Elton John and Britney Spears hit more new highs on Billboard‘s radio airplay charts with the superstars’ team-up “Hold Me Closer.”
Marking its first coronation on a radio-based ranking, the song soars from No. 5 to No. 1 on the Dance/Mix Show Airplay chart (dated Oct. 8). John adds his second leader on the list, after his Dua Lipa collab “Cold Heart (Pnau Remix)” ruled for 14 weeks beginning in October 2021.
Spears scores her fifth Dance/Mix Show Airplay No. 1 – and first since “I Wanna Go,” for a week in August 2011. Before that, she led with “Hold It Against Me” (three weeks, March 2011); “Gimme More” (six, beginning in October 2007); and “Toxic” (three, starting in February 2004).
“Hold Me Closer” is collecting core-dance airplay on Music Choice’s Dance/EDM channel, KMVQ-HD2 San Francisco and Channel Q, among others, in addition to top 40 mix show attention.
The collab also hits the top 10 on Adult Contemporary (12-9) and Pop Airplay (13-10). John claims his record-extending 42nd AC top 10, padding his lead over Neil Diamond (38), Barbra Streisand (35) and Elvis Presley (31). John’s run began 51 years and eight months ago with the first week in the tier (Feb. 6, 1971) for “Your Song” – a record-breaking span of top 10s, as he narrowly passes Johnny Mathis’ stretch of 51 years, two months and three weeks (1962-2013).
Spears notches her first AC top 10. In her two previous trips to the tally, she hit No. 11 with “Sometimes” (1999) and No. 29 with “I’m Not a Girl, Not Yet a Woman” (2002).
On Pop Airplay, John posts his second top 10 this year, following “Cold Heart,” while Spears earns her 16th total and first since “Scream & Shout,” with will.i.am (No. 3, February 2013). Prior to that duet, “I Wanna Go” became her sixth Pop Airplay No. 1, a run that began with her debut smash “…Baby One More Time,” for five weeks starting in February 1999.
“Hold Me Closer” mashes up two John classics: the hook of “Tiny Dancer” and the verses of “The One.” (The originals hit Nos. 35 and 1, the latter for six weeks, on AC in 1972 and 1992, respectively.)
“Hold Me Closer” concurrently climbs 10-7 on Adult Pop Airplay, a week after it became Spears’ first top 10 on the tally. On the all-format Radio Songs chart, it jumps 27-20, up 14% to 25.1 million in audience, according to Luminate.
As previously reported, “Hold Me Closer” launched at its No. 6 best on the Sept. 10-dated all-genre, multi-metric Billboard Hot 100.
