Chart Beat
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The stratospheric success of Sabrina Carpenter’s Short n’ Sweet continues. The pop star’s sixth LP, which came out last August, has returned to the summit of the Official U.K. Albums Chart following the recent release of a deluxe version (Feb. 21).
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The new edition includes a remix of “Please Please Please” featuring Dolly Parton, plus bonus tracks “15 Minutes,” “Couldn’t Make It Any Harder,” “Busy Woman” and “Bad Reviews.”
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Upon arrival, the Short n’ Sweet saw Carpenter become the first female in history to score both the U.K.’s No. 1 album and single (“Taste”) simultaneously. It landed the second-biggest opening week of 2024 – only Taylor Swift’s The Tortured Poets Department outperformed it. The LP has now racked up three non-consecutive weeks at the top.
Earlier this week, meanwhile, the 25-year-old shared details of another huge outdoor London gig for the summer. On July 6, she’ll headline BST Hyde Park for the second time, following her previously sold-out show on July 5.
Tickets for Carpenter’s new date will go on sale at 10 a.m. GMT on Feb. 24 from the festival’s official website. She will be supported by Clairo and British star Olivia Dean on the day, with a full lineup expected to arrive soon.
Manic Street Preachers follow at No. 2 with their Critical Thinking, the Welsh rockers’ 15th LP. Over the course of four decades, the band has stacked up a further 14 top 10 U.K. albums, including two chart-toppers: 1998’s This Is My Truth Tell Me Yours and The Ultra Vivid Lament, released three years ago.
PartyNextDoor and Drake’s collaborative effort $ome $exy $ongs 4 U finishes at No. 3, while indie outfit The Wombats come in at No. 4 with Oh! The Ocean, their fifth U.K. top 10 album to date. Central Cee rounds out the top five with Can’t Rush Greatness, a chart mainstay since its release last month.North London singer-songwriter Louis Dunford, meanwhile, is celebrating his first top 10 appearance with Be Lucky finishing at No. 8.
Kendrick Lamar’s “Not Like Us” has soared to the top of the U.K.’s Official Singles Chart (Feb. 21).
The Drake diss track track, first released in May 2024, marks the Compton rapper’s maiden No. 1 hit in the U.K., thanks to exposure from his Super Bowl LIX Halftime Show earlier this month. His explosive performance has already become the most-watched halftime show in history, according to the NFL and Apple Music, surpassing 130 million viewers.
A recent U.K tour announcement with SZA has also continued to bolster Lamar’s current chart success. Two of the pair’s collabs, “Luther” and “All The Stars,” appear at No. 4 and No. 5 this week. He is also leading the pack in the U.S., too, as “Not Like Us” has returned to the summit of the BillboardHot 100 this week for the first time since last July.
Across an illustrious career, Lamar has notched up 11 top 10 singles in the U.K., from Taylor Swift team-up “Bad Blood” through to “Humble,” the lead single from his 2017 Pulitzer Prize-winning LP Damn.
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Following acclaimed performances on late-night chat programs including The Graham Norton Show and The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon, Lola Young’s “Messy” comes in at No. 2, breaking her four-week run atop the charts. The track appears on her studio album This Wasn’t Meant for You Anyway, which was released in May 2024 via Island Records.
After taking to the stage at The BRIT Awards on March 1, Young will kick off her U.K. headlining tour the following week on March 3 at London’s O2 Forum Kentish Town. In April, she will perform at Coachella, ahead of a stacked festival season including major events such as Manchester’s Parklife and Reading & Leeds.
There’s also further chart dominance incoming from Sabrina Carpenter. Having recently released a deluxe edition of last year’s Short n’ Sweet LP, its focus track “Busy Woman” comes in at 10, while “Please Please Please” re-enters the top 10 for the first time in four months thanks to a remix with Dolly Parton (No. 9).
Elsewhere, Chappell Roan’s “Pink Pony Club” shimmies on up to No. 3. Further down the chart, AJ Tracey and Jorja Smith’s buzzy new collab “Crush” debuts at No. 23, while Sam Fender’s “People Watching” hops up five places to No. 26, coinciding with the release of his album of the same name.
Cole Swindell adds his 13th top 10 on Billboard’s Country Airplay chart as “Forever to Me” pushes a spot to No. 10 on the March 1-dated tally. The song increased by 6% to 17 million audience impressions Feb. 14-20, according to Luminate. Explore See latest videos, charts and news See latest videos, charts and news […]
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: Drake’s new album with PartyNextDoor has a mid-week breakout hit, Charli XCX has a pre-Brat viral bump, Riley Green’s song (and video) for the lovers sees seasonal gains, and more.
Drake’s “Nokia” Is Buzzing, Aaron Hall Embraced on Streaming After “Gimme a Hug” Sample
In its first couple days of release, the early leader on streaming from PartyNextDoor & Drake’s new R&B collaborative album $ome $exy $ongs 4 U was Drake’s more rap-driven solo number “Gimme a Hug,” with the song topping the Apple Music real-time chart and reaching the top 10 on Spotify’s Daily Top Songs USA listing. But over the week, another song from even deeper in the 21-track album has taken over as its top performer: the pop hook-driven, two-part banger “Nokia.”
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With backing vocals and a beat helmed by U.K. producer Elkan, “Nokia” – also credited solely to Drake – had the usual big streaming drop following its first day of release, but has been climbing throughout the week. On Tuesday, it posted 2.9 million official on-demand U.S. streams, according to initial data provided by Luminate – its best streaming performance since that Friday of release, and its first time passing “Hug” as the set’s most-streamed song. Meanwhile, the song has also been one of the week’s best sellers, topping the iTunes real-time chart and moving a combined 13,000 copies over its first five days of availability.
Meanwhile, “Hug” continues to offer warmth on streaming to its original sample source. Aaron Hall’s “I Miss You,” which Drake heavily lifts from towards the end of his $exy $ongs ¢enterpiece, garnered over 700,000 streams during the first five days of this tracking week (Feb. 14-18), after combining for under 100,000 streams the equivalent period the prior week, a gain of 694% for the 1993 Billboard Hot 100 top 20 hit. – ANDREW UNTERBERGER
‘How I’m Feeling Now’ Winter? An Old Charli XCX Track Is Going Viral
Charli XCX’s enormous 2024 — which included the critical and commercial success of her Brat album and its accompanying Sweat tour alongside Troye Sivan — has already pushed into 2025, thanks to a fruitful Grammys night and more arena headlining dates. Now, a song that’s years older than her comeback album is going viral: the tender, ethereal “Party 4 U,” from her 2020 lockdown album How I’m Feeling Now, has been exploding on TikTok in recent weeks, with a series of lip synch performances from longtime Charli fans ready to prove their pre-Brat bona fides.
A month ago, “Party 4 U” was earning 278,000 official on-demand U.S. streams (for the chart week ending Jan. 23), according to Luminate; that number more than doubled to 573,000 streams for the week ending Feb. 13, and will once again surpass that high-water mark after earning 830,000 streams from Feb. 14-18, according to initial Luminate reports. Charli herself acknowledged the viral explosion on Wednesday (Feb. 19): “it’s p crazy that this song is suddenly getting love in this kinda way,” she wrote. “I know this song means so much to so many angels. she’s a cutie
The Contenders is a midweek column that looks at artists aiming for the top of the Billboard charts, and the strategies behind their efforts. This week, for the upcoming Billboard 200 dated Mar. 1, we look at the chances of Drake’s and PartyNextDoor’s new full-length teamup to knock the former’s recent rap opponent out of the chart’s top spot.
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PartyNextDoor & Drake, $ome $exy $ongs 4 U (OVO/Santa Anna/Republic): Drake hasn’t been able to find a lot of wins since taking the consensus loss in his culture-conquering 2024 beef with Kendrick Lamar – the after-effects of which continue to permeate the culture on a weekly basis nearly a year later, with Lamar’s signature diss track “Not Like Us” recently winning five Grammys and serving as the centerpiece moment for the most-watched Super Bowl halftime show in history. But Drake may be due for a pretty big W shortly, following the release of his first full-length album since 2023’s For All the Dogs – the Valentine’s Day-released, R&B-focused $ome $exy $ongs 4 U, a teamup with longtime OVO labelmate and collaborator PartyNextDoor.
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The 21-track effort from the two Toronto natives unsurprisingly blanketed the Spotify Daily Top Songs USA and Apple Music real-time charts upon its release, even breaking the record for the biggest R&B/soul album in Apple Music’s history by first-day streams worldwide, and remains a major presence on both listings near the end of the tracking week. While many of the tracks have receded in daily streams since the set dropped, a couple have continued to grow, including the poppier mid-album cuts “Die Trying” and “Nokia,” the latter of which has also spent the majority of the week atop the iTunes real-time chart. The set is also being sold on CD via the album’s own website, with three variants of the CD case available for purchase.
Though the album might not match the first-week numbers of some past chart-conquering Drake projects – including the 404,000 first-week units posted by 2023’s Her Loss, his most recent full-length collaboration, alongside star rapper 21 Savage – it seems likely to return The Boy to No. 1, tying him with Jay-Z for the most Billboard 200 No. 1 albums of any rapper (with 14) and at least temporarily silence critics who declared him “done” following the feud. And of course, with Lamar’s GNX currently occupying the chart’s top spot, it could give him a much-needed triumph in the headlines over his perpetually victory-lapping foe.
Kendrick Lamar, GNX (pgLang/Interscope/ICLG): Even if Drake takes the Billboard 200’s top spot next week, don’t expect Kendrick Lamar to disappear from the chart in the weeks after his Super Bowl performance. In fact, in his first full tracking week following that globally buzzed-about Feb. 9 show, Lamar’s streaming numbers should be even more robust, with performed hits from his 2024 blockbuster GNX like “Squabble Up,” “TV Off” and the SZA-featuring “Luther” continuing to be consumed en masse, and the latter even threatening Lamar’s own “Not Like Us” to take over the No. 1 spot on the Billboard Hot 100 next week.
Could it potentially stave off $ome $exy $ongs in that set’s debut week, giving K-Dot one more KO in this now-largely one-sided battle? It doesn’t seem too likely, given the natural disadvantages the 12-track GNX faces in terms of total streams when compared to the 21-track $$$4U – and the fact that the set should slide in terms of sales next week, after the set’s physical release on cassette, vinyl and CD format two Fridays ago (Feb. 7) helped it sell over 100,000 copies for the tracking week ending Feb. 13. Still, with so many of its tracks reconfirmed as streaming monsters, the album is likely to hang around the chart’s upper tier in the weeks to come — meaning we could very easily see GNX return to No. 1 for a third time in a future slow-release week.
Sabrina Carpenter, Short n’ Sweet (Island): Speaking of 2024 blockbusters – another one that’s spent multiple weeks atop the Billboard 200 and hung around the top 10 for many months since should be due for some big gains next week. On Friday (Feb. 14), pop superstar Sabrina Carpenter released the deluxe edition of her four-week No. 1 Short n’ Sweet, expanding the 12-track set to 17 — with four entirely new songs, and a redo of the set’s Hot 100-topping “Please Please Please,” featuring guest vocals from country icon Dolly Parton.
The combination of the original set’s sustained streaming performance – it’s held in the lower half of the top 10 on the Billboard 200 for the whole of February – and the boost it should get from the new deluxe edition should make it one of the top contenders on the chart next week. The bonus cuts have all seen solid streaming bows, with “Busy Woman” in particular appearing to be something of a breakout hit, and the deluxe version of the album should also do well in physical sales, with the set available on her webstore in both azure- and pearl-colored vinyl, and on lipstick-marked CD.
IN THE MIX
The Lumineers, Automatic (Dualtone): The arena-folk stars’ first new album since 2022’s Brightside doesn’t quite include the radio hits of previous sets, but does arrive during a time where a new wave of stomp-clappers led by Noah Kahan have reintroduced their signature sound to the mainstream – and is available for purchase in eight vinyl variants, including a signed edition. Each of The Lumineers’ four previous albums reached the Billboard 200’s top 10, though with streaming unlikely to offer a ton of help, the set will need to sell quite well to extend that streak to five.
Following an extremely prolific 2024, Kendrick Lamar has dominated headlines into 2025. On Feb. 2, “Not Like Us” was a five-time winner at the Grammy Awards, becoming the second rap song to win record and song of the year. A week later, he headlined the Super Bowl LIX Halftime Show, spotlighting the smash, along with songs from his latest album, GNX, and more. It became the most-watched halftime show ever and resulted in some major chart moves: GNX returns to the top of the Billboard 200 and Lamar is the first rap artist to ever log three albums in the top 10 simultaneously. On the Billboard Hot 100, he reclaimed the top three spots, led by his Drake diss track “Not Like Us.”
Though football and the Super Bowl are American-based phenomena, the game is broadcast in more than 130 countries, yielding similarly huge boosts on the Billboard Global 200 and Billboard Global Excl. U.S. charts. On the former, “Not Like Us” has blasted from No. 45 to No. 20 to No. 1 (on the Feb. 8, 15, and 22 charts), returning for a third non-consecutive week atop the list since its release last May. On Global Excl. U.S, the song reaches a new No. 3 high (after debuting at No. 9, climbing to No. 7 the following week, and reaching a prior No. 5 best after the July 4 release of its official music video).
This week doesn’t just set a new high for the track itself, but for all rap songs on the global stage. “Not Like Us” jumped 188% to 65.7 million streams outside the U.S. in the week ending Feb. 13, according to Luminate. That’s the highest non-U.S. streaming total for a rap title since the global charts launched in September 2020. It surpasses Doja Cat’s “Paint the Town Red,” which drew 64.9 million in the week ending Sept. 28, 2023.
Including the U.S., “Not Like Us” is up 176% to 113.2 million streams globally. It falls short of Eminem’s “Houdini” for the most among rap hits since the Global 200 began: 121.4 million in the week ending June 6, 2024. Still, the latest boost for “Not Like Us” nine months after its arrival re-asserts its longevity. Since the Global 200, there have been only six instances of rap songs exceeding 100 million weekly worldwide streams and four of them belong to “Not Like Us.”
The international success of “Not Like Us” is rare. Hip-hop’s struggle to export globally has been documented, and it’d be reasonable to expect Lamar’s lyrically dense tracks to hit a wall, particularly in countries where English is not the primary language. But the song’s reach is wide, appearing on more than 30 of Billboard’s territory-specific Hits of the World charts this week, including tallies in Africa, Asia, Europe, North and South America and Oceania. It’s No. 1 on Australia Songs and Ireland Songs and ranks among the top 10 in 18 other territories.
While “Not Like Us” leads the charge, three other Lamar tracks – “Luther” and “All the Stars,” both with SZA, and “TV Off,” featuring Lefty Gunplay – score top 20 ranks on Global Excl. U.S. Altogether, he logs nine songs on this week’s chart and 13 on the Global 200.
Across Lamar’s charting entries, streaming gains are varied between the U.S. and beyond. “All the Stars,” “Humble.,” “Luther” and “Peekaboo” have bigger domestic lifts, while “Money Trees,” “Not Like Us,” “TV Off” and “Squabble Up” see sharper increases internationally.
Dream Theater returns to No. 1 on Billboard’s Top Hard Rock Albums chart for the first time in almost a decade, debuting atop the Feb. 22-dated survey with Parasomnia. The set bows with 18,000 equivalent album units earned in the week ending Feb. 13, according to Luminate. The majority of the sum – 16,000 units […]
South Korean boy band PLAVE debut four songs on the Feb. 22-dated Billboard Global Excl. U.S. chart. And while K-pop acts regularly flood the global rankings with material from new EPs and albums, PLAVE sticks out by being a virtual group in its presentation.
PLAVE has five members — Bamby, Eunho, Hamin, Noah and Yejun — who sing, rap, write and choreograph. But for music videos, livestreams and performances, the collective uses motion capture technology to broadcast animated visuals.
Variations on this practice have been more common among Japanese artists, such as Ado, who reached No. 8 on Global Excl. U.S. in 2022 with “New Genesis,” among 12 entries on the chart to date. Plus, Korea’s K/DA hit No. 93 in 2020 with “More,” co-billed with a mix of American, Chinese and fellow Korean artists, both “real” (Madison Beer, [G]I-DLE, Lexie Liu and Jaira Burns) and virtual (Seraphine).
With this week’s debuts, PLAVE breaks new ground for Korean Vtubers (virtual YouTubers). “Dash” starts on Global Excl. U.S. at No. 89, while also hitting the Billboard Global 200 at No. 195. Plus, “Rizz,” “Chroma Drift” and “Island” debut on the former list at Nos. 111, 115 and 128, respectively.
All four tracks come from PLAVE’s third EP, Caligo Pt. 1, released Feb. 3. The group previously charted on Global Excl. U.S. with “Pump Up the Volume!” and “Way 4 Luv” last September.
“Dash” drew 11 million streams outside the U.S. in its first full tracking week (Feb. 7-13), according to Luminate, while PLAVE’s four chart entries combined for nearly 40 million in that span. Of those, 39.7 million, or 99.4%, were from outside the U.S. PLAVE’s home-country appeal is reflected on Billboard’s South Korea Songs chart. There, the group infuses the entire top five, led by “Dash” at No. 1 and rounded out by “12:32 (A T to T)” at No. 5.
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Kendrick Lamar’s music has been inescapable on TikTok in recent days, a fact no better highlighted than the rapper taking the entire top four of the TikTok Billboard Top 50 chart dated Feb. 22, paced by his Drake diss track “Not Like Us” at No. 1.
The TikTok Billboard Top 50 is a weekly ranking of the most popular songs on TikTok in the United States based on creations, video views and user engagement. The latest chart reflects activity accumulated Feb. 10-16. Activity on TikTok is not included in Billboard charts except for the TikTok Billboard Top 50.
“Not Like Us” debuted on the TikTok Billboard Top 50 last May, ultimately spending nine straight weeks in the top 10 (capped by its No. 2 then-best on the June 1, 2024, list) and departing the survey that September. It returned, however, on the Feb. 15 chart at No. 17, spurred by uploads surrounding Lamar’s Super Bowl Halftime Show performance that occurred on the last day of that tracking period, Feb. 9, as well as in the wake of the tune’s five Grammy Award wins on Feb. 2.
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Now with a full tracking week (Feb. 10-16) following the performance, “Not Like Us” soars to No. 1, becoming Lamar’s first ruler on the chart, which began in September 2023. Many of the top uploads reference Lamar’s performance of the song during his set or outright include clips from the rendition itself.
“Not Like Us” concurrently returns to No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100, as previously reported. It’s also back atop Streaming Songs via 49 million official U.S. streams in the week ending Feb. 13, up 156%, according to Luminate.
Nos. 2 and 3 on the TikTok Billboard Top 50 were also performed during Lamar’s Super Bowl appearance: “Luther,” his collaboration with SZA, slots into the runner-up position, while “Peekaboo,” featuring AzChike, rises to No. 3. All three songs are from Lamar’s 2024 album GNX. “Luther” also benefits from Super Bowl clips, with many top-performing videos being reactions to Lamar’s initial fake out of “Not Like Us” into “Luther.”
And while “Peekaboo” was also performed during the set, its top uploads are a continuation of a trend that largely proliferated in January, utilizing quick edits and poses set to Lamar’s “bing-bop-boom-boom-boom-bop-bam” lyric.
“Luther” rises 3-2 for a new peak on the Hot 100 dated Feb. 22, while “Peekaboo” leaps 81-28.
Lamar completes the four-peat in the TikTok Billboard Top 50’s top four via a SZA song, as her “30 for 30,” a duet with Lamar, rises 8-4. That’s a new peak for the song, which had previously risen as high as No. 5 earlier in February thanks to its trend highlighting Lamar’s “If it’s f–k me then f–k you/ And that’s the way I like it” lyric.
How historic, ultimately, is Lamar’s domination of this week’s chart? Prior to this week, no act had even possessed two songs in the top five at the same time, let alone four of the top five and the entire top four. In fact, before Lamar, no act had slotted more than two songs in the top 10 in a single week, either.
In all, Lamar boasts seven appearances on the Feb. 22 tally; “TV Off,” featuring Lefty Gunplay, jumps 48-16, while “All the Stars” (also with SZA) and “Love.” (featuring Zacari) debut at Nos. 33 and 38, respectively. That’s a tie for the most in a single week, alongside Taylor Swift, who had seven on the Sept. 23, 2023, ranking, the TikTok Billboard Top 50’s second week of existence.
It’s not all Lamar in the top 10, of course. Two songs also reach the region for the first time, led by the week’s top debut in Fergie’s “Big Girls Don’t Cry,” which bows at No. 7. Despite the general sentiment of the song (No. 1 for Fergie on the Hot 100 in 2007), its rise is nonetheless concurrent with the Feb. 14 Valentine’s Day holiday — but instead, it’s used to show pets covered in lipstick smudges, set to the “I’ll be your best friend and you’ll be my/ Valentine” lyric.
Bertha Tillman’s “Oh My Angel” also hits the TikTok Billboard Top 50’s top 10, leaping 16-10. Like “Big Girls Don’t Cry,” the song is buoyed by romance- and love-related content, whether it’s showing romantic partners, friends, family or pets.
BossMan Dlow’s “Shake Dat Ass (Twerk Song)” makes the top 10 for the first time since last July — and at a new peak, shooting 15-8. Its original run featured just BossMan Dlow’s vocals, while its return is spurred by a trend to the remix (released last December) featuring GloRilla.
See the full TikTok Billboard Top 50 here. 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.