Top 10 Songs of 2023

 The Top 10 songs of 2023!!

2023 has been a great year for fun pop songs getting into the upper portion of the Billboard HOT 100 Singles chart. Here's my Top 10 favorite songs of the year:

Dance The Night - Dua Lipa

With the use of this song in the most exuberant, entertaining scene in the Barbie Movie, Dua Lipa gave the fans exactly what they were hoping for and MORE! Dance The Night is the super fabulous fun disco inspired extravaganza that delivers the escapism that the world needs right now.       

Calm Down - Selena Gomez and Rema

On all of the award shows this fantastic song was winning in the Afro Beats categories which is very nice, but in reality it was actually winning over the crossover mainstream general public because it's a great song that people love.     

I Remember Everything - Kacey Musgraves and Zach Bryan 

Teaming up with Zach Bryan on this beautiful ballad finally gave Kacey Musgraves the #1 hit on the Billboard HOT 100 that she has long deserved for many years.         

Die For You - Ariana Grande and The Weeknd

Ariana Grande has proven many times now that when she gets added to the remix the song jumps to #1 on the Billboard HOT 100. This is yet another example of a great song getting even better with her addition.            

Snooze - SZA

R&B music has been missing from the top of the pop charts for quite a few years now but in 2023 SZA brought it back with smooth ballads like this one. So glad we didn't snooze and miss the moment!           

Flowers - Miley Cyrus

When you start with a twist on the lyrics from a huge #1 song by Bruno Mars and then add a great beat with a catchy hook it's no surprise that you're going to end up with the most popular song of your career.         

Fast Car - Luke Combs

This is the remake of a highly acclaimed hit from 1988 that we didn't know we needed. But Luke Combs did such a great job reviving this Tracy Chapman classic we love it even more than before.     

I'm Good (Blue) - Bebe Rexha and David Guetta

2023 was the year for Europop from 1999 to make a comeback! Blue Da Ba Dee got elevated to a new level with amazing vocals from Bebe Rexha and the remixing skills of David Guetta and it seriously dominated the airwaves all year long.     

Kill Bill - SZA

Well-deserved success came to SZA in 2023 as the hits from her album SOS filled up the Billboard HOT 100 week after week with this one going all the way to #1.    

Something In The Orange - Zach Bryan 

The crossover mainstream success for Zach Bryan has been a slow and gradual increase as more and more fans grew to love his unique brand of country music. Having these songs finally added to your playlists is well worth the wait.   

The Top 6 - Queen

The Top 6 finalists will take on the classic music of rock super group Queen tonight.

 Bohemian Rhapsody was a huge hit for Queen not just once but twice. The first time around it peaked at #9 in 1976, but after it was used in the movie Wayne's World it went all the way up to #2 in 1992. The song is a vocal roller coaster that allowed for Jessica Sanchez to rise to the challenge and take us on a wild ride. She was able to display her range and versatility by veering away from her usual R&B ballad style and completely embody the role of rocker chick.

Country girl Skylar Laine made a sincere effort to get out of her comfort zone and try something different with her performance of The Show Must Go On. The production was grand, hard rocking and over the top, but there were times in the song when the strength of her voice couldn't keep up with the drama in the song.

Crazy Little Thing Called Love spent 4 weeks at #1 on the Billboard HOT 100 in 1980. Joshua Ledet used this fun and bouncy rockabilly number to completely take over the stage and own it. But to be honest, the song was better than the singer.

It is quite likely that Elise Testone is thrilled to have this opportunity to sing I Want It All as she perceives herself as a true classic rocker. The problem is that all the hard rock energy in the world isn't going to make up for her limited vocal range. Every note she tries to sing is forced and strained. 

The song Fat Bottomed Girls that hit #24 in 1978 displayed the refreshing sense of humor and entertaining style that Queen brought to the pop music scene. Phillip Phillips took this playful anthem and dragged it down to an unpleasant level where he seemed much more angry than festive. This guy has no range at all.

Hollie Cavanagh just makes it look so easy. She performed the 1980 song Save Me with a powerful and passionate vocal range that put all the others to shame. This very sweet and attractive young woman knows how to sing and leaves us wanting to hear more.

Dance With My Father was a Grammy winning Song of the Year for Luther Vandross in 2003. This could be an even bigger huge smash with the outstanding vocals of Jessica Sanchez. She did an amazing job and told the heartfelt story in the lyrics with genuine grace and beauty.

Jason Aldean has been riding high at the top of the Country charts for the past two years singing hits like Tattoos On This Town. Skylar Laine played it safe with this selection. She's good, but she seems to be coasting in her comfort zone.

Joshua Ledet showed some unexpected restraint on his rendition of Ready For Love by India Arie. It was nice to see he can put the screaming aside and give the audience something different. It was an emotional interpretation of the song.  

Jimi Hendrix is an iconic guitar legend, but he's not known for his iconic vocals. Elise is purposefully positioning herself as a thing of the past with this performance of Bold As Love. There was nothing here to convey that she is interested in being a current artist on the scene.

Phillip Phillips is stuck in his limited rut of serving up more of the same. This time it was a dreary reading of a Dave Matthews song and it was completely forgettable.

Miley Cyrus is one of the hottest teen stars around having a #4 hit in 2009 with The Climb. It's an inspirational ballad that was improved exponentially with the impressive vocals of Hollie Cavanagh. She looks stunning standing center stage and then she opens her mouth and the voice comes out that is sweet, crystal clear, and pure pleasure for your ears.

If the voting goes the way it should, there are three very good singers who should easily be safely coming back next week: Hollie, Jessica and Skylar. With that being stated, my prediction for the bottom three is Phillip, Elise and Joshua. That fact is that Elise did nothing this week to change my opinion that she should be the one going home. 



 

The Top 8 sing Movie Music

The top 8 finalists are singing songs from the movies tonight:

Old Time Rock & Roll originally peaked at #28 in 1979 for Bob Seger, but it didn't become a classic until Tom Cruise did an underwear lip sync to it in Risky Business in 1983. Paul McDonald not only left his pants on for this performance, but he showed off another flowered suit. The suit ended up being the best part of this as his vocals were once again all wrong.

Miley Cyrus took her Hannah Montana character to the big screen in 2009 and had a #4 hit from it with The Climb. Lauren Alaina did a better job than Miley with her rendition, but since Miley's not a very good singer that's pretty easy to do. This is exactly the comfort zone for Lauren so if she keeps on doing more of this she should be around a lot longer.

Boyz II Men spent 13 weeks at #1 in 1992 with the End Of The Road. Who even remembers that this song was featured in Boomerang? Stefano Langone has a super smooth voice that is perfect for this R&B slow jam. He served up an outstanding vocal performance and he looked even more handsome than ever.

George Strait is probably the most boring man in country music history - and he's also one of the most successful. He made a movie called Pure Country in 1992 and included a song called I Cross My Heart that Scotty McCreery decided to sing tonight. Clearly Scotty is striving for safe and boring. It worked for George Strait and it will certainly work for Scotty.

Nat King Cole is the standard when it comes to jazz classics and Casey Abrams got up on stage with his upright bass again and performed his Nature Boy. It was very far from the standard set by Nat as Casey crossed over into the creepy with his weak vocals and strange facial expressions. If anyone knows what movie Nature Boy was featured in, please let me know.

Blondie spent six weeks at #1 in 1980 with Call Me from the movie American Gigolo. This song is one of the best rockin dance/pop jams in the history of ever and Haley Reinhart just made a mockery of it. Once again she acted like any old random drunk girl in a bar. Haley has no sense of professionalism, style or good taste when it comes to her performance choices.

Simon & Garfunkel spent six weeks at #1 in 1970 with Bridge Over Troubled Water. It also went on to win the Grammy for Record of the Year. Jacob Lusk provided his most controlled and disciplined performance of the competition so far with this fantastic song. Incidentally, the song was included in the movie The Pursuit of Happyness in 2006.

In 1981 the animated cult classic Heavy Metal was released with the hard rocking theme song performed by Sammy Hagar. James Durbin closed the night with an outstanding over the top high energy rock concert performance of this anthem. James has the vocal skills and the stage presence to headline anywhere and everywhere right now!

Tonight we were treated to a broad range of musical diversity from smooth R&B to hard rocking heavy metal, and from classic country to jazz. James and Stefano were easily the best of the night while my prediction for the bottom three is Paul, Haley and Casey. I'm going to keep saying this every week until she ends up winning the whole thing, but Haley will hopefully be the lowest vote getter and will be going home.

The Results - #1 Hits

It was a very special moment in the group opening number getting the chance to see the genuine Crystal Bowersox truly be herself singing the smash that WHAM! took to #1 for three weeks in 1984, Wake Me Up Before You Go Go. There she was dumping all of that fake guitar playing rock chick garbage and really expressing herself as the true jitter bugging girly girl that she is.

Siobhan, Casey and Lee are all safe, but both Tim and Paige had to take the first two seats in the bottom three.

Miley Cyrus is not a good singer. She strained her way through her latest single, When I Look At You, and it was pure torture on the ears. A piano driven power ballad is not the best type of song for her limited abilities. In addition to her lack of vocal talent, she wasn't the best mentor for the finalists especially because she's never experienced her own #1 hit on the Billboard HOT 100 so she didn't fit into the theme. She's hit the top 10 on the chart three times with See You Again peaking at #10, The Climb which hit #4 and Party In The USA that did manage to get all the way up to #2.

Aaron, Didi, Michael, and Crystal are all safe and somehow, shockingly, Andrew is also safe. That means that Katie had to join Tim and Paige in the bottom three, but she wasn't there for long as she was immediately informed that she was safe.

A couple more Disney Channel favorites, Joe Jonas and Demi Lovato, got up on stage and showcased their pretty faces and lack of vocal talents. But they were still better than Miley...

The person who is the lowest vote getter of the week is Paige Miles so Tim was sent back to safety. The judges had no interest in using the SAVE for her so she just sang for the last time knowing there was no hope.

This week I correctly predicted two out of three and was right that Paige would be the one going home. I have to question now, who is voting for Andrew? It's gonna be sad to see what a mess he makes next week.

The Top 11 sing #1 Hits

The finalists had the chance to select any song that hit #1 on the Billboard HOT 100. They got a little bit of guidance this week from a 17 singer who has never had a #1 hit of her own, Miley Cyrus.

The Box Tops spent four weeks at #1 with The Letter in 1967 and Lee Dewyze did not do himself a favor by trying to sing this song that should have been much more fun. His tired old rock guy raspy voice just sounded like strained screaming and he had no personality up on stage.

Phil Collins spent three weeks at #1 with Against All Odds in 1984 and Paige Miles could not fall back on the excuse of having a sore throat tonight. The vocal performance she served up was weak from beginning to end. She did not take advantage of any opportunity to belt out the big notes at all.

Queen spent spent four weeks at #1 with Crazy Little Thing Called Love in 1980 and Tim Urban even slid across the stage to prove that he can get hip enough for what this song demands. The fact is that it just wasn't enough. Even with all of his attempts at stage theatrics it was still flat and boring.

Aerosmith hit #1 in 1998 with I Don't Want To Miss A Thing and Aaron Kelly brought his diminutive little self on to the stage to sing this big power ballad. He's not a very dynamic performer or vocalist but he's a nice kid....

Janis Joplin spent two weeks at #1 with Me And Bobby McGee in 1971 and let's be thankful that Crystal Bowersox got this song out of the way early in the competition. She is immediately compared to Janis and now she can put this behind her and start to really be herself.

When A Man Loves A Woman is one of the few songs that has hit #1 by two different artists: for one week by Michael Bolton in 1991 and for two weeks by Percy Sledge in 1966. Michael Lynche put in a great effort to make a hit of this song again. He showed off a very impressive vocal range and coupled that with his nice guy sincerity.

Marvin Gaye spent seven weeks at #1 with I Heard It Through The Grapevine in 1968 and Andrew Garcia hoped to liven up his image with this popular favorite. He failed miserably. His vocals are totally bland and his stage presence is embarrassingly awkward.

Fergie spent one week at #1 with Big Girls Don't Cry in 2007 and Katie Stevens made a great choice in selecting this big ballad. It was right all around in that it showed off her vocal range and it was more fresh and current.

Huey Lewis and The News spent two weeks at #1 with The Power of Love in 1985 and Casey James rocked the audience back to the past along with his bright smile and electric guitar. He's good all around - good looking, good vocals, good guitar playing. There's just nothing extra super great about his performances.

Linda Ronstadt spent one week at #1 with You're No Good in 1975 and Didi Benami tried to jazz things up a bit with her rendition. She tried to make it bigger than the original, but it took her vocals a little out of her range. While the overall performance was pretty fun, it didn't show her at her best.

Stevie Wonder spent one week at #1 with Superstition in 1972 and Siobhan Magnus brought her nerdy girl with an edge persona to this classic jam. What's special about this finalist is that she really pushes herself closer to the edge than anyone else in the competition taking risks both vocally and with her stylish look.

My prediction for the bottom three this week is Paige Miles, Tim Urban and Andrew Garcia. While it would be nice to finally stop Andrew from making a fool of himself, I think he will be coming back next week while Paige end up being the lowest vote getter.

The top 10 girls try again to impress

Some of the boys managed to step up and improve from last week so let's see if any of the girls can make an exciting effort to save themselves...

Credence Clearwater Revival never had a hit with Long As I Can See The Light, but Crystal Bowersox could change that if she released her version. She is able to take the stage like a true artist and blow the audience away with her powerful vocals and talent.

Miley Cyrus is a teenager who hit #6 last year with The Climb so another teen Haeley Vaughn gave this song her best effort. In my opinion Haeley was able to do it better than Miley. She has a very nice voice and bubbly personality that makes her fun to watch.

Sixpence None The Richer peaked at #2 in 1999 with Kiss Me and Lacey Brown hoped that this song would endear the audience to her. While it should have been a perfect match for her free spirited style it was just drab.

Corinne Bailey Rae got critical acclaim in 2006 when she released Put Your Records On, but this was totally the wrong song to showcase Katie Stevens at her best. It's clear that there are some powerful pipes in Katie but she selected this messy song that allowed her to barely use any of them.

Bill Withers had a #1 smash in 1972 with Lean On Me and Didi Benami did her best to make it more soulful than folksy. The fact is, though, that everything Didi does is going to come off as a simple folk song.

Creed hit the #1 position in 2000 with their power ballad With Arms Wide Open and Michelle Delamor hoped she would be able to make this song her own. Very disappointingly, her vocals were totally off in her painful effort. We were all glad when it was finally over.

Sam Cooke was able to get A Change Is Gonna Come up to #31 in 1965 and Lilly Scott has the passion to possibly take her version even higher. She had a lot of confidence as she performed this song with her very unique personal style.

Coldplay recorded The Scientist on their 2002 album A Rush Of Blood To The Head and Katelyn Epperly tried to show a different side of herself with this performance. She successfully presented an artist who can play piano and sing with strong vocals, even though the song was very slow and boring.

Season One Miss American Idol winner Kelly Clarkson had numerous hits off her blockbuster album Breakaway including Walk Away. Paige Miles did a great job with this catchy pop rock song, but she would do even better with a song with more power notes.

Aretha Franklin hit #7 with her very fun song Think in 1968 and Siobhan Magnus was actually able to take on the Queen of Soul with her version. She still needs to work on deciding what kind of stage presence she has, but she hits the big notes very well.

Crystal is the only girl who stood out as having any real ability to be a entertaining performer and recording artist. While some of the others may have reasonably good voices, they do not have the stage presence yet to know how to show it off best. Any of them could be going home, but my prediction is that Lacey Brown and Michelle Delamor have put in their final performance.

Idol ACTION this week

Season Six Miss American Idol winner Jordin Sparks is still at #25 on the Billboard HOT 100 with her latest single Battlefield. It's continuing to make sales and airplay gains so it should get some more upward action in the coming weeks.

Season One Miss American Idol winner Kelly Clarkson has dropped out of the top 40 with her second single, I Do Not Hook Up, and is starting to work the third single from her album, All I Ever Wanted. It's getting more recognition for sounding like Beyonce's Halo, than sales and airplay at this point, but let's keep watching for Already Gone to have some chart impact in the coming weeks.

Apart from her recent chart performance Kelly Clarkson is doing much better these days with the announcement that she will be a featured performer on the VH1 Divas concert coming up on September 17th. She'll be joining a fresh young group of Divas for the concert including Leona Lewis, Adele, and Miley Cyrus. It's not really the group of legendary Divas the concert has had in the past, but if you can't get Barbra Streisand, Mariah Carey and Diana Ross, it's a pretty good line-up. It looks like the current chart-topping female vocalists Lady Gaga and Taylor Swift weren't available. Personally, I think the Divas concert would be amazing with a set list of all Miss American Idol finalists: Kimberly Locke, Fantasia, Jennifer Hudson, The Supreme Miss American Idol - Carrie Underwood, Kellie Pickler, and Jordin Sparks. It would be great to throw in two of the best Divas of all, Clay Aiken and Adam Lambert!

On the Billboard Album chart it came as no surprise that Season Five Miss American Idol 3rd runner up, Chris Daughtry, made a very impressive debut at #1 with his second album called Leave This Town. His first album was the best selling album for all of 2007 and this new one started out with one week sales of 269,000. The new album by Jordin Sparks will be making it's debut on the charts very soon, so we'll see how she compares....

The Results - Movie Music

In 1983 Flashdance became a surprise hit at the box office. Much of it's success has to be attributed to the soundtrack that was jam packed with smoking hot smash hits. The finalists opened the show with one of those #1 hits. He became a one hit wonder, but Michael Sembello spent two weeks at the top of the charts with Maniac. While this performance was fun, it was much more exciting to learn that the finalists all went to the premiere of the new movie 17 Again which opens this Friday. The star of the movie, Zac Efron, was in the audience watching the results show tonight. Seriously, with Zac sitting right there, who can pay attention to anything else...

Adam Lambert and Alison Iraheta are safe while Anoop is in the bottom three again this week. I wonder what Zac Efron thinks of the results so far?

Just about every week it has to be mentioned how Carrie Underwood is the Supreme Miss American Idol selling millions of albums and accumulating a huge collection of awards. The only other American Idol finalist who comes close to Carrie's accomplishments is the amazing Season Three finalist, Jennifer Hudson. While there are a few other American Idols who have a Grammy like Jennifer does, it's doubtful that any other American Idol finalist will ever be able to be called an Oscar winner. The winner of the 2007 Oscar for Best Supporting Actress performed her latest single, If It Isn't Love, from her Grammy winning album. Let's hope this exposure on the American Idol stage will lead to an impressive bump in sales and airplay. How cool that Jennifer had the chance to sing for Zac Efron!

Kris Allen is safe while Lil Rounds had to join Anoop in the bottom three. Danny Gokey is safe while Matt Giraud is also once again in the bottom three. In a very disappointing twist, it turns out that Anoop is safe leaving either Matt or Lil as the lowest vote getter. I wonder what Zac Efron thinks of this turn of events.

One guess as to who the musical guest would be on the Movie Music Theme night. It's the artist who stars in the #1 movie at the box office last weekend and she is sitting at #10 this week with her hit single from the movie on the Billboard HOT 100. If you guessed that the Hannah Montana Movie starring Miley Cyrus is the #1 movie you'd be right. Miley performed her song The Climb for the fellow Disney star Zac Efron and the rest of the American Idol audience.

Thankfully, Lil Rounds is safe and Matt Giraud weakly screeched out his song Have You Ever Really Loved A Woman to see if the judges would save him. It was even worse than last night and for some reason the judges decided to use their one and only save so he is coming back next week.

This means that two finalists will be going home next week and there isn't a "judges save" that can be used any more. As for my predictions, I got two out of three correct this week. I can already predict that I'm going to predict that Anoop, Matt and Danny are going to be the bottom three again next week. It's doubtful that any of them will miraculously get some talent in one week, so hopefully we'll be getting rid of two of them next week.

Idol Gives Back 2008

The familiar beat of the current top 10 smash, Don't Stop The Music, could be heard opening the show for this year's Idol Gives Back. Could that mean that chart-topping star Rihanna is the first of many big name talents helping out? The vocals started and it sounded like Rihanna, but it was just our top 8 Finalist Syesha Mercado still looking for her own identity. She was joined by the rest of the top 8 and the winners of Randy Jackson's America's Best Dance Crew for a very entertaining group performance.

Snoop Dogg and Charlie Wilson provided their version of a street savvy contribution to the evenings fund raising efforts followed by the unmistakable sound of Before He Cheats. Just as we were looking forward to seeing the Supreme Miss American Idol, Season Four's Carrie Underwood take the stage, it was Teri Hatcher from Desperate Housewives who took the mike instead. She actually sang the whole song. The real Carrie only came out at the end which just made no sense.

The excitement picked up when super hot teen sensation Miley Cyrus took the stage and gave a small sample of her Best of Both Worlds live concert experience. Unfortunately, she did not sing her current smash See You Again, but it was still lots of fun. She was followed by Fergie who proved with her three #1 hits last year that she doesn't need anyone to be a huge success. Even so, she shared the stage with Best New Artist Grammy winner John Legend for a performance of Finally. Afterward, she introduced classic rock band Heart who started to sing their hit Barracuda. To this day Ann Wilson holds the title of having the best voice in rock music so when Fergie came back to share lead vocals it was a risk. She did a very respectable job holding her own and she didn't need to add the cartwheels as a distraction, even though it was pretty entertaining.

Annie Lennox provided her annual contribution to Idol Gives Back and then we were given the Carrie Underwood performance we were cheated of earlier. George Michael hit #1 in 1990 with his poignant ballad Praying For Time. Lyrically it is the perfect embodiment of what the night is all about and Carrie added her outstanding vocal talents to breath new life to this wonderful song. Gloria Estefan then energized the crowd to Get On Their Feet and give to this important fundraising event.

The top 8 finalists were put to work answering phones and accepting donations, but they were given a break to perform the hit song from the musical Rent, Seasons of Love. The theme for the entertainment this evening has been to tease the audience. First it was with Carrie Underwood and now with Miley Cyrus. To the pleasure of the audience, Miley came back to sing See You Again!

The only other Idol alumni to make an appearance tonight was Season Five Miss American Idol third runner up Chris Daughtry. I guess Kelly Clarkson was busy with other commitments this year.

Idol Gives Back came to an end with a sensational preview of what the finalists will be treated to next week. Mega million selling superstar hit maker Mariah Carey graced the stage to perform one of the many smash hit songs from her Grammy winning The Emancipation of Mimi. Fly Like A Bird, with it's message of hope and faith was the perfect way to sum up this important evening of entertainment.