Hassaan

The themes seem to work for him, even if just to tie the whole thing together in some way. I'm intrigued to see what he puts out next year - I'd like something that has a similar energy to Castle on the Hill with a big chorus.

Slight climb to #27 (#31 last week). Elyanna version: VZRevp5HlE4

I'm looking forward to giving Epic Mickey a go when I've got the means to pay for it.

Yeah, probably a 15th anniversary release with a few remixes/new tracks thrown in.

I wonder if he could sell out Wembley Stadium. He's done the arenas for years.

The last album also had Here, which also charted higher than some of the more dancey stuff, like All Of These Nights.

I'll believe it when I see it, but I'm not optimistic. There's nothing Trump could do to lose supporters. Nothing.

I think this is almost a given, as it wouldn't make for particularly good telly otherwise. With the celebrity edition, there's nothing at stake. Not even a prize for charity, so it's a pride thing as much as anything. Maybe that gave Jeff & Freddy a bit more freedom, so to speak.

Enjoyable series. I'd have been happy with any of them winning but I'm impressed at the top 2 given how small their budgets were by the end. Certainly not the easiest sprint to the finish line they've had - climbing a volcano!

It'll be interesting to see who they go with. I think they will steer clear of politicians this year. They can't avoid names that are going to be considered controversial because otherwise they'll have basically no one.

Fascinating stats, thank you for those. Given the domination of streaming, even the fact there were 15 million paid for single sales last year looks particularly big, albeit dwarfed by the numbers achieved in the early 2010s.

#26 last week. I'm really digging this. I didn't think I would, I wouldn't have considered it to be the sort of thing I'd like but I can't get it out of my head.

If the judge doesn't consider him to be an out-and-out danger, there's not much anyone can do. An extra 5 years in prison probably wouldn't actually make much of a difference to someone whose reputation and livelihood is already completely damaged.

I'd like them to try a Christmas song. I don't know if a Las Vegas residency is where their audience is. A residency at Wembley, certainly. Having an Oscar nominated song is very much a lottery though. New albums yeah but it's complicated. People aren't buying albums like they used to, hence people like Take That put more into touring than releasing stuff.

Olly Murs' Heart Skips a Beat?

I'm watching weekly. Did anyone catch it tonight? I didn't expect them to go full villain with Dean. I guess the signs were there but still. I think Steve planned the whole thing, personally.

The "lalala" bit reminds me of something, but I can't place it.

So do I, but it has only been two months.

Glad that they're still handing out those sentences: https://www.itv.com/news/calendar/2024-09-0...t-over-uk-riots

I've liked Olly ever since he did X Factor but I wouldn't have put him & Caroline on the main show in 2015. It worked on Xtra Factor when they could be a bit more loose but I don't think they were necessarily experienced enough. I do think with the advent of streaming, it seems there's a cut-off point and once you reach a certain age, the industry considers you a legacy act. Granted Olly was in his late 20s when he was having his biggest successes (the #1s) but maybe it's the trends too as someone alluded to above. His style is basically a mix of pop, ska and reggae - sort of happy, summery pop is what I think people associate him with the most. You'd think there would still be a market for it. As for public image, I think The Voice helped him a bit. He's said in interviews that the X Factor gaffe put him off doing any telly for a while.

I did feel like the album campaign was a bit low key compared to normal, bar what I thought was controversy that he didn't deserve or ask for. Not just that song, but the signing video he did for one of the other ones. He got the flack for it even though he was just trying to do a good thing, but was just advised badly. I know there's less money in album sales these days but why bother making them at all then? I do think there's still potential for one of his older tracks to get some traction again if used in the right place. It's a shame You Don't Know Love didn't do better (though top 20 isn't bad by any means, especially as streaming was in full swing).

It's a shame that his last album of new material, though it charted at #1, didn't really do very well in terms of the singles really making an impact, but I guess that's not unusual for an act like him who really took off in the "iTunes age" back in the early 2010s.

Today marks 20 years of X Factor!

I wasn't too sure either, but he wrote this in an Instagram post when he released it:

I'm hoping this makes sense, but sometimes you can tell an artist has written a song purely for them, as a sort of passion project, but it finds wider success anyway. It might not have been pushed as a single but it catches on anyway. I guess Ed Sheeran is in a position where he can do that, but he put out "Afterglow" with no intention of it being a single ahead of an album or anything - just a song he liked - and it got to #2 in the UK.