With more unique #1s than any other quarter in 2018, Q4 continued to showcase Australian radio’s willingness to take a punt on fresh talent.
Aussie artists account for three Top 10 entries in Q4’s Hot 100 Airplay Chart – only one less than Q3. However, it’s again an international act that rules the roost, preserving the pattern that has played out over the course of 2018.
As its title suggests, Calvin Harris & Sam Smith‘s ‘Promises’ was an assured pick for radio success. Crowned Most Added upon release, the smooth and voguish dance number topped the Hot 100 for two-out-of-nine weeks of the quarter, bouncing around the Top 3 for the preceding two months.
That all but guaranteed the collab’s position as the most-played single on Australian radio in Q4 2018.
The final quarter of 2018 brought a pleasant surprise for Australian music. Newcastle country boy Morgan Evans released ‘Day Drunk’ in June, a light-hearted drinking anthem that followed on from the commercially successful breakthrough ‘Kiss Somebody’.
We knew pop radio and country music were meant to be when pop queen Bebe Rexha partnered with Florida Georgia Line to produce the stand-out single of Q1.
Our assumptions were confirmed when, in August, multiple radio formats raised their hands in support of Evans’ country-pop hit, elevating the single to #1 on the Hot 100 and an eventual podium place on the Q4 chart.
Taylor Swift‘s ‘Love Story’ in 2009 was the last time a single by a lead country artist topped the airplay chart – hallmarking a change in the water at pop radio almost a decade later.
“Morgan writes great songs that truly connect with people from all walks of life, from the heart of the country to the center of the city,” said Kerry Roberts, Evans’ Australian management rep.
“Commercial radio stepped up to back the song in a way that paid off for everyone,” she added.
While Evans was gaining new ground in the crowded realms of commercial radio, country radio was also wide awake to the new single. ‘Day Drunk’ rose to #1 on the TMN Country Airplay Chart and remains at the top more than 20 weeks later.
Evans is now equal third all-time for number of weeks spent at the top of the chart, a feat that Roberts credits to the increasingly eclectic sound of CHR and Evans’ indisputable songwriting ability.
“For a Newcastle boy to write and record songs in Nashville that have people driving down the streets of the CBD singing along with their radios is the perfect culmination of years of hard work and a radio industry that has opened itself up to the potential of 21st century country music.
“…it’s a testament to the reality that world class songwriting transcends any genre labels.”
