As the Billboard Hot 100 resumes its more traditional-looking form following the now-regular late-December deluge of holiday-themed entries, activity at the top of the chart has been a little static. The top four on the chart are currently all 2020 leftovers — 24kGoldn “Mood,” featuring iann dior, Ariana Grande’s “Positions,” The Weeknd’s “Blinding Lights” and Justin Bieber’s “Holy” featuring Chance the Rapper — and they’ve each held in place from last week (chart dated Jan. 9) to this one (Jan. 16). But one new song may be threatening to change that in short order.
“Drivers License,” the official debut single from 17-year-old singer-songwriter and High School Musical: The Musical: The Series alum Olivia Rodrigo — who briefly appeared on the Hot 100 in January 2020, with the No. 90-peaking HSM:TM:TS soundtrack cut “All I Want” — debuted last Friday (Jan. 8) to considerable buzz. Listeners flocked to social media to share reactions and theories over the IRL meaning and subjects behind the song’s heartbroken lyrics. That hype has already translated into tremendous consumption numbers, which have only continued to grow in the days since its initial release.
Over its first three days of availability — from Friday the 8th to Sunday the 10th — the song has sold 16,000 copies and been streamed 21 million times in the U.S., according to preliminary figures from MRC Data. For comparison’s sake, that’s already more streams in three days than “Mood,” the reigning No. 1 on Billboard’s Streaming Songs listing, notched in the entire previous chart week (17.5 million streams). It’s also nearly 73% of the way to the sales total posted by Justin Bieber’s “Anyone” in that week (22,000), the top song on Billboard’s Digital Song Sales chart.
And the streaming numbers are still rising. “Drivers License” was up 122% in streams from Friday to Saturday, and another 32% from Saturday to Sunday, at which point fan excitement started to spill over into endorsements from contemporary pop stars. The song hasn’t appeared to be slowing down since the weekend, either — it’s currently No. 1 on the U.S. daily charts for both Apple Music and Spotify, with its new high of nearly 5.7 million daily plays on the latter service outnumbering the totals of the second- through seventh-most-played songs combined, according to its listed daily tallies.
“Drivers License” (which Interscope Records will also begin promoting to pop radio next week) is already set to make a major impact on the Hot 100 next week. Just how major? Check back with Billboard next Tuesday to see where on the chart it ultimately lands.
