- 2022-01-01
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MUSIC
BBC Top of the Pops New Year Special Performance Highlights featuring Dermot Kennedy, Sam Fender, Lola Young & Becky Hill
BBC Top of the Pops New Year Special on January 1, 2022.
The program follows up Top of the Pops Christmas 2021, and presented by Radio 1's Clara Amfo and Jordan North.
The program featured performances from Dermot Kennedy, Sam Fender, Lola Young, Becky Hill, Mabel and Mahalia.
Dermot Kennedy performed “Better Days”, which was released in July 2021. He said of the song, “This is a song about patience. It’s about believing in something brighter, and never losing sight of better days, no matter how hard things might get. In a time where so many people feel worried and exhausted, I would love for this song to remind even one person that things will improve. As an artist, I feel somewhat responsible to try to make people feel a little better, whether that’s making them think of someone they love, or just taking their mind off their problems for the length of a song. So this is my contribution to hopefully providing some people with a moment’s solace. Better days will come.”
Sam Fender performed “Seventeen Going Under” from his sophomore album of the name. The album reached No. 1 on the the UK Albums chart. He said of the song on Apple Muisc, “It’s completely autobiographical. When I was 17, my mother was being hounded by the DWP [Department for Work and Pensions]. She had fibromyalgia and she was suffering from other ailments and mental health issues. But she got sent to court three times to prove that she wasn’t fit to work. This is a woman who’s worked for 40 years of her life as a nurse. She’s not a liar and she’s not a benefit cheat. She was a hard-working, fantastic, empathetic, incredible woman. And they dragged her through the mud and made her ill. I saw how the government was treating good, honest working-class people who have fallen on their back. They ripped apart every safety net for people in that position. I was old enough to understand what was going on, but I wasn’t old enough to be able to do anything about it.”- Lola Young performed “FAKE” from the EP “After Midnight. She said of the song, “'FAKE' is a song about remembering the core of who you are.There is so much constantly being sold to us, so much that is trying to tell us who to be, whether it’s an advert or person on the street. How would we be if we ignored it all? When writing this song I was trying to drown out all the noise, it’s about remembering that everything other than what you personally believe isn’t the truth and to listen to your instinct about what’s fake. I hope whoever hears this relates and feels a sense of empowerment towards anything or anyone that has made them feel inadequate in their life.”
Becky Hill performed “Remember”, which appeared on her debut album “Only Honest on the Weekend”. She collaborated with French DJ David Guetta. She saod of the song on Apple Music, “I listened to Guetta as a kid. I remember playing [his song] “Sexy Bitch” at a house party when I was 15 and feeling like the coolest motherfucker in [my hometown] Bewdley. We did a couple of writing sessions over Zoom during lockdown and it didn’t work out. But then I sent him this song with the subject line ‘I have a hit I think you’ll like.’ He emailed back right away saying, ‘I love this song, what are you doing with it?’ I said I couldn’t give the song to him but I was open to having him on it with me, and he agreed. He really is the loveliest man in dance music, and I’m honoured that someone as prestigious as him is working with little old me.” - source : BBC One