Which Are Your Favourite Songs From 2000?

20 Jun 2009

Elton Chinese Dreams!!!

Elton John said he was delighted to perform in China for the first time, saying it was always his ambition to play music here: "I'm delighted to be here, this is a culturally electric city, full of life, full of creativity, and I'm very honored to be here," the singer-composer told reporters at a press conference when he arrived in 2004. He said he visited Shanghai in 1988 and 1984, but had never performed in China.

In 1984 Watford F.C. became the only second team to tour China (West Bromwich were the first in 1978). Two games against the Chinese National Team were watched by crowds of over 70.000 whilst 40.000 fans watched Watford take on Shangai. All Three matches resulted in Watford wins. In 1988 Watford returned to China to compete in the Great Wall Of China Cup. They won all five matches. All of players were a bit shell-shocked because Graham Taylor had just left the club to take over at Aston Villa. They didn't have a manager so Elton decided to go to China with the team. Perhaps feeling a bit fed-up for being long way home, Elton took the players to one side on this particular evening and asked if they could get all the lads together in the next room. Elton was sitting at this piano. And for the next hour he gave them a personal concert.

Elton John and Tim Rice's stylistically eclectic rock musical AIDA kicked off 11 city China tour in Shanghai. Starring Marja Harmon as Aida, Casey Elliott as Radames, and Leah Allers as Amneris, all three of whom were part of the North American tour of the show in 2006 and 2007. The show run in Shanghai, after which it moved on to Suzhou, Nanjing, Changsha, Wuhan, Ningbo, Hangzhou, Xi'an, Beijing, Chengdu and Tianjin. "It's truly a pop musical with spoken dialogue and all kinds of recognizable song types: urban-based rhythm and blues, gospel-inspired songs, ballads and, of course, the rock songs," says Chen Jixin, CEO of Beijing Oriental Broadway International Theater Management Company, which has brought the production to China. "This Aida is a modern musical about the classic tale with a pop twist. When I watched it on Broadway a few years ago, I saw the audiences were responding wonderfully to the mythic story of fated love in a contemporary scene," says the reporter and critic Lun Bing, of Beijing Youth Daily.

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The Story Behind "AllSongsList"

AllSongsList tries to find the best Elton John ever song, in a multiple points of views. There are 23 categories to evaluate:

US Singles & Albums Music Charts
Canada Singles & Albums Music Charts
UK Singles & Albums Music Charts
Ireland Singles & Albums Music Charts
France Singles & Albums Music Charts
Germany Singles & Albums Music Charts
Austria Singles & Albums Music Charts
Italy Singles & Albums Music Charts
Switzerland Singles & Albums Music Charts
Spain Singles & Albums Music Charts
Norway Singles & Albums Music Charts
Sweden Singles & Albums Music Charts
Japan Singles & Albums Music Charts
Australia Singles & Albums Music Charts
New Zeland Singles & Albums Music Charts
Brazil Singles & Albums Music Charts
Southafrica Singles & Albums Music Charts

There's a table of the positions and points by position of the songs that reach the charts, depending the category of singles, "B" sides of the singles and albums. For example, a Nº 1 means 10.000 points if it was reached as a single, 2.500 points for its "B" side and 5.000 points for the album (Elton's album or another artist album). That is ponderate by the importance of the country in world's music sales terms. That is increased by the award acreditation of platinum, gold or silver albums. 100 points are for the weeks in the number one chart and 50 for times in other positions.

Single Category
The points of that category are for the "A" singles (500 points) and "B" singles (250 points).

Albums Category
The points of that category are for the album tracks: 500 if it is an original album and 750 points for the compilations. Soundtracks and other artist albums are counting as 500 points.

Video (DVD) Category
The points of that category are for the tracks, couting 750 points for the video-clip singles and 500 points for being in a original release.

Cover Category
650 points meant that any artist did a cover of one of Elton's songs. 350 points are for the mixes and remixes.

Live Category
The points of that category are 1.000 if the song was in a Tour Set List. The points are increased by 100 for the times the song is in the set list. 850 points means to be in a guest appearance concert or special show or event (outside the official tour).

Others
Other puntuations depending if the song win an award (grammy, brits, etc.) or for the nomination; for the duets, for Elton's own covers. In addition of other chart lists of magazines, the radio airplay or TV appearance, the ringtones or eltonites' votes.

Example

Your Song has now 1.747.130 points and it is the number two of the list. Is the song most played live with 341.500 points, and has 181.575 points in the category of US Singles & Albums Charts, for example.

That all began in 1984, one year after I became an eltonite. There are three copies of security of allsongslist. AllSongsList has all the chart successes in all the countries I told before, all the set lists since the beginning of Elton's career, most of them validate (others are aproximated); the covers, the duets, the listing albums tracks, etc. It has been a such hard work of documentation through the years.

Your votes will aid your favourite songs to go up and down the allsongslist charts. Help me to find the best Elton's song.