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I also thought that was her best shot at no. 1. Many people break up from work this Friday so that is the 1st day of the "holidays"...She's gonna have 5 days of huge streams.

Is there no new chart on 28th Dec?

Hmmm it was Little Mix who wanted "Strip" as the lead single. The label wanted "Woman Like Me" & so went with that. Little Mix didn't even want to record "Woman Like Me" to begin with. As for not having good producers...the producers they worked with on this alb aren't of a lower standard than is usual for them. TMS, MNEK, Timbaland, Steve Mac etc. I think Timbaland is one of the biggest producers they've ever worked with. I think the problem is, this is a classic case of choosing the wrong singles. At least 80% of the album is better than WLM. And there is better than "Strip" too. Alexa play "Motivate".

They lost their main songwriter and unofficial "leader" (Geri) and Spice Girls mastermind (Simon Fuller). It's well documented that Geri was the main songwriter across their songs and the overall driving force behind the group. A lot of their branding, the group's name, what they stood for, the Girl Power mantra etc was all Geri. Losing both Simon Fuller and Geri only a few months apart was a double whammy! I doubt Forever would have sounded like THAT under their watch! A lot of plans changed after Geri left ("Never Give Up On The Good Times" was never released, original material for the third album was scrapped, they took a break and then came back with a new direction). Of course they were back for "Headlines" but they were already way past their heyday/creative peak at that point. Not a memorable song at all.

Out of curiosity...who's the lippy one?

"Get It Together" too. So glad this is on Spotify too. Will definitely push some of Ed's tracks down.

Precisely this. People need to relax and get with the times and stop whining and being so anal because the OCC said "singles" instead of "tracks". It's not that serious and what was once defined as a single in 1990 obviously is not how we define a single in 2017. Ed had 16 singles in the chart, as in 16 "single tracks" from the album is basically what Talbot at the OCC was saying. Back in the day a single was a specified track form the album which artists spent months on end promoting and pushing to radio etc, music videos, performances, but that model is outdated. Album tracks, promo singles, instant grats etc have been in the single's chart for years.

The Queen of album sales has spoken. Should help him get a few extra sales ha.

Wow I do think many are overestimating. He definitely won't be over 50k in pure sales anyway.

You should see two options. One labelled "payout" and one labeled "liability". At current odds 840 I see a £2 lay bet resulting in a £1680 payout (if they don't reach no. 1) and £1678 liability (if they do reach no. 1)

Given it's almost impossible for Dave Clark Five to be Christmas No. 1, why is no one putting a lay bet aginst them? You could win some very easy money e.g. a £10 lay bet against Dave Clark Five being no. 1 tomorrow would win you £3,700 via Betfair.....unless I've misunderstood things. :)

Well that's my point, it's available to those without Tidal. But don't worry I think a lot of people will be making that mistake. When they see TIDAL mentioned they'll probably just assume by "free download" she means free stream or avilable to stream on TIDAL offline or something of the sort, as I don't think anyone expected there to be a free mp3 download of the whole album. It will probably mean it will take a little while for some people to realise but once word of mouth spreads.... :o

Nope the whole album is available for free download with or without Tidal. I don't have Tidal and downloaded the album and now listening on iTunes!!

AKA alternative R&B – as adopted by the likes of Tinashe, The Weeknd (his earlier material), Frank Ocean, SZA etc.

Rihanna has released her whole album for FREE download. So surely people will stop paying to download "Work" from iTunes if they have any common sense. The album is very good if you're into PBR&B. Pop fans may be disappointed. I think it's great!

Always makes me chuckle when I see BRIT nominations and only 10 categories when you look at the GRAMMYs and it's like hundreds.

I can't predict who will win until i know the voting process for each category. Obviously social media friendly/younger acts like 1d and Little Mix benefit from fan voting categories... I'm assuming album of the year is decided by a panel. That's surely the most obvious category with Adele walking it. Jamie XX got critical acclaim but I just can't see him beating Adele. I think album of the year and best female for Adele are in the bag for her and her name currently being engraved on the trophy.

But I specifically said WW as i know in the US she has already closed the gap considerably so there is a possibility. WW is a different story, even with all the future singles, future promo, touring etc. It sold 15m in 6 weeks during xmas and during the hype of her comeback. Now it is selling at a more "normal" rate. Sure it will have spikes with future singles but not enough to challenge 21 WW...which is STILL selling at a pretty high rate since the 25 campaign (#11 best selling album in the world this past week). But I guess we will have to agree to disagree on this one :)

IMO anyone who thinks 25 will outsell 21 WW is completely delusional. Never going to happen.

Obviously not that obvious, as you'll be wrong ;) Alessia certainly won't be top 3!

It is not Gareth Malone's choir...

Stormzy now playlisted on Capital – every little helps!! (no sign of Louisa)

Yes, Xmas no. 1's used to be a real event in chart music, so I hope it is back to being such next year!

Nope it was absolutely the right song. Unfortunately people are still not signed on to the fact that her & her team care more about album sales than "prepping single no. 2". It's probably the least of their concerns; they want to sell the album, and a performance of one of the biggest hits of the moment will do just that!

I don't really think it has much to do with the song (X Factor winner's singles aren't exactly known for being pop masterpieces) and more to do with fact X Factor is on its last legs and people really do not care like they used to.