VOA常速英语:Top 5 Songs for Week Ending Aug. 8

We're counting down the five most popular songs in the Billboard Hot 100 Pop Singles chart, for the week ending August 8, 2015.
 
We have some fast-rising songs on the chart… but they just haven’t arrived yet. So this week, we have the same five tracks as last week, in slightly different order.
 
Let’s open in fifth place, where Wiz Khalifa and Charlie Puth drop two slots with their former champion “See You Again.” Charlie grew up in New Jersey but is now based in Los Angeles. He says he misses the Jersey Shore…specifically the pizza. Charlie claims he hasn’t had good pizza in nearly a year.

 
Maybe Kendrick Lamar can point Charlie in the right direction. The Los Angeles rapper holds at number four with Taylor Swift and “Bad Blood.” Taylor sure has her fans, and one may surprise you…Chuck D of Public Enemy says he likes Taylor Swift…for one specific reason. He tells the New York Post that Taylor leads the pack when it comes to understanding streaming services as they exist today.

Silento lives up to his song title, as “Watch Me” jumps two slots to third place. It’s now a bona-fide sales hit. Not only is everybody dancing to the 17-year-old rapper’s song…they’re also buying it. Last week, The Recording Industry Association of America certified it platinum, meaning “Watch Me” has now sold more than one million units. It went to number one on the Billboard Streaming Songs subchart, and at this rate, it’s headed for the Hot 100 title.

Not today, though…and The Weeknd didn’t hit the bulls-eye, either. He remains close, though, as “Can’t Feel My Face” holds in the runner-up slot. We’re three weeks away from his next album Beauty Behind the Madness…this week we got a look at the track list, and Lana Del Rey guests on one song, “Prisoner.” The album drops on August 28…two days later, The Weeknd performs at the MTV Video Music Awards.

Up at number one for a third week we have OMI  with “Cheerleader.” This hit was eight years in the making…The Jamaican singer tells Rolling Stone magazine that about eight years ago, he woke up with the melody running through his head. At the time he was completely unknown. “Cheerleader” first became a Jamaican hit, then broke worldwide after German remixer Felix Jaehn got his hands on it.
 
Will The Weeknd grab the gold next week? Join me us seven days and find out!