RADIO REPORT: What’s Popping At Top 40 Radio This Week (July 24-25, 2017)

It’s time once again to analyze the airwaves and find out if your favorite new releases will be lighting up your local station’s playlist this week. Which tunes will climb to the top and which ones will hit a stop? Here are the four new tunes impacting this week at the Top 40 format:

ENRIQUE IGLESIAS featuring SEAN PAUL – “Subeme La Radio (Remix)” (Sony Latin/RCA)
Album: TBA
Past T40 History: Paul appeared on the English version of Iglesias’s last top ten hit to date, “Bailando”, which reached #9 in 2014.

FALL OUT BOY – “Champion” (Island/Republic)
Album: M A N I A (2017)
Past T40 History: This Illinois quartet is looking for their fourteenth top 40 entry at the format, four of which have hit the top ten.

LOUIS TOMLINSON featuring BEBE REXHA & DIGITAL FARM ANIMALS – “Back To You” (Syco/Epic)
Album: TBA
Past T40 History: Outside of One Direction, Tomlinson was the vocalist on Steve Aoki’s “Just Hold On”, a #32 single from March.

SELENA GOMEZ featuring GUCCI MANE – “Fetish” (Interscope)
Album: TBA
Past T40 History: Gomez recently peaked at #12 with “Bad Liar”. She has four #1 songs to date, including three off her last album.

Next week: No songs have been publicly announced at this time. Stay tuned!

Which of these new songs would you like to see top the charts? Let me know!

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RADIO ACTIVE — A Weekly Chart CHRonicle (June 11, 2017)

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. Yes, it’s the night of the Tony Awards, but a quick glance of the pop chart shows no soloists named Tony! Oh, well. I guess it’s time for me to play the leading role of chart geek in another charming production of the Radio Active report, so take your seats and let the show begin:

ZEDD OF THE CLASS: It’s another week at the top of the pop survey for DJ/producer Zedd and singer Alessia Cara, who stay in place (despite a small loss in spins) for the third week with “Stay”. Collaborations have occupied the top spot for nine weeks so far this year, and that number will continue to grow in the coming weeks! Additionally, “Stay” advances 11-10 on the Hot AC radio chart. At a very impressive 322 million streams on Spotify, this is now the most streamed song for both artists. (Cara’s previous hit, “Scars To Your Beautiful”, is just behind it at an equally massive 308 million streams.) Due to a continued lack of challengers, this will get a fourth week at #1 next Sunday, though it will get more difficult beyond that chart.

Newcomer James Arthur has the only entry in this week’s top five with “Say You Won’t Let Go”, up 6-5. It recently topped the Hot AC chart, though it looks like it’ll fall short of the top spot on the CHR/Top 40 list. No new tracks enter the top ten or top 20, as that logjam rears its ugly head once again. It’s okay, kids, we’ll get through it. I hope…

IT TAKES “2”: Just two songs debut in the top 40 on this week’s pop chart. The hot summer of Justin Bieber features continues on with “2U”, the latest release from DJ and producer David Guetta. It begins at #32, and its notable entry is due to hourly airplay on iHeartMedia stations during its release day on Friday. It hit #1 on iTunes, and currently sits at #2, sandwiched between… yes, the other two hits featuring Bieber: the remix of “Despacito” by Luis Fonsi & Daddy Yankee (#8 this week) and “I’m The One” by DJ Khaled and friends (#7). Just a handful of top 40 titles have replaced the words “to” and “you” with a shorter “2” and “u”, including top ten tunes by The Jets (“Rocket 2 U” – #7, 4/1-8/88 R&R) and Sinéad O’Connor (“Nothing Compares 2 U” – #1, 4/20-5/4/90 R&R).

They might be down one member, but they’re up one top 40 entry this week. Now charting with their eighth top 40 song since 2013, pop quartet Fifth Harmony is in at #40 with “Down”, featuring rapper Gucci Mane. The group’s reached the top only once, with the Ty Dolla $ign-assisted “Work From Home” (5/29-6/5/16 MB). The last girl group to make the top ten with the original lineup, lose a member and then return to the top ten (without a replacement) was The Pussycat Dolls, who charted with “Don’t Cha” (#3, 9/2/05 R&R), “Stickwitu” (#1, 1/20-27/06 R&R) and “Buttons” (#1, 8/27-9/3/06 MB) as a sextet, then charted with “When I Grow Up” (#8, 8/10-17/08 MB) as a quintet.

MEET ME IN MONTANA: On a published chart that’s a bit forgettable, we have a debuting song called “Unforgettable”. Hey, the timing isn’t always perfect. 32-year-old French Montana scores his first main-credited entry with the single, which features Swae Lee of the duo Rae Sremmurd. The Moroccan-born rapper was featured on the remixes of two minor top 40 records from earlier this decade: Jonn Hart‘s “Who Booty” (#30, 1/20 + 2/3-17/13 MB) and Chris Brown‘s “Loyal” (#40, 6/8-15 + 6/29/14 MB). It’ll likely reach the top ten on the Rhythmic chart next week, where it ranks at #11 (up from #14) currently. (The track is also up 17-13 on the Urban radio list.) Well, Montana is The Treasure State, and several formats (and global lists) have certainly found a new one.

As far as other French feats from the chart archives, we find that one other French artist made the top 40 on the CHR chart. Dancing her way up to #3 during the first week of July in 1995, Nicki French scored her one U.S. hit with a cover of Bonnie Tyler‘s chart-topper “Total Eclipse Of The Heart” (9/23-10/7/83 R&R). Of course, I have to wonder: what would a French and French duet sound like? Je ne sais pas…

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NEW MUSIC FRIDAY: Releases For The Week of May 26, 2017

Cruisin’ into chart waters.

Have a very musical Memorial Day Weekend with these top releases, including a lot of great new singles, remixes and acoustic takes. Let’s serve up all the action from this week’s schedule:

LIL YACHTY – Teenage Emotions (iTunes)
Next week’s top debut should come from this 19-year-old Georgia rapper, who has a nice online following and big streaming stats. A single from this set, “Peak A Boo”, featuring labelmates Migos, is in the lower rungs of both the Rhythmic and Urban radio surveys. Stream and track-equivalent units will be notable for this one, but will they be enough to carry the album to #1? Stay tuned.

More albums out this week: Bryson Tiller‘s True To Self (iTunes), Gucci Mane‘s Droptopwop (iTunes), James Vincent McMorrow‘s True Care (iTunes), Josh Baldwin‘s The War Is Over (iTunes), Shakira‘s El Dorado (iTunes), The Beatles‘s Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band (Deluxe Edition) (iTunes)

More EPs out this week: Axwell ^ Ingrosso‘s More Than You Know (iTunes), Kyle Lionhart‘s Eleven & Two (iTunes), Mabel‘s Bedroom (iTunes), River Matthews‘s Sunshine (iTunes), Serena Ryder‘s Electric Love (iTunes)

New digital-only singles that you can buy this week include:
“All I Can Do”, Bad Royale featuring Silver (iTunes)
“Another Week”, Eric Saade (iTunes)
“Break A Little (Hector Fonseca & Eduardo Lujan Remix)”, Kirstin (iTunes)
“Cali God”, Grace Mitchell (iTunes)
“Call Me”, NEIKED featuring MIMI (iTunes)
“Can I Be Him (Live Acoustic Version)”, James Arthur (iTunes)
“Cannonball”, ZZ Ward featuring Fantastic Negrito (iTunes)
“Cover My Own”, Old Sea Brigade (iTunes)
“Cringe (Stripped Version)”, Matt Maeson (iTunes)
“Cut To The Feeling”, Carly Rae Jepsen (iTunes)
“Dive”, Coast Modern (iTunes)
“Every Little Thing”, Deepend featuring Deb’s Daughter (iTunes)
“Feel It Still (Flatbush Zombies Remix)”, Portugal. The Man (iTunes)
“Fight For You”, Pluto featuring MAX (iTunes)
“Find Yourself”, Great Good Fine OK & Before You Exit (iTunes)
“FUNGSHWAY”, BIA (iTunes)
“Good Way”, Mark Elliott (iTunes)
“Gravity (White Sands Remix)”, Leo Stannard featuring Frances (iTunes)
“Heebiejeebies”, Aminé featuring Kehlani (iTunes)
“High Without Your Love (Acoustic)”, Loote (iTunes)
“Hit The Ceiling”, LION BABE (iTunes)
“I Know A Place (Brian Robert Jones Remix)”, MUNA (iTunes)
“I Miss Those Days”, Bleachers (iTunes)
“I Was Born”, Hanson (iTunes)
“I’m A Dreamer”, Violet Days (iTunes)
“I’m A Fan”, Pia Mia featuring Jeremih (iTunes)
“Liar”, Frans (iTunes)
“Lost In Your Love”, Colyer (iTunes)
“Loved By You”, Mali Music featuring Jazmine Sullivan (iTunes)
“Middle Fingers (Glades Remix)”, MISSIO (iTunes)
“Middle Of The Night (Felon Remix)”, The Vamps featuring Martin Jensen (iTunes)
“Need You”, Allie X featuring Valley Girl (iTunes)
“No Vacancy (French Version)”, OneRepublic featuring Amir (iTunes)
“Power”, Little Mix featuring Stormzy (iTunes)
“Remember I Told You”, Nick Jonas featuring Anne-Marie and Mike Posner (iTunes)
“Rooftops (Aber)”, Tobtok featuring Sorana (iTunes)
“Shame”, KNGDAVD (iTunes)
“Stay With You”, Cheat Codes featuring CADE (iTunes)
“Strangers”, Halsey featuring Lauren Jauregui (iTunes)
“Sure Thing”, Klyne (iTunes)
“Symphony (Cash Cash Remix)”, Clean Bandit featuring Zara Larsson (iTunes)
“The Youth”, George Taylor (iTunes)
“There For You”, Martin Garrix & Troye Sivan (iTunes)
“To Be Human”, Sia featuring Labrinth (iTunes)
“Treat Me”, Kiah Victoria (iTunes)
“Undercover (Coucheron Remix)”, Kehlani (iTunes)
“Ultra Love”, Marlon Roudette (iTunes)
“Wearing Nothing”, Dagny (iTunes)
“Woman”, Emmit Fenn (iTunes)
“Your Song”, Rita Ora (iTunes)

We’ll see you next week for new albums from Bleachers, Halsey and more. Listen to the PGTC Friday Faves list on Spotify!

NEW MUSIC FRIDAY: Releases For The Week of July 22, 2016

All rapped up.

We’ve hit the summer doldrums of the music industry this week. Unless Frank Ocean or Travis Scott drop their new albums, a superstar has a surprise set, or we somehow end up in a time warp to 1999, things are pretty barren. Here’s a quick look at the new and notable albums and singles this week:

• LIL DURK — Durk 2X (iTunes)
  • The 23-year-old Chicago rapper is likely to have one of the higher debuts on next week’s chart, as his last set made its entrance in the top 20 on the Billboard 200. The current single from it is “Money Walk”, sitting just below the top 40 at Urban radio.
• GUCCI MANE — Everybody Looking (iTunes)
  • This is the Alabama rapper’s first studio album since being released from prison, and several of the tracks are gaining nicely at streaming platforms. It’s hard to tell where it’ll place, but there’s definitely interest.
• KEITH SWEAT — Dress To Impress (iTunes)
  • Sweat recently topped the Urban AC chart with “Good Love”. It could end up in the top 40 on the album listing, but it will likely be much bigger on the R&B survey.
• More albums out this week: Crown The Empire‘s Retrograde (iTunes), HONNE‘s Warm On A Cold Night (iTunes), Periphery‘s Periphery III: Select Difficulty (iTunes), Relient K‘s Air For Free (iTunes), Stephen Marley‘s Revelation Part II: “The Fruit Of Life” (iTunes), Trent Dabbs‘s The Optimist (iTunes), Twisted Sister‘s Metal Meltdown (Live) (iTunes), Us The Duo‘s Just Love (iTunes)
• More EPs out this week: (coming soon…)

New digital-only singles that you can buy this week include:

• “Activated”, Cher Lloyd (iTunes)
• “American Love”, Jake Owen (iTunes)
• “Bleeding Heart”, Regina Spektor (iTunes)
• “Cold Water”, Major Lazer featuring Justin Bieber & MØ (iTunes)
• “Goldmine”, Colbie Caillat (iTunes)
• “Greenlight”, Pitbull featuring Flo Rida and LunchMoney Lewis (iTunes)
• “Hometown Girl”, ZHU (iTunes)
• “Painting (Masterpiece)”, Lewis Del Mar (iTunes)
• “Purple Lamborghini”, Skrillex & Rick Ross (iTunes)
• “Sunday Smile”, Jake Troth (iTunes)

We’ll see you next week for new releases from DJ Khaled, Jake Owen, Jason Derulo, ZHU and more.