I hate the word ‘biased’ being thrown around to discredit opinions. Music is subjective and posters used to join this site because of their passion for music and to follow that through to the charts. Of course there’s bias, that’s how being into music works. It does seem recently that they chart forum memberbase is becoming more and more passionless and clinical. Apparently, who cares about music quality? Why would anyone bother with that when we can analyse chart runs like and made up sales units?

 

And the Houdini argument is still weak as. It peaked at no.2, it’s still in the chart a couple of months later. It is not an underperformance because it’s so far performed better than at least half of Dua’s discography. You can’t just label something an underperformance because the previous single performed better, otherwise the majority of songs in existence are underperforming. Most artists don’t have a performance that consistent.

 

An underperformance would surely have been Dua missing the top 10 and vanishing within a fortnight.

I would like it if everybody could be a bit less biased tbh

Same... If only we could at least wait for a couple of weeks before branding something a flop or "under performance" and not jump to conclusions after... 1 day lmao.

I don't think 'Houdini' has done that badly, it's not the gigantic smash I expected (and shame as it's absolutely brilliant), but it's holding up and I certainly didn't expect it to return to the top 10 after Christmas. The way it's spoken about it's as if it's gonna buckle her career or something.

Same... If only we could at least wait for a couple of weeks before branding something a flop or "under performance" and not jump to conclusions after... 1 day lmao.

 

The song is simply ‘mid’ that’s the overall feedback from everything I’ve seen on socials and my own view. Sure some songs can grow on you but lots don’t and this one as a lead single after a long hiatus is distinctly average. I felt she needed a true instant hit like some of her previous to really get #1’s and big numbers again given her age now and scandals but this certainly ain’t that so I’d be very surprised if it sticks around. Even more surprised if it gets #1 here or in the US

"She's pretty good ... for her AGE!!!"

Youtube Chart (11/1-12/1)

 

1. Noah Kahan - Stick Season 357,504

2. Ariana Grande - yes, and? 337,908

3. Jack Harlow - Lovin On Me 289,568

4. D-Block Europe - Eagle 226,796

5. Sophie Ellis-Bextor - Murder On The Dancefloor 215,012

6. Billy Gillies - DNA (Loving You) (feat. Hannah Boleyn) 180,492

7. Cassö - Prada 170,228

8. Dave - Sprinter 158,477

9. 21 Savage - 21 Savage - redrum 154,313

10. Teddy Swims - Lose Control (Live) 142,564

11. Lewis Capaldi - Someone You Loved 140,680

12. Tate McRae - greedy 138,835

13. Chase & Status - Baddadan (feat. IRAH, Flowdan, Trigga & Takura) 137,316

14. Miley Cyrus - Flowers 135,945

15. Rema - Calm Down 135,777

16. Tyla - Water 131,354

17. Mazza_l20 - Murdaside (Remix) 122,078

18. Lil Nas X - J CHRIST 116,806

19. Sonny Fodera - Asking (feat. Clementine Douglas) 112,859

20. Tom Odell - Another Love 110,985

 

Really great start for Ariana. She only had ~9 hours on Friday. Will be interesting to see what her 2-day total is. She'll likely be at/near 1 million to give her a good lead over Noah. That should help her #1 chances!

The song is simply ‘mid’ that’s the overall feedback from everything I’ve seen on socials and my own view. Sure some songs can grow on you but lots don’t and this one as a lead single after a long hiatus is distinctly average. I felt she needed a true instant hit like some of her previous to really get #1’s and big numbers again given her age now and scandals but this certainly ain’t that so I’d be very surprised if it sticks around. Even more surprised if it gets #1 here or in the US

 

What scandal?? And is she not like 25?

The song is simply ‘mid’ that’s the overall feedback from everything I’ve seen on socials and my own view. Sure some songs can grow on you but lots don’t and this one as a lead single after a long hiatus is distinctly average. I felt she needed a true instant hit like some of her previous to really get #1’s and big numbers again given her age now and scandals but this certainly ain’t that so I’d be very surprised if it sticks around. Even more surprised if it gets #1 here or in the US

 

For God's sake, this is ludicrous. She's only 30!

Imagine saying 'she needs a true instant hit to get big numbers again' when she literally just debuted at #1 on Spotify with nearly 800k lol

 

I'm not expecting her to hold up at #1 all week but based on the Apple performance I thought it was likely she'd 'only' debut at #2 or 3 on Spotify so happy that she has at least got one day at #1, far from a given with how well Noah is doing (and his streaming numbers are still growing, today was his biggest day to date!)

 

I guess D-Block Europe are going to get a hit single from this era after all with 'Eagle', but glad to see their album overall being comfortably outperformed by 21 Savage, hopefully to be reflected on the official chart (although not sure if DBE might be able to get surprisingly decent physical sales, we'll see).

 

Lil Nas X's last couple of releases didn't make much noise but they had the excuse of not being the lead to a new era, it is starting to look like he has actually just lost a fair bit of clout since 'MONTERO' now though - I suppose he has already had more longevity than you'd have expected from his first hit being a novelty song though! And sure he could still hit again with the right song (which this song doesn't seem to be based on the reaction I've seen to it oops).

The Lil Nas X song is just a poor effort from him, if he was putting out Montero level bangers i'm optimistic he would see some better results again.

 

Not someone saying 'given her age' about the 30 year old Ariana Grande lmaoooooooo :lol:

I don't think 'Houdini' has done that badly, it's not the gigantic smash I expected (and shame as it's absolutely brilliant), but it's holding up and I certainly didn't expect it to return to the top 10 after Christmas. The way it's spoken about it's as if it's gonna buckle her career or something.

 

This is classic moving the goal posts. Before Houdini dropped there was loads of talk it would debut at number 1. Wasn't anything doing any big numbers and she had two physicals. Then it would climb and be a long standing hit and go to number 1 post Christmas, then it would be loads of weeks top 10. Now it is 'well it peaked at #2 and is still charting'.

 

It is easy to see expectations were high and rightly so. It has had the airplay, playlisting, physicals. It just hasn't caught on like people thought it would. That is life, it has under performed it isn't bad to admit that.

This is classic moving the goal posts. Before Houdini dropped there was loads of talk it would debut at number 1. Wasn't anything doing any big numbers and she had two physicals. Then it would climb and be a long standing hit and go to number 1 post Christmas, then it would be loads of weeks top 10. Now it is 'well it peaked at #2 and is still charting'.

 

It is easy to see expectations were high and rightly so. It has had the airplay, playlisting, physicals. It just hasn't caught on like people thought it would. That is life, it has under performed it isn't bad to admit that.

 

But it’s still very clearly been a hit though? You won’t burst into flame if you admit that either.

huge climb for Ella Henderson on Apple to #35, this is gonna be huge for her

fighting Ava Max for the queen of sampling :D

This is classic moving the goal posts. Before Houdini dropped there was loads of talk it would debut at number 1. Wasn't anything doing any big numbers and she had two physicals. Then it would climb and be a long standing hit and go to number 1 post Christmas, then it would be loads of weeks top 10. Now it is 'well it peaked at #2 and is still charting'.

 

It is easy to see expectations were high and rightly so. It has had the airplay, playlisting, physicals. It just hasn't caught on like people thought it would. That is life, it has under performed it isn't bad to admit that.

 

100%.

what a silly thing to say that you cannot compare things and you cannot compare a single to the last one or compare lead singles from various eras? That's 10000% what one should do.

 

I also think Houdini has underperformed at list a bit. Not flopped but a small underperformance is there. Future Nostalgia placed her as one of the biggest stars of the planet and with the right material she would have capitalised on that. reallly thought she was gonna come back with a Shape of You/As It Was song but Houdini is not it. That's why the underperformance.

what a silly thing to say that you cannot compare things and you cannot compare a single to the last one or compare lead singles from various eras? That's 10000% what one should do.

 

I also think Houdini has underperformed at list a bit. Not flopped but a small underperformance is there. Future Nostalgia placed her as one of the biggest stars of the planet and with the right material she would have capitalised on that. reallly thought she was gonna come back with a Shape of You/As It Was song but Houdini is not it. That's why the underperformance.

 

Why ‘should’ anyone have to do anything? I never said you couldn’t compare, I just said that you can’t just call a career ending underperformance because one song isn’t as huge as the previous one on the basis that no one has a completely consistent run of singles. The fact remains that it was released in November and we’re still talking about it which says to me that’s it’s done pretty well. Let’s not forget either that she didn’t get a single no.1 out of the Future Nostalgia era as a lead artist so there’s hardly a precedent set to follow here.

 

It’s also much more difficult for a female artist to return with a Shape Of You/As It Was size hit. It’s always been the case that women have to try harder and receive far more scrutiny than men in this industry. I honestly don’t get why people on here refuse to acknowledge that.

 

As for ‘people should be comparing’ why can’t we just come here to see how well a song we like is doing? Why does everything have to be so clinical and feel like a school assignment? I guess that’s the difference between music fans and chart fans.

Ariana - 572K

Sopphie - 623K

Noah - 733K

 

Today.

Wow. If the gap stays similar to that or even increases in Noah’s favor I defo think he has it in the bag this week!

Wow. If the gap stays similar to that or even increases in Noah’s favor I defo think he has it in the bag this week!

 

She's number 1 in any possible playlist in the UK and WW, so I doubt it will recover that much and yes, his numbers are huge to any sons anytime of the year, true. Also Sopphie's numbers are insane also, to be over 600K and not number 1 is very rare.

600k without being on HHUK, that’s very impressive, it seems to just keep growing and growing!