State Champ Radio 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. This week: Jack Black’s Bowser mega-ballad gives The Super Mario Bros. Movie a breakout hit, Taylor Swift’s Joe Alwyn-themed songs see a spike after news of their split emerges, Amazon turns a Queen deep cut into a best-seller and much more.
“Peaches” Ripe for a Chart Breakout: Jack Black’s Super Mario Bros. Movie Ballad Goes Viral
The new Super Mario Bros. Movie had a historic opening at the box office last weekend, grossing a staggering $204.6 million over its first five days of release. Though the movie has gotten mixed reviews, one part that’s been positively received has been the voice work of Jack Black as the villainous Bowser – an inspired bit of casting that may also be leading to a hit single in addition to the blockbuster movie.
Black’s “Peaches” debuted last week along with the movie, accompanied by a music video directed by Lyrical Lemonade’s Cole Bennett, featuring the entertainer (in the flesh) delivering a full-bodied performance of the piano ballad alone in a tower. The song, released via Universal Pictures subsidiary Back Lot Music, got off to a strong start in streaming and sales, and has only grown in the days since, as the movie has conquered theaters nationwide. It’s risen from 218,000 daily official on-demand U.S. streams and about 500 digital song sales on April 7 in its first full day of release to 961,000 and 1,000 in streams and sales on April 10 – gains of 342% and 104%, respectively, according to Luminate.
If the song continues to grow in those metrics (which seems likely, especially as the song continues to spread on TikTok), it should challenge for a spot on the Billboard Hot 100 within the next week or two. That would be a first for Jack Black as a solo artist – though he did hit No. 78 in 2006 as part of his band Tenacious D with the title theme to their movie The Pick of Destiny, and a second for the Super Mario film franchise, as Roxette reached No. 94 with “Amost Unreal,” from 1993’s less-successful Super Mario Bros. film adaptation. – ANDREW UNTERBERGER
Taylor Swift’s ‘Cornelia Street,’ ‘The 1’ & More Rise in Streams Following Breakup Reports
Taylor Swift fans were shocked last Saturday (Apr. 8) when reports emerged that the superstar and her longtime boyfriend, British actor Joe Alwyn, had broken up after more than six years together. Although the reportedly amicable split has yet to be confirmed by either Swift or Alwyn, fans reacted by revisiting some of Swift’s songs that are perceived to be about Alwyn, as well as touching upon heartbreak — resulting in notable streaming bumps in the days that followed.
The main beneficiaries in the Republic superstar’s catalog were “Cornelia Street” — the Lover album cut, which contemplates heartache through a nostalgic lens, rose 50% in U.S. on-demand daily streams from Apr. 8, the day that the news broke (158,000 streams, according to Luminate), to the following day (239,000 streams) — and Folklore opener “The 1,” which reflects on past love and spiked nearly 25% from 258,000 streams on Apr. 8 to 322,000 on Apr. 9. “London Boy,” the Lover track about a Tennessee woman falling for a British man, also posted a slight gain, up nearly 10% in streams from Saturday to Sunday.
“The 1” actually rose even higher on Monday, Apr. 10, to 393,000 streams that day, after astute Swifties pointed out that the superstar had swapped the song in to her Eras tour set list beginning in Arlington, Texas on Mar. 31. “The 1” took the place of “Invisible String” — another Folklore track that alludes to Swift’s extended romance with Alwyn, but through a more hopeful lens — perhaps hinting at the reported breakup a little over a week before news broke.
Swift’s Eras tour continues tomorrow night (Apr. 13) in Tampa, and fans are wondering if she’ll address the reports from the stage. In the meantime, they’re not only playing “Cornelia Street” more often — they’re also trying to piece together clues from her recent dinner outing near Cornelia Street in New York City. – JASON LIPSHUTZ
Queen’s “Cool Cat” Sinks Its Claws Into the Charts, Thanks to Amazon Commercial
Chances are you’ve seen it at least once while waiting to watch something else on streaming in the past months: a young girl frets about a mustache she can’t get rid of, before seeing a similar ‘stache on various pop culture icons – most importantly, Freddie Mercury – and decides to lean into it by ordering a yellow military jacket like the late Queen frontman used to wear. As she rocks the jacket in her classroom, she dances along to a Queen song on her headphones, gleefully oblivious to the rest of the world.
While many commercials might’ve opted for one of the band’s many universally recognizable classic rock anthems, Amazon Prime opted for a deeper cut for the ad: “Cool Cat,” the slinky penultimate track on the band’s 1982 album Hot Space. The strategy is paying off, at least for Queen: “Cool Cat” has been steadily rising in both sales and streams over the past month, with 478,000 official on-demand U.S. streams for the week ending April 6 (up 166% from three weeks earlier, according to Luminate) and 1,100 in digital sales (up 397%). It’s still below a number of their other perennials in weekly streams, but the song hits the top 10 of Billboard’s Digital Rock Song Sales chart this week (dated April 15) – their only song on the listing. – AU
‘Barbie’ Trailer Offers ‘Fun, Fun, Fun’ in the Sun
While Greta Gerwig’s upcoming Barbie movie, starring Margot Robbie and Ryan Gosling, promises to be a modern spin on the beloved Mattel doll with plenty of winks and 2023-friendly wordplay, the first full trailer for the film used a nearly 60-year-old pop classic as its soundtrack, albeit in a slightly new form. The Beach Boys’ timeless 1964 single “Fun, Fun, Fun,” licensed through Universal Music Publishing Group, was given a sped-up facelift – and as the trailer went viral, the track subsequently increased its daily streams.
Following the clip’s Apr. 4 release, daily streams of “Fun, Fun, Fun” rose from 37,000 on that day to 58,000 by the following Monday (Apr. 10), according to Luminate. Whether or not the song is used in the film, due out July 21, “Fun, Fun, Fun” — which climbed up to No. 5 on the Hot 100 in its heyday — should still get a nice summertime bounce in streams, when The Beach Boys can actually be played at the beach. – J.L.
Q&A: Bryant Pino, Director of Latin Music Programming at SiriusXM, on What’s Trending Up in His World
What Latin trends have defined the first quarter of 2023?
You have been hearing women dominate the music charts and pack the dancefloors. Dembow is now a definite must at any party or gathering. Artist experimenting with other genres has been refreshing. Lastly, collaborations is still a powerful music must-do.
A few new artists have become stars over the past few months. Are there any that are particularly intriguing to you?
I think this year has some great female acts. Young Miko: as an early supporter, I think her lyrical wordplay is refreshing and glad others are taking notice. PaoPao is another [good] bet that SiriusXM is highlighting as an artist to watch in our Next Wave music discovery concert series. Also being highlighted is Lennis Rodriguez, with her mix of Afro and tropical urban sounds. Plus, DannyLux is an act I am choosing to be part of this series, for his innovative and genre-defying emo-Mexican music. .
Last year was a watershed moment for Latin pop, thanks in part to the record-setting run of Bad Bunny. How will you remember 2022, and how do you think it has already impacted Latin music programming this year?
Collaborations! From Shakira collaborating with Karol G and Bizarrap, El Alfa with Black Eyed Peas, Camilo with Grupo Firme, Marshmello doing a merengue song with Manuel Turizo, Romeo Santos singing bachata with Justin Timberlake. The power of a good collaboration can break genre norms and open you up to a whole new demographic. Plus, artists tap into other genres, experimenting with EDM, Mexican, tropical, trap and dembow.
Fill in the blank: this summer, Latin music listeners will be obsessed with ________.
Concerts and festivals. As our personal preferences have become more open and or diverse, you will see more festivals and concerts cater to all types of music lovers. You will be able to enjoy Bad Bunny headlining a festival like Coachella, and hear Steve Aoki play with CNCO onstage at a dance festival. This summer, music will have infinite possibilities and outlets. – JL
Season’s Gainings: Put Me in Your Playlist, Coach
The past few weeks have brought the return of Major League Baseball to our lives, and not a moment too soon – especially if the streaming data for one of rock’s great baseball anthems is any indication. John Fogerty’s “Centerfield,” with its famous “Put me in, coach/ I’m ready to play today” and namechecks of Willie Mays, Ty Cobb and Joe DiMaggio, is up to 431,000 official on-demand U.S. streams for the week ending April 6, up from 329,000 three weeks before – a 31% gain, according to Luminate. With the NBA playoffs now around the corner, though, we’ll have to see if those timely streams end up jumping over to Pitbull and Kesha’s “Timber.” – 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. This week: A college team’s locker room pre-game ritual helps Lil Baby score a breakout hit from two solo albums ago, the new John Wick blockbuster gives boosts to its soundtrack cuts, Sexyy Red enjoys an X-rated breakout hit and much more.
Lil Baby’s ‘Low Down’ Soars High Thanks to March Madness
Although the Kansas State men’s basketball team may have had their hopes for a national championship dashed last weekend when they lost a heartbreaker to the upstart Florida Atlantic University team to miss out on the Final Four, hopefully the Wildcats can take solace in the fact that they’ve actively helped Lil Baby score an out-of-nowhere viral hit.
During their run to the Elite 8, the Kansas State squad used “Low Down,” a deep cut from the deluxe edition of Baby’s 2020 chart-topper My Turn (via Capitol/Motown/Wolfpack/Quality Control) as their pump-up anthem, sharing videos of team meetings in which the whole team is clapping along to the song’s beat (with the coaching staff sometimes doing a little more dancing than clapping!). TikTok users ran with the association between the team and the song, and during the week-and-a-half in which Kansas State competed in March Madness, dozens of clap-along clips were posted — and “Low Down” started rising on streaming charts.
During the week ending Mar. 16, “Low Down” earned a total of 2.44 million U.S. on-demand streams, according to Luminate. Then, when March Madness officially kicked off on Mar. 16, weekly streams for “Low Down” dramatically rose 84%, up to 4.44 million during the week ending Mar. 23. While Kansas State’s run may have ended, “Low Down” is still holding strong in the top 10 of Apple Music’s Top 100 chart, and will still be racking up streams by the time a new NCAA champion is crowned early next week. – JASON LIPSHUTZ
John Wick Songs Light Up on Search and Streaming
To the delight of action film fans and dog lovers everywhere, the fourth chapter in the John Wick franchise was released last Friday (March 24) to rave reviews and excellent box office returns. Though the series has never really produced a breakout sync, interest in the dark-hued dance music used in the films remains high: Chapter Four has dominated the TuneFind Trending Music page (which indexes music and songs appearing in popular TV shows, movies and video games), occupying at least three of the top five spots in the days following its release.
That newly piqued interest has resulted in modest streaming bumps for some of the songs involved, as well. Gesaffelstein’s “Hate or Glory” has steadily risen from just over 1,000 daily on-demand official U.S. streams on March 23 (before the movie’s release) to over 7,000 on March 27 – a 417% gain, according to Luminate – while Le Castle Vania’s “LED Spirals” is up from under 10,000 to over 20,000 (a 107% gain) and Justice’s “Genesis” is up from under 9,000 to nearly 12,000 (a 38% gain). And the songs are still climbing, as more fans see the movie and are inspired to soundtrack their own imaginary assassin battle scenes. – ANDREW UNTERBERGER
Sexyy Red Scores an Explicit Hit
St. Louis rapper Sexyy Red has been delivering raunchy singles over the past three years, turning herself into a quotable local star with songs like “Throw That Mf” and “Hood Bitch.” Yet the MC is primed to break out of the midwest thanks to the X-rated anthem “Pound Town,” with weekly streams for the track starting to soar in recent weeks following the single’s late January release.
With an eerie piano line courtesy of all-star producer Tay Keith (Drake, Travis Scott), “Pound Town” (released independently via Open Shift Distribution) has expanded its audience thanks in part to a sex-positive, ladies-first TikTok challenge. Meanwhile, multiple versions of the song — some with Sexyy Red solo, others with Tay Keith listed as a guest artist — have popped up on streaming platforms, and both a dating-show-spoofing official video and “spring break edition” of the song are listed on YouTube.
Regardless of how it’s being consumed, “Pound Town” looks like a breakthrough: after earning 121,000 U.S. on-demand streams during the week ending Feb. 23, according to Luminate, the single was up to 1.16 million streams for the week ending Mar. 23. Sexyy Red has yet to score a Billboard Hot 100 hit, but if that growth continues, that’s a challenge she’ll have completed soon enough. – JL
The “Poetic Rizz” of French ‘60s Soundtrack Composers
The phrase “rizz” may sound either eye-rollingly done-to-death or totally unfamiliar to you depending on your age and/or degree of onlineness, but it’s helped a theme song from a 1960s French drama become an unlikely viral sensation in recent weeks. The theme is from 1968 drama La Leçon Particulière (The Private Lesson), and it’s a rousing orchestral instrumental composed by Oscar winner Francis Lai.
The song found unexpected new life on TikTok thanks to its frequent accompaniment of videos demonstrating “poetic rizz” – or basically, users trying to show off their game at being seductively romantic in a particularly lyrical manner. (Often sarcastically.) In any event, the song’s sweeping melodrama has made the jump to streaming – the clip has exploded from around 31,000 on-demand official U.S. streams for the tracking week ending to over 496,000 four weeks later, a 1,500% hike, according to Luminate. Now, just wait till Gen Z discovers Love Story. – AU
Q&A: Priyanka Khimani, founder of Khimani & Associates, on What’s Trending Up in Her World
As one of India’s most prominent entertainment lawyers, what issues has your firm focused on most recently?
With the increasing presence of global digital streaming and social media services in India, coupled with growing consumption of Indian-language music across territories, we have had to extensively focus on navigating the music rights licensing landscape.
India often becomes a challenging territory, for three reasons:- (i) the various complexities around publishing rights; (ii) the tumultuous relationship between record labels (who double up as publishers) and authors (who, for the most part, do not control any copyright, but are entitled to receive their share of royalties); and (iii) the lack of uniformity in the relationship between major labels and the primary Indian PROs. Generally educating songwriters and artists on the relevance of publishing, its long-term value proposition and why holding on to it is essential to their future, has been another focus area.
Sync music licenses and music clearance generally have also seen a sharp increase in India, with the continued intersection of film and TV with music. Sync licensing has breathed new life into the non-film and independent music sector, giving artists greater control over when, and how, their music is placed or used.
What’s the biggest change that needs to take place within India’s music industry deals?
In so far as digital licensing deals are concerned, there needs to be a clear path towards licensing on all sides of music copyright, especially on the music publishing front. Rights ownership and administration is so uniquely structured in India that licensees often find themselves caught between conflicting interests of record labels (doubling as publishers), authors and the Indian PROs. There’s a pressing need for increased efficiency, better licensing models and structures, as well as clarity on which stakeholder collects what and through which route. This will lead to increased revenue generation, and generally boost confidence in India as an important emerging market.
When it comes to artist/songwriter deals in India, there needs to be a more equitable approach to ownership of publishing rights, as opposed to the traditional buy-out model. Thankfully, there’s been a gradual shift in the recent past as talk and awareness around publishing generally has become more informed and collaborative.
What’s the most common misconception about the Indian music industry?
There are two, actually. First, that the Indian film and music industry is only “Bollywood.” This is obviously untrue – not only are there multiple big film, TV and music industries in India covering different regions and languages, but, more importantly, music is no longer necessarily tied to film & TV. There’s a thriving, stand-alone, non-film, independent music sector which is taking root in India, as well as with the South-Asian diaspora across the world. In fact, most of the current artists that are on top of the India charts are all largely independent and didn’t come out of “Bollywood” or any other Indian film industry. Quite to the contrary, the film and TV industry has been leaning in to the non-film and independent music artists/labels and increasingly licensing or adapting or eventually even buying out their music for on-screen projects.
The other misconception is that we are not a touring market for international artists or festivals. Perhaps the reason for this is the misguided perception that we don’t consume Anglo-American/non-Indian music. I believe this is untrue. There might be other on-ground challenges from the lens of production, infrastructure, and even price points for ticket sales. The rupee value against the dollar doesn’t help either. However, if one is able to take these factors into consideration and tailor the offering to a local audience, organizers may be surprised to discover how much of a demand the market holds.
Fill in the blank: artists attempting to break through on a global stage need to pay closer attention to _______.
Getting their house in order – every artist needs to be equipped with the right team. An agent, manager, attorney, business manager – all have a separate and distinct role to play, and yet must work closely and in sync with each other, because everyone’s playing on the same team. Eliminating a needless string of middlemen, investing in and surrounding yourself with professionals who understand the business, is the key to long-term sustainability of your music and entrepreneurial career. – JL
Season’s Gainings: Future’s Perennial “March Madness”
You’d have to ask the man born Nayvadius Wilburn about how his bracket is doing this upset-heavy NCAA season, but whenever the calendar turns to its third month, you can bet that Future is winning in at least one respect. His 56 Nights fan favorite (and one of Billboard’s Songs That Defined the 2010s) “March Madness” is guaranteed to tick up this time of year – and so far it has, growing from 2.3 weekly million on-demand official U.S. streams for the week ending Feb. 23 to 2.7 million a month later, a gain of 18% – a number that could climb even higher with the Final Four matchups on the docket for this weekend. In any event, it’s already well ahead of “One Shining Moment.” – 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: Big hits and deep cuts across Taylor Swift’s catalog gain in the wake of her Eras Tour kickoff, while Coco Jones scores a breakout ballad and Fifty Fifty hits a “Cupid” bullseye.
Taylor Swift’s Tour Kickoff Yields Streaming Bumps Across “Eras”
Last week, Taylor Swift kicked off her Eras stadium tour with a career-spanning, three-hour-plus extravaganza at State Farm Stadium in Glendale, Ariz., setting social media ablaze with setlist reactions and outfit exclamations on Friday and Saturday (Mar. 17 & 18). The dozens of thousands in attendance in Arizona were lucky enough to see all 44 songs live — but plenty of other Swifties across the U.S. celebrated the superstar’s first proper headlining concert in over four years by pressing play on some of the hits that were at long last being taken on the road.
Beginning last Friday, when the Eras tour officially kicked off, daily streams for some of Swift’s most notable hits scored noticeable upticks. “Blank Space,” her Billboard Hot 100-topping smash from 1989, was up 18% in daily official on-demand U.S. streams on Friday compared to the previous day, according to Luminate, while the Lover title track posted a daily gain of 20%.
“Cruel Summer,” the first full song to be performed within the Eras setlist, did even better: Its daily streams more than doubled between the day before the tour launch (352,000 streams) and Monday (750,000), as more social clips of Swift finally performing the 2019 hit were feverishly shared. The current singles from Swift’s most recent album, Midnights, also enjoyed notable bumps: “Anti-Hero” rose 14% in daily streams from Thursday to Friday, while “Lavender Haze” earned a 31% increase on the same day.
Also contributing to Swift’s overall streaming totals coinciding with the Eras tour kickoff: the four “From The Vault” songs that she shared on Friday, which include three “Taylor’s Version” re-recordings of previously released songs (“Safe and Sound,” “Eyes Open” and “If This Was a Movie”) as well as an unreleased track, “All the Girls You Loved Before,” from the Lover sessions. The latter has gotten off to a hot start at streaming, scoring over 4 million streams on its release day, to go with 11,000 U.S. digital sales on Friday. As “Girls” continues to reside within the upper reaches of daily streaming charts on Spotify and Apple Music, Swift could notch another nice Hot 100 debut next week, after she takes the Eras tour to its second stop in Las Vegas this weekend. — JASON LIPSHUTZ
Coco Jones Slows Things Down on TikTok With “ICU”
While Coco Jones may currently be best known to audiences as the actress behind Hilary Banks on the Peacock reboot Bel Air, she may be following in the multi-platform footsteps of Tatyana Ali — who played cousin Ashley on the ’90s Fresh Prince, and reached the Hot 100’s top 10 in 1998 with “Daydreamin’” — with a hit single of her own. Following its Nov. 2022 release, Jones’ “ICU” has been gradually going viral on TikTok over the past few weeks — and bucking trends on the app in the process.
While an increasing majority of TikTok hits in the past year or so have taken off via sped-up versions — or sounded sped-up to begin with — “ICU” is a pointedly slow-and-low love song, near-stunning in its patience. And rather than crank the BPM back up, users have responded to it in its original tempo by responding to Jones’ vocal challenge and recording their own duet verses for the track. Consequently, the song has climbed 59% from just under 2 million official on-demand streams the chart tracking week ending Feb. 23 to over 3.1 million on the week ending March 16, according to Luminate. And it’s still climbing, meaning “ICU” may be moving to the waiting room for numerous Billboard charts soon. — ANDREW UNTERBERGER
Fifty Fifty Scores an Odds-On Hit With “Cupid”
Korean pop artists haven’t necessarily been able to score the kind of breakout crossover streaming hits on the Billboard charts that many of their English- and Spanish-language counterparts have found via TikTok and other virality-boosting platforms — but recent singles by girl groups NewJeans (who scored a pair of Hot 100 hits earlier this year) and now Fifty Fifty indicate that their luck may be starting to change.
Fifty Fifty’s bilingual disco-pop jam “Cupid,” released in February, has taken off through a series of dance challenges and other uses on TikTok, and was given additional life by a new “Twin Version” recorded entirely in English. The song has exploded from an already-impressive 2 million official on-demand streams in its first full tracking week (ending March 2) to nearly 4.7 million for the week ending March 16 — a rise of 131%, according to Luminate. “Cupid” debuts at No. 106 on the Global 200 dated March 25 this week, and if it keeps growing, it might aim its bow and arrow at the Hot 100 before long. — A.U.
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: Fictional band Daisy Jones and the Six scores a breakout hit while also boosting the real-life Rock and Roll Hall of Famers that inspire them, Brent Faiyaz and Kali Uchis get different types of TikTok lifts, Halsey scores a valuable TV sync and much more.
Is Daisy Jones & The Six a Fake Band With a Real Hit on Its Hands?
Part of the fun of watching Daisy Jones & The Six, the Amazon Prime Video series based on Taylor Jenkins Reid’s best-selling novel, is hearing the fictional hits from the story’s fictional ‘70s rock band become very real as fully produced songs. “Look at Us Now (Honeycomb)” is used as a linchpin moment in the story of up-and-coming singer Daisy Jones and the Fleetwood Mac-inspired band that she’s about to join — a huge hit, but one that causes tension as its personal message gets warped for mass appeal. And with the soundtrack to the TV adaptation launching on Atlantic Records last month, fans of the book have finally been able to hear the song in full.
While episodes of Daisy Jones & The Six are still rolling out weekly, “Look At Us Now” has struck a chord with book readers, series watchers and music fans who simply stumbled upon the rollicking pop-rock track on a streaming playlist. Upon its mid-February release, the song earned over 84,000 U.S. on-demand streams for the week ending Feb. 16, according to Luminate. But once the show premiered and “Look at Us Now” was given a dramatic performance, those weekly streams grew 10 times in size — the song clocked 871,000 streams for the week ending Mar. 9.
“Look at Us Now (Honeycomb)” has the pedigree of a successful rock track: Marcus Mumford co-wrote the song, with artists like Blake Mills and Madison Cunningham contributed to the track, which features lead vocals by series stars Riley Keough and Sam Claflin. While a full series soundtrack — presented as a Daisy Jones & The Six album, Aurora — was released on Mar. 2, some of the songs have yet to appear in the show, and could receive streaming bumps in the coming weeks.
One wrinkle to the Daisy Jones & The Six story to keep an eye on: Reid has talked about finding inspiration for the series in Fleetwood Mac’s iconic 1997 performance of their song “Silver Springs,” as captured in their Billboard 200-topping live album The Dance. TikTok users have picked up on the connection between the show and the song, and streams of “Silver Springs” have also started to tick way up.
So, as a band invented as an homage to Fleetwood Mac eyes its first real hit, Fleetwood Mac — who returned to the top 10 of the Billboard Hot 100 in 2020 thanks to the TikTok revival of “Dreams” — may score another comeback as well. – JASON LIPSHUTZ
Booyah: “Jackie Brown” Viral Dance Is the Cherry on Top for Brent Faiyaz’ Breakout Album
Fitting that as news of Quentin Tarantino’s last (and reportedly final) upcoming movie begins to make the rounds, we also have a new hit named after one of his best movies: “Jackie Brown,” a highlight from R&B singer-songwriter Brent Faiyaz’s hit 2022 Lost Kids/Venice/Stem set Wasteland. That album charted at No. 2 on the Billboard 200 and spawned nine hits on the Hot 100 – none of which were “Brown,” which is now spiking on streaming thanks to a TikTok dance challenge.
The challenge sees users reacting to the newly hissing and snapping beat of a sped-up remix of the song (courtesy of TikToker Sturdyyoungin), doing different types of back-and-forth shimmies in between the song’s spaced-out opening lyrics (“Only been a few hours, but it feel like days…”) The increased visibility for the song has helped it explode from under 1.3 million official on-demand U.S. streams the tracking week ending Feb. 16 to over 3.4 million the week ending March 9 – a rise of 174%, according to Luminate – which has helped Wasteland rebound on the Billboard 200 dated March 25, as it climbs back to No. 54. – ANDREW UNTERBERGER
‘You’ Love to See It: Halsey’s ‘Bells in Santa Fe’ Gets Penn Badgley Bump
Halsey’s 2021 album If I Can’t Have Love, I Want Power was a bold, often brilliant departure for the pop star, and while the Capitol alt-rock project (produced by Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross) earned critical acclaim, it also failed to produce any hit singles for the top 40 mainstay, with only “I Am Not a Woman, I’m a God” reaching the Hot 100 (peaking at No. 64). Fortunately, one of the album’s most harrowing tracks, “Bells in Santa Fe,” is getting a streaming bump a year and a half after the album’s release, thanks to Netflix’s smash psychological thriller You.
The nervy electro-pop song soundtracks a pivotal sequence in the new season of the Penn Badgley-starring hit, during a plot twist involving Marienne (Tati Gabrielle) in the eighth episode. Since the second half of You’s fourth season premiered on Mar. 9, daily U.S. on-demand streams of “Bells in Santa Fe” are way up — from around 9,000 streams per day prior to the new season being unveiled, to over 47,000 streams on Mar. 13, according to Luminate. Those streams will continue to accumulate as more fans of You reach the eighth episode and bust out their Shazam apps when they hear Halsey’s voice; meanwhile, Halsey will soon be onscreen herself, making their big-screen debut in the Sydney Sweeney-starring film Americana, which premieres at SXSW on Friday (Mar. 17). – JL
“Moonlight” Shines on Kali Uchís’ New LP
Rising R&B star Kali Uchis dropped the gorgeous slo-funk ballad “Moonlight” a week in advance of her March 3 Interscope album Red Moon in Venus, but the song is really taking off post-album release – with help, of course, from TikTok, where her breakthrough hit “Telepatía” first took off in 2021. Uchis has been promoting the song heavily on her account, even with an occasional wink: Her most popular video with “Moonlight,” with over 1.3 million likes, features her manually plastering posters advertising her new album onto an empty outdoor wall, with the caption, “‘You never promote your music’ im doing the best i can u guys.”
In any event, her efforts are paying off: Since sagging in popularity after its first couple days of Red Moon’s release, “Moonlight” has been steadily rising in official on-demand U.S. streams from March 5 (562,000) to March 13 (867,000). It’s got a ways to go to match the breakout success of “Telepatia,” but it’s got the vibe, and it’s got the momentum – and a little promotional elbow grease goes a long way. – AU
Q&A: Michelle Rutkowski, operations manager of Milwaukee Radio Alliance, on What’s Trending Up in Her World
What’s been a trend in alternative that’s intrigued you thus far this year?
I don’t know if “intrigued” is the right word for it, but so far in 2023, the alternative chart looks like a time capsule. Some of the biggest records at the format so far this year have been from Linkin Park, Depeche Mode, Fall Out Boy, Weezer and All Time Low. While it’s great to have so much new music from heritage artists, the alternative format needs to provide balance by continuing to seek out, embrace and expose the next generation of superstars, in order to remain relevant to our audience.
As the music industry has evolved over the years, how have you seen your listenership and their interests change?
Now more than ever, our audience is looking for a way to connect to the music. The pandemic starved us of our ability to see live music, or to meet our favorite band. There is so much passion for alternative music, and providing our audience with meaningful experiences that bring them closer to the music is what it’s all about.
What do you think is the most common misconception about alternative music today?
That it is defined by a singular sound! Great alternative stations find a way to weave in all of the textures and sounds that the genre encompasses. Folk, punk, rock, electronic — they all belong here, and they all can blend and flow together well with the right understanding of their nuances and the right musical connective tissue.
Fill in the blank: the alternative trend that will define the rest of the year is ___________.
Lovejoy. seriously. That’s it. That’s the trend. At least I hope it is!! – JL
Season’s Gainings: We’ll Always Love Big Poppa
March 9 is a date burned into the mind of every hip-hop fan old enough to remember 1997, when Christopher Wallace, a.k.a. The Notorious B.I.G., was tragically shot to death in Las Vegas at age 24. The annual wave of nostalgia and remembrances for Biggie on the date of his passing is usually enough to produce a small-but-noticeable bump in his consumption, with official on-demand U.S. streams of his catalog up from just over 3 million to nearly 3.7 million that Thursday – a gain of 21%, according to Luminate – with his massive Ready to Die hit “Big Poppa” rising enough to even make an appearance on that day’s Spotify Daily Top Songs USA chart. – 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: While celebrating one cut from his 2016 album improbably topping the Hot 100 in 2023, The Weeknd sees gains from another Starboy favorite — plus a dancehall classic revived by a rap superstar’s new single, and the early standout from the 36 songs on the new Morgan Wallen album.
Another Starboy “Reminder”?
Thanks largely to its much-hyped (and well-delivered) Ariana Grande-assisted remix, The Weeknd‘s “Die for You” tops the Billboard Hot 100 this week, over six years after it first debuted on the chart in 2016. Back then, it was one of many debuts from the artist born Abel Tesfaye’s Starboy album (via XO/Republic), a Billboard 200-topping success — but one that few would’ve predicted would still be spinning off hits in 2023. At the height of the TikTok age, though, seemingly no song is off-limits from a potential revival, with “Die for You” being one of the biggest recent beneficiaries.
And wouldn’t you know it: The Weeknd may even have a follow-up hit off the same set. “Reminder” also graced the Hot 100 back in late 2016, debuting and peaking at No. 31, with a star-studded video that was even nominated for video of the year at the 2017 Video Music Awards. In the past few month or two, the song has seen new life, with a popular TikTok trend of listeners posting selfie videos to the song’s (somewhat questionable) “Got a sweet Asian chick, she go low man (lo mein)” lyric.
The song has steadily risen in official on-demand U.S. streams over the last four weeks as a result — from 1.8 million for the tracking week ending Feb. 9 to over 2.7 million the week ending March 2, a 52% gain, according to Luminate. That’s still just a fraction of the streams posted by “Die for You” in its chart-topping week, but the song does debut at No. 140 on the Global 200 this week (dated March 11) — and with the success of “Die” serving as proof of concept, it might not take much more of a foot in the door for radio and streaming audiences to get on board with embracing another new-old Weeknd hit.
“Oooh” Yeah: Lumidee Classic Gains Thanks to Nicki Minaj Sample
For her first single of 2023, rap superstar Nicki Minaj reached back two decades for assistance. Lumidee’s 2003 top five Hot 100 hit “Never Leave You (Uh Oooh)” is one of the fondest-remembered smashes from the Sean Paul-heralded dancehall explosion in the pop mainstream of the mid-’00s, and Minaj sampled both the hypnotic Diwali Riddim and the singer’s own entrancing “Uh ooooh” chorus cries for the beat to her fiery new “Red Ruby da Sleeze,” released last Friday (March 3).
Unsurprisingly, the original “Never Leave You” (released on Universal) saw a bump in listenership as a result. The song rose from just under 42,000 official on-demand U.S. streams on the Thursday before the song’s release to nearly 72,000 that day, a gain of 71%, according to Luminate. “Red Ruby” is also off to a strong start, with millions in streams and thousands in sales in its debut week — though with heavy traffic expected from the 36 tracks found on Morgan Wallen’s blockbuster new album One Thing at a Time, it might have to wait to challenge the No. 3 peak of the Lumidee classic it borrows from.
“Thinkin’ Bout” an Early Breakout From New Morgan Wallen LP
Speaking of: As we’ve already written about extensively this week on Billboard, Morgan Wallen is off to the year’s best start with his third album One Thing at a Time, a 36-track set that looks to be a streaming behemoth — even beyond the standards of his 10-week Billboard 200-topping sophomore Republic/Big Loud/Mercury set Dangeorus: The Double Album. Dozens of the tracks are expected to land on the Hot 100 next week, with the pack predictably led by previously released cuts like “Last Night” and the title track, as well as early-tracklist highlights like “Man Made a Bar” and “Ain’t That Some.”
However, one track is joining the front-runners, despite appearing deep into the set’s running order: the rueful post-breakup cut “Thinkin’ Bout Me.” Showing up 25th out of the album’s 36 tracks, the song has nonetheless outperformed most of the tracks before it, with nearly 13 million combined official on-demand U.S. streams across its first four days of release (March 3-6), according to Luminate. The song might’ve been helped by a TikTok video Wallen shared days before One Thing‘s release of an older woman dancing enthusiastically at what appears to be a silent disco — with the vid set to “Thinkin’,” though it’s unclear what music the woman’s actually grooving to — along with the caption “fav fan ever. y’all help my find this lady.”
How high will “Thinkin’ Bout Me” and the rest of the album’s heavy-hitters debut on the Hot 100 next week? Too early to say for sure — but it’s probably safe to say that in general, One Thing at a Time will not be as patient with its chart takeover as its title suggests.
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: The Weeknd aims to score a Hot 100-topper with an Ariana Grande remix for the second time in the last two years, Selena Gomez’s social media back-and-forth leads to a surge of streaming support, a golden-age rap hitmaker sells a whole lot of discounted downloads, and loads more.
The Weeknd’s “Die For You” Surges in Streams as It Eyes Hot 100’s Top Spot
Could the Ariana Grande-assisted remix of The Weeknd’s “Die For You” help the years-old song vaunt to No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100? The slow-burning single, originally released on 2016’s Starboy album, has exploded over the past few months and reached a No. 6 peak on the Hot 100, thanks to a TikTok revival which then crossed over to streaming and pop radio. The last time Grande hopped on a remixed Weeknd track — two years ago, with “Save Your Tears” — the juiced-up version from the two Republic labelmates sped straight to the top of the Hot 100, and now they’re hoping lightning can strike twice with “Die for You.”
And so far, the remix has helped the song surge across different platforms: daily total streams for “Die for You” were up 269% from Feb. 23, the day before the Grande remix was released, to Feb. 24 — rising from 1.77 million U.S. on-demand streams to 6.55 million, according to Luminate. That daily streaming total dipped a bit in the days following the release, but by Monday, “Die for You” was still collecting over 4.25 million daily streams.
Digital sales for the track also rose considerably thanks to Grande’s addition, from a negligible amount pre-mix to 3,600 last Friday. “Die For You” faces stiff competition near the top of the Hot 100, with Miley Cyrus’ “Flowers” and SZA’s “Kill Bill” entrenched in the top two spots for multiple weeks — but early returns suggest that The Weeknd and Grande will at least be tightening the competition on next week’s chart. – JASON LIPSHUTZ
Team Selena: Internet Drama Helps Give Selena Gomez a Catalog Bump
While she hasn’t released a new album since Rare in early 2020, and her 2022 solo single “My Mind & Me” came and went without making a huge impact, Selena Gomez is off to a promising start in 2023. Her “Calm Down” remix collaboration with Afrobeats star Rema has been scaling the Hot 100, breaking into the top 20 this week. And now, fans are flocking to her back catalog to show her support in the midst of a long-simmering celebrity conflict.
The drama stems from Gomez’s relationship with Hailey Bieber, the model/influencer married to Justin Bieber, who was famously involved with Gomez in the early 2010s. Their recent online back-and-forth has involved a mix of subtweets, deleted TikToks, resurfaced old TV clips and other intrigue that you practically need a doctorate in 21st century pop social media to properly understand. But it’s gotten Gomez back in the headlines over the past week and has resulted in some of her best streaming numbers of the young year.
Gomez’s catalog – not counting songs in which she’s a featured or co-lead artist, like “Calm Down” – racked up over 2.5 million official on-demand U.S. streams on Monday (Feb. 27). That’s up 26% from her Sunday total of 2 million, and up 52% from her 1.6 million total the previous Monday (Feb. 20). Combined with her recent crossover collab and the recently teased upcoming third season of her hit Hulu series Only Murders in the Building, it’s looking like a good 2023 so far for the veteran multi-platform star. — ANDREW UNTERBERGER
Loc-ed After Discount: iTunes Pricing Spurs Massive Tone-Loc and Young MC Sales Gains
With digital song sales an ever-shrinking part of the music marketplace in the 2020s, you might think it quaint that something as simple as an iTunes price discount could generate huge sales boosts for a catalog hit. But we see evidence of it still being a factor every year – and this week, it’s the driving force between an explosion in numbers for a trio of songs from late-’80s hitmakers Tone-Loc and Young MC.
Loc’s singles “Funky Cold Medina” and “Wild Thing” and Young MC’s “Bust a Move” were prominently featured as part of an iTunes sale on classic hip-hop staples last week, with the songs discounted from their usual $1.29 price point to 69 cents. The three songs – all of which were co-penned by Young MC, a.k.a. Marvin Young – saw gigantic sales gains, jumping from negligible numbers for the track week ending Feb. 16 to multiple thousands on the week ending Feb. 23, according to Luminate.
The biggest gainer was “Medina,” up 4,817% to 5,800, followed by “Move” (up 3,159% to 4,800) and “Wild” (up 3,712% to 3,900). The three songs all debut on Billboard’s Digital Song Sales chart this week, at No. 5, No. 8 and No. 12. Their totals might not be as robust as the best-selling songs of a decade ago, but it’s still an impact worth paying attention to – you don’t need to go too deep into the math to know that selling thousands of a song at 69 cents is worth a little more than selling hundreds at $1.29 — AU
Tune Into TV Girl’s Latest Viral Smash
If you’re not plugged into new-school social media or artist streaming totals, you might not know that indie-pop trio TV Girl are absolutely enormous online. The California group’s dreamy, harmony-heavy tunes didn’t make too much mainstream noise upon the release of 2014 debut French Exit and 2016 follow-up Who Really Cares, but some of the singles from those albums — like the lilting, strings-heavy “Lovers Rock”; the shuffling, percussive “Not Allowed”; and the whirring clap-along “Cigarettes out the Window” — have now earned hundreds of millions of streams each, adopted by TikTok users and used to turn the still-active group into unwitting stars.
Next month, they’ll play Coachella, most likely to a massive crowd; over the past month, however, they’ve added another viral hit to their growing collection. “Blue Hair,” a gentle, cymbal-riding lullaby from TV Girl’s 2018 third album Death of a Party Girl, has taken off on TikTok in a sped-up version, with users zeroing in on the melancholy lyric “And I guess I’ll just miss her / Even though she isn’t even really gone”; the line is soundtracking sing-alongs, bedroom tours and, in one poignant case, a photo collage from a trans TikTok user demonstrating their personal evolution.
However it’s being hoisted up, “Blue Hair” is now booming at streaming: its weekly U.S. official on-demand streams are now 20 times what they were a month ago, from 107,000 for the week ending Jan. 26 to 2.12 million for the week ending Feb. 23, according to Luminate. The band has never earned a Hot 100 hit over the course of their nearly decade-long run together — maybe they’ll have one by the time Coachella rolls around. — JL
Metro Boomin’s Star-Studded “Trance” Goes Viral After Missing Verse Revealed
There’ve been countless examples of a Drake feature helping a song take off on the charts over the past decade and a half, but Metro Boomin, Young Thug and Travis Scott’s “Trance” might be the first example of a song exploding partly for its lack of a Drake feature. After a verse Drake submitted for the Heroes and Villains track leaked in January, Metro went viral on TikTok for a clip of him explaining to an understandably incredulous DJ Drama why the biggest rapper in the game ended up on his cutting room floor (“It just really wasn’t no room”).
“Trance” had originally debuted at No. 42 on the Hot 100 during Heroes’ release week, spending three weeks on the chart before falling off around the new year. But listeners perhaps had to hear (or re-listen to) the song that was so perfectly complete that its creator had to give Drake a thanks-but-no-thanks response for his belated contribution. Official on-demand U.S. streams for the song started climbing back up in February, rising from 3.1 million on the week ending Feb. 9 to 5.8 million the week ending Feb. 23. The song even re-entered the Hot 100 at No. 76 this week, proving even Drake’s negative presence on a song guarantees a positive chart impact. — AU
Q&A: Kevin Meenan, Music Trends Manager at YouTube, on What’s Trending Up in His World
Which music trends from the first two months of 2023 have stood out to you the most?
Regional Mexican has really been top of mind in these first two months of the year, with the diverse sounds of the genre having really broken through. The impact of the genre on our charts can hardly be overstated – this week alone it is responsible for over 15 entries on our US Top Songs chart. The rise of Grupo Frontera has been particularly inspiring – just a year ago the group was getting their start by uploading covers directly to YouTube, and now they regularly are landing multiple songs in the upper echelons of our charts. Their Fuerza Regida collaboration “Bebe Dame” even spent two weeks at No. 1 for us in the U.S.
Sonically speaking, Jersey Club’s latest brush with the mainstream has also proven to be an interesting space to watch, with varying levels of its influence taking form across the pop landscape. Both Lil Uzi Vert’s “Just Wanna Rock” and Coi Leray’s “Players” (DJ Smallz 732 – Jersey Club Remix) have proven to be inescapable on YouTube Shorts and beyond, and now PinkPantheress and Ice Spice’s more loosely Jersey Club-inspired “Boy’s a liar Pt. 2” is just taking the platform by storm. And finally, the continued global takeover of BZRP Music Sessions has been a real early 2023 bright spot. The Argentinian producer has long been a charts mainstay for us, but his latest feat – BZRP Music Sessions #53 with Shakira – really lived up to the “broke the internet” cliché. The video earned 54.3M views for us in under 24 hours, and reached No. 1 in 20 markets.
Which trends do you think will define the rest of the year?
In recent years, we have increasingly seen that a hit on YouTube can really come from any time and any place, and I expect this to continue to be a real throughline for us in 2023. It has just been a super exciting phenomenon, with fans getting exposed to sometimes unfamiliar sounds – a throwback like City Pop, or a modern melting pot like Drift Phonk – and finding their new favorite artist or musical inspiration in the process.
And increasingly, we are seeing artists really learn how to lean into these moments, embracing the user-generated content that might have sparked a viral moment while engaging fans with their own new touchpoints – Shorts, visualizers, music videos and everything in between – that just add further fuel to the fire. I see this as a real defining theme of 2023, with entry points like Shorts continuing to break both new releases and unexpected material, and artists finding ways to really own that moment and narrative via their own content.
Which of your 2023 initiatives have most effectively amplified these trends?
To me, it is ultimately all about the platform itself and its continued evolution. With YouTube, artists are really in control of creating multiple touch points to tease out a new release, spark a trend or lean into a viral moment. There are just so many ways to share new music and connect with the fans, be it via Premieres, After Party, Community posts, Shorts, chat in a live stream or the traditional video drop. Shorts in particular is the area that excites me the most – looking forward to a growing feature set there that will help fans and artists connect in exciting ways.
Fill in the blank: in terms of maximizing audience, more popular artists should be thinking about…
Getting creative across video formats. We just continuously see artists find new fans and chart success when they enhance their releases in that way. Take NewJeans as an example, who fans have speculated are behind a mysterious channel that compliments the lore they created with a pair of creative music videos (side a and side b) for their track “Ditto” – which itself had multiple performance videos, behind-the-scenes clips and related Shorts. Each of these creates a new touchpoint for the rising K-pop stars to engage with their fans and keep them coming back for me.
There is no one size-fits-all approach, so I would just encourage artists to experiment – engage with Shorts, host a Premiere, have fun with creative teasers and visualizers and continue to make a moment with the time-tested music video drop. – 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: A sanctioned-after-the-fact remix of a popular Lil Uzi Vert leak appears on the verge of becoming their next major hit, while Rainbow finds the pot of gold at the end of a Guardians of the Galaxy trailer bump and Mae Stephens looks to turn TikTok virality into a streaming breakout.
“Watch This”: Lil Uzi Vert Leak Charts With Remix Before Ever Officially Being Released
For much of the past year, fans of Lil Uzi Vert have been frantically trying to get their hands on an official version of “Watch This” – an unreleased track, supposedly from the late 2010s, that leaked in full in April 2022. In the meantime, the track’s unofficial edit has been picked up by a variety of DJs and remixers looking to capitalize on the excitement over the track, including producer Arizonatears, whose “Pluggnb Remix” of “Watch” is on the verge of becoming the rapper’s next major hit.
Despite crediting the popular Sped Up Nightcore account in its Spotify artist listing, the remix is not actually a faster version of the leaked “Watch” – it’s actually slowed and pitched down a bit, with layers of wavy synths giving it a more psychedelic feel. The new edit, which has been out since late last year, has (according to Arizonatears on the song’s YouTube) now been officially sanctioned by Uzi’s Atlantic Records label, and is taking off on streaming – with nearly 4.4 million official on-demand U.S. streams for the week ending Feb. 16, up 265.1% from the week before, according to Luminate.
The song even debuts on a number of Billboard charts this week, including a No. 19 bow on the Hot Rap Songs dated Feb. 25, and seems likely to impact the Billboard Hot 100 before long as its streams keep rising. It’s an extremely anomalous path for a song whose original version still doesn’t exist in any official capacity, but one that feels incredibly appropriate for 2023. — ANDREW UNTERBERGER
Rainbow Streams Up “Since” New Guardians Trailer
Deep Purple guitar great Ritchie Blackmore’s ‘70s and ‘80s side project Rainbow might not be the first artist most younger folks think of when they hear the title “Since You Been Gone.” But it’s not Kelly Clarkson’s ‘00s pop-rock classic that just got the spotlight treatment in a trailer for one of the year’s most anticipated movie sequels: Guardians of the Galaxy 3, the latest installment of the blockbuster MCU film series famous for its resurrection of classic rock staples.
“Since You Been Gone” is a little deeper of a dig by Guardians standards – the song originally peaked at No. 57 on the Hot 100 in late 1979, and has never quite gotten the classic rock radio play of Deep Purple’s most celebrated hits. But fans are certainly discovering it now: The song rises from under 116,000 official on-demand U.S. streams the week ending Feb. 9 to over 226,000 the following week, with the trailer dropping mid-week on Feb. 12 – a gain of nearly 96%, according to Luminate. We’ll see what other FM rock mixtape gems get unearthed by the Guardians franchise this time around when Vol. 3 hits theaters on May 5. – AU
Mae Stephens’ Single “Broke” on TikTok in December. Can It Cross Over Now?
“If We Ever Broke Up,” the cheeky synth-pop kiss-off from Mae Stephens, was a hit on TikTok more than a month before it was officially released. The English singer-songwriter teased the track’s shrugging, lightly funky hook (“If we ever broke up, I’d never be sad/ Thinking about everything that we had/ If we ever broke up,” Stephens sings) in a couple of late December clips — the biggest of which, posted on Dec. 29, blew up, with 11.5 million views to date.
Stephens spent January watching other TikTok users lip sync and create choreography to the track, while promising the full thing was arriving soon — and dealing with commenters claiming that the release was taking too long. “I promise you guys I’m trying!” she wrote on Jan. 13. “All I need is a little patience and understanding!”
Finally, “If We Ever Broke Up” was unveiled in full on Mercury/Republic on Feb. 10 – and early returns for the full track have been promising, with 2.83 million U.S. on-demand streams for the week ending Feb. 16, according to Luminate, and a No. 45 debut on the U.K. Official Charts. Time will tell if “Broke” continues to rise on streaming charts and gets some pop radio play, but Stephens can take comfort in the fact that another song that TikTok users claimed was teased for too long before finally being released — Sam Smith and Kim Petras’ “Unholy” — ended up a Grammy-winning, Hot 100-topping smash. – JASON LIPSHUTZ
Has Roman finally gotten revenge? “Roman Holiday,” the lead track from Nicki Minaj’s 2012 sophomore album Pink Friday: Roman Reloaded, has gone viral and climbed back onto streaming charts, nearly doubling its weekly streaming total thanks to recent fan outcries following the Grammy Awards earlier this month.
For their performance of their No. 1 smash “Unholy” at this year’s Grammys, Sam Smith and Kim Petras leaned into devilish imagery, complete with horns and red leather. Barbz were quick to hop online and point out that Minaj had earned criticism for her 2012 Grammys performance of “Roman Holiday,” which had a similarly winking demonic slant but was latter panned by conservative watch groups and longtime Grammys producer Ken Ehrlich, who called it “a disappointment both in terms of what we did and to an extent what she did.”
For Minaj diehards, the rapper seemingly being punished for her performance over a decade ago — Minaj has yet to return to the Grammys stage since the “Roman Holiday” spectacle, and has yet to win a Grammy, despite 10 career nominations — while Smith and Petras were lauded for their “Unholy” showcase, and soon awarded the best pop duo/vocal performance during the telecast, represented hypocrisy from the Recording Academy. (In the days following their own Grammys performance, Smith and Petras were also criticized, although the Recording Academy has not publicly dinged them.)
As a result, her fans began streaming “Roman Holiday,” and the non-single from Pink Friday: Roman Reloaded crashed the iTunes Chart 11 years after its release.
Weekly U.S. on-demand streams for “Roman Holiday” were up 99% during the week following this year’s Grammys, earning 125,000 streams during the week ending Feb. 9, according to Luminate. It also saw a tremendous jump in sales, going from a negligible weekly number to nearly 6,000 for the week. This isn’t the first time that “Roman Holiday” has gone viral — TikTok is full of sped-up versions of the track, dating back mostly to 2021 — but this time the resurgence is producing a sizable bump in listenership.
“Roman Holiday” never reached the Hot 100 upon its release, although Pink Friday: Roman Reloaded did spin off hits like “Starships,” “Pound the Alarm” and “Va Va Boom.” Last year, Minaj reached the top of the Hot 100 for the first time as a solo artist, thanks to “Super Freaky Girl.”
Linkin Park‘s anniversary plans for their 2003 album Meteora this spring are already off to a soaring start. A reissue of the soon-to-be-20-year-old album was recently announced for this April, along with exciting news of a previously unreleased song from the era (featuring original vocals from the band’s late frontman Chester Bennington) being discovered for the set: the appropriately haunting “Lost.”
Released on Friday (Feb. 10), “Lost” has enjoyed the kind of explosive first week the band used to regularly post with new singles during their commercial prime. The song started with nearly 2 million official on-demand U.S. streams its debut day, and earned 7.1 million total plays through Tuesday (Feb. 14), according to Luminate — while also putting up robust sales numbers, moving nearly 11,000 copies over that timespan. It even has started to make radio impact, with 7.1 million in all-format radio audience from Feb. 10-13.
The extra attention around “Lost” and the Meteora reissue (scheduled for Apr. 7 via Warner) has also led to a bump in the songs from that original RIAA seven-times-platinum-certified 2003 blockbuster. The album, which features such Linkin Park staples as “Numb,” “Faint,” “Somewhere I Belong” and “Breaking the Habit,” jumped from just over 1.7 million combined official on-demand U.S. streams the day before “Lost” to nearly 2.3 million on the day of its release, a gain of 32%.
“Lost” should make a significant impact on the Billboard charts next week (dated Feb. 25), including a likely debut on the Billboard Hot 100 — which would be the band’s first since they reached No. 45 with the Kiiara-featuring “Heavy” in Aug. 2017, following Bennington’s tragic death at the age of 41 that July. (If it made the chart’s top 40, that would be their first visit to the region since “Burn It Down” reached No. 30 in May 2012.)
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: Just like she did 33 years earlier, Bonnie Raitt rides a surprise Grammy win to a big commercial boost, while a rising tide lifts all 2023 Morgan Wallen singles and a new remix proves that two viral sensations are better than one.
And “Just Like That…,” Bonnie Raitt’s Post-Grammys Sales & Streams Are Way Up
Few Grammy watchers expected Bonnie Raitt to take home song of the year at Sunday’s (Feb. 5) awards — perhaps least of all Raitt herself, as judged by her heavily memed surprised reaction to the announcement — for the devastating, self-penned title track to her 2022 album Just Like That. The song was easily the least commercially visible of the 10 tracks nominated, the other nine of which were all top 20 hits on the Billboard Hot 100. (Raitt has not reached the Hot 100 since 1995.)
That lack of commercial profile for “Just Like That” to that point, however, has just meant that there’s plenty of curious listeners now intrigued enough by the song’s big Grammy win to check it out for the first time. The song absolutely blasted off on streaming services following its song of the year victory, spiking from just over 10,000 daily official on-demand U.S. streams two days before the Grammys (Feb. 3) to a whopping 697,000 the Monday after (Feb. 6) — a gain of around 6,700%, according to Luminate.
Click here to read the full story over at Billboard Pro.
Morgan Wallen’s New Hits Are Big Enough to Boost His Older Ones
Morgan Wallen’s One Thing at a Time is most likely going to be one of the biggest albums of 2023, if its pre-release tracks are any indication: As noted earlier this week, nine songs have been released so far from the 36-song project, and seven of them have already hit the top 10 of the Hot Country Songs chart. The trio of songs that Wallen issued last week — “Last Night,” “Everything I Love” and “I Wrote the Book” — are doing so well, in fact, that their releases have spurred notable streaming gains for a pair of the country star’s previously released hits.
Since its Jan. 31 release, “Last Night” has established itself as the breakout hit of the new three-pack, with daily U.S. official on-demand streams exceeding 3.38 million through Feb. 5 and peaking at 4.68 million on Feb. 3, according to Luminate. The track debuted at No. 3 on Country Streaming Songs, and became Wallen’s ninth No. 1 on the Country Digital Song Sales chart. Meanwhile, “Everything I Love” and “I Wrote the Book” have each been logging seven-figure daily streams since their releases, peaking at 2.22 million and 2.26 million, respectively, on their release dates.
Yet the new trio of songs have also generated enough interest around Wallen to boost streams for the One Thing at a Time title track, which was released in December, as well as “Thought You Should Know,” a promotional single unveiled in November. On the day that the three-pack was released, U.S. on-demand streams for “One Thing at a Time” jumped 88% to 1.45 million, while “Thought You Should Know” scored a 42% uptick to 1.47 million streams. Both songs’ daily streams hovered above the 1 million mark through Feb. 5.
One Thing at a Time is due out Mar. 3, and Wallen has announced a stadium tour in support of the follow-up to 2021’s Dangerous: The Double Album. “Last Night” should have a major chart bounce during its first full tracking week — we’ll see how much his other songs continue to benefit alongside Wallen’s latest hit.
Song’s a Hit: PinkPantheress Song Boosted to Breakout Status by Ice Spice Remix
Before 2023, pop&B singer-songwriter PinkPantheress and rapper Ice Spice were two of the decade’s most exciting young artists yet to score a Billboard Hot 100 hit, both finding TikTok success, social media buzz and critical acclaim for their early singles but not yet quite getting all the way overground. Ice Spice got on the board this January, however, with the release of her Lil Tjay collab “Gangsta Boo” (debuting at No. 82 on the Hot 100) from her Like..? EP — and now she might be the key ingredient in getting PinkPantheress her first entry there, too.
Ice Spice adds a guest verse for the new remix to PinkPantheress’ streaming hit “Boy’s a Liar” — titled “Boy’s a Liar, Pt. 2” — which debuted last Friday (Feb. 3). Since the release of the new version (which for Billboard chart purposes, gets grouped along with the original when it comes to consumption numbers), daily official on-demand U.S. streams of “Boy’s a Liar” have steadily ballooned from 464,000 on Feb. 2 (the day before) to just under 3 million on Feb. 6, a 541% gain, according to Luminate. As the numbers keep growing, “Liar” seems on pace to become easily the biggest chart hit yet for both artists — and perhaps one of pop music’s biggest breakout stories of early 2023.
