VOA常速英语:Top 5 Songs for Week Ending March 14

Here are the five most popular songs in the Billboard Hot 100 pop singles chart, for the week ending March 14, 2015.

Our one-new-song-per-week policy is humming along nicely. Hozier leaves the Top Five, while Rihanna, Kanye West, and Paul McCartney return to contention with “FourFiveSeconds.” Rihanna and Kanye are all over the news this week.

For the third year in a row, Rihanna is the most popular female act on the streaming service Spotify. As for Kanye, he just finished a four-show residency in Paris as part of Paris Fashion Week. Both Kanye and Rihanna have albums on the way; he’s executive producing her set, and a joint tour is rumored to be in the works.

It’s a “down” week for Ellie Goulding (Golding), as “Love Me Like You Do” - from the "Fifty Shades of Grey" soundtrack - weakens a slot in fourth place. Ellie hits the road every day - she’s a fitness fanatic who especially enjoys running: she’s done five half-marathons and is a spokesperson for Nike.

Taking over third place is Maroon 5, who go the remix route for their latest hit “Sugar.” A new remix features Nicki Minaj - and this isn’t the first time Maroon 5 has enlisted rappers to sweeten up their songs: Big Sean handled the remix of “Maps,” while “Animals” featured two remixes: one with J. Cole and the other with Big Boi.

Holding steady in second place is Ed Sheeran, with “Thinking Out Loud.” Ed went on Instagram to share a letter from a fan in South Korea and well, you could say something was lost in translation. It said, “You are a little ugly, but I love you!” Ed captioned it, “God bless Korea.”

Holding the Hot 100 title for a ninth big week are Mark Ronson and Bruno Mars, with “Uptown Funk.” It’s also the champ in the U.K…putting it in pretty special company. Mark and Bruno follow in the footsteps of Bryan Adams’ “Everything I Do (I Do It For You)”; Whitney Houston’s “I Will Always Love You,” and Rihanna’s “Umbrella.”

That’s it for now, but a new lineup awaits you next week.