Welcome to Billboard Pro’s Trending Up newsletter, where we take a closer look at the songs, artists, curiosities and trends that have caught the music industry’s attention. Some have come out of nowhere, others have taken months to catch on, and all of them could become ubiquitous in the blink of a TikTok clip.
This week: Another buzzy, box office-topping horror enters the streaming zeitgeist, Ariana Grande’s Eternal Sunshine Tour opener boosts her catalog and Hello Neighbor-inspired TikTok edits revive a 2024 indie track.
Ariana Grande’s Eternal Sunshine Tour Opener Lifts Entire Catalog — Including Massive Gains for Fan-Favorite ‘Positions’ Deep Cuts
Ariana Grande returned to the touring circuit for the first time in seven years last week (June 6), kicking off her long-awaited Eternal Sunshine Tour at California’s Oakland Arena. Her Billboard 200-topping Eternal Sunshine: Brighter Days Ahead LP dominates the sprawling five-act setlist, though she found time to include several Positions songs, as well as her latest Billboard Hot 100 chart-topper “Hate That I Made You Love Me.” After just one show, Grande saw her entire catalog rise on streaming.
According to Luminate, Grande collected 31.7 million official on-demand U.S. streams during the two days following her tour kickoff (June 7-8), up 18.6% from the two days preceding the opening show (June 5-6, 26.7 million). Eternal Sunshine pulled 7.4 million official streams in the two days following the first Oakland show, up 60% from the 4.6 million streams it earned during June 5-6. That’s the biggest increase a Grande studio LP earned during this period, followed by 2020’s Positions, which spiked 36% to just over three million official streams following the first show. This trek marks the first time Grande is touring that album, and she included three of its songs on the setlist: “Just Like Magic,” the Ty Dolla $ign-assisted “Safety Net” and the record’s Hot 100-topping title track. After the tour kickoff, “Magic” exploded 147% to over 275,000 official on-demand U.S. streams, while “Safety Net” leapt 134% to over 308,000 official streams.
Grande sings just one song from her debut album, Yours Truly, on the Eternal Sunshine Tour, but that didn’t stop the fan-favorite LP from gaining on streaming too. Yours Truly jumped 31% to 1.24 million official streams, while its sole representative on the tour setlist, “Honeymoon Avenue,” vaulted a whopping 171% to over 257,000 official streams. Her sophomore LP, My Everything, scored an 11% bump to over 3.33 million official streams, while her third record, Dangerous Woman, pulled a 13% increase to over 3.74 million official streams. Notably, modern pop classic “Into You” was up 9% to over 1.06 million official streams.
Though Grande did not perform any songs from her Grammy-winning Sweetener album, that record still saw a 15% jump to over 2.4 million official streams. “Rain On Me,” Grande’s Hot 100-topping collaboration with Lady Gaga, surprised many fans when it appeared on the tour setlist, earning a 19% bump to 363,000 official on-demand U.S. streams.
As the Eternal Sunshine Tour continues to travel North America and the U.K. ahead of the release of Grande’s forthcoming Petal album, expect her catalog to continue its streaming ascent.
‘Obsession’ Music Synchs Continue to Rise on Streaming
What are the odds that a film following a music store employee spurs actual gains for real-life songs? Pretty high if you’re thinking of Curry Barker’s Obsession. The supernatural psychological horror film has dominated the box office for the past month, impressing Hollywood with its $229.4 million worldwide box office gross on a $750,000 budget — and its synchs continue to rise on streaming.
“Forever,” a Little Dippers 1960 Hot 100 top 10 hit (No. 9) that appears in Obsession, earned just 130,000 official on-demand U.S. streams during the weekend preceding the film’s premiere (May 8-10). That number leapt 23% to over 160,000 official streams during the film’s opening weekend (May 15-17), jumping a further 47% to over 237,000 official streams the following weekend (May 22-24). By the weekend of May 29-31, activity for “Forever” rose another 42% to over 337,000 official streams, eventually rising 17% to just over 397,000 streams last weekend (June 5-7).
Felly’s “There’s No Other” jumped 231% from just under 2,000 official streams the weekend before the film’s premiere (May 8-10) to over 6,500 official streams during opening weekend (May 15-17). The track more than doubled in streams for the next two weeks, leaping another 14% last weekend to over 56,000 official on-demand U.S. streams.
Finally, Current Joys, the current pseudonym for singer-songwriter Nick Rattigan, saw some sizable gains for their 2013 track, “Televisions.” Before the film’s premiere, the song earned 27,000 official streams (May 8-10), with that figure jumping 53% to over 41,000 during opening weekend (May 15-17). By the following weekend (May 22-24), “Televisions” more than doubled streams, doing so again during the weekend of May 29-31. By last weekend (June 5-7), “Televisions” remained stable, pulling a 0.5% increase to over 218,000 official on-demand U.S. streams.
Corbon Amodio’s “Lucy~” Bounces Back on Streaming Thanks to ‘Hello Neighbor’ TikTok Edits
Keeping in line with the horror theme, TikTok edits centered on Hello Neighbor — a stealth horror video game — have revived London-based artist Corbon Amodio’s “lucy~” on streaming.
Originally released in April 2024, “lucy~” has ridden sporadic waves of quasi-virality over the past two years, mostly tied to its “Bingo, Bingo, baby/ I love you, ain’t that crazy?” refrain, which frequently soundtracked generally melancholic edits, tributes to retired YouTubers, acoustic guitar tutorials and non-descript vibe sessions. Over the past month, however, Hello Neighbor edits — which reinterprets/mishears the song’s “Oh-oh, yeah-yeah” outro as “Hello, neighbor” — have helped the song reach new audiences across TikTok. The official “lucy~” sound plays in nearly three million TikTok posts and over 6,600 Instagram Reels.
User @/skeleyrix posted the main Hello Neighbor x “lucy~” edit on May 11 (currently at nearly 10 million views), and during that week (May 8-14), Amodio’s song pulled over 344,000 official on-demand streams. That figure jumped by 26% the following week (May 15-21) to over 435,000 official streams. Once the edit began making the rounds and inspiring other clips using the “lucy~” TikTok sound, activity nearly doubled to 867,000 official streams during May 22-28. Notably, Hello Neighbor became available for Xbox Series X/S and PlayStation 5 users in March, which reignited its fandom over the past few weeks. Last week (May 29-June 4), “lucy~” vaulted another 87% to over 1.6 million official on-demand U.S. streams.
Clearly a versatile song, time will tell what new trend will keep Ambodio’s sleeper hit chugging along on streaming.
