No shortage of stories to talk about this week even though this is Miley -1 as far as the global charts are concerned. Am I hyping up how interesting this newsletter is this week? Absolutely. Dive in.
Writing their own part of history this week:
No letting go of a sound from 20 years ago
The uncancellable does something extraordinary
The coolest Eurovision entry in three decades is here
Never Leaving It Alone
It’s a lazy old farts’ cliche to say “all pop music sounds the same these days”, although that isn’t to say you don’t get periods when everyone seems to be using the same technique (the autotuned mush of 2008/9 still brings some of us out in a cold sweat).
But exactly 20 years ago this summer this could almost be said to be the case. This was thanks to the string of hit singles all based on what became known as the “Diwali Riddim”, a handclap, er, riddim credited to Jamaican producer Steven “Lenky” Marsden. It proved so versatile that during the course of 2003 it became the basis for a succession of smash-hit singles, all of which suspiciously slid in and out of the charts in turn as if engineered that way.
So it was that the defining sound of that summer was both Sean Paul’s Get Busy, Wayne Wonder’s No Letting Go and in a slightly modified form Never Leave You (Uh Oh) by Lumidee. If you are paying close attention is also the basis for the “dancehall” remix of Kevin Lyttle’s Turn Me On which also became a hit later that year.
After that, the craze died out with surprisingly few revivals since, although there is still some debate over whether Rihanna’s debut Pon De Replay used the Diwali Riddim two years later. Wikipedia insists it does, but you’d be hard-pressed to identify it.
Why am I telling this story? Well, it is because the Diwali Riddim just so happens to be a large part of the highest new entry of the week. Nicki Minaj’s Red Ruby Da Sleeze comes to us via an interpolation of the aforementioned Lumidee track and so by association is a Diwali revival.
The Minaj track debuts at No.30 on the Official UK Singles chart this week, although regrettably it may not be a Diwali Riddim spring - the latest midweeks have it drifting down to No.35 in a manner that suggests it hasn’t yet found a large audience.
My Hundred Is Hot
The Weeknd’s spell at the top of the Hot 100 lasted just a single week (the first US No.1 single to only have seven days at the top since Unholy last year). His replacement is the man whose new album One Thing At A Time flew with some style to the top of the Billboard 200 this week, and as you can see bringing with it a 50% sweep of the Top 10 for the biggest male country star in America since Garth Brooks.
Regular subscribers will know the story of Morgan Wallen all too well, the man whom the entire US music industry attempted to cancel after he did a racist, dropping him from airplay, uninviting him to awards ceremonies, only to be forced to give up when his audience ploughed on consuming his adoringly.
So here he is, rehabilitated by virtue of being in a position to make people a lot of money and now doing the US chart double. As part of that his single Last Night leaps from 5-1, taking him to the top of the Hot 100 for the very first time. The 29-year-old from Tennessee has America’s first C&W chart-topper since Lil Nas X’s Old Town Road almost four years ago.
But his five singles in the Top 10 aren’t even half of it, as the lack of any Billboard rules preventing multiple simultaneous hits comes into play once more.
Wallen incidentally first came to prominence on The Voice USA, performing in Series 6 in 2014. By an odd coincidence another Voice USA alumnus, Libianca, has a Top 10 single of her own in the UK. She’s nowhere to be found on the US charts for now.
Aus Tra Lia
No, you aren’t dreaming. These are indeed almost the same ten singles as last week propping up the ARIA charts, with the sole exception of Unholy vanishing from the Top 10 to be replaced by a two year old song from a man who is about to unleash his brand new album on the world. But bravo Ed for keeping the Shivers going for this long.
Morgan Wallen has his fans in Australia too as you can see, his One Thing At A Time album also making the No.2 spot on the ARIA albums charts.
For those wondering, Last Night charts for the first time this week in Britain, albeit at a rather lowly No.92. His album is at No.40 after selling 2,391 copies.
Zevende
Mrs Masterton has just spent the weekend in Amsterdam (I haven’t asked) so it is entirely appropriate that our tour of Europe takes us to the Dutch charts this week. Miley is still top of the pile there, you’ll notice that she’s celebrating a seventh week at the summit rather than the eighth, Flowers was only able to debut at No.4 upon release (which is where she was last time we visited) but has been No.1 ever since.
The Dutch charts move as glacially slowly as most others do, but here’s one which has been climbing the rungs slowly but surely. Currently No.11 in The Netherlands is Belgian singer Metejoor, here in tandem with local girl Hannah Mae on what is in truth a damn fine pop record. Even if you’ve no idea what they are singing.
The Blasts From The Past
Five years ago: The charts of five years ago were getting a little stagnant, I’m not going to lie. And even 2018 James was getting a little tired of it. But topically enough the biggest mover of the week was a certain pop record that has now become notorious thanks to the tireless search for a singer to front it, an honour eventually handed to an American C&W star whose crossover success never seemed to progress much further.
Ten years ago: This was the week of “what the hell is THAT doing here” as a certain dancing pony propels a certain Fleetwood Mac song chartwards after 25 years away. Yet it would turn out to be only the second-most viral ‘Mac song of the 21st century.
Twenty Years ago: Why is an otherwise obscure Aerosmith track from the 70s instantly recognisable to an entirely different generation? Because Eminem did something amazing with it 20 years ago, that’s why. Oh yes, and Dannii Minogue enjoys one of her final career flourishes.
Midweek Teases
Let’s face it, what is going to happen this week is no secret at all. Endless Summer Vacation has finally been released, and indeed as of Monday it has notched up over 11,000 chart sales to make it a racing certainty it will become her first No.1 album in a decade.
That also means Flowers is a lock for a ninth week at No.1, gaining an ACR reset in the process and raising the spectacle that only a new Ed Sheeran single is going to knock her from the summit.
Miley’s album is also set to see its second single River chart too, although curiously it has slipped back from the Top 10 status that was predicted by the Sunday evening First Look.
But most attention this week will be on Britain’s Eurovision entry, as following Sam Ryder’s heroics last year the contest has suddenly become pop music cool. It means our newly-anointed hopeful I Wrote A Song by Mae Muller is set to breach the Top 40 this week, the first UK Eurovision entry to become a hit this far prior to the contest itself since Gina G with Ooh Ah Just A Little Bit back in 1996. 27 years ago!
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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 my own detailed charts analysis - now celebrating its 32nd year online - at chart-watch.uk.
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In an attempt to stop myself becoming one of the aforementioned "old farts" i listen to the current Top 40 every Monday on spotify. And whilst a lot of it sees me hitting the skip button, i have found a few songs to like, if not love.