Highway Unicorn

if you had told me in June 2023 (or basically anytime prior to this summer) that Perrie Edwards and Olivia Dean would be releasing on the same week and the latter would outsell the former by more than triple, I would’ve called you crazy.

I think the Glee cover charted decently in 2011 and it was most recently used well to comedic effect in an episode of And Just Like That (the sex and the city continuation series).

Her team is so useless, this has potential to be Die for You / Cruel Summer levels of big and it’s just being wasted.

Happy (and surprised) to see Cough Syrup and Tennessee Orange get certifications, they never charted and didn’t think they were that popular with British audiences. Helium I believe is now the 6th song from the Fifty Shades trilogy soundtrack to reach a gold certification. Always great to see songs released during the low sales peak of the 00s (Survivor, New Shoes, Foundations) have great longevity.

Yeah that was the reasoning, lemme edit my post to reflect that more accurately.

This made me wonder, when was the last there was top 2 that was both, exclusively British and exclusively Britisb women Ironically, this would be the first time there’s been an all-British top 2 since November 10, 2023, when the top 2 also featured a Raye-adjacent track at No. 2. No. 1 - "Now and Then" by The Beatles No. 2 - "Prada" by Cassö, RAYE & D-Block Europe This also marks the first time the top 2 has been occupied by British women since two weeks earlier (October 27, 2023), when “Strangers” by Kenya Grace and the aforementioned "Prada" held the top 2 positions. If we look exclusively at British women as soloists or leads, this is the first occurrence since November 26, 2021, when Adele’s “Easy on Me” and “Oh My God” were No. 1 and No. 2, respectively. However, since Dean and Raye would be two different artists, as compared to solely Adele in 2021. When was the last time two different British women held the top two, you’d have to go back just a few weeks earlier (October 29, 2021) when “Easy on Me” was still No. 1 and No. 2 was “Cold Heart” by Elton John & Dua Lipa. However, since Lipa (despite being credited as the main artist) is still second-billed to the male John, we have to look back further. The most recent comparable instance was three years prior, on June 15, 2018, when the top 3 were: No. 1 - “I’ll Be There” by Jess Glynne No. 2 - “Solo” by Clean Bandit feat. Demi Lovato No. 3 - “2002” by Anne-Marie Since Clean Bandit is a predominantly male group, you’d have to go back to the previous week when Jess Glynne was No. 2 and the No. 1 was “One Kiss” by Calvin Harris & Dua Lipa. Again, Lipa is equally billed but still second to a male collaborator. So, the next occurrence we find is from September 28, 2014, when two British women occupied the top two positions: No. 1 - “Bang Bang” by Jessie J, Ariana Grande & Nicki Minaj No. 2 - “Changing” by Sigma feat. Paloma Faith A similar situation occurred again on July 5, 2014: No. 1 - “Gecko (Overdrive)” by Oliver Heldens & Becky Hill No. 2 - “Ghost” by Ella Henderson We go back another two years to May 13, 2012, the last time when two British women credited as the lead artists, led the top two positions on the singles chart: No. 1 - “R.I.P.” by Rita Ora feat. Tinie Tempah (NEW) No. 2 - “Young” by Tulisa (-1) This was just over a year since it had last occurred, on March 30, 2011, when the top 2 had remained the same for the past four weeks: No. 1 - “Someone Like You” by Adele No. 2 - “Price Tag” by Jessie J feat. B.o.B. About 17 months earlier, on October 25, 2009, this happened again: No. 1 - “Fight For This Love” by Cheryl Cole No. 2 - “Bad Boys” by Alexandra Burke feat. Flo Rida However, as I’m sure everybody has noticed, the tracks from 2009-2012 all featured at least one of them with a man in a featured credited role. So, we have to go back just nine months prior, we find the the answer to our question “when last time the top 2 consisted entirely of British women, completely unaccompanied by men”: during the post-Christmas period of 2008-2009 (specifically, Dec 28, 2008, and Jan 4, 2009): No. 1 - “Hallelujah” by Alexandra Burke No. 2 - “Run” by Leona Lewis So, if Raye and Olivia should occupy the top two positions in the upcoming weeks, it would mark the first time this has happened, unaccompanied by men, since they were 11 and 8 years old, respectively. TLDR: Olivia Dean and Raye would the first all British women top 2 (by two different artists) on the singles chart since Alexandra Burke & Leona Lewis in January 2009.

I do adore her part on ‘Escapism’, getting someone else to be the voice of her subconscious on the decline was such a clever choice musically.

Plus your average teenager in 2025 is far more likely to engage with Calvin Harris tracks (both old and new) than a teen in 2012 was with Robbie - speaking from experience as a 14 year old music nerd in 2012 whose friends didn’t care for Williams at all.

its chart run is still to funny to me (15-1-12)

Me but with It Girl

One thing ive missed since the digital age took over was the lack of local stars. Love that these two can still get hits in their native country without being global superstars.

Anything on the new long awaited Cardi b sophomore album yet. It’s already #4 on Apple UK but none of the individual tracks seems to have charted yet.

To be fair i dont even think Raye / her tesm expected Genesis to be that big of a hit, given it is a seven minute jazz song with only part 2 of it being somewhat commercially viable. Think that was more of a blank check post brits to display her artistry and honestly it doing as well as it did was a minor miracle and a testament to her x factor. I literally cannot see another artist outside of the tier 1 superstars even trying something like that.

Yeah these Halloween playlists can be really odd, Apple biggest HW playlist also includes - Ella Henderson ‘Ghost’, Iggy Azalea ‘Black Widow’ Nicole Scherzinger ‘Poison’ and most egregiously for me ‘Sugar Sugar’ by The Archies. Spotify isn’t much better tbh, their biggest Halloween playlist includes Beyonce ‘Sweet Dreams’, Will.I.Am & Britney ‘Scream & Shout’, The Weeknd ‘Blinding Lights’, Marina ‘Bubblegum B!tch’, ABBA ‘Gimme Gimme’, Nicki Minaj ‘Super Freaky Girl’, Michael Sambello ‘Maniac’, Steps ‘Scared of the Dark‘

Most of Gaga’s discography from her imperial phase gets a boast around Halloween (Judas, Bloody Mary, Monster) I imagine both Dead Dance and Abracadabra will be the same this year. Maybe Die with a Smile too considering how basically anything with a somewhat spooky title gets a boost - Little Magic’s "Black Magic" goes back into the Apple top 100 every year despite their nothing spooky about that song at all.

The Kesha stans started mass streaming because it was the only song on animal/cannibal that didn’t have any credits from Dr Luke. After that it went viral on TikTok for a bit and been a consistent streaming streaming hit ever since. The titular track from "Cannibal" is probably going silver next too, it’s been a stable for Halloween party playlists all decade but especially after 2022, when the Netflix Dahmer drama premiered and everyone started realising what the Dahmer references in pop songs meant (specifically ‘Cannibal’ and Katy Perry’s ‘Dark Horse’).

Love how there’s a new Hamilton song getting a certification every other week now.

Go Go Juice seems to be the track that TikTok has taken an inkling towards. Will be interesting to see how it performs over the weekend.

To be fair, Raye didn’t even have an album out pre-Escapism and none of back catalogue sounds anything like Escapism or anything she released, to the point where she barely even perform anything anymore. It’s only been "Natalie Don’t" (a deep cut) and her jazz rearrangements of her dance features.

Is this the first time it’s appeared in the top 200? Been hearing out all summer long.

The people are nostalgic for dance remixes to old Florence songs, I guess.

Is Cell Block Tango is the first song from the Chicago OST to get certified?

Both of them are sooo getting nominations across the board (Album, Single, Artist) their respective genre category (Sam for Rock and I imagine Olivia for both Pop & R&B, a la Raye) and Best New Artist for Olivia.

He gets overshadows by Harry by obvious reasons (despite only one of them having three good albums and its not the Englishman) but Niall’s solo career is kinda the perfect one a popstar would wish for. A new album every 2-3 years, does good. gets a hit single out of it, can tour arenas every time. I’m struggling to think of someone else similar to him at the moment.

Also Take That’s ‘These Days’ in 2014. Another #1.