Trending Up
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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: Only in 2024 could we use the phrase “post-assassination-attempt streaming bump” for a pair of hits — one new and one old — while the most recent albums from Megan Thee Stallion and Charli XCX both spin off new viral jams, and more.
Many Streams and Sales for 50 Cent Classic, New Tom McDonald Single Following Assassination Attempt on Former President Donald Trump
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On Saturday night (July 13), the world was rocked by news of an assassination attempt on former president Donald Trump during a campaign rally near Butler, PA. As folks tried to make sense of what had happened, they inevitably turned to contemporary culture’s most reliable source of comfort in helping to process world events: memes. One of the most common such templates compared Trump to the rapper 50 Cent, who famously rose to fame following an attack that left him shot nine times. 50 himself got in on the game, posting a photo of his iconic Get Rich or Die Tryin’ album cover with a photo of Trump’s head crudely pasted over his own, along with the shrugging caption, “Trump gets shot and now I’m trending.”
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It wasn’t just his image that was trending, though: Listeners also flocked to 50’s Get Rich staple “Many Men (Wish Death),” the most frequent soundtrack for TikTok videos related to the assassination attempt, due to 50’s history and its “Many men/ Wish death ‘pon me” chorus. (Naturally, 50 himself also shared and responded to one or two over social media – and promoted his own “Many Men” T-shirts.) The result of it all was a massive surge in streams and sales for the song, as it collected over 2.2 million U.S. on-demand audio streams from July 13-15 – up 250% from the previous Saturday-to-Monday period – while also rising from a negligible amount of sales to over 2,000, according to Luminate.
50 wasn’t the only artist to capitalize on the event and its public reaction: Conservative rapper Tom MacDonald, who has been a regular presence on the Billboard charts over the past few years for his right-leaning, anti-woke anthems, also seized the moment with the July 14 release of new single “You Missed.” The song begins with the lyrics “They burning the country down with they progressiveness/ It started with changing what gender is” and goes on to blame the “evil” woke left for the assassination attempt, ultimately taunting: “B–ch, you missed/ Thank god the left can’t aim!”
Predictably, the song has resonated with its intended audience: “You Missed” racked up 423,000 on-demand audio streams over its first two days of release, as well as nearly 10,000 in digital song sales. If those numbers – particularly the latter one – keep up through the rest of the week, “You Missed” will likely hit on next week’s Billboard Hot 100 (dated July 27). – ANDREW UNTERBERGER
Charli XCX’s ‘Apple’ Makes for Delicious TikTok Fodder
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As Brat Summer continues, Charli XCX’s hit album has enjoyed plenty of viral moments — although “Apple,” the standout synth workout in the LP’s back half, has established itself as a fan favorite. As explained in the new Billboard cover story on Charli, “Apple” almost didn’t make the final cut of Brat — but now, the song has launched a multi-step dance routine on TikTok, which Charli performed herself alongside pals Troye Sivan and Terrence O’Connor.
Now, “Apple” is earning considerably more streams than it was a few weeks ago: during the week ending July 11, the track scored 2.71 million official on-demand U.S. streams, up 50 percent from its total two weeks prior (1.81 million), according to Luminate. In lieu of an official music video, Charli has been sharing fan performances of the “Apple” dance on social media, writing yesterday of the song, “It’s her world and we’re just living in it!” – JASON LIPSHUTZ
Megan Thee Stallion Eyes Bilingual Smash With Yuki Chiba Collab “Mamushi”
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After topping the Billboard Hot 100 and eviscerating the rap game earlier this year with her blazing diss track “Hiss,” Megan Thee Stallion now has her eyes on another potential hit from her recently released Megan album.
According to Luminate, “Mamushi” — which features Japanese rapper Yuki Chiba (KOHH) — earned 10.2 million official on-demand U.S. streams during the period of July 5-11. That’s a whopping 39.5% increase from the 7.33 million streams the Koshy-produced track pulled during the week prior (June 28-July 4), following the album’s debut. And it’s still going up: Over the past weekend (July 12-14), “Mamushi” posted an 18.3% increase to 4.8 million official on-demand U.S. streams from the 4.05 million streams it earned during the previous weekend (July 5-7).
The somewhat unlikely hit has been significantly boosted by a viral TikTok dance craze, which has already seen participation from actress Tia Mowry, WNBA powerhouse A’ja Wilson and Thee Stallion herself. Dancer and TikTok user @mona712_official originated the infectious dance combination on June 29 – just one day after the Megan album hit DSPs. In the time since then, her clip has garnered over 19.4 million views, which helped the official “Mamushi” sound own over half a million posts in just two and a half weeks. On Instagram, the smash collab soundtracks over 327,000 reels. “Mamushi” is also far and away the most viewed audio clip from Megan, with over nine million views.
Already a Hot 100 hit – the track reached a new peak of No. 45 on the chart dated July 20 — “Mamushi” looks poised to continue climbing the chart.
Yaelokre Hops Into Viral Success With “Harpy Hare”
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The folk revival continues with new artist Yaelokre and her song “Harpy Hare” which hit No. 1 on the Spotify Viral 50 Global and US charts this week. Yaelokre is unlike anyone else out there: The artist combines her folk songs with her hand-drawn woodland illustrations on all her artwork and lyric videos. Plus, when she performs live or to her TikTok audience (580.2K followers and counting), she wears a handmade animal mask. It’s almost as if Gorillaz existed in the same stylistic universe as the drawings of Maurice Sendak’s Where the Wild Things Are, if that makes any sense.
While the visuals are certainly eye-catching, it seems that the music is what is turning TikTok scrollers in the true fans for Yaelokre. “Happy Hare” rose 577% in official on-demand U.S. streams from the week of June 14-20 to July 5-11 – and from last week to the first half of this week (July 12-14), it jumped again by 186%. – KRISTIN ROBINSON
Season’s Gainings: It’s Coming Home? Maybe Next Time
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You know it’s football tournament season – the soccer kind, not the gridiron kind – when you start to see the whispers of “It’s coming home” spreading through social media, expressing optimism for England’s chances of finally claiming the Euro Cup championship. (Even American pop star Katy Perry got into the action on Sunday.) And with it, of course: a surge in consumption for Baddiel, Skinner & Lightning Seeds’ “Three Lions,” which was written as the team’s anthem when England hosted the 1996 Euro Cup, and has been revived for its Cup pursuit essentially every three years since – including last Sunday (July 14), where it spiked 714% from the prior Sunday to 72,000 official on-demand streams in the U.S. alone. Unfortunately, England fell to Spain in the Sunday championship finals – the country has still yet to win the tournament in its 66-year history – but hey, there’s always 2027. – AU
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.
Explore
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See latest videos, charts and news
See latest videos, charts and news
This week: The biggest 4th of July bump comes for a late country legend, while Zach Bryan’s Independence Day-dropped new LP produces a new hit and Bossman Dlow continues his 2024-long winning streak.
Toby Keith, Forever Made in America
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Last Thursday, America celebrated its Independence Day — and as always on the 4th of July, listeners flocked to familiar patriotic, inspirational and/or generally U.S.-themed pop, rock and country classics to soundtrack their holiday. Big gainers from July 3 to July 4 included many of the usual suspects: among them, Bruce Springsteen’s “Born in the U.S.A.” (up 524% in official on-demand U.S. streams to 2.7 million and up 219% in sales to 1,100), Katy Perry’s “Firework” (up 249% to 1.8 million streams and 186% to 500 in sales) and Miley Cyrus’ “Party in the U.S.A.” (up 196% to 2.9 million streams and 113% to 800 in sales), according to Luminate. But the artist with the biggest of 4th of July gains might’ve been one folks were particularly sentimental about this year: Country Music Hall of Famer Toby Keith, who died at age 62 on Feb. 5.
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Of course, Keith has always seen some degree of a 4th of July boost — particularly for his most explicitly American-themed hits, which were all up again this year, including “American Soldier” (up 308% from July 3, to 685,000 streams), “Made in America” (up 380% to 914,000 streams) and of course, the controversial post-9/11 anthem “Courtesy of the Red, White and Blue (The Angry American)” (up 356% to a whopping 3.6 million). But this year, it wasn’t just those songs that saw huge streaming gains on July 4: so did non-nationalist signature Keith smashes like 1993’s “Should’ve Been a Cowboy” (up 70% to 864,000), 2003’s Willie Nelson-featuring “Beer for My Horses” (up 124% to 644,000) and 2011’s “Red Solo Cup” (up 119% to 351,000), among many others.
All in all, Keith’s catalog racked up 10.7 million streams and 3,600 digital song sales on July 4 — gains of 165% and 251%, respectively, from his July 3 totals — making for a hell of a nationwide tribute to a performer who made his love of his country as fundamental a part of his artistic identity as any other major act of the past three decades. – ANDREW UNTERBERGER
“28,” Days Later: Zach Bryan Has His ‘Bar Scene’ Breakout
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Over the past two years, Zach Bryan has become the type of stadium-occupying superstar who floods streaming charts whenever he puts out a new album; it happened in 2023 with his self-titled full-length, and it’s happening again with The Great American Bar Scene, which was released last Thursday (July 4). And while “Pink Skies,” the lead single from the album, debuted at No. 6 on the Hot 100 following its May release, the best-performing new track from the just-released 19-song project in the first few days of its release has been “28,” the album’s wistful, string-laden sway-along.
“28” bowed with 2.77 million official on-demand U.S. streams on Bar Scene’s release date, according to Luminate, and has stayed steady over the next four days — and actually seems to be growing, scoring a new daily streaming high of 2.90 million on Tuesday, in fact. While multiple songs from Bar Scene could register Hot 100 debuts next week, “28” — which is up to No. 9 on Spotify’s Daily Top Songs USA chart, and No. 3 on Apple Music’s Top Songs — should notch the best start out of the new songs on Bryan’s latest. – JASON LIPSHUTZ
Bossman Dlow Scores Yet Another Hit Thanks to Viral TikTok Trend
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After making a splash on the Billboard Hot 100 — “Get In With Me” (No. 49) and “Mr Pot Scraper” (No. 93) — and earning a bevy of viral hits along the way (“Big One,” “Talk My Shit” and the Glorilla-assisted “Finesse”), Port Salerno, FL rapper Bossman Dlow stands as one of the year’s biggest breakout stars. With “Shake Dat Ass (Twerk Song)” gaining major traction on socials and streaming, Dlow is eyeing yet another hit.
According to Luminate, “Shake” earned just over 317,000 official on-demand U.S. streams during the period of June 7-13. That figure then jumped by 60% to 508,000 official streams the following week (June 14-20). On June 16, TikTok user @mrflawdaaa shared a 14-second clip of himself exaggeratedly dancing to the song. The clip quickly went viral – it has since collected over three million views on the app – with many users latching onto the part of the choreography that features a glitchy sexy walk. During the period of June 21-27, the first full week with the @mrflawdaaa’s dance trend in the zeitgeist, “Shake” pulled 1.54 million official streams, marking a massive 203% increase from the period prior. The following week (June 28-July 4), the runaway hit leapt a further 117% to a whopping 3.35 million official streams. Over the past three weeks, official on-demand U.S. streams for “Shake Dat Ass” have exploded by over 956%.
Although he peaked at No. 20 on the Billboard 200 earlier this year with his third mixtape, Mr Beat the Road, “Shake Dat Ass” is featured on the rapper’s self-released debut project, Too Slippery, which dropped on Jan. 1, 2023. With everyone from Kehlani to Taye Diggs to Coi Leray hopping on the dance trend, “Shake” looks poised to continue its growth. – KYLE DENIS
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: Eddie Vedder, Trent Reznor and more Gen X stalwarts get a valuable boost from a hit dramedy’s new season, Dominic Fike scores a blink-and-you’ll-miss-it viral hit, GloRilla gets one of the most valuable cosigns imaginable and much more.
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‘The Bear’ Roars Back With Bumps for Eddie Vedder, Nine Inch Nails, Radiohead & More
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For those who have spent the last year fretting over whether or not Carmy ever got out of that damn freezer, good news: The Bear has finally returned for its third season. The much-anticipated new 10-episode drop from one of TV’s most acclaimed dramedies arrived last Wednesday night (June 26) – and according to its home streaming service Hulu, it’s scored the show’s best opening viewership yet, with 5.4 million views over its first four days of release. And as in the first two seasons, the show comes replete with a variety of memorable needle drops, which have led to big streaming gains this week – particularly for a number of esteemed ‘90s alt-rock veterans.
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Pearl Jam frontman Eddie Vedder is leading the way with the biggest Bear tune, albeit for a brand-new song. “Save It for Later,” his solo cover of the English Beat’s 1982 new wave staple, debuted along with the new season on Wednesday, and saw its official on-demand US streams nearly double from Thursday to Friday (39,000 to 73,000, according to Luminate) – as more people caught up with the season, in which it appears multiple times (though most prominently at the outset of episode two, “Next”). It totaled a combined 234,000 streams from Thursday to Sunday, while the Beat original (also featured in the Bear season) saw a notable bump as well, up 37% in streams over Friday to Sunday (116,000 total) from the same period the week before. (The English Beat version is also No. 1 on Billboard’s LyricFind U.S. chart after the release of Vedder’s cover – up 3,668% in lyric searches since the premiere.)
Nine Inch Nails also had several songs featured throughout the season, and the most notable – the instrumental “Together,” featured prominently in the season premiere “Tomorrow” – was up a staggering 1,477% in streams over that Friday to Sunday period, rising to 35,000 from just over 2,000 in the previous week’s equivalent period. Similar gains were seen over the same timeframe for featured songs by Radiohead (“(Nice Dream),” up 42% to 58,000) and Refused (recurring Bear staple “New Noise,” up 31% to 46,000). And it wasn’t just the ‘90s greats: Big Thief frontwoman Adrianne Lenker represented for the younger generation with a bump for her “No Machine,” which rose 73% to to 33,000. – ANDREW UNTERBERGER
Dominic Fike’s ‘Misses’ Hits on TikTok & Streaming
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“14 minutes of music that almost didn’t see the light of day”: that’s how Dominic Fike described 14 Minutes, a new EP that quickly followed last year’s Sunburn album, upon its May release. With a track list of eight self-produced songs that clock in between one and three minutes in length, 14 Minutes was unveiled as an odds-and-ends project for fans — but then one of its shortest tracks, the 74-second “Misses,” started to go viral, and is now logging seven-figure weekly streams.
While the jaunty soul-rock track has been used in TikTok posts by Kylie Jenner and The Kid LAROI in recent weeks, Fike has incorporated the song into his sets at festivals like Bonnaroo and Governors Ball. As a result, “Misses” spent all of June steadily growing on streaming services — earning 4.41 million official on-demand U.S. streams during the chart week ending June 27, according to Luminate, after earning 2.35 million streams during the week ending June 6, a nearly 88% spike in three weeks’ time. Fike earned his first Billboard Hot 100 entry as a lead artist last year with “Mona Lisa,” which peaked at No. 89; if “Misses” keeps growing, the track could become an unlikely follow-up hit. – JASON LIPSHUTZ
Thank God It’s Rihanna: New GloRilla Single Blows Up After Pop Legend’s Viral Video
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It’s already been a hell of a 2024 for Memphis rapper GloRilla, who’s scored a pair of top 40 Hot 100 hits with “Yeah Glo!” and the Megan Thee Stallion teamup “Wanna Be.” Glo’s new single “TGIF” hasn’t quite joined them in that region yet – the weekend-celebrating anthem debuted at No. 46 on the Hot 100 last week. But it’s probably going to get there very shortly, after getting an instantly unforgettable co-sign from someone as familiar with the top of the chart as any artist this century: Rihanna.
On June 28, Rih shared a video of herself rapping along and dropping it low to the song, all in the face of her significant other A$AP Rocky – who observed her performance with his hands on his hips like a disapproving schoolteacher, before commenting “I’m too old for this” at video’s end (as Rihanna cackled in response). The couple’s delightful clip, captioned “happy friday,” caused the song to immediately explode: “TGIF” racked up nearly 4.5 million official on-demand U.S. streams combined over the following Saturday and Sunday after notching just 2.4 million the previous weekend (according to Luminate), a 74% gain. Good to know that while we’re waiting for her impossibly long-anticipated R9 album, Rihanna is still bringing new smash hits to the people, one way or the other. – AU
Could the Celine Dion Documentary Help a Former ‘AGT’ Contestant Become a Star?
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Last month, I Am: Celine Dion, a documentary capturing the life and career of the titular pop superstar (as well as her ongoing battle with stiff-person syndrome) enjoyed a limited theatrical run, before debuting on Amazon Prime Video. Its June 25 streaming bow allowed millions of viewers to marvel at Dion’s personal and professional achievements — as well as get introduced to “Who I Am,” an uplifting piano ballad from singer-songwriter Wyn Starks, which is showcased as an inspiring anthem in the doc.
Starks, a Minneapolis native, originally released “Who I Am” in 2020 and performed the song while competing on America’s Got Talent in 2022, the song’s emotion moving judge Sofia Vergara to tears. Now signed to Curb Records, Starks has landed another high-profile platform for “Who I Am,” and it’s paying off: the song earned 101,000 official on-demand U.S. streams from June 28-30, according to Luminate, after earning just a fraction of that (14,000 streams) during the same three-day period the previous week. Starks released a new single, “Run,” earlier this year, but the success of the documentary may have the singer-songwriter and his team pivoting back to another round of promo for “Who I Am.” – JL
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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See latest videos, charts and news
See latest videos, charts and news
This week: It’s all things The Pop Out, as Kendrick Lamar and his many Friends see considerable gains following their All-Star Juneteenth concert.
Run It Back: Could “Not Like Us” Recapture No. 1 After Kendrick’s Epic Showcase?
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The main event at The Forum in Los Angeles last Wednesday (June 19) was, of course, the first live performance from Kendrick Lamar since his unofficial (though rather decisive) victory over Drake in the biggest hip-hop feud of the decade so far. Kendrick’s 18-track set, which featured guest appearances from his Black Hippy crewmates and his longtime industry mentor Dr. Dre and was streamed nationally over Amazon Prime, seemed to capture the entire country’s attention on Juneteenth — and unsurprisingly, has led to major catalog gains for Kendrick Lamar. The rap superstar posted nearly 61 million combined official on-demand U.S. streams over the following three-day period (June 20-22), a gain of 31% over the three-day period prior to Juneteenth (June 16-18).
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Of course, the most consequential bump was for Kendrick Lamar’s knockout blow in the Drake bout, the Mustard-produced, Billboard Hot 100-topping Song of the Summer contender “Not Like Us.” The song’s performance was the most anticipated part of the entire evening, and its landing as the show’s final song certainly did not disappoint — particularly because Lamar ran back its opening verse twice, performed the entire song three times, and even let the instrumental play as the closing credits rolled on the telecast. It apparently still wasn’t enough for his fans, as the song collected nearly 21 million combined streams over the three days following the concert, a 62% bump from the prior three-day period. (It should be mentioned that streams collected by a song over a normal Thursday-to-Saturday period usually are a little higher than those from Monday to Wednesday, just based on national streaming patterns.)
Could the bump be enough to send “Not Like Us,” currently the No. 6 song on the Hot 100, back to No. 1 for a second week? It will almost certainly climb back into the top five next week, and could even challenge to pass this week’s champ, Sabrina Carpenter’s “Please Please Please” — which is slipping a little in streams so far this week. But No. 1 could still be out of its reach, given the radio airplay disadvantage it has against Post Malone and Morgan Wallen’s “I Had Some Help,” which reigned for five weeks before being displaced by Carpenter and has remained steady in sales and streams. Still, Lamar has an extra weapon at his disposal: the much-anticipated official “Not Like Us” video, which he was seen filming over the weekend. If he unleashes that before the tracking week ends, the extra attention could be enough to put it over the top.
Black Hippy S–t: ScHoolboy Q, Jay Rock & Ab-Soul Also Up in Streams
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One of the most triumphant stretches of The Pop Out came when Kendrick Lamar was joined on stage by his former Top Dawg Entertainment labelmates ScHoolboy Q, Jay Rock and Ab-Soul for a Black Hippy crew reunion — their first appearance together since Lamar officially departed the label after 2022’s Mr. Morale & The Big Steppers. Jay Rock joined first to perform his Lamar collaborations “Money Trees” and “Kings Dead” and his own “Win,” then Ab-Soul appeared to help Lamar on “6:16 in LA,” and finally ScHoolboy Q completed the set for “Collard Greens” and the Black Hippy remix of “That Part.” The trio then continued dancing onstage through Lamar’s performance of his own solo classic, “King Kunta.”
All three of the special guests were able to parlay their surprise appearances into major streaming gains in the days following the concert. Ab-Soul collected 291,000 total official on-demand U.S. streams over the three-day post-Juneteenth period (June 20-22), up 44% from the three days before the show (June 16-18), according to Luminate. Jay Rock was up 45% over the same period, to just over one million streams. And ScHoolboy Q saw a 31% bump, with over 4.3 million streams amassed. While the other big guest during Lamar’s set, West Coast godfather Dr. Dre, didn’t get as big a catalog percentage bump, his 1999 classic “Still D.R.E.” — which introduced his surprise appearance — was also up 19% over the same period, to over 1.2 million streams.
A Little Help From His Friends: Mustard, YG & More Openers See Gains of Their Own
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The Pop Out was a star-studded event before Kendrick ever even took the stage. Preceding him in the Forum spotlight was fellow L.A. legend Mustard — producer behind “Not Like Us,” as well as an innumerous number of West Coast classics over the past 15 years — who began by reminding the crowd of some of the eternal bangers he was responsible for (including Tyga’s “Rack City,” 2 Chainz’s “I’m Different” and Big Sean’s “I Don’t F–k With You.”) He then brought out a succession of local special guests, some of whom (like Dom Kennedy and Tyler, the Creator) performed songs he took no part in, and some of whom (namely set closers Roddy Ricch and YG) exclusively played songs he helmed.
Many of those artists saw big bumps from their appearances at the televised event over the three days following the event (June 20-22) from the three days prior (June 16-18), and many of the songs performed were particular beneficiaries. Tyler racked up gains for the two songs he performed, “Wusyaname” (up 48% to 657,000) and “Earfquake” (up 28% to 1.5 million), as did Dom Kennedy for his pair of picks, “When I Come Around” (up 142% to 102,000) and “My Type of Party” (up 127% to 69,000), according to Luminate. And YG, who finished off the Mustard set with a selection of classics, saw his entire catalog lift 35%, to nearly four million streams over the three-day period.
Mustard also saw a huge spike for the song that made for the emotional centerpiece of his set: “Perfect Ten,” his collab with the late Nipsey Hussle, whose presence still hung over the entire West Coast celebration. The song was up 127% to 123,000 streams over the three-day period.
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: Big winners at the Tonys see streaming bumps — as does perhaps the show’s biggest performer — while a couple TikTok-bumped artists go two-for-two and a Spotify exec talks Songs of the Summer predictions.
Tony Awards Spur Streaming Gains for Outsiders, Stereophonic & Jay-Z
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Last Sunday (June 16), Oscar winner Ariana DeBose hosted the Tony Awards for a third consecutive year as the Great White Way celebrated the best of the 2023-2024 theater season. Stereophonic – which features musical compositions written by former Arcade Fire member Will Butler – reigned as the night’s biggest winner with five awards, including best play, while the LaChanze and Angelina Jolie-produced Outsiders won best musical.
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In the two days following Stereophonic’s victory (June 17-18), the cast recording pulled 92,000 official on-demand U.S. streams, posting a whopping 152% increase from just 36,000 streams the Monday-Tuesday prior (June 10-11). Similarly, The Outsiders’ cast recording earned over 546,000 streams during the period of June 17-18, ballooning 90% from around 288,000 streams during the period of June 10-11.
While Jay-Z has yet to add a Tony to his seemingly endless collection of awards and accolades, the hip-hop legend made a surprise appearance at Sunday night’s telecast to perform “Empire State of Mind” alongside Alicia Keys, whose Hell’s Kitchen musical tied Stereophonic as the night’s most-nominated production (13), ultimately taking home two trophies. “Empire State of Mind” collected over 310,000 streams the day following the Tonys performance (June 17), an 8% boost from the 286,000 streams it earned the Monday prior (June 10).
Although he’s not outside as often as he used to be, the Tony telecast isn’t the only place the Brooklyn icon has surprised with a performance. Last Wednesday (June 12), Jay popped up for a surprise rendition of “Public Service Announcement” to open up Tom Brady’s Patriots Hall of Fame induction ceremony. In the three days immediately following the performance (June 13-15), the 2003 classic pulled in over 225,000 streams, marking a 65% increase from the 137,000 streams it earned the three days prior (June 10-12). – KYLE DENIS
No “Lie,” Tommy Richman Is About to Score Another Chart Hit
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Following up an out-of-nowhere smash is always a tall order — especially one as singular and immediately catchy as “Million Dollar Baby,” the falsetto-heavy rhythmic pop single from Virginia singer-rapper Tommy Richman. “Baby” crashed the top 10 of the Billboard Hot 100 following its April release, thanks in part to snippets of the song going viral on social media; as it stands, the song is the longest-running continuous No. 1 hit on the Billboard TikTok Top 50 chart, where it spends a fifth week in the top spot. “Baby” spends a seventh straight frame in the top 10 of the Hot 100 this week, falling two spots to No. 5 — but before “Baby” even turns two months old, Richman has already released its follow-up, and likely secured himself another Hot 100 entry.
“Devil Is a Lie,” a similarly funk-infused single unveiled last Friday (June 14), has been earning seven-figure streams each day: Over its first four days of release, the track scored 5.37 million U.S. on-demand streams, according to Luminate, as its daily streaming total has consistently notched a little over 1 million plays and is still growing as of Tuesday (June 18). That total is still a far cry from the red-hot start of “Baby” — which earned a whopping 16.6 million streams in its first four days of release. However, “Lie” should accrue enough chart points to notch a respectable Hot 100 debut next week, and quickly remove Richman from any one-hit-wonder chatter as “Baby” continues its top 10 run. – JASON LIPSHUTZ
310babii Nets Second Dance Hit With “Rock Your Hips”
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Mere months after securing his very first Hot 100 hit with “Soak City (Do It)” (No. 53), Inglewood rapper and recent high school graduate 310babii is eyeing another smash. Once again bolstered by an infectious dance trend, 310babii’s latest hit – which was released in early May, and features OhGeesy and BlueBucksClan — has steadily increased in streams for the past three weeks.
According to Luminate, “Rock Your Hips” earned over 1.1 million official on-demand U.S. streams during the week of June 6-13, marking a 29% increase from the 860,000 streams it collected the week prior (May 31-June 6). Just three weeks ago (May 17-23), “Rock Your Hips” was pulling just over 610,000 streams.
TikTok has been the biggest source of traction for the song, with the track’s official sound pulling over 54,600 posts – most of which are pegged to a CapCut template that lets users use AI to replicate the dance trend created by user @adoree_stook. On YouTube, the official lyric video has garnered over 300,000 views in less than a month. Between its steady rise and new boost of momentum thanks to Kendrick Lamar’s West Coast-glorifying Pop Out concert – which 310babii performed at — “Rock Your Hips” could end up following Crime Mob’s 2007 hit “Rock Yo Hips” onto the Hot 100 a couple decades later. – KD
Summer “Nights”: Kid LAROI Deep Cut Is Heating Up on Streaming
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While The Kid LAROI’s 2023 official debut album The First Time failed to match the chart impact of his breakout 2020 mixtape F*ck Love – peaking at No. 26 on the Billboard 200 and not spawning any singles the size of that set’s “Without You” or “Stay” – the album might not be done on the charts just yet. Deep cut “Nights Like This,” which at 1:27 feels closer to an interlude than a lead single, has been taking off on TikTok recently for its immersive cloud-rap production and hazy vocals, with many users deeming the song an unexpected sound for the singer-rapper.
In any event, listeners have clearly been falling under the spell of “Nights,” as the song has been rising rapidly on streaming the past month. For the tracking week ending May 23, the song pulled just under 425,000 official on-demand U.S. streams, according to Luminate, but by the week ending June 13, it was up to over 3 million – a three-week gain of 617%. LAROI himself has gotten in on the TikTok fun, captioning a post of him looking stunned at the camera with the tongue-in-cheek caption “I can’t believe Kid Laroi made this song” – though he commented more sincerely underneath the clip, “grateful this song is being discovered genuinely one of my favs #thanks love you all.” – ANDREW UNTERBERGER
Q&A: Talia Kraines, Senior Editor, US Pop at Spotify, on What’s Trending Up in Her World
Spotify recently unveiled its Songs of Summer predictions for 2024. How did that list of songs come together?
Our Songs of Summer predictions were built by our global music editors from many different genres all over the Northern Hemisphere. Our editors identify the songs we feel will excel in the warm, sunny weather, and we also analyze data that shows us our listeners are already loving these songs, and they have potential to grow even more. We also noticed that sounds beyond the Northern Hemisphere, including Afropop and amapiano, continue to make their way up and expand on a larger global scale for our summer, and we’re so excited to see the continued global growth of Tems and Tyla. Few things are more electrifying to a Spotify editor than loving a song and seeing the audience also love that song – that’s why you’ll find both big, obvious songs on the list, as well as some smaller artists that our editors are taking an early bet on.
A small group of editors then finalized the list down to the top 30 – we’ll be tracking throughout the summer and can’t wait to find out what song will win the crown!
What do you think is the most unexpected entry in this year’s shortlist?
I’m personally thrilled to include CYRIL’s “Stumblin’ In” in the list this year. It’s always fascinating when we see songs cross borders at different times and have an extensive lifespan; it’s such a great, holistic example of how editorial at Spotify works. CYRIL is Australian and made a new dance version of Suzi Quatro’s 1978 US & UK hit of the same name, which he released in November 2023. Our dance editors across the world loved the song and included it on local dance lists at the time, but I never would have guessed this song (or the music of Suzi Quatro!) would make this year’s Songs of Summer shortlist.
At the start of 2024, “Stumblin’ In” began to expand beyond Australia and experience global success, especially in Germany, France and the Netherlands. Our European dance editors brought the song back to the attention of the US & global dance team at the end of February, and we began to move the song on our global lists out of just dance, and into pop / hits spaces. Even though it really wasn’t on the radar of US listeners at all, we began testing it in US lists in March, and after seeing success on our platform, it’s grown into a huge hit, been signed to a US label and is now in Spotify’s Today’s Top Hits. It’s a great example of a song that’s had a whole life in Europe, and only now when the summer weather begins to orient US listening more towards dance music, it’s having its US adventure and is a hit all over the world. Definitely an unexpected song of Summer 2024!
Post Malone & Morgan Wallen’s “I Had Some Help” is the front-runner on Billboard’s own Song of the Summer chart, spending five weeks atop the Hot 100 to date. Why do you think that song has resonated so well at the beginning of summer?
When two huge superstars like Post Malone and Morgan Wallen come together, it’s almost guaranteed that you’re going to have a massive hit. We always see country music surging on Spotify in the summer, so Posty chose the perfect time for his pivot to country, and did it with a song that sounds warm, breezy and is the perfect soundtrack to rowdy summer nights around a bonfire or out on the town. Post Malone recently performed the song at Spotify House during CMA Fest, and let me tell you, the rest of the weekend was spent with everyone shouting the fun, backing vocal “help!” every two minutes. Utterly catchy and sounds good in almost any summertime situation, no wonder it’s a huge hit.
An extra element to this story is how it’s really cemented the global growth of country music outside of the U.S. While Australia, Canada and the UK have dipped their toes into country over the last few years, Post Malone, as well as fellow Songs of Summer nominees Shaboozey and Dasha, have seen unprecedented success in our Hot Hits flagships all over the world, including Norway, Italy and Brazil to name a few. Even the UK, often touted as an emerging country export market, has never really had country break through in a way it has this year.
Fill in the blank: the song featured on Spotify’s predictions list, that you think is going to be much bigger by the end of the summer than it is now, is _______.
“Nasty” by Tinashe – is the summer gonna match her freak? – JL
Season’s Gainings: Watch (and Listen to) the Thrones
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At long last, House of the Dragon has returned to HBO. For those of us who got hooked on the Game of Thrones-verse back in the early 2010s, a new season of the show’s prequel series (whose first season came and went a long two years ago) is cause for celebration – and perhaps some commemorative streaming. Composer Ramin Djawadi’s theme to the original Thrones series – which has also been used by Dragon for each of its first two seasons – racked up nearly 51,000 official on-demand U.S. streams combined over this Monday and Tuesday following Sunday’s season premiere, a gain of over 50% from the same period the week before, according to Luminate. Now, let the debates over the show’s revamped credits sequence begin. – AU
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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See latest videos, charts and news
See latest videos, charts and news
This week: Sabrina Carpenter’s latest single looks to take her breakout year to an even-higher level, while Franz Ferdinand get their biggest hit Top Gun‘d and a joke song becomes a real viral hit.
Sabrina Carpenter Readies Second Summer Smash With “Please Please Please”
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Sabrina Carpenter season is in full effect. As “Espresso” continues to dominate, “Please Please Please,” the second single from Carpenter’s forthcoming Short n’ Sweet LP, has emerged as yet another smash for the pint-sized pop star.
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According to Luminate, “Please” collected over 5.7 million official on-demand U.S. streams during each of its first four days of release, climbing to a new peak 7.77 million streams on June 10. In its first four days of release, the breezy country-inflected tune earned a whopping 25.6 million streams and sold just over 4,000 digital downloads.
“Please” is obviously riding the continued success of “Espresso” — which is currently enjoying a seventh non-consecutive week in the Billboard Hot 100’s top ten – but the Jack Antonoff-produced track isn’t solely relying on those coffee-stained coattails. In addition, Carpenter’s stock is rising thanks to her key opening slots on Taylor Swift’s Eras Tour and her frequently viral “Nonsense” outros, “Please Please Please” benefits from a cinematic new music video starring her boyfriend, Oscar-nominated actor Barry Keoghan. The visual serves as a sequel to that of “Espresso,” with Bardia Zeinali directing the Bonnie and Clyde-esque clip, which has earned over 19 million views in under a week.
Like “Espresso,” “Please” has also earned a viral moment thanks to its pitch-perfect songwriting, with the “Heartbreak is one thing, my ego’s another/ I beg you, don’t embarrass me, motherf–ker” lyric garnering ample traction across socials. Users have been using the lyric as a caption for pictures of film characters such as Zendaya’s Tashi Ducan (from 2024’s Challengers) and Rosamund Pike’s Amy Elliott Dunne (from 2014’s Gone Girl). On TikTok, the official “Please Please Please” sound boasts over 32,6000 posts, while an unofficial sound soundtracks a further 32,200 clips. The song also got an additional boost from its live debut on Saturday, during Carpenter’s buzzy set at New York’s Gov Ball festival.
During the weekend of June 7-10, Carpenter’s catalog (aside from “Please”) also pulled in an additional 38.5 million official on-demand U.S. streams, posting a 35% jump in streaming activity from the same period the week prior (May 31-June 3, 28.6 million streams). With her new LP due at the end of the summer (Aug. 23), the pop supremacy of Sabrina Carpenter seems to be just getting started. – KYLE DENIS
Be All That You Can Be…. With Franz Ferdinand?
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Franz Ferdinand’s 2004 alt-rock classic “Take Me Out” has long proven to have any number of practical uses — for car-ride singalongs, workout playlists, indie dance nights and countless other real-life applications. One context that the Scottish quintet likely never saw their signature hit landing in, though, is as the soundtrack to pro-U.S. military edit on TikTok, via the account phoenix.mw. The CapCut-produced clip delivers a rapid-fire montage of U.S. military operations, set to a sped-up version of the Franz song’s action-packed intro, and has been viewed over eight million times on the app, with 1.4 million likes. It’s also inspired a trend, set to the same sped-up Franz sound, of users claiming they’d never join the military, before encountering the original military edit and having their minds changed (or at least confused).
Deeper jingoistic implications aside, the edit and ensuing trend have had the positive impact of inspiring listeners to uncover (or rediscover) the still-brilliant 20-year-old indie staple. Through the first four days of this tracking week, Jun. 7-10 — as the trend really started to take off on TikTok — the song racked up nearly 1.6 official on-demand U.S. streams, a 35% gain from the equivalent period the week before, according to Luminate. The song’s daily streams are still rising, and may not be stopping anytime soon — at least if you go by the number of new comments on the song’s official YouTube page along the lines of “I liked the song so much that I just signed up for the military” or “I’m enlisting f–k it.” – ANDREW UNTERBERGER
Girl on Couch Rides Offhand TikTok Quip Into Streaming Hit
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On April 30, TikTok user @girl_on_couch (Megan Boni) stumbled into a massive meme when she improvised a novelty song with the lyrics, “I’m looking for a man in finance/ Trust fund, 6’5”/ Blue eyes.” That video has since garnered over 44.7 million views and earned a remix from David Guetta, who released his version of the song on June 7.
Before that remix, however, Girl on Couch teamed up with EDM duo Billen Ted for “Man In Finance (G6 Trust Fund),” which earned just over 210,000 official on-demand U.S. streams in its first week of release (May 17-23), according to Luminate. Two weeks later (May 31-June 6), those numbers more than doubled to 490,000 streams, setting the stage for an even bigger boost with the arrival of the David Guetta remix. In its first weekend of release (June 7-10), Guetta’s remix of “Man In Finance” helped the song top 705,000 streams, a 168% increase from the weekend prior (May 31-June 3; 263,000 streams).
While the Billen Ted’s official “Man In Finance” sound plays in just under 5,000 posts on TikTok, a live performance video from Guetta’s Brooklyn Mirage set has earned over 103,000 views on YouTube in just five days. The meme might be running out of gas, but now users have an actual song to listen to, as per the caption of Boni’s original TikTok. “Can someone make this into an actual song plz just for funzies,” she quipped.
With a new label deal – a licensing agreement for this specific vocal – on her hands, Boni may not have much use for a “Man In Finance” after all. — K.D.
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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See latest videos, charts and news
See latest videos, charts and news
This week: Eminem’s new single debuts to massive numbers and a big catalog (and sample) bump, a deep cut on Billie Eilish’s latest flies past its lead single, Apple Music brings Miseducation to the masses and more.
Eminem Makes Streaming Magic for “Houdini,” “Abracadabra” & More
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A full 25 years into his superstar career, Eminem still knows how to make an entrance. The rapper has been teasing his upcoming The Death of Slim Shady album since late April, and on Friday (May 31), fans got their first taste of it with comeback single “Houdini.” Em showed with the single that he certainly has not lost his taste for provocation at age 52 – the song proved immediately controversial for its jokes about Tory Lanez’ shooting of Megan Thee Stallion, as well as other borderline-offensive lyrics – nor his more recent affinity for reviving classic rock staples, as the song heavily lifts from Steve Miller Band’s 1982 Hot 100-topper “Abracadabra.”
Trending on Billboard
The song’s impact has been similarly instantaneous, both in terms of its own consumption and in its lifting of associated cuts. “Houdini” has already racked up over 30 million official on-demand U.S. streams through Wednesday (June 3), according to early reports from Luminate, while also selling over 36,000 copies – both tremendous four-day numbers for any artist in 2024, let alone one twice the age of many contemporary superstars. The song has also elevated the rest of Eminem’s discography, with his non-”Houdini” catalog notching nearly 46 million streams combined over those four days, a 38% rise from the equivalent period the prior week. (A big part of that gain comes from 2002’s “Without Me,” whose iconic “Guess who’s back, back again” intro “Houdini” resurrects, and which is up 56% to over 3.1 million streams for those four days.)
Of course, Steve Miller is eating off the “Houdini” success as well: The Rock and Roll Hall of Famer’s eponymous band’s biggest Hot 100 hit more than doubled its streams over the same period, up 101% to 613,000. And yes, even that other recent hit of the same title is getting some spillover from the deluge: Dua Lipa’s “Houdini” was up 8% in streams over that period, to just over 2 million. – ANDREW UNTERBERGER
Billie Eilish’s “Birds of a Feather” Spreads Wings on Streaming
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Billie Eilish’s Hit Me Hard and Soft has been heating up the Billboard 200 with career-best numbers, but lead single “Lunch” – already a top five hit on the Billboard Hot 100 – isn’t the only song listeners are throwing their weight behind.
According to Luminate, “Birds” earned 25 million streams during its parent album’s first week of release (May 17-23), good enough for a No. 13 debut on the Hot 100. The following week (May 24-30), those numbers dipped just 2.7% to 24.3 million streams, helping the song rise one spot to its current Hot 100 peak of No. 12.
Of course, Eilish’s entire new LP has been pulling monster streams, but social media users’ affinity for the song’s lovey-dovey lyrics have helped “Birds” pull ahead of the pack. On TikTok, the official “Birds of a Feather” sound plays in over 170,000 clips, with the most popular videos using the song to showcase their romances and friendships. The live performance video of “Birds” — filmed at Inglewood’s Kia Forum alongside brother and collaborator FINNEAS – is the most-viewed Hit Me Hard and Soft live clip with 2.4 million views; its accompanying TikTok clip boasts a further 3.1 million views.
Last weekend (May 31-June 3), “Birds” collected 15 million streams, a 14% jump from the 13.1 million streams it earned over the same period the weekend prior (May 24-27) – signaling that the love for the song has clearly extended beyond the novelty of a new Billie album.
With the No. 1 spot on Spotify’s Today’s Top Hits playlist in its pocket and clear grassroots love, Billie could be eyeing her next chart smash with “Birds.” – KYLE DENIS
Listeners Get Educated on Lauryn Hill’s ‘Miseducation’
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Apple Music had much of the music-listening world on the edge of their Twitter accounts two weeks ago, as the streaming service slowly rolled out its list of the top 100 albums of all time. The wide-ranging list, which accounted for everything from Miles Davis’ epochal 1959 jazz LP Kind of Blue to SZA’s R&B blockbuster SOS from just 18 months ago, inspired a great deal of conversation and debate over its rankings, including for what it ultimately unveiled as its No. 1: Ms. Lauryn Hill’s iconic 1998 solo masterpiece The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill.
The 16-track set, which includes such classic singles as “Doo Wop (That Thing),” “Ex Factor” and “Everything Is Everything,” rose from 6.3 million official on-demand streams for the tracking week ending May 16 (before the announcement) to over 8.1 million the week ending May 23, according to Luminate, with the announcement made on May 22. The bump from that lasted through week ending May 30, as the album rose again to 8.7 million streams – a two-week gain of nearly 38%. (The set also nearly doubled in sales over that period, from just over 900 for the week ending May 16 to nearly 1,800 for the week ending May 30.)
“I’m grateful that it connected and continues to connect with so many people,” Hill related to Apple Music after its ranking was revealed. “Thank you tons to every careful listener, thank you to every casual listener, and love to all the artists and those who support them fighting the good, courageous, and noble fight of presenting the art you love to a world that desperately needs it.” – AU
Lomiiel’s “Hay Lupita” Turns Dance Trend Into Streaming Smash
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If TikTok is consistent about anything, those users are going to dance. Dominican rapper-singer Lomiiel is the latest artist to land a streaming hit by way of a dance trend on the wildly popular app.
The Brazilian funk-inflected dembow song has earned over 2.4 million official on-demand U.S. streams during the tracking week of May 24-30, according to Luminate. That’s a 180% increase from six weeks ago (April 11-18), during which the track pulled just 863,000 streams. “Hay Lupita” has steadily increased in streams over that timespan thanks, in large part, to its viral dance trend.
The low-effort, hip-rocking dance appears in countless clips on the app, with Lomiiel’s self-uploaded audio boasting over 760,000 posts. Like any true viral song, uses of “Hay Lupita” have surpassed dance videos, with users placing the track over “fit check” videos and fancams of San Diego Padres right fielder Fernando Tatís Jr. alike.
Lomiiel first posted a snippet of the track on Feb. 26, with the full track hitting DSPs on March 28. The official music video – which has garnered 18.3 million views – arrived on April 15, just four days before “Hay Lupita” earned its biggest single-week streaming increase to date. During the period of April 19-25, the song earned 1.3 million streams, up over 50% from the period of April 11-18.
With plenty of room to grow, it looks like Lomiiel’s new hit is just getting started. – KD
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.
Explore
See latest videos, charts and news
See latest videos, charts and news
This week: Winners and other participants post gains from both the ACMs and Eurovision, while a pair of new viral sensations make waves and an expecting pop superstar sees an appropriate song bump.
2024 ACM Awards Spur Streaming Gains for Chris Stapleton, Lainey Wilson & Kelsea Ballerini
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Last week’s Reba McEntire-hosted ACM Awards (May 16) treated viewers to show-stopping performances and moving acceptance speeches, both of which resulted in impressive streaming gains for some of country music’s biggest stars.
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Chris Stapleton – who took home three trophies, including male artist, artist-songwriter and album of the year – had the night’s buzziest performance thanks to a surprise appearance from Dua Lipa. The pop star joined the soulful country crooner on a duet version of “Think I’m in Love With You,” the second single from his 2023 album Higher. During the Friday and Saturday preceding the ACMs (May 10-11), Stapleton’s track pulled 1.6 million official on-demand U.S. streams, according to Luminate. That number grew by 15% to 1.86 million streams the following Friday-Saturday (May 18-19). Notably, U.S. digital sales for “Think I’m In Love With You” ballooned 908% from 114 copies sold (May 11-12) to 1,149 copies sold (May 18-19). This bodes well for the pair’s upcoming collaboration, slated for release later this year.
Stapleton and Lainey Wilson tied as the night’s most-awarded artists, with the recent Billboard cover star reigning victorious in the categories of entertainer, female artist and music event of the year. Wilson opened the show with a medley of Little Texas’ “God Blessed Texas” and her own “Hang Tight Honey,” the lead single for her forthcoming Whirlwind LP.
Released mid-tracking week on May 13, “Hang Tight Honey” earned just over 223,000 official on-demand U.S. streams during the weekend preceding the ACMs (May 15-16). By the following weekend (May 18-19), that figure exploded by 333% to 968,000 streams, likely boosted by both her performance and key New Music Friday playlist placements. Like Stapleton’s track, “Honey” also posted sizable sales gains, more than doubling from 402 copies sold (May 15-16) to 851 copies sold (May 18-19).
Wilson’s win for female artist of the year came at the expense of Kelsea Ballerini, who was recognized in that category at the 2024 ceremony. Nonetheless, Ballerini scored a streaming win of her own thanks to her Noah Kahan-assisted mash-up of her own “Mountain With a View” and his smash hit “Stick Season.”
“Mountain With a View,” the opening track to Ballerini’s Grammy-nominated Rolling Up the Welcome Mat EP, earned 95,000 official on-demand U.S. streams during the weekend preceding the ACMs (May 11-12). Following her beautiful Kahan link-up, that figure rose by 21% to 115,000 streams the weekend following the awards show (May 18-19). – KYLE DENIS
Disqualified Eurovision Single Scores Bigger U.S. Streams Than Song Contest Winner
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Although Eurovision, the long-running international song contest held each spring, has historically had a muted impact on the U.S. charts, recent contests did produce some crossover stars (such as 2021 winners Måneskin) and singles (like Duncan Laurence’s “Arcade,” which became a top 40 hit on the Hot 100 after earning the 2019 Eurovision crown). Following the 2024 edition last week, multiple Eurovision singles are earning sizable weekly streams in the U.S. — although the winning Eurovision single is actually being out-gained by a song that wasn’t allowed to place in the contest.
“The Code,” an operatic drum-n-bass track by Swiss performer Nemo about their self-acceptance as a non-binary artist, emerged victorious in the Eurovision final, and its streams have skyrocketed in the days following the competition. Released in February, “The Code” earned 86,000 U.S. on-demand streams during the week ending May 9, the day the song was featured in the second semi-final, according to Luminate; the following week (May 10-16), that number jumped to 868,000, essentially multiplying its weekly U.S. streams tenfold after winning the competition on May 11.
In a bizarre twist, however, “Europapa,” the Netherlands’ Eurovision nominee by the Dutch artist and former YouTuber Joost, is practically doubling the U.S. weekly streams of “The Code,” earning 1.75 million streams during the week ending May 16. The rave track was disqualified from the Eurovision final “following threatening behaviour directed at a female member of the production crew” by Joost backstage at the contest, according to an official statement. And while “Europapa” may be earning more streams from American listeners, “The Code” is resonating with global listeners, debuting at No. 18 on the UK’s Official Singles Chart this week, while “Europapa” bows at No. 37. – JASON LIPSHUTZ
Dallas Rapper Ian Flips Months-Long Marketing Campaign into Breakout Streaming Success
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As the dust around the Kendrick Lamar-Drake beef settled, the hip-hop world’s attention turned to an enigmatic young rapper that simultaneously exists opposite to and in conversation with that generational battle.
After making his recording debut with 2022’s “G63,” the Dallas-bred producer-rapper spent the following two years nurturing fans in various pockets of the underground rap scene with a series of standalone singles. That grind culminated in a breakout 2024 for the artist, with “Grand Slam” — alongside a new Instagram account – launching him further into the mainstream.
Earlier this month (May 13), Ian released the music video for “Figure It Out” via Lyrical Lemonade. The clip featured an appearance from former NFL star Marshawn Lynch, who the rapper namechecks in the song. During the preceding weekend (May 10-12), Ian’s catalog garnered just over 1.1 million official on-demand U.S. streams. In the days following the music video release (May 13-15) that number soared by 63% to 1.83 million streams – but an even bigger boost was on the horizon.
Last Friday (May 17), Ian unleashed his debut mixtape, Valedictorian, featuring a voiceover intro from DJ Holiday and production contributions from Sxprano and Tana. Upon release, Ian effectively became one of the most talked about recording artists in the world, with discourse surrounding his project dominating social media. During Valedictorian’s release weekend (May 16-18), streaming activity for Ian’s catalog soared to 11.4 million official on-demand U.S. streams, posting a jaw-dropping 525% increase.
With hip-hop heavyweights like Cole Bennett and DJ Holiday already in his corner, it looks like the Ian takeover is just getting started. – KD
Rising Artist Lithe Springs Forward With “Fall Back”
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The Australian singer and producer Lithe turned major label heads quickly with “Fall Back,” a slippery, subdued R&B track released on March 21st. His follower count on TikTok — where several “Fall Back” videos have earned millions of views — started to rocket upwards in the first week of April, according to Chartmetric. And his streaming numbers soon followed suit: Plays in the U.S. more than doubled from around 834,000 during the week ending April 25th to 1.76 million the week ending May 2nd. The count has continued to increase, topping the 3 million threshold for the week ending May 16th. “Been vibing with him since early 2023,” one excited fan commented on TikTok of the still-unsigned artist. “Now he’s finally getting the recognition he deserves!” – ELIAS LEIGHT
Season’s Gainings: Happy Mother’s Day, Hailey Bieber
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The pop world was overjoyed a couple Fridays ago (May 9) to hear the news that pop star Justin Bieber and his wife, model and beauty influencer Hailey Bieber, would be expecting their first child. The expecting couple enjoyed their first Mother’s Day just a couple few later (May 12) – and the combination of the holiday and the announcement evidently spurred Beliebers to get a little sentimental with one of Bieber’s (loosely) parentally titled pop classics. “Baby,” the song that confirmed The Bieb as one of the great pop sensations of the early ‘10s, racked up 2.6 million official on-demand U.S. streams for the tracking week ending May 16 – a 13% gain over the previous week, according to Luminate. – ANDREW UNTERBERGER
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.
Explore
See latest videos, charts and news
See latest videos, charts and news
This week: Post Malone and Morgan Wallen see their whole catalogs lifted by their massive new collab, Tinashe gets involved with a hilarious TikTok trend around her new hit and an ’80s Johnny Cash single gets an unlikely second life soundtracking a viral pet trend.
‘Help’ Is on the Way: Post Malone & Morgan Wallen Earn Massive Streams Ahead of Hot 100 Debut
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Considering how Morgan Wallen dominated the charts in 2023, and how Post Malone has been an in-demand collaborator for music’s biggest superstars in recent months, it should come as no surprise that their new team-up “I Had Some Help” is off to a fast start at streaming. Yet the country duet is exceeding even the loftiest expectations out of the gate — not only challenging for a No. 1 debut on next week’s Hot 100, but also for one of the biggest streaming weeks of 2024, while also lifting up Posty and Wallen’s respective back catalogs.
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In its first four days of release (May 10-13), “Help” scored 44.8 million U.S. official audio streams, while also earning 59,000 in digital sales, according to Luminate. We’ll see where the single’s first-week streaming total finishes in a few days, but the number likely won’t be too far off from Taylor Swift and Post Malone’s “Fortnight,” which currently holds the 2024 one-week streaming belt with 76.2 million streams. Meanwhile, “Help” has boosted Post Malone’s streaming catalog outside of the new single by 10% — 34.4 million streams from May 10-13, up from 31.3 million from the previous Friday-to-Monday tracking period — and Wallen’s by a little under 7% (102.6 million streams, up from 96 million streams), as fans click from “Help” to both artists’ past hits on streaming platforms.
And don’t look now, but Wallen may have another hit spinning off from his 2023 blockbuster album, One Thing at a Time: “Cowgirls,” featuring ERNEST, has been steadily climbing in streams over the past six weeks, from 5.6 million streams during the chart week ending Apr. 4 to 9.6 million streams during the week ending May 10, while entering the top 20 on Country Airplay. “Cowgirls” also climbs to a new peak of No. 6 on Hot Country Songs this week, which means that Wallen could have a pair of collaborations, one old and one new, in the top 5 of next week’s tally. – JASON LIPSHUTZ
Tinashe Courts Summer Streaming Hit with Meme-Assisted “Nasty”
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Eight years after her last Billboard Hot 100 entry, Tinashe could be gearing up for another big pop moment, should her sultry new “Nasty” single continue its streaming ascent.
According to Luminate, “Nasty” — a taste of her forthcoming BB/ANG3L Pt. 2 — Quantum Baby LP, collected over 705,000 U.S. on-demand audio streams during the period of May 10-13. That marks an impressive 48% increase from just over 475,000 streams the previous weekend (May 3-6).
Tinashe’s core fans greeted “Nasty” with fervent enthusiasm when it arrived on April 12, but a recent meme – that comes with its own built-in choreography – has helped the grow the song’s profile across a wider range of listeners. On April 27, X user @grruessome posted a re-posted a 2023 TikTok from user @nate_di_winer, replacing his clip’s original music (Hey Choppi’s “Blind”) with Tinashe’s “Nasty.” That post garnered over 10 million views on X, setting the stage for a true viral moment. While other songs, including Kendrick Lamar’s Hot 100-topping “Not Like Us,” have been laid over the clip, social media users can’t get enough of the Tinashe version.
On TikTok, Tinashe tried her hand at the dancehall-inspired choreography with her own three consecutive TikToks, featuring her donning Nate’s signature white t-shirt and black-rimmed glasses combo. “Me trying to convince everyone this is the song of the summer,” she captioned one post, with subsequent videos teasing a potential “Nasty” remix. The official “Nasty” sound boasts nearly 15,000 clips on TikTok, with most users recreating the dance moves executed by Nate and his dance partner, TikTok user @_sheekz.
Having already climbed to No. 30 on Spotify’s Viral 50 USA ranking, things are certainly looking up for “Nasty.” – KYLE DENIS
Adorable Pet Trend Revives 40-Year-Old Johnny Cash Song
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The timelessness of Johnny Cash’s music is practically a universal truth, but now we have proof that even his less-beloved works can still find ways to resonate anew. Thanks to an adorable TikTok trend, Cash’s “The Chicken in Black” — which the country icon once called “intentionally atrocious” — is experiencing a massive streaming boost.
During the period of May 3-10, “Chicken” earned over 1.4 million official on-demand U.S. streams, posting an astronomical 5,656% increase from the 24,000 streams it pulled just a month earlier (April 5-11). The exponential week-over-week growth of “Chicken” is due to a TikTok trend in which users hold up their pet (or baby) and pretend to use them as a gun while acting out the lyrics to the song’s chorus. Cash sings, “I said, ‘Stick ’em up everybody, I’m robbing this place’/ Drop all of your money in my guitar case/ Don’t nobody move and don’t nobody reach for that door.”
Cash released the amusing song as a single back in 1984 and it reached No. 45 on Hot Country Songs. The song’s streaming boost has also translated into an uptick in digital downloads, with 751 copies sold during May 3-10, a whopping 18,675% increase from just 4 copies sold during April 5-11. On TikTok, the official “Chicken in Black” sound boasts nearly 217,000 clips, with racoons, dogs, goats, cows, birds and babies all joining in on the fun.
With Songwriter, his 72nd studio album and fifth posthumous studio LP, due next month (June 28), Cash is still collecting hits and blessing the world’s ears over 20 years after his tragic passing. – KD
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: Drake and Kendrick Lamar see the catalog side effects of their recent beefing, a couple new hit movies impact streaming with their very different soundtracks, the calendar turns to *NSYNC season and more.
Kendrick Lamar’s Diss-Track Parade is Lifting His Entire Catalog – Drake’s, Not So Much
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“At least your fans are getting some raps out of you / I’m happy I could motivate you,” Drake declares near the end of “The Heart Part 6,” the most recent volley in his genre-consuming feud with Kendrick Lamar. Indeed, one of the by-products of this ongoing back-and-forth has been a new spate of material from a superstar who’s notoriously been stingy with his releases in between album cycles, as Lamar has already more than doubled his 2023 output with 2024 diss tracks alone. And while those shots at Drake have been doing boffo business on streaming services, Lamar’s entire catalog — even outside of his recent diss tracks — is up as well, as rap fans return to K. Dot’s discography for general appreciation (or to parse through subtle attacks against Aubrey Graham).
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“Euphoria,” the first of Lamar’s recent diss tracks, debuted at No. 11 on this week’s Hot 100 chart and could move up next week, as the song earned a whopping 27.6 million official U.S. on-demand streams from May 3-6, according to Luminate. “Not Like Us,” the most club-friendly diss track which dropped late on May 4, could debut even higher, with 21.1 million streams in its first three days of release, while the vicious “Meet the Grahams” earned 8.8 million streams from May 3-6. (“6:16 in LA,” another Lamar diss track, has yet to arrive on streaming services.)
Plus, listeners have been interested in perusing the classic songs that have served as samples in Lamar’s diss tracks. Teddy Pendergrass’ “You’re My Latest, My Greatest Inspiration” was up 76% in streams from Apr. 26-29 (76,000) to May 3-6 (134,000) after being sampled at the beginning of “Euphoria,” while Al Green’s “What a Wonderful Thing Love Is” shot up 283% over the same time period once it was used on “6:16 in LA.” And “BBL Drizzy,” the King Willonius song that Metro Boomin sampled for his anti-Drake beat challenge, is naturally way up in streams, from a negligible amount at the end of April to 185,000 from May 5-6.
Even if you remove all of the diss tracks from Lamar’s overall catalog, however, the rapper’s streams have still significantly increased since the simmering feud reached its recent boiling point. From May 3-6, Lamar’s discography earned 50.62 million streams — up 49% from the previous Friday-to-Monday tracking period (33.98 million from Apr. 26-29). Meanwhile, Drake’s overall catalog is actually down when you similarly compare his streams from that weekend (105.86 million from Apr. 26-29) to last weekend (100.69 million from May 3-6) and remove his two streaming-available response tracks, “Push Ups” and “Family Matters.” Of course, even with that 4.9% dip in catalog plays, Drake’s streaming numbers remain roughly twice as many as Lamar’s, which can be a minor source of comfort as his adversary’s diss tracks make the bigger splash on the charts. – JASON LIPSHUTZ
New Anne Hathaway Rom-Com Has the Right ‘Idea’ With Maggie Rogers, St. Vincent & More on Soundtrack
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The much-anticipated film adaptation of Robinne Lee’s hit novel The Idea of You made its Amazon Prime debut over the weekend – starring Anne Hathaway as a divorcee who takes her daughter to Coachella and ends up in an unlikely romance with the younger Hayes Campbell (Nicholas Galitzine), singer from the One Direction-ish fictional boy band August Moon. Unsurprisingly for a movie where music plays such a big part, the well-received film has a number of prominent synchs – more from the alternative end of the dial than the top 40 one – which have led to big streaming gains for those songs.
Singer-songwriter Maggie Rogers (who did play Coachella in 2019 and 2022) gets the movie’s opening credits song – also repeated in a flash-forward towards the end of the film – with her Heard It in a Past Life single “Light On.” The rousing song collected 354,000 official on-demand U.S. streams for the first four days of the film’s release (May 3-6), up 71% from the equivalent period the prior week, according to Luminate. Veteran art-rock star St. Vincent (a Coachella four-timer, most recently in 2018) also has three different songs appear in the movie, the most prominent being her Daddy’s Home highlight “Pay Your Way in Pain,” which plays on the radio (and is sung along to by Hathaway and her daughter, played by Ella Rubin) during a car ride. “Pain” racked up 32,000 streams from May 3-6, a 124% gain over the same period the week before.
And of course, you can’t have a movie about a fictional band without some fictional songs – and August Moon has a half-dozen of ‘em, appropriately co-penned/produced by go-to One Direction collaborator Savan Kotecha, most of which were released before the film. Those songs racked up a combined 1.3 million streams over May 3-6, led by “Dance Before We Walk,” which Campbell writes and records over the course of the movie. (And perhaps at least a couple viewers were also inspired to revisit the real thing over the weekend, as 1D’s U.S. on-demand audio streams were also up 5% over May 3-5 from the same three-day period the week before.) – ANDREW UNTERBERGER
Trent Reznor & Atticus Ross’ Challengers Score Is An Ace on Streaming
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Two weekends ago (April 26), Challengers, Luca Guadagnino’s acclaimed romantic tennis drama, hit theaters, bringing the electric throuple of Zendaya, Josh O’Connor and Mike Faist to the silver screen. To soundtrack the stylish, sexy film, Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross provided a hypnotic techno-rooted score to track the intertwined fates of the film’s three characters.
According to Luminate, the Challengers score soundtrack collected 1.09 million official on-demand U.S. streams during the film’s opening weekend (April 26-28). In the following three-day period (April 29-May 1), streaming activity jumped 66% to 1.83 million streams. In its first week of release, (April 26-May 2), Challengers (Original Score) pulled 3.44 million streams.
While original songs remain big draws for tentpole movies – who can forget the multi-format dominance of last year’s Barbie soundtrack – score soundtracks tend to cater to markedly smaller audiences. With the danceable score and the star power of the film’s cast, younger artists have been particularly drawn to the Challengers score, which they’ve continuously expressed on TikTok. (The score also appeared in a Challengers-inspired SNL skit over the weekend.)
And who knows? Maybe the success of Challengers – in addition to her Labrinth-assisted Euphoria singles – could jumpstart Zendaya’s return to music. After all, she notched a Billboard Hot 100 top 40 hit with “Replay” (No. 40) 10 years ago! – KYLE DENIS
Online Edit Community Lifts Yëat to Another Viral Hit
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Whether you call them edits or fancams, you can always count on one of those video montages to catapult a song from obscurity to virality. While Yëat is no stranger to the Billboard charts — he’s already earned ten Hot 100 entries — “If We Bëing Real” could become his biggest solo hit yet.
Taken from 2093, his fourth studio album (which peaked at No. 2 on the Billboard 200 in March), “If We Bëing Real” pulled over six million official on-demand U.S. streams during the period of April 26-May 2. That marks a whopping 214% increase in streaming activity from four weeks ago (March 29-April 4) when it earned 1.92 million streams.
Over the past month, streams for “If We Being Real” have increased at least 13% each week – thanks, in no small part, to its TikTok virality. An ominous, slowed-down version of “If We Bëing Real” has gained traction on the app as a soundtrack to edits of various fictional characters and real-life people, including Outer Banks’ Rafe Cameron (played by Drew Starkey), Kingdom of Heaven’s King Baldwin IV (played by Edward Norton) and Minnesota Timberwolves shooting guard Anthony Edwards. There are several unofficial “If We Bëing Real” TikTok sounds with upwards of 20,000 posts, including one with nearly 100,000 clips.
After hitting No. 2 on the Hot 100 by way of Drake’s “IDGAF” last year, Yeat could soon be revisiting the chart’s upper regions if “If We Being Real” continues to grow at this rate. – KD
Q&A: Josh Norek and Ernesto Lechner, Co-Hosts of The Latin Alternative Radio Show & Podcast, on What’s Trending Up in Their World
The Latin Alternative recently celebrated its 15th anniversary. What has it been like witnessing the evolving size and makeup of Latin music during that time?
Norek: In some ways, the evolving popularity and demographics of Latin music consumption has mirrored the growth of our show The Latin Alternative over the years. When we launched the program in 2009, we were airing in one single market (our parent station WEXT in Albany, NY). Today we are in 55 markets, including obvious ones like Los Angeles, Dallas and Orlando but also places you wouldn’t expect like Tulsa and Duluth where public radio stations reached out and asked for the show because they had real listener interest for Latin rock, hip-hop and left of center sounds. Latin music’s various subgenres have far more mainstream acceptance in all markets than when our program started, and that’s largely due to the ease in accessing the music via streaming. When I was a teenager growing up in Upstate NY back in the day, it was not exactly easy to find a Los Fabulosos Cadillacs import CD at the local record store, but a kid living in the boonies today would have no such problem finding the musical equivalent.
What has been the most surprising aspect of Latin music’s expansion over the past few years to you?
Norek: What I find surprising and couldn’t have anticipated when we began the show 15 years ago is how digital music distribution has leveled geographic barriers. For example, Uruguay is a tiny middle class country with just three million people, and its music seldom traveled very far in the CD era. But today we play more Uruguayan music on the show than the country’s size would indicate because we have lots of Uruguayan artists submitting music to us.
Another surprise is how regional Mexican music is finally “cool” and accepted in places like Miami and Spain where there was a lot of hostility – and not-so-subtle racism – directed at the genre. That’s really great to see, especially when over seventy percent of the U.S. Latino population is of Mexican origin.
Which trend in current Latin music fascinates you the most?
Lechner: I’m particularly obsessed with the way in which young artists in the reggaetón and Latin trap genres are questioning the very essence of what a pop song is supposed to be – and sound like. Their constant desire to experiment with form and content reminds me of impressionism in 19th century Paris, when Monet, Sisley and Pissarro reinvented the rules of painting. Some of the neo-reggaetón songs ignore the basics of song structure, and instead create vivid impressions, cinematic moods in the shape of song. I’m fascinated by the collaboration between Colombian producer Ovy on the Drums and KAROL G, as well as the latest works by Ozuna, Bizarrap, Rosalía, Arcángel, Rafa Pabön and Young Miko.
Fill in the blank: the Latin artist that not enough people are talking about yet is _______.
Lechner: I believe the prodigiously talented Chilean singer/songwriter Francisca Valenzuela should be an international superstar. – JL
Season’s Gainings: It’s Gonna Be *NSYNC Season
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Justin Timberlake might not have made quite the lasting impact on 2024 that he’d hoped to with his new Everything I Thought It Was album – and hey, it’s been a crowded year in pop, plenty hitmakers much younger and hipper than JT are struggling too – but at least one day out of the year is still guaranteed to be his. May 1 came and went a week ago, and with it, the biggest day for his old *NSYNC group’s lone Hot 100 No. 1 hit, “It’s Gonna Be Me” (with Timberlake of course delivering the last word of the title more like “May.”) The song first spiked 107% to 277,000 official on-demand U.S. streams on April 30, according to Luminate, and then another 60% the following day to 444,000 – before dropping 45% to 247,000 on May 2, as the song goes back into semi-hibernation for the next 363 days. – AU