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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.
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This week: The biggest HBO drama gets big streaming numbers following its season finale, and a pair of new artists experience their first big TikTok breakouts.
‘White Lotus’ Finale, and Composer Controversy, Spur Streaming Gains
In a convergence of fictional and real-life drama, season 3 of the smash HBO series The White Lotus concluded on Sunday night (Apr. 6), during the same week in which creator Mike White engaged in a war of words with the series’ music composer Cristóbal Tapia de Veer, who announced last week that he would not returning for season 4. One conflict involved a shootout, the other included the phrase “b—h move” — and both produced significant streaming spikes for music related to the show.
Without spoiling the end of season 3, Billy Preston’s “Nothing From Nothing” and Cathedral Singers’ “Lo, How a Rose E’er Blooming” are both featured prominently in the finale — and while “Nothing” earned 64,000 official on-demand U.S. streams on the day after the finale premiered (Apr. 7), up 353% from the previous Monday, “Lo” scored an even greater percentage bump, up 867% to 6,600 streams following the finale, according to Luminate. Meanwhile, Tapia de Veer’s “Enlightenment (Main Title Theme),” which introduced each of the eight episodes of the Thailand-set third season, doubled in daily streams following the finale, from 27,000 streams on Mar. 31 to 55,000 streams on Apr. 7. (“Renaissance (Main Title Theme),” the season 2 theme, was also up 74% week over week.)
This will likely be the final week in which a Tapia de Veer composition introduces a new episode of The White Lotus, but who knows? Maybe White and Tapia de Veer can pull a Jacqueline and Laurie, and hug it out on a day bed. – JASON LIPSHUTZ
Lululemon Gets Hip-Hop Approval With Viral TikTok Hit “Whim Whamiee”
Atlanta-based rappers Pluto and YK Niece have completely taken over TikTok – and the rest of social media – with their infectious, viral hit “Whim Whamiee.”
Released on Feb. 3, the song features a line nodding to Lululemon, the popular athleisure fashion brand that signifies relatively high status in certain social circles. On Feb. 19, TikTok user @lifeofjordan_ shared a clip dancing to “Whim Whamiee,” specifically the lines, “He want me bad, heard he a duck, can’t get no c–chie out the queen, put some Lulu on this butt” and the “Lululemoooon” ad-lib. His clip has since earned nearly 250,000 views, helping the song take off across the app. In the weeks that followed, those lines have continued to be the song’s most popular part, but Pluto’s “I’m talkin’ ’bout in it” ad-lib during YK Niece’s verse has also gained ample traction. Just five days after he posted his TikTok (Feb. 24), the Red Mic District dropped the official live performance video for “Whim Whamiee,” further boosting the song’s profile.
During the period of Feb. 28-Mar. 6 – a little over a week following @lifeofjordan_’s post — “Whim Whamiee” earned just over 247,000 official on-demand U.S. streams, according to Luminate. Streaming activity continued to rapidly increase, with the song earning over one million official on-demand U.S. streams during the week of March 14-20, according to Luminate. By the following week (March 21-27), that figure leapt 32% to 1.38 million streams, thanks, in part, to the release of the song’s official music video. The next week (March 28-April 3), “Whim Whamiee” streams exploded 84% to over 2.5 million streams. Over the past four weeks, streaming activity for “Whim Whamiee” has risen a gobsmacking 929%.
With everyone from Latto and Alabama Barker to JT and Flo Milli co-signing the “Whim Whamiee,” the song very well could become Gen Z’s very own Lululemon theme song. Just don’t tell its founder. — KYLE DENIS
Malcolm Todd Spins “Chest Pain” Into a Certified Hit
It’s been a journey for Malcolm Todd’s latest hit — nearly half a year, to be exact.
Todd first started teasing “Chest Pain (I Love)” in his live shows last winter, with a fan account sharing one of those clips (overlayed with a seemingly studio-quality snippet of the song) in a Nov. 15 TikTok that has since been viewed over 405,000 times on the app. Four days later, Todd used that fan’s sound to share a TikTok post of him in the recording studio. This particular sound showcases the second half of the chorus — in which he repeatedly sings “I love” — gifting TikTok it’s latest viral trend.
As he did with past singles like “Comfort Me,” Todd quickly inundated his TikTok following with posts soundtracked by “Chest Pain,” specifically the part of the chorus he teased in his initial snippet. The official “Chest Pain” TikTok sound currently boasts just under 400,000 posts, while the sound attached to his initial snippet currently plays in over 1.5 million clips. Users have since used the song to pay tribute to everything that they love – from pets and home-baked cookies to relationship green flags and volleyball.
“Chest Pain” finally landed on DSPs on Dec. 4, 2024, and found a home on Todd’s eponymous debut album, which dropped April 4. Building on the success of his previous single and TikTok’s eternal penchant for heartfelt ballads, “Chest Pain” earned over 1.23 million official on-demand U.S. streams during the week of March 14-20, according to Luminate. The following week (March 21-27), streams jumped 70% to 2.1 million. The week preceding his album release (March 28-April 3), streaming activity for “Chest Pain” leapt a jaw-dropping 153% to over 5.32 million streams.
Already having peaked at No. 2 on the now-defunct TikTok Billboard Top 50, “Chest Pain” now has its sights set on even grander (and active) Billboard charts. — KD
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