Chart Beat
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One of Madonna’s biggest hits, her 1990 Billboard Hot 100 No. 1 dance anthem “Vogue,” had surprisingly humble beginnings. “The whole thing was done on a shoestring budget,” Shep Pettibone, the track’s co-writer and producer, told Billboard in 2015. Allotted just $5,000 by Warner Bros. (now Warner) Records to create what was initially slated as […]
More than 12 years after its release and its original chart run, Miguel’s “Sure Thing” hits No. 1 on Billboard’s Pop Airplay chart (dated May 27).
The song, on ByStorm/Black Ice/Jive/Legacy/RCA Records, completes the longest ascent to the Pop Airplay summit from a title’s release, having first hit Billboard’s charts in February 2011, following its November 2010 release on Miguel’s debut LP, All I Want Is You. An R&B/hip-hop radio hit in its original run, “Sure Thing” crowned the Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs chart, as well as R&B/Hip-Hop Airplay, for a week in May 2011.
On the all-genre, multimetric Billboard Hot 100, “Sure Thing” reached No. 36 over a 23-week stay in March-August 2011.
In 2022, the song resurged thanks to newfound attention on TikTok, where a sped-up version has soundtracked more than 4 million clips. It debuted on Billboard’s Streaming Songs chart this January and ranked at No. 30 on the most recently published, May 20-dated chart with 10.6 million official streams in the United States May 5-11, according to Luminate.
On the May 20-dated all-format Radio Songs survey, “Sure Thing” rose 7-6, up 6% to 51.6 million in audience. On the Hot 100, it pushed 15-14, reaching a new best – as well as a new career high for Miguel, surpassing the No. 15 peak of Mariah Carey’s “#Beautiful,” on which he’s featured, in 2013.
(Helping maintain familiarity with top 40 radio listeners, Miguel tallied six Pop Airplay hits in 2012-22, rising as high as No. 12 as featured on Kygo’s “Remind Me to Forget” in 2018, his best career rank prior to the revival of “Sure Thing.”)
Meanwhile, the comeback to new heights for “Sure Thing” has been historic, as the single broke the record for the most weeks ever spent on Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs: 78 (through the latest, May 20-dated survey, where it placed at No. 5, marking its first appearance in the chart’s top five since September 2011).
“We were keeping a close eye on the metrics,” says RCA head of promotion Keith Rothschild about the decision to promote the song to pop radio after TikTok sparked new interest in it. It debuted on the Pop Airplay chart dated Feb. 25, at No. 40, and hits No. 1 in its 14th week on the chart, up 7% in plays May 12-18.
While “Sure Thing” is far removed from its original release, “programmers were not hesitant at all,” Rothschild says, especially with other catalog songs recently finding new life on radio, whether from TikTok or synchs, including Kate Bush’s “Running Up That Hill (A Deal With God),” Lady Gaga’s “Bloody Mary” and The Weeknd’s “Die for You.”
Until “Sure Thing,” “Die for You” — originally from 2016 and remixed this year with Ariana Grande, as it, too, received new radio promotion by Republic — briefly held the record for the longest wait to hit No. 1 on Pop Airplay from a track’s release, as it topped the tally for two weeks this February.
“We knew the song was a hit, as it was a No. 1 R&B/hip-hop record when it was originally out,” says Rothschild of “Sure Thing.” “It was never worked at pop, so we asked programmers to put it into callout. The numbers came back massive, and we knew it was game on.”
Ed Sheeran holds off The Amity Affliction on Australia’s albums survey, as Subtract (via Atlantic/Warner) starts a second week at No. 1.
With the British singer and songwriter’s latest chart feat, he racks-up 44 weeks at No. 1 on the ARIA Chart across his full-length six albums, all of them best-sellers.
Heavy stuff is close behind. Homegrown metalcore group The Amity Affliction open at No. 2 with Not Without My Ghosts (Warner), their eighth studio effort.
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The hard rockers this year celebrate their 20th anniversary as a band, and now boast seven top 10 appearances, including four ARIA No. 1s: Chasing Ghosts (from 2012), Let The Ocean Take Me (2014), This Could Be Heartbreak (2016) and Misery (2018). In the decade from 2010, the Gympie, Queensland heavyweights amassed five ARIA Award nominations, though none culminated in a pointed trophy.
Completing the podium on the latest ARIA Albums Chart, published May 19, is Taylor Swift’s former leader Midnights (Universal), up 4-3.
Further down the list, veteran Australian artist Kate Ceberano debuts at No. 6 with My Life Is A Symphony (ABC/Orchard), a collaboration with the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra. It’s Ceberano’s 17th ARIA top 50 album, according to the trade body, and seventh top 10, including 1989’s Brave, which peaked at No. 2.
Legendary local rockers Midnight Oil cook up a 17th ARIA top 10 with Live at the Old Lion, Adelaide (MGM), new at No. 7. Peter Garrett and Co. have led the ARIA Chart with seven titles: Red Sails In the Sunset (1984), Species Deceases (1985), Diesel and Dust (1987), Blue Sky Mining (1990), 20,000 Watt R.S.L. (1997), The Makarrata Project (2020) and Resist (2022).
The Eurovision Song Contest is done for the year, though the music lives on. A collection from the 67th annual event, The Eurovision Song Contest Liverpool 2023 (Universal), debuts at No. 15 on the albums tally. The compilation includes Australia’s representative for the 2023 Eurovision, Voyager with “Promise.” The plucky pop-rock outfit from Perth finished ninth in the annual competition, held last Saturday (May 13) at Liverpool’s M&S Arena.
Over on the ARIA Singles Chart, Morgan Wallen clocks up a sixth consecutive week at No. 1 with “Last Night” (via Republic/Universal). It’s now just one frame from matching the seven weeks Billy Ray Cyrus logged at No. 1 with “Achy Breaky Heart” in 1992, a record for a single by a male American country singer here since the official ARIA Charts were launched in 1983.
“Last Night” leads an unchanged top three, closed out by Fifty Fifty’s “The Beginning: Cupid” (Warner) and Miley Cyrus’ “Flowers” (Columbia/Sony), respectively.
The top debut belongs to New York City-based drill rapper Lil Mabu with “Mathematical Disrespect” (Independent) new at No. 21. Lil Durk‘s “All My Life” (Sony) featuring J. Cole isn’t far behind; it debuts at No. 23.
Happy P (real name Nathan Perez) jumps to No. 1 on Billboard’s R&B Producers chart (dated May 20), leading for the first time thanks to his production on Miguel’s “Sure Thing.”
The song — which returned to Billboard’s charts beginning in late 2022 over a decade after its initial chart run — holds at its No. 4 high on the Hot R&B Songs chart with 51.6 million radio airplay audience impressions (up 6%), 10.6 million official streams (up 1%) and 2,000 downloads sold in the United States in the May 5-11 tracking week, according to Luminate.
The track, released in 2010, resurged thanks to newfound attention on TikTok, where a sped-up version has soundtracked more than 4 million videos. While activity TikTok does not directly contribute to Billboard’s charts, many of the app’s most popular songs have seen corresponding gains on streaming services that factor into Billboard chart rankings. RCA Records also re-serviced the song to radio as its profile was renewed.
The song forged a historic comeback, breaking the record for the most weeks spent on the Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs chart with a whopping 78 (through the latest, May 20-dated survey).
“Sure Thing” also rises 15-14 on the Billboard Hot 100, reaching a new best — as well as a new career high for Miguel, outpacing the No. 15 peak of Mariah Carey’s “#Beautiful,” on which he’s featured, in 2013. (“Sure Thing” originally hit No. 36 on the Hot 100 in 2011.)
Happy P is just the third creative to rule the R&B Producers chart this year so far. He succeeds Rob Bisel, who led for one week thanks to SZA’s “Kill Bill.” Before Bisel, Carter Lang reigned for the preceding 18 weeks (after two weeks at the end of 2022), also thanks to his work with SZA.
Billboard launched the Hot 100 Songwriters and Hot 100 Producers charts, as well as genre-specific rankings for country, rock & alternative, R&B/hip-hop, R&B, rap, Latin, Christian, gospel and dance/electronic, in June 2019, while alternative and hard rock joined in 2020, along with seasonal holiday rankings in 2022. The charts are based on total points accrued by a songwriter and producer, respectively, for each attributed song that appears on the Hot 100. The genre-based songwriter and producer charts follow the same methodology based on corresponding “Hot”-named genre charts. As with Billboard’s yearly recaps, multiple writers or producers split points for each song equally (and the dividing of points will lead to occasional ties on rankings).
Welcome to Billboard Pro’s Trending Up column, 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: Kate Bush makes it two years in a row with big gains from a Netflix hit, while Loreen enjoys a Eurovision bump on both sides of the pond and a pair of hitmaking Asian girl groups make inroads on U.S. radio.
Happy Mother’s Day to Kate Bush
Is it happening again? If you’ve checked Shazam’s real-time U.S. chart in the past week, you’ll see a familiar older name jostling with Lil Durk and J. Cole’s new “All My Life” for the top position: Kate Bush, she of the biggest sync revitalization of the decade so far. It’s not “Running Up That Hill” or Stranger Things this time, though: It’s her similarly beloved (and oft-covered) “This Woman’s Work,” used to great effect towards the end of the new hit Netflix action drama, The Mother.
“Work” has been used prominently in movies and TV shows for 35 years now – dating back to its original 1988 release on the She’s Having a Baby soundtrack – and The Mother, starring Jennifer Lopez and released last Friday (May 12, two days before Mother’s Day), uses the signature ballad over its closing sequence and end credits. The synch’s impact could be seen in the song’s streaming numbers – up from 21,000 daily official on-demand U.S. streams on May 11 to 55,000 by May 14, a 157% gain – along with digital song sales increasing from under 100 to over 500 over that period, all according to Luminate.
Thus far, the song’s explosive growth is still modest compared to the runaway success of “Hill” post-Stranger Things — which made it not only the biggest newly viral catalog of hit of 2022, but one of the year’s biggest overall hits of any kind. If this one starts crossing over from Shazam to TikTok in the same way that song did, though, there might still be plenty of “Work” for the Bush staple to do on the Billboard charts. – ANDREW UNTERBERGER
Left, Right, Up: FIFTY FIFTY & XG Hits Make Inroads at U.S. Radio
As Asian pop acts have established an increased presence in U.S. popular music over the past five years, one sector of the industry has long proven the most difficult to impact on a consistent level: pop radio.
While BTS smashes like “Dynamite” and “Butter” stand as exceptions, top 40 stations have generally shied away from the latest offerings from Asian pop collectives, even as those groups rack up seven-figure streaming numbers and headline arenas in the States. BLACKPINK, for instance, has only notched one non-collaborative single on Billboard‘s Pop Airplay chart to date (“Pink Venom,” which peaked at No. 32 last year), while groups like TWICE, Loona and (G)I-dle have only been able to achieve fleeting appearances on the tally.
Yet a pair of English-language singles from the relatively new collectives FIFTY FIFTY and XG are not only turning into profile-boosting breakthroughs for each – they’re receiving real, growing radio play as well.
For more info on this, check out our full article over at Billboard Pro.
“Tattoo” Looks to Ink Itself on the Charts
The winner at this month’s Eurovision song contest was the delectably dramatic Eurodance-pop banger “Tattoo” by Loreen, Sweden’s representative at this year’s competition. Loreen might already have been familiar to many watching as the singer behind 2012’s “Euphoria,” a single that topped charts throughout Europe and went to No. 3 on the U.K.’s Official Singles Chart – but “Tattoo” looks on track to do even better, currently ticketed for a top two debut on this week’s U.K. chart.
The song is also beginning to take off stateside. Though it’s been available on DSPs since February, the song has steadily risen on streaming since it triumphed in its first semifinal on May 9, and exploded following its ultimate victory on May 13. In all, the song has risen from 58,000 daily official on-demand streams on May 8 to over 226,000 on May 16 – a gain of 28%, according to Luminate. It’s a great start for the winner in the hopes of it following in the footsteps of recent U.S. Eurovision success stories like Måneskin and Duncan Laurence, though time will tell if “Tattoo” leaves more of a temporary or permanent mark on U.S. pop culture. – AU
Calvin Harris claims the mark for the most No. 1s in the history of Billboard’s Dance/Mix Show Airplay chart all to himself, as “Miracle,” with Ellie Goulding, rises to the top of the tally dated May 20. Harris adds his 13th leader on the list, which began in August 2003, moving one ahead of both David Guetta and Rihanna.
The trancey “Miracle” is Goulding’s sixth topper and second with Harris, after “Outside” in 2015. Here’s a look at Calvin Harris’s record 13 Dance/Mix Show Airplay No. 1s.
Title, Weeks at No. 1, Year(s):
“Miracle,” with Ellie Goulding, one to-date, 2023
“Promises,” with Sam Smith, two, 2018
“One Kiss,” with Dua Lipa, 10, 2018
“This Is What You Came For,” feat. Rihanna, 12, 2016
“How Deep Is Your Love,” with Disciples, four, 2015
“Outside,” feat. Ellie Goulding, six, 2015
“Blame,” feat. John Newman, six, 2014
“Summer,” 13, 2014
“Thinking About You,” feat. Ayah Marar, one, 2013
“Sweet Nothing,” feat. Florence Welch, nine, 2013
“Let’s Go,” feat. Ne-Yo, 10, 2012
“We Found Love,” Rihanna feat. Harris, 14, 2011-12
“Feel So Close,” eight weeks at No. 1, 2012
“Miracle” is drawing core-dance airplay on KMVQ-HD2 San Francisco, Music Choice’s Dance/EDM channel and WCPY (Dance Factory FM) Chicago in the May 5-11 tracking week, according to Luminate. (The Dance/Mix Show Airplay chart measures radio airplay on a select group of full-time dance stations, along with plays during mix shows on around 60 top 40-formatted reporters.)
Additionally on Dance/Mix Show Airplay, Steve Aoki, Galantis and Hayley Kiyoko bound 16-10 with “Hungry Heart,” the sixth, 10th and first top 10 for each respective act.
Shifting to the multi-metric Hot Dance/Electronic Songs chart, David Guetta, Anne-Marie and Coi Leray lock in top Streaming Gainer honors with “Baby Don’t Hurt Me” (5-4), after the song’s official video premiered May 5. The track, a reworking of Haddaway’s 1993 hit “What Is Love,” earned 3.6 million official streams in the United States in the week ending May 11, up 15%. It also drew 7.3 million radio airplay audience impressions, up 13%, and sold 1,000 downloads, up 20%.
Concurrently, “Baby” bumps 13-6 on the Dance/Electronic Streaming Songs chart, giving Guetta his ninth top 10, Anne-Marie her second and Leray her first. It also pushes 5-3 on Dance/Electronic Digital Song Sales.
Sticking with Hot Dance/Electronic Songs, viral sensation Odetari debuts at No. 8 with “Good Loyal Thots.” His second top 10 in quick succession, after “Narcissistic Personality” (No. 10, May 6), garnered 3.4 million streams in its opening frame. That figure also sparks a No. 11 start on Dance/Electronic Streaming Songs.
Meanwhile, Depeche Mode claims the Hot Dance/Electronic Songs chart’s top Sales Gainer award for “Ghosts Again” (30-19). The lead single from the act’s LP Memento Mori is up 103%, following the May 5 release of official remixes by Chris Liebing and Luke Slater, Miss Grit, Davide Rossi and more. “Ghosts” also gathered 542,000 streams, up 52%.
Tems’ “Free Mind” captures a 17th week at No. 1 on Billboard’s R&B/Hip-Hop Airplay chart, a new record for the most weeks atop the list for any song by a lead female artist. The achievement continues the sleeper hit’s success story, which saw the 2020 EP deep cut work its way to becoming a fan-pushed streaming hit in 2022 and, now, a record-setting radio smash.
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The historic week for “Free Mind” is on the chart dated May 20, where it wins a 17th frame on top after a 1% bump to 19.2 million audience impressions made it, yet again, the most-heard song from a combined slate of U.S. monitored adult R&B and mainstream R&B/hip-hop radio stations in the week ending May 11, according to Luminate.
Now with 17 weeks, “Free Mind” surpasses Ella Mai’s “Boo’d Up” for sole possession of the record for the longest-leading No. 1 by a lead female artist. The former champ reigned for 16 weeks in 2018. As “Free Mind” shakes up the leaderboard, here’s a look at the songs by women in lead or co-lead roles with the most weeks at No. 1 on R&B/Hip-Hop Airplay since the chart launched in 1992:
17, “Free Mind,” Tems, 2022-23
16, “Boo’d Up,” Ella Mai, 2018
15, “Be Without You,” Mary J. Blige, 2006
14, “We Belong Together,” Mariah Carey, 2005
13, “You’re Makin’ Me High,” Toni Braxton, 1996
13, “Trip,” Ella Mai, 2018-19
12, “Single Ladies (Put a Ring on It),” Beyoncé, 2008-09
12, “Un-thinkable (I’m Ready),” Alicia Keys, 2010
11, “Work,” Rihanna featuring Drake, 2016
11, “Please Me,” Cardi B & Bruno Mars, 2
Expanding to women in both lead and featured roles, Tems still holds the record for the song with the most weeks at No. 1. She featured on Wizkid’s 27-week champ “Essence” in 2021-22. The breakthrough Afrobeats hit is tied as the second-longest-leading No. 1 in R&B/Hip-Hop Airplay history with Chris Brown’s “No Guidance,” featuring Drake. Both songs trail only another Brown track, “Go Crazy,” with Young Thug, which posted 29 weeks at the summit in 2020-21.
Though “Free Mind” was released in 2020 on the EP For Broken Ears, the song generated its earliest significant attention only after Tems’ breakthroughs on a trio of other high-profile songs. In addition to “Essence,” she featured on Drake’s Certified Lover Boy cut “Fountains,” and, with Drake, on Future’s No. 1 Billboard Hot 100 hit “Wait for U.” Thanks to the triple play of hits, her own material experienced renewed interest and streaming gains, with “Free Mind” as the leading beneficiary, which sparked an official radio promotion push soon after. The track climbed to No. 1 on Mainstream R&B/Hip-Hop Airplay in November 2022, and later crossed over onto the Adult R&B Airplay chart, crowning that for nine weeks beginning in February 2023. The one-two punch put Tems in rare, and enviable, company. Such dual coronations on both radio charts occurred only twice in 2022, with Silk Sonic’s “Smokin’ out the Window” and Beyoncé’s “Break My Soul.”
What were some of the most notable trends on the Billboard Hot 100 songs chart in the first quarter of 2023?
Hit Songs Deconstructed, which provides compositional analytics for top 10 Hot 100 hits, has released its State of the Hot 100 Top 10: Q1 2023 report.
Here are three takeaways from Hit Songs Deconstructed’s latest in-depth research.
Country Ties Pop on Top, R&B Overtakes Hip-Hop
In the first three months of 2023, pop and country tied as the most common primary genres in the Hot 100’s top 10, each contributing to 26% of all top 10 hits.
Country surged to its “highest level of prominence in over a decade, largely thanks to Morgan Wallen’s five top 10s from his album One Thing at a Time,” Hit Songs Deconstructed’s report notes. Wallen’s haul has been led by “Last Night,” which first topped the Hot 100 dated March 18.
As for pop, despite its domination, its 26% share of all Hot 100 top 10s in Q1 continues a decline for the genre, from 35% in all of 2022; 39% in 2021; 40% in 2020; and 47% in 2019.
At the same time, as Hit Songs Deconstructed noted earlier this year, while country ascended in Q1, driven by Wallen’s hits, the genre boasts notable similarities to pop songs.
In third place for Q1, dance/electronic accounted for 17% of all Hot 100 top 10s, “its highest year-over-year level in a decade,” per Hit Songs Deconstructed, with David Guetta and Bebe Rexha’s “I’m Good (Blue)” a key contributor to the genre’s growth.
R&B/soul placed fourth among primary genres in Q1, at 13%, powered by the likes of SZA’s “Kill Bill,” followed in fifth place, at 4%, by hip-hop – as “the top genre in 2022 all but disappeared save for Drake and 21 Savage’s ‘Rich Flex,’ ” Hit Songs Deconstructed points out.
Thus, not only did hip-hop join pop in dropping in Q1 – hip-hop had never been below 34% in any year since 2019 before plummeting to 4% in the first three months of 2023 – but comparing hip-hop to R&B/soul since 2019 is likewise striking. The genres’ respective Q1 shares of 4% and 13% contrast from hip-hop’s runaway wins between them in 2022 (38% for hip-hop vs. 8% for R&B/soul), 2021 (34% vs. 18%), 2020 (41% vs. 8%) and 2019 (34% vs. 10%).
Love Songs Get Their ‘Flowers’
“Lyrically, love/relationships held tight as the most popular lyrical theme[s], skyrocketing to 83% of songs” in the Hot 100’s top 10 in Q1, according to Hit Songs Deconstructed.
Leading the way for such songs (representing, naturally, a range of emotions about love): Miley Cyrus’ “Flowers,” which soared in at No. 1 on the Hot 100 dated Jan. 28, along with Beyoncé’s “Cuff It,” Bizarrap and Shakira’s “Bzrp Music Sessions, Vol. 53” and The Weeknd and Ariana Grande’s “Die for You.”
Also per Hit Songs Deconstructed’s Q1 analysis of lyrics, “the top 10 continued to trend toward fewer song title appearances, with just over half of songs featuring between one and five in their framework. The most popular place to find the song title continued to be the chorus, followed by the outro and vocal break post-chorus.”
Or … not at all, as SZA never explicitly sings the title in “Kill Bill.”
Instrumental Instruments
“Instrumentally, electronic drums, synths and synth bass continued to be at the core of most top 10s” on the Hot 100 in Q1, according to Hit Songs Deconstructed. “However, their use was notably down compared to years prior. Conversely, there was a notable uptick in the use of guitar (electric, acoustic and lap steel), largely thanks to the rise of country.”
As for atypical instruments and sounds in Hot 100 top 10s in Q1, they include the brass section in “Cuff It”; mallets, in Taylor Swift’s “Anti-Hero”; and even birds chirping in JVKE’s “Golden Hour.”
Ke Personajes, Big One, and FMK’s “Un Finde: Big One Crossover #2” claims a fourth week at No. 1 on the Billboard Argentina Hot 100 chart (dated May 13). The song enters into a tie with Bizarrap and Shakira’s “Bzrp Music Sessions, Vol. 53” for the second-longest reign in 2023, trailing Big One’s own “En La Intimidad,” with Emilia and Callejero Fino, which dominated for seven consecutive weeks starting the Feb. 25-dated ranking.
BM’s “M.A (Mejores Amigos)” holds strong at No. 2, four weeks after it became his first No. 1 (chart dated April 15).
The Hot Shot Debut of the week goes to Emilia’s “Jagger” at No. 11. With the latter plus ”No_Se_Ve.Mp3,” with Ludmila, debuting at No. 41 this week, Emilia collates her 21st entry on the Argentina Hot 100 and joins the exclusive group of female artists with 21 entries or more: Maria Becerra has secured 39 entries, Karol G posts 30, Tini holds 29, while Nicki Nicole has claimed a total of 26 career entries.
Overall, Bad Bunny continues at the lead with a total of 58 chart entries.
Further, Duki’s “aPoLLo13” launches at No. 32. With the new entry, the Argentinian rapper adds a 40th entry to his account, the fourth-most after Bad Bunny’s 59 titles, J Balvin’s 49, and Bizarrap’s 43 chart appearances.
Khea and Tiago Pzk’s “Para Amarte a Ti” take the Greatest Gainer honor of the week as the song climbs 26 rankings, from No. 76 to No. 50.
Elsewhere, Mesita picks up his first entry as a soloist, unaccompanied by any other act, as “Dale Mecha” starts at No. 81.
The chart boasts six other debuts this week, starting with MYA and Rusherking’s “Mya Live P1: Chanel De Coco” at No. 84. Meanwhile, Lola Indigo and Quevedo’s “El Tonto” bows at No. 87; WOS’ “Descartable” joins at No. 89; Luck Ra and La Renga’s “Bebe Dame” debuts at No. 90; while La Joaqui’s “Cachorro” arrives at No. 97.
Lastly, thanks to the biographical Nexflix series El Amor Después del Amor, a classic of singer-songwriter Fito Páez makes its chart debut as “11 y 6” starts at No. 99. With the new arrival, Paez captures his fifth entry.
Grupo Frontera achieves a feat unseen on Billboard’s Latin Airplay chart in more than a decade, becoming the first act to place two regional Mexican songs at No. 1 in a single year. The group claims the first such double win since Banda El Recodo de Cruz Lizárraga in 2009.
Grupo Frontera’s “Un x100to,” with Bad Bunny, hits No. 1 on the Latin Airplay chart (dated May 20) thanks to a 20% boost in audience impressions, to 10.7 million, in the United States in the week ending May 11, according to Luminate.
The quintet secured its first champ on Latin Airplay as “Bebe Dame,” with Fuerza Regida, capped the March 25-dated ranking.
The last regional Mexican act to post two No. 1s on the tally in the same year was Banda El Recodo de Cruz Lizárraga, whose “Te Presumo” and “Me Gusta Todo de Ti” ruled for six and five weeks beginning the Feb. 28 and Dec. 26, 2009-dated lists, respectively.
Since Latin Airplay launched in November 1994, Grupo Frontera logs just the fifth instance of an act notching two regional Mexican No. 1s in a single year. Marco Antonio Solis first achieved the feat in 1996 and is the only artist to have earned the honor twice.
Find the full list below:
Acts With 2 Regional Mexican No. 1s on Latin Airplay in a Single Year:Grupo Frontera, 2023: “Un x100to,” with Bad Bunny, “Bebe Dame,” with Fuerza RegidaBanda El Recodo de Cruz Lizárraga, 2009: “Me Gusta Todo De Ti,” “Te Presumo”Conjunto Primavera, 2007: “Basta Ya,” “Ese”Marco Antonio Solis, 1997: “La Venia Bendita,” “Así Como Te Conocí”Marco Antonio Solis, 1996: “Recuerdos, Tristeza Y Soledad,” “Que Pena Me Das”
Bad Bunny, meanwhile, captures his 21st Latin Airplay champ, the seventh-most among all acts since the chart’s inception in 1994. J Balvin leads with 35 No. 1s, followed by Enrique Iglesias and Ozuna (32 each), Daddy Yankee (28), Maluma and Wisin (22 each).
Regional Mexican Throughout the Decades: Expanding on the regional Mexican genre’s momentum, as Grupo Frontera reached the No. 1 slot with “Bebe Dame” in March, the quintet brought back the format to Latin Airplay’s top spot following a three-year gap, after La Adictiva Banda San José de Mesillas’ “Escondidos” crowned for one week on Jan. 18, 2020.
This decade, so far, four regional Mexican songs have secured a spot at No. 1. “Escondidos” succeeded Alejandro Fernández’s “Caballero,” which began its two-week reign on the Jan. 4, 2020, chart, prior to Grupo Frontera’s two leaders this year.
Looking back to the Latin Airplay chart’s 1994 inception, the ’90s dispensed the most regional Mexican chart-toppers in a single decade: 18 (despite the chart debuting nearly halfway through the decade), led by the likes of Solis, Rocio Durcal, Alejandro Fernández, Juan Gabriel, Los Tigres del Norte and Selena. Almost as many – 17 – ruled during the 2000s, while nine led in the ‘10s, continuing a rich legacy for the genre.
The 2020s are on pace for around 12 regional Mexican No. 1s by the end of the decade, although the genre’s unprecedented heights on the Billboard Hot 100, led by “Un x100to” and Eslabon Armado and Peso Pluma’s “Ella Baila Sola” – the first regional Mexican top 10s ever on the chart, where they currently rank at Nos. 7 and 4, respectively – suggest an even greater ceiling. A new wave of acts is fusing mariachi, norteño, banda, sierreño and corridos, as well as collaborating with artists, such as Bad Bunny, generally outside the genre.