And here we are – the final section! Thanks again for everyone who’s voted, and a special thanks to all the commenters who’ve joined in the discussion on it. Certainly worth doing again next year, I think.
11. KELIS – “Acapella”: More than a touch of the Gagas in Kelis’ video for this, but the song itself is slinkier and less bonkers than Lady G. A deserved hit, but could the modish, inventive parent album follow suit? Could it bollocks.
And into the top 10!
10. GIRL UNIT – “Wut”: Near-wordless, snare-driven prettiness from the Night Slugs label. I’d be really interested to hear about how this works in a club – I find it great music for doing almost anything else to but being the sedentary fellow I am I’ve never actually danced to it!
(92 points, 8 voters)
9. KATY B – “Katy On A Mission”: My favourite British hit of the year (though not quite yours!) – a pen-portrait of a night out set to spring-heeled beats, the drag and release in the keyboards gives it a different sound to pretty much anything that got into the Top Ten this year.
(96 points, 12 voters)
8. BIG BOI ft CUTTY – “Shutterbugg”: One voter compared this to “Nothin’ Serious (Just Buggin)” and it’s certainly got much of the same joie de vivre, Big Boi bouncing syllables around for the sheer delight of it.
(103 points, 12 voters)
7. ROBYN – “Hang With Me”: Until the last day of polling this languished on one first-place vote and I thought it was going to be a shock omission – then a surge of fans landed it in the top ten. Robyn showing her wise side to a suitor.
(128 points, 7 voters)
6. ALICIA KEYS – “Try Sleeping With A Broken Heart”: End-of-an-80s-blockbuster belter which snuck out at the end of last year but receives due reward here.
(133 pts, 9 voters)
5. CEE-LO GREEN – “Fuck You”: Perhaps aptly given how many voters are Popular commenters, the first of 3 number ones in the Top 5! Though this only reached the top in bowdlerised form. The appeal wore off a bit for me personally but in sheer catchiness terms this is definitely one of the year’s standouts.
(139 pts, 11 voters)
4. LADY GAGA ft BEYONCE – “Telephone”: The video – potentially the peak of her imperial phase – overshadowed the song a bit, a shame in a sense as I think it’s the best thing she’s done yet, absolutely stuffed with hooks: people who kept on taking an “oh she’s very interesting but the music is so bland” stance after this and “Bad Romance” looked ever more wrong.
(154 pts, 13 voters)
3. ROBYN – “Dancing On My Own”: A constant presence on every tracks of 2010 list and this is no exception – it’s odd to see people praise it as escapist pop fun, though, I like it because of the big dour paralysing clouds of synth and it doesn’t seem like fun at all.
(174 pts, 12 voters)
2. TINIE TEMPAH – “Pass Out”: This, on the other hand, captures a night about to get messy very well, with Tempah as a wicked ringmaster. I resisted this for a long time because I don’t like his voice much, but there’s an inventiveness and swagger to it which got me in the end.
(204 pts, 15 voters)
1. JANELLE MONAE ft BIG BOI – “Tightrope”: This was ahead from pretty much the third or fourth ballot and only looked like being overtaken right at the end, when Tinie got a bunch of low-on-the-ballot votes. Effervescent, jazz-handed, funky shuffle which (I think) failed to chart here, much to a lot of people’s disappointment. But here it is – your winner!
(213 pts, 14 voters)
Extra stats, songs which failed to make the cut, etc. in the comments box.