Mason’s Observations on RAYE, Halloween Songs & 2003

RAYE – “WHERE IS MY HUSBAND!”: A totally underrated singer who’s been releasing smash Top 10 bangers overseas for a decade. In America, 2022’s “Escapism.” was her only hit. She’s won various awards, performed at all kinds of places and events, worked with many legends, and celebrates her 28th birthday this Friday. She has a unique and unbelievable vocal range, style and vibe. 

People describe Raye as a mashup between Amy Winehouse and Doja Cat, but classier. But there is really no artist like her right now. “WHERE IS MY HUSBAND!” came out September 19 and has been between #45 and #49 on US Spotify in recent days. On the global chart, it’s #15 right now, which could mean big things for her since many big songs from the past year blew up worldwide before actually breaking through in America–Olivia Dean’s “Man I Need”, sombr’s “back to friends” and Disco Lines’ “No Broke Boys” for examples.

We’ve never mentioned or played the song on Liveline, yet somehow this week it placed at #16 in requests. That’s definitely not a rare occurrence. Likely through discovery on streaming, many listeners request new songs that have never been played on the radio on any station, with some going on to become big hits.

Following yet another week of stale charts and minimal reactions on new music, it’s important to know when a song like this is blowing up and to figure out the reasons why. Out of the million songs that are released every month and all the viral sounds on TikTok, people picked this one. And they’ve picked it over songs like “Camera” by Ed Sheeran or “Sue Me” by Audrey Hobert that are still ahead of it on the CHR airplay charts, despite having no streaming story, no Liveline requests and no sign of being anybody’s favorite.

On a week like this, your music meeting could be five minutes. The numbers are clearly all there. There’s a hot new song that’s doing really well with hundreds of thousands of people in your demographic. It just needs radio to actually support it while it is hot with the streaming audience (instead of calling it “new music” when your P1s have been streaming it for two months).

Buried Treasures of the Week

Shakira – “She Wolf”: In addition to the other Halloween classics like “Thriller” (which we’ve had multiple requests for every night this October), and “Monster Mash”, people often forget about this hidden gem from Shakira which came out during arguably the strongest era for pop music of this century. Despite having gotten lost at the time, it has amassed over 362 million streams on Spotify. While not on a “Hips Don’t Lie” level, we do get requests for it year-round as well.

Evanescence – “Bring Me to Life”: Another favorite of many this time of year, though there’s nothing really “buried” about it since Alternative, Hot AC and even a few Classic Rock stations still play it quite a bit. Back in the day Top 40 truly showcased many different sounds and the best of every genre. But in 2025 could a heavy rock song like this (or “Misery Business” by Paramore) hit #1 on Pop airplay? It’s one of the biggest songs of this century, now with 1.6 billion streams on Spotify alone. Add another 1.6 billion from YouTube views and you realize that 22 years later, today it is one of the two biggest songs from 2003, even though Billboard ranked it as #10 that year.

While 2003’s #1 song, “In Da Club” still gets Liveline requests daily, “Bring Me to Life” gets more calls than “Miss You” by Aaliyah, “Picture” by Kid Rock, “Unwell” by Matchbox Twenty, “When I’m Gone” by 3 Doors Down and the #2 song “Ignition” by R. Kelly. “Get Low” by Lil Jon was ranked #11 at the time, but really should be Top 3 nowadays. That’s another calassic with weekly requests.