After much computation and iTunes integration, these are my personal top 25 songs of 2009.
TOP 25 SONGS OF THE YEAR
- MY DELIVERER, Mandisa (7 weeks)
- GIVE ME THE MELTDOWN, Rob Thomas (4 weeks)
- WHEN LOVE TAKES OVER, David Guetta feat Kelly Rowland (3 weeks)
- ONE REASON, Chynna & Vaughan (4 weeks)
- FORGIVEN AND LOVED, Jimmy Needham (2 weeks)
- SORRY SORRY, Super Junior (2 weeks)
- CREATE AGAIN, Aaron Shust (2 weeks)
- BATTLEFIELD, Jordin Sparks (3 weeks)
- NO OTHER NAME, Freddy Rodriguez (3 weeks)
- SOMEBODY TO LOVE, The Glee Cast (3 weeks)
- YOU FOUND ME, Big Daddy Weave (1 week)
- LIVE LIKE WE’RE DYING, Kris Allen (1 week)
- IF THIS ISN’T LOVE, Jennifer Hudson
- PAJAMA PARTY, Super Junior Happy (3 weeks)
- HOW MUCH, Mandisa (1 week)
- COOKING COOKING, Super Junior Happy (1 week)
- THE LOST GET FOUND, Britt Nicole
- VANILLA LOVE, Lee Hyun Ji feat. Onew
- NO SURPRISE, Daughtry
- BEGIN AGAIN, Colbie Caillat
- ARISE, Avalon (3 weeks)
- RING DING DONG, SHINee
- GEE, Girls Generation
- PERFECT PEOPLE, Natalie Grant (3 weeks)
- DEFYING GRAVITY, The Glee Cast (3 weeks)
For me, 2009’s best single was My Deliverer by Mandisa. The carrier single of the American Idol Season Five finalist’s sophomore CD, Freedom, is a vibrant, effervescent, jubilant single that I literally couldn’t resist for months. It was – and still is – one of the finest Contemporary Christian songs I have ever had the privilege of hearing.
The Top 10 songs have five Christian songs and five secular tracks. I am pretty sure I no longer fit pop music’s demographic, as the only song in the chart to have displayed some kind of Billboard Hot 100 chart success is Battlefield by American Idol Season Six winner Jordin Sparks. Songs by Rob Thomas (Give Me the Meltdown) and David Guetta (When Love Takes Over) fizzled in the lower end of the charts.
The highest ranked non-Number One song in the Top 25 is If This Isn’t Love by American Idol Season Three finalist and Academy Award winner Jennifer Hudson (Do we detect a pattern of Idol winners here?). Other Idol-related artists who have performed well on this year’s final tally include Season Eight winner Kris Allen, whose Live Like We’re Dying barely misses the Top 10 at #12, and Daughtry, led by Season Five finalist Chris Daughtry, with No Surprise. Mandisa also places a second track in the final chart, How Much, at #15.
American Idol is a television show, as is the Fox drama/musical Glee. The Glee Cast also sports some muscle, placing their remake of Queen’s Somebody to Love in the T0p 10, as well as their revival of Defying Gravity from the Broadway musical Wicked at #25. (A third track, Can’t Fight This Feeling, barely missed the Top 25.)
Of course, we can’t let the year go without the Catherine Deen-fueled Korean invasion. The later part of 2009 saw the entry of several singles from K-Pop artists, including Korean supergroup Super Junior and its sub-groups Super Junior M and Super Junior Happy; idol group SHINee; vocal group SS501, and nine-member girl group Girls Generation. Almost all the acts mentioned end up on the final chart, led by Super Junior’s Sorry Sorry, powerful at #6. Super Junior’s subgroup Super Junior Happy, also place well with Pajama Party (#14) and Cooking Cooking (#16). MusicBank’s top single of 2009, Gee by Girls Generation, squeaks in at #23; a notch above them is SHINee with Ring Ding Dong, the carrier single of their stellar mini-album 2009: Year of Us. SHINee’s leader, Onew, finds himself ranked a few notches above that, with his duet with Lee Hyun Ji, Vanilla Love, at #18.
Well, that’s it for this boring music an. Have a spectacular music-filled 2010, everyone!
