Hassaan

Jesus is listed as a songwriter. 😄 I discovered this song for the first time last week. I couldn't be less Christian (I'm Muslim) but I just find this such a fascinating moment in time. Top 3 in 1999 being Britney Spears, Eiffel 65 and him. The whole "one song to the tune of another" idea, did he get that from I'm Sorry, I Haven't a Clue? 😄

I'd say for most of my life I've enjoyed cheesy pop music, power ballads, boybands etc. Does that reflect who I am? As not someone who cares about typically "male" things like sports, I guess you could say yes. 😅 On the flip side, I'm not good at expressing my emotions so the whole pouring your heart out singing power ballads doesn't work. 🤣

A campaign to get "Until the Time is Through" to Xmas No. 1 resulted in it charting at #23... on the sales chart. It is their highest ever showing on that chart (which I presume is 2015 onwards). It was #19 on downloads - previous best peaks were #83 for Everybody Get Up (March) and #65 for Keep on Movin' (February 2013).

Sounded like it was mainly the teams, but I wouldn't be surprised if it was the artists too. I can see why it'd be a logistical nightmare, especially when these obviously aren't people you work with very often.

Has anyone watched this? I've caught the whole thing now. I've never really watched a Netflix documentary so the presentation wasn't what I'm used to from the BBC, ITV, Channel 4 etc. Much as it was interesting to see the formation of a band I didn't really know what they were going for with it. It clearly wasn't treated as like an X Factor, perhaps closer to what Popstars was with Cowell featuring quite a bit in an ob-doc kind of way.

It's rare for a villain arc like that to last longer than a series (at least since the reboot) so it'll be interesting to see what they do.

It's a bit of a shame because I do think he's one of the most talented acts to have come out of the X Factor and he clearly had so much public support on the show. It's a shame that wasn't able to be translated into continuous support afterwards. His last album stalled a bit, charting at #28. I'm hoping he can do a bit better than that this time.

They did the Jingle Bell Ball on Saturday and are performing on Strictly on Sunday. It helps that this is their big reunion year - JLS also did both of them in 2021 while Westlife did Strictly and the Radio 2 in the Park thing in 2019 - but I'm pleasantly surprised at them getting such big platforms.

Me too, though I'd be worried about slipping and twisting my ankle. 😅

I've always gotten the sense - even during X Factor - that he's never been particularly interested in the personality side of things and is far more interested in the music. I'm not sure if he'd have enough to carry him through those other shows and in the interviews he's done since XF he seems to be one of many who aren't keen on playing the "telly game" so to speak. Which, by the way, is a completely valid stance to have. It's a shame X Factor didn't expand its definition of success to include those who went on to do West End stuff, because there's been so many of them, probably just as many individual acts that got #1 singles and albums.

It's probably the latter. With an artist like him, they just care about the big hits. He's not in the mainstream as much now. From 2010 to 2014 he was on a roll with the success he was having. He seemed to capture the mood of the nation and what they wanted from pop music as well as he could.

Correct. 25 is on 4,137,882 and 21 would be something like 5.5 million by now.

Some updated sales: 4,478,515 - Divide 4,025,007 - Multiply

Yeah that's what I meant re: Gary being on the judging panel in 2011. I guess it was not the first time that runners up got ahead of the winner with their first proper single but it can't have helped. I took thought there would be a lane for him somewhere. James Morrison and James Blunt aren't a million miles away from him stylistically but they've had some sustained success when it comes to shifting records.

Rebecca less so. Her album outsold his. What Matt needed on that first album (well, they all do really) was creative control. A big part of releasing "Run For Your Life" as the lead single was because Gary Barlow wrote it and he was on X Factor that year as a judge - but it didn't allow him to hit the ground running which is what he needed. He was a bit older than 1D so was probably not going for the same audience anyway but it didn't allow him to make his mark.

Fearful of what the country will look like if they get into power. It feels like we're sleepwalking into it.

I want a proper progressive party to succeed but I'm not confident that this is it.

Yeah, the industry has changed a lot since 2010-14 and he was probably able to have more "casual fans" than he does now because the industry wasn't so fragmented. Now he's got his core fans but not many outside of that.

Olly's a bloke in his 40s now and won't be considered hot property in the music industry anymore. He's of the age where he's relegated to a "legacy act" which isn't a term I'm personally keen on. I don't think a collaboration is out of the question. I think it's less likely to be someone young and "hot" where the industry is concerned. It might be someone who was also big around the same time but less so now. He's at the point in his career where he can do whatever he wants really. He's probably achieved all the things he wanted to in the industry (perhaps aside from doing something like Glastonbury).

Corbyn & Sultana are being dropped from it too. I don't know if the whole idea is completely dead, but hopefully whoever takes over doesn't waste time arguing amongst themselves.

No. 5 in the end. We also have some album totals: 1,529,875 - Right Place Right Time 1,174,265 - In Case You Didn't Know 1,047,405 - Never Been Better Total album sales of 5,592,917. Total single sales of 15,288,863, including five million-sellers.

It was both of them, really.

He's been quite open on it being more of a passion project for him rather than going for the big commercial success like he is with this one.

Yes - although it falls under the definition of being an EP more than an album as it's 24 minutes long.

I've always run on the belief that Q4 is the best time for albums cos of sales being higher in the run up to Christmas, but these days I don't know how true that is. You could say that he'd chart higher on these current numbers in Q1, but who's to say that he'd even get the same amount of sales in the first place? He's gone on record as saying that this is the album he wanted to make after X Factor, and it clearly has more of a playful vibe than he's known for which probably leaves him more open to piss-taking online. Having said that, it's surely still better than not being talked about at all? Part of the issue is that he doesn't have a very streaming heavy fanbase.