Pink Floyd are on course for a rare top 20 appearance in the charts, making it their first in 42 years.
Released in March this year, ‘Hey, Hey, Rise Up!’, the band’s first original material since 1994’s ‘Division Bell’ album. The track was released to draw attention to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and to raise funds for those affected by the war, with all proceeds from the song donated to Ukrainian Humanitarian Relief.
The song peaked at number 49 in the charts in April following its digital-only release.
Now, after the rollout of physical copies of the track, it’s looking to be at number 18 according to ‘First Look’, which ranks songs based on their sales and streams (via Billboard).
If it continues to sell and stream at a similar pace to now, it means Pink Floyd will have their first top 20 appearance in the charts since 1979’s ‘Brick In The Wall’ this week.
‘Hey Hey Rise Up’ was recorded in March of this year. In addition to featuring David Gilmour, drummer Nick Mason, bassist Guy Pratt and keyboardist Nitin Sawhney, it also features a recording by Andriy Khlyvnyuk, the singer of Ukrainian band Boombox. Khlyvnyuk can be heard singing the patriotic Ukrainian song ‘The Red Viburnum’ in Sofiyskaya Square, in the nation’s capital of Kyiv.
In a statement, Gilmour – who has a Ukrainian family – explained that the band released the song to draw attention to the war and to raise money for humanitarian efforts.
“We want to express our support for Ukraine and in that way, show that most of the world thinks that it is totally wrong for a superpower to invade the independent democratic country that Ukraine has become,” Gilmour said.
“We, like so many, have been feeling the fury and the frustration of this vile act of an independent, peaceful democratic country being invaded and having its people murdered by one of the world’s major powers.”
In March, Gilmour and Pink Floyd removed their music from streaming services in Russia and Belarus to show their support for Ukraine. “Russian soldiers, stop killing your brothers. There will be no winners in this war,” Gilmour commented at the time.
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