Cassadee - The Pope’s UK May Visit

Cassadee Pope’s UK May Visit!

Learn more about her by reading about her background, UK Showcases and radio interviews

Cassadee Pope - UK Promotion Wallpaper
CLICK to Enlarge

You have to be present to Win

The lovely 24-year old Cassadee Pope made a hop across the pond for a flying 4 day visit (May 12 -15th) to promote her country debut album FRAME BY FRAME (Decca) which is now getting a full UK release on 19th May 2014.

Details: “Frame By Frame”: 11 Tracks / Total Length: 40:51 CD - MP3 - UK iTunes

Amazon Rank: #15,834 in Music (dated 21 May) and Ranked #6,117 in MP3 Albums, #13 UK iTunes Top 1500 Country Albums advancing from a #591 rank.

The Republic Records artist , a label distributed by Big Machine Records in Nashville, is somewhat following in the footsteps of stable mates The Band Perry and Taylor Swift who realise the importance of an International dimension away from America to maximize declining album sales and build a fanbase for future tour dates. The Band Perry (Republic Records) spent four weeks in Europe and Scandinavia last year (20 dates; 14 in UK, supporting their PIONEER album) which was a major commitment by a group answering what many booking agents have asked country acts to do for years: hit foreign territories early in their careers, knowing that it will pay off in the back end. "They are a band that understands you have to be present to win," Big

Machine international director of marketing Brad Turcotte said. TBP have taken a slightly different tack, making a point to hit all the media centers—not just country festivals—to break down barriers. “We’re modelling a lot of what they’re doing after what Taylor [Swift] did because she was so successful at it,” William Morris Endeavor Nashville co-head Rob Beckham added. TBP started out playing free showcases for media on their first visits into foreign territories, then made return trips to play ticketed dates at clubs of with capacities of perhaps 300. The rooms grew to around 700 tickets on a third visit, which escalated to 2000-seat theaters. Eventually they wound up  being playlisted by BBC Radio 2 up playing the Country To Country C2C2014 Festival at London’s iconic O2 arena in front of a 14,000+ audience (2 Day attendance 27,797) on Sunday March 16, 2014. (Read more in this Billboard article: The Band Perry Hitches Its Wagon To Europe )

So Cassadee (Pic: left at the CMA 2013 Awards = WOW!) is also doing it the grass-roots fashion taking her first steps as a country artist, getting the media interest with the possibility of future UK tour dates and a Festival appearance.

• Cassadee’s >> Special Message for UK Fans
• In just 1 year Cassadee has had a #1 debut album, RIAA certified Platinum single, multiple TV appearance, award show nominations >> Promo Video

About:

• Cassadee Blake Pope (born August 28, 1989) is a 24-year old country pop singer/songwriter and West Palm Beach, Florida native.
• She first fronted pop/punk band Hey Monday  who released the studio album Hold on Tight and three EPs. Since Hey Monday’s hiatus, Cassadee embarked on a solo career in December 2011.
• In early 2012 she played her first acoustic solo tour before releasing her debut self titled EP on May 22, 2012, featuring four songs; "Original Love", "Secondhand", "I Guess We're Cool", and "Told You So" that charted for one week on the Billboard Heatseekers tally.
• In the summer of 2012, she auditioned for Season 3 of The Voice. On September 25, 2012, Cassadee performed for her blind audition on NBC's "The Voice," and she received four button pushes from the four judges (Watch her full Audition on The Voice at  vimeo.com). She then competed on Blake Shelton's team (Team Blake). On the Voice’s Episodes 23-24: the Top 10 performances were aired on Nov 19^th resulting in Cassadee Pope and Melanie Martinez receiving the iTunes bonus. Cassadee's version of  "Over You" (Republic Label) sold between the night it was performed, Nov. 19  and Nov. 25 to debut at No. 3 on the overall Billboard Digital charts.
• She was crowned the Season 3 Winner of The Voice on December 18, 2012 becoming the shows first female winner.

Singles:

• Singles: "Over You" a cover of Miranda Lambert's 2012 single made #3 on Hot Country Songs on chart Dec 8, 2012. It sold 152,000 copies in its debut week to top the Billboard Digital Songs chart.        "Stupid Boy" a cover Keith 2006 single (written by Dave Berg, Deanna Bryant and Sarah Buxton) peaked at #4 on Hot Country Songs on chart Dec 29, 2012. It debuted at No.1 on Billboard Digital Songs chart selling 117,000 copies.
• “Wasting All These Tears” (written by Caitlyn Smith and Rollie Gaalswyk) was released by Republic Nashville as Pope's debut solo single from her debut solo studio album Frame by Frame on May 31, 2013. It debuted at No.54 on the June 24, 2013 chart and for chart week Jan 21, 2014 it logged her first top 10 on Billboard Country Airplay , which drew 29.4 million impressions and stepped 11-10 in its 33rd chart week. Pope was the first solo female to achieve a first-ever top 10 since Kacey Musgraves’ “Merry Go ’Round” peaked at No.10 on the March 16, 2013, chart. “Wasting All These Tears” debuted at #2 Country Digital (125,011 copies sold in first week) and eventually peaked at #5 on  Hot Country Songs. By October 30, 2013 it went GOLD having sold 511,000 copies and has gone on to receive PLATINUM certification and has sold over 1,013,000 copies in America. Around the three-minute mark of this first country single, she hit an impressive high note and drug it out for a solid nine seconds as a hypnotic instrumental figure repeated underneath, heightening the drama in a song about a woman recovering from a breakup. The performance clearly connected! Pope became the first country female whose debut single was certified platinum by the RIAA since Taylor Swift in 2006.
• "I Wish I Could Break Your Heart" >> [Listen] The second single (written by Gordie Sampson Ashley Monroe Jon Green) from Frame By Frame was released on March 17,
  
  2014. It has so far peaked at #38 on Billboard Country Airplay and #45 Hot Country Songs and wasn't on the Top 50 Country Digital Songs chart for May 24, 2014. She did achieve her highest debut to snag “Hot Shot Debut” honours on Country Airplay with her second official radio single, which bowed at No.49. On this sophomore single Pope similarly hits a big note just after the two-minute mark, potentially setting up a signature sound for The Voice champ - “I really just love belting,” says Pope. “I look up to artists like Martina McBride and Kelly Clarkson. They leave it all out there on their recordings and onstage. I don’t know if it’s a signature thing, but I really like to do it a lot.” The note is a particularly telling moment in Pope’s development as an artist, because her big-voiced performance was not necessarily part of the road map in the demo she originally heard. Singer-songwriter Jon Green provided the voice on the demo, delivering “Break Your Heart” with more of a masculine Keith Urban/Chris Martin graininess. “I didn’t even think of a girl doing it,” says Ashley Monroe (“Heart Like Mine,” “The Truth”), who co-wrote it with Green and Gordie Sampson (“Jesus, Take the Wheel,” “Song About a Girl”). “It’s so cool to hear Cassadee wail it. It’s cooler to me from a girl’s point of view.”

Albums:

• Although not included or counted as a country release the pop-country-crossover and Cassadee saw her COMPLETE SEASON 3 COLLECTION (Republic Records; released December 18, 2012) in its second week it sat at No.111 on the Billboard Top 200 chart. It sold 7,812 copies (down 30%) with a 2-week tally of 18,990 sold .
• Her debut solo country album, FRAME BY FRAME, was released in America on Oct 8, 2013 selling 43,196 copies for the chart week October 26, 2013.. The album debuted
  
  at #9 on the Billboard Top 200 Album Chart and #1 on the Top Billboard Country Albums charts, moving aside and crashing Mr. Luke Bryan's CRASH MY PARTY. This was preceded by Top 10 country single, "Wasting All These Tears". Of the 11 tracks, five were co-written by Pope. Fans had  been able to preview individual album tracks on iTunes since mid-August 2013. By the chart week of February 8, 2014; in its 17th week, Frame By Frame was at #28 on the Country Album Chart. By the chart week April 12, 2014 (25th week) it had slipped to #49 selling around 1,000 copies. For the week May 10, 2014 sales had declined to 700 copies sold with a Mother’s Day retail rebound to 900 copies to bring total sales to 171,800 copies scanned (week of May 24, 2014)

Musical Influences: Cassadee has admitted, “I’m all over the place. I tend to go backwards a little bit and listen to old Shania (Twain), Michelle Branch, Avril (Lavigne), Blink 182…I’m kind of all over the board. And then more recently I’m into the new Blake Shelton album, not gonna lie. Hunter Hayes, Taylor Swift”.

UK Promotion 

• On May 13th Cassadee hung out with Spotify Music UK at a Decca Records event.
• On May 14th Cassadee was the special guest performing at a special show with UK Radio 2 playlisted country duo The Shires (Decca) in London at the Gibson Guitar Studio (Rathbone Street, W1, W1T 1). Fans could enter a competition with the chance to win a pair of tickets to see her with a meet and greet before the show! Accompanying Cassadee on stage were Jim McGorman a native of Philadelphia (Formerly with band New Radicals and a musical director for Avril Lavigne) and Steve Fekete (from Avril Lavigne's band) who played guitars and sang backing vocals. This was a Sounds Like Nashville event who are part of Universal Music and covers their country music acts in the UK.....Read more and scroll down for pictures thinkcountry.co.uk

Listening To Country – Check out this great fan Blog Post by Chantelle H (published Saturday, 17 May 2014) SoundsLike Nashville showcase with Cassadee Pope and The Shires

Review 2country.net ...Cassadee Pope was next on stage and it’s clear that the fans of country music that turned up for the event were mega-excited about seeing the winner of The Voice perform in such an intimate venue.  Cassadee Pope is, amongst many other things, power in a small package. She had the whole room bouncing and mesmerised at the same time as she told stories about her songs and delivered them beautifully which showed why her career is blossoming. Seeing the big performances is always great, but there’s something really special when the artists strip back all the bling and perform almost vulnerably in smaller venues. ....

Setlist included: “Champagne", “I Wish I Could Break Your Heart”, “11”, “Wasting All These Tears”

See the Media set Facebook Photo Gallery by Frography (by Flex)

For The Country Record Interview by Vickye Fisher: Cassadee Pope On Touring With Tim McGraw, Mixing Country And Pop & Women On Country Radio 

Extract: Vickye: First of all, you’re releasing your album ‘Frame By Frame’ in the UK this month and you’re doing press all of this week. Why now? Cassadee: Oh! Just thought that it would be good timing, especially surrounding my tour back in the States with Tim McGraw. I’m just really excited that you guys finally get to hear it, it came out in October in the States so I thought it was about time. I finally had a good amount of time to come here and do some promo around it, so it’s good timing!......

UK Radio Interviews:

>> Listen to Lee Williams CEO of CMR NASHVILLE "Europe's #1 Country Music Radio Station" speaking with Cassadee in a hotel room in London! They discuss her background, album and being given a second career chance thanks to The Voice.

UKCountryRadio.com have made Frame By Frame their Album of the Week and after 6pm each night CEO station presenter Allan Watkiss chats to Cassadee on his show playing a track with recorded interview segments. UKCountryRadio.com presenter Simon Large also said “That is such a good album”

2Country.net's reporter Kerry Edees talked to Cassadee Pope in a London Interview. You can read the full Transcript online at - 2country.net 

>> Listen out for a question to win a signed Advanced copy of Cassadee’s Frame By Frame album and send your answer win@2country.net  Entries close on Saturday 24th May and the winner will be revealed on Sunday.

Traddies Yelping “That’s Not Country”

It is highly unlikely that the traditionally minded veteran DJ’s across Europe and beyond will take to Cassadee where charts tend to dominated by long established names and show little interest in upcoming and emerging artists. A recently published International Mainstream Top 200 chart has Johnny Cash, T J Christian and Merle Haggard in the Top 5. Another instance was the Hotdisc charts where Katie Armiger’s new radio single “Safe” only scraped in with a No.40 debut and a 5-week climb to No.25. Contrasting to No1s “Just Another Day In Paradise” from Bertie Higgins, a cover of the old Juice Newton song “The Sweetest Thing” by Jamie O’Neal and most recently David Frizzell & Shelly  West with “You're The Reason God Made Oklahoma” debuting at No1!

Stewart Fenwick on his Celtic Music Radio show ‘Country Show’ (Glasgow, Scotland on 1530 kHz AM), which broadcasts Sunday afternoon 12Noon-2pm, played "I Wish I Could Break Your Heart" on Sun May 4, 2014 is an example of the lukewarm response. A programme which has played Florida Georgia Line and Love and Theft just once never to be heard of again!

>> Listen to what he had to say:

“I’m really impressed with it...she’s got a great future in country music” - Brian Clough (2009 CMA International Country Broadcaster Award) The American Country Music Radio Show on May 17, 2014

On her May 16 return to America Cassadee tweeted Back in US and ready to jump back on the #SundownHeavenTown tour w @KipMooreMusic & @TheTimMcGraw! Phoenix.... We're comin for ya tonight.

Cassadee Pope Career Timeline: See the original Layout in Country Aircheck Weekly Issue 396 - May 12, 2014 [PDF File]  

Click To Enlarge

Followed by:

So how well will Frame By Frame sell in the UK? 
Of Note: Taylor Swift’s first album (2006) sold only 38 copies in the UK for its first week at retail. It peaked 94 weeks later at #81(12/09/2009) and has spent 3 weeks on the Official UK Album Chart.