It’s a game of ‘their loss, your gain’…
After another month with closed borders, the Music Moves Europe Artist chart shows that opportunities arise for smaller parties. British singer-songwriter Tom Gregory, signed to dance indie Armada, overtook pole position due to the success of his single Fingertips, which spreads from Germany to Scandinavia.
This chart always makes room for fresh blood. Due to the chart rules that artists have a time period of three years from their first international release to be included in this chart, we had to say goodbye to five artists whose time’s up. So it’s ‘bye bye’ to British singer-songwriter Declan J. Donovan (last month’s #8), Swedish pop singer Kiddo (#18), Norwegian producers Kamferdrops (#22), British indie rockers Sea Girls (#26) and Dutch world music act Altin Gün (#34).
This means there are also five newcomers. On the strength of her song Control (Universal), 17 year old German r’n’b singer Zoe Wees enters at #85, as her song spreads to Italy, Austria and Switzerland. Also in at #90 is British rapper S1mba from Oxford, whose Rover (Warner) gets airplay in Slovakia and Germany. And at #95 Portuguese dance-pop producer Drenchill finds success. He is renowned for the accordion arrangements in his songs, which have ‘summer’ written all over it. Two of his songs (both on Sony) are currently popular: Never Never in France and Forever Summer in Germany.
And for the indies…you might not yet be familiar with actor-turned-singer Michele Morrone. But that might change as he is starring in the raunchy Polish Netflix series 365 Days. Morrone made an album for Polish indie label Agoria and receives a lot of Polish airplay for Feel It, a song that reminds of the sound of The Weeknd, and lands at #98 in the chart. And new at #100 is Reuben Keeney from Letterkenny, better known as the Irish producer Rebūke, who injects his techno with rave vibes. Tracks like Along Came Polly (Hot Creations) get airplay in dance shows in Belgium, The UK, Germany and Switzerland.
Despite the relative standstill, several artists had a great month in terms of airplay and streaming. Sony-signed artists who fared well are Swedish rapper Victor Leksell (up to #38), German pop singer Mathea (#43) and British R’n’B producers Handsome Habibi (#62). Universal has success with Italian pop singer Anna at #66, whose Bando crosses to the G/S/A-countries. And Radiohead guitarist Ed O’Brien at is popular with tracks from his solo album Earth under the moniker EOB at #71.
But let’s focus this month on five indie artists who gained big. Young British pop singer Millie Turner (AWAL) rises to #46, while her single Jungle is on German radio. Another young Brit, the 17-year-old pop singer Alfie Templeman is on radio nearly everywhere in Europe with his breakthrough single Happiness In Liquid Form (Chess Club) at #47. Two notches lower it is continuing airplay in Poland for Red Flag (Sunday Best) by British indie duo Number, who used to play in Red Snapper. At #55 it is up and up again for London-based R’n’b chanteuse Arlo Parks, who is en vogue currently on indie stations across Europe with her new single Black Dog (Transgressive/PIAS). Finally, at #60 Italian indie-pop singer Julia Bardo crosses over to Poland with I Wanna Feel Love (Wichita/PIAS). A nice small success made more visible during these hard times for music lovers.
Menno Visser
Music journalist and radio professional from The Netherlands
