Us Against the World

"Us Against The World" is the second single from Westlife's ninth studio album, Back Home. The single was released in both Ireland and the United Kingdom. The single was officially confirmed by band member Nicky Byrne during an X Factor interview, which later appeared on the band's official website. The song was composed by Arnthor Birgisson, Rami Yacoub and Savan Kotecha. The trio also contributed to the upbeat tracks on the Back Home album, namely "Something Right", "The Easy Way", and "Pictures In My Head".


"Us Against The World" was also dedicated to Westlife's fans worldwide to mark their continuous support. The band gave their first live performance of "Us Against The World" on the TV special "The Westlife Show - Live", which was broadcast on December 15, 2007. In the Philippines, both song and music video premiered on July 3, 2008, the band's anniversary date.



Reception
Digital Spy Alex Fletcher rated the album 2/5 stars and said: "Westlife have claimed that 'Us Against The World' is the best track on their recent Back Home album, so, if nothing else, we should be grateful that the record company chose to release this rather than one of the tracks the soppy Irish warblers weren't as impressed with. Written about a relationship where the couple find themselves fighting "against the world" to stay together, it's the usual cliché-riddled, down-tempo chugger that the guys have been churning out for nearly ten years now. Knocking Westlife is an utterly futile endeavour. Millions have tried, but several million more keep on buying the records. If you love Mark's falsetto, Shane's dulcet tones, Kian's cheeky grin and Nicky's stubble, you'll doubtless be popping this on your stereo come Valentine's Day. On the other hand, if you'd rather shove your head down a toilet seat used by the entire England rugby team than hear another glossy, schmaltzy three minutes of their Louis Walsh-approved fluff, we'd advise you to steer well clear. This is regulation Westlife that only adds to the argument that the stool-occupying unit-shifters could be replaced by attractive robots without anyone really noticing."

Music video
The band announced through their official website that the video began shoot on December 4, 2007. The music video marks a major milestone in the band's decade of music. The video premiered on February 14, while the single was released on 3 March 2008. The initial video, which featured both the lads and their loved ones, was shot at the Twickenham Rugby Stadium in London over a two day span. Louis Walsh, the band's manager, had a cameo role in it. However, the band had a reshoot of the music video due to Simon Cowell's disapproval of the initial video outcome. This might have caused the release date to be pushed back to March 3 from the initial February 25. The video shows the band walking through a staged red carpet segment, inside the backseat of a moving car, spending time with their loved ones along with photos and videos of their past decade. Noticeably absent from the video though is Mark's partner Kevin. No explanation was ever offered as to why he was not included in the final video.

Release and Chart Performance
Prior to its physical release, the song managed to peak at #40 on the UK Official Singles Chart and at #27 on the Official Irish Singles Chart based on downloads alone. On March 3, 2008, the single was released in its physical format, climbing 32 spots to peak at #8 on the UK Singles Chart and at #6 on the Irish Singles Chart. A live version of the single was also made available for download. This marks the first time in Westlife's history that a single has not been able to reach the top 5 in the United Kingdom, making "Us Against The World" the band's lowest charting single to date. The single peaked also at #14 on UK TV Airplay Chart and #24 on UK Radio Airplay Chart. The song peaked at #8 in the Official UK top 40. Many fans have blamed the record label, Sony BMG, for putting the song up for download 2 weeks prior to the physical release of the single as well as choosing to release it during the Back Home Tour, thus resulting in inadequate single promotion. A similar situation occurred back in 2002 when "Bop Bop Baby" was released while the band was on tour. On May 4, 2008, the song managed to re-enter the UK Singles Chart at #74. This is believed to be due to a performance from the group on the live final of Britain's Got Talent. The single peaked at #1 on several radio charts in Ireland, UK, Vietnam, South Africa, and The Philippines, #2 in Thailand, #7 in Indonesia, #20 in Sweden, #22 in Russia. The song also entered the UK and Irish iTunes Top Songs and Top Music video Charts. The music video peaked on the MTV Asia Chart Attack Top 20 show at #16.

This Is It

Michael Jackson's This Is It is a 2009 American documentary–concert film directed by Kenny Ortega that documents Michael Jackson's rehearsals and preparation for the concert series of the same name scheduled to start on July 13, 2009, but canceled due to his death eighteen days prior on June 25. It is the last film Jackson starred in. The film is now the highest grossing concert movie and documentary in the history of cinema. The film consists of Jackson rehearsing musical numbers and directing his team, and additional behind the scenes footage including dancer auditions and costume design.

The film's director Kenny Ortega confirmed that none of this footage was originally intended for release, but after Jackson's death it was agreed that the film be made. The footage was filmed at the Staples Center and The Forum in California.

Despite originally being set for October 30, the film's release date was rescheduled for October 28, 2009, due to a strong demand by Jackson's fans. The film was given a worldwide release and a limited two-week theatrical run from October 28, to November 12, 2009, but theatrical release was later extended. Tickets went on sale a month early on September 27, to satisfy a high anticipated demand; to date, the film has broken numerous records via tickets both pre-sale and sales worldwide.



Since the film's confirmation, AEG Live has faced criticism; mostly consisting of claims that they had only made the film to make a profit. Multiple members of Jackson's family had confirmed that they did not support the film and some family members went as far as to try to stop the film agreement in August. The film has also been surrounded by allegations regarding the appearance of body doubles in place of Jackson; which Sony denied, and an outrage from some of Jackson fans; with some going as far as to start a protest against the film. In August 2009, a judge approved a deal between Jackson's estate, concert promoter AEG Live, and Sony Pictures. The agreement allowed Sony to edit the hundreds of hours of rehearsal footage needed to create the film. Sony subsequently paid $50 million for the film rights.

The film was released to mainly positive reviews from both critics and Jackson fans; the film's portrayal of Jackson and his performances were generally praised, while criticism mainly consisted of both critics and fans having felt that the film was made just to profit off Jackson's death and that Jackson wouldn't have wanted the film released because he was a "perfectionist".

Despite some fans boycotting the film, and his family not endorsing the movie, This Is It ticket sales broke international records a month before its release. It has broken advance ticket sales records for a movie. Among the cities with the strongest sales are Los Angeles, San Francisco, Houston and New York. Records were also set in Japan, where more than $1 million in tickets were sold on the first day they were available. In London, fans bought more than 30,000 tickets on the first day. Record sales were also reported in Holland, Sweden, Belgium and New Zealand.

In the first opening weekend it grossed $101 million worldwide. The movie sold $32.5 million over its first five days in the U.S. and Canada, and $68.5 million in 97 other countries - making the number one film at the box office and making it the fifth highest-grossing Halloween debut. On its theatrical run, the film's worldwide revenue gross was in total $261 million, making it the highest grossing documentary/concert movie of all time.

The movie is also being sold as USB flash drive by Kingston with different capacities, first time ever in company`s history, according to deal done with Sony Music, as Limited Edition Version.

Crush

"Crush" is the first single by American Idol season seven runner-up David Archuleta. It was first released to radio stations via New York City's radio station Z100 on August 1, 2008, and commercially in the United States on August 12, 2008, through digital distribution. "Crush" was produced by Emanuel Kiriakou and co-written by Kiriakou, Jess Cates and Dave Hodges.




Reception
"Crush" was met with positive reviews by many critics. Chuck Taylor of Billboard praised it for being a suitable match for Archuleta, citing it as a "hummable, age-appropriate midtempo pop ditty for the 17-year-old, showcasing his fine mass-appeal vocal stylings with creamy harmonies and some nice falsetto effects." He also predicted chart success for the song, saying "'Crush' is likely to put its money where its title is on the charts."

Michael Slezak of Entertainment Weekly called the song "surprisingly good!" as well as "hip and contemporary." He stated, "David adroitly walks the line between giving his core fans their fill of vocal runs while showing enough restraint that he won't automatically alienate non-Idol-loving listeners."



Blender Magazine, despite not liking Archuleta during his time on American Idol, also praised the song, giving it three and a half out of five stars and claiming to have "just listened to the thing six times in a row and we're not terribly angry about spin seven." They also liked that the song seemed perfectly crafted for radio, saying, "Songs like "Crush" are great because they sound as if the radio immaculately conceived them."

Ken Barnes of USA Today liked the "effortless glides into falsetto and some rousing moments in the bridge and chorus", but also said it "tends to plod", and "could become pretty tedious with repetition."

Music video
The music video was directed by Declan Whitebloom. The music video was first leaked on September 7, 2008, through AOL, initially restricted to Canada and then released on September 16, 2008, on iTunes. The video now has over 29,000,000 million hits on YouTube and is by far Archuleta biggest selling single.

It consists of Archuleta on a vacation trying to get the attention of a girl (played by Hagood Coxe) on whom he apparently has a crush. At the beginning, several teens go swimming in the lake near their summer house, with one of the guys flirting with the girl in the water. After they have finished swimming, the guy runs off, while Archuleta stays behind to help the girl out of the lake. The group is also shown in a cabin playing a game involving post its, while Archuleta is also shown playing his guitar in the cabin. Another scene shows the group by a campfire with several of them paired off into couples. At the end, Archuleta goes out on the deck of the cabin, and the girl follows him out, showing that she shares his feelings. Archuleta is also shown playing the piano near a lake throughout the video.

Chart performance
After being released digitally in the U.S., "Crush" entered at the Billboard Hot 100 at #2 in the week of August 21, 2008, with 166,000 copies sold in its first week. This was the highest entry for a song on the Hot 100 in 2008 and the highest for any song on this chart since Fall Out Boy's "This Ain't a Scene, It's an Arms Race", which also entered the chart at #2 in the chart week of February 3, 2007.

"Crush" entered the Billboard Pop 100, at #93 and peaked at #12; it also made the top ten on the Billboard Hot Adult Contemporary Tracks chart. The song entered the Canadian Hot 100 at #7 in the same week.

The single has sold 1.9 million copies as of March 4, 2010 according to Nielsen SoundScan.

"Crush" was released digitally in UK on February 23, 2009, although no physical CD single was released. The single failed to reach the UK Top 100.