VOA常速英语:Top 5 Songs for Week Ending Sept. 19

We’re getting cozy with the five most popular songs in the Billboard Hot 100 Pop Singles chart, for the week ending September 19, 2015.
 
My friends, we live in exciting times: for the second consecutive week, we have a new champion single.
 
Let’s begin in fifth place, where OMI sinks three slots with his former champ, “Cheerleader.”  Last week, Billboard named it the Song Of The Summer for 2015. It beat Wiz Khalifa’s heavily-favored runner-up “See You Again.”

Billboard tallied the songs’ cumulative performances from late May through Labor Day, September 7, traditionally the end of the summer season here in the States.

 
Silento waves the flag for U.S. artists as he dips a notch to fourth place with “Watch Me.” The 17-year-old rapper hails from Atlanta, Georgia, making him the only United States native in this week’s Top Five.

Taking over third place is The Weeknd, from Ontario, Canada, with “The Hills.” This song contains a surprise - it ends with a woman singing in Amharic, the language of The Weeknd’s ancestral country, Ethiopia. His real name is Abel Tesfaye; his parents moved from Ethiopia to Canada in the 1980s.
 
Speaking of the Weeknd…are you ready for more? After one week at the summit, “Can’t Feel My Face” slips a slot to number two. He co-wrote it with one of the most successful pop producers in history, Max Martin, the Swedish pop powerhouse who has penned 21 number one hits on the Hot 100 chart. He trails only Paul McCartney, with 32, and John Lennon, with 26. That’s a pretty exclusive little club!

Now, ladies and gentlemen, we come to the Main Event. Not only does Justin Bieber score his first career Hot 100 title, he does it in record-setting fashion.

Bieber debuts atop the Billboard Hot 100 chart with “What Do You Mean?” It’s his first career number one pop single here in the States. Furthermore, he’s the youngest male solo artist to ever debut at number one. He turned 21 years old back in March. Congratulations, Justin Bieber!
 
Can he extend his run? We’ll find out in seven days.