It's been over a year since I updated which 20th Century debutants have had new Top 40 hits in the 2020s so far. The latest of those last time was "Padam Padam" by Kylie Minogue so I will begin from after this.
In 2019 I made this post questioning whether we'd see Madonna in the Top 40 again. It had been 4 years since her previous Top 40 hit and her latest single got nowhere near the Top 40. I speculated that she could get back in the Top 40 via a collaboration with a modern artist, and in June 2023 that's exactly what she did on the track "Popular" with The Weeknd and Playboi Carti.
This is also the way Shania Twain found herself back in the Top 40 that same month. She'd had a 7 year Top 40 career around the turn of the century with the last of those hits coming in 2005, but she was back alongside Anne-Marie with "Unhealthy".
That same month we also saw Aqua back in the Top 40. This was for another common reason for older artists returning to the Top 40, a reworking of one of their older songs. It was the time of the Barbie movie and rappers Nicki Minaj & Ice Spice did a record for it that samples "Barbie Girl" to the extent it gives Aqua an artist credit.
In September 2023 Kylie Minogue was back again with "Tension", there on it's own merit much like "Padam Padam" earlier on in the year.
That same month something happened that I never thought I'd see again, The Rolling Stones back in the Top 40. Although they've never gone away since their 60s heyday and are still big enough to sell out stadiums, they've not had a Top 10 since 1981 and their popularity is mainly to do with their older material. They'd last been in the Top 40 in 2005 and had released several single since which failed to make the Top 40. However, "Angry" managed to get to 34 and gave them their first Top 40 hit in 18 years.
Blink 182 returned to the Top 40 that same month with "One More Time". They qualify for this list thanks to the one week they spent at number 38 in October 1999.
November saw The Beatles back in the Top 40 for the first time since 1995. After The Rolling Stones found themselves back in the Top 40 a couple of months earlier it was fully expected we would see The Beatles back too. Billed as the last ever Beatles song, "Now & Then" was originally worked on in 1995 using old John Lennon recordings but didn't work. New technology made this possible in 2023 and gave The Beatles a chart topper, something their mid-90s material failed to do. Although they won't release anything new in the future, they have plenty of well known non-charting songs that could find themselves in the Top 40 for one reason or another.
The inevitable flood of Christmas songs happened in December which included a new song by Cher with "DJ Play A Christmas Song". This makes Cher the only artist to have a Top 40 hit in the 60s, 70s, 80s, 90s, 00s, 10s and 20s. Another Christmas song entering the Top 40 for the first time was "A Holy Jolly Christmas" by Burl Ives, who'd previous had just 2 Top 40 hits in 1962.
Into 2024 and December 1999 debutant Craig David was the first 20th century artist to have a Top 40 hit with "Abracadabra" with Wes Nelson. He's only had 20s hits in collaboration with modern artists but could yet still have one of his own accord.
In June we saw the return of Eminem. He had the first 3 Top 40 hits of the 20s by a 20th century act but it looked like his Top 40 may have been over after subsequent singles failed to make the Top 40. However he's clocked up 5 Top 40 hits this year which started with the chart topper "Houdini".
Nate Dogg returned to the Top 40 13 years after his death and 20 years after we'd last seen him in the Top 40 thanks to being sampled by Flex (UK).
Finally we had Celine Dion back in the Top 40 after 11 years away in collaboration with Majestic and Jammin Kid.
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