Highway Unicorn

Funfact: "Impossible" (then only a few months old) was supposed to be Cher Lloyd’s winners single the year prior.

If I remember correctly, this is the only X Factor winners single that wasn’t included on the winners debut album. The band themselves never actually performed again after 2012.

In retrospect, 2011 wasn’t really the death, it just marked the end of the golden era (aka the first Cheryl years). 2012 with Christopher Maloney in the final, Rylan being saved over both Carolyn Poole week 1 and the infamous deadlock of Ella Henderson and James Arthur put the final nail in the coffin of it not being seen as a legitimate music first talent contestant in the eyes of the GBP. Then just on a slope until 2015 being the show’s last relevant season imo, once the streaming era officially took over it was done. Back to 2011, honestly good season for talent. I would’ve gone for a complete revamp with the judges though and sacked Louis as well, replace him with the long rumoured Noel Gallagher or Ozzy Osbourne (familiarity to viewers of the show vis-à-vis Sharon) and swap UK & USA roles out for Rowland and Scherzinger (again loved Kelly but she was a one and done and viewers resonated with Nicole since she had already been a part of the show in capacity since 2007). So yeah a lineup Ozzy-Tulisa-Gary-Nicole.

Jason Derulo’s “Fight For You” has to be one of the slowest runs to silver for post-2010s hit in recent memory, it was at 120k units by the 2012 and 14.5 hours for 80.5k units seems like an awfully slow time. The last hit song I recall taking this long to go silver was Boyzone’s "Gave It All Away" but that was barely a hit on a technicality of pre-order hype/build and fan base near exclusively being made of people who were also fans 20 years prior being eager to hear the tribute the recently passed away member. also incredibly somber without replay value. "Fight For You" is a uptempo dance pop song by an artist who still streams incredibly well.

Not really, Stevie Nicks has been grandfathered in as an influence for pretty much every major women in music artist this century (Beyonce [DC] and Miley both had hit records sampling Edge of Seventeen 20 years apart). the band itself has a such a juicy narrative it just adds to the lore. Around the turn of the 2010s, they was a big moment in pop culture with the youth discovering them for the first time thanks to heavy usage in Glee and American Horror Story.

lol at the Knicks win having an effect in the uk.

Plus Empire State of Mind Part II and Girl On Fire have lasted incredibly long in the public consciousness as well.

I remember seeing a statistic once that she’s only the artist with at least five US number ones not to have single UK number one. I actually think that might be just her and Morgan Wallen now. If you ask the GBP, I imagine they would say Together Again is her number one.

Her collection of number ones in the UK is so odd in the grande scheme of her career, nothing until 2017, the next not for another five years, then any old crap just shoots up ever since.

anyone know if Slayyyter’s ‘Dance’ has appeared on any of the Apple or Amazon pop charts yet? With it being #89 on OCC, I imagine it’s probably outside of the top 200 trying to break in

She’s kinda always been like that though. Love Story went #2 back in 2009 and Mine was a top 40 hit for multiple weeks in 2010. I think any other proper country song from someone inside the Nashville system even charted top 40 in the uk for entirety of the 2010s after that.

Streets (Swifties) are saying its very country heavy as a way to soft launch the Taylor’s Version of the 20th anniversary of the debut album in October (her purest country album, fake accent and everything)

100% this. If you had told me that of the three Bed artists, that the two DJs wouldn’t chart again in the top 40 after the next calendar year, the whilst the singer would have two number one hits - one of them being a 5 minute song about alcohol dependency built around a theremin synth with three different endings, the other being a vintage jazz song where she says more words per second than most rappers, alongside top 30 hits consisting of a 9 minute jazz number where the last third is just scatting and and 6 minute classical composition about overcoming depression alongside Hans Zimmer. I would’ve laughed to high heavens.

She was taking off on TikTok in 2024 because Symphony went mega viral on their because of the dolphins meme. She incorporated that Dolphin meme aesthetic into her branding (her Y2K makeup and clothing etc), to the point where it’s arguably the first time she’s ever had a recognisable visual style (see the ‘midnight sun’ box in the stateside video and PinkPantheress easily adapting a Zara-esque look for the video too). and perhaps more importantly, the entire midnight sun music video is completely ensued with that dolphin meme aesthetic. Zara was smart enough to adapt the dolphin meme to the point where the dolphin emoji is now associated purely with her and her fanbase on social media, similar to Bee’s with Beyonce or Owl’s with Drake.

Anyone know the last time a song went top ten on Apple without charting in the Spotify 200?