There's a new No. 1 song in the country, as Travis Scott's "4X4" becomes the 83rd track in Hot 100 history to debut atop the chart. Over on the Billboard 200, Bad Bunny's album Debí Tirar Más Fotos remains at No. 1 even as three new hit records — by Teddy Swims, Kane Brown and Central Cee — debut in the top 10.
TOP ALBUMS
There's a logjam at the top of this week's Billboard 200 albums chart, as three sturdy hits — Bad Bunny's Debí Tirar Más Fotos, SZA's SOS Deluxe: LANA and Kendrick Lamar's GNX — sit stubbornly at Nos. 1, 2 and 3, respectively. Bad Bunny stays entrenched at the top for a third consecutive week, while Lamar slides up a spot to take the place of Mac Miller's Balloonerism, which debuted at No. 3 last week but drops to No. 21 this time around.
Fortunately, three prominent debuts shake up the top 10's remainder.
Teddy Swims, whose song "Lose Control" has spent 76 weeks on the Billboard Hot 100 and still sits in the top 10, just released a sequel to his 2023 album I've Tried Everything but Therapy (Part 1), titled — get this — I've Tried Everything but Therapy (Part 2). Part 1, like the hit song it contains, has been a mainstay on the charts since its release; it's still at No. 25 after peaking at No. 17. Out of the gate, Part 2 is doing even better, debuting at No. 4.
The country singer Kane Brown hits the top 10 for a fifth time in his career, as The High Road — fueled by the hits "I Can Feel It" and his multi-platinum Marshmello collaboration "Miles on It" — enters the chart at No. 7.
And the London rapper Central Cee — whose mixtapes have been mainstays on the U.K. charts, and who landed his Lil Baby collaboration "Band4Band" in the U.S. top 20 last year — has cracked the Billboard 200 for the first time in his career. His official debut album, Can't Rush Greatness, which includes "Band4Band" and contributions from Young Miko and 21 Savage, enters the chart at No. 9.
One other debut outside the top 10 that's worth noting: FKA twigs' new album, Eusexua, at No. 24. That's a new career peak for the inventive singer, who's never climbed higher than No. 30 — and that was with her debut, LP1, back in 2014.
Many if not all of this week's debuts are likely to slide next week, due to a combination of the second-week blues, a bump for artists featured on Sunday night's Grammys telecast and the sure-to-be-lofty debut of The Weeknd's new album, Hurry Up Tomorrow.
TOP SONGS
For the past four weeks, Lady Gaga and Bruno Mars' grandiose ballad "Die With a Smile" has held down the top spot on the Billboard Hot 100. But this week, it's forced down a spot by a fresh chart-topper: Rapper Travis Scott debuts atop the Hot 100 with his heavily promoted new single, "4X4."
The track is Scott's fifth No. 1 song — following "Sicko Mode," "Highest in the Room," "The Scotts" and "Franchise" — and all but "Sicko Mode" debuted at the top spot. In other words, Scott has been part of four of the 83 songs in Hot 100 history that have pulled off that feat. More on this in a moment.
Two duets featuring Bruno Mars round out the top three, as "Die With a Smile" slides to No. 2 and "APT.," Mars' collaboration with ROSÉ of BLACKPINK, holds at No. 3. As curiosity around Scott's new single wanes — the rapper has never had a song stay at No. 1 for a second week — Mars stands a decent chance of locking down the top two spots next week. But to do it, he'll have to fend off the 22 songs on The Weeknd's Hurry Up Tomorrow that'll likely rush the chart next week.
But back to Bruno. Amazingly, "Die With a Smile" and "APT." aren't the only Bruno Mars duets to hit this week's Hot 100: They've been joined by "Fat Juicy & Wet," a collaboration with rising rapper Sexyy Red that debuts at No. 17. Depending on how the song's chart trajectory unfolds — it's pretty filthy for radio, but so was "WAP," and that track hit No. 1 — it's not hard to imagine a chart even more top-loaded with Bruno Mars collaborations. Not bad for a guy who hasn't released a full-length album of his own since 2016.
WORTH NOTING
The Billboard Hot 100 dates back to August 1958, and in the chart's long history, as mentioned above, 83 songs have debuted at No. 1. As is so often the case with Billboard milestones, it's a phenomenon that began relatively recently — and has only grown more common in the streaming era.
For many years, the Billboard Hot 100 had a rule where songs had to be officially released as singles in order to chart. But in the '90s, labels began to figure out ways to use that rule to their advantage, often by delaying songs' release until they'd found an audience on the radio. (Billboard changed that rule in 1998.) There were other factors — from release schedules that didn't sync up neatly with the charts to changes in systems for measuring sales and airplay — but the '90s laid the groundwork for more songs to achieve instant gratification today.
The very first song to debut at No. 1, back in September 1995, was Michael Jackson's blockbuster ballad "You Are Not Alone." Before the month was over, another song had joined the club: Mariah Carey's "Fantasy." By the end of the year, Whitney Houston's "Exhale (Shoop Shoop)" had debuted at No. 1, followed shortly thereafter by Carey's Boyz II Men collaboration "One Sweet Day," which topped the chart for a then-record 16 weeks.
Still, just 10 songs debuted at No. 1 in the '90s — most of them modern standards like Celine Dion's "My Heart Will Go On" and Aerosmith's "I Don't Want to Miss a Thing." The early 2000s were even slower; in fact, the 11th, 12th, 13th and 14th songs to debut at No. 1 were all American Idol coronation songs (remember those?), doled out one per year from Clay Aiken to Taylor Hicks. But once we hit the 2010s — and, by extension, the streaming era — it was open season.
Before 2020, a total of 35 songs debuted at No. 1. In the past five years, as streaming algorithms have made instant chart success more common — and as anyone with a smartphone or computer can check out any new song instantly without paying for it or requesting it on the radio — 48 more have joined the club. There'd be even more than that, were it not for the fact that songs are also staying at No. 1 for longer than ever before. The streaming era has made the Billboard charts more volatile and more predictable, which may be the greatest feat of all.
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