Amy Macdonald — This Is The Life

The Scottish singer-songwriter's debut single is back across the global charts after a 46-day absence, appearing on 71 country and platform charts today. Released in December 2007 from her album of the same name, the track was the one that opened Europe to Macdonald, topping the charts in five countries while her home UK lagged behind. Built on a strummed acoustic figure and Macdonald's plainspoken Glaswegian delivery — written, by her own account, after she watched Pete Doherty play his first post-Libertines gig in Glasgow — it remains a folk-pop staple of late-2000s European radio. Its return to broad presence today comes without an obvious triggering event attached to it. The song's durability has always run on word of mouth rather than promotion.