Chart Beat
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A Mariah Carey track more than a decade old makes its debut on Billboard’s Hot R&B Songs chart, as “It’s a Wrap” arrives at No. 24 on the list dated March 4. The track, first released in 2009, earns its debut after the song became the latest viral hit on TikTok, leading to increased streams and sales. (Activity directly on the TikTok platform does not currently count toward the Billboard charts.)
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“Wrap” earned 3.6 million official U.S. streams in the week ending Feb. 23, according to Luminate, a 4% jump from the week prior. The tune also sold 1,000 downloads in the same period, though a 60% drop from the week before. One week ago, the cut entered the R&B/Hip-Hop Digital Song Sales chart at No. 22.
With “Wrap,” Carey achieves her 12th visit to the Hot R&B Songs chart, which launched in 2012, well into the superstar’s recording career. On the Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs chart, which encompasses Carey’s entire career, she claims 60 appearances since her 1990 debut, including 10 No. 1 hits.
“Wrap” first appeared on Carey’s 2009 album, Memoirs of an Imperfect Angel, and surfaced again in a remix form with Mary J. Blige on the deluxe edition of Carey’s 2014 set, Me…I Am Mariah: The Elusive Chanteuse, though it was never released as a single. The song generated attention earlier this year on TikTok, particularly through a sped-up version, that became a common soundtrack on many users’ posts on the social media app. Carey herself has joined the trend, posting a clip of herself and Kim Kardashian, and their daughters, North and Monroe, lip-syncing to the track.
Carey’s newest success is the latest example of an older song finding a new audience and streaming gains thanks to TikTok. It has plenty of company on the Hot R&B Songs chart: The Weeknd’s 2016 track “Die for You” sits at No. 3 on the current ranking, Chris Brown’s 2019 track “Under the Influence,” ranks at No. 5, after peaking at No. 2 last November, and Miguel’s “Sure Thing,” a 2011 release is at No. 6. Due to the viral streaming support and fan engagement, “Die for You” and “Sure Thing” were re-promoted to radio stations as official singles, while “Influence” was sent out for the first time. Plus, Justine Skye’s 2014 single “Collide,” featuring Ty Dolla $ign, in its own revival on the app, debuted at No. 25 two weeks ago on Hot R&B Songs thanks to its social traction.
The wealth extends to other genres too. Songs outside the R&B realm also enjoying a TikTok-fueled rise include Lady Gaga’s 2011 pop cut “Bloody Mary,” at No. 47 on this week’s all-genre Billboard Hot 100 chart and rock band Arctic Monkeys’ “505” from their 2007 album, Favourite Worst Nightmare, which climbs one spot to No. 14 on the Hot Rock & Alternative Songs chart after having reached a No. 12 best last month.
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: The Weeknd aims to score a Hot 100-topper with an Ariana Grande remix for the second time in the last two years, Selena Gomez’s social media back-and-forth leads to a surge of streaming support, a golden-age rap hitmaker sells a whole lot of discounted downloads, and loads more.
The Weeknd’s “Die For You” Surges in Streams as It Eyes Hot 100’s Top Spot
Could the Ariana Grande-assisted remix of The Weeknd’s “Die For You” help the years-old song vaunt to No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100? The slow-burning single, originally released on 2016’s Starboy album, has exploded over the past few months and reached a No. 6 peak on the Hot 100, thanks to a TikTok revival which then crossed over to streaming and pop radio. The last time Grande hopped on a remixed Weeknd track — two years ago, with “Save Your Tears” — the juiced-up version from the two Republic labelmates sped straight to the top of the Hot 100, and now they’re hoping lightning can strike twice with “Die for You.”
And so far, the remix has helped the song surge across different platforms: daily total streams for “Die for You” were up 269% from Feb. 23, the day before the Grande remix was released, to Feb. 24 — rising from 1.77 million U.S. on-demand streams to 6.55 million, according to Luminate. That daily streaming total dipped a bit in the days following the release, but by Monday, “Die for You” was still collecting over 4.25 million daily streams.
Digital sales for the track also rose considerably thanks to Grande’s addition, from a negligible amount pre-mix to 3,600 last Friday. “Die For You” faces stiff competition near the top of the Hot 100, with Miley Cyrus’ “Flowers” and SZA’s “Kill Bill” entrenched in the top two spots for multiple weeks — but early returns suggest that The Weeknd and Grande will at least be tightening the competition on next week’s chart. – JASON LIPSHUTZ
Team Selena: Internet Drama Helps Give Selena Gomez a Catalog Bump
While she hasn’t released a new album since Rare in early 2020, and her 2022 solo single “My Mind & Me” came and went without making a huge impact, Selena Gomez is off to a promising start in 2023. Her “Calm Down” remix collaboration with Afrobeats star Rema has been scaling the Hot 100, breaking into the top 20 this week. And now, fans are flocking to her back catalog to show her support in the midst of a long-simmering celebrity conflict.
The drama stems from Gomez’s relationship with Hailey Bieber, the model/influencer married to Justin Bieber, who was famously involved with Gomez in the early 2010s. Their recent online back-and-forth has involved a mix of subtweets, deleted TikToks, resurfaced old TV clips and other intrigue that you practically need a doctorate in 21st century pop social media to properly understand. But it’s gotten Gomez back in the headlines over the past week and has resulted in some of her best streaming numbers of the young year.
Gomez’s catalog – not counting songs in which she’s a featured or co-lead artist, like “Calm Down” – racked up over 2.5 million official on-demand U.S. streams on Monday (Feb. 27). That’s up 26% from her Sunday total of 2 million, and up 52% from her 1.6 million total the previous Monday (Feb. 20). Combined with her recent crossover collab and the recently teased upcoming third season of her hit Hulu series Only Murders in the Building, it’s looking like a good 2023 so far for the veteran multi-platform star. — ANDREW UNTERBERGER
Loc-ed After Discount: iTunes Pricing Spurs Massive Tone-Loc and Young MC Sales Gains
With digital song sales an ever-shrinking part of the music marketplace in the 2020s, you might think it quaint that something as simple as an iTunes price discount could generate huge sales boosts for a catalog hit. But we see evidence of it still being a factor every year – and this week, it’s the driving force between an explosion in numbers for a trio of songs from late-’80s hitmakers Tone-Loc and Young MC.
Loc’s singles “Funky Cold Medina” and “Wild Thing” and Young MC’s “Bust a Move” were prominently featured as part of an iTunes sale on classic hip-hop staples last week, with the songs discounted from their usual $1.29 price point to 69 cents. The three songs – all of which were co-penned by Young MC, a.k.a. Marvin Young – saw gigantic sales gains, jumping from negligible numbers for the track week ending Feb. 16 to multiple thousands on the week ending Feb. 23, according to Luminate.
The biggest gainer was “Medina,” up 4,817% to 5,800, followed by “Move” (up 3,159% to 4,800) and “Wild” (up 3,712% to 3,900). The three songs all debut on Billboard’s Digital Song Sales chart this week, at No. 5, No. 8 and No. 12. Their totals might not be as robust as the best-selling songs of a decade ago, but it’s still an impact worth paying attention to – you don’t need to go too deep into the math to know that selling thousands of a song at 69 cents is worth a little more than selling hundreds at $1.29 — AU
Tune Into TV Girl’s Latest Viral Smash
If you’re not plugged into new-school social media or artist streaming totals, you might not know that indie-pop trio TV Girl are absolutely enormous online. The California group’s dreamy, harmony-heavy tunes didn’t make too much mainstream noise upon the release of 2014 debut French Exit and 2016 follow-up Who Really Cares, but some of the singles from those albums — like the lilting, strings-heavy “Lovers Rock”; the shuffling, percussive “Not Allowed”; and the whirring clap-along “Cigarettes out the Window” — have now earned hundreds of millions of streams each, adopted by TikTok users and used to turn the still-active group into unwitting stars.
Next month, they’ll play Coachella, most likely to a massive crowd; over the past month, however, they’ve added another viral hit to their growing collection. “Blue Hair,” a gentle, cymbal-riding lullaby from TV Girl’s 2018 third album Death of a Party Girl, has taken off on TikTok in a sped-up version, with users zeroing in on the melancholy lyric “And I guess I’ll just miss her / Even though she isn’t even really gone”; the line is soundtracking sing-alongs, bedroom tours and, in one poignant case, a photo collage from a trans TikTok user demonstrating their personal evolution.
However it’s being hoisted up, “Blue Hair” is now booming at streaming: its weekly U.S. official on-demand streams are now 20 times what they were a month ago, from 107,000 for the week ending Jan. 26 to 2.12 million for the week ending Feb. 23, according to Luminate. The band has never earned a Hot 100 hit over the course of their nearly decade-long run together — maybe they’ll have one by the time Coachella rolls around. — JL
Metro Boomin’s Star-Studded “Trance” Goes Viral After Missing Verse Revealed
There’ve been countless examples of a Drake feature helping a song take off on the charts over the past decade and a half, but Metro Boomin, Young Thug and Travis Scott’s “Trance” might be the first example of a song exploding partly for its lack of a Drake feature. After a verse Drake submitted for the Heroes and Villains track leaked in January, Metro went viral on TikTok for a clip of him explaining to an understandably incredulous DJ Drama why the biggest rapper in the game ended up on his cutting room floor (“It just really wasn’t no room”).
“Trance” had originally debuted at No. 42 on the Hot 100 during Heroes’ release week, spending three weeks on the chart before falling off around the new year. But listeners perhaps had to hear (or re-listen to) the song that was so perfectly complete that its creator had to give Drake a thanks-but-no-thanks response for his belated contribution. Official on-demand U.S. streams for the song started climbing back up in February, rising from 3.1 million on the week ending Feb. 9 to 5.8 million the week ending Feb. 23. The song even re-entered the Hot 100 at No. 76 this week, proving even Drake’s negative presence on a song guarantees a positive chart impact. — AU
Q&A: Kevin Meenan, Music Trends Manager at YouTube, on What’s Trending Up in His World
Which music trends from the first two months of 2023 have stood out to you the most?
Regional Mexican has really been top of mind in these first two months of the year, with the diverse sounds of the genre having really broken through. The impact of the genre on our charts can hardly be overstated – this week alone it is responsible for over 15 entries on our US Top Songs chart. The rise of Grupo Frontera has been particularly inspiring – just a year ago the group was getting their start by uploading covers directly to YouTube, and now they regularly are landing multiple songs in the upper echelons of our charts. Their Fuerza Regida collaboration “Bebe Dame” even spent two weeks at No. 1 for us in the U.S.
Sonically speaking, Jersey Club’s latest brush with the mainstream has also proven to be an interesting space to watch, with varying levels of its influence taking form across the pop landscape. Both Lil Uzi Vert’s “Just Wanna Rock” and Coi Leray’s “Players” (DJ Smallz 732 – Jersey Club Remix) have proven to be inescapable on YouTube Shorts and beyond, and now PinkPantheress and Ice Spice’s more loosely Jersey Club-inspired “Boy’s a liar Pt. 2” is just taking the platform by storm. And finally, the continued global takeover of BZRP Music Sessions has been a real early 2023 bright spot. The Argentinian producer has long been a charts mainstay for us, but his latest feat – BZRP Music Sessions #53 with Shakira – really lived up to the “broke the internet” cliché. The video earned 54.3M views for us in under 24 hours, and reached No. 1 in 20 markets.
Which trends do you think will define the rest of the year?
In recent years, we have increasingly seen that a hit on YouTube can really come from any time and any place, and I expect this to continue to be a real throughline for us in 2023. It has just been a super exciting phenomenon, with fans getting exposed to sometimes unfamiliar sounds – a throwback like City Pop, or a modern melting pot like Drift Phonk – and finding their new favorite artist or musical inspiration in the process.
And increasingly, we are seeing artists really learn how to lean into these moments, embracing the user-generated content that might have sparked a viral moment while engaging fans with their own new touchpoints – Shorts, visualizers, music videos and everything in between – that just add further fuel to the fire. I see this as a real defining theme of 2023, with entry points like Shorts continuing to break both new releases and unexpected material, and artists finding ways to really own that moment and narrative via their own content.
Which of your 2023 initiatives have most effectively amplified these trends?
To me, it is ultimately all about the platform itself and its continued evolution. With YouTube, artists are really in control of creating multiple touch points to tease out a new release, spark a trend or lean into a viral moment. There are just so many ways to share new music and connect with the fans, be it via Premieres, After Party, Community posts, Shorts, chat in a live stream or the traditional video drop. Shorts in particular is the area that excites me the most – looking forward to a growing feature set there that will help fans and artists connect in exciting ways.
Fill in the blank: in terms of maximizing audience, more popular artists should be thinking about…
Getting creative across video formats. We just continuously see artists find new fans and chart success when they enhance their releases in that way. Take NewJeans as an example, who fans have speculated are behind a mysterious channel that compliments the lore they created with a pair of creative music videos (side a and side b) for their track “Ditto” – which itself had multiple performance videos, behind-the-scenes clips and related Shorts. Each of these creates a new touchpoint for the rising K-pop stars to engage with their fans and keep them coming back for me.
There is no one size-fits-all approach, so I would just encourage artists to experiment – engage with Shorts, host a Premiere, have fun with creative teasers and visualizers and continue to make a moment with the time-tested music video drop. – JL
Billy Joel kicked off a residency at New York’s Madison Square Garden in 2014 with the intention of playing one show every month as long as demand dictates. Nine years later, the concerts are bigger than ever as he crosses another major milestone. Joel’s Valentine’s Day show marked the 87th concert of the residency, pushing the entire run’s earnings past the $200 million milestone.
According to figures reported to Billboard Boxscore, Billy Joel at The Garden has grossed $201.5 million and sold 1.6 million tickets. That dates back to Jan. 27, 2014, running monthly, without break, through February 2020 before pausing for obvious reasons. The residency resumed in November 2021.
And even prior to the residency beginning, Joel had reported 28 shows at MSG in the decades prior, adding up to $32.6 million to his career venue total. On top of that, there was a pair of co-headline dates with Elton John for another $4.3 million.
Joel’s plan has been to play until these shows stop selling out, and sell out they have. Scaling and attendance has barely budged among all 87 shows so far, ranging from 17,900 to 18,800, or a differentiation of less than 5%.
But despite its humble beginnings as a sold-out arena residency, there has still been room for growth. Gross per show kicked off with $1.973 million on Jan. 27, 2014, and has stretched beyond $3 million for Joel’s first two shows of 2023.
Cheap seats for Joel’s shows started off at $59.50, and nearly a decade later, fans can still find tickets for almost the same price, having nudged up to $63.50 for the ’23 dates. But the range of ticket scaling has become more elastic, with top-tier prices growing from $119.50 to $159.50.
Year-to-year ticket prices and grosses were typically increasing between four and eight percent – until now. A post-pandemic surge of demand paired with new industry-standard practices of platinum ticketing and dynamic pricing has produced the sharpest one-year uptick since the residency began. After average grosses climbed by 5% in 2021 and 4% in 2022, the early ’23 shows are up by 14%, jumping from $2.7 million per show to $3.1 million.
The two 2023 shows of Joel’s residency are the highest grossing dates of the run so far. Concerts are scheduled, once a month, through August, with more likely to follow. For those who don’t live in the New York Metropolitan area, catch him elsewhere throughout 2023, joined by Stevie Nicks.
In all, Billy Joel has earned $1.05 billion and sold 14.2 million tickets across his career, dating back to early Boxscore reports in 1986.
Skrillex secures two new top 10s, Quest for Fire (No. 2) and Don’t Get Too Close (No. 6), on Billboard’s Top Dance/Electronic Albums chart (dated March 4). Quest, released Feb. 17, earned 14,000 equivalent album units, and Don’t, which arrived the next day, tallied 6,000 units in the week ending Feb. 23, according to Luminate.
Since the chart began in 2001, Skrillex is only the fourth act to debut two albums in the top 10 in the same week. The others: Robyn, Depeche Mode and Björk. Robyn doubled up with Body Talk (No. 3) and EP Body Talk Pt 3 (No. 7) on Dec. 11, 2010; Depeche Mode, with Remixes 81-04 [Limited] (No. 1) and Remixes 81-04 (No. 2) on Nov. 13, 2004; and Björk, with Greatest Hits (No. 2) and Family Tree (No. 6) on Nov. 23, 2002.
Skrillex, therefore, becomes the first act to debut two all-new full-length studio albums in the chart’s top 10 in the same week.
The new titles are Skrillex’s sixth and seventh Top Dance/Electronic Albums top 10s, a run that began in 2011 with EPs Scary Monsters and Nice Sprites (No. 3), More Monsters and Sprites (No. 5) and continued with three No. 1s: EP Bangarang (10 weeks on top, 2012), Recess (five, 2014) and Skrillex and Diplo Present Jack Ü, with Diplo (three, 2015).
Meanwhile, tracks from Quest and Don’t account for a sprawl of Skrillex activity on the multimetric Hot Dance/Electronic Songs chart, where he holds 20 of the tally’s 50 spots, including 14 debuts from the two LPs. The 20 titles mark a new one-week record for any act, surpassing the 16 that Kygo charted on the June 13, 2020, survey.
Skrillex has logged 55 career charted titles, the third most among all acts dating to the chart’s January 2013 inception, after David Guetta (74) and Kygo (61). Skrillex has six top 10s, including one leader, “Where Are Ü Now,” with Diplo and Justin Bieber (two weeks in charge, 2015).
Of Skrillex’s 14 Hot Dance/Electronic Songs debuts on the latest list, none comes in higher than his collab with Missy Elliott and Mr. Oizo, “RATATA” (No. 14). Elliott’s second entry and Oizo’s first, the song racked up 2.6 million U.S. streams and sold 1,500 downloads, also good for beginnings on Dance/Electronic Digital Song Sales (No. 4) and Dance/Electronic Streaming Songs (No. 18).
Other Skrillex Hot Dance/Electronic Songs highlights include his team-ups with Bobby Raps (who earns his first two entries): “Leave Me Like This” leaps 41-18, with 1.3 million streams, up 313% (nearing the track’s No. 15 high, achieved upon its Feb. 4 debut), and conversely in theme, “Don’t Leave Me Like This,” new at No. 48.
Plus, Skrillex reunites with Bieber on “Don’t Go,” also with Don Toliver, No. 43 (627,000 streams). The track gives Bieber his sixth appearance and first in almost six years, since “2U” (billed as by Guetta featuring Bieber; No. 4, 2017).
‘Trustfall’ Rises
Additionally on Hot Dance/Electronic Songs, P!nk returns to the top 10 with “Trustfall” (13-7, a new best). The track, which became her first top 10 upon its debut (No. 8, Feb. 11), surges as P!nk’s album of the same name starts at No. 1 on Top Album Sales and No. 2 on the Billboard 200.
“Trustfall” totaled 4.2 million streams (up 11%), 1.5 million radio airplay audience impressions (up 752%) and sold 5,000 downloads (up 81%) Feb. 17-23. It returns for a second week atop Dance/Electronic Digital Song Sales (7-1) and debuts at No. 94 on the Billboard Hot 100, where it’s her 36th career hit.
‘Escapism’ Found in Top 10
Redirecting to the Dance/Mix Show Airplay chart, RAYE rolls to her sixth top 10 with “Escapism,” featuring 070 Shake, who earns her first (13-10). The pop release, remixed by dEVOLVE and others, is receiving core-dance airplay on supporters including SiriusXM’s Diplo’s Revolution, KNHC (C89.5) Seattle and WCPY (Dance Factory FM) Chicago. (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 70 top 40-formatted reporters.)
Lynyrd Skynyrd’s “Simple Man” is back on the Billboard charts following a performance of the song during the audition rounds of the new season of American Idol.
The song returns to Billboard’s Hot Rock & Alternative Songs tally dated March 4 at No. 23. (Older songs are eligible to appear on Billboard’s multimetric charts if ranking in the top half and have a meaningful reason for their resurgences.)
In the Feb. 17-23 tracking week, “Simple Man” earned 3.6 million official U.S. streams, a 4% boost, and sold 1,000 downloads, up 189%, according to Luminate.
The latter count also allows the song to hit the Rock Digital Song Sales survey at No. 11.
Country singer Colin Stough performed the song on the Feb. 19 season premiere of ABC’s American Idol. Since its upload, the audition has been watched more than 1 million times globally on YouTube. Stough got a golden ticket to advance in the competition.
“Simple Man” was originally released in 1973 on Lynyrd Skynyrd’s debut album, (Pronounced ‘Lĕh-‘nérd ‘Skin-‘nérd). Although not promoted as a single, the tune has become one of the band’s most enduring compositions, with more than 100 weeks spent on Billboard’s Rock Streaming Songs chart and 25 tallied on Rock Digital Song Sales. It has drawn 1.8 billion in cumulative radio audience and 875.4 million official on-demand U.S. streams and sold 2.2 million downloads through Feb. 23 (dating to the inception of Luminate data in 1991).
In its third week on the chart, PinkPantheress and Ice Spice’s “Boy’s a Liar, Pt. 2” rises to No. 1 on Billboard’s Streaming Songs list dated March 4.
In the Feb. 17-23 tracking week, “Liar” earned 33.7 million official U.S. streams, an 8% gain, according to Luminate.
It’s the first non-holiday song to rise to No. 1, rather than debuting there, since Steve Lacy’s “Bad Habit,” which spent its first week at No. 1 on the tally dated Aug. 13, 2022, its fourth frame. Between “Habit” and “Liar,” Brenda Lee’s “Rockin’ Around the Christmas Tree” reached No. 1 for the first time on the Jan. 7 survey, and all other rulers during that span were either returning No. 1s or debuted atop the list.
“Liar” started at No. 4 on the Feb. 18 ranking (20.2 million streams) and rose to No. 3 on Feb. 25 (31.1 million) before its coronation.
It’s both PinkPantheress’ and Ice Spice’s first No. 1s on Streaming Songs, coming in both’s first appearance on the chart. They’re the first to reach No. 1 with their first song to appear since Kim Petras, whose “Unholy,” a co-lead with Sam Smith, debuted at No. 1 in October 2022.
As previously reported, “Liar” is the first No. 1 by multiple acts all achieving their first leader with an initial entry since “We Don’t Talk About Bruno,” from Encanto, credited to Carolina Gaitan, Mauro Castillo, Adassa, Rhenzy Feliz, Diane Guerrero, Stephanie Beatriz and the Encanto cast.
Concurrently, “Liar” rises 4-3 on the multi-metric Billboard Hot 100, a new peak.
Released Feb. 3, the new edition of “Liar,” which adds Ice Spice on vocals, follows the original’s Nov. 30 premiere.
Matthew West earns his second No. 1 on Billboard’s Top Christian Albums chart as My Story Your Glory arrives at the summit on the March 4-dated list. The 22-song set, released Feb. 17, earned 7,000 equivalent album units in its first tracking week, ending Feb. 23, according to Luminate.
“I’m humbled by this news and thankful to my team at Provident Label Group for its hard work,” West tells Billboard. “Most of all, I’m thankful for all who let my songs be part of their lives.”
West first led Top Christian Albums when Live Forever arrived at the summit and spent a week at No. 1 in May 2015. With the new LP, he also adds his eighth top 10 and first since Brand New started at its No. 4 best in February 2020.
West posted his first of 14 Top Christian Albums entries in 2004 with Happy, which peaked at No. 28.
Meanwhile, “Me on Your Mind,” the launch single from the new album, ruled the Christian Airplay chart for five weeks beginning last July, awarding West his 12th leader. On the multi-metric Hot Christian Songs list, which combines streaming, airplay and sales data, the track dominated for two weeks in August, giving West his sixth No. 1.
West’s current single, the My Story Your Glory title track, pushes 12-11 on Christian Airplay, up 5% to 4.3 million audience impressions. On Hot Christian Songs, it rises 16-15 for a new best, also with 376,000 U.S. streams in the tracking week.
Welcome to The Contenders, 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 charts dated March 11), a number of new releases challenge SZA’s ongoing Billboard 200 supremacy — led by the latest from a Latin pop star looking to accomplish the unprecedented.
Karol G, Mañana Será Bonito (Universal Latino): Karol G might not be a household name among mainstream U.S. audiences, but that could change with the debut of her fourth album. The Latin pop star reached a higher peak on the Billboard 200 with each of her first three albums — 2017’s Unstoppable (No. 192), 2019’s Ocean (No. 54) and 2021’s KG0516 (No. 20) — and last year scored her first two top 25 hits on the Billboard Hot 100, with “Provenza” and her Becky G collaboration “Mamiii.” Now, with last Friday’s (Feb. 24) Mañana Será Bonito, she should be in the mix for the chart’s top spot.
Mañana is currently available on CD and as a digital album — it topped the iTunes albums chart on its day of release — and is helped by the inclusion of streaming smash “Provenza,” as well as Hot 100 hits “Gatúbela’ (with Maldy) and “X Si Volvemos” (with Romeo Santos). But the album’s biggest hit might be brand new: the much-hyped Shakira collaboration “TDQ,” which has been in the top 10 of the daily charts on Spotify, Apple Music, YouTube and iTunes since its release.
If the album does debut at No. 1, it would make history as the first all-Spanish-language album by a female artist to reach the top spot — joining only Bad Bunny (who’s done it twice, with 2020’s El Último Tour del Mundo and 2022’s Un Verano Sin Ti) among all artists. She’d also be only the third woman with a mostly non-English language No. 1 album, following Selena (Dreaming of You, 1995) and The Singing Nun (The Singing Nun, 1963). Dreaming of You blended Spanish and English, while The Singing Nun was recorded entirely in French.
Gorillaz, Cracker Island (Parlaphone/Warner): Gorillaz fans have been waiting to take the trip to Cracker Island since the album’s title track came out last June — followed by a steady stream of singles, including the top 20 Hot Rock & Alternative Songs hit “New Gold,” featuring Tame Impala and Bootie Brown. Now, the full 10-track album is finally out, available for sale in over a dozen vinyl variants, box sets, as well as four cassette options. Speaking of Bad Bunny: He graces the album’s “Tormenta,” which should provide a nice boon to the album’s streaming numbers.
Yeat, AfterLyfë (Geffen/Field Trip/Twizzy Rich): One of the most-hyped rappers of the last few years, enigmatic hip-hop sensation Yeat released his third album in three years last week with AfterLyfë. Yeat’s streaming prowess sent 2022’s 2 Alive to No. 6 on the Billboard 200, and the 21-track AfterLyfë seems likely to join it in the chart’s top 10. The album’s lone high-profile guest is the YoungBoy Never Broke Again guest spot on “Shmunk,” however, and it has no physical release currently available for sale.
IN THE MIX
Don Toliver, Love Sick (Cactus Jack/Atlantic): Rapper-singer Don Toliver has been a ubiquitous supporting actor in hip-hop over the past year, showing up on Hot 100 hits from Billboard 200-topping albums by Pusha T (“Scrape It Off” from It’s Almost Dry), Metro Boomin (“Too Many Nights” from Heroes and Villains) and SZA (“Used” from SOS). Now he gets his own shot with Love Sick, which follows 2021’s No. 2-peaking Life of a Don and boasts guest appearances from Justin Bieber, Future, Lil Durk, Brent Faiyaz and other big names.
Godsmack, Lighting Up the Sky (BMG): It’s been two decades since the Massachusetts hard rock band was at its commercial peak, but Godsmack remains a reliable performer on the Billboard 200, sending each of its past six albums to the chart’s top 10. Lighting Up the Sky is the group’s first release since 2018’s No. 8-peaking When Legends Rise – the longest gap between albums in Godsmack’s career — and contains their 12th No. 1 on Billboard’s Mainstream Rock Airplay chart with lead single “I Surrender.”
Gracie Abrams, Good Riddance (Interscope): Gracie Abrams has long cultivated a reputation as your favorite singer-songwriter’s favorite singer-songwriter, and this February she finally put out her debut album, Good Riddance. The album does not yet have any major chart hits to its credit, but it comes with chart-topping pedigree in its primary artistic partner, writer-producer Aaron Dessner – whose frequent collaborator Taylor Swift is taking Abrams out on her impossibly anticipated The Eras Tour this spring.
Ozuna captures his 32nd No. 1 on Billboard’s Latin Airplay chart as “Hey Mor,” with Feid, advances from No. 3 to lead the March 4-dated ranking. Thanks to the new leader, Ozuna ties with Enrique Iglesias for the second-most No. 1s on the list. Feid, meanwhile, scores his second.
“Hey Mor” takes over Latin Airplay in its ninth week, supported by a 12% increase in audience impressions, to 11.5 million, earned in the U.S. during the Feb 17-23 tracking week, according to Luminate.
“Hey Mor” is the second song from Ozuna’s fifth studio album, OzuTochi, to hit No. 1 on the all-genre Latin Airplay. It follows “Somos Iguales,” with Tokischa, featuring Louchie Lou & Michi One, which topped the tally for one week last October.
As mentioned, with the new No. 1, Ozuna moves ahead and enters a tie with Enrique Iglesias for the second-most No. 1s on Latin Airplay since its inception in 1994. They only trail J Balvin, who continues to dominate with 35 No. 1s: Here’s an update of the scoreboard:
35, J Balvin
32, Enrique Iglesias
32, Ozuna
27, Daddy Yankee
22, Maluma
22, Wisin
22, Romeo Santos
Feid, meanwhile, picks up his second No. 1 after a year and a half. He secured his first victory with “Porfa,” with the all-star team comprising J Balvin, Maluma, Nicky Jam, Sech and Justin Quiles. The song earned the Colombian his first No. 1 on any Billboard chart as it ascended to a dual domination on Latin Airplay and Latin Rhythm Airplay for one week in August 2020.
Further, Feid crosses off a new career achievement as “Hey Mor” rises 12-10 on Hot Latin Songs, which blends airplay, streams, and digital sales. It becomes his first top 10 on the multi-metric tally. Ozuna collects his 29th top 10.
Grupo Quintanna Arrives
Elsewhere on the Latin charts, Tlaxcala, Mexico, band Grupo Quintanna scores its first top 10 on any Billboard chart as “El Final de Nuestra Historia” rallies 15-7 on Regional Mexican Airplay. The song’s surge comes via a remix with Raymix, which arrived six months after the original version was released on May 10, 2022.
The new leader gives Grupo Quintanna its first top 10 through its first chart appearance. Raymix clocks his sixth.
“Final” secures a spot in the top 10 with 4.8 million in audience impressions, a 23% gain in the tracking week ending Feb. 23.
SZA collects her third No. 1 on Billboard’s Rhythmic Airplay chart in three years as “Kill Bill” jumps from No. 3 to lead the list dated March 4. The new champ ascends after a 12% boost in weekly plays that made it the most played song on U.S. monitored rhythmic radio stations in the week ending Feb. 23, according to Luminate.
As “Kill Bill” conquers Rhythmic Airplay, it evicts Metro Boomin, The Weeknd and 21 Savage’s “Creepin” after its three-week streak.
“Kill Bill” puts SZA atop Rhythmic Airplay for the third time in her career. She first led through a featured spot on Doja Cat’s “Kiss Me More,” a two-week champ in 2021, and returned to the summit with her track “I Hate U,” which reigned for one week in 2022. Of the three leaders, “Kill Bill” has enjoyed the fastest trip to the top, with seven weeks needed to achieve the coronation. “Kiss Me More” required 10 weeks to reach No. 1, while “I Hate U” arrived in its 12th frame.
“Kill Bill” appears on SZA’s SOS album, which was released in December 2022. The set has captured 10 weeks at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 albums chart – a feat only six other albums have achieved in the past 10 years. Alongside its parent album, “Kill Bill” is itself an across-the-board-hit, with seven weeks at No. 2 on the all-genre Billboard Hot 100 chart.
Elsewhere, “Kill Bill” scales the Pop Airplay chart with a 7-6 increase after an 11% gain in weekly plays, and, despite a 23-24 retreat on Adult Pop Airplay, improved 26% in weekly plays. In the R&B/hip-hop realm, the single dips 12-13 on Mainstream R&B/Hip-Hop Airplay (down 1% in plays), climbs 20-16 on Adult R&B Airplay (up 14% in plays) and holds at No. 12 on the overall R&B/Hip-Hop Airplay chart for a third straight week.
The movement at rhythmic, pop and R&B/hip-hop radio helps “Kill Bill” maintain its steady progress on the all-genre Radio Songs chart. On the new ranking, the song rises 6-4 and added 11% in weekly audience to reach 71.5 million impressions for the week.