Welcome to Radio Active, a Sunday evening report from POP! Goes The Charts that gets to the chart of the matter: all the highlights from the CHR/Top 40 chart, as published by Mediabase 24/7 and Mediabase Research. It’s nearly impossible to like every single hit in the top 50 on any given week, but let’s stop short of calling the chart a sh-thole, alright? There’s plenty of music to go around, and that’s what our weekly report is all about. Let’s go!
CONNECTION TO PERFECTION: Nothing in life is perfect, but for singer and songwriter Ed Sheeran, some perfection can be found at the top of this week’s CHR/Top 40 chart. Of course, that’s his current single “Perfect”, which moves from 2-1. It’s Sheeran’s third #1 song at the format, following the one-week “Thinking Out Loud” in 2015 and the ten-week “Shape Of You” from last year. It also moves 2-1 on the Hot AC chart, giving the performer his fourth chart-topper on that particular format. (“Photograph” spent five weeks atop the Hot AC list in 2015.) Two updated versions of the single, one featuring Beyoncé and another with Andrea Bocelli, have performed strongly in the digital space, fueling its run at the top of the Billboard Hot 100 for the past five weeks. Sheeran has a shot at a second week at #1 on the Top 40 chart, though hits from Halsey (#3) and Dua Lipa (#4) will be closing in on him soon.
WATCH YOUR “WAIT”: As Justin Timberlake‘s “Filthy” (up 22-17) and Bruno Mars‘s remix of “Finesse” (with Cardi B, up 33-18) continue to fly up the survey, potentially battling it out for #1 next month, there’s some smaller action in the lower regions of the chart. Rising from 16-15 with the Halsey-assisted “Him & I”, G-Eazy finally makes the top 40 with the lead single off his recent album The Beautiful & Damned, “No Limit”, moving 42-40. The track features A$AP Rocky and the aforementioned Cardi B, both of whom claim their third top 40 hit at the format, while G-Eazy has his eighth. (“Limit” previously reached #1 on the Rhythmic and Urban charts.) Several notches below that, at #46, is the latest single from Maroon 5‘s Red Pill Blues album. “Wait”, which doesn’t, at least when it comes to striking before its impact date, should have a fairly good chance at entering the top 40 next week. (It would be their 25th single to hit the region since the summer of 2003, whenever it occurs.)
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