“Flowers Need Rain”, the 2x Platinum pop single from singer songwriter Preston Pablo, hit major milestones this week. It is the #1 track at Mainstream Adult Contemporary Radio (Main AC) in Canada, as tracked by Mediabase Canada for the week of January 15, pushing ahead of global pop icons Taylor Swift (“Anti-Hero”) and Harry Styles (“Late Night Talking”) by garnering more spins at the format for the week.
The track is the first debut single from a Canadian-signed artist to reach the number one spot at Main AC Canadian radio since Carly Rae Jepsen’s “Call Me Maybe” in 2012 and the first non-holiday CanCon* single at #1 on the same charts since Michael Bublé’s “It’s a Beautiful Day” in 2013.
“Flowers Need Rain” was one of the top 30 most listened to songs of 2022 (Mediabase Canada) and has been holding strong in the top five at radio across Mainstream AC, Hot AC, and Top 40 since October 2022; it was the #1 most Shazamed track in Canada; and has amassed over 51 million streams globally, in what has been a remarkable launch campaign for a promising artist who is just getting started.
Pablo, a Filipino-Canadian artist originally from Timmins, Ontario, is one of the first artists co-signed to Universal Music Canada and 31 East, the label led by multi-platinum, Grammy-nominated producer-songwriters Banx & Ranx. Preston’s year is off to a big start, with his latest track, “AY AY AY” named a “Future Bop” by the BBC Radio 1 and CARAS announcing he will perform live on the JUNO Awards national broadcast from Edmonton in March.
* “Flowers Need Rain” is defined as Canadian content (also known as ‘CanCon’) per the CRTC’s radio regulations.
