-Jay-

BRAT update! 70 - 360 66 - Guess (featuring Billie Eilish) 60 - Von dutch 57 - Apple 54 - Girl, so confusing (featuring Lorde) 51 - Talk talk (featuring Troye Sivan) 40 - Club classics 39 - 365 33 - Sympathy is a knife (featuring Ariana Grande) 30 - B2b 25 - Sympathy is a knife 19 - Talk talk 17 - Von dutch (A.G. Cook Remix featuring Addison Rae) 16 - Everything is romantic 16 - Spring breakers 15 - Mean girls 14 - Guess 12 - Girl, so confusing 11 - Hello goodbye 11 - Rewind 9 - I might say something stupid 8 - 360 (featuring Robyn & Yung Lean) 8 - I think about it all the time 8 - So I 8 - Spring breakers (featuring Kesha) 6 - B2b (featuring Tinashe) 5 - 365 (featuring Shygirl) 5 - Apple (featuring The Japanese House) 3 - Club classics (featuring Bb trickz) 3 - Everything is romantic (featuring Caroline Polachek) 3 - I might say something stupid (featuring The 1975 & Jon Hopkins) 3 - I think about it all the time (featuring Bon Iver) 3 - Mean girls (featuring Julian Casablancas) 3 - Rewind (featuring Bladee) 3 - So I (featuring A.G. Cook) 3 - Von dutch (Remix with Skream and Benga)

Christmas Wrapping up to 3rd place on their Spotify list, and Goodbye is back in in 10th place, replacing Mama.

Although the fact it's already 3rd in her Popular list says a lot about her current reach on Spotify :kink:

Probably unsurprisingly it's Mariah Carey - All I Want for Christmas Is You! I've played it 288 times since 2012. The highest number of plays I gave it in a year happened in 2019 - 45 scrobbles! It was the song's 25th anniversary, and it still hadn't been to #1 at that point, so I think that encouraged me to hammer it. :kink: I've cooled down a bit with the song recently - I gave it 9 scrobbles in 2023, and it ended up being 9 scrobbles this year too, both their lowest years. There's been so many new Christmas songs released in recent years and I've been finding myself listening to many, rather than focusing on a select few. Top 10: (Stats since 2012) 1st - 288 scrobbles - Mariah Carey - All I Want for Christmas Is You Highest year: 2019 - 45 scrobbles Lowest year: 2023 & 2024 - 9 scrobbles 2nd - 229 scrobbles - Leona Lewis - One More Sleep Highest year: 2013 - 33 scrobbles Lowest year: 2023 - 5 scrobbles 3rd - 139 scrobbles - Kelly Clarkson - Underneath the Tree Highest year: 2013 - 23 scrobbles Lowest year: 2014 & 2023 - 5 scrobbles 4th - 128 scrobbles - Ariana Grande - Santa Tell Me Highest year: 2019 - 18 scrobbles Lowest year: 2023 - 5 scrobbles 5th - 118 scrobbles - Wham! - Last Christmas Highest year: 2018 - 17 scrobbles Lowest year: 2014 - 0 scrobbles (!) 6th - 93 scrobbles - Katy Perry - Cozy Little Christmas Highest year: 2018 - 28 scrobbles Lowest year: 2023 - 4 scrobbles 7th - 69 scrobbles - Gwen Stefani/Blake Shelton - You Make It Feel Like Christmas Highest year: 2019 - 14 scrobbles Lowest year: 2023 - 3 scrobbles 8th - 68 scrobbles - Mariah Carey - Christmas (Baby Please Come Home) Highest year: 2018 - 11 scrobbles Lowest year: 2015 - 1 scrobble =9th - 62 scrobbles - Jonas Brothers - Like It's Christmas Highest year: 2019 - 22 scrobbles Lowest year: 2023 - 3 scrobbles =9th - 62 scrobbles - Kylie Minogue - At Christmas Highest year: 2020 - 10 scrobbles Lowest year: 2023 - 3 scrobbles

Great to see 'BRAT' make your Top 10 albums of the year :cheeseblock: What an era! These are the other albums I've heard: 11 Camila Cabello - C,XOXO | 1-2-5-7-8-12-12-14-12-15-12-15-x 15 Sabrina Carpenter - Short n' Sweet | 1-2-3-6-9-12-x 19 Taylor Swift - THE TORTURED POETS DEPARTMENT | 1-2-6-10-13-13-14-x-12-x 23 Dua Lipa - Radical Optimism | 2-5-7-9-12-15-15-x 24 Kylie Minogue - Tension II | 1-3-4-8-12-x 27 Katy Perry - 143 | 1-3-9-14-x 28 Griff - Vertigo | 3-5-7-10-11-13-13-x 30 Beyoncé - COWBOY CARTER | 3-6-8-11-14-x It's been such a strong year for female artists! All fantastic winners in your "Awards" section! It was phenomenal seeing Girls Aloud again this year. :wub: Keeping everything crossed for dearALICE having success in 2025, excited to see how they progress! Such a solid EP. The only film we've both seen is "I Am: Celine Dion" which was very heart wrenching and honest, a really powerful watch. I'll be watching Dune: Part Two later today so I'll let you know what I think of that. So much good TV this year, happy to see Heartstopper as high as 2nd in your Returning Drama section! I'm looking forward to the rest of the Top 10 albums reveal.

I think this thread jumped the shark very quickly in terms of that question... :kink: and it's kind of impossible to pinpoint what the answer to that question would be, because there's way too many variables. "Something with big expectations that didnt perform?" from your opening post allows for more varied and interesting responses, and is probably what the thread should be retitled as. On paper a Whitney Houston & George Michael collaboration surely had big expectations, enough so to be selected as the UK lead for Whitney's first Greatest Hits era, at least. Based on George Michael's chart history over the majority of the 90s, I'd say a #9 entry to start off the 2000s portion of his career was something of an underperformance for him. I know the song is more so a Whitney single, given that it's from her album, but the artists do have equal billing on the single. You might be forgiven for thinking that George's fanbase would have showed up more than they did for this single, based on the amount of Top 5 hits he'd accumulated over the years. 'Don't Let the Sun Go Down on Me' marked the beginning of George's longest string of Top 10 hits, the majority being Top 5s: 1991 - #1 - Don't Let the Sun Go Down on Me 1992 - #4 - Too Funky 1993 - #1 - Five Live EP 1996 - #1 - Jesus to a Child 1996 - #1 - Fastlove 1996 - #2 - Spinning the Wheel 1997 - #3 - Older/I Can't Make You Love Me 1997 - #2 - Star People '97 1997 - #10 - Waltz Away Dreaming 1997 - #2 - You Have Been Loved 1998 - #2 - Outside 1999 - #4 - As 2000 - #9 - If I Told You That 2002 - #7 Freeek!

Great work :heart: Even though my submission is on Disc 3, I would say Disc 1 is my favourite overall!

Both the George and Enrique collaborations are much of a muchness for me, they're ok! ~~~~~ I'm surprised that Spice Girls - Headlines (Friendship Never Ends) hasn't been mentioned yet! Released in November 2007, it was their comeback single - their first single in 7 years. It peaked at #11, undoubtedly a poor result for a group that had otherwise achieved: 9 x #1 singles 1 x #2 single 2 x #1 albums 2 x #2 albums Although the general reaction to Headlines upon its premiere was " :nocheer: ", I still don't think anyone would have predicted it missing the Top 10. Despite streaming contributing to sales for a decade, Headlines' current total sales stand at around 66,000 (estimated). When it left the Top 200 in January 2008 it had sold 44,000. So it's very firmly remained forgotten / unappreciated.

I would agree that Whitney Houston & George Michael - 'If I Told You That' was a surprising underperformance though. On paper you'd think a pairing like that - two of the very biggest artists of the 80s and 90s - would result in a hit that managed a lot better than 9-19-25-34-out (in terms of the Top 40 run). The single release did come three weeks after the release of Whitney's Greatest Hits though, a big seller and a #1, which might not have helped. Yet that's maybe not much of an excuse when the follow up release, the Whitney/Enrique collaboration 'Could I Have This Kiss Forever' (which came 21 weeks after the album) went to #7 and performed quite a lot better overall: 7-9-11-16-21-28-out. Regarding UK radio airplay, 'If I Told You That' performed pretty well. It had already spent 3 weeks in the Top 10 (9-8-6...) prior to the physical release, and another 3 weeks beyond that (...5-4-6). Interestingly 'Could I Have This Kiss Forever' was not a particularly big radio hit, going no higher than #23. So I do think there's an element of "what went wrong?" with 'If I Told You That'. I would say, having looked at the physical release, that it doesn't look overly appealing, either from an artwork or track list perspective. Maybe it's ultimately an example of a song that was well received, but that goodwill translated more directly into album sales (Greatest Hits was at #3 in its 4th week in the chart, in the same week that the single was at #9).

True! Although I think my points still stand, that she lacks motivation or concern about Santa Baby and the Kylie Christmas era in general. I'll be seriously surprised if there's a 10th anniversary album / 25th anniversary single releases next year.

'Last Christmas' - will it exceed 100,000 sales (ACR) in any week this year? We have our answer - yes! 114,290. (225,468 SCR!) Mariah didn't manage it - 94,170. 'All I Want for Christmas Is You' - what will be its highest position achieved in 2024? #2 :cheeseblock:

Kylie likely doesn't bother making an effort with Santa Baby because it's a cover, released on a previous label... so it's just left to its own devices. The fact that it's managed to do pretty well in the streaming era feels largely by chance. Same goes for why she hasn't pushed any of her other Christmas songs in recent years. If anything happens with one of her songs in the future, it'll likely only be because Spotify randomly decide to favour one, rather than a specific effort being made. I highly doubt it'll even be on her wavelength that Santa Baby is performing less well or that she'll feel the need to react to that. Maybe if she did a second Christmas album (with BMG) she'd put the work in! I'll always think both the 2015 and 2016 attempts were rather mishandled anyway. All those original Christmas songs, yet she launched the project with Only You which is not even a Christmas song... madness!

:cheeseblock: The impact, the importance!

Anyone still going? :kink: I think I'll say goodbye to Christmas music after today though, and turn my attention back to the hits of the year!

Just realised the physicals were already counted in the UK chart on 20th December, despite that being its release date. #2 - Vinyl #3 - Physical #5 - Sales

Lots of Life in Mono! My favourite there is possibly I Wasn’t Looking When I Found Love, her vocals sounds really pretty on it. Mischievous is a bit of a bop!

It’s a lovely performance :wub: O3v3COpe4h8 Unfortunately it didn’t translate into great sales, it’s currently #122 on iTunes. No sign of the Spice Girls original in the Top 200 either!

That's true :lol: I'll consider giving it a helping hand :teresa:

Digital release confirmed for 3rd January! Surprised it's this early?

:cheeseblock: Truly deserved! Such a long wait for it to happen :o

I never got the Tension deluxe in that size format... and tbh £8.99 is still a bit much for an additional copy I don't really need :kink:

The one item I really want to get slashed in price, Extension, is more expensive than ever... £39.99 :drama: I should have gone for it when it was £15 on Amazon a few months ago, oops.

:basil:

'Not Tonight Santa' sadly isn't doing as well this year, but it's not surprising with it being bumped off the Christmas Pop playlist. Currently it's 6th in their Popular Top 10 with 9,631,013 streams (quite the contrast to 2024 when it was already 4th place as early as 24th November). It's increased by 339,004 since the last total I noted down for it on 2nd June 2024. Whereas it managed around 2.5m streams during Christmas 2022, and similarly in Christmas 2023... which certainly shows how important particular playlists are. A bit of a strange one that Spotify decided to stop supporting it in the year of their comeback! :drama:

Christmas Wrapping on 13,117,478 streams on Spotify. It's not yet managed to move into their Popular Top 5 songs (it's currently 6th). Too Much is 9th, ahead of Mama (pretty sure it's usually the other way around?).