State Champ Radio Rock
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Mumford & Sons are back at No. 1 on Billboard’s Adult Alternative Airplay chart – and Pharrell Williams leads the list for the first time – thanks to their collaboration “Good People,” which rises to the top of the survey dated April 20. The song becomes Mumford & Sons’ fifth Adult Alternative Airplay leader and […]
Linkin Park earns its 10th No. 1 on Billboard’s Mainstream Rock Airplay chart, as “Friendly Fire” lifts 3-1 on the April 20-dated survey. The song is the band’s second No. 1 in a row, following “Lost,” which reigned for eight weeks starting in March 2023. The group’s list of 10 No. 1s dates to 2003, […]
The reaper is clearly not feared as veteran rockers Blue Öyster Cult make the old new on the group’s latest album, Ghost Stories.
The set, out April 12 on Frontiers Music srl, comprises a dozen songs originally recorded between 1978-1983 (with one from 2016), mostly featuring the original lineup. Initially co-produced by golden age BOC audio engineer George Geranios, the versions on the album were spruced up, and in some cases added to, by band member Richie Castellano and BOC manager Steve Schenck, with remaining co-founders Eric Bloom and Donald “Buck Dharma” Roeser participating and brothers Albert and Joe Bouchard returning for some overdubs.
“It sounds like a long-lost BOC record to my ears,” singer-guitarist Roeser tells Billboard. The impetus for the project, he says, came from Italian-based Frontiers, which released The Symbol Remain, BOC’s first new album in 19 years, during 2020 and was pushing for a follow-up.
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“We were casting around for what we might want to do,” Roeser says, “and we had all these archival recordings from back in the day with the original members. Rather than just put it out as a rarities record we went back to those tapes. There were some multi-track tapes and some stereo tapes, and we used modern tools to sort of deconstruct the elements and then process them as if they were contemporary recordings. So the sonics of the LP are pretty modern-sounding. Of course I remember the songs from the day, but they sound like new tracks to me. It’s almost eerie to me to hear the Bouchard brothers back in the band and Allen Lanier still alive.”
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The task of modernizing the tapes fell primarily to Castellano who’s been with BOC since 2004. Nobody needed to twist his arm. “Hearing them play songs that were recorded 20-plus years before I joined the band was like jumping into a time machine. It was the closest I could get to being a fly on the wall for these original sessions,” says the multi-instrumentalist, who’s also part of the Band Geek, which performs and is recording with former Yes frontman Jon Anderson.
Digging into the recordings — which Castellano says were well-preserved by Geranios — he discovered that “each song had its own set of unique challenges and required something different. With the tapes being so old, we encountered frequent dropouts. Hearing parts disintegrate during a song isn’t ideal, so we made a decision to use some new elements to support what was on the tapes.” That included bolstering parts via AI, sampling the original playing to create consistent performances throughout the songs. “With the goal of presenting these songs as complete ideas, we used all of the tools available to us to fill in any missing pieces,” he explains.
“There were spots where the original performance was just too damaged to be salvaged or where we perceived to be a space that needed a part. On those occasions, the best course of action was to pick up an instrument and just play the part.” He also shouts out Joe Bouchard as “incredibly helpful in augmenting these songs. He had a bunch of great ideas for textures and layers that ended up making it to the finished product. For example, on ‘So Supernatural,’ there’s a subtle Vocoder part he added that totally lifts the chorus up for me.”
Roeser says the songs on Ghost Stories “were all contenders” for BOC’s albums during that time — including Mirrors, Cultösaurus Erectus, Fire of Unknown Origin and The Revolution By Night — but that “for one reason or another, they didn’t make the cut. There’s probably a different reason for each one, y’know?” The guitarist purports to have “no opinion” on the original songs, but Castellano lists a few “Holy Grail” finds — including Bloom’s vocal on “Don’t Come Running to Me,” the late Lanier’s piano that kicks off “Shot in the Dark” and Roeser’s solo on a cover of the MC5’s “Kick Out the Jams.”
The latter, in fact, is one of Ghost Stories’ grails for BOC fans at large. The group included a rendition of the song on its 1978 live album Some Enchanted Evening, but this is the only time the band laid it down with studio tapes running. For Roeser it’s also haunting that it’s coming out just two and a half months after the death of MC5 guitarist Wayne Kramer, who BOC had met over the years.
“I was struck by the time alignment of that,” Roeser says. “They were signed to Elektra when (BOC predecessor) Soft White Underbelly was signed to Elektra, and we went to a couple of their shows. We didn’t really know them personally that much, but when we decided to cover (‘Kick Out the Jams’) Eric talked to Rob (Tyner) about some lyrics that he couldn’t understand.
“The MC5 didn’t get quite the acclaim they should have. They were very important for the time period, the evolution of American rock. I think our version does the MC5 proud.” Another cover is one of Ghost Stories‘ other lost gems, a rendition of the Beatles’ “If I Fell” from 2016, when Kasim Sulton was part of the band. “We used to do it in the dressing room to warm up,” Roeser recalls. “That was recorded when we did the 40th anniversary video shoot in Los Angeles, and it’s been sitting around so we decided to include it on the record.”
Blue Öyster Cult — which also includes bassist Danny Miranda and drummer Jules Radino — continues to perform sporadically and has several shows set for summer, including a June 7 appearance at the Long Island Music and Entertainment Hall of Fame in Stony Brook, NY. Roeser, meanwhile, has been working on a new solo track called “The End of Every Song” that he plans to release this year, but he’s circumspect about the possibility of fresh music from BOC.
“I have the thought, to be honest,” he says. “At this point in our career I don’t think we have anything we have to do. We don’t have anything to prove. So there’s no reason to just put stuff out for its own sake. But if we have something that’s significant and if it’s good, it can come out. But it has to hold up with what we’ve already done…and that’s a pretty high bar.”
In 2019, Sheryl Crow said that her album Threads — a set of collaborations with artist friends such as Stevie Nicks, Bonnie Raitt and Neil Young, among others — would be her last. Five years later, Crow has proved her own pronouncement wrong, releasing Evolution at the end of March, and she came to Billboard News to discuss how it, well, evolved, as well as her career journey up until now.
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“I keep saying this is not an album — it’s more a playlist of new Sheryl Crow songs,” Crow says of Evolution, which was produced by her longtime friend Mike Elizondo. “It feels like an emotional download as opposed to a curated album.”
That download was spurred in large part, Crow reveals, by a decision she made in recent years to “really investigate what it meant to redirect my impulses,” which she endeavored to do through a curated psilocybin journey. “For me, nature is the only place I’ve actually been able to hear myself. And it felt like I was digging through dirt. Like those old science videos, where you see ants digging,” she says.
That experience led her to keep thinking of a favorite Peter Gabriel song, “Digging in the Dirt,” which she told Elizondo about. They recorded a cover, sent it to Gabriel, and he loved it — so much that he sent it back to Crow with his own voice added. “It’s just crazy. I’m a huge believer in manifesting, but I don’t know that I could have manifested that in a thousand years,” Crow marvels.
Evolution is, astoundingly, Crow’s 12th studio album, but her catalog has not diminished in relevance, as evidenced by the still growing number of young women artists who cover hits such as “Strong Enough” and “If It Makes You Happy.” That group includes Olivia Rodrigo, who Crow reveals she first met at Billboard‘s 2022 Women in Music event, where Crow presented the Woman of the Year honor to Rodrigo.
“I listen to her stuff and go, ‘Oh my gosh, I can hear the Breeders, I hear Blondie’ — she’s got that punk rock thing I haven’t heard in so long, but then she has great lyrics and great hooks,” Crow says. “And then I met her, and she came up in the business … but I liked how grounded she was. The fame thing wasn’t her major attraction. She just keeps writing her truth, she’s got the experience that backs up everything in her songs. I just root for her.”
To hear what else Crow had to say, watch at the link above.
Slash found the perfect singer for his cover of the Peter Green-era Fleetwood Mac song “Oh Well.” The Guns ‘N Roses guitarist roped in country rocker Chris Stapleton for a take on the song written by original Mac co-founder Green for the group’s third studio album, 1969’s Then Play On.
With Stapleton’s signature gruff vocal leading the track, the blues rock tune from Slash’s upcoming sixth solo album, Orgy of the Damned (May 17), dropped on on Friday morning (April 12). It finds the country singer growling out the iconic lines, “I can’t help about the shape I’m in/ I can’t sing, I ain’t pretty and my legs are thin/ But don’t ask me what I think of you/ I might not give the answer that you want me to/ Oh well” over the top-hatted guitarist’s signature paint-peeling riffs.
The song has a long history of covers, including takes by everyone from Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers, to Kenny Wayne Shepherd, ZZ Top’s Billy Gibbons, Haim, Aerosmith, Jason Isbell, Joe Jackson and the Eels, among many others.
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“So, this is the original Fleetwood Mac, which was founded by Peter Green, one of the greatest singer-songwriter-guitar players, he’s less known in the public, but very well known to us guitar players re the 60s British blues and he’s up there with Eric Clapton, Jeff Beck, and Nick Taylor,” Slash said in a statement. “I remember hearing the song on the radio when I was probably 13, they used to play both the older version of Fleetwood Mac and the new version of the band with Stevie Nicks and Lindsey Buckingham a lot. I always loved this song, and it’s a great guitar riff. I jammed it with the Blues Ball back in the ‘90s, and I’ve played it live here and there. I knew from the beginning I wanted to do the song on this record. It was also one of the songs that I was trying to figure out who would be the right vocalist for it, and one of the ideas I had was Chris Stapleton, who is one of the most brilliant singer songwriters today. He’s also got such a gritty and distinctive voice, so I called him up and he did an amazing job. I mean, his voice is so cool.”
It is the second single to date from Slash’s album, following on the heels of his previously released take on the blues standard “Killing Floor,” which features AC/DC singer Brian Johnson on vocals and Aerosmith singer Steven Tyler on harmonica.
Orgy is described as an homage to Slash’s love of classic blues, with vocals from Gary Clark Jr., ZZ Top’s Billy Gibbons, Dorothy, Iggy Pop, Paul Rodgers, Demi Lovato, Chris Robinson and Beth Hart. The house band supporting the guitarist on the record included two of his 1990s bandmates from Blues Ball, bassist Johnny Griparic and keyboardist Teddy ‘ZigZag’ Andreadis, as well as drummer Michael Jerome and singer/guitarist Tash Neal.
The album’s track list includes covers of songs by Robert Johnson, T. Bone Walker, Steppenwolf, Albert King, Stevie Wonder and Willie Dixon, among others. Robinson is the musical guest on this weekend’s Saturday Night Live with host Ryan Gosling.
Slash will take the songs on the road this summer with his S.E.R.P.E.N.T festival featuring the Warren Haynes Band, Keb’ ‘Mo, Christone “Kingfish” Ingram, Robert Randolph, Samantha Fish, Eric Gales, ZZ Ward, Jackie Venson, and Larkin Poe. The North American outing is slated to kick off on July 5 at the KettleHouse Amphitheater in Bonner, Montana.
Check out Slash’s preview and listen to the whole song below.
Phish is continuing an exciting year by announcing their upcoming 16th studio album, Evolve. The band revealed that the album will be arriving on July 12 via JEMP Records, and also dropped the title track on all DSPs and streaming services on Thursday (April 11). The album will follow 2020’s Sigma Oasis, which peaked at […]
For the better part of the last decade, Joe Keery has most of his time bouncing between worlds. In the more literal sense, he’s navigated to-and-from the Upside Down as Steve Harrington, the bad boy-turned-fan favorite, on Netflix’s Stranger Things. But outside of the hit series, he has balanced his growing prominence as an actor — recently starring in the dramedy Marmalade with Camila Morrone, and in the latest season of Fargo alongside Jon Hamm as his sheriff character’s son — with Djo, his ever-burgeoning solo music project.
For part of his 20s, Keery attended college and lived in Chicago, also cutting his teeth in the indie scene as part of psych-rock band Post Animal. Though he ultimately departed the band as Stranger Things caused too many constraints with his schedule, Keery continued to create music during his free time, ultimately leading to the birth of Djo. Debut album Twenty Twenty arrived in 2019 as an independent release through AWAL; three years later, he utilized the same route for his follow-up set, Decide.
Funnily enough, Keery, 31, is now returning to Chicago in a way — as his dreamy, synth-pop single “End of Beginning” from Decide has transformed into a viral hit in recent months. Reminiscent of new wave hits from the likes of Crowded House and INXS (Keery has noted influence from Annie Lennox’s “No More ‘I Love You’s’” as well), listeners have gravitated in particular to the lyrics in its chorus: “And when I’m back in Chicago, I feel it/ Another version of me, I was in it/ I wave goodbye to the end of beginning.”
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“Your late 20s are a wild time,” he tells Billboard. “The gist of it is being sad that I wasn’t more appreciative for something in the moment — longing for something that’s over, but also being happy that it happened.”
Since the song has gained new legs in 2024, it has reached a No. 11 high on the Billboard Hot 100 (Djo’s first career entry on the chart), while also hitting No. 1 on Hot Alternative Songs and continuing to gain momentum at alternative radio. It could be just the start of a breakout year for Keery’s musical project, as the multi-hyphenate notes he’s finishing a third album and hopes to go on a proper tour, which he still is yet to do in support of Decide, due to his acting career.
In the meantime, he’s also currently filming the final season of Stranger Things. At the time of our Sunday morning call, he’s enjoying a day off by moseying through a number of yard sales in Atlanta, one of which he says has happily yielded a vintage edition of The Settlers of Catan for just $5. Below, Keery tells Billboard about the makings of “End of Beginning,” compares successes as an actor versus successes as a musician, previews what to expect in the year ahead and more.
How did the song come together? Was the demo you posted on social media the first time that you worked on it?
No, I had had the idea. At the time [in fall 2021], I was living in Los Angeles. I had punched the chords out really quick and had an idea for a melody. That demo that I posted was me arranging and starting to figure out what the other parts might be. Then, I banged it out in the studio, at least the instrumental, pretty much in a day, with [co-producer] Adam Thein and [Slow Pulp drummer] Teddy Mathews. We all tracked the bare bones of it — guitar, bass and drums — and filled it in from there.
It was a swift process for this one. The album [2022’s Decide] is full of extra production in a lot of places, so I was just feeling like, “Let’s just make the simplest thing we could possibly make.” Verse-chorus-verse-chorus-bridge-chorus and be done with it. That was the goal: Try to work fast and not overcomplicate things, and that was what we did. The lyrics came a fair bit later. I really like to take the songs outside and walk around; that’s generally when I’m best at thinking up lyrics.
When did you know the song was a finished product?
You never really get to that point. I feel that, personally. There are always things that I wish we could go back and redo or improve this or improve that. But we gave ourselves until the end of March, and then at that point, we thought, “Okay, let’s just set a date for ourselves and then be done with it.”
“End of Beginning” has plenty of accolades to go around: your first Hot 100 entry, No. 1 on Hot Alternative Songs, RIAA certified gold and many more. Do those sort of accomplishments resonate with you?
It has never even been on my radar, to be honest with you, with the style of music that I’m making. It’s really cool, but I almost feel like I don’t have the perspective to really appreciate what’s going on in a way. I think that in time, it’ll come to me even more. They’re cool milestones to hit, but at the end of the day, the greatest thing is being able to go into the studio and work.
Has the song’s meaning changed for you at all over time, or is still the same as when you created it in 2021?
I guess it does mean the same thing; I feel that I’m in a different place, though. Maybe I’ve slightly come to terms more with what I was feeling. I don’t know, your late 20s are kind of a wild time. I’m not a huge believer in astrology, but I do feel like there is something to the whole Saturn return thing.
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Are there conversations happening right now behind the scenes about pushing listeners back toward the rest of Decide or even debut album, Twenty Twenty, versus trying to strike while the iron is hot with new music?
I’m much more focused on new stuff than old stuff — and finishing the new stuff. But the song has opened up possibilities for some new ears to hear the music, and I’m looking forward to getting the new stuff out, because it has been something that I’ve been working on basically since Decide came out. I’m really trying to embrace the newness that has come along with entering my 30s and now living in a different city as well. I’m excited. I feel like it’s a little bit different. It’ll be fun to see what people think.
Do you find that the location where you’re living and recording impacts the creation of the music itself?
One hundred percent, yes I do. I also think that the process of how you go about recording [impacts the music]. To me, it’s all about process over product and letting that process inform the music you’re making. I spent a lot of the last album starting making music on the computer, and I’m trying to take a different approach this time around.
Last time we talked, you told me how the sessions at The Sound Factory really inspired your affinity for in-studio collaboration. Does that still hold true?
Definitely. I have wanted my whole life to get into the studio. So, now to have a little bit more leeway under my belt, it was really cool to get into a professional environment. When you make music at home, you have all these tools, plug-ins and stuff that try to emulate real gear that exists out in the world. To be able to use some of that gear … I don’t know. Working at home is really cool because you can do it whenever, but to be able to go into a place to work feels really good. I really enjoyed that.
How does the song’s success affect your marketing strategy for this side of your career?
In the same way that we haven’t really been able to tour the music — a lot of that has been up to my schedule for shooting [Stranger Things] being all over the place — the same kind of thing with this marketing stuff. You spend all this time making the music, and you do want to market it properly. Now that the word is out a little bit more on the project, and it’s a little less of a secret between the people who know, a change in the way that the project is marketed could be cool. I’m still figuring it out, really.
You’ve talked ad nauseam about your disguises and making an effort to make Djo something of a separate entity than your acting career. When you’re having a big moment like this, is there any part of you that wants to maximize the audience by making the connection between Joe Keery and Djo abundantly clear for people?
Not sure about that. Maybe, but I’m not trying to shove it down anyone’s throat — it’s pretty easy to tell when things are like that. The fact that this all popped off naturally and happened on its own is best possible scenario for me. I’m really happy that it has happened this way. It’s cool for me because all the rules have seemed to changed a little bit.
How do you mean the rules have changed?
It just feels like the project is in a different place. Before, it was this thing that was sort of my own little secret. And now, I don’t know. It makes me think how I could treat it differently. I always am really interested when people use marketing to their advantage — that’s what I tried to last time with the disguise and the name. Maybe there’s a new way to embrace that, and I guess it’s time for me to figure out what that is.
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Is there a difference in how you feel receiving praise for something you’ve acted in versus something you’ve created as a musician?
Definitely. [Being] a performer as opposed to a writer is really the distinction to be made that I’ve found rewarding. That’s kind of the point of art, in general: To share something that people take in as their own and repurpose it for their own life. To be on the receiving end of that is really cool. Obviously, I’ve had some amazing experiences being on [Stranger Things]. The fan base is incredible. To see people wearing your character as a Halloween costume, that’s unbelievable. But [music] does scratch a different itch, and it’s really rewarding. I just feel super lucky.
Are there are any plans for a tour?
Yeah, I’ve got a fair amount of work ahead of me on the show, but the plan would be to do that sooner rather than later. And hopefully to do it right.
I would imagine it’ll be extremely cool to see all the fans in person that either found Decide immediately or as a result of this more recent wave. Looking at numbers on a page can probably only yield so much of a dopamine rush.
Yeah, it’s funny. You release something, and in this day in age — and in my situation — I kind of just released it, and then it was like, “Okay.” I didn’t really play any shows, it just came out, and that was sort of it. So, for me, it still exists as this tiny little thing. This kind of reaction to this song has been a little bit of a wake up call like, “Oh, people are actually listening to this! This exists in the world.”
To see that physically embodied at the shows would be overwhelming I’m sure, but extremely exciting. Live performance is what got me into being an artist in the first place. Just doing plays and enjoying the energy you get in a live setting. I definitely am itching to get out there. At the end of the day, it’s really about the live experience.
Are there lessons that you’ve learned from creating Decide, Twenty Twenty or anything else in the past few years that are influencing how you’re making music now?
This song has taught me the lesson of specificity being something that is important. Also, becoming less interested in something sounding perfect or polished, and more interested in trying to capture something that is a one-of-a-kind thing, whether it’s a sound or a vocal take or a drum sound. I think those are the things that stand the test of time and make things sound different. I’m chasing that more recently.
A version of this story originally appeared in the March 30, 2024, issue of Billboard.
In February, much ado was made about “Turn the Lights Back On,” the first newly released song by Billy Joel in 17 years, and his first Billboard Hot 100 hit since 1997.
Fans certainly missed Joel during that interim, though he continued to perform — monthly at Madison Square Garden from January 2014 to July 2024 (minus the pandemic) and in stadiums, co-headlining with pals such as Stevie Nicks and Sting. Besides keep us entertained, those shows also reminded us that despite the absence of fresh material, the “Piano Man” was hardly a stranger to us. There was, after all, a legacy of 13 studio albums (including the 2001 classical outing Fantasies & Delusions), assorted movie soundtrack contributions and material from compilations.
Joel has logged 43 singles on the Hot 100 since 1974. (“Turn the Lights Back On” peaked at No. 62.) A baker’s dozen of those were top 10 hits, with three (“It’s Still Rock and Roll to Me,” “Tell Her About It” and “We Didn’t Start the Fire”) making it all the way to No. 1.
Along the way, Joel has won five Grammys, been inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame and the Songwriters Hall of Fame (which also gave him the prestigious Johnny Mercer Award) and received a Kennedy Center Honor. Talking about that success, however, Joel acknowledged to Music Connection in 2022, “Part of me thinks it’s absurd; I’m 73 years old and I’m doing the same gig I was doing when I was 16! This is a job for a young person. I am now considered elderly, and I’m still doing the same crazy-ass job, so that part of it is kind of absurd.”
But, he added, “The other part it means to me is it’s wonderful. I picked a great job to have. They’re paying me all kinds of money. The audiences are bigger than they ever were. People are still coming to see me, and there’s a lot of young people out in the crowd who still know my stuff. That’s wonderful. I’m a lucky guy.”
We’re lucky to have the music, too, even if it’s damn near impossible to pick a favorite. That being said, we’re rounding up Joel’s 10 best songs among his Hot 100 hits. It’s a daunting task, to be sure, but if it means listening to all those hits once again, we’re more than up to the challenge.
Editor’s note: The years listed for each song are the year that single reached its peak on the Hot 100.
“All About Soul” (River of Dreams, No. 29, 1993)
Jon Bon Jovi didn’t get to party with Michael Jackson in the ’80s, but he did get to hang out with the next best thing: the King of Pop’s beloved pet chimp, Bubbles. While chatting on Jimmy Kimmel Live! Wednesday night (April 10), the 62-year-old musician recalled one of the crazier days of his rock-star […]
Alek Olsen’s “Someday I’ll Get It” is No. 1 on the TikTok Billboard Top 50 chart for a third straight week, followed by G-Eazy’s “Lady Killers II” and Hozier’s “Too Sweet” on the ranking dated April 13.
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The TikTok Billboard Top 50 is a weekly ranking of the most popular songs on TikTok in the United States based on creations, video views and user engagement. The latest chart reflects activity April 1-7. Activity on TikTok is not included in Billboard charts except for the TikTok Billboard Top 50. As previously noted, titles that are part of Universal Music Group’s catalog are currently unavailable on TikTok.
Olsen’s “Someday I’ll Get It” enjoys its third week at No. 1 on the chart in as many weeks. It’s the third song to lead the TikTok Billboard Top 50 for at least three weeks since the list’s September 2023 inception, following Mitski’s “My Love Mine All Mine” (six weeks, October-December 2023) and Flo Milli’s “Never Lose Me” (four weeks, January-February).
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The track’s prime usage on TikTok was initially a trend remembering deceased pets – one that continues to this day, though other recent clips find creators reminiscing about other losses they’ve experienced.
The March 29-April 4 Billboard multimetric chart tracking week sees “Someday I’ll Get It” lift 20-18 on the Hot Rock & Alternative Songs list via 3.3 million official U.S. streams, according to Luminate.
G-Eazy’s “Lady Killers II,” billed as the Christoph Andersson remix, lifts to No. 2 on the TikTok Billboard Top 50, a new peak. Released as a follow-up to G-Eazy’s original from the 2012 album Must Be Nice, the tune premiered March 17 after the then-unreleased remix took off on TikTok via a trend in which users turn off a light illuminating them in sync with the “Make her disappear just like poof/ Then she’s gone” lyric, usually on a beach.
“Lady Killers II” concurrently enjoys a 12% boost in official U.S. streams to 4.8 million March 29-April 4. It appears at No. 49 on Billboard’s Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs chart (after debuting at No. 47 the previous week) and also bows on the Billboard Global 200 at No. 147.
Hozier’s “Too Sweet” leaps to No. 3 on the TikTok Billboard Top 50 from No. 31, also a new peak. After being teased on TikTok prior to its March 22 wide release, the song has vaulted up the chart via multiple viral usages on the platform, mostly lip-synching, covers and being attached to unrelated popular videos.
The song rises 10% in official U.S. streams toward the latest Billboard charts to a new high of 31.8 million, good enough for No. 2 on the all-format Streaming Songs list. It also ascends 5-4 on the multimetric Billboard Hot 100.
Ye (formerly known as Kanye West) and Ty Dolla $ign’s “Carnival,” a previous two-week No. 1 on the TikTok Billboard Top 50, dips 2-4, and Sexyy Red’s “Get It Sexyy” rounds out the top five.
Bakar’s “Hell N Back” returns to the chart at No. 6, its first time among the ranking since January. Originally released in 2019, the song has enjoyed multiple viral moments throughout its lifetime, both on TikTok and via its placement in the trailer for the 2023 Disney/Pixar film Elemental. This time, the track’s Summer Walker remix is driving the attention, with Walker’s vocals soundtracking a trend in which users talk about their significant others to the verse “I was over love, I had enough, then I found you.”
“Hell N Back” returns to the Alternative Streaming Songs chart at No. 15 with 4.6 million official U.S. streams, a boost of 69%.
Artemas’ “I Like the Way You Kiss Me” is one of three songs, like Hozier’s “Too Sweet,” to reach the TikTok Billboard Top 50’s top 10 for the first time, jumping 19-7. It’s joined by BossMan Dlow’s “Talk My Shit,” which debuts at No. 9. The latter, which was released as part of the rapper’s March 15 album Mr Beat the Road, is rising thanks to a dance trend using the song, while the former was teased on TikTok prior to release and is mostly being used in lip-synch clips.
See the full TikTok Billboard Top 50 here. You can also tune in each Friday to SiriusXM’s TikTok Radio (channel 4) to hear the premiere of the chart’s top 10 countdown at 3 p.m. ET, with reruns heard throughout the week.
