The first year of the TikTok Billboard Top 50 chart featured a string of music reaching the highest level of the fledgling chart, with 21 songs topping the weekly chart from its inception through the Billboard charts dated September 16, 2023.
Tommy Richman's “Million Dollar Baby,” however, was a leg above the rest.
From its crowning at No. 1 on the survey on May 18 (after debuting at No. 2 the previous week) to its final week at the top of the chart (July 20), Richman's summer hit crowned the TikTok Billboard Top 50 for 10 uninterrupted weeks. Plus: as of this writing, “Million Dollar Baby” has never fallen below No. 6. In fact, the latest weekly chart (September 14) finds it one spot at No. 5.
But “Million Dollar Baby” is the longest-running No. 1 for the chart's inaugural year. To recap the story you've probably already told: on April 13, Richman uploaded a 14-second clip of the song to his TikTok. It exploded immediately, amassing nearly 14 million plays as of mid-September. Two days later, he posted more clips with different music, but the demand in the comments was clear: “Throw a million dollars baby rn,” read one. He released the song “Selfish” a few days later, on April 19, and yet the calls persisted: “More million dollar baby clips.”
The next week, it happened. After a few more videos promoting his upcoming release (including one from April 23rd that has even more views – over 18 million – than the original), Richman dropped “Million Dollar Baby” on April 26th, and the song arrived immediately topped the TikTok Billboard Top 50, as well as charts worldwide. On the multimetric Billboard Hot 100 (which does not include any TikTok activity), it debuted at No. 2 on May 11 and spent the next nearly four months in the top 10.
Cool demand for the song helped boost initial numbers, but in the months since, “Million Dollar Baby” has had its own dance trend that has dominated the conversation. By the end of the summer, TikTok crowned the song of the summer.
Read on for more highlights from the first year of the TikTok Billboard Top 50 chart. You can check out the latest TikTok Billboard Top 50 chart here, and you can also tune in every Friday to SiriusXM's TikTok Radio (channel 4) to hear the countdown premiere of the chart's top 10 at 3 p.m. ET, with repeats throughout the week.
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“Love” for Mitski
When “Million Dollar Baby” reached its seventh week at No. 1, it surpassed the six-week run of one of the chart's early leaders: Mitski's “My Love Mine All Mine,” which was its fourth No. 1 and first. to reign for more than a week when he reached the summit in October 2023.
The rise of Mitski's “My Love Mine All Mine” — and to a similar extent Clairo's “Juna,” which ran for a week in August — was an interesting case study as both artists entered the era of TikTok's existence. Billboard Top 50 having enjoyed success on TikTok in previous years. From “Nobody” to “Washing Machine Heart” and “First Love/Late Spring” to “I Bet on Losing Dogs,” music from Mitski's seven-album catalog has performed well on TikTok for years, while “Sofia” by Clairo. “Bags” and more have been perennial favorites on the platform.
But could they do it again? Short answer: yes. Both found success on TikTok with their latest releases, 2023 The earth is inhospitable and so are we and this year's Charmrespectively.
Both were slow burns, too. “My Love Mine All Mine” debuted at No. 34 on the chart on September 30, 2023, and hit No. 1 for the first time two weeks later, fueled primarily by romantic and friendship-themed uploads. “Juna,” meanwhile, reached No. 1 in the second week of the chart on a trend that played off the song's repetitive “you know me” lyric that then highlights the user's interests.
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Olsen, Flo Milli Made Marks
Alek Olsen's “Someday I'll Get It” and Flo Milli's “Never Lose Me” tied for the third-longest reigns in the first year of the TikTok Billboard Top 50, both reigning for four weeks each. “Never Lose Me,” which has been leading the way since January, has benefited from several trends throughout its run, paced by “never had a what?” call and response issue.
“Someday I'll Get It,” which reigned in the early spring via a trend where creators reminisced about their (usually dead) pets, is an interesting case in point. Olsen originally released the 94-second song in October 2023 independently and has not premiered new music since. In fact, Olsen hasn't even updated his only known social media account, an Instagram handle, since February of that year. They remain an off-the-grid, seemingly unsigned artist, showcasing TikTok's ability to showcase music that can come from anyone or anywhere, not just major label projects.
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'Wassup'? More Unsigned Acts
Another unsigned chart artist success story: FamousSally and YB's “Wassup Gwayy,” the chart's second No. 1 when it ruled in September. Shortly after the song took off, the pair signed with Epic Records. And there was Cat Janice's “Dance You Outta My Head,” which was self-released but popular on the app as Janice recounted her final months after recording and releasing the song while in a cancer hospice. died on February 28, 2024, weeks after “Dance You Outta My Head” reached No. 1 on the TikTok Billboard Top 50.
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'SkeeYee' started it
The only song that preceded “Wassup Gwayy” at No. 1 was Sexyy Red's “SkeeYee,” the first chart leader dated September 16, 2023. While the song remains her only No. 1 so far, the rapper reached on TikTok The Billboard Top 50 with 14 different songs in the first year, 11 as a lead artist and three times as a featured act. Only one act made the chart more in that time: Taylor Swift, who boasts 18 appearances despite never reaching No. 1. In fact, only two of the 18 even reached the top 10; with “August” leading the pack (No 3 on the opening list) followed by “Who's Afraid of Little Old Me?” (No. 4, May).
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TikTok Success = Hot 100 Wins
Tommy Richman's “Million Dollar Baby” was perhaps the year's strongest example of an artist breaking out on TikTok and eventually finding major success on Bulletin board diagrams. But it was far from the only one.
After reaching No. 8 on the TikTok Billboard Top 50 in October 2023 with “Ick,” Lay Bankz returned with a vengeance in April with “Tell Ur Girlfriend,” a three-week run on the chart that extended into May thanks to a dance trend. The song became Bankz's first appearance on the Hot 100, peaking at No. 58.
The Billboard TikTok Top 50 dated August 10 crowned Sevdaliza, Pabllo Vittar and Yseult's 'Alibi' No. 1, a week after the tune became all three acts' first appearance on the Hot 100 at No. 95 via the TikTok trend that trembles. .
And as for Jordan Adetunji, “Kehlani” entered the TikTok Billboard Top 50 in June and made a two-week trip to No. 1 in August, helped by Kehlani herself trending and even appearing on Adetunji's channel in a late July upload (“I broke the simulation,” Adetunji boasted) after releasing a remix featuring her. “Kehlani” reaches a new peak of No. 24 on the latest Hot 100.
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Not just for new music
All of the No. 1s mentioned so far have been newer songs after all. even though “Never Lose Me” and “Someday I'll Get It” may have climbed to No. 1 months after their release, they were still less than a year into their reign. As it's been since the beginning, however, TikTok hasn't been all about new material, and the No. 1 spot was no exception. Bobby Caldwell's “What You Won't Do for Love,” a No. 9 hit on the Hot 100 in 1979, rose to No. 1 in February via a food-related trend, and his version of “Misty ” by Lesley Gore from her debut 1963 album topped the list in January thanks to the “me without glasses/me with glasses” trend (or variations thereof).
Even Mariah Carey's annual holiday standard “All I Want for Christmas Is You” had fun in December, surpassing December 30, 2023 and January 6, 2024, beating out other holiday classics including Wham! Last Christmas', Brenda Lee's 'Rockin' Around the Christmas Tree' and Jose Feliciano's 'Feliz Navidad'.
Sometimes what was old became new. Djo's “End of Beginning,” which was first released in 2022, was a Hot 100 hit in 2024, peaking at No. 11 in March and climbing all the way to No. 4 on the Alternative Airplay chart in July. This is largely due to the virality of TikTok. topped the TikTok Billboard Top 50 for two weeks in March, largely due to the trend in the prompt “if I won the lottery, I wouldn't tell anyone, but there would be signs.”
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And the non-No. 1s had their moments
Just because a song didn't ultimately reach No. 1 on the TikTok Billboard Top 50 didn't mean it wasn't ubiquitous on the platform. Take, for example, Shaboozey's “A Bar Song (Tipsy”), the longest-running No. 1 on the Hot 100 so far this year. The 10-week ruler first exploded onto TikTok in early May, debuting at No. 9 on the TikTok Billboard Top 50 survey on May 4. It rose to a final peak of No. 3 the following week, boosted by the honky-ready dance trend.
“A Bar Song” wasn't the only country dance tune on TikTok in 2024. A few weeks before Shaboozey took off, Dasha's “Austin” spent three weeks in the top 10 in late March to early April, peaking at No. 4 , with Dasha herself leading the trend with a series of uploads, including tutorials.
Like “Million Dollar Baby,” Benson Boone's “Beautiful Things” was a big TikTok hit thanks to a buzz start before the release. Boone racked up millions upon millions of views on TikTok with clips of the song starting in early January, culminating in a January 19 release. It debuted at No. 6 on the chart on February 10 and eventually peaked at No. 2 on the March 23 chart.
And in between BRAT summer, Charli XCX's 'Apple', after first being released together BRATPremiering on June 7, it led a trio of songs from the album to the TikTok Billboard Top 50 in July and August, with “Apple” itself peaking at No. 3 on the chart on August 10 (followed by “Guess” at No. 22 and “365” in No. 34). “Guess” reached new heights after releasing a remix featuring Billie Eilish on August 1st.
from our partners at https://www.billboard.com/lists/tiktok-billboard-top-50-chart-turns-1-look-back/
