Chart Beat
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Saweetie enjoys a return to form on radio as her single “Nani” advances to No. 1 on Billboard’s Rhythmic Airplay chart. The track, released on ICY/Warner Records, rises from the runner-up spot to lead the list dated Sept. 14 after it became the most-played song on U.S. monitored rhythmic radio stations in the tracking week […]
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.
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This week: Linkin Park’s second act is off to a remarkable start on streaming, Rich Homie Quan’s catalog skyrockets on streaming after his tragic passing, Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce give an ’00s classic a singalong bump and much more.
Linkin Park’s Streaming Catalog Soars Following Comeback News
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Next week’s Hot 100 chart will likely feature a new Linkin Park single — a sentence that would have seemed improbable just one week ago. Yet the band’s return, as covered in Billboard’s exclusive cover story last Thursday (Sept. 5), has produced new arena tour dates (kicking off tonight at The Forum in Los Angeles), a new studio album (From Zero, out Nov. 15) and a high-powered new song, “The Emptiness Machine,” that’s off to a hot start at streaming.
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After being released at 6 pm ET on Thursday as Linkin Park launched into a global livestream performance, “The Emptiness Machine” earned 2.22 million U.S. on-demand audio streams on Friday, its first full day of release, according to Luminate. The single hovered about one million U.S. audio streams over the next three days, and ended its first full four-day stretch with 6.47 million streams, while also racking up over 6,000 in digital sales — likely setting it on pace for a big Hot 100 bow.
Yet Linkin Park’s return is also boosting the band’s back catalog and biggest hits, as listeners revisit their past albums before receiving a new one in November. From Sept. 6-9, the band’s catalog (minus “The Emptiness Machine”) earned 30.11 million combined U.S. audio streams — a 62% increase compared to the same four-day period during the previous week. That spike also included big week-over-week gains for hits like “Numb” (up 60%), “One Step Closer” (up 76%) and “Faint” (up nearly 100%), as fans heard new co-vocalist Emily Armstrong sing all three during the band’s livestream and wanted to hear the classic versions, too. – JASON LIPSHUTZ
Rich Homie Quan Catalog Surges on Streaming Following Rap Great’s Death
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The hip-hop world was shaken last week (Sept. 5) by the tragic news of Rich Homie Quan’s death at the age of just 33. The Atlanta rapper, whose real name was Dequantes Devontay Lamar, had been one of hip-hop’s leading hitmakers of the mid-2010s, during a time in which his home city essentially took over as the U.S.’s rap capital. Over the days that followed, tributes poured in from Quan’s collaborators and contemporaries, saluting both the man and artist and expressing shock over his premature passing.
Fans of Rich Homie Quan of course also expressed their grief by streaming his music in massive numbers. Over Sept. 2-4, the three days before his death, the rapper amassed 1.7 combined million official on-demand U.S. streams for his solo catalog as a lead artist – but that number skyrocketed to 31.7 million total over the following three days, according to Luminate, an eye-popping gain of 1,727%. Leading songs from his catalog over that period include his Hot 100 hits “Type of Way” (4.5 million combined streams, a 1,892% gain) and “Flex (Ooh, Ooh, Ooh)” (3.6 million streams, up 1,666%).
Those numbers do not account, however, for perhaps the song most celebrated on social media following Quan’s passing: “Lifestyle,” his classic 2014 team-up with Atlanta rap icon Young Thug, released under the collective name Rich Gang. Over the same period, “Lifestyle” was up to 4.7 million combined streams, a 598% gain from the previous three-day period. – ANDREW UNTERBERGER
The Taylor Bump: Works for ‘00s Retro-Rockers as Well as Presidential Candidates
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Taylor Swift made global headlines on Tuesday night (Sept. 10) with her official endorsement of Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris, announcing her support of the current vice president with a social media blast following Harris’ debate with former president Donald Trump. The impact of the biggest figure in contemporary pop culture’s co-sign will likely be major — but Harris isn’t the only person benefiting from the Taylor Swift Bump this week.
On Sunday (Sept. 8), Swift attended the U.S. Open men’s tennis finals in Queens, New York (featuring another Taylor in American finalist Taylor Fritz), along with celebrity beau Travis Kelce. There, the pair were spotted singing (and even air-guitaring) along to a ’00s classic — “I Believe in a Thing Called Love,” signature hit for ’00s U.K. retro-rockers The Darkness — with Swift of course dramatically pantomiming the lyrics as well.
Click here for the full story on The Darkness’ Taylor/Travis streaming bump. – AU
‘Beetlejuice Beetlejuice’ Has the Recipe for a “MacArthur Park” Revival
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For the recently released box office-topping film Beetlejuice Beetlejuice – sequel, of course, to the cult classic 1988 comedy Beetlejuice – the filmmakers wanted to recreate the magic of the first film’s famous cast lip sync scene, set to Harry Belafonte’s “Banana Boat (Day-O).” They didn’t want to re-use Belafonte’s ‘50s staple for the scene, however, so they decided to go with something very, very slightly more modern for the 36-years-later sequel: “MacArthur Park,” the bizarre Jimmy Webb-penned psych-pop rhapsody that became a No. 2 Hot 100 hit for actor-singer Richard Harris in 1968, before Donna Summer took her discofied version of it all the way to No. 1 in 1978.
Since appearing in the hit sequel, “MacArthur Park” has been rising on streaming, with the Harris version featured in the film racking up over 110,000 U.S. on-demand audio streams from Sept. 8-11 – the film’s four days of release – a 939% gain over the same period in the prior tracking week, according to Luminate. Summer’s version, which also appears on the film soundtrack, has been a similar beneficiary – it’s up 241% to 98,000 streams over the same period – and Belafonte’s “Day-O,” which only appears on the soundtrack through a cover version from Alfie Davis & The Sylvia Young Theatre School Choir, is also up 52% to 485,000 streams. – AU
Season’s Gainings: Kendrick Lamar Super Bowl Announcement Strikes a Chord on DSPs
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The NFL season has kicked off once again, and even if you weren’t following the action on Sunday (Sept. 8), you might’ve still felt the excitement of football’s return – thanks to the early-day announcement that the upcoming Super Bowl LIX in New Orelans would be headlined by rapper-of-the-moment Kendrick Lamar. The announcement was met with some controversy, as many rap purists voiced their support for Big Easy hip-hop icon Lil Wayne as an alternate headliner, but plenty of streaming listeners were evidently still pumped by a prospective K Dot set – the rapper’s total streams for Monday were over 11.6 million, according to Luminate, a 12% gain from the prior Monday. – AU
The Nelons’ Loving You arrives at No. 9 on Billboard’s Top Christian Albums chart (dated Sept. 14), as the act reaches the top 10 in its first appearance on the ranking.
The 11-song set, released Aug. 30, earned 3,000 equivalent album units, almost entirely in album sales, in the United States in the week ending Sept. 5, according to Luminate.
Unfortunately, the achievement follows tragic news. Nelons co-founder Kelly Nelon Clark, husband Jason Clark and Amber Nelon Kistler (Kelly’s daughter and Jason’s stepdaughter) were among seven people who died in a plane crash in northeast Wyoming in the afternoon of July 26. The only surviving member of the foursome is Autumn Nelon Streetman (also Kelly’s daughter and Jason’s stepdaughter), who was not on the flight.
The three members of the Georgia-based act were traveling to join the Gaither Homecoming Cruise to Alaska, according to its label, Gaither Music Group, the sponsor of the cruise.
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“Thank you for the prayers that have been extended already to me, my husband, Jamie, and our soon-to-be-born baby boy, as well as Jason’s parents, Dan and Linda Clark,” Streetman shared in a statement. “We appreciate your continued prayers, love and support as we navigate the coming days.”
The Nelons launched in 1977 by founding member Rex Nelon as The Rex Nelon Singers. (He died in 2000.) They were inducted into the Gospel Music Association (GMA) Hall of Fame in 2016 and won 10 GMA Dove Awards, including multiple album and song of the year trophies.
Streetman, who is expecting a baby boy in December, sang “Family Chain” with The Isaacs to at the Nelons’ memorial service in Roopville, Ga., on Aug. 6. “People have asked me, ‘How did you get up there and sing at the funeral?’ And I told them, ‘This is what we do. We sing in good times and bad times,’” she told Billboard in August. “The Lord just gave me the strength to get up there and do it.”
Mrs. GREEN APPLE’s “Lilac” returns to No. 1 on the Billboard Japan Hot 100, dated Sept. 11, logging its second week atop the chart.
The track debuted at No. 11 on the chart dated Apr. 17, and after rising to No. 3 the following week, it coasted along in the top five and reached No. 1 for the first time on the July 17 list. Streaming and downloads for the Oblivion Battery opener increased this week, leading to rise in overall points. Downloads are up 117% and streaming up 102% from the previous week.
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RIIZE’s “Lucky” debuts at No. 2. The seven-member group’s first Japan single topped sales with 250,470 copies sold in its first week and entered the chart fueled only by this metric.
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GEMN’s “Fatal” rises to 15-3. The Oshi no Ko Season 2 opener debuted at No. 21 on the chart dated July 10 and peaked at No. 8 the following week. The release of the CD version powers the track by the duo consisting of Kento Nakajima and Tatsuya Kitani to its highest position yet. Downloads for the song are up 142%, streaming up 101%, radio airplay up 428%, and karaoke up 108% week-over-week.
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Mrs. GREEN APPLE has another song in the top five this week, with “familie” rising two notches to No. 4. The three-man pop band appeared on the music program With MUSIC on Sept. 7, which probably helped boost all metrics except radio.
Kocchi no Kento’s “Hai Yorokonde” climbs five rungs hit No. 5 to enter the chart. The multi-talented creator recently appeared on the popular YouTube channel THE FIRST TAKE, which led to a rise in streams (109%).
LE SSERAFIM’s “CRAZY” soars 67-8. Streams for the track is up 393% this week because it was released on Aug. 30, giving it only three days to count towards its debut week.
The Billboard Japan Hot 100 combines physical and digital sales, audio streams, radio airplay, video views and karaoke data.
See the full Billboard Japan Hot 100 chart, tallying the week from Sept. 2 to 8, here. For more on Japanese music and charts, visit Billboard Japan’s English Twitter account.
Taylor Swift made global headlines on Tuesday night (Sept. 10) with her official endorsement of Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris, announcing her support of the current vice president with a social media blast following Harris’ debate with former president Donald Trump. The impact of the biggest figure in contemporary pop culture’s co-sign will likely be […]
After 10 (and a half years), Billy Joel has completed his one-show-a-month residency at New York’s Madison Square Garden (MSG). According to figures reported to Billboard Boxscore, Billy Joel at The Garden earned $266.7 million and sold 1.9 million tickets over 104 shows.
Joel’s residency was a steady performer since its launch in 2014. He played one show at MSG every month except for June 2017 and December 2022. The other exception was a year-and-a-half hiatus due to COVID-19, from March 2020 through October 2021, plus January 2022 in the height of the first Omicron wave. All 104 shows sold out, averaging 18,604 tickets per night. Playing in the round, he out-sold the average MSG act, typically scaled to 13,000-15,000 seats.
While attendance remained consistent, ticket prices and grosses grew over the course of his decade at the arena. Joel’s 2014 shows averaged $2 million per show, steadily creeping up to $2.5 million by 2019. Upon returning from the pandemic, dynamic pricing and new platinum ticketing sent earnings soaring, from an average of $2.7 million in 2022 to $3.2 million in 2023, and up 49% to $4.7 million this year.
Joel’s final MSG show topped the entire run, bringing in more than $5 million from 18,576 tickets on July 25. That’s more than double the sub-$2 million revenue from the opening show on Jan. 27, 2014.
Ultimately, Billy Joel at The Garden is the third-highest grossing concert residency in Billboard Boxscore history, passing U2’s brief-but-powerful opening run at Las Vegas’ Sphere. The only artist with bigger totals is Celine Dion. The Canadian diva’s A New Day… residency ran from 2003 to 2007 at The Colosseum at Caesars Palace and grossed $385.1 million, while her follow-up, simply titled Celine, brought in $296.2 million from 2011 to 2019.
Though Joel’s career pre-dates the mid-1980s launch of Boxscore reporting, there is record of his presence at MSG before his sprawling residency. He played 12 shows between January and April of 2006, earning $19.2 million from 226,000 tickets. More than 18,800 fans rang in Y2K with him, on a $4.5 million gross on Dec. 31, 1999. He moved more than 100,000 tickets during a six-show run in December 1998, and before that in October 1993.
Though Joel stayed loyal to MSG while in New York, he played various isolated stadium shows around the world, plus co-headline dates with Stevie Nicks and Sting.
In all, Joel has grossed $1.2 billion and sold 15.3 million tickets across 841 reported shows, dating back to 1986.
On Sept. 11, 1999, Chely Wright’s “Single White Female” hit No. 1 on Billboard’s Hot Country Songs chart. Carolyn Dawn Johnson and Shaye Smith wrote the song, the lead single and title track from Wright’s set that Tony Brown, Buddy Cannon and Norro Wilson produced. Wright was born on Oct. 25, 1970, in Kansas City, Mo. She followed her […]
CeCe Winans banks her fifth leader on Billboard’s Gospel Airplay chart (dated Sept. 14) as “That’s My King” rises two spots to No. 1. During the Aug. 30-Sept. 5 tracking week, the song increased by 1% in plays, according to Luminate. “That’s My King” was co-authored by Taylor Agan, Kellie Gamble, Lloyd Nicks and Jess […]
Billboard launched its Bluegrass Albums chart in 2002, and for the past several years, Old Crow Medicine Show has held the record for the most No. 1 albums in the chart’s history. Explore Explore See latest videos, charts and news See latest videos, charts and news This week (on the Sept. 14-dated chart), the Steep […]
Up until this week, only five albums in the 68-year history of the Billboard 200 had spent 700 weeks or more on the chart. This week (on the chart dated Sept. 14), Eminem’s 2005 best-of compilation, Curtain Call: The Hits, joins the ranks as the sixth album to reach the milestone – and the first hip-hop set.
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Curtain Call: The Hits ranks at No. 198 with 8,000 equivalent album units earned in the United States Aug. 30-Sept. 5, according to Luminate.
Dating to when the chart became a regularly published weekly list in 1956, only five other albums have reached the 700-week milestone. Here’s a look at those five, along with the albums next in line:
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990 weeks, Pink Floyd, The Dark Side of the Moon
851, Bob Marley, Legend: The Best of Bob Marley & The Wailers
821, Journey, Journey’s Greatest Hits
758, Metallica, Metallica
710, Creedence Clearwater Revival, Chronicle: The 20 Greatest Hits
692, Guns N’ Roses, Greatest Hits
692, Bruno Mars, Doo-Wops & Hooligans
686, Nirvana, Nevermind
642, Michael Jackson, Thriller
622, AC/DC, Back In Black
619, Kendrick Lamar, good kid, m.A.A.d city
611, Queen, Greatest Hits
610, Adele, 21
601, Drake, Take Care
(All except for Dark Side of the Moon are still charting this week)
Curtain Call: The Hits is Eminem’s first greatest hits album and includes songs from four of his first five studio albums: The Slim Shady LP (1999), The Marshall Mathers LP (2000), The Eminem Show (2002), the 8 Mile soundtrack (2002) and Encore (2004). (The set doesn’t include any songs from his 1996 debut album Infinite, which he released before he signed to Interscope Records.)
After The Slim Shady LP peaked at No. 2 on the Billboard 200 in 1999, The Marshall Mathers LP debuted at No. 1 and became his first of 11 leaders, including his most recent project, The Death of Slim Shady (Coup de Grâce), in July. That run includes Curtain Call, which spent two weeks on top.
How come Curtain Call spent more weeks on the chart than any of Eminem’s classic studio projects? That’s due to a Billboard 200 chart rule that came into effect in 2009. In December of that year, Billboard allowed catalog albums back on the chart (after barring them since 1991).
When streaming began to impact the chart in 2014, Billboard instituted rules about where songs that appear on multiple albums should be assigned (say, a song that appears on both a studio album and a greatest hits album). Since then, songs are assigned to whichever album by that artist sells the most (by traditional album sales) in a given week. So, Curtain Call has been able to spend an historic amount of weeks on the chart because, A) catalog albums are now allowed to chart each week, and B) the album includes many of Eminem’s big early hits (“Lose Yourself,” “My Name Is,” “Without Me,” “Stan,” etc.) which, as a collection, are counting more towards this album week-to-week than to the original studio albums on which they appear.