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ROSÉ and Bruno Mars’ “APT.” claims a record-breaking 15th week at No. 1 on the Billboard Global Excl. U.S. chart. The team-up, which in November debuted as the stars’ second leader each on the list, one-ups Mariah Carey’s “All I Want for Christmas Is You” for the longest command in the chart’s four-year-plus history. (The latter has notched at least one week at No. 1 in each holiday season since the survey began.)
Meanwhile, Lady Gaga and Bruno Mars’ “Die With a Smile” rebounds for a ninth week atop the Billboard Global 200 chart, and its first since October; Gaga’s new single, “Abracadabra,” launches in the top 10 of both global tallies; and The Weeknd’s “Cry for Me” opens in the Global 200’s top 10.
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The Billboard Global 200 and Global Excl. U.S. charts rank songs based on streaming and sales activity culled from more than 200 territories around the world, as compiled by Luminate. The Global 200 is inclusive of worldwide data and the Global Excl. U.S. chart comprises data from territories excluding the United States.
Chart ranks are based on a weighted formula incorporating official-only streams on both subscription and ad-supported tiers of audio and video music services, as well as download sales, the latter of which reflect purchases from full-service digital music retailers from around the world, with sales from direct-to-consumer (D2C) sites excluded from the charts’ calculations.
“APT.” holds atop Global Excl. U.S. with 103.9 million streams (down 4% week-over-week) and 11,000 sold (up 5%) outside the U.S. Jan. 31-Feb. 6.
Lady Gaga and Mars’ “Die With a Smile” keeps at No. 2 on Global Excl. U.S., following eight weeks at No. 1 starting last September; Bad Bunny’s “DtMF” repeats at No. 3, after hitting No. 2; Billie Eilish’s “Birds of a Feather” rises 6-4, after three weeks on top in August; and Bad Bunny’s “BAILE INoLVIDABLE” dips to No. 5 from its No. 4 best.
Gaga’s “Abracadabra,” unveiled (through a MasterCard commercial) during the 67th Annual Grammy Awards Feb. 2, debuts at No. 9 on Global Excl. U.S. with 34.1 million streams and 8,000 sold outside the U.S. through Feb. 6. The song marks Gaga’s second top 10 since the survey started.
On the Global 200, “Die With a Smile” returns to No. 1, from No. 2, with 131.1 million streams (up 3%) and 16,000 sold (up 61%) worldwide. The ballad won the Grammy for best pop duo/group performance, while Gaga and Mars performed a cover of the Mamas & the Papas’ “California Dreamin’ ” as a tribute to Los Angeles during the Grammys.
“Die With a Smile” spent its first eight weeks at No. 1 on the Global 200 in September-October and ends a 15-week break from the summit, the longest such gap in the chart’s archives, excluding Carey’s seasonal “Christmas.”
ROSÉ and Mars’ “APT.” drops to No. 2 on the Global 200 following 12 weeks at No. 1 beginning in October; Bad Bunny holds at No. 3 with “DtMF,” after two weeks on top beginning in January; Eilish’s “Birds of a Feather” lifts 7-4, after three weeks in the lead in August – after she sang the song as the second performance during the Grammys; and Lola Young’s “Messy” is steady at its No. 5 high.
Plus, two songs debut in the Global 200’s top 10: The Weeknd’s “Cry for Me,” at No. 7 (led by 51 million streams worldwide), and Gaga’s “Abracadabra,” at No. 10 (47.7 million streams). The Weeknd and Gaga add their 14th and second top 10s, respectively. “Cry for Me,” which The Weeknd performed at the Grammys, is from his new album, Hurry Up Tomorrow, new at No. 1 on the U.S.-based Billboard 200 chart.
The Billboard Global 200 and Billboard Global Excl. U.S. charts (dated Feb. 15, 2025) will update on Billboard.com tomorrow, Feb. 11. For both charts, the top 100 titles are available to all readers on Billboard.com, while the complete 200-title rankings are visible on Billboard Pro, Billboard’s subscription-based service. 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.
Kendrick Lamar called on his fellow Compton, Calif., native Serena Williams for an instantly viral moment during his Super Bowl LIX Halftime performance on Sunday night (Feb. 9), in which the tennis champion was seen crip walking and staring at the camera during the scathing “Not Like Us.”
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One of the many fans of the onstage moment was Serena’s sister, Venus Williams, who took to her Instagram Stories on Monday morning (Feb. 10) for some sibling love. “Lil sis killing it,” she wrote over a repost of Serena’s Instagram Reel of the moment. See Venus’ Story here.
While other guests during Lamar’s performance included Samuel L. Jackson and SZA, Serena’s appearance stood out as a moment fans online speculated was a dig at Drake — the famous subject of the “Not Like Us” diss track. Drake and Serena reportedly dated in 2015, and the rapper revealed that he wrote his 2016 hit “Too Good” about the athlete.
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In 2022, Drake fired shots at Williams’ husband and co-founder of Reddit, Alexis Ohanian, rapping on “Middle of the Ocean”: “Sidebar, Serena, your husband a groupie/ He claim we don’t got a problem but no, boo, it’s like you comin’ for sushi/ We might pop up on ’em at will like Suzuki.”
Ohanian was in attendance at the Super Bowl in New Orleans, watching his wife take the stage live. “Pretty fantastic halftime show,” he wrote of the event. He also reposted a tweet calling Serena’s cameo the “highlight of the Super Bowl.”
Williams fittingly referred to the Lamar-Drake feud at last year’s ESPY Awards during her hosting monologue. “If I’ve learned anything this year, it’s that none of us, not a single one of us, not even me, should ever pick a fight with Kendrick Lamar,” she noted.
Watch Lamar’s full Halftime Show performance here.
Kendrick Lamar and SZA’s “Luther” lifts 4-3 on the Hot 100, returning to its best rank first reached upon its December debut. It concurrently rebounds for an eighth week at No. 1 on the Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs and Hot Rap Songs charts, which use the same methodology as the Hot 100.
Billie Eilish’s “Birds of a Feather” flocks 7-4 on the Hot 100, after hitting No. 2. It leads the multimetric Hot Rock & Alternative Songs and Hot Alternative Songs charts for a 27th week each. She sang the song as the second performance during the Grammys, spurring its 30% surge to 19.2 million streams and 219% blast to 8,000 sold in the week ending Feb. 6.
Shaboozey’s “A Bar Song (Tipsy)” keeps at No. 5 on the Hot 100, following a record-tying 19 weeks at No. 1 beginning last July. It gained by 8% to 17.9 million streams and 118% to 9,000 sold in the tracking week, after he performed it as part of a medley by best new artist Grammy nominees.
ROSÉ and Bruno Mars’ “APT.” drops to No. 6 from its No. 3 Hot 100 high.
The Weeknd and Playboi Carti’s “Timeless” vaults 18-7 on the Hot 100, after it debuted at its No. 3 best in October. It increased by 51% to 20.3 million streams in the tracking week after the pair performed it in a mix with The Weeknd’s “Cry for Me”; both songs are from his new album, Hurry Up Tomorrow, which debuts as his fifth No. 1 on the Billboard 200. “Timeless” also tops the multimetric Hot R&B Songs chart for a 17th week.
Teddy Swims’ “Lose Control,” which led the Hot 100 for a week in March 2024 – and became the year’s top song – dips 6-8. It logs a 77th week on the list, tying for the fifth-longest stay in the chart’s history. (It also matches Dua Lipa’s “Levitating” for the most weeks ever spent on the chart for a song on Warner Records.)
Benson Boone’s “Beautiful Things” backflips 15-9 on the Hot 100, after reaching No. 2. It bounded by 29% to 16 million streams and 515% to 14,000 sold in the tracking week, after he, like Shaboozey, contributed to the medley by best new artist Grammy nominees.
Rounding out the Hot 100’s top 10, Lamar’s “TV Off,” featuring Lefty Gunplay, rises 11-10 after it debuted at its No. 2 best in December.
It looks like Kai Cenat and Ye (formerly known as Kanye West) are back on the outs again. On Friday (Feb. 7), the popular streamer — who was on the cover of Billboard magazine in January — told his fans that he’s no longer going forward with a planned Japan stream with the troubled rap […]
Ariana Grande was put through the ringer as a young star — and now that she’s older, she’s advocating for change in the entertainment industry so that the people who follow in her footsteps have an easier time.
On the latest episode of WTF With Marc Maron posted Monday (Feb. 10), the singer-actress said that therapy should be a “non-negotiable” part of record-label contracts for young signees, while reflecting on the whiplash of finding fast fame as a Nickelodeon actress-turned-pop star in the early 2010s. “I was 19 when all of that nonsense started happening to me,” she began of the immediate public scrutiny she faced in the spotlight. “It started when I was so young with my body or rumors about my relationships or about my team or about my mom or about people I love. There was just no limit.”
“It’s so important that these record labels, these studios, these TV studios, these big production companies make [therapy] a part of the contract when you sign on to do something that’s going to change your life in that way, on that scale,” Grande continued. “You need a therapist to be seeing several times a week.”
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Adding that big entertainment companies “should be responsible for protecting” young creators from the mental turmoil that’s almost guaranteed when they become globally famous in a short period of time, the Wicked star again said that counseling “should be non-negotiable” in contracts. “To be an artist, you are a vulnerable person with your heart on your sleeve,” she said. “So the same person who is meant to do art is the exact same person who is not meant to deal with that s–t.”
Grande’s comments echo what she previously said on Penn Badgley’s Podcrushed in June, when she revealed that she was “reprocessing” her time on the shows Victorious and Sam & Cat after allegations of sexual harassment and toxic workplace conditions from other former child stars came to light in the documentary Quiet on Set. At the time, the Oscar nominee said, “I think that the environment needs to be made safer if kids are going to be acting, and I think there should be therapists … I think there should be parents allowed to be wherever they wanna be.”
The topic is also newly prevalent considering Chappell Roan’s much talked-about best new artist speech at the 2025 Grammys, which sparked debate between the Midwest Princess — whom Charli XCX, Halsey and Noah Kahan later backed up — and former music industry executive Jeff Rabhan. In her speech, Roan had called on labels to “offer a livable wage and healthcare” to signees, “especially for developing artists.”
Later, after Rabhan called her take “wildly misinformed” in an op-ed published in The Hollywood Reporter, Roan clapped back by donating $25,000 to funds for struggling artists and wrote on Instagram Sunday (Feb. 9), “Sharing my personal experience at the Grammys wasn’t meant to be a crowdfunded bandaid but a call to action to the leaders of the industry to step up, help us make a real change and protect their investments in a sustainable way.”
Listen to Grande open up about the importance of therapy for young stars below.
New York Dolls co-founder and punk icon David Johansen has revealed that he is battling a brain tumor and stage four cancer. The news came via a Sweet Relief Fund in his name seeking to raise money for the singer’s ongoing care in which his daughter, Leah Hennessey, revealed the extent of her 75-year-old father’s health issues.
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“Five years ago at the beginning of the pandemic we discovered that David’s cancer had progressed and he had a brain tumor,” Leah wrote. “There have been complications ever since. He’s never made his diagnosis public, as he and my mother Mara are generally very private people, but we feel compelled to share this now, due to the increasingly severe financial burden our family is facing.” She noted that in a further blow, the singer known for his outrageous, high-energy stage persona, fell down a flight of stairs after Thanksgiving and broke his back in two places.
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Following a week-long hospital stay and a successful surgery, Leah said her dad has been bedridden and incapacitated since then and “due to the trauma, David’s illness has progressed exponentially and my mother is caring for him around the clock.” Given the multiple health crises, Leah said that in order to continue treatment and give her dad the best chance at a full recovery he will need full-time assistance.
“As hilarious and wise as David continues to be, he is physically debilitated and his care exceeds what we are capable of providing without specialized professional help,” she wrote, adding, “David has worked continuously as a singer and actor for the better part of six decades, to the delight of his fans all over the world. However for the past five years, David has been unable to work as a performer. “
The non-profit Sweet Relief Musicians Fund was initially founded by singer Victoria Williams in 1994 to help her pay medical bills after a multiple sclerosis diagnosis and has since grown into a 501 (c)(3) that has helped raise funds for professional musicians in need of health or financial assistance.
In a statement, Johansen said, “We’ve been living with my illness for a long time, still having fun, seeing friends & family, carrying on, but this tumble the day after Thanksgiving really brought us to a whole new level of debilitation. This is the worst pain i’ve ever experienced in my entire life. I’ve never been one to ask for help but this is an emergency. Thank you.”
The organization’s executive director, Aric Steinberg, added in a statement, “Our Directed Artist Funds can provide a meaningful solution when the community rallies around the recipient, and we anticipate that David’s community will be eager to help here. His influence on the musical landscape with the New York Dolls is indelible, and his career as an actor and an artist has touched many people around the world. He’s been knocked down but we’re here to help him back up with the help of his family, friends and wider community of supporters.”
The family said that their most immediate needs are for full-time nursing, physical therapy and funding for day-to-day vital living expenses, aimed at helping Johansen regain “some mobility and independence.” Supporters can donate to the David Johansen Fund here, or buy a “luv” shirt benefitting Johansen’s fund here.
Johansen has long been a beloved figure on the New York scene, beginning with his time as the lead singer and provocateur of the gender-bending New York Dolls. That band — which also featured guitarists Johnny Thunders and Sylvain Sylvain, bassist Arthur Kane and drummer Jerry Nolan — emerged from the fertile underground New York rock scene in the early 1970s, releasing a pair of albums in 1973 and 1974 that helped set the template for the punk revolution and, later, inspired the lipstick and Aqua Net late 1980s hair metal scene.
After drugs and weak sales pushed the band’s members apart, Johansen went on to start his own solo band and then reinvent himself in the 1980s as the smarmy lounge lizard Buster Poindexter, through which he explored his love of the blues, jazz, swing and Latin music on such radio hits as “Hot Hot Hot.” He later formed the Harry Smiths, a group dedicated to early folk, blues and country music gathered by music historian Harry Everett Smith in the Anthology of American Folk Music.
In addition to the occasional reunion with the Dolls over the years, Johansen also hosted a freewheeling Sirius satellite radio show, David Johansen’s Mansion of Fun and acted in projects including the HBO series Oz and the movies Scrooged, Let It Ride, Freejack, Mr. Nanny and others.
Johansen was the subject of the 2020 Martin Scorsese and David Tedeschi-directed Showtime documentary feature Personality Crisis: One Night Only, which told the singer’s life story and chronicled one of his freewheeling shows at New York’s Café Carlyle.
“My mother’s favorite acronym for God is ‘Grace Over Drama,’” Leah Hennessey wrote. “Together we have endured crisis after crisis, but with the support of our community we hope to carry on laughing and loving our way through this most trying of times. Thank you for embracing our family, and for your love and generosity.”
Check out some of Johansen’s most beloved moments below.
02/10/2025
Check out the music moments you might have missed if you weren’t in the building on Sunday.
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As proven by his expansive resume, Travis Scott is always open to collaboration. Whether he’s teaming up with The Weeknd or Beyonce, Scott’s imagination never runs dry. In his latest cover story with Billboard, the Utopia superstar rattled off names that are currently piquing his interest creatively. “It’s this band called Khruangbin I want to […]
Morrissey has announced tour dates for the U.K. and Ireland, his first since 2023. The former Smiths singer shared the news of the upcoming shows on his official social media accounts.
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The post said that these were the only concerts he would “perform in Ireland, Scotland and England in 2025,” and will see him play in Dublin, Glasgow and Manchester in May and June.
Morrissey has played a number of shows in North America in recent years, and will tour the region again in 2025. He last played in the U.K. in 2023 with shows in London, Aylesbury, Liverpool and more.
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In November 2024, the “Suedehead” singer claimed that his unreleased album Bonfire of Teenagers has been shelved because of his various controversies. “As you know, nobody will release my music anymore,” Morrissey told a crowd in New Jersey. “As you know because I’m a chief exponent of free speech. In England at least, it’s now criminalized.”
“You cannot speak freely in England. If you don’t believe me, go there,” he continued. “Express an opinion, you’ll be sent to prison. It’s very, very difficult.”
In 2019, Morrissey expressed support for the far-right Britain First political party, and has not released an album since 2020’s I Am Not a Dog on a Chain. His Bonfire of Teenagers LP was scheduled to be released in February 2023, but it was pulled months before its release date, with Morrissey claiming its “fate is exclusively in the hands of Capitol Records (Los Angeles.).”
The album was reportedly made in 2021 and featured contributions from Iggy Pop, Miley Cyrus and producer Andrew Watt. News followed that Cyrus had requested her vocals to be removed from the record. Its title track references the Manchester Arena bombing at an Ariana Grande concert in 2017, which killed 22 attendees and injured hundreds more. One song from the record “Rebels Without Applause” has been issued as a single, with others performed live.
In February 2023, Morrissey issued another statement claiming he was “too diverse” for Universal Music Group. He has since stated that he has recorded an additional album titled Without Music the World Dies, which remains unreleased. He has offered the album to “any record label or private investor [that] has interest in releasing this project,” following his split from Capitol.
See Morrissey’s U.K. & Ireland 2025 tour dates below:
May 31 – Dublin, Ireland @ 3Arena
June 4, 5 – Glasgow, Scotland @ O2 Academy Glasgow
June 7 – Manchester, England @ Co-Op Live
This week’s crop of new music features songs from mainstream country hitmakers, rising artists and surging alt-country successes. This week’s songs highlight a slate of collaborations. Singer, songwriter and host of Apple Music’s “Today’s Country” Kelleigh Bannen teams with Lady A’s Charles Kelley for the song “Nothin’s On,” while MacKenzie Carpenter teams with trio Midland for “I Wish You Would.” Also, Aubry Rodriguez, daughter of country star Johnny Rodriguez, teams with Vinny Tovar on a remake of Rodriguez’s classic “Pass Me By.”
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Check out all of these and more in Billboard’s roundup of some of the top releases in country, bluegrass and Americana of the week below:
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Kelleigh Bannen and Charles Kelley, “Nothin’ On”
Bannen offers a potent reminder of her musical talent as she teams with Kelley for this moody, pop-leaning, post-breakup slow burn of two ex-lovers who can’t quite move on, despite ample temptations and efforts to do so. Their pitch-perfect harmonies and angst-filled vocals elevate the yearning and emotional tug-of-war the song’s characters are navigating, with Kelley’s ever-soulful voice pairing well with Bannen’s warm, pristine vocal. Bannen wrote “Nothin’ On” with Claire Douglas and Will Bowen, with production by Logan Wall.
Charles Wesley Godwin, “It’s The Little Things”
Godwin’s attuned songwriting and gruff-yet-honeyed voice broke through on albums including How The Mighty Fall and Family Ties. On his latest song, Godwin sings about the struggle to refrain from pining over big, make-or-break moments–or as he sings, “the big pay, the big show”–and learning to focus on the smaller moments that lean toward peace more than prideful gain, and harboring those moments with just as much appreciation. This solo write from Godwin, produced by Al Torrence, will be featured on his upcoming seven-song EP, Lonely Mountain Town, out Feb. 28 on Big Loud.
Vinny Tovar and Aubry Rodriguez, “Pass Me By (If You’re Only Passing Through)”
Aubry Rodriguez, daughter of country music star Johnny Rodriguez, teams with Vinny Tovar (“Gator Boots,” “Leaving With My Heart”) for a fiddle-drenched remake of Rodriguez’s 1972 classic “Pass Me By (If You’re Only Passing Through).” Their voices blend gloriously on this fresh yet stone-cold country rendering of the song, which highlights the enduring heritage of Latino country music. The video for the song, filmed at San Antonio venue The Lonesome Rose, also features a cameo from Johnny Rodriguez.
Mackenzie Carpenter feat. Midland, “I Wish You Would”
The collabs continue with this sensual pairing between Carpenter and Midland lead singer Mark Wystrach. The song centers around two people who find the sparks of a potential romance in a dingy, late-night dive bar. Their vocal chemistry and mutual affinity for a retro-country sound is undeniable, and this tale of an evening spent drinking, singing karaoke and hoping this dive-bar connection could turn into more serves as a perfect sonic setting. Carpenter wrote the song with Jonathan Hutcherson, Jamie Moore and Chris Tompkins, and the song is set to be featured on Carpenter’s debut album Hey Country Queen, which will be released in March.
Angel White, “Running in Place”
White crafts a powerful track centering on the intertwining of identity, family, love, broken truths, and lineage, as White sings potently and vulnerably about processing hard familial truths. At once soulful, country and introspective, this song marks one of White’s best to date, and one that highlights his rugged, engaging voice. Written by White and Dwight A. Baker, with production by Baker, this marks a powerful preview to White’s upcoming March album, Ghost of the West: The Album.
Belle Frantz, “Do Ya”
Mississippi native Frantz has made a name for herself through lending her rich, resonant voice to cover versions of ballads made popular by Reba McEntire and Loretta Lynn. Here, she offers up a new song, written by Frantz, Brandon Hood and Bart Butler, as part of the soundtrack to the hit series Landman. An uptempo, ’90s country-inflected track chockfull of pickup lines and paired with Frantz’s bold, Southern twang, it proves she can handle flirty, uptempo fare just as adeptly as she sings those classic ballads.