Billboard Hot 100 Top 10:
1- "thank u, next" - Ariana Grande (new) -- Do you know how good it feels to look up the Hot 100 and see that Maroon 5 is NOT No. 1? Thank you, Ariana! And I suppose a congratulations is in order for Ariana's first ever No. 1 hit. Some would say that it's about time. I'm certainly happy for her, but I wish it would've come on a better song as this feels more like a lifetime achievement award rather than an accolade that this specific song deserved. It's like those times when the Academy finally gives a certain filmmaker an Academy Award out of obligation than anything. Said filmmaker may have had better work in the past, but the Academy awarded them on a lesser piece of work because they were long overdue for something. In situations like this, you can't help but be happy for the person, even though you wish it would've come in on a film more deserving. That's kinda how I feel here. Except Billboard isn't an organization that gives out No. 1 hits. It's all about the numbers and Ariana hit the sweet spot with this surprise hit. She managed to get 81,000 in first week sales and 55.5 million U.S. streams, which blew the competition out of the water. There's also a few things worth noting. First, a pop song replaced a pop song. Second, this is the first time since Ed Sheeran's "Perfect" back in January where a rapper isn't present on the No. 1 hit in either a lead or featured role. Third, this is the first woman to debut at No. 1 since Adele's "Hello" three years ago. All of those make me happy, although I wish there was more of a female presence on the charts. Nearly 80 percent of the artists in the top 10 this year have been male and this is only the third week that a solo lead female has been No. 1, which is the lowest year on the Hot 100 since 1975. I find that troubling.
2- "Girls Like You" - Maroon 5 featuring Cardi B (-1) -- I'm glad that this song is no longer No. 1. But we have a few more things to still worry about. One, we have to hope that this DOESN'T go back to No. 1 next week if Ariana falls off. Two, this song is still at No. 1 on the radio charts for a 16th consecutive week. That ties for the second longest streak ever, with "Iris" by Goo Goo Dolls holding the all-time record at 18 weeks. Third, the fact that this song is still in the top 10 at all is troubling. Let's get rid of this altogether. It'll make the world a better place.
3- "SICKO MODE" - Travis Scott (-1) -- Why is this still here?
4- "Happier" - Marshmello & Bastille (-1) -- Billboard spent their whole weekly article talking about Ariana. And rightfully so since it's her first ever week at No. 1. But they didn't clue me in on what the numbers for this song are, so we'll just have to see what happens next week. Songs that debut at No. 1 usually drop in their second week. That combined with the fact that "Happier" has been gaining in overall chart points while "Girls Like You" and "SICKO MODE" have both been falling mean that this could still sneak ahead and grab that No. 1 spot. We'll just have to wait and see as I'm just as much in the dark as everyone else is.
5- "Lucid Dreams" - Juice WRLD (-1) -- I'm still sad that this never dethroned Maroon 5. But since Ariana managed to pull off the feat, I don't have to be too sad anymore.
6- "Without Me" - Halsey (+3) -- Halsey looks to be positioning herself rather well. While everything else is dropping, she's on the rise. Keep up this momentum and she'll have herself another top five hit. With "Girls Like You," "SICKO MODE" and "Lucid Dreams" all sliding, maybe she even moves up to No. 3 before too long?
7- "Better Now" - Post Malone (-2) -- This song had a great life in the top 10 and now it looks like that's going to come to an end. I'm not upset since it's run has been good, but I'm also not celebrating because I learned to tolerate this.
8- "ZEZE" - Kodak Black featuring Travis Scott & Offset (-2) -- Why is this still here?
9- "Mo Bamba" - Sheck Wes (+1) -- Why is this still here?
10- "Drip Too Hard" - Lil Baby & Gunna (-2) -- Why is this still here?
Rising on the Hot 100:
14- "Wake up in the Sky" - Gucci Mane, Bruno Mars & Kodak Black (+12) -- I'm really upset that "High Hopes" wasn't able to crack the top 10 this week. Instead it fell a spot to No. 12 thanks to Ariana's debut while "Youngblood" by 5 Seconds of Summer slid to No. 11. And now knowing my luck, I'm probably going to have to deal with this song getting to the top 10 first. What a horrible turn of events that would be.
21- "Breathin" - Ariana Grande (+11) -- It's an all-around great week for Ariana as this official single charges up to No. 21 following the recent release of it's music video. Now I'm hoping that the momentum continues because this is the real Ariana song that deserves to be getting praised and played everywhere.
33- "Bohemian Rhapsody" - Queen (re-entry) -- I'm kind of upset that "Bohemian Rhapsody" is the ONLY Queen song to chart this week. I was hoping for an onslaught of Queen songs this week to show up after the Queen biopic named after this song is now dominating at the box office. You can stroll over to my movie blog to get my opinion of the movie, but I of course love this song and am glad that it's here. No, it's not my favorite Queen song. But that's beside the point.
41- "Leave Me Alone" - Flipp Dinero (+14) -- I wish that this song would leave me alone.
45- "Speechless" - Dan + Shay (+5) -- We've had a lack of country in the last few weeks, so I've been waiting for something to step up. And I'm fine with it being this song. I'm still surprised that there's not more country songs, though.
63- "Dip" - Tyga & Nicki Minaj (+20) -- Of course this song would become a hit. Because the world hates me right now. Why are we continuing to give Tyga a good career in 2018? The world was a better place when he was out of the picture.
New Arrivals:
1- "thank u, next" - Ariana Grande -- Yup, more Ariana talk now. This time we discuss the actual song instead of diving into the feat of Ariana hitting No. 1. And I don't know, this song is harmless. I don't think it needed to be an explicit song as Ariana decided to randomly drop a few f-bombs, so find the edited version on whatever streaming service you subscribe to for the best experience here. What I do like about this song is that it feels like Ariana is being genuine and honest with how her love life has gone. And she gets specific by name dropping all of her exes, so I know the song means something to her rather than being another cliche break-up song. It's also a more hopeful song as, instead of creating a diss track where she's tearing all of her exes down, she's telling us how each of them have helped her out in a different way, helping her become the person she is today. She hopes to get married one day, but until then she's choosing to recognize how each of her exes have helped her out in her life. I like that sentiment. And I think the slower, more mellow flow to the song fits the tone of the lyrics. So it's a nice song. It's just not a song that grabs me and makes me want to listen on repeat as it doesn't have the strong emotional weight or the powerful vocals that Ariana is capable of bringing on her songs. Not that every song has to have this, but given that this song is the one that finally got Ariana her No. 1, I find myself feeling obligated to bring it up anyways since this is more of a solid change of pace song rather than one you would envision as a chart topper, if that makes any sense.
38- "Don't Come out of the House" - Metro Boomin featuring 21 Savage -- I don't care about this new Metro Boomin album. I'm not going to give it a listen.
42- "10 Freaky Girls" - Metro Boomin featuring 21 Savage -- I don't care about this new Metro Boomin album. I'm not going to give it a listen.
51- "Space Cadet" - Metro Boomin featuring Gunna -- I don't care about this new Metro Boomin album. I'm not going to give it a listen.
62- "Overdue" - Metro Boomin featuring Travis Scott -- I don't care about this new Metro Boomin album. I'm not going to give it a listen.
72- "Dreamcatcher" - Metro Boomin featuring Swae Lee & Travis Scott -- I don't care about this new Metro Boomin album. I'm not going to give it a listen.
79- "No More" - Metro Boomin featuring Travis Scott, Kodak Black & 21 Savage -- I don't care about this new Metro Boomin album. I'm not going to give it a listen.
86- "Ella Quiere Beber" - Anuel AA & Romeo Santos -- Hey look! It's a song that's not by Metro Boomin, so I suppose I'll cover it. Although I'm not sure my opinion here is going to mean much since I couldn't quite crack the translation. "Ella Quiere Beber" may or may not mean "She Wants to Drink." Although this song is a remix as the original was without Romeo Santos and was called "Quiere Beber," which might mean "Wants to Drink"? If I cared enough, I would go to my Spanish friends for an exact translation. As far as the content of the song, it appears to be about a girl who wants to drink in order to forget about her ex-boyfriend. And I'm assuming Anuel AA and/or Romeo Santos have a goal to take advantage of her pain to be the new man in her life. But don't quote me on that. As far as the music itself, it feels like a very safe song for Romeo Santos. He has a nice voice that I don't mind. But I don't think he's able to quite capture the romance in this song that he often has been able to do in the past. And whenever Anuel AA comes in, I just found myself being annoyed because it felt like he does more of a mumble Spanish. I don't like his voice, so I didn't care much for the song. The only tolerable parts are when it's just Romeo and even that's simply acceptable.
97- "Consequences" - Camila Cabello -- I'm not sure what Camila Cabello's plan is with her single release. She released an album earlier this year that got her a huge No. 1 hit with "Havana." Then she followed that up with "Never Be the Same," but instead of pushing that song, she tried to push "Sangria Wine," a non-album single with Pharrell. That blew up in her face. Then she jumped on with Bazzi with "Beautiful," which has done alright. And now nearly a year later, she finally remembers that she has more songs from that album that she could release as singles? Why didn't she simply give "Never Be the Same" a stronger push followed by releasing this as a single a couple months later? Then she could've maximized her Billboard performance because I think this is a solid choice for a single. It feels like a natural progression after "Havana" and "Never Be the Same" as those two are the fun, upbeat pop hits while this is a solid bittersweet love ballad. I actually listened to the whole album shortly after it was released and my three favorite songs were "Never Be the Same," "She Loves Control" and "Consequences," so I was happy to see it show up. Unlike Ariana's song this week, this is a fairly generic breakup song without specifics, but she does a great job of letting us feel the emotion by giving us a soft, sweet love ballad before throwing out the bait-and-switch that she's actually in pain, helping us feel the bitter to go along with the sweet. I hope this song becomes big because I really like it, but I fear that Camila's single release patter this year might hurt this song's overall performance.
99- "Casper" - Takeoff -- Haha, you really expect me to put much effort into a Takeoff song? Yeah, no. I'm just amused right now that he tried releasing an album, but even his target audience of dumb people who weren't born with proper earbuds ignored him. You would think this would be the type of album that ends up being a streaming monster, but instead it barely charts one song last week and one song this week. I will give Takeoff credit for the album only being 12 tracks long as other rappers release albums that average 20 tracks a piece and that drives me crazy. But that's all the credit he gets because it doesn't seem like Takeoff put a lot of effort into this, that based on the fact that "Last Memory" was a dumb song last week and "Casper" is a dumb song this week. He's not quite as annoying as his other two friends from Migos, but there's still nothing to this song, both in terms of flow of the song and the content of the lyrics. If Takeoff's project does indeed fail like I think it's going to, in a week or two I will have completely forgot that it existed.
100- "Up to Something" - Metro Boomin featuring Travis Scott & Young Thug -- I don't care about this new Metro Boomin album. I'm not going to give it a listen.
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