Lady Gaga & Bruno Mars’ ‘Die With a Smile’ Growing Over Its First Week of Release, Now Aiming for Big Debut

Welcome to Billboard Pro’s Trending Up newsletter, where we take a closer look at the songs, artists, curiosities and trends that have caught the music industry’s attention. Some have come out of nowhere, others have taken months to catch on, and all of them could become ubiquitous in the blink of a TikTok clip. 

This week: Lady Gaga and Bruno Mars’ new duet keeps growing, Taylor Swift’s second Tortured Poets single is finding a home on radio, and Gigi Perez may be the next singer-songwriter on the verge of a big mainstream breakthrough.

“Die With a Smile” Looking to Live in the Hot 100’s Top 10

A duet between Lady Gaga and Bruno Mars was always going to generate a lot of interest upon release, and “Die With a Smile,” the anthemic pop-rock collaboration released on Friday (Aug. 16), is hoping to cash in that star power for a splashy debut within the Hot 100’s upper reaches. And though that might have looked like a longshot from the duet’s first-day numbers, it has been growing over the course of its first week – and now a top-tier debut might very well be in reach for it. 

After bowing with 2.78 million U.S. on-demand audio streams in its opening day, according to Luminate, “Smile” stayed around that daily streaming mark over the weekend. However, the song received a sizable streaming uptick on Monday (Aug. 19), with 3.52 million streams — a 34% gain from the day before. And the song just keeps growing – by publishing this Wednesday, the song had reached the top of both the Spotify Daily Top Songs USA and the real-time Apple Music charts. (The song has also performed very well in digital song sales, with over 14,000 sold over its first four days of release, as it has stayed atop the iTunes chart for nearly the entire time.) 

Maybe more pop fans latched onto the song as the work week got underway, or it’s possible that TikTok users have started sinking their teeth into its hooks. Either way, “Smile” could possibly notch another top 10 on the long track records of Mars and Gaga early next week. – JASON LIPSHUTZ

How Big of a Hit Can Taylor Swift’s ‘I Can Do It With a Broken Heart’ Become?

On Tuesday night (Aug. 20), Taylor Swift capped off a five-night run at the U.K.’s Wembley Stadium, and the European run of the Eras tour, by unveiling a new music video for “I Can Do It With a Broken Heart” that featured behind-the-scenes clips of the mega-selling tour. The anthem about shining in the spotlight amidst personal turmoil is featured on The Tortured Poets Department, which logs its 15th frame at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 this week.

And unlike “Fortnight,” the album’s lead single featuring Post Malone that debuted atop the Billboard Hot 100, “Broken Heart” has slowly been climbing back up the chart, and becoming a multi-platform hit.

Read more about Taylor Swift’s swelling “Broken Heart” success here.

“Sailor Song” Charts Course to Virality for Singer/Songwriter Gigi Perez

New Jersey-born, Florida-raised Gigi Perez achieved some streaming success earlier in the 2020s with the ballad “Sometimes (Backwood),” which has racked up nine digits worth of streams on Spotify. But the singer-songwriter, whose sound is reminiscent of ‘00s alt-folk favorites like Bon Iver and Fleet Foxes, appears to be headed for new levels of virality with her TikTok-approved new love song, “Sailor Song.” 

The long-teased song has earned raves, and even some comparisons to Hozier’s “Take Me to Church,” for its impassioned delivery and lyrics of queer love and longing – while also attracting some backlash from religious TikTokers who object to its “I don’t believe in God/ But I believe that you’re my savior” chorus lyric. Perez responded to the controversy, and users asking her to change or remove that lyric, with a TikTok of her own on Monday (Aug. 19), explaining via caption that altering the lyric “was never up for discussion… My songwriting is not a democracy and that applies to every artists work.” 

The discourse around “Sailor Song” has only helped its overall consumption, however. While it debuted with 3.9 million U.S. official on-demand streams on the tracking week ending Aug. 1, according to Luminate – already a tremendous number for a new song by an artist without extensive chart history – two weeks later, that number has climbed to 4.6 million, a 23% gain. The song also climbs from No. 18 to No. 12 on Hot Rock Songs this week, one of the chart’s top gainers. – ANDREW UNTERBERGER

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