Trending Up: New Year’s Bash Leads to Gains for Miley and Dolly, Gracie Abrams Gets a ‘Ginny & Georgia’ Bump & Tory Lanez Makes Chart Return
Written by djfrosty on January 11, 2023
Welcome to Billboard Pro’s Trending Up column, 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: Miley Cyrus and Dolly Parton reap streaming benefits from their much-watched New Year’s Eve special performance, Gracie Abrams eyes her first crossover hit after a valuable Netflix synch and the recently convicted Tory Lanez hits the Hot 100 for the first time in a couple years.
Miley & Dolly’s Classic Singles Rise After the Ball Drops
Miley Cyrus is about to kick off a new era with the release of “Flowers,” the lead single to her forthcoming album (and Columbia Records debut) Endless Summer Vacation. Two weeks before the scheduled debut of “Flowers,” however, Cyrus kicked off a new year alongside her godmother Dolly Parton, as the host of Miley’s New Year’s Eve Party on NBC, ringing in 2023 on network television with hits, covers and medleys of both.
Cyrus has been covering Parton’s “Jolene” in concert for years, so naturally it made sense to belt out the classic single (which is turning 50 this year!) alongside the legend who wrote and recorded it. “Jolene,” which Cyrus and Parton sang after warbling some of Patsy Cline’s “Walkin’ After Midnight” together on New Year’s Eve, received a bump on streaming services last week as a result, with a 29.6% increase in U.S. on-demand streams (up to 1.71 million), along with a 57% bump in digital sales, in the week ending Jan. 5, according to Luminate.
“Wrecking Ball,” which Cyrus and Parton sang together on the show before segueing into Parton’s “I Will Always Love You,” fared even better. Cyrus’ first career Billboard Hot 100 chart-topper (which is turning 10 this year!) scored a 44.5% rise in streams during the same week, up to 1.79 million for the week ending Jan. 5. “Wrecking Ball” also earned a digital sales increase of over 400% for that week.
Plus, Cyrus used Miley’s New Year’s Eve Party as the network TV platform to announce “Flowers,” dropping a pair of teasers in between hosting and performing duties as 2023 got underway. Widely announcing an upcoming single while also causing an older hit’s streaming revival — now that’s an enviable way to flip the calendar. – JASON LIPSHUTZ
Ginny & Georgia Doesn’t “Miss” With Gracie Abrams Synch
Interscope’s Gracie Abrams has steadily built a devoted fan base — and a reputation as your favorite singer-songwriter’s favorite singer-songwriter – over the past few years, but has yet to score the sort of crossover hit enjoyed by some of her more famous supporters. That may be changing with the recent streaming growth of her tear-jerking ballad “I miss you, I’m sorry,” a highlight from her 2020 debut EP, Mirror. The song got a big showcase moment in the finale of the Jan. 5-released second season to Netflix’s hit dramedy Ginny & Georgia, playing over a lovelorn montage of Ginny (Antonia Gentry) and her on/off romantic interest Marcus (Felix Mallard), both getting emotional while separately looking at old photos of the couple together.
As more viewers connected with the finale’s sentimental moment, the song has climbed steadily in streams – from 54,000 daily on-demand official U.S. streams on Jan. 5 to 81,000 by Jan. 8, according to Luminate, a gain of 50%. That number looks to still be growing in the days since, as fans of both Abrams and Ginny & Georgia have begun to spread it on TikTok and other social platforms. The increased exposure should be coming right on time for Abrams, who is set to release her long-anticipated debut full-length, Good Riddance, via Interscope on Feb. 24. – ANDREW UNTERBERGER
Tory Lanez Returns to Hot 100 Following Trial Guilty Verdict
While Tory Lanez awaits sentencing after being found guilty on three felony counts in the 2020 shooting of star rapper Megan Thee Stallion, he returns to the Hot 100 with his first new entry on the chart since the year of the assault.
“The Color Violet,” a Weeknd-reminiscent pop&B track from his 2021 One Umbrella release Alone at Prom, slowly developed into a prolific streaming hit over the course of 2022, and climbs 22.2% to 5.5 million in weekly official on-demand U.S. streams for the week ending Jan. 5, according to Luminate. While the song does not yet have a radio presence of any kind, as programming directors are likely reluctant to publicly support the disgraced singer-rapper at this point, streaming audiences have not been so dissuaded – and their embrace of “Violet” earns it a No. 87 bow on the Hot 100 this week. — AU