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: Taylor Swift, Taylor Swift, Taylor Swift.
‘Showgirl’ Streams: Taylor Swift’s Latest Racks Up 384 Million Plays in First Three Days
The numbers just keep getting more absurd as they come in for Taylor Swift‘s 12th album The Life of a Showgirl, released last Friday (Oct. 3). The 2.7 million in sales that Showgirl posted in its first day of release deservedly generated most of the headlines, but the album’s streaming performance proved nearly as historic, with lead single “The Fate of Ophelia” racking up the most single-day streams of any song in Spotify history, while the full Showgirl set the single-day mark for any album in 2025.
Across the first three days of the album’s release (Oct. 3-5), The Life of a Showgirl racked up 384 million official on-demand U.S. streams — an average of 32 million streams per song. For reference, the most-streamed song in the country last week was HUNTR/X’s Hot 100-topping “Golden,” and that song pulled in 32.3 million streams across the full tracking week. So for her 12-track album, Swift averaged about as many streams per song as the best-streaming song in the country did last week, in less than half of a full tracking week.
Can The Life of a Showgirl challenge the all-time record for single-week streams across one album? It might be tough, given that she’s competing with herself, and the fight is somewhat lopsided: Swift previously set the record with 2024’s The Tortured Poets Department, which amassed 891.37 million streams in its debut week — a number Showgirl will likely fall short of if its streams continue to naturally recede throughout the week, as usually happens with new releases. That album had 31 tracks to work with (15 of which were released as part of its Anthology Edition reissue), however, rather than just the 12 of Showgirl — which means that on average (28.8 million), Showgirl‘s tracks were already outperforming those of Poets by the end of the weekend with their mean of 32 million, with more than half of the week still to account for.
And “The Fate of Ophelia” will certainly end up among the most-streamed tracks in a single week, having already totaled 47.7 million official on-demand streams in its first three days of release. That puts it over half the way towards catching the current leader for the 2020s, Cardi B’s Megan Thee Stallion-featuring “WAP,” which garnered 93 million streams in its debut frame — though as the song inevitably loses steam as the week goes on, it may need an extra boost or two to really threaten that superstar teamup. (Something tells us Team Taylor’s got other Billboard records on her mind at the moment anyway.) – ANDREW UNTERBERGER
Charli XCX’s ‘Brat’ Booms Following Taylor Swift’s ‘Romantic’ Diss & ‘Wuthering Heights’ Trailer
Charli XCX may be focused on her acting career right now, but Brat is forever. Thanks to a new trailer for Emerald Fennell’s forthcoming Wuthering Heights big-screen adaptation, as well as a diss on Taylor Swift’s new Life of a Showgirl album believed by fans to be directed towards Charli, tracks from the British pop star’s Grammy-winning opus have seen renewed traction on streaming.
“Everything Is Romantic,” which may have inspired the title of Swift’s diss (“Actually Romantic”) and plays in the Wuthering Heights trailer, has jumped a whopping 622% in streaming activity over the past four weeks, according to Luminate. The week prior to the trailer’s unveiling (Aug. 29-Sept. 4), “Everything” earned over 305,000 official on-demand streams, leaping 108% to over 635,000 official streams the following week (Sept. 5-11). “Everything” grew at least 50% over the streams for the next three weeks, reaching a whopping 2.2 million official streams the week before Swift dropped Showgirl (Sept. 26-Oct. 2).
Swift opens “Actually Romantic” with the line, “I heard you call me ‘Boring Barbie’ when the coke’s got you brave,” which many perceived to be a response to Charli’s lyrical references to Swift and Matty Healy’s short-lived romance on Brat’s “Sympathy Is a Knife.” In the weekend preceding Showgirl’s release (Sept. 26-28), “Everything Is Romantic” pulled 787,000 official streams, leaping 54% to 1.2 million official streams during Showgirl release weekend (Oct. 3-5). As for “Sympathy,” that track earned 207,000 official streams the weekend before Showgirl (Sept. 26-28), jumping a whopping 480% to 1.2 million official streams during Showgirl release weekend (Oct. 3-5).
“Actually Romantic” also inspired many listeners to review “Girl, so confusing,” a Brat track on which Charli ironed out her friction with fellow pop star Lorde, eventually inviting her on the song’s headline-grabbing remix to address their issues in a more mutually sympathetic way. In the weekend preceding Showgirl’s release (Sept. 26-28), “Girl, So Confusing” collected 519,000 official streams, rising 31% to 681,000 official streams during Showgirl release weekend (Oct. 3-5).
Finally, the entirety of Brat leapt 60% in total streams following Showgirl’s release. In the weeknd prior to Swift’s drop, Charli’s album earned 5.3 million official on-demand U.S. streams, and that number rose to 8.4 million official streams the following weekend (Oct. 3-5). – KYLE DENIS
‘Showgirl’-Sounding Songs Surge on Streaming: JoBros, Luis Miguel & More
As Taylor Swift’s latest album dominates the cultural conversation, so have comparisons of certain Showgirl tracks to older pop songs, leading to streaming gains for those tracks.
Some listeners have likened the album’s title track, which features Sabrina Carpenter, to Jonas Brothers’ “Cool,” resulting in a 223% jump in streaming activity for the band’s 2019 track. In the weekend prior to Showgirl’s arrival (Sept. 26-28), “Cool” earned 78,000 official on-demand U.S. streams, and that number rose to 254,000 official streams the following weekend (Oct. 3-5). Similarly, some listeners have likened Swift’s “Opalite” melody to that of Luis Miguel’s “1+1 = Enamorados,” giving way to a 224% boost in streams for the Mexican singer’s childhood hit. In the weeknd preceding Swift’s new LP, “1+1” collected just 7,800 official on-demand U.S. streams; that figure more than tripled to 25,500 official streams the next weekend (Oct. 3-5).
Of course, Showgirl also boats “Father Figure,” which properly credits George Michael for referencing his 1987 hit of the same name. Michael’s track, which enjoyed a quasi-resurgence in 2024 thanks to its use in the acclaimed film Babygirl, earned 286,000 official streams the weekend before Showgirl’s release (Sept. 26-28). The following weekend (Oct. 3-5), Michael’s “Father Figure” leapt 83% to 523,000 official streams. – KD