running carefree in a field of crops includes Theresa May and, while shooting the video for 'We Found Love', Rihanna. The latter incident was in a field in Co. Down, as you'll recall, and involved a no-nonsense Ulster farmer (who was also, … Continue reading Rihanna ft. Calvin Harris – ‘We Found Love’
One Direction – ‘What Makes You Beautiful’
15 September 2011 One Direction only finished third in the 2010 series of The X Factor, but by the following year's series had become the biggest boy band on the planet. What's more, they did so by returning the boy band idiom to the concept of teenage joie de vivre, far from the maudlin wedding-anniversary … Continue reading One Direction – ‘What Makes You Beautiful’
Maroon 5 ft. Christina Aguilera – ‘Moves Like Jagger’
18 August 2011 Only a few weeks earlier, Cher Lloyd had topped the UK charts and reached no. 2 in Ireland with 'Swagger Jagger'. Now here's the dreadful Maroon 5 also name-checking the Stones front-man. Was there a mini cult-of-Mick in the summer of 2011? Not that I can recall. We'll just have to put … Continue reading Maroon 5 ft. Christina Aguilera – ‘Moves Like Jagger’
The Wanted – ‘Glad You Came’
14 July 2011 Wantedmania, if there was such a thing, didn't extend to my then-domicile of France in 2011, so I have no contemporary context to add to 'Glad You Came' other than passing familiarity with the tune. There's Irish interest here, of course, since one-fifth of The Wanted was Siva Kaneswaran, becoming the second … Continue reading The Wanted – ‘Glad You Came’
Jedward – ‘Bad Behaviour’
7 July 2011 Logic and rationale normally wither in the blinding double-flash of Jedward. However, I'll venture that this number one had cause; it was surfing the wave of 'Lipstick', which a couple of months previously had stormed to a glorious qualification for the Eurovision final and then an 8th place finish ahead of the … Continue reading Jedward – ‘Bad Behaviour’
Pitbull ft. Ne-Yo, Afrojack and Nayer – ‘Give Me Everything’
2 June 2011 What did the people of 2011 see in Pitbull, I ask myself disingenuously, knowing full well that his brand of cheap-suited, bald-headed, gruff, sexist, thuggish assholery has never gone out of fashion. Anyway, here's his second Irish number one single in two months and his third in less than a year. Itemising … Continue reading Pitbull ft. Ne-Yo, Afrojack and Nayer – ‘Give Me Everything’
Jedward – ‘Lipstick’
19 May 2011 Nostalgic for Ireland's Eurovision glory years? Or at least, nostalgic for Ireland reaching the final and therefore avoiding our now-annual national psychodrama at the crushing realisation that other countries may not actually love us as much as we crave? Then you're nostalgic for Jedward and their 2011-12 repping for Ireland, in which … Continue reading Jedward – ‘Lipstick’
LMFAO ft. Lauren Bennett and GoonRock – ‘Party Rock Anthem’
21 April 2011 Fair play to LMFAO for giving good factoid. You may remember how the two lads, Redfoo and Sky Blu, are uncle and nephew. They're also the son and grandson respectively of Motown supremo Berry Gordy, so Redfoo has a half-sister who's Gordy's daughter with Diana Ross, a half-brother in '80s one-hit-wonder Rockwell, … Continue reading LMFAO ft. Lauren Bennett and GoonRock – ‘Party Rock Anthem’
