Featuring the female leads of no fewer than three separate CW TV shows, Robyn, and a song in a completely different language (but not the one you're thinking of. Probably.)
70. Leighton Meester - Summer Girl
YouTube // Spotify
Track length: 3:22
UK release date: 22nd January 2011
UK chart position: N/A
Last decade's chart: N/A
Listens as at 8th October: 25
Gigs this decade: 0
The first Country Barbie I actively listened to, even though this was just a part in an underrated and overlooked movie. Her character is probably not based on Taylor Swift, and I'm sure there's no end of wide eyed female country vocalists on the Nashville scene. It's a shame that the only Leighton songs on Spotify are her soundtrack releases (and even then only just from this movie - I'd love to hear her cover of Bette Davis' Eyes, or her version of Inside The Black, in a more phone-in-pocket-friendly format) and the song she did with Cobra Starship, as her 2014 EP Heartstrings is great!
69. Ellie Goulding - Starry Eyed
YouTube // Spotify
Track length: 2:56
UK release date: 21st February 2010
UK chart position: 4
Last decade's chart: N/A
Listens as at 8th October: 73
Gigs this decade: 2
Two days after I posted the final entry to last decade's rundown, I went to see a gig in London. Fresh off the release of her first album (and of Remedy appearing prominently in an episode of the TV series Dollhouse - I've gone to gigs on more spurious reasons!), Little Boots was headlining Shepherd's Bush Empire. Supporting her that day was a blonde singer who I realised I'd seen busking around Canterbury. Three months later she released Starry Eyed, which took her from bubbling under to mainstream success. This track soundtracking some early dates and MSN conversations with Dana has seen it beat off other releases of hers that I've listened to more (c.f. Love Me Like You Do - oh look, there's that film franchise soundtrack again) but nothing she's released since gives me the happy feelings quite like Starry Eyed does.
68. Glee Cast - Wrecking Ball
YouTube // Spotify
Track length: 3:39
UK release date: 14th November 2013
UK chart position: N/A
Last decade's chart: 23
Listens as at 8th October: 18
Gigs this decade: 1
Poor Miley, being beaten out by a cover of her biggest UK solo single. (I'm sure she's avidly refreshing my blog to read all these posts.) The gigs total above has a caveat as well, in that the Glee cast I saw didn't include the singer of this track - Melissa Benoist. With that out of the way, it should come as absolutely no surprise that I've cheated my own rules to get another song with her in this list, because she was the sole highlight of Glee from season 4 onwards, a TV show that got so bad I resorted to alcohol to make it through the final season. When I posted Don't Stop Believing in my 00's chart and recommended people watch the show, it was still great - I firmly believe that if the show had been cancelled after the first season it would frequently crop up on lists of TV shows gone too soon alongside Freaks & Geeks, Veronica Mars et al. Instead it stumbled on, becoming the very thing it was satirising, but Melissa has thankfully come out of it well - she gained a husband, and leads a well regarded TV show which has also given her a second husband, and she just seems lovely.
67. Disturbed - The Sound Of Silence
YouTube // Spotify
Track length: 4:13
UK release date: 7th December 2015
UK chart position: 29
Last decade's chart: N/A
Listens as at 8th October: 12
Gigs this decade: 0
Saw this performance crop up on Tumblr a year or so back. I was intrigued, I love me a good cover, and this was much more mellow than I expected. Any metal song with strings gets an immediate bonus star from me as well.
66. My Chemical Romance - Sing
YouTube // Spotify
Track length: 4:30
UK release date: 3rd November 2010
UK chart position: 50
Last decade's chart: 51
Listens as at 8th October: 13
Gigs this decade: 0
A poppier sound than expected from MCR, but a similar defiant anthem to Teenagers, the track of theirs that made last decade's chart.
65. Marmozets - Why Do You Hate Me?
YouTube // Spotify
Track length: 3:11
UK release date: 17th March 2014
UK chart position: N/A
Last decade's chart: N/A
Listens as at 8th October: 35
Gigs this decade: 5
I first saw Bradford's finest export opening for Rolo Tomassi at Camden Barfly in October 2011. Since then they've grown into the UK metal scene, at one point being the token female fronted band on their label (long-standing rumours that Roadrunner passed over another female-fronted band because they "already had one") and overcoming several hospital bouts and operations to supplying the theme for an NXT Takeover PPV.
64. Rihanna - California King Bed
YouTube // Spotify
Track length: 4:11
UK release date: 13th May 2011
UK chart position: 8
Last decade's chart: N/A
Listens as at 8th October: 25
Gigs this decade: 0
Growing up with the parents that I have, I've got a certain weakness for power ballads with guitar solos. They're few and far between nowadays, seen as an 80s relic (and shockingly the penchant for 80s throwbacks has ignored this goldmine) but this track from Rihanna is an absolute belter. Even when I realised it wasn't Slash from Guns n' Roses playing the guitar solo, it's still my go-to Riri track (and an excellent answer on Pointless, I imagine)!
63. 78Violet - Belong Here
YouTube // Spotify
Track length: 3:05
UK release date: 30th November 2010
UK chart position: N/A
Last decade's chart: N/A
Listens as at 8th October: 6
Gigs this decade: 1
One advantage to bands having legal troubles with their labels - and this is not a sentence that can come up too often - is that name changes enable me to crowbar the group in to my highly prestigious decade charts more than once. Aly & AJ, for it is they, only released two songs under the 78Violet moniker, and while Hothouse is a lovely track, this one wins out by virtue of being the theme song to the TV show Hellcats. Hellcats - basically Glee, but about cheerleading - only lasted for a single season, is remembered by about a dozen people and remembered fondly by about half that, but was thoroughly entertaining and my go-to answer when I'm asked which TV show I'd bring back for another season (well, now that Veronica Mars has returned anyway). Plus, it featured my favourite telegraphing of a plot point when it cast AJ Michalka as a new character in an episode when main cast member Aly Michalka was trying to track down her estranged dad, and ended on the reveal that AJ was her half sister - which would have been dramatic had they not cast a well known sibling of their lead!
62. MNEK ft. Haileeee Steinfeld - Colour
YouTube // Spotify
Track length: 3:21
UK release date: 26th June 2018
UK chart position: 92
Last decade's chart: N/A
Listens as at 8th October: 11
Gigs this decade: 2
This was one of my favourite tracks released last year. Thanks to seeing both artists in support slots, and copious showings of the video before Little Mix, I managed to hear this song at three separate gigs that year too, which may be some form of record for me. Another nice, lovely song that won’t storm the charts or break the internet but it will make the day seem a little less grey when you listen to it - and isn’t that the point of pop?
61. Angรจle - Balance Ton Quoi
YouTube // Spotify
Track length: 3:09
UK release date: 15th April 2019
UK chart position: N/A
Last decade's chart: N/A
Listens as at 8th October: 7
Gigs this decade: 0
I discovered this track completely by happenstance. Earlier this year the Women's World Cup took place in France, and this was used as incidental music on a podcast I listened to regularly. About three days in I Shazamed it to find out more, as my attempts at Google what I thought the lyrics were just lead Google to suggest health advice for people suffering a stroke. It's a really sweet song, a melodic throwback to 60s French pop, but if you're going to check this out watch the video on YouTube with English subtitles translating the lyrics and you'll soon see how biting it is - given the changes over the last decade and the steps we, as a world, are taking towards equality (even though some are trying desperately hard to drag us back) I can't think of a more fitting subject matter.
Next time...Last year's number one artist, both the longest song and the oldest song in my top 100, a YouTube personality who had a UK number one single, and the biggest example of my loophole as the same artist features twice in the space of three songs.
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