Gracie Abrams performs in Los Angeles earlier this month. Abrams, who launched her album The Secret of Us in June, has been opening for Taylor Swift on the newest leg of Swift’s Eras Tour. “That is So True,” a single included on the deluxe model of The Secret of Us final month, turns into her first High 10 hit this week.
John Sciulli/Getty Photos
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John Sciulli/Getty Photos
The vacations are about to shake up the pop charts, and never a second too quickly: There’s treasured little motion within the High 10 of this week’s Sizzling 100, as Shaboozey’s “A Bar Music (Tipsy)” sits at No. 1 for an 18th nonconsecutive week. (He is now one week shy of tying the all-time document.) On the albums chart, Tyler, The Creator’s Chromakopia survives a Ok-pop-driven problem to retain the crown for a 3rd consecutive week. However amid all that stasis, there’s unmistakable momentum behind Gracie Abrams, who’s surging on each charts — thanks partially to her placement because the opening act on Taylor Swift’s Eras Tour.
TOP ALBUMS
For the previous two weeks, Tyler, The Creator‘s Chromakopia has been a dominant chart-topper: It is posted large streaming and gross sales numbers and landed three totally different songs within the High 10. This week, although, it wound up in a good race for the Billboard 200’s high spot, going through off towards the all-caps-loving Ok-pop band TOMORROW X TOGETHER and its new album, The Star Chapter: SANCTUARY. Billboard ranks albums based mostly on a formulation referred to as “equal album models” — a cocktail of gross sales and streaming — and Tyler got here out on high, narrowly, by a roughly 104,000-to-98,000 margin.
Although TOMORROW X TOGETHER is a frequent resident of the High 10 — it is the group’s sixth album to land there and second this 12 months — the sledding is about to get significantly more durable, provided that 95,000 of these 98,000 equal album models got here from gross sales. (Gross sales are nice! However they do not have a tendency to hold over from week to week.) Anticipate a steep drop on subsequent week’s chart.
Talking of steep week-two drops, final week’s High 10 debuts — Lil Uzi Vert‘s Everlasting Atake 2 and The Treatment‘s Songs of a Misplaced World — plummet to earth this time round, as Lil Uzi Vert slides from No. 3 to No. 36 and The Treatment tumbles from No. 4 to No. 74.
With Lil Uzi Vert and The Treatment out, the rest of the High 10 is full of outdated reliables. Sabrina Carpenter‘s Brief n’ Candy takes a small (and almost certainly momentary) dip from No. 2 to No. 3, whereas The Secret of Us by Gracie Abrams — extra on her in a second — continues its rise, ticking up from No. 5 to No. 4. Billie Eilish‘s Hit Me Exhausting and Gentle jumps from No. 7 to No. 5, leapfrogging Chappell Roan‘s The Rise and Fall of a Midwest Princess, which holds regular at No. 6.
Rounding out the High 10, Morgan Wallen‘s One Factor at a Time climbs from No. 10 to No. 7; Taylor Swift‘s The Tortured Poets Division rises from No. 9 to No. 8, switching spots with Rod Wave‘s Final Lap; and Noah Kahan‘s sturdy Stick Season climbs from No. 14 to No. 10.
TOP SONGS
There’s an absurd logjam atop the Billboard Sizzling 100 singles chart, as the highest 5 stays precisely the identical as final week. Shaboozey‘s “A Bar Music (Tipsy)” holds at No. 1 for an 18th nonconsecutive week, inserting the music only one week wanting the all-time document, set in 2019 by Lil Nas X‘s “Previous City Highway (feat. Billy Ray Cyrus).”
Woman Gaga and Bruno Mars‘ “Die With a Smile,” Billie Eilish’s “Birds of a Feather,” Sabrina Carpenter’s “Espresso” and Teddy Swims‘ “Lose Management” spherical out the High 5, in the very same order as final week. Heck, “Lose Management” has sat within the High 10 for 44 weeks now. We’ll all be sick of “All I Need for Christmas Is You” and “Rockin’ Across the Christmas Tree” quickly sufficient, however even they have not been within the High 10 virtually all 12 months.
The remainder of the High 10 is equally awash in acquainted songs, all transferring one rung down in lockstep: Publish Malone‘s “I Had Some Assist,” which options Morgan Wallen, slides again a spot, from No. 6 to No. 7; Sabrina Carpenter’s “Style” slips from No. 7 to No. 8; Benson Boone’s “Lovely Issues” drops from No. 8 to No. 9; and Wallen’s “Love Any person” takes a step again from No. 9 to No. 10. Sense a theme? Everyone seems to be making room for the aforementioned Gracie Abrams, whose new single “That is So True” makes a notable leap from No. 13.
Typically, the easy motion of songs up and down the chart will be deceptive: A music can expertise will increase in airplay, gross sales and streaming, but nonetheless be pushed down by tracks posting flashier good points; at different occasions, a music can seem like on the rise, when as a substitute it is merely benefitting from different ones fading extra rapidly. However when a music surges up a chart by which every part else is mainly immobile? That is momentum. To an unmistakable diploma, Gracie Abrams is leveling up as a pop star.
It isn’t that Abrams is popping out of nowhere right here. A 12 months in the past, she was nominated for greatest new artist on the Grammys, whereas The Secret of Us entered the Billboard 200 at No. 2 this summer season. However there are three main catalysts for her sudden chart surges: 1) She launched a deluxe version of The Secret of Us with new bonus tracks, together with “That is So True,” a couple of weeks in the past; 2) that music has blown up on TikTok, which components into chart efficiency and three) She’s been opening for Taylor Swift on a string of Eras Tour dates within the U.S. Oh, and there is yet one more catalyst value noting: Pop radio stations, after serving up a gradual weight loss program of seemingly little greater than Shaboozey and Billie Eilish for months on finish, have made room for a brand new music, and it simply occurs to be by Gracie Abrams.
When individuals speak concerning the energy Taylor Swift wields within the music {industry}, they typically dwell on her impossibly profitable Eras Tour (and its blockbuster film offshoot), her chart dominance (15 weeks at No. 1 for The Tortured Poets Division), her Grammy success (she’s gained album of the 12 months 4 occasions, and will nicely win the prize once more in February) or her fan military. However Swift has additionally develop into maybe probably the most dominant power propelling up-and-coming acts to superstardom — which, as you might need guessed, is extremely arduous to do in 2024.
Have a look at three acts who’ve opened for her on the Eras Tour simply this 12 months: Benson Boone is nominated for greatest new artist on the 2025 Grammys, and his “Lovely Issues” nonetheless sits within the High 10 almost a 12 months after its launch. Sabrina Carpenter ranks among the many 12 months’s largest breakout stars; she’s up for six Grammys and had three songs within the High 10 concurrently for weeks on finish this summer season. Now, Abrams has a High 10 single for the primary time in her profession. (This phenomenon is not new, both, as Swift’s previous opening acts — starting from Phoebe Bridgers to Ed Sheeran — have capitalized on The Taylor Swift Impact in a giant method.)
Naturally, Swift is not the one famous person with lengthy coattails: The profession of Carpenter’s stiffest competitors for greatest new artist, Chappell Roan, skilled a colossal raise from opening for Olivia Rodrigo on tour at the start of this 12 months. (No, it wasn’t simply her Tiny Desk live performance that propelled her into the stratosphere.) Lately, you do not simply want music-industry executives in your facet, neither is viral success on TikTok sufficient by itself. In case you’re a star trying to develop into a tremendousstar, your greatest guess is a big-time, hard-touring benefactor.
WORTH NOTING
This week’s Billboard charts are the primary to drop following the Nov. 8 announcement of the 2025 Grammy nominees. And in case you’re suspecting that there is a correlation between chart success and Grammy recognition, this 12 months’s batch of nominees is not prone to disabuse you of that notion.
A have a look at the eight-song document of the 12 months subject yields three chart-toppers — Beyoncé‘s “Texas Maintain ‘Em,” Taylor Swift’s “Fortnight (feat. Publish Malone)” and Kendrick Lamar‘s “Not Like Us” — and 4 extra High 10 hits: Chappell Roan’s “Good Luck, Babe!” (nonetheless at No. 11), Billie Eilish’s “Birds of a Feather” (nonetheless at No. 3), Sabrina Carpenter’s “Espresso” (nonetheless at No. 4) and The Beatles‘ “Now and Then,” which peaked at No. 7 a couple of 12 months in the past and disappeared from the charts shortly thereafter. Solely Charli xcx‘s “360” did not crack the High 10, peaking at No. 41, nevertheless it’s from a blockbuster album (Brat) that is develop into one of many largest pop-culture tales of the 12 months.
Music of the 12 months, an award for composition, is much more hit-forward than that, with 5 chart-toppers — the three listed above, plus Shaboozey’s “A Bar Music (Tipsy)” and Carpenter’s “Please Please Please” — becoming a member of “Birds of a Feather,” “Good Luck, Babe!” and Woman Gaga and Bruno Mars’ “Die With a Smile,” which has been sitting at No. 2 for weeks. That is eight nominees, eight High 5 hits.
Lastly, the album of the 12 months subject assembles six of the 12 months’s most commercially dominant information — by Taylor Swift, Sabrina Carpenter, Charli xcx, Chappell Roan, Beyoncé and Billie Eilish — and tosses in two left-field outliers: André 3000‘s 87-minute flute odyssey, New Blue Solar, which peaked at No. 34 earlier this 12 months, and Grammys über-favorite Jacob Collier, whose Djesse Vol. 4 has by no means a lot as cracked the Billboard 200. (Actually, Collier has by no means positioned an album on the chart in his profession.)
Of the eight nominees, solely Beyoncé’s Cowboy Carter appears to have skilled any considerable Grammy-nomination bump, because it reenters this week’s chart at No. 169. However the actual Grammy bumps will come someday after the awards themselves are handed out on Feb. 2. Who is aware of? If Collier wins album of the 12 months — which might be bizarre, even for the Grammys, however you by no means know — he could lastly be a part of his fellow nominees on the pop charts in any case.
ONE MORE THING
There is a new Vacation Harbinger this week, because the season’s first Christmas music to reenter the Sizzling 100 has arrived a bit of sooner than ordinary. And, no, it isn’t “Rockin’ Across the Christmas Tree” or “All I Need For Christmas Is You.” It is 1984’s “Final Christmas” by Wham!, and it is at No. 38 this week. Although the music stayed frozen at No. 4 for weeks on finish final season — at all times behind the 2 aforementioned chestnuts and Bobby Helms’ 1957 trifle, “Jingle Bell Rock” — its early rise this 12 months needs to be thought-about a warning shot within the battle for vacation supremacy.
