Unhealthy Bunny on stage in Miami in Might 2024. The Puerto Rican singer’s newest album, Debí Tirar Más Fotos, topped Billboard‘s album chart this week.
Eva Marie Uzcategui/Getty Photographs
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Eva Marie Uzcategui/Getty Photographs
It may not strictly be a shock that Unhealthy Bunny looms massive on this week’s Billboard charts, as his album Debí Tirar Más Fotos, in its second week since launch, climbs to No. 1, and three of its songs rank among the many week’s prime 10. But it surely confronted stiff competitors: Taylor Swift gave him a left-field run for his cash on the album chart, whereas the week’s prime track nonetheless belongs to Girl Gaga and Bruno Mars.
TOP ALBUMS
Final week, a hard-fought battle for No. 1 got here down to 2 debuts: Lil Child‘s WHAM and Unhealthy Bunny’s Debí Tirar Más Fotos. Unhealthy Bunny confronted just a few disadvantages — his album got here out on a Sunday with little warning, whereas Lil Child’s report dropped two days earlier and rapidly expanded to incorporate a handful of extra tracks — and thus entered the Billboard 200 at No. 2.
This week, WHAM slides from No. 1 to No. 5, whereas Debí Tirar Más Fotos claims the highest spot in its first full week of launch. However Unhealthy Bunny’s climb to No. 1 did not come with out fierce competitors. Even with a 67 % enhance in Unhealthy Bunny’s streaming numbers from week to week, the race for chart dominance got here down to only 1,000 “equal album models” — that is Billboard‘s metric for the cocktail of gross sales and streaming that informs every week’s charts.
The album at No. 2, with 202,500 equal album models to Unhealthy Bunny’s 203,500? That’d be Lover: Stay From Paris, a 2019 recording of a live performance by none aside from Taylor Swift. (The recording chronicles the final present Swift carried out to advertise her album Lover; an bold tour was deliberate however canceled because of the pandemic, paving the best way for the record-breaking Eras Tour.)
That eight-song dwell set had really charted earlier than, after a restricted vinyl-only launch through Swift’s internet retailer in 2023; it debuted at No. 58 after which instantly dropped off the Billboard 200, making it — till now — the lowest-charting title within the singer’s monumentally profitable catalog.
So how did a two-year-old album containing a five-year-old recording of a dwell live performance wind up contending for No. 1 this week, particularly when you think about that it is by no means been out there on streaming platforms in any respect? Swift made it out there for buy for a restricted time from her personal internet retailer, as a heart-shaped vinyl LP and a digital obtain, and followers responded.
Now that it is not out there for buy — a minimum of for the second — search for Lover: Stay From Paris to vanish from the Billboard charts rapidly. However this week’s burst of exercise does give the singer yet one more spherical of bragging rights: Swift has had 20 recordings hit the Billboard 200, and now each one in every of them has hit the highest 20. Eighteen of them have hit the highest 10, with solely The Taylor Swift Vacation Assortment and Communicate Now: World Tour Stay CD + DVD developing quick.
Do not be too shocked if these albums sooner or later get heart-shaped, Goal-exclusive, “Taylor’s Model”-branded vinyl editions, simply to assist her full the twentyfecta.
TOP SONGS
Girl Gaga and Bruno Mars’ “Die With a Smile” continues to fend off all challengers atop the Billboard 100, because the track holds at No. 1 for a 3rd consecutive week. However there’s loads of motion to report, as Unhealthy Bunny’s dominance — and the aforementioned 67 % enhance in streaming of his new album, Debí Tirar Más Fotos — shakes up this week’s chart.
Final week, all 17 of the songs on Unhealthy Bunny’s album hit the Billboard Scorching 100 singles chart, although none of them cracked the highest 10. That modifications dramatically this week, as each track from Debí Tirar Más Fotos climbs, in a number of instances dramatically. “DTMF,” for instance, zooms from No. 38 to No. 2. “Baile Inolvidable” rises from No. 28 to No. 3. “Nuevayol” rounds out his appearances within the prime 10, because it speeds from No. 27 to No. 8. Unhealthy Bunny has now charted 13 Spanish-language songs within the prime 10 — that is probably the most non-English-language hits for any artist, ever.
The sudden introduction of three new Unhealthy Bunny songs has naturally created a little bit of a shakeup within the prime 10, as a number of long-running standbys tumble: Shaboozey‘s “A Bar Music (Tipsy)” will get crowded out of the No. 2 spot and slides to No. 4; Billie Eilish‘s “Birds of a Feather” plunges from No. 3 to No. 7 and Teddy Swims‘ “Lose Management” fades from No. 6 to No. 9.
However two newer songs are clearly gaining floor — and stand to climb additional as soon as Unhealthy Bunny’s streaming surge subsides. One is Kendrick Lamar‘s “Luther (feat. SZA),” which has confirmed to be GNX‘s most sturdy single; it is the one track within the prime 10 not by Unhealthy Bunny to rise this week. (Lamar is a seven-time nominee on the Grammy Awards on Feb. 2, and he’ll carry out on the Tremendous Bowl every week later, so he is extraordinarily well-positioned to stay round on the charts for the foreseeable future.)
The opposite track that is booming proper now could be “APT.,” which holds at No. 5. The track, by BLACKPINK‘s ROSÉ and Bruno Mars, appears primed to turn out to be one in every of 2025’s signature hits. Simply take a look at the three songs instantly forward of it on the chart: Shaboozey’s “A Bar Music (Tipsy)” is, for all that track’s charms, lengthy overdue to start its sluggish chart descent. Unhealthy Bunny’s “DTMF” and “Baile Inolvidable” are driving excessive off a post-release streaming surge that is sure to subside within the days to come back.
In the meantime, “APT.” is the week’s top-selling track. It is gaining floor on the radio charts, whereas a lot of the tracks forward of it characterize the fossilized stays of 2023 and 2024 — stuff like Benson Boone‘s “Lovely Issues,” Hozier‘s “Too Candy” and Swims’ “Lose Management.” And on streaming, “APT.” is firmly within the prime 10, pushed down solely as a consequence of The Unhealthy Bunny Impact. The basics of “APT.” are stronger than ever, so do not be shocked if Bruno Mars and his collaborators wind up holding down the Scorching 100’s prime two songs within the weeks to come back.
WORTH NOTING
Let’s shut out with yet another be aware about Bruno Mars — who, it must be famous, can be nominated for 2 main Grammy Awards this yr. (“Die With a Smile” is up for track of the yr and pop duo/group efficiency.)
As “Die With a Smile” holds at No. 1 for a 3rd week, Mars has now, cumulatively, been the proprietor of the nation’s prime track for 37 weeks — a complete that seems more likely to rise as “Die With a Smile” dominates, “APT.” looms and an as-yet-unannounced full-length album finally/inevitably drops. That whole pulls him right into a tie for the eighth-most weeks at No. 1 for any artist in Billboard Scorching 100 historical past. Additionally with 37 weeks at No. 1? Michael Jackson — although, to be truthful to Jackson, that whole excludes his work within the Jackson 5. Left in Mars’ mud with a mere, piddling 36 weeks? Taylor Swift.
As soon as he surpasses MJ, Mars will nonetheless have a methods to go if he needs to maintain climbing the all-timers listing. Listed below are the seven acts who’ve posted probably the most weeks at No. 1, in ascending order:
7. Beyoncé, 46 weeks. The Grammy-winningest Grammy winner ever to win a Grammy, Beyoncé has posted nearly a complete calendar yr at No. 1 over the course of her profession, and that is not counting her work in Future’s Baby.
6. Usher, 47 weeks. Final yr’s Tremendous Bowl headliner is operating neck-and-neck with Queen Bey.
5. Boyz II Males, 50 weeks. Two of the longest-running chart-toppers of all time — “One Candy Day” and “Finish of the Highway” — account for 29 of these 50 weeks.
4. Drake, 56 weeks. If we had been counting songs about Drake, he’d be doing even higher!
3. The Beatles, 59 weeks. The Beatles, it seems, are extremely popular. Who knew?
2. Rihanna, 60 weeks. One other current Tremendous Bowl headliner. Simply assume what number of extra weeks she might spend atop the chart if she’d simply launch a brand new report…
1. Mariah Carey, 97 weeks. If you happen to had been born earlier than 1990, when “Imaginative and prescient of Love” turned her first chart-topper, then practically two full years of your life have been spent with a Mariah Carey track at No. 1. “All I Need for Christmas Is You” (18 weeks and counting) and “One Candy Day” (her collaboration with the aforementioned Boyz II Males) account for 34 of these 97 weeks on their very own. Extremely, she’d nonetheless be the chart queen even with out them.
