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Adele’s ‘Easy on Me’ Blasts to No. 1 on Billboard Hot 100
The ballad becomes her fifth leader and first since “Hello” in 2015-16.
Adele‘s “Easy on Me” skyrockets to No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 songs chart, following its first full week of tracking. A week earlier, it debuted at No. 68 from its first five hours of availability.
The ballad becomes Adele’s fifth Hot 100 No. 1 and first since “Hello” ruled for 10 weeks in 2015-16.
The Hot 100 blends all-genre U.S. streaming (official audio and official video), radio airplay and sales data. All charts (dated Oct. 30) will update on Billboard.com tomorrow (Oct. 26). For all chart news, you can follow @billboard and @billboardcharts on both Twitter and Instagram.
“Easy on Me” is the 1,131st No. 1 in the Hot 100’s 63-year history. It drew 65 million radio airplay audience impressions and 53.9 million U.S. streams and sold 74,000 downloads in the week ending Oct. 21, according to MRC Data.
The track debuts atop the Streaming Songs and Digital Song Sales charts and at No. 4 on Radio Songs.
Let’s roll deeper into its coronation.
First, after its first full week: Released on Columbia Records at 7 p.m. ET Thursday, Oct. 14, “Easy on Me” entered the Hot 100 dated Oct. 23 at No. 68 thanks to its activity from its premiere through midnight ET Oct. 14, with that chart’s tracking week having spanned Oct. 8-14. It debuted with 3.1 million streams, 3.1 million in radio audience and 14,800 sold in its first five hours of availability.
The song blasts to No. 1 on the Oct. 30-dated Hot 100, which reflects its first full tracking week, covering Oct. 15-21.
Biggest jumps to No 1: “Easy on Me” makes the eighth-greatest vault to No. 1 in the Hot 100’s history. It logs the biggest jump since Taylor Swift’s “Look What You Made Me Do” surged 77-1 in September 2017, also after its first full tracking week.
Here’s a recap of the Hot 100’s loftiest leaps to No. 1:
97-1, “My Life Would Suck Without You,” Kelly Clarkson, Feb. 7, 2009
96-1, “Womanizer,” Britney Spears, Oct. 25, 2008
80-1, “Live Your Life,” T.I. feat. Rihanna, Oct. 18, 2008
78-1, “Crack a Bottle,” Eminem, Dr. Dre & 50 Cent, Feb. 21, 2009
77-1, “Look What You Made Me Do,” Taylor Swift, Sept. 16, 2017
72-1, “We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together,” Taylor Swift, Sept. 1, 2012
71-1, “Whatever You Like,” T.I., Sept. 6, 2008
68-1, “Easy on Me,” Adele, Oct. 30, 2021
Adele’s fifth Hot 100 No. 1: “Easy on Me” becomes Adele’s fifth Hot 100 leader. Here’s a rundown:
“Rolling in the Deep,” for seven weeks beginning May 21, 2011
“Someone Like You,” five, beginning Sept. 17, 2011
“Set Fire to the Rain,” two, beginning Feb. 4, 2017
“Hello,” 10, beginning Nov. 14, 2015
“Easy on Me,” one, to-date, beginning Oct. 30, 2021
“Easy on Me” is also Adele’s seventh Hot 100 top 10. In addition to her five No. 1s, “Skyfall” and “Send My Love (To Your New Lover)” each reached No. 8, in October 2012 and September 2016, respectively.
Adele adds her 11th top 40 Hot 100 hit, dating to her debut entry “Chasing Pavements,” which rose to No. 21 in February 2009.
(While “Easy on Me” is a piano ballad, it’s not a vocal-and-piano-only song like “Someone Like You,” which became the first Hot 100 No. 1 with exclusively vocals and piano. The new leader features Adele’s vocals, as well as bass, kick drum and piano by Greg Kurstin and strings arranged and conducted by David Campbell; Adele and Kurstin co-wrote it and Kurstin solely produced it.)
Adele notches her fifth No. 1 on Digital Song Sales and second on Streaming Songs and her ninth top 10 on Radio Songs.
British soloists with the most Hot 100 leaders: The London-born Adele becomes one of six British-born soloists with at least five Hot 100 No. 1s (with Liverpool-formed The Beatles pacing all acts with 20 leaders).
Adele also ties Olivia Newton-John for the most Hot 100 No. 1s among women born in the U.K. (Newton-John was born in Cambridge and moved to Australia during childhood.)
Here’s an updated leaderboard of the most Hot 100 No. 1s by British-born solo acts:
9, Elton John
9, Paul McCartney
8, George Michael
7, Phil Collins
5, Adele
5, Olivia Newton-John
Plus, with England’s Coldplay having debuted atop the Oct. 9-dated Hot 100 with its BTS team-up “My Universe,” this month marks the first in which multiple British acts have risen to No. 1 since February 1992, when George Michael and Elton John hit the top of the Feb. 1 chart with “Don’t Let the Sun Go Down on Me” and were succeeded on the Feb. 8 survey by fellow UK act Right*Said*Fred’s “I’m Too Sexy” (a song that continues to reverberate on the ranking).
3 albums, 3 No. 1 lead singles: Adele has sent the first single from each of her three most recent albums to No. 1 on the Hot 100, with “Easy on Me” following “Hello” and “Rolling in the Deep.”
“Easy” is the lead single from 30, Adele’s fourth studio album, and first in six years, due Nov. 19. It follows 25, which houses “Hello” and topped the Billboard 200 for 10 weeks beginning in December 2015. 21, which includes her first three Hot 100 No. 1s, led the Billboard 200 for 24 weeks starting in March 2011 and reigns as the top title in the chart’s entire history. (Her debut LP, 19, entered the Billboard 200 in June 2008 and reached a No. 4 high in March 2012.)
Record radio start: As “Easy on Me” launches at No. 4 on Radio Songs, it makes the highest debut since the chart became an all-format ranking in December 1998. In that span, it bests the No. 6 start of Lady Gaga’s “Born This Way” in February 2011.
(From the chart’s December 1990 inception through November 1998, Radio Songs was largely based on pop airplay, and three songs in that stretch entered in the top five: Madonna’s “Erotica,” at No. 2 in October 1992; Mariah Carey’s “I’ll Be There,” No. 4, May 1992; and Janet Jackson’s “That’s the Way Love Goes,” No. 4, May 1993.)
Among individual formats (and reflecting airplay in the week ending Oct. 24), “Easy on Me” jumps 6-4 on Adult Contemporary, a week after it became the first non-holiday song to bow in the top 10 since the chart adopted MRC Data information in 1993; 14-6 on Adult Pop Airplay; 33-6 on Adult Alternative Airplay; 21-14 on Pop Airplay; and 29-20 on Adult R&B Airplay.
Over 50 million streams: “Easy on Me” is the fifth song released in 2021 to log more than 50 million U.S. streams in a single week. It follows Olivia Rodrigo’s “Drivers License,” which began with 76.1 million (Jan. 23) and drew 59.7 million in its second frame; Drake’s “Way 2 Sexy,” featuring Future and Young Thug (67.3 million, Sept. 18); Rodrigo’s “Good 4 U” (62.7 million, June 5); and Polo G’s “Rapstar” (53.6 million, April 24).
No. 1 in two metrics: “Easy on Me” is the top song of the week in both streaming and sales. A week earlier, Lil Nas X and Jack Harlow’s “Industry Baby” hit No. 1 on the Hot 100 and also led in streaming and sales.
In the previous 36 weeks, however, no Hot 100 No. 1 led in more than one metric each week, a record run since the Streaming Songs chart began in January 2013. Until the past two weeks, Olivia Rodrigo’s “Drivers License” likewise last led in streaming and sales as it topped the Hot 100 dated Feb. 6.
(That nearly nine-month drought suggests a widened gap among the three metrics, with streaming and sales often reflective of largely immediate listener behavior and programmed radio airplay more research-based.)
No. 1 by a 2-to-1 margin: Further reflecting its dominance, “Easy on Me” sports slightly more than a 2-to-1 margin in Hot 100 chart points over The Kid LAROI and Justin Bieber’s “Stay” at No. 2. The former is the 25th song to run away with such a lead, and the first since Olivia Rodrigo’s “Drivers License,” dating to when MRC Data information began powering the chart in November 1991.
As ‘Easy’ as 1-2-3 for Columbia: With “Easy on Me” at No. 1, The Kid LAROI and Justin Bieber’s “Stay” at No. 2 and Lil Nas X and Jack Harlow’s “Industry Baby” at No. 3 on the Hot 100, Columbia Records ranks in the top three spots via three acts that the label promotes: Adele, The Kid LAROI and Lil Nas X.
Columbia is the first label to monopolize the Hot 100’s top three thanks to a trio of acts credited on three titles since Oct. 22, 2005, when Island Def Jam Music Group ranked at No. 1 with Kanye West’s “Gold Digger,” featuring Jamie Foxx; No. 2 with Nickelback’s “Photograph”; and No. 3 with Mariah Carey’s “Shake It Off.”
(Multiple labels have since held Nos. 1-3 on the Hot 100 simultaneously through one or two acts, most recently Republic Records on Sept. 18, all due to Drake.)
‘Easy’ does it: Meanwhile, “Easy on Me” is the first song with “easy” in its title to top the Hot 100. Its hard-fought victory passes the prior No. 2 such best for Philip Bailey’s “Easy Lover,” with Phil Collins, in 1985.
Here’s a look at the highest-charting hits with “easy” in their titles:
“Easy on Me,” Adele, No. 1 (one week to-date), 2021
“Easy Lover,” Philip Bailey with Phil Collins, No. 2, 1985
“Easy,” Commodores, No. 4, 1977
“It Don’t Come Easy,” Ringo Starr, No. 4, 1971
“Easy to Be Hard,” Three Dog Night, No. 4, 1969
“It’s So Easy,” Linda Ronstadt, No. 5, 1977
Chart-watcher Paul Nelson of Oakland, Calif., emailed noting the connection between Adele’s “Easy on Me” and the Commodores’ “Easy,” after she and the group’s former lead singer Lionel Richie each topped the Hot 100 with songs titled “Hello.” Not to look too far ahead, but could Adele’s follow-up album to 30 include a song about dancing on a ceiling all night long (all night)?
As noted above, The Kid LAROI and Justin Bieber’s “Stay” ranks at No. 2 on the Hot 100, holding in place after seven weeks at No. 1, as it rules Radio Songs for a sixth week (90.9 million, up 3%).
Lil Nas X and Jack Harlow’s “Industry Baby” drops to No. 3 on the Hot 100, a week after it led, as it spends a ninth week atop both the Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs and Hot Rap Songs charts, which use the same multi-metric methodology as the Hot 100.
Walker Hayes’ “Fancy Like” dips to No. 4 from its No. 3 Hot 100 high, as it tops the multi-metric Hot Country Songs chart for a 15th week; Ed Sheeran’s “Bad Habits” slips 4-5 on the Hot 100, after reaching No. 2; Drake’s “Way 2 Sexy,” featuring Future and Young Thug, drops 5-6, following its No. 1 arrival in September; and Olivia Rodrigo’s “Good 4 U” descends 6-7, after it debuted at No. 1 in May.
Dua Lipa’s “Levitating” remains at No. 8 on the Hot 100, after rising to No. 2. It spends a 40th week in the top 10, overtaking Post Malone’s “Circles” (2019-20) for the second-longest top 10 run in the chart’s archives. The Weeknd’s “Blinding Lights” leads with 57 top 10 weeks (February 2020-April 2021).
Rounding out the Hot 100’s top 10, Ed Sheeran’s “Shivers” climbs 10-9 for a new high and Doja Cat’s “Kiss Me More,” featuring SZA, falls 7-10, after reaching No. 3.
Note: Effective with the Oct. 30-dated Billboard charts, streams from Boomplay is added to the data that informs the Hot 100, Billboard 200, Artist 100 and Billboard Global 200, as well as other Billboard U.S. and global surveys that include streaming data. The plays represent audio streams from Boomplay’s subscription tier and logged-in streams from its ad-supported tier, with streams from each tier weighted differently.
Again, for all chart news, you can follow @billboard and @billboardcharts on both Twitter and Instagram and all charts (dated Oct. 30), including the Hot 100 in its entirety, will refresh on Billboard.com tomorrow (Oct. 26).
Source: billboard.com