Hot 100 First-Timers: Jordan Adetunji Debuts With Viral Hit ‘Kehlani’

Jordan Adetunji debuts on the Billboard Hot 100 with his breakthrough viral hit, “Kehlani.”

Released May 19 on Indigo Kid/300 Entertainment, the song enters the Hot 100 (dated July 6) at No. 70 with 8.1 million U.S. streams (up 46%) and 510,000 all-format radio audience impressions June 21-27, according to Luminate. It also opens at No. 17 on Hot Rap Songs and rises 33-20 on Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs.

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“Kehlani” is, of course, an ode to the R&B/pop singer-songwriter of the same name. Ahead of the song’s official release, Adetunji posted a snippet of the song to his official TikTok account, writing, “Bro wrote a whole song about Kehlani, but why it kinda go hard.” On May 18, Kehlani seemingly gave her stamp of approval, posting a singular flame emoji under his post. On May 23, she posted a pair of TikToks featuring her vibing and lip-synching to the track. The more recent video of the two has since earned more than 5 million views and surpassed 1 million likes on the platform, directing listeners to Adetunji’s track.

TikTok has continued to help raise the song’s profile. The official “Kehlani” TikTok sound has been used in more than 287,000 clips on the platform. Another version has soundtracked over 315,000 videos. The song debuted at No. 35 on the June 15-dated TikTok Billboard Top 50 chart and reached No. 7 on the June 29 list.

Recent streaming gains for “Kehlani” can perhaps also be attributed to new music from Kehlani herself. She released her fourth studio album, Crash, June 21 on Atlantic Records. Five songs from the set appear on the latest Hot R&B Songs chart, led by lead single “After Hours” at No. 5. The song concurrently climbs to No. 72 — two spots below her namesake hit — on the Hot 100, where it’s her 16th career entry.

“Kehlani” is Adetunji’s first charted song on Billboard’s rankings. He released his debut album, Rock ‘n’ Rave, in October.

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