“You know what it is? He really works hard. And, that little white boy can sing! He really can sing! I was like, ‘Oh help, he’s singing! Show out!’ It’s an amazing show, it’s just him and the band so there’s not dancers, and he can dance and all that.”
-Jacob from Gabriels on opening for Harry last year. (21 February 2023)
Radio 1 Head of Music Chris Price explains the radio station’s enormous influence on an artist’s popularity by their placement on BBC 1’s A Playlist.
SZA’s 2017 album CTRL only peaked at No.45 last year with the release of a deluxe edition.
SZA secured playlists at BBC Radio 1, 1Xtra, Kiss, Kiss Fresh, Capital FM and Capital Xtra on this campaign. BBC Radio 1 currently has SZA on its A List in the form of Lizzo’s Special remix.
“We added Kill Bill straight to our A List as we believed in SZA and this track so much, and it is definitely a song that benefits from repeat plays as it has that incredibly catchy hook. By playing the song so much it meant that we were able to shine a light on SZA as an artist to a section of our audience that doesn’t listen to her.”
In the UK, playlist inclusion on BBC Radio 1 is vital to artists’ popularity to a general audience. SZA’s success with SOS is due entirely to streaming, as the album has no physical edition.
On the flip side, being almost completely excluded from radio play has the exact opposite effect.
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