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: An early great of the Billboard charts threatens her first new hit in many decades, a staple turn-of-the-millennium band connects with Gen Z and two new artists score viral breakout hits.
A Connie Francis Deep Cut Makes for a ‘Pretty’ Good Viral Moment
Connie Francis was one of the reigning queens of the Billboard Hot 100 in its early days. The late-’50s and early-’60s pop star scored a whopping 15 top 10 hits on the chart, including three No. 1s: “Everybody’s Somebody’s Fool,” “My Heart Has a Mind of Its Own” (both 1960) and “Don’t Break the Heart That Loves You” (1962). And over six decades after her commercial peak, Francis is once again having a big pop culture moment – but it’s not with any of those charting singles.
“Pretty Little Baby,” a non-single from Francis’ 1962 album Connie Francis Sings Second Hand Love, has caught fire on TikTok in the past month. Users have been lip synching along to the “You can ask the flowers/ I sit for hours/ Telling all the bluebirds/ The bill and coo birds/ Pretty little baby, I’m so in love with you” verse of the song, often while wearing cute retro outfits and/or singing to actual babies, with over a million videos being created to the song (though the official sound’s page currently appears to be unavailable).
Regardless, the song has already begun to cross over from TikTok to streaming in massive numbers. As recently as the tracking week ending April 10, the song was earning just over 17,000 official on-demand U.S. streams a week – but four weeks later, that number was up to 2.4 million, a gain of over 7,000%. And it’s still rising at an incredible rate – even debuting on the Spotify Daily Top Songs USA and Global charts – meaning the song could soon be threatening a Hot 100 debut, a mere 63 years after its initial release. – ANDREW UNTERBERGER
OK TikTok: Radiohead’s ‘Let Down’ Goes Up in Viral Plays as Catalog Grows
One of the greatest emotional rushes within Radiohead’s sprawling discography is the final verse of “Let Down,” on which Thom Yorke’s quivering lilt soars higher and higher to achieve bracing, beautiful alt-rock catharsis. Even as “Karma Police,” “Paranoid Android” and “No Surprises” remain the signature songs from the band’s 1997 masterwork OK Computer, “Let Down” has long been a favorite among Radiohead diehards — and now, the song is slowly crossing over to casual fans, too.
TikTok has latched onto that euphoric final verse, particularly the line “One day, I am gonna grow wings,” with users reacting to (and often bowled over by) the song’s whooshing upward build. And those TikTok clips are starting to translate into real streaming momentum for “Let Down,” which was earning 1.83 million U.S. on-demand weekly streams a month ago (during the chart week ending Apr. 10, according to Luminate), and is now earning 2.73 million streams (for the week ending May 8).
That’s a 49% increase in the song’s weekly streams over a four-week period — and while Radiohead’s entire streaming catalog isn’t growing that rapidly, “Let Down” is helping that total grow. Radiohead’s catalog earned 35.4 million streams during the week ending May 8, up 10% from four weeks prior (32.1 million during the week ending Apr. 10). Pretty impressive for a band whose most recent album came out nine years ago, although Yorke is keeping busy: he just put out a new album with electronic producer Mark Pritchard, as the duo Tall Tales, just last week. – JASON LIPSHUTZ
Trump, Dance Trends & TikTok Relationship Drama Boost BB Trickz’ “Super”
Nearly two months ago (March 30), BB Trickz released “Super” as the lead single from her new 80z EP – and an interesting combination of social conversation has driven up the track’s streams.
Eagle-eyed music fans may recognize BB Trickz, a Spanish rapper who broke through in 2023 with sample drill tracks, from Charli XCX’s “Club Classics” remix. BB even appeared as a surprise guest on the second night of Charli’s Barclays Center mini-residency on the Brat Arena Tour (May 1). About two weeks before her appearance onstage (April 22), BB said that she could learn a few things from Donald Trump and Hitler during an interview with Grimey TV, spurring understandably split reactions amongst fans and increasing her general notoriety as “the most hated rapper in Spain.”
That clip – which has since amassed over 57,000 views – came around the same time “Super” became the go-to song for a TikTok love triangle to throw shade at one another. TikTok personalities @.willito, @orlenaodette, @wendolynortizz have each posted multiple videos with the official “Super” sound (which currently boasts over 166,000 posts) that have millions of collective views.
Independent of that love triangle, much of the social conversation around “Super” is based around some people adoring the song and other people detesting it. Furthermore, on April 24, BB Trickz teamed up with TikTok personality @bachbuquen for a dance challenge set to “Super.” That clip reached 9.4 million views on Back’s account and over 23.5 million views on BB’s account.
According to Luminate, “Super” has jumped over 776% in streams over the past four weeks. During the period of April 4-10, the track earned over 146,000 official on-demand U.S. streams. By the time her Trump comments started going viral and the dance trend kicked off, “Super” pulled over 1.9 million streams during the week of May 2-8, growing over 50% week over week.
Having already visited the Billboard charts with Charli — “Club Classics” reached No. 8 on Hot Dance/Electronic Songs last year – BB Trickz could soon be poised for her first solo entry. – KYLE DENIS
ATL’s Female Rap Wave Buoys a New Hit In BunnaB’s “Bunna Summa”
Just as Pluto & YKNiece’s “Whim Whammiee” begins its Hot 100 ascent, Atlanta has already spun out another delightfully ratchet female rap hit to kick off the summer.
Released on April 16, “Bunna Summa” arrived after a few short weeks of teasing from the artist herself. On April 4, Bunna B posted a snippet of the then-unreleased song to her official TikTok account (@therealbunnab). To date, that snippet has amassed over 584,000 views, while the accompanying official sound now plays in over 51,000 posts on the app. Most of the song’s traction has come from the end of its opening verse: “I drive the boat, these b–ches follow/ F–ked around and text my ex, oops, it was a typo/ Shake, shake, shake, booty shake like a maraca/ If you ain’t throwin’ ass, what the f–k you outside for?”
In its first week of release (April 11-17), “Bunna Summa” garnered 112,000 official on-demand U.S. streams, according to Luminate. That number jumped 425% in its first full tracking week (April 18-24) to over 592,000 streams. The following week, streams jumped a further 145% to over 1.4 million, and by May 2-8, the song started crossing over two million weekly streams.
If her hit continues to rise along with the temperatures, we can officially crown the upcoming season a “Bunna Summa.” – KD
