State Champ Radio Chart Beat
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Calibre 50 continues its domination on Billboard’s Regional Mexican Airplay chart as “Días Buenos, Días Malos” climbs from No. 7 to lead the list dated May 4. With the new win, The Sinaloan group adds its record-extending 25th No. 1 to its account.
According to Luminate, “Días Buenos, Días Malos” accrued 7.1 million audience impressions in the U.S. during the tracking week ending in April 25, with a 33% increase in audience from the week prior. The song also takes over with the Greatest Gainer honors, awarded weekly to the song with the largest increase in plays among the ranking’s 40 titles. (The previous week’s No. 1, Oscar Ortiz and Edgardo Nuñez’s “First Love,” falls to No. 2 with 6.9 million in audience, down 13%.)
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“Días Buenos, Días Malos” completes its journey to No. 1 in 13 weeks, having debuted on the chart at No. 20 in February. Thus, it ties with three other songs which needed 13 weeks or more to arrive at the summit in the past year.
Here’s a recap of the songs that required the most weeks to top the chart, dating to April 2023:
Weeks to No. 1, Title, Artists, Peak Date13, “Bipolar,” Peso Pluma, Jasiel Nuñez & Junior H, Nov. 25, 202313, “Según Quién,” Maluma & Carín León, Dec. 16, 202313, “Vas A Querer Volver,” Banda Los Recoditos, Jan. 613, “Días Buenos, Días Malos,” Calibre 50, May 414, “Neta Que No,” La Fiera de Ojinaga, Jan. 2016, “Ahí No Era,” Gerardo Ortiz, Feb. 17
As “Días Buenos” takes over Regional Mexican Airplay, Calibre 50 cements its winning appeal with 25 total champs, stepping further from its next competitor, Banda MS, with 19 No. 1 songs since the tally launched in 1994.
Notably, dating to 2013, when Calibre 50 scored its premiere leader with “Ni Que Estuvieras Tan Buena,” all, except for “Decepciones,” with Alejandro Fernández (2020), have been unassisted rulers.
Elsewhere, “Días Buenos” takes Calibre 50 to its 28th top 10 on the overall Latin Airplay ranking, as the song surges 14-7, breaking a tie with Marco Antonio Solis for the most No. 1s for a regional Mexican act overall.
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The buzziest rap beef of 2024 continues to light up Billboard’s Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs chart, as Drake’s “Push Ups” debuts at No. 2 on the list dated May 4. The song, released April 19 through OVO/Republic Records, is widely seen as a direct response to Future, Metro Boomin and Kendrick Lamar’s collaboration “Like That,” on which the lattermost’s verse included rhymes that many interpreted as insults to Drake and J. Cole.
“Push Ups” first came to wide attention through demo leaks that surfaced online as early as April 13, with some speculating the track was a product of artificial intelligence. Following its official release, “Push Ups” earned 28.6 million official U.S. streams in the April 19 – 25 tracking week, according to Luminate. Thanks to the sum, “Push Ups” starts at No. 1 on the R&B/Hip-Hop Streaming Songs chart to secure Drake’s record-extending 24th leader on the list. He’s now tripled the No. 1 total of every other artist on that chart, with The Weeknd – who also receives some perceived sting in “Push Ups” – in second place, with eight champs.
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While streams contribute most of the “Push Ups” activity, the song also sold 4,000 downloads in the tracking week, allowing for a No. 2 entrance on R&B/Hip-Hop Digital Song Sales. It also generated significant radio airplay, with 5.4 million audience impressions in the same period. The early radio support prompts the track’s debuts on the Mainstream R&B/Hip-Hop Airplay (No. 34) and Rhythmic Airplay (No. 36) charts.
Elsewhere, “Push Ups” also opens at No. 2 on the Hot Rap Songs chart. On both that ranking and Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs, “Push Ups” is second only to … “Like That,” which reigns for a fifth week on each list. While “Push Ups” beats “Like That” in the sales and streaming races, the latter’s huge airplay advantage – 22.4 million in audience impressions, nearly 17 million more than “Push Ups” – powers the latter across the finish line.
After “Push Ups” premiered, Drake dropped a second diss track, “Taylor Made Freestyle,” exclusively as an audio file on his X (formerly known as Twitter) and Instagram channels the same day. The track drew controversy for its use of artificial intelligence to imitate Tupac Shakur and Snoop Dogg’s voices. The former’s estate threatened to sue Drake on April 24, leading to the track’s removal the next day. As “Taylor Made Freestyle” was available only through social media channels and did not appear on streaming services, digital retailers or receive radio play, the song did not generate any activity to contribute to Billboard’s charts.
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With “Like That” and “Push Ups” already in the chart archives, the next bout of the latest installment of the Drake – Lamar saga could arrive soon. On April 30, Lamar premiered a new song, “euphoria,” on his YouTube channel. The track, over six minutes long, takes several shots assumed to be at Drake, referencing the Canadian MC’s previous beefs with other rappers and alleging that Drake resorted to legal means to attempt to squash the “Like That” momentum, rapping: “Try cease and desist on the ‘Like That’ record/ Oh, what? You ain’t like that record.” Following the YouTube premiere, the song reached other streaming services and digital retailers hours later.
Thirty-eight years after it first became a hit, The Outfield’s “Your Love” is back on Billboard’s charts.
Originally a No. 6-peaking single on the Billboard Hot 100 in May 1986, the pop-rock classic climbs from No. 199 to No. 189 in its second week on the Billboard Global 200, dated May 4. It gained by 6% to 13.4 million official streams worldwide April 19-25, according to Luminate. (At the beginning of February, the song was drawing over 8 million weekly streams globally.)
Meanwhile, a new version debuts on Hot Dance/Electronic Songs: “Your Love (Remix),” by The Outfield and Diplo, enters at No. 48. It also opens at No. 6 on the Dance/Electronic Song Sales chart.
Thanks to the song’s reimagination, The Outfield charts a newly-released entry on Billboard’s surveys for the first time since 1992, when “Closer to Me” became the band’s eighth Hot 100 hit. The group logged five top 40 Hot 100 titles in 1986-91, with “Your Love” followed by “All the Love in the World” (No. 19, August 1986), “Since You’ve Been Gone” (No. 31, August 1987), “Voices of Babylon” (No. 25, May 1989) and “For You” (No. 21, January 1991).
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“Your Love (Remix)” is from Diplo Presents Thomas Wesley: The Mixtape, released April 26.
The original was released on The Outfield’s debut LP Play Deep, which rose to No. 9 on the Billboard 200 in June 1986. (The mid-‘80s were teeming with baseball-themed chart hits, with “Your Love” among a lineup of songs also including John Fogerty’s “Centerfield” and Bruce Springsteen’s “Glory Days.”)
Meanwhile, other favorites are enjoying new lives via dance makeovers. Here’s a rundown of six such tracks on the latest Hot Dance/Electronic Songs chart:
No. 10, “Whatever,” Kygo with Ava Max / reworks “Wherever, Whenever” by Shakira (No. 9 peak in 2001 on the Hot 100)
No. 19, “Thank You (Not So Bad),” Dimitri Vegas & Like Mike x Tiesto x W&W & Dido / “Thank You,” Dido (No. 3, 2001, Hot 100)
No. 21, “The Sound of Silence (CYRIL Remix),” Disturbed / “The Sound of Silence,” Disturbed (No. 3, 2016, Hot Rock & Alternative Songs; Simon & Garfunkel’s original hit No. 1 on the Hot 100 for two weeks in 1966)
No. 27, “Somebody (2024),” Gotye, Kimbra, Fisher, Chris Lake & Sante Sansone / “Somebody That I Used To Know,” Gotye feat. Kimbra (No. 1, eight weeks, 2012, Hot 100)
No. 42, “It’s Not Right (But It’s Ok),” Mr. Belt & Wezol / “It’s Not Right But It’s Ok,” Whitney Houston (No. 4, 1999, Hot 100)
No. 48, “Your Love (Remix),” The Outfield & Diplo / “Your Love,” The Outfield (No. 6, 1986, Hot 100)
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The Outfield formed in London and comprised guitarist John Spinks, vocalist/bassist Tony Lewis and drummer Alan Jackman. After Spinks died in 2014, the group disbanded. Lewis passed in 2020.
“We are astounded with the recent 10.4 million monthly Spotify listener milestone and wanted to say thank you for rocking with us in 2024,” a March post on the group’s official site reads; the band now boasts over 15 million listeners on the platform. “We will always have music as a safe place. All the love in the world.”
Bad Bunny’s Most Wanted Tour crowns the Top Tours chart for the month of March. According to figures reported to Billboard Boxscore, it earned $64.6 million and sold 207,000 tickets over 13 shows.
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Bad Bunny logs his fifth month at No. 1, after topping the chart four times in 2022 — twice as part of the El Ultimo Tour Del Mundo in March and April, and then in August and September during World’s Hottest Tour.
Combined, those treks nabbed him the No. 1 spot on 2022’s year-end ranking, making him the first artist to primarily perform in any language other than English to crown the annual survey. The only other primarily-Spanish-singing act to lead the monthly chart is RBD, which topped the November 2023 list.
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Bad Bunny pulls out of a tie with Beyoncé and the Trans-Siberian Orchestra to have the second-most monthly wins, trailing only Elton John with seven.
Bad Bunny’s biggest stops during March were in Los Angeles and Chicago. Three nights in each city score him Nos. 2-3 on Top Boxscores, with $20.2 million at the former’s Crypto.com Arena on March 13-15, and $13.4 million at the latter’s United Center on March 28-30. All of his shows earned more than $3 million.
The Most Wanted Tour began on Feb. 21 in Salt Lake City. The first handful of shows secured a No. 10 rank on February’s tally with $19.5 million in the bank. All told, the trek has earned $84.2 million and sold 282,000 tickets so far, with 30 dates left to report through two hometown shows on June 7-8 at San Juan’s Coliseo de Puerto Rico. At his current pace of more than $4 million per show, the tour is likely to sail across the $200 million threshold.
Zach Bryan follows closely behind at No. 2, with $62.3 million and 313,000 tickets, falling just 4% short of Bad Bunny’s winning gross.
Bryan is in the middle of The Quittin Time Tour, which launched on March 5 and managed 18 shows before the end of March. Its’ so-far total of $62 million is already far beyond the $43.9 million he earned on 2023’s 32-date Burn Burn Burn Tour. In fact, it only took 13 shows to pass that mark, representing a 150% increase in per-show earnings since just last year.
More specifically, last year Bryan played two shows in New York at Queens’ Forest Hills Stadium. For the Quittin Time Tour, he expanded to six, split between Brooklyn’s Barclays Center, Belmont Park’s UBS Arena and Newark, N.J.’s Prudential Center. He didn’t visit Chicago in 2022 or 2023 but kicked off this year’s run with three sold-out shows at the United Center, generating $12.6 million in ticket sales for No. 5 on Top Boxscores.
Bryan has nearly 50 more shows on the books in 2024, one-third of which bring him to football stadiums. Already 50% beyond his 2023 grosses, he’s likely to join Bad Bunny in the $200 million club by year’s end.
Women dominate much of March’s top 10, with P!nk and Madonna at Nos. 3 and 4. The former banked $55.1 million and sold 543,000 tickets from 11 shows, scoring the month’s highest attendance count. The latter added $37.9 million to The Celebration Tour, which crossed $200 million in early April. The queen of pop’s tour wrapped last week (April 26 – except for one free show on May 4 in Brazil) with final numbers expected to be reported soon.
Karol G and Nicki Minaj represent Latin and hip-hop at Nos. 5 and 6, respectively. For Karol G, it’s a continuation of a winning streak that began with the kick-off of the Manana Sera Bonito tour last August. For Minaj, it’s her first monthly Boxscore appearance, with the first batch of shows on the Pink Friday 2 World Tour bringing in $26.9 million.
Three festivals appear on Top Boxscores, topped off by Pa’l Norte in Monterrey, Mexico at No. 1. The weekend-long festival grossed $26.2 million on March 29-31, nearly tripling its 2022 revenue of $9.3 million. At No. 6 is Esterio Picnic with $11.8 million. Both events are promoted by OCESA, helping the Mexican juggernaut rank at No. 3 on Top Promoters.
Across the Pacific Ocean, Pitch Music & Arts Festival represents for Melbourne, Australia, at No. 16 with $8.4 million and 35,900 tickets sold between March 8-12. Otherwise, Oceania is bolstered by several appearances by P!nk, including top 10s for shows in Melbourne and Perth.
Asia sneaks onto the Boxscores ranking, with Ed Sheeran and SEVENTEEN rounding out the chart at Nos. 29 and 30. Both hover around $6 million, with Sheeran in Manilla, Philippines and SEVENTEEN in Incheon, South Korea.
Drake rockets to No. 1 on Billboard’s Mainstream R&B/Hip-Hop Airplay chart (dated May 4) with “You Broke My Heart,” which flies from No. 8. The single reaches the chart’s summit after a 20% surge in weekly plays that made it the most-played song on U.S. monitored mainstream R&B/hip-hop radio stations in the tracking week of April 19 – 25, according to Luminate. The song, from the Scary Hours deluxe edition of his For All the Dogs album, reaches No. 1 in its 19th week on the chart – Drake’s longest climb to the top.
The new leader gives Drake a record-extending 46th No. 1 on Mainstream R&B/Hip-Hop Airplay. He remains far and away the all-time champ – Lil Wayne ranks a distant second, with 20 No. 1s. Here’s a recap of the acts with the most No. 1s on Mainstream R&B/Hip-Hop Airplay since the chart launched in 1993:
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46, Drake20, Lil Wayne19, Chris Brown17, Usher13, Beyoncé
As “You Broke My Heart” vaults seven spots to reach the summit, it scores the biggest jump to No. 1 in more than seven years, since Rae Sremmurd’s “Black Beatles,” featuring Gucci Mane, also sprang 8-1 on the chart dated Dec. 3, 2016. In total, “You Broke My Heart” is the sixth of 440 champs on Mainstream R&B/Hip-Hop Airplay to jump from No. 8 or lower directly to No. 1.
Position Change, Song Title, Artist, Date Reached No. 131-1, “Before You Walk Out of My Life,” Monica, Jan. 13, 199619-1, “Anniversary,” Tony Toni Tone, Oct. 9, 19939-1, “No Diggity,” BLACKstreet featuring Dr. Dre, Sept. 14, 19968-1, “Bills Bills Bills,” Destiny’s Child, July 10, 19998-1, “Black Beatles,” Rae Sremmurd featuring Gucci Mane, Dec. 3, 20168-1, “You Broke My Heart,” Drake, May 4, 2024
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Despite Drake’s virtually automatic hitmaking status on Mainstream R&B/Hip-Hop Airplay, where about one-third of the superstar’s 137 appearances have reached No. 1 and another 45 have finished in the top 10, “You Broke My Heart” endured the longest wait to No. 1 among his entire chart-topping collection. The single arrives at the top in its 19th week on the list, four weeks longer than his previous-slowest, “All Me,” featuring 2 Chainz and Big Sean, which wrapped a 15-week journey in January 2014. (Drake’s slow-but-steady climb to No. 1 with “You Broke My Heart” makes it the 13th song to take at least 19 weeks to reach No. 1. The longest trek? Tems’ “Free Mind,” which needed 33 weeks to enter the penthouse in 2022.)
The prolonged rise, however, partly traces to multiple Drake singles active at the format simultaneously. When “You Broke My Heart” debuted on the chart in December, it arrived amid two buzzing Drake singles: “Rich Baby Daddy,” featuring Sexyy Red and SZA, a track that had just peaked at No. 2 a couple weeks earlier and was gliding in the top five, and “First Person Shooter,” his Billboard Hot 100-topping collaboration with J. Cole, which was climbing inside the top 20. While both songs would be on the decline by February, a new contender entered the mix: Drake joined 4batz for a remix of the latter’s viral “act II: date @ 8,” with new promo efforts lifting the rising star’s breakthrough single. On the newest Mainstream R&B/Hip-Hop Airplay chart, where “You Broke My Heart,” reaches No. 1, “act ii: date @ 8” advances 6-4 with an 8% weekly play increase.
Elsewhere, the gains in plays help “You Broke My Heart” push 13-9 on the R&B/Hip-Hop Airplay chart, which ranks songs by combined audience totals from adult R&B and mainstream R&B/hip-hop stations. There, the track improved to 9.7 million in audience for the week of April 19 – 25, up 17% from the previous period.
It’s zero shock that Taylor Swift finishes her first frame for new album The Tortured Poets Department: After all, she already boasted the decade’s two biggest debuts, for 2022’s Midnights (1.578 million equivalent album units) and 2023’s 1989 (Taylor’s Version) (1.653 million units), and has only kept getting bigger in the months since those releases. Still, the exact opening number for Poets is staggering: 2.61 million units, according to Luminate, more than any album since Adele’s 25 bowed with 3.48 million in late 2015.
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The 16-track set — which Swift expanded to 31 with its Anthology edition — also debuts all of its songs on the Billboard Hot 100, while occupying each of the chart’s top 14 slots. The Hot 100 takeover is led by the album’s leadoff cut, the Post Malone collab “Fortnight,” which becomes Swift’s 12th No. 1 on the chart. Despite all its early commercial achievements, the album’s critical reception has been more mixed to start, with many criticizing the set’s length and repetitiveness.
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How did the album achieve its eye-popping first-week numbers? And will Swift’s album releases likely get smaller or even bigger from here? Billboard staffers debate these questions and more below.
1. The final first-week number for The Tortured Poets Department is 2.6 million, easily the best number of Swift’s career and the finest single-week tally since Adele’s 25 nearly a decade ago. Is that number higher, lower or about what you expected for the TTPD debut?
Hannah Dailey: I don’t think anyone could’ve predicted that the number would be so insanely high, but I did expect that TTPD would earn Swift her biggest opening week yet. It’s well established that the pop star’s spotlight has never been brighter than in the past year, thanks to the Eras Tour, her high-profile breakups from Joe Alwyn and Matty Healy and even higher-profile romance with Travis Kelce, as well as the chart/awards success of Midnights — so it was a given that more people than ever would be tuning in.
Stephen Daw: It feels strange to say that record-breaking numbers felt “expected,” but this is Taylor Swift we’re talking about. With every subsequent release — which seem to be coming more and more frequently for the singer/songwriter — she manages to break the records that she set with her last release, so it stands to reason that Tortured Poets would manage to best her Midnights and 1989 (Taylor’s Version) sales numbers.
Kyle Denis: Around what I expected. Swift is undeniably at her commercial peak right now, and she was able to leverage the breadth of that power with gargantuan 31-song tracklist and 19 different variants of the album.
Jason Lipshutz: Much higher. Considering the expectations-shattering run that Taylor Swift is on right now, I shouldn’t be surprised that The Tortured Poets Department scored the biggest bow of the 2020s with ease… but still, 2 million is a stratosphere that not even Swift herself has approached in the past, let alone an additional 600,000 units on top of that. I mean, TTPD blew the Midnights debut out of the water — and Midnights really wasn’t that long ago? This No. 1 feat demonstrates just how much higher Swift’s superstardom has climbed recently, her music becoming a monoculture unto itself that everybody needs to check out or purchase.
Andrew Unterberger: Yeah higher. Over two million felt realistic, but I still thought it would be more of a peeking-its-head-over-two-million figure than one actually even closer to three million. It wasn’t even two years ago we were legitimately wondering whether another one-million-unit first week would happen again this decade; for Swift to come within shouting range of triple that is pretty wild.
2. What would you point to as being the biggest factor in Swift not only beating the already-historic first-week tallies of Midnights and 1989 (Taylor’s Version) with her TTPD debut, but clearing both by around a million units each?
Hannah Dailey: I think TTPD would have blown Midnights and 1989 out of the water no matter what, if nothing else because of how excited fans and haters alike were to scour the new lyrics for clues about her mystifying private life and famous love interests. But there’s no doubt in my mind that Swift’s surprise double album announcement is what sent the project over the two-million mark, inciting some listeners to purchase twice as many copies as they would have otherwise. She’s playing the numbers game, and she’s winning.
Stephen Daw: The short answer is the fact that the album was made available in more than 20 different formats certainly helped that Swift reach that astronomical figure. The much longer answer is that timing played a very key factor here. Between the ongoing Eras Tour and her extremely high-profile celebrity romance, Taylor Swift is currently dominating cultural discussions across the wide spectrum of what we consider entertainment. Fan interest in all things Taylor Swift has never been higher, and from the moment she announced Tortured Poets at the Grammys, Swifties have remained in a near-constant state of frenzy over the album’s release. To me, there was no world in which this album wouldn’t beat Midnights and 1989 (Taylor’s Version) by some ridiculous margin.
Kyle Denis: This is Swift’s first LP of all-new material since kicking off the Eras Tour. Since the record-breaking tour began – and her subsequent high-profile relationships with Matty Healy and Travis Kelce – she’s had her star grow even bigger, as impossible as that might have seemed. Her celebrity, brand and audience reach are bigger than ever – and she was already operating at pop music’s pole position before any of that.
As an album, Tortured Poets is also acutely aware of how deeply it delves into nearly two decades of Taylor Swift lore at a level that, a lot of the time, only die-hard fans understand. While the growth of her celebrity broadened her general reach, the material on Tortured Poets intensified how fans interacted with the album – whether that be countless listens on a streaming site or multiple purchases of the album’s different configurations to ensure every last song is in their possession.
Jason Lipshutz: The biggest tangible factor is probably the length of the album — more than twice as long as Midnights, which was always going to boost the TTPD streaming totals by comparison. Yet the most important factor here is intangible: Swift is just so much more enormous now than she was even 18 months ago — thanks in large part to the record-shattering Eras tour, as well as all of the success she’s achieved with her recent re-recorded albums, plus “Cruel Summer” becoming one of the biggest hits of 2023 after being released four years prior. Simply put, the numbers keep ballooning because Swift’s dominance in popular music keeps growing. Forget the track list length, vinyl production and romantic-drama intrigue; no matter how this album came out, it was likely becoming the biggest debut of Swift’s career.
Andrew Unterberger: It’s timing and planning. Any Swift album would have done massive numbers released a year after she set the new standard for contemporary pop superstardom, and the same year that she dominated both music’s biggest night and sports’ biggest night in consecutive weekends. But 31 tracks and nearly as many physical variants also helps, certainly.
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3. “Fortnight” leads the pack for Swift on the Hot 100 with its No. 1 debut, but she owns each of the 13 spots beneath it with TTPD tracks as well. Do you see “Fortnight” as a long-lasting hit from this album — and which of the other tracks do you think has the best chance of challenging it as the set’s biggest hit?
Hannah Dailey: Two years ago, I thought that “Anti-Hero” would fall from No. 1 after its first week on the chart. It ended up staying there for eight weeks. So, this time, I’m going to trust Swift’s instincts, if not my own, and say that “Fortnight” is smash hit potential and will indeed remain at the top for a while. But if another song were to give it a run for its money, it would be “Down Bad” or “I Can Do It With a Broken Heart” — both of which debuted in the top 3 and have boundless opportunities for TikTok virality.
Stephen Daw: Of the songs off TTPD, “Fortnight” feels like one that will stick around for a while — Taylor and Posty sound great together, and the song’s mid-tempo, atmospheric feel brings something a little bit different to pop radio. But I feel fairly confident that “Down Bad” will end up being the breakout hit from TTPD. It’s got the pure pop sensibility of 1989, the seething pettiness of Reputation and the more laid-back sensibilities of Folklore and Evermore. A seamless blend of the things fans are looking for in a Taylor Swift hit, “Down Bad” can only go up from here.
Kyle Denis: I think “Fortnight” will stick around for a bit, but I doubt it truly follows in the footsteps of “Anti-Hero.” With “Who’s Afraid of Little Old Me” already going viral on TikTok, there’s hit potential there. I’d also put my money on “Down Bad” and “But Daddy I Love Him” to make something shake.
Jason Lipshutz: Maybe it won’t replace “Anti-Hero” as her longest-lasting Hot 100 No. 1 hit, but yes, “Fortnight” is positioned for a lengthy run at or near the top of the Hot 100, with strong harmonic chemistry between Swift and Post Malone and a hook that sneaks up on the listener after fully blooming in the back half of the song. It’s the most obvious single choice from TTPD to me, although I do think “Down Bad” is going to have a pronounced commercial moment — let’s get that tear-soaked gym-set music video rolling ASAP.
Andrew Unterberger: “Fortnight” sounds like a smash to me, but it will not be able to simply dominate the Hot 100 for months (or even multiple weeks) by default like it might have in years past — not with rising hits from Sabrina Carpenter, Shaboozey and Tommy Richman already nipping at its heels, and not with a world-stopping Kendrick Lamar diss record entering the fray today as well. It will need to maintain momentum at streaming while growing rapidly at radio — something it certainly has the potential to do, but which we can’t necessarily assume, even from Taylor Swift’s new single.
If it fades, I could see “I Can Do It With a Broken Heart” passing it. The fact that “Heart” debuts at No. 3 on the Hot 100 despite appearing 14th in the album’s tracklist shows that fans are already isolating it as a favorite from the project in huge numbers.
4. While the commercial response to TTPD has of course been overwhelming, the critic and fan response has been a little more mixed this time around for Swift, with many citing a lack of quality control among the set’s 16 tracks (31 in the deluxe Anthology version). Do you think the mixed response will have any impact on Swift’s ever-growing superstardom, or will her unprecedented rise just continue upwards from here?
Hannah Dailey: I wouldn’t be surprised if positive public opinion about Swift ebbs a little bit after TTPD, but her superstardom will be just fine. It doesn’t matter if people are saying good or bad things about her; as long as they continue discussing her at length in any capacity, she’ll stay at the forefront of pop culture and find even more ways to use that discourse to springboard herself to previously unheard-of heights.
But, if quality control of her image as an artist – and not just a celebrity — is important to her, then she may want to take criticisms about quality control in her music seriously. TTPD is very good. But just imagine what she could make alongside a few new collaborators with fresh perspectives and a less heavy-handed approach, one that forces her to leave room only for her bestest ideas.
Stephen Daw: How does one stop a runaway train? Especially with the way that some of Swift’s fans have been mercilessly going after music critics for doing their jobs over the last two weeks, I think it’s fair to say that her stardom isn’t cooling down any time soon. With a two more re-recordings still due to come from Taylor, as well as the European dates of her Eras Tour, Taylor is not in any danger of losing relevance for the foreseeable future.
Kyle Denis: Everyone and everything hits a ceiling, and Swift might be approaching hers. I think the mixed response can be easily mitigated by a new re-recording – the circumstances are certainly starting to align for Reputation (Taylor’s Version) — or a new album with more quality control and a new sound. Nonetheless, I do think the mixed reactions are slightly indicative of Taylor fatigue across the board. The Swifties will always be there, but I can see a scenario in which casual listeners feel less inclined to check in post-Tortured Poets.
Jason Lipshutz: Following a little more than a week of discourse, it’s even more clear to me that TTPD is going to function like the 2020s version of Reputation — mainstream listeners will continue to be polarized, but Swift diehards will wrap their arms around it as an idiosyncratic opus that captures their favorite superstar’s psyche, messy sprawl of the track list and all. In the same way that Reputation didn’t slow down Swift’s commercial enormity one bit, TTPD is a behemoth that also feels like a personalized note to the most attentive fans, a combination that will keep Swift growing ever still.
Andrew Unterberger: I think it’s not so much about the quality of TTPD and its dozens of tracks as it as about the sheer amount of Swift we’ve been inundated with the past four years — not just in the pop-culture ubiquity sense, but in the mind-boggling volume of new tracks she’s released over that time. A little time and distance will be kinder to a lot of these songs, and certainly it’s not like folks are gonna be likely to brush off new Swift music anytime soon, but it still might be a good idea for her to chill on the new releases (or at least downscale ’em a little bit) for the next couple years or so.
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5. Adele’s 25 moved 3.48 units in its first week — a still mind-boggling number that many of us thought would never even be approached again. Swift has gotten closer than many would have expected, but she still has a decent gap to make up. What percentage chance would you give her of passing Adele’s seemingly unreachable first week at some point in her career?
Hannah Dailey: We’ve all learned not to underestimate Taylor Swift, but at the same time, I feel like TTPD would’ve been the album to surpass 25 if Swift had it in her. So for now, I’ll give her 50%. You never know, especially with her.
Stephen Daw: I’m going to be conservative and say it’s a 50/50 tossup. If anyone is going to manage to beat Adele, it will be Taylor Swift — but if the immediate, ridiculous sales numbers of TTPD aren’t able to stack up to 25, then it’s hard to imagine a future Taylor Swift album that could.
Kyle Denis: Above 50%. Taylor’s a consistent seller and smart businesswoman, it’s really all about timing with her. It’s possible that, with a longer pre-order window and Scorpion-esque playlist takeovers, Tortured Poets could have come closer to 25’s numbers. That said, something tells me that if she was ever going to pass 3.48 million units in the first week, 1989 (Taylor’s Version) and Tortured Poets were her best bets.
Jason Lipshutz: 3%. Never say never, but that number just looks too far out of reach for modern music consumption. At the very least, that number gives Swift something to aim for when the TTPD follow-up arrives.
Andrew Unterberger: Maybe 25%. This does feel like it was her best shot, but Swift didn’t get to where she is by accepting “close but not quite,” so I imagine she’ll continue trying for it. 2.6 million isn’t a world removed from 3.5 million, though it’s still far enough that it’s not a gap to be bridged with a couple more vinyl variants or another bonus disc of leftover cuts. I don’t know how she might do it, but I do know that I wouldn’t feel comfortable betting against her doing so.
Taylor Swift breaks a pair of records on Billboard’s Streaming Songs chart dated May 4 with music from new album The Tortured Poets Department.
She becomes the first act to occupy the entire top 15 of the Streaming Songs list, and she also appears on the ranking with 31 different songs – the most in one week by any act. (Streaming Songs’ inaugural chart was published in 2013.)
She leads the survey with “Fortnight,” featuring Post Malone. The song bows at No. 1 with 76.2 million official U.S. streams accrued April 19-25, according to Luminate.
It’s Swift’s ninth No. 1 and first since “Is It Over Now? (Taylor’s Version) [From the Vault],” which crowned the tally for two weeks last November. She first reigned with “Shake It Off” in 2014.
With nine No. 1s, Swift puts some distance between herself and Ariana Grande and Justin Bieber for the second-most rulers in the chart’s history.
Most No. 1s, Streaming Songs
20, Drake
9, Taylor Swift
6, Ariana Grande
6, Justin Bieber
5, Travis Scott
As for featured artist Post Malone, it’s his third Streaming Songs leader and first since 2019, following “Sunflower (Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse)” with Swae Lee.
“Fortnight” is followed by “Down Bad,” which ranks at No. 2 with 50.1 million streams. Swift occupies the entire top 15, down to “I Can Fix Him (No Really I Can),” via 28.1 million streams.
Grabbing the top 15 breaks a record previously held by Drake, who snagged the top 14 of the Sept. 18, 2021, ranking via songs from his album Certified Lover Boy.
The entirety of The Tortured Poets Department – 31 songs in all – also makes the chart, down to “Robin,” which debuts at No. 44 with 12.5 million streams. That’s also a record; the mark for most songs on a single Streaming Songs survey had previously gone to Morgan Wallen, who occupied 30 of the 50 positions on the March 18, 2023, list with music from the set One Thing at a Time.
Concurrently, as previously reported, “Fortnight” debuts at No. 1 on the multimetric Billboard Hot 100, taking the top 14 in the process. The Tortured Poets Department also debuts atop the Billboard 200.
Sabrina Carpenter’s “Espresso” is piping hot in the U.K., where it leads the chart race for the first time.
The American singer and actor has a bonafide hit on her hands with “Espresso” (Island), which debuted at No. 6 on the national chart, following its release April 11, and has continued to climb ever since.
“Espresso” is her first top 10 and fourth top 40 appearance on the U.K. chart, following “Feather” (No. 19 peak), “Skin” (No. 28) and “Nonsense” (No. 32).
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Carpenter can’t take it to the bank. Taylor Swift’s “Fortnight” featuring Post Malone dips 1-2 on the Official Chart Update, and, based on early sales and streaming data published by the Official Charts Company, is less than 1,000 chart units behind. “Fortnight” last Friday, April 26, opened at No. 1 on the Official Chart, for Swift’s fourth leader, while its parent LP The Tortured Poets Department (EMI) rampaged its way to the summit of the albums chart, for her 12th leader and third chart double.
Another track from Swift’s double album could debut in the top 10, “I Can Do It With A Broken Heart.” It’s new at No. 7 on the Official Chart Update, and could lift her career tally of U.K. top 10s to 29.
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Country music has enjoyed a revival on the U.K. charts, first with Beyonce’s No. 1 album Cowboy Carter (Columbia/Parkwood Ent), then Dasha’s single “Austin.” Shaboozey is getting in on the act with “A Bar Song (Tipsy)” (via American Dogwood/Empire), which lifts 27-8 on the chart blast and is set to give the U.S. artist his first U.K. top 10.
Dasha’s “Austin” (Warner Records), meanwhile, is predicted to hold at No. 10.
All will be revealed when the Official U.K. Singles Chart is published late Friday, May 3.
A new partnership reaches No. 1 on Billboard’s Latin Airplay chart (dated May 4), as Feid and ATL Jacob’s “Luna” rises 2-1 to lead the 50-track-deep ranking. The song becomes the 11th collaboration in 2024 to land at the summit, with three of them Feid collabs.
“Luna,” released on Universal Music Latino/UMLE, ascends to the top slot from No. 2 after a 15% increase to 10.73 million audience impressions on U.S. reporting radio stations during the April 19-25 tracking week, according to Luminate. The new No. 1 unseats Prince Royce and Gabito Ballesteros’ “Cosas de La Peda,” which spent one week in charge. It falls to No. 3 with 8.33 million in audience, down 23%.
“Luna,” produced by ATL Jacob, where the latter also provides background vocals, is one of ten cuts from Feid’s Ferxxocalipsis set, which earned the Colombian a third top 10 on Top Latin Albums (No. 9 debut last December). The song generated significant attention only after Feid shared an acoustic version on his Instagram account in January, thus followed a No. 20 launch on Latin Rhythm Airplay in February, where it holds at No. 1 in its second week.
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With the new champ, American rapper ATL Jacob checks into the penthouse on the overall Latin Airplay tally for the first time. Feid, meanwhile, picks up his seventh No. 1 among 14 career entries. Further, as “Luna” shakes up the scoreboard, here’s a look at the 11 collabs, whether through co-billed or three-way combined efforts, that hit No. 1 on Latin Airplay in 2024:
Title, Artist, Peak Date“Según Quien,” Maluma & Carín León, Jan. 6“Bubalu,” Feid & Rema, Jan. 13“Harley Quinn,” Fuerza Regida & Marshmello, Feb. 3“Borracho y Loco,” Yandel & Myke Towers, Feb. 17“Qlona,” Karol G & Peso Pluma, March 2“Por El Contrario,” Becky G, Leonardo Aguilar & Angela Aguilar, March 9“No Es Normal,” Venesti, Nacho & Maffio, March 16“Puntería,” Shakira & Cardi B, April 6“Perro Negro,” Bad Bunny & Feid, April 20“Cosas de La Peda,” Prince Royce & Gabito Ballesteros, April 27“Luna,” Feid & ATL Jacob, May 4
In addition to its Latin Airplay control, “Luna” ascends 9-8 on the multi-metric Hot Latin Songs chart, which combines airplay, streaming data, and downloads, despite a 6% dip in streams, to 3.5 million official U.S. streams generated during the same period.
“Luna” is one of the 36-song setlist on Feid’s Ferxxocalipsis Tour, the North American 27-date run that launched in Sacramento April 24 and will close in Miami on July 26.
All charts (dated May 4, 2024) will update on Billboard.com tomorrow, April 30. For all chart news, you can follow @billboard and @billboardcharts on both X, formerly known as Twitter, and Instagram.
Shaboozey’s “A Bar Song (Tipsy)” bounds to No. 1 from No. 6 on Billboard’s Hot Country Songs chart (dated May 4). The song, which interpolates J-Kwon’s 2004 hip-hop classic “Tipsy,” marks the first leader on the list for the Virginia native (born Collins Obinna Chibueze).
“A Bar Song (Tipsy)” surged by 95% to 20.9 million official U.S. streams; 1,202% to 170,000 radio airplay audience impressions; and 48% to 14,000 sold April 19-25, according to Luminate.
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Notably, as Shaboozey dethrones Beyoncé’s “Texas Hold ‘Em,” which reigned for the past 10 weeks, two Black artists have led back-to-back for the first time since Hot Country Songs became an all-encompassing genre ranking in 1958.
Shaboozey guests on two tracks on Beyoncé’s LP Cowboy Carter, which leads Top Country Albums for a fourth week (with 66,000 equivalent album units): “Spaghettii” (also with Linda Martell) and “Sweet * Honey * Buckiin’.” He recently told Billboard that he’s “so happy to have such a powerhouse of an artist that chose to take this journey to country, so it’s amazing to be a part of that.”
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A week earlier, Shaboozey soared to No. 1, from No. 34, on the Emerging Artists chart and “A Bar Song (Tipsy)” topped Digital Song Sales and Country Digital Song Sales, marking his first coronations on Billboard’s charts. He adds a second week atop Emerging Artists, while the track paces Country Digital Song Sales for a second frame.
The song is the lead single from Shaboozey’s American Dogwood/EMPIRE album Where I’ve Been, Isn’t Where I’m Going, due May 31. He previously released the sets Cowboys Live Forever, Outlaws Never Die in 2022 and Lady Wrangler in 2018. He told Billboard that he describes the new LP as “a little bit of this genre that even Cowboy Carter created, just a bit of everything. A lot of country, but some hip-hop moments on there, too. But a lot of my personal story and journey.”
J-Kwon’s “Tipsy” ruled the Hot Rap Songs chart for five weeks and hit No. 2 on both the Billboard Hot 100 and Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs in 2004. The St. Louis rapper recently told Billboard of Shaboozey’s revival of the song, “It really ain’t even paying homage … let’s say it like this: we did that together, and I’m proud of him.”
All charts dated May 4 will update on Billboard.com tomorrow, April 30.
