Billboard Hot 100 Top 10:
1- "7 rings" - Ariana Grande (=) -- Ariana was dealt a hefty blow this week on the charts, as is typical for weeks after the album bomb, but she still managed to hang onto the top spot for a fifth straight week, despite her streaming crashing down 30 percent to 44.5 million U.S streams, with sales crashing down to 27,000 downloads sold. The good news for Ariana is that "7 rings" rose 16 percent on the radio charts with 71.3 million audience impressions. Although the bad news on that is she might be sabotaging herself again as "break up with your girlfriend, i'm bored" is also picking up on radio. So Ariana enjoyed a really good week last week, but that release strategy might herself in the long run as she's preventing her own songs from having a normal run. Overexposure also might be a serious problem for Ariana, especially with two album releases within six months. Word is she might be looking to take a bit of a break after this, which is probably a good thing for her long-term success.
2- "Without Me" - Halsey (+2) -- As I correctly predicted last week, Halsey is back at No. 2 this week. Although it wasn't that hard to see this coming, so don't praise me too much. Unlike Ariana's songs, Halsey is having a much more consistent run on the charts since she's not sabotaging herself with too many releases. And it's for that reason that Halsey currently holds the No. 1 song of 2019 spot on my Excel charts with "Without Me," despite only having two non-consecutive weeks at No. 1 on the Hot 100.
3- "Sunflower (Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse)" - Post Malone & Swae Lee (+2) -- Speaking of consistency, the No. 2 spot on my 2019 Excel charts is "Sunflower" as it also jumps back up to No. 3 thanks to Ariana falling off a bit. And I'm curious as to what it'll do next week after "Spider-Verse" won the Oscar for best animated feature at the Oscars on Sunday. On top of that, "Spider-Verse" was also released on digital today, so could those two events help boost the song. Certainly this song would've been doing even better had it been nominated for best original song. But that didn't happen. On that note, though, expect a huge jump next from "Shallow" after Bradley Cooper and Lady Gaga won the internet with their performance.
4- "thank u, next" - Ariana Grande (-1) -- As expected, Ariana falls this week, but "thank u, next" didn't tank quite as hard as I would've thought. Although it's certainly not going in a positive direction from here on out. With Ariana promoting both "7 rings" and "break up with your girlfriend, i'm bored," I'm expecting "thank u, next" to be out of here rather quickly as Ariana was the one holding it back from reach its full potential.
5- "Please Me" - Cardi B & Bruno Mars (new) -- When I saw that Cardi B and Bruno Mars had another collaboration up their sleeve, I had a sneaking suspicion that this would be another huge hit for them after "Finesse" peaked at No. 3 in January 2018. What was a bit surprising was seeing that this only debuted with 27.9 million U.S. streams, which is significantly lower than usual for major debuts, especially considering the star power of both Cardi B and Bruno Mars. But it also debuted with 51,000 downloads sold and seems to have some good radio traction behind. So I'm fully expecting this to stick around for the unforeseeable future, especially since most of the current top 10 hits are starting to run out of momentum. This seems like a song that has excellent timing. My personal thoughts on it are down below.
6- "Happier" - Marshmello & Bastille (=) -- In a bit of a surprising move, "Happier" manages to keep its No. 6 spot. I thought it was about to nosedive down the charts. But I guess it's here because the other songs below it aren't exactly super strong either.
7- "SICKO MODE" - Travis Scott (=) -- I'm also surprised that "SICKO MODE" stayed put. Although in its case, I was expecting it to rebound ahead of "Happier," perhaps sneaking into the top five again. I'm happy I was wrong with that prediction, though.
8- "break up with your girlfriend, i'm bored" - Ariana Grande (-6) -- I knew this was going to crash down this week, but I'm a bit surprised that it managed to still hold onto a spot in the top 10 as it maintains a decent chunk of its streaming from last week after the debut as it still has 31.9 million U.S. streams, although that's down 46 percent. The kicker here is that it has started to gain a bit of momentum on the radio. If that push continues and it holds onto enough streaming, Ariana could potentially be successful in sabotaging all three of her songs in the top 10 right now while helping this song stick around for longer. By that I mean I don't think this and "7 rings" are going to both be huge radio hits simultaneously. The radio is going to eventually pick one or the other, perhaps causing neither to hit the heights they could've hit.
9- "High Hopes" - Panic! At the Disco (-1) -- Speaking of radio songs, "High Hopes" still maintains its lead on radio, currently having 14 weeks at No. 1. The record is "Iris" by Goo Goo Dolls with 18 weeks, a record that "Girls Like You" by Maroon 5 nearly matched, yet stalled out in a three-way tie for second place at 16 weeks with "We Belong Together" by Mariah Carey and "Don't Speak" by No Doubt. "High Hopes" is falling on radio, but not super fast, so it has a chance to continue to climb the ranks. Although radio is the only thing the song has at this point, so I don't know how much longer it'll have in the top 10. If it ties or breaks the record after falling out of the top 10, I'll find a way to let you know about that.
10- "Wow." - Post Malone (-1) -- I also expected Post Malone to take advantage of nothing in the top 10 doing super well at the moment, but also seems to have peaked, which certainly makes me happy. If "Wow." became as big of a hit as "rockstar" or "Psycho," I would've thrown a fit.
Rising on the Hot 100:
13- "Thotiana" - Blueface (+7) -- Like is the case with most weeks following an album bomb, the rising songs section is rather crowded, so I'm going to plug through these rather quickly. And we start with the scary idea that this piece of garbage might be hitting the top 10 soon. I'm already prepared to be angry at that. I just hope that its one of those hits that hangs out for a weeks and disappears because we really need to not make this song a thing. And we shouldn't be giving Blueface a career, either.
14- "Murder on My Mind" - YNW Melly (+45) -- What in the heck happened here? Was a music video released for this or something? I don't care to find out. I just hope that whatever gave it a boost this week disappears next week because we don't need to be promoting songs about murder on the Hot 100. That's a disgusting trend in hip-hop right now that needs to go away.
16- "Money" - Cardi B (+3) -- Small boost for Cardi B this week thanks to Ariana falling, but thankfully this song hasn't had nearly enough traction to make it another smash hit for Cardi. If anything, her new release with Bruno could help push this song away.
20- "Better" - Khalid (+3) -- OK, I'm not a huge fan of this, but I'll take it over the other three songs ahead of it on this list.
23- "Beautiful Crazy" - Luke Combs (+13) -- Why is this the biggest country hit right now? I don't understand.
25- "Dancing with a Stranger" - Sam Smith & Normani (+5) -- OK, here's the first excellent song on this section this week. The only disappointing part is that it isn't rising faster. Hopefully that changes. I at least want this song in the top 20.
26- "Youngblood" - 5 Seconds of Summer (+8) -- Momentary rise for 5SOS. Although I'm certainly not upset at having to bring it up again. It's a good song.
29- "Sweet but Psycho" - Ava Max (+8) -- Another song that needs to be rising a lot faster than it is. I freaking love this song and I want it to be huge. If it gets stuck in the 20's, I might get upset. But at least it's consistently sticking around.
30- "Be Alright" - Dean Lewis (+16) -- The rest of the world bought into this song a long time ago. It's about time. A 16-spot rise means there's more to this song rising than Ariana falling out, so that's good news. This is an Ed Sheeran style of song and for me that's a positive thing.
33- "I Like It" - Cardi B, Bad Bunny & J Balvin (+12) -- Momentary rise for Cardi. Although it's interesting that both this and "Money" rose this week. Did her debut with Bruno somehow help her other songs as well?
34- "You Say" - Lauren Daigle (+6) -- I haven't had much of an opportunity to talk about this recently. For the longest time, it was yo-yo-ing on the bottom section of the Hot 100. Then a miracle happened and it shot up into the 30's one week and has hung out here ever since. The fact that a Christian song is doing this well makes me ecstatic. Lauren has a great voice and a great message to share with the world.
37- "Close to Me" - Ellie Goulding & Diplo featuring Swae Lee (+5) -- You know, I wouldn't mind if this song was doing a tad bit better. It's nowhere near as good as Ellie in her glory days, but it's a decent enough song. If it does well, that's a good sign for Ellie moving forward. And maybe she can remember how to write better songs.
38- "Baby Shark" - Pinkfong (+11) -- The fact that Billboard decided that this thing was worthy of being included on the Hot 100 is annoying. The fact that they're keeping it around is even worse. This has been around for eight weeks now, essentially hanging out in the 30's. The positive side of things is that it hasn't gotten higher, but I've learned recently that this is a super old song as my nieces and nephews, and thus their parents as well, have known about this song for several years. Why it's doing well right now is beyond me. And if it ends up making Billboard's year-end Hot 100, I'm going to both laugh and scream at the same time.
39- "Look Back at It" - A Boogie wit da Hoodie (+8) - Don't care.
42- "Envy Me" - Calboy (+8) -- Don't care.
43- "Swervin" - A Boogie wit da Hoodie featurin 6ix9ine (+8) -- Don't care.
45- "This Is It" - Scotty McCreery (+7) -- Not the highest peak for Scotty. He hit No. 42 a few weeks ago before being temporarily pushed down. But he's back in the top 50 this week and I imagine he'll stick around for a while. This seems like the type of boring country song that will be popular with country radio.
47- "Backin' It Up" - Pardison Fontaine featuring Cardi B (+6) -- Another older Cardi B song getting a boost this week? What's going on?
54- "What Makes You Country" - Luke Bryan (+10) -- Of course this song is doing well. A country song about country music and country people seems like the type of thing that country radio would be obligated to play, regardless of quality.
60- "Mixed Personalities" - YNW Melly featuring Kanye West (+33) -- Ew, gross. It's bad enough that the other YNW Melly song shot up to the top 20. But at least I could sleep well at night knowing that this new one with Kanye was tanking, but yet here we are. I hope this was a one week sort of deal. I want this gone.
67- "Here Tonight" - Brett Young (+25) -- OK, I'll take this. Still not Brett Young's best. I'm thinking more and more that me loving one of his songs was an outlier regarding me and him, but this is still better than some of the other country things right now.
72- "Nights Like This" - Kehlani featuring Ty Dolla $ign (+17) -- This is a song that I totally forgot existed. Now I don't have an inherent problem with Kehlani doing well. This is not as bad as some of the stuff on the charts. But she's also not a singer that I'll ever miss when she's gone as I have a hard time remembering her other music.
81- "Miss Me More" - Kelsea Ballerini (+10) -- One of my favorite rising songs this week! Country radio really needs to drop all of the boring dudes and pick up more country girls like Kelsea. Or heck, send this to pop radio. I don't care. Just let someone pick it up because I would love to see this continue to do well. On that note, I am upset that "Rainbow" by Kacey Musgraves fell off the charts this week. If that was just a one week appearance, that's really upsetting and should be the cause of everyone managing country radio to get fired so that the good country music can actually do well!
New Arrivals:
5- "Please Me" - Cardi B & Bruno Mars -- I mentioned above that I expect this song to be around for a while in the top 10. Am I happy about that? Well, no, not really. Although you probably saw that coming since I'm not really a fan of either Cardi B or Bruno Mars. With Bruno, I think "Uptown Funk" is a really fun song, but I give more credit to Mark Ronson for that one. His own stuff I haven't been a fan of in quite a while. I like him as a performer and he has an excellent voice, it's just that his content turns me off. This song is a tough one to crack because Bruno's voice is very soulful and Cardi B has a decent presence with her rap. And the music itself is very smooth and mesmerizing. It's just that Bruno's lyrics sound like a lustful, sex-craved dude begging this girl to have sex with him, while Cardi B being Cardi B enjoys the position of power she's in with this scenario. She's willing to play this game with him, but she's also enjoying making him beg. So I don't know. Give me time with this one. If the lyrics were more romantic and less lustful, I'd probably be on board. But as of now, I think I'm going to sit on the sidelines here while quietly letting other people enjoy it.
27- "Robbery" - Juice WRLD -- Don't care.
49- "Red Room" - Offset -- Don't care.
80- "Talk You out of It" - Florida Georgia Line -- I never know what to think with Florida Georgia Line. One day they're putting out catchy and fun country pop music, with "Simple" diving more into folk. But then the next day they're putting out boring country nonsense that I'll completely forget exists. This one kinda slips into the middle. They're going for a more tone-downed ballad sort of thing and I liked that. But they didn't quite get the lyrics to completely suck me. I was hoping for a romantic song after what I heard when it started, but this feels more manipulative than anything. He's not looking to just have a good time with this girl. He sees her at the beginning of the day and his goal is to get her naked by the end of the night. So he starts by luring her to the bar with her favorite drink. Then he compliments her dress, but states that he's going to try to talk her out of it. I think they were going for sexy and romantic with this, but it comes off as more creepy and wrong, so I'm going to pass on this one and stick to "Simple."
84- "Eyes on You" - Chase Rice -- I think this is what Florida Georgia Line was trying to go for with "Talk You out of It," but the difference here is Chase sticks the landing. This is also a romantic country ballad, but it's actually romantic, not creepy. He's talking about all the places they've been together, but how he doesn't remember any of them because he just had his eyes on her. Having this girl in his arms is the best view for him. It's simple and sweet. I like it. I'm also kind of annoyed and jealous that he went sightseeing to all of these places that I've wanted to go, but can't remember a single one. I'd love to go to Paris and London while remember the girl AND the trip, yet chase just remembers the girl, so he might as well have just stayed home and not wasted all that travel. But that's more of a tongue-in-cheek comment. I approve of this song.
86- "365" - Zedd & Katy Perry -- Have you seen this music video for this song? Katy's going for a weird and trippy "Ex Machina" style of movie where she's an android trying to have a relationship with a dude, which goes completely wrong. But I'm not sure she realizes that it's not as clever or original as she probably thinks it is. It's just strange and kind of off-putting. I saw the video trending back on or shortly after Valentine's Day when it premiered and I can't get the weird images out of my brain. And I mean that in a bad way. If you want to see this idea done better, go watch "Ex Machina," or even "Alita: Battle Angel." The latter does the human/cyborg relationship surprisingly well and "Ex Machina" is a masterpiece.
But I digress. I just had to get that out since I've been waiting for two weeks to comment on that. The video doesn't have anything to do with the song, outside attempted romance. As one who still loves Katy's "Chained to the Rhythm," I think this more electronic edge to her music is something that really fits her. So I was intrigued when I saw she had a song with Zedd because on paper that sounds like it would work great. But unfortunately this commits one of the worst sins you can commit when you have Zedd working with you. It's boring. Zedd is one of my favorite DJs as he's excellent at coming up with fun, dance rhythms that, if nothing else, will at least have your head bobbing up and down while you listen. But this song has no substance to it, both rhythmically and lyrically. It feels like Zedd was relegated to background noise with a beat pattern that probably took him 30 seconds to put together so that he can collect a quick paycheck while Katy is just saying she wants this person with her at all times. That's basically it. Granted, this isn't repulsive like several songs from Katy's "Witness" album, like "Bon Apetit," but it's just not memorable at all. I have a hard time even seeing die hard Katy fans ranking this one high when compared to the rest of her discography, but I'm sure they'll let me know if I'm wrong on that.
87- "Worth It" - YK Osiris -- I almost skipped this one, but I decided to be fair because I had no idea who YK Osiris was as this is his first Hot 100 entry. I thought this was going to be another trashy rap song by an untalented punk who went viral for some unknown reason. Turns out this song is slightly more interesting than your typical hip-hop nonsense. In fact, I feel this leans more R&B. And there's some interesting piano melodies throughout the song and an interesting guitar riff towards the end. But the lyrics are a bit bare-bones and I can't decide if he's being complimentary or condescending towards this girl. "I would give you the world, baby girl, you just gotta be worth it. You don't gotta be perfect, you just gotta be worth it." Repeating that section is pretty much the whole song. There's one verse outside that with scattered thoughts him and his girl, but I still can't crack this. And it gets more annoying on repeat listenings with his whiny vocals and too much filler with all of his "oh's," "mmm's" and "yeah's." So at this point I'm not repulsed by this song. But I have a feeling that if it sticks around for too long that I'd get really annoyed by it real quick.
91- "There Was This Girl" - Riley Green -- I read this title and I felt like I've already heard this song a thousand different times, even though I'm not sure if I know who Riley Green is. And yep, I 30 seconds in and I was ready to be done. Just a twangy, generic country boy singing about a girl with a heavy southern rock rhythm that doesn't match the attempted romantic lyrics. I have nothing else to say outside being upset that this is the type of trash that country radio falls in love with instead quality country from the likes of Kacey Musgraves. It's a shame.
100- "One That Got Away" - Michael Ray -- Well, speaking of Katy Perry, I had to go listen to "The One That Got Away" before checking out this song because that's one of my favorite Katy Perry songs. It might even be my favorite from her "Teenage Dream" album. I especially like the acoustic version of the song because it makes it even more raw and emotional. But I'm not here to talk about that song. I'm here to talk about this Michael Ray song, which is not a whole lot better than the Riley Green song. As expected, Michael is talking about a girl he had a lot of fun with, but he doesn't seem super sad that she got away. He says she's going to be one heck of a one that got away. If this was more mellow and toned down, maybe I could've felt some emotion with these lyrics. But this just feels like an upbeat party song about a girl he wasn't able to hold onto. The lyrics and the music just don't fit. There's conflicting tones. Michael has a bit more personality than Riley does, but his song as a whole is not much better.
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