WHAT makes a hit? Is it the lyrics, the artiste, the hype at the time? Is it “something special” about the voice or rhythm?

The TEENage Hitlist pinpoints the hits and the misses as soon as we hear both local and international releases.

Local Hit Of The Week: Delilah by Mavado

DANCEHALL stalwart Mavado continues his successful transition into becoming the next Jamaican artiste to cross over overseas with his latest single Delilah.

The song’s title is in reference to the biblical character Delilah. In the book of Judges, which can be found in the Old Testament, the story of Samson and Delilah can be found. In a synopsis, Samson, the judge who presided over Israel at the time, was in love with Delilah but she betrayed him by revealing the secret of his strength to the Philistines for monetary gain.

Just like Delilah in the Bible, throughout the song Mavado depicts a woman he’s in love with that has Delilah-like behavioural patterns. These include dishonesty, and a heart-rending desire for material wealth. The result of this has led Mavado to have an “icebox” where his heart used to be, a term popularised by the popular Omarion namesake single.

Delilah was produced by Mavado in collaboration with Logwood Productions and features two different mixes. The first mix is the Genius Mix by Stephen McGregor, and the second one is the 2Hard Mix by Jeremy Harding.

While both mixes have a Euro-pop basis, The Genius Mix seems to be more geared towards the international marketplace as it has a light sound in comparison to the 2Hard Mix, which is a bit more bass heavy and incorporates more electro-synths, thus more fitting locally.

TEENage Hitlist believes that Delilah will be the Jamaican song to cross over this summer, as Hold Yuh did last year and No Games did the summer before. But unlike its predecessors, Delilah has more potential not only to crossover to the urban marketplaces abroad, but also the larger pop charts.

International Hit Of The Week: Don’t Wanna Go Home by Jason Derulo

AFTER Chris Brown and Rihanna’s unfortunate physical altercation in February 2009, the male R&B singer’s setback was seen as a prime opportunity for other musicians of the same genre to enter the mainstream music industry. Two of these artistes were Justin Beiber and Jason Derulo.

Jason Derulo’s first single Whatcha Say steadily rose to the pole position of the Billboard Top 100 late 2009 and was followed by two other top singles and other charted songs. This success secured him to open for mainstream acts Lady Gaga and the Black Eyed Peas, before having his own headlining concert tour.

Whatcha Say sampled Imogen Heap’s song Hide And Seek and hoping for a recurring success for his upcoming album Future History, the project’s first single Don’t Wanna Go Home samples not one song, but two.

The first track is Harry Belafonte’s Day-O (The Banana Boat Song). This is the second single this year to feature this sample, as the song was utilised in Lil’ Wayne’s single 6 Foot 7 Foot.

The second track is the 1993 released Show Me Love by Robyn S, which remains to this day a popular electronic dance song.

As expected, Don’t Wanna Go Home builds upon its electronic dance sample to be a fist-pumping dance floor-ready number for any club worldwide. Listeners will also notice a vocally improved Jason Derulo whose voice is not as processed in comparison to previous singles.

TEENage Hitlist believes that Don’t Wanna Go Home is a solid first offering from Jason Derulo and is hoping that this single will cement his place as a staple act in pop music.