Who will win the grand final battle of the bands? It’s rockers The Killers versus rapper Macklemore
EVERYONE loves to hate football grand final entertainment. We look at who might be a crowd favourite between The Killers and Macklemore.
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IN the battle of the grand final battle of the bands, we have The Killers on the AFL pitch and Macklemore on the NRL field.
One of the last great stadium rockers versus a chart-topping festival rap pop star.
While the majority of the six million Australians who will watch the two matches are focused on the results of the respective matches, the quality of the grand final entertainers attracts as much love and hate as the winning and losing teams.
There was the typically mixed bag of approval and derision when the AFL announced The Killers as the entertainment headliner back in June.
The dissenters wilfully ignored the fact the Killers have sold more than half a million albums in Australia over the past 13 years and been regular visitors here, selling out arenas and commanding the main stage at the now defunct Big Day Out festival.
But the NRL crowd and its commentators were wildly unimpressed with the news they had secured American rapper Macklemore for their showdown.
The critics showed their lack of pop culture nous by slamming the booking of an entertainer who has consistently topped the Australian singles charts for the past five years.
They also failed to recognise Macklemore’s presence would resonate strongly with the sport’s younger audience and thousands of Australians who have bought 1.68 million copies of singles including Thrift Shop, Can’t Hold Us, Same Love and his recent solo smash Glorious.
And none of those haters could have predicted the political backlash which would greet the confirmation the American rapper would perform his Same Love anthem as Australia votes on marriage equality.
Both acts have enjoyed a significant kick up the charts thanks to their presence at the grand finals with The Killers new album Wonderful Wonderful and Macklemore’s solo record Gemini bouncing around the top 10 on iTunes all week.
In a by-the-numbers face-off between the two acts, Macklemore comes out on top by virtue of the string of No. 1 singles he has enjoyed here.
But The Killers have a clutch of earworms which have remained radio favourites for more than a decade and barring the ever-present threat of technical malfunctions which dog football entertainment, should find favour with fans of Mr. Brightside, Somebody Told Me and When We Were Young.
Here’s how the 2017 grand final entertainers stack up.
The Killers
No. 1 albums. Hot Fuss (2004)
Top 10 albums. Sam’s Town (2006), No. 2; Day & Age (2008), No. 4; Battle Born (2012), No.2.
New album: Wonderful Wonderful. No. 6 iTunes (3pm Friday). Peaked at No.1.
No. 1 singles. None
Top 10 singles. When You Were Young (2006), No. 10.
Spotify: 11,040,346 monthly listeners. Most streamed song: Mr. Brightside: 346 million
Twitter: 4.66m
Instagram: 435K
Facebook: 9.5 million likes
Youtube: 978 million views
Macklemore
No. 1 albums. None.
Top 10 albums. The Heist, (2012), No.2. This Unruly Mess I’ve Made (2016). No.6. (Both albums as a duo with Ryan Lewis).
New album: Gemini. No. 5 iTunes (3pm Friday). Peaked at No.2.
No. 1 singles: Can’t Hold Us (2011), Thrift Shop (2012), Same Love (2012), Downtown (2015) with Ryan Lewis.
Top 10 singles. Dance Off (2016), No.7. Solo: Glorious (feat. Skylar Grey), No.2.
Spotify: 18,122,203 monthly listeners. Most streamed song: Can’t Hold Us: 563 million
Twitter: 2.78 million
Instagram: 4 million
Facebook: 6.4 million likes
Youtube: 2.5 billion views
Originally published as Who will win the grand final battle of the bands? It’s rockers The Killers versus rapper Macklemore
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