Lizzo’s ‘Truth Hurts’ Hits No. 1 on Billboard Hot 100, Taylor Swift’s ‘Lover’ Leaps to Top 10

Lizzo lands her first leader, while Swift scores her 25th top 10.

Lizzo lifts to her first No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart, as “Truth Hurts” rises from No. 3. The song reigns after Lizzo performed it on the MTV Video Music Awards (VMAs) on Aug. 26.

Plus, as Taylor Swift‘s new album Loverlaunches at No. 1 on the Billboard 200albums chart, two songs from the set infuse the Hot 100’s top 10: “You Need to Calm Down,” which debuted at its No. 2 high in June, surges 14-4 and the title track soars 19-10 in its second week on the survey.

Additionally, Ed Sheeran and Bieber’s “I Don’t Care,” at No. 9 on the Hot 100 after reaching No. 2, takes over as the most-heard song on U.S. radio, lifting 2-1 on the Radio Songs chart.

Let’s run down the top 10 of the Hot 100 (dated Sept. 7), which blends all-genre U.S. streaming, radio airplay and sales data. All charts will update on Billboard.com tomorrow (Sept. 4).

“Truth Hurts,” released on Nice Life/Atlantic Records, becomes the 1,089th No. 1 in the Hot 100’s 61-year history.

No. 1 in sales, Top five in streams & airplay: The track likewise becomes Lizzo’s first No. 1, rising from No. 2, on the Digital Song Sales chart, more than doubling from 26,000 to 53,000 sold in the week ending Aug. 29, according to Nielsen Music. It also pushes 6-4 on Streaming Songs, up 21% to 34.4 million U.S. streams in the same span.

Helping spark the gains were Lizzo’s buzzy VMAs performance (in which she sang “Truth Hurts” in a medley with her song “Good as Hell”), her four-song set on NBC’s Today on Aug. 23 and two newly released versions: a DaBaby remix and a CID remix.

On Radio Songs, “Truth Hurts” holds at No. 4, down 1% to 98.4 million audience impressions in the week ending Sept. 1.

Leading at last: “Truth Hurts” completes a lengthy journey to the top of the Hot 100, beyond its 17 total chart weeks, dating to its No. 50 debut on the May 18 ranking.

Lizzo (born Melissa Viviane Jefferson, in Detroit) originally released the song in September 2017. However, it received renewed attention after being featured in the Netflix film Someone Great, which premiered this April. The song was subsequently added to Lizzo’s 2019 LP Cuz I Love You, which debuted at No. 6 on the Billboard 200 in May.

While it’s rare for a song to top the Hot 100 relatively long after its original release, among other examples, UB40’s “Red Red Wine” hit No. 1 in 1988 thanks to renewed radio airplay and sales after it first reached No. 34 in 1984. “Truth Hurts” is also in good company with the Hot 100’s all-time top No. 1: Chubby Checker’s “The Twist” led in 1960 and again, after it grew in popularity among adult audiences, in 1962 (and is the only song to have topped the Hot 100 in two release cycles).

Notably, in the digital era, with songs of all eras just a click away (as opposed to when mostly only current singles were stocked in brick-and-mortar record stores), it’s far easier than before for fans to find relatively older songs that might’ve been somewhat overlooked originally.

Rap No. 1s by female artists: Singer/rapper (and flautist) Lizzo posts the first rap No. 1 on the Hot 100 by a female unaccompanied by any other act since another breakthrough hit by an Atlantic-signed artist: Cardi B’s “Bodak Yellow (Money Moves),” which reigned for three weeks in October 2017.

Most songs by women at No. 1 since 2014: “Truth Hurts” is the seventh song by a woman to spend time atop the Hot 100 in 2019. It follows Camila Cabello’s “Señorita,” with Shawn Mendes, which reached No. 1 last week; Billie Eilish’s “Bad Guy,” which led for a week before that; Lady Gaga’s “Shallow,” with Bradley Cooper (one week, March); Ariana Grande’s “7 Rings” (eight weeks, beginning in February); Halsey’s “Without Me” (two weeks, January); and Grande’s “Thank U Next” (which notched its seventh and final week at No. 1 on the Jan. 5 chart).

This year marks the most such No. 1s since 2014, when seven songs by women also reigned. As five of those seven 2014 leaders were by women in lead roles, 2019 marks the first year with as many as seven No. 1s by women billed as leads since 2012, when seven such songs also dominated, among nine No. 1s by women overall that year.

Three weeks, three No. 1 newcomers: As Lizzo lands her first Hot 100 leader, this week marks the third consecutive week in which an artist has tallied an initial No. 1 on the chart, after Mendes and Eilish the previous two frames, respectively.

The last such instance of three straight weeks bringing first No. 1s to three acts? Over 19 years ago, on charts dated July 15, 22 and 29, 2000, Vertical Horizon, matchbox twenty and *NSYNC made their first trips to the top with “Everything You Want,” “Bent” and “It’s Gonna Be Me,” respectively.

As it takes over atop the Hot 100, “Truth Hurts” notches a second week at No. 1 on both the Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs and Hot Rap Songs genre charts (which employ the same methodology as the Hot 100).

Mendes and Cabello’s “Señorita” retreats to No. 2 on the Hot 100, despite a 2% gain in overall metrics and after the pair performed it on the VMAs. (“Truth Hurts” bounds by 23%.)

Eilish’s “Bad Guy” backtracks 2-3 on the Hot 100.

Swift surges 14-4 on the Hot 100 with “You Need to Calm Down” and 19-10 with “Lover,” as the songs blast 22-9 (24.6 million, up 49%) and 21-7 (29.1 million, up 81%) on Streaming Songs, respectively; current radio single “Calm” additionally rises 13-12 on Radio Songs (52.7 million, down 2%). The official “Lover” video arrived Aug. 22, a day before the start of the Aug. 23-29 streaming tracking week.

With “Lover,” Swift scores her 25th Hot 100 top 10, tying Elvis Presley for the 10th-most top 10s all-time (with Presley’s career having predated the chart’s 1958 inception). The acts with the most Hot 100 top 10s: Madonna, 38; Drake, 35; The Beatles, 34; Rihanna, 31; Michael Jackson, 30; Mariah Carey, Stevie Wonder, 28 each; Janet Jackson, Elton John, 27 each; and Presley and Swift, 25 each.

Lil Nas X’s “Old Town Road,” featuring Billy Ray Cyrus, drops 4-5 on the Hot 100, after it commanded the chart for a record 19 weeks; Lil Tecca’s “Ran$om” dips from its No. 5 high to No. 6, as it spends a second week atop Streaming Songs (49.7 million, down 5%); Chris Brown’s No. 6-peaking “No Guidance,” featuring Drake, keeps at No. 7, as it rises to No. 1 on Hot R&B Songs; and Khalid’s No. 3 Hot 100 hit “Talk” tumbles 6-8.

Above Swift’s “Lover” at No. 10 on the Hot 100, Sheeran and Bieber’s No. 2-peaking “I Don’t Care” descends 8-9 and hits No. 1 on Radio Songs (111 million, essentially even week-over-week). Sheeran adds his third Radio Songs leader, after “Shape of You” (12 weeks, 2017) and “Perfect” (nine weeks, 2018), while Bieber banks his fourth, after his own “Sorry” (two weeks, 2016) and “Love Yourself” (11 weeks, 2016) and Luis Fonsi and Daddy Yankee’s “Despacito,” on which he’s featured (five weeks, 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 on both Twitter and Instagram. And again, be sure to visit Billboard.com tomorrow (Sept. 4), when all charts, including the Hot 100 in its entirety, will refresh.

Source: billboard.com