UK hits 00's III

I thought we'd take a look at the UK charts from the 00's on this site, mainly so I can feature more alternate art on this site given how I've become a sucker for doing so lately. Again I'll update this list with original commentary when I find my muse as I've still had a bit of creater burnout lately.

Although "Breakaway" was the first song from Kelly Clarkson to showcase a more personal side of her, that was also the theme to the second Princess diaries flick which obviously didn't convince anyone that she was anything more than the winner of a reality series. Those preconceptions were shattered when she released the second single from the album of the same name which has become an anthem for breakups.

Well at least the second single from Britney's fourth album In the zone had some presence on our charts, despite also debuting at number one here, the third single barely lasted a month on the charts as it dropped like a brick due to it being heavily tampered with back in the day by Sony. It's a shame because it's a deeply personal ballad from Britney that she wrote herself for once.

This was a surprisingly good year for music to appeal to lesbians, wasn't it? Although I should point out that this Russian duo isn't a gay couple or even gay themselves and were only showing their support for the queer community (a bold stance for them considering Russia's stance on said community) with this song and music video which has the clever spin of having the homophobes be prisoners instead of them.

This was one of the rare RNB ballads that Chris Brown has in his catalogue, even back then, it feels like a black sheep compared to the rest of his catalogue which is more upbeat and showcases a tougher side of his image. This song's released was heavily delayed here as was his earlier collaboration with Jordin Sparks due to how long it took for "Kiss kiss" to become a hit here (which is still to come on this list.)

I guess Eminem felt enough time had passed from Encore that he could return with the exact type of songs that he made on that album, I guess there was a fanbase for these two albums to draw on given how Relapse was a massive success for him even though (in my opinion) it shares a lot of the same problems that Encore had from five years earlier.

I remember this track receiving a ton of airplay here in Australia back in the day, so my confusion as to how it was only a modest sleeper hit at best is pretty high especially given how it was a huge chart topper for the Finnish band over in NZ and throughout the rest of the world. The remain a one hit wonder in both countries in the southern hemisphere, however they had more success throughout Europe.

This was the first song from the Rogue Traders to have Natalie Bassingthwaighte on lead vocals, Natalie of course being a former cast member of Neighbours making this another example of the show launching a pop star in Australia. Naturally this would eventually become a huge success in the UK for the band, although aside from NZ, the rest of the world wouldn't take to the band's music.

I guess it was only a matter of time before we had a new version of the Fugees make it big in the music industry, enter City high who scored a massive worldwide hit with this track five years after the original trio made it big worldwide. As this was a hip hop track, it was delayed here in Australia by several months before finally being released, and like most songs on this list, it was more popular here than anywhere in the world.

This was released the previous year in Gareth Gates native UK when he came second in the short-lived series Pop idol, basically it was a version of Popstars but for solo artists much like what that series would become throughout the decade. I'm not sure why this was released as a single here in Australia a year later, however it was which led to it becoming a surprise hit for the British contestant.

Kelis is only a two-hit wonder here in Australia with both of her entries on this list, however she was one of the biggest names in music throughout the decade in Europe due to her scoring a bunch of hits over there including both of these entries. She's also only a two-hit wonder in America, although this wasn't one of those hits as "Bossy" was her other hit on Billboard from two years later.

This was the theme song to the show of the same name, technically it's existed since 1998 when the show premiered, however it was only released as a single in 2000 when the show became one of the most popular children's programs of (then) recent memory. I'm guessing the show didn't become as popular here in Australia until this year (I was too busy watching Cartoon network to notice) which explains its popularity this year down under.

Well, if nothing else, you can't accuse Robbie Williams of being one dimensional as this was his venture towards ska pop which I suppose wasn't too far removed from his venture towards swing from earlier in the decade. It was a big hit for him worldwide, although it would be one of his last hits as his next album would see him venture towards hip hop which fans didn't appreciate.

You may recognise this woman as one of the members of Mis Teeq who had a massive hit six years prior with "Scandalous" here in Australia, here she is with a solo hit that became as such down under a full year after it was a hit in her native UK. If it wasn't obvious from the lack of British entries on these lists, this should be the best proof I have that we Aussies weren't that interested in the British music scene this decade.

For a little while, this was my favourite hip hop track, this didn't last long as I quickly discovered the Eminem show shortly after, but I feel that if you found Eminem too problematic with his subject matter, then Nelly was a decent alternative as he was a good rapper without coming off as corny. Audiences worldwide agreed as this lead single to Nellyville was a massive hit for him due to being a club banger.

This was the penultimate hit that Akon had as a lead artist here in Australia, although he would still have a ton of hits moving forward as a featured artist for the likes of David Guetta and even the king of pop himself before his tragic death in 2009. This was a bit of a contrast to his other big hit this year given how this is him being remorseful about a relationship ending rather than wanting to force his love on someone.

While on the surface this is a song about how Sara Bareilles isn't going to write a love song about the relationship she's in, it's actually her standing up to her label who wanted her to write a generic love song even though she didn't have any experience with love while making her debut album from earlier in the decade. It turns out they were happy for this to be the lead single for her second album.

Following the demise of No doubt, Gwen Stefani decided to embark on a solo career which began with this track which is about taking chances in life. I'm guessing this was chosen as her solo debut as a plea towards the fans of her band to give her solo direction a chance which they obviously headed as her solo album proved to be a huge success for her largely due to the success of this lead single.

I don't think I can say anything positive about this lead single to the Pussycat dolls second and final album, I guess it was a massive hit for the girl group but one I'm sure many people regret due to its lyrics promoting unrealistic expectations for girls to achieve. At least the rest of their catalogue wasn't particularly harmful towards their target audience even if many people (me included) aren't a fan of it.

This was the theme to the Leonardo Dicaprio flick The beach, a film that was critically panned for being little more than an excuse to see him stranded on a deserted island to be objectified by those who find him attractive. Indeed, the song remains the only part of the film that was well received as it became a massive hit for All saints who (in my opinion) greatly improved from their debut album two years prior.

Although her earlier entry on this list was her big solo hit here in Australia, I'd be remiss not to mention Sonique's big international hit on this list as it did stick around long enough to qualify for this bonus list of mine. It's little surprise that "Sky" was her bigger hit here given how much stronger her vocals are on that track as opposed to here where they take a back seat to the ambient production.

Just a fair warning that you won't be seeing "Thank you" from Dido on this list, this is because that song wasn't released as a single here in Australia to avoid it stealing success from this haunting track from Eminem about an obsessed fan of his which has since become the term used for these types of people in fandoms. For what it's worth, this song underperformed in NZ where Dido's track was released as a single.

This is a response track to Eamon's entry from earlier on this list, although contrary to popular belief, Frankee wasn't the girlfriend Eamon was singing about on his song as she was instead some random singer who wanted to cash in off the success of that track by writing a response from the perspective of his girlfriend.

Uncle Kracker got his start as the turntablist for Kid Rock who was (at the time) a rap rock artist making songs such as "Bawitdaba" and "Daddy cool" from the Osmosis Jones soundtrack, so to see him with the first of only two hits he had as an adult contemporary artist is a bit of a surprise to say the least. I remember this receiving tons of airplay back in the day, so perhaps it was pulled from shelves to promote his album which sadly didn't work.

OK fair warning that I'm no fan of Taylor Swift, this will be hard for me to contain when I'm covering the 2010's given how she dominated the music scene, however I will admit that my dislike towards her music comes from her later material and not on her earlier work which is largely inoffensive at this stage of her career. Here in particular we have her imagining herself as a Disney princess which no doubt helped her find an audience outside her native America.

Even though the album art suggests that this was released from Robbie's (then) latest album Sing when you're winning, that's only the case for the second single as "The road to Mandalay" was tagged onto "Eternity" in order for him to score a hit from an album that already produced three massive hits for him worldwide. It paid off as this double A-side was a massive success in NZ and his native UK.

This was originally released as a single from Elvis Presley in the late 60's to deafening silence, likely because it was during that period where he was more focused on his acting career rather than his singing career and the original version not being among the more memorable songs in his catalogue. This remix came to be due to the song being used in the film Ocean's eleven which allowed it to become a surprise hit worldwide.

This is a song that I don't have much to say about, or at least I don't have much to say that wouldn't be offensive to my readers as I'm pretty sure this was only a hit through name recognition as well as how it addresses her recent controversies in the media.

The last time Gabrielle had a hit here in Australia was with her debut single "Dream" from eight years prior, so to see her back on the charts with this theme song to the first Bridget Jones' diary film was a bit of a surprise to say the least even if its success was inevitable in retrospect due to how popular the movie was and remains to this day. It was able to get the British RNB singer out of the one hit wonder bin if nothing else.

This is the second song from JT to address his failed relationship with Britney Spears, although this one seems much more caustic than "Cry me a river" mainly because it came out during the height of her meltdown which (in my opinion) says a lot about the type of person he really is in retrospect. I guess if you divorce the context of what this song is about, it's easy to see how this was a huge success from him back in the day.

I think this is the first song to become a hit by sampling an internet meme, in this case we have T.I sample "Dragostea din teï" from O-zone while also bringing Rihanna along to make sure the song doesn't sound too ridiculous to mainstream audiences of the day. It was a massive hit for the rapper likely due to the lyrics being about staying true to who you are which is an increasingly common theme in music.

This was always meant to be the lead single to Destiny's child's third album Survivor, however it came out as such an empowering feminist anthem that it was selected as the theme to the theatrical adaptation of Charlie's angels which has received a mix reception over the years due to some praising it for its female empowerment while others feel that it's a campy remake of a property made at the height of misogyny in pop culture.

There were no signs of these girls slowing down in the music industry as their second single managed to become a massive worldwide hit for them, this time it's with one of their ballads which showcases a more restrained side of them which I'm sure also titillated their audiences the same was as their other songs did.

This is the third and final hit that T.I had outside of America, although I feel that this would've been a hit regardless given how it has Justin Timberlake on the chorus who seemed to be a cheat code when it came to artists (specifically rappers) throughout the decade scoring a massive hit. This cheat code of his expired once the 2010's rolled around as he didn't have much success then even as a lead artist.

It looked like Gabrielle would never have any success in NZ given how "Dreams" was a massive failure for her over there despite it being a massive worldwide hit seven years prior (including in America) however her fortunes changed when she released this self-empowerment anthem that heavily interpolates "Knocking on heaven's door" from Bob Dylan that connected with the kiwis where it failed to do so with us Aussies.

Here we have a less controversial James from the UK scoring a massive worldwide hit with a folk ballad, in this case it's James Morrison who made it big with this ballad that would've appeared on the list proper had I allowed the stats from our digital charts to factor in the rankings for this list. It was one of the first songs to make it big down under thanks to the help of legal digital downloads.

This is the censored version of one of the more controversial songs to come out of the decade, replace the word love with f**k and you'll start to see why as that's the only change made in the song which has some macabre production to juxtapose with Akon's voice. Snoop Dogg is also on here to provide a verse which is also creepier if you're looking at the censored version.

This was originally released in 2009 to deafening silence for Taio Cruz here in Australia, this is despite it being a massive hit in his native UK likely due to the Brits wanting him to take the crown of RNB prince from Chris Brown with this track. It was given a second chance worldwide by having a guest verse from Ludacris which allowed this to crossover to Australia at the start of the decade.

Although he already had success here in Australia as a member of Take that, this was the first big hit that Robbie Williams had as a solo artist despite him having huge success over in NZ and his native UK as the 90's was coming to an end. I have to assume this was due to the video which shows him literally peeling off layers of himself until only a skeleton remains, why else would this be the song that made him big here?

It seems weird that BEP wouldn't have any success with their first two albums without Fergie considering that everything they released while she was part of the group was a massive success, this is the latest example which was the fourth and final single from Monkey business which was likely a hit due to the sample of that scene from Pulp fiction (later parodied in Space jam) they used to open the track.

This was a modest sleeper hit for Akon here in Australia, although I am surprised it wasn't more of a mainstream success given how it was just that over in NZ as well as his native America back in the day.

There weren't a lot of successful British artists throughout the decade here in Australia, however Ronan Keating was a rare exception likely due to the good will he had during his time with Boyzone throughout the 90's. Here he scored a massive hit with the second single from his solo debut ("When you say nothing at all" was technically the lead single) which was a huge hit for the Irish performer down under.

This is another song that's relatively low on this list due to shenanigans with the ARIA charts of the 00's, however I've gone on long enough about how dodgy they were on this site already, so I won't dwell on it here. This was the theme to the Baz Lurhman flick Moulin rouge which was a jukebox musical that revived the musical genre in the mainstream after many years of it being restricted to Disney flicks and their knockoffs.

This was the second hit from JT's second solo album Futuresex/Lovesounds, an album that seemed to want to make JT into a sex symbol which it arguably succeeded in doing given how successful it and the singles were in addition to him being considered one of the sexiest men of the decade. This was also the song which made T.I a household name here in Australia due to his guest verse being memorable.

It appears we Aussies were starting to become fed up with Kanye West by the end of the decade as we didn't gravitate towards his 808's and heartbreaks album like the rest of the world did, that said he did score a sleeper hit with its lead single here even if that was the full extent of its success down under.

It may not have had any endorsements from De la soul like their earlier entry on this list, however this second single from the Gorillaz was still a massive worldwide success for the British band due to it being just as funky as their other hit from their second album this year. Although they consisted of a real-world band, their gimmick was their comic book style cartoon band that they used for their music videos.

This is where it all began for Craig David, it's interesting to think that Usher would only have one hit by this point in his career in Australia and yet this guy would spawn three hits down under before his American counterpart would escape the one hit wonder bin here. That's honestly the best way I can describe Craig as he really was doing the same thing that Usher was during this phase of his career.

You better believe that the Ali G character created by Sacha Baron Cohen was a cultural phenomenon back in the day, here he is with Shaggy scoring a sleeper hit here in Australia with this novelty track about how awesome it is to be the viral sensation. Of course, nowadays Sacha is best known for his character Borat who would prove to be a massive box office success in his self-titled mockumentary from 2006.

Well, I did promise myself and my readers I'll be nice to each and every entry I talk about on this site, so I will say that this did get a chuckle out of me when it first came out even if that was because I was twelve years old at the time. No doubt this was the reason why this lead single to Encore and the album itself was a success for Eminem as many people felt it was a giant drop off in quality back in the day.

This was a hit twice here in Australia, the first time was on its initial release and the second was when the album became a success worldwide several months after its initial release. I get the feeling it was this track that finally allowed many of their contemporaries to find success such as Fall out boy and the Fray as there was a sudden rise in tracks like this finding success following its success.

Well, we've certainly come a long way from when this type of RNB was shunned by the Australian public haven't we? Here we have the one and only hit that Mario had outside of his native America as we have this tender ballad he made to the love of his life which touched the hearts of many a listener upon its initial release. Unfortunately for him, none of his other Billboard hits managed to connect with an international audience.

This was the first single that Rihanna released after a very dark period in her life, I won't mention what it is because I want this site to be a safe space for everyone, but I feel that I don't have to regardless because it's so ingrained in pop culture that it would be redundant for me to do so. One thing I will say is that it appears that she didn't want people getting the wrong idea that she was suddenly turned off by sex with this track.

This was one of two hits that the Finnish group Bomfunk MC's had here in Australia, we'll get to their other hit in a bit, but for now we have their song which was able to have the F-bomb played on the radio due to listeners missing the "Who the f**k is Alice" reference in the lyrics. I'm guessing this means that the song was a hit mainly for the sound as this was a bit before songs became a hit due to being a meme for its lyrics.

This was one of only two hits that Kanye West had as a lead artist here in Australia, the other would be "Stronger" from two years later which had him sampling Daft Punk of all people for a self-empowerment anthem. Here he recruits Jamie Foxx who was fresh off his Oscar winning performance as Ray Charles to provide him a chorus to connect his verses about a woman who's only into him for his wealth.

Well, this is a song that's sparked a bunch of controversy since its initial release, mainly because it details Rihanna in what appears to be a perfect relationship with someone and yet she still feels the need to cheat on him and yet realises that her admitting this to him would be devastating to him which leaves her conflicted in what she needs to do. I guess this dilemma connected with audiences back in the day to make it a hit.

Ne-Yo was on a roll this year as he released the second single to his biggest album Gentleman of the year, a song that shares its name with a Kelly Clarkson track much like "Because of you" from the previous year which suggests he was a bit uncreative with what he named his songs throughout his career. This obviously wasn't a deal breaker throughout the world given how popular he was.

This is another victim of Sony's insistence of pushing popular songs aside in Australia to make way for Australian idols chart dominance, in this case it was the second single from Britney Spears which I assure you was a massive success here in Australia back in the day despite its low placement on this list. At least this managed to have presence on our charts for the short amount of time that it was available.

From what I can gather, this second single from Leona Lewis's sophomore album was chosen for a charity known as Sports relief in her native UK, this meant that the ballad was a hit worldwide likely due to charity which allowed her to escape the one hit wonder bin her earlier entry on this list threatened to trap her in. She wouldn't have another hit in most parts of the world after this.

We have another entry from a cast member of Neighbours on this list, this time it's Holly Valance who managed to score a massive hit worldwide with this English language cover of a Turkish sex jam from the late 90's. It was the first of four hit singles the Australian singer/actress managed to achieve down under, although she remains a one hit wonder everywhere else in the world with this sex jam.

Considering this was the biggest hit of the decade over in America, you may be shocked to see how low this second single from Mariah Carey's comeback album the Emancipation of Mimi is on this list. Alas this isn't the result of its success being taken away due to illegal downloads, it just wasn't as inescapable here in Australia or indeed anywhere else in the world as it was on the Billboard charts.

Considering the original version of this track wasn't among the biggest hits of the 70's anywhere in the world, it seems odd that it would be the song that British DJ Meck would decide to use it as the song to reintroduce the world to Leo Sayer decades after he last had a hit anywhere in the world. It proved to be equally as successful here in Australia as the original was likely for the video which pays homage to Xanadu of all things.