I won't cry for yesterday...

Into the top 40 of the decade then;

40. Aurora feat Naimee Coleman - Ordinary World - 2000

One of dance label Positiva's many hits in 2000, British dance act Aurora had achieved some success with debut single Hear You Calling but teamed up with Irish singer Naimee Colemean for a top five hit in late 2000. A pulsating pop trance cover of Duran Duran's early 90's hit Ordinary World, it breathed new life into an already gorgeous song with Naimee's strong vocals making it much more than another identikit dance cover. This song had fantastic production and transformed the original making it sound like a brand new song, unlike a karaoke cover version. I still absolutely love listening to this.



39. Delta Goodrem - Not Me, Not I - 2003

After a 60 song drought, finally another song from the musical monstrosity that was 2003. Australian singer Delta Goodrem's fourth single Not Me, Not I was her classiest single yet. Mind you it had good pedigree - it was co-written by Gary Barlow!!! The video was iconic in that Delta filmed it just before beginning chemotherapy for her cancer treatment. The video and song were both absolutely beautiful - it was a shame it could only reach #18 in the UK charts but it was yet another #1 in Australia and deservedly so. A soaring string ballad that Gary is of course well known for, Delta's vocals made it perfect, and this song and the b-side, her gorgeous cover of Happy Xmas (War Is Over) rounded 2003 off excellently musically for me.



38. ATC - Around The World (La La La La La) - 2002

First released across Europe in 2000, it was supposed to come out in the UK too at that point (they even appeared in Smash Hits at the time!) but Europop act ATC, who were based in Germany but hailed from the UK, Italy, New Zealand and Australia, finally released the song in the UK in summer 2002. It had a slightly updated remix and got some airplay but still could only reach #15, much lower than it had got across Europe. But then again it probably would have done better in 2000 because the 'sound' was more popular than in 2002 when cheesy Europop was being replaced with Pop Idol rejects pop. Still, I was obsessed with this group, although only this one song...everything else was so samey that I didn't bother with it. I recall writing a GCSE English essay about the band in fact haha!



37. Ira Losco - 7th Wonder - 2002

Eurovision 2002 in Estonia was a bit poor really...the staging, the production values - the weird animated aardvark/Jive Bunny type thing running across the scoreboard the whole time, the weird operatic female and low booming male presenters, the generally atrocious songs, the tragic winner from Latvia...luckily it wasn't all bad. If we erase Marie N's I Wanna from our minds we can pretend that Estonia's brilliant Swedish singer Sahlene shared 2nd (not third) place with our very own Jessica Garlick and Malta were the rightful winners with one of the most perfect pure pop songs of the noughties - 7th Wonder. Ira, who is now one of Malta's biggest stars, was a charming, note perfect singer, with a twee routine but it still wasn't good enough evidently. Just how the hell did Malta not romp away with the competition!?!



36. Girls Aloud - The Promise - 2008

2002 Popstars: The Rivals act Girls Aloud are probably one of my favourite artists of the decade - of their 21 singles, I've never less than 'really liked' any of them, however despite excelling with Sound of The Underground, No Good Advice, Love Machine, Biology and Something Kinda Ooooh amongst others, nothing of theirs ever made me think 'wow this really is an incredible song'. Until in 2008 when they finally hit proper pop gold with The Promise. Tapping perfectly into the soul pop sound so prominent in 2008, the group - who had by this point become a national instituion, far bigger than rivals Sugababes, had their biggest era to date with the Out Of Control album and The Promise, a HUGE radio hit, was deservedly their biggest single since Sound Of The Underground. A great, catchy pop song with brilliant solos from Sarah ('Here I aaaam...walking primrose' and Nicola, a fantastic, and unprecedented for Girls Aloud, key change and a triumphant ending rather than the usual fade out - I was in love with this and still am.