.@GlassAnimals‘ “Heat Waves” rises 13-10 on this week’s #Hot100.

It reaches the top 10 in its 42nd week. That’s the longest trip to the top 10 in the chart’s 63-year history.

— billboard charts (@billboardcharts) November 8, 2021

The record was previously held by American Idol winner Carrie Underwood and her Grammy winning single “Before He Cheats”. Underwood took a meagre 38 weeks to climb into the top 10 and peak in 8^th position. 4 Weeks less than Glass Animals journey.

Meanwhile, the bands UK tour began in Glasgow last night. The tour will see them all over the UK with dates in Birmingham, London, Dublin and many others. See the full list of tour dates here.

While announcing the tour, the band also released a new single “I Don’t Wanna Talk (I Just Wanna Dance)”. Most of the viral success the band received from “Heat Waves” had clearly evaporated as the new single didn’t break the top 100 in the US or UK. The song has, however, been well received by fans along with it’s video directed by Drew Kirsch who co-directed Taylor Swift’s video for her single “Me”.

Upon releasing the single, frontman, Dave Bayley stated “The new single is intended to provide a musical release from the pressure cooker of a global pandemic”. The band also expressed the sensation of releasing new music during a pandemic as “overwhelming”. Bayley elaborated “That’s what this track is about – that pressure cooker exposing and expanding so many cracks, but struggling to fill them in and decompress”.

The bands slow and steady approach seems to be working well for them too, as “Heat Wave” also managed to land 5^th position in the UK Singles Chart. While not quite as long winded as the climb in the US, it still took 35 consecutive weeks of climbing to finally make it. Dreamland is also, unsurprisingly, Glass Animals’ most commercially successful album debuting at number 2 upon the albums’ release in 2020.

Could it be @JustinBieber vs. @JessGlynne for this year's Christmas Number 1? #XmasNo1 https://t.co/tq8THYdZ0l

— Official Charts (@officialcharts) November 23, 2020

Jess has previously had seven UK Number 1’s, which is the most ever for a British Female solo artist. Her new festive song is in the running for a Christmas UK Number 1 hit. Signed CD and Vinyl copies of the single will be available to purchase from Amazon UK from the 18th December, a week before the Christmas Number 1 is revealed.

Official Charts have reported Jess to have said about her new Christmas song, “I chose ‘This Christmas’ by Donny Hathaway as I love the tone of this record and I’m thankful that Amazon Music have given me the opportunity to do my own version of it for them. This year has been such a hard one and there’s no doubt this Christmas is going to be difficult for so many people. Music is so important as it gives us moments of escapism and I think more than ever having an uplifting feel good song is so necessary.”

Bieber has had recent success with his new release ‘Holy’ featuring Chance the rapper, taken from his sixth ‘new era’ studio album, which went straight to Number 1 in the UK’s Official Trending Chart. Speaking about his new Christmas cover, Bieber said to NME, “‘Rockin’ Around the Christmas Tree’ has always been one of my favourite songs to celebrate the holidays and I’m excited to team up with Amazon Music to share my own version, with my fans.” 

As well as these two tracks exclusive to the streaming service, other artists taking part in the programme include Mary J Blige, who has covered Whams ‘Last Christmas’ and Jamie Cullum who is releasing a version of ‘In The Bleak Mid Winter.’ Lennon Stella has also joined the programme with her rendition of the Carpenter’s song ‘Merry Christmas Darling,’ along with Carrie Underwood who’s releasing her original track ‘Favourite Time Of Year.’

The vice president of Music Industry at Amazon Music, Ryan Redington said to NME, “This Christmas season, it’s important for us to bring our customers more reasons to smile, and to create ways for them to connect with their favourite artists while at home with family.”  Katie Perry was the artist to put out a festive tune through the Amazon original series with ‘Cozy Little Christmas,’ which peaked in the charts at number 22. Last year Ellie Goulding celebrated her first chart topper in four years with her rendition of the Joni Mitchell song, ‘River’ which went straight to Number 1.

Patrick Clifton, head of Amazon Music UK  told NME, “After Katy Perry’s top forty Christmas Original in 2018 and Ellie Goulding’s ‘River’ topping the charts last year, we’re really excited for our listeners to hear Jess Glynne’s take on the Donny Hathaway classic, as well as the rest of the collection of Christmas Originals that will connect music fans with some of their favourite artists.”

On the serious side of the country music scene, artists like Faith Hill, LeAnn Rimes, and Kelly Clarkson enhanced the scene’s international popularity away from its centre in Nashville. Faith Hill’s ‘There You’ll Be’ still a huge hit today. Some may argue Shania Twain contributed to this – a sort of link between serious country music and the cheese of the UK scene.

Present day artists, Kacey Musgraves, and Carrie Underwood are album chart regulars. Both are headlining this year’s Country to Country (C2C) music festival – 11/3 – 13/3 performing across the simultaneous venues in London – 02, Dublin – 3Arena, and Glasgow – Clyde Auditorium.

Carrie Underwood promotes C2C Via the BBC saying:

“Country has always been really great at telling stories and talking about life,” she says, “but I do think it’s become a little more broad in its influence.

“Music right now – music of any genre – it’s all just so accessible. I don’t really think anybody really listens to just one genre of music any more.

“So we have country music artists that are a bit influenced by rock music, or R&B music – which I think is really cool, because that means there’s something for everybody.”

The popularity of country music in the UK continues. On the C2C Facebook page they have recently announced:

‪#‎C2C2016 hasn’t even kicked off yet and we’ve just announced another HUGE show! The Nashville tour will be coming over to the UK in June.

Ticket will be going on sale 9am on Friday 18th March

Gone have the days of the cheesy line dance numbers – in these modern times country music is evidently booming and strongly competing against other popular musical genres.