Dua Lipa's Houdini debuts at #11, falls 22 spots on its 2nd week on the Hot 100

[King of the Fall 3,774]

2 minutes ago, Teletubby said:

 

None of that is major promotion, no performances and no big interviews like Fallon or Norton. Like I said, they are saving the big rollout plans for after the holidays.

Edited November 21, 2023 by 4th Street

[AMRer 2,736]

1 hour ago, 4th Street said:

None of that is major promotion, no performances and no big interviews like Fallon or Norton. Like I said, they are saving the big rollout plans for after the holidays.

Promo is always important but I think this song is not as catchy as any single song on FN. And I am not a fan, so I consider myself like a GP here 

[HIM820 1,747]

5 hours ago, Versace said:

Didn’t most of you try to convince me that FN was a groundbreaking pop album that reshaped pop culture? If so why can’t she even get a top 10 debut coming from FN and the success of DTN? 

I’m not trying to come for her but instead shed light to some that maybe FN or Dua aren’t as big as you may think they are. Not saying not successful but she is yet to reach the peaks of people like Madonna, Gaga, Taylor, etc. Because I swear some of you talk her up so much. 

She never debuts high on the hot100 so I don’t understand where this expectation came from. 
 

Don’t Start Now - 30

Levitating - 73

Dance the Night - 43

DTN should have been an immediate smash considering it was coming off of FN and was coming from one of the most anticipated movies of the year. But instead it was a grower, like most of her chart success. I’m not saying this will be a huge hit but her team obviously understand how to position her for longevity. We should stop questioning it (like a lot of people did with DTN) because we end up looking foolish. 

[27monster27 11,105]

On 11/21/2023 at 9:59 AM, Versace said:

Adele. Harry Styles. Ed Sheeran. Do I have to continue?

Dua is not a local artist, she’s had hits on the Hot 100. Houdini is just not resonating as expected with the US. 

Also feels like rn the pop song everyone is listening to is Greedy by Tate McRae, that song is excellent imo. It just got to #8 on the Hot100 and if her team keeps pushing it I suspect #1 is possible. 

 

Yeah and at the end of the day your home country is still your home base. Even if artists are still successful outside of their home country it still matters the most in case of a flop internationally. Look at what happened to Natashs Bedingfield for instance.

[StrawberryBlond 13,988]

I think it was a huge risk to release it so close to Christmas season. Though, looking back, all Dua's eras so far have been kicked off in the late autumn season (Be The One was released in October 2015 but it took until summer 2017 to release the actual album). Maybe, like Rihanna and Taylor got into the way of lead singles in the autumn and it turned out to be lucrative has inspired Dua's team to keep up a routine that seems to work. But mid-late November was a bit late if they were looking for a #1 straight out the gate. At the this time of year, people are focused on the nostalgia of old Christmas hits and nostalgia of the best music of that year, they aren't really interested in listening to new music en masse until February usually. If it had even been released in early November, it could've been a different story. I didn't release Jack Harlow and Tate McRae had singles coming out or that they were a remote threat, so that surprised me. There may even be new Christmas based singles coming out soon. There's every chance it'll make a comeback in the new year but there's no doubt that it didn't have the impactful "I'm back" feel to it that should have been evident in release week. 

On 11/21/2023 at 1:57 AM, 4th Street said:

Her eras are designed to be slow burns that accumulate massive streaming numbers and chart longevity.

I have noticed a lot of her fans have said something along the lines of "the song is designed to have longevity" and I'm a bit confused as to what this means. I've racked my brains and I can't think how a song can be engineered to have longevity. It's available on the same platforms as every other artist's single and isn't heavily promoted yet, so I don't see how a song in and of itself can be built for longevity. Same goes for albums, they get released and they're either successful or they're not. Whether it's picked up on immediately or becomes a slow burn hit, the public's tastes can't be controlled or predicted, ultimately. I sometimes think it just comes from a wishful thinking standpoint when people say this thing about longevity (I know I did for all Gaga's singles). They want to the song to make a comeback, so they say it will even though they have no possible way of predicting this. Do they actually ponder what they mean when they say it'll have longevity or am I just missing something? 

[Versace 7,860]

On 11/22/2023 at 12:35 AM, HIM820 said:

She never debuts high on the hot100 so I don’t understand where this expectation came from. 
 

Don’t Start Now - 30

Levitating - 73

Dance the Night - 43

DTN should have been an immediate smash considering it was coming off of FN and was coming from one of the most anticipated movies of the year. But instead it was a grower, like most of her chart success. I’m not saying this will be a huge hit but her team obviously understand how to position her for longevity. We should stop questioning it (like a lot of people did with DTN) because we end up looking foolish. 

Some users here make you have these expectations. People wanna put her in the same lane as Madonna, Gaga, Taylor when it comes to Pop music when she hasn’t had the same level of commercial success nor trajectory. I know that coming off a greatly impactful pop era, your next lead tends to debut in the top 10 at least if not #1. As people are itching for your music. I know commercial success isn’t everything but when comparing many good pop artists, it definitely helps gauge impact. If Dua’s songs are all growers then she doesn’t have an immediate impact on the scene which I think is something you tend to have post large peaks in your career? I’m just trying to be retrospective here and make people realize that FN was not on the same caliber as TF, TFM, Teenage Dream, 1989, etc. 

[Brizel 593]

Some songs don’t deserve major success, as they aren’t quite up to par in the pop sphere. Just like quite a few of Gagas songs since 2012/2013. This song is one of them. 

[King of the Fall 3,774]

32 minutes ago, Versace said:

 I’m just trying to be retrospective here and make people realize that FN was not on the same caliber as TF, TFM, Teenage Dream, 1989, etc. 

The same caliber in terms of what? quality? longevity? the total sales? In terms of quality, Future Nostalgia is on the level of all the albums you mentioned with the exception of Fame Monster. In terms of longevity, FN is an absolute monster, it was positioned a slot higher than Miley Cyrus ESV on the year end album list of 2023 despite dropping back in 2020. As for total sales, well it has not moved 1989 or Teenage Dream numbers but both of Dua's albums are the most streamed in Spotify history by a female artist so FN was clearly the biggest thing a pop girl has done in some time. your attempt to downplay the impact of this album is irrelevant because facts do not back you up.

Edited November 23, 2023 by 4th Street

[nkta 280]

On 11/21/2023 at 1:27 PM, 4th Street said:

None of that is major promotion, no performances and no big interviews like Fallon or Norton. Like I said, they are saving the big rollout plans for after the holidays.

what is major promo these days, though? 

pretty much all Awards shows drop in viewership every year. VMAs were on Tuesday this year, AMAs are cancelled altogether I think?

TV is not the same as it used to be in terms of the impact. So doing a bunch of events around YouTube/Tiktok might be more effective in modern era

[HIM820 1,747]

14 hours ago, Versace said:

Some users here make you have these expectations. People wanna put her in the same lane as Madonna, Gaga, Taylor when it comes to Pop music when she hasn’t had the same level of commercial success nor trajectory. I know that coming off a greatly impactful pop era, your next lead tends to debut in the top 10 at least if not #1. As people are itching for your music. I know commercial success isn’t everything but when comparing many good pop artists, it definitely helps gauge impact. If Dua’s songs are all growers then she doesn’t have an immediate impact on the scene which I think is something you tend to have post large peaks in your career? I’m just trying to be retrospective here and make people realize that FN was not on the same caliber as TF, TFM, Teenage Dream, 1989, etc. 

I think if you look at it in the context of when it was released it might help you understand why people consider it an impactful pop album. Gaga was really her only competition when it came to pop for that year. Taylor released a semi alternative album and Katy’s Smile didn’t cause any traction. Ariana releasing Positions in the fall was the other big release, but when people think of a female pop album from 2020, they probably think of FN. The era was long (which is obviously intentional) and had an opportunity to fully saturate into pop culture. 
 

With regards to immediate impact, I think you’re right that there obviously is something different where she grows on charts vs debuting high. But on the opposite end, I think some of the artists who debut high will have a tougher time maintaining that position (unless you’re Taylor) as they are riding off the wave of past success, and an even harder time getting there other singles to stick once the album has come out- another problem streaming has created. 

Edited November 23, 2023 by HIM820

[heygurlhi 3,200]

phew now i can give it a listen

[Versace 7,860]

15 hours ago, 4th Street said:

The same caliber in terms of what? quality? longevity? the total sales? In terms of quality, Future Nostalgia is on the level of all the albums you mentioned with the exception of Fame Monster. In terms of longevity, FN is an absolute monster, it was positioned a slot higher than Miley Cyrus ESV on the year end album list of 2023 despite dropping back in 2020. As for total sales, well it has not moved 1989 or Teenage Dream numbers but both of Dua's albums are the most streamed in Spotify history by a female artist so FN was clearly the biggest thing a pop girl has done in some time. your attempt to downplay the impact of this album is irrelevant because facts do not back you up.

How am I downplaying anything? I said that she doesn’t have immediate impact on the charts like other artists I mentioned post their “big” eras, this is a fact no? I also literally said in terms of commercial success multiple times in my posts and you even acknowledge that. Also quality is extremely subjective that’s why I never even bothered to make it the talking point. 

[AMRer 2,736]

She was successful in her FN era, but to caliber her impact just ask around. I did and only a friend knew about her 

While if you ask about Gaga, Madonna or even Katy, most of GP know about them 🤷

[SpadesToStart 2,525]

As someone who immediately fell in love with her Barbie song and played it non-stop, Houdini is a little bit of a letdown 

[Ladle Ghoulash 16,158]

This remix is better than the original, I fear