Flemish Charts'n'Chatter - A New Year, A New Site...

[skizzo]

Great to see Infinity at #1. How many times has the Belgian #1 coincided with the European #1?

[Andricicle]

Not sure, don't follow that Eurochart too closely, but surely "Bleeding Love", "4 Minutes" and "I Kissed a Girl" (and maybe also "Don't Stop the Music", "American Boy" and "This is the Life") would have made #1 there too, so several times this year already, I guess...

[skizzo]

Did some digging, for 2008 #1s:

--- 2008 ---
339+08/03/08.........[ 1]BLEEDING LOVE _ Leona Lewis
.re 15/03/08.........[ 1]APOLOGIZE _ Timbaland feat. OneRepublic
.re 22/03/08.........[ 1]BLEEDING LOVE _ Leona Lewis
340+29/03/08.........[ 1]MERCY _ Duffy
.re 05/04/08-19/04/08[ 3]BLEEDING LOVE _ Leona Lewis
.re 26/04/08.........[ 1]MERCY _ Duffy
341 03/05/08-14/06/08[ 7]4 MINUTES _ Madonna feat. Justin Timberlake
.re 21/06/08-12/07/08[ 4]MERCY _ Duffy
342 19/07/08.........[ 1]AMERICAN BOY _ Estelle feat. Kanye West
343 26/07/08-16/08/08[ 4]ALL SUMMER LONG _ Kid Rock
344 23/08/08-18/10/08[10]I KISSED A GIRL _ Katy Perry
345 01/11/08-08/11/08[ 2]SO WHAT _ Pink
346 15/11/08.........[ 1]INFINITY 2008 _ Guru Josh Project

[Andricicle]

344 23/08/08-18/10/08[10]I KISSED A GIRL _ Katy Perry

Ten-week runs at #1 are one of the reasons why I have little interest in this chart.

[skizzo]

There's been some huge long running #1s this decade:

--- 2000 ---
243 22/01/00-04/03/00[ 7]MOVE YOUR BODY _ Eiffel 65
245 18/03/00-29/04/00[ 7]AMERICAN PIE _ Madonna
260 23/12/00-24/02/01[10]STAN _ Eminem feat. Dido

--- 2001 ---
262 31/03/01-02/06/01[10]IT WASN’T ME _ Shaggy feat. Ricardo “Rikrok” Ducent
267 06/10/01-19/01/02[16]CAN’T GET YOU OUT OF MY HEAD _ Kylie Minogue

--- 2002 --- probably the most boring year ever, 5 #1s in total (Robbie & Pink are the other 2)
270 09/03/02-01/06/02[13]WHENEVER, WHEREVER _ Shakira
271 08/06/02-14/09/02[15]WITHOUT ME _ Eminem
272 21/09/02-11/01/03[17]THE KETCHUP SONG (ASEREJE) _ Las Ketchup

--- 2003 ---
273+18/01/03-08/02/03[ 4]LOSE YOURSELF _ Eminem
.re 22/03/03-12/04/03[ 4]LOSE YOURSELF _ Eminem
275 19/04/03-07/06/03[ 8]IN DA CLUB _ 50 Cent
282 11/10/03-22/11/03[ 7]WHERE IS THE LOVE _ Black Eyed Peas
284 20/12/03-13/03/04[13]SHUT UP _ Black Eyed Peas

--- 2004 ---
286 03/04/04-22/05/04[11]YEAH _ Usher feat. Lil Jon & Ludacris
289 26/06/04-11/09/04[12]DRAGOSTEA DIN TEI _ O-Zone

--- 2005 ---
303 02/07/05-10/09/05[11]AXEL F _ Crazy Frog
308 26/11/05-11/02/06[12]HUNG UP _ Madonna

--- 2006 ---
316+27/05/06-03/06/06[ 2]HIPS DON’T LIE _ Shakira feat. Wyclef Jean
.re 17/06/06-09/09/06[13]HIPS DON’T LIE _ Shakira feat. Wyclef Jean

--- 2007 ---
331 16/06/07-25/08/07[11]UMBRELLA _ Rihanna feat. Jay-Z
338+01/12/07-01/03/08[14]APOLOGIZE _ Timbaland feat. OneRepublic

[Andricicle]

That list probably is the ultimate 'con' against the idea of a United States of Europe!

[skizzo]

Its ridiculous how long some of those spent at #1. I blame it all on France, they get releases 2 months later than every other country, so those songs hang on the top for longer than they should

[Andricicle]

Indeed. Except for "Hips Don't Lie", where it was Britain dragging its feet.

[skizzo]

and probably the Eurocheese hits by Las Ketchup and O-Zone, France usually gets those soon-ish.

[Andricicle]

BOMB France.

Or make it finally include downloads in its charts, whatever's more convenient.

[skizzo]

Their digital chart is definitely more up to date, but the sales are still too low to make a big impact in the singles chart. The bottom end of the top50 would definitely get a shakeup though. How long have they had a digital chart? Its taking ages for it to take off

[Andricicle]

The singleeurope site I write for also has a guy commenting on the French charts, and for nearly two years he's also been discussing the digital charts, on account of them being slightly more representative.

[Andricicle]

SINGLES

The entire Top 4 remains static, with Guru Josh Project sticking it out for a second week. (That other '90s makeover, Robin S' "Show Me Love 2008", however is already down 24-28, so doesn't look to be following soon). A British brunette who writes all of her own music, Amy Macdonald, finally cracks the Top 10 with "Mr Rock & Roll" (17-9), while an American blonde who writes none, Britney Spears, is on the verge of a sixteenth Top Tenner with "Womanizer" (17-11).

The highest new entry at #13 is one of the biggest-hyped all year: the singing debut of star TV/radio presenter and all-round media darling Peter Van de Veire. For a few months he's had his own Friday night music show on public network één, 'Peter Live', and one of the stunts he's launched in this is trying to score his own hit single and gold record (=10,000 copies for a Dutch-language single made in Belgium). For this he's received the support of major EMI and the help of three songwriters with impressive CVs: Kris Wauters, the musical motor behind Clouseau (see below), Frank Vander linden, frontman of respected rockers De Mens, and commercial dance pop king Regi Penxten. Their composition "Neem me mee" ["Pick Me Up"] comes with a chorus that sticks in your head, lyrics laden with in-jokes from the show and a video featuring cameos by lots of Famous Flemings. Already it's bagged the top spot in the Vlaamse Top 10 (leaping 10-1) and since all profits go to the SOS Kinderdorpen charity, a Number One in the overall chart looks well in reach too.

The runner-up in the Dutch-language chart behind Peter Van de Veire is one that otherwise would have been a shoo-in for #1: the latest single by Clouseau. The absolute sales champions of Flemish pop in the past 20 years are about to sell out the Antwerp Sportpaleis arena again for a few weeks in a row (with this year's theme called 'Clouseau Crescendo'), and as a taster they've released "Wat een leven" ["What a Life"], yet another singalong professionally designed to entertain everyone between 1 and 101 years old. The accompanying video is being touted as hugely innovative, in that it allows viewers to interactively select their own scenes and add their own elements online. Entering at seventeen, the Wauters brothers prove their success shows no sign of wavering, and Kris can claim two songwriting credits in the top half of the chart.

Following a month among the bubblers, Snow Patrol finally progress to the upper fifty with "Take Back the City" (#32), only their first uptempo offering to chart over here, which might help alleviate the band's reputation of doom and gloom mongers. One below we have Beyoncé and "If I Were a Boy", the appetiser to the "I Am" part of her new double album (with the "Sasha Fierce" single "Single Ladies" still nowhere to be seen in the downloads). It's the second co-write by Toby Gad to strike it big worldwide, following Fergie's similarly dramatic "Big Girls Don't Cry" last year.

One of 2007's biggest Ultratop revelations, Stan Van Samang, had been relatively quiet so far in 2008, but the winner of the first 'Steracteur sterartiest' reality TV contest hopes to fix that with the lead single for his second album, due in the New Year: "This Time", in at #46. English bedwetters Keane carry the red lantern in the Top 50 with the second single from their "Perfect Symmetry" album: "The Lovers are Losing", just a few weeks after predecessor "Spiralling" spent all of one week on chart at #41. Will this one, rather more in tune with the established Keane sound, do better?

ALBUMS

A full month on top for AC/DC's "Black Ice", still conspicuously absent from all legal download platforms, while Céline Dion marks her tenth Top 3 album with her "My Love" collection. MGMT reclaim their #10 peak with "Oracular Spectacular", thanks to the crossover appeal of the "Kids" single and undoubtedly also the slight price reduction the album has already had. De Kreuners rebound 25-14 with their three-disc "30" set, on the back of several Sportpaleis gigs celebrating their 30th anniversary on stage.

New age queen Enya provides the highest new entry at #18 with the suitably seasonal "And Winter Came…". From a long-serving female vocalist who's barely taken one risk in her whole career to one who keeps on pushing the envelope even at the age of 60: Grace Jones. The avant-garde disco queen makes her return to the music industry at nineteen with "Hurricane", her first album in 19 years. Another starkly contrasting pair enter at numbers 24 and 25: MOR purveyors Il Divo's fifth(!) album "The Promise" and Icelandic cult artist Jóhann Jóhansson with "Fordlândia".

Lou Reed is in at forty-three with a live recording of his legendary 1973 album "Berlin" at St. Ann's Warehouse in Brooklyn, New York, with one below "Het kinderplaatje van Bart Peeters", a collection of the singer/songwriter/TV star's children's songs. "The UFO Has Landed", an anthology of the 40-year career of Ry Cooder debuts at #47, and best-selling tenor Andrea Bocelli rings us out with "Incanto", his latest album full of popular classical interpretations.

[loomer]

Milow, finally going all the way with his cover of 50 Cent and Justin Timberlake's "Ayo Technology".[/i]

That is dreadful and the video is gross.

[Andricicle]

That is dreadful and the video is gross.

I do prefer it to the original (well, the 50 Cent parts anyway) but it IS overplayed to bollocks here by now. The 'Perez Hilton/Kanye West like it' story has been VERY instrumental in making it as big as it's become. And yes, the video is a bit

[skizzo]

you stopped the write-ups?

[Andricicle]

No, I still write 'em for the Single Europe site as I've always done, but given the disintegration of the Belgian clique, I thought there little point in posting them here anymore...

[skizzo]

Thanks, i'll check it out

[belgo]

Tijd om dit hier eens te bumpen me dunkt!

De kwalitatieve Vlaamse muziek ligt tegenwoordig dun gezaaid, maar al surfend langsheen de MNM website ontdekte ik zonet dit leuke plaatje van ons aller Leki.

Het nummer heet 'Love Me Another Day' en wordt uitgebracht onder de naam Leki & The Sweet Mints. Verrassend genoeg werd het getekend door ARS. Na het floppen van Leki's vorige album had ik niet verwacht dat zo'n major in haar zou investeren, dus een meer dan aangename verrassing.



Deze week trouwens de Big Hit van MNM en hopelijk kan ze die titel alle eer aan doen door nog eens een dikke "Big Hit" scoren in den Ultratop!

[Andricicle]

Eindelijk een nummer 1 voor Hooverphonic in de Ultratop, en er moest eerst iemand voor sterven

SINGLES

As foreshadowed last week, we greet a brand new entry at #1 for the first time in three years. It comes from the unlikely chart name of Andy Sierens, a 22-year-old West Flemish rapper who lost the battle with cancer on 16 December last year. Shortly before his death, he got to fulfil his big wish of recording in a professional studio, thanks to the feel-good prime-time TV show 'Hart voor mekaar'. For this he received the help of top Belgian sophistipop trio Hooverphonic, which makes that the group's (soon-to-be-ex) singer Geike Arnaert has hit #1 twice in a short timespan, following her Tom Helsen duet "Home" only a few weeks ago. The result, the emotionally fuelled "Mijn leven" ["My Life"], has caused a stampede in various download portals (mainly the smaller Belgianmusiconline) in its first few days on sale. This gives us the sixth #1 entry in the existence of Ultratop, following the debut singles of 'Idool' winners Peter Evrard and Joeri Fransen, Eurosong hits by Xandee and Belle Perez, and the tsunami Number One "Geef een teken", as well as the second posthumous chart-topper, after the late André Hazes' "Zij gelooft in mij" in 2004.

Lady GaGa is also making a serious bid for that top spot, up 15-2 with her rather marvellous second chart hit "Poker Face" (debut hit "Just Dance" made 'just' #13, but enters its 20th week on chart). Polarkreis 18's equally scrumptious "Allein allein" (11-5) manages to mirror its Top 5 peak in Germany and Austria (it narrowly missed out in Switzerland) while compatriots Paul & Fritz Kalkbrenner rebound 10-6 with "Sky and Sand". Wamdue Project seem committed to equal or better the #5 peak of "King of my Castle" back in 1999, as the 2009 remix is up 26-10, and James Morrison feat. Nelly Furtado predictably join the Top 20 with "Broken Strings" (29-16).

The newcomer at #17 is a record my dear colleague Ludovic already alerted me to last summer (at which point I was quick to dismiss it as a throwaway novelty that would never pass the borders of the francophone world). It's Discobitch, the project of DJs Kylian Mash and Laurent Konrad plus lyricist Pauline Sampeur, with "C'est beau la bourgeoisie" (…'qui boit du champagne' and/or 'qui fly à Hawaï', amusingly enough). This fairly demented dance track has made the daytime playlist of mainstream radio MNM, and cracks the sales chart now it has been added to the Belgian iTunes with some delay (a physical CD has been available ever since September, but who still buys/which shops still stock those?). Up 33-19 is another one for the clubs: "Stop Playing With My Mind" by Daniel Bovie & Roy Rox, whose vocals are actually provided by former 'Eurosong' entrant Nelson Moraïs, and we continue the trend with Delerium feat. Sarah McLachlan's reworked "Silence" (39-26).

Having bagged her long-due third Flemish chart-topper with "Womanizer", the lead single from her "Circus" album, Britney Spears looks to be having a bit more trouble to score with the second single and title track. The (for now) download-only frenetic pop tune had to spend five weeks in the Ultratip 30, and now hesitantly enters at #44. A repeat of the scenario for her previous album "Blackout", where the lead-off became a sizeable hit, the follow-up only scraped the lower edges of the Top 50 and further singles failed to chart at all?

The most irritating Ultratop Number One this decade in my ever-humble opinion has been "Rock This Party" by Bob Sinclar, and so it is no surprise I can't get too excited about the newcomer at #46, a joint venture between two of the many sidekick acts credited on that hit: Big Ali and Dollarman. "Hit the Floor" sounds like a true Frankenstein's monster of a 'song', magpieing the vocal hook from "The Power" and the bassline of "House of God" with two bigmouths and a couple of female backing vocalists all randomly and chaotically yelling through one another. All in all, not to be consumed by anyone above the age of 12 and not suffering from attention-deficit disorder… The bottom newcomer at #48 is for Bruce Springsteen, returning to the singles Top 50 for the first time in nearly 13 years with the Obama-inspired title track for his chart-topping "Working on a Dream" album…

ALBUMS

…bringing us seamlessly to the Number One album, still for 'The Boss'. Lily Allen debuts straight at #9 with her sophomore set "It's Not Me, It's You", already smashing the #24 peak of 2006's debut "Alright, Still". Bald-headed Antwerp singer/songwriter Axl Peleman, previously frontman of the bands Ashbury Faith and Camden and since recently also a member of long-running pop/rockers De Kreuners, is in at thirty-seven with his second solo LP "In 't gezicht" ["In the Face"]. The latest ceremony of the MIA's (Music Industry Awards, the Flemish aspiration to the Brits/Grammys) gives new boosts to albums by Milow (36-11 with his second long-play and 67-38 with his first), Lady Linn and Her Magnificent Seven (49-21) and Hannelore Bedert (77-51), but more effect of that in next week's singles chart probably…

[Stosh]

Ons Leki gaat dus de Sandrine-toer op ;)

[Stosh]

Ondergetekende vreest alweer het ergste bij de geruchten rond de Belgische Eurovisiebijdrage van onze Waalse vrienden... Een Elvis-imitator begot

[Stosh]

Als vrouwe Gaga volgende week niet bovenaan prijkt, dan zal dat een grote schande zijn Bizar dat deze het veel beter doet dan 'Alleen maar dansen hadden ze gezegd'

[Andricicle]

'Alleen maar dansen hadden ze gezegd'

*heeft ook al opgekrulde tenen bij de Yooroveezjun-plannen uit het land van Laurette en Elio*

[Stosh]

En ons Betty siert weer eens de cover van de Story...

[Stosh]

Ik heb zonet een lijvige versie van Dum Tek Tek bekeken en het stemgeluid van Hadje was alvast veel beter dan verwacht!

[Andricicle]

SINGLES

After its headline-grabbing Number One debut last week, "Mijn leven" by the late Andy Sierens feat. Hooverphonic now takes an all-time record tumble, down 1-26 after the initial wave of first-week sympathy sales decreased drastically in the second week. However, the cancer-charity download single has received a lot of new media attention in the meantime and has been added to the playlists of both Q-music and MNM, so it may well make an impressive rebound next week! Possibly back to the top spot? The artist who benefits most from it all is Joanne Stefani Germanotta, AKA Lady GaGa, whose second hit "Poker Face" replicates its #1 peak in all of Australasia and Scandinavia (plus Wallonia) in the Flemish sales chart. Up to second place are the German Kalkbrenner brothers with "Sky and Sand", from the cult film 'Berlin Calling' starring Paul Kalkbrenner himself.

Last week's album chart already saw some rebounds in the wake of the heavily-publicised MIA's ceremony, and now these Flemish music awards also have their effect on the singles front. Best song as voted by the public went to Milow for the second year in a row: first time around with "You Don't Know", and now with his acoustic 50 Cent cover "Ayo Technology", which had been on the way back for a while after spending two weeks on top in October last year. In its 22nd week on chart the song, only ever recorded as a novelty in-joke for Studio Brussel's 'Rendez-Vous' project in the first place, shoots back up 32-6 after some thousands of new fans paid a visit to their download shop of choice.

The clear-cut best-selling artist of the moment in Great Britain, Lily Allen, marks her first Top Tenner with the glorious "The Fear", up 13-7, while Craig David is back up 14-9, ironically his smallest hit ever in the UK but his biggest in Belgium! If there is a crowd-pleaser in the German language that has set many a beer tent on fire the past few years, there's a good chance a member of the De Bolle family will record it in Dutch at some point. Brother Christoff already struck it big with Flemish versions of "Ein Stern…" and "Sieben Sünden", while his sister Lindsay kicked off her solo career last year with a Top 5 cover of Helene Fischer's "Und morgen früh küss' ich dich wach", and for the follow-up she's gone to another German schlager queen. This time it's Kristina Bach, whose "Küss mich" has become "Kus me", and enters at #32.

Another MIA's-induced chart caper as the winners of Best Breakthrough, underage bluesrock duo The Black Box Revelation, re-enter at #37 with their first genuine mainstream hit "Never Alone/Always Together", following their three-minute showcase on prime-time TV. One below there's a second chance for Emiliana Torrini, whose relatively outlandish "Jungle Drum" is now also being played on commercial-chart-fare-focused station MNM.

The promotional schedule for Coldplay's "Viva la vida…" album might appear a bit confusing to most people used to the 'four singles released at three-month intervals' pattern that used to be customary. The latest track promoted from this project is "Life in Technicolor II", a vocal version of the album's instrumental opener, first released on the "Prospekt's March" EP at the end of last year. All the while the Grammy-winning, Alizée-aping (near-)title track is still on chart, 32 weeks into its run! Peter Luts, the big chief behind Lasgo and several other Flemish dance projects over the past decade, notches up another chart hit in his own name, as "Burning" enters at #41.

Alesha Dixon initially seemed to go the way of so many girl/boy group members before her, with an attempted solo career that has all the makings of a lead balloon. However, after a false start with a few minor UK-only 'hits' in 2006, the former Mis-Teeq singer looks to be finally on the tracks as a solo star. The Lou Bega-esque "The Boy Does Nothing" already provided her with a lengthy chart run in Britain (admittedly helped by her victory on ballroom dancing TV show 'Strictly Come Dancing'), and now also returns her to the charts of continental Europe, where foreign editions of any reality show mean nothing.

After about a dozen singles (both solo and all sorts of collaborations) that usually got stuck in the Ultratip, Kanye West has finally become a chart regular at this side of the Atlantic as well. The US multi-talent is in at forty-eight with "Heartless", the second vocoder-heavy single from his quite good "808s & Heartbreaks" album. And we conclude with a local artist who tries his utter best to look and sound like a US chart star: video channel presenter and beatboxing champion Ken 'Fatty_K' Flamant. His second hit single "Sophisticated" has, just like his first ("Lonely"), been helped by several signing sessions.

ALBUMS

Kings of Leon reclaim their #1 spot with "Only by the Night". Highest new entry at twenty-eight is for "Years of Refusal" by living legend Morrissey, who keeps the solo albums rolling remarkably steadily these past few years for someone who'd kept himself absent from the pop scene for a long time. Nick & Simon, two sons of former BZN members, have already frequented the charts in their Dutch native for years, and are now looking to go the same way south of the border, in at thirty with "Luister" ["Listen"]. Beirut, the biggest name in the Balkanbeats hype of the past few years (but very much a resident of the United States), debuts at #38 "March of the Zapotec…", a combination of two EPs.

[Stosh]

Aléhop, Keetjes Spaanse lesbo-vriendin mag ook naar Moskou afzakken...
Vriend lieven, weet ge een plekje waar ik de Zweedse kaasjes vinden kan?

[belgo]

Aléhop, Keetjes Spaanse lesbo-vriendin mag ook naar Moskou afzakken...
Vriend lieven, weet ge een plekje waar ik de Zweedse kaasjes vinden kan?

Als je ze alle 32 aan je verzameling wil toevoegen, dan is onderstaande link wel handig :

http://www.eurovision-db.com/site/me...festivalen.rar

Ze staan ook stuk voor stuk op deze blog :

http://www.eurovision2009downloads.blogspot.com

Veel luisterplezier!

[Andricicle]

SINGLES

In the wake of all the media attention following their Number One debut a fortnight ago, Andy Sierens and Hooverphonic indeed rebound to the top spot in their third week on chart. With 1-26-1, "Mijn leven" has so far given us one of the most bizarre patterns in chart history! For the moment legal downloads are still added to the Belgian charts with a week's delay out of technical necessities, but there is a good chance they will be accelerated very soon (and included simultaneously with physical sales). In ideal circumstances the sales effects of this song's giant first-week exposure would already have been reflected in last week's chart and the single would just have stayed put at #1, but all that is now food for overly ambitious revisionists of course…

Discobitch penetrate the Top 10 with "C'est beau la bourgeoisie" (12-9), while Beyoncé's "Single Ladies" (19-13) and Novastar's "Because" (23-14, both new peaks) have finally got to top speed. P!nk, fresh from kicking off her latest tour in Antwerp's Sportpaleis no less, leaps 35-24 with "Sober", and #27 is the long-awaited debut for the latest group in the MGMT slipstream of oddball duos mixing eighties electro with 21st-century psychedelia. It's Empire of the Sun, an Australian twosome of former members of The Sleepy Jackson and Pnau, with the melancholic "Walking on a Dream", a staple of the StuBru playlist for the past two months or so.

Alesha Dixon is up 43-29 with "The Boy Does Nothing" (a seemingly cobbled-together song where only the chorus has any relevance to the attention-grabbing title, with the verses full of generic lyrics about dancing), and Coldplay's Grammy for Best Song indeed gives "Viva la vida" yet another boost (45-31 in week 33), thanks to a rare section of legal downloaders who have not yet got sick of this song over the past nine months. Stan Van Samang, someone whose big ambition seems to be the Flemish Chris Martin, makes a re-entry at #38 with the prematurely-disappeared "I Didn't Know", and other renewed chances go to Britney Spears' "Circus" at #41 and Marco Borsato's "Dochters" at #47.

Two new entries left, and at forty-eight we have the mainstream chart debut for Fleet Foxes, a bearded male quartet from Seattle revisiting the close-harmony folk craze of the early '70s. Their untitled debut album has already been well present in the Ultratop 100 for over half a year and now they also make a splash on the singles front, with the evocative "Mykonos", taken from the EP "Sun Giant". Finally at #49 it's Anglo/Swedish foursome Razorlight and "Wire to Wire", a surprisingly gospel-themed tune far removed from their usual fare of ladrock and rather reminiscent of American band Live.

ALBUMS

Kings of Leon stay immobile at #1, while Morrissey claims his second post-1995 Top 10 album with "Years of Refusal" (28-8). Nineties dance pioneers The Prodigy are in at #22 with "Invaders Must Die", with one lower debuting Ghent-based band The Bony King Of Nowhere and "Alas My Love", produced by the same team behind songstress An Pierlé. "To Be Still" by Alela Diane, one of the most commercially viable names in the 'New Weird America' wave, enters at twenty-eight, followed at thirty-five by the afore-named Razorlight and third LP "Slipway Fires".

For the first time in many years, France seem to put an above-average commitment into Eurovision, sending established star Patricia Kaas, whose heavily retro "Kabaret" album already debuts at #38 in Dutch-speaking Belgium. Two newcomers from the ever-headstrong 4AD stable, cult singer/songwriter M. Ward's "Hold At Time" and the various-artists album "Dark Was the Night" at 42-43 respectively, and the final debutant within the upper fifty is Venus in Flames, the nom de plume for local tunesmith Jan De Campenaere, with third long-play "Intimacy" (a title shared with the latest Bloc Party opus).

[Stosh]

Medankuwel

[Andricicle]

SINGLES

Andy Sierens A.K.A. Vijvenveertig feat. Hooverphonic once again tumble from the top spot, though not quite so heavily this time around: "Mijn leven" now drops 1-3. Lady GaGa once more takes over the reins from the posthumously-released charity record, entering a second spell on top with "Poker Face", amazingly either a #1 or #2 in almost every country where it's been officially released! Berlin siblings Paul & Fritz Kalkbrenner move back up to the runner-up spot, now also having cracked the Walloon Ultratop 40 with "Sky and Sand", and fellow Germans Polarkreis 18 rejoin the Top 5 with "Allein allein" (7-5). And we stay in the Teutonic sphere with Lindsay De Bolle's Kristina Bach cover "Kus me", up 28-12 following a, you guessed it, discount voucher in Flanders' top-selling family weekly.

Delerium feat. Sarah McLachlan are up 26-14 with the remade/remodelled "Silence", a surprise airplay Number One in francophone Belgium. The greatest gainer is reserved for Razorlight, bagging their highest peak so far with "Wire to Wire" (49-17), in spite of drummer Andy Burrows having just left the band. A male dadrock foursome from the British Isles of an older generation, U2, rebound 44-19 with "Get On Your Boots" (and be prepared for a slew of album tracks potentially joining the Top 50 soon). The theme song of teenie TV series 'Amika' goes back up 39-22 in the wake of a signing session, and Lady GaGa's current #1 gives precessor "Just Dance" another shot in the arm (32-24 in a 23rd week).

After Big Ali feat. Dollarman initially seemed to be gone after just two weeks to my delight, the soul-destroying "Hit the Floor" now makes a re-entry at #37, with Kanye West also coming back for a second attempt, with "Heartless" at forty-three. Highest debut is at a lowly #46 for the very first 'American Idol', Kelly Clarkson, whose previous album showed abundantly that the 'angsty Evanescence rock chick' angle is not too commercially viable anymore. She (or cynics might say, rather her record company's market research department) has now decided to pursue the trendy Katy Perry path of bubblegum electro pop, with the quite dreadfully-titled "My Life Would Suck Without You". What are the odds that by the next album she'll have undergone yet another transformation to fit whatever is riding high in the Billboard charts by that time?

A singalong that has intensely pleased and intensely annoyed people in equal measures the past few months makes its long-due Ultratop entry at #47: "Rap das armas", in the original version by Brazilian duo Cidinho e Doca which already topped the official Dutch charts. Originally recorded in 1994, the insanely infectious chant only reached a vast audience 15 years onwards after its use in the film 'Tropa de Elite'. And in bottom position we have the second mainstream hit for Dutchman Armin van Buuren, who has taken over the baton from his compatriot Tiësto as 'the world's best DJ'. Hot on the heels of his long-running #10 hit "In and Out of Love" featuring Within Temptation's Sharon den Adel, he has now enlisted the vocals and songwriting skills of another female, Jaren (Cerf), on the emotionally-charged trancepop tune "Unforgivable".

ALBUMS

With some 40,000 copies (an astronomical amount for the Belgian market in this day and age) shipped out to retail, it is little surprise that U2 debut straight on top. "No Line on the Horizon" follows the Irishmen's three previous studio albums and eighties and nineties compilations to the #1 of the official charts. The Prodigy progress 22-4 with "Invaders Must Die" and The Bony King Of Nowhere seem to be confirming their status of 'next big thing", up 23-9 with debut "Alas My Love". Recent concerts on Belgian soil give rebounds to P!nk (13-6), AC/DC (29-13) and Metallica (57-48).

The upper fifty are furthermore expanded by eighties-fixated Ozzie duo Empire of the Sun (64-41), Dutch countrypop princess Ilse DeLange (68-42), the soundtrack to Oscar-winner 'Slumdog Millionaire' (re-entry at #43) and "We Sing, We Dance, We Steal Things" by Jason Mraz, reaching a brand new peak of #49 some half a year after release, due to the ongoing success of the "I'm Yours" single!

[Andricicle]

SINGLES

Lady GaGa looks finally set to stay on top with the gold-certified "Poker Face". In their 26th week on chart, Kings Of Leon move back up from twenty-six to their peak position of #10 with "Sex on Fire", possibly in the wake of the rock anthem winning the Best International Song category in the long-running televised Pop Poll awards show of 'Humo' magazine. An even greater leap is made by P!nk, up 32-11 with "Sober" undoubtedly helped by her Sportpaleis gig already mentioned last week. Alesha Dixon has finally got things cooking too, onwards and upwards 34-21 with "The Boy Does Nothing".

Highest debut is for synthpop legends Depeche Mode with what is astoundingly already their highest peak in the official Ultratop era: in at #23 with "Wrong". Like several of their lead singles in the past, the dark tune is more of a shock statement of intent than an instant pop song, with more melodic stuff presumably being saved up for future singles from their forthcoming twelfth album. The Basildon lads' biggest Flemish hit ever is shared by "People are People" and "Enjoy the Silence", both #3 hits with similarly lengthy runs in the BRT Top 30 in respectively 1984 and 1990. Kooky Icelander Emiliana Torrini meanwhile is now really in the middle of scoring a mainstream hit single (probably her first anywhere outside the Nordic countries), as "Jungle Drum" leaps 38-25.

After comeback single "Out of my Mind" spent nearly half a year on the Top 50, Lasgo now strike back with the second single featuring new front woman Jelle: "Gone", in at #28. The catchy dance tune comes with a high-budget video shot in L.A. though like most of their singles to date, parts of the lyrics ('you're so wrong to make me cry') sound written by an 11-year-old who knows a little English from TV and pop songs, but it's unlikely most of their core audience will notice/care about that. Following last year's Top 3 hits "Een ster" and "Zeven zonden", Flemish schlager champion Christoff De Bolle has taken another cover version out of the fridge of a German-language singalong popularised by DJ Ötzi. This time it's "In 100.000 Jahren", written by Modern Talking's Dieter Bohlen (just like Ötzi a man who many more people own records by than would publically admit to like…), translated to "In 100 000 jaren" by Christoff himself as usual and in at thirty-eight.

New at #43 is a DJ of local dance station Topradio turned chart star: Laurent Wery, and his floorfiller "My Sound", whose CD maxi also includes the track "Eleven" which too is attracting some airplay (mainly on Topradio, as you can imagine). The triumvirate of US hiphop circa 2003, Eminem / Dr. Dre / 50 Cent, finally cracks the Top 50 at #44 with the internationally slightly underperforming "Crack a Bottle", and two below is a U2 album track, not set for single release till a while yet. Unlike the latest Coldplay and dEUS albums which both spawned four chart hits in their first few weeks on sale, the iTunes debut of "No Line on the Horizon" has thankfully led to only the old-school-U2 "Magnificent" charting within the Top 50 (apart from the "Get On Your Boots" single, which gets a new peak at #15).

And after a fair while among the bubblers-under and several months on major playlists, Miley Cyrus finally moves on to the big table at #48 with second European hit "See You Again". Thanks to its retro production and charming ('she's just being Miley') lyrics, this single seems rather more palatable to people other than the Disney star's fanbase of teenie girls, unlike her Avril Lavigne-esque breakthrough "7 Things" or next single "Fly on the Wall".

ALBUMS

U2 remain predictably on top (though in Wallonia the Irishmen have to surrender their #1 to charity collective Les Enfoirés), with the rebounds of the week going to AC/DC (13-3), Coldplay (22-8) and Metallica (48-26). Kelly Clarkson debuts at #37 with fourth album "All I Ever Wanted", and at #49 we have another act's fourth LP: "All the Plans" by British bedwetter supremos Starsailor. The Top 50 is signed off by The Whitest Boy Alive, the Berlin-based project around Norwegian Erlend Øye and second long-play "Rules".

[Andricicle]

SINGLES

Another week on top for Lady GaGa and her papapapokerface-papa-pokerface (muh-muh-muh-mahh). Discobitch are up 6-3 with "C'est beau la bourgeoisie", while another largely francophone club track, "Some People (Ton désir)" by Ocean Drive feat. DJ Oriska, is now also playlisted on the MNM station and duly enters the Flemish Ultratip 30 in bottom place. Will these remain just one-offs or the start of a new French wave like in the mid/late '80s? Christoff's latest German 'Ballermann hit' translation, "In 100 000 jaren", nabs the greatest gainer (38-5), giving this century's #1 male Flemish schlager star his fifth Top 5 hit in just under two years. One of the top dogs in Belgian dance, Lasgo, claim their sixth Top 10 entry with "Gone" (28-8), and P!nk adds an eighth Top Tenner to her tally as "Sober" climbs 11-10.

A new peak for Delerium feat. Sarah McLachlan's second coming of "Silence" (24-12), and the highest new entry at #13 promises to become the biggest hit in a fair few years for Sylver, after a series of mid-table releases. The Flemish dancepop duo, which also struck it particularly big in Germanic Europe, rises again with "I Hate You Now", a song whose lyrics ring particularly poignant from the mouth of former child star singer Sylvie. She has been 'gracing' many a tabloid cover recently following her less-than-amicable divorce (after a short-lived marriage which spawned a daughter) from a womanizing Moroccan who then went on to father a child with a 16-year-old girl shortly afterwards, as you can imagine a true feast for the Flemish popular press. Still, all publicity turns out to be good publicity in this case judging from this single's warm reception.

Number sixteen is another chart rebirth of sorts: Starsailor with just their second Top 50 hit after 2005's Thin White Duke remix of "Four the Floor". The sentimental "Tell Me It's Not Over" has been propelled by heavy radio rotation and a promotional push from the band members themselves, two of whom gave a free street concert in student town Louvain to great media coverage. Flo Rida manages to avoid the Vanilla Ice/Ini Kamoze/Skee-Lo destiny of One Hit Wonder Rapper, entering at #26 with the transatlantic chart-topper "Right Round" featuring one Ke$ha. It's far from the first time Dead or Alive's stone-cold eighties classic "You Spin Me Round (Like a Record)" gets recycled to some success, Dannii Minogue and Danzel having already taken it back to the charts in recent years.

Contrary to most album tracks charting upon their mother album's digital release, U2's "Magnificent" hasn't disappeared again after one week, but instead climbs 46-30. After a hesitant start Kelly Clarkson leaps 47-33 with this year's silliest song title for a chart hit, while the boisterous Big Ali feat. Dollarman get the award for Pussyfooter of the year, onto a third(!) Top 50 attempt with a re-entering "Hit the Floor" at a new peak of #34. After his surprise steamroll breakthrough last year with the 28-week #2 "Mojito Song", Dutch DJ Robert Abigail provides a follow-up with the DJ Rebel collaboration "Merengue", in at thirty-six.

The longest-due chart debut goes to our #37: the Top 50 maiden voyage of Ghent-based singer/songwriter Lien De Greef AKA Lady Linn and her all-male Magnificent Seven. The jazz/soul-inflicted retro collective has been a fixture on the album chart for over a year with the album "Here We Go Again", which has issued several radio hits (all written by the charismatic front woman herself) and now finally a crossover to the sales chart, albeit a cover: a loungey remake of Eddy Grant's 1982 hit "I Don't Wanna Dance". Lady Linn's profile has had a big boost these past few months, largely thanks to her winning the MIA (Flemish Music Industry Award) for Best Solo Female, over far more widely-known rivals like Natalia and Kate Ryan.

2 1/2 years after Justin Timberlake charted with the T.I.-featuring "My Love", the roles are now reversed on "Dead and Gone". The second Top 50 hit from the latter's "Paper Trail" album is in at forty and has a bit more meat to it than the near-novelty, O-Zone-referencing predecessor "Live Your Life" featuring Rihanna. And #44 is the debut for "Shake It" by Hollywood trio Metro Station, the latest evidence of major record companies realising that '80s-coloured electro pop/rock is the current rage to be serving to teen audiences.

ALBUMS

U2 remain on top, with solid leaps made by The Hickey Underworld (20-3), Lady GaGa (14-4, new peak nearly half a year after release), Kelly Clarkson (37-7) and Starsailor (49-12). Highest debut at #23 goes to a live collection registering Marco Borsato's concerts in the Rotterdam Gelredome to promote his cross-media "Wit licht" project (the album was a resounding success, the film of the same title less so).

"La république des meteors" by French new wave veterans Indochine debuts at #31, with prolific poetic singer/songwriter Bonnie "Prince" Billy marking a fifth Top 100 album in just six years with "Beware" at #47. Jazzy songstress Madeleine Peyroux comes crashing in at forty-nine with "Bare Bones", and one below we have a self-titled album by Laïs Lenski, an artistic joint venture of female folk trio Laïs with Simon Lenski, cello player best-known of avantgarde Antwerp group DAAU (Die Anarchistische Abendunterhaltung).

[Stosh]

O ironie! Dame Lynn haar grootste hit tot op de dag van vandaag is een cover

(Die ik maar al te gaarne meehum )

[Andricicle]

Bedoelt ge "Du hast mich tausendmal belogen" van de rosse oppergodin aller Duitse klassedames die maar al te gaarne een jaartje of vijf van hun echte leeftijd willen afslaan, Andrea Berg? (de mij bijwijlen een beetje aan ons aller Lena Ph doet denken )



SINGLES

To paraphrase an old Queen hit, all we hear is still Lady GaGa *clap clap* at #1, entering a fifth week there with "Poker Face". A hot contender to replace her next week, Discobitch, are up to second place, while Lasgo mark their third Top Fiver (and first since 2001's "Alone"!) as "Gone" progresses 8-5. Another Flemish commercial dance powerhouse, Sylver, moves 13-8 with "I Hate You Now", the ninth domestic Top 10 entry for the duo (recently augmented with guitarist John Miles Jr.).

One of two revelations of the long-running Rock Rally talent hunt of 'Humo' magazine' to enter this week's Top 50 is the highest new entry at #14: The Hickey Underworld. Upon their victory in the 2006 edition, the articulate rockers with singer Younes Faltakh struck a deal with the prestigious French Naïve label, and having already made a splash on the album chart, they now also place a chart single - often the key to an even broader audience - with "Future Words". Flo Rida feat. Ke$ha are up 26-15 with "Right Round", with other climbers into the Top 20 including Robert Abigail feat. DJ Rebel (36-17) and Kelly Clarkson (33-18 after a faulty start). Lady Linn and her Magnificent Seven's Eddy Grant revisit leaps 37-24, with Empire of the Sun reclaiming their #27 peak of "Walking on a Dream" and Metro Station's "Shake It" climbing 44-32.

I am usually quite averse to the concept of 'guilty pleasures' (generally applied by elitist critics to nearly all well-crafted pop that's not Bob Dylan, The Beatles or U2) but the newcomer at #35 is probably the dictionary illustration to the term. It's the third single by the Dalton Sisters, a foursome of underage sisters who rose to fame in the 2007 'Junior Eurosong' preselections. They quickly landed under the wing of the Studio 100 empire backed by the same team behind K3, though their newest release is no new composition at all. It's a Flemish remake of "Chihuahua", the novelty tune originally penned in the 1950's by Luis Oliveira and made most famous in 2003 by two rivalling chart versions, one by Belgian group The Booming People and one by Switzerland's top musical export DJ Bobo. The result, tying in with the Disney flick 'Beverly Hills Chihuahua', can in no way, shape or form be described as quality or having any soul, but is still remarkably hard to resist.

At #42 is a new entry that many probably didn't expect any more: the second single from Snow Patrol's latest album "A Hundred Million Suns". After the slightly faster and rockier lead-off "Take Back the City," "Crack the Shutters" finds the downbeat Scots/Irishmen firmly back in midtempo, MOR radio format-tailored mode. The second Humo's Rock Rally alumnus to make his chart debut is finally in at forty-nine: Jasper Erkens. The curly singer/songwriter wowed many by finishing second last year at the tender age of fifteen with both his own songs and an acoustic cover of (the already oft-covered) "Crazy" by Gnarls Barkley. The latter was then included on Studio Brussel's 'Rendez-Vous' covers album and released as a single in its own right, in the wake of Milow's similar-sounding "Ayo Technology" revisit but without the same level of sales success. Jasper's proper Top 50 debut is now a fact in the shape of his first self-written single, the energetic "Waiting Like a Dog" - like most of the tracks on his debut album, containing lyrics that seem written by someone much older and wiser than 16.

ALBUMS

Still the U2/Kings Of Leon yoke at respectively one and two, causing Marco Borsato to miss out on a seventh #1 album with "Wit licht - Live" (23-3). Peter Doherty skyrockets 65-7 with "Grace / Wastelands", peaking far higher than he ever did as the leader of Babyshambles (#45). One of the top bands in the new 'kleinkunst' wave, Yevgueni, are straight in at #9 with third LP "We zijn er nu toch" ["We're Here After All"], also the highest peak yet.

Up 63-24 are this year's assembly of Ketnetpop Juniors, a hotchpotch of remakes and new tracks by former contestants of the local Junior ESC heats, and the afore-named Jasper Erkens is in at #28 with his highly-anticipated debut "The Brighter Story". Norwegian synthpop duo Röyksopp enters at thirty-four with "Junior", an album featuring several Nordic females like Robyn, Lykke Li and Anneli Drecker, while "The Annie Lennox Collection", an anthology of the legendary Eurythmics leading lady's solo career, climbs 64-41. Fever Ray, the solo project of The Knife's female half Karin Dreijer(-Andersson), enters at #44, and we wrap up at fifty with "Made in Hong Kong (and in Various Other Places)", a live anthology of commercial emo giants Nightwish.

[Andricicle]

O ironie! Dame Lynn haar grootste hit tot op de dag van vandaag is een cover

Oh, 't was Dame LINN die ge bedoelde, ik dacht dat het over DIE Vlaemsche schlagerkoningin ging.

[Stosh]

Oh, 't was Dame LINN die ge bedoelde, ik dacht dat het over DIE Vlaemsche schlagerkoningin ging.

Lynn/Linn, Cristoff/Kristof, Lindsey/Lindsay... Kunnen ze het NOG ingewikkelder maken!

[belgo]

Lady Linn's album doet het trouwens ook niet slecht. Na 58 weken in de Ultratop staat ze nu op #8. Niet onaardig!

Raar genoeg wel nog geen gouden plaat, maar dat zal wel niet lang meer duren.

[belgo]

Ik zag trouwens daarnet dat Milow deze week op #2 staat in Duitsland. We hebben dus eindelijk de mannelijke versie van ons Keetemie gevonden!

Binnenkort komt het ook uit in Frankrijk en Engeland en, in tegenstelling tot ons Kate, zou Milow daar wél eens potten kunnen breken.