NEWS
DJ Snake, Ozuna, Megan Thee Stallion, Lisa of BLACKPINK in "SG"
Courtesy ImageAdele's reign continues on the Billboard Global Excl. U.S. and Billboard Global 200 charts, while Swedish House Mafia and The Weeknd fly in with "Moth to a Flame," new in the top 10 of the latter list, dated Nov. 6.
Meanwhile, another all-star collaboration launches just outside the top 10 of each tally: "SG," teaming DJ Snake, Ozuna, Lisa from BLACKPINK and Megan Thee Stallion, debuts at Nos. 13 and 19 on the respective rankings.
"SG" is the latest in a select group of global chart hits to feature acts from four international territories. DJ Snake hails from France, Ozuna from Puerto Rico, Lisa from Thailand (and currently based in South Korea) and Megan Thee Stallion from the U.S. (Puerto Rico and the U.S. are tracked separately for the global charts, give the former's distinct musical identity). Combined, the four artists have 25 prior Global 200 hits to their names.
The track follows 2020's "Relación," a pan-Latin joining of artists from Panama (Sech), Puerto Rico (Daddy Yankee and Farruko), Colombia (J Balvin) and Spain (Rosalía). Perhaps more directly, it looks a lot like "Big," a cross-genre meet-up of the UK's Rita Ora, French producer David Guetta, Kazakhstan's Imanbek and American rapper Gunna.
There's also "Taki Taki," DJ Snake and Ozuna's first collaboration, also featuring Selena Gomez and Cardi B. That track's 2018 release predated Billboard's global charts but proved itself a worthy recipe for success, crowning Hot Latin Songs for 13 weeks and reaching No. 11 on the Billboard Hot 100. It has racked up 891 million on-demand audio streams in the U.S. since its release, according to MRC Data.
Comparing the global and U.S. start for "SG, " it debuts at No. 2 on the U.S.-based Hot 100's Bubbling Under chart, and at No. 11 on Hot Latin Songs. Of its 19,000 first-week global sales, 82% were from outside the U.S., compared to the week's average of 46%, according to MRC Data. More dramatically, the song drew 45.3 million streams around the world, 92% from outside the States, well beyond the week's average of 76%.
The greater international chart success so far for "SG" shouldn't be shocking given its co-headline lineup. It follows the aforementioned "Big," which also paced stronger out of the gate around the world, though not as heavily as "SG," with 84% of its streams and 71% of its sales from outside the U.S. (compared to, again the 92% and 82% splits, respectively, for "SG").
Just as rare as acts from four territories on one song, "SG" highlights a particular cultural swath with the pairing of Ozuna and Lisa, bridging the gap between Latin and Korean pop. Bad Bunny raps in Spanish and Japanese on his hit "Yonaguni" and NCT Dream's "Hot Sauce" includes lyrics in English, Korean and Spanish. But "SG" marks the global charts' first collaboration between acts from these opposite corners of the world. Adding European dance via quarterback DJ Snake and hip-hop via Megan Thee Stallion, "SG" makes for one of the most diverse hits of the year.
NEWS
Supergrass are teasing an upcoming announcement with fans, according to a new post.
The British band, fronted by Gaz Coombes, shared a cryptic new post across their social media channels this morning (September 13), suggesting to fans that a new announcement is on the way.
Posted at 9am BST, the post simply shared artwork of the band’s logo in red, alongside next Monday’s date, September 16. In the caption, the band simply wrote: “Sign up now”, alongside a link to their website’s homepage.
Upon clicking the link, the page prompts fans to sign up for future updates, and asks them to input both their email address and the country they live in. Check out the post below.
While details on the announcement remain sparse, the post has already caught fans’ attention, with some speculating that the news could be around the upcoming 30th anniversary of their debut album, ‘I Should Coco’.
Released in May 1995, the release marked the record that first put the band on the map, and contained singles ‘Mansize Rooster’, ‘Caught By The Fuzz, ‘Lose It’ and ‘Lenny’. It also saw Coombes and Co. nominated at the 1995 Mercury Prize, and contained what would soon become their biggest track to date, the Ivor-Novello winning ‘Alright’.
At time of writing, the band haven’t shared any further indication as to whether the announcement is related to the huge upcoming milestone – whether it be an anniversary tour or reissue – nor whether it has anything to do with new music that could be on the way.
The band’s last studio album was ‘Diamond Hoo Ha’, which arrived in 2008. Since then, they have shared remastered versions of both their 1999 self-titled album and their 2003 record ‘Life On Other Planets’.
In other news around the band, last year it was reported that the band’s frontman joined Johnny Marr onstage last month to perform The Smiths‘ classic ‘There Is A Light That Never Goes Out’ at Lakefest 2023.
Before then, Coombes opened up about how “nervous” he was about reuniting Supergrass following the success of his solo albums.
Supergrass split up in 2010 but reunited for a series of live shows in 2019. They released a live album in 2020, Live On Other Planets, to celebrate their 25th anniversary and raise money for grassroots venues affected by the COVID-19 pandemic.
“Having got into a flow and the last two albums having done so well, it seemed a bit odd, like a backward step,” he said. “But then I was confident that I could operate both things together and it seems that I did, because I was obviously writing this record mainly during the reunion so I feel like I made best use of both things.”
Coombes’ fourth solo album, ‘Turn The Car Around’, came out in January of last year.
