Chart Beat

Taylor Swift achieves one of the most record-shattering weeks in the history of the Billboard Hot 100 songs chart – surpassing unprecedented heights that she previously set – as she claims the top 14 positions on the survey dated May 4. All 14 songs, led by “Fortnight,” featuring Post Malone, are from her new album, The Tortured Poets Department, which, following the Republic Records set’s April 19 release, blasts in at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 chart.

Swift was already the only artist ever to dominate the Hot 100’s entire top 10 — thanks to tracks from her last album of all-new material, Midnights, in 2022, led by the collection’s “Anti-Hero.”

Among other new chart feats for Swift, “Fortnight” becomes her 12th Hot 100 No. 1, as she ties for the sixth-most leaders in the chart’s archives; she ups her career count of top 10s from 49 to 59, the most among women; and she charts 32 songs – all 31 from the deluxe version of The Tortured Poets Department plus established smash “Cruel Summer” – on the latest list overall, the most ever in a single week by a woman.

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The Hot 100 blends all-genre U.S. streaming (official audio and official video), radio airplay and sales data, the lattermost metric reflecting purchases of physical singles and digital tracks from full-service digital music retailers; digital singles sales from direct-to-consumer (D2C) sites are excluded from chart calculations. 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.

Luminate, the independent data provider to the Billboard charts, completes a thorough review of all data submissions used in compiling the weekly chart rankings. Luminate reviews and authenticates data. In partnership with Billboard, data deemed suspicious or unverifiable is removed, using established criteria, before final chart calculations are made and published.

Below is a look at Swift’s latest groundbreaking week on the Hot 100.

Swift at Nos. 1 Through 14 on the Hot 100

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Taylor Swift’s “Fortnight,” featuring Post Malone, blasts onto Billboard’s Adult Pop Airplay chart, dated May 4, at No. 9. The launch ties for the highest in the list’s 27-year history – matching the No. 9 arrival of Swift’s own “Shake It Off” in 2014.

The new track, the lead single from Swift’s album The Tortured Poets Department, becomes Swift’s record-extending 31st Adult Pop Airplay top 10, pushing her further ahead of Maroon 5, second with 27 top 10s. Post Malone notches his fifth top 10 on the chart.

“Fortnight” concurrently flies onto the Pop Airplay chart at No. 13, tying “Bad Blood,” in 2015, for Swift’s, and the tally’s, second-highest starting spot, after “Shake It Off” and Mariah Carey’s “Dreamlover,” in 1993, both soared in at No. 12.

On Adult Contemporary, “Fortnight” begins at No. 16, also marking Swift’s second-best bow, tied with “We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together” in 2012; her “Anti-Hero” arrived at No. 14 in 2022.

(The rankings reflect songs’ plays on reporting adult top 40, mainstream top 40 and adult contemporary radio stations, respectively. Airplay is monitored by Mediabase, with data provided to Billboard by Luminate.)

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“Fortnight” received concentrated play upon its April 19 release on The Tortured Poets Department. Notably, iHeartMedia-owned Pop Airplay panelists WHTZ (Z100) New York and KIIS Los Angeles devoted their entire 12 a.m. and 9 p.m. hours that day to songs from the set.

Meanwhile, two other cuts from The Tortured Poets Department debut on Adult Pop Airplay: “My Boy Only Breaks His Favorite Toys,” at No. 36, and “I Can Do It With a Broken Heart,” at No. 37. Audacy-owned WWMX Baltimore (28 plays April 19-25) and Hubbard Broadcasting’s WTMX Chicago (27) led Adult Pop Airplay reporters in first-week support for the former, which also enters Pop Airplay No. 40.

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As previously reported, The Tortured Poets Department, released on Republic Records, has, after its first six days of release, broken the single-week streaming record in the U.S. for an album, according to initial reports to Luminate, as the 31 songs across its deluxe edition generated 799 million on-demand official streams in the U.S. April 19-24.

Plus, The Tortured Poets Department earned 2.5 million equivalent album units in the U.S. in its first six days. Of that sum, traditional album sales comprise 1.85 million.

The album’s final first-week numbers (equivalent album units, total traditional album sales and streaming figures) are expected to be announced by Billboard this Sunday, April 28, along with its assumed large debut on the multi-metric Billboard 200 albums chart. The top 10 of the Billboard Hot 100 songs chart is expected to be revealed Monday, April 29.

All Billboard charts dated May 4 will update Tuesday, April 30, on Billboard.com.

Submit questions about Billboard charts, as well as general music musings, to askbb@billboard.com. Please include your first and last name, as well as your city, state and country, if outside the United States.
Or, message @gthot20.

Let’s open the latest mailbag.

Luck of the Irish

Hi Gary,

Trending on Billboard

The skilled Hozier is No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 with “Too Sweet.” I love that the Irish musician’s birthday is St. Patrick’s Day (which, as I understand it, is a bigger day in the U.S. than in his homeland).

Hozier is also a bit lucky, given the timing of Taylor Swift’s new material, which is set to storm the Hot 100 next week. Meanwhile, her new set’s lead single, “Fortnight,” features an artist with another notable birthday, as Post Malone was born on July 4.

Happy holidays!

Pablo NelsonOakland, Calif.

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Hi Pablo,

Hozier finds a pot of gold at the end of the rainbow as “Too Sweet” tops the Hot 100. What a fun coincidence that the Newcastle, County Wicklow, native, 34, was born on St. Patrick’s Day, making him the first Irish artist with that birthdate to have led the list.

It seems similar to Jimmy Buffett and Annie Lennox having both been born on Dec. 25 and both boasting seasonal songs in their catalogs, including the latter’s “Winter Wonderland,” recorded by Eurythmics. Late legend Buffett charted two titles on the Top Holiday Albums tally: 1996’s Christmas Island and 2016’s ‘Tis the Season.

Plus, Dido, also born on Dec. 25, aptly contributed to the Yuletide musical canon with her recording of “Christmas Day.”

As for Post Malone, he has joined fellow artists John Waite and Bill Withers with July 4 birthdays, and all three have hit No. 1 on the premier songs chart in the U.S. Withers just missed fireworks atop the Hot 100 on July 4, as his “Lean on Me” began a three-week rule on the chart dated July 8, 1972. The song is, however, the closing track on the 2001 Billboard 200 top 10 compilation album God Bless America.

Meanwhile, Dec. 13 is a noteworthy birthday for Billboard chart-topping acts. Along with Swift, candles that day are blown out each year by Randy Owen, the lead vocalist on Alabama’s 33 Hot Country Songs No. 1s, the most among groups in the survey’s history; Morris Day, of The Time; Tom DeLonge, of Blink-182; Jamie Foxx; and Amy Lee, of Evanescence.

‘Cruel Summer’ Hits 50 Weeks on Hot 100

The race for the Hot 100’s top song of the 2020s still has plenty of contenders ahead, but, for now, “Cruel Summer” contributes to more chart history for Swift. As it becomes her fourth hit to spend at least 50 weeks on the Hot 100, she is the only woman with that many songs that have stayed on the chart for at least that long.

Overall, Swift is tied with Imagine Dragons and her “Fortnight” partner Post Malone with four songs each that have spent at least 50 weeks on the Hot 100 (or 25 fortnights). Only Ed Sheeran and Morgan Wallen have more, with five apiece. Here’s a rundown of their such hits, through the chart dated April 27. (Of the more than 30,000 singles to reach the ranking in its history, only 126 have charted for at least 50 weeks.)

Ed Sheeran:

59 weeks, “Shape of You,” No. 1 (12 weeks), beginning Jan. 28, 2017

58, “Thinking Out Loud, No. 2 peak, Jan. 31, 2015

57, “Perfect,” No. 1 (six weeks), Dec. 23, 2017

56, “Bad Habits,” No. 2, Aug. 28, 2021

52, “Shivers,” No. 4, Jan. 15, 2022

Morgan Wallen:

62 weeks, “You Proof,” No. 5 peak, Oct. 22, 2022

60, “Last Night,” No. 1 (16 weeks), beginning March 18, 2023

57, “Wasted On You,” No. 9, Jan. 23, 2021

55, “Thinkin’ Bout Me,” No. 7, Nov. 4, 2023

52, “Thought You Should Know,” No. 7, March 18, 2023

Another reader, below, was thinking along similar lines.

The Most Weeks Peaking at Any Hot 100 Position

Hi Gary,

What are the most weeks that a song has peaked at any position on the Hot 100? No. 1 is pretty well known, thanks to the 19 weeks on top for Lil Nas X’s “Old Town Road,” featuring Billy Ray Cyrus, in 2019, but what about other ranks?

Thanks,

Senan Sheridan

Hi Senan,

We can highlight yet another record for “Old Town Road,” as its 19 weeks atop the Hot 100 mark not only the most at No. 1 but the most at any peak rank on the chart.

Here’s a look at the positions at which songs have spent the most time (seven weeks or more) peaking on the Hot 100:

19 weeks, No. 1: “Old Town Road,” Lil Nas X feat. Billy Ray Cyrus, 2019

11 weeks, No. 3: “Another Night,” Real McCoy, 1994-95

10 weeks, No. 2: “Work It,” Missy “Misdemeanor” Elliott, 2002-03; “Waiting for a Girl Like You,” Foreigner, 1981-82

8 weeks, No. 6: “I Want It That Way,” Backstreet Boys, 1999

7 weeks, No. 4: “My Place,” Nelly feat. Jaheim, 2004; “Hold Me,” Fleetwood Mac, 1982

7 weeks, No. 5: “Bubbly,” Colbie Caillat, 2007

7 weeks, No. 10: “When the Lights Go Out,” Five, 1998

7 weeks, No. 86: “Hit the Freeway,” Toni Braxton feat. Loon, 2002

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Clearly, Braxton’s single is the outlier among the songs listed above, as it’s the only title to have spent as many as seven weeks peaking at a position on the Hot 100 outside the top 10, or even the top 40. Notably, “Hit the Freeway” merged onto the chart at No. 86 and didn’t change lanes, holding at that rank, for its first seven weeks on the survey. That remained its peak, until it exited after 14 total weeks.

Still, the track is prominent in Braxton’s catalog, as it rode to a No. 32 high on the Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs chart and has drawn 6.9 million official on-demand U.S. streams, according to Luminate, to date.