Critic Jonni

Again Justin Bieber's still at number one, with "Sorry", which currently doesn't have a music video, and so Chart Mondays is open to any of the top 10. I have very little choice now that I've reviewed almost all the music videos in the top 10 singles chart. This one is currently at number seven, and I can totally see why it charted so high. MNEK is back, looking cool and calm as usual in a brilliant performance piece which showcases Zara Larsson perfectly, it's accompanied with a perfect narrative which definitely reminds me of The Gruffalo, sweet, innocent and isolated. A perfect peaceful endearing story line.

MNEK, real name Uzo Emenike, has been tackling the charts for a while, he is mostly known for his feature on Gorgon City's "Ready For Your Love", which got to number four in the UK. This single peaked at number five, which is still considered good. It is a collaboration with Zara Larsson, who is from Sweden and has had many hits over there. This is her first single to chart here in the UK, and my guess is that it won't be her last. Sweden is really coming a long way when it comes to music, and I wouldn't be surprised if a lot more Swedish artists appeared in our charts sometime soon. The song is written by Zara Larsson, MNEK and Astronomyy.

The music video was directed by Richard Paris Wilson. The narrative definitely reminds me of The Gruffalo story by Julia Donaldson. A young girl meets a creature she wants to spend time with, it is believed the creature is imaginary, and as she gets older she dreams and imagines being with him till the end of time. She never forgets him as she gets older and she continues to spend time with him as she continues to grow.

The performance side is on point. Zara Larsson definitely outshines MNEK. She is a new artist, and she is a vision when she sings. MNEK, however, manages to portray the song perfectly. Both would definitely be good to see live.

Overall, an amazing song sung perfectly by these two artists. The music video is a little on the weird side, but it's sweet, endearing and definitely relates to the song.

Buy on iTunes

Sam Callahan is back with a rockier sound, which is totally working for him. He has been going for a number of years, he appeared in some of my gay magazines which is where I spotted him, he became my Artist of the Month back in February 2013. He then went on The X Factor, and gained more fans to add to his Callafan army, who have supported him a lot. This is Sam Callahan's first release since finishing The X Factor, he looks cool and calm, with and emotional vocals and a perfect narrative video to accompany the song.

Sam Callahan has finally released his EP today, and this is the lead single from it. He previously released "Runaway Train" and "Crazy" which are no longer available on iTunes. He's rendition of "We'll Be Coming Back" is still one of my all-time favourite covers ever sung. I really do hope the best for his career, however I'm disappointed in his team for releasing this song on a SUNDAY! Are they not aware that New Music Fridays (NMF) has come in, where singles are released on a Friday, and that the chart is also released on a Friday to coincide with the NMF. The chances of this charting is little to none, and the iTunes chart proves this too, as he isn't anywhere near the top 1000, let alone the top 100. And the very little amount of YouTube views of his music video also shows how many people know about his EP. He's been promoting the song through school gigs, but this is clearly not working. He needs to up his promotion if he wants a good chance in the music industry. I really hope he doesn't fall like all the previous X Factor stars. I know he has the vocals and the star power to do it, he just needs more promotion, and a perfect song like "We'll Be Coming Back".

This is directed by Harvey Lewis, the narrative features a guy and a girl (Joe Ashman and Grace Walsh respectively) who are in a relationship that is rocky at best. It reminds me of Aylar Lie's relationship with Lucas Thorheim in Basshunter's "Now You're Gone" and "All I Ever Wanted".

They go away on a beach holiday and they're all loved up, but it soon ends with her being upset that some girl is texting him. They meet up once again and hug and say that they love each other. A typical relationship story, that works really well with the song.

Disappointingly Sam Callahan lets the whole thing down, he appears in some of the scenes singing the song, much like Basshunter appeared in his two videos. Sam Callahan, however, doesn't make me want to see him live, which is a slight surprise since he's nailed all his previous performance scenes in his previous music videos. Is this song something he hasn't got his heart in? Or is there something else we don't know? Fingers crossed his second music video is better (that's if he continues to release music). Personally, I think it's his time, he just needs that hit song, to get everyone talking.

Buy on iTunes

We have all been awaiting this video since the single dropped and I can't help feeling a little on the disappointed side. Been a fan of Fleur East since she appeared on The X Factor. Since then she has grown as an artist, and her first single since finishing second on The X Factor is one catchy song, this is my JAM in a club! Fleur East shines throughout the video, looking a bit like a celebration, a quality street and a heroes sweet you find in the sweet tubs, she throws in a tonne of effort for the choreography, leaving us with a show that is flawless.

As previously mention, Fleur East came second on The X Factor, just behind winner Ben Haenow. The 11th series gave us those two stars as well as Andrea Faustini, Jake Quickenden, Lauren Platt, Only The Young and Stereo Kicks. "Sax" was written by Fleur East, Edvard Førre Erfjord, Henrik Michelson, James Abrahart and Camille Purcell. Inspired by "Uptown Funk" by Mark Ronson, the song is infinitely catchy, and I cannot help but dance to it. I just want to go clubbing every time I hear it. It is now being used for the Asda Christmas commercial.

The music video was directed by award winning Colin Tilley, he directed Nick Jonas' "Levels", Tulisa's "Live It Up", Cheryl's "Crazy Stupid Love" and JLS's "She Makes Me Wanna". So surely he can bag an amazing video right?

Wrong. I wouldn't go as far as saying this was amazing. This has a killer dance choreography. One that makes me on my feet prepared to learn it. I already have the "get loose" section down to a tee. Probably the only bit I'm going to learn and nail.

Fleur East does her best to look incredible. The spotlight is on her, and she is looking mighty fine and damn well sexy. She pulls off the dance moves as if they're nothing, and although her clothing looks like a sweet wrapper, she still shines through.

However there is no saxophone in sight, no narrative to the story, and that changing background is definitely off putting. It's almost as if there wasn't much budget for the music video, and yet we don't need it with an amazing choreographed dance routine and a perfect smash hit of a song. Do we really need a perfect video on top?

Buy on iTunes

The UK hates a whiner, let's be honest, and Sandi Thom, real name Alexandria Thom, has hit the headlines with a video she posted on FaceBook about how upset she is that Radio 2 decided not to play this song. She claims the pop song has everything they needed. What's surprising is that she's chasing an old fashioned way of getting music out to the public, whereas her only number one single got to the top of the charts thanks to the internet. Radio has fought off many technological advances and is still the main game changer when it comes to chart hits. Sandi Thom may have made a 360 degrees music video, and a pop song that is worthy of radio play, but it's definitely not a stunner or extremely catchy, and the video follows suit failing to entertain and make us watch.

Sandi Thom's career is spiralling down and down, unable to gain the sales she needs. I remember buying "I Wish I Was A Punk Rocker (With Flowers In My Hair)". An extremely catchy tune, that even when heard now, we still sing-a-long to. This is what she is missing, she needs a song that's catchy for this century. Earthquake fails because it feels like an old song, one you probably would've played ten years ago.

Annoyingly the video also seems ten years old too. Directed by Gev Miron, Ian Fisher and Sandi Thom. The latter wrote on the YouTube description that it's "shot using Go Pro cameras and the latest 360 technology the video is designed to be interactive and allows the viewer to navigate around the room using their curser or tilting their mobile device" (Sic).

So the video contains four characters all played by Sandi Thom. I'm going to name each one of them and review them that way. Number one is Confident. Moving to the right is number two Dancer. Number three I'm going to name Blondey and number four is going to be called Punk Rocker.

Right... Confident is sassy. But mainly performs the song sitting in a chair, in this roof room. She is currently pregnant, and she is glowing, you can tell. And I wish her the best for her baby, which is due in March 2016.

Dancer has her own little wooden stage to perform on. Disappointingly, she is wearing the same dress and shoes. Tied up her hair and changed jackets, not my idea of a different character, more like trying to cheat. There's no choreographed dance routine, just a lot of simple moves anyone can pull off, failing to entice the audience into watching her.

Blondey is also wearing the same dress and shoes. Instead Sandi Thom adorns a blonde wig and a cream coloured jacket. This is more flowy arms and attempt at Arabic dance moves which do not relate to the song at all, do not include dance moves that relate to a certain culture in a song that doesn't, simple. Unless you plan on doing what Inna did for "Yalla" by singing in Arabic.

Punk Rocker also dons the same dress and shoes. This time she has a purple jacket on and her hair has been dyed. This is the most passion we get from Sandi Thom. Without the tricks, without the 360 technology I would've preferred this video to be just us and Punk Rocker, because that is who she is, she's being real and emotional here, she truly is singing the song, believing every word. But the other characters knock this video right down.

Overall I have to applaud Sandi Thom for trying to make this video current, yet it totally fails. YouTube, for starters, can't handle the video that well, and therefore knocks the song from the singing characters, so either that is the fault of the person who tried to line up her lip-syncing to the audio, or it's because the video is using 360 technology. This is a definite no-no when it comes to music videos. Plus the style looks totally old school. The roof has boxes everywhere and I feel like I'm watching some poorly low budgeted 80's music video. It's just completely awful. Sandi Thom's career is spiralling right down, and there is no rope for her to catch, no ledge to grip on to, and her parachute is not working either. Can she ever come back from this. Probably not.

Buy on iTunes

I cannot believe I found this little gem. Today was difficult, since it's a Thursday, it means revisit time... Yet none of the artists I have reviewed this week have a music video released in 2009 or earlier. Until I found out that Nathan Sykes entered Junior Eurovision Song Contest 2004, and also released this song as a promotional single, not that I can find it available to buy anywhere. This is the only video I can find too. Nathan Sykes proves he can dance in sync with this video, vocals may not be on point, but they don't matter since he is looking adorable, he has grown into one hot guy now.

Nathan Sykes had won a few awards and competitions by this point, and so taking his chances with Eurovision, might not have served him good. In recent years I have become obsessed with Eurovision, many countries take it so seriously, and it's about time the United Kingdom stopped joking around and started to take it seriously too, the competition is not what it used to be, credible acts get sent there and the rightful winner wins, not because of neighbour voting or countries past conflict, and the voting proves that as each year passes, sometimes shocking us. Nathan Sykes came third in the UK selection behind unheard names Cory Spedding and Andrew Merry (the latter became part of The Risk on The X Factor Series 8, which have disbanded). Will Nathan Sykes take a shot at the main contest in the next few years? Or was this something he didn't care all that much about? We do need a credible act to represent us soon.

This is a full performance video, no official music video was released, and so I have the video that is of the UK's selection for the Junior Eurovision Song Contest 2004, which was shown on ITV2.

A typical kids song, with typical kids dance moves incorporated into a choreography, that isn't so bad when watched again.

Good staging, although not that impressed with his fashion choices. Nathan Sykes wasn't exactly Born To Dance, but definitely born to sing, his music career has only just started and he has definitely improved because "Over And Over Again" is a stunner!