Clean Bandit & Zara Larsson’s ‘Symphony’ Leads TikTok Billboard Top 50 Via Dolphin Meme
Seven years after its 2017 release, Clean Bandit’s Zara Larsson-featuring “Symphony” ranks at No. 1 on the TikTok Billboard Top 50 chart dated Aug. 31.
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 Aug. 19-25. Activity on TikTok is not included in Billboard charts except for the TikTok Billboard Top 50.
“Symphony” debuts at No. 1, the first to do so since Bobby Caldwell’s “What You Won’t Do For Love” topped the tally in February.
The seven-year-old song is trending on TikTok thanks to multiple edits using colorful photos and videos of dolphins, with captions and overlays that are generally funny and oftentimes demotivational. Others talk about seeing dolphin images in their everyday life since and being reminded of the new meme.
For her part, Larsson, who is currently on tour, changed the background video of her concert performances of “Symphony” to dolphins as a nod to the trend.
“Symphony” peaked at No. 10 on Billboard’s Hot Dance/Electronic Songs chart in 2017. In the week ending Aug. 22, it earned 784,000 official U.S. streams, up 7%, with more gains likely for the week ending Aug. 29.
The song reigns over Surf Curse’s “Disco,” which jumps from No. 7 to the runner-up spot on the TikTok Billboard Top 50. As noted in the article announcing the Aug. 24 chart, “Disco,” released in 2019, surges due to a dance trend sporting two creators facing each other while performing their moves.
“Disco” leaped 82% in streams in the week ending Aug. 22 to 1.7 million. It’s the second Surf Curse song to sport major attention on TikTok years after the song’s initial release, following “Freaks,” which found so much success that it became a radio single for the band, peaking at No. 15 on Alternative Airplay in 2021.
Jordan Adetunji’s “Kehlani,” which had led the TikTok Billboard Top 50 for the preceding two weeks, falls to No. 3, while DJ Drama and Gucci Mane’s “Photo Shoot” and Hanumankind and Kalmi’s “Big Dawgs” round out the top five.
It’s worth noting too that Tommy Richman’s “Million Dollar Baby,” the chart’s longest-running No. 1 at 10 weeks earlier this year, drops 4-6, marking the first time in its 17 weeks on the survey (dating back to May) that it has not been in the chart’s top four.
Two other songs join “Symphony” as debuts within the top 10, and unlike the No. 1, the ensuing two are brand new songs: Lady Gaga and Bruno Mars’ “Die With a Smile” bows at No. 8, followed by Sabrina Carpenter’s “Taste” at No. 9.
“Die With a Smile” is the first TikTok Billboard Top 50 appearance (the chart began in September 2023) for both Gaga and Mars. The top-performing clip featuring the song so far is an upload on Mars’ own account showing a portion of the music video, while other early successes include fan edits of movies and TV (Tangled, Elemental and more), reaction videos to the song and music video, lip-synch renditions and more.
The tune concurrently debuts at No. 3 on the Billboard Hot 100 with 27.4 million streams, 13 million audience impressions and 21,000 sold, as previously reported.
“Taste,” meanwhile, hasn’t yet made any other Billboard charts – that’s because it was released on Aug. 23, alongside the rest of Carpenter’s new album, Short n’ Sweet. The song benefits from the tracking week for the TikTok Billboard Top 50 being a Monday-Sunday setup (Aug. 19-25) vs. the majority of Billboard’s other charts (Friday-Thursday), though it still needed a hefty amount of attention in those three days to even crack the ranking, let alone the top 10.
According to TikTok, creations using the main “Taste” sound have already surpassed 2 million, with one of the top-performing uploads a behind-the-scenes video of the “Taste” music video uploaded by Carpenter herself, asking, “Am I babygirl?” Others feature lip-synchs to the new track, whose full Billboard chart impact will be known on the tallies dated Sept. 7, utilizing data from Aug. 23 to 29.
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
