Taylor Swift, Kacey Musgraves Songs Surge After Global Citizen Special
The studio originals of Swift’s ‘Soon You’ll Get Better’ and Musgraves’ ‘Rainbow’ saw an upswing in download sales after the ‘One World Together At Home’ show.
Taylor Swift and Kacey Musgraves are among the artists to see a notable spike in sales for the songs they performed on Global Citizen’s multi-network One World: Together at Home TV special at the weekend. The show had a combined US TV audience of 14.6 million.
Billboard reports that initial sales data from Nielsen Music/MRC Data shows a 735% rise in downloads of the tracks played by artists on Saturday’s (18) at-home extravaganza. A one-day total of 12,000 downloads for those songs in the US on that day compared to only just over 1,000 each for the same tracks the day before.
In compiling the data, Nielsen Music/MRC Data has analysed the performances of original or popular versions of material featured in the broadcast. These include Ben E. King’s enduring 1961 staple ‘Stand By Me,’ as sung on One World: Together at Home by John Legend and Sam Smith.
Swift’s studio version of ‘Soon You’ll Get Better,’ which features the Dixie Chicks and is part of last year’s Lover album, also rose after she selected it for the special. Musgraves saw an upturn in downloads of ‘Rainbow,’ the song she performed which was the closing track on her 2018 album Golden Hour.
At writing today (20), Swift’s album version is in the top 30 of iTunes’ Top Songs chart for the UK. The Rolling Stones’ ‘You Can’t Always Get What You Want,’ performed by the rock legends in their four respective homes, stands at No. 56.
Also featured in the One World: Together at Home special was Camila Cabello and Shawn Mendes’ version of Louis Armstrong’s classic ballad ‘What A Wonderful World,’ the original of which topped the UK chart in 1968. You can watch the modern-day stars’ update here:
The BBC has reported that its two-hour show aired last night (Sunday), which featured highlights of the US show as well as specially-recorded performances by British acts, had a peak audience of six million. The average audience was 5.4 million. It was hosted by Dermot O’Leary, Clara Amfo and Claudia Winkleman, and contributing UK artists included Tom Jones, Jess Glynne and Rag ‘n’ Bone Man.
Listen to the best of Taylor Swift on Apple Music and Spotify.
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