State Champ Radio Hot 100
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Spring of 2022 brought out the superstars: Over the course of three consecutive weeks, Future released I Never Liked You, Bad Bunny put out Un Verano Sin Ti, and Kendrick Lamar returned from a five-year break with Mr. Morale & the Big Steppers. Future and Lamar launched four songs apiece in the Billboard Hot 100‘s top 10 during their albums’ debut weeks, while Bad Bunny scored three.
But few of these tracks endured. Nine of them fell out of the top 10 in their second week on the chart. A month later, Future’s “Wait for U,” a melancholy hip-hop ballad with Drake and Tems, served as the only lasting reminder of this blockbuster spurt in the top 10.
That July, Steve Lacy carved out a notably different path on the Hot 100. He is not nearly as well-known as Future, Bad Bunny, or Lamar; as a result, his breezy new wave single “Bad Habit” debuted on the Hot 100 in the lowest possible position. It climbed the chart for five weeks before reaching the top 10. It then remained there for 18 weeks, ultimately peaking at No. 1.
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Songs like “Bad Habit” are becoming hard to find — 75% of 2024’s top 10 hits debuted in that lofty environment as of the third week of July. Ironically, though, the tracks that launch on the upper reaches of the Hot 100, like Future’s “Puffin On Zootiez” and Lamar’s “N95,” tend to be easy come, easy go. They don’t remain as long as the hits which take time to get into that exclusive atmosphere.
Since 2000, the average single that debuts in the top 10 hangs there for roughly six weeks. In contrast, tracks that take two to eight weeks to ascend to that position linger for more than 11 weeks.
This dynamic has become more extreme in the heart of the streaming era. Since 2015, singles that start out in the top 10 last 6.3 weeks on average, while tracks that take two to four weeks to reach the top 10 last more than twice as long — 12.7 weeks. And songs that take five to eight weeks to ascend to the top 10 do even better, lasting for an average of 13-plus weeks.
Singles that erupt high on the chart and then sink immediately are maybe thought of as viral one-offs — tracks plucked out of obscurity, usually by the masses on TikTok, incorporated into millions of videos, streamed by curious listeners, and then discarded. In truth, most of these short-lived top 10 hits are album cuts from superstars like Taylor Swift and Drake.
When artists with large followings release new full-lengths, it’s now common for many of the tracks on the album to debut immediately on the Hot 100 — as devoted fans engage with it for the first time and play it all the way through, sometimes more than once. Listeners have always been eager to devour new releases from their favorite acts, but this activity wasn’t trackable on a song level before the adoption of streaming, other than via sales or occasional radio play courtesy of individual DJs who happened to like a particular album cut.
The initial burst of post-release-week enthusiasm — the thrill of the new — is very difficult to sustain, however, and many of these songs depart the upper reaches of the Hot 100 rapidly. From 2000 to 2015, around 13% of top 10s fell out of the top 10 after one week; that number has rocketed upward, topping 40% in each of the last four years.
Gaining listeners’ interest is hard enough at a time when there is unprecedented competition for attention. Holding on to that attention for extended periods, or building it over time, may be even harder.
Songs that manage this tend to look a lot like singles from the pre-streaming era, in that they have sustained promotion campaigns behind them. The influence of radio on their trajectory is often especially noticeable.
While streams and sales of sought-after projects typically bunch up near a release date and then diminish, airplay tends to rise over time, as more stations see a song working and start to play it, and then play it more often, in tandem with label promotion. A similar progression happens with radio formats, which will often plunder successful tracks from each other, further amplifying their impact on the chart.
“A lot of times, the pop format will just look at other formats and see what’s bubbling up — like a Hozier or a Noah Kahan — and then say, ‘You know what, that feels like a pop record, let’s give it a shot,'” explains Tom Poleman, chief programming officer at iHeartMedia. “Then you can make something a super mass record.”
Many young executives believe airplay has little to no impact on streaming levels, but radio’s slow-burn timeline helps songs climb the Hot 100 — and sustain their position near the top. In fact, from a label’s point of view, this is one of airplay’s primary remaining benefits, as radio continues to face increased competition from streaming services and short-form video platforms. (Some executives also believe airplay can help artists sell tickets and earn brand deals.)
Take Shaboozey’s “A Bar Song (Tipsy):” When it skipped from No. 2 to No. 1 on the Hot 100 dated July 27, streams and sales were down — 6% and 24%, respectively, according to Luminate — but radio listening was up 11%. Shaboozey’s hit drew 77.2 million in airplay audience, as compared to 39 million official streams and 16,000 sales.
For the next two weeks, streaming and sales kept slipping, while airplay audience kept growing, albeit at a declining rate — up 10% in week three, and 6% in week four — and “A Bar Song (Tipsy)” stayed at No. 1. “Radio can still very much move the needle,” says J Grand, an A&R veteran. “Certainly not as much as a decade ago, but I don’t think the fall off is as precipitous as people are making it out to be.”
Promoting songs to radio is costly, however, and radio generally plays fewer current tracks than it used to. It’s good for commercially minded artists, then, that airplay is not the only way to extend a song’s life high on the charts. While the influence of music videos has lessened considerably in the age of TikTok, Reels, and YouTube Shorts, a well-placed clip can still ignite a single. (Though videos can be expensive too.)
Lamar’s “Not Like Us” sprang back to No. 1 nine weeks after it initially came out thanks to its music video, which was widely anticipated due to the avalanche of attention around his nasty public feud with Drake. Streams of “Not Like Us” jumped 20% and sales climbed 16% at a time when they would typically be falling.
And adding a star collaborator to a remix remains a tried-and-true technique for counteracting decaying chart position. Wizkid’s “Essence,” a swaying, flirty collaboration with Tems, grew gradually for months during 2021. “The people connecting first with the song in the States were largely either from Africa or the diaspora,” says John Fleckenstein, COO of RCA Records, which released and marketed the track. “We literally went city by city, focused on targeted radio and digital campaigns to get to those populations.”
But the big boost for “Essence” came when Justin Bieber joined the fight, appearing on a remix that August which bolstered streams, sales, and airplay all at once. Bieber’s presence catapulted the song from No. 44 on the Hot 100 to No. 16. In October, “Essence” glided into the top 10 — again with help from airplay, which kept climbing even as streams and sales decreased.
Engineering the long climb that eventually made “Essence” — or “Bad Habit” — inescapable is increasingly a lost art. But while the majority of top 10 Hot 100 hits now debut on the upper reaches of the chart, the danger of flaring brightly is burning out quickly. As Nick Bobetsky, who manages Chapell Roan, likes to say, “there’s much more meaning in momentum than in a moment.”
Sevdaliza, Pabllo Vittar and Yseult each score their first career placement on the Billboard Hot 100 (dated Aug. 3), thanks to their viral collaboration “Alibi.”
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The song, released June 28 on Twisted Elegance, debuts at No. 95 almost entirely from its streaming sum: 5.6 million official U.S. streams (up 18%) in the July 19-25 tracking week, according to Luminate.
The song has been steadily gaining thanks to a viral dance trend on TikTok, which began in the spring before the song’s official release. It has taken off in recent weeks, with the cut having soundtracked over 1.5 million videos on the platform to date. That virality sparked the song’s No. 21 debut on the July 20-dated TikTok Billboard Top 50 chart and its jump to No. 8 the following week.
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Notably, “Alibi” includes lyrics sung in English, French, Portuguese and Spanish and reworks the song “Rosa,” first recorded more than a century earlier and popularized by late famed Colombian musician Magín Díaz.
“Alibi” concurrently reaches the top 10 on the Billboard Global Excl. U.S. chart (11-9) and climbs 19-16 on the Billboard Global 200.
Sevdaliza, from Tehran, Iran, is a Dutch-Iranian singer-songwriter-producer who has been releasing music for over a decade. In that span, she has released two studio albums: ISON, in 2017, and Shabrang, in 2020. Before “Alibi,” she charted one track: “Ride or Die, Pt. 2,” featuring Villano Antillano and Tokischa, reached No. 43 on the Hot Latin Songs chart this May. It also peaked at No. 66 on Global Excl. U.S. and No. 112 on the Global 200.
Pabllo Vittar is a Brazilian drag queen and singer. She becomes just the second drag queen ever to hit the Hot 100, after RuPaul, who charted three songs in the 1990s: “Supermodel (You Better Work)” (No. 45 peak in 1993); “Don’t Go Breaking My Heart,” with Elton John (No. 92, 1994); and “Snapshot” (No. 95, 1996).
Vittar first appeared on Billboard’s charts in August 2017, thanks to her featured appearance on Major Lazer’s “Sua Cara,” also featuring Anitta. The track reached No. 26 on the Hot Dance/Electronic Songs chart, as well as No. 22 on World Digital Song Sales. She has charted one additional song: “Modo Turbo,” with Luisa Sonza and featuring Anitta, peaked at No. 71 on Global Excl. U.S. and No. 126 on the Global 200 in January 2021.
As for Yseult, “Alibi” is the French singer-songwriter and model’s first charted song. She initially rose to prominence after competing on the French reality competition Nouvelle Star in 2013-14, where she finished second.
Real Boston Richey is officially a Billboard Hot 100-charting artist, as the rapper scores his first career entry on the latest chart (dated Aug. 3) with “Help Me.” Explore Explore See latest videos, charts and news See latest videos, charts and news Released May 31 on Freebandz/Epic Records, the song reaches the Hot 100 at […]
Three people have proven themselves to be more skilled than the rest at predicting this year’s hits, placing first, second and third in the Billboard Hot 100 Challenge as of the end of the competition Tuesday (July 16).
After racking up points by accurately guessing how songs would fare on the U.S. chart via fantasy-sports-style gameplay, 26-year-old Easton Erosa, 25-year-old Lamar D and 19-year-old Josiah Fitzgerald ended the season as winners. Erosa, who’s from Haleiwa, Hawaii, will take home $25,000 cash for placing the highest of all the mobile game’s users, while runner-up Lamar of Philadelphia wins two VIP access passes to a 2024 or 2025 Billboard event or conference.
“When I found out there was a contest to predict the peak of the current top songs I knew I had to be a part of it,” Erosa tells Billboard. “I’ve grown up always loving music, especially Miley Cyrus. I listen to all kinds of genres like pop, hip-hop, country, etc., so I intuitively could tell when a song is gonna be a hit or not no matter the genre.”
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“I also loved being introduced to new songs and artists I’ve never heard before,” he notes of his experience with the app. “It made the game so fun listening to all the hot new songs from different genres and adding my favorites to my playlist.”
Repping Amherst, Massachussetts, Fitzgerald snags the third-place prize of a $500 Ticketmaster gift card to spend on concert tickets. “My brother Samuel and I downloaded the app shortly after it was announced and went in with fairly low expectations,” he tells Billboard. “I know that there were people who followed charts much more closely than we did during the season, so it was surprising and exciting to find out that we both ended up finishing within the top five!”
“Thank you to everyone at Billboard who made this possible and congratulations to the other winners!” Fitzgerald adds.
The news comes about three months after Billboard launched the first-of-its-kind mobile competition game, inviting users to listen to a new song every weekday and guess its ultimate peak position on the Hot 100. Points were awarded based on the accuracy of each participant’s respective predictions.
Between the charts dated April 13 and July 13, there were 197 new song entries on the Hot 100. Seven tracks reached No. 1 in that time: Future, Metro Boomin and Kendrick Lamar’s “Like That,” Hozier’s “Too Sweet,” Taylor Swift’s “Fortnight,” Lamar’s “Not Like Us,” Morgan Wallen and Post Malone’s “I Had Some Help,” Sabrina Carpenter’s “Please Please Please” and Shaboozey’s “A Bar Song (Tipsy).”
“For more than six decades, the Billboard Hot 100 has been the music industry’s top chart for measuring hits,” said Billboard EVP of Charts Silvio Pietroluongo when the game was first announced. “We are thrilled to create a new and unique interactive experience for passionate fans … We’re redefining how fans engage with chart-topping hits and ushering in a new music discovery and enjoyment era.”
Shaboozey notched his first Billboard Hot 100 chart topper with “A Bar Song (Tipsy),” which topped the tally on the chart dated July 13, 2024. Upon seeing the news, the 29-year-old musician took to X (formerly known as Twitter) to celebrate. “WE DID IT YALL,” he wrote alongside a tweet of the new chart achievement, before […]
It’s no secret that Disney fame often leads to mainstream success, and over the course of the Billboard Hot 100 chart’s history, we’ve seen actors and musicians from Disney Channel movies and shows turn into some of today’s biggest stars.
Most recently, Sabrina Carpenter scored her first Hot 100 chart topping song with “Please Please Please,” which made its way to the top of the tally on the chart dated June 29, 2024. With the achievement, Carpenter joins a number of fellow Disney musicians to earn a No. 1 hit, including Olivia Rodrigo, Miley Cyrus, Britney Spears, Selena Gomez, Justin Timberlake and more.
Besides the chart toppers, there are a number of former Disney darlings that have Hot 100 hits under their belts, even though they didn’t reach the summit. For example, Vanessa Hudgens, Zac Efron and Drew Seeley‘s “Breaking Free” from High School Musical reached No. 4 on the chart dated February 11, 2006. Fellow HSM alums, Ashley Tisdale and Lucas Grabeel, got a No. 35 hit with “What I’ve Been Looking For” during the same week. Raven Symoné entered the chart way back in 1993 with “That’s What Little Girls Are Made Of” (No. 68) and reappeared in 2006 with “Strut” (No. 53), alongside fellow Cheetah Girls stars Adrienne Bailon, Sabrina Bryan and Kiely Williams. Hilary Duff‘s 2007 hit, “With Love,” meanwhile, peaked at No. 24 in 2007.
In the 2010s, Ross Lynch entered the chart alongside Grace Phipps and Jason Evigan with “Cruisin’ for a Bruisin’,” which peaked at No. 82 in 2013. Meanwhile, Demi Lovato notched their biggest chart hit with “Sorry Not Sorry,” which reached No. 6 on the tally dated Nov. 11, 2017.
Ryan Gosling — who was in The All-New Mickey Mouse Club in the 1990s, scored his first appearance on the Hot 100 when “I’m Just Ken,” from 2023 Barbie movie, debuted at No. 87.
In celebration of former Disney stars’ success on the charts, see below for a list of nine former Disney stars who have topped the Billboard Hot 100.
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Months into writing a new song with Chappell Roan in 2023, Dan Nigro hit a wall. The Grammy-winner songwriter-producer had tried just about everything he could think of with the bubbling under pop phenomenon — boosting the production, cleaning up the lyrics, adjusting the key — and yet the song still didn’t have that special X factor they were looking for.
“We kept on getting so frustrated,” Nigro tells Billboard. “We knew that something about it was really special, but we could not figure it out. Was it the key? Was it the verses that needed to feel more spunky?”
But once the duo found what they were looking for in the stratospheric chorus, the song transformed into Roan’s runaway hit, “Good Luck, Babe!” Since the song’s release in April, Roan (born Kayleigh Rose Amstutz) has become one of the most talked-about voices in mainstream pop music. The single marked her first entry on the Billboard Hot 100, debuting at No. 77, and has risen to No. 16 on the June 29-dated chart, with three of her other songs — “Red Wine Supernova,” “Hot to Go!” and “Pink Pony Club” — populating the lower half of the list. Meanwhile, her debut album, The Rise and Fall of a Midwest Princess, reaches a career-high at No. 8 on the Billboard 200.
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It shouldn’t come as a surprise that a track co-penned by Nigro is finding such breakaway success. Over the last several years, the songwriter has cemented himself as one of the most sought-after writers in the business, helping write hits for pop artists including Olivia Rodrigo, Caroline Polachek, Conan Gray and others. But in working with Roan, Nigro says he’s found something especially exciting.
“When we made [her May 2020 single] ‘California,’ which was the second song we wrote together, I had this feeling like I was a part of something deeply special,” Nigro says. “It felt magical and deeply relatable … and really important, [because] she was making it so that it felt important.”
Nigro breaks down the “intense” process of writing “Good Luck, Babe!,” its runaway success over the last two months and why he knew early on that Chappell Roan was destined to be “a superstar.”
Tell me about the beginning of the process with “Good Luck, Babe!” — where did the original idea for the track come from, and when did you begin working on this?
Kayleigh, Justin [Tranter] and I actually started the idea in November of 2022. We wrote a scratch idea — it was just a verse and a chorus. The idea was originally called “Good Luck, Jane” — Kayleigh was really set on having it be a name.
It’s a song we wrestled with for a while. We laid down a demo, and the two of us felt like it wasn’t right. We knew something was special about the song, but we couldn’t tell what it was that we were getting wrong. So, we worked on it for a day, we put it away, and then a few months later, she came in for something else, and she was like, “What about that one song we wrote? I feel like there’s something there.”
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Kayleigh’s voice is crazy across all of her songs, but it feels like she is in rare form on “Good Luck, Babe!,” where she’s almost expressing the entirety of her vocal range on one song.
Absolutely. When we opened it back up, we really narrowed in on the chorus and decided that some of the words needed to be in full voice. And then all of a sudden, we listened back and went, “Okay! I think we’ve figured it out!” Once we finally got it, it was such a relief. That song was so intense, and it was definitely one of the hardest songs to get right.
Kayleigh and I are not the people who go in the studio and write a song in one day. We take our time with it, comb over the lyrics and then forget about it for a month and come back to listen with fresh ears. A lot of times when you’re working on a song, in the midst of working on it, you tend to get really excited about it, and then you look back later and go, “Oh, that wasn’t as good as we thought it was.” Luckily, Kayleigh is so good at having that insight and knowing [when] to take a step back and reflect on it. She’s so incredible at having that self-awareness. She’s also such an incredible singer — which is a great thing, but because she often sounds really good singing any song, figuring out the difference between something being really good and being amazing can be tricky.
I know Kayleigh has said this song was “a b-tch to write,” and that very much tracks with what you’re describing here.
For sure. Though, it’s funny: To me, it wasn’t actually that much of a b-tch to write. I feel like it was the production and the process that was really tough. Actually writing the song was quite fluid. I remember she came over one day, and I was like, “Well, now we need a bridge.” She wrote the bridge all on her own in like two minutes. She said, “Put the pre-chorus chords on,” I looped it, and she just got on the mic and went for it. I was trying to keep looping the chords more because she just kept singing, and I was like, “No, we have to go further!” It was amazing.
You mentioned that the original version of the song you wrote with Justin had really different verses lyrically — what would you say fundamentally changed between that first draft and the final version?
I don’t exactly remember what the verses were to begin with, just because it’s been so long since we wrote them. But I do remember that we wanted the words to feel more effortless. We wanted to make sure it had that casual, cool, laid-back feeling to it. The lyrics were a little bit more pointed, a little more cutting. We chilled it out, and then she was sitting on the couch at one point, and she said, “I just want to have a line in there about my arms reaching out of a sunroof.” It was so funny.
At what point in this process, if at all, did you think that “Good Luck, Babe!” was going to be a hit?
When a song is difficult to get right, especially from the production side of things, I become so self-conscious of it that I can never see it super clearly. Also, “Good Luck, Babe!” is so dramatic — I tend to keep my productions pretty minimal for the most part. But “Good Luck, Babe!” is such an epic production — there are like 100 string parts! When I’m adding that much production, I tend to feel like I’m doing too many things. So, I don’t think there was any point in that process where I was like, “Oh, this one’s going to be a hit.”
I remember she texted me the day the song came out, just being excited about the song. Then her manager texted me and said, “This one feels special, this feels different right now.” That is, to me, the crazy thing about being able to see the numbers in real time: You have absolutely no way of knowing, and then within 12 hours, people can tell you, “Oh yeah, audiences are really liking this one.”
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It seems clear that “Good Luck, Babe!” really cemented this cultural moment for Kayleigh: The song has climbed into the top 20 of the Hot 100, “Red Wine Supernova,” “Hot to Go!” and “Pink Pony Club” have all entered the Hot 100, and The Rise and Fall of a Midwest Princess continues to climb on the Billboard 200, reaching the top 10.
It is crazy to watch. This feels like … I don’t want to say “destiny,” that’s the wrong word to use. It all happened for a reason. This song was made during the making for Rise and Fall, and to me, it felt like it could have easily been on the record. I’d like to think that because it came out at a different time, it held a different meaning and it was a different vessel for the album. Whereas, if it came out with the album, then the record would not be what it’s doing right now.
Why do you think this moment is happening right now, rather than with the album’s release last September?
All I can say is, three or four days into meeting her, I was convinced she was a superstar. I was so enamored by the way she thought about music, and I could not believe I was a part of it, because it felt magical and also deeply relatable. When we made “Pink Pony Club,” that was the record where it felt like we were making something actively powerful. It was that sort of feeling where you get the sense that you’re making a song that people need. I’ve always felt that something like this was going to happen for her; the question was just when it would happen.
The fact that she’s so phenomenal live means people are finally able to see in real time how good she is. That then becomes this word-of-mouth thing, and it’s wonderful to see her have such old school success. I’ve told so many people, “This is the way things used to be — you would have to see the artist live, and you see them be good at what they do and then spread the word.” She’s so good at what she does that the system is working again! It really is that simple.
That’s an important point — while a lot has happened in the last two months, this wasn’t “overnight” success. Chappell had been steadily growing before “Good Luck, Babe!” blew up.
I totally agree, it’s not “overnight” success in any way — even since the record came out nine months ago, every single day, the numbers were steadily going up by like a percentage each week. It just took so long to get to the point where enough people were talking about it every day for it to become exponential.
You’ve had a lot of success working with pop stars like Olivia Rodrigo, Conan Gray and Caroline Polacheck — is there anything about working with Chappell that feels different than your other collaborators? Or what things feel similar in the way you work with all of those artists?
If I’m being honest, I always feel weird when asked to compare people. I think the important thing is that she’s incredibly articulate about what she wants out of a song, and we have a great relationship when it comes to creating music. We’re writing songs together, but we’re also producing them together, and she’s in the room for a bunch of it. There’s a really good language between us when it comes to making music. I can understand what she’s looking for, and if I’m not getting something right when I’m producing, she can step in. She’s so good at explaining exactly what she wants, and it makes for a really good flow in our working relationship.
A version of this story originally appeared in the June 22, 2024, issue of Billboard.
It’s officially the Summer of Sabrina, and she’s taking some time to celebrate. On Monday (June 24), Billboard announced that Sabrina Carpenter scores her first Billboard Hot 100 No. 1 hit this week, with “Please Please Please” rising from No. 2 in its second week. And to add some whipped cream to the top of […]
Summer officially kicked off a few days ago, and it feels impossible to consider that this time last year, espresso was simply a coffee-brewing method and post-dinner option. At the start of spring, none of us were me espresso — were we ever so young?
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But then, Sabrina Carpenter went on the type of months-long run that turns an artist into a superstar. Over the past couple months, she played Coachella; performed on the season finale of Saturday Night Live; announced a tour that will make her an arena headliner, after playing opening act to Taylor Swift’s Eras stadium shows just a few months earlier; snagged a top spot at a major U.S. festival, Outside Lands; made her runway debut at Vogue World; hung out on- and off-camera with her movie star boyfriend, Barry Keoghan; and received countless celebrity co-signs as the cool new kid to join their ranks.
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After years of Disney-approved studio albums and a gradual reinvention into an adult pop singer-songwriter, the 25-year-old has scooped up several wins reserved for undeniable A-listers in a short amount of time. Of course, “Espresso,” the buoyant single that Carpenter released in early April, helped caffeinate her career. A top 10 mainstay on the Hot 100 since its release, “Espresso” has not only become a defining pop hit of 2024, but got meme’d ad nauseam, sending “me espresso” into the cultural lexicon as other superstars warbled its best parts in viral tribute. As “Espresso” spends another week in the Hot 100’s top 5, it shows no signs of slowing down.
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“Espresso” is Carpenter’s mainstream breakthrough — but it isn’t her first No. 1 hit. That honor is reserved for “Please Please Please,” Carpenter’s follow-up single, which climbs to the top spot after debuting at No. 2 last week. It’s an unexpected development following weeks of “Espresso” ubiquity, but for Carpenter, it’s an even more impressive crowning achievement.
“Please Please Please” may contain some typical characteristics of a modern smash — Jack Antonoff produced it, after all, and co-wrote the song with Carpenter and regular hit-maker Amy Allen. Its buzzy music video co-stars Keoghan, in a bit of action-packed celebrity interplay that has racked up 34 million YouTube views. Yet the studio pedigree and must-see visuals don’t mask its idiosyncrasies. The biggest song in America is a sly, low-key, downright weird single; “Please Please Please” doesn’t boast the instant catchiness of “Espresso,” but instead provides an even stronger jolt of Carpenter’s singular persona.
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Pivoting away from the confident synth-pop bounce of “Espresso,” Carpenter treats “Please Please Please” like a country-tinged confessional. She speak-sings about past and present errors in judgment over muted guitar and drum taps in the verses. When the hook hits, Carpenter pleads in high-definition, harmonizing with herself in a way that somehow splits the difference between a disco anthem and folksy ballad.
By the time Carpenter’s register dips in the second half of the chorus and she gurgles the threat, “I beg you, don’t embarrass me, motherf–ker,” she’s obviously upended any expectations of an “Espresso” rehash — but also, she’s remained as playful and off-kilter as she sounded when she sang “I’m working laaaate / ‘Cuz I’m a singerrrrr.” Carpenter possesses a wry sense of humor that helped define the songwriting on her great 2022 album Emails I Can’t Send, and after injecting her eccentricities into “Espresso,” “Please Please Please” amplifies them. Her personal and musical quirks can be felt in every line, hook and ad-lib, and they turn “Please Please Please” into a song that no other artist could deliver in quite the same way.
The immediate success of “Please Please Please” — which debuted at No. 2 on the Hot 100 last week after quickly becoming a streaming juggernaut, then overtook Post Malone and Morgan Wallen’s “I Had Some Help” in its second frame — confirms the breadth of Carpenter’s newfound popularity. After “Espresso” became her first career top 20 on the Hot 100, Carpenter quickly followed it with a song that was a sonic departure but a spiritual relative, and revealed more about what type of pop star she wants to be.
Maybe “Espresso” eventually hits No. 1 and stands as the bigger hit for Carpenter, or maybe its success was simply prelude for a less traditional smash. It doesn’t really matter. Either way, pop listeners are clearly invested in Carpenter beyond her breakout hit’s ultra-catchy refrain and have latched onto the personality that helped power these two hits.
Now, we’re likely about to experience a summer full of two tonally disparate Carpenter singles racking up millions of streams and numerous weeks in the top 10 of the Hot 100. At the end of it, we’ll get a new Carpenter full-length, Short n’ Sweet — after a first half of 2024 full of big-name album releases, it could dominate the cultural conversation during a relatively quiet third quarter. Carpenter commanded the spring thanks to “Espresso”; “Please Please Please” may have set her up for a whole lot more winning seasons.
Post Malone is set to release his upcoming album, F-1 Trillion, on Aug. 16, revealing the news via a billboard in Nashville on Tuesday (June 18). The album marks his sixth studio album, following 2023’s Austin. Post Malone is currently riding high atop the Billboard Hot 100 chart with his Morgan Wallen collaboration “I Had […]
