‘Despacito’ video surpasses 5 billion views
View(s):The video clip to the global hit song ‘Despacito’ by Luis Fonsi & Daddy Yankee has surpassed 5 billion views. The Spanish hit song which was released in January 2017 achieved the record breaking mark on 5th April. Luis Fonsi meanwhile has thanked Justin Bieber for helping to add the English vocals to the remix which took it across the English speaking world. The remix has had over 7.66 million streams.
The song ‘Scream And Shout’ by will.i.am and Britney Spears was a chart topping hit in 2012, but the authorship became a legal dispute. British pop singer Tulisa Contostavlos won a six year court battle on 4th April as she claimed she wrote the song with will.i.am’s producers Jean Baptiste and Jef Martens for her album ‘The Female Boss’. They did not like her version which was then titled ‘I Don’t Give A F**K’ and they dropped it from her album. A revamped version was released by will.i.am and Britney Spears and it went on to sell over 510,000 in two months. Tulisa will now be entitled to 10% from the song’s royalties which have been frozen since the legal action in 2012.
Hip hop rap comedian Lil Dicky has topped the UK singles with the song ‘Freaky Friday’ featuring better known singer Chris Brown. It’s a debut hit for the 30 year old US artist whose actual name is David Burd. ‘Freaky Friday’ moved up from 5 to the No: 1 position with 4.6 million streams. Lil Dicky is the first comedian to reach the top of the UK singles chart since Peter Kay And The Animated All Stars in 2009. ‘Freaky Friday’ which is classified as a comedy rap track is written by Lil Dicky under his real name David Burd along with Chris Brown, Magnus August, Lewis Hughes, Wilbart McCoy, Joshua Coleman, Dijon McFarlane, Benjamin Levin and Nicholas Audino.
For Chris Brown ‘Freaky Friday’ is his first UK No: 1 as a featured artist. His own chart topping song in the UK was ‘Turn Up The Music’ in 2012.
Rising up the chart again in a big way is ‘This Is Me’ by Keala Settle and the Greatest Showman Ensemble. The song moved up from 8 to No: 3. ‘This Is Me’ is from the original motion picture soundtrack of The Greatest Showman. ‘This Is Me’ has been on the singles chart for 14 weeks starting a long journey at 28 and peaking at 3. After it began a slow descent the film soundtrack has been a hit on the UK albums chart and has topped that chart again. ‘This Is Me’ has been certified Gold as it has sold over 451,000 copies in the UK.
Weeknd scored the only new entry on the top 10 with ‘Call Out My Name’ from his mini album or EP ‘My Dear Melancholy’. ‘Call Out My Name ‘ debuted at No: 7. The alternative R&B track came out on 30th March and has come out the strongest of the six tracks on the EP to reach the top 10. The song is Weeknd’s fifth UK top 10 hit.
TW LW
1 5 Freaky Friday – Lil Dicky ft: Chris Brown
2 1 These Days – Rudimental/
Jess Glynne & Macklemore
3 8 This Is Me – Keala Settle & The Greatest Showman Ensemble
4 2 Paradise – George Ezra
5 3 Feel It Still – Portugal. The Man
6 4 Friends – Marshmello & Anne – Marie
7 – Call Out My Name – Weeknd
8 6 Psycho – Post Malone ft: Dolla $ign
9 9 Lullaby – Sigala & Paloma Faith
10 7 The Middle – Zedd ft: Maren Morris / Grey