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Disney Entertainment co-chairman Dana Walden and The Recording Academy CEO Harvey Mason jr. announced today a new 10-year global deal for The Grammys to be exclusively simulcast on ABC, Hulu and Disney+ beginning in 2027 — making The Walt Disney Company the first new home for Music’s Biggest Night in 50 years. The Grammys aired […]
A little over eight months ago, Olivia Rodrigo had only headlined theaters. Flash forward to today, and she has sold out arenas on four continents and staged one of the year’s biggest tours. The pop phenom wrapped the Guts World Tour last week, bringing in $184.6 million from over 1.4 million tickets sold, according to figures reported to Billboard Boxscore.
The Guts cycle began in June 2023, when Rodrigo unleashed “Vampire,” the Grammy Award-nominated single that topped the Billboard Hot 100 for two weeks. The album followed, debuting atop the Billboard 200, landing its entire track list on the Hot 100, and earning two Grammy nominations of its own. After hedging bets with a theater tour following 2021’s gargantuan debut with Sour, the stage was set for an upgrade to arenas now that the sophomore slump had been avoided.
Rodrigo kicked off the Guts World Tour on Feb. 23 at Acrisure Arena in Palm Desert, Calif. That show sold 9,998 tickets, marking the smallest attendance for any stop on the tour. Things picked up quickly, ending her first North American leg with four shows at New York’s Madison Square Garden, earning $10 million from 57,900 tickets between April 5-9.
Though the New York run stands as the highest-grossing engagement of the Guts World Tour, that was not the end of Rodrigo’s run. She played 29 shows across 19 cities in Europe before returning to the U.S. and Canada for another 20 dates. To cap things off, she hit six Asian markets, plus four-night runs in Melbourne and Sydney, Australia.
During Rodrigo’s stint in Asia, her Oct. 5 performance at Manila’s Philippine Arena grossed $1.2 million and sold 48,800 tickets. It’s the best-selling single show of the entire tour – and her entire career – eclipsed only by four-night engagements in major markets like New York, London and Los Angeles. But out of 62 stops throughout 2024, it’s her third-lowest earner. That’s because she purposely kept tickets cheap, averaging $25.04 USD, which stands as less than a fifth the tour’s average of $128.81. Rodrigo is Filipino-American, and the show was a special stop – she is one of just seven artists to report concerts in Philippines this year – where all net proceeds went to local charity Jhpiego through the Fund 4 Good.
In terms of venue capacity and global reach, the Guts World Tour was a major step up for Rodrigo. While reporting for the Sour Tour was incomplete, its 16 reported shows averaged $415,000 and sold 5,517 tickets per show. Two years later, her nightly attendance is up 173% to 15,084, and her average gross jumped by 369% to $1.9 million. In 2022, she played 33 shows in North America and 16 in Europe. In 2024, those numbers bloated to 48 and 29, respectively, plus the 18 combined shows in Australia and Asia.
Still, there might be more room to grow. Co-manager Zack Morgenroth told Billboard that, per tour promoter Live Nation, demand indicated that Rodrigo could’ve packed stadiums just as well. Even at a low price, Rodrigo moved nearly 50,000 tickets in Manila, giving proof of concept.
The numbers are huge, but the tour’s greater impact extends beyond the accolades. Rodrigo’s Fund 4 Good led the way, in collaboration with HeadCount, the National Network of Abortion Funds and more. And then, there’s the secondhand buzz that helped guide Chappell Roan from the first leg’s opening act to industry noisemaker, eventually returning as a special guest in August, rousing the crowd with a choreographed sing-along of her own “Hot To Go.”
At 21 years old, Rodrigo’s Guts World Tour is the highest-grossing tour for someone of her young age (or younger) in a decade, dating back to when One Direction ruled the year-end Top Tours chart in 2014 with the Where We Are Tour. But that’s not enough – Rodrigo herself laments “When am I gonna stop being great for my age and just start being good” on Guts deep cut “Teenage Dream.” Her 2024 trek is now one of the 10 biggest pop tours of the decade so far, ranking among treks by peers like Harry Styles and icons like Madonna.
Welcome to Billboard Pro’s Trending Up newsletter, 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: Tyler, the Creator’s new album already appears to be taking him to a new commercial level, Imogen Heap gets an unexpected video game bump and a dance trend helps a new rap single take off.
Chromakopiamania: Tyler, the Creator’s New Album Off to Huge Start, Results in Whole Catalog Gains
Though Tyler, the Creator essentially split his debut week in half for new album Chromakopia — releasing the album on Monday morning (Oct. 28) at 6:00 ET rather than the usually Friday midnight release — it still looks to be going down as one of the biggest first weeks of his career, and perhaps the very biggest. The tracks from Chromakopia blanketed the top 10 on the daily charts of both Spotify and Apple Music for Monday, with each track drawing streams in the millions — led by album opener “St. Chroma,” which racked up nearly 6.2 million official on-demand U.S. streams in its first day, according to Luminate. (By contrast, Morgan Wallen’s “Love Somebody” — the prior week’s No. 1 Streaming Song — notched just over 2 million streams on Monday.)
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What’s more, anticipation for Chromakopia reached such a fever pitch last week that even Tyler’s older songs were beginning to claim in streams. For the three-day period of Monday to Wednesday last week (Oct. 21-23) — with the rapper announcing the new album, along with the new song “Noid,” on Monday morning — his pre-Chromakopia catalog scored a combined 32.1 million streams, up 29% from the 25 million of the previous three-day period (Oct. 18-20). It seems like 15 years into his acclaimed career, Tyler, the Creator is still just climbing in popularity, with true superstardom maybe in reach as soon as this album cycle. — ANDREW UNTERBERGER
Imogen Heap’s ‘Headlock’ Gets the Gamer Bump, Triples in Streams
Speak for Yourself, the sophomore album by Imogen Heap, became a solo breakthrough upon its 2005 release, earning the idiosyncratic British singer-songwriter a Grammy nod for best new artist following her work as part of the group Frou Frou. And since its release, the album has had a funny way of reappearing in popular culture: “Hide and Seek” has soundtracked several dramatic TV sequences (most notably in The O.C.), Kelly Clarkson covered “Just for Now” for her 2013 holiday album, and Ariana Grande reworked “Goodnight and Go” for 2018’s Sweetener.
Now, the opening track on Speak for Yourself, “Headlock,” is the latest song from the album to be hoisted up years after its release — largely thanks to Mouthwashing, a psychological horror video game that was released last month. Over the past few weeks, TikTok users have been editing clips of the game together and utilizing “Headlock” as a soundtrack, and as a result, the song’s official streams have grown exponentially over the past few weeks.
After the Sept. 26 release of Mouthwashing, “Headlock” earned 555,000 U.S. on-demand streams during the week ending Oct. 10, according to Luminate; that weekly streaming total more than tripled to 1.72 million during the week ending Oct. 24. Heap has never charted on the Hot 100 before, so if the exponential growth of “Headlock” continues, we might see a long-overdue chart achievement; if not, we’ll have to wait for the next Speak for Yourself song to be resurrected (our vote is for “The Walk”!). – JASON LIPSHUTZ
OhThatsMizz Dances His Way to a Breakout Hit With ‘Bumbaaa’
Another week means another dance trend on some corner of TikTok is lifting a song to new streaming heights. According to Luminate, “Bumbaa” — a collaboration between rising rappers OhThatsMizz and SturdyYoungin – has grown 120% in streaming activity over the past two weeks. During the period of Oct. 4-10, the track pulled over 287,000 official on-demand U.S. streams. The following week (Oct. 11-17), that figure jumped by 72% to 495,000 streams earned. Streams for “Bumbaaa” then increased a further 28% during the period of Oct. 18-24, which saw the track pulling just under 635,000 streams.
Mizz first shared a snippet of the track to his official TikTok page on Sept. 9 to the tune of 80,000 likes and 460,000 views. By Sept. 12, user @kastackzzz created a dance – which largely mimes the song’s lyrics before morphing into a TikTok-ified take on New Orleans’ “trip out” move – and his post has since garnered over 100,000 views. While that number may seem relatively small, it was more than enough to help the dance blow up before the track’s official release on Oct. 4. The official “Bumbaa” TikTok sound now boasts over 580,000 posts, with the majority of them featuring users doing the viral dance. Some famous participants include Emmy-winning actress Storm Reid, 41’s leading lady Jenn Carter (who teased her own freestyle over the beat) and Milwaukee breakout rap star J.P.
Mizz has already posted about visiting the Capitol Records and 300 Entertainment offices for meetings, so who knows what the future may hold as “Bumbaa” continues to grow. — KYLE DENIS
On Tuesday (Oct. 29), Maluma unveiled his new athletic-wear line Remanence during a fashion show in his native Medellín, Colombia. The hitmaker serves as owner and creative director of the brand — led by designer Ana Villegas — which was designed “100% in Colombia and focuses on responsible practices, using renewable energy and efficient processes […]
The Contenders is a midweek column that looks at artists aiming for the top of the Billboard charts, and the strategies behind their efforts. This week, for the upcoming Billboard Hot 100 dated Nov. 9, we look at Shaboozey’s chances to reclaim the top spot for a historic 16th week, and the many competitors trying to get in his way.
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Shaboozey, “A Bar Song (Tipsy)” (American Dogwood/EMPIRE/Magnolia Music): Every conversation about the Hot 100 for the past three (nearly four) months has had to lead off with Shaboozey’s “A Bar Song (Tipsy),” the surprise breakout country hit that has now gone on a near-historic run of chart dominance. After 15 nonconsecutive frames atop the chart, the song ceded pole position last week to Morgan Wallen’s “Love Somebody” — good timing for Wallen, since his “Last Night” is the 16-week No. 1 that “A Bar Song” is now one week away from tying as the longest-running Hot 100-topper of the 2020s.
“A Bar Song” remains an extremely strong performer, sliding to No. 3 on both Streaming Songs and Digital Song Sales (due to the debuts of “Love Somebody” and ROSÉ & Bruno Mars’ “APT.” ahead of it on both charts) but remaining No. 1 on Radio Songs for a 13th week. It looks headed for a 14th week atop that chart, and even with its sales and streams continuing to slip this late into its lifespan, they should be strong enough to keep it as the song to beat on the Hot 100 – though this week, a handful of other songs will be in the running to do so.
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Morgan Wallen, “Love Somebody” (Big Loud/Mercury/Republic): Wallen blocked Shaboozey from tying his 2020s Hot 100 record this week, but next week, he may need some help. “Love Somebody” is expected to recede across the board next week, with streams and sales dipping as is typical of a big new song in its second week – and radio likely also falling back some, as the song received heavily concentrated first-day plays as promotion for the new single by country’s biggest current artist. But its streaming and sales numbers remain sturdy, so as the song likely continues to pick up in airplay from here (with Wallen currently one of the most reliable radio artists in all of popular music), it certainly could contend for the top spot again soon, and possibly for many weeks after.
Bruno Mars & Lady Gaga, “Die With a Smile” (Streamline/Interscope/Atlantic/ICLG): Since debuting at No. 3 on the Hot 100 back in August, “Die With a Smile” has been milling rather innocuously around the middle of the top 10. But if you’d counted it out as a No. 1 contender, you may have done so prematurely – it appears that this is the week the two pop superstars are making their move to potentially claim the top spot. Two new versions of the song have been released, an instrumental and a “Live From Las Vegas” version, the latter also unveiled with an accompanying live video. All three versions have also been discounted to 69 cents on iTunes – and as of posting, they occupied the top three spots on iTunes’ real-time chart.
It’s interesting timing, because Bruno Mars and Lady Gaga both have other songs that are chart contenders to some degree this week. Mars’ “APT.” teamup with ROSÉ debuted at No. 8 on the Hot 100 this week, and continues to do very well on both streaming and iTunes, while Gaga has a brand new single with “Disease” — which she also dropped a new video for on Tuesday night (Oct. 29), along with the live “Smile.” Neither song is a likely contender for the top spot however, with Gaga’s latest currently something of a longshot for the top 10 due to modest streaming returns: “Disease” has fallen out of the top 50 on Spotify’s Daily Top Songs USA chart, and out of the top 100 on Apple Music’s real-time listing.
Tyler, the Creator, “St. Chroma” & “Noid” (Columbia): Always the iconoclast, star rapper Tyler, the Creator decided to release his latest album Chromakopia at 6:00 on a Monday morning (Oct. 28). Yet even with just over half of a tracking week to work with, the album is the likely frontrunner for the top spot on next week’s Billboard 200, with excitement over the album resulting in the tracklist dominating the entire top 10 on both Spotify’s Daily Top Songs USA and the Apple Music real-time listing on its debut day — despite being released six hours into the day.
At least two of those songs could have a major Hot 100 impact next week, as well. “St. Chroma,” the album’s Daniel Caesar-featuring lead track – which previously teased by Tyler with a short two weeks ago – has been in the early lead on streaming services, with some mighty first-day numbers. A few spots behind it has been “Noid,” which despite not being the current best-performing song from the album, does have the advantage of having been released the week before (along with its own music video), thus making it the lone song on the album with a full tracking week’s worth of consumption — although its overall daily numbers were much lower before the album’s release.
Had the full album been released on a Friday, we may very well have been talking about one of these songs as Tyler, the Creator’s first Hot 100 No. 1. Instead, he may end up settling for his first Hot 100 top 10 hit – which is obviously of course still very impressive, especially in a week where all the other songs in the race have such a massive head start.
Ethan Slater has largely kept his romance with Ariana Grande private, but he took a moment to carefully gush over the “Yes, And?” superstar in his recent cover story with GQ. At one point in the interview, Slater responded to rumors that Grande’s Eternal Sunshine track, “Imperfect for You” is about him. “Messy, completely distressed/ […]
Sakurazaka46’s “I want tomorrow to come” rises to No. 1 on the Billboard Japan Hot 100, dated Oct. 30, selling 559,181 CDs in its first week.
The 10th single by the popular girl group topped physical sales while coming in at No. 12 for downloads, No. 5 for streaming, No. 68 for radio airplay, and No. 71 for video views.
Creepy Nuts’ “Otonoke” slips to No. 2. While down a notch from the top spot, points for the Dandadan opener is on the rise, with streaming up by about 108% from the week before from 8,460,000 to 9,130,000 streams, and video up by 101%.
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Mrs. GREEN APPLE’s “Lilac” continues to hold at No. 3. Points for each metric have decreased slightly as the former No. 1 hit logs its 29th week on the tally, coming in at No.15 for downloads, No. 2 for streaming, and No. 5 for video and karaoke.
M!LK’s “Everybody Good Job!” soars 47-4 to break into the top 5. The title track off the five-man group’s sixth major-label release sold 71,036 copies to hit No. 2 for sales while coming in at No. 56 for streaming.
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Rosé & Bruno Mars’ “APT.” also shoots to No. 5 from No. 96. The track debuted on the Japan Hot 100 at No. 96 after its release on Oct. 18. The earwormy repetition of “apateu” (apartment) made a splash on social media, and streams for the track increased by about 6 times, downloads and videos by about 2.5 times, and radio by 8 times from the week before. It’s the first time a Western song entered the top 5 of the Japan Hot 100 since Coldplay and BTS’s “My Universe” in October 2021. “APT.” is also charting at No. 8 on the Billboard Hot 100.
The Billboard Japan Hot 100 combines physical and digital sales, audio streams, radio airplay, video views and karaoke data.
See the full Billboard Japan Hot 100 chart, tallying the week from Oct. 21 to 27, here. For more on Japanese music and charts, visit Billboard Japan’s English X account.
Love wins. Snoop Dogg and wife Shante Broadus have been locked in for nearly three decades, as the couple tied the knot back in 1997. The rapper gave his wife her flowers for being a ride or die and integral part in helping him become a global icon and transcending the rap world over the […]
Omarion is set to star in and executive produce an upcoming original drama series titled Wild Rose. According to Variety, the former B2K lead singer and solo star will take on the lead role of Roosevelt (aka “Rose”), in the ALLBLK series that follows the contract killer whose family also runs a nonprofit. Explore Explore […]
When Billboard started publishing in 1894, Grover Cleveland was president of the United States of America — all 44 of them. Parsing politics has never been this publication’s primary purpose, but over the decades since, every POTUS has popped up in our pages. So, ahead of Election Day (Nov. 5), Billboard tips its reporter’s hat to the commanders in chief whose policies and cultural cachet helped shape the music business.
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No. 1 With a ‘Bullet’
The Sept. 21, 1901, issue of Billboard covered “an almost prophetic incident” that occurred at the Pan-American Exposition in Buffalo, N.Y., the day an assassin shot President William McKinley at the Temple of Music (Sept. 6). (He died from the injury a week later.) “Only a moment or two before the shot rang out,” a friend of McKinley’s told Billboard, the “orchestra had played a German piece of music entitled ‘The Cursed Bullet.’ ”
Not ‘Ike’ Us
“Election year brought tangible results in revenue to Madison Square Garden,” reported the Feb. 16, 1952, Billboard, “as an Eisenhower-for-President rally, backed by entertainment names, drew 15,000.” Luminaries included songwriting great Irving Berlin, whose 1950 Broadway tune “They Like Ike” became the campaign slogan “I Like Ike.” The same issue included a story about an “overzealous Eisenhower supporter” in Dallas who interrupted a concert by “RCA Victor songbird” Mindy Carson and “insisted on pinning an ‘I Like Ike’ button on her shoulder.
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Family Values
The Nov. 24, 1962, Billboard buzzed about John F. Kennedy impersonator Vaughn Meader’s album The First Family, calling it a “comedy smash” that “electrified the industry.” The title’s success helped warm the market chill that followed the Cuban missile crisis, one of the defining moments of Kennedy’s presidency. The Dec. 8, 1962, issue said the album boosted “a gradually improving sales situation following the partial solution of the Cuban scare.” “I had someone come in for a copy of The First Family the other day and they left the store with $32 worth of records,” a Miami retailer explained. “That’s what one of these smashes can do.”
Get Carter
Soon after the 1976 election, the Nov. 13 issue described Jimmy Carter as “a friend in the White House who’s sympathetic… to the music industry.” The Allman Brothers Band had played a fundraising role in his primary campaign, and the music business “got a lot of early support for him both through contributions and performances when cash was critical,” Capricorn Records president Phil Walden said. It wasn’t just Southern rock that carried Carter: The Sept. 18, 1976, issue reported on “a mobile disco operation in Atlanta” that was “discoing around the country” to raise support for Carter.
Bills, Bills, Bills
The Nov. 14, 1992, Billboard covered a CMJ Music Marathon panel in New York titled “Are We Really Voting Tipper Gore Into the White House?” — a then-controversial idea, considering she had taken a stand against music with explicit lyrics marketed to children. Panelists had “an ‘anti-Tipper-but-voting-for-Clinton-anyway’ theme.’ ” More than two decades later, Bill Clinton posed with Jon Bon Jovi for the cover of the Nov. 5, 2016, issue, to spotlight their philanthropy. “This is Bon Jovi’s Be Kind to a Senior Night,” the former president joked during the photo shoot.
This article appears in the Oct. 26, 2024, issue of Billboard.