Tuesday, 5 January 2021

The Best World Hits of 2020

So I'm not blinkered, the ARIA singles chart, while it was good to great in 2020, it could have been even better so I decided to take a glance around the world and see what made year end lists for 2020 and pick out songs that made the year end lists in other countries but won't in Australia.

The only rule is that I can only pick one song from a respective country's year end list so yeah there's obvious pick from NZ coming. 

Let's start in the good old USA...

"Even Though I'm Leaving" by Luke Combs (Billboard Hot 100 year end: 85)

There were a slew of country songs I could have chosen from the US year end list. This is a song that is right up there as one of Luke Combs best and shows that neo traditional country can still make the mainstream. A song about a father/son relationship and honestly if you aren't crying when that final verse hits than you are stronger than I was...this song just has such an emotional impact, it's hard to quantify which I guess could be as a result of border clsoures and families being separated from one another, whatever the case, this song is still concentrated wonderful.


Let's head over to Europe and this time to Belgium...


"Heartbreaker" by Loic Nottet (Ultratop Belgium Year End: 47)

I could have chosen "Kings & Queens" by Ava Max but I had to go with this one. I think the reason I like this so much is because it sounds like a recent Dua Lipa song and yeah the lyrics play toward Nottet wanting this girl but the girl isn't sure, she thinks he'll break her heart but he is reassuring her that he is for real and loves her. The song is just catchy and has a really damn solid groove.

Heading over to the UK and Britain's favourite girl group


"Break Up Song" by Little Mix (Offical Charts UK Year End: 58)

UK presented me with a tough choice, I could have gone with "Diamonds" by Sam Smith which charted for a couple of weeks in Australia or this slice of 80s inspired pop from a girl group that i have had mixed feelings on since their album "Get Weird" but "Break Up Song" plays into territory that I like with pop, building through the verses and bridge into a chorus where the girls actually have distinctive harmonies and sound good rather than shouting which put me off songs like "Shoutout To My Ex"...while I didn't enjoy the album all that much, I can appreciate "Break Up Song" as a pop banger.


I'm not saying that Ava Max isn't a little trashy and a little vapid but god damn, her music is fun...


"Salt" by Ava Max (Swiss Year End: 24)

If "My Head & My Heart" can't be here than "Salt" from Ava Max's debut album is a good replacement because yeah this song just works for me in the same way a lot of songs from "Heaven & Hell" work, a simple pop structure with Ava Max holding it together vocally. You can tell that "Salt" was tailor made to appeal to the European markets hence it ending up on Switzerland's year end list high up at 24 but hey it worked for the Swiss audience and in 2020, I needed the fun music that Ava Max brought to the table. 


Hey Australia, there's a Dua Lipa song we somehow didn't make a hit in 2020...

"Fever" by Dua Lipa feat. Angele (France Year end: 94)

I was surprised this song was not a hit in Australia mostly because it kind of twists everything Dua Lipa did on Future Nostalgia into this sultry sexy vibe where Dua Lipa and Angele just play off each other so well that there's almost a natural chemistry, they both sound great and that hook might well be one of the best of 2020 outside of "Mood" by 24k Golden and Ian Dior.


So let's leave Europe and head back to North America and more precisely Canada where this song only just scraped onto the bottom of their year end chart....


"Cold Feet" by Loud Luxury (Canadian Billboard Hot 100 Year end: 99)

I only discovered this song through watching Spectrum Pulse's year end best hit songs list where he had a special section on good songs that hit the year end Canadian Hot 100 but didn't in the US and were good enough to make his year end best hit songs list had they made the American Hot 100 Year end list with this song being one of them and I am flummoxed as to how good this song is, for one thing the production knows when to provide the swell to support the vocals and when it needs to hold back to let the vocals shine, "Cold Feet' is a song about a couple wanting to get married but one of the pair gets cold feet about the impending nuptials but there's no resentment or bitterness...just confusion and wanting to wish the other person well, its a sad song that doesn't wallow and knows how to tell its story and yeah, it's probably a song that I got to all a bit too late...


Well you all knew this was coming, didn't you?


"In the Air" by L.A.B
(New Zealand Year End: 1)

I am stunned this song wasn't bigger outside of New Zealand, mostly because "In The Air" is the sort of chill laidback summer song that has grooves for days and those harmonies are just...gorgeous. It's up there as one of my favourite songs of 2020...period. I am honestly also very happy that it finished the year as the biggest song to chart in New Zealand beating The Weeknd which is an incredible achievement when it's considered how big "Blinding Lights" was but also a true credit to how absolutely fantastic "In the Air" is  If you haven't heard this song yet, I highly recommend you do so. 



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