February 11, 2017 - Ed Sheeran (1)

Well, for Grammys weekend, this could've ended better. We said goodbye to two songs, one of which had been persistent overall, and the other of which was one of the best songs of last year. It's also at the point where I've put three songs in orange. I can't stand any of them. But yeah, this wasn't the best overall. At least our #1 is good, so I'll take it, sure. So without further ado, here are the songs leaving us this week.

• Ride by Twenty-one Pilots (#37)
• Into You by Ariana Grande (#41)

The Countdown!
Last Week’s #1 Song: Don't Wanna Know by Maroon 5
45. Don't Let Me Down by The Chainsmokers featuring Daya (#44) (three weeks at #1)
44. Send My Love (To Your New Lover) by Adele (#36) (one week at #1)
43. Greenlight by Pitbull featuring LunchMoney Lewis and Flo Rida (#42)
42. I Hate U, I Love U by gnash featuring Olivia O'Brien (#45)
41. In The Name Of Love by Martin Garrix and Bebe Rexha (#40)
40. Kids by OneRepublic (#43)
39. Love On The Brain by Rihanna (#35)
38. Hymn For The Weekend by Coldplay (#34)
37. The Greatest by Sia featuring Kendrick Lamar (#25)
36. You're Not There by Lukas Graham (#30)
35. That's What I Like by Bruno Mars (debut)
34. Issues by Julia Michaels (#32)
33. Let Me Love You by DJ Snake with Justin Bieber (#33)
32. Say You Won't Let Go by James Arthur (#28)
31. Starboy by The Weeknd featuring Daft Punk (#14)
30. Guys My Age by Hey Violet (#39)
29. I Got You by Bebe Rexha (debut)
28. Treat You Better by Shawn Mendes (#24)
27. Side To Side by Ariana Grande featuring Nicki Minaj (#25)
26. Heavydirtysoul by Twenty-one Pilots (#27)
25. 24K Magic by Bruno Mars (#20)
24. Scars To Your Beautiful by Alessia Cara (#13)
23. I Feel It Coming by The Weeknd featuring Daft Punk (#31)
22. Death Of A Bachelor by Panic! At The Disco (#19)
21. Words by Daya (#29)
20. Unsteady by X Ambassadors (#23)
19. After The Afterparty by Charli XCX (#21)
18. Just Hold On by Steve Aoki featuring Louis Tomlinson (#26)
17. Million Reasons by Lady Gaga (#38)
16. Heathens by Twenty-one Pilots (#11) (two weeks at #1)
15. Chase You Down by Runaground (#18)
14. This Town by Niall Horan (#16)
13. Paris by The Chainsmokers (#22)
12. Starving by Hailee Steinfeld and Grey featuring Zedd (#6) (four weeks at #1)
11. Bad Things by Machine Gun Kelly and Camilla Cabello (#10)
10. Play That Song by Train (#17)
9. Love Me Now by John Legend (#12)
8. Don't Wanna Know by Maroon 5 (#1) (three weeks at #1)
7. I Don't Wanna Live Forever by Zayn Malik and Taylor Swift (#8)
6. All Time Low by Jon Bellion (#7)
5. Water Under The Bridge by Adele (#9)
4. Mercy by Shawn Mendes (#4)
3. HandClap by Fitz And The Tantrums (#5)
2. Closer by The Chainsmokers featuring Halsey (#2) (eight weeks at #1)
#1 Song This Week One Year Ago: Hello by Adele (12th and final week at #1) - This week it tied the record for most weeks at #1, with Shake It Off by Taylor Swift and Shut Up and Dance by Walk The Moon.
1. Shape Of You by Ed Sheeran (#3) (first week at #1)

Biggest DRRRRRRROP!!! Of The Week: Starboy by The Weeknd featuring Daft Punk (-17)

Biggest Jump Of The Week: Million Reasons by Lady Gaga (+21)

New Entrants
- Having listened to Bruno Mars' 24K Magic album, I wondered what his next proper single from it would be after the title track got some traction and Versace On The Floor unfortunately didn't really get anywhere. And now we have That's What I Like. Although the lyrics basically equate out to your standard club banger, it's still pretty fun, as the man does have class and charisma. That being said, this wouldn't be my first choice for a track to release as a real single, but we'll see if the rest of America disagrees.

- Then we have more from Bebe Rexha, as In The Name Of Love continues to hang on for dear life, she brings out I Got You. While I know what the song is about, and she does have good vocal capability, I can't say that I'm thrilled by her constant warbling of the titular line in the chorus, and the "oh na na na"s alongside them. The production isn't doing a lot of favors, either. I'd say it's a little closer to red than it is green, but that could change.

I Got Blurbs
- So we had two exits. The first being Ride by Twenty-one Pilots, which I guess I never hated in the big picture, even though I was on the verge of getting tired of it more than once, and I know that Adrian is bidding good riddance for it (as are a few others, I'm sure). Then there's Into You by Ariana Grande, which I bet Graham is throwing a be-gone party over, but Jack and I will be doing the exact opposite. Farewell, Into You. You were regarded by many as one of the best songs of the year, and for good reason. A sheer display of how Ariana Grande is one of the few acts in today's scene who can just about always display raw power, indeed. You will be missed.

- Before introducing Send My Love (To Your New Lover), Spyder talked about how pleased Harry Styles of One Direction was to have Adele at his birthday party earlier in the month.

- The guest DJ who introduced In The Name Of Love gave a shout-out to, in addition to a couple of his friends, his dog, "Eleanor Rigby". Spyder discovered that the guy was a Beatles fan.

- Speaking of Graham... Funny story, just yesterday I was in an amusement store in a mall that's a bit of a drive from my home (a place that has arcade-style games, bowling, and even karaoke), and I heard them playing Lose Yourself by Eminem, which is widely regarded as one of the best songs of all time, if memory serves. But immediately after that? Roses by The Chainsmokers featuring ROZES. Then, two or three songs later, they played OMG by Usher featuring will.i.am, probably Usher's most infamous hit. And straight after THAT, they played Thinking Out Loud by Ed Sheeran, one of the most infamous songs in this countdown community thanks to how long it stuck around in 2015. I thought, "Wow, whoever picks the music here must really hate Graham." I wonder who DJ's places like that.

- Before introducing Love On The Brain, Spyder talked about how Rihanna gave birth to her first child...and I'm like, he's clearly joking here, that'd come out of literally nowhere. But he was talking about not our Rihanna, but a rhinoceros of the same name. Weird. As for the song, I didn't think it'd drop into the bottom 10 on its second week. It's safe to say the song has become a proper hit at this point, though.

- As for the rest of our debuts from last week, one of them had a floppy jump, and another dropped as well. Three others took sizable jumps, one of which I don't really care about, one I'm not wild about, and one I'm cool with being in the Top 20 for the time being.

- What up with the drops from You're Not There? That's kind of unfortunate.

- Let Me Love You is officially annoying. Get out. Now.

- Before introducing Scars To Your Beautiful, Spyder talked about Alessia Cara's time on The Tonight Show With Jimmy Fallon. Fun.

- Remember how Spyder used to introduce My Songs Know What You Did In The Dark (Light 'Em Up) by Fall Out Boy and Radioactive by Imagine Dragons as "The song that won't go away" many years back? He just did so for Unsteady, which unfortunately re-entered the Top 20. We had to have 24K Magic kicked out for this? Come on...

- I'm also not happy with After The Afterparty entering the Top 20. But the guest DJ who introduced it gave a shout-out to, in addition to his son, "all his lady friends". He had 14 in total, according to his conversation with Spyder, who commented on how Valentine's Day was right near. That's pretty high maintenance! And if he's a dad, then who's his son's mother alongside him?

- I had a feeling that Million Reasons was going to jump in the wake of the Super Bowl. But I don't know if it'll last or not, although I'll gladly take it.

- Play That Song in the Top 10 is a big fat no. Stop it. Now.

- But as consolation, right above it is Love Me Now. I don't know how much higher it'll go, or if it'll do well enough to be seen as a real hit, but it's nice to see it at this level.

- Before introducing Closer, Spyder talked about how The Chainsmokers responded to their being called "the Nickelback of EDM" (if you don't know, Nickelback is arguably the most infamous rock band out there) and shared a clip of them singing How You Remind Me to the tune of Paris.

- It was of course expected for Shape Of You by Ed Sheeran to take #1. Within just five weeks, it made the top spot. So it's more than likely to hold that spot next week.

Hit-Bound
All Night by The Vamps featuring Matoma
Believer by Imagine Dragons
Lights Down Low by MAX featuring gnash
Don't Leave by Snakehips featuring MØ
Shout Out To My Ex by Little Mix
Versace On The Floor by Bruno Mars
L.A. Devotee by Panic! At The Disco
Cake by Flo Rida featuring 99 Percent
Weak by AJR
Make Me (Cry) by Noah Cyrus featuring Labrinth
Miss You by James Hersey
Dancing On My Own by Calum Scott (Happy now, everyone?)
Chained To The Rhythm by Katy Perry featuring Skip Marley (debut)
Castle On The Hill by Ed Sheeran (re-entry)

- So, let's just get to it. Katy Perry is back for the big one this time, after the insanely boring and also grating Rise, with a new one by the name of Chained To The Rhythm. I have to say, I like this. It does fit the mold of the old fun Katy Perry that I've enjoyed, particularly with that nice 80's feel to it. It also features a guest verse from Bob Marley's grandson Skip Marley, which is kinda cool. I'll talk more about it next week.

- Then we have Castle On The Hill by Ed Sheeran re-entering Hit-Bound, just as I predicted. But with how much it's sinking elsewhere, I predict it won't re-enter the countdown for a little while.

Top 20 Breakdown:
0 — Shit:
20. Tie: After The Afterparty by Charli XCX
20. Tie: Don't Wanna Know by Maroon 5
18. Play That Song by Train
17. Unsteady by X Ambassadors

1 — Bad:
16. Starving by Hailee Steinfeld and Grey featuring Zedd
15. Bad Things by Machine Gun Kelly and Camilla Cabello

2 — Meh:
14. Chase You Down by Runaground

3 — Decent:
13. Closer by The Chainsmokers featuring Halsey
12. This Town by Niall Horan

4 — Good:
None!

5 — Great:
11. Mercy by Shawn Mendes
10. All Time Low by Jon Bellion
9. Heathens by Twenty-one Pilots
8. Paris by The Chainsmokers
7. Million Reasons by Lady Gaga
6. HandClap by Fitz And The Tantrums
5. Water Under The Bridge by Adele
4. Shape Of You by Ed Sheeran
3. Just Hold On by Steve Aoki featuring Louis Tomlinson
2. I Don't Wanna Live Forever by Zayn Malik and Taylor Swift
1. Love Me Now by John Legend

Overall score: 65/100

Countdown Bottom 5
1. Tie: After The Afterparty by Charli XCX
1. Tie: Don't Wanna Know by Maroon 5
1. Tie: I Hate U, I Love U by gnash featuring Olivia O'Brien
4. Play That Song by Train
5. Treat You Better by Shawn Mendes

Countdown Top 5
1. Love Me Now by John Legend
2. 24K Magic by Bruno Mars
3. I Don't Wanna Live Forever by Zayn Malik and Taylor Swift
4. Just Hold On by Steve Aoki featuring Louis Tomlinson
5. Shape Of You by Ed Sheeran

Hit-Bound Top 5
1. Castle On The Hill by Ed Sheeran
2. Shout Out To My Ex by Little Mix
3. Don't Leave by Snakehips featuring MØ
4. Chained To The Rhythm by Katy Perry featuring Skip Marley
5. Believer by Imagine Dragons

Most Missed Song: Black Magic by Little Mix

Favorite Countdown Song This Week One Year Ago: Magnets by Disclosure featuring Lorde

Songs That Debuted This Week One Year Ago:
Love Yourself by Justin Bieber — Probably the most infamous Year-End #1 of the decade, but something does feel funny about the context of the song. I mean, dude didn't even wanna write the darn thing lest we think he still cared!
Jet Black Heart by 5 Seconds of Summer — One of the more enjoyed songs by this countdown community, and they do have good rock to them but it's not perfectly ideal for me. Still not bad though.
Dessert by Dawin — One of my guilty pleasures of 2016. I know, I tend to have a lot of those.

QOTD: Who are you thinking will win Album Of The Year at the Grammys? What about Song and/or Record Of The Year? For album, I'm thinking Lemonade will take it, because for as much talent as Adele has, 25 wasn't as heavily favored as that one. But I also hope for Hello to take one of those two, and if not then probably Stressed Out for record. As much as I would love for I Took a Pill In Ibiza to win song of the year, it probably won't. I'll definitely make a post on the Grammys afterwards.

Thanks for reading, everybody!