The Non-US Hits of 2021

 The Non-US Hits of 2021

In the following special article for my 1-year anniversary, I venture into three other countries to dive into the songs that became hits there but not in the US, and discuss the highlights.

From my best list for 2021:

“I was gonna add the non-us hits section here that I also added on my 2020 best list, but it just occurred to me that those year-end lists won’t be out until early 2022, so I’m gonna make a separate blog post highlighting those once the Australian, UK, and Canadian year-ends are all out.”

Better late than never, I suppose?

Anyway, hello guys, welcome back to Fire’s Flaming Hot Takes, and happy 1-year anniversary of me making my very first retro year-end list! And today, to celebrate that, we will not be doing a best or worst list, but we’re talking about the best Non-US hits of 2021!

Well, it’s about time I do this. I’ve been putting it off for so long, but at some point I had to do this. I talked a lot about the music scene of 2021 in both of my year-end lists, so I won’t waste time talking about those here. I will say though that I feel I came across as a bit too negative on the year as a whole, and quite a lot of my assertions have aged really badly already.

But anyway, let’s get to the point. For this special article, I’ll be investigating the year-end lists in Canada, Australia, and the UK, and talking about the songs that became hits over there, but not in the US. Whether into any one of the quite frankly ridiculous number of house tracks that chart in the UK or songs that became big in Australia thanks to its Triple J Hottest 100 chart or just tracks that those countries had enough taste that the US lacked to make these songs hits, I’ll be talking about those! It’s always fascinating to me to see how different the music scene is in other countries, and it enables for some damn great discoveries!

So with that in mind, these are the qualifications for the songs that I’m choosing. The songs that are highlighted in this article are the songs that would’ve made my best list for 2021 had they become hits in the US - and yes, the honorable mentions count - which actually still only gave us 6 songs to look at.  For comparison, I had 19 songs in my little Non-US hits section in my best list for 2020. The pool of songs I had to choose from for 2021 wasn’t bad, it’s just that the Hot 100 year-end list for 2021 was really good. But yes, we’re only focusing on the positive, it’s not worth going into the negatives, though there were a few atrocious songs that became hits outside the US - “A-O-K” by Tai Verdes and “SO DONE” by The Kid LAROI immediately come to mind. I will not mention songs that had made a previous non-US hits list - so no, you’re not gonna see “Midnight Sky” by Miley Cyrus here - nor songs that had made a prior US list - so no, you’re not gonna see “Mr. Brightside” here either. Also, if the songs are set to become hits in the US in 2022, let’s take “Shivers” by Ed Sheeran for example, they don’t count either. And yes, my opinions have shifted quite a bit and my best list for 2021 would probably be slightly different if I made it now, but I was still able to pull something together. You got all that? Alright, let’s get this started!

Coldplay - Higher Power (#100 UK)

This was the song that I had the most difficulty when evaluating whether to highlight it. Well, it barely even made this list anyway, even in the UK it just snuck onto the bottom of the year-end list, but it’s also a song that I feel has a lot of flaws that hinder it from being outright excellent. Well, mainly just one big flaw: that being that Chris Martin sounds really checked out in the chorus and doesn’t build up his delivery until the final chorus. And the first time around I can let it slide, but it becomes a problem in the 2nd verse chorus, this is where you’re supposed to build things up, but I feel he’s relying way too much on the production to do that for him! And he can barely sell the fact that he’s happy that he’s alive at the same time as this girl. Some of the swell in that final chorus could’ve really been used in the 2nd chorus, could’ve driven this over the top. That said, I do still really like this, the synths sound great, the actual music is upbeat and catchy as well, and the melody sounds really damn great. And as I said, the final hook is legitimately excellent. Look, I do actually prefer “My Universe” with BTS to this and I’m still salty that that song looks like it’s getting caught between years, but hey, “Higher Power”’s strengths were good enough for me to look past its weaknesses.

Dua Lipa - Love Again (#51 CAN)

The US let this song underperform and yet let both “We’re Good” and “Cold Heart” become hits, the latter of which is already a contender for my worst list for 2022 and it only gets worse every time I hear it. What in the world were we doing? Now, to be fair, “Love Again” wasn’t an instant click for me, but it did grow on me a lot, to the point where I consider this one of Dua Lipa’s best ever songs. Granted, the radio edit that completely censors “goddamn” is a huge ass turnoff, and may actually be what contributed to this song’s underperformance in the US. But anyway, “Love Again” to me feels like a better version of “Break My Heart” to me. I like “Break My Heart”, but I never considered that to be one of my favorite songs on Future Nostalgia and mass overplay made it burn on me really badly. “Love Again” has only continued to grow on me the more I listen to it, and it may be the strings that helped me get won over in the end. Yes, the groove is razor tight, the melody is really strong, and Dua Lipa can sell her exasperation of her thinking she moved on from this relationship despite the fact that there are still lingering feelings of that relationship - well at least she sells it better than in “Break My Heart” where she honestly just sounds too checked out for it to fully stick the landing - but man, those strings are just so elegant, so magnificent, so incredible, and honestly kinda haunting in a way! Yeah, Dua is an artist that frustrates me a lot because I know she has the potential to be great but can end up wasting it on stuff like the boring slog “We’re Good” or the unfinished and undercooked “Cold Heart”, and “Love Again” is an example of how truly great she can be. Man, this song got robbed here.

Pink - All I Know So Far (#76 CAN)

Part of me feels bad that I’ve trashed Pink so much in many of my worst lists. But I can’t help it, “Raise Your Glass”, “Fuckin’ Perfect”, “Just Give Me A Reason”, and “Blow Me (One Last Kiss)” in particular all just blend together for me and all four of them getting excruciating levels of recurrent airplay for me didn’t help my opinion on those songs in any way. But I’ve always thought Pink is a really good singer, and yeah, I get that this is probably significantly lamer, safer, and more generic than many of her songs from the 2000s, but hey, I still think this actually works really well. I really like the acoustics and the low-end has a lot of swell in the chorus. But honestly, it’s Pink herself that makes this song work so well for me. Framed as a letter to her daughter to persevere and have strength to get through adversity, Pink’s sincerity shines through, even letting her daughter know that she’ll be right by her side until the very end. It’s easy to dismiss this as a pretty generic self-esteem anthem, but Pink’s sincerity is ultimately what wins me over on this one. Great song.

Galantis, David Guetta, & Little Mix - Heartbreak Anthem (#24 UK)

Yeah, the UK charts are pretty much littered with either house tracks, grime tracks, or Ed Sheeran. Of all the EDM songs that charted in the UK in 2021, I think “Heartbreak Anthem” rises above all of them - well with one exception that we’ll get to later. And yes, I realize that festival progressive house music like this hits a lot of weak spots for me, and if the song has a strong enough melody, that’s all it really takes for me to love the song. Case in point, this song. The song just feels really uplifting and it really captivates me here. Plus, the prechorus and the buildup into the drop sound really damn awesome. Yeah, this song doesn’t give me that much to talk about, but hey, it’s a cute as hell track.

Sigala & James Arthur - Lasting Lover (#60 AUS)

Ironic, a song that sounds like the numerous UK EDM tracks made the year-end list in Australia instead. Now look, I know I’m well in the minority in loving this song, but sue me, I’ve loved “Lasting Lover” since I first found it in late 2020 and it’s one of my favorite songs of 2021, period, not just the hits! Probably wouldn’t have topped my best list for 2021 altogether if it was a hit in the US, but it would’ve definitely come close, probably at least in my top 5. I’m sure most people's problems with this song lie in the “Time To Pretend” sample being the drop in this song, and yeah, even I’ll admit, it does make the song fall slightly flat. But I still think that overall, it sounds nice. Also James Arthur sounds great on this song and the hook’s melody is really pretty. Again, EDM tracks with a great melody hit my weak spots, but hey, I don’t really care, this is amazing. Quite possibly the most overhated song of last year, this is nice.

Regard, Troye Sivan, & Tate McRae - You (#90 CAN)

This would’ve topped my best list for 2021 if it became a hit in the US. I’m not kidding. Let me set the scene. You’re in Hawaii on vacation, in the car driving. Probably cloudy or maybe even lightly raining and you’re driving through the forests in Kauai. And as you look out the window and see the trees go by with the light rain coming down, and that bleeping drop is playing as it’s going on. Yep, in just a year, it’s already formed a strong nostalgic chord with me, believe it or not, I mean I know nostalgia doesn’t have a timeframe and it doesn’t matter how long ago it happened but even I’m quite shocked about this. For real, I liked this when I first heard it, and it only continued to grow on me to the point of absolutely loving it. The production absolutely slaps, that pulsating groove is really sweet and the production just feels so atmospheric. And then I realized that this song was actually originally intended for ZAYN and Ellie Goulding and then all of a sudden me loving this song made way too much sense - no, not for ZAYN, I mean Ellie Goulding, I’ve said before on this blog that Ellie Goulding is one of my favorite artists of all time, and she fits this production incredibly well! And I have to applaud Regard here, somehow he managed to make a hella crack pairing as Troye Sivan and Tate McRae somehow work! Fantastic song, and just like the other songs I’ve mentioned here, definitely deserved to do better in the US.

So that’s my list of my favorite Non-US hits of 2021, thanks for reading!! Next up, we’re back to worst and best lists, and I’ll be working on 2001. Stay tuned for that, and feel free to predict what songs may make both lists, it’ll be fun to see any speculations. Until then, you’ve been reading Fire’s Flaming Hot Takes, here’s to another great year, and take care.