When Music Week spoke to Tom March as part of our Sienna Spiro cover story earlier this year, he promised the singer would continue to rack up the milestones, and his words are being borne out by the stats.
Great Expectation became Spiro’s second UK Top 10 single last week when it climbed to a new peak of No.10, and the track could eclipse that milestone this week. At No.7 in yesterday’s second Midweek Sales Flash, it has 77,011 sales to its name so far, from five weeks on the chart.
Its emergence comes in the wake of Spiro’s No.2 debut album Visitor becoming the biggest UK debut of 2026 with a return of 27,614 week one sales. Visitor made the Top 10 in the US, following on from her success in the singles chart there.
“We are aiming to put out a record, have a great showing in the charts in the UK, the US and globally and then build,” March told us in our cover story, in which the Capitol Music Group CEO and chairman featured alongside Spiro accompanied by the company’s president Lillia Parsa and Spiro’s manager Miriam Maslin.
A voice like Sienna's and songs like hers can connect to anybody, anywhere, so we didn't build her out of the UK first, we did it in every market around the world
Tom March, CMG
Great Expectation is set to be joined in this week’s Top 75 by Spiro’s resurgent smash Die On This Hill – which has 789,190 total sales, 609,309 of which have come in 2026 – and Material Lover (229,796).
Now, Music Week can reveal more from our interview with March about how Spiro and her team are backing up what they said in our cover story.
“We didn’t break Sienna with a UK strategy, we did it with a global strategy,” said March. “With a voice like Sienna's and with songs like this, they transcend country and can connect to anybody, anywhere around the world, so we didn't build her out of the UK first. We built her in every market around the world, and wherever there was an audience, we doubled down on that.”
He said that Universal Music Group’s international teams “have the power to break an artist all around the world, which is what we're showing here.”
“When some companies are shrinking their international structure, it’s something that Universal is definitely very focused on growing,” he added.
Earlier this week, Music Managers Forum (MMF) CEO Annabella Coldrick suggested that UK managers might choose to “sign their clients directly out of the US rather than the UK” as “a way of getting heard” via plays on streaming platforms.
Her opinion makes for interesting reading in the wake of Spiro, the UK’s newest breakout star, being signed out of America. But Tom March doesn't necessarily see it that way.
“We never really signed Sienna going, ‘Oh, she's a UK artist,’ we signed her because of her talent, really,” he stated. “We don't think of ourselves as a US record label, all our campaigns, all our strategies with our artists are built globally right from the beginning. When we sign an artist, it doesn't really matter to us where they're from, we will break them around the world.”
It's very hard in this day and age to break an artist if there isn't good communication and teamwork – I put that down as the main reason for the success
Tom March, CMG
March told us that their success with Spiro is “showing that we will break artists globally”.
Capitol’s decision to release the album this summer, too, is paying dividends.
“We could have maybe waited and waited and waited and said, ‘Okay, let's keep doing everything we can, and then we'll come with the album in January,’” March told us. “But when we started to see her songs connect as they were, for us and Sienna, it was very much like, ‘You know what? This album should come. It should come this summer, let's bring the debut out.’”
“If you look at a lot of artist’s trajectories, she only started putting music out under two years ago, so it's quite early,” he added. “But we're still introducing her in a lot of ways, still scaling up and building her live shows, and the way that she's growing, it's still artist development, it's still discovery.”
March promised big moments to come for the rest of this year and into 2027 and beyond, with a busy run of UK and US shows and festival appearances to come.
“Our mission is to keep finding great opportunities for Sienna to perform, and for people to discover her,” March said. “And because of the album, more great opportunities will come, and we'll keep developing. But we know there's a long way to go, and the album really is just the start of that.”
March also let us in on the major’s relationship with Spiro.
“She works so hard, non-stop, she's relentless,” he explained. “She is very connected to all of us, the connectivity and communication are fantastic. She wants to be told things directly, good and bad, so you don't sugarcoat it. If I need to talk to Sienna about something, I'll call her and have a very direct conversation. She wants to hear it, and she'll always make her decision, but she does want to hear the benefit of experience, and she wants to hear it directly, and clearly so she can understand it, take it on board and then she'll decide what she wants to do.”
March noted that “one of the real reasons for her success is how much she wants it, how hard she works”.
“Because she's breaking all around the world, that is what it takes,” he elaborated. “It's very hard in this day and age to break an artist if there isn't that kind of communication and teamwork. I put that down as the main reason for the success.”
The former Polydor UK co-president is proud that Spiro is part of a new wave of British acts breaking overseas and called on the industry here to feel the same.
“I don't think any other country can create artists that sound like the ones from the UK,” he said. “When people have these giant successes, it should be seen as such a massive win. I've been here [at Capitol] for over four years now, and I can't think of a time for a long time when the UK has been having this level of success. It's something to really shout about and I don't think we do that enough.”
Revisit our Sienna Spiro cover story here.
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