Welcome to Sleeper Hit Support Group, a column diving into the song currently occupying the bottom spot of the Billboard Hot 100.

In a pop landscape that asks more questions that it answers, I'm setting out to answer three questions about each of these songs: how it got here, if the song is good, and where it's going. In this 100th spot we'll find unlikely ascents, falls from grace, and resurgences of hits from bygone eras.

Today, we're taking a look at the decaying music arm of the Disney Corporation through Freya Skye's "silent treatment."

How did it get here?

I've been writing about music for over three years, but this is the first time I've ever written about an artist that's younger than me, let alone by six years. 16-year-old Freya Skye is among the youngest of Gen-Z, but the adults working for her are handling her rising profile like it's still her birth year, 2009.

Skye first gained notoriety at just 13 years old when she represented the UK at the Junior Eurovision Song Contest in 2022. Her song "Lose My Head" earned her the top spot among the public online vote and a fifth place finish overall. The song is pretty unremarkable, but her vocal talent is undeniable.

The exposure Skye received from Junior Eurovision caught the attention of The Mouse, resulting in her inking both a talent holding deal with Disney Branded Television (which encompasses Disney+, Disney Channel, and the recently descaled Disney Junior and Disney XD properties) and a record deal with the storied Hollywood Records.

Skye released seven standalone singles through Hollywood Records, the first among them being a cover of Selena Gomez's 2011 hit "Who Says." While the rest of the singles are originals, in true Hollywood Records fashion, Skye herself only has writing credits on one of them, "Can't Fake It." The song is fine; it's made for children so I feel the need to grade on a curve.

Through her Disney TV deal, Skye was cast in the Disney Channel Original Movie Zombies 4: Dawn of the Vampires. Zombies seems to be one of two remaining successful IPs for Disney Channel, so naturally they are milking it dry. Following the release of that movie last summer, Skye and the rest of the cast went on the Descendants/Zombies: Worlds Collide Tour, billed as an "interactive live concert experience." It seems the "interactive" aspect was either abandoned or was simply bait for investors/prospective attendees. The tour saw select stars from both the Zombies and Descendants (an IP Disney has been milking since I was a tween) franchises perform songs from their respective movies.

The tour must've sold well, as reports show they're running it back this summer, replacing Descendants with Camp Rock in celebration of the latter's revival (the Jonas Brothers are reprising their roles in the movie but will not be present on the tour), but Skye will be absent. Skye's Disney ties are still locked in for another year as she reprises her role for 2027's Zombies 5.

After the Disney tour ended last summer, Hollywood Records began their attempt to seriously develop Skye as an artist. They put her in songwriting sessions with hitmaker Julia Michaels and the lesser-known Sophie Simmons, who most recently ghostwrote for fellow Hollywood Records artist kenzie (Ziegler, of Dance Moms fame).

The session with Simmons and producer Max Margolis (a Berklee grad with a credit on one of Laufey's first songs) resulted in the completion of "silent treatment." The song came out last December in conjunction with Skye's stint with iHeartRadio's Jingle Ball tour, and it's sitting on the Hot 100 today as a result of Disney's longstanding business relationship with iHeart, who owns dozens of pop radio stations across the country.

Is the song any good?

The New York Times recently did this 30-minute-long exclusive interview with Taylor Swift as a part of their "30 Greatest Living American Songwriters" project. In it, she coined the term "rant bridge" for what has become her signature songwriting trope.

Those bridges are the cornerstones of some of her best songs ("All Too Well," "mirrorball," and "tolerate it" come to mind), and it's a careful tightrope in breaking form to deliver details of the song's story that had yet to be divulged.

It's very clear that Freya Skye and those around her are trying to model her career after Swift. Her manager Nick Bobetsky (best known for facilitating the rise of Chappell Roan) said so himself: “There aren’t a lot of fair-weather Freya fans,” he told Billboard. “If you’re a Freya fan, you are searching, sharing, consuming, you’re spreading the word. Her fans are really loud for her.”

And while "silent treatment" vaguely sounds like a Swift b-side, the specificity does not match. The bridge goes as follows:

"You're a narcissist / I'm an optimist / Name a deadlier combo / Something's wrong with us / Ain't it obvious / Built me up and then oh, no / Call me just a friend / Here we go again / Tell them all that you hate me / It's like you erased me."

The appeal of that Swiftian "rant bridge" lies in mining the universal from the specific. That does not happen here – not even a little bit. The closest comparison to Swift I can pick out in this bridge is the five-years-too-late meme speak of "name a deadlier combo."

Perhaps I can grade on a bit of a curve considering both Skye's age and the presumed age of her fans, but then I remember the adults in the room. I do not blame them for putting the bare minimum into this song. They were assigned to work with a 16 year old they've never met, they did their job, and got their check. I would do the same in that position. The song's chorus is serviceably catchy, and that's ultimately what they were hired for. If I'm concerned for anyone in this ordeal, it's Freya.

Where is it going?

If Skye wants a real shot at pop stardom, she needs to leave that Hollywood Records contract ASAP. They are doing her no favors. Hollywood Records is nowhere near the juggernaut that it used to be. I touched on this when exploring Addison Rae's "Fame Is A Gun" for this column, and Freya Skye may very well be another proof of concept of the point I made in that piece: the kids do not watch TV anymore.

When I see Freya Skye, I see the alternate universe where Olivia Rodrigo was run through the Hollywood Records mill while she was still acting in Disney Channel shows. I'm sure she's eternally grateful she was able to avoid that.

Disney cannot seem to break out of their old playbook. Pushing "silent treatment" for pop radio and not much else while trying to follow Taylor Swift's career model is idiotic to the point of negligence. The reason Taylor Swift's fans are as parasocial as they are because of how active she was online in her early career. Skye is nowhere near online enough for that to pan out.

Case in point, Skye was booked to perform "silent treatment" on the Kelly Clarkson Show. I don't think very many teenagers are watching daytime cable these days, and this sort of misfire exemplifies the extent to which Disney/Hollywood Records have completely lost their grip on the zeitgeist.

I genuinely hope Skye does not fall six feet deep into the graveyard of failed Hollywood Records artists. She is an immensely talented vocalist (especially for her age) and seems very passionate about performing. If she's able to ditch this contract after her Zombies obligations are up around the time she turns 18, she very well could have a bright future ahead of her.