VOA常速英语:Top 5 Songs for Week Ending Sept. 6

We’re counting down the five most popular songs in the Billboard Hot 100 pop singles chart, for the week ending Sept. 6, 2014.

Wow! is our expert assessment of this week’s lineup, as the Top Five rouses itself from its August slumber. We get two new titles - that’s a 40 percent turnover!

MAGIC! falls to number five with “Rude,” after ruling the Hot 100 chart for six weeks. Bandleader Nasri Atweh has been an aspiring star in Canada for a decade, and says he won’t be satisfied until they’re a stadium-level attraction. He tells the U.K. Daily Star that they want to play at Glastonbury and Wembley Stadium. He describes his group as “guys who do not mess around when it comes to music.”

Sam Smith steps down a slot to number four with “Stay With Me.” Speaking with the London Sun, the openly gay singer says his debut album In The Lonely Hour was inspired by his unrequited love for a straight man. Sam says the other man knows all about it, and they get along well now.

So near, and yet so far: Meghan Trainor falls to third place after hitting the runner-up slot with “All About That Bass" - her salute to full-figured fans everywhere. On Sept. 9, the young Massachusetts native will drop her first major-label release, an EP titled…Title.

Speaking of the full-figured: last month, Nicki Minaj nearly broke the Internet when she released the twerk-filled video for her latest single “Anaconda.” This week, the song roars into championship contention, moving from 39th to second place. Nicki’s only other second-place showing came in 2009, as a member of the Young Money crew in the song “BedRock.”

It takes a lot to upstage Nicki Minaj…but Taylor Swift gets it done. She opens atop the Hot 100 with “Shake It Off”. She previously hit the bulls-eye in 2012, with “We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together.” On October 27, Taylor releases her fifth album, 1989. Named for her birth year, it’s billed as her “first documented, official pop album.” Goodbye, Nashville…although Taylor still maintains a home there.

Don't forget to check us out next week when we'll count them down together.