Welcome to Billboard Pro’s Trending Up newsletter, where we take a closer look at the songs, artists, curiosities and trends that have caught the music industry’s attention. Some have come out of nowhere, others have taken months to catch on, and all of them could become ubiquitous in the blink of a TikTok clip.
This week: Bad Bunny surges on streaming as he closes one triumph and begins on another, a hip-hop couple sees gains for tying the knot while a pop ex-couple draws big numbers for its breakup songs about one another, and more.
Bad Bunny’s Streams Up Following Residency Finale, Super Bowl Announcement
It’s been a year of massive wins for Bad Bunny, as his sneak-releaed January album Debí Tirar Más Fotos returned him to the center of global pop culture, and well-received supporting roles in the movies Happy Gilmore 2 and Caught Stealing have cemented him as a force in multiple mediums. Now, he’s closing out his 2025 by wrapping one of his biggest live endeavors yet and starting up an entirely new one — both of which have brought major gains to his catalog.
Last week, Billboard’s latest cover star closed out his No Me Quiero Ir de Aquí concert residency at Puerto Rico’s José Miguel Agrelot Coliseum — a run which lasted for over two months and 30 shows — with a just-announced 31st concert on Sept. 20, one live-streamed worldwide through Amazon Prime and Twitch, commemorating the eighth anniversary of Hurricane Maria’s devastating impact on the island. The attention from the residency finale and record-breaking streaming event helped the global superstar pull over 93 million official on-demand U.S. streams across his catalog for the tracking week ending Sept. 25, a 13% bump over the previous week, according to Luminate.
But Bad Bunny wasn’t done making headline news for September, of course. On Sunday (Sept. 28), it was announced that El Conejo Malo will be headlining the halftime show of Super Bowl LX at Levi’s Stadium in Santa Clara, Calif. The news of the singer-rapper landing the world’s most coveted televised gig sent his streams way up the day following the announcement — with his catalog racking up nearly 18 million streams that Monday (Sept. 29), up 31% from the Monday the prior week.
Of course, these bumps will likely just be a prelude to the massive spikes he’s likely to see after the show itself — with Kendrick Lamar proving this year that even huge contemporary pop stars can still be taken to a whole new level by the exposure granted by the most-viewed 15-minute gig in America. – ANDREW UNTERBERGER
Monaleo & Stunna 4 Vegas’ Pink Nuptials Lift Both Rappers’ Catalogs, Including Leo’s New ‘Sexy Soulaan’ Single
On Sept. 19, Houston rapper Monaleo and North Carolina MC Stunna 4 Vegas tied the knot after four years of dating. The pink-themed wedding not only played out in front of nearly 200 in-person guests, but it also earned over 100,000 viewers on a TikTok livestream. In the days following, clips and videos of the nuptials have dominated social media — and resulted in streaming increases for both rappers’ catalogs.
During the week before the wedding (Sept. 12-18), Monaleo’s catalog earned 2.82 million official on-demand U.S. streams, according to Luminate. By the week following the wedding (Sept. 19-25), that figure jumped 76% to over 4.97 million official streams. Moreover, Leo’s catalog clocked over 2.45 million streams during her wedding weekend (Sept. 19-22). That number ballooned by 92% to over 4.7 million official streams the following four-day period (Sept. 26-29), according to early data provided by Luminate.
Stunna’s catalog earned just over 400,000 official streams that same week leading up to the wedding. In the week following, that number rose by 32% to over 532,000 official streams. During his wedding weekend, Stunna’s also catalog collected 298,000 official streams, with that number spiking by nearly 50% to over 445,000 official streams the following four-day period.
Building on her recent momentum, Monaleo dropped a pro-Black banger called “Sexy Soulaan” on Sept. 26. In its first four days of release, “Soulaan” has pulled over 968,000 official on-demand U.S. streams, playing a big part in her overall catalog bump. – KYLE DENIS
Tate McRae’s ‘Tit For Tat’ Scores Hot Streaming Start — While The Kid LAROI’s Post-Breakup Track Also Rises
“Let’s go song for song, let’s go back to back/ Let’s go tit for tat, boy, you asked for that,” Tate McRae sings on “Tit for That,” challenging an ex who may just so happen to also be a musician. While the pop star’s latest single is rumored to be a shot at The Kid LAROI, and his own recent kiss-off “A Cold Play,” following their breakup, “Tit for Tat” also appears to be another major win for McRae, capping off a year that included a string of top 40 hits, an arena headlining tour and the first No. 1 album of her career.
“Tit for Tat” earned 11.4 million U.S. on-demand streams in its first four days on streaming services following its Sept. 26 release, according to early data provided by Luminate. That’s a strong enough start to put McRae in position for another lofty Hot 100 debut — and indeed, “Tit for Tat” also topped Spotify’s Daily Top Songs USA chart for the first time on Wednesday (Oct. 1), as its momentum continues to surge.
Meanwhile, the perceived response to “A Cold Play” has also led more listeners back to The Kid LAROI’s single, which was released three weeks before “Tit for Tat.” While “A Cold Play” earned 1.57 million streams from Sept. 19-22, that number jumped to 2.12 million in the first four days of “Tit for Tat” being out — a 35% jump from week to week. – JASON LIPSHUTZ
Chicken Joe TikTok Trend Revives 17-Year-Old Kid Cudi Track
“Day ‘n’ Nite” was the brooding breakout hit from Kid Cudi’s 2008 debut mixtape, A Kid Named Cudi, but, 17 years later, the tape’s much brighter “Maui Wowie” is enjoying its moment in the sun.
Thanks to an Aug. 15 TikTok that paired the laidback cool of Chicken Joe, a beloved character from the 2007 animated film Surf’s Up, with the breezy vibes of “Maui Wowie,” the song has earned a new life on social media, which its recent streaming increases reflect. In more recent weeks, “Maui Wowie” has gained traction on TikTok due to the fart sound at the end of the track, as well as a trend featuring young men nonchalantly hanging from lampposts and lip-syncing the hook. The official “Maui Wowie” TikTok sound now boasts over 131,000 posts.
Over the past four weeks, streaming activity for “Maui Wowie” has jumped a whopping 379%. During the week of Aug. 22-28, the first full week after the first Chicken Joe videos took off, the song pulled over 516,000 official on-demand U.S. streams — but streams just kept rising steadily over the next month, and by the week of Sept. 19-25, “Maui Wowie” was earning over 2.47 million official streams.
In September, Cudi notched his 11th Billboard 200 entry with Free (No. 192). Now, the “Maui Wowie” revival proves he can still capture people’s ears with old and new music alike. – KD