Oscars Bumps for ‘Anora’ & ‘Emilia Perez’ Songs, And for Both Bob Dylan & Timothée Chalamet

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: The Oscars leads to gains for songs from winners Anora and Emilia Perez, Bob Dylan gets another wave of A Complete Unknown gains (as does the guy who plays him in the movie), and listeners say farewell to one of the greatest pop, soul and jazz singers of the 20th century.

Oscars Boost ‘El Mal,’ Take That’s ‘Anora’ Anthem And… Indie Band Yuck

The 97th Annual Academy Awards may have been the rare Oscars telecast to shrug off any performances of the best original song nominees, but that doesn’t mean some wide-ranging tunes didn’t benefit from their ties to Hollywood’s biggest night. For one, the song that actually did emerge victorious in that category — “El Mal,” from Emilia Pérez — did earn a major streaming bump. The spiky rap-rock track, performed in the French musical by Zoe Saldaña and written by Clément Ducol, Camille and director Jacques Audiard, experienced more than a 2,000% increase in official on-demand U.S. streams thanks to the Oscar win, according to initial data from Luminate – from fewer than 1,000 streams on the Monday before the awards ceremony (Feb. 24) to nearly 20,000 streams the day after the Oscars (Mar. 3).

Meanwhile, the enormous night for indie dramedy Anora — five Academy Awards, including Best Picture — coincided with an uptick for Take That’s “Greatest Day”: the 2008 single received a euphoric remix from Robin Schulz and Calum Scott in 2023, and the reworked version appears multiple times in Anora. As director Sean Baker enjoyed his “Greatest Day” with a record-tying four Oscar wins in a single night, the updated Take That track shot up 500% in daily streams, from 6,000 on Feb. 24 to 41,000 one week later. Elsewhere, Shirley Bassey’s “Diamonds Are Forever” earned a similar percentage bump thanks to Doja Cat’s performance of the classic during a James Bond medley at the Oscars; “Diamonds” was up 441% on the day after the Oscars, from over 3,000 streams to over 18,000 streams.

Yet the most surprising recipient of an Oscars streaming increase is Yuck, the noise-rock-leaning indie band that released three albums between 2011 and 2016; as astute blogosphere scholars pointed out on Sunday night, Daniel Blumberg, the composer who won the Best Original Score Oscar for his work on The Brutalist, used to be Yuck’s frontman before he pivoted to the film world. As a result, Yuck’s streaming catalog soared 432% post-Oscars, from 7,000 total streams on Feb. 24 to nearly 39,000 streams on Mar. 3. That’s probably not quite enough to convince Blumberg for a reunion, but indie rock diehards can dream. – JASON LIPSHUTZ

Despite Oscars Shutout, ‘A Complete Unknown’ Continues to Boost Tracks From Its Stars – And From Bob Dylan Himself 

Bob Dylan biopic A Complete Unknown may have lost all eight of its nominations at Sunday night’s Academy Awards (March 2), but the film is pulling off a few notable wins on streaming and in sales. 

According to initial data from Luminate, streams for Dylan’s catalog rose 15% during Oscar weekend. From Feb. 21-24, Dylan’s catalog earned 7.02 million official on-demand U.S. streams. For the similar period the following week (encompassing Oscars weekend), his catalog pulled 8.11 million streams. His digital song sales also nearly doubled over that period, shooting from 1,600 to over 3,200. 

A Complete Unknown was accompanied by an official soundtrack, featuring covers of Dylan and Joan Baez classics sung by Oscar-nominated stars Timothée Chalamet and Monica Barbaro. “It Ain’t Me Babe,” the 1964 classic notably performed by the duo in the film, has steadily risen in streams over the past month. During the period of Feb. 7-13, the cover pulled just 177,000 official on-demand U.S. streams. Two weeks later, that figure exploded by 310% to over 727,000 streams earned during the period of Feb. 21-27. 

And it’s still rising, as both the song and the movie continue to find new fans. Over that Feb. 28-Mar. 3 period, the song’s streams leapt nearly 80% over the equivalent period the prior week, from 315,000 to over 565,000. – KYLE DENIS

Roberta Flack’s Catalog Up Over 400% in Streams, 4,600% in Sales Following Her Death

The great pop, soul and jazz singer Roberta Flack died from cardiac arrest at age 88 on Feb. 24. Flack was a four-time Grammy winner – including back-to-back record of the year wins in 1973 (“The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face”) and 1974 (“Killing Me Softly With His Song”), making her the first artist to ever win the award in consecutive years. She also topped the Billboard Hot 100 with both of those singles, in ‘72 and ‘73, respectively, as well as with “Feel Like Makin’ Love” in ‘74 – making her the first woman to score No. 1s on the chart in three straight years. 

Following her passing last week, fans of course flocked to DSPs and retailers to stream and buy her classic hits. Her catalog more than quintupled in official on-demand U.S. streams for the tracking week ending Feb. 27 – up from just over a million streams the week before to over 5.4 million, according to Luminate – and also rose nearly 4,600% in digital sales, from under 400 total to over 18,000. The biggest risers included those two record of the year winners, “The First Time” (up 284% to 769,000 streams and over 5,000% to 5,900 in sales) and “Killing Me Softly” (up 220% to 1.3 million streams and nearly 4,900% to 6,700 in sales), as well as one of her signature Donny Hathaway duets, 1978’s “The Closer I Get to You” (up 244% to 584,000 streams and over 4,600% to 1,900 in sales). – ANDREW UNTERBERGER

Bhad Bhabie Rides New Feud to a Catalog-Reviving Surprise Hit Diss Track 

Seven years after scoring her first Billboard Hot 100 entry, Bhad Bhabie could be gearing up for her first appearance of the 2020s on the chart. Taking a page out of Kendrick Lamar’s book, Bhad Bhabie has spun a legitimate streaming hit out of her beef with Alabama Barker, daughter of blink-182 drummer Travis Barker. 

On Feb. 25, Bhad Bhabie dropped “Ms. Whitman,” a blistering diss track that samples Ye and Ty Dolla $ign’s “Carnival” and accuses Barker of a litany of things, including an unconfirmed abortion from a Tyga pregnancy. During its first full week of release (Feb. 25-March 3), “Ms. Whitman” earned 7.8 million official on-demand U.S. streams, according to initial data from Luminate – essentially working out to a little over a million streams a day. 

“Ms. Whitman” is also boosting Bhad Bhabie’s back catalog, which includes the Hot 100 hits “These Heaux” (No. 77), “Gucci Flip Flops” (No. 79, with Lil Yachty) and “Hi Bich” (No. 68). During the week of Feb. 14-20, Bhad Bhabie’s discography pulled 1.7 million official on-demand U.S. streams. The following week (Feb. 21-27), streaming activity for her catalog more than doubled to over 3.57 million streams. With streams still pouring in and the beef still active, “Ms. Whitman” could very well threaten to become Bhad Bhabie’s highest-peaking Hot 100 hit yet. – KD

Related Images: