Beyoncé, The Beatles, Andre 3000 & More Grammy Nominees See Big Gains After Friday Announcement

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: Grammy nominations spur gains for some of the bigger (and a couple of the less-expected) nominees, while the election sends listeners to various politically and/or patriotically minded songs and the latest SNL guest gets a big bump.

Grammy Nominations Provide Sizable Streaming Bumps to André 3000, The Beatles, ‘Cowboy Carter’ Tracks and More

When the nominations for the 2025 Grammy Awards were announced on Friday (Nov. 8), several current smash hits, from Shaboozey’s “A Bar Song (Tipsy)” to Chappell Roan’s “Good Luck, Babe!” to Bruno Mars & Lady Gaga’s “Die With a Smile,” populated the general categories, along with still-enormous albums from Taylor Swift, Sabrina Carpenter and Billie Eilish in the album of the year race. Those songs and albums were too big to see a noticeable streaming increase from the Grammy nominations — but some surprise nominees did receive upticks, as music fans headed to their streaming platform of choice to check out (or revisit) the unexpected contenders.

In the album of the year category, André 3000’s fully instrumental flute showcase New Blue Sun and Jacob Collier’s sprawling and expansive Djesse, Vol. 4 each posted considerable gains following their nominations. New Blue Sun earned 164,000 official on-demand streams U.S. between Friday and Saturday (Nov. 8-9), according to Luminate — a 46% increase from the same two-day period the previous week — while Djesse, Vol. 4 rose to 139,000 streams, up 31% from the previous Friday and Saturday. “Now and Then,” the Beatles’ single that was revived with the use of AI in November 2023, also rose 42% in streams following its unexpected record of the year nomination, from 83,000 streams during Nov. 1-2 to 118,000 streams during Nov. 8-9.

Meanwhile, Beyoncé’s big nominations morning — 11 total, the most of any artist and the most any woman artist has ever received in a single year — resulted in major streaming gains as well. Cowboy Carter, Bey’s fourth straight solo album to score an album of the year nomination, rose to 3.2 million streams during Nov. 8-9, up 42% from the same period during the previous week. And some of the individual songs from Cowboy Carter that earned nominations in the genre categories soared even higher, with “Bodyguard” (nominated for best pop solo performance) and “16 Carriages” (up for best country solo performance) up 76% and 75% in streams, respectively — also helped by a recently released new video for the former and new found TikTok virality for the latter. – JASON LIPSHUTZ

Anti-Trump & Pro-Obama Songs Soar Following Vice President Kamala Harris’ Election Loss 

The whirlwind 2024 U.S. presidential election is finally over, and former President Trump is now America’s President-Elect. In the wake of his victory, American’s have turned to a diverse spread of songs to process their emotions regarding the next four years. 

Vice President Kamala Harris selected Beyoncé and Kendrick Lamar’s “Freedom” as her official campaign song at the beginning of her presidential bid (July 21), and she walked off to the rousing song for the final time after her concession speech at Howard University on Nov. 6. During Election Week (Nov. 1-7), “Freedom” earned over 965,000 official on-demand U.S. streams, according to Luminate. That marks a 141% jump from the 399,000 streams it pulled the week prior (Oct. 24-31). Notably, Beyoncé also cleaned up at the 2025 Grammy nominations reveal – Cowboy Carter earned 11 nods – which took place just three days after Election Day on Nov. 8. 

Donald Trump of course narrowly won the election, spurring some Americans to return YG and Nipsey Hussle fiery “FDT.” Originally released in 2016 ahead of Trump’s first presidential election victory, “FDT” — which stands for “F–k Donald Trump” — has previously reached No. 50 on Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs. The anthemic track returned to the top of the iTunes charts after President Biden defeated Trump in 2020. Now starring in its third consecutive presidential election, “FDT” ballooned 455% in streams from 126,000 official on-demand U.S. streams in the week preceding the election (Oct. 24-31) to over 703,000 during Election Week (Nov. 1-7). 

An even older election-minded song – Jeezy and Nas’ Obama-praising “My President Is Black” — earned streaming gains following Trump’s victory. Whether people were playing the song in preemptive celebration or post-election dejection, streams for the 2008 track jumped 128% thanks to the past week’s events. Before Election Week (Oct. 24-31), the song earned over 126,000 official on-demand U.S. streams. During Election Week (Nov. 1-7), that figure rose to 288,000 streams. 

Lee Greenwood’s perennial “God Bless the U.S.A.” also earned eye-popping streaming gains following the election. Going into Election Week (Oct. 24-31), the patriotic track pulled just over 391,000 official on-demand U.S. streams. By the end of Election Week (Nov. 1-7), streams for the song clocked in at over 1.7 million, marking a whopping 334% increase. Digital sales for the song also jumped 266% to 2,500 copies sold during Election Week (Nov. 1-7). 

As the country prepares to undergo Trump’s second presidential term, expect more politically minded songs to make major streaming moves. — KYLE DENIS

Are You Looking Up? Mk.Gee Gets the ‘SNL’ Bump

It took many by surprised when Mk.Gee — an indie singer-guitarist with considerable critical acclaim and a growing cult following, but zero entries on either the Billboard 200 or Billboard Hot 100 — was announced as the musical guest on the post-election episode of Saturday Night Live. But the enigmatic performer rose to the occasion with electrifying performances of his Two Star & The Dream Police highlight “Alesis” and the newer single “Rockman” — and it appears that plenty of folks watching were sufficiently impressed to check out his discography from there.

For the days of Nov. 10-11 — the two days following the SNL gig — Mk.Gee’s catalog had amassed a combined 906,000 official on-demand U.S. streams, a 71% gain from the 529,000 he’d totaled for the same period the prior week. Leading the way there of course were the two songs he played in his performance: “Alessis” (up 75% to 135,000) and “Rockman” (up 87% to 209,000). Those numbers aren’t yet at the level of threatening Mk.Gee’s first appearance on Billboard‘s all-genre charts, but it continues to show what a lot of industry insiders have been saying about the singer-guitarist for some time now: The more exposure he gets, the more and more people he turns into believers. — ANDREW UNTERBERGER

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