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After seven years in a row as the top TV show for music synchs, Grey’s Anatomy has ben unseated as top dog, according to Tunefind.
Tunefind, a Songtradr company, has announced its top TV shows, movies, songs, artists and composers for the year, and according to Tunefind, the biggest show of the year was the U.S. version of Love Island.
The music discovery website Tunefind’s year-end rankings are based only on traffic and interaction on its website, which helps fans identify what song they heard in a TV show or film. Tunefind’s year-end charts are separate from the monthly Top TV Songs and Top Movie Songs charts, presented with Billboard. The monthly Top TV Songs chart ranks the top songs that appear in TV shows each month, using a combination of metrics from Tunefind and Luminate, while Top Movie Songs does the same for films released in the preceding three months.
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Love Island, which premiered in the U.S. in 2019 after multiple years of successful iterations abroad (beginning with the original in the United Kingdom), premiered its sixth season in June via Peacock. The 37-episode season featured a number of synchs in each edition, ranging from well-known tracks old (Sophie Ellis-Bextor’s “Murder on the Dancefloor”) and new (Chappell Roan’s “Red Wine Supernova”), as well as covers of familiar tunes.
It reigns over the return of Arcane, whose second season propels it to No. 2 on Tunefind’s year-end ranking. Netflix’s animated series from the League of Legends video game universe premiered season two in November, three years after the original. Its soundtrack, featuring a variety of original songs from Twenty One Pilots, Freya Ridings, Marcus King and more, debuted at No. 26 on the Billboard 200 dated Dec. 7 and rose to a new peak of No. 24 on the Dec. 17 tally.
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Grey’s Anatomy, the ABC series that had reigned for the past seven years since Tunefind began sharing its year-end data with Billboard, still maintains its standing as a TV synch juggernaut, ranking at No. 3 on Tunefind’s year-end report, while FX/Hulu’s The Bear and HBO’s Industry round out the top five. Speaking of HBO, its new series The Penguin tops the five-position ranking of the biggest new shows of the year in synchs.
The top TV song of the year in TV, however, is from none of those shows. The distinction belongs to Mazzy Star’s 1994 hit “Fade Into You,” No. 3 on Billboard’s Alternative Airplay chart that September and the band’s only track to date to reach the Billboard Hot 100.
“Fade Into You”’s year-winning synch came from Netflix’s new series 3 Body Problem, which premiered in March.
Meanwhile, the top movie of the year for synchs was none other than Marvel and Disney’s Deadpool & Wolverine, which premiered in July, followed by a home video release in October and streaming on Disney+ in November.
In fact, the film takes up the entire top 10 of Tunefind’s biggest movie synchs, led by *NSYNC’s “Bye Bye Bye,” which reached No. 4 on the Hot 100 in 2000 and returned to the ranking in August 2024 at No. 45 following the movie’s theatrical release.
Billie Eilish snags the distinction of the year’s top artist, while Ramin Djawadi takes the top composer honors. Eilish’s year included synchs in Heartstopper, True Detective, Love Island and more, and Djawadi contributed scores to 3 Body Problem, Fallout and the second season of House of the Dragon.
See each of the year-end rankings below.
Top Songs (TV)
“Fade Into You,” Mazzy Star (3 Body Problem)
“Only You,” The Platters (Fallout)
“Heartbeats,” Jose Gonzalez (Brilliant Minds)
“New Noise,” Refused (The Bear)
“Hope We Can Again,” Nine Inch Nails (The Bear)
“Together,” Nine Inch Nails (The Bear)
“White Rabbit,” Jefferson Airplane (Reacher)
“You and I,” Leon (Nobody Wants This/English Teacher)
“Everything In Its Right Place, Radiohead (Everything In Its Right Place)
“See Her Out (That’s Just Life),” Francis and the Lights (Nobody Wants This)
Top Songs (Film)
“Bye Bye Bye,” *NSYNC (Deadpool & Wolverine)
“The Lady in Red,” Chris De Burgh (Deadpool & Wolverine)
“Only You,” The Platters (Deadpool & Wolverine)
“Like a Prayer,” Madonna (Deadpool & Wolverine)
“SLASH,” Stray Kids (Deadpool & Wolverine)
“I’m With You,” Avril Lavigne (Deadpool & Wolverine)
“Angel of the Morning,” Merrilee Rush & the Turnarounds (Deadpool & Wolverine)
“Iris,” Goo Goo Dolls (Deadpool & Wolverine)
“The Power of Love,” Huey Lewis and the News (Deadpool & Wolverine)
“The Greatest Show,” Hugh Jackman with Keala Settle, Zac Efron, Zendaya & The Greatest Showman Ensemble (Deadpool & Wolverine)
Top TV Shows
Love Island (U.S.) (Supervisor: Jordan Young)
Arcane (Jen Malone & Nicole Weisberg)
Grey’s Anatomy (Justin Kamps)
The Bear (Josh Senior & Christopher Storer)
Industry (Ollie White)
All American (Madonna Wade-Reed)
The Rookie (Liza Richardson & Marc Mondello)
True Detective (Susan Jacobs)
Tell Me Lies (Kristen Higurea & Maggie Phillips)
Heartstopper (Mat Biffa)
Top TV Shows, New
The Penguin (Supervisors: Jen Malone & Whitney Pilzer)
Nobody Wants This (Este Haim, Zachary Dawes & Kristen Higurea)
Tracker (Robin Urdang)
The Day of the Jackal (Catherine Grieves)
English Teacher (Jen Ross)
Top Movies
Deadpool & Wolverine (Supervisor: Dave Jordan)
The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare (Rupert Hollier)
Beetlejuice Beetlejuice (James Balmont)
Twisters (Rachel Levy)
It Ends With Us (Season Kent)
Road House (Randall Poster)
The Fall Guy (Rachel Levy)
Beverly Hills Cop: Axel F (Sarah Maniquis-Garrisi)
Challengers (Robin Urdang)
Venom: The Last Dance (Spring Aspers)
Top Artists
Billie Eilish
Taylor Swift
Radiohead
The Rolling Stones
Nina Simone
Massive Attack
Beck
Mazzy Star
The Cure
Goo Goo Dolls
Top Composers
Ramin Djawadi
Rob Simonsen
Max Richter
Hans Zimmer
Jeff Russo
Dave Porter
Trent Reznor & Atticus Ross
Kris Bowers
Christopher Lennertz
Tyler Bates
Nogizaka46’s “Hodoukyo” tops the Billboard Japan Hot 100 chart released Dec. 18 tallying the week from Dec. 9 to 15.
The popular girl group’s 37th single dropped on Dec. 11 and launched with 609,776 CDs to hit No. 1 for sales, while also coming in at No. 11 for downloads and No. 6 for radio airplay.
Rosé & Bruno Mars’ “APT.” holds at No. 2. The pop-punk hit continues to rule streaming and video views with slight gains in both metrics, while radio is up to 114% compared to last week (moving 6-4) and karaoke to 125% (67-60). Rosé’s first solo album rosie, which includes this track, debuted at No. 3 on the Billboard 200 this week.
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LE SSERAFIM’s “CRAZY” follows at No. 3. The title track off the group’s fourth mini-album was released in August and debuted at No. 67 on the chart released Sept. 4 and shot to No. 8 the following week. The CD version sold 142,223 copies to power the single to No. 3 this week.
Mrs. GREEN APPLE’s “Bitter Vacances” drops to No. 5 after topping the tally last week. The track is down in downloads (64% week-over-week), streaming (82%), radio (42%), and video (66%).
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back number’s “Christmas Song” (released Nov. 18, 2015) climbs eight notches to hit No. 7 this week. The seasonal favorite by the three-man band has returned to the top 10 every year since 2021 near Christmas, but the only time it’s been in the top 10 outside of the week including Dec. 24th was in Jan. 2016. Looking at the number of streams for the track from Dec. 1 to 14 since 2021, using Luminate’s analysis tool CONNECT, streams have been increasing every year, indicating that this yearning love song has taken hold as a holiday season staple in Japan. Streams for the track during the Christmas period have also increased in other Asian countries, with South Korea at 103% compared to last year and Taiwan at 108%.
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 Dec. 9 to 15, here. For more on Japanese music and charts, visit Billboard Japan’s English X account.
Earlier this week, Billboard revealed its year-end Boxscore charts, ranking the top tours, venues and promoters of 2024. We’re breaking it down further, looking at the biggest live acts, genre by genre. Today, we continue with R&B. First, the bad news: Grosses for the top 10 R&B tours are down in 2024. Last year’s crop […]
Thirty-five years after Madonna’s “Like a Prayer” topped the Billboard Hot 100 in 1989, a cover of the song from Deadpool & Wolverine rules the TikTok Billboard Top 50 dated Dec. 21.
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 from Dec. 9 to 15. Activity on TikTok is not included in Billboard charts except for the TikTok Billboard Top 50.
The I’ll Take You There Choir version of “Like a Prayer,” heard in the 2024 Marvel/Disney superhero film originally released in July, lifts 2-1 to rule the chart in its second week.
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The choir-led rendition of the song has earned TikTok prominence thanks most recently to a trend in which creators tell a long text-based story (often one that’s embarrassing for the user), accompanied by a photo of Pepe from The Muppets.
This version of “Like a Prayer” earned 1.5 million official U.S. streams in the week ending Dec. 12, a gain of 37%, according to Luminate. Madonna’s original, meanwhile, has received auxiliary attention of its own: 1.6 million streams, up 12%.
“Like a Prayer” leads a change at the top of the TikTok Billboard Top 50, as M.I.A.’s “Paper Planes” and Malcolm Todd’s “Chest Pain (I Love)” follow at Nos. 2 and 3, respectively, both songs’ first time in the top five.
“Paper Planes,” a No. 4 hit on the Hot 100 for M.I.A. in 2008, vaults 21-2 in its second week on the TikTok Billboard Top 50 thanks to a dance trend. Its corresponding streaming gains are enough to push the song onto the Hot Rock & Alternative Songs chart at No. 16 via 3.7 million streams, a gain of 29%.
“Chest Pain (I Love),” meanwhile, continues to rise after the song was released on streaming services on Dec. 4, following weeks of it being teased on TikTok. Todd’s repeated “I love” refrain is highlighted in most of the clips, which often center around creators and the people or things they love. The tune earned 3.1 million streams in its first full week of release and bowed at No. 20 on Hot Rock & Alternative Songs.
Two other songs pop into the TikTok Billboard Top 50’s top 10 for the first time, led by Frank Ocean’s “White Ferrari,” which leaps 13-6. “White Ferrari” reaches the top 10 in its ninth week on the tally and marks Ocean’s first song in the region since the ranking began in September 2023. The song rises from the “lamp looks weird” trend, where users question if a moment they think they’re experiencing or want to experience is actually happening or if it’s some sort of simulation or dream.
The other, Jeddy Knox’s “Wander On,” jumps 14-10 in its second week. Released Nov. 21, the country song has been used in a variety of sports-related videos as well as other general viral content.
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.
Earlier this week, Billboard revealed its year-end Boxscore charts, ranking the top tours, venues, and promoters of 2024. We’re breaking it down further, looking at the biggest live acts, genre by genre. Today, we continue with country. Country music has been around for more than a century, but that doesn’t mean that it is outdated. […]
With “Luther,” Lamar notches his seventh No. 1 on Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs. Here’s a review of his chart-topping collection:
“HUMBLE.,” two weeks at No. 1, beginning May 22, 2017“Mona Lisa,” Lil Wayne featuring Kendrick Lamar, one, Oct. 13, 2018“Like That,” with Future and Metro Boomin, five, April 6, 2024“Not Like Us,” 21, May 1, 2024“Squabble Up,” one, Dec. 7, 2024“TV Off,” featuring Lefty Gunplay, one, Dec. 14, 2024“Luther,” with SZA, one (to date), Dec. 21, 2024
For SZA, “Luther” gives the singer-songwriter her fourth champ. Her roster is now:
“I Hate U,” one week, Dec. 18, 2021“Kill Bill,” 21, beginning Dec. 24, 2022“Slime You Out,” Drake featuring SZA, Sept. 30, 2023“Luther,” with Kendrick Lamar, one (to date), Dec. 21, 2024
Notably, the “Luther” performers share custody of one of the most impressive distinctions on the chart. Both “Kill Bill” and “Not Like Us” reigned for 21 weeks, the most of any title in the chart’s history, dating to its consolidation into an all-encompassing genre chart in 1958.
Part of the new wave of Latin artists testing tropical waters, Rauw Alejandro is back on Billboard’s Tropical Airplay chart, as he wraps a four-year hiatus and returns with his second top 10 since 2020.
The classic salsa romantic “Tú Con Él” by the late Frankie Ruiz, covered by Rauw Alejandro, makes its top 10 entrance on the Tropical Airplay chart (dated Dec. 21) as the song flies 14-7 in its second week assisted by a robust 107% gain in audience impressions, to 2.6 million, on the Dec. 6-12 tracking week, according to Luminate.
While the late Ruiz placed 11 entries on Tropical Airplay, including seven top 10s and two No. 1s, the 1985-released “Tú Con Él” did not enter as the chart officially launched almost a decade later, in 1994. The cover by Rauw Alejandro takes the Puerto Rican to his second entrance and top 10 on the ranking, after “Fantasías,” with Farruko, sent both artists to No. 2 in 2020. (The Latin rhythmic tune arrived before Tropical Airplay changed from a station-based to a genre-based tally).
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It’s not the first time a song by Ruiz finds its way to a Billboard chart after his passing. Victor Manuelle incorporated excerpts from his 1989 hit “Deseándote” into “Otra Noche Más,” which added a new top 10 to both salsa singers’ Tropical Airplay careers in March. Further, it gave Ruiz his first entry since 2012 and first top 10 after the No. 7-peaking “Vuelvo a Nacer” in 1998. For Victor Manuelle, meanwhile, the time-traveling collaboration turned into a record-extending 65 top 10s.
Further, Charlie Cruz’s take of Ruiz’s “Tú Con Él” peaked at No. 19 on Tropical Airplay in 2018.
“Tú Con Él” also grants Rauw Alejandro a 32nd entry on the overall Latin Airplay chart, where it opens at No. 45. There, the song joins another Rauw track from his No. 1 album Cosa Nuestra: “Que Pasaría,” with Bad Bunny, surges 43-31 with 4 million audience impressions, up 28% from the week prior. Rauw’s fifth studio album debuted atop Top Latin Albums and Tropical Albums charts (Nov. 30) with the largest streaming week of 2024 for a Latin album.
In sum, “Tú Con Él” has translated into a profitable revival for Rauw Alejandro, with multiple entries across Billboard charts. Let’s look at those recaps:
Peak Position, ChartNo. 69, Billboard Hot 100No. 65, Billboard Global 200No. 98, Global Excl. U.S.No. 6, Hot Latin SongsNo. 45, Latin AirplayNo. 7, Tropical AirplayNo. 5, Latin Streaming SongsNo. 5, Latiin Digital Song Sales
Over on the multi-metric Hot Latin Songs chart, while radio airplay surges, streams for “Tú Con Él” drop by 1%, to 3.4 million, and sales rise by a 6%.
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: Getting in some of the last viral hits of 2024 — from alt-pop dances to country grief — and a final goodbye to one of the biggest music-boosting melodramas of the last decade.
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Lola Young’s ‘Messy’ Cleans Up Thanks to Viral ‘Dance’
Can a dance go viral if it’s barely a dance at all? That’s been the debate raging around Lola Young’s breakthrough single “Messy,” which is zooming up the Billboard Hot 100 thanks in part to a viral clip in which influencer Jake Shane and model/social media star Sofia Richie vibe out to the British singer-songwriter’s vulnerable soul-pop track.
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Posted on Nov. 28, the 14-second TikTok clip finds the pair performing some vaguely defined moves, including finger-guns and a half-shimmy, while facing the camera. The comments on the clip are lightly clowning their dance skills, but Young herself approved (“ly guys,” she wrote), and since it was posted, streams of “Messy” have skyrocketed: the song logged 3.9 million official on-demand streams U.S. during the week ending on Nov. 28, according to Luminate, and that numbers more than doubled to 9.1 million streams two weeks later.
While “Messy” moves up from No. 90 to No. 64 on this week’s Hot 100, Young also comes in a few spots higher on the chart with “Like Him,” her collaboration with Tyler, The Creator on his Chromakopia album. Both tracks have greatly expanded Young’s profile as the year comes to a close, and could set up a big 2025 for the South East London native. – JASON LIPSHUTZ
Sam Barber’s “Indigo” Streams Surge Thanks to Mournful TikTok Trend
After breaking through with 2022’s “Straight and Narrow,” Missouri-bred country musician Sam Barber has scored his first Billboard Hot 100 hit with his Avery Anna-assisted “Indigo” (No. 98, chart dated Dec. 21) — and the heart-wrenching duet could fly even higher.
Originally released on Oct. 31, “Indigo” collected over 1.16 million official on-demand U.S. streams during the period of Nov. 29-Dec. 5, according to Luminate. That number jumped nearly 400% to over 5.7 million streams the following week (Dec. 6-12). Over the past week, TikTok users have latched onto the following lyric from the song’s chorus: “I used to shine bright like gold, now I’m all indigo.” Generally about losing your spark, the lyrics have now come to soundtrack grieving parents and partners. On TikTok, the official “Indigo” sound has amassed nearly 95,000 posts.
With strong streaming momentum and an official music video still on the way (as well as a Shaboozey co-sign), “Indigo” could very well grow into one of 2025’s earliest hits once the holiday season passes. – KYLE DENIS
‘Yellowstone’ Finale Offers Closing Bumps for Lainey Wilson Hit and Willie Nelson Classic
It’s a wrap on the second half of Season Five of Yellowstone, with its season finale attracting over 11 million viewers – a record for the show in what is most likely its last-ever episode. No spoilers here for the Paramount Western drama, but as the show has done throughout its five and a half seasons, the finale was heavily stocked with emotional country anthems – including multiple performed within the show by recurring cast members and real-life modern country artists Ryan Bingham (Walker) and Lainey Wilson (Abby).
Wilson took the stage on the Yellowstone finale to perform her 2024 hit “Hang Tight Honey,” which reached No. 61 on the Hot 100 earlier this year, while Bingham performed his Friday-released “A Song for the Stone.” Wilson’s hit saw a major bump following its use in the finale, with the song notching 86,000 official on-demand streams and over 700 digital sales on Monday (Dec. 16), gains of 47% and 2,669% from the prior Monday, according to Lumiante. (As a just-released song, Bingham’s numbers were up a more marginal amount.)
But Yellowstone has never just been for the kids, and the finale also featured prominent usage of Willie Nelson’s 1980 ballad “My Heroes Have Always Been Cowboys” in its closing. Consequently, the classic was up 162% on Monday from the week before in streams, to just over 35,000. – ANDREW UNTERBERGER
Ceechynaa Spins Streaming Hit Out of Shock-Rap
From Central Cee to Little Simz, the MCs on the other side of pond have been putting in work throughout the year. In the last few weeks of 2024, Ceechynaa made sure that she wasn’t left out of that conversation.
The 20-year-old South London drill rapper made waves in 2023 with “Last Laugh” — which eventually got an NLE Choppa remix – but her new single has already made an even bigger impact. On Dec. 5, she dropped “Peggy” — a jaw-dropping drill track begins with her “peggin’ that man at the back of the bus” and ends with her proclaiming, “They said I’m a masculine bitch ’cause these little n—as ain’t really a man.” Our favorite American female rappers have been proudly waving the sexual liberation flag for decades now, but few go as far as Ceechynaa does on “Peggy.” During the four-day period of Dec. 6-9, “Peggy” earned over 888,000 official on-demand U.S. streams, according to Luminate. By the period of Dec. 13-16, that figure leapt 95% to over 1.7 million streams. In its first week of release, “Peggy” claimed over 1.92 million streams. On YouTube, the track’s official music video has earned over 1.5 million views in just a week and a half – that’s more hits than the music video for the NLE Choppa “Last Laugh” remix earned in 11 months!
Building on her already-solidified online fandom, the official “Peggy” sound plays in over 97,000 TikTok posts, the bulk of which follow children having their parents blindly react to the song’s outrageous lyrics. Already her very first UK Singles Chart entry (No. 79), “Peggy” could help Ceechynaa make her Billboard U.S. chart debut should its streams continue to rise. – KD
Additional reporting by Hannah Dailey.
Xavi adds a fourth No. 1 on Billboard’s Regional Mexican Airplay chart as “Flores” rises 3-1 to lead the Dec. 21-dated list with the Greatest Gainer honors of the week. Notably, he’s landed all his No. 1 songs in 2024, dating to his first, “La Diabla,” in February. Explore Explore See latest videos, charts and […]
With audiences off to see the Wizard, and Elphaba and Glinda, radio is capitalizing on the buzz of Wicked by playing two of the franchise’s signature songs.
Wicked, which adapts the stage musical of the same name that premiered in 2003, opened in North American movie theaters Nov. 22 and has since made more than $500 million in ticket sales worldwide.
Meanwhile, the film’s soundtrack has spent its first three weeks at No. 1 on Billboard’s Soundtracks chart. Billed to Wicked stars Cynthia Erivo and Ariana Grande (and various artists), it has earned 321,000 equivalent album units in the U.S. in that span, according to Luminate. The set, on Universal Studios/Verve/VLG/Republic, also crowned the Top Album Sales and Vinyl Albums charts and logged its first three weeks on the Billboard 200 in the top 10.
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Notably, when Wicked debuted at No. 2 on the Billboard 200, it claimed the highest arrival in the chart’s 68-year history for a stage-to-big-screen musical soundtrack.
As movie and music fans immerse themselves in Wicked, two of its most beloved songs are scaling Billboard radio charts (dated Dec. 21): Grande’s “Popular” ascends 29-27 on Adult Pop Airplay and 34-29 on Pop Airplay, while Erivo and Grande’s “Defying Gravity” debuts on both rankings at No. 39.
Alongside Wicked’s success, radio’s embrace of the tracks – solely written by Stephen Schwartz – marks the platform’s latest foray into songs from stage and/or movie musicals. In 2022, Encanto’s “We Don’t Talk About Bruno” ruled the Billboard Hot 100 for five weeks and rose to the top 25 on Adult Contemporary, Adult Pop Airplay and Pop Airplay. (In 2023, the intricate earworm won the Grammy for best song written for visual media.)
Plus, “You Will Be Found” from Dear Evan Hansen, the 2017 Tony Award recipient for best musical, spent more than four months in the Adult Contemporary chart’s top 15 from October 2023 through this March, as recorded by Natalie Grant and Cory Asbury.
Historically, however, such songs have been relatively few and far between on radio, despite their built-in familiarity. For every airplay success story, Rent, 1996’s Tony winner for best musical, for instance, did not spin off a pop/adult radio chart hit in its anthem “Seasons of Love.” Conversely, Madonna leveraged her superstar status into play for her version of Evita’s “Don’t Cry for Me Argentina,” written by Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice. Aided by its club- and radio-ready “Miami Mix,” the song reached the Pop Airplay top 10 in 1997.
(Wicked composer Schwartz is enjoying his latest Billboard chart success in a history that dates back to Godspell and its cast’s 1972 No. 13 Hot 100 hit “Day by Day.”)
In 2024, when radio has numerous sources of research, from traditional callout to social media, certain programmers have pounced on playing “Popular” and “Defying Gravity,” even if the former, especially (and like “We Don’t Talk About Bruno”), is essentially a movie excerpt, with Grande singing in her Wicked character.
“First, it stars one of our core artists, Ariana Grande, who not only sounds great, but gives a phenomenal acting performance,” says Tom Poleman, iHeartMedia chief programming officer. “And, as one of the most anticipated movies of the year, it’s a pop culture moment for our listeners. [Pop] stations, in particular, are about reflecting what our listeners are into, and ‘Popular’ and ‘Defying Gravity’ are two of the biggest songs of the moment.”
iHeartMedia’s Pop Airplay reporter WHTZ (Z100) New York played “Popular” and “Defying Gravity” 20 and 16 times, respectively, Dec. 10-16, according to Mediabase.
“No hesitation,” echoes Alex Tear, SiriusXM and Pandora vice president, music programming, of playing “Popular” and “Defying Gravity.” The former aired 57 times on SiriusXM’s TikTok Radio and 44 times on Hits 1, both of which contribute to the Pop Airplay chart, Dec. 10-16. Plus, Adult Pop Airplay panelist The Pulse gave it 50 plays. “Defying Gravity” drew 39 plays on Hits 1 in the same stretch.
“Our listeners expect Hits 1 to be in, and leading, pop culture moments and movements,” Tear says. “We’ve never been focused on ‘typical.’ We’re focused on our listeners’ passions and keeping pace, in addition to being predictive of their favorites.”
Likewise believing that radio can benefit from, and amplify, the conversation around Wicked, Republic released a 3:33-long edit of “Defying Gravity” two weeks after the original version, running 7:39 and including spoken word sections, arrived on the film’s soundtrack. “Popular” is 4:01 in length, along with a mix trimmed to 2:53, with both edits having been added to the Wicked soundtrack on DSPs.
Through Dec. 12, Grande’s “Popular” has totaled 28.8 million official U.S. streams and 15.2 million in all-format airplay audience. Erivo and Grande’s “Defying Gravity” has tallied 35.5 million streams and 6.8 million in radio reach.
“It’s simple,” Tear muses of Hits 1. “We’re a pop channel that’s front and center with pop culture. Our listeners come to hear the ‘now,’ and nothing could be hotter than Wicked.”
Says Poleman, “It came down to the popularity — no pun intended — of this movie.”