One million demand Leona Lewis
‘Bleeding Love’ tops Virgin Media’s first ever Music On Demand chart
Leona Lewis has reached number one again, this time topping Virgin Media’s brand new Music On Demand chart. The Top Ten chart was put together for the first year anniversary of the music on demand service, and sees Leona Lewis’ hit single Bleeding Love as the first music video to receive an amazing one million views.
Virgin Media launched its Music On Demand service in July 2007, providing music fans over two thousand videos from hundreds of artists, and giving customers the flexibility to watch their favourite music videos whenever they choose. Since launch, Virgin Media customers have enjoyed nearly 150 million videos – with X Factor winner Leona Lewis being the first artist to hit the million mark.
The second most popular song to be viewed on Music On Demand since launch is Sean Kingston’s Beautiful Girls, closely followed by Soulja Boy, by Crank Dat. Also in Virgin Media’s top ten are Mark Ronson, with his cover of the Zuton’s Valerie, 50 Cent with Ayo Technology and About You Now by Sugababes.
Malcolm Wall, chief executive of content at Virgin Media, said "Our focus is to bring a wide variety of the best entertainment to our customers through our leading on demand service – be it TV, movies or indeed music. Bleeding Love has notched up more than a million views since release, demonstrating the immense popularity of our Music On Demand service. With already over two thousand videos from hundreds of artists we'll continue to build on this success by adding new music to suit all tastes and improving the service with new features and enhancements in the coming months."
The full list of Virgin Media’s Music On Demand Top Ten is:
1. Leona Lewis - Bleeding Love
2. Sean Kingston - Beautiful Girls
3. Soulja Boy - Crank Dat
4. Mark Ronson - Valerie
5. Alicia Keys - No One
6. 50 Cent - Ayo Technology
7. Sugababes - About You Now
8. Timbaland - The Way I Are
9. Akon - Sorry, Blame It On Me
10. Britney Spears - Piece Of Me
Virgin Media Music On Demand, which is free to customers on the XL TV* package, also contains videos from artists as varied as Abba and the Ting Tings, as well as a many videos in high definition from the likes of Kanye West, Hoosiers and Sugababes. Customers can also choose from a variety of preset playlists and gigs, or even sing along to a broad selection of karaoke videos.
To find out more about Virgin Media’s products and services visit www.virginmedia.com| or call 0800 052 2525.
Media contacts
Karen Jason
Karen.jason@virginmedia.co.uk|
020 7909 2021
Notes to editors
* Virgin Media Music On Demand
Music On Demand is part of Virgin Media’s extensive Video On Demand service, and consists of over 2000 music videos and playlists. Music On Demand is free to Virgin Media customers on size XL TV package. For customers on size M or size L TV packages, music videos can be purchased for a 24 hour rental on a pay per rental basis. Costs start at 20p per video.
Virgin Media
Virgin Media is an innovative and pioneering UK entertainment and communications business. For the first time consumers can get everything they need from one company - the UK's only quad-play of TV, broadband, phone and mobile, plus the most advanced TV on demand service, all delivered through its unique fibre-optic cable network. Virgin Media launched the UK’s first high definition TV service, is the only TV platform to carry BBC iPlayer, and offers a high-specification, HD-ready V+ personal video recorder. Virgin Media is the UK’s largest residential broadband provider, the largest virtual mobile network operator and the second-largest provider of pay TV and home phone.
Virgin Media owns two content businesses - Virgin Media Television (VMTV) and sit-up. VMTV owns seven entertainment channels – Virgin1, Living, Living 2, Bravo, Bravo 2, Challenge and Trouble - and is a 50% partner in UKTV which consists of nine channels including Dave, UKTV Gold and UKTV History. sit-up runs retail TV channels bid tv, price-drop tv and speed auction tv.
Virgin Media has been voted the sixth Most Loved Brand in Britain in a Marketing magazine poll, as well as having been voted the Most Trusted ISP Brand 2008 by Reader’s Digest magazine. The Sunday Times also awarded Virgin Media its 2008 Best Buy awards for broadband and movies on demand.
Virgin Media is the largest Virgin company in the world and has almost 10 million customers. To find out more visit www.virginmedia.com/presscentre|.
Leona Lewis
Leona Lewis was the first UK female artist of the 21st century to reach number 1 on The Billboard Hot 100 chart with her debut US single, ‘Bleeding Love’; only three UK female artists have ever topped The Billboard Hot 100 chart with their debut release. The first was Petula Clark in 1965 with ‘Downtown’ and the last was Sheena Easton 27 years ago in 1981 with ‘Morning Train (Nine To Five)’. Since its release, ‘Bleeding Love’ has sold over 4 million copies globally. It spent seven weeks at number one in the UK singles chart.
Leona is the first British artist (both male and female) to debut at number 1 in the US album charts. ‘Spirit’ also enjoyed the biggest ever digital album sales in its first week in US chart history. 'Spirit' spent seven weeks at number one in the UK album charts.
In the UK ‘Spirit’ became the fastest-selling debut album of all time, having sold an incredible 363,735 copies in its first week of sale – a record previously set by the Arctic Monkeys, who sold 363,735 copies of ‘Whatever People Say I Am, That’s What I’m Not’ in January 2006.
Leona gave her biggest TV appearance of her career to date when she performed live to over 30 million people on American Idol earlier this year.
Leona was nominated for four BRIT Awards this year (Best Female, British Album, British Single and Breakthrough Act).
Since the launch of ‘Spirit’ in November 2007, Leona Lewis has already enjoyed #1 singles and albums in 20 countries and her success is set to continue with Leona fast becoming one of the worlds biggest selling female artists.