-Jay-

Even though I'm a proud owner of the promo copy, thank you Spiceboy! I would love for it to get a commercial release. Record Store Day is quite stressful :drama: I felt such a fear of missing out re: A Girl Like Me! Although I get that it's probably the "safest" way for labels to sell somewhat niche titles, that maybe would flop a bit if released more widely.

:teresa: Estimations: 803,000 - Greatest Hits 1,497,000 - 2 Become 1 1,006,000 - Goodbye 1,002,000 - Mama/Who Do You Think You Are 908,000 - Stop 886,000 - Viva Forever 344,000 - Holler/Let Love Lead the Way 325,000 - What Took You So Long? 66,000 - Headlines (Friendship Never Ends) There's every chance 2 Become 1 has already exceeded 1.5m. If it's true about Goodbye and M/WDYTYA, it would mean that the Spice Girls now have six singles on 1 million+ units! :cheer: Other estimates: 2,670,000 - Wannabe 782,000 - Too Much I think Spice Up Your Life has likely exceeded 1,300,000 and maybe Say You'll Be There is close to doing the same.

It ended 2000 on sales of 212,000. As far as I'm aware we didn't get to know another total for it until June 2009, when we found it was just shy of 250,000 copies! So that was an increase of 38,000 copies. This takes into account its physical sales continuing throughout 2001 which seemingly dried up early into 2002. Download sales started to contribute in 2005, so 4 years of downloads up to the point of its June 2009 total reveal. So this indicates that the sales required to place at these positions throughout 2001 (in numerical order: 46 54 54 62 64 66 69 79 80 86 97 101 109 110 112 114 115 116 120 123 126 127 127 127 143 143 144 144 145 146 147 150 151 151 153 161 165 181 188 189) would have averaged out to just a few hundred sales each week. Let's say it sold 30,000 copies in 2001 (a guess based on nothing) - that would be an average of 577 per week. So maybe it was a thousand or so sales each week while it was within the Top 100, but maybe a couple of hundred towards the bottom of the Top 200? It's a shame it didn't sell more when it was new! It was rather frontloaded. 106,000 sales at #1, and funnily enough another 106,000 was sold during its 2000 run of 03-10-22-31-38-39-43-46-42. For it to reach 400k/Gold is such a mountain to climb, and by my reckoning it's probably still not close. I'm estimating somewhere in the 340k+ area by now. :cry: Sadly it's one of their least supported singles on streaming. If only it could be added to a decent playlist or go viral. -_-

:o Justice for Take My Breath Away! I definitely anticipated a Top 10 finish for it. It's such a lovely song!

I don't recall the fanbase mostly being meh about Baby Please Don't Stop! Maybe I missed the mood on Spice Circle but I tend to avoid that place like the plague anyway :whistle:

It’s just ChristmasWapping’s long running joke, he’s not really being serious (even if he replies to insist that he is being serious!). It stems from a chart week from a few years ago, when it became evident that AIWFCIY was missing some sales data from video streaming, due to a glitch - and it was questioned whether that glitch cost her #1 that week. Also, it’s been in the UK chart every Christmas since 2007; chart rules wouldn’t allow an annual reappearance before then. So no official chart action from 1996 to 2006. The US chart was restrictive with its chart rules for even longer - 2012 marked the first year that its annual reappearances in the Billboard Hot 100 began, having only appeared once before then - at #83 in a January 2000 dated chart (from radio impact that occurred in December 1999). It wasn’t actually issued with a physical single in the US in 1994, so due to chart rules at the time it wasn’t eligible to chart. Its brief first appearance in the 1999 Christmas season was due to a brief rule change… but for years after that it wasn’t allowed back in due to recurrency rules. Even though AIWFCIY reached #1 in their download chart in 2005, its popularity wasn’t able to be reflected in their main chart.

All I Want for Christmas Is You spends its 18th week at #1 in the US Billboard Hot 100! It's just one week behind equalling the two longest running #1s: Old Town Road by Lil Nas X A Bar Song (Tipsy) by Shaboozey We'll see during Christmas 2025 if it becomes the first song in Billboard history to make it to 20 weeks! (Assuming that A Bar Song doesn't reclaim #1 or if anything new in 2025 manages 20+ weeks). In the UK, AIWFCIY spends its 9th consecutive week in the Top 100. This is the first time it's managed to stay in the Top 100 for that long (in the Official Charts Company version of its chart run), outdoing its previous best of 8 weeks.

Special D - Come with Me going platinum! :cheeseblock: Its journey to platinum: 83,500 - End of 2004 200,000/Silver - 25.08.2017 400,000/Gold - 09.07.2021 600,000/Platinum - 03.01.2025 I didn't realise it was doing well on streaming; across two versions it has exceeded 100m globally on Spotify. Its chart run at the time was ok~ but not exactly huge hit territory: 6-9-11-11-15-21-31-37-out (top 40) - but evidently it's quite well remembered!

Triple Mariah Carey :cheeseblock:

I wonder when the moment came that Kylie decided to switch lanes and go back to pop? When did she ultimately decide that the music from her Deconstruction era wasn't working out for her, and wasn't how she should continue on with her career? Would it have been in 1999, or could her thoughts about this have taken root some time in 1998? I wonder how she ultimately felt about the decision to change her music direction, before she began recording material for Light Years - could she possibly have felt a bit defeated or even reluctant to go back to pop - or was she perhaps feeling immediately positive and motivated by this choice? After all, she could have equally decided to stick to her guns, musically. I feel like there was an element of risk for her going back to pop, just in case that didn't work out either? :thinking: I'm not sure if she's ever spoken at length about this! I also sometimes wonder how her 90s music would have sounded if she decided to continue with a poppier sound. My guess is there would have been an electronic influence there, and maybe her mid to late 90s sound could have been a bit... Gina G-esque? :thinking:

Kind of unsure what to vote for :drama: Against my better judgement Dance Alone grew on me in all of its incredibly basic glory so I'm not even sure if that is my least favourite. Time for an album relisten...

Would be pretty cool if the certifications both happened in the same week!

What if I said I still haven't listened to the studio version :ph34r:

Lol I wonder if the girls heard Let Love Lead the Way sped up, more times during that shoot than they heard the normal paced version that year? :lol: I skimmed through it and it's interesting to see the different sets from further away. I wonder if Emma found it irritating to be holding onto that green material for a lot of the day? :kink: Thanks for posting! I remember the Holler BTS leak too but I only skimmed through that too. If only HD cameras were a thing back then.

I'll always be so confused by her attempts at becoming associated with Christmas, without doing the one thing that could help make that happen, a Christmas album! :lol: As you say "My Happy Christmas" (be it a re-release or its own thing) was such a no brainer! And if she'd done that in 2019, it would have now had 6 Christmases to build up streams - and who knows, perhaps a song from it would have found its way onto popular playlists over those years and done something. Missed opportunities! Only doing a release of 2 songs just seemed rather halfhearted. The Royal Albert Hall Christmas show, and the Christmas tour, was kind of like running before you can walk :thinking: Someone such as Leona can do a Christmas tour more convincingly due to having an actual Christmas hit, and a Christmas album, so the association is there. It isn't really there at all for Ms Bunton! :arrr:

I wrote this in the Emma results thread initially, but then I thought it was a bit off track and better off being in the album thread...! ---- Looking back at this album, the marketing for it strikes me as being curious. I mean, when the album is ostensibly a cover versions album... launching that with an original song as its lead single, is perhaps a bit misleading? Ultimately giving mixed messages about what the album's overall concept actually is? The second song released as a pre-release was the only other original song too! I just think if your album is predominently cover versions and that's mostly what you're aiming to sell to people - wouldn't it make more sense to lean more heavily into that aspect in its promotion? As a fan, I'm of course glad that there were even 2 originals. Emma easily could have been lazier and had it be 100% covers. But in a way, the existence of those two originals makes the project feel really frustrating, like, there was untapped potential for something more. 'Baby Please Don't Stop' and 'Too Many Teardrops' have always made me wish that they'd inspired Emma to create more originals, and abandon the cover versions idea altogether. Or at the very least, only go with inspired choices as covers. That happened with 'I Wish I Could Have Loved You More', which is so obscure that I'm sure for most Bunton fans it comes off as being an original song anyway. Most of the other covers though... so obvious, so safe. Another thing which made Emma's 2019 return relatively disappointing for me, is that fellow 90s popstar Louise also made a comeback that year. As fans of both artists, Louise's return was more convincing to me - more exciting, better quality and essentially Louise came across as way more committed. She started doing pop orientated festivals such as Mighty Hoopla, which I think leant to making it clear that Louise was actually passionate about being a popstar again. Whereas Emma, for whatever reasons, has resisted these kinds of bookings. :thinking:

I think Baby Please Don't Stop is a very nice, cute bop! A nice addition to her singles catalogue. It's a bit mad to think it's already 6 years old this year. :wacko:

Happy New Year :wub: Certainly hope 2025 is a more interesting year in Spice world than 2024 was -_-

@1874583371181166920 You listened to 1,056 artists this year, 15% of which were new discoveries. One reigned supreme... Your favourite artist this year was Charli xcx. You scrobbled them 858 times, putting you in the top 3% of fans worldwide. They weren't the only artist to make an impact... #2 - 710 scrobbles - Ariana Grande #3 - 574 scrobbles - Taylor Swift #4 - 530 scrobbles - Girls Aloud #5 - 492 scrobbles - Kylie Minogue #6 - 472 scrobbles - Sabrina Carpenter =#7 - 419 scrobbles - Troye Sivan =#7 - 419 scrobbles - Griff #9 - 399 scrobbles - Dua Lipa #10 - 339 scrobbles - Chappell Roan You listened to 2,480 albums, which is over 6 per day. Which ones kept you coming back for more? Your favourite album this year was eternal sunshine by Ariana Grande. You scrobbled it 430 times, putting you in the top 5% of fans worldwide. Check out a few more from your 2024 collection. #2 - 426 times - BRAT by Charli xcx #3 - 340 times - THE TORTURED POETS DEPARTMENT by Taylor Swift #4 - 334 times - Short n' Sweet by Sabrina Carpenter #5 - 267 times - Something to Give Ech Other by Troye Sivan #6 - 247 times - The Rise and Fall of a Midwest Princess by Chappell Roan #7 - 236 times - C,XOXO by Camila Cabello #8 - 214 times - Found Heaven by Conan Gray #9 - 205 times - Brat and it's completely different but also still brat by Charli xcx #10 - 188 times - Radical Optimism by Dua Lipa #11 - 180 times - Tension II by Kylie Minogue #12 - 176 times - Vertigo by Griff #13 - 132 times - HIT ME HARD AND SOFT by Billie Eilish #14 - 124 times - COWBOY CARTER by Beyoncé #15 - 123 times - Tension by Kylie Minogue #16 - 108 times - 143 by Katy Perry #17 - 92 times - Good Luck, Babe! by Chappell Roan #18 - 83 times - The Whole Damn Show Megamix by Girls Aloud #19 - 82 times - What Will the Neighbours Say? by Girls Aloud #20 - 77 times - Made in Korea: The K-Pop Experience (Original TV Soundtrack) by dearALICE #21 - 62 times - THINK LATER by Tate McRae =#22 - 60 times - What Will the Neighbours Say? (20th Anniversary Edition) by Girls Aloud =#22 - 60 times - Angel of My Dreams by Jade #24 - 57 times - emails i can't send fwd: by Sabrina Carpenter #25 - 56 times - eternal sunshine (slightly deluxe) by Ariana Grande You listened to 4,551 tracks, with an average of 3.2 scrobbles per track. With your 2024 anthem leading the way... Your favourite track was we can't be friends (wait for your love) by Ariana Grande. You scrobbled it 109 times, putting you in the top 3% of fans worldwide. Let's take a look at the rest of the competition... #2 - 103 scrobbles - yes, and? by Ariana Grande #3 - 100 scrobbles - Fortnight (feat. Post Malone) by Taylor Swift #4 - 92 scrobbles - Espresso by Sabrina Carpenter #5 - 91 scrobbles - Good Luck, Babe! by Chappell Roan You hit 15,006 total scrobbles putting you in the top 24% of listeners worldwide. No one else listened quite like you... We'd describe you as a rooted, versatile, explorer. - 86% Consistency: Describes how regular your music habits are. Higher percentage mean you scrobbled on more days throughout the year. - 70% Replay Rate: How often you returned to your favourite songs. - 35% Concentration: How long you spent listening to your favourite artists. Higher percentages mean you spent more time with your favourites. - 26% Variance: How diverse your listening was this year. Higher percentages mean you explored more tags. - 15% Discovery Rate: How much new music you listened to this year. Higher percentages mean you discovered more new artists. Your favourite time to listen was 12am. Scrobbles in busiest hour: 1,190. Busiest day: Sunday. Scrobbles in busiest day: 2,505. And your longest streak was 34 consecutive days, January 28th to March 1st. Out of everyone on Last.fm, you were the 61st top listener of this artist: Gina G, 48 scrobbles. You were the 91st top listener of this album: Tangled Up by Girls Aloud, 41 scrobbles. You were the 78th top listener of this track: LOVER by The Knocks, 20 scrobbles. The first track you scrobbled this year is Padam Padam by Kylie Minogue. 79% mainstream score. Most obscure artist: SC3 (S Club 3) Did you know? Your 2024 was LIT. You listened to 18 tracks with 'fire' in the title last year. 🔥 8,511 other listeners also had 'we can't be friends (wait for your love)' as their top track. Listening time: 34 days, 17 hours Average scrobbles: 41 per day Scrobbles in most active day: 175 (4th July) Top Tags: Pop, Dance, Synthpop, House, Electropop.

If you guys have lists for 2024, feel free to post them! :cheer: My 2024 List Abbott Elementary (Disney+) [season 2: Episodes 11-22 / completed] Abbott Elementary (Disney+) [season 3: Episodes 1-14 / completed] Big Boys (Channel 4) [series 2: Episodes 1-6 / completed] Changing Ends (ITVX) [series 2: Episodes 1-6 / completed] Dead Hot (Amazon Prime Video) [series 1: Episodes 1-6 / completed] Doctor Who - Joy to the World (BBC One) [Christmas Special Episode / completed] Elite (Netflix) [season 7: Episode 1-8 / completed] Elite (Netflix) [season 8: Episodes 1-8 / completed] Fear the Walking Dead (Amazon Prime Video) [season 8: Episodes 1-12 / completed] G'Wed (ITVX) [series 1: Episodes 1-6 / completed] Generation Z (Channel 4) [Miniseries: Episodes 1-6 / completed] Girls5eva (Netflix) [season 3: Episodes 1-6 / completed] Good Trouble (Disney+) [season 5: Episodes 11-20 / completed] Heartbreak High (Netflix) [season 2: Episodes 1-8 / completed] Heartstopper (Netflix) [season 3: Episodes 1-8 / completed] The Morning Show (Apple TV) [season 3: Episodes 1-10 / completed] Only Murders in the Building (Disney+) [season 3: Episodes 1-10 / completed] Only Murders in the Building (Disney+) [season 4: Episodes 1-10 / completed] Skins (Netflix) [series 1: Episodes 1-9 / completed] {Rewatch} Skins (Netflix) [series 2: Episodes 1-5 / ongoing] {Rewatch} Tell Me Everything (ITVX) [series 2: Episodes 1-6 / completed] Trigger Point (ITVX) [series 2: Episodes 1-6 / completed] Wreck (BBC iPlayer) [series 2: Episodes 1-6 / completed] Young Royals (Netflix) [season 3: Episodes 1-6 / completed] Other: A-Teens: The Atonement (YouTube) [Documentary: Episodes 1-2 / completed] Big Brother (ITVX) [series 2 {of ITV era}: Episodes 1-36 / completed] Big Brother: Late & Live (ITVX) [series 2: Episodes 1-2, 14-16, 18, 21, 30, 36 / partially completed] Boybands Forever (iPlayer) [Documentary: Episodes 1-3 / completed] The Brit Awards (ITV1) [2024 Ceremony / completed] Celebrity Big Brother (ITV1 or ITVX) [series 1: Episodes 1-17 / completed] Celebrity Big Brother: Late & Live (ITV2 or ITVX) [series 1: Episodes 11, 17 / partially completed] Eurovision Song Contest 2023 (BBC One) [2nd Semi-Final & Grand Final / completed] The Girls Aloud Show (ITVX) [Live Concert and Interview / completed] Gladiators (2024) (BBC One) [series 1: Episodes 1-11 / completed] The Great British Bake Off (Channel 4) [series 15: Episode 1-10 / completed] Made in Korea: The K-Pop Experience (BBC One) [series 1: Episodes 1-6 / completed] RuPaul's Drag Race UK (BBC Three & iPlayer) [series 6: Episodes 1-10 / completed] RuPaul's Drag Race UK vs The World (BBC iPlayer) [series 2: Episodes 1-8 / completed] The Traitors (BBC One) [series 2: Episodes 1-12 / completed] The Traitors: Uncloaked (BBC Two) [Episode 12 'The Final' / partially completed]

November 2024 Generation Z (Channel 4) [Miniseries: Episodes 1-5 / ongoing] Only Murders in the Building (Disney+) [season 4: Episodes 1-7 / ongoing] Other: Big Brother (ITVX) [series 2 of ITV era: Episodes 24-36 / completed] Big Brother: Late & Live (ITVX) [series 2: Episodes 30, 36 / partially completed] Boybands Forever (iPlayer) [Documentary: Episodes 1-3 / completed] The Girls Aloud Show (ITVX) [Live Concert and Interview / completed] The Great British Bake Off (Channel 4) [series 15: Episode 6-10 / completed] RuPaul's Drag Race UK (BBC Three & iPlayer) [series 6: Episodes 7-10 / completed] -------------------- December 2024 Doctor Who - Joy to the World (BBC One) [Christmas Special Episode / completed] Generation Z (Channel 4) [Miniseries: Episodes 6 / completed] Only Murders in the Building (Disney+) [season 4: Episodes 8-10 / completed]

2024 Disc 1 is the disc I'm claiming :cheeseblock:

@1873813384908697794 :wub:

The thing is, Liam sadly isn't here anymore to be able to make the choice to take responsibility for his addictions, if he'd been able to reach that point. Although his tragic fall & death is in major part because of his inebriation (I don't think anyone is claiming that he's entirely blameless), it's also partly because of the negligence of others. I'm a little surprised by the view that no one else is at all culpable for what happened to Liam. Putting it all on Liam's choices to take drugs is a rather black and white outlook in my opinion. It's not like we're discussing death due to an overdose here, which would be more clear cut between his choice to take the drugs, and the dealers supplying the drugs. His death was caused by falling off a balcony and suffering fatal injuries - after being left in his room in that vulnerable state, by hotel staff. It is of course very unfortunate that his drug taking and the effects that this had on his behaviour, unwittingly made staff members become involved with him. That these staff members made decisions that unwittingly led to Liam's death. This is essentially what manslaughter is all about though, unintentional involvement in somebody's death. I guess we're just going to become repetitive now, but I'll just end by saying... I'm glad that Liam and his family will get some justice. They'll of course still have to live with the loss, and with the knowledge that Liam's addiction contributed to his demise.

I disagree. I think the staff had a level of responsibility to ensure the safety of a guest in their hotel - i.e. not taking a clearly inebriated person to a room with an accessible balcony and then leaving him by himself. They may not be responsible for his decision to take drugs, but nevertheless they made the choice to move a vulnerable person into an area that was unsafe, which ultimately led to his death. It's essentially what manslaughter is - no intention to cause harm or for their actions to result in death... but death occurred partly due to negligence.