50 Fun Facts About 2009 Music

Whose debut album opened with 701,000 US copies in November, the biggest sales week of any album in 2009?

Susan Boyle had lost the Britain's Got Talent final to dance troupe Diversity that May, yet I Dreamed a Dream also became the fastest-selling debut album in UK chart history.

Which Flo Rida single, interpolating a Dead or Alive hit, set a first-week record of 636,000 downloads in February?

Right Round beat a download record set only a week earlier by 'Crack a Bottle', and its uncredited female hook was sung by a then-unknown Kesha.

Whose 'My Life Would Suck Without You' leapt 96 places to number one on the Hot 100 in one week, a record?

Kelly Clarkson won back a record she had first set in 2002 with 'A Moment Like This'; it had been broken four times since, most recently by Britney Spears's 'Womanizer' the previous October.

Whose debut single 'Whatcha Say', built on Imogen Heap's 'Hide and Seek', topped the Hot 100 in November?

Jason Derulo's hook is the bridge of 'Hide and Seek', which viewers already knew from a slow-motion shooting in The O.C. and the Saturday Night Live sketch that parodied the scene.

Who became the youngest winner of the CMA's Entertainer of the Year award in November 2009?

Taylor Swift, 19, took country's top prize two months after Kanye West interrupted her at the VMAs, and this time she finished her thanks in tears; Fearless won Album of the Year the same night.

Who played the Super Bowl XLIII halftime show in Tampa, having turned down numerous earlier invitations?

Bruce Springsteen had long doubted the halftime show was a legitimate gig, but with Working on a Dream released that week he said yes and promised 'a 12-minute party'.

Which band's 360° Tour, staged beneath a four-legged rig nicknamed 'The Claw', was the highest-grossing tour of 2009?

U2 had to build three of the rigs so crews could leapfrog them between stadiums, and when the American leg opened that September their manager said the tour had yet to break even.

Which Britpop band, reunited with guitarist Graham Coxon, headlined Glastonbury for the first time since 1998?

Blur's four members had not played together in public since 2000, and Coxon had left during the Think Tank sessions in 2002; the comeback also filled London's Hyde Park for two nights that July.

Which British singer won Best New Artist at the 2009 Grammy Awards?

Adele, then 20, also won a pop vocal Grammy that night for 'Chasing Pavements', which she wrote after a row with her boyfriend on a London night out left her alone on the street.

Which record producer was found guilty in April of shooting dead an actress at his California mansion in 2003?

Phil Spector's first trial had ended with a hung jury in 2007; the retrial brought a sentence of 19 years to life, and he died in 2021 while still serving it.

Which group held the Hot 100's number one for 26 consecutive weeks in 2009 with two singles back to back?

The Black Eyed Peas replaced themselves at the top: 'I Gotta Feeling' took over from 'Boom Boom Pow' and stayed 14 weeks, so the group held number one for exactly half of 2009.

Which Journey song's cover by the cast of Glee, heard in the show's May pilot, reached number four on the Hot 100?

Don't Stop Believin' had peaked at only number nine for Journey in 1981, so the Glee cast outcharted the original, and their version went on to sell more than a million copies in the US.

Whose two Slumdog Millionaire Oscars in February came a day before the Pussycat Dolls released their 'Jai Ho!' remake?

A. R. Rahman's label had the remake ready whether or not he won; billing Nicole Scherzinger as its featured artist drew an on-stage jibe from a bandmate weeks later, and the Dolls split the following year.

Which Lady Gaga song did she perform at the 2009 VMAs in a piece that ended with her collapsing in stage blood?

Paparazzi was staged as fame killing its star: bleeding from the ribs, Gaga was hoisted above her dancers by one hand, staring lifelessly, and in 2024 the VMAs nominated it as their most iconic performance.

Which composer co-wrote the UK's 2009 Eurovision entry with Diane Warren and played piano on stage in Moscow?

Andrew Lloyd Webber's song finished fifth, the UK's best Eurovision result since 2002; the British entries the year before and the year after both came last.

Which country quit the Moscow Eurovision after the EBU rejected its entry 'We Don't Wanna Put In' as rule-breaking?

Georgia's song by Stephane & 3G was heard as a dig at Russian prime minister Vladimir Putin, and the broadcaster pulled out rather than change it.

Which Girls Aloud member's debut solo single 'Fight for This Love' sold 292,000 copies in its first week in October?

Cheryl Cole first sang it on The X Factor, where she was a judge, the night it went on sale; 134,000 copies went in 24 hours, and the week's total beat Girls Aloud's own debut single.

Who won the sixth series of The X Factor on 13 December, with Olly Murs finishing as runner-up?

Joe McElderry's winner's single went straight to number one in Ireland, but a Facebook campaign for Rage Against the Machine denied it the UK Christmas number one; it topped the UK chart a week later.

Which Miley Cyrus ballad from the 2009 Hannah Montana film became the X Factor winner's single in a cover version?

The Climb was not written for the film, which cost it a Grammy nomination: Disney had it withdrawn from the category for movie songs, and a track from Where the Wild Things Are took its place.

Which twins, mentored by Louis Walsh, became the talking point of The X Factor in 2009?

Jedward were the seventh act voted out, but the ironic support that kept them in so long was dubbed 'the Jedward paradox', and Prime Minister Gordon Brown landed in trouble for calling them 'not very good'.

Whose comeback album Reality Killed the Video Star was beaten to UK number one by JLS's debut by about 1,500 copies?

Robbie Williams lost twice to The X Factor's class of 2008 that autumn: its winner kept his single 'Bodies' off number one, then runners-up JLS made this his first studio album to miss the top.

Which 2008 X Factor winner's 'Bad Boys', featuring Flo Rida, entered the UK Singles Chart at number one in October?

Alexandra Burke's 187,100 first-week sales made it the fastest-selling single of 2009, a title it kept for exactly one week before another new release outsold it.

Which 18-year-old's debut single 'Mama Do (Uh Oh, Uh Oh)' entered the UK Singles Chart at number one in June?

Pixie Lott took the call in bed at her parents' house in Essex: her A&R man teased, 'I'm really, really sorry but... you're No 1!', and she spent the day running about the house screaming.

Which synth-pop act fronted by Elly Jackson entered the UK Singles Chart at number one with 'Bulletproof'?

La Roux were a duo, Jackson and producer Ben Langmaid, and their previous single 'In for the Kill' had been stuck at number two for four weeks before this one went straight in at the top.

Whose 'Number 1', featuring N-Dubz, was the first single of that title to reach the top of the UK chart?

Tinchy Stryder was a final-year university student with a 6,000-word essay to finish while the single spent three weeks at the top; Goldfrapp and Pharrell had tried the same title and failed.

Which German dance act kept 'Man in the Mirror' off UK number one the week after Michael Jackson died?

Cascada's 'Evacuate the Dancefloor' went straight in at the top of a chart in which 13 of the top 40 singles were Michael Jackson's, ten days after his death; it was the act's first UK number one.

Which UK Eurovision entrant replaced Keisha Buchanan in Sugababes in September, leaving no original members?

Jade Ewen's arrival left a Sugababes with none of its founders, so when the original three regrouped they had to perform as Mutya Keisha Siobhan; they won the name back in 2019.

Which Boyzone singer died suddenly in Mallorca on 10 October, aged 33, of an undiagnosed heart condition?

Stephen Gately shared lead vocals with Ronan Keating, and in 1999, at the height of Boyzone's fame, he came out as gay after learning that an acquaintance was about to sell the story to the press.

Which guitarist and inventor, a pioneer of both the solid-body electric guitar and multitrack recording, died in August aged 94?

Les Paul's prototype, 'the Log', led to the Gibson model that carries his name; after a car crash shattered his elbow, he had the arm set at an angle so that he could still play.

Which singer left the 2009 Brit Awards with three trophies, including the one for British Album?

Duffy had lost the final of the Welsh TV talent show Wawffactor in 2003; her debut, Rockferry, went on to be the world's fourth-best-selling album of 2008.

Which act took the Critics' Choice award at the 2009 Brits, months before releasing its debut album?

Florence and the Machine's Lungs spent its first five weeks at number two, stuck behind a Michael Jackson hits collection in the weeks after his death, and only reached number one the following January.

Which Lily Allen single held UK number one for all four weeks of February, the longest run of any chart-topper in 2009?

The Fear had first surfaced ten months earlier as an unfinished demo that Allen posted on her MySpace page under the title 'I Don't Know'; in its third week at the top, her album joined it at number one.

Rapper Speech Debelle's debut had sold under 3,000 copies when it beat Kasabian to which British music honour in 2009?

Mercury Prize victory could not rescue Speech Therapy: the album never rose above number 65, and two months after winning she sacked her record label, blaming it for the poor sales.

Which supergroup formed in Los Angeles paired Josh Homme and Dave Grohl with Led Zeppelin's John Paul Jones?

Them Crooked Vultures played their first gig in Chicago on 9 August 2009, though Grohl had floated the idea in a Mojo interview back in 2005.

Which Alice in Chains album, the first since Layne Staley's death, has Elton John on piano for its title track?

Black Gives Way to Blue's title song is Jerry Cantrell's farewell to Staley, whose first concert had been an Elton John show; the band thought landing him would take a miracle, but he said yes after one listen.

Which Green Day rock opera, the follow-up to American Idiot, follows a young couple named Christian and Gloria?

21st Century Breakdown was produced by Butch Vig, who made Nirvana's Nevermind; Walmart refused to stock it unless the band supplied a censored version, and Green Day said no.

Which Muse album, a number one in 19 countries, includes the three-part, 13-minute symphony 'Exogenesis'?

The Resistance leaned on Orwell's Nineteen Eighty-Four for its lyrics: Matt Bellamy re-read it before writing and said that this time he was 'much more taken with the love story' than the politics.

Which Arctic Monkeys album was partly recorded in the California desert at Rancho de la Luna with Josh Homme producing?

Humbug swapped the band's garage-punk for stoner and surf-rock shades, with the remaining tracks cut in New York by James Ford.

Which folk-rock band's debut album Sigh No More, led by the single 'Little Lion Man', came out in the UK in October?

Mumford & Sons' album entered the UK chart at number 11 and did not peak until its 72nd week, when it rose to number two after winning British Album at the 2011 Brits.

Which experimental pop group named its acclaimed 2009 album after a Maryland amphitheatre it had never played?

Animal Collective made Merriweather Post Pavilion as a trio after guitarist Deakin stepped away, building the songs on samplers in place of guitars; the band first played the venue itself in 2011.

Which pop-punk band announced its reunion on stage at the February Grammys, where it presented the rock album award?

Blink-182 had been on hiatus since 2005; what brought the three back together was drummer Travis Barker's narrow survival of a plane crash that killed four people in September 2008.

Whose 'For Your Entertainment' performance at the American Music Awards drew 1,500 complaints to ABC?

Adam Lambert, American Idol's runner-up that May, lost his Good Morning America booking over it, so rival network CBS put him on The Early Show the same morning instead.

Which Australian duo of Luke Steele and Nick Littlemore won seven ARIA Awards, including Album of the Year, in 2009?

Empire of the Sun's two members had not spoken for five months that year: Littlemore said he had gone swimming with his phone in his pocket, and Steele was playing the live shows without him.

Which debut single spent eight straight weeks atop Australia's ARIA chart, the longest number-one run there in 2009?

Tik Tok name-checks Diddy in its opening line, and hours after Kesha wrote it he happened to ring her producer for the first time; he came to the studio that same day to add his two spoken lines.

Which nine-member South Korean act's 'Gee' topped KBS's Music Bank for nine consecutive weeks, a record at the time?

Girls' Generation danced 'Gee' in brightly coloured skinny jeans and set off a fashion for them across South Korea; only Psy's 'Gangnam Style', with ten wins in a row in 2012, later beat the run.

Which teenager, signed by Usher after posting YouTube videos, sent all seven songs from a 2009 debut EP onto the Hot 100?

Justin Bieber was 15 when My World came out; manager Scooter Braun had found his home-made clips online, and Usher then beat Justin Timberlake in a bidding war to sign him.

Which Colombian singer staged September's free Paz Sin Fronteras concert before about a million people in Havana?

Juanes received death threats from exiles in Miami for agreeing to play in Cuba, while 20 jailed dissidents on the island backed him; the crowd in Revolution Square came dressed in white.

Which rapper, never named in the lyrics, was widely read as the target of Mariah Carey's 2009 single 'Obsessed'?

Eminem had mocked Carey on record that spring; in the 'Obsessed' video she played the stalker herself, in a grey hoodie and sweatpants, and within weeks he hit back with a diss track called 'The Warning'.

Which crooner's album Crazy Love, led by 'Haven't Met You Yet', topped the Billboard 200 after only three days on sale?

Michael Bublé wrote 'Haven't Met You Yet' for his new girlfriend, the Argentine actress Luisana Lopilato, who plays his love interest in the video; they married in 2011.

Which group became only the second hip-hop act inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, in April 2009?

Run-DMC followed Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five into the Hall; the group had formally disbanded in 2002, after its DJ, Jam Master Jay, was shot dead at his studio in Queens.