UK hits of 00's IV

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.

So, Nelly Furtado's second album was a huge critical and commercial disaster from 2003, so much so that she felt the need to go in a completely new direction with her third album by enlisting the help of Timbaland to be its executive producer. The results were an album which had her shifting towards an early prototype of the club boom starting with this lead single which had the producer/rapper provide a guest verse for her.

This was the final hit that Ciara had anywhere in the world, although it had a chorus provided to her from JT, so it was guaranteed to be a hit for her given that he was still considered a cheat code when it came to artists scoring hits this decade. That said, this would be the last time this would be the case as everything he touched once the new decade rolled around had a difficult time becoming a hit worldwide.

This is a hybrid of Whitney Houston's "How will I know" (the title coming from the first few lines of the song) as well as U2's "With or without you" which the British group LMC credited the latter for likely as a condition for sampling the track on here. The lyrics were performed by English vocalist Rachel McFarlane who does an admirable impression of Whitney throughout the track.

This was the final hit that JoJo managed to achieve in her career, this was due to legal troubles with her label who refused to allow her to release new music due to her second album underperforming and also refusing to let her out of their contract for whatever reason (she was only thirteen when she signed to her label, which it turns out is illegal as she was a minor.) At least she's finally been able to release new music since.

The original version of this track was a massive flop worldwide for Kid Cudi, likely because of how unconventional it was even for the realms of emo rap. It was given a second chance this year when a group by the name of Crookers remixed the track to be more commercially viable where it became a massive hit for him here in Australia and his native America.

This was the first of a string of hits that American singer Anastacia had in Australia, I bring this up because she curiously never had a hit on the Billboard charts despite being a massive success throughout Europe. I guess this was due to her fellow Americans confusing her for a woman of colour initially and being taken aback when they saw she wasn't, she does admittedly have a lot of soul in her vocals.

Following their victory on Popstars UK, Hear'say managed to score a massive hit in their homeland as well as NZ of all places with this cover of the obscure girl group err.... Girl thing. Girl thing did have a minor hit here in Australia with "Last one standing" the previous year, so it is surprising that this cover didn't crossover here in Australia as well, however British music in general wasn't doing to well down under this decade.

This was one of only two hits that Ne-Yo had in Australia throughout the 00's, the other was "Closer" from two years later which was more upbeat than this track which is a slow RNB ballad about his complicated feelings he has in a relationship he's in. He was much more popular in NZ and especially his native America where he scored multiple other hits in both countries in addition to these two.

Following the success that he had with Dru hill in his native America, Sisqo left the group to pursue a solo career which was off to a good start with this track about how he fell in love with a woman based on her thongs (a bikini bottom for my non-American readers.) Some have accused this song of being sexist as it glorifies the objectification of women based on a piece of clothing, usually by people who do the same thing to men.

This was the title track from Britney's second album, a title that seemed to be her trolling her haters which she had plenty of even this early in her career due to their criticisms of her destroying the music industry with her teen pop (they should wait until the 2010's with how bad things would get in that regard.) The song itself is fun and innocent and was clearly meant for a younger audience who made it a success.

Much like Daft punk, this was also a French duo who scored a massive hit at the start of the decade with an EDM number, although unlike Daft punk, they wouldn't last very long in the mainstream as they would disband later in the decade. Honestly there's not much more I can add to this track other than them being a less successful version of those guys.

I told you that British artists weren't that successful here in Australia, I'm willing to be the only reason why this track from Westlife was a hit here was due to it being a cover of one of Billy Joel's most recognisable songs in his catalogue and we Aussies were having nostalgia for the original when this came out. If finally got the Irish band out of the one hit wonder bin here despite how inescapable they were worldwide.

This is one of two collaborations that J-Lo made with LL Cool J throughout the decade, the other was with "Control myself" three years later which was a hit in most parts of the world but not here in Australia. Here the duo is in a relationship that's falling apart and how she feels like that her pride is all she has left, although in the chorus, he points out that she no longer has that either.

This is the first of two entries to come from Spanish DJ Sammy who took two tracks from 1985 specifically and made them into dance tracks for the (then) modern generation. Here he scoops up the Bryan Adams track which was already described as one of the cheesiest ballads of the 80's and turns it into a dance track which connected with audiences around the world including in America.

This shares its name with a famous Kelly Clarkson track from her second album Breakaway, although it's worth noting that this is a love ballad rather than a song about how the narrator is messed up because of the way someone treated them which is why you shouldn't confuse the two songs with each other in the slightest. It was an easy hit for Ne-Yo in NZ despite it being a massive flop here in Australia.

This was one of two hits that the German EDM group Fragma had throughout the world at the start of the decade, the other was with "Everytime you need me" which sadly was too much of a sleeper hit here in Australia to be appearing on this site. I guess the EDM scene was still going strong going into the new millennium even if it was quickly losing steam in the mainstream compared to how inescapable it was in the 90's.

It appears that rave tracks were still a thing going into the new millennium, so much so that this was able to crossover to Australia during a time where EDM was quickly losing its popularity in our music scene. There's not much to say about the group in question, Public domain was a British EDM group who had their success before fading into obscurity in their native UK.

If you're a bit concerned that this song is a bit too low for this list, I'd hate to see your reaction when we finally get to "Yeah" and its placement (don't worry, it's still to come.) Anyways, we have the second single from Usher's Confessions album which was about how failed relationship with Chilli from TLC and how he admits to screwing up the relationship shortly prior to making the album.

This was the first big hit that Pitbull had in his career, he had previously attempted to make it big with the Crunk scene earlier in the decade to little avail, so he decided to reinvent himself as a club artist where he had much more longevity in the mainstream. This is another artist that I'm not particularly a fan of, mainly for the reasons most people aren't as he never struck me as an interesting rapper.

This was back when Kanye West and Jay-Z were friends (boy how times have changed) as such we have them working off each other on this track while Rihanna provides them a chorus to connect their verses with each other. Jay-Z never had a hit on his own here in Australia as he always needed the assistance of someone else (usually these two or his future wife Beyonce) to make it big down under.

Well, it was only a matter of time before we looked at a song from Limp Bizkit on this site, although it may surprise you to learn that these guys never had a hit in their native America and that their success worldwide more came from how well they did in the UK of all places where this was a chart topper for them. I guess the Brits really enjoyed the combination of rap and rock on this track more than their fellow Americans.

This will be the only appearance from Natasha Bedingfield on these lists as it was her only hit here in Australia despite having huge international success even in America, I guess we Aussies wanted to hear her song about how writing a song is difficult even when it's only meant to be a simple love song and not anything else from her. At least it was bigger than either of her older brothers hits down under.

It appears that Christina Aguilera had always wanted to make a throwback album to the forties and that her collaboration with Nelly on "Tilt ya head back" wasn't a fluke in that regard, as such we have the lead single to her third album which was a good indicator of what was to come on that album as it indeed attempts to be a throwback to the music that audiences were listening to in the first half of the twentieth century.

Following the mixed reception of her third album My December, Kelly Clarkson found herself needing to conform to what her management wanted rather than making the music she believed in which resulted in her becoming a solo version of the Veronicas on her fourth album. Now I'm a huge fan of the Australian duo, so this isn't a bad thing to me even though many people felt that this was.

This by all accounts should be much higher on the list given how inescapable it was on the radio in Australia back in the day, however it was unfortunately pulled from shelves as were the other singles from Avril's debut album to encourage album sales which I guess worked out as the album was a massive success for her. Still, it drives me insane that this song is much lower than it should be on this list, but rules are rules.

This will be one of only three appearances from the Sugababes on the Australian side of my site, although like most British groups (specifically the girl groups) they were much more successful over in NZ throughout the decade. The girls are best known for their multiple lineup changes throughout their career, to the point whereby the time the band was no more, none of the original members were a part of the group.

This was originally released in 1999 to deafening silence worldwide, I'm guessing because it has one of the most messed up videos of all time that was likely inspired by the cartoon series Angela Anaconda (anyone remember that show?) as well as it being little than Fatman Scoop shouting throughout the track. It was given a second chance towards the end of last year where it became a worldwide smash.

Given how inescapably popular Usher was quickly becoming throughout the world, it only makes sense there would be a British equivalent which came in the form of Craig David. This was his second single from his debut album and by far the biggest on said album here in Australia, mainly because it has a gimmick of detailing his sexual escapades on each day of the week hence the name of the song.

Nelly Furtado is the latest entry into a Canadian artist who saw massive worldwide success without necessarily being the biggest artist in their homeland that I've featured on this site, oh sure she did fine with her debut album, however it didn't exactly promise the levels of success she would go on to achieve later in the decade. I'm guessing her fellow Canadians weren't as into her spiritual vibes as the rest of the world was.

I guess there was supposed to be a third round to the boy band wars this decade given how Blue were just the latest entry into the boy band genre to make it big with this track, although we Aussies sat out of it if there was as I don't remember there being many other contestants back in the day once the Backstreet boys faded into irrelevancy. Like many British acts of the decade, these guys were far more successful in NZ.

Well, I've pretty much hyped up this third single from P!nk's second album throughout the Australian side of this site, so let's finally look at how this song did massively well worldwide and why it was a huge radio staple here back in the day despite lacking a physical release. This is P!nk taking the "your love is my drug" metaphor and flipping it to be about how the love she had for this person is making her sick as if she was taking drugs.

This was the third and final hit that Fedde Le Grand managed to achieve this year, this time it's with Danish singer Ida Corr, or more specifically a remix of a song from Ida Corr which saw no success even throughout Europe for her. Just like the other two songs on this list, this song's popularity was largely thanks to the video in where there were a bunch of clones of the singer participating in a big band.

This was the only notable success for the Canadian band Len, I'm guessing because they could only interest audiences with one summer jam about how both lead vocalists (who incidentally are brother and sister) missed out on hooking up with the love of their respective lives for one reason or another. They join a long line of one hit wonders who made it big with a summer jam before fading into obscurity.

This is one of the only new entries to this site on this list as well as the second new entry to the Australian equivalent side of this site following "Chasing cars" from earlier on this list. It's a duet between Mary J Blige and U2 which is a cover of one of the latter's more popular songs from the 90's that sadly was never released as a single here in Australia but was popular enough on our digital storefront to be a success regardless.

The last time Crystal Waters had any success in the music scene was back in 1994 where "100% pure love" became a massive hit for her here in Australia and eventually her native America, fast forward thirteen years and she manages to score another hit here with this track largely thanks to the music video which really hammers home the trumpet production throughout the track.

This was the second single from Avril Lavigne's third album, it's a ballad that wouldn't sound out of place on her first two albums which suggests she released it to reassure her older fans that not everything on the album would be like her earlier entry on this list. It was a massive hit for her here in Australia and in certain parts of the world, although other parts wanted her to stick to her new direction.

This was the theme to the first Spider man film from the Sam Raimi trilogy back in the day (before the Marvel universe existed) it played during the end credits of the film as do most of these songs that seem out of place with the films they were commissioned for. Although people often attribute this as a Nickelback track, it's actually a Chad Kroeger track that features the lead singer from a band known as Saliva.

This will be Busta Rhymes one of only two appearances on the Australian side of my site as the rapper never had much success here for some reason, even so this isn't much of a hip hop track as the rapper instead sings on this song along with Mariah Carey who was still very much cancelled around this time due to her erratic behaviour around the time she starred in her first film Glitter.

This was another two for one deal from Nelly here in Australia (apologies for the lack of album art for "Flap your wings") as this serves as the lead single to his two albums Suit and Sweat which showcase two sides of the rapper from around this time. I remember "My place" being the big hit from around this time, although "Flap your wings" also remains fondly remembered to this day by his fans.

This will be the only appearance from the Kooks on this site of mine, they were a British indie band who heavily benefitted from the digital charts in NZ and their native UK that I'm sure would've found an audience here in Australia had we Aussies allowed digital only indie tracks to charts when this became big in those countries.

It looks like Fragma weren't one hit wonders after all as they managed to score a second hit with this track here in Australia, although it's another entry I remember being far more popular back in the day than its placement on here would otherwise suggest. I guess this is due to it being a massive hit in the UK as were many of these news entries on this list.

This is the second and final hit to come from Geri Halliwell, it serves as the lead single to both her second album and the Bridget Jones' diary soundtrack given how it's a cover of the Weather girls classic that recaptures the camp nature of the original. This was the last hit to come from any member of the Spice girls as none of their other material would touch the charts once this fell off.

Well, this this fourth single from Loose says (or third if you're from the UK) all good things come to an end which is what happened for Nelly Furtado once the album cycle ended this year as she's yet to find another hit anywhere in the world with her subsequent material. At least she managed to have four massive hits in a row worldwide from an album that got her out of the one album wonder bin.

This came from an album that was released two years prior from Crazy town, it's the black sheep of the album given how it was more of a rap rock track similar to what RHCP were doing (it even has a riff from one of their songs) as opposed to the rest of the album which was in the nu metal category. It was a surprise hit for the band likely due to the novelty of it being a love ballad from such a rough looking band.

This is the first song that Shakira recorded in English given how her earlier entry on this list was originally recorded in Spanish before it was translated into English to sell to an English-speaking market. As such, the lyrics on here are more coherent as they weren't translated from Spanish, I'm guessing this is how it managed to become her second consecutive chart topper in most parts of the world.

Aah comedy rap, when you're funny, you can find an endearing audience that will revisit your track time after time. When you're not (or at least only appeal to a niche audience) you may be popular for a little while like this lead single from D12's second and final album, however you'll eventually fade into obscurity as the general public no longer finds any humour in your track.

This was the third and final hit that the Sugababes had here in Australia, it was a song about how you shouldn't care about what people look like as its their actions that make a person what they are and not their physical appearance. It's a song that was absolutely necessary for the time given how people had become so caught up in their appearances that they didn't realise who they were hurting in the long run.

This is a song that reminds me of "Antmusic" from over two decades prior, mainly because it was a song boasting about how awesome the act in question was and how they were going to shape the culture of the music industry only to turn out to be a flash in the pan in the long run. In this case it's the British RNB group Big brovaz who did indeed make a huge splash with this track and two other songs much like Adam and the Ants did in the 80's.

This was the third and final hit to come from Big Brovaz worldwide, likely due to the video which was clearly meant to be an homage to the TV show Friends (solving that shows issue of having an all-white cast in the process.) It was a much more sentimental track from the group who introduced themselves to the world as a tough RNB group who was all about being hard edge.

It seems strange that the first international hit that Fall out boy has would be a song about them being unhappy with being seen as an emo band, although many people (me included) dislike this song more for it being the type of emo rock that would appeal to the Emos of the day which makes this song all the more ironic given how that was likely the crowd that made this a massive success for the band.

MJ might have been reduced to a media frenzy by the 21st century (unfairly in my opinion) however that didn't mean that there wasn't any love left for his back catalogue as Alien ant farm managed to score their one and only hit in most parts of the world with their rendition of this track from his album Bad. If you can believe it, they scored a second hit in NZ later in the decade with "Glow."

This is the first of three Billboard chart toppers to compare sex to candy this decade, the other two being "Laffy taffy" from a group called D4L and "Lollipop" from Lil Wayne, neither of these other songs were hits in Australia which makes this the biggest hit down under with this premise by default. It's also the only one out of the three to get a female perspective as we have Olivia handling the chorus on this track.

This was the only other hit that Jamelia was able to achieve here in Australia, this time it's with her version of "Fighter" by Christina Aguilera as this is about her thanking her abusive ex for making her a better person despite treating her like crap in the relationship. It's a shining example of how female empowerment in music has been around for much longer than modern pop artists give people credit for.

There was a five-year gap between Maroon 5's debut and sophomore album, although it didn't feel as long given how most people didn't even know about the band until 2003 when "Harder to breathe" began making the airwaves from their debut. Here we are with the lead single to their second album which was a much more instantaneous hit for the band worldwide due to their popularity being as strong as ever.

Although it wasn't their highest charting single in Australia (that honour goes to "Hook me up") this was indeed the biggest hit that the Veronicas had here which allowed it to become a massive international hit for the duo worldwide by the end of the decade. They remain a one hit wonder in the northern hemisphere with this track, I'm guessing due to audiences not getting the gimmick of them singing in unison on their songs.

Right around the time Miley Cyrus was making it big in the music industry through her connections with Disney, her older brother Trace was the lead singer of this short-lived pop rock band who scored their one and only hit with this number. I'm guessing this was as big as it was due to the connection he had with Miley and their father and how this was considered edgy compared to the music his family was making.

While the Spice girls were still a unit by this point in time, it seems like the girls wanted to be done with it as Sporty Spice released her solo album much like Scary and Ginger did before they released their third and final album later in the year. Given how the was the most vocally gifted of the girls, her solo debut proved to be the biggest his out of all of their solo material, although it could also be due to the presence of Left eye Lopez.

This was the only big hit to come from the Italian DJ Spiller, although the song is better known for having British model turned singer Sophie Ellis Bextor on vocals who would go on to have massive success with her own album later in the decade. I'm not sure why this was Spiller's only hit given how much success Sophie would have, perhaps it was seen as a novelty track at the time.

This was the final hit to come from Vengaboy's debut album, although it was released on the deluxe edition of the album which perhaps explains why it managed to be a chart topper in NZ at the start of the decade despite having a rather low placement on this list of mine. Their next single would be their earlier entry on this list which no doubt overshadowed this song even throughout the year.

Although this became a chart topper for Atomic Kitten in NZ whereas the original didn't, the original was still more successful over there than this rendition likely because it was purely through nostalgia of that version which allowed this to become a massive hit for the British trio over a decade after its release. Still, at least it was a massive hit over there and in their native UK as opposed to here in Australia where it wasn't.

Well, this is a song that I'm sure was a success purely through wholesome values, OK jokes aside, this was a song that was tailor made to be as explicit as possible given how we have the female rapper Khia exploiting her sexuality that only those who find her attractive could appreciate (which admittedly would be a lot of people as she is conventionally attractive.) It took a while to take off in Australia, but once it did it was a massive hit.

I feel I have the same opinion of this song as what many people do, namely that while I love J-Lo's performance on this track, it's sadly cancelled out by that trumpet playing throughout the track which seems to be off key for some reason. It's because of this clash in sounds that the song was a success but not as much as her previous efforts from earlier in the decade, although it's still more coherent than the rest of the album.

Although "Stupid girls" was indeed a big hit from P!nk's fourth album I'm not dead (it's still to come on this list) it was this second single from the album that made her a household name here in Australia above anywhere else in the world due to it being a massive success here upon its initial release. This and "U + ur hand" (also still to come) only became a hit in her homeland the following year for some reason.

If this feels like a victory single to anyone, rest assured that it isn't as it's in fact the debut single from Delta Goodrem who took a circuitous route in becoming a successful musician as she first appeared on Neighbors as Nina Tucker before translating the popularity she had on the show into her music career. I guess you can argue this is a victory single in that regard, although the rest of the album has more personality to it.

It took a while for Maroon 5's debut album to find success worldwide, in fact I remember hearing the lead single "Harder to breathe" on the radio from the previous year quite a bit back in the day, so you can imagine my surprise when I found out it was a flop for them even in their native America years later. Their second single is also much lower on this list than I otherwise would've predicted if I'm being honest.

Following the success he had with "Love generation," Bob Sinclar released this track which heavily samples "Gonna make you sweat" from C+C Music factory which became a hit here in Australia. I will say that it was a slow rise to its success given how it lingered in and out of the top twenty at first before finally reaching the upper echelons of the charts several months after its initial release.

It seemed like Kelly Rowland would be yesterday's news following the demise of Destiny's child three years prior, although it turns out she was simply biding her time as she knew that releasing her second solo album before or while Beyonce's own album was out would've meant it would be overshadowed by her former band mate. Here she is with the second single from said album which was a massive hit for her.

You may recall if you're a fan of Eminem that he was originally part of a posse group known as D12, well here they are with the first of three big hits they had this decade with a song that more or less glorifies drugs as that's what the title of the song means in drug culture. Naturally it wasn't played much on the radio, however that didn't prevent this from being a massive success here and in the UK.

Shark tale is a film that seems to divide audiences, it all comes down to whether or not they appreciate this parody of the Pixar formula the same way that Shrek 2 (which also came out this year) parodies the Disney formula or if they feel that the film is nothing more than a collection of pop culture references strung together to try and form an incoherent plot. At least people like the theme song from Christina Aguilera and Missy Elliott.