Rihanna Defends Chart for Sixth Week

In a week of strong debuts and stiff competition, Rihanna manages to rack up one more at the top with ‘Umbrella’. Now it its sixth week, the longest number one so far this year gets closer to tying Gnarls Barkley’s nine week performance with ‘Crazy’ in March 2006

Just under Rihanna’s umbrella, Lee Mead’s dream of a number one single stalls at number 2 as ‘Any Dream Will Do’ rockets from 18. Meanwhile Enrique Iglesias freezes at 3 with ‘Do You Know’.

Other than the Editors who leap into the top ten at number 7 from 30 with ‘Smokers Outside The Hospital Doors’, the lead single from their forthcoming second album, the top ten remains stale.

Thirteen tracks begin their run on the chart this week lead by Hoosiers ‘Worried About Ray’. Right behind them, Take That, serenade the charts with another ballad, ‘I'd Wait For Life’.

Muse charge in to the top twenty at 18 with download-only track ‘Map Of The Problematique’. A true guitar workout, it does not rewrite history, but as a mostly instrumental album track, it fares better than some of the proper singles released this week.

Justin Timberlake cracks the top forty once more with a fourth single from his ‘Futuresex / Lovesounds’ album. ‘Lovestoned’ smokes at number 21 where it’ll smoulder for the next seven days until it burns into the top ten next week. Unfortunately, Gareth Gates’ return causes less of a flame. New ballad “Angel on my shoulder’ does little to solidify his comeback and this weak track blends quickly into the background and probably wont be around in two weeks time.

Other new tracks include Jack Penate who rips up number 25 with ‘Torn On The Platform’, Air Traffic takes over the number 30 spot with ‘Shooting Star’, Paramore come in right behind them at 31 with ‘Misery Business’ and new at 31, Ash returns with ‘Polaris’.

In a week of massive chart debuts, none is as spectacular as the return of 65-year-old Paul McCartney. ‘Dance Tonight’, a folksy acoustic guitar-inspired tune from his Starbucks promoted new album, shines as a stripped down ditty sounding more like former Beatle-mate George Harrison than anything Sir Paul has released in the last 5 decades of charting. He’s the granddaddy of pop this week and still kickin.

My Chemical Romance courts the charts again at number 34 with an angst filled guitar pounder ‘Teenagers’, the perfect sing along for stoners. You can almost smell the smoke rise from the basement as this one spins on the player. Good times.

Simon Webbe from Blue comes back to the charts with another solo hit. With a track from the Fantastic Four sequel soundtrack, ‘Ride The Storm’ shares the spotlight with the second A-side ‘Grace’. Fuelled by strings, a gospel choir backing and a vintage diva howling ‘Grace’ every other beat, ‘Grace’ could easily be mistaken for his hit from 2005 ‘No Worries’. The songs sound so similar, Webbe must have decided not only to do a sequel soundtrack song but an actual sequel to his own hit.

New at 37, Fergie brings her ‘Big girls don’t cry’ to the UK chart. Already top ten in her native US, this song marks a departure from her usual sexed up affairs. ‘Girls’ tones down the music to little less than a few strings and a mild drum beat, focusing more on the vocal than instrumental wizardry. Surprisingly Fergie is more than just a pretty face – this single proves the girl from the Black Eyed Peas famous for chanting about her humps can sing with emotion and substance.

My Favourite New Song : Rihanna – Umbrella

An old school beat drops and Jay-Z begins an unnecessary rap. But once the boys finish their tacked-on interference, this song sizzles with enough summer heat to outlast beach season. An understated dark guitar drives this track where Rihanna summons her lover to weather out the storm under her umbrella. The best part of this track comes during its silly chorus; an infectious repeat of syllables (under my umbrella ella ella ella ai ai ai). ‘Umbrella’ in a very short time has stormed to the top of the charts in the US, UK and Canada, and one listen reels listeners in to the point where humming ella ella ella ai ai ai comes naturally. Sounding nothing like anything else on the radio at this time, Rihanna has hit pay dirt with this risky pop classic, the first true hit of summer 2007.

My Favourite New Song : Enrique Iglesias– Do you know (the ping pong song) / Dimelo

Using a ricocheting ping-pong ball as the base for a drum line sounds like a bad idea. But Enrique has taken this hallow sounding bounce and propelled it into an international smash. The song follows the brokenhearted formula as a pre-kiss off song (Do you know what it feels like loving someone that’s in a rush to throw you away) and doesn’t stray far from the dancy Latin influence of his other tracks, so it takes barely a listen to feel comfortable with this one. With a great beat and a sing along chorus, its guilty pleasure feel makes it one to pump up as you get ready go out on a new date leaving that loser well behind.

My Favourite New Song : Mutya Buena - Real Girl

What happens when you mix a little Lenny with lots of suga? You get ‘Real Girl’ from ex-Sugababe Mutya. Getting a jumpstart on her solo career last year with the brilliant ‘This is not real love’, a song she sang with George Michael, Mutya finally takes the plunge as a full blown solo artist. Ripping the familiar opening arrangement from Lenny Kravitz’s “Its not Over ‘til its over” and morphing it into an echo repeating throughout the whole jazzed up affair. You can’t help but move your body to the sway. The problem with this song also makes it great. The familiar feel reminds you too much of Lenny’s original and you long to hear that version, forgetting that Muyta is singing something about how she’s strong and real. A great track, destined to be the biggest number 2 song ever.

Dark Tourism Continues to Fascinate Travelers

On my recent road trip through New York my list of hot spots to see seemed to grow with each mile I drove. By the end of my trip the Empire State Building, the Statue of Liberty, shopping on Fifth Avenue (love the glass Apple store), Trump Towers and Central Park all sat neatly behind check marks on my ‘to see’ list.

Though it was great to visit such famous landmarks, the emotional blow came when I emerged from the subway and caught my first glimpse of Ground Zero.

Ghastly shadows lit from behind moved slowly along a chain fence. The ceiling closed in on me and the air became a little staler as I neared the edge and peered into the deep hole where two giants once reigned.

Essentially a mass grave for thousands who perished in the destruction, the hole left from the towers’ demise drew me in. The area feels heavy. Silence befalls everyone who nears the hole.

My mind conjures up memories of the disturbing images the world witnessed that September morning, beamed around the world on satellite TV.

As a human it saddened me, as a world explorer I questioned travelers’ addiction to Dark Tourism; ‘the act of travel and visitation to sites, attractions and exhibitions which has real or recreated death, suffering or the seemingly macabre as a main theme’.

While in no way a new phenomenon, Dark Tourism continues to thrive as an underlying purpose for many travelers. Upon my return from New York I identified other places of tragedy visited during my travels. Images of the Agent Orange-soaked badlands of Vietnam, the battlefields of Kentucky and the slave port of Ouidah, Benin seeped into my mind – all unconnected to the World Trade Centre, yet oddly intertwined in our collective history.

Though I had never been to New York prior to tragic event of September 11, 2001, it made me realize how fast things change and how important it is to explore the world’s treasures before any more are destroyed.