Summer Songs 2014 Results: European Acts Dominate

For the past several years, I've published an annual feature that recaps the best performing singles of the summer season on CDS Music Chart Hot 50. This year's season began with the chart issue dated June 12th, and ending with the chart dated September 12th, reflecting the tracking period of Saturday, May 31st through Friday, September 5th. Within that 14 week period (which began and ended one week early when compared to previous years), 92 tracks were on the chart for at least one week each. That's up from the 86 that were on the list for at least one week during the Summer 2013 season. This year's season saw 17,923 points being doled out among the acts, down a noticeable 0.11% compared to last year's sum of 17,943 points.

How were the points listed below determined?
Every week, the CDS Music Chart Hot 50 ranks my personal favorite songs in order from #1-50... or not quite. New for this year, I allowed people to give me some personal input on their favorite music. Each week, the ten most voted songs by the public were given bonus points which helped boost their rank (and thus points) for that specific week. After counting my data and data from voters, the total points for each song was calculated. The song that scored the most points ranked at #1, with the song that ranked 50th in terms of points ended up in 50th place (the final slot). After being ranked, all  points earned during the week no longer have value. Instead, the songs in the top 50 are assigned a final value based on an inverse system; #1 receives 50 points and #50 receives 1 point. There's also a small set of additional points to award song for the amount of weeks they've spent on the chart. This can be a little bit confusing, so let me know if you want me to further explain this.

Among the top 10 songs of this year's season, only 3 of them had spent at least a week at #1 during any part of their run on the chart (January-September). That's down a noticeable 50% compared to last year, which saw 6 of the top 10 songs of the season claim at least a week at #1. In fact, only 6 songs in this year's top 50 spent at least a week at #1. Last year, 11 songs in the Summer Songs top 50 had spent at least a week at #1 sometime during their run.

Back to the top 10, this year's crop brought in a colossal sum of 5,767. That's up nearly 4% when stacked next to 2013's comparable sum of 5,557. While only one song passed 600 points (June-September points ONLY) this year, compared to two from last year, this year's #1 Summer song led my a massive 80 seasonal points. Last year, the top 2 were separated by a thin margin of 6 points.

What was most interesting to me, was that only one song in this year's top 10 wasn't recorded (or recorded in part) by a artist based outside the US. That song, was the 5 week #1 single "Maps" by Maroon 5. Last year saw 4 songs by United States based acts in the top 10. Canadian acts were un-surprisingly the most successful among songs in the top 10, coming in at #1, #4 and #6 (#11 was also recorded by a Canadian act). Swedish took 2nd place with two entries (#3 and #7), while tying the United Kingdom for the most acts with a song in the top 10 (3 each).

See the full top 75 best performing songs of Summer 2014 below, and stay tuned for the video version of the chart (which will contain the top 60).

Rank	Song	Performer	Summer 2014 Points
1	***SUMMER SONGS #1*** Hideaway	Kiesza	679.75
2	Rather Be (feat. Jess Glynne)	Clean Bandit	598.29
3	Undo	Sanna Nielsen	596.61
4	A+D	Vita Chambers	589.75
5	Maps	Maroon 5	575.78
6	Giant In My Heart	Kiesza	566.78
7	Do It Again	Röyksopp & Robyn	559.33
8	Chandelier	Sia	558.59
9	Fancy (feat. Charli XCX)	Iggy Azalea	521.59
10	Am I Wrong	Nico & Vinz	521.05
11	Satisfaction Guaranteed	Alyssa Reid	488.05
12	Pills N Potions	Nicki Minaj	478.33
13	Latch (feat. Sam Smith)	Disclosure	473.45
14	Dare (La La La)	Shakira	465.59
15	Problem (feat. Iggy Azalea)	Ariana Grande	441.75
16	I Wanna Feel	Secondcity	426.66
17	A Sky Full of Stars	Coldplay	409.75
18	Love Runs Out	OneRepublic	384.03
19	Summer	Calvin Harris	365.33
20	Boom Clap	Charli XCX	359.78
21	Crying For No Reason	Katy B	311.66
22	She Came to Give It To You (feat. Nicki Minaj)	Usher	308.45
23	If I Go	Ella Eyre	298.19
24	It Was Always You	Maroon 5	294.21
25	Strange Enough	VÉRITÉ	291.36
26	***CURRENT #1*** Bang Bang	Jessie J, Ariana Grande & Nicki Minaj	277.21
27	Flashlight	DJ Fresh & Ellie Goulding	274.36
28	Me & My Broken Heart	Rixton	272.66
29	Magic	Coldplay	264.85
30	2 On (feat. SchoolBoy Q)	Tinashe	264.55
31	All of Me	John Legend	264.05
32	Empire	Shakira	224.2
33	Don't	Ed Sheeran	208.66
34	No Mediocre (feat. Iggy Azalea)	T.I.	192.55
35	West Coast	Lana Del Rey	182.25
36	The Big Bang	Katy Tiz	180.14
37	Angel In Blue Jeans	Train	170.91
38	Everybody	Oceana	165.27
39	First Things First	Neon Trees	160.62
40	Marilyn Monroe	Pharrell Williams	160.1
41	Stay With Me	Sam Smith	151.45
42	Ain't It Fun	Paramore	147
43	Black Widow (feat. Rita Ora)	Iggy Azalea	146.25
44	Anaconda	Nicki Minaj	138.15
45	Ready For the Weekend (feat. Ayah Marar)	R3HAB & NERVO	136.28
46	It's On Again (feat. Kendrick Lamar)	Alicia Keys	126.63
47	G.U.Y. (Girl Under You)	Lady Gaga	122.41
48	Rude	MAGIC!	112.36
49	Hey Brother	Avicii	110.99
50	My Love (feat. Jess Glynne)	Route 94	107.55
51	Glow	Ella Henderson	106.1
52	Team	Lorde	104.18
53	Break The Rules	Charli XCX	104.06
54	Goodness Gracious	Ellie Goulding	99.23
55	Superheroes	The Script	98.28
56	Animals	Maroon 5	82.03
57	Not A Bad Thing	Justin Timberlake	78.54
58	Shake It Off	Taylor Swift	77.06
59	XO	Beyoncé	68.02
60	Counting Stars	OneRepublic	67.5
61	Guts Over Fear (feat. Sia)	Eminem	64.03
62	Two Weeks	FKA twigs	61.1
63	Midnight	Coldplay	57.26
64	Good Kisser (Disclosure Remix)	Usher	56.36
65	All About That Bass	Meghan Trainor	53.21
66	Drunk In Love (feat. Jay Z)	Beyoncé	49.81
67	Break Free (feat. Zedd)	Ariana Grande	47.45
68	Partition	Beyoncé	41.54
69	We Are Done	The Madden Brothers	41.35
70	F For You (feat. Mary J. Blige)	Disclosure	40.55
71	Happy	Pharrell Williams	39.66
72	Dark Horse (feat. Juicy J)	Katy Perry	38.77
73	Jungle	Jamie N Commons & X Ambassadors	38.21
74	Say Yes	Destiny's Child	36.09
75	Bass Like Home	Lily Allen	29.21

Which songs of Summer 2014 were you're favorites? Let me know below or on Twitter! The top 5 most voted will be announced as a part of the video chart this weekend, so hurry! Come back for more posts!