Lil Nas X's 'Old Town Road' Rules Billboard Hot 100 For Fourth Week, Khalid's 'Talk' Hits Top 10
Elsewhere on the chart, Lil Dicky's "Earth" launches in the top 20 & Taylor Swift's "ME!" arrives at No. 100 solely from initial airplay.
Lil Nas X tops the Billboard Hot 100 for a fourth week with "Old Town Road," featuring Billy Ray Cyrus.
Plus, Khalid collects his fifth Hot 100 top 10, as "Talk" vaults from No. 20 to No. 8.
Elsewhere on the Hot 100, Lil Dicky launches in the top 20 with his all-star charity single "Earth" and Taylor Swift's new single, "ME!," featuring Brendon Urie, debuts at the No. 100 anchor spot based solely on its first three days of airplay, ahead of its likely challenge for the upper reaches of next week's chart once its first week of streaming and sales is factored in.
Let's run down the top 10 of the newest Hot 100 (dated May 4), which blends all-genre U.S. streaming, radio airplay and digital sales data. All charts will update on Billboard.com tomorrow (April 30).
As on the Hot 100, "Road" paces the Streaming Songs chart for a fourth week, with 114.4 million U.S. streams (down 9%) in the week ending April 25, according to Nielsen Music. The sum is the fourth-best ever; the track set the record two weeks earlier, following the April 5 arrival of its remix with Cyrus. Here's an updated look at the 10 biggest streaming weeks:
Total Weekly U.S. Streams, Title, Artist, Chart Date
143 million, "Old Town Road," Lil Nas X feat. Billy Ray Cyrus, April 20, 2019
125.2 million, "Old Town Road," Lil Nas X feat. Billy Ray Cyrus, April 27, 2019
116.2 million, "In My Feelings," Drake, July 28, 2018
114.4 million, "Old Town Road," Lil Nas X feat. Billy Ray Cyrus, May 4, 2019
106.2 million, "In My Feelings," Drake, Aug. 4, 2018
103.1 million, "Harlem Shake," Baauer, March 2, 2013
101.7 million, "God's Plan," Drake, March 3, 2018
97.6 million, "Harlem Shake," Baauer, March 9, 2013
95.4 million, "In My Feelings," Drake, Aug. 11, 2018
93.8 million, "Thank U, Next," Ariana Grande, Dec. 15, 2018
"Road" tops the Digital Song Sales chart for a third week with 89,000 downloads sold (down 2%) in the week ending April 25. It continues to surge in radio airplay, bounding 18-12 on the Radio Songs chart (55.4 million audience impressions, up 23%, in the week ending April 28), as it wins the Hot 100's top Airplay Gainer award for a third week.
As "Road" marks Lil Nas X's first Hot 100 entry, he boasts the longest-leading debut No. 1 (among artists billed as leads) since OMI reigned for six weeks in 2015 with his first Hot 100 hit, "Cheerleader." In between, Cardi B logged the longest-leading rookie No. 1 until "Road" (as a lead act) when "Bodak Yellow (Money Moves)" banked three weeks on top in 2017.
"Road" concurrently posts a fourth week at No. 1 on the Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs and Hot Rap Songs charts.
Nos. 2 through 4 hold in place on the Hot 100: Post Malone's "Wow." spends a third week at its No. 2 high; his and Swae Lee's former one-week leader "Sunflower (Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse)" keeps at No. 3; and Ariana Grande's former eight-week No. 1 "7 Rings" is steady at No. 4.
Jonas Brothers' former one-week Hot 100 leader "Sucker" rises 6-5, tallying its first week in the top five since it debuted at No. 1 on the chart dated March 16 (although it has spent all eight of its weeks on the Hot 100 in the top 10). The trio's first Hot 100 leader notches a second week atop Radio Songs, where it's also the act's first No. 1, up 4% to 95.6 million in audience.
Halsey's former two-week Hot 100 No. 1 "Without Me" slips 5-6 and Sam Smith and Normani's "Dancing With a Stranger" repeats at its No. 7 high.
Khalid lands his fifth Hot 100 top 10, as "Talk" jumps 20-8. The track hikes 13-8 on Streaming Songs (24.6 million, up 17%) and 27-20 on both Radio Songs (41.4 million, up 12%) and Digital Song Sales (10,000, up 30%)
Khalid previously hit the Hot 100's top 10 as featured, with Alessia Cara, on Logic's "1-800-273-8255" (No. 3, September 2017) and with "Love Lies," with Normani (No. 9, September 2018), "Eastside," with Benny Blanco and Halsey (No. 9, this January), and his own "Better" (No. 8, two weeks ago; it ranks at No. 19 this week). Both "Better" and "Talk" are from Khalid's album Free Spirit, which arrived as his first Billboard 200 No. 1 two weeks earlier.
Billie Eilish's "Bad Guy" holds at No. 9 on the Hot 100, after debuting at No. 7 three weeks earlier. As previously reported, parent album When We All Fall Asleep, Where Do We Go?rebounds for a second week at No. 1 on the Billboard 200.
Rounding out the Hot 100's top 10, J. Cole's No. 4-peaking "Middle Child" re-enters the region (11-10).
Just outside the Hot 100's top 10, Ava Max rises 13-11 with her debut hit "Sweet But Psycho" and Lil Dicky's "Earth" enters as the chart's top debut at No. 17. The latter song features over 30 high-profile guests, including Grande, Halsey, Justin Bieber, Adam Levine and Katy Perry, with proceeds benefiting various environmental organizations.
Meanwhile, Swift's "ME!," featuring Urie (of Panic! at the Disco) just makes the Hot 100, debuting at No. 100. The song starts based solely on its first three days of airplay, after its release at midnight ET Friday (April 26), arriving with 36.9 million in radio reach, and at No. 27 on Radio Songs. As the Hot 100's airplay tracking week runs Monday through Sunday while streaming and sales are tracked Friday through Thursday, the first-week streams and sales for "ME!" (April 26-May 2) will impact next week's Hot 100 (dated May 11), along with its first full week of airplay (April 29-May 5). With all metrics combined, "ME!" is likely to challenge for the upper reaches of next week's Hot 100.
"ME!" is expected to serve as the first single from Swift's forthcoming seventh proper studio LP. For comparison, "Look What You Made Me Do," the lead single from her last album, 2017's reputation, opened at No. 77 on the Hot 100 (and No. 23 on Radio Songs) from its first three days of airplay (45.6 million in audience). Once streams and sales began contributing to its Hot 100 total, "Look" vaulted to No. 1 in its second Hot 100 frame and reigned for three total weeks.
Find out more Hot 100 news on Billboard.com this week, and, for all chart news, you can listen (and subscribe) to Billboard's Chart Beat Podcast and Pop Shop Podcast and follow
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