VOA常速英语:Top 5 Songs for Week Ending April 11

We're counting down the five most popular songs in the Billboard Hot 100 chart for the week ending April 11, 2015.

Winter has fled the Washington, D.C. area and like a fresh spring breeze, we welcome a new song in the Top Five.

Top 5 Songs for Week Ending April 11
1. "Uptown Funk!" Mark Ronson featuring Bruno Mars
2. "Sugar" Maroon 5
3. "Thinking Out Loud" Ed Sheeran
4. "Love Me Like You Do" Ellie Goulding
5. "Earned It (Fifty Shades of Grey)" The Weeknd

The Weeknd introduces himself, as “Earned It ("Fifty Shades Of Grey") jumps a slot to fifth place. This song is blowing up all over the place… It already topped the Billboard R & B/Hip-Hop Songs chart, and has crossed the one-million sales mark here in the United States. Want to know more about the Weeknd? Well, his real name is Abel Tesfaye, he’s from Canada, and this coming weekend, he’ll take the stage at the Coachella Festival in Southern California.

Dipping further into the "Fifty Shades of Grey" soundtrack we encounter Ellie Goulding, holding steady in fourth place with “Love Me Like You Do.” Ellie has a high-profile fan: The members of the British rock band Blur recently named their favorite albums, and bassist Alex James cited Ellie’s Halcyon Days. He calls Ellie “the real deal in a world of bogus pop pretenders.”

Ellie and Ed Sheeran remain side-by-side, as Ed’s “Thinking Out Loud” holds in third place. If you remember your recent music history, their proximity could get a bit uncomfortable. Ed supposedly wrote his hit “Don’t” about their brief affair, and her betrayal of Ed with Niall Horan of One Direction.

Maroon 5 remains your runner-up with “Sugar,” and this week they made a little girl’s dream come true. On April 6, Adam Levine and his band performed in Anaheim, California. They also got to know five-year-old Esperanza Duran, who’s battling cancer. She credits Maroon 5’s music with helping get her through chemotherapy, and the guys met her just before going onstage.

Up at number one, Mark Ronson and Bruno Mars are your guys for a 13th week with “Uptown Funk.” How big an accomplishment is this? It’s one of only 10 singles to lead the chart that long. The all-time record-holder is “One Sweet Day” by Mariah Carey and Boyz II Men, which lasted 16 weeks in 1996.

So, that’s it for now, but please join us in seven days and we’ll do it all again.