#49. Jennifer Brown – Out Of The Ashes

Jennifer Brown first came to my attention at Melodifestivalen 2009 with her ballad ‘Never Been Here Before,’ which failed to make much of an impact at the competition.  Since then she’s been on a roll with her single choices.  Mr. Running Man was definitely a highlight of 2009, but ‘Out Of The Ashes’ really resonated with me this year.

#48. Evan – By My Side

It’s no secret that I’m a massive fan of Evans unique ‘epic pop’ style.  His songs are sweeping, romantic and dramatic tracks that can’t be compared to any other work being produced right now.  Unfortunately the most we’ve heard from him lately were a few demos released to fans on his website.  ‘By My Side’ gets me extremely excited for the possibility of a third album from him.  Originally said to be released in 2009 the album never materialized.  As soon as I have news about an album in 2010 I’ll post it here.

#47. Velvet – The Queen

#46. Johanna – Is It True

#45.  A1 – Take You Home

After threatening a comeback for over a year now, Uk based boyband A1 finally came through with new material.  Only instead of releasing in the Uk the band have started off in Norway with their first single in 7 years!  The track which was released for Charity off the heels of performance on Nowegian X-Factor ended p hitting the top 10 in Norway and has officially kickstarted their careers once more.  The band have a big year ahead of them as not only will they release a new album but the band are officially taking part in Melodi Grand Prix in an effort to represent Norway at the 2010 Eurovision Song Contest.  I was a huge fan of ‘Take You Home’ and can’t wait to see what happens at MGP.

#44. VV Brown – Shark In The Water

#43. Alexandra Burke – Bad Boys

#42. Will Young – Hopes & Fears

Finally Will Young releases a single worth mentioning, after throwing a fantastic career away with a bunch of mediocre and bland song choices he finally releases one that reminds me why I used to like him in the first place.  The track was to support his greatest hits album but I fear that it’s too little too late and that he won’t be having another Greatest Hits album anytime soon.  It’s actually one of the rare songs where I like the verses better than the chorus.

#41. The Pussycat Dolls – Jai Ho (You Are My Destiny)

#40. Take That – The Garden

It was hard for me to choose between ‘The Garden’ and ‘Up All Night’ for my top Take That song of the year.  In the end I’ve listened to ‘The Garden’ more than I’ve listened to ‘Up All Night’ and I’m a sucker for a great ballad.  This track was never released as a single but can be found on their ‘The Circus’ album and is one of my favorites.

Hey Guys,

So 2009 is quickly coming to an end and it’s been a massive year for pop music.  Many blogs have done a fantastic job of reflecting on various artists and events over the past year and they’ve all done a better job than I could ever do.  So instead I’m just going to talk about some songs that stand out for me in 2009.

There are no rules to my chart, the songs may or may not have been released as singles, in some cases the songs were available prior to 2009 but may have been released officialy in 2009 or only came to my attention in 2009.

There are a ton of songs that are not on this list that were huge hits in 2009 and that I did enjoy a lot, but if the song isn’t on the list it’s because it grew ‘old’ or didn’t really stick with me throughout the year.  Every song on this list received a lot of airplay from my over the year.

#62 . Alien Beat Club – My Way

Alien Beat Club hail from Denmark where they came in second place in the Danish X-Factor.   They’re the first of 2 X-Factor acts to show up on my favorites this year. ‘My Way’ hit the top spot in Denmark

#61. Jennifer Paige and Nick Carter – Beautiful Lie

#60. Industry – In Your Arms

The third single from 2009s brightest new stars from Ireland.  The band are ready to break into Britian in 2010 and have worked with some of the best names in pop music for their debut album.

#59. Amy Diamond -  Up

#58. The Saturdays – Here Standing

It’s unfortunate that things seem to have cooled down for The Saturdays after they burst onto the scene last year.  Their latest album tanked spending only 2 weeks in the top 40.   It’s dissapointing because while the album was a bit weak, there were some bright spots like this song which hasn’t been released as a single but is still one of my favorite songs on the album.   I think it’s very unlikely that we’ll have another album from these girls again unless they can crank out one more commercially successful single this year.

#57. Jeanette – Feline

This track was never released as a single and I’ve been sitting on it for a long time and over the last year the more I listened to it the more I enjoyed it.  It definitely took a long time to grow on me but it’s managed to earn a spot on my list.  I like that it has a unique sound and isn’t like any other song on the list.

#56. Cheryl Cole – Fight For This Love

#55. The Script – The Man Who Can’t Be Moved

#54. Suzanne Alfvengren – Du Är Älskad Där Du Går

Probably one of the worst peformances of Melodifestivalen 2009… I don’t know what they were thinking with the hair and the dress, it was all kinds of wrong.  But if you close your eyes and just listen to the track you’ll hear that it’s quite a beautiful song and one of the most under appreciated of Melodifestivalen 2009.

#53. Mika – Blame It On The Girls

#52. David Archuleta – Touch My Hand

#51. Nickleback – Gotta Be Somebody

#50. Kim Lian & Linda Bengtzing – Not That Kinda Girl

For those of you that have never heard of Kim Lian you’re not the only ones.  She’s celebrity from the Netherlands that has had a lot of success on television there which led to a debut single and chart success in 2003.  Now unless you’ve been living under a rock somewhere there’s no way you haven’t heard of Linda Bengtzing my absolute favorite swedish star.  This track is immensely cheesy but a rare treat to hear Linda sing in English.

SVT announced today that the 3rd Wildcard entry will be none other than ‘Peter Joback’ who they’ve tried to get into the competition for years now since his debut in Melodifestivalen back in 1990.  The song ‘Hollow’ is written and composed by Anders Hansson and the amazing Fredrik Kempe who says “I really think this is my best song ever!”  Better than Empty Room, Hero, La Voix?!  Let’s just say expectations are running high with this one.

Peter Joback has been around for ages but I first heard of him in 2002 with the release of his second english album which spawned the hit single – Sinner.  Since 1990 he’s released over 25 singles.

That means 3 wildcards have been announced and all 3 have gone to male singers.  So we can only hope that Lena Ph is indeed the final wildcard announced on Monday.

If you don’t know who Peter Joback is check out Sinner below.

Peter Joback – Sinner