Despite the 2020 Eurovision Song Contest being cancelled, one song in particular has seen unprecedented success over the past few weeks. Iceland’s Daði Freyr & his band Gagnamagnið have seen plenty of viral success over the past couple of months following the release of their participating song ‘Think About Things’, and this has culminated with chart success across European charts.
Daði Freyr did not need a Eurovision performance to capture an audience, as his song ‘Think About Things’ has continued to stay within the UK Top 40 for the third week in a row – dropping one position from their peak to 35. Since the introduction of streaming in February 2015 counting towards the chart positions, only one other Eurovision song has reached the Top 40. 2015 winner Måns Zelmerlöw with his song ‘Heroes’ which went on to place 11th following his win.
As a result of streaming of radio airplay, it has proven incredibly difficult for Eurovision songs to achieve the same level of chart success as before. In 2014, The Common Linnets peaked at number 9 with ‘Calm After The Storm’ whilst Loreen’s ‘Euphoria’ achieved a peak of number 3 – the first and to date only time a Eurovision song placed in the UK Charts Top 5 this century!
With the help of the radio airplay that ‘Think About Things’ has received from stations including BBC Radio 1 & Capital, it has helped the song remain in the charts. It first charted four weeks ago on May 28th at 43rd, before climbing to 34th for the past 2 weeks. The song is holding up in the charts, only dropping one place to 35th in this weeks official charts.
The success is not limited to just the United Kingdom – with ‘Think About Things’ charting Top 5 in both Belgium & Ireland, whilst also achieving a peak of 33 in the Swedish charts.
Other recent songs have struggled to reach the Top 40 – Netta’s winner ‘Toy’ got close at 49, whilst SuRie’s ‘Storm’ was right behind in 50. A little bit behind was Duncan Laurence’s ‘Arcade’ which got to 67, Eleni Foureira who hit 64 with ‘Fuego’ and Mahmood’s ‘Soldi’ which reached a peak of 73.
Will ‘Think About Things’ continue to see chart success and potentially even start climbing up the charts as a sleeper hit? Stay tuned!