Chart Beat
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When Madonna hits the road later this year for her career-spanning Celebration Tour, she’ll be taking a global victory lap, further cementing her legacy as the Queen of Pop. She’ll also be taking home big money — upwards of $100 million, by Billboard‘s estimate.
The parade of concerts will feature Madonna’s greatest hits from across her 40-year career, a rare straightforward ambition for one of the world’s most enigmatic artists. With 38 top 10 songs on the Billboard Hot 100 and 23 top 10 albums on the Billboard 200, the tour stands to continue her streak as the highest-grossing solo female artist in Billboard Boxscore history (provided she can fend off Taylor Swift‘s upcoming Eras tour). How high will it go?
Madonna’s touring career began in earnest with 1985’s The Virgin Tour, averaging more than 10,000 tickets and $100,000 per night, according to figures reported to Billboard Boxscore. (The average ticket price on that tour was $14.74, a distant whiff of what her — and all artists’ — arena concert tickets cost in the 2020s. In today’s dollars, adjusted for inflation, that skimpy price would translate to $29.56.)
Already a sell-out force, Madonna’s next trek, 1987’s Who’s That Girl World Tour, tripled her draw and nearly quintupled her selling power in just two years, pacing 35,000 tickets and $756,000 per show in a mix of arenas and stadiums that year.
Both of those figures were just the beginning. They were followed by 1990’s Blond Ambition Tour, 1993’s The Girlie Show and seven tours in the 21st century that have grossed at least $50 million each.
Madonna’s highest-grossing tour thus far is the 85-date Sticky & Sweet Tour in 2008-09, playing stadiums around the world to the tune of $407.7 million and 3.5 million tickets. Fifteen years later, it remains the highest-grossing tour by a woman ever. (Her next trek, 2012’s MDNA Tour – her lengthiest tour by number of shows at 88 – played a mix of stadiums and arenas, and became her second-highest grossing run, with $305.2 million.)
The Celebration Tour was announced on Tuesday (Jan. 17) with 26 shows in North America and 12 in Europe. Throughout this week, that routing expanded to 41 and 20, respectively. Madonna begins the trek on July 15 in Vancouver and is scheduled to wrap Dec. 2 in Amsterdam. Thus far, no dates outside the U.S., Canada and western Europe have been announced.
To gauge the tour’s financial prospects, it would be unfair to simply reflect on Madonna’s most recent tour. That was the 2019-20 Madame X Tour, an experiment that placed the Queen of Pop in intimate theater-based mini-residencies in major markets on both sides of the Atlantic. The 75-show run sold itself out at 179,000 tickets and $51.5 million, but it’s an outlier in a career comprised of (much) larger venues.
A more apt comparison would be the Rebel Heart Tour of 2015-16, a string of 82 arena shows after the stadium madness of her previous two treks. That tour grossed $169.8 million and sold 1.05 million tickets worldwide, including quick stints in Asia and Oceania. On the Rebel Heart Tour, more relevant to the Celebration routing, Madonna averaged $1.8 million and 12,500 tickets in the U.S. and Canada, and $1.7 million and 14,600 tickets in Europe. Given her current 61-show routing for The Celebration Tour, maintaining those averages would put the entire run on track to gross $106.9 million and sell 802,000 tickets.
But ticket prices have risen since Madonna was charging $15-and-under in the ‘80s, including a significant spike in the last five years. Platinum ticketing and dynamic pricing have blown out arena and stadium grosses in the post-pandemic era, with Bad Bunny, Harry Styles, The Rolling Stones and more approaching $200 averages on tour last year.
For example, on Elton John’s Farewell Yellow Brick Road Tour, his average arena ticket in North America jumped from $139 in 2018 to $181 in 2022. That’s a 30% increase, which would bolster Madonna’s projected gross to $140.6 million. But the surge in prices hasn’t been as great in Europe, which could soften our prediction back toward the $130 million mark.
Further, Madonna has long been a global icon. So far, The Celebration Tour spans two continents, while she has frequently hit South America, Asia and Oceania throughout her career. An expansion of the tour — which seems like a natural idea based on the marketability of an all-hits show — would drastically change what is realistic for the 2023 trek. And as noted above, Madonna already increased the number of North American shows for the tour by more than 50% before The Celebration Tour’s general on-sale began on Jan. 20. Demand could dictate further additions.
Today’s on-sale generated over 600,000 tickets sold, with 35 sold-out shows and more to become available next week.
Over nearly 40 years, Madonna has grossed a reported $1.376 billion and sold 11.7 million tickets across 575 shows. That makes her the most successful female act in Boxscore history. The Celebration Tour will nudge her closer to the $1.5 billion mark. Among all acts, only four have grossed more in Boxscore history.
Yellowstone continues to have a strong impact on Billboard’s Top TV Songs chart, powered by Tunefind, ranking four songs within the top 10 of the December 2022 list, including the No. 1.
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Rankings for the Top TV Songs chart are based on song and show data provided by Tunefind and ranked using a formula blending that data with sales and streaming information tracked by Luminate during the corresponding period of December 2022.
Lainey Wilson’s “Watermelon Moonshine,” heard in the Dec. 11 episode of the Paramount show, leads at No. 1. It scored 4.9 million official U.S. streams and 10,000 downloads in December 2022, according to Luminate.
As a result of its Yellowstone synch, the song, originally released Aug. 12, 2022, reached No. 5 on Billboard’s Country Digital Song Sales chart, as well as No. 15 on the all-format Digital Song Sales ranking.
Wilson, who also acts on the show, performed the song as her character in the episode.
Other Yellowstone appearances on the chart include a pair of Zach Bryan songs (“Motorcycle Drive By,” No. 4 — 3.9 million streams, 6,000 downloads; “Summertime Blues,” No. 7 – 3.7 million streams, 2,000 downloads) and one from Flatland Cavalry (“Mountain Song, No. 8 – 2 million streams, 2,000 downloads). Bryan performed both songs on the Dec. 18 episode.
The top non-Yellowstone title, meanwhile, belongs to Mitski, whose “Washing Machine Heart” bows at No. 2 after a Dec. 2 synch in Mythic Quest. In December 2022, the song earned 13.1 million streams.
See the full top 10, also featuring music from Fire Country, The White Lotus, The Rookie, Harry & Meghan and The Good Doctor, below.
Rank, Song, Artist, Show (Network)1. “Watermelon Moonshine,” Lainey Wilson, Yellowstone (Paramount)2. “Washing Machine Heart,” Mitski, Mythic Quest (Apple TV+)3. “Never Say Never,” Cole Swindell & Lainey Wilson, Fire Country (CBS)4. “Motorcycle Drive By,” Zach Bryan, Yellowstone (Paramount)5. “Ciao Ciao,” La rappresentante di lista, The White Lotus (HBO)6. “Katla,” Zander Hawley & Abby Gundersen, The Rookie (ABC)7. “Summertime Blues,” Zach Bryan, Yellowstone (Paramount)8. “Mountain Song,” Flatland Cavalry, Yellowstone (Paramount)9. “Follow the Sun,” Xavier Rudd, Harry & Meghan (Netflix)10. “What Makes You Sad,” Nicotine Dolls, The Good Doctor (ABC)
TALK achieves the first new No. 1 of 2023 on Billboard’s Adult Alternative Airplay chart with “Run Away to Mars,” which lifts from No. 2 to the top of the Jan. 28-dated survey.
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“Mars” is also TALK’s first No. 1 on a Billboard chart, notched in the Canadian solo artist’s first appearance on the airplay ranking.
The song was released on DOOGOOD/Range/Capitol Records.
TALK is the latest act to score a first No. 1 on Adult Alternative Airplay, after Rosa Linn‘s “Snap” ruled for seven weeks beginning in October. Like TALK, Linn crowned the tally in her first appearance and was initially aided by TikTok virality.
Concurrently, “Mars” ranks at No. 8, after rising as high as No. 6 in December, on Alternative Airplay. On the all-rock-format, audience-based Rock & Alternative Airplay chart, the song ascends 12-11 with 2.5 million audience impressions, up 3%, according to Luminate.
“Mars” has also hit No. 22 on the multimetric Hot Rock & Alternative Songs chart, in September. On the most recently published, Jan. 21-dated ranking, it places at No. 31, with 1.3 million official U.S. streams and 1,000 downloads sold in addition to its radio success.
“Mars” is currently a standalone single. TALK released an EP, Talk to Me, in November 2021.
All charts dated Jan. 28 will update on Billboard.com Tuesday, Jan. 24.
David Guetta and Bebe Rexha’s viral collab-turned-smash “I’m Good (Blue)” ascends to No. 1 on Billboard’s mainstream top 40-based Pop Airplay chart (dated Jan. 28).
The song, on What a DJ/Warner Records, gained by 2% to 15,551 plays on 153 reporting stations, or, an average of 102 plays per panelist, Jan. 13-19, according to Luminate.
All charts dated Jan. 28 will update on Billboard.com Tuesday, Jan. 24.
Guetta claims his second Pop Airplay No. 1, after “Without You,” featuring Usher. As the song topped the tally dated Dec. 3, 2011, Guetta ends the longest break between leaders since the chart began in 1992: 11 years, one month and three weeks. He surpasses Sean Paul’s 10-year, three-month and one-week gap in 2006-16.
Rexha also achieves her second Pop Airplay No. 1, after “Me, Myself & I,” with G-Eazy, reigned for two weeks in April 2016.
Meanwhile, as “Good” climbs from No. 3 to the Pop Airplay summit, it bests the peak of the song that it prominently interpolates: Eiffel 65’s “Blue (Da Ba Dee),” which reached No. 2 on the list in January 2000.
Guetta and Rexha’s single holds at its No. 4 high on the most recently published all-genre, multi-metric Billboard Hot 100 (dated Jan. 21), likewise having topped the No. 6 peak of Eiffel 65’s hit.
“[David] had played [‘I’m Good’] at a festival after we had cut it, and somebody took a YouTube video of it and posted it,” Rexha recently told Billboard‘s Pop Shop Podcast. “Then somebody found that and made a remix and posted it to TikTok. Then this big gamer posted it from TikTok, and then it blew up from her page.
“It’s crazy, because you just never know what people want,” Rexha added. “Everybody was going crazy and being like, ‘We want this song! Why can’t we find it?’ And I was hitting up David [saying], ‘David, people really want this record! We should just put it out!’ At this point, it’s viral on TikTok, and people are asking for it. Let’s just give the people what they want. It’s just a great, fun record.”
Zach Bryan spends a 31st total week at No. 1 on Billboard’s Country Songwriters chart (dated Jan. 21), tying Ashley Gorley for the most weeks spent on top since the chart’s launch in 2019.
Bryan, who has ruled for the past 23 consecutive weeks, matches the mark on the strength of five writing credits on Billboard’s Hot Country Songs chart, led by his breakthrough single “Something in the Orange.” The track tallies a third week at No. 1 on Hot Country Songs, as it reaches the top 10 of the Billboard Hot 100, rising 11-10.
Here’s a look at all five of Bryan’s songwriting credits on the latest Hot Country Songs chart, all of which he wrote solo and recorded, and which contribute to his placement on Country Songwriters:
Rank, Title:
No. 1, “Something in the Orange”
No. 27, “Oklahoma Smoke Show”
No. 32, “Burn, Burn, Burn”
No. 41, “Sun to Me”
No. 45, “The Good I’ll Do”
As Bryan ties Gorley for the most weeks logged at No. 1 on Country Songwriters, here’s an updated look at the artists with the most weeks spent on top:
Most Weeks at No. 1 on Country Songwriters:
31, Zach Bryan
31, Ashley Gorley
18, Blanco Brown
15, Luke Combs
14, Morgan Wallen
13, Taylor Swift
10, Josh Thompson
9, HARDY
8, Josh Jenkins
7, Josh Osborne
5, Laura Veltz
On Billboard’s Country Producers chart, Joey Moi continues his domination as he extends his record-run at No. 1 to 91 weeks. He sports seven production credits on Hot Country Songs, via Morgan Wallen’s “You Proof” (No. 2), “Wasted on You” (No. 5) and “Thought You Should Know” (No. 6); HARDY’s “Wait in the Truck,” featuring Lainey Wilson (No. 11); and Wallen’s “One Thing at a Time” (No. 21), “Tennessee Fan” (No. 26) and “Days That End in Why” (No. 38).
The weekly Country Songwriters and Country Producers charts are based on total points accrued by a songwriter and producer, respectively, for each attributed song that appears on the Hot Country Songs chart. 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).
The full Country Songwriters and Country Producers charts, in addition to the full genre rankings, can be found on Billboard.com.
Miley Cyrus flourishes on Australia’s singles chart with “Flowers” (Columbia/Sony), which debuts at No. 1.
“Flowers” is, surprisingly, the U.S. pop star’s first leader in the land Down Under. Her previous best on the ARIA Singles Chart was No. 2 for 2013’s “Wrecking Ball,” though she has led the national albums chart with two titles — Bangerz in 2013 and Breakout in 2008.
Cyrus has a deep connection with Australia, which extends beyond music. She and Aussie actor Liam Hemsworth dated on and off for years after meeting on the set of the 2010 film movie The Last Song. The couple married in December 2018, but separated the following year. Later, Cyrus briefly dated another Aussie singer, Cody Simpson.
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Raye is enjoying the best-possible start to 2023. First, she crashed the Official U.K. Singles Chart with “Escapism” (via RCA/Sony), the British singer’s first No. 1 in her homeland. Now, the single climbs to a new high in Australia. “Escapism,” featuring U.S. rapper 070 Shake, lifts 4-3 on the ARIA Singles Chart, published Friday (Jan. 20).
Also bringing a fresh vibe to the ARIA Chart is “Vibe” (Interscope/Universal), the new collaboration from BigBang member Taeyang and BTS member Jimin. It’s new at No. 48. “Vibe” should get a shot in the arm from the release this week of a new live performance of the song, accompanied with a full backing band.
Over on the ARIA Albums Chart, also published Jan. 20, Taylor Swift locks-up another No. 1 with Midnights (Universal). Swift’s tenth and latest studio album has led the Australian survey for 11 non-consecutive weeks, her longest-running leader in these parts.
Meanwhile, SZA’s SOS (RCA/Sony) holds at No. 2 for a third week, while British acts Arctic Monkeys and Elton John enjoy sales spikes following their recent, respective live runs. Arctic Monkeys’ The Car (Domino/EMI) freewheels 46-3, and Elton’s Diamonds (Universal) shines at No. 5.
The only new title to debut this week on the ARIA Albums Chart is Duncan Toomb’s Steel On Steel (Compass Brothers Records/Universal), the Australian country artist’s solo debut. It’s new at No. 30.
The late David Crosby – whose death was reported Thursday (Jan. 19) at age 81 – left behind a legendary catalog of hits on Billboard’s charts through the years.
The singer/songwriter made his Billboard chart debut in 1965 with the band The Byrds and its smash Billboard Hot 100 No. 1 hit “Mr. Tambourine Man.” The group, known for its jangling guitars and layered harmonies, also topped the list with “Turn! Turn! Turn! (To Everything There Is a Season).” While Crosby departed The Byrds in 1967, he would continue to notch new hit albums and singles through collaborative projects and solo work on through his 2021 studio album For Free, which reached the top 10 on the Americana/Folk Albums chart.
Crosby logged 17 top 40-charting songs on the Hot 100, spanning his solo work and as part of The Byrds and the supergroups Crosby, Stills & Nash and Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young. (Stills, Nash and Young are Stephen Stills, Graham Nash and Neil Young.)
Among Crosby’s Hot 100 hits are The Byrds’ pair of No. 1s, which both topped the list in 1965; “Turn!” notched three weeks atop the list, while “Mr. Tambourine Man” spent one week at No. 1. The two songs are Crosby’s all-time biggest hits on the Hot 100 (we count down his top 20 hits, below). His all-time ranking includes such familiar CSNY favorites as “Teach Your Children,” “Our House” and “Southern Cross.”
On the Billboard 200 albums chart, Crosby’s work across his solo, collaborative and band projects yielded 22 top 40-charting efforts. Of those, 10 reached the top 10 – including a trio of No. 1s in the early 1970s from Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young (Deja Vu in 1970, 4 Way Street in 1971 and So Far in 1974).
David Crosby’s Top 20 Billboard Hot 100 hits chart is based on actual performance on the weekly Billboard Hot 100 through Jan. 21, 2022. Songs are ranked based on an inverse point system, with weeks at No. 1 earning the greatest value and weeks at No. 100 earning the least. Due to changes in chart methodology over the years, certain eras are weighted to account for different chart turnover rates over various periods.
Both Fuerza Regida and Grupo Frontera celebrate their first No. 1 on Billboard’s Hot Latin Songs chart as “Bebe Dame,” their second collaboration, powers from 3-1 on the Jan. 21-dated ranking.
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“We were aiming for a hit, but we didn’t know it’d be this big,” Fuerza Regida’s lead singer JOP tells Billboard.
“Bebe Dame” rises to the summit in its fourth week on the multimetric tally — which blends airplay, streaming data and digital sales — with gains across all metrics, and takes home the Greatest Gainer/Sales & Streaming trophy for registering the biggest gains of the week.
Streaming contributes the most to the song’s ranking, with a robust 26% increase, to 14.1 million official U.S. streams earned in the week ending Jan. 12, according to Luminate. The sum yields a 20-11 surge on the all-genre Streaming Songs list and a second week at No. 1 on Latin Streaming Songs.
While sales rise with a 17% gain, to 2,000 downloads in the same period, “Bebe Dame” is pushed down 1-2 on Latin Digital Songs, as Bizarrap and Shakira’s “Bzrp Music Sessions, Vol. 53” debuts atop with a little over 2,000 sales.
Fuerza Regida’s new No. 1 song arrives a week after scoring a dual achievement: the group’s latest albums Pa Que Hablen and Sigan Hablando launched in the top 10 on Top Latin Albums and Regional Mexican Albums charts (dated Jan. 14). “Bebe Dame” from Sigan Hablando, and which debuted at No. 3 on the same chart week on Hot Latin Songs, earns both Fuerza Regida and Grupo Frontera its first champ there.
“It was definitely challenging,” JOP adds about working with Grupo Frontera. “We went out of our comfort zone with this track, but the energy, the vibe, was always there. It was recorded in one take!”
Elsewhere, “Bebe Dame” earns Fuerza Regida its first entry on the all-genre Billboard Hot 100 chart. Grupo Frontera, meanwhile, secures its highest ranking as the song bows at No. 31.
Further, Grupo Frontera claims its highest ranking on the Global 200 list as “Bebe Dame” jumps 46-22 in its second week. Previously, the group reached a No. 31 high with “No Se Va” in Oct. 2022. On the Global Excl. U.S. chart, the track rockets 102-45 in its second week.
Feid Clocks Second Champ on Latin Rhythm Airplay: Over on Latin Rhythm Airplay, Feid generates his second ruler with “Normal,” which rallies 8-1 in its 27th week with a 33% gain in audience impressions, to 8 million, earned in the U.S. during the Jan. 6-12 tracking week. It’s the longest trek to the penthouse since the chart begun in 2005.
“Normal” becomes the Colombian’s first champ as a soloist, unaccompanied by any other act. His first Latin Rhythm Airplay domination landed through “Porfa,” with the all-star team comprising J Balvin, Maluma, Nicky Jam, Sech, and Justin Quiles in Aug. 2020.
On the all-genre Latin Airplay recap, “Normal” soars 16-4, Feid’s second top 10 there.
Five Finger Death Punch moves into a tie for the most top 10s in the history of Billboard’s Mainstream Rock Airplay chart, as “Welcome to the Circus” rises 11-10 on the Jan. 21-dated ranking.
“Circus” is the band’s 29th top 10, equal to the totals of Foo Fighters and Shinedown for the most since the tally began in March 1981.
Five Finger Death Punch first hit the top 10 with the No. 9-peaking “The Bleeding” in March 2008.
Most Top 10s, Mainstream Rock Airplay
29, Five Finger Death Punch
29, Foo Fighters
29, Shinedown
28, Tom Petty (solo and with the Heartbreakers)
27, Godsmack
26, Van Halen
25, Disturbed
25, Metallica
All of the band’s charting songs have hit the Mainstream Rock Airplay top 10 dating to “Lift Me Up” in 2013; “Circus” extends the streak to 20.
The Ivan Moody-led group is currently riding a record run of No. 1s: nine in a row, dating to 2018’s “Sham Pain.”
“Circus” is the third single from AfterLife, Five Finger Death Punch’s ninth studio album, to reach Mainstream Rock Airplay. The title track reigned for four weeks beginning in June 2022, while “Times Like These” ruled for three frames starting in October.
Concurrently, “Circus” lifts 25-24 on the all-rock-format, audience-based Rock & Alternative Airplay chart with 1.4 million audience impressions, up 7%, according to Luminate.
“Circus” also ranks at No. 14 on the multi-metric Hot Hard Rock Songs list after peaking at No. 4 last June. In addition to its airplay, the song earned 577,000 official U.S. streams in the Jan. 6-12 tracking week.
AfterLife bowed at No. 1 on the Top Hard Rock Albums chart last September and has earned 134,000 equivalent album units to date.
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 Jan. 28), SZA’s SOS is expected to easily fend off challengers on the Billboard 200, but there will be more of a contest to reach the top of the Billboard Hot 100, where she faces stiff competition from Taylor Swift, Miley Cyrus and Shakira & Bizarrap as she seeks her first No. 1.
SZA, “Kill Bill” (Top Dawg Entertainment/RCA): As SZA’s SOS spends its fifth week atop the Billboard 200, her biggest single yet climbs to a new peak of No. 2 on the Hot 100 (dated Jan. 21) this week. The melancholy (and murderous) “Kill Bill” has ruled Billboard’s Streaming Songs chart for three weeks now, and it’s now also gaining at radio, debuting this week at No. 24 on Pop Airplay and No. 48 on R&B/Hip-Hop Songs Airplay.
However, “Bill” has yet to appear on the 50-position all-genre Radio Songs listing, which Taylor Swift’s “Anti-Hero” — the eight-week Hot 100 No. 1 currently keeping SZA from the top spot — has ruled for four weeks. (Still, “Bill” is just below the survey this week and likely to debut next week.) Also to help get the breakout hit over the top and score the first Hot 100 No. 1 of her career, SZA released a new four-song “Kill Bill” pack to streaming services last Friday (Jan. 13), adding sped-up, instrumental and a cappella versions to the original — all of which are currently for sale on her website, and discounted to 69 cents.
Miley Cyrus, “Flowers” (Columbia): Whether or not “Bill” overtakes “Anti-Hero” this week, it could face entirely new roadblocks in a pair of much-hyped singles that came out last week. The bigger of those is likely “Flowers,” Friday’s first taste of veteran pop star Miley Cyrus’ upcoming Endless Summer Vacation album that’s due in March. Produced by regular Harry Styles collaborators Kid Harpoon and Tyler Johnson, the mid-tempo kiss-off immediately won fans for its sunny pop-rock groove, self-reliant message and Bruno Mars-echoing (possibly Liam Hemsworth-referencing?) chorus.
After the song went viral on TikTok over the weekend, it bounded to the top of both the Spotify and Apple Music daily charts, as well as the iTunes song sales chart — and top 40 has also quickly seized onto the track, with a splashy debut sure to come on Radio Songs next week. It’s the kind of multi-platform dominance that has largely eluded Cyrus, despite her continued household-name status, over the past decade; she hasn’t reached higher than No. 8 on the Hot 100 (as an added performer to The Kid LAROI’s “Without You” remix in 2021) since she topped the chart in 2013 with “Wrecking Ball,” her sole No. 1 so far.
But Cyrus’ timing is right with “Flowers” — released last Thursday, Jan. 12 at 7 p.m. EST, five hours ahead of the tracking week for next week’s Hot 100. She’s taking advantage of an early-year pop landscape that’s relatively light on impactful new releases, as evidenced by the Hot 100’s top 40 currently being overrun by songs from 2022 (or even longer ago). But just as importantly, she’s riding positive momentum from her popular and well-received Miley’s New Year’s Eve Party NBC special, in which she dueted on old hits with godmother Dolly Parton and teased new music to come, with her full album announcement arriving less than a week later. It all adds up to Cyrus having her best shot in 10 years at a return trip to No. 1 next week.
Bizarrap & Shakira, “Bzrp Music Sessions, Vol. 53” (Dale Play): Before “Flowers” arrived, the buzziest debut of last week was easily Shakira’s incendiary team-up with in-demand Argentine DJ/producer Bizarrap. The propulsive electro-pop banger lit up the internet upon its release last Wednesday (Jan. 11, at 7 p.m. ET), particularly for its shots-fired lyrics aimed directly at the superstar’s footballer ex-husband Gerard Piqué. “Vol. 53” quickly surged to No. 1 on YouTube’s Trending chart, and also reached the top 10 and top 20 on the daily Spotify and iTunes U.S. charts, respectively.
Despite coming out six days into the prior tracking week, “Vol. 53” already debuts on several Billboard charts this week, including an impressive No. 12 bow on the Global 200. It misses out on the Hot 100, but with its streaming momentum staying strong, it’s certain to crash the chart next week. However, with stateside radio not yet embracing the Spanish-language track as much as it has “Flowers” and “Kill Bill,” it may end up lagging behind those front-runners.
Taylor Swift, “Anti-Hero” (Republic): While the threats to its reign are numerous, you can’t count out Taylor Swift and her incumbent eight-week No. 1. Swift and her team have made all the right moves to extend the Midnights single’s reign to career-best lengths, including releasing a number of remixes for the track for sale exclusively on her website — and, most recently, discounting those remixes to 69 cents from last Monday to Thursday (Jan. 9-12). Does she have any last-second tricks up her sleeve for this chart week?