HE DID IT! WOO HOO!
2019 Eurovision champ Duncan Laurence has done the nearly-impossible – he’s broken the 25 year drought of ESC songs on America’s oldest, and most-revered chart, the Billboard Hot 100!
Although…it’s not as esteemed as you might be led to believe.
“Arcade” debuts on the Hot 100 AT number 100…and very rarely do songs that debut in that slot last for long on the chart, especially in this musically volatile age. Still, though, it IS an official chart entry, and the song becomes the first ESC-connected song to chart in the USA since 1996’s “Ooh Aah (Just A Little Bit)” by Gina G, which was the UK’s ESC entry in 1996, and the first WINNER to crack the chart since “Save Your Kisses For Me” by Brotherhood of Man, way back in 1976.
The song had peaked at #101 on Billboard‘s “Bubbling Under” chart three weeks ago, and last week I said that there might not be enough momentum for it to rebound, but that you never knew, and we didn’t. And he did rebound, and he broke the drought officially. Whether or not he stays on the chart remains to be seen. “Arcade” continues to pick up radio stations in the US, however, so it’s conceivable that he could climb higher, and then it will depend on public demand in sales, and streaming, to keep him climbing.
Congrats to Duncan Laurence on his song becoming the first to crack the Hot 100 in TWENTY FIVE YEARS!