The Contenders

The Contenders is a midweek column that looks at artists aiming for the top of the Billboard charts, and the strategies behind their efforts. Next week (for the upcoming Billboard 200 dated June 1), it’s a superstar showdown between Billie Eilish’s new album and Taylor Swift’s reigning blockbuster.  

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Billie Eilish, Hit Me Hard and Soft (Darkroom/Interscope): Perhaps the most anticipated release of this month, Billie Eilish’s third LP Hit Me Hard and Soft debuted on Friday (May 17). The follow-up to her acclaimed 2021 sophomore set Happier Than Ever marked a first for Eilish, as it featured no advance singles, as the artist encouraged her fans to experience the album – largely focused on her self-discovery in terms of her identity and sexuality as she enters her 20s – all at once.  

And it seems many have done just that. Hit Me – which has racked up perhaps the strongest reviews yet of her already highly celebrated young career – has performed very well on streaming through its first five days of release, with every one of its 10 tracks still ranking in the top 25 of Spotify’s Daily Top Songs USA chart, with each garnering over a million spins each. Of course, there being only 10 tracks on the album may mean the album still ends up with a relatively modest overall stream total compared to some recent blockbusters with more gargantuan tracklists, but its impressive endurance across the board throughout the week should still lead to fairly resounding first-week numbers.  

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The set should also sell quite well, with Eilish a reliably strong performer there – Happier sold 154,000 copies in its first week, making for well over half of the set’s overall first-week performance (238,000 equivalent album units). To help with those numbers, Eilish has released nine vinyl editions of Hit Me (one of which, a webstore exclusive, was signed), all in different-colored variants. There are also four separate CD options (standard CD; a signed CD exclusive to her webstore; a “splatter” CD where Eilish splattered paint across the CD booklets en masse, and then those were collated into their packaging; and a Target-exclusive CD containing a poster), as well as a cassette version, and a digital deluxe album that also includes isolated vocal tracks for the 10 songs on the album.  

Taylor Swift, The Tortured Poets Department (Republic): But of course, to get her third straight No. 1 album, Eilish will have to unseat the album that’s topped the chart for the last month: Taylor Swift’s historic-selling The Tortured Poets Department. This week, in its fourth week on top, Poets posted 260,000 units – mostly in streams, with the set remaining a consistently dominant performer on DSPs with the 31 tracks of its Anthology edition. (It was also assisted in the most recent frame from added interest following the resumption of her Eras Tour in Europe on May 9, with six Poets tracks now newly added to the setlist.)  

Revived live attention won’t be the only thing likely to help Poets’ performance on next week’s chart, though. On May 16 – at the end of the last tracking week – Swift posted pre-orders on her site for a May 17 delivery of new digital editions of her latest album, with three different variants that all also offered one “First Draft Phone Memo” version each of one of the album’s tracks (“Who’s Afraid of Little Old Me?,” “Cassandra” and ”The Black Dog”). In addition to that, her sales week could also still be impacted by a variety of CD edition releases – featuring bonus tracks and/or other collectibles — posted to her website for pre-order in May prior to this tracking week, whose exact shipping dates are currently unknown.  

The race could be a close one, as the excitement over Eilish’s brand-new release competes with the sheer overwhelming volume of Swift’s reigning behemoth. It’s one that’s sure to get a lot of attention in the pop community – particularly after Eilish’s comments in a Billboard March interview decrying artist wastefulness in releasing excessive vinyl variants were interpreted by many Swifties as a shot at Taylor. (Eilish later clarified that she was not singling out any artist with her comments, and acknowledged that she was guilty of the practice herself.)  

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Zayn, Room Under the Stairs (Mercury/Republic): Elsewhere in the pop world: Zayn goes country! The One Direction alum’s latest set is influenced by his love of Willie Nelson and Chris Stapleton, and is even co-helmed by the latter artist’s go-to producer Dave Cobb. The album is not expected to stream in particularly robust numbers – Zayn has not had a hit on the Billboard Hot 100 since 2020 – but it should sell respectably, thanks in part to the availability of six vinyl and four CD variants, as well as a deluxe digital album with five bonus “Z sides” tracks. 

New Kids on the Block, Still Kids (BMG): Speaking of boy band vets: Nearly four decades into their career, NKOTB remain hangin’ tough, and just released their eighth album Still Kids, still with the classic Donnie, Joey, Jordan, Jonathan and Danny lineup. The new set – their first since 2013’s 10, which reached No. 6 on the Billboard 200 — features collabs with fellow late-’80s survivors Taylor Dayne and DJ Jazzy Jeff, and is available in four vinyl and two CD variants.  

Cage the Elephant, Neon Pill (RCA): Kentucky hitmakers Cage the Elephant have been getting it done on rock radio and on tour for over 15 years now, and though their days of competing for the top of the Billboard 200 – their 2011 set Thank You Happy Birthday peaked at a career-best No. 2 – are likely over, they’re still going to make an impact each time out. Sixth album Neon Pill, featuring the Alternative Airplay-topping title track, is the band’s first album in five years, and is for sale in five vinyl variants and a standard CD edition.  

The Contenders is a midweek column that looks at artists aiming for the top of the Billboard charts, and the strategies behind their efforts. Next week (for the upcoming Billboard Hot 100 dated May 25), even with huge breakout hits cluttering the top of the charts, a big new collab may threaten to zoom past all of them.  

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Post Malone feat. Morgan Wallen, “I Had Some Help” (Republic/Mercury/Big Loud): Undoubtedly the biggest debut of the week will come from these genre-spanning Republic labelmates. While 2010s superstar Post Malone’s commercial fortunes have largely been declining this decade – 2023’s Austin became the first LP of his career to not spawn a single top 10 Hot 100 hit – he’s been buoyed this year by collabs with arguably the three biggest names in contemporary popular music: Beyoncé (the Cowboy Carter standout “Levii’s Jeans”), Taylor Swift (the Tortured Poets Department lead single and two-week Hot 100 No. 1 “Fortnight”) and now Morgan Wallen.  

Post’s latest star teamup looks like it might be on its way to following “Fortnight” to the Hot 100’s apex. “I Had Some Help” — apt title – reached the top of the daily and real-time charts on Spotify, Apple Music and iTunes shortly after its release on Friday (May 10), which is no small feat in this crowded a time for pop music. And while brand-new songs usually struggle to be competitive in the radio department, “I Had Some Help” has received such an instantly massive embrace on the airwaves that it’s actually already ahead of most of its primary competitors there: It’s drawn 17.3 million all-format airplay impressions in its first four days of wide release (May 10-13), according to Luminate, and made immediate-enough impact on country radio to debut at No. 18 on this week’s Country Airplay chart with just one day’s worth of plays (May 9).

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In another week – like, say, virtually any other week in May from 2020 to 2023 — “I Had Some Help” would be a no-brainer No. 1 debut. But of course, this has been an unusually loaded season for pop music, and “Help” will have to maintain its early momentum throughout the week to secure an entrance at pole position. If it does start atop the Hot 100, it will already mark the fifth different song to best the chart in the last six weeks, and the 13th different song total through 20 chart weeks this year – compared to both 2022 and 2023, where there were just seven total through the first 20 chart weeks.

Kendrick Lamar, “Not Like Us” (pgLang/Interscope/ICLG): It’s a little ridiculous that “Not Like Us” is really going to have to work to defend its title on the Hot 100 next week, since it debuted atop the chart with just five days of tracking this week and shouldn’t be slowing down much in its first full week of consumption. Ten days after its release and the song is still pulling over five million daily streams on Spotify in this country alone – a gargantuan number for most songs even on release day – and it remains atop both the real-time Apple Music and YouTube Trending Music charts, an absolute streaming juggernaut across the board.  

Where it’s lagging behind “I Had Some Help,” though, is in sales and on radio. The song has fallen out of the top three on iTunes, as “Help” has reigned on that chart since mere hours after its release, a clear front-runner to top Digital Song Sales next week. And while the rest of the culture has already adopted “Not Like Us” as the Song of the Late Spring, radio has been a little slower to get on board: The track drew 6 million in all-format audience from May 10-13, barely a third of the reach for Post’s and Wallen’s latest, although it’s a contender to make next week’s 50-spot Radio Songs listing.  

There are, of course, cards for Kendrick Lamar still to play to get the edge on “Help” — a video for the song has been rumored, and a potential remix featuring another of Drake’s old foes would undoubtedly do big business upon release. But with the headline-dominating feud largely dying down the past week, it may feel like overkill for Lamar to continue pushing his enemy-vanquishing smash – and once the first-week sales die down for “Help,” “Not Like Us” may regain the advantage after next week anyway.  

Tommy Richman, “Million Dollar Baby” (ISO Supermacy/PULSE Records): “Don’t forget about me!” croons Tommy Richman in smooth, rich falsetto. As much as next week’s Hot 100 race is a showdown between longtime chart heavyweights in Kendrick Lamar and both Post Malone and Morgan Wallen, you can’t count out the No. 2 song in the country in the decision, either. “Million Dollar Baby” has actually regained the top spot on Spotify’s daily chart – also with over 5 million plays daily — while remaining in the top three on Apple Music and iTunes, already rivaling Teddy Swims’ “Lose Control” and Benson Boone’s “Beautiful Things” for the biggest breakout hit of 2023 from a previously chart-unproven artist.  

However, radio has been a little slower to get the memo with Richman than with those other two artists’ breakthrough smashes. The song is growing on the airwaves, but only gradually: The song drew just 3.4 million radio impressions from May 10-13, already up from 1.9 million over the prior week (May 3-9), but still well short of its primary competitors. It seems near-impossible that top 40 can resist “Million Dollar Baby” forever, so its moment may still be coming down the line — it could debut on the Pop Airplay chart next week — but while it is at its (truly insane) streaming and sales peak, it may still be difficult for the song to find its way over the top.  

IN THE MIX 

Shaboozey, “A Bar Song (Tipsy)” (American Dogwood/EMPIRE/Magnolia Music): Another one of the feel-good breakout stories of 2024 is country singer-songwriter and Cowboy Carter alum Shaboozey, whose “A Bar Song (Tipsy)” has reached No. 3 on the Hot 100 and remains one of the best-streaming and best-selling songs in the country this week. Radio, again, is just joining the party: “A Bar Song” drew 5.5 million radio impressions from May 10-13, up from 5 million the prior week, and in a pop landscape this crowded (and only getting more crowded), it will likely need an extra boost to further break through.  

Sabrina Carpenter, “Espresso” (Island/Republic): Want a growing hit that radio is fully embracing? Look to Sabrina Carpenter’s “Espresso,” already a No. 4 hit so far on the Hot 100, which climbs 20-13 on the Pop Airplay chart this week, and is up 21% in all-format audience May 10-13 over the equivalent four-day period the prior week. Radio should only continue to grow for that song as the weather heats up, but its streaming and sales are slipping behind the competition – and with a new major release joining the mix seemingly every week this season, “Espresso” may need to make a big move while it’s still hot. 

Taylor Swift feat. Post Malone, “Fortnight” (Republic): Remember her? Taylor Swift’s blockbuster The Tortured Poets Department only got a week of cultural ubiquity before the Drake-Kendrick Lamar feud stole back the spotlight, and while “Fortnight” has reigned on the Hot 100 for two weeks already and is still streaming and selling fairly well (and also moves into the top 10 on Pop Airplay this week), it does feel a little like its moment has already passed. Whether Swift’s next move is to continue to push “Fortnight” or try to boost one of the certified fan-favorite Poets tracks up to its level — “I Can Do It With a Broken Heart” ranks second-highest on this week’s Hot 100, at No. 15 – remains to be seen, but you’d be a fool to assume you’ve seen the last of Swift in this discussion this season. 

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 200 dated May 4), Taylor Swift zooms past her own already-historic career-best marks with the first week of her much-anticipated Tortured Poets Department album.  

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Taylor Swift, The Tortured Poets Department (Republic): Apologies to grunge greats Pearl Jam’s Dark Matter, which should have a very nice first-week sales debut – but this week, it’s simply all about Taylor Swift. Her 16-track, much-hyped new album’s The Tortured Poets Department, which was expanded to 31 tracks mere hours after its initial release with the set’s subsequent Anthology Edition, is set to put up some absolutely stratospheric first-week numbers – zooming past the totals even for her recent Midnights and 1989 (Taylor’s Version) releases, which already but her in a class by herself this decade as far as debut tallies go.  

Billboard has reported on her Poets numbers throughout the week, most recently updating them yesterday (April 23) for the days of April 19-22. Through those first four days of release, the album had racked up 1.6 million traditional album sales, including a modern-era record 800,000 of that in vinyl, according to initial reports to Luminate – both easily the highest such first-week numbers for the decade, passing Swift’s prior marks of 1.359 million and 693,000 for 1989 (TV). It’s also already the fifth-highest single-week sales mark for an album of the modern era (since Luminate began electronically tracking sales in 1991). The album is available for purchase in six vinyl variants, including editions named after album cuts “The Albatross,” “The Bolter,” “The Manuscript” and “The Black Dog,” which all also have CD versions available for sale on her webstore.  

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Additionally, the 31 total tracks have amassed a combined 602.3 million official on-demand U.S. streams, which passes the 549.3 million streams posted by Midnights upon its October 2022 debut for the highest single-week mark for an album by a female artist. The only other albums that have posted higher single-week streaming marks are both by Drake — Scorpion posted 745.92 million in 2018 with its 25 tracks, and Certified Lover Boy totaled 743.67 million in 2021 with its 21 – both of which Swift would seem to be on pace to pass, with three days still to be accounted for in the Poets tracking week.  

All in all, Tortured Poets Department is already up to 2.1 million equivalent album units in its first week of release, making it only the second album since the Billboard 200 began measuring by equivalent album units in December 2014 to clear the two million mark in a single week. The other, of course, is Adele’s 25, which posted a still-staggering 3.482 million first-week units (including 3.378 million in straight sales) upon its debut in November 2015. (*NSYNC’s No Strings Attached also earned 2.416 million in straight sales during its 2000 debut week, obviously long before Billboard calculations accounted for streaming.) 

With sales and streams both slowing for Poets as the week goes on – a very normal arc for a blockbuster album release – it’s unlikely that the album will approach either of those Adele numbers. The album would have to average around 460,000 units a day over the final three days of the tracking week to challenge Adele’s 3.482 million total, and it added around 200,000 additional units on the 22nd. You can never count out a last-minute extra edition or two as far as Taylor Swift is concerned, and 2.5 million is definitely in range for her, but failing some extraordinary surge, it seems like the three-million mark will likely remain Adele-only territory for at least one more Swift album. 

Swift should also remain in a class by herself when it comes to space occupied at the top of the Hot 100, however. For the second album of all-new material in a row – following Midnights in 2022 – Swift is a threat to lock down each of the top 10 positions on the Billboard Hot 100 with debuting tracks from the set, and this time her uninterrupted dominance could stretch into the teens as well, according to early data from Luminate. (Swift charting all 31 songs from Anthology is also certainly a possibility.)

The main threats to her top-dozen Hot 100 supremacy are of course Hozier’s “Too Sweet” and Future, Metro Boomin & Kendrick Lamar’s “Like That,” which occupy the top two spots on the chart this week (dated April 27), and Republic labelmate Drake’s own new release “Push Ups,” which debuted on streaming and at digital retailers on Friday after being available via internet leaks for the prior week. “Push Ups” is unlikely to get the streaming edge on any of Taylor’s top dozen Poets tracks, but its sales advantage – it remains in the top 20 on the iTunes real time chart, behind just eight of the Poets cuts – may be enough for it to get in the way if it continues through the end of the week.  

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 200 dated April 27), Future and Metro Boomin look to go two for two at No. 1 with their We Still Don’t Trust You album, following March’s chart-topping We Don’t Trust You team-up.  

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Future & Metro Boomin, We Still Don’t Trust You (Freebandz/Boominati/Epic/Republic): Part of the reason that We Don’t Trust You generated the immediate excitement that it did – including a No. 1 debut on the Billboard 200 with a then-2024-best 251,000 first-week units – was because fans knew it was just part one of two for Future and Metro Boomin. The superstar hip-hop duo also promised a follow-up just a few weeks later, and as of last Friday, it is here: We Still Don’t Trust You, the big-budget sequel to their March blockbuster, featuring the same rapper-producer chemistry and the same stacked (though uncredited, at least initially) guest list as its predecessor.  

Still actually runs well longer than its earlier series installment, with an 18-song official tracklist and then a seven-track bonus set – like a deluxe edition that Future and Metro didn’t even wait to drop on fans. And the supporting cast is perhaps even stronger this time around, with the 25 total tracks boasting cameos from The Weeknd, Lil Baby, Chris Brown, A$AP Rocky, Ty Dolla $ign, and of course, J. Cole – whose appearance is particularly headline-making news, given his (brief) involvement with the ever-expanding hip-hop civil war kicked off by Kendrick Lamar’s pot-stirring verse on the prior Future/Metro set’s Billboard Hot 100-topping “Like That.”  

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Despite the expanded tracklist and guest list, it seems unlikely that Still will debut with the same sort of robust first-week number as the original Trust. On DSPs, the set’s songs are not streaming quite as resoundingly – in fact, on the daily charts for both Spotify and Apple Music, the top two Future and Metro songs are currently “Like That” and “Type Shit,” both from their March release. Nonetheless, songs from Still are still scattered across both listings – led by the set’s pulsing neon title track, its leadoff cut – and with the whopping 25 tracks to rack up streams, it’s still in prime position to compete for the No. 1 spot on next week’s Billboard 200. (And with three different CD versions set for release this Friday – vinyl will follow in July – it may remain in the mix for the following week as well.)  

Linkin Park, Papercuts (Warner/Machine Shop): It’s been a big year already for Linkin Park, with their new-old single “Friendly Fire” topping the Rock & Alternative Airplay chart, and an upcoming biography on the band announced for October, written by Billboard’s own Jason Lipshutz. On Friday, they also released their first-ever hits compilation Papercuts, a 20-track set spanning the band’s 20-plus-year career — which still seems as relevant and vital as ever in 2024, even six years after the death of lead singer Chester Bennington.  

In addition to signature smashes like “In the End,” “Numb” and “What I’ve Done,” Papercuts includes “Friendly Fire” (originally recorded for 2017’s One More Light), as well as last year’s rock radio-dominating “Lost” (originally recorded for 2003’s Meteora), and the limitedly available “QWERTY” (previously released on 2006’s fan club-only LP Underground 6.0 EP). While racking up the usual streams for these metal and alternative classics, the set is also expected to post strong sales, thanks to the availability of eight different-colored vinyl variants, including exclusives for Target, Barnes & Noble, Walmart and the band’s official store, as well as CD and cassette options. 

Maggie Rogers, Don’t Forget Me (Debay Sounds/Capitol): Five years after her debut album Heard It in a Past Life turned heads with its No. 2 debut on the Billboard 200 – eventually leading to a best new artist Grammy nomination for the Maryland singer-songwriter – Maggie Rogers appears to be bigger than ever. Her recently announced Don’t Forget Me tour for the spring and summer will feature her first-ever arena shows in its second leg, including dates at New York’s Madison Square Garden and Los Angeles’ Kia Forum.  

Those shows will, of course, come in support of her third album of the same name: Don’t Forget Me was released last Friday, and has been met with some of her best reviews yet. The set is not expected to stream in blockbuster numbers, but should sell well, with five different vinyl variants – including exclusives for Spotify and indie retailers, and a signed edition sold through her webstore, as well as a CD (also available in a signed webstore edition) and a cassette option.  

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Chris Brown, 11:11 (RCA/CBE): Brown’s late 2023 set 11:11 was already packed to the gills, with its title referencing the number of tracks on each of the album’s two streaming-divided halves, including minor Hot 100 hits like “Sensational” and “Summer Too Hot.” But the set’s new deluxe edition adds a new third stretch with 13 new cuts, taking the total from 22 to 35, including new collabs from recognizable names like Bryson Tiller, Lil Wayne and (again) Davido. (Neither the original nor deluxe edition is yet available for what would surely be an unwieldy physical release.)  

Lana Del Rey, Did You Know That There’s a Tunnel Under Ocean Blvd (Polydor/Interscope): Seems like Lana Del Rey will never run out of vinyl reissues of her acclaimed 2023 set, and in this case the timing makes particular sense: She offered a new “festival orange” pressing of Ocean Blvd to go with her Friday night headlining slot at weekend one of the Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival over the weekend. The reissue should sell nicely, and the album will also be helped by the general boost in streaming her buzzy set has given her catalog for the days since – assisted by an appearance from fellow alt-pop superstar (and longtime LDR acolyte) Billie Eilish.  

Welcome to Billboard Pro’s Trending Up column, 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.  This week: The first weekend of Coachella spurs gains for a lot of the biggest and most ascendant names involved, while songs that soundtracked the biggest moments of Wrestlemania XL also see big bumps, a Cowboy Carter collaborator has his first solo breakout hit and more.

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New Peaks in the Coachella Valley: Streaming Bumps for Lana Del Rey, No Doubt, Sabrina Carpenter & More Weekend One Performers

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Coachella Season was once again upon us this past weekend, as hundreds of thousands of music fans flocked to the desert in Indio, Calif. to see many of the best and brightest performers in pop, rock, dance, hip-hop and more. While this year’s festival saw a little less hype (and was reported to have slower ticket sales) than some past incarnations, many of the key artists involved still saw big bumps in streaming consumption following their buzzed-about performances.

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Friday (Apr. 12) headliner Lana Del Rey saw a 36% rise in official on-demand U.S. streams over the following Saturday to Monday compared to that period from the previous week, climbing from 19.4 million streams to 26.4 million, according to Luminate. Breakthrough hit “Video Games” was one of her biggest beneficiaries, rising 70% to nearly 1.2 million streams, thanks to Del Rey bringing out fellow alt-pop superstar Billie Eilish for her Coachella performance of it — then returning the favor by dueting with Eilish on her own breakout single, “Ocean Eyes” (up 21% to 1.5 million). Saturday headliner Tyler, the Creator also saw a Sunday-to-Monday bump from the prior week, with his catalog increasing 20% to 13.5 million streams. (Sunday headliner Doja Cat was down overall in streams, due to her having released her Scarlet 2: Claude deluxe edition the week before.)

In addition to those headliner bumps, a number of the reunited ’90s rock acts on the undercard for Saturday also saw major gains. Of those, No Doubt easily saw the biggest, with their overall catalog leaping 85% (from 1.4 million to 2.6 million) over Sunday and Monday from the previous week — with their “Bathwater,” performed with a special cameo from pop-rock superstar Olivia Rodrigo, seeing a particularly notable spike (up 450% to 113,000 streams). No Doubt’s ’90s ska-punk peers Sublime, who assembled on Saturday with late original lead singer Bradley Nowell’s son Jakob taking vocal duties for the first time, also saw a more modest bump for their catalog over that period (up 19% to 4.6 million streams), as did Britpop greats Blur (up 27% to 770,000).

It wasn’t just the established veterans seeing the catalog spikes for the weekend, though. Still-rising pop star Sabrina Carpenter had one of the best-received sets on Friday, not only helping her just-released single “Espresso” score her best numbers for a new song to date (9.9 million streams between Apr. 12-15), but also offering a major bump for the rest of her catalog — which was up 41% from the previous week to 10.4 million streams over the three days following her set, not counting the “Espresso” numbers. Meanwhile, Chappell Roan‘s breakout spring just kept rolling, with her catalog streams rising 52% to 14.6 million over Saturday to Monday from the previous week, following her Friday performance. And Reneé Rapp‘s headline-capturing Sunday set also resulted in a 33% bump from the prior week for her catalogue that Monday, climbing to 1.4 million streams. – ANDREW UNTERBERGER

WrestleMania XL Lights Up Tracks from The Weeknd and Nothing More 

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As wrestling fans continue to bask in the glow of WrestleMania XL (April 6-7), so do songs featured prominently at the blockbuster event. Both The Weeknd’s “Gasoline” and Nothing More’s “If It Doesn’t Hurt” posted impressive streaming gains during WrestleMania week. 

“Gasoline,” a single from the pop superstar’s 2022 Dawn FM album that peaked at No. 29 on the Billboard Hot 100, pulled over 560,000 official on-demand U.S. streams during the period of April 5-11, according to Luminate. That marks a 72% increase from just over 320,000 streams during March 29-April 4. “Gasoline” marks the fifth consecutive Weeknd song to be selected as the WrestleMania theme. Past Weeknd selections include “Less Than Zero” (2023), “Sacrifice” (2022), “Save Your Tears” (2021) and “Blinding Lights” (2020). 

At the top of the year (Jan. 19), Grammy-nominated hard rockers Nothing More launched “If It Doesn’t Hurt” as a standalone single. During the week of WrestleMania (April 5-11), where “Hurt” was used in a hype package video for the much-anticipated Rhea Ripley vs. Becky Lynch match, the song collected over 580,000 official on-demand U.S. streams, posting a whopping 132% gain from around 253,000 streams the week prior.   

According to Deadline, WrestleMania XL was Peacock’s most-streamed entertainment event ever, garnering jaw-dropping 1.3 billion live minutes across April 6 and 7. Clearly, some of those viewers made their way to favorite music streaming platforms after hearing those theme songs for two action-packed nights in a row. – KYLE DENIS

Shaboozey’s Boozy New Single Is Already a Breakout Hit

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Along with the multiple country legends who swung by or got shouted out on Cowboy Carter, Beyoncé’s latest blockbuster also featured a handful of rising artists as collaborators, receiving the most coveted type of co-sign by popping up on a Queen Bey track list. Shaboozey arguably received the biggest showcase of any of the guest artists by appearing on two songs from the Billboard 200-topping set, as the rising country singer-songwriter swung by “Spaghettii” and “Sweet / Honey / Buckiin’” and quickly expanded his profile one decade into his recording career.

Not wanting to sacrifice any of the Cowboy Carter momentum, Shaboozey returned last Friday (Apr. 12) with “A Bar Song (Tipsy),” a clap-along country anthem designed for bleary-eyed TouchTunes plays. The Beyoncé Bump helped the single score seven-figure streaming totals in its first four days of release, debuting with 1.63 million U.S. on-demand streams on Friday (according to Luminate), and racking up 5.66 million streams through Monday — along with nearly 6,000 in digital song sales, a tremendous number for a song by a newer artist over just for days.

Meanwhile, “Tipsy” — J-Kwon’s eternal 2004 hip-hop smash, which reached No. 2 on the Hot 100 — was revived in “A Bar Song (Tipsy)” via interpolation, and is enjoying a slight streaming bump of its own following the Shaboozey single release. “Tipsy” earned 413,000 streams from Apr. 12-15, up 8% from the same four-day period during the previous week (383,000 streams from Apr. 5-8), as listeners likely played it one time, then ran it back from the two to the three to the four times. – JASON LIPSHUTZ

GloRilla Guns for Third Concurrent Hit With Fast-Rising Big Boogie Collab “Bop” 

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Between “Yeah Glo!” and the Megan Thee Stallion-assisted “Wanna Be,” GloRilla has the first half of the year on lock. Now, with her catchy Big Boogie collaboration “Bop,” she’s looking to add another 2024 hit to her arsenal. 

During the period of April 12-15, “Bop” earned slightly over one million official on-demand U.S. streams, ballooning 43% from just under 730,000 streams during April 5-8. The song’s growth has been spurred by a dance trend created by TikTok user @curvejso. The infectious choreography is set to the very end of GloRilla’s guest verse and the entirety of her hook.  

Although the sound that played in the video that kickstarted the trend is no longer available, several “Bop” sounds have found traction on TikTok. A fan-uploaded snippet of the sound boasts over 16,000 posts on the platform, and another user-uploaded snippet (which soundtracks a different dance trend) plays in over 4,000 posts. Should the dance trend continue to turn into streaming gains, Big Boogie could be in for his very first Hot 100 entry with “Bop.” — KD

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 April 20), things get tight at the top for Future, Metro Boomin and Kendrick Lamar, with lingering threats from Benson Boone and Hozier and a new direct response from J. Cole.  

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Future, Metro Boomin & Kendrick Lamar, “Like That” (Boominati/Freebandz/Republic/Epic): After spending its first two weeks at No. 1, the excitement has finally started to settle down a bit over Future, Metro Boomin and Kendrick Lamar’s fiery hip-hop missive. The song is still a top performer, however, remaining in the top two on both Spotify’s Daily Top Songs USA chart and the Apple Music real-time listings. And the song saw revived interest over the weekend in the headlines, at least, as rap superstar J. Cole memorably responded to the song’s apparent callout as part of his own Might Delete Later mixtape, before expressing his regrets over doing so during the headlining set at his Dreamville Festival that Sunday.  

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“Like That” is also starting to be embraced by radio, as the song leaps 34-21 as the Greatest Gainer on this week’s R&B/Hip-Hop Airplay chart (up 77% in audience), according to Luminate, and is trending towards a debut on the all-format Radio Songs chart. The big question for “Like That” may be on how it is able to maintain its performance beyond next week, however, as the sequel to its We Don’t Trust You parent set – aptly titled We Still Don’t Trust You – is scheduled to drop this Friday from Future and Metro Boomin, with who knows what kind of additional surprises in store. Will “Like That” remain top of mind for streamers and radio programmers through that release, or will its heat be swiped by an even newer, more exciting single?  

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Benson Boone, “Beautiful Things” (Night Street/Warner): Will it ever be Benson Boone’s turn at the top? “Beautiful Things” has been hanging around the Hot 100’s top tier for nearly a couple months now but has still yet to get past the runner-up spot – lingering at No. 3 this week behind “Like That” and Beyoncé’s Cowboy Carter-revived “Texas Hold ‘Em.” Next week could provide another real chance for the singer-songwriter, though, as “Things” should see a boost from Boone’s full-length debut Fireworks & Rollerblades, which of course features the breakout hit within its 15-song tracklist.  

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In the meantime, “Beautiful Things” continues to grow at radio, as the song jumps 9-4 on Radio Songs, rising another 15% in all-format airplay audience this week. It’s currently the only song to rank in the top five of Radio Songs, Digital Song Sales and Streaming Songs, so with the expected consumption lift from Fireworks (and the start of his accompanying headlining tour), it may be now or never for Boone’s breakout smash to finally grab the Hot 100’s top spot.  

Hozier, “Too Sweet” (Rubyworks/Columbia): Few would’ve gone into 2024 expecting to involve Hozier in any discussions about the top of the Hot 100 – before last year’s comeback, he hadn’t even appeared on the chart since his No. 2-peaking “Take Me to Church” in 2015. But with 2023’s well-received Unreal Unearth and subsequent tour and an ever-growing TikTok presence, the Irish singer-songwriter is once again proving to be a real factor on the chart: He debuted three songs last week from the new Unheard EP, led by the No. 5-entering “Too Sweet.”  

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“Sweet” climbs one spot to No. 4 this week, even outpacing any of the new debuts from Beyoncé’s blockbuster set Cowboy Carter. And there’s every indication that the song isn’t going to stop there: It’s climbed past “Like That” to the top of the Spotify Daily Top Songs USA chart, while also starting to find its footing on radio, trending towards debuts on the Adult Alternative Airplay, Pop Airplay and Adult Pop Airplay charts. If its trajectory continues, it might not be more than a week or two away from matching Hozier’s previous “Church” peak of No. 2 – if not even one-upping that enduring smash.  

J. Cole, “7 Minute Drill” (Interscope/ICLG): While “Like That” has multiple challengers for Hot 100 supremacy next week, only one of them can claim to be a direct answer to it: J. Cole’s “7 Minute Drill” was written in response to Kendrick Lamar’s tough-talking verse on the No. 1 hit, with Cole taking aim at Lamar’s catalog spottiness and general lack of recent productivity. It didn’t quite detonate on impact the way “Like That” did, with many pundits taking issue with its more measured, perhaps less-committed tone, but it still shot up to near the top of the DSPs’ daily charts and remained the most-debated song on social media all weekend.  

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Complicating the chances for “7 Minute Drill” to achieve maximum chart impact is Cole himself walking the song back a couple days later, apologizing at his Dreamville headlining set for letting himself be dragged into the muck of the beef and announcing his intention to remove the song from streaming services. As of Wednesday morning (April 10) “Drill” was still available for listening on DSPs, but Cole’s repudiation of a song that many fans were already somewhat conflicted about may have cost it any chance of being a real threat to “Like That” on the chart next week anyway.  

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 200 dated Apr. 6), a big week of new releases is headlined by Future and Metro Boomin, who could break the mark for first-week units set by Ariana Grande just two weeks earlier. 

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See latest videos, charts and news

See latest videos, charts and news

Future & Metro Boomin, We Don’t Trust You (Freebandz/Boominati/Epic/Republic): It was always gonna be big-time when hip-hop superstars Future and Metro Boomin got together for their first collaborative album. Not only have they proven to be two of the most consistently successful figures in the last decade-plus of rap, but they have extensive history and chemistry with one another — down to Future providing Metro’s famous “If young Metro don’t trust you, I’m gon’ shoot you” producer tag (via his appearance on Uncle Murda’s “Right Now”), which partly inspired the name of their recent team-up, We Don’t Trust You.  

Now, the two hip-hop greats with 11 No. 1 albums on the Billboard 200 already between them are likely gonna be in line for their 12th. We Don’t Trust You immediately dominated the internet upon its release last Friday (March 22), with its entire tracklist swarming the top of the Spotify and Apple Music daily charts. Somewhat ironically, the thing the album is getting the most attention for has little to do with either Future or Metro, but rather the “Like That” guest verse from an arguably even bigger superstar in Kendrick Lamar – with its shots fired against Drake and J. Cole sending social media into an absolute tizzy, likely propelling the song to a No. 1 debut next week on the Billboard Hot 100.  

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Its parent album also seems all but certain to grace the top of the charts. Trust has remained a blockbuster on streaming — as of Tuesday, Future and Metro still commanded four of the top 10 spots on Spotify’s Daily Top Songs USA, and nine of the top 10 on Apple Music’s real-time chart – likely helped by an initially hidden guest list, which prompted users to listen to the 17-track set in full to discover the features for themselves. Even without a physical release yet, its streaming and digital sales numbers should be robust enough for the set to challenge Ariana Grande’s Eternal Sunshine mark (227,000) for the biggest first week yet of 2024 – though Future and Metro would still have to do better as a duo than either did with their own most recent solo sets, 2022’s I Never Liked You (222,000) and Heroes and Villains (185,000), respectively. 

Shakira, Las Mujeres Ya No Lloran (Sony Latin): Future and Metro are far from the only longtime hitmakers who released new sets on Friday: arguably the biggest global superstar from the last 30 years of Latin pop also made her return. Shakira’s 16-track new set Las Mujeres Ya No Lloran is essentially divided into two parts – half entirely new pop bangers, including the New Music Friday-leading Cardi B collab “Puntería,” and half singles Shak has already had success with over her highly productive past couple years, including 2023’s barnstorming Bizarrap team-up “Bzrp Music Sessions, Vol. 53.”  

That combination of explosive new bangers (also including guest appearances from the starry likes of Grupo Frontera, Rauw Alejandro and – again – Bizarrap) and established hits should result in a pretty formidable showing on streaming, though Shakira has nowhere near the established history there (especially in this country) as Future and Metro. She does have a physical presence, though, with Las Mujeres available for sale in four different vinyl editions (each with a different cover and different-colored LP), as well as four different CDs (also with different covers) and a standard digital release.  

Kenny Chesney, Born (Blue Chair/Warner Nashville): Another decades-spanning star returns this week from the country world in Kenny Chesney with his 19th studio album (and first in four years), Born. The album doesn’t have the kind of advance radio hits Chesney might have landed in the past; only “Take Her Home” had been previously pulled from the set, and had peaked at No. 13 on Billboard’s Country Airplay listing. But Chesney does have both standard and signed editions of Born for sale — as well as a “Tour Edition” of its digital release with three bonus live cuts, available for purchase to anyone who bought tickets to his upcoming summer trek or are members of his fan club – and he has the chart history of nine No. 1 albums, spanning from 2002’s No Shoes, No Shirt, No Problem to Born’s predecessor, 2020’s Here and Now.  

IN THE MIX 

Olivia Rodrigo, Guts (Geffen): While Olivia Rodrigo largely refused to play the reissue game with her game-changing debut album Sour, she’s diving into the deluxe editions with sophomore set Guts. Last Friday saw the release of Guts (Spilled), which tacked five stellar new cuts (previously each found on different specific vinyl variants of the album’s original release) onto the 12 of the chart-topping original LP – including the fan favorite “Obsessed,” which Rodrigo had been playing at stops on her current Guts World Tour. There’s no new physical drop for the deluxe set at the moment, but the resounding streaming and sales activity for the new cuts should help the album (which is still lingering in the Billboard 200’s top 20 a half-year after its initial release) rebound on the chart this week, possibly getting it back to the top 10 for the first time since early December.  

Hozier, Unheard (Rubyworks/Columbia): About a half-year since his latest album Unreal Unearth debuted at No. 3 on the Billboard 200, Irish singer-songwriter Hozier is back with a new EP of songs that just missed the cut for that set,  Unheard. Though it’s only available on streaming and for digital sale at the moment, and only has four tracks to rack up consumption totals with, it should be in line for a sizeable debut – largely because one of those songs, the TikTok-teased “Too Sweet,” is off to a massive start on streaming, likely on pace to become the artist’s biggest Hot 100 hit since “Take Me to Church” reached No. 2 in 2015.  

Tyla, Tyla (Fax/Epic): One of the most anticipated pop debuts of the year comes from South African crossover star Tyla, whose breakout smash “Water” reached the top 10 on the Billboard Hot 100 in late 2023. Her 14-track LP features both the original and remix versions of “Water,” as well as a decently wide array of big-name guest stars, including Travis Scott, Tems and Becky G, and is available for purchase in three vinyl editions — including two color variants, one with a signed insert.