Chart Beat
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Naniwa Danshi’s “Doki it” blasts in at No. 1 on the Billboard Japan Hot 100, dated March 5.
The J-pop boy band’s eighth single is being featured as the theme song for AOKI’s “Freshers Fair” commercial starring the seven members. The single launched with 336,529 copies to rule sales, while coming in at No. 4 for downloads and No. 9 for radio airplay. This is the band’s third single after “UBU LOVE” and “The Answer” to hit No. 1 (and the fourth week, as “UBU LOVE” stayed atop the chart for two weeks). and “The Answer”).
Mrs. GREEN APPLE’s “Lilac” follows at No. 2. Streaming and video for the track are down from the previous week, but downloads gained by 104%, radio by 117%, and karaoke by 107%. The Oblivion Battery opener has coasted along in the top 5 for the 46th consecutive week, with six of them at No. 1.
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Sakanaction’s “Kaiju” slips a notch to No. 3. While overall points for the Orb: On the Movements of the Earth opener have decreased, streaming rises 3-2 (up 119%) and radio jumps 4-1 (up 147%).
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=LOVE’s “Tokubechu, shite” shoots to No. 4 from No. 56. The track marked the girl group’s highest first week sales with 302,589 copies, coming in at No. 2 for the metric.
timelesz’s “Rock this Party” debuts at No. 5. This is the first new song by the now eight-man group formerly known as Sexy Zone, after five new members joined through the audition called timelesz project. It’s also the first digital release by the boy band since their debut as Sexy Zone. The buzz around the new-member audition powered the track to No.1 for downloads, No. 8 for streaming, No. 53 for radio, and No. 86 for video. In addition, the release of the introductory digital compilation album Hello! We’re timelesz including songs from the group’s Sexy Zone years has sent “RUN” and “Jinsei Yugi” back into the Japan Hot 100. It’s been about four and a half years since the former entered the charts (No. 57 this week), and about a year and three months for the latter (No. 95).
The Billboard Japan Hot 100 combines physical and digital sales, audio streams, radio airplay, video views and karaoke data.
See the full Billboard Japan Hot 100 chart, tallying the week from Feb. 24 to Mar. 2, here. For more on Japanese music and charts, visit Billboard Japan’s English X account.
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.
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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).
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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
Some of the biggest artists of the 21st century weren’t yet born when the century began. Billie Eilish — Billboard’s top artist of the first quarter of the century who was born in the first quarter of the century — made her (non-chart) debut on Dec. 18, 2001. Runner-up Olivia Rodrigo was born Feb. 20, […]
BeBe Winans’ “Father in Heaven (Right Now),” featuring Gerald Albright, ascends a spot to No. 1 on Billboard’s Gospel Airplay chart (dated March 8). During the Feb. 21-27 tracking week, the song increased by 12% in plays among reporting radio stations, according to Luminate. Explore Explore See latest videos, charts and news See latest videos, […]
Netón Vega makes his first appearance on a Billboard albums chart, as his debut set, Mi Vida Mi Muerte, starts at Nos. 1 and 2 on the Regional Mexican Albums and Top Latin Albums charts (dated March 8), respectively.
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Mi Vida Mi Muerte launches with 26,000 equivalent album units earned in the U.S. in the tracking week ending Feb. 27, according to Luminate. The 21-track project, released via Josa Records, gives the independent label its first entrance on any Billboard chart.
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Streaming activity contributes the majority of Mi Vida Mi Muerte’s activity, which translates to 38.3 million official on-demand streams of the album’s songs. In turn, the set debuts at No. 17 on the overall Top Streaming Albums chart. Plus, it makes its No. 19 debut on the all-genre Billboard 200.
“Together, I’m confident we’ll bring his music to new heights,” said Josa Records founder Jesus Chavez, as the independent record label inked a distribution deal with Downtown Artist & Label Services last December in support of Vega’s music –and so they have. Vega takes Josa Records to its first No. 1 on any Billboard chart as Mi Vida Mi Muerte opens atop Regional Mexican Albums.
With its No. 1 debut on Regional Mexican Albums, Vega joins a select group of soloists who launched at the summit in the 2020s decade. Here is the list of those five champs, two of which placed two No. 1 debuts since.
Artist, Title, Debut DateAlejandro Fernández, Hecho En México, Feb. 29, 2020Junior H, $ad Boyz 4 Life, Feb. 27, 2021Natanael Cano, A Mis 20, June 12, 2021Junior H, Mi Vida En Un Cigarro 2, Feb. 26, 2022Ivan Cornejo, Dañado, June 18, 2022Ivan Cornejo, Mirada, August 3, 2024Neton Vega, Mi Vida Mi Muerte, March 8, 2025
Though none of the songs from the new album have reached any Billboard airplay tallies, the 23-year-old Vega, Billboard’s Artist on The Rise, placed one song on the Regional Mexican Airplay chart last December: The No. 27-peaking “Si No Quieres No,” with Luis R. Conriquez (The latter is also one of 11 guest artists on Mi Vida Mi Muerte.)
The stacked guest list of well-established corridos tumbados acts also includes Peso Pluma, Tito Double P, Gabito Ballesteros, Chino Pacas, Oscar Maydon and more.
Six songs from Mi Vida Mi Muerte have reached the multi-metric Hot Latin Songs chart. All but “CDN,” with Luis R Conriquez, make progress on the current list. (The latter, now gone from the tally, debuted and peaked at No. 42 the March 1-dated list). “Loco” leads the pack at No. 3 and, with 9.8 million official U.S. streams, is the top-streamed track from Mi Vida Mi Muerte for the week. Here’s the recap of the album’s placements on this week’s ranking:
No. 3, “Loco”No. 18, “Morena,” with Peso PlumaNo. 23, “M&M”No. 24, “Mi Vida Mi Muerte”No. 40 “Chiquita,” with Tito Double P
It’s a career week for rising pop star Tate McRae on the Billboard charts, following the release of her much-anticipated third album So Close To What on Friday (Feb. 25).
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So Close bows at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 (dated Mar. 8) with 177,000 units moved in its first frame, according to Luminate — her first set to top the chart. Meanwhile, the set lands 11 tracks on this week’s Billboard Hot 100, led by surging “Sports Car” (No. 16) and the brand-new “Revolving Door” (No. 22), both of which are boosted by eye-catching and elaborately choreographed music videos, now a McRae trademark.
Why has this album era marked such a level-up for McRae? And is her superstar status now secure? Billboard staffers answer these questions and more below.
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1. McRae’s So Close To What debuts atop the Billboard 200 with 177,000 units moved this week. On a scale from 1-10, how excited do you think McRae should be about that first-week number?
Hannah Dailey: Definitely a 10! As much momentum as she’s had these past few months, I don’t think a No. 1 album was necessarily guaranteed for her – so she should absolutely be celebrating those numbers.
Kyle Denis: 10, no doubt. We’re talking about someone who hasn’t sniffed the top 15 of the Billboard Hot 100 since she hit No. 3 with “Greedy” early last year. I don’t think anyone was expecting such a strong six-figure bow – especially when her previous LP, which housed “Greedy,” opened with just 66,000 units. The pre-release singles for So Close To What may not have clicked in the way most of us expected – or would have liked – them to, but clearly, they served their purpose.
Jason Lipshutz: A 10. This Billboard 200 debut encapsulates Tate McRae’s ascension to pop’s A-list, as not only her first No. 1 entry but with nearly triple the equivalent album units of her last album, which was released just 14 months earlier. Think Later contained the bigger hit single in “Greedy,” but So Close To What arrives on an undeniable wave of momentum for McRae, who is now able to flood the Hot 100 with double-digit new entries upon releasing a full-length. That type of achievement is typically reserved for superstars; the So Close To What debut confirms that McRae is on her way there.
Andrew Unterberger: It’s a 10! The projections kept growing by the week, and now there’s no doubt that Tate McRae is one of the breakout pop artists in an already-stacked era for such emergent talents. She’s put in the work, and now everyone is really seeing the fruits of her labor.
2. So Close To What outperforms the bow for McRae’s Think Later album, released just a year and change ago, by well over 100k units. What do you think is the biggest reason behind her wildly improved performance on this album?
Hannah Dailey: I love how committed she and her team have been to achieving great visual moments. From scenes in her music videos – like the nude police walk in “It’s OK I’m OK” or the impossible back bend in “Revolving Door” — to the choreography in her live performances, she’s been catching people’s eyes first and then earning their ears, too. With Think Later, I think she was only just discovering how much this works for her; now, she’s locked in.
Kyle Denis: I think the overall boost in Tate’s profile over the past year was instrumental to her improved performance with So Close To What. Although she didn’t churn out another smash on the level of “Greedy,” she remained an incredibly consistent musical and cultural presence. The “It’s OK, I’m OK” music video has a moment on socials, as did “Sports Car,” which smartly arrived one month out from the album’s full release. Most importantly, however, Tate spent most of 2024 touring Think Later, playing 65 shows North America, Europe, Asia and Oceania. That kind of healthy word-of-mouth kept consumers interested in Tate, even if certain singles didn’t exactly set the charts ablaze. Tate kept showing up and believing in her work – and she also delivered an incredibly solid pop album worthy of that kind of push.
Lyndsey Havens: I think one of the benefits of releasing her third album in such close proximity to her second is that she never really went away in between cycles. She embarked on an arena tour, including stops at Madison Square Garden and The Forum. She was the musical guest on Saturday Night Live (twice now). She starred in a Rhode campaign alongside Hailey Bieber. She was spotted vacationing with Kid Laroi and Olivia Rodrigo — and more. No matter what, McRae managed to stay in the public eye all while fans grew hungrier for more music.
Jason Lipshutz: A combination of higher interest in McRae’s music as a whole, and the songs leading up to So Close To What. Since scoring her first top 10 hit with “Greedy” in 2023, McRae has toured a mix of amphitheaters and arenas, performed on a slew of awards shows and Saturday Night Live, and most importantly, has kept accruing top 40 hits on the Hot 100: “Exes,” “It’s OK I’m OK,” “2 Hands,” “Sports Car,” and now “Revolving Door.” McRae has been consistent in her output and an increasing presence in pop culture, which has helped yield one of the biggest debuts of the year thus far.
Andrew Unterberger: I think it’s as much about the pop moment as it is about McRae herself. A few years ago — hell, maybe as recently as late 2023 when Think Later dropped — the top 40 world was in an uncharacteristically inhospitable place when it came to big, bubbly, performance-forward pop music. But now in early 2025, thanks to the breakouts of artists like Sabrina Carpenter, Charli XCX and Chappell Roan — and, it should be said, of McRae herself — it feels much more dead-center to the mainstream again. Now this album is dropping at pretty much the exact right moment.
3. An impressive 11 tracks from the album rank on the Hot 100 this week, led by the previously released “Sports Car” (reaching a new peak of No. 16) and the brand-new “Revolving Door” (No. 22). Do you think either of the two will end up being a long-lasting hit from the album — or do you think something else from the tracklist has a better shot at that?
Hannah Dailey: I could see either of the collaborations — “bloodonmyhands” with Flo Milli or “I Know Love” with The Kid LAROI – taking off. But we shall see where the tides of TikTok trends take us.
Kyle Denis: I think both “Sports Car” and “Revolving Door” have solid chances at building into long-lasting hits, but I have my eyes on “Purple Lace Bra.” That one feels like the kind of post-Born to Die dream-pop track that randomly becomes a trending TikTok sound.
Lyndsey Havens: I think “Sports Car” could grow into a top 10 hit, easily.
Jason Lipshutz: “Revolving Door” has a radio-ready hook that makes good use of McRae’s range, but the answer here is “Sports Car,” which has a more memorable chorus (flipping the script on “Wait (The Whisper Song),” two decades later!) and effective siren-cry synths supporting McRae’s breathy melodies. When we look back on this era for Tate McRae, I’d guess that “Sports Car” serves as the defining song.
Andrew Unterberger: “Revolving Door” is the one to me. It just feels a little weightier than her other recent hits, just a little more musically layered and emotionally resonant — and the choreography in its video should inspire months’ worth of imitators to keep it alive on social media through the spring.
4. If you were on McRae’s team, what wide you be advising her to do to capitalize on the momentum of this impressive first-week bow for So Close To What? How would you best extend the album era — or would you encourage her to move on from it quickly?
Hannah Dailey: I would say build on the momentum of her Saturday Night Live and Tonight Show appearances and keep getting Tate on people’s TV and phone screens as much as possible. Her songs really come together when she’s performing live, and her ability to deliver attitude and choreography on stage is the primary thing that makes her stand out from the rest of the pop crop – so capitalize on that by continuing to manufacture these visual moments.
Kyle Denis: I would keep pushing singles! “Sports Car” clearly isn’t done, and “Revolving Door” is showing promising signs – those two tracks should at least carry the era into the summer. By that point, the Miss Possessive Tour should be wrapping its European leg, so to ring in the North American leg, I’d drop either a remix of one of the two aforementioned songs or a new single that previews a So Close To What deluxe edition, which should drop near the end of the tour, just in time for first-round Grammy voting.
Lyndsey Havens: The members of her team are brilliant when it comes to keeping Tate top of mind — and on the road. The fact that she’s heading back out on a new headlining tour so soon will ensure that the album’s lifespan will be a long one.
Jason Lipshutz: She’s already planned precisely what I would advise her to do: look for more mainstream opportunities, then tour the heck out of this album. McRae will perform on Jimmy Kimmel Live tonight after stopping by SNL and The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon last week, and her world tour kicks off in two weeks, with arena dates scheduled through the fall. There’s no need to move on from an album that’s clearly resonating with pop fans, so McRae should present that album to a global audience and raise her profile even more.
Andrew Unterberger: Get Tate McRae some big festival slots! The early performance of So Close To What should prove she has the audience, and the music videos and live performances she’s had in the promo run up to its release should prove she’s got the talent and the presence. She could really use those big live moments in front of a festival audience to springboard to national phenom status, the way Roan and Carpenter did last year.
5. Much of the online pop discourse around McRae centers on whether or not she should be considered a “Main Pop Girl.” Does this debut establish her as one to you, or does she still have some remaining steps to take first?
Hannah Dailey: She’s very much on her way to Main Pop Girl status, but I think I still need to see one of her singles have a little more dominance and longevity, both culturally and on the charts. I do think that this debut makes a strong statement, though, in that she really seems to have found her sound and her niche in the pop world. She’s standing on her own.
Kyle Denis: I think she needs to visit the Hot 100’s top 10 a few more times, but these first-week numbers certainly make a compelling case. If she pulls some impressive numbers with the Miss Possessive tour, I’d be willing to seriously entertain that conversation.
Lyndsey Havens: I don’t know why or how there’s anything left to debate here. I think McRae has been a main pop girl for a minute, and reaching the top of the Billboard 200 proves there are no steps left to take. The way in which she’s brought back the 2000s pop girl energy with her ability to sing and dance has been warmly received from the start, but with So Close it seems her impressive skillset is finally being entirely embraced.
Jason Lipshutz: Right now, McRae is a streaming-era pop star with a growing collection of rock-solid hits and tons of cache with young listeners. This debut solidifies her standing as a name that pop fans of all ages need to know, even if she is still lacking that cross-generation smash like “Espresso” or “Drivers License.” That may come in time, as she continues honing her sound and public persona; for now, though, she’s seeing the requisite boxes that an artist with Main Pop Girl aspirations in front of her and checking them all.
Andrew Unterberger: I think she’s at that Gracie Abrams level right now where if she’s not quite there yet, she’s at least close enough to be able to reach out and touch it. It’s a crowded field for Main Pop Girls right now, and many of them still have hits and accolades that McRae can’t boast just yet — but if she stays on the trajectory she’s currently on, it won’t be long until she’s on similar footing.
Tate McRae has a massive week on Billboard’s charts (dated March 8) thanks to the arrival of her new album, So Close to What.
Released Feb. 21 on RCA Records, the set soars in as her first No. 1 on the Billboard 200 with 177,000 equivalent album units earned in the U.S. in its opening week (Feb. 21-27), according to Luminate.
McRae concurrently lands 11 songs from the album on the Billboard Hot 100, led by “Sports Car” and “Revolving Door” in the top 40. Here’s a recap (all of which are debuts except where noted):
Rank, Title:
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No. 16, “Sports Car” (up from No. 57; new high)
No. 22, “Revolving Door”
No. 43, “I Know Love,” feat. The Kid LAROI
No. 44, “Dear God”
No. 53, “Purple Lace Bra”
No. 54, “Miss Possessive”
No. 64, “BloodOnMyHands,” feat. Flo Milli
No. 74, “Signs”
No. 76, “2 Hands” (re-entry; peaked at No. 41 in November)
No. 90, “Like I Do”
No. 99, “Greenlight”
The lead single from the album, “It’s OK I’m OK,” hit No. 20 on the Hot 100 in September and has since wrapped its run on the chart.
With nine debuts, McRae has now charted 21 total songs on the Hot 100 in her career. Of those, seven have reached the top 40 and one hit the top 10: “Greedy” climbed to No. 3 in January 2024.
McRae also places five songs from So Close to What on Billboard’s recently launched Hot Dance/Pop Songs chart. “Revolving Door” debuts at No. 1, becoming her second leader after “It’s OK I’m OK” became the list’s inaugural No. 1 in January. She additionally charts with “Miss Possessive” (No. 3), “It’s OK I’m OK” (No. 4), “BloodOnMyHands” (No. 5) and “No I’m Not in Love” (No. 7).
McRae also vaults from No. 38 to No. 1 on the Billboard Artist 100, becoming the top musical act in the U.S. for the first time. She joins Taylor Swift and SZA as the only women to lead the Artist 100 in 2025. In January 2021, McRae spent four consecutive weeks at No. 1 on Billboard’s Emerging Artists chart, thanks to the success of her breakthrough single, “You Broke Me First,” which reached No. 17 on the Hot 100.
The Artist 100 measures artists’ activity across key metrics of music consumption: album sales, track sales, radio airplay and streaming. Using a methodology comprising those metrics, the chart provides a weekly multi-dimensional ranking of artist popularity. The Hot Dance Pop/Songs chart ranks the most popular current dance/pop titles, separate from Billboard’s Hot Dance/Electronic Songs chart, which focuses on producers and DJs.
“It was an uncomfortable song to play my mom,” Leon Thomas admits of “Mutt,” a flirtatious track that mentions the urge to “pop a shroom to re-create the feeling.” “Mutt” marked the Grammy-winning songwriter’s first Billboard Hot 100 entry as a recording artist, following years of behind-the-scenes work that includes hits for Ariana Grande, SZA and more. And his mother loved it, too. “She told me this is going to be one of my biggest records. She spoke into existence.”
For Thomas, 31 — the Brooklyn-bred son of Black Rock Coalition parents, and the grandson of the late opera singer John Anthony — music and family have always been intertwined. His parents, who frequented CBGB, laid the musical foundation for the rock-infused soul he explores on Mutt, his sophomore album released last September.
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Since then, he supported Blxst on tour and embarked on his own headlining trek — but February in particular solidified Thomas’ turn from songwriting savant to front-facing R&B star. “Mutt” entered the Hot 100 on the Feb. 8 chart (and reaches a new No. 67 peak on the March 8-dated list); he made his live-TV debut with the song on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert the same week; and then performed on NPR’s Tiny Desk later that month, where he dedicated 2022 single “Breaking Point” to his recently deceased grandfather (Thomas attended his funeral directly after the taping). “He was the anchor to my journey,” says Thomas. “I can tell he was with me musically.”
Leon Thomas
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While his past month looks like a whirlwind of success, Thomas’ breakthrough has been nearly two decades in the making. At 13, with Broadway runs in The Lion King, The Color Purple and Caroline, Or Change under his belt, Thomas signed his first deal with Columbia Records. “I was walking into the boardroom playing Stevie Wonder covers and in-depth love songs,” he reflects with a laugh. “They were like, ‘What we gon’ do with this? Did you even hit puberty?’” Around that time, he made his theatrical debut in the 2007 film August Rush, which led to a Nickelodeon development deal that landed him roles on shows from The Backyardigans to Victorious.
As the deal was nearing its end and Victorious approached its 2013 series finale, Thomas explored his options, and received advice from Republic Records’ Wendy Goldstein, who was the label’s senior vp of A&R at the time. “Journeying through your twenties is you becoming everything that you need from everybody else,” she told him. “Those words stuck with me on some Spider-Man s–t,” he says today.
He spent the better part of the next decade learning the independent scene, studying under Babyface and Boi-1da (and by extension, Drake’s camp), and was briefly signed to Alex da Kid’s KIDinaKORNER. He met manager Jonathan Azu in 2019 and became the first act on his Culture Collective roster. Two years later, he landed a record deal with Ty Dolla $ign and Motown Records’ joint venture, EZMNY, after running into A&R Shawn Barron on a grocery run.
“I was kind of scared because signing under an artist can be either heaven or hell,” says Thomas. “Luckily, I’m stomping around in heaven right now.”
During his time at Motown, Thomas has experienced several different leadership regimes following restructurings by parent company Universal Music Group. Now under Capitol Music Group chairman/CEO Tom March — who Thomas says “gets my vision and is down to support real music” — he was able to execute his ideal album rollout for Mutt.
The campaign kicked off last August — a year after his debut full-length, Electric Dusk — with the release of the album’s title track. A funky R&B midtempo tune that nods to Enchantment’s “Silly Love Song” by way of a Bootsy Collins-esque bassline, “Mutt” was the product of Thomas’ desire to “have a record that shows what I’m about: live music, funk and vulnerability.” Written in 2022, Thomas crafted “Mutt” on his living room floor while microdosing psychedelics and watching his dog and cat fight. “I saw the similarities between us and how we have good intentions but don’t always do the right thing,” he told Billboard last year.
The single’s steady chart climb is largely due to Thomas and Azu’s “all ships rise” business approach. Instead of exhausting resources on one song, they banked on word-of-mouth from his live performances to help people discover “Mutt” along with the rest of the album.
“We [noticed] the crowd’s reaction when ‘Mutt’ would play: the phones were always up, but they would really come out for ‘Mutt,’” says Azu. The song continued naturally gaining traction in R&B circles with those familiar with Thomas’ songwriting and production work. “Everybody knows how dangerous he is in the studio with other people’s work,” Azu adds.
Jonathan Azu (left) and Leon Thomas at the 2024 Grammy Awards.
Courtesy of Culture Collective
Thomas launched a 13-date headlining tour in October at intimate venues across the U.S., and the trek doubled as a way to promote himself at radio. “A lot of program directors are just outside the Victorious demographic, but the people in the studios and offices are within that demographic, and so are [their] children,” says Azu. “Doing [that] work is so important for the foundation to go for adds.”
As “Mutt” climbs at three different Billboard airplay rankings (R&B/Hip-Hop Airplay, Mainstream R&B/Hip-Hop Airplay and Adult R&B Airplay, where it hits a No. 7 best on the March 8 chart), Thomas is playing the long game. “I loved seeing how Lizzo kept promoting her hits and didn’t stop believing in them,” he says. A deluxe edition of Mutt is also in the works, and Thomas mentions potential collaborations with Kehlani, Big Sean and Halle Bailey in the hopper, in addition to a previously teased team-up with Stormzy. Plus, there’s a song on which Thomas plays every instrument.
“There [are] sides to me that I haven’t shown the world yet, so I’m spoon-feeding them,” Thomas says. “You need to hide the medicine in the candy. This deluxe is me stepping deeper into my purpose.”
A version of this story appears in the March 8, 2025, issue of Billboard.
Tate McRae doesn’t just score her first No. 1 album on the Billboard 200, as So Close to What soars in atop the tally dated March 8 — she also becomes the first Canadian woman to lead the list during the 2020s.
The Calgary, Alberta, native is the first woman to proudly fly the Canadian flag atop the Billboard 200 since Celine Dion debuted at No. 1 on the chart dated Nov. 30, 2019, with Courage. Dion boasts the most leaders on the chart among Canadian women, with five dating to her first in 1996.
McRae further makes her mark as the first woman from the province of Alberta to top the Billboard 200.
Alanis Morissette has earned three Billboard 200 No. 1s — and became the first Canadian woman to reign when her pop-culture juggernaut Jagged Little Pill rose to the top of the chart dated Oct. 7, 1995.
Fellow Canadian chanteuses Avril Lavigne and Shania Twain have also each notched multiple Billboard 200 No. 1s.
Shoutout to two revered Canadian women singer-songwriters who have both hit No. 2 highs on the Billboard 200: Joni Mitchell and Sarah McLachlan. Mitchell, from Fort Macleod, Alberta, sent Court and Spark and Miles of Aisles to the runner-up spot in 1974-75. McLachlan, from Halifax, Nova Scotia, took Surfacing and Afterglow in 1997 and 2003, respectively.
Plus, soft rock/country icon Anne Murray, from Springhill, Nova Scotia, has charted more than 30 titles on the Billboard 200, along with 18 top 10s on the Top Country Albums chart.
Meanwhile, McRae succeeds two Canadian men atop the Billboard 200, as $ome $exy $ongs 4 U by PARTYNEXTDOOR and Drake dips to No. 2 in its second week. Canadian soloists rule back-to-back for the first time since October 2016, when Shawn Mendes’ Illuminate dethroned Drake’s Views. Adding to Canada’s legacy atop the Billboard 200, $ome $exy $ongs 4 U became Drake’s 14th No. 1 — tying him with Jay-Z and Taylor Swift for the most among soloists.
Below, celebrate the achievements of the Canadian women who have hit No. 1 on the Billboard 200.
Celine Dion
Venesti is on a roll as he secures his third straight No. 1 on Billboard’s Latin Pop Airplay chart, all within a little over a year, as “Fuera de Lugar” rises from No. 2 for its first week atop the March 8-dated chart. The single’s coronation comes after a 37% gain, to 7 million audience impressions, during the tracking week of February 21-27, according to Luminate.
“‘Fuera de Lugar’ is a song that connects with a lot of people because we’ve all been through that moment of giving up on a relationship out of pride and say things that we later regret,” Venesti tells Billboard about his third consecutive No. 1 on the Latin pop radio ranking. “But in this case what I want to convey is that sometimes you can put that pride aside and have at least one more day with that person; that story has made it stay in people’s hearts.”
Venesti’s “Fuera de Lugar” trades places with fellow Colombian Maluma, whose song, “Cosas Pendientes,” dips 1-2 after a 13% decline in impressions, to 6 million.
Trending on Billboard
Venesti’s winning streak on Latin Pop Airplay began as “No Es Normal,” with Nacho and Maffio, landed at the summit in January 2024, where it dominated for 10 weeks, the second-most that year, after Shakira’s “Soltera,” which crowned for 11 consecutive weeks in 2024. (The latter ruled for a total of 18 weeks, with seven of those frames in 2025).
Vensti’s “Es Normal” arrived at the summit six months later, to rule for four weeks starting the July 20-dated list.
Concurrent with its Latin Pop Airplay triumph, “Fuera de Lugar” surges 17-4 on the overall Latin Airplay chart, for Venesti’s fourth top 10 there.
All charts (dated March 8, 2025) will update on Billboard.com tomorrow, March 4. For all chart news, you can follow @billboard and @billboardcharts on both X, formerly known as Twitter, and Instagram.