Been thinking this week, I wonder which songs from 2023 are going to have an extended top 40 run into next year.

 

This year we’ve had Calm Down, Anti-Hero, As It Was etc. which hung around for a long time for numerous reasons (indeed Calm Down is currently number 40!)

 

Guess some released in the next month or so before the Christmas takeover, but wonder if how ACR is generally working at the moment the chart is starting to speed up and songs which would have had 20 week runs are now exiting earlier.

 

 

Reckon 'Prada' will do well after being reset in January. Maybe Suicidal Idol and Jungle will go top 10

Prob be one or two from the last month and more from the nov/Dec period we don’t know yet.

 

Just like Miracle etc are still lingering from the springtime now.

Flowers :D it's still #2 on Amazon :D

It's an interesting question. But, like so many chart phenomena, it isn't always easy to identify future behaviour of certain tracks or acts, even in the shorter let alone longer term. Indeed, it's usually quite the reverse, with some things panning out in a polar opposite way to how one might have predicted based on prior performance or wider trends.

 

I think it fair to say that even with the artificial expedition of declines downwards due to the ACR rule, it was fairly obvious a bet that the likes of 'Anti-Hero' and 'As It Was' would linger very much longer in the official 100 beyond their initial 2022 showings, if only because of their mega success as keenly-awaited lead singles by major artists and their obvious cross-appeal musically and radio/TV-friendliness. But who really saw 'Calm Down' coming?! No offence to this pleasant-enough little Afrobeats ditty, but given the artist had no prior profile as such and the song was not an eagerly-anticipated release, it's harder to pin down why it's become so enduringly successful. Okay, it was given the 'add famous name' treatment earlier this year when they issued an alternative vocal version with Selena Gomez, which doubtless boosted its streaming fortunes somewhat. Yet that alone doesn't seem to properly-explain why this song which came from nowhere has made such lasting impact. Perhaps it did well on TikTok - being an old luddite I can't comment on that side of things and so often now it is found to be behind the sudden success of a hitherto unknown song/act or the seemingly random revival of an established former hit. That isn't always the reason though.

 

I guess this is nothing new - througout our chart history, sometimes unknowns and un-obvious songs have crept up from little promise and end up just somehow capturing the moment and in the streaming-led world, stick like glue to playlists. If only we knew a more certain formula to this we'd all be down the studio churning out year-long hit records!