Matt Simons managed only to spend a brief week atop the German singles charts with his "Catch & Release" but now has to retreat to #3 and to give way to EFF and "Stimme" to crown the countdown, an increase from #4. Behind EFF we can find German singer Mark Forster and local DJ and producer Felix Jaehn, who are well known by chart fans. Forster's biggest hit remains "Au Revoir" from 2014, which reached #2 and already has a double-platinum status, while Jaehn has two number one hits on his account from last year - "Ain't Nobody" and his remix of "Cheerleader" of Omi.
Watch - Matt Simons
Listen - EFF
"Stitches" of Shawn Mendes, which finally succeeded in replacing Justin Bieber at the top in the UK, moves up one to take the silver medal in Germany.
Watch - Shawn Mendes
Also on the rise is "Light It Up" of Major Lazer, up one to #4, making the same peak as Major Lazer's megahit "Lean On". It would be however tough to register the same amount of sales again.
Watch - Major Lazer
Marking new peaks inside the top ten we have Justin Bieber's "Love Yourself", up one to #6, and "7 Years" of Lukas Graham, up two to #10.
Watch - Lukas Graham
Watch - Justin Bieber
Up six to #16 is "Sweet Lovin'", the second single of Sigala, while G-Eazy and Bebe Rexha's "Me, Myself & I" makes it inside the top 20 in its third week in the countdown. It rises from #38 to #17.
Dua Lipa's "Be The One" is also confidently joining the list of 2016's early anthems as it climbs from #32 to #21.
Watch - Dua Lipa
Watch - G-Eazy
Watch - Sigala
In her fifth week in the chart Elle King improves on her #27 peak from last time and moves up two to #25 with "Ex's & Oh's". Entering the German top 30 for the first time in their career we can find X Ambassadors and "Renegades", which is up twelve to #27.
Watch - Elle King
Watch - X Ambassadors
Alan Walker is the next DJ coming from Scandinavia, who is posed to shake the European dance scene with his first hit "Faded". The song, which already topped the charts in Norway and Sweden, skyrockets 39 positions in Germany and is at #30 in its second week in the countdown. Expect it in the top five over the next few weeks.
Watch - Alan Walker
Flo Rida's "My House" is up 13 to #32, while the highest new entry of the week can be found as low as #41. It belongs to UK music producer Jonas Blue and his take on Tracy Chapman's classic "Fast Car". The song is already a huge hit in Australia and is destined for big things in Europe as well. The original actually was never a hit in Germany, spending just a week at #81.
Watch - Jonas Blue
Watch - Flo Rida
The other new entries:
68. The Chainsmokers feat. Rozes - Roses
Watch - The Chainsmokers
74. 5 Seconds Of Summer - Hey Everybody!
Watch - 5SOS
86. Twenty One Pilots - Stressed Out
Watch - Twenty One Pilots
89. Ali Bumaye - Mmm... #Na Klar
Watch
90. Yall feat. Gabriela Richardson - Hundred Miles
Watch - Yall
93. Selena Gomez - Hands To Myself
95. Farid Bang - C R E E D
Watch
The Album Chart
Over to the Album Chart, German rapper Azad scores his first ever #1 album with "Leben II", fifteen years after his first "Leben" reached just #46. David Bowie's "Blackstar" slips to #2, while his Best Of compilation rises one to #4. Inbetween at #3 we can find "Lebenslänglich", the latest offering of legendary German band BAP (this time under the name Niedeckens BAP). Südtirol's rock band Unantastbar has its first ever top-ten album with "Hand aufs Herz" entering new at #5.
As expected, this week's charts are marked by the sad news that David Bowie passed away on Sunday and we can observe how a back catalogue of his most fondly remembered hits enters the top 100. Curiously, the two biggest of them "Heroes" (new at #19) and "Space Oddity" (at #40), long considered true classics, have never entered the German hitparade before. Bowie first appeared in the German singles charts with "The Jean Genie", which spent a week at #37 in 1974. His biggest achievement in the singles countdown is the #2 position of "Let's Dance" in 1983, with the song re-entering this week at #73. Two places above it we can find the re-entry of "Under Pressure", Bowie's collaboration with Queen, which reached #21 first time around. The man himself gave the world a new album in the week of his death, with "Lazarus", a single taken from it, entering at #77. The album, called "Blackstar", debuts easily at #1 in the LP chart, to become Bowie's second album to reach the summit in Germany.
Watch - Heroes
Back to the singles chart, as I predicted last time, it was Matt Simons, who manages to replace Adele at the top as "Catch & Release" moves up one to dethrone "Hello" after spending eleven weeks as Germany's number one. The previous song to have managed to stay for more weeks at #1 was "Somewhere Over The Rainbow" of Israel Kamakawiwo'ole in 2010. "Hello" slips to two, while "Stitches" of Shawn Mendes enters the top three by rising one to #3.
Watch - Matt Simons Watch - Adele
Watch - Shawn Mendes
Also on the way up is "Stimme" of EFF, up two to #4, as well as Major Lazer's "Light It Up", up four to #5.
Listen - EFF
Watch - Major Lazer
The highest new entry comes in at #11 belonging to DJ Ötzi and Nik P. Next to Andreas Gabalier, DJ Ötzi is one of the few male stars from the schlager scene, who succeeds in bringing hits in the upper reaches of the singles chart. Many of you are still trying to forget his übersuccesses from the 2000s, including "Ein Stern". The latter was also a collaboration with Nik P and in fact both "Ein Stern" and current hit "Geboren um dich zu lieben" were first recorded by Nik P, before becoming popular thanks to the Austrian "DJ". "Geboren um dich zu lieben" also gained sales due to its performance on the latest schlager TV show of Florian Fischer, sorry, Silbereisen on Saturday.
Live
"7 Years" of Lukas Graham is up one to #12, while at #16 is the second highest week of the week. The new dance rendition of Ben E. King's 1961 classic "Stand By Me" is the first track by Geeno Smith to enter the charts. One of the most famous cover versions of the song belongs to 4 The Cause, which hit #2 in 1998.
Watch - Lukas Graham
Watch - Geeno Smith
With the support of Philipp Dittberner (responsible for last year's megahit "Wolke 4"), German rapper Prinz Pi scores his biggest chart hit with "1.40 m" at #24. His most successful track so far has been the #50 peak of "100X" from 2013.
Watch - Prinz Pi
Elle King and her "Ex's & Oh's" climbs from #41 to a fresh peak of #27, while Dua Lipa's "Be The One" rises eleven to #32. "Me, Myself & I" is already looking like one of the first hits of 2016 with the song of G-Eazy and Bebe Rexha soaring from #68 to #38 in its second week on the list. It is the first chart appearance of G-Eazy, while Bebe Rexha provided vocals to "Hey Mama" of David Guetta.
Watch - Elle King
Watch - Dua Lipa
Watch - G-Eazy
And last, let's not overlook the #66-#39 jump of "Renegades" of X Ambassadors. The Brooklyn-based band has already had a huge success with the hit across the Pond and it is now time for Europe to follow suit.
Watch - X Ambassadors
The other new entries this week:
69. Alan Walker - Faded
Watch - Alan Walker
87. KLUBBB3 - Du schaffst das schon
Watch - KLUBBB3
89. Ulmo Ocin - Mandalo
Watch - Ulmo Ocin
96. Jamie Lawson - Wasn't Expecting That
Watch - Jamie Lawson
The Album Chart
Apart from occupying the #1 slot in the Album Chart, David Bowie appears in it with four other LPs, with his Very Best at #5. At #2 local DJ duo Gestört aber Geil comes in with its self-titled debut album, home of last year's hit "Unter meiner Haut". German rapper B-Tight is at #6 with his new album "Born 2 B-Tight", while schlager supertrio Klubbb3, consisting of Florian Silbereisen and his colleagues from the Netherlands - Jan Smit and from Belgium - Christoff, is new at #7 with debut CD "Vorsicht unzensiert!". And finally, this year's New Year's concert of the Vienna Philharmonic comes in at #10.
It's been so long since my last chart comments, that it seems like ages, but now, with the start of the new year, let's kick off the thread again. Hopefully, all you German chart fans (yes, I know there are one or two of you out there) will find something interesting in my thoughts about the most important countdown in mainland Europe.
You won't be surprised to find out that Adele continues to rule the German singles chart at the beginning of 2016 as "Hello" sticks to the #1 slot for what is now massive eleven consecutive weeks. Germany is still one of the few countries where Justin Bieber's mania had not managed to threaten Adele's dominance (yes, the situation in the UK chart is more than crazy right now) and although Bieber really has three singles in the German top 20, with "Sorry" now at #7 and already having peaked at #3, he is far from becoming the next number one.
Watch - Adele
The next number one, however, may be Matt Simons as his "Catch & Release" rises one to #2. Though the song dates back to 2014, it's actually the remix of Dutch house duo Deepend which has made it extremely popular over the last few months, first in Belgium and now in Germany, Austria and France. Needless to say, it is the first single of US-born Simons to ever enter the German charts.
Watch - Matt Simons
The top three is completed by Glasperlenspiel and their bestseller "Geiles Leben", which is unmovable at #3.
Watch - Glasperlenspiel
Canadian singer Shawn Mendes is really having the time of his life as his "Stitches" is storming the charts worldwide. The song rises five to peak at #4 in Germany this week. At the same time EFF, the collaboration project of DJ Felix Jaehn and singer Mark Forster, is up one to #6 with "Stimme".
Danish band Lukas Graham, named after its vocalist, is also on the rise with debut single "7 Years" moving three to #13 in its eleventh week in the hitparade.
Watch - Shawn Mendes
Listen - EFF
Watch - Lukas Graham
David Guetta, Sia and Fetty Wap enter the top 30 this week with their club anthem "Bang My Head". It climbs ten positions to #24. Also inside the top 30 we can find British producer Sigala and his second single "Sweet Lovin'". The successor of "Easy Love" soars from #42 to #26.
Watch - David Guetta
Watch - Sigala
After debuting at #37 a week ago German producer Topic, with the help of Nico Santos, moves in the right direction. "Home" is up five to #27. Dua Lipa, who was nominated in the BBC Sound of 2016 poll, is advancing in Germany with debut single "Be The One". The latter may be for now a foreigner to the UK charts but skyrockets from #75 to #43 in Germany. At #47, up from #99 where it debuted last week, "Die immer lacht" of Stereoact ft. Kerstin Ott will try to be one of the first dance anthems of the new year. Check it out.
Watch - Topic
Watch - Dua Lipa
Watch - Stereoact
The new entries this week:
52. Seiler und Speer - Ham Kummst
Watch - Seiler und Speer
68. G-Eazy - Me, Myself & I (feat. Bebe Rexha)
Watch - G-Eazy
The Album Chart
Typically for this time of the year there are no major new releases in the album chart with heavyweights Adele, Sarah Connor and Unheilig occupying the top three.
