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.
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This week: Laufey’s new album has chart competition from a remixed song off her second album, Olivia Dean finds herself on the verge of a crossover hit and an old Rihanna fan favorite blazes anew (again).
Wavy Remix of Laufey’s ‘From the Start’ Scores Streaming Gains for Multiple Versions
Laufey may have just released her new A Matter of Time album, but the lead single from her previous album is the gift that keeps on giving. “From the Start,” the first single from her Grammy-winning Bewitched sophomore studio album, has taken over TikTok thanks to a chilled-out dance remix, courtesy of Jiandro and ola.wav.
Based around a loop of the line, “Run to me, confess your love, at least just let me say,” the remix gained significant traction thanks to a dance trend created by TikTok user @life_of_temi. On Aug. 2, Temi posted his dance to TikTok, and the initial clip earned over 2.9 million views and nearly 375,000 likes. He used a sound from the snippet Jiandro posted to TikTok on July 15; the original clip of the snippet has since amassed nearly nine million views, while the accompanying sound now boasts over 488,000 clips. Jiandro’s version of the track officially hit streaming on Aug. 13.
“From the Start” was consistently pulling over three million official on-demand U.S. streams a week, but by the first full week following Temi’s video (Aug. 8-14), the song rose 5% to over 3.44 million official streams. By the next week (Aug. 15-21), the song leapt nearly 11% to over 3.82 million offiicial streams, good for 222% rise in streaming activity over the past three weeks.
In its first four days of of release (Aug. 15-18), “Confess Your Love,” Jiandro & ola.wav’s remix, earned over 418,000 official on-demand U.S. streams. Over the same period the following week (Aug. 22-25), the remix jumped a whopping 119% to over 917,000 official streams, according to early data provided by Luminate. “Confess Your Love” earned over 941,000 official streams in its first full week of release (Aug. 15-21). – KYLE DENIS
‘Man,’ Olivia Dean Feels Like a Star: New Single Enjoys Fast Start at Streaming
With each new single leading up to her sophomore album, the buzz around Olivia Dean grows louder and louder: the British soul-pop singer-songwriter earned a Mercury Prize nomination with her 2023 debut Messy, but The Art of Loving, out on Sept. 26, could transform her into a cross-continental star upon its release, one month before she opens for Sabrina Carpenter’s fall run of arena shows. Previously issued tracks “Nice to Each Other” and “Lady Lady” previewed the album’s sonic warmth and sharp lyricism, but “Man I Need” — the snappy, rhythmic sing-along that sounds like it’s from a long-lost ‘90s R&B soundtrack — could become Dean’s first crossover hit, based on its early streaming growth.
In its first four days on streaming services (Aug. 15-18), “Man I Need” earned 1.18 million official U.S. on-demand streams. One week later, as the song spread through word-of-mouth and started soundtracking more TikToks, that four-day total (from Aug. 22-25) had moved to 2.56 million streams — an increase of 116%, according to early data provided by Luminate. “Man I Need” has started to pop up on daily streaming charts (up to No. 21 on Spotify’s U.S. daily chart today), and has become her highest-charting solo hit in the U.K. thus far. With The Art of Loving likely to mark Dean’s Billboard 200 debut in a few weeks, “Man I Need” could also become her first Hot 100 hit ahead of it. – JASON LIPSHUTZ
‘Love Island US’ Fancam Revives Rihanna’s “Breakin’ Dishes” (Again)
Months after a wave of traction that landed the song in our Trending Up column at the top of the year, Rihanna’s “Breakin’ Dishes” is on the rise once again.
The 2007 Good Girl Gone Bad deep cut has jumped over 71% to over 4.02 million official on-demand U.S. streams during the period of Aug. 15-21, according to Luminate. The song’s initial viral trends included praise for its lyrics centering on female rage, as well as clips demonstrating the strength of various boyfriend’s timed to the “A man, a man, a ma-e-a-a-an” refrain. More recently, TikTok user @eveg.co used an unofficial snippet of “Dishes” to soundtrack a fancam reacting to the buzzy news of Love Island USA stars JaNa Craig and Kenny Rodriguez’s explosive breakup. That initial clip, which was uploaded on July 28, earned 2.2 million views and over 276,000 likes, kicking off a new trend inspired by the lines “Is he cheatin’? Man, I don’t know/ I’m lookin’ ’round for somethin’ else to throw.”
That clip thrust the song back into the TikTok zeitgeist, and the accompanying sound spawned over 130,000 videos in the weeks following. Instead of creating more fancams, TikTok users have largely used the JaNa-Kenny clip to reignite their praise for the song’s embrace of female rage.
During the week of Aug. 1-7, just days after the JaNa-Kenny fancam hit the algorithm, “Dishes” earned 2.3 million official on-demand U.S. streams. By the following week (Aug. 8-14), that figure rose 15% to over 2.71 million official streams. During the next week (Aug. 15-21), “Dishes” nealry doubled in activity, pulling over 4 million official streams.
Though “Breakin’ Dishes” was never an official single, fans have gladly embraced it 18 years later. — KD