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: A viral TV drama leads to growth for a number of its featured soundtrack artists on streaming, while Cameron Winter and his main band reap the benefits of year-end list season and more.
Steamy Gay Hockey Drama ‘Heated Rivalry’ Spurs Streaming Gains for Little Mix, Wet Leg & Feist
Heated Rivalry — a steamy new Crave-produced gay hockey drama that’s airing in the States on Max and based on Rachel Reid’s Game Changers series — has quickly taken over the Internet with just its first three episodes. Led by actors Connor Storrie and Hudson Williams, the Jacob Tierney-helmed show is also making a real-world impact, with the series trailer airing during the Tampa Bay v. Montreal NHL game on Tuesday night (Dec. 9).
The first episode, which aired on Nov. 28, featured a needle-drop of Feist’s “Sealion” to close out the much-talked about locker room scene, leading to 6,600 official on-demand U.S. streams during the four-day period of Nov. 28-Dec. 1, according to Luminate. By the following week (Dec. 5-8), “Sealion” jumped 155% to 17,000 official streams. The second episode, which hit streaming alongside the first, opens with Wet Leg’s “Mangetout,” which rose 61% to over 226,000 official streams during the four-day period of Dec. 5-8.
The third and most recent Heated Rivalry episode arrived on Dec. 5, and followed the story of a different, but equally compelling, couple. The episode opens with Wolf Parade’s “I’ll Believe In Anything,” which spiked 60% to over 23,000 official streams (Dec. 5-8), and closes with Baxter Dury’s “Lips,” which vaulted a whopping 14,351% to over 19,000 official streams (Dec. 5-8). The latter song earned just 137 official on-demand U.S. streams during the four-day period of Nov. 28-Dec. 1.
Finally, Heated Rivalry has naturally invigorated the online “edit” community, with hundreds of heart-wrenching video montages flooding social media over the past two weeks. Though it has not appeared in the series, Little Mix’s “Secret Love Song, Pt. II” — which beautifully captures the show’s theme of nurturing love in the shadows — has emerged as the main Heated Rivalry edit song. During the four-day period of Nov. 28-Dec. 1, “Secret” logged 30,000 official on-demand U.S. streams. That figure rose nearly 40% to 42,5000 official streams by the period of Dec. 5-8.
With three more episodes still to go in its first season, expect to hear a whole lot more about Heated Rivalry in the new year. — KYLE DENIS
Getting Killed With Kindness: Geese (and Geese Frontman) Streams Boosted by Year-End Lists
Geese’s third album, Getting Killed, has represented a critical and commercial breakthrough for the Brooklyn indie band — with the pivot toward more outlandish, often caustic songwriting and elliptical structures earning the group rave reviews upon the September release and its biggest live crowds to date in the following months. Now, with year-end season providing a flurry of critics’ best-of lists, Getting Killed is scoring a new round of acclaim — top 10 showings on the New Yorker, Stereogum, Rolling Stone and Paste lists, among many others — and so is Heavy Metal, the lovably weird debut solo album from Geese frontman Cameron Winter, which came out last December but is being lumped in with lots of 2025 music lists. While Pitchfork named Getting Killed the No. 7 album of 2025, for instance, they ranked Heavy Metal the No. 3 album of the year — and Winter’s shambolic pop anthem “Love Takes Miles” as the best song of 2025.
The critical double-dipping for Winter has boosted streams for his own music and that of his ascendant band: Geese’s Getting Killed earned 1.66 million official on-demand U.S. streams from Dec. 3-6, a 41% bump from the previous four-day period before year-end lists starting rolling out, according to Luminate. Heavy Metal had fewer streams (964,000) from Dec. 3-6 but is experiencing an even larger percentage bump (up 74%), while “Love Takes Miles” has more than doubled its streams thanks in part to the Pitchfork co-sign. The song earned 106,000 streams from Nov. 28-30; in the three days after Pitchfork’s best songs of 2025 list was unveiled on Dec. 1, that number rose to 223,000 streams, a 110% increase. — JASON LIPSHUTZ
Sienna Spiro Eyes Global Breakthrough as Two Viral Tracks Continue Their Ascent
British singer-songwriter Sienna Spiro first earned some traction with 2024’s “Maybe,” and, this year, she earned her first U.K. Official Singles top 10 hit with “Die on This Hill,” one of her two rising tracks that appear to signal a very major 2026.
Streaming activity for “Hill” has risen 466% over the past seven weeks, mostly due to the TikTok virality of the song’s bridge. During the week of Oct. 10-16, “Hill” earned 547,000 official on-demand U.S. streams; that figure ballooned to a little over three million official streams by the week of Nov. 28-Dec. 4. On TikTok, the official “Hill” sound plays in over 200,000 posts.
“You Stole the Show,” which arrived in July ahead of a September U.K. tour, laid the groundwork for “Hill,” reaching No. 54 in the U.K. The song’s chorus proved the big draw — soundtracking lyrical dance combinations and wedding clips alike — earning over 626,000 official streams during the week of Oct. 10-16. By the week of Nov. 28-Dec. 4, “Show” exploded 226% to just over two million official streams. On TikTok, the official “Show” sound plays in 21,000 clops, while an unofficial sound credited to Spiro’s account boasts an additional 34,200.
At the top of next year (Feb. 28), Spiro will compete against Jacob Alon and Rose Gray for the 2026’s Brits Critics’ Choice Award. — K.D.
