Every week, my robots scour the biggest nine New Music Friday playlists in the world to see whose getting backed hard by the big green machine. This week:
🏆 The Champ: James Arthur
James Arthur snuck into the big chair at the head of the New Music Friday table, having the most followers and bagging spots on all nine of the biggest NMFs globally with “Heartbeat“. Tough competition too – his 400k extra followers put him just ahead of Lewis Capaldi. Elsewhere, Metallica missed a full set of nine by not making it onto Korea’s list. While they may say nothing else matters, it’s likely the Koreans will remain unforgiven. Etc etc etc thank you thank you.
🚀 The Challenger: PNAU
The Aussies stormed the NMFs this week like the Socceroos stormed the Last 16 of the World Cup, but this track will last longer than the on-field campaign, since “You Know What I Need” – PNAU’s collboration with Troye Sivan – made it onto all of the biggest nine NMFs globally. Even with Sivan’s added rocket fuel, this is still a big win – A$AP Rocky only made it onto six NMFs this week, after all.
🥊 Punching Above: Stephen Dawes
Stephen Dawes made it onto a whipping eight of the biggest NMFs this week, with “It Could Be Me“, a stunning show of support for this relatively new artist. It’s also worth noting that the excellent Katie Gregson-Macleod also made it onto the same eight NMFs this week, a twin set of awesome newcomers getting the backing the richly deserve.
🧛♂️ New Blood: Precious Pepala
Finally, the outstanding Precious Pepala bounded onto five of the big nine this week, with “Voices“, only the third release for this artist. This is a massive show of support for such a new artist, and to appear on both the UK and the global NMF lists is a signal to take this artist particularly seriously.
——
📸 Precious Pepala by @kay.ibrahim