You know, I was almost on board with Nicole Scherzinger's 17th attempt at having a solo career. "Poison" was kind of alright, and "Don't Hold Your Breath" was an absolute jam. So, yeah — pretty cool that they became big hits overseas.
But things took a turn for the tragic when she was paired up with 50 Cent for their stab at the American market (naturally), "Right There." What, is this 2003?
The video for this trash was somewhat entertaining. But Nicole's performance of the song — which, you could tell me is an old Jennifer Lopez B-side and I'd believe you — was so bland, she made Jordin Sparks sound like Maria Callas.
Last week at this time, following Enrique Iglesias' own performance on Idol, "Dirty Dancer" was in the iTunes Top 10. Nicole's single is at #39.
So here we've got the video for "Right There," the official first U.S. single from Nicole Scherzinger's four-years-delayed solo album Love Killer.
The song is nowhere near as rad as her recent international single "Don't Hold Your Breath." But it's alright. Even though 50 Cent mumbles something about "another number one" in the intro, which — let's face it — is nothing either of these two have been acquainted with in the last half-decade on these shores.
I had to die laughing when I looked up Nicole Scherzinger's single "Don't Hold Your Breath" recently on Wikipedia and saw that I was quoted in the "Critical Response" section:
Robbie Daw from Idolator praised the song, based just on its demo. He said "Well, okay—we will allow that this song already sounds better than every Pussycat Dolls single combined."
Hot. And true! What I didn't know at the time is that "Don't Hold Your Breath" is co-produced by Rami Yacoub ("...Baby One More Time," "Oops!...I Did It Again," etc. etc.). No wonder it's such a top-notch jam. At any rate, the song has debuted at #1 on the UK singles chart today, thereby ending Adele's four-week reign with "Someone Like You." I really feel that "Don't Hold Your Breath" is like "Hold It Against Me" and "Born This Way," i.e. one of the first pop songs released in 2011 to make a pleasant impact.
That brings us to the latest pack of British strippers posing as pop stars, Parade. The quintet enter the chart this week at #10 with their debut single "Louder," which isn't entirely awful—it's just nowhere near as good as "Make Up Your Mind" (particularly the Pete Hammond Mix) by member Sian Charlesworth's former ho brigade City Girls.
Compare, pop chyldren:
Over on the UK album chart Adele is #1 again with 21 for an eighth week.
The UK Top 10:
1."Don't Hold Your Breath" - Nicole Scherzinger *new* *1 week* 2. "Someone Like You" - Adele 3. "Gold Forever" - The Wanted *new* 4. "Price Tag" - Jessie J feat. B.o.B 5. "S&M (Come On)" - Rihanna 6. "Black And Yellow" - Wiz Khalifa 7. "Born This Way" - Lady Gaga 8. "Rolling In The Deep" - Adele 9. "I Need A Doctor" - Dr. Dre feat. Eminem & Skylar Grey 10. "Louder" - Parade *new*
Nicole Scherzinger's video for new (UK) single "Don't Hold Your Breath" is one of the cheapest-looking to come across the pop landscape from a major label artist in recent times. Well, okay—that Mariah Carey Christmas one with the fireworks was an exercise in low-rent entertainment, too.
But, that said, I absolutely love this jam. And I haven't loved a song this broad has been attached to since Pussycat Dolls' 2005 single "Stickwitu."
And to think, somewhere in the Chart Rigger vault there's an un-published Nicole Scherzinger Banterview that Moogaboo and I did up about four years back.
It's interesting to see how Nicole Scherzinger's 4,567,893rd attempt at a solo career is unfolding. Following last year's news that Pussycat Dolls were going on hiatus or breaking up or whatever the hell they're doing, Nicole put on her cha-cha thong and won Dancing With The Stars here in the States, then acted as a fill-in judge earlier this year on The X Factor.
And since she got a cushy performance spot on The X Factor last weekend, just as her RedOne-produced jam "Poison" was released, the single has now entered the UK chart at #3. You have to wonder where it would have placed sans the high-profile TV gig?
Oh, well—I'm still torn on what I think of "Poison." It's not un-enjoyable, really...is it?
Anyway, over on the album chart, the Black Eyed Peas flop in at #17 with The Beginning. That's actually a pretty colossal disaster, no? Especially considering The E.N.D. got to #3 in the UK last year.
Even more scandalous is the fact that Billboard reports The Beginning is on track to get bested by Susan Boyle's month-old The Gift on this upcoming week's U.S. album chart, and will likely only sell in the range of 100,000 to 125,000 copies. Says the mag, "For the Peas, that's off quite a bit from the arrival of their last album, The E.N.D., which gave the quartet its first No. 1 last year with a 304,000 unit start according to Nielsen SoundScan."
Yeah, well, too bad lead single "The Time (Dirty Bit)" SUCKS. Elsewhere on the UK album chart, Take That's Progress is #1 for a third week (and thus forces Olly Murs' self-titled debut to enter at #2) while Duffy's Endlessly debuts at #9.
The U.K. Top 10:
1. "Heroes" - The X Factor Finalists 2010 *2 weeks* 2. "Your Song" - Ellie Goulding 3. "Poison" - Nicole Scherzinger*new* 4. "Thinking Of Me" - Olly Murs 5. "Like A G6" - Far East Movement feat. The Cataracs & Dev 6. "The Time (Dirty Bit)" - The Black Eyed Peas 7. "Only Girl (In The World)" - Rihanna 8. "What's My Name" - Rihanna feat. Drake 9. "Who's That Chick" - David Guetta feat. Rihanna *new* 10. "Love You More" - JLS
Bruno Mars should really just go slap down some cash for a giant bucket of coke and snort the shit like it's going out of style every time he throws a new record out. Because his Las Vegas arrest last Sunday for drug possession has led to his debut solo single "Just The Way You Are" topping both the U.S. and UK charts this week.
The rest of the Brit tally is a bit quiet, with minor blips coming in from Enrique Iglesias and Nicole Scherzinger's "Heartbeat" (#13), Glee Season 2 star Charice's "Pyramid" (#17), Mark Ronson & The Business Intl's "The Bike Song" (#21) and The Saturdays' "Higher" (#22).
Over on the UK album chart, Orchestral Manoeuvres In The Dark return after 14 years with History Of Modern (peek at my snazzy non-review), which enters at #28. The synth band's last studio album Universal hit #24 back in 1996, while the compilation The OMD Singles peaked at #16 in 1998.
The U.K. Top 10:
1. "Just The Way You Are" - Bruno Mars *new* *1 week* 2. "Dynamite" - Taio Cruz 3. "Teenage Dream" - Katy Perry 4. "For The First Time" - The Script 5. "Start Without You" - Alexandra Burke 6. "Love The Way You Lie" - Eminem feat. Rihanna 7. "Focus" - Emma's Imagination *new* 8. "Katy On A Mission" - Katy B 9. "Impossible" - Shontelle 10. "I'm In Love (I Wanna Do It)" - Alex Gaudino *new*
Yes, yes—Enrique Iglesias and Nicole Scherzinger's "Heartbeat" video leaked last week. But it officially premiered today, which means I can finally post it and not have to worry that the damn thing is going to get yanked off YouTube every five minutes by Interscope.
I must admit, I like this jam. It's produced by longtime Enrique collaborator Mark Taylor—aka Metro. Well, one of Metro. (What ever happened to the rest of those guys?)
Even Scherzinger is tolerable here. Though naturally she has to strip down to frilly panties for that mirrored room sequence. SPEAKING OF WHICH: didn't we see that same mirrored room in Alex Gardner's "I'm Not Mad" video?
Enrique Iglesias, the Spanish pop singer-songwriter, and Nicole Scherzinger, the Pussycat Dolls lead singer, has teamed up for a new song "Heartbeat", the second English single from Iglesias’s upcoming bilingual album Euphoria which features both English and Spanish songs.
Here is the just-released music video for the duet and both Enrique and Nicole looked so $exy and gorgeous in it!
Check out the music video of Enrique Iglesias and Nicole Scherzinger’s "Heartbeat" below:
Nicole Scherzinger and Derek Hough won Dancing With the Stars 2010!
Won Dancing With the Stars 2010? Nicole Scherzinger Derek Hough! (Courtesy: ABC/AOL)
In case you missed out Dancing With the Stars finale last night, the following is the video showing DWTS host Tom Bergen announcing Nicole Scherzinger and Derek Hough were the winner of Dancing With the Stars 2010.
Nicole Scherzinger, of band Pussycat Dolls, had become the front runner to win the dancing competition since this season's show debut in March.
Seen from the video above, Nicole initially was a bit nervous but as long as Tom revealled she and Derek were the champion, the singer immediately splashed with a wild celebration. Congrats!
