Dangerous Bunny blessed with Billboard’s greatest boosts (and Bruno bolsters his bona fides) : NPR

It may not strictly be a shock that Dangerous Bunny looms giant 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 high 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 high track nonetheless belongs to Woman 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 Dangerous Bunny’s Debí Tirar Más Fotos. Dangerous Bunny confronted a number of disadvantages — his album got here out on a Sunday with little warning, whereas Lil Child’s file dropped two days earlier and shortly expanded to incorporate a handful of further 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 Dangerous Bunny’s climb to No. 1 did not come with out fierce competitors. Even with a 67 p.c enhance in Dangerous Bunny’s streaming numbers from week to week, the race for chart dominance got here down to simply 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 Dangerous Bunny’s 203,500? That’d be Lover: Dwell From Paris, a 2019 recording of a live performance by none apart from Taylor Swift. (The recording chronicles the final present Swift carried out to advertise her album Lover; an bold tour was deliberate however canceled as a result of pandemic, paving the best way for the record-breaking Eras Tour.)

That eight-song stay set had truly 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 stay live performance wind up contending for No. 1 this week, particularly when you think about that it is by no means been obtainable on streaming platforms in any respect? Swift made it obtainable 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 now not obtainable for buy — a minimum of for the second — search for Lover: Dwell From Paris to vanish from the Billboard charts shortly. However this week’s burst of exercise does give the singer one more spherical of bragging rights: Swift has had 20 recordings hit the Billboard 200, and now each considered one of them has hit the highest 20. Eighteen of them have hit the highest 10, with solely The Taylor Swift Vacation Assortment and Converse Now: World Tour Dwell CD + DVD arising quick.

Do not be too shocked if these albums someday get heart-shaped, Goal-exclusive, “Taylor’s Model”-branded vinyl editions, simply to assist her full the twentyfecta.

TOP SONGS

Woman 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 Dangerous Bunny’s dominance — and the aforementioned 67 p.c 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 Dangerous Bunny’s album hit the Billboard Sizzling 100 singles chart, although none of them cracked the highest 10. That adjustments dramatically this week, as each track from Debí Tirar Más Fotos climbs, in a number of circumstances 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 high 10, because it speeds from No. 27 to No. 8. Dangerous Bunny has now charted 13 Spanish-language songs within the high 10 — that is essentially the most non-English-language hits for any artist, ever.

The sudden introduction of three new Dangerous Bunny songs has naturally created a little bit of a shakeup within the high 10, as a number of long-running standbys tumble: Shaboozey‘s “A Bar Tune (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 Dangerous 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 high 10 not by Dangerous 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 per 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’s “APT.,” which holds at No. 5. The track, by BLACKPINK‘s ROSÉ and Bruno Mars, appears primed to turn into considered one of 2025’s signature hits. Simply take a look at the three songs instantly forward of it on the chart: Shaboozey’s “A Bar Tune (Tipsy)” is, for all that track’s charms, lengthy overdue to start its sluggish chart descent. Dangerous 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 symbolize the fossilized stays of 2023 and 2024 — stuff like Benson Boone‘s “Stunning Issues,” Hozier‘s “Too Candy” and Swims’ “Lose Management.” And on streaming, “APT.” is firmly within the high 10, pushed down solely attributable to The Dangerous 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 Sizzling 100’s high two songs within the weeks to come back.

WORTH NOTING

Let’s shut out with another notice about Bruno Mars — who, it needs to be famous, can also 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 high track for 37 weeks — a complete that seems prone to rise as “Die With a Smile” dominates, “APT.” looms and an as-yet-unannounced full-length album ultimately/inevitably drops. That complete pulls him right into a tie for the eighth-most weeks at No. 1 for any artist in Billboard Sizzling 100 historical past. Additionally with 37 weeks at No. 1? Michael Jackson — although, to be truthful to Jackson, that complete 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 desires to maintain climbing the all-timers checklist. Listed here are the seven acts who’ve posted essentially 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 virtually a whole 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 working 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 have been counting songs about Drake, he’d be doing even higher!

3. The Beatles, 59 weeks. The Beatles, it seems, are very fashionable. 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 file…

1. Mariah Carey, 97 weeks. If you happen to have been born earlier than 1990, when “Imaginative and prescient of Love” grew to become her first chart-topper, then almost 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.