The box office smash ‘Deadpool and Wolverine’, already over $1 billion in revenue when it cost just $200, has left a clear winner in the musical realm. ‘Bye Bye Bye’ by *NSYNC, which appears in the opening credits of the film, has gone viral on TikTok. The group has even modified the title of this song originally released in the 2000s, adding the name of the film, and it has been in the top 20 most listened to songs on Spotify globally for 3 weeks.
After having reached the top 3 and top 4 in the UK and US in 2000, it has now re-entered at number 12 and number 45 in these countries. Goo Goo Dolls’ ‘Iris’ has also had a spectacular reception, which had already been going on (the song has almost 2 billion streams, which certainly do not come from just the last month).
And in recent days, Madonna’s ‘Like a Prayer’ has also made its way onto the charts, even though the song does not appear on the official soundtrack, probably because it is very difficult to license. Madonna only consented to its use with a personal visit to her home by the film’s director and lead actors, in which they explained the scene to her and she suggested changes, which were accepted.
For the first time since it was released in 1989 and spent three weeks at number one, ‘Like a Prayer’ is back in the UK Top 40. It does so at number 27, helped by a newly released EP from Marvel featuring the two alternate mixes of ‘Like a Prayer’ used in ‘Deadpool and Wolverine’. One is an edit by Madonna featuring the film’s score writer Rob Simonsen, and the other is a gospel rendition of the composition by a specially created choir called the ‘I’ll Take You There Choir’.
Thanks to sales of the EP, the track climbs the UK chart and enters at number 45 in Ireland. It also reached number 140 on Billboard’s Official Global Top 200. The track has never appeared in Spotify’s global top 200, partly because its streams are split across various versions of studio albums, remixes, live albums and compilations. In addition, it seems to have performed better on Apple Music, iTunes and YouTube than on Spotify.
In the last few days, someone has put together the two most important versions of ‘Like a Prayer’ (Original Album and ‘Celebration’ compilation) on Spotify, which gives some hope that Warner will one day fix the artist’s general mess on streaming platforms. 3 years after the announced reissues of Madonna’s entire catalogue, there is still no news on this matter, perhaps due to the delay of her biopic, perhaps due to her dedication to a world tour.
