Hassaan

He's in his 40s now so I don't expect him to be seen as "cool" in the way he was when he was riding on the wave of success from 2010 to 2014. They say "all publicity is good publicity" though if people are just ripping into his material I'm not sure how much that would be helping.

Number 3 is good. After a string of number one albums it'd be nice if he had another one, but it's a different climate.

Delete.

Yeah the charts have effectively been a "songs chart" since 2007 when all downloads were eligible. I preferred the charts from 2007 to 2014 when it was fairly straightforward - downloads/physical sales only pretty much. I guess the early years of streaming were fine but the ACR/SCR stuff was necessary albeit hasn't rid the charts of any issues.

Interested to see how Ginge does with a solo trial.

It was in his broadcast channel too, so firmly something for his fans really. Of course it made it to the tabloids which I guess is the risk with this sort of thing. Your own fans know you're joking but those outside of it don't, and when the story is out, people don't care about the explanation.

Liking them all so far.

Interesting interview! He's not the first to find success from X Factor to feel like people in the industry don't take him seriously. James Arthur and Little Mix said similar IIRC. I think in all cases it has just encouraged them to work even harder, which is something. I'm sure there's people who didn't make it through TV that are viewed in less high regard. @BooYouWhorelock do you wish to explain what's so funny?

How have they managed to make such a mess of it?

There's I'm a Celebrity: South Africa for that, and that's coming back next year. It should be noted that of the really big reality game shows, IAC is the only one with a public vote. Most of them don't have one.

Well overdue. The same person doing five trials in a row cos the voting public want to "punish" them even when they've proved themselves to be competent at them is extremely tiresome and occasionally has an undertone of nastiness.

She announced she was leaving in July 2023. Jessica Plummer and Danielle Harold did it the same year they left, so Shona could have done it sooner. Maybe not 2023 because Danielle was on it then.

I mean, he's not going to win. Surely. But I honestly don't know anymore. A crying shame that he is the leader of the free world otherwise the BBC could just ignore him.

They also don't have the fanbase that tend to vote in things like this. It's the sort of thing that has enabled anyone linked to McFly to win. Of course, those of a sporting background can still win, like Harry Redknapp and Carl Fogarty. The latter example was the last year of paid-for voting only though.

Tim Davie just seemed hell bent on appealing to Tories/Reform more than anything. He made a comment about the BBC needing more "conservative television" a few years back. Fresh blood can't do any harm.

True. Streaming basically cannibalised whatever impact it once had.

Enjoyed this series. I'm hoping that Darius gets his comeuppance next series. I did wonder at the time if it was out of character for Joe to cheat, but he and Mike seemed to have issues for a long time. I still don't know what to make of Schuey. It seems to be one step forward, two steps back with him constantly.

It's always the lesser known names that end up having the biggest impact on the viewers.

They asked their audience to choose the set-list this time round, so some interesting choices in there, including some songs I didn't think they'd perform again. Setlist spoilers Umbrella and Billion Lights in particular. Slightly surprised they did Eternal Love - I like the song but generally audiences don't get on board with the new tracks for an act like them.

The top five highest charting: Gabrielle Aplin: The Power of Love (#1, 2012) Lily Allen: Somewhere Only We Know (#1, 2013) Ellie Goulding: Your Song (#2, 2010) Tom Odell: Real Love (#7, 2014) Aurora: Half the World Away (#11, 2015) The last one to make the main chart at all was A Little Love (Celeste) for the 2020 advert, charting at #59. The last top 40 was the year prior, with "Can't Fight this Feeling" by Bastille making #39. Ellie Goulding is currently the biggest selling with 1.3 million as of April 2023.

BBC NewsStand-off over £800,000 Your Party funds held by Zarah Su...Your Party officials accuse Zarah Sultana of withholding funds despite publicly agreeing to transfer the money."We're going to create a left-wing party for those who want real change" or whatever the original sentiment was. How has it been several months and we've gotten nowhere? I appreciate that getting a party up and running likely isn't an easy job but it's like they'd rather fight amongst themselves.

I'm not surprised Alan managed to deceive them all but to win, I didn't see coming at all.

Marvin Kemp looks to be all but confirmed. I think he'll be good on it.

Not sure I fully agree with that. With the clips I've seen, they do seem to have really gone to the effort of putting on a proper show. They're in their 40s now so they're not going to have the same energy that they might have done in their 20s.

Number 6 on the sales chart - tied with Starlight and higher than anything else released since the comeback apart from Hello My Love & Better Man which both peaked at #2.