Keith Urban - "Female"

[Zazie]

Female will make the Billboard top 10 IF Russell Dickerson's song goes recurrent, presumably based on spins, AND Urban passes EITHER High Valley OR Jordan Davis in audience.

Or Female will make the BB top 10 EVEN IF Dickerson stays on, but that requires passing BOTH Davis AND High Valley in audience.

And all of this assumes that Jason Aldean stays behind Urban in audience for another week.

It's at least a 20% and maybe even a 25% possibility right now, so it looks like this was the right time to make the push. Urban needs to post gains on MB of 1 million a day, or more, to increase his chances substantially. And if he keeps gaining in the 200 range in spins every day, that will increase his chances of knocking Dickerson into recurrentland.

Having thought about this, I can't even decide whether I want it to happen or not. I'd love to see KU extend his top 10 streak into the 40's, but I can't say I'm wild about these "mysterious" gains that just happen to be materializing this week.

[lady𝓐fan]

Female didn't make the top 10 for Billboard, but the Mediabase peak (#10) will count towards his streak, right?

[jhomes87]

Feb 26, 2018 18:30:53 GMT -5 lady𝓐fan said:

Female didn't make the top 10 for Billboard, but the Mediabase peak (#10) will count towards his streak, right?

On Mediabase, sure. But not on Billboard. Mediabase doesn't really archive their charts either, so that's one of the big reasons why I've always felt a Mediabase peak position is pretty meaningless. Billboard archives everything, and Billboard info is also used by Joel Whitburn's Record Research and on Wikipedia as well.

Unless you have a good memory, or have all the Mediabase charts saved to your computer somewhere, it gets increasingly difficult as more time goes by to remember where a given song peaked on Mediabase.

Unfortunately it looks to me as if Keith's streak of consecutive Billboard top 10 hits has come to an end. I'm pretty frustrated that "Female" couldn't at least make the top 10, but it seems as if it's been testing pretty poorly with listeners, and radio has made it pretty clear they didn't really care for the song because of that. It also hasn't been a very big seller, aside from its first few weeks. Ever since then, it's gradually drifted lower and lower on iTunes.

This is one of my least favorite KU singles of all time and I personally wish it hadn't been a single, but it's too late now. At the very least though I was hoping for a peak just inside the top 10.

[lady𝓐fan]

Feb 26, 2018 18:37:18 GMT -5 jhomes87 said:

Feb 26, 2018 18:30:53 GMT -5 lady𝓐fan said:

Female didn't make the top 10 for Billboard, but the Mediabase peak (#10) will count towards his streak, right?

On Mediabase, sure. But not on Billboard. Mediabase doesn't really archive their charts either, so that's one of the big reasons why I've always felt a Mediabase peak position is pretty meaningless. Billboard archives everything, and Billboard info is also used by Joel Whitburn's Record Research and on Wikipedia as well.

Unless you have a good memory, or have all the Mediabase charts saved to your computer somewhere, it gets increasingly difficult as more time goes by to remember where a given song peaked on Mediabase.

Unfortunately it looks to me as if Keith's streak of consecutive Billboard top 10 hits has come to an end. I'm pretty frustrated that "Female" couldn't at least make the top 10, but it seems as if it's been testing pretty poorly with listeners, and radio has made it pretty clear they didn't really care for the song because of that. It also hasn't been a very big seller, aside from its first few weeks. Ever since then, it's gradually drifted lower and lower on iTunes.

This is one of my least favorite KU singles of all time and I personally wish it hadn't been a single, but it's too late now. At the very least though I was hoping for a peak just inside the top 10.

I agree, Mediabase info always seems a bit more disposable than Billboard. For what it's worth, kworb.net has archives of the rolling chart dating to 2011 (I'm sure you know this though :) ). It's interesting to look through those archives.

[KeepDeanWeird]

I'm glad it didn't make Top 10 after this bogus push simply to keep the streak alive following 2 weeks of small declines. I'd feel differently if radio was the laggard and it was selling/streaming well - but it's been rejected pretty much across-the-board. Frankly, it should've gotten this high. KU will bounce back. I wouldn't be surprised if it's omitted from album and retroactively called a promo single.

[Deleted]

I just realized this will have a fall like Kenny Chesney and "Noise" where since the song isn't even 20 weeks old it gets too spend 2 whole drop weeks on the Billboard chart.

[toomuchboy]

Wow, this performance is depressing. I wish it would have gone top 10 at least.

I'll be annoyed if it's left off his album. I didn't buy the song digitally because I was thinking of buying a physical copy of the album instead, so I'll have waited for nothing. Bleh.

[Deleted]

Wow! Holy shit at this songs fall. Keith Urban fell 16 spots this week to #26 and lost over half his audience and spins from last week. Radio was done with this song a while ago and how hard this song is falling is proof.

Also we have another week to see this song fall. I say it falls out of the Top 40 this time next week.

[trustypepper]

So this is his first single since 1999 to miss the Top 10 right? Can anyone tell me the exact number of consecutive singles he had reach the Top 10?

Pretty sad to see an incredible streak like that come to an end.

[Deleted]

Mar 4, 2018 17:57:38 GMT -5 trustypepper said:

So this is his first single since 1999 to miss the Top 10 right? Can anyone tell me the exact number of consecutive singles he had reach the Top 10?

Pretty sad to see an incredible streak like that come to an end.

Just checked and it is 38. Really impressive if you ask me.

[Marv]

That's an extremely impressive run, but I'm not surprised that didn't go any higher; the research must have been really dismal.

[onebuffalo]

Let us review Keith Urban's streak of 38 consecutive top ten hits. After his debut single, It's A Love Thing peaked at #18 in 2000, Urban saw nothing but the top ten. Ready?

1. Your Everything-2000-#4
2. But For The Grace Of God-2001-#1
3. Where The Blacktop Ends-2001-#3
4. Somebody Like You-2002-#1-chart wise, Urban's biggest hit and the biggest hit of the decade
5. Raining On Sunday-2003-#3
6. Who Wouldn't Wanna Be Me-2003-#1
7. You'll Think Of Me-2004-#1
8. Days Go By-2004-#1
9. You're My Better Half-2005-#2
10. Making Memories Of Us-2005-#1
11. Better Life-2005-#1
12. Tonight I Wanna Cry-2006-#2
13. Once In A Lifetime-2006-#6
14. Stupid Boy-2007-#3
15. I Told You So-2007-#2
16. Everybody-2008-#5
17. You Look Good In My Shirt-2008-#1
18. Start A Band-with Brad Paisley-2009-#1-had this failed to make the top ten, Urban's streak would have been preserved as this was a Paisley single
19. Sweet Thing-2009-#1
20. Kiss A Girl-2009-#3
21. Only You Can Love Me This Way-2009-#1
22. 'Til Summer Comes Around-2010-#3
23. I'm In-2010-#2
24. Put You In A Song-2011-#2
25. Without You-2011-#1
26. Long Hot Summer-2011-#1
27. You Gonna Fly-2012-#1
28. For You-2012-#6-had this failed to make the top ten, Urban's streak would have been preserved as this was a soundtrack single from Act Of Valor
29. Little Bit Of Everything-2013-#1
30. We Were Us-with Miranda Lambert-2013-#1
31. Cop Car-2014-#8
32. Somewhere In My Car-2014-#1
33. Raise 'em Up-with Eric Church-2015-#1
34. John Cougar, John Deere, John 3:16-2015-#2
35. Break On Me-2016-#1
36. Wasted Time-2016-#1
37. Blue Ain't Your Color-2017-#1
38. The Fighter-with Carrie Underwood-2017-#2

Then Female peaked at #12. What do you think?

[.indulgecountry]

Mar 5, 2018 18:03:41 GMT -5 onebuffalo said:

28. For You-2012-#6-had this failed to make the top ten, Urban's streak would have been preserved as this was a soundtrack single from Act Of Valor

How do you come to that conclusion? It was an officially promoted single to country radio so it would've counted just as any of his singles from studio albums have. I mean, going by this kind of logic, his streak of top tens can still be preserved if "Female" gets cut from his forthcoming album's tracklist before its release... and that wouldn't be accurate.

[gonecountry]

The Fightter should’ve ended his Top 10 streak. That song was languishing for weeks before it got its second wind

[onebuffalo]

Mar 5, 2018 18:26:29 GMT -5 .indulgecountry said:

Mar 5, 2018 18:03:41 GMT -5 onebuffalo said:

28. For You-2012-#6-had this failed to make the top ten, Urban's streak would have been preserved as this was a soundtrack single from Act Of Valor

How do you come to that conclusion? It was an officially promoted single to country radio so it would've counted just as any of his singles from studio albums have. I mean, going by this kind of logic, his streak of top tens can still be preserved if "Female" gets cut from his forthcoming album's tracklist before its release... and that wouldn't be accurate.

I'm not going to punish Keith Urban or any artist out there that releases a single from a soundtrack. For You does NOT appear on an Urban album, so why punish him if the single peaked at #11? If it was a regular Urban release, it would count against him if it did not hit the top ten. Fortunately, For You was a top ten. If Female does not make the upcoming album, I will say his streak of top tens continues.

[Deleted]

Mar 5, 2018 18:37:53 GMT -5 onebuffalo said:

Mar 5, 2018 18:26:29 GMT -5 .indulgecountry said:

How do you come to that conclusion? It was an officially promoted single to country radio so it would've counted just as any of his singles from studio albums have. I mean, going by this kind of logic, his streak of top tens can still be preserved if "Female" gets cut from his forthcoming album's tracklist before its release... and that wouldn't be accurate.

I'm not going to punish Keith Urban or any artist out there that releases a single from a soundtrack. For You does NOT appear on an Urban album, so why punish him if the single peaked at #11? If it was a regular Urban release, it would count against him if it did not hit the top ten. Fortunately, For You was a top ten. If Female does not make the upcoming album, I will say his streak of top tens continues.

I could be totally wrong here on what .indulgecountry is trying to say. But "For You" and "Female" were both fully promoted to radio and were treated just as much as singles to radio as any number of his previous singles. Just because "For You" wasn't on a Keith Urban album proper, doesn't mean it doesn't count as a radio single any more or less than his previous singles. Because radio looked at that song as a solo Keith Urban song.

Also it doesn't matter what you think on this as you're not Billboard. Regardless if this isn't on his upcoming album, Keith Urban's Top 10 streak on Billboard had ended with "Female".

It's also not "punishing" Keith Urban to count his soundtrack single or a non album single. It's just stating a fact. Fact is "Female" was fully promoted to country radio like a radio single and it did not hit the Top 10.

End rant.

[.indulgecountry]

Mar 5, 2018 18:37:53 GMT -5 onebuffalo said:

Mar 5, 2018 18:26:29 GMT -5 .indulgecountry said:

How do you come to that conclusion? It was an officially promoted single to country radio so it would've counted just as any of his singles from studio albums have. I mean, going by this kind of logic, his streak of top tens can still be preserved if "Female" gets cut from his forthcoming album's tracklist before its release... and that wouldn't be accurate.

I'm not going to punish Keith Urban or any artist out there that releases a single from a soundtrack. For You does NOT appear on an Urban album, so why punish him if the single peaked at #11? If it was a regular Urban release, it would count against him if it did not hit the top ten. Fortunately, For You was a top ten. If Female does not make the upcoming album, I will say his streak of top tens continues.

1) Unless you work for Billboard or Mediabase, it doesn't really matter if you personally think it would be "punishing" him or not. That's not how that works, lol.
2) Even if "Female" doesn't appear on Keith Urban's next studio album, it was still a regularly released and promoted single from him to country radio, so it would be incorrect for his top ten streak to be considered in-tact if he were to just snip it from the tracklisting before it comes out. That's not how that works, either.


At any rate, I'm a little disappointed to see his long streak finally come to an end, but at least it happened with something like "Female" which was just a misfire of a song and not a genuinely good track that had to have that unfortunate distinction.

[seak05]

Mar 5, 2018 19:22:31 GMT -5 .indulgecountry said:

Mar 5, 2018 18:37:53 GMT -5 onebuffalo said:

I'm not going to punish Keith Urban or any artist out there that releases a single from a soundtrack. For You does NOT appear on an Urban album, so why punish him if the single peaked at #11? If it was a regular Urban release, it would count against him if it did not hit the top ten. Fortunately, For You was a top ten. If Female does not make the upcoming album, I will say his streak of top tens continues.

1) Unless you work for Billboard or Mediabase, it doesn't really matter if you personally think it would be "punishing" him or not. That's not how that works, lol.
2) Even if "Female" doesn't appear on Keith Urban's next studio album, it was still a regularly released and promoted single from him to country radio, so it would be incorrect for his top ten streak to be considered in-tact if he were to just snip it from the tracklisting before it comes out. That's not how that works, either.


At any rate, I'm a little disappointed to see his long streak finally come to an end, but at least it happened with something like "Female" which was just a misfire of a song and not a genuinely good track that had to have that unfortunate distinction.

I think the rule is promoted singles, so Christmas tracks don't count, also movie tracks, unless they're also promoted to radio through the label

[josephmorgan]

Now that Keith's string of top ten songs are broken, is Blake Shelton the male solo artist with the most consecutive top tens?

[bluepaisley]

I may be at risk of ruffling feathers and angering some fan bases, but I have a curious observation about how superstars who have collaborated with Carrie Underwood have had their radio streaks and momentum somehow cut short afterwards.

Brad Paisley’s “Remind Me” (2011) was the last time his songs were guaranteed a sure path to the top. Subsequent singles have had mixed results and #1s have become far and few between. Miranda Lambert’s “Somethin’ Bad” (2014) was an "event collaboration" and a #1 in multi-metric Billboard Hot Country chart. She was never a radio darling but she managed to sneak in one or two radio hits with each album era. But after her collaboration with Carrie, she struggled to even hit Top 10. Now it is Keith Urban and “The Fighter”. I was initially reluctant to entertain the thought that a collaboration with Carrie can cut your radio momentum, fully aware that Keith Urban is such a consistent hit-maker with the longest streak of consecutive Top 10 hits. Then “Female” came and underperformed.

Of course there are a lot of other factors that could explain these things that I mentioned. Paisley did some career misfires with the ‘Wheelhouse’ era including the “Accidental Racist” controversy. He is also aging and country radio seems to be slowly phasing him out. Miranda’s “The Weight of These Wings” was also a special and personal album with songs written not really for radio success. Then Keith’s “Female” just did not connect well with listeners. It is also too early to tell if radio's love for Keith Urban will decline in this upcoming era.

This is just a weird observation that I have. I love Carrie Underwood and all the other aforementioned stars. I am sure there is no "Carrie curse" or anything. But these are just very very interesting coincidences, for whaterver they are worth.

Peace out everyone!

PS: Maybe I am just anxiously waiting for CU#6 that I am having all these ideas and observations.

[Naos]

Wow. This is almost the levels of collapse Justin Timberlake's "Filthy" had over on Top 40 radio.

[toomuchboy]

While I'm sad he didn't go at least top 10 with this, somehow I'm not really surprised considering the subject matter. Sending out a song about women in a genre that has practically banished women outside a couple of tokens was a bit of a risk in retrospect. Maybe that's why they made it the first single, so it would get an easier go of it.

I know there are many who dislike the song itself regardless of its subject matter. Still, I can't help looking at that list of his 38 top 10's, and thinking this is better than several of those... *shrug*

[jhomes87]

Sounds like the next single (and potentially album release date) will be announced soon. From Billboard:

Though Graffiti U’s release is looming (an announcement about a single and more album details is expected next week), Urban -- who’s finishing mixing the album now...

Rumor has it that "Female" might not be on the album, and that the next single will be a song called "Coming Home", which is possibly a collaboration with pop singer (and songwriter) Julia Michaels. Julia also co-wrote "Parallel Line", which Keith released digitally and in Australia back in January.

[Kentucky25]

Mar 18, 2018 18:10:58 GMT -5 jhomes87 said:

Sounds like the next single (and potentially album release date) will be announced soon. From Billboard:

Though Graffiti U’s release is looming (an announcement about a single and more album details is expected next week), Urban -- who’s finishing mixing the album now...

Rumor has it that "Female" might not be on the album, and that the next single will be a song called "Coming Home", which is possibly a collaboration with pop singer (and songwriter) Julia Michaels. Julia also co-wrote "Parallel Line", which Keith released digitally and in Australia back in January.

Further proof that "Parallel Line" should have been the lead single...

[jab820]

Mar 18, 2018 18:10:58 GMT -5 jhomes87 said:

Sounds like the next single (and potentially album release date) will be announced soon. From Billboard:

Though Graffiti U’s release is looming (an announcement about a single and more album details is expected next week), Urban -- who’s finishing mixing the album now...

Rumor has it that "Female" might not be on the album, and that the next single will be a song called "Coming Home", which is possibly a collaboration with pop singer (and songwriter) Julia Michaels. Julia also co-wrote "Parallel Line", which Keith released digitally and in Australia back in January.

Kind of over all these male country artists tagging female pop artists on their songs. I get that it gives them crossover potential, but it's giving radio an excuse to play them over other female artists. See Tori Kelly and Bebe Rexha in the top 20 over Lindsay Ell and Lauren Alaina. 

[Deleted]

Mar 19, 2018 16:16:52 GMT -5 jab820 said:

Mar 18, 2018 18:10:58 GMT -5 jhomes87 said:

Sounds like the next single (and potentially album release date) will be announced soon. From Billboard:

Rumor has it that "Female" might not be on the album, and that the next single will be a song called "Coming Home", which is possibly a collaboration with pop singer (and songwriter) Julia Michaels. Julia also co-wrote "Parallel Line", which Keith released digitally and in Australia back in January.

Kind of over all these male country artists tagging female pop artists on their songs. I get that it gives them crossover potential, but it's giving radio an excuse to play them over other female artists. See Tori Kelly and Bebe Rexha in the top 20 over Lindsay Ell and Lauren Alaina. 

I have always said this. It's pathetic and sad that the 2 highest charting females are Bebe Rexha and Tori Kelly right now on the chart. I get both of them attract more names than Lindsay Ell and Lauren Alaina.

I don't get how the "women in country music" issue is getting better, when the Top 2 female artists charting right now are pop artists.

Yeah there are some optimism with some of the female songs (Lindsay Ell, Ashley McBryde, and Carly Pearce), but it seems sad and pathetic to me that on the rolling Mediabase chart there are 5 female singers (Bebe Rexha, Tori Kelly, Lindsay Ell, Lauren Alaina and Hillary Scott of Lady Antebellum), and 40% of them aren't even in the genre.

I hope that in the future some of these male singers can collaborate with female country artists. I might shit all over "The Fighter" but at least both artists are country.

Rant over.

[Troublemaker]

Mar 18, 2018 18:10:58 GMT -5 jhomes87 said:

Rumor has it that "Female" might not be on the album, and that the next single will be a song called "Coming Home", which is possibly a collaboration with pop singer (and songwriter) Julia Michaels.

It’s funny how these male country artists never collaborate with the best pop female artists, they only go for one hit wonders or the ones still struggling to find their place in pop. 🤦‍♂️ 

[rainie]

Mar 19, 2018 19:07:15 GMT -5 Troublemaker said:

Mar 18, 2018 18:10:58 GMT -5 jhomes87 said:

Rumor has it that "Female" might not be on the album, and that the next single will be a song called "Coming Home", which is possibly a collaboration with pop singer (and songwriter) Julia Michaels.

It’s funny how these male country artists never collaborate with the best pop female artists, they only go for one hit wonders or the ones still struggling to find their place in pop. 🤦‍♂️ 

It’s because most of the big ones would never say yes to appearing on a counting song lmao

[zaclord 🌈]

Mar 29, 2018 0:43:06 GMT -5 rainie said:

Mar 19, 2018 19:07:15 GMT -5 Troublemaker said:

It’s funny how these male country artists never collaborate with the best pop female artists, they only go for one hit wonders or the ones still struggling to find their place in pop. 🤦‍♂️ 

It’s because most of the big ones would never say yes to appearing on a counting song lmao

Umm a lot of the biggest female pop stars have songs about counting...

[onebuffalo]

^You missed one: Gloria Estafan's 1-2-3.