Alex Warren lastly tops the Billboard Scorching 100 with ‘Strange’ : NPR

With Morgan Wallen‘s I am the Drawback persevering with to dominate — it is No. 1 on the Billboard 200 albums chart for a second week, by a large margin — the largest information belongs to singer-songwriter Alex Warren, whose blockbuster monitor “Strange” ascends to No. 1 on the Scorching 100 singles chart for the primary time. It is one of many few songs at the moment within the operating for “tune of the summer season” standing, although the summer season of 2025 is admittedly (and fortunately) nonetheless younger.

TOP ALBUMS

Final week, Morgan Wallen’s I am the Drawback topped the Billboard 200 by a mile: It was probably the most streamed album of the week, it posted the largest gross sales week of any report this 12 months, and 36 of its 37 songs cracked the Scorching 100 concurrently. Everybody knew it will be a blockbuster and — ta da! — it is a blockbuster.

These developments proceed in I am the Drawback‘s second week. For starters, its “equal album models” quantity — referring to the cocktail of gross sales and streaming that Billboard makes use of to rank albums every week — dropped simply 42%, from 493,000 to 286,000. The decline could appear important at first look, however percentage-wise, it is an unusually small week-to-week dip from a high-profile debut; main albums sometimes profit from an enormous streaming surge upon launch, solely to plummet again all the way down to earth because the preliminary flood of curiosity fades. (For an excessive instance of this phenomenon, take into account Echo, the brand new album by Jin of BTS: It debuted at No. 3 final week and plunged all the best way to No. 122 simply seven days later.)

In actual fact, this week’s Billboard 200 brings Wallen a brand new little bit of bragging rights so as to add to his arsenal: For the primary time in his profession, he is obtained three albums within the high 10 concurrently. One Factor at a Time, from 2023, holds at No. 4, whereas 2021’s Harmful: The Double Album sits at No. 10. (His full-length debut, 2018’s If I Know Me, peaked at No. 10 shortly after the discharge of Harmful; it nonetheless sits at No. 73.)

Past Wallen, it is a gradual week, as just one album — Joe Jonas‘ Music for Individuals Who Imagine in Love — debuts within the high 100 at No. 24. Playboi Carti‘s MUSIC leaps from No. 18 to No. 5 due to a cargo of deluxe bodily editions from the rapper’s webstore, whereas tourmates Kendrick Lamar (GNX) and SZA (SOS) proceed their long-term residencies within the high 5, however that is all there may be to report from the chart’s higher reaches.

TOP SONGS

Final week, Morgan Wallen locked down the Scorching 100’s high three spots with “What I Need (feat. Tate McRae),” “Simply in Case” and “I am the Drawback,” delaying the inevitable ascent of Alex Warren’s “Strange” to No. 1. This week, buoyed by a surge in radio airplay — in addition to a high-profile slot performing the tune on the American Music Awards — “Strange” lastly ascends from No. 4 to No. 1. “Strange” has skilled a gentle climb since getting into the Scorching 100 16 weeks in the past, and now it is able to stake its declare to “tune of the summer season” standing. (Extra on that under.)

In fact, Wallen’s greatest songs did not fall far — in actual fact, the three every slid down a single spot in lockstep, with Kendrick Lamar’s “Luther (feat. SZA)” rounding out the highest 5 after topping the chart for 13 consecutive weeks earlier within the 12 months. And I am the Drawback, Wallen’s new album, nonetheless lands 31 of its 37 songs on the Billboard Scorching 100. (Wallen even has a thirty second tune on the Scorching 100, as his Put up Malone collaboration “I Had Some Assist” nonetheless sits at No. 16 greater than a 12 months after it debuted atop the chart.)

With three of Wallen’s songs departing the highest 10, that leaves room for 3 previous standbys to return to acquainted perches. Drake‘s “Nokia” rebounds from No. 12 to No. 9, Benson Boone‘s “Stunning Issues” surges from No. 14 to No. 10 in its seventieth week on the chart, and Teddy Swims‘ “Lose Management” climbs from No. 11 to No. 8. “Lose Management” has now spent 63 weeks within the high 10 and 93 weeks on the Scorching 100 — each all-time data. In the meantime, Shaboozey‘s “A Bar Music (Tipsy)” rebounds from No. 9 to No. 6 in its 59th week on the Scorching 100. Can we get some new hits, fairly please?

WORTH NOTING

Keep in mind the summer season of 2024? Collect ‘spherical your grandpappy’s knee and he’ll let you know the story of one thing we known as “Brat Summer time” — nevertheless it wasn’t simply Charli xcx! There was Chappell Roan! Sabrina Carpenter! Followers have been nonetheless rocking latest albums by Taylor Swift and Beyoncé! Kendrick Lamar was profitable his diss-track battle with Drake! Put up Malone and Morgan Wallen shaped a country-pop Voltron that truly seemed like summer season! Up-and-comers like Benson Boone, Teddy Swims, Tommy Richman and Shaboozey turned stars — or at the least hitmakers — earlier than our eyes!

At present? There’s quite a bit much less… newness to select from.

Someway, lots of 2024’s zombified stays are nonetheless shambling round close to the highest of the charts. Even with Wallen’s new album crowding the Scorching 100, 9 of the highest 16 songs have been on the chart for greater than six months, and 5 of these — Shaboozey’s “A Bar Music (Tipsy),” Swims’ “Lose Management,” Boone’s “Stunning Issues,” Billie Eilish‘s “Birds of a Feather” and Put up Malone’s “I Had Some Assist,” that includes Wallen — have charted for greater than a 12 months apiece.

There is no legislation that claims a tune of the summer season needs to be new; keep in mind 2022, when Kate Bush‘s 1985 basic, “Operating Up That Hill,” stormed the charts all summer season due to its placement on Stranger Issues? However the songs of this summer season should not simply be the undead remnants of final summer season, both.

This week, Billboard printed its inaugural Songs of the Summer time chart for 2025. Their rating makes use of quite a lot of components — radio airplay, streaming and gross sales, all computed cumulatively because the summer season rolls on — to find out which songs most exemplify that 12 months’s summer season playlist. Within the 2024 chart that lastly declared a single winner after 14 weeks, Put up Malone’s “I Had Some Assist (feat. Morgan Wallen)” narrowly edged out Shaboozey’s “A Bar Music (Tipsy),” not that you just wanted a chart to let you know that these have been final summer season’s greatest hits.

It is humorous to peruse this 12 months’s first Songs of the Summer time chart, largely as a result of it scans like an alternate-universe Scorching 100 wherein they imposed modest time period limits. (Titles that appeared on final 12 months’s Songs of the Summer time chart, or which peaked earlier than or throughout final summer season, aren’t eligible.) And, as a result of it roughly coincides with the discharge of I am the Drawback, eight of the brand new chart’s 20 songs are by Wallen. In actual fact, absolutely half are nation or country-adjacent, with BigXthaPlug‘s “All of the Manner (feat. Bailey Zimmerman)” and Riley Inexperienced’s “Worst Manner” additionally making the minimize.

That is to be anticipated; nation jams have contended for “tune of the summer season” standing since “tune of the summer season” first emerged as an idea. However it’s placing, when scanning the remaining 10 songs, how long-in-the-tooth a few of them are. Chappell Roan’s “Pink Pony Membership” actually suits the invoice for a Delight Month-friendly pop banger, nevertheless it’s been on the Scorching 100 for 50 weeks now. (It really first got here out in 2020, however that is one other story.) Girl Gaga and Bruno Mars‘ “Die With a Smile” turns up, too, and it has been on the Scorching 100 for 41 weeks.

Maybe it speaks to the second that the chart additionally contains rapper Doechii‘s breakout hit “Anxiousness,” which nods to Gen-Z nostalgia — it interpolates Gotye‘s inescapable early-2010s sensation “Any individual That I Used to Know” — whereas additionally capturing a second when so many people are feeling pressured in regards to the world. If that finally ends up being 2025’s tune of the summer season, it’d make a good bit of sense.

Nonetheless, it is onerous to not discover the vacuum that exists for these looking for feel-good summer season pop jams that — in contrast to “Pink Pony Membership” or “Die With a Smile” — aren’t but sufficiently old to eat stable meals. Benson Boone’s actually attempting, if followers and radio stations would simply cease spinning “Stunning Issues” lengthy sufficient to pay attention. Jessie Murph and Lola Younger have been ready within the wings for some time, hovering simply exterior the charts’ higher reaches alongside up-and-comers like neo-soul superstar-in-waiting Leon Thomas and high-cheekboned pop singer-songwriter sombr. Here is hoping just a few of them break into the highest 10 — the earlier, the higher.