Ask Billboard (July 2022) – Billboard

Submit questions about Billboard charts, as well as general music musings, to askbb@billboard.com. Please include your first and last name, as well as your city, state and country, if outside the U.S.

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 Let’s open the latest mailbag.

Selena Gomez’s Most-Streamed Songs

Hey @gthot20, since Selena Gomez’s 30th anniversary is coming next July 22nd, could you make her Top 10 most streamed songs in the US on #AskBillboard?

— Selena Gomez Charts (@selgomezdata) July 14, 2022

In honor of Selena Gomez‘s special day Friday (early present!), here’s a rundown of her top songs ranked by official on-demand, audio and video, U.S. streams, from their releases through July 14, according to Luminate.

Selena Gomez’s Most-Streamed Songs:

• 904 million official on-demand, audio and video, U.S. streams, “Taki Taki” (DJ Snake feat. Gomez, Ozuna & Cardi B)
• 883 million, “We Don’t Talk Anymore” (Charlie Puth feat. Gomez)
• 677 million, “Wolves” (with Marshmello)
• 669 million, “It Ain’t Me” (with Kygo)
• 564 million, “Lose You to Love Me”

• 544 million, “Good for You” (feat. A$AP Rocky)
• 496 million, “Back to You”
• 470 million, “Same Old Love”
• 438 million, “Hands to Myself”
• 384 million, “The Heart Wants What It Wants”

Since we last ranked Gomez’s most-streamed songs, in January 2020, she’s upped her count to 25 career top 40 Billboard Hot 100 hits and notched her first No. 1 on Top Latin Albums, with Revelación in March 2021.

“I never go into anything expecting a No. 1, so I do not take it for granted,” Gomez told Billboard upon the set’s coronation. “For this EP, I was the most nervous I have been in a long time because my heritage means so much to me. I wanted it to be perfect. I am thrilled to see the response from my fans and also from people who might not have listened to my other music.”

As for songs that might eventually make the list above, Gomez, co-star of Hulu’s well-received Only Murders in the Building, whose second season premiered June 28, recently confirmed that she is working on a new album.

(Doja) Cat & ‘Dog’

Hi Gary,

With “Vegas” by Doja Cat having risen to No. 31 on the Hot 100, and No. 7 on the Hot Rap Songs chart, congratulations are in order for, along with Doja Cat, late legend Willie Mae “Big Mama” Thornton. She first recorded “Hound Dog,” written by Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller, in August 1952 and it hit No. 1 on Billboard‘s Top Rhythm & Blues Records charts in 1953. Her version is interpolated in “Vegas,” bringing it to the Hot 100’s top 40 nearly 70 years after its recording.

In between Thornton and Doja Cat’s hits, Elvis Presley’s “Hound Dog” topped the Best Sellers in Stores and Most Played in Juke Boxes charts for 11 weeks each in 1956.

It’s also nice that Stoller, 89 years young, can enjoy the success of “Vegas” and the new Elvis biopic.

Best,

Pablo Nelson
Oakland, Calif.

Thanks, Pablo.

“Vegas” further debuts at No. 34 on the July 23-dated Pop Airplay chart. The song marks Presley’s latest imprint on radio, and 20 years after he last sent a newly-released song onto a Billboard airplay survey: his “A Little Less Conversation,” a remix, co-billed with JXL, of his track originally from 1968, debuted on the July 27, 2002-dated Adult Pop Airplay chart and climbed to its No. 26 peak four weeks later.

Meanwhile, The King’s daughter, Lisa Marie Presley, has forged her own history on Adult Pop Airplay, and other Billboard charts, beginning soon after. On the March 8, 2003, Adult Pop Airplay tally, her breakthrough single “Lights Out” debuted, on its way to a No. 18 high that May. It was released from her debut album To Whom It May Concern, which launched at its No. 5 peak that April. She added a second top 10 set, Now What, in April 2005 and has charted, on multiple rankings, two virtual duets with her father: “In the Ghetto,” in 2007, and “Where No One Stands Alone,” in 2018.



(While promoting To Whom It May Concern, Presley visited the radio station at which I was the music director at the time, Adult Pop Airplay reporter WSNE Providence, R.I. In a rare move, largely to manage time, given potential interest from staff members, the station’s GM hosted her and a few of us in the programming and promotion departments, among others, in his office. She was soft-spoken and gracious, and I chuckled that I found myself at one point sitting next to Elvis and Priscilla Presley’s daughter, being a fan of the Naked Gun movies, and Michael Jackson’s former wife. The visit made for a celebration of our having put “Lights Out” into rotation, and while her name recognition was obviously attention-getting, the song’s quality ultimately secured its add.)

Both Priscilla and Lisa Marie Presley have praised the Baz Lurhmann-directed Elvis, with the latter having mused on Instagram, “Baz, your utter genius combined with your love and respect for my father and this project is just so beautiful and so inspiring.” As for Elvis star Austin Butler in the film’s title role, she marveled that he “channeled and embodied my father’s heart and soul beautifully. In my humble opinion, his performance is unprecedented and finally done accurately and respectfully. (If he doesn’t get an Oscar for this, I will eat my own foot, haha.)”