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 nation-shaking news of President Joe Biden stepping down from the upcoming presidential race, presumably to be replaced on the Democratic ticket with Vice President Kamala Harris, has already led to a number of sizeable bumps for Harris-connected pop songs, while Tenacious D gets a bump from recent interest that they’d likely be happier without.
Kamala IS Brat — But Harris’ Ascent is Boosting More Artists Than Just Charli XCX
When President Joe Biden announced on Sunday (July 21) that he was ending his 2024 re-election campaign and endorsing Vice President Kamala Harris as the Democratic nominee, the biggest news of the week in U.S. politics was seismic enough to naturally spread into the world of popular culture. Plenty of music stars quickly reacted to the announcement, and a handful have already endorsed Harris as their 2024 candidate — but a few music tie-ins are already reverberating on streaming platforms in the opening days of her candidacy.
There is, of course, the role that Harris’ coronation plays in our ongoing Brat Summer. On Sunday night, Charli XCX posted on Twitter, “Kamala IS Brat,” and the Harris campaign responded in kind, swapping in the Brat lime green color and font on its official account; meanwhile, CNN aired a segment dissecting what exactly being “brat” signifies, in relationship to the British pop star’s hit new album. Thanks in part to the campaign’s co-sign, Brat is up 14% in official on-demand U.S. streams from last Monday and Tuesday (10.3 million streams over July 15-16, according to Luminate) to the same period this week (11.8 million streams over July 22-23).
Meanwhile, the Harris campaign used Chappell Roan’s opening track on The Rise and Fall of a Midwest Princess, “Femininonenon,” in a TikTok video that criticized President Trump on Monday, boosting streams of the song by 19% from last Monday and Tuesday (1.22 million streams over July 15-16) to this Monday and Tuesday (1.46 million over July 22-23). And while both the Charli XCX and Chappell Roan albums are relatively recent projects still earning robust streams, the Harris campaign also revived “Freedom,” Beyoncé’s collaboration with Kendrick Lamar from her 2016 album Lemonade, which she has adopted as her official campaign theme (which Queen Bey’s approval), with it soundtracking her first campaign HQ entrance on Monday and her first campaign ad on Tuesday. Consequently, streams of “Freedom” leapt from 37,000 over July 15-16 to 232,000 over July 22-23 — a whopping 519% spike. – JASON LIPSHUTZ
Tenacious D Up in Streams After Member’s Trump Assassination Comments Leads to Band Going on Hiatus
This hasn’t been the best month for the Jack Black-fronted comedy-rockers Tenacious D, who found themselves in the eye of a controversy storm following an onstage comment made by co-founder Kyle Gass at the band’s July 14 gig in Sydney, Australia. During a birthday celebration in which he was presented with a birthday cake, Black asked Gass to make a birthday wish, to which he responded, “Don’t miss Trump next time.” The remark was, of course, in reference to the assassination attempt the night before on former president Donald Trump — and ultimately made for global news, as word of the comment spread over social media and ultimately drew heavy criticism.
In response to the backlash, Gass issued an apology (which has since been deleted) for his “severe lack of judgment” in his remarks about what he now deemed a “tragedy.” Shortly after, Black released his own statement, saying that he was “blindsided” by his bandmate’s remarks, and that he’d decided to cancel the rest of his and Gass’ 2024 tour and put the band on indefinite hiatus.
Perhaps the lone bit of good news for Tenacious D in all of this is that all the controversy has lead to a modest spike of streaming interest in the band’s music. Over the period of July 16-17 — the two days after news of Gass’ comment, the subsequent backlash and the band’s response to it really started to go viral — the band attracted 609,000 official on-demand U.S. streams, according to Luminate, a gain of 14% over the 533,000 streams the band racked up the previous Tuesday-Wednesday. – ANDREW UNTERBERGER
Sevdaliza’s Culture-Bridging Global Smash Makes Some Stateside Headway
What do you get when you combine a Dutch-Iranian artist (Sevadaliza), a Brazilian singer (Pabllo Vittar) and a French singer-songwriter (Yseult)? A global hit, of course.
“Alibi,” an infectious multilingual bop, has taken over the world thanks to its hypnotic melody and sample of colombian singer Totó la Momposina’s “Rosa” — which boasts a history that dates back to 1918.
According to Luminate, “Alibi” earned just under 1.6 million official on-demand U.S. streams during the period of June 28-July 4. The following seven-day period (July 5-11), those figures increased by 35% to 2.15 million streams. By the period of July 12-18, once the waist-isolating TikTok dance trend truly started to take off, streams for “Alibi” exploded by a further 121% to 4.7 million streams. In just two weeks, “Albi” was able to increase its streaming activity by a whopping 200%.
Officially released on June 28, “Alibi” arrived as an immediate viral sensation thanks to its months-long TikTok notoriety. Sevdaliza’s May 6 TikTok teasing the track currently boasts a stunning 18.5 million views, with the official “Alibi” sound playing in over 2.4 million unique posts on the app. A simple belly dance-inspired trend focusing on hip-rolling and waist-wining (depending on your skill level) is by far the most dominant “Alibi” trend on the app, while clips of people gawking at the muscle control or lamenting that they could never dance in that way making up a significant portion of posts as well. “Alibi” received another wind of virality after users started to share their opinions of a viral quinceañera video – which contained dance moves some thought were inappropriate for a 15-year-old to perform in front of family – as the song played in the background. On YouTube, the song’s official music video has amassed over 35 million views in just three weeks. The baile funk and Latin pop banger also soundtracks over 660,000 Reels on Instagram.
Already a Billboard hit – the song has reached No. 3 on World Digital Song Sales, No. 19 on the Global 200 and No. 8 on the TikTok Billboard Top 50 — “Alibi” could be gearing up for a Hot 100 appearance, should its streams continue to rise. – KYLE DENIS