Eventually there will be two Mondays in a row when I get to put these out, but I’m glad to be here as a (hopefully) well-anticipated treat. And isn’t music busy at the moment? Lots going on and lots to look forward to.
Posing in a red bikini this week:
How TikTok breaks hits in a way radio it seems cannot.
A man from Belgium does an Ed Sheeran in France.
The next big hit: a Weeknd track from 2016. Dressed up a bit.
The Golden Shot
I’ve coined a new chart-watching expression that I’m going to beat everyone to death with. I used to be all about these in the 90s after all.
It is time to anoint those singles which achieve what we might call a Golden chart run. Entering at No.1 and then spending the next nine weeks at the top before falling victim to ACR at the first possible moment (Week 10). It is actually quite tricky to pull off - there have in fact only ever been two since the inception of the ACR rules in 2017 - God’s Plan by Drake and drivers license by Olivia Rodrigo. Others have been on the way there, Bad Habits and As It Was to name but two, but they effectively went extra-golden, resetting the ACR clock and enjoying longer runs at the top.
So with Miley Cyrus’ Flowers now spending its sixth week at the top of the charts, we wait to see if it will approach that Golden moment. Truth is the single is now starting to flag badly, its weekly chart sales down to “only” 64,000 this week and with the gap between it and the rest of the market narrowing steadily every day.
Having said that though her label has timed things to perfection. Assuming she does remain at No.1 for the next two weeks, Miley is almost certain to go extra-Golden and extend her No.1 reign into double figures. Why? Because we are now less than a week and a half away from the release of her new album Endless Summer Vacation, whose tracklisting she unveiled today (below). Its release coincides with Flowers’ prospective ninth week at the top of the charts, a week in which it will inevitably enjoy a spike in streams as everyone steams in to listen to the album. And almost certainly resetting the ACR clock.
To The Top Tick Tock
It is exactly three years to the week that I first noted in Chart Watch UK the fascinating rise in the influence of this hot new app called TikTok and the way it was attributable to the rise of several hits - Roddy Ricch’s The Box the first global smash which it was credited as breaking with Doja Cat’s Say So in close proximity.
Fast forward to today and it is so-called “virality” on the app which is the primary path to chart success for a surprisingly large number of hits. Be they new or old as well: just look at the way Miguel’s decade-old Sure Thing is suddenly a hit out of nowhere, shortly to be joined by The Weeknd’s seven year old Die For You - of which more a little later.
This is all to the detriment it seems of contemporary hit radio which has lost its ability to break hits. Flipping between Radio 1 and Capital on a car journey last week I was repeatedly exposed to the pleasant sounds of Zara Larsson’s Can’t Tame Her. Rightly so, as it is a fantastic pop record. But it has been out for a month without coming close to a brush from the charts despite this A-listing. That would literally never happen in the past.
Instead, check out the actual Top 40 which is peppered with TikTok-surfaced hits. Mae Stephens, Ayra Starr and D4VD to name but three all owe their chart performance so far to the app.
And right at the very bottom of the Top 40 this week there is a fascinating bit of symmetry. One of that first batch of TikTok-created hits from spring 2020 was Powfu’s Death Bed, featuring the dulcet tones of beabadoobee whose own Coffee For Your Head was heavily sampled and interpolated and for which she received a co-credit. Yet it remained her only chart single of any kind. The British singer-songwriter was in no hurry to capitalise on this exposure for her own brand of delicate folk-pop, instead releasing two albums of full-throated indie-rock that were a world away from the self-released bedroom creations that she’d spent three years using to build up a following.
This week however she is brand new at No.38 with the achingly pretty and wistful Glue Song, a track which returns to the Janis Ian bedroom melancholia of her early work - and which finally gives her a chart hit under her own terms. Meanwhile the other artist who arguably followed beabadoobee’s template, Pinkpantheress, is riding high in both the British and - spoiler! - American charts. After several years of being solely beloved by TikTok creators.
American Panthers
I’m happy to shout it from the rooftops if you are. Miley is locked at the top of the US charts, SZA still follows her close behind. But just look who else is Top 3 on the Hot 100. Yes, she’s doing this thanks to a collaboration with an American star. But Pinkpantheress, the lo-fi performer from Cambridge who kept her face under wraps for years, only identified herself on socials a year ago and who is still the last person you’d expect to see on chat show sofas is the performer on one of the biggest worldwide smash hits of the moment not performed by Miley Cyrus. It remains mind-boggling to see.
Watch out though for The Weeknd whose new version (see below) of Die For You appears to be the track that is poised to dethrone Miley in America in the next week or so.
Aus Tra Lia
The ARIA charts are mirroring the British ones in all kinds of interesting ways, even to the extent of still featuring As It Was in the Top 10 as it approaches the first anniversary of its release.
But just look at what is there at No.2. Boy’s A Liar. By Britain’s brand new superstar. And we still don’t officially know her name.
America is slowly growing its love for TikTok-originated stars as well. They are a bit behind the curve with this one compared to Europe, but it is on the way:
Bonsoir
We could end up hanging around on the French charts for a couple of weeks in these pages, due to something which may or may not happen next time around. But it would be wrong to skip over them this time around given we have the extraordinary sight of the French Top 10 (compiled lest we forget by Britain’s own Official Charts) almost totally dominated by the work of one man.
That man is Belgian rapper Hamza whose fourth album Sincèrement was released this week and not only flew with devastating efficiency to the top of the charts in both France and his home country, but also saw its entire tracklisting enjoy enough streams to blast virtually everything else out of the water. Ed Sheeran-style you might say.
Here is the track that has beaten them all, giving him his first ever No.1 single on the SNEP charts. You may recognise the beats that form its base.
Gratuitous Archive Flashback Feature
Five years ago: God’s Plan is still stuck at the top, we look back nostalgically at the days when the BRITs actually did make some significant chart moves happen. And this was also the period when Mabel and Not3s had side by side collaborative singles only with each act taking it in turns to have the lead credit.
Ten years ago: It was BRITs week in 2013 as well, but One Direction grabbed the headlines with the fourth of their five No.1 hits. This was also the year that Ben Howard won a pair of awards, enjoying his only moment of mainstream celebrity (although he still had a No.1 album two years ago).
Twenty Years ago: Tatu are still at the top, Justin Timberlake is in second place. But were we really all consumed over trying to work out whether it was Danni or Kylie he took home after the BRITs that week? Truly it was a different age.
Midweek Teases
Gorillaz are in pole position to land the albums crown while the singles chart after a bit of an upheaval this week is set to quieten down a little, with Miley, Pinkpantheress and the still apparently evergreen SZA lining up as the singles chart 1-2-3. But as I’ve hinted many times, the big mover of the week is set to be The Weeknd’s Die For You which will benefit from both an ACR reset and the arrival of a brand new updated version which adds some Ariana Grande vocals into the mix of the 2016 track. The most minor of chart singles when it was first released is set to be another global smash for the Canadian crooner. And I am here for all of it.
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The new UK charts are announced by Radio One from 4pm every Friday, can be seen in full on officialcharts.com and musicweek.com, and you can read by own detailed charts analysis - now celebrating its 30th year online - at chart-watch.uk.
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