Envoirment

Disappointed that La Voix didn't win. Reminds me of Lawrence vs Bimini on season 2 when Lawrence (Kyran) was the early fave but Bimini (La Voix) completely dominated the 2nd half of the competition. Hopefully La Voix will do an All Stars/Vs The World at some point. Perhaps even a US All Stars series ala Jimbo? Overall the finale was really nice though. Not to say Kyran didn't do well at all as she was a very strong competitor!

Happy to see the bill passed. The first step in a long process - it will come under more scrutiny and likely be rejigged slightly but for the most part allowing terminally ill patients the dignity to die peacefully should be something legal. It's sad seeing people with terminal illness suffer so much pain and waste away (a few personal experiences with this). The safeguards in the bill should help avert any pressuring of people to die and the bill may see even more strict safeguards in place before becoming law. I think one of the biggest benefits will be that people no longer will be criminalised for joining loved ones that decide to go off to other places to die by choice peacefully.

Linkin Park's "Heavy Is the Crown" was the anthem for the world championships and had a league music video which did a lot of views. It peaked at #18 and has been sticking around/should be certified silver in a couple months or so. Twenty One Pilots have a league music video as well which is doing decent numbers which should help it.

"Defying Gravity" up to #6 on Amazon. Hoping it may have a chance at #1 in the charts in the coming weeks!

"Defying Gravity" now up to #8 on Amazon. Wouldn't be surprised if it's at #1 over the weekend.

"Die With A Smile" is the fastest song to 1 billion streams on spotify, beating the record set by "Flowers". "APT." looks like it'll get to 1 billion in about the same time. Both songs have been occupying the top 2 back and forth on global spotify for over a month now. Don't think there's been any artist top 2 on global spotify for so long with 2 songs (Sabrina was top 2 for a couple weeks with "Espresso" & "Please Please Please" earlier this year). Also "APT." has been doing really well - 4th highest streaming week ever and 14th highest peak streams outside of Xmas. "Die With A Smile" is the song with the 10th most days at #1 on global spotify (may add more days to that). Bruno is likely going to become the artist with most songs in the top 100 most streamed songs of all time as "Die With A Smile" & "APT." both look like they will clear 2 billion+ by the end of next year. He's currently tied for 1st with The Weeknd & Dua Lipa with 5 a piece.

Bruno Mars will likely have a big comeback solo album! Particularly with how well "APT." & "Die With A Smile" have both been doing (breaking streaming records left and right). Miley is confirmed to have a new era next year. I think she could do really well. She has a song coming out in a couple weeks, "Beautiful That Way", which is for the film The Last Showgirl. It sounds like it could be a big winter hit from the snippet so interested to see how that does. The movie has had positive reviews so far, so expect it'll do well (looks to be a big breakout role for Pamela Anderson!).

Its unfortunately the reality of a Labour government in 2024 with the rise of social media and right wing control of it (Musk & twitter in particular). They have done a couple quite unpopular things. One was being very negative about the budget - it wasn't actually that bad and they could've not caused so much negativity around it. The biggest thing was the winter fuel payment cut. I agree with cutting it for those that don't need it, but the biggest issue was there are a lot that do need it. And you can argue they can apply for a pension credit which will more than make up for it and that the Triple lock means the state pension has increased quite a bit the last couple years. The issue with the pension credit is the application process isn't very easy/straight forward and some people just miss out. Overall I don't think they've done that badly though and it's often social media/the media trying to frame things in a way. There's also the fact that a large chunk of the population didn't vote labour and you could argue their current majority is the most "unfair" in history? But most of those moaning will be the same ones telling others to be quiet when they won the brexit vote. Labour won fair and square - it's not like the conservatives didn't have 14 years to create a fairer election system. :rolleyes:

Amazon 55. Ariana Grande - "Popular" 64. Cynthia Erivo - Defying Gravity (feat. Ariana Grande)" Good start for both on Amazon. I hope MIKA's "Popular Song (feat. Ariana Grande)" gets a bit of a boost! Still can't believe that never charted. Although it was certified silver a couple years ago. Perhaps it'll get to a gold certification a bit quicker now? :)

Week 9 1. La Voix (3-8-7-6-1-1-1-4-1) 2. Marmalade (5-2-5-7-3-4-2-1-2) 3. Kyran Thrax (2-7-2-2-5-5-5-3-3) 4. Lill (1-1-11-10-2-2-6-2-4) 5. Rileasa Slaves (7-4-4-1-4-8-3-6-5) Elminated: Saki Yew (6) Dita Garbo (10-5-10) Zahirah Zapanta (11-6-1-9) Kiki Snatch (8-11-8-3-9) Chanel O'Conor (9-3-9-8-6-7) Actavia (4-10-6-4-8-6-7) Charra Tea (12-9-3-5-7-3-5-5)

Another good epsiode! La Voix was so good. Also thought Marmalade was good as well! Was surprised by the critiques. I thought she just needed a bit better timing. Kyran was a little disappointing although I have to say the Kiki's wigs so dry jokes were the funniest :lol: Kiki's wigs so dry they make Chanel's tears look wet made me cackle. The bottom 2 was correct. Shame that Lill was so restricted - I think Lill would've won were they wearing a less hot/restrictive outfit. Although she did lose the lip sync :( So sad to see her go. She's definitely needs to come back for an All Stars or Vs the World and win. My fav queen from the season. It's looking like La Voix will snatch the crown unless Kyran dominates the final.

It went viral sometime last year and has since maintained an increase level of popularity. It's become quite the trickle streamer. It's often one of her most streamed songs nowadays, beating out the likes of "Rolling In The Deep"/"Someone Like You" etc globally. It should become her 9th song to pass 1 billion streams on spotify by early-mid next year.

Omg yes *_* Shame this didn't take off as much as I hoped. Although mayeb the video will give the song a new lease of life.

Excited! I wonder if that means the soundtrack single "Beautiful That Way" will also serve as the lead single from the album? *_*

Week 8 1. Marmalade (5-2-5-7-3-4-2-1) 2. Lill (1-1-11-10-2-2-6-2) 3. Kyran Thrax (2-7-2-2-5-5-5-3) 4. La Voix (3-8-7-6-1-1-1-4) 5. Charra Tea (12-9-3-5-7-3-5-5) 6. Rileasa Slaves (7-4-4-1-4-8-3-6) Elminated: Saki Yew (6) Dita Garbo (10-5-10) Zahirah Zapanta (11-6-1-9) Kiki Snatch (8-11-8-3-9) Chanel O'Conor (9-3-9-8-6-7) Actavia (4-10-6-4-8-6-7)

Such a great episode with so many emotional moments, I couldn't make my way through it at times :lol: :snif: I really wished it would be non-elim as everyone did so well and it was great to see such positivity and support amongst everyone. Sad to see Charra go but they go out on doing well! Happy to see Marmalade get her first win! I believe she's likely the only one left that can potentially snatch the crown from La Voix or Kyran if she manages 1 more win before the final and does really well in the final. But it looks to be La Voix vs Kyran for the crown even though I wish Lill could be in contention. Definitely my favourite season of DRUK.

Biden has reportedly given Ukraine the green light to use long-range US missiles on russian targets. About time.

Snippet is beautiful and the movie has been getting great early reviews. A big winter time ballad hit from Miley? Yes please!!! *_* Hope the song does do well/is as good as the snippets appear.

The album had a really great debut on streaming services. "The Emptiness Machine" climbed top 10 on global spotify with various album tracks in the top 40. Speaking of "The Emptiness Machine", it's likely going to become one of their most streamed songs. It's had such great success in various countries - Germany is particluar where it's spent 10 weeks at #1 so far and the entire album debuted in the top 15 on spotify. It's already at ~270 million streams and will likely do 1 billion+ by the end of 2025.

Linkin Park Day 1 (spotify) 10. "The Emptiness Machine" 298,907 14. "Two Faced" 248,400 15. "Heavy Is the Crown" 243,993 27. "Cut the Bridge" 203,923 33. "Over Each Other" 188,380 35. "Casualty" 179,439 41. "Overflow" 171,545 44. "Stained" 166,469 50. "IGYEIH" 154,375 55. "Good Things Go" 148,742 Total: 2,004,173. Really great first day - album almost entirely top 50. Did the day 1 update as a number of tracks were missed from the spotify update. Day 2 22. "The Emptiness Machine" 204,900 40. "Heavy Is the Crown" 155,335 51. "Two Faced" 138,611 80. "Over Each Other" 110,969 94. "Cut the Bridge" 105,166 151. "Casualty" 88,998 154. "Stained" 88,140 162. "Overflow" 86,854 199. "IGYEIH" 79,810 Total: 1,058,783 (~-47%) Honestly not too big of a drop. Likely a little smaller of a drop when taking into account "Good Things Go" is not top 200 now. The places dropped look fairly big due to Christmas taking over as well. Will likely see another notable fall in tomorrow's update for Sunday but hopefully we'll see some of the tracks rebounding come Monday! The album is still top 100 on Apple Music despite the Christmas takeover: 19. "The Emptiness Machine" 32. "Heavy Is the Crown" 36. "Two Faced" 38. "Cut the Bridge" 39. "Over Each Other" 54. "Casualty" 56. "Overflow" 63. "Stained" 64. "From Zero (Intro)" 72. "IGYEIH" 73. "Good Things Go" Unfortunately Kworb's youtube chart hasn't been working for over a week now so can't tell what UK-boost the songs may have gotten there ("The Emptiness Machine" & "Heavy Is the Crown" both saw big boosts Friday/Saturday on youtube globally although dropping away a bit now).

So happy to see this go top 10! 3rd top 10 hit from the album. :cheer:

Linkin Park Apple Music update: 11. "The Emptiness Machine" 22. "Heavy Is the Crown" 25. "Two Faced" 30. "Over Each Over" 32. "Cut the Bridge" 36. "From Zero (Intro)" 42. "Casualty" 48. "Overflow" 58. "Stained" 65. "IGYEIH" 73. "Good Things Go" Really impressive!

Expect an album bomb from Linkin Park. Wouldn't be surprised if they have a number of entries in the top 10/20. The album is great and getting good reviews. The singles released before the album have been increasing quite a lot on Apple already in the lead up to album release and after their additional tour dates including Wembley. Apple Music 43. "The Emptiness Machine" 59. "Heaviness Is the Crown" 81. "Two Faced" 117. "Over Each Other" I think "Casualty", "Stained" and "IGYEIH" could do really well. "Casualty" & "IGYEIH" are very reminiscent of their older work and go hard *_* "Stained" & "Good Things Go" are the obvious single choices if they push more. The latter would be quite poignant. :snif: In fact "Good Things Go" will likely be one of the higher album tracks - certainly the most emotional track on the album and the perfect ending song.

I was thinking 50k+ and potentially their best opening. The streaming numbers have been good and the fan reception to the music has generally been really positive. "The Emptiness Machine" has had a good chart run so far and will likely climb back into the top 20 next week with the album release. "Heavy Is the Crown" will likely have a good many weeks in the top 100 still with the album boost and likely back top 40. "Over Each Other" managed a 2nd week top 100 which was really good to see. I imagine it'll go top 40 unless a different track on the album takes off.

Another good track - 4/4 for me. Excited to hear the entire album!