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SINGLES
The Lady GaGa/Discobitch Top 2 remains unaltered, with Emiliana Torrini's "Jungle Drum" now progressing onto #3. Lady Linn and her Magnificent Seven crack the Top 5 with "I Don't Wanna Dance" (8-5), whose Eddy Grant original managed to top the then-prevalent Flemish charts in late 1982. Will this cool-cat remake follow suit? Starsailor improve one notch on the #8 peak of their previous highest, the Thin White Duke remix of "Four to the Floor", with "Tell Me It's Not Over" (13-7). In their UK native this single peaked only at #73 in March, so a few months after Craig David's "Insomnia" we have a new British single doing much better business at the other end of the Channel than at home.
Three other Brit acts too reach new (Ultratop-era) career peaks: Razorlight (15-13 with "Wire to Wire"), Alesha Dixon (24-16 with "The Boy Does Nothing") and Depeche Mode (28-17 with "Wrong"). Greatest gainer is for Jasper Erkens' "Waiting Like a Dog" (50-22), proving he has more people than his 14-year-old female groupie fans willing to legally buy his music. The Enrique Iglesias duet "Takin' Back My Love" (40-25) brings Ciara back to the Top 30 for the first time in four years (though in all likelihood she's about to score another big hit shortly in collaboration with another male superstar). Said star is up 45-28 in tandem with T.I. on "Dead and Gone", while Cidinho e Doca's "Rap das armas", a far less instant success over here than it has been in Holland, finally dents the upper thirty (38-30).
Just two proper new entries, and the highest at #46 is another track from Duffy's "Rockferry", which has grown out to become one of the most successful debut albums in pop history. In the UK the emotion-packed midtempo "Stepping Stone" was already released as the third major single last summer, but the rest of Europe has had the non-original-album track "Rain on Your Parade" squeezed inbetween. A fourth consecutive hit it is, but with rumours about the Welsh singer suffering severe fatigue which has audibly affected her voice, will she get to a second album in style?
The second newcomer at forty-seven is the very first discovery from the Swedish 'Pop Idol' (and only second from any Scandinavian edition, after Norwegian 'World Idol' winner Kurt Nilsen) to make the Flemish charts: Agnes Carlsson. Following her victory of the second 'Idol' in 2005 the brunette enjoyed a massive #1 with "Right Here Right Now" (rather disappointingly recycled shortly afterwards by Sony BMG for the debut single of Dutch 'Idols' winner Raffaëlla…) and a lasting career in her native country. The song to break her in this little part of the world is surprisingly not last summer's smash "On and On" (a current hit in Holland) nor her recent 'Melodifestivalen' entry "Love Love Love" but the inbetween single "Release Me", #9 in Sweden back in January. There's been a small bidding war on the Belgian rights for this song, with the tiny independent BIP Records coming up as the most eager in the end. They've committed themselves to also releasing and promoting Agnes' recent album and even commissioned a set of Belgium-only remixes, including one by Dutch hitmaker Robert Abigail.
ALBUMS
Kings Of Leon once more leap to the top spot, for a third spell there with "Only by the Night". Leonard Cohen leaps 31-6, claiming his joint-highest peak in the Ultratop era, with the 2CD edition of "Live in London" (the DVD staying put at #2 in the specialised subchart). Highest debut at #8 is for smooth jazz diva Diana Krall with "Quiet Nights", a covers album of mostly songs abundantly covered before, like "The Boy from Ipanema" and "Walk on By".
Musical star Free Souffriau rose to fame in a blonde wig and pink catsuit as Mega Mindy, but the newest project of the former 'Steracteur sterartiest' winner is worlds apart from that image: "Free Souffriau zingt Ann Christy - Een beetje anNders", straight in at #10 (helped by a prime-time TV special). It's a tribute album to the blonde nightingale considered one of Belgium's all-time greatest vocalists whose premature death to cancer dates back a quarter of a century this year. At #22 we have Neil Young, still keeping up his far-from-leisurely work rate, with "Fork in the Road", and at twenty-nine enter The Sunsets, an unlikely chart newcomer introduced at this year's Flemish Schlagerfestival: a male/female duo of twentysomethings playing schlager classics on the accordeon!
Il Divo rebound 92-30 with "The Promise" thanks to a new edition hitting the shelves, and thirty-three is the debut for Diablo Blvd., a heavy metal band around cult Flemish/British comedian Alex Agnew. Up 85-37 are Ghinzu, one of the select few alternative bands from francophone Belgium (where their third album "Mirror Mirror" is #2) to also entice a Flemish audience.
Originally Posted by Suomi
Dit had ik vooraf wel al es op YouTube meegepikt, verbaasd dat in het tijdperk van autotuning zelfs de studioversie zo vals als een kopiërende kat klinkt! Het enige fatsoenlijke wat de Bulgaren ooit hebben bijgedragen aan het Songfestival blijft ons Elitsa'ken en het nummer (maar niet act!) van vorig jaar.
