The votes are in, and the winners are…
Well here we are again, readers, at the beginning of another year. A year in which (Get on with it — Ed) and you voted in your thousands.
We pulled the votes together, we took them apart again, we put them into some lists and we stuck some photographs into a gold frame picture we nicked off Google Images.
And our survey said…
Best Single
1. Britney Spears — 'Womanizer'
2. MGMT — 'Kids'
3. Sam Sparro — 'Black & Gold'
4. Girls Aloud — 'The Promise'
5. The Saturdays — 'Up'
Editor's note: We think there must have been a problem wtih the voting forms because we didn't find that many votes for Queen & Paul Rodgers' 'C‑Lebrity'. We'll double check the submission form but we think it might be too late to salvage this category. Sorry.
Worst Single
1. Nickelback — 'Rockstar'
2. Jack White & Alicia Keys — 'Another Way to Die'
3. TI feat Rihanna — 'Live Your Life'
4. Leon Jackson — 'Don't Call This Love'
5. George Sampson — 'Get Up On The Dance Floor' / 'Headz Up'
Editor's note: George Sampson's 'Get Up On The Dance Floor' was actually quite good, you know.
Best Album
1. Girls Aloud — 'Out Of Control'
2. Britney Spears — 'Circus'
3. The Saturdays — 'Chasing Lights'
4. Ladyhawke — 'Ladyhawke'
5. Kanye West — '808s & Heartbreak'
Editor's note: It's only Girls Aloud's third best album but you reckon it's this year's best and, in a fairly slow year for exciting pop albums, you're not far off.
Worst Album
1. Sam Sparro — 'Sam Sparro'
2. Sugababes — 'Catfights & Spotlights'
3. Pussycat Dolls — 'Doll Domination'
4. Same Difference — 'Pop'
5. Estelle — 'Shine'
Editor's note: Perhaps he should have worked with Xenomania when he had the chance, eh readers? :(
Best Sleeve Artwork
1. The Saturdays — 'Chasing Lights'
2. Sam Sparro — 'Sam Sparro'
3. Goldfrapp — 'Seventh Tree'
4. Ladyhawke — 'Ladyhawke'
5. Coldplay — 'Viva la Vida or Death and All His Friends'
Editor's note: If you can get away from the fact that it includes the word 'TURD' in big letters this is indeed a very good album sleeve.
Best Cover Version
1. Leona Lewis — 'Run'
2. Dizzee Rascal — 'That's Not My Name'
3. Alexandra Burke — 'Hallelujah'
4. Sugababes — 'Spiralling'
5. Roisin Murphy — 'Slave To Love'
Editor's note: Leona's 'Run' won by an extremely huge margin. Like, a margin so huge that it's almost embarrassing for everyone else in the Top 5. To be fair, her ability to trill her way through the Snow Patrol track in a fashion best described as 'quite listenable really' does deserve some recognition. And here it is. Well we're glad that's sorted.
Worst Cover Version
1. X Factor Finalists — 'Hero'
2. Kid Rock — 'All Summer Long' (not really a cover but permitted here due to sheer number of votes)
3. Sugababes — 'Girls' (see Kid Rock)
4. Girls Aloud — 'Apologize'
5. Kylie & Dannii Minogue — 'The Winner Takes It All'
Editor's note: We think it was incredibly mean of you to vote for 'Hero' as 2008's worst cover version because it was in aid of OUR LADS and if you didn't buy it that meant you wanted OUR LADS to all be blown up and to have to wear boots made out of cardboard etc etc. What was the problem? When you bought it you could take it home and throw it in the bin, or just immediately delete it off your hard drive if you bought the download. It was just the act if buying it that showed you cared and it wasn't really about music at all, so really you shouldn't have voted for it in a music poll, should you. Do you want OUR BRAVE LADS to die in combat? Do you? Tell you what, voting 'Hero' the worst cover version — remember, this song was NOTHING to do with music — was as good as picking up a grenade, taking out the pin, then putting the grenade right up a British soldier's bumhole and watching it explode. The problem, really, is that you hate Britain. Well if you hate it so much why don't you go and live somewhere else? Eh?
Best New Act
1. Lady Gaga
2. The Saturdays
3. Katy Perry
4. The Ting Tings
5. Ladyhawke
Editor's note: We don't know how we're going to break this news to Joe Lean, or the Jing Jang Jong.
Most Ridiculous Video Concept
1. Madonna feat Justin Timberlake — '4 Minutes'
2. Britney Spears — 'Womanizer'
3. Taio Cruz — 'Come On Girl'
4. Mariah Carey — 'Touch My Body'
5. Madonna — 'Give It 2 Me'
Editor's note: So there's something that's getting out of control (it's like a big black thing) and we can stop it except we can't because it will kill us in end so if it's going to kill us we might as well not bother trying to stop it, ie let's all go down the shops in our 4x4s and do some 'double bagging' then on the way home not bother to cast our votes at the polling station. CHEERS MADGE.
Worst Lyrics
1. Usher — 'Love In This Club'
2. Beyonce — 'If I Were A Boy'
3. The Killers — 'Human'
4. Scouting For Girls — 'Elvis Ain't Dead'
5. Madonna feat Justin Timberlake — '4 Minutes'
Editor's note: Usher takes the top spot with his ode to sticky carpets (sticky from the booze) (and also from all the sperm coming out of his cock).
Best Number One Single
1. Girls Aloud — 'The Promise'
2. The Ting Tings — 'That's Not My Name'
3. Kings Of Leon — 'Sex On Fire'
4. Dizzee Rascal feat Calvin Harris & Chrome — 'Dance Wiv Me'
5. Estelle feat Kanye West — 'American Boy'
Editor's note: It's bad news for Nickelback.
Worst Number One Single
1. Nickelback — 'Rockstar' (not a Number One but permitted here to due to sheer number of votes, Number Ones being a state of mind etc etc)
2. Mint Royale — 'Singin' In The Rain'
3. X Factor Finalists — 'Hero'
4. Basshunter — 'Now You're Gone'
5. Katy Perry — 'I Kissed A Girl'
Editor's note: It's bad news for Girls Aloud.
Best Collaboration
1. Chris & Jordin
2. Estelle & Kanye
3. Calvin & Dizzee
4. Girls Aloud / Pet Shop Boys / Xenomania
5. James & Nelly
Editor's note: There was something very special about the coming together of Chris Brown and Jordin Sparks for 'No Air', and we liked the fact that she was happy to go on record about how much she wanted to shag him. A little bit of honesty, there, viewers. All too lacking in the modern pop personality.
Best Haircut
1. Rihanna
2. Frankie Sandford (The Saturdays)
3. Brandon Flowers
4. Robyn
5. Sarah Harding
Editor's note: What you've done here, readers, is basically vote for the same haircut at five different lengths.
Best Dance Routine
1. Beyonce — 'Single Ladies (Put A Ring On It)'
2. The Saturdays — 'Up'
3. Girls Aloud - 'The Promise'
4. Chris Brown — 'Forever'
5. Skepta — the 'Rolex Sweep'
Editor's note: The dance routine for 'The Promise', in case you missed it, involved Girls Aloud crossing their fingers. Simple, yet effective. *Steps' choreographer spins in grave*
Worst X Factor Performance (Contestant)
1. Daniel Evans — 'Don't Leave Me This Way'
2. Eoghan Quigg — 'Imagine'
3. Rachel Hylton — 'With Every Heartbeat'
4. Rachel Hylton — 'Dirty Diana
5. JLS — Beatles medley
Editor's note: This run of The X Factor certain saw some big hits being beaten, bummed and left for dead in ITV1's primetime alleyway but Daniel 'Floaty Hand' Evans certainly took the biscuit (or the whole box — he's a bit overweight 'LOL') with his 'Don't Leave Me This Way' nonsense.
Worst X Factor Performance (Established Singer)
1. Britney Spears
2. Girls Aloud
3. Leon Jackson
4. Mariah Carey
5. Same Difference
Editor's note: The winner in this category is best summed up by this. But you're a forgiving lot, because…
Best Comeback
1. Britney Spears
2. Estelle
3. Alesha Dixon
4. Cyndi Lauper
5. Will Young
Editor's note: For Britney, 'best comeback' was in the bag as soon as she decided to be really really hot again. For Cyndi Lauper it was more a case of cleverly selling zero records, while Estelle's tactic was to launch an underwhelming album with an incredible single. Alesha took her cues from Estelle, while Will Young made a video with a horse in it. A HORSE.
Least Controversial Popstar
1. Leona Lewis
2. Duffy
3. Alesha Dixon
4. Kimberly Walsh
5. Rihanna
Editor's note: It's just so amazing that you voted Leona the winner it's brilliant she's had such an amazing journey it's just *weeps* just thank you so much you don't know how much this means to her, she's come so far and it's just (That's enough of that — Dermot)
Biggest Pop Injustice
1. Annie, Non-release of the comeback album by
2. Kylie, 'The One' not being a massive hit for
3. Music retail, The collapse of
4. Solange Knowles, Lack of Number One singles in 2008 by
5. 'The Sugababes fiasco'
Editor's note: Sitting at home in a faraway land (Norway) (or maybe Germany because she lives there now innit) a little warbler by the name of Annie Lilia Berge Strand will no doubt be pleased to hear that for her internetular fans there's a corner of a Zavvi megastore that is forever the 'Don't Stop' section.
Pillock Of The Year
1. Louis Walsh
2. Fearne Cotton
3. John Barrowman
4. Noel Gallagher
5. Brian Friedman
Editor's note: Some of the less 'colourful' comments you made about Louis Walsh in your voting forms drew attention to his bullying manner, his childish name-calling, his severe lack of imagination and his "stupid crying".
Most Overrated Song
1. Duffy — 'Mercy'
2. Katy Perry — 'I Kissed A Girl'
3. Girls Aloud — 'The Promise'
4. Little Boots — 'Stuck On Repeat'
5. Rihanna — 'Distburbia'
Editor's note: You see the thing with Duffy is that she's from Wales and in Wales they don't have any electricity, right, so she just had to DREAM of what music might sound like while she GAZED WISTFULLY out into the sea. That is why everything is in black and white, or something.
Best Radio DJ
1. Scott Mills
2. Annie Mac
3. Chris Moyles
4. Terry Wogan
5. Sara Cox
Editor's note: Between them Scott Mills and Annie Mac have played some pretty incredible music over the last twelve months, as you have clearly recognised in your voting. Well done, Popjustice viewers, for doing that.
Best Website
1. Facebook
2. bbc.co.uk/radio1
3. DListed
4. The Guardian
5. The Fader
Editor's note: Thank you to everyone who voted for Popjustice here, but we took Popjustice out of the poll because it looked a bit silly. Not a good year for MySpace…
Most Likely To Split In 2009
1. Sugababes
2. McFly
3. The Saturdays
4. Boyzone
5. Westlife
Editor's note: We think The Saturdays' high position here might be something to do with a hilarious (translation: unhilarious) thing we posted the other week. It seems a bit unfair, but maybe it's just a reflection of how quickly things move in pop these days. In the olden days it would take years for someone to predict the demise of a girlgroup; in 2008/2009, you're seeing the cracks — or thinking you can see the cracks — after two hit singles.
Best TV Show (Featuring Music Performance)
1. The X Factor
2. Strictly Come Dancing
3. Later… With Jools Holland
4. The Sunday Night Project
5. 4Music Sessions
Editor's note: This is a sorry state of affairs, isn't it.
Best Pop Act Of 2008
1. Girls Aloud
2. Britney Spears
3. Rihanna
4. The Ting Tings
5. Lady Gaga
Editor's note: Popjustice as a website has sort of grown up with Girls Aloud — the blog on the homepage started up a few months before Girls Aloud were invented — so there's a certain logic to Girls Aloud being your favourite pop act of this year (and most other years).
Worst Pop Act Of 2008
1. Scouting For Girls
2. Billiam
3. Same Difference
4. Leon Jackson
5. Basshunter
Editor's note:It's encouraging to see from your votes that Billiam, despite being with us for such a tragically short amount of time, live on in your dreams.
And that, readers, is that for another year. See you back here in twelve months…