Clean Bandit & Zara Larsson’s ‘Symphony’ Continues TikTok Billboard Top 50 Reign
Clean Bandit’s “Symphony” and Surf Curse’s “Disco” take the top two spots of the TikTok Billboard Top 50 for the third straight week, while Lady Gaga and Bruno Mars’ “Die With a Smile” inches nearer to the summit at No. 3 on the ranking dated Sept. 14.
The TikTok Billboard Top 50 is a weekly ranking of the most popular songs on TikTok in the United States based on creations, video views and user engagement. The latest chart reflects activity from Sept. 2-8. Activity on TikTok is not included in Billboard charts except for the TikTok Billboard Top 50.
“Symphony,” featuring Zara Larsson, takes hold of a third week atop the ranking, sporting yet another gain in official U.S. streams alongside it; it’s up 23% to 1.8 million listens in the tracking week ending Sept. 5, according to Luminate.
The 2017 tune remains driven by a meme and trend on TikTok that features users posting videos of technicolor dolphins alongside humorous or dark captions.
It reigns ahead of “Curse,” which spends a third week at No. 2, driven by a multi-person dance trend that concurrently brings the 2019 song onto non-TikTok Billboard charts for the first time. Its 59% jump in streams to 4.5 million drives it to a No. 18 debut on Hot Rock & Alternative Songs, plus a No. 24 premiere on Alternative Streaming Songs.
“Die With a Smile” is the mover of the group, albeit up one spot from No. 4 to 3 on the TikTok Billboard Top 50 (a new peak). Since its Aug. 16 release, the song has been used in a variety of TikTok uploads, usually related in some way to romance, per the song’s theme. Some of the top-performing videos so far include homecoming proposals, footage from movies and TV shows such as Tangled and Elemental, and people talking about how they’d react if their significant other posted them set to the song.
“Die With a Smile” is currently No. 6 on the Billboard Hot 100 as the ranking’s latest Greatest Gainer/Airplay; it debuted at No. 3 in August.
Alphaville’s “Forever Young” follows “Die With a Smile” into a new peak on the TikTok Billboard Top 50, rising 5-4. Creations featuring the song, which peaked at No. 65 on the Hot 100 in 1988, continue to include posts showing the passage of time with loved ones, edits featuring fictional characters and a trend in which one person in a couple lifts the other in the air as they spray water down on both from a water bottle.
Though the songs listed so far were in the previous TikTok Billboard Top 50’s top five, there’s some more substantial movement going on across the rest of the chart, led by Kodak Black’s “No Flockin,” which shoots 20-6. It’s the first time on the TikTok Billboard Top 50 for the rapper, and it comes with a song that was originally released in 2015 and then peaked on the Hot 100 at No. 95 in 2017.
“No Flockin” has received some of its top-performing uploads in recent weeks from sports-related videos, plus other general content. The song is up 20% in streams to 3.6 million in the tracking week ending Sept. 5.
Adrianne Lenker’s “Anything” returns to the TikTok Billboard Top 5’s top 10, blasting 31-8 after previously reaching No. 8 in April. One of the song’s trends features one user asking the other person “Why are you always at my house?” or some variation, with the other lip-synching to Lenker’s “I just wanna be a part of your family” lyric.
And while Sabrina Carpenter’s “Taste” falls from its No. 3 peak to No. 7 on the latest ranking, another song from Short n’ Sweet joins it in the chart’s top 10, as “Bed Chem” vaults 18-9, mostly driven by lip-synch clips.
“Bed Chem” is the third song from Short n’ Sweet to reach the TikTok Billboard Top 50’s top 10, following the aforementioned “Taste” and “Please Please Please,” the latter peaking at No. 2 in June.
See the full TikTok Billboard Top 50 here. You can also tune in each Friday to SiriusXM’s TikTok Radio (channel 4) to hear the premiere of the chart’s top 10 countdown at 3 p.m. ET, with reruns heard throughout the week.
Kevin Rutherford
Billboard
