Welcome to Billboard Pro’s Trending Up column, 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: Shania Twain’s recently released Netflix documentary nets a consumption boost for her catalog, alt-pop darling Beabadoobee picks up buzz with a new track and Lana Del Rey lends the all-too-appropriate perennial soundtrack for the dog days of summer.
OK, So You’ve Got a New Documentary: Shania Twain Catalog Gets ‘Not Just a Girl’ Bump
Shania Twain’s impressive back catalog of country-pop gems has been a reliable performer on streaming services, but her entire discography got an extra bump last week following the July 26 release of her new Netflix documentary Not Just a Girl. The doc, which also came with an accompanying 17-track Not Just a Girl (The Highlights) compilation – featuring one new song in the set’s title track – resulted in a 47.4% gain in official U.S. on-demand streams (to 12.6 million) and 147.6% gain in U.S. digital sales (to 12,000) for her catalog in the tracking week ending Aug. 4, according to Luminate.
Some of the biggest gains for individual songs in her catalog include Come on Over classics “That Don’t Impress Me Much” (up 83.4% in official U.S. on-demand streams to just over one million), “You’re Still the One” (up 31% to 1.3 million) and “Man! I Feel Like a Woman” (up 21% to 1.9 million). The collective bump for these singles is enough to send her Greatest Hits set back onto the Billboard 200 albums chart, where it re-enters at No. 95 this week (chart dated Aug. 13) – the compilation’s highest ranking on the chart since May 21, 2011 – a testament to the Canadian crossover superstar still having the touch decades after her commercial peak. – ANDREW UNTERBERGER
Beabadoobee and TikTok: A Perfect Pair
“You ought to know that/ I think we’re one and the same,” Beabadoobee sings to open her lilting, bossa nova-flavored track “The Perfect Pair.” It’s a fitting line for a 22-year-old who’s fashioned an impressive career as an alt-pop singer-songwriter, but who some top 40 listeners may know only via a hip-hop sample: the hook to Beabadoobee’s 2017 debut single “Coffee” was repurposed for Powfu’s 2019 track “Death Bed (Coffee For Your Head),” which became an early TikTok success story and climbed to No. 23 on the Billboard Hot 100.
Beabadoobee’s jangly, indie-rock-leaning 2020 debut album Fake It Flowers earned critical acclaim, but didn’t produce a hit to build upon the unexpected momentum of “Death Bed.” Two years later, however, “The Perfect Pair” – from her more experimental sophomore LP Beatopia – may prove to be that follow-up: the track has started taking off on TikTok, with a series of clips utilizing that opening line in a variety of ways, from before-and-after makeup tutorials to virtual duets.
“The Perfect Pair” earned nearly 910,000 U.S. on-demand streams between the week of July 29 and Aug. 4 – a 71 percent jump from the previous week, according to Luminate – and, if it keeps rising at this velocity, could give Beabadoobee her first Hot 100 hit as an unaccompanied solo artist. – JASON LIPSHUTZ
“Summertime Sadness” Heats Up
Summertime pop music used to mean the carefree melodies of early Beach Boys or the nostalgic vibing of DJ Jazzy Jeff & The Fresh Prince – but with the oppressive heat waves sweeping the globe in 2022, likely to get worse before they get better, it’s not surprising folks are turning a different kind of warm-weather pop.
Lana Del Rey’s Cedric Gervais-remixed “Summertime Sadness” marked her top 40 breakthrough back 2013, peaking at No. 6 on the Billboard Hot 100 that September, and it looks like it’s coming back in 2022 as something of a seasonal perennial. The song has slowly climbed in U.S. on-demand audio streams all summer, from just under 2 million for the tracking ending June 16 to over 3.2 million in the most tracking week ending Aug. 4, according to Luminate – a 64% gain in all. (The trend has not yet extended to Del Rey’s Lust For Life cut “Summer Bummer,” which has remained relatively steady in streams all season – maybe a trend for next year, if conditions get even worse.) – AU
