20 December 2003 The male TV talent show stars of 2002-03—Will Young and Gareth Gates in the UK, Mickey Joe Harte and Simon Casey here in Ireland—were a homogenous bunch: mild-mannered, boyish, with similar spiky haircuts and blazer-over-bootcut-jeans dress sense. If that profile sounds familiar, then yes, they were a sort of applied Westlife - … Continue reading Will Young – ‘Leave Right Now’ →

7 December 2002 'Lose Yourself' is Eminem's second Irish Christmas number one in just three years. I like to think of nostalgic Irish families tucking into Christmas dinner, then gathering around the festive fireplace, all to the seasonal good cheer of this and 'Stan' plus a few slur-laden bars of 'Fairytale Of New York'. Peace … Continue reading Eminem – ‘Lose Yourself’ →

8 December 2001 Fans of Titanic the movie may have mixed emotions at Kate Winslet singing "What if I had never let you go?" If you'd made room on the raft, Kate, there'd have been no need to let go! Leonardo DiCaprio wouldn't still be at the bottom of the north Atlantic in icicle form … Continue reading Kate Winslet – ‘What If’ →

9 December 2000 Only now has it struck me that 'Stan', with its chorus by the then-unknown Dido, may have been influenced by 'You Got Me', that fabulous single the year before by The Roots which features a similar sweet chorus by a female singer, Erykah Badu. Certainly at the time I remember the cognitive … Continue reading Eminem – ‘Stan’ →

19 December 1999 How should we approach the landmark of the final Irish number one of the millennium? The same way we approached it at the time: ignore the symbolism completely and just put a Westlife single there. Not just any Westlife single, though - a double-A-side of covers of two remarkably dreadful songs. 'I … Continue reading Westlife – ‘I Have a Dream’ / ‘Seasons In The Sun’ →

27 December 1998 If the Spice Girls watched Saved By The Bell, they'd know the episode where Zack dreams of his band Zack Attack hitting the big time, only to fall apart fighting while on their—what irony—Friends Forever tour. Geri leaving the Spice Girls in 1998 and specifying in her statement that it was "because … Continue reading Spice Girls – ‘Goodbye’ →

15 November 1998 Another piece of the '99 and '00s pop renaissance starts to move into place. Among the seven (7) co-writers on 'Believe', along with Cher herself, is Brian Higgins, soon after this to join forces with Miranda Cooper and form Xenomania, the celebrated writing-production team behind that string of fantastic Girls Aloud singles … Continue reading Cher – ‘Believe’ →

28 November 1997 There wasn't a Band Aid in the '90s but this was the closest thing. It was for a worthy cause too: the BBC Children in Need appeal, although it was originally conceived and broadcast as a public service announcement for the BBC licence fee. So, despite its Irish contingent, Ireland's 1997 Christmas … Continue reading Various Artists – ‘Perfect Day’ →

20 December 1996 If you list every Irish number one single in alphabetical order, starting with those which begin with numerals, '2 Become 1' by the Spice Girls is first on the list. It was also Ireland's 1996 Christmas number one, and its Christmassy New York video (actually shot with green screen in a London … Continue reading Spice Girls – ‘2 Become 1’ →

1 December 1995 Just as East 17 did the previous year, Boyzone had the first and last Irish number one of 1995. ('Love Me For A Reason' re-took the number one spot at the start of the year.) That's where the similarity ends. Anyone with a passing acquaintance of the Boyzone oeuvre will know that … Continue reading Boyzone – ‘Father And Son’ →