With ‘Special,’ Lizzo Lands First Adult R&B Airplay No. 1

Lizzo lands her first No. 1 on Billboard’s Adult R&B Airplay chart as “Special,” featuring SZA, crowns the list dated July 8. The single advances from the runner-up slot after a 9% surge in plays that made it the most-played song on U.S. monitored adult R&B radio stations in the week ending June 29, according to Luminate.

“Special” unseats Usher’s “GLU” from the summit after the latter’s two-week reign.

With “Special,” Lizzo scores her first champ after coming up just short on her last appearance. Prior single “About Damn Time,” achieved a No. 2 peak in August 2022. Before that, she reached the chart with “Juice” (No. 19) in 2019 and “Truth Hurts” (No. 29) the following year.

For featured artist SZA, “Special” is her second Adult R&B Airplay No. 1, after “Love Galore,” featuring Travis Scott, reigned for nine weeks in 2018. Between the leaders, she came closest to recapturing the throne with “I Hate U,” which peaked at No. 4 in 2022.

As “Special” tops the list, SZA also logs her newest chart hit as new single “Snooze” debuts at No. 29. The single is already a smash mainstream radio hit, leading the Mainstream R&B/Hip-Hop Airplay chart for a second week and having added 19% more plays in the latest tracking week.

Elsewhere, “Special” rebounds 18-16 on R&B/Hip-Hop Airplay to match its peak, first earned two weeks ago. On the chart, which ranks songs by combined audience on adult R&B and mainstream R&B/hip-hop stations, “Special” rose to 7.1 million in audience in the last tracking week, a 9% improvement from the prior frame.

“Special” is the title track of Lizzo’s latest studio album, which was released in July 2022. In addition to the incumbent Adult R&B Airplay champ, the album includes “About Damn Time,” which topped the Billboard Hot 100 for two weeks and won the Grammy Award for record of the year.