Huge Grammy Gains for Doechii, Beyoncé, Chappell Roan and Other Winners & Performers
Welcome to Billboard Pro’s Trending Up newsletter, where we take a closer look at the songs, artists, curiosities and trends that have caught the music industry’s attention. Some have come out of nowhere, others have taken months to catch on, and all of them could become ubiquitous in the blink of a TikTok clip.
This week: The Grammys make big winners on streaming out of both long-established legends and rising stars, while Fetty Wap scores his biggest hit in a decade with a song from a decade ago and Severance dips its toes into big rock synchs.
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Biggest Grammys Gainers: ‘Cowboy Carter,’ ‘Von Dutch’ and All Things Doechii
The 67th Annual Grammy Awards ended with history being made: Beyoncé at long last won the album of the year award, as her country crossover Cowboy Carter finally earned the most Grammy-nominated and Grammy-winning artist in history the top prize of the ceremony. The magnitude of that victory is still being put into context days later, but one thing was for certain: Cowboy Carter was going to see a major uptick in streaming activity immediately after the Grammys, with unfamiliar viewers perusing the album and longtime fans revisiting it nearly a year after its release.
On Jan. 26, the Monday before the Grammys, Cowboy Carter earned 1.07 million U.S. on-demand audio streams, according to Luminate. On the Monday after the Grammys (Feb. 3), however, that daily total shot to 7.50 million — a 595% increase. As for the rest of the Big Four, Kendrick Lamar’s “Not Like Us” was up 74% in daily streams (from 1.37 million on Jan. 26 to 2.4 million on Feb. 3) following its wins for record of the year and song of the year, while Chappell Roan’s catalog rose 50% (from 5.96 million streams on Jan. 26 to 8.99 million streams on Feb. 3) thanks in part to her best new artist victory.
Roan’s “Pink Pony Club” — which received a brightly colored, rodeo clown-filled performance showcase — naturally earned an even bigger bump, rising 109% (851,000 daily streams to 1.77 million) during that span. Other notable gainers thanks to performances included Charli XCX’s “Von Dutch,” which zoomed from 183,000 daily streams to 423,000 (up 130%) following her raucous performance to close out the ceremony; Raye’s “Oscar Winning Tears,” which jumped from 216,000 daily streams to 334,000 (up 54%) thanks to the British artist’s vocal pyrotechnics, and Doechii’s eye-popping medley, which constituted the best performance of the ceremony, helped “Catfish” leap from 210,000 daily streams to 658,000 (up 213%) and “Denial is a River” move from 1.08 million daily streams to 2.08 million (up 93%).
In addition to her performance, Doechii also delivered a moving acceptance speech following her win for best rap album with Alligator Bites Never Heal — a breakthrough moment, which helped her entire catalog soar from 2.84 million daily streams to 8.01 million (up 182%). – JASON LIPSHUTZ
Fetty Wap Is Hot ‘Again’ Thanks to Slightly Confusing Viral Trend
10 years after the New Jersey rapper took the world by storm with hits like “Trap Queen,” “My Way” and “679,” Fetty Wap is hot again – and the conversation is all around his aptly titled 2015 Billboard Hot 100 top 40 hit “Again” (No. 33).
Centered around the phrase “blasting Fetty Wap on the JBL speaker,” the joke of the meme is playing he rapper’s songs at particularly inappropriate moments via the JBL. At the top of the new year (Jan. 9), one user used “Again” in a video captioned “How do you think the pilgrims would react if I pulled up to the Mayflower with my JBL speaker and introduced them to Fetty Wap?”; that post currently has over 3.6 million views and a reply from the official History Channel TikTok account. More history–minded posts followed, and near the end of the month (Jan. 24), the trend evolved past historical settings. One user used the official “Again” sound to make a World War III quip, while another used it to make a joke about blasting the track at a friend’s funeral.
According to Luminate, “Again” earned over 4.77 million official on-demand U.S. streams last week (Jan. 24-30). That’s a 265% increase in streaming activity from the 1.3 millin streams it pulled the week prior (Jan. 17-23). Last weekend (Jan. 24-27), the song posted a 387% jump to 6.69 million streams versus the 1.37 million it logged the weekend prior (Jan. 31-Feb. 3). Currently, the official “Again” sound boasts over 250,000 posts. Fetty Wap may unfortunately still be incarcerated, but clearly a comeback isn’t entirely out of the question. — KYLE DENIS
The Who and Stone Roses Jams Get ‘Severance’ Bump
The first season and a quarter of Apple TV’s sci-fi workplace drama Severance has been relatively light on high-profile synchs – but thank Kier, the show is starting to break out the big guns midway through its second season. The third episode of Season Two, “Who Is Alive?,” is bookended with a pair of songs used in big spots: The Stone Roses’ mid-’90s alt-rock hit “Love Spreads” soundtracks a road journey for the (maybe?) villainous Ms. Cobel (Patricia Arquette) to start the show, while the ep ends with The Who’s early-’80s AOR staple “Eminence Front” punctuating a breakthrough moment for protagonist Mark S (Adam Scott).
The synchs haven’t resulted in Stranger Things-sized gains yet for the songs in question, but both saw big bumps following their S2E03 appearance in the hit show. “Love Spreads” racked up a combined 33,000 U.S. on-demand audio streams over the first four days of this tracking week – with the episode premiering on the first day, Friday (Feb. 20) – a gain of 78% over the same period the week prior, according to Luminate. “Eminence Front” was also up 27% to 326,000 over the same time span, while the two songs combined to sell nearly 400 copies after selling under 100 the week before. If Severance keeps up with the inspired synch choices, maybe it’ll be producing legitimately viral hits by the time Mark completes the Cold Harbor project. – ANDREW UNTERBERGER
Yung Bredda Heats Up the Winter with Soca Smash
Between Machel Monatano’s historic NPR Tiny desk set and Yung Bredda’s infectious new hit, soca is having a beautiful start to 2025. Trinidadian soca star Yung Bredda’s “The Greatest Bend Over” — a sweet ode to the woman with “di wickedest bend over” — arrived late last year on Full Blown’s “Big Links” riddim (Dec. 2). The song has quickly become one of the most dominant current hits across the Caribbean with carnival season still to come. Soca is a bit more of a nice genre in the U.S., but “The Greatest Bend Over” is still finding some traction.
During the period of Dec. 13-19, Yung Bredda’s track earned just over 35,000 official on-demand U.S. streams. A little over a month later (Jan. 24-30), the song’s streaming exploded by a whopping 940% to over 367,000 streams. On TikTok, the song’s official sound plays in over 34,400 posts – a number that’s sure to grow as the song continues to enchant different parts of the globe.
Vybz Kartel’s comeback may be giving dancehall all the airtime, but pay attention to the soca scene too! — KD
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