-Jay-

Thought I'd compare the updated playlist from last week, just to get a sense of how much of a refresh it's had: 01 (03) [USA] Alex Warren - Ordinary 02 (02) [USA] Doechii - Anxiety 03 (12) [USA] Chappell Roan - The Giver 04 (06) [UK] Sam Fender - People Watching 05 (04) [USA] Lady Gaga - Abracadabra 06 (01) [UK] Myles Smith - Nice to Meet You 07 (41) [USA] Sabrina Carpenter - Busy Woman 08 (11) [USA] Benson Boone - Sorry I'm Here for Someone Else 09 (09) [USA] Kendrick Lamar - Not Like Us 10 (08) [Canada] Tate McRae - Sports car 11 (19) [USA] Playboi Carti - RATHER LIE (with The Weeknd) 12 (10) [South Korea] JENNIE - Handlebars (feat. Dua Lipa) 13 (07) [UK] Lola Young - Messy 14 (14) [UK] Chrystal - The Days - NOTION Remix 15 (15) [South Korea/New Zealand] ROSE & Bruno Mars - APT. 16 (23) [USA] Ravyn Lanae - Love Me Not 17 (13) [USA] Gracie Abrams - That's So True 18 (17) [UK] AJ Tracey - Crush (feat. Jorja Smith) 19 (18) [Germany] Adam Port, Stryv, Keinemusik, Orso & Malachiii - Move 20 (20) [USA] Chappell Roan - Pink Pony Club 21 (21) [South Africa/Germany] WizTheMc and bees & honey - Show Me Love 22 (25) [Canada] The Weeknd - Cry for Me 23 (16) [USA] Teddy Swims - Bad Dreams 24 (22) [South Africa] Tyla - PUSH 2 START 25 (24) [UK] PAWSA & The Adventures of Stevie V - Dirty Cash (Money Talks) 26 (26) [USA] Sabrina Carpenter - Taste 27 (27) [South Korea] JENNIE - like JENNIE 28 (28) [USA] Gigi Perez - Sailor Song 29 (--) [USA] Lil Tecca - Dark Thoughts 30 (30) [USA] Teddy Swims - The Door 31 (29) [USA] Lady Gaga & Bruno Mars - Die with a Smile 32 (46) [USA] Selena Gomez, benny blanco & Gracie Abrams - Call Me When You Break Up 33 (31) [USA] Billie Eilish - BIRDS OF A FEATHER 34 (32) [UK] BL3SS & CamrinWatsin - Kisses (Feat. bbyclose) 35 (36) [UK] Myles Smith - Stargazing 36 (33) [USA] Addison Rae - Diet Pepsi 37 (35) [USA] Doechii - DENIAL IS A RIVER 38 (37) [USA] Leon Thomas - MUTT 39 (34) [USA] Lady Gaga - Garden of Eden 40 (42) [Austria] Ely Oaks - Running Around 41 (05) [USA] Sabrina Carpenter - Bed Chem 42 (38) [UK] Olivia Dean - It Isn't Perfect But It Might Be 43 (39) [UK] Central Cee - CRG (feat. Dave) 44 (43) [USA] Kendrick Lamar & SZA - luther 45 (45) [Canada] The Weeknd - Timeless (feat. Playboi Carti) 46 (40) [USA] Chappell Roan - Good Luck, Babe! 47 (--) [UK] Sleep Token - Emergence 48 (47) [Australia] Sonny Fodera, Jazzy & D.O.D - Somedays 49 (48) [UK] nimino - I Only Smoke When I Drink 50 (49) [UK] Sam Fender - Arm's Length 51 (44) [USA] Gracie Abrams - I Love You, I'm Sorry 52 (51) [Canada] Tate McRae - Revolving door 53 (53) [USA] Post Malone - I Had Some Help (feat. Morgan Wallen) 54 (50) [USA] SZA - BMF 55 (52) [UK] Charli xcx - Apple 56 (54) [USA] Sam Barber - Indigo (feat. Avery Anna) 57 (55) [USA] Shaboozey - A Bar Song (Tipsy) 58 (56) [USA] Billie Eilish - WILDFLOWER 59 (57) [Canada] Drake - NOKIA 60 (61) [Ireland] Hozier - Too Sweet 61 (58) [Thailand] LISA - Born Again (feat. Doja Cat & RAYE) 62 (59) [Australia] The Kid LAROI - NIGHTS LIKE THIS 63 (60) [UK] Sam Fender - Little Bit Closer 64 (62) [UK] Charli xcx - Guess (feat. Billie Eilish) 65 (64) [UK] RAYE - Oscar Winning Tears. 66 (63) [UK] Aitch & Bou - Raving in the Studio 67 (65) [UK] Chase & Status and Stormzy - BACKBONE 68 (67) [Ireland] Fontaines D.C. - It's Amazing to Be Young 69 (68) [USA] Tyler, The Creator - Like Him (feat. Lola Young) 70 (69) [Phillippines/UK] beabadoobee - Real Man OUT: from 66 [USA] The Marias - No One Noticed from 70 [UK] Central Cee - GBP (feat. 21 Savage) There's still 20 songs from UK artists, Sleep Token newly added in 47th. The most significant change is Sabrina Carpenter - Busy Woman up from 41 to 7, while Bed Chem tumbles from 5 to 41.

Side note but some of the rumours on SpiceNews are so funny, you can just tell that stuff came from the mind of 11 year old fans with big imaginations lol

It grew, it clicked 🥳

Bad Romance!

All these leaks all of a sudden! 🫨 Wild to have Sugar & Spice and Melody of Life after all these years. I have to wonder… why now? I suppose, why not now… just seems interesting that the floodgates have opened.

No overly short songs this time! intro (end of the world) extended – 2:41 twilight zone – 3:18 warm – 3:21 dandelion – 3:24 past life – 3:35 Hampstead – 3:36

Updated up to week ending 20th March!

Sugababes by a distance!

The tempo of this leak feels a little too slow to me. Matching the tempo to the album version makes it sound so much better!

For me it's a Calvin Harris banner 💔 are you able to do a screen shot, would be cool to see it!

Judging by the tag it may have originally been called "I'm Giving You Everything" in the demo stage? Here's a reminder of the lyrics from the rap, which matches what could be heard in that clip from the One Hour from Girl Power video: (Yeaaah I want you!) Mel B: Not as a lover but a friend Emma: But maybe we could get under the covers now and then Geri: Just a little freaky, not too serious, Don’t lose the plot boy, don’t get delirious Victoria: There's nothing wrong with being there for each other Melanie C: I wanna be close like a sister or a brother Melanie B: I’ll give you everything on this I swear All: Just promise you’ll always be there! I'd say... it's certainly fun to hear it after all this time, but I'm glad this rap didn't make it until the final version tbh. In my opinion they made the right call to take it out. This really should have been included on Spice 25 though.

Say You'll Be There demo version with rap - has leaked! 😮

Music videos with narrative moments overcutting the music are a bit of a bugbear of mine! Sometimes it's effective, but in this case... I don't think it lands well. I ended it feeling like it was a very "one and done" viewing experience. If an edit of the video eventually comes out that is the full song, I'd give it another watch. I'm sad to say it but even the song isn't doing a whole lot for me at the moment. It just doesn't pop in the way I'd like it to. It's just ok for me - and I had grown used to experiencing instant love and excitement over her songs. I'd really love to be on the same page as most of the other fans and for it to click! I will keep with it and see if it grows. I do want it to do as well as it possibly can! Fingers crossed for Top 40.

In terms of a full listen from front to back: Louis: none Zayn: none Niall: only Heartbreak Weather in full Liam: I have heard LP1 in full Harry: I've heard all three albums in full Oddly I actually own Niall's debut on CD, and The Show on CD and vinyl, yet I never got around to listening!! I should at least hear The Show to justify that expenditure, finally 😆

In a copy of the Spice Girls' fan club magazine (which comes across like it is published very early in 2001), Melanie C said: "I'll probably start writing in autumn (2001), so I'll be out of everyone's faces and locked up in the studio for a good 6-8 months. The album won't be out till autumn 2002ish". Interesting that even in early 2001, she had it in mind that she wouldn't be releasing the second album until circa Sep-Nov 2002. As we know, the Reason era ended up being launched in January 2003 with the album released in March, so she was a few months behind on her initial plan. Ideally she would have been ready in 2002, entering 2003 just made it seem like she'd been gone for longer than she should have been, oddly.

Scared of the Dark is my favourite, Story of a Heart least. I do like Story of a Heart but it's way behind the others listed, for me.

I feel like it would to an extent, as the most followed playlist targeted at the UK - it has almost 3.1m saves. Although as Joe says, Today's Top Hits likely has a larger effect (35.2m), and is very much North American artist heavy. Although I assume we don't have the concrete evidence either way, I'd be surprised if "people don't rely on curated playlists much" rings true. Also unless I'm misunderstanding you, Nice to Meet You is at #10 in the singles chart? Making it the highest placed British artist song in the chart currently! (Edit: Realised that #59 = in the Spotify chart!)

The current Hot Hits UK playlist. "Release date" is album release dates in some cases.

Seeing Jade's fans disappointed that her new single hasn't been added to Hot Hits UK, made me interested to take a closer look at this impactful playlist. I wanted to find out to what extent it supports British artists, and the age of the songs included on it (i.e. how fresh is this playlist?). Of the 70 songs included, 20 of them are by UK artists (as the lead artist). That's 28.5% of the playlist. The newest UK artist song included is Sam Fender - 'Little Bit Closer', which came out 20th February (25 days ago). It's placed 60th out of 70 tracks. The oldest UK artist song included is technically Raye - 'Oscar Winning Tears.', from her February 2023 released album. However it became a single in November 2024. Currently in 64th position. Otherwise, the oldest song is BL3SS - 'Kisses', released on 22nd March 2024 (360 days ago). It's still as high as 32nd place. The average age of all the UK songs included is 26 weeks old (half a year). Although there's 20 songs, there's some repeat artists; there's 15 different artists. So this is the level of support currently being afforded to UK artists, in a playlist geared towards UK listeners. Just one song that has been released within the last 4 weeks: It should come as no surprise that there is more emphasis on the inclusion of USA artists in this playlist. 33 songs are USA artists as the lead artist, 47.1%. If we extend that to North America (so, including Canadian artists), it's 38 songs - 54.3%. There's relatively fresher songs included, with 9 of those 38 being released within the last month. The newest being Playboi Carti - 'RATHER LIE' (3 days) and Chappell Roan - 'The Giver' (4 days). These being the only songs added to the playlist this week ('The Giver' in 12th position, 'RATHER LIE' in 19th position). Should "the UK's biggest playlist" be doing more to support UK based artists? I really think they should be, and it fascinates me why they're not. I don't think it's ever been more difficult for UK artists to do well (or consistently well) in the UK singles chart, in this age of streaming. There could be a multitude of business related reasons why Spotify doesn't throw full support behind an artist such as Jade. It's a shame though, as well as frustrating and predictable, to realise that a new song is essentially dead on arrival because of Spotify's decision making. Also, the inevitably of knowing that the return of the Sugababes will get bare minimum support from Spotify, unlikely to ever be considered for inclusion on their top playlists, and therefore not chart. From my perspective, Spotify also doesn't do much to throw support behind new(ish) artists - and if they do, it's often because of TikTok virality that has dictated that songs such as Messy end up getting heavily supported. The girl group FLO seemed to struggle to get to the stage of releasing their debut album, after spending a lot of time chasing a hit single that never came... and it ultimately resulted in a frontloaded album spending 1 week in the Top 100 (peaking at #3). I would connect the phenomenon of frontloaded albums, to artists not being able to break the glass ceiling of what it takes to achieve a long-running album (high streaming support across multiple songs). Aside from the origin of the artists included, I have to wonder why this playlist is as stale as it is? Inclusions include: Nights Like This, Too Sweet, Kisses, Good Luck Babe, A Bar Song (Tipsy), I Had Some Help, Birds of a Feather, Apple, I Love You I'm Sorry, Somedays, Backbone, Diet Pepsi, Taste... what are they still doing here!! Hits for sure... but surely they've been and gone? No wonder the chart moves at a glacial pace and requires ACR to keep things artificially fresher looking. Anyway... I'm interested if any of you have thoughts about this playlist specifically!

Radio Airplay - 'Reason' era: Here It Comes Again 26/01/03: 67-45-22-22-11-12-09-17-32-61-x On the Horizon 18/05/03: 49-27-08-09-13-31-47-78-x 20/07/03: 83-82-93-x Melt 26/10/03: 77-58-34-38-44-88-x Underlined positions = the week that the single entered the official singles chart, i.e. when On the Horizon was at #9 in the radio chart, it entered at #14 in the singles chart. As mentioned by vibe, On the Horizon had pretty strong radio support going into its release. Other factors (such as music video airplay, and the number of promotional appearances) may have been weaker by comparison? I suppose it could have been the case that despite the radio support, the public and the fans just weren't feeling it... 🥺 On the Horizon actually had better radio support than any of these Spice related singles, released prior to it: Mama, (How Does It Feel to Be) On Top of the World, I Want You Back, Look at Me, Word Up, Goin' Down, It's Only Rock N Roll, Bag It Up, Tell Me, If That Were Me, Feels So Good, It's Raining Men, Lullaby, Scream If You Wanna Go Faster, Take My Breath Away, Not Such an Innocent Girl, Calling, We're Not Gonna Sleep Tonight, A Mind of Its Own, Here It Comes Again and Free Me. ...yet On the Horizon sold considerably less than all of them! At the time of its release, it became the worst selling Spice related single to date, by quite a margin. It sold around 22k physically. Whereas the previous worst seller, Emma - We're Not Gonna Sleep Tonight, sold 35k physically. I imagine the label probably felt quite reassured by radio embracing On the Horizon, so how it performed - and how little it did for the album off the back of it - I can imagine it came as shock. Sorry, this post is huge, but one more thing! There used to be a chart published by ChartsPlus, which compiled singles that hadn't been commercially released yet - pretty much their prediction of how well they were expected to do (and radio play definitely factored into their predictions). Prior to its release, they had On the Horizon at #1 in that chart! Yes, its radio play was stronger than Bring Me to Life to begin with. In brackets, is the position they'd actually go on to peak at in the official singles chart... #1 Melanie C - On the Horizon (#14) #2 Evanescence - Bring Me to Life (#1) #3 Electric Six - Gay Bar (#5) #4 Kings of Leon - What I Saw (#22) #5 Shania Twain - Forever and For Always (#6) #6 One True Voice - Shakespeare's Way With Words (#10) #7 Ashley Hamilton - Wimmin (#27) #8 iiO - At the End (#20) Even Marilyn Manson's Mobscene managed to outchart On the Horizon - it went to #13, despite not being in the Radio Top 100 in the week before release. On the Horizon is pretty fascinating to me, it definitely represents the moment that the wheels truly started to fall off for her career, sadly. Personally I think it deserved better than it got. I can also understand why it was chosen as a single, at least to me it seemed like the obvious choice for a second single when the album was new, so I wasn't surprised that it was picked. Sometimes I wonder how it would have done if it had been the first single, and got the glossy video treatment that Here It Comes Again had.

Some estimates for future certifications! Too Lost in You - Platinum - 600,000 - March 2026 Push the Button - 2xPlatinum - 1,200,000 - July 2026 Round Round - Platinum - 600,000 - September 2027 About You Now - 3xPlatinum - 1,800,000 - September 2028 Freak Like Me - Platinum - 600,000 - December 2030 I wonder when Hole in the Head is due for Gold? It was on 304,000 in February 2023. It's more popular on Spotify than Freak Like Me, but the stats are worldwide and it's just one platform, so it's hard to say how these two do in comparison to each other in the UK alone. If it increased by the same amount as Freak Like Me (which has sold 48,000 since Feb 23) then Hole in the Head would be on 352,000 at the moment. I'll predict no later than 2027 for Hole in the Head going Gold! Walk This Way is the next in line to go Silver for Sugababes... it's taking its sweet time though! Last we knew officially was 156,200 sales in August 2019, 152,422 in October 2018. At that pace it's due to crawl its way over 200k in September 2028. Whether it does a little better recently than back then though, who knows.

Oh I'm obsessed, what a tune! It's short for sure but I enjoy the pacing of it, there's an urgency to it, it doesn't feel like a single second's wasted.

I wonder what happened with BMG? Sugababes now being fully independent is a brave/confident step - I hope everything goes smoothly for them from here on out!

so ready!

H said once again in a recent interview that Steps "could get back together for something big to mark their 30th anniversary in 2027". It's going to be a dry couple of years! I get it though, the musical is going on into 2026 so they want attention going that way. I'm curious about what a 2027 reunion would look like. Focusing on an anniversary as the reason to get back together, kind of sounds like it would be treated mostly as a nostalgia trip... but they surely can't do another Greatest Hits! 😆 I'd like the idea of new music, new album... but by then it'll be 6 years on from What the Future Holds Pt. 2. They're all going to be 50+ in 2027, I wonder if they'll still want to be an active group to the extent of recording an album and promoting it. Time will tell!