Will we see Madonna in the Top 40 again?

It's been in the news recently that Madonna is back with a new single which was released last week. There was a time when that meant a potential new number one was on it's way, but those days have seemingly now gone. The single didn't even make the Top 40, charting at 87.

I thought catching Elvis Presley and Cliff Richard in terms of number of Top 40 hits was probably a step too far for Madonna, but I fully expected her to go far ahead of the rest of the pack in 3rd place. 10 years ago Elton John had what is likely his final hit thanks to Ironik and Chipmunk sampling "Tiny Dancer", the last time he had been in the Top 40 was 2005. He was 3rd with 69 Top 40 singles and Madonna was in 4th with 65. It seemed only a matter of time before Madonna would overtake Elton John into 3rd.

However, since then she's only had 3 Top 40 singles so remains in 4th with 68. The figure on the Official Charts website is wrong as it's counting re-entries as separate singles when it shouldn't.

Given Madonna is now 60 and given the nature of the charts these days, it's looking increasingly unlikely we'll see Madonna in the Top 40 again. A glance through the artists who had a Top 40 in 1984, the year Madonna made her debut, none of them appear to have been over 60 at the time. The closest was Henry Mancini who was 2 months off his 60th birthday. The only other artists that year over 50 to my knowledge were Mel Brooks and Willie Nelson.

It's not just an age thing though, after all David Guetta is only 9 years younger and he's been one of the biggest charting acts of the decade. The streaming era though has had a notable effect on music acts who started out in the 20th century.

Since the streaming era began nearly 5 years ago, the earliest chart debutant to have a Top 40 hit is the Jackson 5, who debuted in 1970. The way they've managed to have this hit is because of the flood of old Christmas songs entering the charts at Christmas time coupled with the fact "Santa Claus is Coming to Town" failed to make the Top 40 when it was first released in 1972.

The next earliest was Paul McCartney, who had a couple of Top 40 hits in 2015 which were both collaborations with Kanye West. Then there was Michael Jackson who had a hit last year thanks to his vocals being sampled in a Drake single.

The earliest chart debutant to have a hit in the streaming era that wasn't an old Christmas song or as featured act on a modern artists single was in fact Madonna who had a hit with "Living for Love" in 2015.

Kylie Minogue managed to scrape a Top 40 last year reaching 38 with "Dancing". She also had her version of "Santa Baby" from 2000 chart in Christmas 2017. The final 80s debutants to have Top 40 hits in the streaming era were Stone Roses, who had 2 Top 40 hits in 2016 with "All For One" and "Beautiful Thing".

Just 6 acts then from the first four decades of the charts to have a Top 40 in the streaming era. There are more acts from the 90s, but few have had Top 40 hits on their own merit. Here's a list of all the Top 40 hits:

Artist/Group	Year of Debut	Hit	Year of Hit	Notes
Take That	1991	These Days	2014
		Cry	2016	featuring Sigma
		Giants	2017
Darlene Love	1992	Christmas (Baby Please Come Home)	2018	Old Christmas song
Shaggy	1993	I Need Your Love	2015	featuring Mohombi, Faydee and Costi
R Kelly	1994	Bump n Grind 2014	2014	Credit on Waze & Odyssey version
Robbie Williams	1996	Love My Life	2016
Daft Punk	1997	Starboy	2016	featuring Weeknd
		I Feel It Coming	2016	featuring Weeknd
Steps	1997	Scared of the Dark	2017
Wyclef Jean	1997	Dimelo	2017	featuring Rak-Su and Naughty Boy
Usher	1998	New Flame	2014	featuring Chris Brown and Rick Ross
		She Came to Give it to You	2014	featuring Nicki Minaj
		I Don't Mind	2015	featuring Martin Garrix
		Don't Look Down	2015	featuring Juicy J
Britney Spears	1999	Pretty Girls	2015	featuring Iggy Azalea
Craig David	1999	When the Bassline Drops	2016	featuring Big Narstie
		Nothing Like This	2016	featuring Blonde
		One More Time	2016
		Ain't Giving Up	2016	featuring Sigala
		Heartline	2017
		I Know You	2017	featuring Bastille
Eminem	1999	Guts Over Fear	2014	featuring Sia
		Revenge	2017	featuring Pink
		Walk On Water	2017	featuring Beyonce
		River	2017	featuring Ed Sheeran
		In Your Head	2017
		The Ringer	2018
		Lucky You	2018	featuring Joyner Lucas
		Fall	2018
		Killshot	2018
		Venom	2018
Enrique Iglesias	1999	Subeme La Radio	2017	featuring Matt Terry and Sean Paul
Westlife	1999	Hello My Love	2019
		Better Man	2019

That's a total of 35 Top 40 hits from 90s debutants in the streaming era of which only 13 don't involve modern artists or are old Christmas records charting for the first time.

Back to the original question though, will we ever see Madonna back in the Top 40?

Well, I know she did a version of "Santa Baby" so that could appear one Christmas. She could collaborate with a modern artist, but that's what she's just done as her latest single is a collaboration with Maluma, although I'm not sure whether too many people in the UK know who he is. Then again Madonna is one of only nine 20th century chart debutants to chart in the streaming era without the aid of Christmas or a modern artist.

Except that final statement isn't strictly true. Her one and only Top 40 hit in the streaming era was produced by Diplo and it could be argued that helped get it in the Top 40.

Looking at the track listing from her forthcoming album, there is a track on there which features Quavo, who had a number one in 2017, and is produced by Diplo. Could this be the single that puts her level with Elton John in terms of number of singles? We'll wait and see.