Kehlani drops a new remix and inspires a new viral hit with her name

Welcome to Billboard Pro's Upward trends newsletter, where we take a closer look at the songs, artists, curiosities and trends that have caught the attention of the music industry. Some have come out of nowhere, others have taken months to catch on, and all could become ubiquitous with the flash of a TikTok clip.

This week: Kehlani sees bumps for both her own song and a song named after her, while Central Cee and Lil Baby have an intercontinental hit on their hands and a devastating synth-pop classic of the decade '80 goes viral for surprisingly sweet reasons.

Kehlani's Name Spurs Wins For Herself And Singer-Songwriter Jordan Adetunji

In just a few weeks (June 27), Kehlani will be released Conflict, her third studio album. “After Hours,” the set's lead single, is already getting plenty of streaming traction, but so is a hit named after Belfast singer-songwriter Jordan Adetunji.

Adetunji's “Kehlani,” released on May 19, garnered over 115,000 official US on-demand streams in its first three days of release (May 19-21), according to Luminate. Four days before the track hit DSPs, Adetunji posted a excerpt of the song on his official TikTok account, writing: “Brother wrote a whole song about Kehlani but why is it kinda hard,” along with a number of popular hashtags including “#cashcobain,” “#melodicdrill,” “# slizzymusic' and, of course, '#kehlani'. On May 18, Kehlani herself left a unique flame emoji under his post.

In the same period the following week (May 26-28), “Kehlani” saw a 434% increase in streaming activity to 615,000 streams. Except the song is naturally gaining traction on socials — “Kehlani” is playing three pinned TikToks on Adetunji's page, which have amassed at least 870,000 views each – a clearer co-sign from Kehlani helped get the ball rolling.

On May 23, Kehlani posted a pair of TikToks featuring her vibration and lip sync On the track. The most recent The duo's video has since garnered over five million views and over a million likes on the platform, leading many new listeners to Adetunji's track. The official 'Kehlani' TikTok sound it currently boasts over 12,5000 posts.

Of course, Kehlani's magic doesn't stop there. With the release of a “Cater 2 U Mix” for “After Hours” and increased visibility because of it impassioned social media pleas in support of the Free Palestine movement, Conflict The lead single saw a significant increase in streaming. During the May 17-21 period, “After Hours” garnered 2.1 million official US on-demand streams. In the period May 24-28, this number increased by 55% to 3.3 million streams. – KYLE DENNIS

Central Cee & Lil Baby Rack Hit Again With “BAND4BAND”

After the rule of the U.K. teaming up with Dave on “Sprinter” last summer and scoring his first Billboard Hot 100 with the Drake-assisted “On the Radar Freestyle” (No. 80), Central Cee is poised for another hit on both sides of the pond – and this time Lil Baby is along for the ride.

This exercise-based UK-Atlanta tie-in earned 1.93 million official US streams on demand on its first day of release (May 24). Streams for “BAND4BAND” remained steady throughout the week, finally reaching 2.04 million streams on May 27. The following day (May 28), that number increased 29% to 2.64 million streams, marking the strongest streaming day of the track's first five days of release. With a total of 10.2 million streams in the first five days of the week, 'BAND4BAND' is already off to a promising start.

The new track is already blowing up on TikTok, with the official “BAND4BAND” sound garnering over 97,000 posts in just one week. Most users use Cench and Baby hook to show off their hilarious The “US” and “UK” sides.. On YouTube, the official “BAND4BAND” music video it has garnered over 14 million views in less than a week.

If “BAND4BAND” holds up, Cench and Baby could be looking at the next global rap smash. – KD

Heartbreaking Bronski Beat Classic Revived for the Light TikTok Trend

Bronski Beat's 1985 hit “Small Town Boy” was never a huge chart success in the US — it only peaked at No. 48 on the Billboard Hot 100, though it peaked at No. 3 on the UK Official Charts. But the song remains well remembered for its passionate lyrics and evocative music video, a tear-jerking tale of a young gay man's rejection and alienation from mainstream society. However, the song is making the rounds again in 2024 for reasons that have absolutely nothing to do with its content and everything to do with its propulsive synth hook and danceable post-disco beat.

TikTok has really swept the #80sDanceChallenge, in which users take videos of their parents dancing to a slightly sped-up version of the pulsating intro to “Small Town Boy” — supposedly with the moves they'd use if they were boogieing. the song in the 80s. As much an authority on early MTV as Cyndi Lauper has entertained, posting a CapCut edit from some old footage of the show featuring her full-body dance to “Boy,” with the caption, “Oh #80s #dancechallenge you say?”

The clips, several of which have already garnered millions of likes, helped the song find new life on streaming: “Boy” garnered more than 1.5 million official on-demand streams in the US for the tracking week ending May 23, according to Luminate — a 114% gain from the 705,000 streams the song scored four weeks earlier, before the trend really took off. Bronski Beat singer Jimmy Somerville, too shared a TikTok celebrating the song's recent 40th anniversary, singing along to the song's now-viral intro and sharing his delight at how the song has been revived.

“Everything is going so crazy in the world,” he said. “But here on TikTok, there are all these people just taking a moment to have fun… It was just great.” – ANDREW UNDERBERGER