Thank U

Plus, Mariah Carey’s “Christmas” hits a new high at No. 6 and Post Malone & Swae Lee’s “Sunflower” soars to No. 7.

Ariana Grande‘s “Thank U, Next” leads the Billboard Hot 100 (dated Dec. 22) for a fifth week, holding off Halsey‘s “Without Me,” which rises to No. 2.

Meanwhile, Mariah Carey‘s 1994 holiday classic “All I Want for Christmas Is You” pushes 7-6 for a new Hot 100 peak, becoming the highest-charting holiday season-themed hit in, amazingly, 60 years.

Plus, Post Malone and Swae Lee surge back to the top 10 with “Sunflower (Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse),” which bounds to a new high (17-7), helped by buzz of the film Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse, which premiered in theaters Friday (Dec. 14).

Let’s run down the top 10 of the newest Hot 100, which blends all-genre U.S. streaming, radio airplay and digital sales data. All charts will update on Billboard.com tomorrow (Dec. 18).

Grande’s “Next,” released on Republic Records, spends a fifth week at the Hot 100’s summit despite a 46 percent drop to 50.7 million U.S. streams in the week ending Dec. 13, according to Nielsen Music, as it leads the Streaming Songs chart for a sixth week. A week earlier, it made a 121 percent blast to 93.8 million clicks (in the week ending Dec. 6), the largest streaming week for a song by a woman, encompassing the first full tracking frame for its official video, released Nov. 30. (“Next” debuted atop the Nov. 17-dated Hot 100 and spent its first three weeks at No. 1 before falling to No. 2 two weeks ago.)

“Next” holds at No. 2 on the Digital Song Sales chart (which it led for two weeks), down 41 percent to 25,000 downloads sold in the week ending Dec. 13. On Radio Songs, it vaults 11-5 (77.6 million audience impressions, up 36 percent, in the week ending Dec. 16, good for top Airplay Gainer honors on the Hot 100), becoming Grande’s 11th Radio Songs top 10; it’s her fourth of 2018, tying Halsey for the most top 10s by any artist this year.

Speaking of Halsey …

“Without Me” hits a new Hot 100 peak, rising 3-2. It leads Digital Song Sales for a fourth week (37,000, down 26 percent) and lifts 4-3 on Streaming Songs (32.2 million, down 1 percent) and 6-4 on Radio Songs (82.4 million, up 15 percent).

Notably, women in lead roles hold the Hot 100’s top two spots simultaneously for the first time in over a year, since the Sept. 23 and 30, 2017-dated charts, when Taylor Swift’s “Look What You Made Me Do” and Cardi B’s “Bodak Yellow (Money Moves)” ranked at Nos. 1 and 2, respectively. (Before that, Swift figured into the prior such stretch: 15 consecutive weeks, from Sept. 16 through Dec. 13 — her birthday! — in 2014; in the first week of that span, Swift’s “Shake It Off” ranked at No. 1 and Nicki Minaj’s “Anaconda” placed at No. 2, after which “Shake” and Swift’s “Blank Space” and Meghan Trainor’s “All About That Bass” traded the top two positions for 14 weeks.)

Travis Scott‘s “Sicko Mode,” which topped the Dec. 8-dated Hot 100, slips 2-3, while leading the Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs and Hot Rap Songs charts for an eighth week each.

Marshmello and Bastille‘s “Happier” keeps at No. 4 on the Hot 100 after reaching its No. 3 high, as it tops Hot Dance/Electronic Songs for a 13th week, and Panic! at the Disco‘s “High Hopes” holds at its No. 5 Hot 100 peak, while ruling Hot Rock Songs for a seventh week.

Carey’s “All I Want for Christmas Is You” jingles 7-6 on the Hot 100 for another new high; the song, first released in 1994, hit the top 10 for the first time last holiday season, reaching No. 9. The carol is the highest-charting holiday season-themed Hot 100 hit in 60 years, since “The Chipmunk Song,” by David Seville and The Chipmunks, reigned for four weeks beginning Dec. 22, 1958 (just after the chart’s inception that Aug. 4); notably, holiday songs have a spotty history on the Hot 100, due in part to shifts in chart rules over the years (see below).

Carey’s “Christmas” passes two No. 7-peaking songs of the season, by Kenny G and New Kids on the Block, and now trails only “The Chipmunk Song” as the highest-charting such hit in the Hot 100’s history:

Highest-Charting Holiday Songs in the Hot 100’s History
No. 1, four weeks, beginning Dec. 22, 1958, “The Chipmunk Song,” by David Seville & The Chipmunks
No. 6, Dec. 22, 2018, “All I Want for Christmas Is You,” Mariah Carey
No. 7, Jan. 8, 2000, “Auld Lang Syne,” Kenny G
No. 7, Jan. 6, 1990, “This One’s for the Children,” New Kids on the Block         
No. 9, Feb. 21, 1981, “Same Old Lang Syne,” Dan Fogelberg

As for holiday songs and their eligibility for the Hot 100 over the years, chart historian Joel Whitburn notes in his book Christmas in the Charts, “From 1963 through 1972, and from 1983 through 1985 [with minimal exceptions], Billboardpublished a seasonal Christmas Singles chart and did not chart Christmas singles on the Hot 100.” Per current Hot 100 rules, in place in recent years, older songs, including seasonal titles, can rank in the top 50 if experiencing significant multi-metric gains, and multiple venerable holiday songs re-enter or debut each season.

Carey’s modern classic leads the Holiday 100 (for a 33rd of 38 total weeks since the chart began in 2011) and remains the top seasonal hit in all metrics; it rises 8-6 on Streaming Songs, also a new best, passing its prior No. 7 high reached last holiday season (28.1 million, down 1 percent), 9-7 on Digital Song Sales (14,000, down 6 percent) and 32-24 on Radio Songs (34.5 million, up 14 percent).

With the advance of “Christmas” on the Hot 100, Carey scores her highest-charting hit in over a decade (passing the No. 7 peak of “Obsessed” in 2009). It’s her best since “Touch My Body,” which became her 18th No. 1 for two weeks in April 2008, extending her record for the most leaders among soloists; among all acts, only The Beatles, with 20, have more.

Post Malone and Swae Lee’s “Sunflower (Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse)” returns to the Hot 100’s top, flying 17-7, as the film Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verseopened in theaters Friday (Dec. 14; it finished as the No. 1 movie of the weekend); the song debuted at its prior No. 9 high on the chart dated Nov. 3. The duet jumps 12-6 on Digital Song Sales (16,000, up 39 percent, snaring the Hot 100’s top Sales Gainer trophy), 22-13 on Streaming Songs (24.1 million, up 28 percent) and 16-15 on Radio Songs (45.5 million, up 7 percent).

Lil Baby and Gunna‘s “Drip Too Hard” rises 9-8 on the Hot 100, after reaching No. 4, and Kodak Black‘s No. 2-peaking “ZEZE,” featuring Travis Scott and Offset, descends 8-9.

Rounding out the Hot 100’s top 10, Maroon 5‘s former seven-week No. 1 “Girls Like You,” featuring Cardi B, returns to the region (11-10). The song logs a 27th week in the top 10, becoming just the 10th single in the chart’s 60-year history to reach that marker. Ed Sheeran’s “Shape of You” holds the record with 33 weeks in the top 10 in 2017.

Find out more Hot 100 news on Billboard.com this week, and, for all chart news, you can listen (and subscribe) to Billboard‘s Chart Beat Podcast and Pop Shop Podcast and follow @billboard and @billboardcharts. And again, be sure to visit Billboard.com tomorrow (Dec. 18), when all charts, including the Hot 100 in its entirety, will refresh.

Source: billboard.com