Yesterday, The Lava Lizard listed the Best Videos of 2011 and now it’s time for us to review the Best Singles! Thousands of people voted for the Single of the Year in The Lava Lizard Awards readers’ poll and Adele’s ‘Rolling in the Deep’ won the title with a whopping 54% of the votes. Yet, there was a song crafted by another superstar that probably deserved the top spot.

Obviously, Pop music definitely dominated the charts in 2011 so it was not surprise that our Best Singles list featured several bass-heavy club records. However, there were a few R&B and Hip-Hop songs that were just impossible to ignore.

See The Lava Lizard’s Best Singles of 2011 list below:

10. Kelly Rowland – ‘Motivation (Ft. Lil Wayne)’

Kelly Rowland announced her return to the music scene with the inescapable Urban hit ‘Motivation’. Featuring Lil Wayne, the song erupted onto the club scene with its sultry melody, sexual undertones and thumping bass crafted by the production duo of Jim Jonsin and Rico Love. Rowland’s ‘Here I Am’ was a commercial disaster but ‘Motivation’ reintroduced her to US radio and secured her the second most successful R&B song of the year behind Miguel’s ‘Sure Thing’.

9. Kanye West & Jay-Z – ‘N*ggas in Paris’

Kanye West and Jay-Z – also known as The Throne – spent most of 2011 stroking their own egos and they came to a climax with ‘N*ggas in Paris’. The tune made history as the first tune that included the N-word in its title to top the Billboard Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs Chart while simultaneously making white people incredibly awkward at parties across the globe.

8. Chris Brown – ‘Look At Me Now (Ft. Busta Rhymes & Lil Wayne)’

Chris Brown experimented with this rap skills on his mixtapes and he decided to give mainstream audiences a glimpse of what he learned with ‘Look At Me Now’. Luckily for Brown, his gamble resulted in a monster hit and the track sold over 3 million downloads in the US and became one of the best-selling records of his career to date. Of course, added verses from Busta Rhymes and Lil Wayne didn’t hurt his cause.

7. Britney Spears – ‘Till the World Ends’

Britney Spears is not a very talented singer but the smokey tone of her crisp voice works incredibly well on Dance records. Clever crafted by Ke$ha – who has ironically been lauded as Spears’ replacement – ‘Till the World Ends’ was nothing short of a club anthem. From the infectious hook to the explosive bass, this song may be the best song in Spears’ entire catalogue.

6. Jennifer Lopez – ‘On the Floor (Ft. Pitbull)’

Kelly Rowland wasn’t the only artist who scored a major hit single without a successful album in 2011. Jennifer Lopez dominated the party circuit with ‘On the Floor (Ft. Pitbull)’ and roared to the tops of the charts around world. However, despite selling over 3 million downloads of the track in the US – her top-selling single thus far – Lopez’s ‘Love?’ album has only sold 293K copies in that territory to date. Where are her album sales? On the floor.

5. Adele – ‘Someone Like You’

All Adele needed to help her make the unbelievably simple yet powerful ‘Someone Like You’ was a piano and a broken heart. Her resonant vocals and lyrical honesty carried the song all the way to #1 on the Billboard Hot 100 without the gimmicks utilised her less talented peers. Indeed, amidst a barrage of records framed by auto-tune and catchy hooks, ‘Someone like You’ was a welcome change for a generation in need of a Pop singer who could actually sing.

4. Drake – ‘Marvins Room’

Perhaps the most covered song of 2011, Drake’s ‘Marvin’s Room’ was a well-timed prelude to his platinum-certified ‘Take Care’ album. An emotional outreach to a lost love, this song gave intoxicated young adults the courage to dial that number on their phones that they swore they deleted but simply hid under a secret name. At least, that’s what I heard.

3. Nicki Minaj – ‘Super Bass’

Nicki Minaj took the female Hip-Hop movement back to the top of the charts with a Pop song. ‘Super Bass’ was the guilty pleasure of both her fans and her critics who could barely fight the urge to imitate the colourful rapper’s animated antics. Hip-Pop is clearly Minaj’s lane and until Missy Elliott returns to claim her crown, Minaj will probably remain at the forefront of blossoming genre.

2. Adele – ‘Rolling in the Deep’

Enter any karaoke bar and the song at the top of every playlist will undoubtedly be Adele’s ‘Rolling in the Deep’. Channeling the Gospel of Mahalia Jackson and the Soul of Aretha Franklin, the record reignited the British invasion and cemented Adele’s position as the new face of Blue-eyed Soul. Who would have thought that this would become the biggest-selling single of 2011 and the first track to sell over 5 million downloads in a calendar year in the US?

1. Lady Gaga – ‘The Edge of Glory’

Whether you love or hate Lady Gaga, there is no denying her musical genius. A perfect example of her skill as an artist was ‘The Edge of Glory’ – a brilliantly-executed mixture of synths and live instrumentats that represented the very best of Gaga’s musicianship. People may have overlooked her music in favour of her whacky ensembles but there was no denying ‘Edge of Glory’!

Did you agree with this Best Singles of 2011 list? Leave a comment below and let us know what you think!

Thoughts?