This week all Phoenix Presenters have been asked to choose their Presenter Picks of the year – a single and an album which stood out for us. I have chosen my album but as there have been so many good singles out this year I am struggling to pick one! Therefore on tonight’s show I played all my favourite Top 40 hits from January through to July in hope it will help me decide. Next week the theme will continue, playing chart tracks from August up until December.

Here is the playlist for tonight’s show:

January

Happy – Pharrell Williams
Roar – Katy Perry
Pompii – Bastille
Burn – Ellie Goulding
Can We Dance – The Vamps
It’s my Party – Jessie J
Timber – Keisha ft Pitbull (Jump Smokers Extended Mix)
February

Rather Be – Clean Bandit
Ready for Your Love – Gorgan City ft MNEK
Neon Jungle – Braveheart (Patrick Hagenaar Colour Code Vocal Mix)
F for you – Disclosure

March

My Love – Route 94 ft Jess Glynne
I’m a Freak – Enrique Iglesias ft Pitbull (Patrick Hagenaar Colour Code Vocal Mix)
Selfie – Chain Smokers

April

Nobody to Love – Sigma (Sima’s Future Jungle Mix)
Fancy – Iggy Azelia  ft Charli XCX
Kiesza  – Hideaway
Touch – Shift Key

May

Wiggle – Jason Derulo
Wild Wild Love – Pitbull ft GRL
Stay With Me – Sam Smith
Dangerous Love – Fuse ODG ft  Sean Paul
Clarity – Zedd ft Foxes

June

Sing – Ed Sheeran

July

Problem – Arinana Grande ft Iggy Azelia
Right Here – Jess Glynne
Me and My Broken Heart – Rixton

I also played a Mashup mixed together by DJ Earworm.

Every year since 2007 DJ Earworm has taken 25 of the years biggest hits and mixed them together into a project he calls United State of Pop. Each song then has a title based on the songs included in the mash up.
This year’s track entitled ‘Do What you Wanna Do’ mashes up songs such as Taylor Swift’s ‘Shake It Off’, Katy Perry’s ‘Dark Horse’, Pharrell Williams’s ‘Happy’, Iggy Azalea’s ‘Fancy’ and ‘Black Widow’, Meghan Trainor’s ‘All About That Bass’, Sam Smith’s ‘Stay WIth Me’ and Idina Menzel’s ‘Let It Go’.

DJ Earworm, real name Jordan Roseman, explains that when he ‘was was a little boy, [he] used to tune in to Top 40 shows on the weekends, and [has] always been fascinated by what makes popular tastes tick’

In his own description ‘Do What you Wanna Do’ is “dominated by these slow, ponderous songs…[with] swaggering hip-hop songs and then you have totally uptempo songs. It’s a little bit more diverse, and definitely softer than it’s been” as his previous mash-ups have been very dance track orientated.

The mash up is based on instruments from certain songs to create the backing track so he had  the drums from Jessie J’s “Bang Bang,” the percussion of DJ Snake & Lil Jon’s “Turn Down For What,” the horns from Jason Derulo’s “Talk Dirty” and the piano hooks from A Great Big World’s “Say Something” to help create an instrumental bed.

If you want to check out this amazing mashup, watch it here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BjYWwZYLYEs

Friday Film Feature

Elf review is available to listen back to here: