From ‘Goo Goo’ to Gaga: ‘Wednesday’ Brings ‘Bloody Mary’ to Top 40 of Billboard Global Chart

In a banner year for Netflix series reviving decades-old tracks into chart hits, Lady Gaga is finishing out the year with a bump for a 2011 deep cut. Born This Way’s “Bloody Mary” leaps into the top 40 of the Dec. 17-dated Billboard Global Excl. U.S. chart on the heels of a swirl of TikTok activity surrounding the popularity for the Addams Family spin-off series Wednesday. All of that despite not even being featured in the series.

A dance sequence from the record-breaking show caught the eye of social media users. In the show, the titular character dances to The Cramps’ 1964 single “Goo Goo Muck.” Then, fans took the clip and replaced “Goo Goo” with “Bloody Mary” and the revamped dance sequence took off. On the latest global charts, the Gaga track jumps from No. 168 to No. 35 in its second week on Global Excl. U.S., while it debuts at No. 54 on the Billboard Global 200.

All episodes of Wednesday premiered on Nov. 23, and its spin-off effect on “Mary” was almost immediate. In the week of Nov. 25-Dec. 1, the gothic pop track rocketed by 509% in official on-demand global streams and 1,133% in sales, according to Luminate. The following frame, the tracking week ending Dec. 8, which informs the current charts, it shot up another 144% and 201%, respectively.

The week before its stratospheric leap, “Mary” drew 1.8 million global streams, less than one-fifteenth of its latest update. But even before Wednesday, Gaga’s song was inching up week by week, consistently building from its 561,000 streams the week ending Aug. 18. The track’s budding popularity made it a prime target, ready to explode with one well-synchronized dance routine.

Not only has “Mary” risen in total streams in the last two weeks, its international profile has widened. The song’s international streaming count has risen by 537% and 144% in the last two weeks, compared to its still-more-than-robust 412% and 140% bumps in the U.S. Of its global total, the domestic share quickly cut from 22% to 18%, while its international share spiked from 78% to 82%.

The song’s slightly-sharper rise outside the U.S. is perhaps due the broadly global popularity of Wednesday, No. 1 on Netflix in 89 countries. Despite not even appearing in the show, the series’ omnipresence on social media around the world has blown out Gaga’s success beyond her home base.

“Muck,” the track actually used for Wednesday’s dance performance, sees similar, if not more dramatic, gains. Its stream count doubled in the latest tracking period, after shooting by 3,786% last week. Over just three weeks, the once-obscure cult-classic has grown from 44,000 weekly global streams to 5.4 million.

“Mary” is just the fourth Lady Gaga title to hit both global charts. And while the rankings didn’t launch until September 2020 – a decade-plus removed from her pop-chart breakthrough – the song’s rarified space within her catalog is still significant since it was never even released as a single, sitting idly while six other tracks from Born This Way impacted the U.S.-based Billboard Hot 100 in 2011.

Not only is it just her fourth entry, its No. 35 placement on Global Excl. U.S. immediately gives it a higher peak than “Shallow,” with Bradley Cooper, which topped out at No. 52, and this year’s “Hold My Hand,” which reached No. 43 in June. Only 2020’s “Rain on Me,” with Ariana Grande, has gone higher, spending the charts’ first three weeks in the top 30, then only a few months removed from its release.

Even more, “Mary” is surging in a competitive season. As they did in 2020 and ’21, holiday songs are beginning to clog the global charts. At No. 35, Gaga sits behind 11 of them on Global Excl. U.S., translating to a would-be rank of No. 24 in any other month. Further, 19 holiday titles block “Mary” on the Global 200, not to mention nine debuts from Metro Boomin.

Chart action for “Mary” spreads to Billboard’s Hits of the World charts, ranking in the top 20 on Poland Songs (No. 13), Slovakia Songs (No. 14), and Hungary Songs (No. 18) and hitting the top 10 (at No. 10) on Czech Republic Songs. And at No. 4 on the Hot 100’s Bubbling Under chart, it inches toward becoming Born This Way’s seventh Hot 100 hit, 11 years after its sixth.