The first year of the TikTok Billboard Top 50 chart featured an array of music that reached the fledgling ranking’s upper reaches, with 21 songs topping the weekly ranking from its inception as of the Billboard charts dated Sept. 16, 2023.
Tommy Richman’s “Million Dollar Baby,” however, was a leg above the rest.
From its coronation at No. 1 on the May 18 survey (after debuting at No. 2 the previous week) to its to-date final week atop the ranking (July 20), Richman’s summer hit crowned the TikTok Billboard Top 50 for 10 uninterrupted weeks. What’s more: as of this writing, “Million Dollar Baby” has never fallen below No. 6. In fact, the latest weekly chart (Sept. 14) finds it up one spot to No. 5.
But “Million Dollar Baby” is a fitting longest-running No. 1 for the chart’s inaugural year. To recap the story you’ve probably already been told: on April 13, Richman uploaded a 14-second clip of the song to his TikTok. It exploded immediately, having racked up nearly 14 million plays as of mid-September. Two days later, he was posting more clips featuring different music, but the demand in the comments was clear: “Drop million dollar baby rn,” one read. He released the song “Selfish” a few days later on April 19, and yet the pleas persisted: “More million dollar baby clips.”
The next week, it happened. After a few more videos promoting its impending release (including one from April 23 that has even more views – over 18 million – than the original), Richman dropped “Million Dollar Baby” on April 26, and the song immediately shot to the top of the TikTok Billboard Top 50, as well as charts worldwide. On the multimetric Billboard Hot 100 (which does not include any TikTok activity), it both debuted and peaked at No. 2 on the May 11 tally and spent the next nearly four months in the top 10.
Pent-up demand for the song helped drive initial numbers, but in the months since, “Million Dollar Baby” has had its own dance trend that’s dominated the conversation. By the end of the summer, TikTok crowned the tune its song of the summer.
Read on for more highlights of the TikTok Billboard Top 50’s chart’s first year. You can see the latest TikTok Billboard Top 50 chart here, and you can also tune in each Friday to SiriusXM’s TikTok Radio (channel 4) to hear the premiere of the chart’s top 10 countdown at 3 p.m. ET, with reruns heard throughout the week.
‘Love’ for Mitski
When “Million Dollar Baby” hit its seventh week at No. 1, it surpassed the six-week run of one of the chart’s first rulers: Mitski’s “My Love Mine All Mine,” which was the fourth-ever No. 1 and first to reign for more than one week when it rose to the summit in October 2023.
The rise of Mitski’s “My Love Mine All Mine” – and to a similar extent Clairo’s “Juna,” which led for a week in August – was an interesting case study, as both artists entered the era of the TikTok Billboard Top 50’s existence having enjoyed success on TikTok in the years prior. From “Nobody” to “Washing Machine Heart” and “First Love/Late Spring” to “I Bet on Losing Dogs,” music from Mitski’s now-seven-album catalog has performed well on TikTok for years, while Clairo’s “Sofia,” “Bags” and more have been perennial favorites on the platform.
But could they do it again? Short answer: yes. Both found success on TikTok with their latest releases, 2023’s The Land Is Inhospitable and So Are We and this year’s Charm, respectively.
Both were slow burns, too. “My Love Mine All Mine” debuted at No. 34 on the Sept. 30, 2023, list and first hit No. 1 two weeks later, fueled mostly by romance- and friendship-themed uploads. “Juna,” meanwhile, reached No. 1 in its second week on the ranking from a trend playing off the song’s repetitive “you know me” lyric that then highlights the uploader’s interests.
Olsen, Flo Milli Made Marks
Alek Olsen’s “Someday I’ll Get It” and Flo Milli’s “Never Lose Me” tied for the third-longest reigns in the TikTok Billboard Top 50’s first year, both ruling for four weeks apiece. “Never Lose Me,” which led beginning in January, benefitted from multiple trends throughout its run, paced by the “never had a what?” call-and-response theme.
“Someday I’ll Get It,” which reigned in early spring via a trend where creators reminisced about their (usually deceased) pets, is an interesting case. Olsen originally released the 94-second song in October 2023 independently and has not premiered new music since; in fact, Olsen hasn’t even updated their lone known social media account, an Instagram handle, since February of that year. They remain an off-the-grid, seemingly unsigned artist, showcasing TikTok’s ability to highlight music that can come from anyone or anywhere, not just major-label acts.
‘Wassup’? More Unsigned Acts
Another unsigned artist success story on the chart: FamousSally and YB’s “Wassup Gwayy,” the ranking’s second No. 1 when it ruled in September. Shortly after the tune took off, the pair was signed to Epic Records. And there was Cat Janice’s “Dance You Outta My Head,” self-released but popular on the app as Janice chronicled her final months after recording and releasing the song when she was in hospice care for cancer; she died on Feb. 28, 2024, weeks after “Dance You Outta My Head” reached No. 1 on the TikTok Billboard Top 50.
‘SkeeYee’ Started It
The only song that preceded “Wassup Gwayy” at No. 1 was Sexyy Red’s “SkeeYee,” the inaugural leader upon the chart dated Sept. 16, 2023. While the song remains her only No. 1 so far, the rapper reached the TikTok Billboard Top 50 with 14 different songs in the first year, 11 as the lead artist and three times as a featured act. Only one act made the chart more in that span: Taylor Swift, who boasts 18 appearances, despite never actually hitting No. 1. In fact, only two of the 18 even reached the top 10, with “August” leading the pack (No. 3 on the inaugural list) followed by “Who’s Afraid of Little Old Me?” (No. 4, May).
TikTok Success = Hot 100 Wins
Tommy Richman’s “Million Dollar Baby” was perhaps the year’s strongest example of an artist breaking on TikTok, and eventually finding major success on the Billboard charts. But he was far from the only one.
After peaking at No. 8 on the TikTok Billboard Top 50 in October 2023 with “Ick,” Lay Bankz returned with a vengeance in April via “Tell Ur Girlfriend,” a three-week ruler on the chart that stretched into May thanks to a dance trend. The song became Bankz’s first Hot 100 appearance, peaking at No. 58.
The Aug. 10-dated TikTok Billboard Top 50 coronated Sevdaliza, Pabllo Vittar and Yseult’s “Alibi” the No. 1, a week after the tune became all three acts’ first Hot 100 appearance at No. 95 via its hip-shaking TikTok trend.
And as for Jordan Adetunji, “Kehlani” vaulted onto the TikTok Billboard Top 50 in June and took a two-week trip to No. 1 in August, assisted by Kehlani herself hopping onto the trend and even appearing on Adetunji’s channel in an upload in late July (“I broke the simulation,” Adetunji boasted) following the release of a remix on which she was featured. “Kehlani” hits a new peak of No. 24 on the latest Hot 100.
Not Just About New Music
All of the No. 1s mentioned so far were ultimately newer songs; even if “Never Lose Me” and “Someday I’ll Get It” might have risen to No. 1 months after their releases, they were still younger than a year old by the time of their reigns. As has been the case since inception, though, TikTok wasn’t all about new material, and the No. 1 spot was no exception. Bobby Caldwell’s “What You Won’t Do for Love,” a No. 9 hit on the Hot 100 in 1979, blasted to No. 1 in February via a food-related trend, and Lesley Gore’s version of “Misty” from her debut 1963 album crowned the list in January thanks to the “me without glasses/me with glasses” (or variations thereof) trend.
Even Mariah Carey’s yearly holiday standard “All I Want for Christmas Is You” got in on the fun in December, topping the Dec. 30, 2023, and Jan. 6, 2024, tallies ahead of other holiday classics including Wham!’s “Last Christmas,” Brenda Lee’s “Rockin’ Around the Christmas Tree” and Jose Feliciano’s “Feliz Navidad.”
Sometimes what’s old became new. Djo’s “End of Beginning,” which was first released in 2022, was a sleeper Hot 100 hit in 2024, peaking at No. 11 in March and rising as high as No. 4 on the Alternative Airplay chart in July. That’s in large part thanks to TikTok virality; it led the TikTok Billboard Top 50 for two weeks in March, mostly due to a trend to the prompt “if I won the lottery, I wouldn’t tell anyone, but there would be signs.”
Non-No.1s Had Their Moments, Too
Just because a song didn’t eventually reach No. 1 on the TikTok Billboard Top 50 didn’t mean they weren’t ubiquitous with the platform. Take, for example, Shaboozey’s “A Bar Song (Tipsy),” the longest-running No. 1 on the Hot 100 so far this year. The 10-week ruler first exploded on TikTok in early May, debuting at No. 9 on the May 4 TikTok Billboard Top 50 survey. It rose to an eventual peak of No. 3 the following week, buoyed by its honky tonk-ready dance trend.
“A Bar Song” wasn’t the only such dance-addled country tune on TikTok in 2024. A few weeks before Shaboozey took off, Dasha’s “Austin” spent three weeks in the top 10 in late March into early April, peaking at No. 4, with Dasha herself leading the charge on the trend with a bevy of uploads, including tutorials.
Like “Million Dollar Baby,” Benson Boone’s “Beautiful Things” was a major TikTok success thanks at first to pre-release buzz. Boone accumulated millions upon millions of views on TikTok with snippets of the song starting in early January, culminating with the release on Jan. 19. It debuted at No. 6 on the Feb. 10 chart and eventually rose to a peak of No. 2 on the March 23 ranking.
And amid BRAT summer, Charli XCX’s “Apple,” after first being released alongside BRAT’s June 7 premiere, led a trio of songs from the album onto the TikTok Billboard Top 50 in July and August, “Apple” itself peaking at No. 3 on the Aug. 10 list (followed by “Guess” at No. 22 and “365” at No. 34). “Guess” reached new heights following the release of a remix featuring Billie Eilish on Aug. 1.
