Keith Urban - "Female"

[CoJoFan]

I’m going out on a limb and say maybe it’s the album title and the title track “Parallel Line” will be released on Friday with a preorder for it. Everything I’ve read says “Parallel Line” is a song/single that will be released Friday.

[.indulgecountry]

I doubt he releases a new single while "Female" is still charting and hasn't even made Top 10 yet. Maybe he puts a new pre-release song out on Friday in conjunction with some type of bigger album and/or tour announcement, but I doubt it's a new single for radio. Guess we'll see soon enough though.

[kallie]

[.indulgecountry]

Touring with Kelsea Ballerini?! Yas! That sounds like a pretty perfect tour for her to be on.

[justme60]

Has Capitol stopped supporting this song??

I thought Parallel Line was released to Australia!

[rsmatto]

Jan 23, 2018 21:10:11 GMT -5 justme60 said:

Has Capitol stopped supporting this song??

I thought Parallel Line was released to Australia!

This is still KU’s us radio single.

[Kentucky25]

Parallel Line would have been a better lead single choice imo, I get why "Female" was released but I don't know that it hasn't done more harm than good for his popularity as most of the PR I've seen for it has discussed how poor conceived it was.

[DJ General]

I'm sure P.L. will be released soon after this gets a push to Top 10. No way they will let it fail until it at least makes that.

[Deleted]

I'm not sure this can go all the way to #1 or even Top 5. It's possible but I'm not sure. I do think this song has enough life in it for a Top 10 peak, but beyond that I am so unsure.

This week both Chris Stapleton and Brett Eldredge made the pass on Mediabase (I also expect both to be ahead of Keith Urban on Billboard so this song will probably spend it's 5th week at #14 on Billboard . Also High Valley, Jordan Davis, and Luke Bryan are closing in and I think within the next couple of weeks I expect at least a couple of these songs to pass Keith Urban.

The good news is that this song is on Week 12 (Monday on Billboard will be the 12th week) so this song is pretty young as a whole that it probably has at least another month left in it. But if this trend continues where this song is barely gaining anything week in and week out, this song could have a very hard time making it past the Top 10.

[lady𝓐fan]

I could see this peaking around where "Cop Car" peaked (#8). The label should push for a top 10 finish and let go of this. Also, welcome back raylatch98.

[justme60]

As long as it gets to Top Ten on Billboard, that will make me happy!

Just don't want to see Keith's Top Ten streak end.

Thanks raylatch.

[Deleted]

Jan 27, 2018 19:54:27 GMT -5 lady𝓐fan said:

I could see this peaking around where "Cop Car" peaked (#8). The label should push for a top 10 finish and let go of this. Also, welcome back raylatch98.

Awe, thanks. It's great to be back.

I definitely agree they hould push forthe Top 10. Just so hard for the Top 10 right now as right now there doesn't appear to be a definitive clear path. I have to imagine that callout scores are pretty awful for this song as the most likely reason this song has slowed down as much as it has (it lost its bullet last week, and it's bullet on Mediabase right now is really, really low).

Oh also your welcome to justme60

[DJ General]

It's still doing fairly decent on streaming though, which is good. There just hasn't been much promotion of it lately. I think it is also getting lost in the shuffle. I wish he would perform it somewhere. I really hope it will not end his Top 10 streak, that's all I care about.

[Deleted]

I think this song is in trouble, and I don't feel confident that this will make the Top 10. Keith Urban is sporting a negative bullet and he continues to just remain in place in the 13-14 range not gaining anything with today especially being a brutal update song after song passes this one with Jordan Davis being the latest to pass this one.


jhomes87 you're a huge Keith Urban superfan, but also do a good job predicting songs future and fate. Do you see a Top 10 path for this one on either chart? I'm struggling to see this getting really any higher than it has already gotten, but I'm curious what you think?

[zaclord 🌈]

Abandon this and send Parallel Line to radio asap. That may be my favorite Keith Urban song in years.

[KeepDeanWeird]

The call-outs for this are pretty dreadful. I suppose they can discount it to get enough points to make Top Country Songs Chart (it peaked at 11), but it's interesting how a supposedly 'timely' and 'song of the year' record was rejected. I suppose if they don't include it on album, they can re-write history by claiming 'promo' single to keep the streak alive.

[thewp]

It was pretty pandering, IMO.

[Ten Pound Hammer]

I find it extremely pandering. The concept is solid but the execution is dreadful. That chorus is just a mess.

[keelhauled]

Female is how I describe an animal, or a specimen. A human is a woman. So for me the entire premise of the hook is flawed in that using "female" actually diminishes any sense of it being a song of empowerment/solidarity/whatever because it is the lowest form of description possible. I get what the idea was, but the lyrics were botched so badly that I can't take it seriously at all.

[avalyn]

from team umg luncheon last week. he brought nicolle galyon out to do the background vocals for the performance.

[LBTrocks]

I just heard this on the radio and I have to say that this is one of those songs that gets worse with each listen, not better, and it was terrible to begin with. The lyrics and the melody are cringeworthy.

[jsb]

The streak ends at a “modest” 38.

This one appears done. It has slowly lost about 2 million in MB audience in 2 weeks. A positive sentiment in evolving to turbulent times, but that couldn’t rescue this single’s performance from its core problem, it is a bad, cloying song. Very much rushed by Keith’s standards, it missed wide its ambitious mark.

I would imagine this does not end up on his new CD and the continued delay in announcing a firm release date only leads to further the point that there is still some work to do on the final shape of Graffiti U.

[Zazie]

I don't know -- the song blazes up 5 spins overnight on MB, and also gains 38k in audience. I think this song will hit the Billboard top 10 at about the same time that sexism and various forms of harassment vanish from country radio -- or maybe from our culture entirely. Of course there might need to be a re-released "good version" of Female, featuring a better title, and a better chorus, to go along with its good intentions.

To be more serious about the chart angle, I do find it strange that the label couldn't get this song to the top 10 when the long consecutive-top-10 streak was at stake. So many songs are finally starting to drop, and this one, whatever its weaknesses, is still relatively youthful. But there's just no evident traction here. The callout numbers compounded Female's other problems, I suppose.

If the song gains 200k tomorrow morning, I'm going to restrain myself from commenting on it.

[KeepDeanWeird]

Guess 'something' is kicking in since on the building chart it surges to #10. You just knew the label would find a way to avoid the lead single from breaking the streak.

[seak05]

Wouldn't stun me if the label asks for max spins this week in an attempt at a top 10 peak. Radio doesn't love this song, but they do love Keith. They might be willing to give the song some extra spins this week, if they know they can drop it next.

[KeepDeanWeird]

Feb 19, 2018 11:40:49 GMT -5 seak05 said:

Wouldn't stun me if the label asks for max spins this week in an attempt at a top 10 peak. Radio doesn't love this song, but they do love Keith. They might be willing to give the song some extra spins this week, if they know they can drop it next.

So far +17% this tracking week v -2% last week. Yeah, it's max spins push. I don't understand how country radio/listeners benefit from this 'marketing' tactic - especially when it invokes a track the audience appears to have rejected. Are max spins dumped in overnight hours?

[Zazie]

When Billboard ranked songs in order of spins, late-night shenanigans were the way to get songs the extra spins required for #1 or any other milestone. Partly to stop labels from doing this, BB switched to total audience as their measure for ranking songs, decreasing the effectiveness of the 2 a.m. spins as sources of higher chart positions.

Obviously the problem hasn't been solved. A certain number of people object to this, but I suppose most radio listeners aren't staying up nights worrying about the honesty of the country airplay chart. IIRC, it was the Reba song Somebody that interrupted the long run of Live Like You Were Dying that got some unwelcome attention to this unsavory part of the chart biz. (I'll bet you can find a link to this small controversy if you have access to back issues of Billboard.)

I wonder why they're starting the big push for Urban's top 10 breakthrough now -- seems to me it's a week too early. But they probably have a lot more numbers to look at than I do. Taking his whole career into account, I think Urban has been involved in fewer chart manipulations than just about any other big star. But this is certainly an abrupt change-of-direction for Female, and most of us don't like the way this goes in general. Female will drop really hard as the logical aftermath of the max spins push. There won't be a second chance....

[lady𝓐fan]

Female sits at #12 on this week's chart. With it being pushed, it can enter the top 10 (finally) and he can move on to Parallel Line.

[onebuffalo]

I'd be surprised if Female can get into the top ten.

[DJ General]

I really hope it makes it, just for streak sake at least!