Ed Sheeran's New Single "Azizam" Is An Immediate No. 1
Ed Sheeran's new single 'Azizam' debuts inside the top 10 on four U.K. charts, including at No. 1 on ... More both the Official Singles Sales and Downloads rankings. NEW YORK, NEW YORK - MAY 06: Ed Sheeran attends The 2024 Met Gala Celebrating "Sleeping Beauties: Reawakening Fashion" at The Metropolitan Museum of Art on May 06, 2024 in New York City. (Photo by)
Ed Sheeran is back on the charts, as he's produced yet another proper pop smash in his home country. The Grammy winner has been relatively quiet in terms of radio-ready singles lately, as he recently opted to release an all-acoustic album that, while beloved by some fans, wasn't built for chart success. Now, Sheeran reclaims his spot as one of the most reliable hitmakers in the world with 'Azizam' — a title that might raise eyebrows, but a tune that's already proving to be a fast favorite in his native United Kingdom.
'Azizam' debuts on the U.K. charts this frame, and it's clear from the start that Sheeran's latest release is another winner. The song opens on four separate tallies in his home country, and it manages to break into the top 10 on all of them right out of the gate. That kind of across-the-board debut is impressive, but not exactly surprising for someone of Sheeran's stature.
As was expected, 'Azizam' easily snags the top spot on two U.K. rankings: the Official Singles Sales and Official Singles Downloads charts. The wins give Sheeran his fifteenth No. 1 on the download-only tally and his third on the overall sales list, which tracks the bestselling tunes across all formats. When it comes to top 10 placements, the singer-songwriter has more than doubled those totals.
While 'Azizam' doesn't quite manage to debut at No. 1 on the Official Singles chart — the U.K.'s most competitive ranking of the most-consumed songs each week — it comes close to doing so. The new release launches at No. 3, giving Sheeran his forty-second top 10 on the tally. 'Azizam' is also Sheeran's eighty-fourth track to appear anywhere on the list. That means exactly half of his charting songs have broken into the top 10, which is an incredible ratio for any act.
Of the four major U.K.-based charts that welcome 'Azizam' this week, the one where the tune performs the worst is the Official Streaming list. Even in that case, Sheeran still earns another top 10. The just-dropped track opens at No. 6 on the ranking of the most-played songs in the nation across platforms like Spotify, Apple Music, Tidal, and others.
'Azizam' is expected to lead Sheeran's next full-length, Play, his forthcoming project that breaks away from his long-running habit of naming albums after mathematical symbols. That series — including +, x, ÷, and - — defined the early stages of his career and spawned dozens of hits. He may be finished with that pattern, but Sheeran clearly isn't finished producing top 40 smashes.
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UPI
14 hours ago
- UPI
'Eternal Queen of Asian Pop' sings last encore from beyond the grave
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Yet, the ballads of Teng, who could sing in Mandarin, Cantonese, Japanese and Indonesian, continue to echo through karaoke rooms, on Spotify playlists, at tribute concerts and at family gatherings across Asia and beyond. I study how pop music has served as a tool of soft power, and I've spent the past several years researching Teng's music and its legacy. I've found that Teng's influence endures not just because of her voice, but also because her music transcends Asia's political fault lines. From local star to Asian icon Born in 1953 in Yunlin, Taiwan, Teresa Teng grew up in one of the many villages that were built to house soldiers and their families who had fled mainland China in 1949 after the communists claimed victory in the Chinese civil war. Her early exposure to traditional Chinese music and opera laid the foundation for her singing career. By age 6, she was taking voice lessons. She soon began winning local singing competitions. "It wasn't adults who wanted me to sing," Teng wrote in her memoir. "I wanted to sing. As long as I could sing, I was happy." At 14, Teng dropped out of high school to focus entirely on music, signing with the local label Yeu Jow Records. Soon thereafter, she released her first album, Fengyang Flower Drum. In the 1970s, she toured and recorded across Taiwan, Hong Kong, Japan and Southeast Asia, becoming one of Asia's first truly transnational pop stars. Teng's career flourished in the late 1970s and 1980s. She released some of her most iconic tracks, such as her covers of Chinese singer Zhou Xuan's 1937 hit, "When Will You Return?" and Taiwanese singer Chen Fen-lan's "The Moon Represents My Heart," and toured widely across Asia, sparking what came to be known as "Teresa Teng Fever." In the early 1990s, Teng was forced to stop performing for health reasons. She died suddenly of an asthma attack on May 8, 1995, while on vacation in Chiang Mai, Thailand, at age 42. 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Shanghai's propaganda department wrote an internal memo in 1980 noting that her music had spread to the city's public parks, restaurants, nursing homes and wedding halls. Teng's immense popularity in China was no accident. It reflected a time in the country's history when its people were particularly eager for emotionally resonant art after decades of cultural propaganda and censorship. For a society that had been awash in rote, revolutionary songs like "The East is Red" and "Union is Strength," Teng's music offered something entirely different. It was personal, tender and deeply human. Her gentle, approachable style -- often described as "angelic" or like that of "a girl next door" -- provided solace and a sense of intimacy that had long been absent from public life. Teng's music was also admired for her ability to bridge eras. Her 1983 album, Light Exquisite Feeling, fused classical Chinese poetry with contemporary Western pop melodies, showcasing her gift for blending the traditional and the modern. It cemented her reputation not just as a pop star but as a cultural innovator. It's no secret why audiences across China and Asia were so deeply drawn to her and her music. She was fluent in multiple languages; she was elegant but humble, polite and relatable, she was involved in various charities, and she spoke out in support of democratic values. A sound of home in distant lands Throughout the 1990s and early 2000s, the Chinese immigrant population in the United States grew to over 1.1 million. Teng's music has also deeply embedded itself within Chinese diasporic communities across the country. In cities such as Los Angeles, San Francisco and New York, Chinese immigrants played her music at family gatherings, during holidays and at community events. Walk through any Chinatown during Lunar New Year and you're bound to hear her voice wafting through the streets. For younger Chinese Americans and even non-Chinese audiences, Teng's music has become a window into Chinese culture. When I was studying in the United States, I often met Asian American students who belted out her songs at karaoke nights or during cultural festivals. Many had grown up hearing her music through their parents' playlists or local community celebrations. The release of her recently discovered song is a reminder that some voices do not fade -- they evolve, migrate and live on in the hearts of people scattered across the world. In an age when global politics drive different cultures apart, Teng's enduring appeal reminds us of something quieter yet more lasting: the power of voice to transmit emotion across time and space, the way a melody can build a bridge between continents and generations. I recently rewatched the YouTube video for Teng's iconic 1977 ballad, "The Moon Represents My Heart." As I read the comments section, one perfectly encapsulated what I had discovered about Teresa Teng in my own research: "Teng's music opened a window to a culture I never knew I needed." Xianda Huang is a doctoral student in Asian Languages and Cultures at the University of California-Los Angeles. This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article. The views and opinions in this commentary are solely those of the author.
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15 hours ago
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