While we called out the music industry “defrosting” multiple times in the month of January, the always-reliable fireworks in February truly set things ablaze. The back-to-back combination of the Grammys and the Super Bowl Halftime show have immediately made their mark in changing up the landscape of Music Daily’s Trending Tracks ranking. Here’s how the likes of Doechii, Kendrick Lamar, Chappell Roan and Drake ended up as some of this week’s biggest climbers.
Grammys And New Releases Provide Windfall For Doechii, The Weeknd
Outside of the awards themselves, one of the night’s most significant plotlines was the return of The Weeknd to the Grammys, ending a years-long boycott of the ceremony, performing “Timeless” and “Cry For Me” off of his era-ending HURRY UP TOMORROW. Though Abel certainly doesn’t need help moving records, it’s notable that those two songs end up the highest in our rankings. Zooming out, the Toronto crooner marked seven top 100 entries, all from that record, with “Sao Paulo,” “Dancing In The Flames,” “Wake Me Up,” “Open Hearts” and “Reflections Laughing” rounding out the group.
Chappell Roan equally made headlines with her call-to-action that took over her acceptance speech for “Best New Artist.” Whether it redoubled the public’s love for her or gained her new audience, it’s easy to tell the results—”Pink Pony Club” vaulted over 50 spots to enter the top 20, and her “Good Luck, Babe!” remains a smash with an extremely long tail behind it, holding onto that position for months at this point.
For Doechii, one of the night’s most triumphant as part of only a handful of female artists to ever win “Best Rap Album,” the runoff effects of the ceremony were similarly tangible. She’s had a trio of songs on our charts for multiple weeks now (Tyler the Creator’s “Balloon,” her “DENIAL IS A RIVER” and “NISSAN ULTIMA”). Each of those saw serious gains week-to-week, and a fourth entrant joined that crop, with the Doechii appearance on Sleepy Hallow’s “Anxiety” entering around the 200 mark.
Kendrick vs. Drake Plays Out On Our Trending Tracks Chart
The Kendrick Lamar / Drake beef jumped back to the forefront of the music industry for the umpteenth time, marking a second monocultural moment as the Compton MC took the feud to the world stage at the Super Bowl halftime show, just a week after bringing home half a dozen Grammys on the back of “Not Like Us.” Unsurprisingly, that year-defining single vaulted into the top 10 for the first time in several months, joining several Lamar’s inclusions like “tv off,” “luther” and “squabble up” in that group. Further down, additional tracklist cuts like “peekaboo,” “HUMBLE.” and “All The Stars,” performed with co-star and former labelmate SZA, make an impact inside the top 100.
Sadly for the “can’t we all get along” crowd, K. Dot’s big win from the big game was zero-sum, meaning Mr. Aubrey Graham was a loser of the night’s festivities. However, outside that realm, Drake added a tally in the win column as he and Lil Wayne’s “She Will” rocketed up to the top spot in social media listens (TikTok usage, etc.). As is typically the case, a dance challenge is the main driver behind the strip club ballad’s sudden surge, but when taken alongside bubbling-under style positions between the 100 and 300 levels for hits like “Nice For What,” “Round of Applause” and “No Face,” Drizzy’s performances in the past weeks shows that his commercial Midas Touch hasn’t lost any of its luster in the wake of the conflict.
Find all of the music covered in this piece included in our updated Trending Tracks playlist below.
