Trending Up: Rihanna and Meghan Trainor Make Two Very Different Pop Comebacks

2 November, 2022

Rihanna’s Catalog Gets ‘Lift’ed With Comeback

Just one week after Taylor Swift’s Midnights was released to historic impact, we got an even longer-anticipated return from a global pop icon: Rihanna, who released her first new single in six years with the Def Jam-released Black Panther: Wakanda Forever ballad “Lift Me Up.” The song debuted with nearly eight million official on-demand U.S. streams and 16,000 in sales on Oct. 28, and racked up another 6.9 million streams and 11,000 sales over the next two days, all according to Luminate. Those numbers should portend a major Billboard Hot 100 debut for the single, though how deep it can strike into the Swift stronghold atop the chart currently remains to be seen. (A strong radio showing should also help: “Lift Me Up” registered 26.3 million in radio audience on pop, adult, rhythmic and R&B/hip-hop stations combined in its first three days (Oct. 28-30), 10 million better than even Swift’s Hot 100-topping “Anti-Hero” over the same period the prior week.)

In the meantime, “Lift” has also raised the rest of Rihanna’s catalog, with her non-”Lift” streams bubbling up from 5.8 million last Monday (Oct. 24) to 6.8 million that Thursday as anticipation for the new song grew – then spiking another 24% to 8.4 million on Friday, after the song’s release. Gains for those songs – along with a Halloween-themed hike for her spooky smash “Disturbia” – should result in an increased presence for the Bad Gal on next week’s Billboard 200 albums chart, including a likely gain for 2016’s ANTI (No. 122 this week) and a possible re-entry from 2007’s Good Girl Gone Bad. – ANDREW UNTERBERGER

Meghan Trainor’s New ‘Look’ Is Beguiling Listeners

With all the big pop names making splashes the last couple weeks, you might have missed that Meghan Trainor has enjoyed solid returns as well. As her new album on Epic Takin’ It Back debuts at No. 16 on the Billboard 200, giving the pop singer-songwriter her best showing since 2016’s Thank You started at No. 3, recent single “Made You Look” also becomes her first solo Hot 100 entry in four years as it starts at No. 95. Trainor is no stranger to the Hot 100 — her debut single “All About That Bass” topped the chart in 2014 — but “Made You Look” could become her biggest hit in a half-decade, thanks in part to a body-positive trend that is gaining traction on TikTok.

Upon the album’s release on Oct. 21, Trainor launched a dance challenge for the call-and-response doo-wop hook that highlights natural beauty regardless of style. Yet some TikTok users have gone viral for cleverly deploying “Made You Look” to soundtrack a rejection of the male gaze and society’s sexualization of female bodies. No matter which trend they’re encountering, listeners are responding to “Made You Look,” with its daily U.S. on-demand streams crossing the 1 million mark for three straight days beginning last Friday (Oct. 28), according to Luminate. Keep an eye on how top 40 radio, which was key in breaking Trainor with “Bass” eight years ago, adopts her latest offering: “Made You Look” is currently bubbling under Pop Airplay and Adult Pop Airplay, with 266,000 in audience in its first three days. – JASON LIPSHUTZ

Get Down “Ton1ght” With Exøtix, j4m and Ludves

With the way TikTok trends have evolved toward addressing more serious issues, it almost feels like a refreshing throwback when a fun song unexpectedly gets popular on the back of a simple dance challenge. That’s basically what happened with rappers Exøtix and j4m’s haunting jam “Ton1ght,” with the song’s remix (featuring additional vocals from singer Luvdes) taking off on TikTok thanks to a series of videos of users doing a tricky and fast-paced footwork dance to it. The song, originally self-released via DistroKid on ExøtixWørld in October, racked up 615,000 on-demand U.S. streams on the week ending Oct. 27, a 664% gain, according to Luminate, topping Spotify’s Viral 50 – USA chart and making it feel like 2020 all over again – the more enjoyable parts, anyway. – AU