My Top 10 Songs of 20081. I kissed A Girl (And I Liked It) - Katy Perry
2. No Air - Jordin Sparks and Chris Brown
3. Take A Bow - Rihanna
4. Better In Time - Leona Lewis
5. Paper Planes - MIA
6. Bleeding Love - Leona Lewis
7. That's What You Get - Paramore
8. Little Miss Obsessive - Ashlee Simpson
9. Like Youll Never See Me Again - Alicia Keys
10. The Man That Can't Be Moved - The Script
Band of the Year: Paramore
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Buoyed by the popular singles "Misery Business," "crushcrushcrush," and "That's What You Get," Riot! turned Paramore into industry darlings, going platinum within its first 13 months of release and earning the band a Grammy nomination for Best New Artist. The group toured exhaustively in support of the record, even landing a two-month jaunt across the continental U.S. with their idols Jimmy Eat World. Meanwhile, Paramore found time to contribute two songs to the Twilight soundtrack, including the Top 40 single "Decode." A live album entitled The Final Riot! was released several weeks after the Twilight soundtrack, capturing the band's energy as a live act and concluding its lengthy tour.
Male Artist of the Year: Chris Brown
Brown's 2007 release "Exclusive" comes in at No. 13 on the year-end Top Billboard 200 Albums recap, while he places five titles on the Hot 100 Songs tally: "No Air" (his duet with Jordin Sparks at No. 6), "With You" (No. 9), "Forever" (No. 10), "Kiss Kiss" (featuring T-Pain at No. 19) and "Get Like Me" (David Banner featuring Brown at No. 66).
This is only the fourth time one artist has notched three singles in the top 10 of the year-end songs list. The last time was in 1994, when Ace of Base did the trick with "The Sign" (No. 1), "All That She Wants" (No. 9) and "Don't Turn Around" (No. 10). Before that, the Bee Gees did it in 1978 and Elvis Presley shook up the list in 1956.
Female Artist of the year: Alicia Keys
Billboard issued its Year-End Charts and from the list, it is revealed Alicia Keys' "As I Am" lands atop on Top 10 Albums. Josh Groban's "Noel" and Lil Wayne's "Tha Carter III" follow on the chart at number two and three respectively.
Beside securing number one on Top 10 Albums, Alicia also puts her song "No One" on the top spot of Top 10 Most-Listened-To Radio Songs. Beating down such hit singles, as Flo Rida's "Low", Leona Lewis' "Bleeding Love" and Timbaland's "Apologize" featuring OneRepublic, the single has, according to Nielsen SoundScan, drawn 3.08 billion radio listeners between November 12, 2007 through November 16, 2008.
New Artist of the year: Leona Lewis and Katy Perry
Her debut single, "UR So Gay," generated some online buzz with its mischievous lyrics and accompanying music video. However, "I Kissed a Girl" proved to be her true breakthrough single, topping the charts in 20 countries and pushing its accompanying album, 2008's One of the Boys, into the Top Ten in America. Perry supported her debut by joining the Warped Tour that summer and appearing in an episode of The Young and the Restless. Meanwhile, "Hot N Cold" became her second number one hit.
Lewis auditioned for The X Factor in the summer of 2006 and won the third series competition in December of that year. Lewis' debut single, a soulful cover of Kelly Clarkson's "A Moment Like This" (Clarkson's own debut American Idol showcase single), was the number one single in the U.K. at the turn of the year, including the coveted "Christmas Number One." Along with her TV-driven U.K. success, Leona Lewis signed an American recording deal with Clive Davis' J Records in February 2007. By the end of the year, she had launched her debut album, Spirit, in England, and watched it go to the top of the charts (along with the single "Bleeding Love"). The American release followed in 2008, with similar success.
Album of the year: One of the Boys - Katy Perry
Her album has more fun with gender-confused dating among high-maintenance twentysomethings—bicurious straight girls, boys who change their minds like girls, girls you can’t afford, tomboys who shave their legs so you’ll make out with them. Perry’s creative-writing-class punch lines don’t always justify her self-congratulatory drag-queen tone. But she hiccups quirkily enough, and myriad big-name producers (from Dr. Luke to Glen Ballard) keep the new-wave synth hooks hopping. “Hot N Cold” shamelessly camps up the aerobic electro of Cher’s “Believe.” When tempos slow and the sarcastic mood turns sincere, things bland out—but those moments are rare, and “Lost” feels outer-space-lonely enough to pull off its melancholy.Perry brings a unique and clever sense of fun and humor to this CD, all the while managing to create stories that you want to hear again and again. Rebellion aside, don’t assume that her debut is one dimensional. The album is chalk full of beats that are sure to have you running to the dance floor and auditioning for American Idol in your mirror, but it also brings with it a sincerity and depth found in the softer songs.
The gorgeous, wordless first half has the comic grandeur of a Chaplin film; the second half is a biting satire of commercialism that's far more effective than Michael Moore ever was. And yet at its root this is simply a romance, achingly tender and true, about a lonely little robot and his search for love. Breathtaking in its beauty, scope, intelligence and charm, 'WALL-E' isn't just a Pixar masterpiece -- it's a masterpiece, period.
Best Comeback: Britney Spears
Britney Spears looked a sure-fire LOSER when she went into meltdown and ended up under psychiatric assessment in January as the battle for custody of her kids took its toll. But she ends the year a WINNER – perhaps the biggest of all – for her astonishing, Lazarus-style comeback.
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