Chart Beat
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On July 13, 2019, Blanco Brown’s “The Git Up” began a 12-week reign on Billboard’s Hot Country Songs chart.
Brown’s debut entry, released as the first single from his album Honeysuckle & Lightning Bugs, was sparked by a viral dance challenge on TikTok and YouTube. He helped spur the craze by personally posting a tutorial.
“I grabbed spoons, tambourine, anything I could find that made a nice sound,” Brown told Billboard in 2019 of solely writing “The Git Up.” “When I got finished, it was so full of joy. I was doing the dance as I was writing it. I said, ‘This is going to be a song that makes people dance and brings joy.’ ”
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While the single marked Brown’s first hit as a recording artist, he had previously produced songs for pop acts including Chris Brown, Fergie and Pitbull.
Brown followed “The Git Up” with “Just the Way,” his collaboration with Parmalee that led Country Airplay in March 2021 and hit No. 3 on Hot Country Songs.
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In 2020, Brown, who hails from Athens, Ga., was involved in a motorcycle accident, breaking his wrists, arms, legs and pelvis, resulting in a 12-hour surgery. “I was broken, but it didn’t break my spirit,” he told Billboard in his first interview after the accident six months later.
In June, Brown released a four-song EP, Cedar Walls & Whiskey. “I’m gonna keep on manifesting everything I do in life,” he mused to Billboard at the 2024 ACM Awards on May 16. “I’m gonna stay positive no matter what and just keep thriving and striving to get where I need to go.”
Billie Eilish is back in charge in Australia, as Hit Me Hard And Soft bounces 2-1 for its fifth non-consecutive week atop the leaderboard.
The U.S. pop sensation has now logged 15 weeks at the ARIA Chart summit. That career result includes eight non-consecutive weeks at No. 1 in 2019-20 with her debut LP, When We All Fall Asleep, Where Do We Go?, while her sophomore album Happier Than Ever logged two weeks at the penthouse following its release in 2021.
Taylor Swift’s juggernaut The Tortured Poets Department is down 1-2, while U.S. country star Zach Bryan enjoys the top debut this week with his fifth studio album The Great American Bar Scene, new at No. 3. Hailing from Oklahoma, Bryan bagged a No. 2 peak with his self-titled collection from 2023, and No. 54 on the ARIA Chart with his 2022 effort American Heartbreak.
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Also making a splash on the latest ARIA Chart, published Friday, July 12, is Eves Karydas‘ Burnt Tapes, new at No. 23. That’s a new career high and an impressive improvement on the No. 75 peak for Summerskin, from 2018, the Cairns, Australia-born singer-songwriter’s first album.
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Over on the ARIA Singles Chart, Shaboozey’s “A Bar Song (Tipsy)” logs a second consecutive week at No. 1, doing so in its 12th week on the tally. Sabrina Carpenter completes an unchanged podium with “Espresso” and “Please Please Please,” respectively. Both are former chart leaders in these parts.
Meanwhile, Kendrick Lamar’s controversial diss track “Not Like Us” rebounds from 9-5, its equal peak position.
Morgan Wallen scores his fifth top 50 single in Australia as “Lies Lies Lies” debuts at No. 35. The U.S. country superstar’s career tally includes two No. 1s: “Last Night,” which spent eight weeks at No. 1 in 2023, and “I Had Some Help,” his collaboration with Post Malone, which logged a single week at the top in May. “I Had Some Help” dips 5-6 on the latest frame.
Finally, Eminem stashes another top 40 with “Tobey,” featuring Big Sean and BabyTron. It’s the latest single release from Em’s new album, The Death of Slim Shady (Coup De Grâce), which dropped early Friday.
Nickelback’s catalog sports sizable gains following the June 16 U.S. Netflix premiere of the band’s career-spanning documentary, Hate to Love: Nickelback, with one of its signature songs ruling a Billboard chart dated July 13.
“How You Remind Me,” the group’s breakthrough 2001 hit, bounds in at No. 1 on the Hot Hard Rock Songs tally, as well as No. 12 on Hot Rock & Alternative Songs. (Older songs are eligible to rank on Billboard’s multimetric charts if placing in the top half and with a meaningful reason for their re-entries.)
In the tracking week ending July 4, “How You Remind Me” earned 5.1 million official U.S. streams, up 12%, and sold 2,000 downloads, up 171%, according to Luminate.
The song makes its first appearance on Hot Hard Rock Songs, which began in 2020, and Hot Rock & Alternative Songs, which started in 2009. “How You Remind Me” was released on Nickelback’s third studio album, Silver Side Up, and became its to-date only No. 1 on the all-format Billboard Hot 100, ruling for four weeks in 2001-02.
While “How You Remind Me” is the only song from Nickelback’s catalog to reach the newest multimetric Billboard charts, the band’s music dots other surveys. “Rockstar,” from 2005’s All the Right Reasons, crowns Hard Rock Digital Song Sales (2,000 sold), where it’s followed by “How You Remind Me” at No. 2; “Photograph,” also from All the Right Reasons, at No. 4; “Someday,” from 2003’s The Long Road, at No. 8; and “Savin’ Me,” likewise from All the Right Reasons, at No. 9.
“How You Remind Me” also leads a pair of Nickelback tracks on Hard Rock Streaming Songs, lifting 4-3 as the survey’s Greatest Gainer. “Rockstar” follows as a re-entry at No. 23 via 3.1 million streams.
On the Top Hard Rock Albums tally, The Best of Nickelback: Volume 1, released in 2013, rises 3-2 thanks to 18,000 equivalent album units earned, a 30% jump. The 19-song compilation features each of the aforementioned tracks.
In all, Nickelback’s catalog received 28 million official on-demand U.S. streams in the week ending July 4, up 22% from 22.9 million in the week ending June 27.
Hate to Love: Nickelback premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival in September 2023 prior to its Netflix arrival.
The four-piece’s most recent album, Get Rollin’, was released in November 2022 and debuted at its No. 2 high on the Top Hard Rock Albums survey. It has earned 149,000 equivalent album units to date and spawned a No. 2-peaking Mainstream Rock Airplay hit in “San Quentin.”
Marc Anthony banks his record-extending 37th No. 1 on Billboard’s Tropical Airplay chart as “Ale Ale”rises to rule the chart dated July 13. The single from the salsa juggernaut lands atop Tropical Airplay – after five consecutive weeks in the runner-up slot – with 6.1 audience impressions on reporting stations to the chart in the […]
Eminem’s “Houdini” achieves a feat that no single from the rapper had in over 20 years: make Billboard’s Alternative Airplay chart.
The song bows at No. 35 on the ranking dated July 13, marking Eminem’s fifth appearance on the survey and first since “Lose Yourself,” which peaked at No. 14 in December 2002.
“Lose Yourself” logged an 18-week run on the chart, through February 2003. As such, the break between Eminem’s Alternative Airplay hits numbered 21 years and five months. That’s the longest between appearances since Kate Bush went over 28 years between January 1994 (“Rubberband Girl”) and June 2022 (“Running Up That Hill [A Deal With God]”), the latter charting after the 1985 classic’s synch in Netflix’s Stranger Things.
Eminem’s respite is the third-longest in Alternative Airplay’s nearly 36-year history, behind only Bush’s and Debbie Harry’s; the latter waited almost 29 years between “Kiss It Better” in 1990 and her featured turn on Just Loud’s “Soul Train” in 2018.
Eminem’s Alternative Airplay history extends before “Lose Yourself,” though it’s his highest peaking entry on the tally. He first reached the list with “My Name Is” in 1999 (No. 37), followed by “The Real Slim Shady” (No. 19, 2000) and “Without Me” (No. 15, 2002).
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“Houdini” has been described as evocative of many of those earlier Eminem singles, which is not lost on Kevin Weatherly, Audacy senior vp of programming and program director of KROQ Los Angeles. “This Eminem song has an instant familiarity, and it resonates with a large segment of our audience that was there when he arrived 20-plus years ago,” he tells Billboard. “Much like when we played him in the past, the response is mostly positive, but there are also some negatives. That said, we recognized the pop-culture moment and wanted to reflect it and be a part of it.”
KROQ played “Houdini” 21 times in the latest tracking week (July 28-July 4), sixth-most among stations on the Alternative Airplay panel, according to Mediabase.
KTCL Denver spun the song 29 times in that span, the fourth-most on the panel in that stretch; KKDO Sacramento led all stations with 38 plays. “One of my Jocks, B-Large, brought it to our music meeting for discussion,” KTCL program director Jeb “Nerf” Freedman tells Billboard. “We play four Eminem songs in catalog, so it makes sense to take a listen to the new song – but not every artist has a comeback this late in their career. Lucky for us, we constantly engage our audience with online surveys. When we tested it and it went through the roof, we knew they didn’t think of Eminem as just a part of history. Slim Shady is alive and well!
“It sounds a little weird hearing that Steve Miller melody on our station, but it certainly jumps out of the speaker at you. So far, it’s a massive hit.”
The Miller melody Freedman references is that of “Abracadabra,” the 1982 hit from The Steve Miller Band that topped the Billboard Hot 100; “Houdini” interpolates the song’s melody in its chorus.
Concurrently, “Houdini” lifts to a new No. 29 high on the all-rock-format, audience-based Rock & Alternative Airplay chart via 1.2 million audience impressions, up 21%, according to Luminate. Upon its debut in late June, it became Eminem’s first song on the list, which began in 2009.
“Houdini” boasts multi-format approval; in addition to its Alternative Airplay rank, it has so far reached No. 8 on Rhythmic Airplay, No. 16 on Pop Airplay, No. 18 on hot-rap-tracks and No. 32 on Adult Pop Airplay.
The track launched at No. 1 on the Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs and Hot Rap Songs charts dated June 15, as well as No. 2 on the all-format Billboard Hot 100. It holds at No. 16 on the latter list’s latest edition via 20.9 million radio audience impressions, 15.7 million official U.S. streams and 6,000 downloads sold.
“Houdini” is the lead single from The Death of Slim Shady (Coup de Grace), Eminem’s 12th studio album, due Friday, July 12. One other song was released ahead of the album: “Tobey,” featuring Big Sean and BabyTron, which bows at No. 95 on the Hot 100.
LISA debuts at No. 1 on the July 13-dated Billboard Global Excl. U.S. chart with “Rockstar,” notably making BLACKPINK the first group with three members that have led the list as soloists.
The song’s flashy debut also breaks a long streak of geographical monotony on the international ranking.
The Global Excl. U.S. chart ranks the 200 biggest songs of each week, based on streaming and data from more than 200 international territories, with U.S. consumption removed, as compiled by data tracker Luminate. So, even more than the Billboard Global 200, and in further contrast to the U.S.-based Billboard Hot 100, the Global Excl. U.S. chart has spotlighted artists from Africa, Asia, South America and elsewhere in its upper reaches since its 2020 launch.
But while 2024 has minted new smash hits and ascendant stars, those breakthroughs have generally been by American acts, and performed entirely in English. LISA stands out not only as the first Thai artist to top the list in 2024, but also as the first artist not from primarily English-speaking countries the U.S., Canada, or the U.K. to reach the summit all year. (“Still, “Rockstar” is sung almost entirely in English, with one line in Japanese repeated.)
At 2024’s midyear point (reflecting charts dated Jan. 6-June 29), 47 songs reached the top 10 of Global Excl. U.S., up noticeably from 26 during the same period of 2023. But just 40% of 2024’s top 10s in that span were by artists from outside the mainland U.S., compared to 92% last year and 85% the year before. In terms of language, 34% of this year’s top 10s included non-English-language lyrics, down from 58% in 2023 and 64% in 2022.
Each of the last two years had major narratives, particularly in Latin music, driving representation in their first six months. In 2022, Bad Bunny released his culture-dominating album Un Verano Sin Ti, which spawned seven top 10s on Global Excl. U.S. Last year, Peso Pluma led a streaming explosion of regional Mexican music, expanding the pan-Latin footprint on the global stage. Plus, a growing wave of Nigerian artists including CKay, Rema and Tems have diversified the top of the chart.
More than that, those years featured Global Excl. U.S. top 10s from Argentina, Brazil, Italy, Japan, South Korea, Sweden and beyond. Many of those territories have cracked the top 10 this year as well, but less frequently, and amid a much larger pool of hits.
Declining international representation on Global Excl. U.S. still stands in stark contrast to the Hot 100, where all 45 top 10s in the first half of 2024 are sung or rapped entirely in English, and all but five are by American acts. The handful of non-U.S. artists include enormous superstars such as Canadians Drake and The Weeknd, and western European acts including Hozier and, via a feature on Taylor Swift’s The Tortured Poets Department, Florence + The Machine.
Two of those acts – Hozier and The Weeknd – also hit the top 10 of Global Excl. U.S., along with British divas Sophie Ellis-Bextor and Dua Lipa. Otherwise, a bevy of pan-Latin and Asian crossover acts – Creepy Nuts (Japan), Feid (Colombia), Zeynep Bastik (Turkey) and more – have mixed among chart-toppers by Americans Sabrina Carpenter, Ariana Grande and Swift.
It’s encouraging that there has been so much turnover near the top of the Global Excl. U.S. chart in 2024, and that the hits have surged in streaming – by the end of June, 18 songs logged 50 million non-U.S. weekly streams, up from 14 to the same point in 2023 and 10 in 2022. But non-U.S. artists make up just 28% of that pie, down from 85% from just one year ago.
It’s good timing then, for LISA’s No. 1 debut this week. With 94.2 million non-U.S. streams in its first week, “Rockstar” boasts the most weekly streams for a Global Excl. U.S. hit this year by a non-American artist. Plus, Jimin and Loco (both from South Korea) debut at No. 7 with “Smeraldo Garden Marching Band” and Karol G (Colombia) rises to the top 10, at No. 8, with “Si Antes Te Huibera Conocido.” Meanwhile, FloyyMenor and Cris Mj (Chile) spend their 15th consecutive week in the top 10 with “Gata Only.”
While Tommy Richman’s “Million Dollar Baby” remains at No. 1 on the TikTok Billboard Top 50 chart for a ninth week, three songs reach the list’s top five for the first time after gaining on the July 13-dated survey.
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The TikTok Billboard Top 50 is a weekly ranking of the most popular songs on TikTok in the United States based on creations, video views and user engagement. The latest chart reflects activity July 1-7. Activity on TikTok is not included in Billboard charts except for the TikTok Billboard Top 50.
Following “Million Dollar Baby” at No. 2 is BlackMayo’s “Jus’ Know,” which vaults from its No. 10 debut on the July 6 list. It remains driven by a dance trend, which was sent into overdrive after newly drafted NBA player Jared McCain posted multiple uploads dancing to the song, as well as Twitch star Kai Cenat.
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“Jus’ Know” concurrently sports a 192% jump in official U.S. streams to 584,000 in the week ending July 4, according to Luminate.
While Tinashe’s “Nasty” falls 2-3 on the chart, the rest of the top five is taken up by songs new to the region: Ian’s “Magic Johnson” and Prodbycpkshawn and Uglyandz’s “Yo Bunny” at Nos. 4 and 5, respectively.
Both songs debuted on the July 6 tally, with “Magic Johnson” having started at No. 48. Released May 31, the song (from the rapper’s debut album Valedictorian) has been driven by lip-synch videos featuring the song as well as uploads soundtracked by a mashup that adds a bit of Chappell Roan’s “Hot to Go!” (specifically its countdown) to the sound.
“Magic Johnson” is up 5% to 5.1 million streams in the week ending July 4, holding at its No. 28 peak on Billboard’s Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs chart as a result.
“Yo Bunny,” meanwhile, mostly benefits from a photo trend showing off users’ summer 2023 vs. summer 2024 looks, as well as a dance trend and videos showing off how they walk downhill vs. uphill.
The song rockets 38% to 1.2 million streams in the June 28-July 4 tracking week.
Two other songs reach the TikTok Billboard Top 50’s top 10 for the first time, the first a debut in LeoStayTrill and Mr Reload It’s “Pink Lemonade (Str8 Reload),” which bows at No. 8 on the strength of lip-synch clips. Bbno$’s “It Boy” joins the song in the top 10 at No. 10, up from its No. 21 debut July 6, spurred by a variety of uploads, including recreations of its music video.
As the latest tracking week fell during the July 4 holiday in the U.S., Toby Keith’s “Courtesy of the Red, White and Blue” also pops onto the ranking at No. 11 thanks to creations surrounding the United States’ Independence Day, including from Keith’s account itself. 2024 marked the first July 4 without the country singer, who died Feb. 5 of cancer.
See the full TikTok Billboard Top 50 here. You can also tune in each Friday to SiriusXM’s TikTok Radio (channel 4) to hear the premiere of the chart’s top 10 countdown at 3 p.m. ET, with reruns heard throughout the week.
Tim Bowman Jr. banks his third chart-topper on Billboard’s Gospel Airplay chart, and backing choir Faith City Music adds its second leader, as “Nobody But God” ascends to No. 1 on the survey dated July 13. The song increased by 8% in plays during the June 28-July 4 tracking week, according to Luminate. Bowman Jr., […]
Welcome to Billboard Pro’s Trending Up column, 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: The biggest 4th of July bump comes for a late country legend, while Zach Bryan’s Independence Day-dropped new LP produces a new hit and Bossman Dlow continues his 2024-long winning streak.
Toby Keith, Forever Made in America
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Last Thursday, America celebrated its Independence Day — and as always on the 4th of July, listeners flocked to familiar patriotic, inspirational and/or generally U.S.-themed pop, rock and country classics to soundtrack their holiday. Big gainers from July 3 to July 4 included many of the usual suspects: among them, Bruce Springsteen’s “Born in the U.S.A.” (up 524% in official on-demand U.S. streams to 2.7 million and up 219% in sales to 1,100), Katy Perry’s “Firework” (up 249% to 1.8 million streams and 186% to 500 in sales) and Miley Cyrus’ “Party in the U.S.A.” (up 196% to 2.9 million streams and 113% to 800 in sales), according to Luminate. But the artist with the biggest of 4th of July gains might’ve been one folks were particularly sentimental about this year: Country Music Hall of Famer Toby Keith, who died at age 62 on Feb. 5.
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Of course, Keith has always seen some degree of a 4th of July boost — particularly for his most explicitly American-themed hits, which were all up again this year, including “American Soldier” (up 308% from July 3, to 685,000 streams), “Made in America” (up 380% to 914,000 streams) and of course, the controversial post-9/11 anthem “Courtesy of the Red, White and Blue (The Angry American)” (up 356% to a whopping 3.6 million). But this year, it wasn’t just those songs that saw huge streaming gains on July 4: so did non-nationalist signature Keith smashes like 1993’s “Should’ve Been a Cowboy” (up 70% to 864,000), 2003’s Willie Nelson-featuring “Beer for My Horses” (up 124% to 644,000) and 2011’s “Red Solo Cup” (up 119% to 351,000), among many others.
All in all, Keith’s catalog racked up 10.7 million streams and 3,600 digital song sales on July 4 — gains of 165% and 251%, respectively, from his July 3 totals — making for a hell of a nationwide tribute to a performer who made his love of his country as fundamental a part of his artistic identity as any other major act of the past three decades. – ANDREW UNTERBERGER
“28,” Days Later: Zach Bryan Has His ‘Bar Scene’ Breakout
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Over the past two years, Zach Bryan has become the type of stadium-occupying superstar who floods streaming charts whenever he puts out a new album; it happened in 2023 with his self-titled full-length, and it’s happening again with The Great American Bar Scene, which was released last Thursday (July 4). And while “Pink Skies,” the lead single from the album, debuted at No. 6 on the Hot 100 following its May release, the best-performing new track from the just-released 19-song project in the first few days of its release has been “28,” the album’s wistful, string-laden sway-along.
“28” bowed with 2.77 million official on-demand U.S. streams on Bar Scene’s release date, according to Luminate, and has stayed steady over the next four days — and actually seems to be growing, scoring a new daily streaming high of 2.90 million on Tuesday, in fact. While multiple songs from Bar Scene could register Hot 100 debuts next week, “28” — which is up to No. 9 on Spotify’s Daily Top Songs USA chart, and No. 3 on Apple Music’s Top Songs — should notch the best start out of the new songs on Bryan’s latest. – JASON LIPSHUTZ
Bossman Dlow Scores Yet Another Hit Thanks to Viral TikTok Trend
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After making a splash on the Billboard Hot 100 — “Get In With Me” (No. 49) and “Mr Pot Scraper” (No. 93) — and earning a bevy of viral hits along the way (“Big One,” “Talk My Shit” and the Glorilla-assisted “Finesse”), Port Salerno, FL rapper Bossman Dlow stands as one of the year’s biggest breakout stars. With “Shake Dat Ass (Twerk Song)” gaining major traction on socials and streaming, Dlow is eyeing yet another hit.
According to Luminate, “Shake” earned just over 317,000 official on-demand U.S. streams during the period of June 7-13. That figure then jumped by 60% to 508,000 official streams the following week (June 14-20). On June 16, TikTok user @mrflawdaaa shared a 14-second clip of himself exaggeratedly dancing to the song. The clip quickly went viral – it has since collected over three million views on the app – with many users latching onto the part of the choreography that features a glitchy sexy walk. During the period of June 21-27, the first full week with the @mrflawdaaa’s dance trend in the zeitgeist, “Shake” pulled 1.54 million official streams, marking a massive 203% increase from the period prior. The following week (June 28-July 4), the runaway hit leapt a further 117% to a whopping 3.35 million official streams. Over the past three weeks, official on-demand U.S. streams for “Shake Dat Ass” have exploded by over 956%.
Although he peaked at No. 20 on the Billboard 200 earlier this year with his third mixtape, Mr Beat the Road, “Shake Dat Ass” is featured on the rapper’s self-released debut project, Too Slippery, which dropped on Jan. 1, 2023. With everyone from Kehlani to Taye Diggs to Coi Leray hopping on the dance trend, “Shake” looks poised to continue its growth. – KYLE DENIS
The Contenders is a midweek column that looks at artists aiming for the top of the Billboard charts, and the strategies behind their efforts. Next week (for the upcoming Billboard 200 dated July 20), Taylor Swift aims to secure her longest run at No. 1 to date, but may be interrupted by another star’s new set.
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Zach Bryan, The Great American Bar Scene (Belting Bronco/Warner): The 2020s have marked one long rise to superstardom for singer-songwriter Zach Bryan. The country and Americana artist’s presence on streaming and as a live draw grew from project to project, with his mainstream breakthrough coming in 2022 with his American Heartbreak album and its hit single “Something in the Orange,” and then hitting a new peak in 2023 with his Billboard 200-topping self-titled set and its accompanying Billboard Hot 100-topping Kacey Musgraves collab “I Remember Everything.” Now, in the midst of an arenas-and-stadiums U.S. tour, Bryan releases his first album as a no-doubt A-lister: The Great American Bar Scene.
The 18-track new set already boasts one major hit in lead single “Pink Skies,” which debuted at No. 6 on the Hot 100 in June and is still hanging around the chart’s top 15 this week, and a second Hot 100 entry in “Purple Gas,” which features Noeline Hofmann (and is a redo of a song she originally wrote and recorded). The record also features first-time collaborations with a pair of artists who have extensive chart histories of their own — John Mayer on “Better Days” and Bruce Springsteen on “Sandpaper” — and already has something of a new breakout hit of its own in shuffling ballad “28,” which is still in the top 10 on both Spotify’s Daily Top Songs USA chart and Apple Music’s realtime listing. (If the Springsteen track debuts on the Hot 100, it will mark his first entry since 2009, and if it goes any higher than No. 95, it will be his highest-charting hit in nearly 20 years (since 2005’s “Devils & Dust” reached No. 72).)
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The set should stream in highly robust numbers – but it does have a couple factors working against its chances of a No. 1 debut. For one, Bryan pushed to have the album released on July 4 – last Thursday – rather than the usual Friday drop, meaning that its first day of stats count towards this week’s chart, not next week’s. (Its opening-day numbers were still big enough on their own for the album to debut at No. 17 on the Billboard 200 dated July 13.) More pressingly, the LP is currently only available for sale in digital form, with its release on CD and vinyl not due until Oct. 11. And while “28” is off to a good start, it’s not a real threat to debut atop the Hot 100 like “I Remember Everything” did.
The album is still expected to follow Zach Bryan – which launched with 200,000 units in its debut week last year – with another six-digit first week, which should make it a real contender for the top spot next week. But since the album’s first-full-week performance was hobbled a little by its off-cycle debut, whether Bar Scene can get to No. 1 may depend on whether it can stay a consistent performer on streaming through the end of the week.
Taylor Swift, The Tortured Poets Department (Republic): The Tortured Poets Department has ruled atop the Billboard 200 since debuting there back in early April, fending off debuts from Dua Lipa (Radical Optimism), Gunna (One of Wun), Billie Eilish (Hit Me Hard and Soft), ATEEZ (Golden Hour: Part 1) and Gracie Abrams (The Secret of Us), all of which debuted at No. 2 behind Taylor Swift’s blockbuster. Even in its 11th week of release, Poets remains a very strong performer – posting 114,000 equivalent album units this week, as the 31-track set (in its full Anthology edition) continues to put up robust streaming numbers, and also sell well in its various editions.
More of those new variants may be on their way to fans this week. On July 7, Swift restocked seven previously available CD editions of Poets on her webstore, each featuring a different exclusive bonus track — which were only available to purchase that day, and (according to the webstore) were due to ship on or before July 10, and could impact the tracking week. On Monday, Swift also released two new versions of the album’s lead single, the Post Malone-featuring “Fortnight,” to DSPs and digital retailers: a new Cults remix of the song, and an acoustic version of it. (The latter had previously been available via a limited edition CD version of Poets, and is currently in the top 10 on the iTunes chart.)
Taylor Swift has fought hard to maintain the chart’s pole position for over two months now, and will certainly make Zach Bryan earn the spot if he is to take it from her with his new album. What’s more, Swift has particular reason to be motivated to go for the 12th frame at No. 1 for her new set: With one more week on top, Poets would break a three-way tie with 2008’s Fearless and 2014’s 1989 to become the longest-ruling album on the Billboard 200 of the pop superstar’s entire storied career.