Trending Up

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: Tracy Chapman’s Grammy performance spurs massive gains for her signature song, The Greatest Night in Pop revives a charity classic, and BossMan Dlow gets in the viral mix.

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“Fast Car” Keeps on Driving After Grammys Performance

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Though she hasn’t been nominated at the awards since 2010, Tracy Chapman was unquestionably one of the biggest winners from the Grammys on Sunday night (Feb. 4). She made a rare public appearance at the ceremonies to perform her signature 1988 smash “Fast Car” alongside country superstar Luke Combs, whose cover version brought the song back into the mainstream in 2023. The much-buzzed-about performance has led to days of celebration of Chapman’s at times under-recognized legacy — and, of course, a whole lot of “Fast Car” consumption.

“Fast Car” racked up 949,000 official on-demand U.S. streams on Monday (Feb. 5), the day following the Grammys — up 241% from the 278,000 it notched the prior Monday (Jan. 29). That’s a big gain, though it’s nothing compared to how the song exploded in digital song sales, soaring 38,400% from a negligible amount to nearly 14,000. The Combs version also saw some huge gains over the same period, rising 37% in streams to nearly 1.6 million and nearly 3,900% in sales to just over 6,000.

Could it be enough for Chapman’s “Fast Car,” which originally peaked at No. 6 on the Billboard Hot 100 in 1988 to return to the chart? It’s not impossible, though it will have to do well enough to make the top half of the chart to be eligible for a re-entrance, due to Billboard chart rules about catalog songs. If it keeps cruising through the week on its early momentum though, it may have a shot — and as of Wednesday, it was still No. 2 and No. 52 on the daily U.S. charts for iTunes and Spotify, respectively. — ANDREW UNTERBERGER

“We Are the World” Streams Expand Over 300% Thanks to Netflix Doc

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On Jan. 29, the documentary The Greatest Night in Pop, which chronicled the 1985 creation of the all-star charity single “We Are the World,” was released on Netflix, and became instant fodder for music-history nerds. The doc combines new interviews with artists like Lionel Richie, Bruce Springsteen and Cyndi Lauper with dazzling archival footage — including Michael Jackson warbling the hook to himself in the studio, and Huey Lewis trying to reach his upper register in the wee hours of the morning — that shows the chaotic, communal creation of the No. 1 Hot 100 hit for humanitarian aid in Africa.

Naturally, the extended behind-the-scenes look at “We Are the World” has resulted in older fans revisiting the sing-along and new listeners checking it out on streaming services. In the three days preceding the release of The Greatest Night in Pop (Jan. 26-28), “We Are the World” earned 106,000 official U.S. on-demand streams, according to Luminate; during the following Friday-to-Monday tracking period (Feb. 2-4), that number jumped to 472,000 streams, an uptick of 342%. Meanwhile, digital song sales during that same three-day period exceeded 2,300, after earning a negligible amount the previous week.

Although those bumps will likely die down as more time elapses from the documentary release, who knows — maybe the renewed interest will spawn an all-star charity single for a new generation? (The song’s 40th anniversary is coming up next year.) – JASON LIPSHUTZ

Rick Ross-Adjacent Drama Helps Bossman Dlow Score a Viral Hit

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Public drama between an artist’s family members can sometimes turn salacious enough to provoke new interest in that artist’s music — but in the case of Rick Ross and the warring factions of his inner circle, the squabbling has benefited another artist entirely.

Rick Ross’ ex-partner, Tia Kemp, has recently been going back and forth with the rapper’s 21-year-old daughter, Toie Roberts, about (among other things) the veracity of her education and high school diploma. During the social media showdown, “Get in With Me” by rising Florida rapper BossMan Dlow has turned into an unofficial anthem of the feud, after being used in a post by Kemp that has since been adopted as a TikTok meme at the end of January.

Now, “Get In With Me” is turning into a hit on his own — with some social media users suggesting that the rapper give Kemp a cut of his earnings from the crackling trap song. From Jan. 26-29, the track earned 1.93 million official U.S. on-demand streams; fast forward one week, and “Get In With Me” scored 4.26 million streams from Feb. 2-5, according to Luminate. Bossman Dlow may be on the verge of his first Hot 100 hit, and it’s largely thanks to some dirty laundry being aired online. – JL

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: Britney Spears’ fans ensure Justin Timberlake isn’t by his “Selfish” lonesome on the charts this week, a Prime Video musical series seems to be on the verge of a major breakout, “Not the 1975” passes The 1975 on radio and much more.

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Britney Spears Fans ‘Selfish’-ly Troll Justin Timberlake’s New Single Release, Revive 13-Year-Old ‘Femme Fatale’ Bonus Track 

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A little low-stakes trolling never hurt anybody, right? Last Friday (Jan. 25), Justin Timberlake kicked off the campaign for Everything I Thought It Was – his forthcoming sixth studio album – with lead single “Selfish.”  

Of course, Timberlake’s name has been embroiled in controversy for the past few months following unsavory excerpts from Britney Spears’ The Woman In Me memoir, in which she reflects on him cheating on her, dumping her right before a music video shoot, and playing guitar as she cried on the bathroom floor after aborting their unborn child. 

To troll Timberlake’s release, Britney’s fans started throwing their support behind a Spears single also titled “Selfish.” A bonus track from the deluxe edition of 2011’s Femme Fatale, “Selfish” had seen virtually no substantial commercial success before this weekend. At one point, Spears’ “Selfish” reached the top of the U.S. iTunes Chart, conquering a Tom McDonald-Ben Shapiro collab, Megan Thee Stallion’s much-talked-about “Hiss,” and Timberlake’s own “Selfish” in the process. 

According to Luminate, during the period of Jan. 29-31, Spears’ “Selfish” garnered over 397,000 official on-demand streams, marking an unbelievable 14,978% increase from just over 2,600 streams during the period of Jan. 22-24. Notably, Spears’ “Selfish” also sold just under 10,000 digital copies during Jan. 29-31, a vast improvement from the negligible number of copies the song sold during Jan. 22-24. 

For what it’s worth, Spears has since come out as a fan of Timberlake’s “Selfish,” writing on Instagram (which is now set to private), “I am so in love with Justin Timberlake’s new song ‘Selfish.’ It is soo good.” Timberlake’s new single earned 4.8 million official on-demand streams during Jan. 29-31. – KYLE DENIS

Will ‘Hazbin Hotel’ Reserve the ‘Encanto’ Slot on the 2024 Charts?

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For all the film musicals that have been taking over the box office in recent months – Wonka, The Color Purple, Mean Girls – it might be an animated musical comedy series whose soundtrack has the most profound impact on the Billboard charts this year. Hazbin Hotel, created by Vivienne Medrano and featuring songs composed by Sam Haft and Andrew Underberg (no relation), has been taking off with viewers and critics since the first four episodes of its first season premiered on Amazon Prime two Thrusdays ago (Jan. 18). Now, with two more episodes out on Jan. 25, the show’ is starting to really make its presence felt in sales and streaming. 

“Poison” (sung by cast member Blake Roman) and “Loser Baby” (by Roman and co-star Keith David), both featured in the season’s fourth episode (“Masquerade”) and available on DSPs via A24 Music, have been the two leading performers from the show thus far. “Poison” notched over 2.4 million official on-demand U.S. streams for the week ending Jan. 25 (following the episode’s premiere), according to Luminate, while “Loser” did even better, with over 2.7 million streams. What’s more, they’re both still gaining: “Poison” has infected over 1.8 million streams through the first four days of this tracking week (Jan. 26-29) – a 61% gain over the same period the previous week – while “Loser” has won nearly 2 million over the same period, a gain of 60%. 

Neither song is threatening the Hot 100 just yet (“Poison” has made a couple Alternative charts) but as the show continues to build buzz – and as the final two songs of the first season arrive this Thursday (Feb. 1) – it’s hard not to get the same feeling Encanto generated when its songs started breaking the surface of the mainstream at the turn of 2022. Whether any of the songs can become a crossover hit on the level of “We Don’t Talk About Bruno” remains to be seen, but karaoke rooms should probably start bracing themselves for impact just in case. – ANDREW UNTERBERGER

Michael Marcagi Off to Strong ‘Start’ With Second Single

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As both Zach Bryan and Noah Kahan have lodged their work into the upper reaches of the Hot 100 and Billboard 200 charts, a natural byproduct of their respective successes is the proliferation of their rustic, intimately drawn country-folk amalgamations. Fans of both singer-songwriters have certainly taken a shine to “Scared to Start,” the new single from Cincinnati singer-songwriter Michael Marcagi, who fronted the rock quartet The Heavy Hours before striking out on his own. Debut single “The Other Side” earned some attention upon its December release, but based on early streaming returns, its follow-up may be a bonafide breakthrough.

After Marcagi teased the single ahead of its Jan. 12 release, “Scared to Start” has started strong, with 2.54 million official on-demand U.S. streams in its first week of release and 3.64 million more in its second week — a 42% week-to-week jump, according to Luminate. The song has been added to Spotify’s Hot Hits USA and Pop Rising playlists, while Marcagi has continued promoting “Scared to Start” and re-posting fan covers on his TikTok page, which has 165,000 followers. The soft-glowing electric guitar and tenderly anthemic hooks of “Scared to Start” sound straight out of stick season — and Marcagi, a recent Warner Records signee, may be crashing the Hot 100 with it soon enough. – JASON LIPSHUTZ

Rich Amiri Bags Burgeoning Streaming Smash In Only “One Call” 

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“I don’t trust a soul, I don’t trust nobody / Threw up off some pills, I don’t trust my own body,” opens the chorus of Rich Amiri’s “One Call.” Those lines – which are paired with rattling pluggnb production – smartly call on social media’s self-destructive obsession with “haters,” thus providing two immediate gateways to TikTok virality for the single. 

“One Call,” taken from Amiri’s Internet Money/10K Projects LP Ghetto Fabulous (2023), has posted a 289% increase in official on-demand U.S. streams over the past five weeks. During the week of Jan. 19-25, the track pulled in 4.69 million streams, up substantially from the 1.2 million it notched during Dec. 22-28. On TikTok – where users frequently use the song to soundtrack video game fan edits and lip-sync clips – the official “One Call” sound boasts 31,600 posts. On YouTube, the track’s official music video – which debuted on Nov. 8, 2023 – has collected over 2.9 million views. 

Having debuted on both the Bubbling Under Hot 100 (No. 7) and Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs (No. 45) this week (both charts dated Feb. 3, 2024), “One Call” is shaping up to be the first Billboard Hot 100 entry of Rich Amiri’s career. – KD

‘Not the 1975’ Is Becoming Bigger at Pop Radio Than… The 1975

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Last July, Atlantic-signed Nashville artist Knox built a kicky pop-rock track around the chorus lyric “She said ‘I like your confidence, but you’re not The 1975’”; then, the 25-year-old singer-songwriter wove in references to the British band’s songs “Chocolate,” “Looking for Somebody (to Love)” and “Oh Caroline,” and titled the track “Not The 1975.” Over the past month, the song has proven to be an unlikely hit for Knox — and most surprisingly, has continued to find an audience at U.S. pop radio.

The all-format radio audience for “Not the 1975” has ballooned from 141,000 impressions during the week ending Jan. 4 to 1.1 million during the most recent tracking week, according to Luminate. That’s good enough to get Knox’s single to No. 35 on this week’s Pop Airplay chart — a format that has yet to fully embrace the actual 1975, even as they’ve headlined arenas across America in recent years. The 1975’s biggest Pop Airplay hit to date is the aforementioned “Chocolate,” which peaked at No. 25 on the chart in 2014, and the band hasn’t graced the listing at all since “The Sound” in 2016. That means, depending on how many spins Knox keeps collecting over the next few months, “Not the 1975” could climb higher on this chart than the 1975 ever have. – JL

Season’s Gainings: Travis Kelce Continues Fighting the Good ‘Fight’ 

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It may have confused those not versed in recent Kansas City Chiefs lore when start tight end (and Taylor Swift beau) Travis Kelce paused his postgame interview after his team’s AFC Championship victory to shout the chorus to the Beastie Boys’ 1986 classic “(You Gotta) Fight for Your Right (To Party).”But the song has been a rallying cry for the Chiefs since Kelce first yelled it at the AFC Championship post-game a half-decade ago, and the team’s faithful knew it was time to get ill once Kelce again sounded the call: “Fight for Your Right” was up 15% in combined official on-demand U.S. streams (193,000 to 221,000) over this Sunday and Monday (Jan. 27-28) from the same period the previous week. If the Chiefs win their third Super Bowl in the past six years two Sundays from now, maybe Mike D and Ad Rock can at least get some free championship shirts out of it. – 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.  This week: YG Marley becomes the latest artist in his legendary family with a breakout single (with an assist from Mom), Rich Gang’s signature smash makes the viral rounds yet again, social media’s Jacob Elordi obsession results in another revived hit and more.

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“Praise Jah!”: YG Marley Adds Yet Another Hit to the Marley Family Legacy   

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Just one month out from the theatrical release of Bob Marley: One Love (Feb. 14), the forthcoming Reinaldo Marcus Green-helmed biopic of the late reggae legend, the Marley family is adding yet another hit to their already sprawling cross-generational collection. “Praise Jah in the Moonlight,” the debut single from YG Marley, is currently exploding at streaming, garnering 1.28 million official on-demand streams during the period of Jan. 12-16, according to Luminate. That marks a whopping 176.4% increase in streams from the previous period (Jan. 5-9).  

Marley’s debut track is experiencing a perfect storm of pre-release promotion and viral facts related to the song’s credits. Last winter, Marley performed “Praise Jah” at several of his mother’s tour stops. His mother? None other than Ms. Lauryn Hill. Naturally, footage from those shows gained lots of traction on socials, with fans kickstarting a grassroots campaign for an official release of the song. “Praise Jah in the Moonlight” eventually hit DSPs shortly after Christmas (Dec. 27, 2023), and once fans perused the credits, another viral element was added to the song’s run.  

“Praise Jah” is co-written by Marley and Hill and includes elements of Bob Marely & The Wailers’ “Crisis,” earning the music icon composer and lyricist credits. This information has quickly made the rounds on socials, with fans praising the musical lineage of YG Marley and embracing the song’s focus on traditional reggae stylings. Having already hit No. 1 on Spotify’s Global and U.S. Viral 50 charts, “Praise Jah in the Moonlight” is looking to grow into a true breakout hit for YG Marley. – KYLE DENIS

Back to the Top for Rich Gang’s “Lifestyle,” Thanks to Very Different Viral Videos 

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Rich Gang’s 2010s anthem “Lifestyle,” a No. 16 Hot 100 hit in 2014, has been gaining on streaming this week thanks to a few viral videos. The song first re-entered the cultural zeitgeist when model Alex Consani posted a video of herself dancing to the track at brunch. Since its posting, the video has been liked 4.6 million times with one commenter calling it the “video of the year” (that comment has been liked 110.4K times). 

The ”Lifestyle” hype grew even further last week when it was played in the court room during Young Thug’s trial and later clips of the moment went viral on social media. All this has led to a 307% jump in streams in the last week, according to Luminate — with the song rising from 723,000 U.S. on-demand streams for the four-day period of Jan. 5-8 to over 2.2 million for the same period the following week. – KRISTIN ROBINSON

Jacob Elordi’s Sex Appeal Revives Near-Decade-Old Flume Hit  

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Between his starring turns in Sofia Coppola’s Priscilla and Emerald Fennell’s Saltburn, Jacob Elordi has become the Internet’s latest obsession. Of course, the 6’5” Australian actor has long been a star for younger audiences thanks to The Kissing Booth trilogy and Euphoria, but he’s hit a new level in the past few months.  

Case in point: A fan-created montage gawking over Elordi’s good looks has sparked a streaming revival for the nearly decade-old song that plays in the background. The fan-cam, which is comprised entirely of shots of Elordi’s Saltburn character, is set to Flume and Kai’s “Never Be Like You,” an era-defining dance track that reached No. 20 on the Billboard Hot 100 back in 2016. During the week of Jan. 5-11, the Grammy-nominated track pulled in 2.12 million official on-demand U.S. streams, marking a 75% increase from the previous week.  

The Jan. 3 TikTok that kickstarted the “Never Be Like You” surge has since collected a jaw-dropping 42.1 million views and 6.5 million likes on the platform in just two weeks. The sound attached to the post – which is logged as separate from the official “Never Be Like You” sound – has already been used in over 18,000 posts – nearly all of which are about Elordi or Saltburn in some way. Between Sophie Ellis-Bextor’s “Murder on the Dancefloor” and now “Never Be Like You,” it looks like Saltburn has the Midas Touch when it comes to minting new-old hits. – KD

Let the Man Go Through: ‘Reacher’ Surrender Spurs Soul Coughing Bump 

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Amazon’s action-crime series Reacher, based on the popular Jack Reacher book series, has become one of the streaming service’s biggest serial hits. With episodes of its second season now being released weekly, individual episodes are proving to have a pronounced streaming impact with some of their higher-profile synchs.  

Most recently, Soul Coughing’s late-’90s left-field alt-rock hit “Super Bon Bon” was used extensively in the climax to the season’s Jan. 12-debuting penultimate episode, where the title character (played by Alan Ritchson) gives himself up to antagonist Shane Langston (Robert Patrick) as part of a thusfar-unseen plan to rescue his team members from capture. The song’s warped bass line and sung-spoken “Move a-siiiiide and let the man go through” commands perfectly matched the tension of the scene, and captured the interest of viewers – many of whom were likely unfamiliar with the song previously, as evidenced by the song ranking in the top 10 of Shazam’s U.S. Top 200 this week.  

That interest also extended to DSPs, as “Super Bon Bon” notched over 118,000 official on-demand U.S. streams for the first four days of this tracking week (Jan. 12-15), according to Luminate – a 342% gain from the 27,000 streams it posted over a similar period in the previous week. If that’s what a second-to-last episode synch can do, you can bet music supervisors will be paying attention to the performance of any synchs in the upcoming season finale, airing tomorrow (Jan. 19). – ANDREW UNTERBERGER 

Muni Long’s “Made for Me” Turns Viral ‘Blue Pajama’ Trend Into Big Streaming Gains  

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Soul singer-songwriter Muni Long’s “Made for Me” already had radio on its side – the track has reached No. 2 on Adult R&B Airplay and No. 14 on R&B/Hip-Hop Airplay – and now it’s turning into a sizable streaming hit thanks, in part, to a hilarious TikTok trend.  

TikTok creator @peezyp – better known as “girl with the blue pajamas” — jump-started a simple trend that has captivated the app’s users and sparked new interest in Long’s latest single. The trend is simple: Decked out in blue pajamas, users walk toward the camera (lots of head-bobbing and playing to the camera as if you’re in a ‘90s R&B music video are highly encouraged) while lip-syncing the chorus of the song. The trend’s specifics draw some inspiration from Muni Long’s performance of the track at the 2023 Soul Train Music Awards.  

“Made for Me” has been logging over 500,000 official on-demand streams per week for the past month and a half, but the song has shown remarkable growth over the past two weeks. During the week of Dec. 29-Jan. 4, “Made for Me” earned 1.22 million streams, increasing by 25% the following week to 1.53 million streams. Long herself has got in on the fun; On Wednesday (Jan. 17), she posted a TikTok of her jumping on the trend with the caption, “Lemme go buy some blue pajamas rq.” The official “Made for Me” sound currently plays in over 44,500 TikTok posts, while its official music video – which stars fellow R&B fixture Luke James – has garnered over 200,000 views in less than 24 hours.  

Should streams continue to rise alongside its airplay numbers, “Made for Me” could very well become Muni Long’s third career entry on the Hot 100. – KD

Season’s Gainings: MLK Day Bumps for ‘60s Protest Anthems 

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We don’t typically see huge streaming spikes related to the January commemoration of Martin Luther King Jr. Day – it’s not really the kind of holiday most folks feel needs a soundtrack, for obvious reasons. That said, there were a few period anthems that understandably saw bumps in streaming on Monday (Jan. 15) for their topical relevance – including James Brown’s “Say It Loud (I’m Black and I’m Proud)” (up 117% in official on-demand U.S. streams from the previous Monday to nearly 7,000, according to Luminate), Dion’s “Abraham, Martin & John” (up 46%, also to nearly 7,000) and Sam Cooke’s “A Change Is Gonna Come” (up 14% to over 89,000). And of course, there were also gains for U2’s hit MLK tribute, the classic rock staple “Pride (In the Name of Love),” which rose 12% to over 46,000. – 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.  This week: A new hit rom-com revives an ’00s pop-rock classic, a musical Apple commercial pulls on the heartstrings, Zeddy Will “Cha Cha”s back to virality and more.

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Natasha Bedingfield’s “Unwritten” Soars on Streaming Thanks to Anyone But You 

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During the holidays (Dec. 22), Anyone But You – which stars Emmy nominee Sydney Sweeney and Glen Powell – delighted rom-com fans across movie theatres. In the Shakespeare-inspired story, Natasha Bedingfield’s pop classic “Unwritten” plays a pivotal role in the narrative of Powell’s character. The song plays and is sung by multiple characters throughout the film, easily making it the defining musical characteristic of the Will Gluck-helmed movie. 

According to Luminate, “Unwritten” earned over 1.3 million official on-demand streams during the period of Dec. 29-Jan. 1, marking an eye-popping 156.3% increase from just over 511,000 streams the weekend prior (Dec. 22-25). Since the film hit theatres, TikTok has seen a wave of videos using the official “Unwritten” sound to soundtrack viewers leaving Anyone But You screenings in high spirits. That sound boasts over 39,400 posts on TikTok. Bedingfield has since posted a pair of TikToks celebrating the song’s resurgence. “A rom com has got girls falling out of cinemas singing my song — and now it’s trending!!!” she wrote in an intro to a compilation of post-Anyone But You “Unwritten” TikToks. — KYLE DENIS

A Singing Outlet Electrifies Doe Boy’s “Way Too Long” 

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It was certainly one of the more attention-capturing new commercials you might’ve seen in a week of sports and holiday TV coverage at the end of 2023: an Apple ad for the iPhone 15 Plus starring a heartbroken electrical outlet. In the spot, the outlet painedly croons to the new iPhone about why it’s being so distant: ““We had pure energy/ We had that chemistry/ We were inseparable… I feel like it’s been way too long and I’m missing you.” Though it’s mostly just meant to trumpet the long battery life of the 15 Plus, the commercial tugged enough heartstrings this emotional holiday season to lead listeners to the real song behind it. 

“Way Too Long,” released earlier in December by Cleveland rapper Doe Boy, is the song featured in the commercial, and the track has seen a boom in streams following the commercial’s Christmas Eve debut. For the first four days of this current tracking week (Dec. 29 – Jan. 1), the track pulled in over 98,000 official on-demand U.S. streams – up 115% from the under 46,000 it posted over an equivalent period (Dec. 22 – 25) the week before, according to Luminate – while also landing in the top 10 of Shazam’s U.S. top 200, as folks were gratified too learn “Way Too Long” was a real song, not just an inspired invention of Apple’s marketing team. (“Dem damn Electrical Sockets cooked!” reads one characteristic comment on the song’s official YouTube.)  – ANDREW UNTERBERGER

4Batz Rides Ironic Music Video to Massive Streaming Gains 

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With SZA, Victoria Monét and Coco Jones leading the charge, R&B had a banner year in 2023. This year seeks to be a continuation of that momentum, but this time with a rising star named 4batz at the forefront. His “Act II: Date @ 8,” has exploded at streaming, pulling in over 2.4 million official on-demand streams during the period of Dec. 22-28, according to Luminate. That’s a whopping 385% increase in streaming activity from just under 500,000 streams the week prior (Dec. 15-21). 

The massive streaming growth of “Act II” is mostly due to its viral From The Block live performance music video. In the clip, which finds him surrounded by a crew decked out in ski masks and hoodies, 4 Batz plays on the TikTok generation’s penchant for visual and sonic irony. While he’s singing a Brent Faiyaz-adjacent R&B track, the video’s aesthetic lends itself more towards drill rappers than R&B crooners. That juxtaposition helped make the video a viral sensation on social media, even drawing a reaction from record-breaking Twitch streamer Kai Cenat. Several excerpts from his reaction have earned over 50,000 likes on TikTok alone, and the excerpt he posted to his own YouTube Shorts page received 49,000 views in just 22 hours. The song’s official visualizer has garnered 700,000 views in two weeks, while the official TikTok sound boasts over 13,500 posts. 

“Act II: Date @ 8” has already hit No. 1 on Spotify’s Global Viral 50 and No. 2 on the platform’s Viral 50 – USA ranking. It’s only up from here as 4Batz’s career and profile continue to grow. — KD

Zeddy Will Scores Another TikTok-Feuled Streaming Smash With On the Radar “Cha Cha” Freestyle 

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Last year, Billboard covered Zeddy Will’s last TikTok-fueled streaming hit, “Freak You.” Now, just three days into the new year, the social media personality and rapper has another smash on his hands. According to Luminate, “Cha Cha” has collected over 1.24 million official on-demand streams during the period of Dec. 22-28. That’s a humongous 257.4% increase from just under 350,000 streams two weeks prior (Dec. 8-14). 

“Cha Cha” — a remix of the iconic “Cha Cha Slide” — is one-half of Zeddy’s On The Radar Freestyle, which hit YouTube on Dec. 1, 2023. The clip has since earned over one million views, with a standalone “Cha Cha” clip earning an additional 151,000 views. Beyond the initial live performance video, “Cha Cha” sources its virality from a viral TikTok dance courtesy of TikTok creator @jerseyyjoe; his initial dance clip has earned nearly 24 million TikTok views. The hip-rocking, slipper-smacking dance quickly gained steam on the app from major creators and everyday users alike, resulting in over 84,400 posts to On The Radar Radio’s “Cha Cha” sound. 

With Zeddy Will always being one step ahead of the social media curve – he’s already teamed up for collaborative TikToks with @jerseyyjoe – there’s no telling just how much “Cha Cha” will continue to rise. — KD

Season’s Gainings: New Year, Same Taylor

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For hundreds of thousands of music listeners, 2024 appears to be starting off about the same way all of 2023 went: listening to Taylor Swift. There seemed to be a Swift song for just about every occasion in ‘23, and for Jan. 1 of 2024, there was a particularly obvious pick: Reputation closer and fan favorite “New Year’s Day,” which saw a 333% gain (from the prior Dec. 30) to 361,000 official on-demand U.S. streams on the first day of last year as well. But following Swift’s historic 2023, the total bump was even bigger: “Day” skyrocketed 327% to 738,000 streams over the same two-day period this year, even cracking the top 40 of Spotify’s Daily Top Songs USA chart on Jan. 1. Within a few years, there might not be a day on the calendar you won’t be able to pencil in some automatic Swift megabump for. — 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.  This week: Nicki Minaj’s Pink Friday 2 release sends fans to some of its sampled hits — and to the sequel album’s predecessor — while Netflix’s Leave the World Behind takes over the Shazam charts, and we haven’t heard the last from HBO‘s The Idol yet.

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Nicki Minaj’s ‘Pink Friday 2′ Brings Billie Eilish & Junior Senior to Gag City with Big Streaming Gains

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Not even the holiday season can stop a queen. As Brenda Lee and Mariah Carey solidify their stronghold atop the Billboard Hot 100, Nicki Minaj looks primed for a few splashy debuts on next week’s ranking thanks to her brand new fifth studio album, Pink Friday 2.

Serving as the sequel to her Billboard 200-topping 2010 debut studio album, Pink Friday 2 features collaborations with Drake, J. Cole, Future, Skeng, Skillibeng, 50 Cent, Tasha Cobbs Leonard and more, as well as the Hot 100 hits “Super Freaky Girl” (No. 1), “Red Ruby Da Sleeze” (No. 13) and “Last Time I Saw You” (No. 23).

Upon release, the 22-track album, which Minaj is expected to expand each day this week, made a splashy streaming debut, with two new songs earning considerable early traction: “Everybody” (feat. Lil Uzi Vert) and album opener “Are You Gone Already.” Both tracks heavily incorporate samples, and those sampled tracks have already shown a spike in streams since Minaj dropped us off at Gag City.

“Everybody” heavily samples Junior Senior’s “Move Your Feet,” a 2002 dance track from the Danish pop duo’s debut album. According to Luminate, during the period Dec. 8-10, “Move Your Feet” collected a little over 130,000 official on-demand U.S. streams, a 40.9% increase from just over 92,000 steams the prior weekend (Dec. 1-3). As for “Are You Gone Already,” Minaj’s emotional album opener pulls from Billie Eilish’s “When the Party’s Over.” Eilish’s track has always been a consistent streamer, but it did see a 15% jump in streams this weekend (1.074 million on-demand U.S. streams during Dec. 8-10) versus last weekend (934,000 streams during Dec. 1-3).

Naturally, the release of Pink Friday 2 also spurred notable gains for the OG Pink Friday album. Minaj’s debut racked up 4.2 million official on-demand U.S. streams during its sequel’s release weekend. That’s a 16.9% jump in streams from the previous weekend (3.6 million) for the Grammy-nominated LP, which features hits such as “Super Bass,” “Your Love” and the Drake-featuring “Moment 4 Life.” As for Pink Friday 2, the long-awaited record clocked 90.8 million streams during Dec. 8-10. — KYLE DENIS

‘Leave the World Behind’ Needle Drops Spur Gains for Joey Bada$$, Blackstreet & More

Last Friday (Dec. 8), director Sam Esmail’s film adaptation of the acclaimed Rumaan Alam novel Leave the World Behind hit Netflix, with the story of a chance encounter during an ominous technological breakdown brought to life by a star-studded cast headlined by Julia Roberts, Ethan Hawke, Mahershala Ali and Myha’la. The psychological thriller finds some levity within its music synchs, as Esmail has peppered the film with hip-hop and rhythmic pop hits — all of which are enjoying significant streaming upticks since the film hit the streaming service, and landing near the top of Shazam’s U.S. Top 200 chart.

The Joey Bada$$ song “The Rev3nge,” which opens the film, has earned the biggest bump so far: from Dec. 8-11, the track earned 153,000 U.S. on-demand streams, a 267% gain from its streaming total from the previous Friday-to-Monday period (41,000 streams), according to Luminate. Meanwhile, Next’s Hot 100 No. 1 hit “Too Close,” which Roberts’ character dances to in the film, is up 12% to 474,000 streams from Dec. 8-11; Blackstreet’s “Never Gonna Let You Go” soars 214%, to 60,000 streams over that period; and Kool + The Gang’s ’80s smash “Misled” is up 263%, to 66,000 streams. One month after David Fincher’s The Killer sent Netflix viewers searching for The Smiths’ discography, Esmail’s Leave the World Behind has a more wide-ranging set of needle drops, and it’s proven equally effective at yielding streaming gains. — JASON LIPSHUTZ

The Idol Gives Us “One of” 2023’s Latest-Breaking Viral Hits

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We may be through with The Idol, but The Idol isn’t through with us. HBO may have pulled the plug on the Sam Levinson-directed controversial music-biz melodrama — starring and co-created by real-life pop superstar The Weeknd — but one of the songs released for the series continues to grow months later. “One of The Girls,” performed by The Weeknd along with BLACKPINK’s Jennie and Lily Rose-Depp (both of whom also star in the series), has long been one of the best-performing songs from the show’s extensive soundtrack, and has doubled in streams over the past six weeks.

According to Luminate, the track has grown from 1.9 million official on-demand U.S. streams for the week ending Nov. 2 to 4.1 million for the week ending Dec. 7. Much of the track’s growth is likely due to continued TikTok virality for the song, largely stemming from BLINK support for the Jennie-sung parts of the song, with fans praising her enchanting vocals. If “One of the Girls” continues growing at the rate it has, it could very well become her first Hot 100 hit in the months to come — it even debuts at No. 17 on the Bubbling Under chart this week. — 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.  This week: Late rock legends Tom Petty and Shane McGowan see huge gains for a pair of late-’80s favorites, a turn-of-the-century U.K. pop smash gets some U.S. love for a cheeky film synch and much more.

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‘GTA’ Trailer Leads to ‘Long’ Season for Tom Petty on Streaming

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1989’s Full Moon Fever album was a career apex for Rock and Roll Hall of Famer Tom Petty. His first LP recorded without usual backing band the Heartbreakers, the set was certified 5x platinum by the RIAA in the U.S., and spawned the massive radio and MTV hits “Free Fallin’,” “I Won’t Back Down” and “Runnin’ Down a Dream.” But it’s one of the album’s deeper cuts that’s lighting up streaming services this week: the hi-octane synth-rocker “Love Is a Long Road.” 

The song is taking off due to its use in the recently released trailer for the highly anticipated upcoming Grand Theft Auto VI, which set viewership records in its first 24 hours of release on YouTube. Though “Long Road” was only drawing between 4,000-5,000 daily official on-demand U.S. streams before over the weekend, that number was up to 78,000 on Monday (Dec. 4) – when the trailer first leaked on social media – and rocketed to 376,000 on Tuesday after the trailer’s proper release, according to preliminary numbers from Luminate: a gain of 8,421% from the prior Sunday. (The song also sold nearly 1,000 digital copies over those two days, after a negligible number the days before.) 

Those numbers may only continue to increase as the GTA trailer spreads around the internet, possibly making “Long Road” a contender on some of Billboard’s rock charts next week. It wouldn’t be the first time the song made a chart impact – back in 1989, it made it to No. 7 on Mainstream Rock Airplay, despite never being released as an A-side in the U.S. – ANDREW UNTERBERGER

Fans Mourn the Late Shane MacGowan by Reliving a “Fairytale of New York” 

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Last Thursday (Nov. 30), Pogues frontman Shane MacGowan died from pneumonia after a monthslong ICU stint earlier this year. In the days since his passing — which painfully coincided with the beginning of December, a.k.a. the height of Christmas music season – fans have rallied around the Pogues’ holiday-themed Kirsty MacColl duet “Fairytale of New York” to soundtrack their collective mourning. 

On TikTok, the four official “Fairytale” sounds have a combined total of just over 10,000 posts, but that only tells half of the story. In the wake of MacGowan’s passing, several celebrity covers of the song have garnered renewed traction on TikTok – including clips of Ed Sheeran, Saoirse Ronan, and, of course, Travis Kelce, who recently earned his first Billboard chart-topper with “Fairytale of Philadelphia,” a spoof on the Pogues’ original featuring his brother Jason Kelce. The general Christmas spirit has also bolstered the song’s circulation on the app, and a microtrend of British creators highlighting the different regional uses of the F-slur between the U.S. and U.K. did the same. 

According to Luminate, “Fairytale of New York” earned just under 400,000 on-demand U.S. streams the day MacGowan passed (Nov. 30), marking a 227.2% increase in streams from the day prior. During the first four days of this tracking week (Nov. 30-Dec. 3), “Fairytale” logged 1.19 million streams, a 146.1% increase from around 483,000 streams during the period of Nov. 26-29. 

“Fairytale of New York” served as a single from the Pogues’ 1988 If I Should Fall From Grace With God album, which became their highest-peaking entry on the Billboard 200 (No. 88). Although none of their songs have entered the Billboard Hot 100, “Fairytale” — which is a certified Christmas classic in the U.K. — recently reached a new peak of No. 16 on Holiday Digital Song Sales (chart dated Dec. 9, 2023). Should streams continue to remain up, “Fairytale” might get within striking distance of becoming the Celtic band’s very first Hot 100 hit. – KYLE DENIS

Barry Keoghan’s Cheeky NSFW Saltburn Scene Revives a Sophie Ellis-Bextor Classic on Streaming 

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Barry Keoghan’s lengthy full-frontal scene in Emerald Fennell’s much-discussed Saltburn has become an inescapable part of day-to-day social media discourse, but it’s not just the swoon-worthy actor people are fawning over. In the scene – which features the nude Oscar nominee dancing through a seemingly empty mansion – Sophie Ellis-Bextor’s “Murder on the Dancefloor” booms in the background, making it a prime selection for TikTok’s latest musical obsession. 

On TikTok, the most popular “Murder on the Dancefloor” sound – which originated from a June post by a Sophie Ellis-Bextor fan-page – has garnered over 99,600 posts, with the official sounds boasting a combined 2,109 posts. The vast majority of recent “Murder on the Dancefloor” posts are split between users lauding the song’s greatness outside of Saltburn and users expressing admiration and shock for Keoghan’s daring performance. “Just found out in this scene of [Saltburn], Barry Keoghan didn’t use a prosthetic,” reads one cheeky caption, while another proclaims, “Barry Keoghan twirling around a mansion naked lives rent free in my head.” 

According to Luminate, “Murder” earned over 670,000 on-demand U.S. streams during the period of Nov. 24-30. That marks an enormous 362.3% increase from just under 145,000 streams during the period of Nov. 17-23. From Dec. 1-4, “Murder” had already pulled 547,000 streams, signaling an even faster rate of growth than the week prior.

“Murder on the Dancefloor” may have never reached the Hot 100, but the track did top out at No. 9 on Dance Singles Sales back in 2002. The song fared much better in Ellis-Bextor’s home of the U.K., reaching No. 2 in late 2001. With Saltburn headed to on-demand streaming later this month, “Murder on the Dancefloor” has plenty of room to keep growing. – KD

‘Little Life,’ Big Streams: Cordelia Scores Celebratory TikTok Hit

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“I think I like this little life.” So goes a refrain that’s becoming increasingly popular on TikTok, with users soundtracking sentimental moments alongside friends, as well as glistening nature shots, with “Little Life” – the gentle and emotionally arresting song by independent singer-songwriter Cordelia. “Little Life” was released as the final song on Cordelia’s four-track Caramel EP in October, and since then, the song has steadily ballooned in weekly streams to become a potential breakthrough for the rising artist.

During the week ending Nov. 9, “Little Life” earned 2,500 U.S. on-demand streams, according to Luminate; that number grew by a factor of 100 (265,000 weekly streams) by the week ending Nov. 30, and looks to keep swelling in December, as the song earned 216,000 streams in the first three days of the month. For her part, Cordelia is reveling in the TikTok explosion: “People are using my song ‘Little Life’ to soundtrack their own wonderful little lives,” she wrote last month. “It’s TOO CUTE.” – Jason Lipshutz

Q&A: Alex Tear, VP music programming at SiriusXM + Pandora, on What’s Trending Up in His World

What’s the number one trend that you think we’ll remember when we look back at 2023 in popular music?

The art and controversy of the sped-up single peaking at a new high. Although sped-up versions have been present since the 2000s, 2023 feels to have been a breakthrough year with mass appeal acceptance, charting, radio airplay and totally normalized consumption.

What was the year’s most surprising trend to you?

Music’s reset to innovate and push boundaries again vs. being predictable and formulaic. The growing mass acceptance and appetite to blur genre lines and era boundaries has allowed artists to really shine with strong audience reaction. The resurgence of retro-inspired pop that embraces the sounds of previous decades has also been very welcomed.

The charts are currently being dominated by holiday music, but do you think there are any songs from late 2023 that will carry over as big hits in early 2024?

I feel there are several that will continue to melt the snow, from Tate McRae with her new album Think Later, to Jack Harlow to Dua Lipa, and let’s keep our eye on Noah Kahan. Noah’s creeping momentum is poised to roll into 2024 with a presence.   

Fill in the blank: the major artist I’m hoping has a big 2024 is ______.

Teddy Swims and Tyla. These are two artists first embraced by SiriusXM + Pandora to amazing audience reaction. We’re excited to be a part of their rise and will continue spreading the word across North America as they become major artists. – J.L.

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: Thanksgiving songs quickly peek their heads onto streaming before making way for the Christmas avalanche — including a quickly growing new song from a pop icon — and a side-splitting viral trend brings a late-’00s pop-rock classic back to the mainstream.

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Thanksgiving Songs Beat the Holiday Rush on Streaming

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Yes, Thanksgiving is most notable in the Billboard world as the benchmark holiday after which Christmas music really starts to take off; see next week’s Hot 100 for a glimpse of just how dramatic the takeover will be. But before listeners fully ensconce themselves in Yuletide classics, some of them make sure to give some time — one day, at least — to the handful of enduring Thanksgiving perennials, many of which saw major boosts on streaming last week (particularly, of course, on Nov. 23, the final day of the tracking period).

Two unrelated staples simply titled “The Thanksgiving Song” — by pop/rock singer-songwriter Ben Rector and comedian Adam Sandler — both saw stratospheric gains, with the official on-demand U.S. streams for Rector’s song rising 473% to 803,000, while Sandler’s leapt 680% to 275,000, according to Luminate. (Sandler’s total came despite the song being unavailable on Spotify). Meanwhile, CCM singer-songwriter Matthew West’s singalong “Gobble Gobble” was up 218% to 1.2 million streams, and jazz outfit (and Christmastime regular) Vince Guaraldi Trio’s “Thanksgiving Theme” rose 248% to 1.1 million.

Then, of course, there’s the daddy of them all: Arlo Guthrie’s “Alice’s Restaurant Massacree,” the sung-spoken 1967 story song set at Thanksgiving that remains an annual listen in countless households nationwide. Boosted by some TikTok virality this year — largely of younger users sharing their confusion over their families’ continued observance of the “Alice’s” tradition — the once-a-year classic jumped a stunning 796% to 369,000 official on-demand U.S. streams for the week ending Nov. 23. Not quite Mariah Carey numbers, but pretty impressive endurance for an 18-plus-minute talking-blues number from over 55 years ago. — ANDREW UNTERBERGER

Colbie Caillat’s Breakthrough Hit “Bubbly” Rides Hilarious TikTok Meme to Streaming Revival 

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16 years ago, a guitar-touting Malibu girl by the name of Colbie Caillat burst onto the scene with “Bubbly,” a heartwarming earworm that served as the lead single for debut studio album Coco and reached No. 5 on the Billboard Hot 100. 

Today, that song is seeing a second life with Gen Z thanks to a hilarious TikTok trend that is resulting in substantial streaming gains across DSPs. According to Luminate, “Bubbly” has earned over 1.62 million on-demand U.S. streams during the period of Nov. 17-23. That marks a major 98.3% increase in streaming activity from just three weeks ago, when the song was pulling just north of 800,000 on-demand U.S. streams. 

The song’s boost in streams is primarily due to a TikTok trend where users place “Bubbly” over raucous videos of other artists performing. Whether it’s Lil Uzi Vert rocking their hips or Tyler, the Creator banging his head, the goal is to play on humor sourced from the visual and sonic dissonance of Caillat’s tender hook and high-octane stage shows. Thanks to the trend, the official “Bubbly” sound has been used in over 50,700 videos. Caillat has played into the trend, duetting and stitching memes featuring KISS, Post Malone and Travis Scott. She also cheekily responded to a TikTok poking fun at her request to be counted in at the beginning of the track and released an acoustic “living room session” version of the song on her YouTube page. 

“Bubbly” remains Caillat’s sole Hot 100 top 10 hit, and its recent rise and streams proves the song is still connecting with audiences over a decade and a half removed from its original release. — KYLE DENIS

Cher, Play a Christmas Song: Thanksgiving Parade Performance Boosts New Holiday Single

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Although the 2023 Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade boasted a slew of music stars performing and popping by — from Beyoncé delivering a video message to The Roots playing a song with Jimmy Fallon to Chicago playing “You’re the Inspiration” atop a Wonder Bread float (!) — the climactic performance was saved until the end of the festivities. Cher arrived on 34th Street in Manhattan with a showcase of “DJ Play a Christmas Song,” her danceable pop single from her recently released holiday album Christmas, complete with choreography performed by dancers in heart costumes and dressed as little drummer boys and girls.

After Christmas debuted at No. 32 on the Billboard 200 chart last month, “DJ Play a Christmas Song” has naturally started to heat up as the holidays creep closer — although early returns suggest that the Thanksgiving Day performance provided the single with even more upward momentum. While the song’s weekly U.S. on-demand streaming totals jumped from 101,000 streams for the week ending Nov. 2 to 521,000 for the week ending Nov. 23, according to Luminate, “DJ Play a Christmas Song” earned 647,000 streams from Friday to Monday (Nov. 24-27) — surpassing its previous week’s streaming total in just four days.

With the Hot 100 in the process of being flooded by holiday music, we’ll see over the few weeks if “DJ Play a Christmas Song,” which has reached No. 3 on the Holiday Digital Song Sales chart, can keep climbing and reach the all-genre tally before the end of the season. If it does, the single would be Cher’s first Hot 100 entry since “Song for the Lonely” in 2002. – JASON LIPSHUTZ

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: A new release in the Hunger Games franchise leads to gains for soundtrack hits old and new, while a new TikTok challenge gives a not-that-old JID hit a second crack at the charts, Drake fans celebrate a deep cut’s title day and more.

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The Streams Are Ever in Their Favor: ‘Hunger Games’ Songs Surge Following Prequel Release

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Last weekend, The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes topped the box office with a $100 million international gross following its Nov. 17 bow in multiplexes. The arrival of the prequel film, which is set 64 years before the events of the original Hunger Games, had fans turning back toward songs old and new that have been associated with the franchise, and volunteering as tribute as they pressed play on streaming platforms.

“Can’t Catch Me Now,” the Olivia Rodrigo soundtrack single released on Nov. 3, may have dropped 25 spots to No. 81 in its second week on the Billboard Hot 100 this week, but early streaming returns for this week suggest a rebound in conjunction with the film release. “Catch” earned 4.26 million official on-demand U.S. streams in the first four days of the Songbirds & Snakes theatrical run (Nov. 17-20) — a 43% increase from its streaming total from the previous Friday-to-Monday tracking period, according to Luminate.

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Meanwhile, “The Hanging Tree,” the James Newton Howard song that was performed by Jennifer Lawrence in 2014’s The Hunger Games: Mockingjay, Part 1 — and is revived in Songbirds & Snakes as “Lucy Gray’s Version,” as performed by Rachel Zegler — also experienced a streaming resurgence. “The Hanging Tree” earned 344,000 streams over the first four days of the film’s run, up 58% from 217,000 streams from the prior Friday-to-Monday tracking period. – JASON LIPSHUTZ

JID’s “Surround Sound” Solidifies Sleeper Hit Status With Substantial Streaming Gains 

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Last year, JID’s third studio album, The Forever Story, brought him loads of acclaim and his highest Billboard 200 peak to date (No. 12). “Surround Sound,” the set’s Baby Tate- and 21 Savage-featuring lead single peaked at No. 90 during its initial run on the Hot 100 – the lowest-peaking of JID’s five career hits on the ranking. Nonetheless, that could change thanks to a viral TikTok trend that has resulted in material gains across streaming platforms. 

According to Luminate, “Surround Sound” has earned over 3.9 million U.S. on-demand streams during the period of November 10-16; that’s a whopping 48.3% increase from 2.68 million streams during Nov. 3-9. In turn, that Nov. 3-9 figure is a 27.2% increase from just over 2.1 million streams during the period of October 27 to Nov. 2. The boost in streams is mainly thanks to the viral Ceiling Challenge on TikTok, where users tape their phone to the ceiling, hit record, and then post a clip of that overhead shot. Normally, the video uses the portion of the track that lets the sample of Aretha Franklin’s “One Step Ahead” play to soundtrack the camera set-up process, and once the beat drops, they proceed to do their thing for the camera. With users opting for both wholesome and risqué versions of the challenge, the official “Surround Sound” TikTok sound has been used in over 175,800 posts and counting.  

No ‘Wondering’ Here: Red Clay Strays Score Chart Hit Thanks to TikTok

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While The Red Clay Strays have spent a long time supporting other major country acts on tour, from Brothers Osborne to Dierks Bentley to Eric Church, the Alabama group may finally be scoring a mainstream moment of its own. “Wondering Why,” the group’s soulful waltz from last year’s album Moment of Truth, has gone viral on TikTok, as users have been picked up on the line “She keeps on loving me/ Loves me the way I am” and deployed it in a variety of wistful clips.

“Wondering Why” has earned The Red Clay Strays their first Billboard chart appearance, as the song debuts at No. 33 on Hot Rock & Alternative Songs. And after scoring 2 million U.S. on-demand streams during the week ending Nov. 16, “Wondering Why” could be in for an even bigger total the following week, as the track earned 1.89 million streams from Nov. 17-20, according to Luminate. – JL

Ocean Alley Score Globe-Traversing Crossover Hit Five Years After Initial Release 

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Five years ago, Aussie rockers Ocean Alley scored a career-defining hit with “Confidence,” the third single from their sophomore studio album Chiarascuro (2018). The track climbed to No. 9 in Australia, earned a platinum certification in the territory, and reigned atop the 2018 Triple J Hottest 100. 

Clips of live performances of “Confidence” have gained ample traction on the band’s official TikTok page for years, but a slightly pitched-up and sped-up version of the song used in the band’s Nov. 2 TikTok commemorating two sold-out Brisbane shows has catapulted “Confidence” into the hearts and minds of millions of new listeners. According to Luminate, “Confidence” has collected over 1.9 million U.S. on-demand streams during the period of Nov. 10-16; that’s an eye-popping 182% increase from 700,000 streams during Nov. 3-9. In turn, that Nov. 3-9 figure is a 433.7% increase from just over 131,000 streams during the period of Oct. 27 to Nov. 2. 

Ocean Alley has smartly latched onto the song’s unexpected second wining, using their TikTok comment section to confirm to fans that they’re working on getting a sped-up version on DSPs. Furthermore, the band has been posting clips of old interviews and performances of the song – one of which went viral due to how similar lead singer Baden Donegal looks to both Jordan Peele and Bad Bunny. On TikTok, the official “Confidence” sound is featured in just under 2,000 posts, but the sound connected to the sped-up version boasts over 43,800 posts. The source of that sound is Jun. 15 TikTok by user @alyx ⭐️🎧, which features a fancam of One Direction alum Zayn. In posts using “Confidence,” the main attraction to the song is split between genuine interest and a “behind every boy/girl with impeccable music taste” trend. 

Thanks to its viral moment, “Confidence” has already topped the Viral 50 – USA Spotify chart, and there seems to be plenty of room for the song to continue to grow Stateside. – KD

Season’s Gainings: Drake Fans Flash Back to “November 18th” 

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Even with a total of 30 new Drake songs to feast on between new album For All the Dogs and its Scary Hours deluxe reissue, the Drizzy faithful can’t help but go a little retro around this time of year. “November 18th,” a DJ Screw-sampling fan favorite from the 6 God’s classic 2009 mixtape So Far Gone, sees the superstar rapper paying tribute to both Houston and the life-chanigng date he first flew to H-Town to meet eventual mentor Lil Wayne. With that date passing on the calendar on Saturday, streaming audiences were apparently interested in a little homage of their own: According to Luminate, the song racked up nearly 121,000 official on-demand U.S. streams that day – up 160% from the previous Saturday. – ANDREW UNTERBERGER