Chart Beat
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Tommy Richman’s “Million Dollar Baby” adds a second week at No. 1 on the Billboard Global 200 and Sabrina Carpenter’s “Espresso” serves up a fourth week atop the Billboard Global Excl. U.S. chart.
Plus, NewJeans notch their fifth Global Excl. U.S. top 10 as “How Sweet” debuts at No. 7.
The Global 200 and Global Excl. U.S. charts, which began in September 2020, rank songs based on streaming and sales activity culled from more than 200 territories around the world, as compiled by Luminate. The Global 200 is inclusive of worldwide data and the Global Excl. U.S. chart comprises data from territories excluding the United States.
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Chart ranks are based on a weighted formula incorporating official-only streams on both subscription and ad-supported tiers of audio and video music services, as well as download sales, the latter of which reflect purchases from full-service digital music retailers from around the world, with sales from direct-to-consumer (D2C) sites excluded from the charts’ calculations.
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‘Million Dollar Baby’ Tops Global 200 for Second Week
Tommy Richman’s breakthrough hit “Million Dollar Baby” spends a second week at No. 1 on the Global 200, with 95.5 million streams (down 12%) and 10,000 sold (up 20%) worldwide May 24-30.
Sabrina Carpenter’s “Espresso” rebounds to its No. 2 Global 200 high, from No. 5; Post Malone’s “I Had Some Help,” featuring Morgan Wallen, drops 2-3, two weeks after it debuted at No. 1; Kendrick Lamar’s “Not Like Us” slips 3-4, three weeks after it arrived in the top spot; and Billie Eilish’s “Lunch” descends to No. 5 a week after it started at No. 4.
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Extra ‘Espresso’ on Global Excl. U.S.
Sabrina Carpenter’s “Espresso” pours on a fourth week at No. 1 on the Global Excl. U.S. chart, with 62.7 million streams (down 2%) and 3,000 sold (up 5%) outside the U.S. May 24-30.
Billie Eilish’s “Lunch” holds at No. 2 in its second week on Global Excl. U.S.; FloyyMenor and Cris Mj’s “Gata Only” returns to its No. 3 high, from No. 5; Tommy Richman’s “Million Dollar Baby” backtracks 3-4, after reaching No. 2; and Benson Boone’s “Beautiful Things” rises 6-5, following eight weeks at No. 1 beginning in February.
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Plus, NewJeans’ “How Sweet” debuts at No. 7 on Global Excl. U.S. with 42.8 million streams and 5,000 sold outside the U.S. The song was released May 24 with fellow new track “Bubble Gum,” after the latter’s official video premiered April 26; “Bubble Gum” debuted at No. 166 on the May 11 chart and re-enters at a new No. 18 high, following its commercial release, with 25 million streams (up 735%) and 4,000 sold beyond the U.S.
The South Korean quintet collects its fifth Global Excl. U.S. top 10, as “How Sweet” follows its first four in 2023: “Super Shy” (No. 2 peak), “ETA,” “Ditto” (both No. 4) and “OMG” (No. 7).
The Billboard Global 200 and Billboard Global Excl. U.S. charts (dated June 8, 2024) will update on Billboard.com tomorrow, June 4. For both charts, the top 100 titles are available to all readers on Billboard.com, while the complete 200-title rankings are visible on Billboard Pro, Billboard’s subscription-based service. For all chart news, you can follow @billboard and @billboardcharts on both X, formerly known as Twitter, and Instagram.
Luminate, the independent data provider to the Billboard charts, completes a thorough review of all data submissions used in compiling the weekly chart rankings. Luminate reviews and authenticates data. In partnership with Billboard, data deemed suspicious or unverifiable is removed, using established criteria, before final chart calculations are made and published.
Post Malone’s “I Had Some Help,” featuring Morgan Wallen, logs a third week at No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 songs chart. The song premiered at the summit two weeks earlier, becoming Post Malone’s sixth leader and Wallen’s second. Notably, while “I Had Some Help” is among 27 hits that have topped both the […]
SZA scores her third No. 1 on Billboard’s Pop Airplay chart as “Saturn” rockets to the top spot on the survey dated June 8. SZA previously led the list with “Kill Bill” for a week in April 2023 and as featured on Doja Cat’s “Kiss Me More” for one frame in July 2021. The Pop […]
Taylor Swift’s The Tortured Poets Department spends a sixth straight and total week at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 albums chart (dated June 8), as the title earned 175,000 equivalent album units in the U.S. in the week ending May 30 (down 54%), according to Luminate.
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Tortured Poets is the first album to spend its first six weeks at No. 1 since Morgan Wallen’s One Thing at a Time led for its first 12 weeks a year ago (March 18-June 3, 2023-dated charts). Among Swift’s collection of No. 1s, Tortured Poets ties Folklore for the most weeks at No. 1 from its debut with six weeks each.
With 175,000 units earned in Tortured Poets’ sixth week, the set scores the largest sixth-week for any album since Adele’s 25 earned 363,000 units in its sixth frame (chart dated Jan. 16, 2016).
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Swift adds her 75th career week at No. 1 on the Billboard 200, extending her record among soloists. (Elvis Presley has the second-most among soloists, with 67.) The total encompasses her 14 leaders. (She’s tied with Jay-Z for the most No. 1s among soloists.)
Also in the top 10 of the new Billboard 200, Twenty One Pilots’ Clancy debuts at No. 3 with the biggest week for any rock album in 2024 (in either equivalent album units or traditional album sales), while RM’s Right Place, Wrong Person launches at No. 5 with his biggest debut week (in both units and sales).
The Billboard 200 chart ranks the most popular albums of the week in the U.S. based on multi-metric consumption as measured in equivalent album units, compiled by Luminate. Units comprise album sales, track equivalent albums (TEA) and streaming equivalent albums (SEA). Each unit equals one album sale, or 10 individual tracks sold from an album, or 3,750 ad-supported or 1,250 paid/subscription on-demand official audio and video streams generated by songs from an album. The new June 8, 2024-dated chart will be posted in full on Billboard‘s website on June 4. For all chart news, follow @billboard and @billboardcharts on both X, formerly known as Twitter, and Instagram.
Of The Tortured Poets Department’s sixth-week unit sum of 175,000, SEA units comprise 133,000 (down 20% — it’s No. 1 on Top Streaming Albums; its SEA units equal 173.65 million on-demand official streams of the deluxe edition’s 31 songs), album sales comprise 41,000 (down 81%) and TEA units comprise 1,000 (down 30%).
Billie Eilish’s Hit Me Hard and Soft is a non-mover at No. 2 in its second week on the list, earning 145,000 equivalent album units (down 57%). It’s the largest second week for any Eilish album, a week after she scored her top weekly career total with the set (339,000).
Twenty One Pilots’ new studio album, Clancy, bows at No. 3 with 143,000 equivalent album units earned. Of that sum, albums sales comprise 113,000 (making it the top-selling album of the week and No. 1 on Top Album Sales), SEA units comprise 29,000 (equaling 38.64 million on-demand official streams of the set’s songs) and TEA units comprise a negligible sum. Clancy scores the biggest week, by both units and album sales, for any rock album in 2024. (Rock albums are defined as those that are eligible for, or have charted on, Billboard’s Top Rock Albums chart.)
Clancy marks the fourth top 10-charting set for Twenty One Pilots. The band previously visited the region with Scaled and Icy (No. 3 in 2021), Trench (No. 2, 2018) and Blurryface (No. 1, 2016).
The new album was led by the single “Overcompensate,” which reached No. 2 on the Alternative Airplay chart in May, marking the 16th top 10-charting song for the act. The track also hit No. 64 on the all-genre, multi-metric Billboard Hot 100 in March. The new album was announced on Feb. 29 as the final chapter of the band’s conceptual series which began with Blurryface.
Clancy’s first-week sales were bolstered by its availability across 11 vinyl variants, signed and unsigned zine/CD journal editions and digipak CDs, deluxe CD boxed sets containing branded merch, and a deluxe digital album with four bonus live tracks.
Morgan Wallen’s chart-topping One Thing at a Time falls 3-4 on the Billboard 200 with 73,000 equivalent album units earned (down 3%).
RM collects his second solo top 10-charting album as Right Place, Wrong Person debuts at No. 5 with 54,000 equivalent album units. Of that sum, album sales comprise 43,000, SEA units comprise 7,500 (equaling 10.16 million on-demand streams of the set’s songs) and TEA units comprise 3,500. The album yields the BTS member his best debut position on the Billboard 200, as well as his largest opening week by both units and traditional album sales.
Right Place, Wrong Person was preceded by the single “Come Back to Me,” which reached the top 30 on both the Billboard Global 200 and Billboard Global Excluding U.S. charts. The album’s first-week sales were supported by its availability across 13 different CD variants, all containing branded paper merch and other collectibles.
RM previously hit the top 10 with Indigo (No. 3, December 2022).
Wallen’s former leader Dangerous: The Double Album is stationary at No. 6 with 45,000 equivalent album units earned (down less than 1%); Future and Metro Boomin’s chart-topping We Don’t Trust You dips 5-7 (43,000; down 11%); Gunna’s One of Wun falls 4-8 (42,000; down 25%); Noah Kahan’s Stick Season is pushed down 7-9 despite a gain of 4% (to 40,000); and Zach Bryan’s self-titled former No. 1 falls 8-10 (37,000; down 2%).
Luminate, the independent data provider to the Billboard charts, completes a thorough review of all data submissions used in compiling the weekly chart rankings. Luminate reviews and authenticates data. In partnership with Billboard, data deemed suspicious or unverifiable is removed, using established criteria, before final chart calculations are made and published.
Nate Smith rolls up his third consecutive career-opening top 10 on Billboard’s Country Airplay chart as “Bulletproof” pushes to No. 10 on the survey dated June 8. During the May 24-30 tracking week, the single increased by 7% to 18.6 million audience impressions, according to Luminate.
The song, which Ashley Gorley, Ben Johnson and Hunter Phelps wrote, is the lead single from the 38-year-old Smith’s seven-song set Through the Smoke, which opened at its No. 34 high on Top Country Albums in April.
Smith, from Paradise, Calif., crowned Country Airplay for 10 weeks starting in December with “World on Fire” – tying Morgan Wallen’s “You Proof” in 2022for the longest reign in the chart’s history, which dates to 1990. His rookie entry “Whiskey on You” led for two weeks in February 2023.
Smith won for best new male vocalist at the 59th Academy of Country Music Awards in Frisco, Texas, on May 16 and performed “Bulletproof” with Avril Lavigne at the festivities.
‘Ends’ Continues
Bailey Zimmerman tops Country Airplay second week with “Where It Ends,” which gained by 1% to 33.6 million in reach.
The 24-year-old from Louisville, Ill., adds his second multi-week dominator among his four consecutive career-opening Country Airplay No. 1s, joining “Rock and a Hard Place,” which led for six frames beginning in April 2023.
Zimmerman’s debut hit “Fall in Love” commanded Country Airplay for a week in December 2022, while his third No. 1, “Religiously,” notched a week on top in September 2023.
Of the 12 songs that have hit No. 1 on Country Airplay in 2024, “Where It Ends” is just the second to rule for multiple weeks, joining Sam Hunt’s three-week leader “Outskirts” beginning in April. In contrast, 12 of the chart’s 19 No. 1s in 2023 each led for more than one frame.
Slash charts new territory on Billboard’s rankings, as the guitarist’s new album, Orgy of the Damned, debuts at No. 1 on the Blues Albums chart (dated June 1). The new set, largely comprised of covers, is an all-star blues project, featuring guest vocalists including Gary Clark Jr., Beth Hart, AC/DC’s Brian Johnson, Demi Lovato, Iggy Pop and Chris Stapleton, among others. (It’s also Slash’s first entry on the Blues Albums tally.)
Orgy is Slash’s first solo studio album since the rock icon’s 2010 self-titled set. Between the two solo endeavors, he’s released four studio sets featuring Myles Kennedy and The Conspirators.
Orgy also launches in the top 10 on Billboard’s Top Album Sales, Vinyl Albums and Indie Store Album Sales charts, while also bowing in the top 20 on the Independent Albums and Top Rock Albums charts.
The Blues Albums chart ranks the top-selling blues titles of the week in the U.S., based on traditional album sales. Orgy sold 10,500 copies in the week ending May 23, according to Luminate. It marks the largest sales week for a blues album in a little over two years, since Bonnie Raitt’s Just Like That… launched at No. 1 on the May 7, 2022-dated list, with 14,000 sold in its first week.
In a press statement, Slash said, “I love blues music, but I haven’t really done the blues thing because I was always so busy with something else … [the album] was a very spontaneous thing. We just threw it together. There was no researching or trying to find the right tracks – these are just songs I like.”
Among the songs on the album: Robert Johnson’s “Crossroads” with Gary Clark Jr. on vocals and guitar, Willie Dixon’s “Hoochie Coochie Man” (made famous by Muddy Waters) with ZZ Top’s Billy F. Gibbons on vocals and guitar, and Peter Green’s “Oh Well” (first recorded by Fleetwood Mac) with Chris Stapleton on vocals.
Twenty One Pilots land a second No. 1 in Australia with Clancy (via Atlantic/Warner), the U.S. act’s seventh and latest studio album.
Hailing from Columbus, OH, Twenty One Pilots now boast four top 10s on the ARIA Chart, including 2018 leader Trench, plus 2015’s Blurryface (No. 7 peak) and Scaled and Icy (No. 3) in 2021.
Clancy is also on track for the U.K. crown, having led the midweek tally ahead of Paul Weller’s 66 and Taylor Swift’s The Tortured Poets Department.
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After bowing at No. 1 on the ARIA Chart, Billie Eilish’s Hit Me Hard And Soft (Interscope/Universal) dips 1-2, while Swift’s Tortured Poets (Universal) slips 2-3.
U.K. heavy rock band Bring Me The Horizon enjoy a top 10 start in Australia with Post Human: Nex Gen (RCA/Sony), their ninth studio album. It’s new at No. 4 on the ARIA Chart, published Friday, May 31. The fresh release is the second in the four-album Post Human series. The first, Post Human: Survival Horror, peaked at No. 3 in 2020. The Sheffield, England act has led the national chart on four occasions: There Is A Hell Believe Me I’ve Seen It, There Is A Heaven Let’s Keep It A Secret (in 2010), Sempiternal (2013), That’s The Spirit (2015) and Amo (2019).
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Homegrown hip-hop favorites Hilltop Hoods return to the top 10 with Walking Under Stars (Island/Universal), thanks to a 10th anniversary edition. The LP logged two weeks at No. 1 in 2014 for two weeks and is one of the Adelaide trio’s five consecutive No. 1 studio albums. Walking Under Stars won best urban album at the ARIA Awards, one of the group’s 10 career ARIAs.
Over on the singles chart, Tommy Richman’s “Million Dollar Baby” (Concrete Boat Boy) enters a second week at No. 1, while country tracks Shaboozey’s “A Bar Song (Tipsy)” (Empire) and Post Malone featuring Morgan Wallen’s “I Had Some Help” (Universal) respectively complete the top 3.
The top new entry on the current frame belongs to U.S. country star Zach Bryan, whose “Pink Skies” (Warner) open up at No. 15. It’s Bryan’s third top 20 hit in Australia, following “Something In The Orange” and “I Remember Everything” with Kacey Musgraves, which both peaked at No. 6.
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Let’s open the latest mailbag.
‘Help’-ing Hands
Hi Gary,
Where does Post Malone rank among artists with the most collaborative Billboard Hot 100 No. 1s? Thanks to his current leader “I Had Some Help,” featuring Morgan Wallen, and following his featured role on Taylor Swift’s “Fortnight,” which topped the chart earlier this month, five of his six No. 1s have been collaborations.
Also, “I Had Some Help” is notable for Post Malone’s musical versatility, given his history on numerous genre charts.
Thanks for any, well, help!
Pablo NelsonOakland, Calif.
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Hi Pablo,
Teamwork makes the dream work, per “I Had Some Help,” a strategy that has resulted in Post Malone tying for the second-most collaborative No. 1s in the Hot 100’s history.
Let’s look at the artists with the most Hot 100 No. 1s overall, the most on their own and the most with other billed artists (either in lead or featured roles), from the chart’s Aug. 4, 1958, inception through the ranking dated June 1.
Most Hot 100 No. 1s Overall:
20, The Beatles
19, Mariah Carey
14, Rihanna
13, Michael Jackson
13, Drake
12, Madonna
12, The Supremes
12, Taylor Swift
11, Whitney Houston
10, Janet Jackson
10, Stevie Wonder
9, Bee Gees
9, Beyoncé
9, Ariana Grande
9, Elton John
9, Paul McCartney
9, Katy Perry
9, Usher
Most Noncollaborative Hot 100 No. 1s:
19, The Beatles
16, Mariah Carey
12, Madonna
12, The Supremes
11, Whitney Houston
11, Michael Jackson
10, Janet Jackson
10, Taylor Swift
9, Bee Gees
8, The Rolling Stones
8, Stevie Wonder
7, Elvis Presley
Most Collaborative Hot 100 No. 1s:
8, Drake
8, Rihanna
5, Beyoncé
5, Justin Bieber
5, Diddy
5, Ludacris
5, Post Malone
The Beatles boast both the most Hot 100 No. 1s overall, 20, and without any other billed acts, 19; “Get Back,” which was amid its five-week reign 55 years ago this week, is co-billed with Billy Preston.
With collaborations more common in recent decades, and long prominent in hip-hop, Drake and Rihanna have each scored a record eight Hot 100 No. 1s with other credited acts, including two together: “What’s My Name?,” in 2010, and “Work,” in 2016.
Meanwhile, Swift is the only act whose chart career began the 2000s with a double-digit total of noncollaborative Hot 100 No. 1s. She and Mariah Carey are the only such acts whose chart histories date back no further than the 1990s.
Notably on the third list above, Diddy and Ludacris are the only artists with as many as five Hot 100 No. 1s in collaboration with other acts and no other leading hits, theirs all augmented by other rappers and singers including Faith Evans, Fergie and Pharrell.
Conversely, Madonna and The Supremes are the acts with the most Hot 100 No. 1s all without any guests, 12 out of 12 each.
As for Post Malone, prior to his two latest No. 1s, he ruled the Hot 100 with his lone leader on his own: “Circles,” for three weeks in 2019. In addition to Wallen and Swift, he has shared his stays atop the chart with Swae Lee, 21 Savage and Ty Dolla $ign.
Regarding his sonic versatility, “I Had Some Help” has given Post Malone his first Hot Country Songs No. 1, to go along with five on Hot Rap Songs and four on Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs, as well as one on Hot Alternative Songs, via his having joined on Noah Kahan’s “Dial Drunk.” He has also hit No. 3 on Hot Dance/Electronic Songs, as featured, with Preme, on Tiësto and Dzeko’s 2018 hit “Jackie Chan.” Latin is additionally on his chart résumé, as his first Hot 100 No. 1 (and one that shouts out another genre), “Rockstar,” featuring 21 Savage, spent a week on Latin Airplay in 2018.
Republic co-founder/CEO Monte Lipman told Billboard in 2022 that when the label signed Post Malone in 2015, “We kept reinforcing [that] Post rely on instincts. We also crystallized our position that we’d remain incredibly patient and support Post’s creative endeavors.”
Said Post Malone, “The whole thing is that you don’t want to compromise your art and your gut vibe on anything.”
‘Breakfast’ Before ‘Lunch’
Gary,
As (the perhaps radio-ready) “Lunch” by Billie Eilish debuts on the Hot 100 at No. 5, can you please provide a list of charted hits with “breakfast,” “lunch” and “dinner” in their titles?
Thanks,
Jesper TanSubang Jaya, Malaysia
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Hi Jesper,
Seemingly surprisingly, Billie Eilish scores the first Hot 100 hit with “lunch” in its title. Honorable mention: Lunchmoney Lewis served up two entries in 2015-16.
In the lead in the category, five songs with “breakfast” in their titles have reached the Hot 100 (along with two by The Breakfast Club, led by 1987’s No. 7-peaking “Right on Track”):
No. 4, 2007, “Cupid’s Chokehold/Breakfast in America,” Gym Class Heroes, feat. Patrick Stump
No. 5, 1996, “Breakfast at Tiffany’s,” Deep Blue Something
No. 62, 1980, “Breakfast in America,” Supertramp
No. 91, 1969, “Breakfast in Bed,” Dusty Springfield
No. 92 1976, “Breakfast for Two,” Country Joe McDonald
“Lunch” is now tied with “dinner” in terms of appearances in Hot 100 hits’ titles: “Dinner With Gershwin” by Donna Summer reached No. 48 in 1987.
No songs with “brunch,” “supper” or even “snack” in their titles have hit the Hot 100.
(Still, this likely remains pop culture’s lightest menu.)
King & Prince reign over the Billboard Japan Hot 100 with “halfmoon,” blasting in at No. 1 on the chart released May 29. The Takeshi Kobayashi-produced title track off the duo’s 15th single “halfmoon/moooove!” is being featured as the theme of the drama series Tokyo Tower starring member Ren Nagase. To celebrate the sixth anniversary […]
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: Kehlani sees bumps both for her own song and a song named after her, while Central Cee and Lil Baby have a trans-continental hit on her hands and a devastating ’80s synth-pop classic goes viral for surprisingly blithe reasons.
Kehlani’s Name Spurs Streaming Wins for Herself & Belfast Singer-Songwriter Jordan Adetunji
In just a few weeks (June 27), Kehlani will unleash Crash, her third studio album. “After Hours,” the set’s lead single, is already pulling ample streaming traction, but so is a breakout hit named after her from Belfast singer-songwriter Jordan Adetunji.
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Released on May 19, Adetunji’s “Kehlani” collected over 115,000 official on-demand U.S. streams in its first three days of release (May 19-21), according to Luminate. Four days before the track hit DSPs, Adetunji posted a snippet of the song to his official TikTok account, writing, “Bro wrote a whole song about Kehlani, but why it kinda go hard,” alongside a bevy of popular hashtags, including “#cashcobain,” “#melodicdrill,” “#slizzymusic” and, of course, “#kehlani.” On May 18, Kehlani herself left a singular flame emoji under his post.
Over the same period the following week (May 26-28), “Kehlani” jumped 434% in streaming activity to 615,000 streams. In addition to the song naturally gaining traction on socials — “Kehlani” plays in the three pinned TikToks on Adetunji’s page, all of which have garnered at least 870,000 views each – a more explicit co-sign from Kehlani helped get the ball rolling.
On May 23, Kehlani posted a pair of TikToks featuring her vibing and lip-syncing to the track. The more recent video of the two has since earned over five million views and over one million likes on the platform, directing plenty of new listeners to Adetunji’s track. The official “Kehlani” TikTok sound currently boasts over 12,5000 posts.
Of course, Kehlani’s magic doesn’t stop there. With the release of a “Cater 2 U Mix” for “After Hours” and increased visibility due to her passionate social media pleas in support of the Free Palestine movement, the Crash lead single has enjoyed a significant streaming bump. During the period of May 17-21, “After Hours” pulled in 2.1 million official on-demand U.S. streams. By the period of May 24-28, that number jumped 55% to 3.3 million streams. – KYLE DENIS
Central Cee & Lil Baby Rack Up a New Hit With ‘BAND4BAND’
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After dominating the UK. alongside Dave with “Sprinter” last summer and earning his first Billboard Hot 100 with his Drake-assisted “On the Radar Freestyle” (No. 80), Central Cee is gearing up for another hit on both sides of the pond – and this time Lil Baby is along for the ride.
This U.K.-Atlanta drill-based link-up earned 1.93 million official on-demand U.S. streams on its first day of release (May 24). Streams for “BAND4BAND” remained stable throughout the week, eventually hitting 2.04 million streams on May 27. By the following day (May 28), that number rose 29% to 2.64 million streams, marking the strongest streaming day out of the track’s first five days of release. With a total of 10.2 million streams in its first five days of the week, “BAND4BAND” is already off to a very promising start.
The new track has also already exploded on TikTok, with the official “BAND4BAND” sound garnering over 97,000 posts in just one week. Most users are using Cench and Baby’s back-and-forth hook to show-off their hilarious “U.S.” and “U.K.” sides. Over on YouTube, the official “BAND4BAND” music video has pulled in over 14 million views in under a week.
Should “BAND4BAND” hold steady, Cench and Baby could be looking at the next global rap smash. – KD
Heartbreaking Bronski Beat Classic Revived for Light-Hearted TikTok Trend
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Bronski Beat’s 1985 hit “Small Town Boy” was never a huge chart smash in the U.S. — it peaked at just No. 48 on the Billboard Hot 100, though it reached No. 3 on the U.K.’s Official Charts. But the song remains well-remembered for its passionately delivered lyrics and evocative music video, a tearjerking tale of a young gay man’s rejection and alienation from mainstream society. However, the song is making the rounds again in 2024 for reasons that have absolutely nothing to do with its content, and everything to do with its propulsive synth hook and danceable post-disco beat.
TikTok has really gotten swept up in the #80sDanceChallenge, in which users take videos of their parents dancing to a lightly sped-up version of the pulsing intro to “Small Town Boy” — supposedly with the moves they would’ve used if boogieing to the song back in the ’80s. No less an early-MTV-era authority than Cyndi Lauper has gotten in on the fun, posting a CapCut edit of some old performance footage of her full-bodied dancing set to “Boy,” with the caption, “Oh #80s #dancechallenge you say?”
The clips, several of which have already racked up millions of likes, have helped the song find new life on streaming: “Boy” racked up over 1.5 million official on-demand U.S. streams for the tracking week ending May 23, according to Luminate — a 114% gain from the 705,000 streams the song notched four weeks earlier, before the trend really took off. Bronski Beat singer Jimmy Somerville also shared a TikTok celebrating the song’s recent 40th anniversary, singing along to the song’s now-viral intro and sharing his joy at how the song has been revived.
“Everything is just kind of going so crazy in the world,” he said. “But here, on TikTok, there’s all these people just finding a moment to just have a bit of fun … It’s just been brilliant.” – ANDREW UNTERBERGER