-Jay-

Hopefully Kylie fans are on it when it comes to downloading it (when we actually can). I'm sure they'll rally around it, but I noticed that Tom Grennan kind of flopped on downloads: 82-35-33-out. #33 coinciding with the week it was #3 in the official chart. He was only 468 sales behind Mariah, so if his fanbase had been more engaged with downloading he could have got to #2! But on the other hand, Sam Ryder did well on downloads, eventually: 43-48-2-1-out

This time last year on 18th November 2024, in the Monday midweek update, Tom Grennan started at midweek #62 - then ended up at #83 in Friday's official chart. The higher midweek position but lower Friday position was a consistent thing throughout its chart life, and this is due to the fact that Amazon is on time with the data it reports whereas other streaming platforms such as Spotify are a day late - which creates the illusion of an Amazon song doing better in the midweeks than it would be if all data was present. Comparing Tom's Monday midweek vs Friday position: 18/11/24 - #62 vs. 22/11/24 -#83 25/11/24 - #24 vs. 29/11/24 - #49 02/12/24 - #9 vs. 06/12/24 - #25 09/12/24 - #3 vs. 13/12/24 - #6 16/12/24 - #2 vs. 20/12/24 - #4 23/12/24 - #2 vs. 27/12/24 - #3 30/12/24 - #9 vs. 03/01/25 - #30 Similar happened with other Amazon releases, for example Sam Ryder: 50-26-12-04-04-02-02-56 [Monday midweek chart run] 88-50-23-12-10-02-02-85 [Friday official chart run] and Jess Glynne: 37-12-04-04-04-03 [Monday midweek chart run] 63-28-13-09-04-03 [Friday official chart run] Anyway based on Tom Grennan last year, there's a possibility that we could see XMAS in the midweeks today. If it's not in the Top 100, then that would highlight that it's off to a worse start. Fingers crossed! A reason for posting those above chart run comparisons, is that if XMAS does show in the midweeks, just to manage expectations and that it would likely end up much lower in the chart by Friday (until we get a lot closer to Christmas time).

Not sure what to expect from the midweeks today, what with potentially hundreds of orders not dispatched yet due to the Christmas card.

If the label had done more and released a picture disc, CD and download - with even just a couple of bonus tracks on it - then perhaps it could have charted! It usually takes about 1300 sales to make the Top 200.

In regards to how their legacies are being handled, it’s certainly been a lot more rewarding and fun to be a Girls Aloud fan than a Spice Girls fan in recent years. Nostalgia and fan service is done in the right way for Girls Aloud! That’s 20 year old footage that was mostly unseen, for one of the fan favourite GA Christmas songs. Then there’s the CD and vinyl including a lot of previously unseen pictures. They’re going above and beyond to get everything right. I think there has to be people in the Universal team who are actually fans of Girls Aloud and understand what to do with their legacy, knowing what fans will want and love. I truly wish it could be that way for the Spice Girls, but alas.

A lovely surprise! Such a good idea to turn that footage into a music video. I hope the music channels put it in rotation!

https://www.instagram.com/reel/DRAcJpmCG9y/?igsh=MWV5eXNycWVkZ2g2OQ== Video of Kimberley showing off the new physicals

Physicals out today! Really not sure what to expect from this in the chart.

Love to see this album having great longevity, it really deserves it

This person has also done similar, to Katy Perry and The Weeknd, invading their stages. He really needs to be stopped 😬 Maybe it’s for clout, maybe he’s not well. Definitely a huge failing of security at this event. In theory that could have been a whole lot worse but thank goodness it wasn’t. It’s actually wild that Cynthia had to be the one to be a bodyguard in that moment! Very brave and selfless of her. I feel for Ariana because we know she’s been through a lot, I hope this didn’t shake her up too badly.

Welcome back mother

I’m just thirsty for chart positions 😭

Each to their own but I’ve never understood what’s meant to be so terrible about this album! Yeah Yeah, Promise This, Waiting, Hummingbird, Amnesia… bops were delivered on this half a million selling opus x

I’d welcome them getting a hit that way tbh

20k behind: 20/12/2024: 01 59,426 Wham! - Last Christmas 02 49,574 Gracie Abrams - That's So True 03 43,790 Mariah Carey - All I Want for Christmas Is You 04 39,049 Tom Grennan - It Can't Be Christmas 05 38,285 ROSÉ & Bruno Mars - APT. One difference between Kylie and Tom's release strategies, is that Tom didn't have physicals counting towards the Christmas chart week - whereas Kylie's physicals will. Instead, Tom's physical sales contributed to the week after, 27th Dec chart, when it climbed to #3: 27/12/2024: 01 114,290 Wham! - Last Christmas 02 94,170 Mariah Carey - All I Want for Christmas Is You 03 93,702 Tom Grennan - It Can't Be Christmas 04 84,407 Brenda Lee - Rockin' Around the Christmas Tree 05 71,523 Bobby Helms - Jingle Bell Rock Not that pure sales made all that much difference for him. While we don't know how much he sold on vinyl and CD, what we do know is that he reached #2 in the physical singles chart. Wham - Last Christmas was at #1 in that chart with 1,670 sales, so therefore Tom sold less than that. I think we can safely assume Kylie will attract more physical sales. Another thing, Tom didn't do very well on downloads - only reached #33 in the download chart. So it was a hit almost entirely driven by streams.

It makes me wonder if OCC aren't keen on explaining that a climb in the chart is simply because of a new variant, and thus they want to dress it up with "topical news" to make it seem more interesting to readers. They actually did the same with The Fame a few weeks ago... "Gaga fever is well and truly alive following the release of The Dead Dance and her sold-out UK Tour, The Mayhem Ball, commencing next week. As a result, her debut album The Fame, could shoot an astounding 31 places up the rankings this week (19). Upon its original release in 2008, the record was an instant hit peaking at Number 1, staying there for seven weeks non-consecutively." ... which was also primarily because of a new vinyl variant for The Fame/The Fame Monster, lol.

Also Sign of the Times

Victoria’s definitely rewriting history to suit her own narrative, probably assuming that 99.9% of viewers of her documentary/interviews won’t know/care about the finer details and just take her word for it. She just isn’t thinking about the 0.1% of the hardcore Spice Girls fans who know she’s not being fully honest lol. Claiming that the Spice Girls were over before she gave birth to Brooklyn, really? My eyes rolled when she was giving that answer in the podcast. Saying that she had to be persuaded to take part in 2007 and that she was never really into it? As others here have mentioned, it was evident at the time that she was in fact a driving force. The “mic off” anecdote as a form of self deprecation, it’s annoying but I feel like at this point that’s a crutch for her to be endearing to the public who would 100% believe that to be true because they don’t view her as a singer. So she leans into that for her own benefit… when she must know that isn’t even true. Also when it comes to her solo music career, meh, I guess I can understand why she glosses over it because it serves her better to dismiss it as being inconsequential in the grand scheme of things. We know the reality of it though, she spent approaching 5 years of her life on solo music, and I don’t believe she’d have put herself through it without determination and passion at the time. Particularly as after the debut album, she put herself through it all over again with a new label, when, honestly, she was in a position that she really didn’t have to. Which makes me believe she did want to be a solo artist back then. I understand what she’s doing when she downplays everything to do with music, I think it completely stems from insecurity, and it’s a shame… but it is what it is. It would be wonderful if she felt more proud of her past and just owned it, without feeling the need to bend the truth to suit a narrative.

Maybe give it a week or two, previous Amazon releases weren’t doing much at this equivalent time either!

I keep feeling like I’m going to jinx it when I post things like this(!) but judging by how the last two Amazon Christmas songs did, XMAS could end up giving Kylie her highest weekly sales for a single since Can’t Get You Out of My Head? Also if XMAS managed a 90k+ sales week like Tom Grennan did, I believe other than CGYOOMH the only other Kylie singles to exceed that many sales in a week are I Should Be So Lucky, Especially for You and Hand on Your Heart?

P.S. @HarryGarfield babe let's discuss that 8.5 for People Watching, I'm sat and I'm awaiting your explanation xx

That's an incredible Top 3, given that they're my Top 3 songs, but just not the same order (I'd go 1 People Watching, 2 Maniac, 3 Vodka Cranberry) Thanks for the hard work with the results Calum, I enjoyed reading through the commentaries. Conan really does have a stellar discography, and I wish more people would give him a chance... I'm sure many would be pleasantly surprised.

bandaids doesn’t come across as an attempt at chasing credibility to me. I think for that she’d have got the guitar out and really stripped it all the way back. This song is very much in the pop lane! It wouldn’t have sounded out of place in Katy’s pre-Witness catalogue. Chart wise, I didn’t have high expectations for whatever Katy released as her first post-143 moment. Really, she’d been on a downward trend way before that car crash of an era. The moment just before she released Woman’s World felt like the make or break moment to reverse her fortunes and we certainly know the outcome lol. That damage is really hard to come back from. So I agree with @365 that I’m surprised people were looking at her to perform better this time. I think this portion of her career to try and undo 143’s damage will be more of a marathon, not a sprint. It could take several singles to turn the tide with how she’s perceived. I’d never count her out completely but I’m not holding my breath for her to suddenly be smashing it in the charts again.

He really shouldn't have done Overdrive and Telepath dirty like that, they are both incredible bops Happy to own the Japanese CD of it, the superior track list x Wow, Actor as high as 5th! It is great though. I'm still not tiring of the Wishbone album, I keep going back to it.