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Happy anniversary, dahhlings! As all members of the Lambily know, March 27 is the annual anniversary of Mariah Carey‘s birth.
And while the Songbird Supreme may classify herself as “eternally 12” — and refuses to use the term “birthday” or, you know, recognize the concept of time in general — we couldn’t let the day go by without honoring her legacy as one of the most iconic chart-toppers in Billboard history.
To date, the Elusive Chanteuse has racked up a record-setting nineteen No. 1 hits on the Billboard Hot 100 — making her the solo artist with the most number ones and only one behind The Beatles’ high water mark of 20.
Of course, Carey’s latest, and some would argue greatest, No. 1 is “All I Want for Christmas Is You,” which reached the top of the tally for the first time in 2019 — a full 25 years after its initial release — and has since made its annual return to No. 1 every holiday season since.
However, ask any Lamb and they’ll tell you there’s so much more to Mariah’s songbook than Christmas music. Starting out at the dawn of the ’90s, the singer became instantly known for her iconic voice and notched adult-contemporary hits like “Vision of Love” and “Love Takes Time” as well as certified pop smashes like “Dreamlover,” “Fantasy” and “Always Be My Baby.”
Eventually, she spread her wings and found her artistic freedom with the release of 1997’s Butterfly, which became a blueprint for successfully melding R&B, hip-hop and pop with singles like “Honey” and “My All.” High-profile collabs with Jay-Z and Joe and 98 Degrees soon followed in the form of “Heartbreaker” and “Thank God I Found You,” but Mariah hit another level of artistic achievement and string of No. 1s with 2005’s The Emancipation of Mimi and its 2008 successor E=MC2.
Throughout the 2000s, the songwriter crafted the sound of the decade thanks to hits like “We Belong Together,” “Don’t Forget About Us” and “Touch My Body,” with the worldwide success of the former even barring its equally infectious follow-up “Shake It Off” from reaching the top of the chart.
To celebrate Mariah’s “anniversary,” vote for your favorite of her nineteen No. 1 hits below.
Miley Cyrus took to social media on Tuesday (March 21) to celebrate “Flowers” returning to the top of the Billboard Hot 100 for a seventh week.
“Flowers is #1 for a 7th week! I love all of you. Endless Summer Vacation out now!” the singer wrote on Twitter, also sharing a candid shot of herself wearing an asymmetrical dress of black sequins, a long green fur coat, and her must-have accessory of the album cycle: a pair of black sunglasses. She also shared this week’s Hot 100 top 10 (chart dated March 25) and Billboard‘s own story about her 10th career week at No. 1 on her Instagram Stories.
The hit single’s return to the pinnacle of the Hot 100 was helped by the release of Endless Summer Vacation, which posted Cyrus’ best opening week on the Billboard 200 in more than a decade with 103,000 equivalent album units. The studio set lands at No. 3 on the chart behind Morgan Wallen’s One Thing at a Time — last week’s holdover at No. 1 — and TWICE’s READY TO BE.
In more global accomplishments, “Flowers” is also spending an eighth week at the top of both Billboard Global charts, and Cyrus also nabbed a rare chart double over in the U.K. with the smash single and its parent album simultaneously sitting at No. 1 on the Official Singles chart and Official Albums chart.
Check out Cyrus’ tweet about her song’s latest chart-topping accomplishment below.
During one of the sessions for Emails I Can’t Send, Sabrina Carpenter’s 2022 album full of post-heartbreak contemplations, she hit a mental wall. “We were writing, and I was like, ‘This isn’t how I’m actually feeling right now,’ ” the singer recalls. “I had to get outside of my head.”
Over the next two hours, Carpenter and co-writer Steph Jones created “Nonsense,” a cheeky, sumptuous rhythmic-pop track about being so flustered around someone that she gets tongue-tied. But then she shrugged off the song, figuring it didn’t fit with the tone of the album, and nearly left it off the tracklist altogether.
“That laid-back approach,” she reflects now, “is what I think actually made it special.”
Much like Carpenter, 23, listeners didn’t immediately latch on to “Nonsense” — but since the July release of Emails, the song has turned into the album’s biggest hit. Late last year, a sped-up version went viral, prompting Carpenter to release an official accelerated take.
“There’s something addictive about hearing a song sped up,” she says. “It gives it new life and more energy.” She then uploaded a holiday version of “Nonsense” to streaming services, building toward its breakthrough in 2023, beginning with a highly choreographed performance on the Jan. 4 episode of Jimmy Kimmel Live!, as well as a TikTok dance routine pegged to the second verse.
The single has reached a No. 56 high on the Billboard Hot 100 and earned 77.2 million U.S. on-demand streams through March 2, according to Luminate. It has also given Carpenter — who released four albums on Hollywood Records before making her Island Records debut with Emails — her best-performing pop radio hit, with four weeks in the top 20 of the Pop Airplay chart.
There’s still more “Nonsense” to come: Carpenter announced a deluxe edition of Emails will be out next Friday (Mar. 17), one day after she kicks off her 2023 headlining tour, and confirms that a remix to the song with another artist is on the way. No matter how high the song climbs, Carpenter says that the unexpected reaction to it has been extremely gratifying.
“When you’re seen for things that feel so close to who you are at your deepest, darkest self,” Carpenter says, “it’s a beautiful thing.”
This story will appear in the March 11, 2023, issue of Billboard.
U.K.-based electronic producer Mura Masa and rising pop singer-songwriter PinkPantheress have been close collaborators for a couple years now — in both the artistic partnership sense and the more literal one. “She lives 10 minutes down the road,” Mura Masa, 26, tells Billboard with a laugh. “She has a friend who lives right next to me, so we’re always bumping into each other.”
It was that combination of proximity and kinship that led to the two cooking up “Boy’s A Liar” over a couple of hours together last year — a charming synth-pop twinkler born, Mura Masa says, of “borderline-misandrist tendencies” shared by the two artists. A minor chart hit in their country and a modest stateside streaming success, the song blew up earlier this month following the release of its “Pt. 2” remix, which adds a verse from New York rap phenom Ice Spice. After debuting on the Billboard Hot 100 (dated Feb. 18) at No. 14 — an eye-popping arrival for two artists with limited history on the chart — the collaboration leapt to No. 4 the following week and ticks up to No. 3 on this week’s list (dated March 4).
“Ice Spice is the most exciting artist right now, alongside Pink,” says Mura Masa, who adds he only found out about the new version when videos of the two of them filming the NY-set video went viral on TikTok. “I texted [PinkPantheress] straight away and I was like, ‘Yeah, genius, big-brain move. This is gonna be great.’ ”
Below, Mura Masa dives further into the process and inspirations behind the biggest global smash of his and his collaborators’ young careers, how the song’s success could lead to future U.K. hits crossing the pond and more.
You’ve worked with PinkPantheress for a while already. Can you talk about how that relationship started, and how it has developed over time?
I think I first heard Pink’s music around like “Pain” and “Break It Off,” and then I was reaching out to people to try to find out who she was and where she lived because there’s not much information about her online. And it turned out she lived 10 minutes down the road from me. [Laughs.] We started hanging out a lot after that, and it’s really easy for us to pull up on each other.
[The] first time we worked together, I think we made “Just for Me” that day. It was probably the first idea that we worked on, and I think it was very obvious that we have a similar set of influences, and I really see her in a really nice way. We share a lot of the same ideas. Quite often she’ll knock on the door and be at my house, like, “Hey, I was in the area…” There’s a little studio at the bottom of my garden — that’s where we made “Boy’s a liar” and “Just for Me” and countless other things that may or may not be released.
How did “Boy’s A Liar” come about?
We’re oddly not very verbal with our communication. We just kinda hang out and maybe one word or phrase will get tossed around, and then I’ll start a beat. I wish it was a more remarkable story, to be honest, but it was made in a couple of hours, like most things that we do. She took the idea and went away and worked on it by herself, and restructured it, wrote some different parts. But basically, the final record is what we did in those few hours, which I love. I think that’s really important.
She said something in the press release about how you both wanted to write a song about how boys are liars — which she said was a particularly common theme “this time of year.” Do you have any idea what she meant by that?
[Laughs.] Yeah, I think we share similarly borderline-misandrist tendencies. Just like, “Men are often problematic and can’t be trusted” — but I try not to involve myself too much in the lyric-writing with Pink as much as I might do with other artists. She’s so formed already and has such a great idea about what’s going to hit in terms of pop culture. In terms of getting Ice Spice on the record, it was entirely her proactive, genius brain.
So much of the song is about the melody of that title phrase. Did she come up with that? And if so, did you recognize immediately that it was something special?
The first iteration of the song came about very quickly, and then I sent her the instrumental. The whole “boy’s a liar” bit was actually something that she wrote on her own. I think the next week, she had leaked it herself, which she’s prone to doing — that’s the first time I heard that version. I texted her and was like, “Yeah, that’s it! That’s the hook! That’s better.” Full credit to her for that.
I didn’t really notice it until a handful of times listening to it, but the beat does kind of have that Jersey club bounce to it, which is getting to be a prevalent sound in pop music — especially on this side of the pond. Is that something you’re drawing influence from these days, or were listening to while you were making it?
Yeah. It’s really cool what’s happening with Baltimore and Jersey and these really localized American genres that are having moments. “Just Wanna Rock,” the [Lil Uzi Vert] song, is the biggest example of that. If I remember correctly, that is something that we talked about that day, but I really didn’t want to go fully into that and make a pastiche of something that I’m not locally a part of. But yeah, there’s bed squeaks in there, there’s the kick [drum] pattern, things like that.
When me and Pink work together, we’re never trying to make something that’s pastiche-y — it has to fit into her world. It’s interesting that you said you didn’t even notice it until recently, because that’s a good thing in my head.
Basically the song is left as-is on the remix, aside from swapping the second verse for Ice Spice’s verse. Was there any thought about changing it at all?
I left that up to her. She’s a brilliant producer in her own right, and she was able to take the stems of what I did and work it around what Ice Spice did. I’m just happy to even be a remote part of what she’s doing.
What do you think about the remix is lending itself to this kind of success?
I think it’s just the combination of two extremely zeitgeist-y artists. There are interesting through-lines between them as artists: they both have an interesting emotional center to what they do. It’s just a match made in heaven, and the video that makes the chemistry super-obvious. But as far as why it’s doing so well, I just think it’s a brilliant song, and Pink’s a great songwriter.
Is its chart progress something that either you’re monitoring, or your team is keeping you informed about?
No. I wouldn’t say it’s something I don’t care about, but it’s not something that I would normally follow actively. In fact, it was a text from a friend of mine out of New York — it was a tweet from one of these pop chart accounts, like, “Oh, it’s gone in at No. 14!” or whatever. I was like, “Wow, it’s so amazing that it’s ascended to kind of that level.” One of my publishers texted me out of the blue, like, “Well done.” I was like, “Oh, I must be doing something!”
PinkPantheress reacted to the song’s chart success in the U.S. with surprise, and I know a number of U.K.-based artists feel similarly about the challenges of landing that kind of an accomplishment. Why do you think that’s the case?
I could give an hourlong answer about the structure of radio in the U.S., and the need to break certain local markets before you get international success. But for most U.K. artists, it’s just a taste thing, an accent thing, or one [other] thing that’s holding them back. It’s been interesting seeing Central Cee really game the system. He did a whole freestyle about the differences between U.S. and U.K. slang. I love it when someone makes it their mission to break [into] the U.S. [market].
Was breaking the U.S. something you particularly cared about?
It’s a definite milestone for everybody involved. It’s interesting, like, post-Britpop and these kind of historical moments where the U.S. is tuning into what the U.K. is doing. But in the streaming era, it’s becoming more borderless and a lot more possible for international artists to break in the U.S. I don’t tend to see it as divided by territories. I just think a stream is a stream.
Do you think that the success of the song could lead to other opportunities, either for you or for like-minded U.K.-based musicians?
Absolutely. PinkPantheress is a huge example of that, where sounds that originate out of the U.K., like drum’n’bass and U.K. garage, are resonating with U.S. audiences at the moment. Something like this getting a chart position like it has is proof of concept where people really do enjoy this. “Boy’s a liar” is an interesting song because it feels like it has a U.K. sensibility, but ultimately it’s kind of in the shape of a U.S. song. It’s my favorite kind of thing.
A version of this story originally appeared in the Feb. 25, 2023, issue of Billboard.
You can’t talk about game changers in the music industry without talking about Rihanna. Whether you know her as the Caribbean Queen, the “good girl gone bad,” RiRi or simply Rih, the Barbadian singer has come a long way since her pre-Roc Nation days. Case in point: Robyn Fenty is the 2023 Super Bowl Halftime Show headliner as the Kansas City Chiefs face off against the Philadelphia Eagles, making her the first headliner since Apple Music took over the Halftime Show.
In 2005, Rih dropped her first single “Pon De Replay” off her debut album, Music of The Sun. At just 17, the singer was already experiencing her first major hit: the reggae-influenced club track peaked at No. 2 on the Billboard Hot 100 and spent 27 weeks on the chart. But she quickly proved she was no one-hit wonder: The following year, her track “SOS” spent three weeks crowning the chart. Now, she has dozens of charting hits under her belt — including 14 No. 1s and features with Drake, Britney Spears, Eminem and more.
Though mainly known as a hitmaker, her talents go beyond music-making — she launched her Fenty Beauty line of cosmetics and skincare products in 2017 and lingerie brand Savage X Fenty in 2018. Plus, RiRi’s fashion consistently turns heads (in the best way possible) — whether she’s red carpet ready or simply taking a stroll around town.
With a Navy of fans who will wait a lifetime for the Barbadian singer’s next release — and her 2023 Super Bowl Halftime Show performance — there’s no doubt that Rihanna has made her mark on music. Take a look back at her biggest hits on the chart below.
Rihanna’s Biggest Billboard Hot 100 Hits ranking is based on weekly performance on the Hot 100 (through Feb. 8, 2023). Songs are ranked based on an inverse point system, with weeks at No. 1 earning the greatest value and weeks at lower spots earning the least. Due to changes in chart methodology over the years, eras are weighted differently to account for chart turnover rates during various periods.
Burt Bacharach was a titan on Billboard’s charts and in the music industry at large. The iconic singer/songwriter/producer/composer, who died Wednesday (Feb. 8) at his home in Los Angeles at age 94, charted on Billboard in some capacity in the 1950s, ‘60s, ‘70s and ‘80s, and then, largely via samples and covers, in the ‘90s, ’00s and ‘10s.
The Grammy and Academy Award winner wrote or co-wrote seven No. 1 hits on the Billboard Hot 100 in his lifetime, and they reigned in four distinct decades. Here’s a rundown, listed chronologically:
Artist Billing, Title (Peak Date)Herb Alpert, “This Guy’s in Love With You” (No. 1 for four weeks, beginning June 22, 1968)B.J. Thomas, “Raindrops Keep Fallin’ on My Head” (four, beginning June 3, 1970)Carpenters, “(They Long To Be) Close to You” (four, beginning July 25, 1970)Christopher Cross, “Arthur’s Theme (Best That You Can Do)” (three, beginning Oct. 17, 1981)Dionne & Friends (Elton John, Gladys Knight & Stevie Wonder), “That’s What Friends Are For” (four, beginning Jan. 18, 1986)Patti LaBelle & Michael McDonald, “On My Own” (three, beginning June 14, 1986)Twista feat. Kanye West & Jamie Foxx, “Slow Jamz” (one, Feb. 21, 2004)
“Slow Jamz” contains a sample of Luther Vandross’ 1981 hit “A House Is Not a Home,” which Bacharach penned with frequent collaborator Hal David.
While the majority of Bacharach’s chart entries are as a songwriter or producer, he also tallied hits as a billed recording artist (all sung by chorus vocalists). His songs “Saturday Sunshine” and “I’ll Never Fall in Love Again,” popularized further by Dionne Warwick and Tom Jones, both peaked at No. 93 on the Hot 100, in 1963 and 1969, respectively.
On the Adult Contemporary survey, Bacharach charted four songs as a billed recording act (also all sung by chorus vocalists): “Reach Out for Me” (No. 38 peak, 1967), “I’ll Never Fall in Love Again” (No. 18, 1969), “All Kinds of People” (No. 18, 1971) and “Something Big” (No. 50, 1974).
Bacharach also charted eight sets on the Billboard 200, the highest-charting (No. 18) being his self-titled album in 1971.
Bacharach continued to impact Billboard charts over the last few years: In 2018, he scored his final songwriting entry on the Hot 100, via Meek Mill’s “What’s Free,” featuring Rick Ross and Jay-Z (No. 20 peak). The song samples Richard Evans’ 1972 hit “Close To You,” a cover of the Carpenters’ former No. 1. In October, Richard Marx’s LP Songwriter, which includes the track “Always” that he co-wrote with Bacharach, hit the Top Album Sales tally. “The experience of sitting in a room and writing a song with Burt is something I consider one of the greatest thrills of my life,” Marx mused.
Below is a recap of Bacharach’s most successful songs on the Hot 100 as a songwriter.
Burt Bacharach’s Biggest Billboard Hot 100 hits as a songwriter ranking is based on actual performance on the weekly Hot 100 from the chart’s Aug. 4, 1958, inception through the chart dated Feb. 11, 2023. Songs are ranked based on an inverse point system, with weeks at No. 1 earning the greatest value and weeks at No. 100 earning the least. Due to changes in chart methodology over the years, certain eras are weighted to account for different chart turnover rates over various periods. Additional research via Fred Bronson’s Billboard’s Hottest Hot 100 Hits reference book.
Miley Cyrus spread the love Monday (Feb. 6) after her hit song “Flowers” topped the Billboard Hot 100 for a third week in a row.
“Flowers is spending [its] 3rd week at #1 & as magical as this moment feels I know it doesn’t happen by chance,” the pop star wrote on social media alongside outtakes from the track’s music video. “This song & it’s success represents the power of YOU! This is your moment & it’s my honor to be the messenger.”
Ever since it bloomed in the middle of January, the lead single from Cyrus’ upcoming album Endless Summer Vacation has only continued to plant its roots deeper and deeper as fans around the world find solace in its message of independence, self-empowerment and living life with no regrets. (In addition to extending its reign on the Hot 100, the track also holds steady this week at No. 1 on both Billboard Global charts, with the anthem now notching three of the five biggest streaming weeks on the charts since their inception in 2020.)
“Flowers” has found plenty of high-profile fans over the last few weeks as well — from Gloria Gaynor praising it on Instagram for “encourag[ing] everyone to find strength in themselves to persevere and thrive” and Diane Keaton jamming out to it in her backyard to Lauren Alaina using the song as the perfect vocal warm-up ahead of her show at the famed Ryman Auditorium in Nashville.
Cyrus’ forthcoming album is set to be released March 10 via her new label home, Columbia Records. Check out the star’s reaction to the continuing chart domination of “Flowers” below.
Flowers is spending it’s 3rd week at #1 & as magical as this moment feels I know it doesn’t happen by chance. This song & it’s success represents the power of YOU! This is your moment & it’s my honor to be the messenger. pic.twitter.com/ekVb103LTj— Miley Cyrus (@MileyCyrus) February 6, 2023
Miley Cyrus’ “Flowers” is spending a second week at No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 (dated Feb. 4, 2023) after it previously soared in at the summit. To celebrate, the singer took to social media to share some film-style photos of herself dancing and having fun.
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“Celebrating ‘Flowers’ being #1 around the world again this week,” she captioned the post. “I love that this record is connecting in such a positive way & it’s a pleasure to continue creating music for you. These milestones are only made possible by the listeners & my incredible fans. Endlessly thankful.”
Celebrating “Flowers” being #1 around the world again this week! I love that this record is connecting in such a positive way & it’s a pleasure to continue creating music for you. These milestones are only made possible by the listeners & my incredible fans. Endlessly thankful. pic.twitter.com/fuA2DvU324— Miley Cyrus (@MileyCyrus) January 30, 2023
Cyrus first announced during her Miley’s New Year’s Eve Party NBC special that “Flowers” would be released Jan. 13, which fans recognized as her ex-husband Liam Hemsworth’s birthday. That narrative and interaction on TikTok have helped grow the profile of the song, which leads Cyrus’ eighth studio album, Endless Summer Vacation, due March 10.
Last week, “Flowers” became the most streamed song in a week in Spotify history for the second week in a row. While Spotify didn’t share specific numbers, the hit single first achieved the feat in the week of Jan. 19, making it all the more impressive that Cyrus managed to outdo herself for a second consecutive week. It also fed the streaming numbers of Bruno Mars’ “If I Was Your Man” — which “Flowers” slyly plays on without sampling or interpolating any of the No. 1 torch song melodically.
Miley Cyrus took to social media on Tuesday (Jan. 24) to react to her new song “Flowers” debuting at No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 and beyond.
“Thankful that Flowers is Number 1 around the world,” she tweeted above a behind-the-scenes snippet from the set of the single’s music video. “This song is dedicated to my fans & the steadfast self love I wish for each of you. Forever grateful, Miley.”
“Flowers” launched at No. 1 on this week’s Hot 100 (chart dated Jan. 27), as well as on the Global 200 and Global Excl. U.S. charts. The anthem is Cyrus’ second track to top the all-genre Hot 100 after “Wrecking Ball” spent three weeks at No. 1 back in 2013. It will appear as the lead single from Endless Summer Vacation, Cyrus’ upcoming eighth studio album, when it drops March 10 via Columbia Records.
To coincide with the chart-topping debut, Billboard broke down five reasons why the self-love groove has become the Hannah Montana star’s biggest hit in nearly a decade — from its close proximity to her latest New Year’s Eve special on NBC and finding in-demand hitmakers like Kid Harpoon and Tyler Johnson in the song’s credits to its explosion on TikTok and the litany of fan theories about the track’s lyrics being about her relationship with ex-husband Liam Hemsworth.
The song, which broke Spotify’s single-week streaming record after its Jan. 12 rollout, has also found a number of famous fans with its independent message, including Gloria Gaynor, Diane Keaton, Kerry Washington and more.
Check out Miley’s message to fans about the success of “Flowers” below.
Mac DeMarco has already tallied Billboard chart accolades, and now he’s also a Billboard Hot 100-charting artist, as his song “Heart to Heart” debuts on the Jan. 28-dated ranking at No. 98.
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The track, from the Canadian singer-songwriter’s fourth studio album, 2019’s Here Comes the Cowboy, debuts almost entirely on the strength of 5.8 million U.S. streams (up 7%) in the Jan. 13-19 tracking week, according to Luminate.
TikTok has been instrumental in the song’s resurgence, as the song has been used in more than 94,000 clips on the platform. (TikTok does not contribute to Billboard’s charts.) In a 2019 interview with Entertainment Weekly, DeMarco described the song as a tribute to late rapper Mac Miller. “We had this strange history,” he said, alluding to their tongue-in-cheek feud over their similar names, “and then we became really close, and I was going over to his place multiple times a week, up until the point that he passed away.”
“Heart to Heart” has also found success on other Billboard rankings: It rises 6-5 on Hot Alternative Songs and 9-8 on Hot Rock & Alternative Songs, marking his first top 10 on each chart.
Here Comes the Cowboy became a hit upon its release. The set debuted at No. 1 on Americana/Folk Albums, No. 2 on Alternative Albums, No. 3 on Top Rock & Alternative Albums and No. 10 on the Billboard 200. It also reached No. 3 on Top Album Sales and Vinyl Albums.
DeMarco first appeared on a Billboard chart in November 2012, when his debut studio album 2 opened at No. 49 on the Heatseekers Albums chart, before reaching No. 26 the following year.
Since then, DeMarco has charted four albums on the Billboard 200: Salad Days (No. 30 peak in 2014), Another One (No. 25, 2015), This Old Dog (No. 29, 2017) and Here Comes the Cowboy. Another One also hit No. 1 on Top Rock & Alternative Albums, Alternative Albums and Americana/Folk Albums.
DeMarco has been a notable vinyl seller, as three of his releases have topped Vinyl Albums: Salad Days, Another One and This Old Dog.
On the songs front, DeMarco charted two tracks prior to “Heart to Heart,” both also from Here Comes the Cowboy: “On the Square” and “Nobody” reached Nos. 44 and 46, respectively, on Hot Rock & Alternative Songs in 2019.
DeMarco released his fifth studio album, Five Easy Hot Dogs, last Friday. The set is entirely instrumental, and he recorded it during a road trip from Los Angeles to New York.