FEATURE:
Flowers in Full Bloom
IN THIS PHOTO: Miley Cyrus/PHOTO CREDIT: Steven Meisel for British Vogue
The Brilliant Women Dominating 2023
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IT is not a shock…
IN THIS PHOTO: PinkPantheress/PHOTO CREDIT: SKIMS
that female artists have been dominating music this year. In terms of the best albums so far, I think most of the high positions are occupied by them. It is always wonderful seeing magnificent female artists release incredible and original music. In an industry still dogged by imbalance and inequality, news that most of the biggest-selling singles of this year so far will help to open eyes to the fact that things need to change. When it comes to radio playlists to festival bookings, more and more proof is out there that shows women are more than worthy of inclusion and the bigger stages. The BBC’s Mark Savage recently reported on some incredible chart news:
“Miley Cyrus's Flowers is the biggest single of the year to date, says the Official Charts Company.
The break-up anthem, which spent 10 weeks at number one earlier this year, has achieved 147 million streams and more than 80,000 downloads.
Raye's Escapism is 2023's second biggest-seller, while SZA's Kill Bill is in third place.
The Weeknd's two-year-old greatest hits collection, The Highlights, is the most popular album so far this year.
Taylor Swift's Midnights is in second place, followed by Harry Styles' Harry's House.
However, new releases are largely crowded out of the album chart, due to the enduring popularity of classic tracks on streaming services - which now account for 86% of music consumption in the UK.
Greatest hits collections by Elton John (at number five), Eminem (seven) and Fleetwood Mac (nine) are among the year's biggest-sellers, after establishing a semi-permanent residency in the weekly countdown.
Only two albums released in 2023 feature in the Top 10 biggest-sellers list: Lewis Capaldi's Broken By Desire To Be Heavenly Sent, at six, and Ed Sheeran's Subtract, at eight.
Taylor Swift, meanwhile, has five albums in the Top 40, with Midnights joined by 1989 (16), Lover (19), Folklore (23) and Reputation (34).
Top 10 singles of 2023 (year-to-date)
Miley Cyrus - Flowers
Raye ft 070 Shake - Escapism
SZA - Kill Bill
PinkPantheress - Boy's A Liar
Taylor Swift - Anti-Hero
Rema ft Selena Gomez - Calm Down
Calvin Harris and Ellie Goulding - Miracle
Libianca - People
Harry Styles - As It Was
Miguel - Sure Thing”.
“The top five best-selling singles of the year are all by female artists - incredibly, the first time this has ever happened in chart history.
The top 10 also features two Afrobeats artists, Rema and Libianca, both of whom had breakout hits at the start of the year. And Ed Sheeran is missing from the Top 10 for the first time since 2016.
Miley Cyrus's Flowers, meanwhile, was the star's first number one since 2014's Wrecking Ball.
The song was heavily rumoured to be about the end of her marriage to actor Liam Hemsworth, including a reference to their Malibu home that burned down in a wildfire in 2018.
She released the track on Hemsworth's birthday, 10 March, and was said to be wearing one of his suits in the video.
Fans also speculated that the lyrics were an interpolation of Bruno Mars's When I Was Your Man, which was reportedly played at the couple's wedding.
Where Mars sang, "I should have bought you flowers / And held your hand", Cyrus replied, "I can buy myself flowers... And I can hold my own hand."
Whilst this chart news is a bit of a rarity, I don’t think that it will be a one-off. In terms of women dominating and delivering those chart-busting hits, this is going to continue through the year and into next. If you search for the best and most popular albums of 2023, you will see so many phenomenal works from female artists. Like the previous few years, I have found that the songs and albums that have stayed in my head longest are from women. I think that reports like the one above should once and for all expel any myths or assumptions that women cannot headline festivals. Radio playlists are still unequal, and we still have to see massive sexism and inequality throughout the industry. Things do have to change. News that the singles charts have been enriched by women will definitely help move things in the right direction.
I do think that 2024 will be a year when big steps are taking in terms of equality. There have been tiny steps in some areas but, by and large, we are seeing the same reports and outcomes – women being overlooked and having to fight harder than men to be heard and respected. I wanted to react to this awesome news about female artists’ chart success. If many people were to compile their top ten albums of this year so far – which I have done myself -, female artists would be heavily represented. We are definitely not done with 2023, so it will be fascinated to see what comes in terms of singles and albums. Maybe yet more chart honours for female artists. If this is the first year in a long while the singles chart has been defined by female artists, I think that we will see this continue…
INTO next year.