André

Yup, decent debut all things considered. Although she did get special treatment in the US, where she debuted at #2 and was placed first in Today Top Hits.

New entries: 19 Taylor Swift - Gorgeous 35 Ask Flipz - Krept & Konan, Stormzy 44 Anywhere - Rita Ora 50 Bedroom Floor - Liam Payne Also, Niall re-enters with Too Much To Ask (#45). Mr. Brightside is at #30. The UK obsession with this song is a bit much at this point tbh.

P!nk has literally been releasing the exact same songs for 10 years now. I mean, her success and stability is really impressive but her "confessional pop rock" sound has not matured or evolved in any way, shape or form. Any song from her current album could have been in any of her previous albums. The secret of her success is not that she has evolved. Quite the opposite. Is that people know exactly what to expect from her.

Sam Smith's second week will not be a threat for Taylor Swift lbr.

Right now, Demi. But as a whole it is obviously Miley.

Shocked at rockstar already at #3. It is at the top in all other English-speaking countries too.

I mean, he had two platinum albums and still has public recognition (most people know who Ricky Martin is and what he looks like) so I would not exactly compare him to Lou Bega. Also, "Maria" and "The Cup of Life" were both big too.

I mean, Daddy Yankee got another huge hit so why wouldn't he be able to get one too? In a lot of places around the world, including several major European countries, Latino music is played throughout the year in radio and clubs. "Chantaje" was huge during the winter and "SUBEME LA RADIO" was also a winter hit in most of Europe. Plus, Latin music is the most streamed genre on Youtube all year long and is growing nonstop on Spotify so it'll surely get a huge push in the streaming era. The UK is not that isolated from worldwide trends. Also, the UK is super influenced by the USA and Latino music is huge there and, with the streaming boost, it'll be getting more pervasive. Exactly. Plus, Spotify is still growing in Latin America so the invasion of Latino songs in the Global Top 50 will keep getting bigger and bigger. Just take a look at the YouTube Music Charts (https://artists.youtube.com/charts/tracks) -- where 70% of the top 10 and 50% of the overall top 50 is Latin music -- to a peek of what's to come in the Spotify Global Top 50.

They would lose money considering the song would still be available on streaming, albeit illegally. I'd assume $$$ is more important to labels than chart peaks. Katy Perry was in literally every huge playlist and had a huge banner and her own playlist promoted on the front page. Let's not pretend she got inferior promo than Sam Smith. Still flopped (comparatively).

Nah, that's not the BBC1 music show I am talking about. They're doing a TOTP-style show presented by Greg James which will be on primetime later this year for 6 weeks.

Sorry, I did not meant "Roar" but "Chained to the Rhythm". And yes they did, they both got a banner (which Sam Smith did not get) and were in all main playlist. Look, it's obvious Sam got a boost from playlist exposure and having a video but if that was the defining factor he would have lost steam after the first day, which was what happened to Taylor Swift (who also got a banner + similar level of support). It was clear from day 2 she would be free-falling while Sam quickly stabilized. Obviously it is still too early to predict how it'll do long term but some of you will simply have to come to terms the GP likes the song and it'd probably be doing well even without such extensive Spotify support. It is also over-performing even on US Apple Music (despite its userbase being generally uninterested in pop music).

I think a lot of A-list acts might snob X Factor for the new BBC1 music show. The X Factor is kind of a cheesy brand at this point although it is still good exposure.

Obviously all this playlist exposure is helping but it's not true that any song by a huge act with a Spotify push has a similar performance. "Roar" and "24k Magic" had huge push and never came close to #1. Also the song is actually increasing its daily plays and stabilizing which is the opposite of what happened to Taylor Swift so it seems like the GP truly likes it for whatever reason.

Wait, is Taylor Swift performance truly confirmed? By who? Anyway, Little Mix and Louis Tomlinson are 100% confirmed considering they are both priority SYCO acts. Also, PrettyMuch will probably get a slot too.

It does.

Wanting female-led songs which always have a team of producers and collaborators that is 90% male hardly qualify as wanting "gender equality" in the music industry.

Taylor Swift second day drop has been pretty extreme all over the world. It seems like it'll be overtaken by "Mi Gente" on the global charts pretty soon. "Look What You Made Me Do" will do well and hit #1 in the US/UK/Australia but it won't be a smash hit. It's far away from #1 in most of the world and the drop worldwide has been much more drastic than with "Shape with You" (which was #1 in much more countries).

Not all major markets. She didn't debut anywhere close to #1 in France and Germany (top markets) nor in Mexico and Sweden (top Spotify markets). She debuted at #1 in the following big Spotify markets: US; UK; Brazil; Australia; Canada. Still, completely amazing numbers and results and she broke a lot of records. She did more in Brazil (630,712) than in the UK (626,628) also. Despacito had over 11m (two versions combined).

Her last album sold over 1 million copies and had tons of huge hits. She is obviously more popular in the UK now than she was back when she released any of her other lead singles.

In their second album, Little Mix was all 90s R&B. Then, in their third, they were generic europop. In their last album, there was big EDM influence. Like, they are literally always hopping on trends and changing styles because as top 40 acts, that is literally their whole point. Why is there a fuss they are doing it with this current single?? Oh, and by the way, CNCO is a Simon Cowell/SYCO act. So I don't think the remix is for LM to get a hit solely but to introduce CNCO to the UK market.

Everyone who is disagreeing is actually educating and discussing. No one complaining about the points being made is being gratuitous, we are all actually exposing our point of views. However, no one is forced to be cordial in the face of ignorance, sorry. That is literally how top 40 pop works though. That is the whole point of those acts: to release music that is in synch with what is popular. I agree it can be annoying but it's hardly something that Little Mix started doing today.

I think that is a weird statement to make. Like, I can definitely understand people not liking reggaeton because that is a specific genre (and even so, ignorance can easily be noticed depending on the way people acknowledge the genre. "Spanish theme" is a cabal example of ignorance btw). But not liking Spanish/Latin music in general? Lol yea, there's definitely a "deeper agenda" in disliking music because of the language or the region it originated from. I know obviously 90% of people sick of reggaeton songs are not being malicious or knowingly prejudiced and it is normal to dislike reggaeton -- in Latin America and Spain, it is not uncommon to see people hating those genres, just like you see people in the UK who hate top 40 pop. But personally I see the UK being open to foreign music as a very positive thing. Of course, the language barrier is a good reason to be uninterested in something -- I am usually not interested in Dutch or German music for example, since I don't speak those languages -- but the Spanish language songs that are popular in the UK right now all have so much English in them and are all special remix made especially to the English-speaking market so it is very easy to understand their theme and what they're about. I think it will be more and more common to see reggaeton songs being huge all over the world because Spanish language music is huge in streaming. Like, "Reggaeton Lento" has 1 billion views on YouTube, that's more than any One Direction video. However, the genre per se can be tiring -- especially in Latin America/Spain, where there is no variety right now on the charts and it is everything reggaeton all the time. However, that is obviously not the case in the UK though. In this case, reggaeton is actually increasing variety.

Spanish, not "Spannish". I guess being somewhat exposed to another culture is very bewildering to some which is not surprising considering they're not even capable of getting the spelling of the language right.

Dude, try not to refer to Latino music as "Spanish theme". That's dumb.

Oh sorry, I meant the US Apple Music.