Morgan Wallen No. 1 on Hot 100, Drake Debuts, Eslabon Armado & Peso Pluma Bring Regional Mexican to Top 10

“Last Night” leads for a third week, “Search & Rescue” starts at No. 2 and “Ella Baila Sola” becomes the first top 10 ever for a regional Mexican song.

Morgan Wallen’s “Last Night” leads a busy Billboard Hot 100 top 10, adding a third nonconsecutive week atop the chart. It first ruled last month, marking the country singer-songwriter’s initial No. 1.

The song is from Wallen’s LP One Thing at a Time, which notches a sixth week at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 albums chart.

Elsewhere in the Hot 100’s top tier, Drake’s “Search & Rescue” launches at No. 2. It marks the superstar’s record-extending 68th top 10.

Plus, Eslabon Armado and Peso Pluma log a historic Hot 100 top 10 with “Ella Baila Sola”: Their first top 10 each is also the first regional Mexican top 10 in the chart’s 64-year history.

The Hot 100 blends all-genre U.S. streaming (official audio and official video), radio airplay and sales data. All charts (dated April 22, 2023) will update on Billboard.com tomorrow (April 18). For all chart news, you can follow @billboard and @billboardcharts on both Twitter and Instagram.

Wallen’s “Last Night,” released on Big Loud/Mercury/Republic Records, drew 36.6 million streams (up 4%) and 34.5 million radio airplay audience impressions (up 16%, good for the chart’s top Airplay Gainer award for a second consecutive week) and sold 10,000 downloads (up 6%) in the April 7-13 tracking week, according to Luminate.

The track falls to No. 2 on the all-genre Streaming Songs chart, after five weeks at No. 1; holds at No. 3 on Digital Song Sales, following at the summit; and ascends 21-17 on Radio Songs. A multi-format radio hit, it pushes to No. 13 on the Country Airplay chart, No. 20 on Pop Airplay and No. 21 on Adult Pop Airplay and debuts at No. 27 on Adult Contemporary.

“Last Night” concurrently leads the Hot Country Songs chart, which uses the same methodology as the Hot 100, for a 10th week. It became just the 20th song to have topped both lists – and the first by a solo male unaccompanied by any other acts since Eddie Rabbitt’s “I Love a Rainy Night” ruled Hot Country Songs for a week and the Hot 100 for two weeks in 1981.

As “Last Night” has now ruled Hot Country Songs for 10 weeks and the Hot 100 for three, it’s the first song among those that have topped both charts with that many weeks atop that pair of tallies since Taylor Swift’s “We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together” also ran up 10 and three weeks at No. 1, respectively, in 2012-13.

Drake’s “Search & Rescue” bounds onto the Hot 100 at No. 4. After it premiered April 7 (a day after he announced the song’s pending release), it begins with 33.8 million streams, 6.9 million in radio airplay audience and 3,600 sold through April 13.

The track opens at No. 1 on Streaming Songs, becoming Drake’s record-furthering 16th leader. (While the song’s sum of raw streams is the week’s second highest, after Wallen’s “Last Night,” “Search & Rescue” tops the chart due to the application of weighting to all titles’ paid/subscription and ad-supported on-demand streams and programmed/radio streams.)

Drake posts his record-extending 68th Hot 100 top 10, and first of 2023.

Most Billboard Hot 100 Top 10s:

  • 68, Drake
  • 40, Taylor Swift
  • 38, Madonna
  • 34, The Beatles
  • 32, Rihanna
  • 30, Michael Jackson
  • 29, Elton John
  • 28, Mariah Carey
  • 28, Stevie Wonder
  • 27, Janet Jackson

“Search & Rescue” is also Drake’s record-padding 35th top five Hot 100 hit (distancing himself further from runners-up The Beatles’ 29); his 174th top 40 hit (ahead of Taylor Swift, second with 105); and his 294th entry overall (with the Glee Cast second with 207). (He adds his 20th top two hit; The Beatles and Mariah Carey lead with 23 each.)

The track concurrently crowns the multi-metric Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs and Hot Rap Songs charts upon its debut, marking Drake’s record-extending 27th and 28th No. 1s on the surveys.

We did some re-‘search’: “Search & Rescue” is the highest-charting Hot 100 hit with “search” in its title, surpassing Survivor’s No. 4-peaking love song “The Search Is Over” in 1985. (Honorable mention to the No. 3 classic “Love Potion Number Nine,” in 1965, by The Searchers.) Drake’s new hit is also the highest charting with “rescue” in its name. It bests The Rolling Stones’ “Emotional Rescue” (No. 3, 1980), followed by “Rescue Me” by Fontella Bass (No. 4, 1965).

Miley Cyrus’ “Flowers” keeps at No. 3 on the Hot 100, after eight weeks at No. 1, beginning upon its debut in January. It claims a ninth week atop Radio Songs (93.5 million in audience, down 9%).

SZA’s “Kill Bill” retreats to No. 4 on the Hot 100, from No. 2, where it has spent eight weeks at its highpoint. It also dominates the multi-metric Hot R&B Songs charts for a 17th week. (Its new remix featuring Doja Cat arrived Friday, April 14, and will begin contributing to next week’s charts [dated April 29], with all versions of the song rolling up into one chart listing.)

Metro Boomin, The Weeknd and 21 Savage’s “Creepin’ ” dips 4-5 on the Hot 100, after hitting No. 3, and Rema and Selena Gomez’s “Calm Down” climbs 7-6 for a new high. The latter tops the Billboard U.S. Afrobeats Songs chart for a 33rd week, extending the longest rule since the ranking began a year ago (in partnership with music festival and global brand Afro Nation).

The Weeknd and Ariana Grande’s “Die for You” drops 5-7 on the Hot 100, following a week at No. 1 in March, and PinkPantheress and Ice Spice’s “Boy’s a Liar, Pt. 2” slips 6-8, after reaching No. 3. Still, the latter becomes each act’s first top 10 on Radio Songs (14-10; 40.9 million, up 3%).

Taylor Swift’s “Anti-Hero” descends 8-9 on the Hot 100, following a personal-best eight weeks at No. 1 in November-January. It has now spent 24 weeks in the top 10 – equaling Swift’s longest stay in the region, first set by “Shake It Off” in 2014-15. Next up, her “Blank Space” totaled 17 weeks in the top 10, also in 2014-15, followed by “I Knew You Were Trouble.” (16 weeks, 2012-13) and “You Belong With Me” (16, 2009).

Rounding out the Hot 100’s top 10, Eslabon Armado and Peso Pluma’s “Ella Baila Sola” soars 17-10, led by 24.4 million streams, up 30%, as it wins the Hot 100’s top Streaming Gainer trophy, and jumps 6-3 on Streaming Songs.

Quartet Eslabon Armado, from California, and Peso Pluma, from Mexico, each reach the Hot 100’s top for the first time – as “Ella Baila Sola” makes history as the first regional Mexican song ever to hit the Hot 100’s top 10. The genre has surged this decade, thanks in part to exposure on TikTok and other social media, with Gera MX and Christian Nodal’s “Botella Tras Botella” having become the first regional Mexican Hot 100 hit in May 2021, peaking at No. 60.

After “Ella Baila Sola,” Peso Pluma also has the second-highest-charting regional Mexican Hot 100 hit: “La Bebe,” with Yng Lvcas, rises to a new No. 17 best on the latest, April 22-dated chart. The next-highest-peaking such hits: Yahritza y Su Esencia’s “Soy El Unico” (No. 20, April 2022 – it debuted at that rank, the highest entrance for a regional Mexican song) and Fuerza Regida and Grupo Frontera’s “Bebe Dame” (No. 25, this January).

Among Latin genres, regional Mexican’s arrival in the Hot 100’s top 10 follows that of Latin pop, which, after English-language hits by Gloria Estefan in the 1980s (plus Los Lobos’ “La Bamba,” in Spanish) surged in the late ‘90s and beyond thanks to songs (in varying degrees of English and Spanish) by Enrique Iglesias, Jennifer Lopez and Ricky Martin, among other stars. At the same time, Marc Anthony helped tropical break through on the chart. In more recent years, Daddy Yankee and Luis Fonsi’s pop-centered, mostly-Spanish-language “Despacito,” featuring Justin Bieber, spent a then-record-tying 16 weeks at No. 1 in 2017, while, this decade, Bad Bunny, with Spanish-language songs, has carried the torch for Latin rhythm in the top 10.

As for Latin music overall, Eslabon Armado and Peso Pluma earn the Hot 100’s third Spanish-language top 10 this year, following two Latin pop hits: Bizarrap and Shakira’s “Bzrp Music Sessions, Vol. 53” (No. 9, January) and Karol G and Shakira’s “TQG” (No. 7, March).

“Ella Baila Sola” was released on Prajin Parlay/DEL Records, both of which likewise appear in the Hot 100’s top 10 for the first time.

The collaboration concurrently achieves a second week at No. 1 on the multi-metric Hot Latin Songs chart, where it became the first leader for both Eslabon Armado and Peso Pluma. “We didn’t expect for the song to make so much noise!” Pedro Tovar, lead singer for the former act, and the song’s sole author, told Billboard upon its coronation. “I really liked the song when I first wrote it, but I didn’t really expect it to be such a big hit. I previewed it on my stories on Instagram and, two days after, it went viral on TikTok, and that’s when I knew that the song was going to do big numbers.”

“Normally I don’t expect to chart with songs,” Peso Pluma marveled. “We just enjoyed the process of doing it.”

Again, for all chart news, you can follow @billboard and @billboardcharts on both Twitter and Instagram and all charts (dated April 22), including the Hot 100 in its entirety, will refresh on Billboard.com tomorrow (April 18).

Source: billboard.com