Hello, fam!  It’s a brand new decade in the world of the American Top 40!  I can’t wait to see what the new decade has in store in terms of music, trends, and some other stuff.  Anyway, I’m almost done with my Year-End posts.  I have two that’ll be posted within the next week or so.  If you missed any of my Year-End posts, you can check those out right here and hopefully catch up on those.  With that, let’s dive right into the first AT40 countdown of the decade!  Before we get to this week’s fresh 40, here are the songs we’re saying goodbye to this week:

• All The Good Girls Go To Hell by Billie Eilish (#21)
• Lonely by Diplo featuring Jonas Brothers (#29)
• Writing On The Wall by French Montana featuring Post Malone, Cardi B, and Rvssian (#33)
• Wow. by Post Malone (#40) [Spent 1 Week At #1]

The Countdown:
Last Week’s #1 Song: Good As Hell by Lizzo
40. Hey Look Ma, I Made It by Panic! At The Disco (#39) [–1]
39. Make It Right by BTS featuring Lauv (DEBUT)
38. Sucker by Jonas Brothers (#37) [–1] [Spent 8 Weeks At #1]
37. Slow Dance by AJ Mitchell featuring Ava Max (#35) [–2]
36. Dancing With A Stranger by Sam Smith featuring Normani (#34) [–2] [Spent 1 Week At #1]
35. Highest In The Room by Travis Scott (#36) [+1]
34. Teeth by 5 Seconds Of Summer (#38) [+4]
33. If I Can’t Have You by Shawn Mendes (#31) [–2]
32. Raising Hell by Kesha featuring Big Freedia (#30) [–2]
31. Adore You by Harry Styles (DEBUT)
30. Talk by Khalid (#28) [–2] [Spent 3 Weeks At #1]
29. Everything I Wanted by Billie Eilish (DEBUT)
28. My Type by Saweetie (#26) [–2]
27. What Am I by Why Don’t We (#25) [–2]
26. Bad Guy by Billie Eilish (#24) [–2] [Spent 2 Weeks At #1]
25. Hot Girl Bummer by Blackbear (#27) [+2]
24. Goodbyes by Post Malone featuring Young Thug (#22) [–2]
23. Heartless by The Weeknd (DEBUT)
22. I Don’t Care by Ed Sheeran featuring Justin Bieber (#20) [–2] [Spent 2 Weeks At #1]
21. Nice To Meet Ya by Niall Horan (#23) [+2]
20. Roxanne by Arizona Zervas (#32) [+12]
19. One Thing Right by Marshmello featuring Kane Brown (#16) [–3]
18. Señorita by Shawn Mendes featuring Camila Cabello (#11) [–7]
17. Lover by Taylor Swift (#17) [=]
16. Beautiful People by Ed Sheeran featuring Khalid (#6) [–10]
15. 10,000 Hours by Dan + Shay featuring Justin Bieber (#15) [=]
14. Dance Monkey by Tones & I (#18) [+4]
13. Don’t Start Now by Dua Lipa (#19) [+6]
12. Truth Hurts by Lizzo (#7) [–5] [Spent 4 Weeks At #1]
11. Graveyard by Halsey (#14) [+3]
10. How Do You Sleep? by Sam Smith (#10) [=]
9. Time by NF (#13) [+4]
8. Panini by Lil Nas X (#12) [+4]
7. Only Human by Jonas Brothers (#5) [–2]
6. Trampoline by SHAED (#4) [–2]
5. Someone You Loved by Lewis Capaldi (#3) [–2] [Spent 3 Weeks At #1]
4. Memories by Maroon 5 (#8) [+4]
3. Lose You To Love Me by Selena Gomez (#9) [+6]
2. Circles by Post Malone (#2) [=] [Spent 2 Weeks At #1]
1. Good As Hell by Lizzo (#1) [=] [5^th Week At #1]

#1 Song This Week One Year Ago: High Hopes by Panic! At The Disco (1^st of 4 Weeks At #1)

Biggest Fall Of The Week: Beautiful People by Ed Sheeran featuring Khalid (–10)

Biggest Rise Of The Week: Roxanne by Arizona Zervas (+12)

New Entrants:
– Kicking things off, we have the return of K-Pop band BTS and they’re collaborating with Lauv in Make It Right.  I was hoping we didn’t hear more from Lauv himself.  But here he is in their new song.  I’ll admit that I’ve begun to see why BTS are talented.  Granted, there was a moment in time when I disliked Boy With Luv.  But I grew into that song since it left and I consider that to be one of my favorites from them.  I can’t really say I’m loving Make It Right.  I find the song not very interesting.  The production is lifeless in some parts and I don’t really like the beat.  Lauv doesn’t make a lot of contribution to the song.  I’m not fond of his verse and the guys sound pretty underwhelming vocally.  So yeah, I’m not feeling this one.

– The comeback of Harry Styles is something that I was waiting for to happen.  It was a few years ago that he gave us Sign Of The Times and I was wowed by what he had to offer.  I fell in love with his last album and there are plenty of stuff that I liked.  This week, he starts off the new decade by bringing us Adore You.  He did release his other two singles prior to this in the form of Lights Up and Watermelon Sugar, both of which took me a while to get into.  Adore You, on the other hand, is one that I fell in love with right from the start.  First off, I love the soft rock production.  It has a groovy throwback vibe to it.  Harry’s voice works very well here.  The lyrics are well-written for the most part and I can appreciate what the song is going for.  Yeah, this is solid overall.  Although I haven’t listened to his new album Fine Line yet, I would highly recommend doing so.

– Next, Billie Eilish replaces herself this week with her latest single.  In terms of my opinion on the song, it’s Everything I Wanted to hear from her.  Well, not exactly.  Basically, what the song talks about is her committing suicide and nobody caring for her anymore, as well as her relationship with her brother during her struggles.  I quite like the production with the muted piano and drums.  Billie has a dark, unique voice and she shows her vocal talent here. Like I said, this isn’t her best and I prefer her singles from When We All Fall Asleep, Where Do We Go?. But Everything I Wanted comes pretty close to topping those.

– Now for the big one.  The Weeknd makes his return with his brand new solo single in the form of Heartless.  So, the last time we saw him was a year ago when he collaborated with Gesafflestein in Lost In The Fire.  That one was just terrible and I didn’t know what I was thinking when I said I liked it before.  Now, after hearing Heartless, it appears he’s going in a different direction for his new album.  I’ve been fond of his music for a while and this song is no exception.  It goes without saying that this isn’t his best work by any means.  I prefer songs such as The Hills, In The Night, Starboy, and I Feel It Coming.  His last two albums are where the gems are located.  But Heartless does everything it needs to do to make it a fun listen for me.  First off, The Weeknd’s voice.  He reminds me of the late Michael Jackson and I can actually hear how much he sounds like him.  The production and the hip-hop vibe fits very well with The Weeknd’s style.  Yeah, I’m digging this song overall and if his album sounds anything like this, then I’m excited for what he has in store.

Best Debut Of The Week: Heartless by The Weeknd

‘Cause I’m Blurbless
– We bid adieu to four songs, but neither of those are seriously worth caring about.  So I’ll try to speed those through.  All The Good Girls Go To Hell was not the best choice for a single, so I’m kinda glad this ended up flopping.  But it’s not bad overall, so I guess that’s saying something.  The other three exits will certainly not be missed.  Writing On The Wall was a mess and I’m very disappointed to have to say that about French Montana, especially since he had Unforgettable which was a favorite of mine back in 2017.  Lonely is also terrible production-wise.  Diplo didn’t put forth the effort and the Jonas Brothers don’t sound good vocally.  Finally, it’s about time we bid adieu to Wow..  That one was overdue.  I’m glad to see it gone.

– Memories and Lose You To Love Me both enter the Top 5.  The former I’m not thrilled about, since there’s nothing interesting about it.  But the very latter is one I love and it’s a nice comeback for Selena Gomez.  I’m holding out hope that it can become a #1 hit in the near future.

– On the note of the rest of the Top 10, we get new arrivals from Panini by Lil Nas X and Time by NF.  I wasn’t a fan of Old Town Road personally, but I do kinda like Panini in a way.  So I’m okay with this being in that region.  Time isn’t something I want to see in the Top 10.  It’s better than Let You Down.  But I’m really starting to lose interest in that song.  I would prefer if it started moving down soon.

– I’m not sure why we’re letting Roxanne gain momentum.  But it certainly does not make me happy whatsoever.  We’re looking for better music in 2020 and this song is not going to help matters.  His voice is drenched in auto-tune and the rest of the song is awful.  Hopefully, it dies out really fast because I’m not okay with this.

– At least we’re seeing the end of One Thing Right.  This is just Marshmello hitting another new low.  Kane’s terrible vocals doesn’t do the song any favors, either.  I’m glad it didn’t get very far on this countdown.  It has no business being here.

Breakouts/On The Verge

• South Of The Border by Ed Sheeran featuring Camila Cabello and Cardi B
  
• Mother by Charlie Puth
• I’m Not Alright by Loud Luxury featuring Bryce Vine
• Good Thing by Zedd featuring Kehlani
• RITMO by Black Eyed Peas featuring J Balvin

Extras/Optional Extras:

• Just A Dream by Nelly
• Almost Love by Sabrina Carpenter
• Down by Jay Sean
• Thumbs by Sabrina Carpenter
• Why by Sabrina Carpenter
• Sue Me by Sabrina Carpenter

Top 20 Breakdown:
0 – Garbage:
20. Someone You Loved by Lewis Capaldi
19. One Thing Right by Marshmello featuring Kane Brown
18. Roxanne by Arizona Zervas

1 – Bad:
17. Memories by Maroon 5

2 – Mediocre:
None!

3 – Decent:
16. Time by NF
15. How Do You Sleep? by Sam Smith
14. Panini by Lil Nas X

4 – Good:
13. Circles by Post Malone

5 – Great:
12. Graveyard by Halsey
11. Only Human by Jonas Brothers
10. 10,000 Hours by Dan + Shay featuring Justin Bieber
9. Truth Hurts by Lizzo
8. Señorita by Shawn Mendes featuring Camila Cabello
7. Trampoline by SHAED
6. Dance Monkey by Tones & I
5. Beautiful People by Ed Sheeran featuring Khalid
4. Lover by Taylor Swift
3. Lose You To Love Me by Selena Gomez
2. Good As Hell by Lizzo

BONUS: 6 – Best Song On The Countdown:
1. Don’t Start Now by Dua Lipa

Total Score: 75/100 = 75% (B)

Throwback Pick Of The Week: Celebration by Kool & The Gang (1980)

Most Missed Song: Pompeii by BΔSTILLE

#1 Recommendation For The American Top 40: Blinding Lights by The Weeknd

Favorite Countdown Song This Week One Year Ago: Breathin’ by Ariana Grande (#2)

My Top 5 Picks
1. Don’t Start Now by Dua Lipa 
2. Good As Hell by Lizzo
3. Lose You To Love Me by Selena Gomez
4. Lover by Taylor Swift
5. Raising Hell by Kesha featuring Big Freedia

My Bottom 5 Picks
1. Hot Girl Bummer by Blackbear
2. Someone You Loved by Lewis Capaldi
3. One Thing Right by Marshmello featuring Kane Brown
4. My Type by Saweetie
5. Roxanne by Arizona Zervas

Songs That Debuted This Week One Year Ago:
Ruin My Life by Zara Larsson: It’s pretty good for a comeback single from Zara.  But it’s really not much compared to her older singles.  She sounds good with her voice and the production is fine, so I’ll give her that.

8 Letters by Why Don’t We: I think this is their best song thus far.  Everything about the song works pretty well here.  These guys put on a nice performance vocally and I like the instrumentation here.

Nothing Breaks Like A Heart by Mark Ronson featuring Miley Cyrus: Another pop masterpiece for Mark Ronson, the same guy behind Uptown Funk.  Everything about this works well to perfection from the production to the vocals.