Ed Sheeran f/ Taylor Swift - "The Joker and the Queen"

[Crimsonio]

I love it, it sounds angelic and thematic

[HEADOFTHEPACK]

Feb 11, 2022 17:32:27 GMT -5 degen said:

People like ballads, just not boring ones perhaps.

Right. LOVE a good ballad, this is boring as shit.

[jgarbary]

Feb 11, 2022 21:06:53 GMT -5 iHype. said:

I have never seen a #50 on Pop radio with as low as 166 spins. Is every station really playing the same 5 songs at this point?

Are gold spins a separate category than recurrents? If so I think the explanation might be that stations are filling more slots with gold tracks, which don’t get included in the spins we see looking a currents and recurrents on allaccess. Does anyone have a way to look up gold spins and compare to a few years ago to see if I’m right?

[Az Paynter]

Feb 11, 2022 1:56:00 GMT -5 DJDaveMick69 said:

Keep it.

I heard this on my station today, it's a good sleep aid.

[fearlessarrow]

I was like "did Az update an Ed Sheeran song of all songs!?" for a moment lol

[fearlessarrow]

POP:
-- 43 ED SHEERAN F/TAYLOR SWIFT The Joker And The Queen 719 0 719 2.603

+553 Spins
+553 Bullet
+2.093 Audience

HOT AC:
-- 26 ED SHEERAN F/TAYLOR SWIFT The Joker And The Queen 687 0 687 3.011

+541 Spins
+541 Bullet
+2.520 Audience

AC:
-- 23 ED SHEERAN F/TAYLOR SWIFT The Joker And The Queen 63 0 63 0.281

+41 Spins
+41 Bullet
+0.202 Audience

[Choco]

#6 on Spotify. Seems like the Swiftie Nation is treating this like an Ed Sheeran song because it's doing worse than several RED TV album tracks.

[Love Plastic Love]

Feb 11, 2022 18:09:43 GMT -5 irice22 said:

Not saying this is a good or bad thing, but it kinda sounds like a showtune.

This, exactly.

I like showtunes so it isn't a deal breaker for me. I am just used to having some sort of plot/character investment to make me like it more, lol.

[gikem]

Feb 12, 2022 6:22:26 GMT -5 jgarbary said:

Feb 11, 2022 21:06:53 GMT -5 iHype. said:

I have never seen a #50 on Pop radio with as low as 166 spins. Is every station really playing the same 5 songs at this point?

Are gold spins a separate category than recurrents? If so I think the explanation might be that stations are filling more slots with gold tracks, which don’t get included in the spins we see looking a currents and recurrents on allaccess. Does anyone have a way to look up gold spins and compare to a few years ago to see if I’m right?

I'm not sure how this will help, but if you look at Top 40 callout scores over the past few years, you'll notice that the ratio between Current tracks and Recurrent tracks that are being tested has swung in the latter's favor, at least ever since the number of songs being tested was downscaled a bit around 2017/2018.

Just using this week as an example...

February 9, 2018: 17 currents, 11 recurrents (~39%)
February 8, 2019: 20 currents, 10 recurrents (~33%)
February 14, 2020: 16 currents, 11 recurrents (~41%)
February 12, 2021: 16 currents, 13 recurrents (~45%)
February 11, 2022: 16 currents, 15 recurrents (~48%)

And to make matters worse, callouts for current songs that have debuted there after the holiday break have been abysmal for the most part. One Right Now is the only song I know of to debut with and maintain a net positive above 40%, and all the songs testing better than it have been pushed for a while now and/or are just about done (or at least they should be). All this is a sign that the radio-listening public is just not interested in listening to newer songs right now and might rather listen to old radio staples, or they might want newer songs but they aren't satisfied with what radio has decided to push to the upper echelons. This is probably what's taking away spins from so many songs that should be doing better than they are and resulting in record-low spin rates for the 41-50 range.

[SPRΞΞ]

Feb 11, 2022 18:09:43 GMT -5 irice22 said:

Not saying this is a good or bad thing, but it kinda sounds like a showtune.

Or something you’d play at a funeral.

[spiritboy]

Taylor sounds angelic on this.

This is not the type of song that'll have instant success. Of course some people can't wait to call this a flop based on first day's numbers but i say let's wait and see where this one ends.

[JJ]

I think this has potential to stay a long time on the charts, peaking at #5.

[musicspy]

I heard it once again closely. The song is fine but its not suited for today's climate... imo it sounds like a disney soundtrack. The first thing that came to my mind was Ariana's version of Beauty And A Beast. While listening I was trying to tell what could elevate the song a bit. Their voices. They sing so softly comparing to the atmospheric music that you barely csn hear them. A little ooomph in the vocals would help

[born]

Feb 9, 2022 6:09:32 GMT -5 born said:

This soundtrack ballad sound does not really work for her (as we’ve seen in “Beautiful Ghosts”) 

Feb 12, 2022 18:34:54 GMT -5 musicspy said:

I heard it once again closely. The song is fine but its not suited for today's climate... imo it sounds like a disney soundtrack. The first thing that came to my mind was Ariana's version of Beauty And A Beast. 

exactly my thoughts

[fearlessarrow]

POP:
-- 41 ED SHEERAN F/TAYLOR SWIFT The Joker And The Queen 935 0 935 3.194

+216 Spins
+216 Bullet
+0.591 Audience

HOT AC:
-- 25 ED SHEERAN F/TAYLOR SWIFT The Joker And The Queen 894 0 894 3.924

+207 Spins
+207 Bullet
+0.913 Audience

AC:
-- 20 ED SHEERAN F/TAYLOR SWIFT The Joker And The Queen 80 0 80 0.369

+17 Spins
+17 Bullet
+0.088 Audience

[Choco]

#2 UK midweek.

Not shipping those CDs this week was a bad move.

[Enigma.]

Already down to #20 on Spotify globally. Granted, there is the solo version too, but it's not in top 200.

[fearlessarrow]

POP:
-- 38 ED SHEERAN F/TAYLOR SWIFT The Joker And The Queen 1246 0 1246 4.030

+311 Spins
+311 Bullet
+0.836 Audience

HOT AC:
-- 22 ED SHEERAN F/TAYLOR SWIFT The Joker And The Queen 1088 0 1088 4.719

+194 Spins
+194 Bullet
+0.795 Audience

AC:
-- 19 ED SHEERAN F/TAYLOR SWIFT The Joker And The Queen 97 0 97 0.426

+17 Spins
+17 Bullet
+0.057 Audience

[jgarbary]

Canada-Top 40

0 47 ED SHEERAN F/TAYLOR SWIFT The Joker And The Queen 74 0 74 0.209

Top 3 stations: CKIK Red Deer 22, CING Hamilton 11, CIHT Ottawa

There are also seven other stations who've played this between 2 and 4 times (per "Taking Off").. and what's kind of interesting is that none of them are iHeart stations.  On Thursday on 101.3 Halifax (which IS iHeart) I was listening to IHeart Radio Nights with Myles (syndicated across Canada), and around 10:45pm he announced "you've waited long enough for it, coming up in ten minutes we have the brand new Taylor & Ed collab", but then a couple of songs later they cut out the show and went back to local playlist - so it never came on.  I wonder if the same thing happened on each of the other 13 IHeart stations broadcasting IHeart Radio Nights?  ..none of them even show a single spin on Allaccess Taking Off

[Mayman]

I know 300 new spins is a lot, but I was expecting higher updates for this.

[jred]

The remix is fine. I don't think it was necessary, but it's not a case where I'm gonna actively avoid the remix in favor of the original.

The song, overall, is really good - my favorite of the three singles - but I'm not sure it'll be a big hit. It's really grown on me since the album's release.

[christianlarson9]

It was removed under "Future Releases" on AllAccess for Pop Radio, so I wonder if the label is scrapping plans on pushing this at Pop? If that's the case, then I hope that Ed's team can start to push "Overpass Graffiti".

[daddy]

Feb 14, 2022 22:10:43 GMT -5 christianlarson9 said:

It was removed under "Future Releases" on AllAccess for Pop Radio, so I wonder if the label is scrapping plans on pushing this at Pop? If that's the case, then I hope that Ed's team can start to push "Overpass Graffiti".

This should be the plan. OG is excellent and should be a single. 

[fearlessarrow]

POP:
-- 33 ED SHEERAN F/TAYLOR SWIFT The Joker And The Queen 1478 0 1478 4.668

+232 Spins
+232 Bullet
+0.638 Audience

HOT AC:
-- 20 ED SHEERAN F/TAYLOR SWIFT The Joker And The Queen 1281 0 1281 5.350

+193 Spins
+193 Bullet
+0.631 Audience

AC:
-- 16 ED SHEERAN F/TAYLOR SWIFT The Joker And The Queen 124 0 124 0.606

+27 Spins
+27 Bullet
+0.180 Audience

[Glove Slap]

This feels like something that radio would push to the top 20/15 due to the names and then it implodes. But I might be wrong.

[christianlarson9]

Feb 15, 2022 11:36:11 GMT -5 Glove Slap said:

This feels like something that radio would push to the top 20/15 due to the names and then it implodes. But I might be wrong.

Yeah, I think this will end up performing like "Afterglow" did on Pop. I don't even get why they planned on pushing this at Pop over "Overpass Graffiti"...

[theflying]

Hopefully it’s OK to ask this here - what was the fallout of “Afterglow”? I totally forgot about that. Was it truly a one off or did they scrap that direction when it flopped?

[Choco]

Feb 15, 2022 14:28:50 GMT -5 theflying said:

Hopefully it’s OK to ask this here - what was the fallout of “Afterglow”? I totally forgot about that. Was it truly a one off or did they scrap that direction when it flopped?

Hard to say. Ed always referred to it as a one off.

But it would have been on the album if it had been a big hit, let's be real.

[divasummer]

I like this a lot and love the original.
I think it’s stunning and I figured because it WAS so beautiful it would be a breath of fresh air and smash.
I’m hoping I’m not wrong but I think I may be.
I played this for a woman who’s older than me that I thought she was going to love it.
No…. she said it was pretty enough but very slow.
I thought she was going to say it moved her to tears like it did for me… lol

[NeRD]

I think it's safe for a Top 10 debut next week at least. If it doesn't, that would be embarrassing.