We were lucky enough to have UK female songstress Lily McKenzie in the Shazam Session’s studio before we wrapped up 2010. Lily dropped in with her guitarist Ryan Keen who she has been working with closely for the last two years, you can see in the video how well these two artists gel.
Here she is performing an acoustic version of ‘For You’ (sometimes known as ‘For U’). Lily originally featured on the track as a guest of UK production collective FunkyStepz and it saw its greatest success with an intense remix from dupstep hitstylers Dodge & Fuski. This exclusive version see’s Lily dropping the BPM but raising the soul. For the latest Lily news in 2011 check here.
While Lily brings to an end our live performances for this year, we already have a wealth of amazing talent lined up for Shazam Sessions in 2011. Head to our YouTube channel to check out previous performances from the likes of Foxy Shazam, MEN and Dinosaur Pile Up.
There aren’t many bands who can claim Volleyball brought them together, however BG5 (short for Beach Girl 5) can indeed trace their roots back to the popular sport. The girls were individually brought together when they performed between matches on the AVP Professional Volleyball tour. Sensing the chemistry between them, Brooke, Dominique, Noreen, Mandy and Laura decided to form a group. Their big break came when they won a Radio talent contest last year in the US, performing to an audience in their thousands. Since then the girls have gone on to work with uber producers Rock Mafia and opened for the currently unstoppable Justin Bieber.
The band occupies a position between the squeaky clean tween pop of Miley Cyrus and the risqué R&B of the Pussycat Dolls. After their forthcoming single ‘Scratch’ popped up in our UK Pre-Release chart, we caught up with Noreen from the band. We chatted about their forthcoming album, plans for 2011 and if ‘Scratch’ is dedicated to any DJ in particular.
2010 has been a great year for Shazam, we reached over 100 million users across 200 countries; but what tracks were most popular amongst our users? While over the last month we’ve been counting down some of our favourite musical moments of the year, before we kick off 2011 we thought we’d share what have been the most tagged songs of 2010.
This year the top spot was taken by Edward Maya‘s huge hit ‘Stereo Love’. The track reached the top spot in several countries across Europe and broke the top 20 in the US, a staggering achievement for the 24 year old Romanian producer’s debut single. ‘Stereo Love’ beat close competition from Yolanda Be Cool & DCUP’s ‘We No Speak Americano’ and ‘Hey, Soul Sister’ from US rock band Train to reach the top spot.
The top 20 most tagged tracks of the year are:
Edward Maya Feat. Vika Jigulina – Stereo Love
Yolanda Be Cool & DCUP – We No Speak Americano
Train – Hey, Soul Sister
Taio Cruz – Dynamite
B.o.B Feat. Bruno Mars – Nothin’ On You
Mike Posner – Cooler Than Me
Eminem Feat. Rihanna – Love The Way You Lie
Flo Rida Feat. David Guetta – Club Can’t Handle Me
Bruno Mars – Just The Way You Are
Lady Antebellum – Need You Now
Usher Feat. Will.I.Am – OMG
B.o.B Feat. Hayley Williams – Airplanes
Ke$ha – Tik Tok
Far East Movement Feat. The Cataracts & Dev – Like A G6
After moving from his native Hawaii to L.A. in search of fame and fortune Peter ‘Bruno Mars’ Hernandez spent a year or so behind the scenes as a song-writer and rapidly became known as a one man hit factory. The fruits of which include writing credits on Flo’ Rida’s ‘Right Round’, Cee-Lo Green’s ‘F**k You’ plus co-writing and singing spots on B.O.B’s ‘Nothing On You’ and Travie McCoy’s ‘Billionaire’.
Somehow he also managed to find a few spare moments to squeeze in writing his own album; the first single being the super smooth number one smash, ‘Just The Way You Are’. The second single from his ‘Doo-Wops and Hooligans’ album was ‘Grenade’, an explosive torch song in which Mars uses his crystal clear voice to describe all the various imaginative ways he would top himself (fire, bullets, train, knife, decapitation etc) in order to prove his love. Definitely darker than the previous single, ‘Grenade’ has been just as successful reaching number one in the US iTunes Chart.
Richie Hawtin is perhaps the most influential act in modern electronic music. As a DJ he’s probably the biggest name in techno: a man who turned a whole generation of dance music fans on to his unique emptied, out no frills sound. However, unlike many of his peers, he’s constantly pushed the boundaries of what electronic music can and should be. Whether that’s changing the way DJ’s play records by inventing digital DJ systems or evolving the mix CD with his ‘Closer To The Edit’ project. His label, Minus, set the tone for underground club music throughout the noughties: while his Contakt world tour has gone down as an era defining moment.Yet as important as all his recent work has been, it’s perhaps Richie Hawtin’s music as Plastikman during the ‘90’s that still remains his most mysterious and alluring. Psychedelic, visceral and meticulously stripped down, the music Hawtin made as Plastikman drove the more cerebral end of dance music forward relentlessly. This summer saw Richie Hawtin resurrect his Plastikman alias for a series of highly celebrated live shows. Bridging technology, music and visuals into a startlingly unique experience, Plastikman live set a new standard for live electronic performance.
We talked to Richie about his recent Plastikman shows, his favourite new bands, and how he hopes to one day hope to facilitate two week long virtual reality shows. Read more…
Shazamers with an iPhone or iPod touch can tap and unwrap a free gift on iTunes – simply by tagging music on Shazam! From 26 December through to 6 January 2011, the Christmas promotional link ‘Free Gift from iTunes’ will appear as an option on Shazamers’ Tag Result pages, presenting a daily gift from a selection of songs, music videos, Apps, books, TV episodes and a film for free from some of the biggest star performers on iTunes. Each free download will only be available for 24 hours.
The iTunes promotion is available to Shazamers using the latest V3 version of the free Shazam App and the premium Shazam Encore or (SHAZAM) RED Apps! Shazamers using the free App can take advantage of being surrounded by festive music by enjoying the unlimited tagging feature on the premium Apps for a one-time payment (£3.49/€4.99) or an annual subscription (£2.39/€3.99).
Ubiqtuous would be an apt way to describe Cee-Lo’s ‘Forget You/ F** You’. Watched on YouTube 32 Million times, covered by Hollwood A-listers William Shatner and Gwyneth Paltrow and nominated for four Grammy awards: the record was undoubtedly one of the most inescapable of 2010.
‘Forget You’s’ use of a retro Motown-esque backing gave it a timeless quality, but with lyrics referencing ‘X-Box’ the record could never be accused of being a simple pastiche. Despite being one of the oldest themes in pop music, Cee-Lo’s handling of the break up song is perhaps the most direct and original ever. It takes a special song and a special artist to make the line “F**k you and F**k her too” something your Granny could happily sing along to, but Cee-Lo pulled it off with aplomb. Although the radio edit removed some of the expletive emotion, ‘Forget You/ F**k You’ will remain one of 2010’s most endearing records.
We all know Christmas is the season for giving, but KanYe West’s been feeling generous all year. His ‘G.O.O.D. Fridays’ have seen him give away 15 free tracks of astounding high quality since August. Many of these, such as ‘Power’, ‘Monster’ and ‘Devil In A Dress’, were so good they made it onto KanYe’s ‘My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy’ – undoubtedly one of the standout albums of the year.
KanYe’s latest offering, ‘Christmas In Harlem’, sees him getting all festive with a few of his hip-hop cohorts – namely Cam’ron, Jim Jones, CyHi Da Prynce, Musiq SoulChild and Big Sean. It’s a bona-fide Christmas song, but somehow it manages to steer clear of being overly corny or schmaltzy.
KanYe’s giving away the track at his blog for free.
From KanYe West, and indeed everyone at Shazam, we wish you a very merry Christmas.
The penultimate track in our 2010 countdown is ‘Telephone’ a great pop song which reached epic proportions of fame due to its well crafted audio sensibilities and by having one of the most widely anticipated videos of the year. It’s also notable for bringing together two of the biggest female stars on the planet; Lady Gaga and Beyoncé
At a huge 9 and a half minutes, the video for ‘Telephone’ didn’t disappoint and has currently racked up a staggering 97 million YouTube hits to date. The video, directed by Jonas Åkerlund, featured Lady Gaga showing off an even more streamlined physique than seen previously, leaving nothing to the imagination while she dallies around in cigarette adorned sunglasses, prison tape bikini outfits and indulging in lesbian prison kisses; the sort of outlandish behavior we’ve come to expect from the eccentric star. Beyoncé however showed a more daring side to her repertoire as she played the part of Gaga’s bailer and partner in crime as the two embark on a killing spree in a traditional American diner.
The song itself lyrically appears to be an ode to a lover who persistently calls while the protagonist in question is trying to party at a club, it has been said the song is more an observation of Gaga’s life in the limelight. Beyoncé adds a harder edge to the song with her sing-song style hard rapping however both songstresses come out shining in this collaboration.
Caribou’s ‘Sun’ was undoubtedly the one track that every hipster could agree on this summer. Its warm and fuzzy vibe radiated from festivals, cool clubs and tastemaker radio stations almost constantly – yet the record refused to diminish in popularity. Pitched somewhere between a minimal techno record and a synth pop ditty, the record’s ever surging swells of synthy goodness gave it the rare trait of being both danceable and sonically interesting.
In a wider context ‘Sun’ was the track that spearheaded Caribou’s long player ‘Swim’, one of 2010’s most celebrated albums. Making the jump from the folk tinged indie of Caribou’s former album to the dance influenced sounds of ‘Swim’ may have been unexpected, but it’s a move which won the Canadian a whole new audience over the course of the year.
