This week’s Trending Up looks at the impact of Eminem’s big return, as well as a rising hit from Billie Eilish and an all-time album getting new attention this month.
Marshall “Eminem” Mathers claps during the first round of the 2024 NFL Draft at Campus Martius Park and Hart Plaza on April 25, 2024 in Detroit, Michigan. Gregory Shamus/Getty Images
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: Eminem’s new single debuts to massive numbers and a big catalog (and sample) bump, a deep cut on Billie Eilish’s latest flies past its lead single, Apple Music brings Miseducation to the masses and more.
Eminem Makes Streaming Magic for “Houdini,” “Abracadabra” & More
A full 25 years into his superstar career, Eminem still knows how to make an entrance. The rapper has been teasing his upcoming The Death of Slim Shady album since late April, and on Friday (May 31), fans got their first taste of it with comeback single “Houdini.” Em showed with the single that he certainly has not lost his taste for provocation at age 52 – the song proved immediately controversial for its jokes about Tory Lanez’ shooting of Megan Thee Stallion, as well as other borderline-offensive lyrics – nor his more recent affinity for reviving classic rock staples, as the song heavily lifts from Steve Miller Band’s 1982 Hot 100-topper “Abracadabra.”
The song’s impact has been similarly instantaneous, both in terms of its own consumption and in its lifting of associated cuts. “Houdini” has already racked up over 30 million official on-demand U.S. streams through Wednesday (June 3), according to early reports from Luminate, while also selling over 36,000 copies – both tremendous four-day numbers for any artist in 2024, let alone one twice the age of many contemporary superstars. The song has also elevated the rest of Eminem’s discography, with his non-”Houdini” catalog notching nearly 46 million streams combined over those four days, a 38% rise from the equivalent period the prior week. (A big part of that gain comes from 2002’s “Without Me,” whose iconic “Guess who’s back, back again” intro “Houdini” resurrects, and which is up 56% to over 3.1 million streams for those four days.)
Of course, Steve Miller is eating off the “Houdini” success as well: The Rock and Roll Hall of Famer’s eponymous band’s biggest Hot 100 hit more than doubled its streams over the same period, up 101% to 613,000. And yes, even that other recent hit of the same title is getting some spillover from the deluge: Dua Lipa’s “Houdini” was up 8% in streams over that period, to just over 2 million. – ANDREW UNTERBERGER
Billie Eilish’s “Birds of a Feather” Spreads Wings on Streaming
Billie Eilish’s Hit Me Hard and Soft has been heating up the Billboard 200 with career-best numbers, but lead single “Lunch” – already a top five hit on the Billboard Hot 100 – isn’t the only song listeners are throwing their weight behind.
According to Luminate, “Birds” earned 25 million streams during its parent album’s first week of release (May 17-23), good enough for a No. 13 debut on the Hot 100. The following week (May 24-30), those numbers dipped just 2.7% to 24.3 million streams, helping the song rise one spot to its current Hot 100 peak of No. 12.
Of course, Eilish’s entire new LP has been pulling monster streams, but social media users’ affinity for the song’s lovey-dovey lyrics have helped “Birds” pull ahead of the pack. On TikTok, the official “Birds of a Feather” sound plays in over 170,000 clips, with the most popular videos using the song to showcase their romances and friendships. The live performance video of “Birds” — filmed at Inglewood’s Kia Forum alongside brother and collaborator FINNEAS – is the most-viewed Hit Me Hard and Soft live clip with 2.4 million views; its accompanying TikTok clip boasts a further 3.1 million views.
Last weekend (May 31-June 3), “Birds” collected 15 million streams, a 14% jump from the 13.1 million streams it earned over the same period the weekend prior (May 24-27) – signaling that the love for the song has clearly extended beyond the novelty of a new Billie album.
With the No. 1 spot on Spotify’s Today’s Top Hits playlist in its pocket and clear grassroots love, Billie could be eyeing her next chart smash with “Birds.” – KYLE DENIS
Listeners Get Educated on Lauryn Hill’s ‘Miseducation’
Apple Music had much of the music-listening world on the edge of their Twitter accounts two weeks ago, as the streaming service slowly rolled out its list of the top 100 albums of all time. The wide-ranging list, which accounted for everything from Miles Davis’ epochal 1959 jazz LP Kind of Blue to SZA’s R&B blockbuster SOS from just 18 months ago, inspired a great deal of conversation and debate over its rankings, including for what it ultimately unveiled as its No. 1: Ms. Lauryn Hill’s iconic 1998 solo masterpiece The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill.
The 16-track set, which includes such classic singles as “Doo Wop (That Thing),” “Ex Factor” and “Everything Is Everything,” rose from 6.3 million official on-demand streams for the tracking week ending May 16 (before the announcement) to over 8.1 million the week ending May 23, according to Luminate, with the announcement made on May 22. The bump from that lasted through week ending May 30, as the album rose again to 8.7 million streams – a two-week gain of nearly 38%. (The set also nearly doubled in sales over that period, from just over 900 for the week ending May 16 to nearly 1,800 for the week ending May 30.)
“I’m grateful that it connected and continues to connect with so many people,” Hill related to Apple Music after its ranking was revealed. “Thank you tons to every careful listener, thank you to every casual listener, and love to all the artists and those who support them fighting the good, courageous, and noble fight of presenting the art you love to a world that desperately needs it.” – AU
Lomiiel’s “Hay Lupita” Turns Dance Trend Into Streaming Smash
If TikTok is consistent about anything, those users are going to dance. Dominican rapper-singer Lomiiel is the latest artist to land a streaming hit by way of a dance trend on the wildly popular app.
The Brazilian funk-inflected dembow song has earned over 2.4 million official on-demand U.S. streams during the tracking week of May 24-30, according to Luminate. That’s a 180% increase from six weeks ago (April 11-18), during which the track pulled just 863,000 streams. “Hay Lupita” has steadily increased in streams over that timespan thanks, in large part, to its viral dance trend.
The low-effort, hip-rocking dance appears in countless clips on the app, with Lomiiel’s self-uploaded audio boasting over 760,000 posts. Like any true viral song, uses of “Hay Lupita” have surpassed dance videos, with users placing the track over “fit check” videos and fancams of San Diego Padres right fielder Fernando Tatís Jr. alike.
Lomiiel first posted a snippet of the track on Feb. 26, with the full track hitting DSPs on March 28. The official music video – which has garnered 18.3 million views – arrived on April 15, just four days before “Hay Lupita” earned its biggest single-week streaming increase to date. During the period of April 19-25, the song earned 1.3 million streams, up over 50% from the period of April 11-18.
