Jason Derulo
Saturday September 22
You'll know at least one Jason Derulo song, even if you think you have no interest in this slick Florida-born pop man. It's the one you've thought was maybe called Get Up Next To You or Gets Me So High. A light, funky track bursting with energy and sharp hooks, Want To Want Me (its real title) also featured one of the best falsettos this side of Michael Jackson.
That voice, coupled with an intoxicating melody and a relateable sense of awkwardness, became one of the most consistently played radio tracks in recent years. In clothes shops and supermarkets, in taxis and on the bus, on the telly and in the pub; its continuing presence obscures the fact it was released in 2015, back in that other world before Brexit and Trump.
Want To Want Me also made Derulo properly stand out from the legions of Drakes, Sean Pauls and The Weeknds making generic, r 'n' b pop. While his albums are often unremarkable, Derulo's prolific singles output (40 and counting) – means that for every couple of duds, there'll likely be another winner out soon.
"Jason Derulo has one of the most impressive work ethics I've ever come across – he just keeps knocking out songs in the studio," said producer JR Rotem, the man who signed Derulo to his Beluga Heights Records and produced his first single, 2009's Whatcha Say.
Since then he's collaborated with countless other pop people, shifted 50 million units and notched around six billion plays on Spotify and Youtube.
A fair few of the latter (currently around 368,000 000) were for the steamy video to Want To Want Me. Derulo lies in bed, sheets askew; a Men's Health cover model clammy with desire – or flu. He calls a cab to "get me there fast"; “there” being the vast boudoir of glamour model Tianna Gregory. Premiering, appropriately enough on Tinder, it's raunch to the point of being funny, and the scenes of him singing to her from a stage (it really is a big place she's got) are endearing.
Want To Want Me is wholesome fare in comparison to 2014's Talk Dirty album. That year he released just one single, Wiggle, a distinctive, if rather repetitive hit about his favourite theme – buttocks. The video is like a throwback to 1992's Baby Got Back (commonly known as I Like Big Butts) but without the body positivity and humour.
A least Sir Mix-a-Lot claimed to like the women that the big butts belonged to. In Wiggle, as elsewhere in Derulo's back catalogue (see also recent single Tip Toe) the women might as well get lost – after leaving their buttocks behind, of course.
It's odd that, the year before Wiggle, Robin Thicke's career and marriage were ended with the fallout from his Blurred Lines single. Pressed on the issue by an ABC journalist, Derulo said: "Nowhere in my mind am I thinking: 'I'm objectifying women', I'm just making a fun song, and it's supposed to be taken in that light."
That's settled then. Claim gormlessness and enjoy the grooves.
Rescheduled from March due to recording commitments for his new album, this date comes on the back of airy World Cup single Colors and Goodbye, a reggaeton take on modern opera classic Time To Say Goodbye. Featuring Nicki Minaj, it's either completely unlistenable or a subversive delight, depending on your appreciation of Minaj.
Support is from Calum Scott, the chap from Kingston-Upon-Hull whose Britain's Got Talent turn took him to number two in the charts with his version of Robyn's Dancing On My Own.
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