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Is this the real life?

Is this just fantasy?

Caught in a landslide.

No escape from reality.

Hey, everybody.

This is Chris Malanfi, host of Hit Parade, Slate's podcast of Pop Chart History. Welcome to The Bridge.

I'm just a new boy. I need no sympathy.

Because I'm easy come, easy go, of course, come, easy come, but also, one of course, is Queen's Bohemian Rhapsody,

not only a legendary rock classic, but also one of the best-selling British singles of all time.

It was the UK Christmas number one in both 1975, the year it was recorded, and 1991, the year Queen frontman Freddie Mercury died.

As such, it served as a bridge between the start and the end of Mercury's career.

And as always, these mini episodes bridge our full-length monthly episodes, and give us a chance to catch up with our listeners and enjoy some trivia.

This month, I'm delighted, as always, to be joined by my frequent partner in Bridgdom, Slate Podcast senior producer, T.J. Raphael. Hey, T.J.

Hi, Chris. Thanks for having me on. Absolutely. And happy new year to you. Happy new year to you.

Before we jump to today's topic, which, you know, is all about the Grammys. I'm so excited to talk about that.

I really want to quickly talk about the last full-length episode of Hit Parade because, oh, my God, you really left us with a cliffhanger.

Like, who won that coveted UK number one spot?

So it probably feels like ancient history to everyone now since we're recording this in mid-January.

But yes, there was a very exciting cliffhanger at the end of the last full-length episode of Hit Parade in which we had to finish the episode, finish producing the episode,

before we knew who the victor of the UK Christmas number one was for 2018. And at the time,

I had a very dour, downbeat prediction, which was that a song that had been number one since basically the middle of November, Ariana Grande's song, Thank You Next, which I actually like very much.

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