Pop Musik #4

This week, Jack Murphy fills us in on all the goss from the Hackney Weekender (we were too busy watching the football to pay attention to pop’s goings on, sadly). And he resolves questions unanswered from previous Pop Musiks. Will Maroon 5 ever get their comeuppance on that random group that ‘tributed’ them? Will Adele and Leona team up to form a vocal duo so alchemic that it may in fact cause the much feared for 2012 apocalypse? All this – AND MORE – below.  

A quiet week in pop this week, but undeniably the biggest event was BBC Radio 1’s Hackney Weekend. Hundreds of thousands of ticket holders were treated to a star-studded line-up in East London which included Rihanna, Kasabian, Jessie J, Florence + the Machine, Will.i.am, Chase and Status and Swedish House Mafia to name but a few. Not to mention Kanye West, RiRi and M.I.A.’s surprise appearance on stage with their mentor Jay-Z (M.I.A.  didn’t look too pleased when her microphone switched off half way through ‘Paper Planes’ and promptly yanked a working mic from under a backing singer’s nose – brilliant). Jay-Z was also kind enough to return the favour, appearing on stage the very next day during Rihanna’s set and joined her on ‘Run This Town’, ‘Talk That Talk’, and of course ‘Umbrella’. Her appearance at Hackney Weekend gave her record sales a nudge in the right direction, she has now sold over 20 million singles and albums in the UK alone.

Sunday’s surprise special guest was kept under wraps until the eleventh hour and turned out to be none other than East London’s own Dizzee Rascal, much to the enjoyment of the crowd.

This week wasn’t as successful as expected for Cheryl, who got tipped to the number spot in the album charts by teen idol and all-round phenomenon Justin Bieber. The Biebz managed to sell just over 3,000 more copies than Cheryl, but neither record sold as well as expected – both are within the 30,000-40,000 copies bracket. To put that into perspective, Lana Del Rey’s number one debut Born To Die sold more than 110,000 in its first week earlier this year. Cheryl was also knocked off the number single spot by Maroon 5 (actually them this time – see last week’s column) and their collaboration with Wiz Khalifa on ‘Payphone’. There wasn’t much competition in the new releases department this week – the closest new entry was three piece girl band Stooshe who reached number four with their single ‘Black Heart’.

Now for some heart breaking news, guys. You may remember a couple of weeks ago I spoke about the rumoured Adele and Leona Lewis duet at the Olympics opening ceremony this year. Sadly it has proven to be just another rumour. Speaking to the Daily Star this week, Leona stated :

“I heard about that but unfortunately it’s not true… I’m not performing there, with or without Adele. I would obviously love to, though – she’s incredible.”

In all honesty, neither Adele nor Leona need to duet with anyone – we all know that they’re pretty capable of carrying a song alone – but surely, as the Britain’s biggest vocal talents, they should both be performing at the ceremony in some way? Come on Boris, pull some strings.

-Jack Murphy