New Year's Eve's Resolution Update

So. It's been a year since I observed my iTunes behaviour. There is nothing to it, really, except perhaps since I don't really have a current favorite bands (yeah, bye bye bye, NSync), or singer (why is your third album boring, Joshie?), I just want to know which music I listen to most actually. Here goes..

Top 25.

What took me by surprise is the fact that "Way Back Into Love" is ranked that high (#23), and "Popular" is ranked that low (#15).

"Way Back Into Love", a conclusive song from the movie Music and Lyrics, is a feel-good pop perfect for a happy ending movie. I remember being afterglowed by the movie and being smitten by the song from the piano intro up to the faded out ending. I guess I was just practicing Hugh Grant's hip thrusts in that movie once too many then.

I honestly thought that I had ad-libbed listened to "Popular" much more than just a mere 116 times this year. Besides the fact that this song fits my range perfectly, highly challenges my enunciation and voice production, "Popular" was also featured in "Ugly Betty" season 2 episode 6, justifying too many occurences for this song to be in the top 10. Ah, well.

Sidenote: 8 out of 10 of those songs are from a musical.

Top 10

Number 12 "Here We Are", sung by Gloria Estefan, is a sentimental song that I love to sing. I still remember this song being dubbed by Rick Dees (and the weekly top foooorrrr-tyyyy!!) as one of the saddest break-up song of all time. By of all time, of course he meant early 90s. But as a clarification, no, I didn't have 129 break-ups this year.

"Purpose" is the song that I am deeply in love from the musical "Avenue Q". It's one of the songs in the musical that is (almost) clear from a bad word. Purpose is a hero song, sung by the lead actor in a more somber mood, gradually escalating to a more confident gesture. More or less like "Something's Coming" in "West Side Story". Hmm, perhaps that's why this song has a line that says, "Something's coming, something good."

"Find Your Grail" is a purposeful song in the musical "Spamalot". Sung mostly by Sara Ramirez (Dr. Callie Torres in Grey's Anatomy, FYI) featuring Tim Curry (title character of Stephen King's It, FYI) in the second half of Act One of the musical. What is so fun about this song is how Sara mimics (or parodies) Whitney Houston throughout the song. And she did a helluva wonderful job.

Simply Red's "You Make Me Feel Like Brand New" is my favorite ballad of all time. That and the fact that the version in this list is a perfect rendition by Shayne Ward during his The X Factor days, made this song ranked this high. Who can resist the innocent voice of Shayne and his falsetto, anyway?

Sidenote: Notice the two Dreamgirls songs? I will not comment on that.

Top 5

Just like its title, "Diva's Lament (Whatever Happened to My Part?)", is a diva-sung number from "Spamalot", destined to be the actress's showstopper of this musical. Also performed by Sara Ramirez, "Diva's" is a demanding song, not only vocally, but also because of the performer must be irate and funny at the same time. Oh, and the song breaks down the fourth wall.

Tied in the third place are a teen pop number from "Hairspray" called "Without Love" and "Dreamgirls" showstopper and tear-jerker "And I Am Telling You I'm Not Going" by Jennifer Hudson. While Without Love was pushed heavily by me in the last quarter of the year, I have hinted earlier last year that "And I Am Telling You" can be one of the tops.

"Defying Gravity" has always been my favorite. The showstopper from the musical Wicked is screamy, thrilling, composed incredibly, and has a variety of mood involved. Perfect.

"Listen". Until that day at the karaoke comes, "Listen" from the movie "Dreamgirls" will still be played over and over and over again in my iTunes.