Bad Omens Earn Their First Airplay Chart No. 1 With ‘Just Pretend’

Bad Omens score their first Billboard airplay chart No. 1 with “Just Pretend,” which jumps to the top of the March 11-dated Mainstream Rock Airplay survey.

“Pretend” crowns the list, up from No. 3, in its 27th week on the tally. It wraps the fourth-longest trip to No. 1 in the chart’s 42-year history; Trapt’s “Headstrong” leads all songs with 40 weeks from its debut to its first week atop the ranking.

The last song to take as long as “Pretend” was Young Guns’ “Bones,” which ruled in its 31st week in 2013.

Longest Trips to No. 1, Mainstream Rock Airplay:

Bad Omens’ first Mainstream Rock Airplay No. 1 follows three previous appearances. The band first charted with “Limits” in 2020 (No. 19 peak), followed by “Never Know” (No. 25, 2021) and its first top 10, “Like a Villain” (No. 10, 2022).

The Richmond, Va., four-piece is the first act to earn a first Mainstream Rock Airplay No. 1 in 2023. The last initial leader was Motionless in White‘s “Masterpiece” last October.

Concurrently, “Pretend” bullets at No. 31, after reaching No. 30 the previous week, on Alternative Airplay. On the all-rock-format, audience-based Rock & Alternative Airplay chart, it rises 7-5 with 3.6 million audience impressions (Feb. 24-March 2), up 10%, according to Luminate.

The song has spent 11 weeks at No. 1 on the multi-metric Hot Hard Rock Songs chart. On the latest survey (dated March 4), it ranked at No. 3; in addition to its radio airplay, “Pretend” earned 2.3 million official U.S. streams and sold 1,000 downloads in the Feb. 17-23 tracking week.

“Pretend” is the second single, following “Villain,” from The Death of Peace of Mind, Bad Omens’ third studio album. The set has earned 164,000 equivalent album units since release.

The March 11-dated Mainstream Rock Airplay chart will update on Billboard.com on Tuesday, March 7.