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: Michael Jackson’s catalog sees massive gains in the wake of the successful first weekend for the Michael biopic, Prince and Beyoncé fans commemorate two very different kinds of 10th anniversaries, Death Cab for Cutie still packs a TV-synching punch and more.
Michael Jackson Headed for His Biggest Streaming Week Ever After ‘Michael’ Ignites Box Office
Michael isn’t just blowing up box-office records, it’s also igniting an explosion in Michael Jackson’s streams that is well on pace to give the King of Pop his biggest streaming week ever.
Jackson’s song streams have soared in the wake of his biopic Michael, more than doubling in the immediate days after the film’s wide release on April 24. From initial reports submitted to Luminate, the late legend’s solo song catalog pulled 47.9 million official on-demand streams in the United States in the film’s opening weekend (Friday, April 24 – Sunday, April 26) a 116% surge compared with the previous Friday – Sunday period (April 17-19).
In addition to his solo material, streams for both The Jackson 5 and The Jacksons material also swell by huge percentages. Preliminary reports have The Jackson 5’s catalog at 3.4 million streams from April 24-26, up 89% from the corresponding days in the prior week. The Jacksons, the family’s second group after they parted ways with Motown, has registered 1.8 million streams in the three-day period, a 104% rally from the previous period.
Based on those three days of activity, the first post-Michael week is well positioned to give Jackson his biggest U.S. streaming week ever, in terms of official on-demand streams for his solo work. As anticipation for Michael swelled in recent weeks, Jackson’s catalog set new personal bests in streaming for the last two weeks – with 50.6 million clicks in the April 10-16 period and 55.3 million April 17-23. Before the biopic’s impending arrival, Jackson’s best streaming week was Oct. 31-Nov. 6, 2025, at 54.4 million streams in the wake of the now-annual “Thriller” resurgence around Halloween.
In terms of individual songs, “Billie Jean” – typically Jackson’s most-streamed song each week – again led the pack, with 4 million U.S. official on-demand streams. Fellow Thriller classic “Beat It” was in second place, at 2.9 million plays. Two more of his Billboard Hot 100 No. 1s – “Rock With You” (2.4 million) and “Don’t Stop ‘til You Get Enough (2.3 million) – follow while “Smooth Criminal” rounded out the top five (1.9 million). Among songs by the Jackson 5 and the Jacksons, “I Want You Back” was the strongest performer, with 994,000 clicks, while “Blame It on the Boogie” ranked next, registering 559,000 plays.
Michael stars the late icon’s nephew Jaafar Jackson in the title role and covers Jackson’s life from 1966-1988, capturing his ascent from his childhood and earliest days of stardom through his solo evolution into one of the most iconic pop-culture figures of all time. The activity explosion surrounding Jackson’s catalog mirrors the massive commercial response to the film. Michael opened to $97 million in its first weekend in North America and $218.8 million worldwide, both the highest-ever opening figures for a biopic. – TREVOR ANDERSON
10-Year Anniversaries Boost Prince’s Catalog & Beyoncé’s ‘Lemonade’
From Zara Larsson to Fetty Wap, 2016 nostalgia has resulted in meaningful commercial resurgences from artists across genres — and, this week, the trend continues with Prince and Beyoncé.
The late Prince Rogers Nelson returned to the center of popular discourse — and it’s not just because his would-be “Bad” duet partner Michael Jackson has a flashy new biopic in theaters. The music virtuoso passed exactly ten years ago on April 21, and fans revisited his discography in remembrance. According to Luminate, Prince’s catalog earned 2.44 million official on-demand U.S. streams on that date, up 25% from the 1.94 million streams it earned the Tuesday prior (April 14).
Prince passed just two days before Beyoncé, one of his sharpest students, unveiled her landmark Lemonade album (April 23, 2016). The Peabody-winning, Billboard 200-topping visual album is largely considered not just Queen Bey’s best, but also one of the most essential releases of the century. Naturally, fans rallied around Lemonade, resulting in 3.01 million official on-demand U.S. streams for the set during its anniversary and the two days following (April 23-25). That’s a 40% jump from the 2.14 million streams the album earned the same three-day period the week prior (April 16-18). — KYLE DENIS
Death Cab for Cutie Deep Cut Underlines a Not-So-’Invincible’ Moment in Amazon Prime Superhero Series
Northwest indie veterans Death Cab for Cutie are certainly no strangers to noteworthy synchs. The then-rising band was a major part of the music-meets-TV landscape in the early-mid ‘00s, when their songs played a major role in shows like The O.C. and Six Feet Under. But 20 years and many albums later, the band still hasn’t lost their touch for soundtracking big moments — as evidenced by the latest episode of Amazon Prime’s hit animated superhero series, Invincible.
“Fragments From the Decade,” a somewhat ruefully nostalgic non-single from the band’s strong 2022 album Asphalt Meadows, gets the call in the Invincible episode “Don’t Leave Me Hanging Here,” as the teen superhero Mark Grayson has a heavy moment of introspection flying around the clouds by himself. The emotionally resonant sequence certainly landed with unfamiliar viewers, who sent the song to the top five of Shazam’s United States Top 200 chart and streamed it a combined 124,000 times from April 23-27 — the five days after the episode’s release — a gain of 4,886% from the negligible total it had amassed the five-day period the prior week (April 16-20), according to Luminate.
Not only does the big synch prove that Death Cab’s still got it, it confirms Invincible — which already made a streaming hit out of a Nothing But Thieves deep cut earlier this year — as one of the most valuable TV shows right now to land such a placement on, particularly for longtime alt-rock outfits. — AU
Live Performance Catapults Underground Rapper Aziedoesntexist’s ‘Everglades’
Underground rappers continue to move the needle, and, right now, it’s Aziedoesntexist’s turn. The enigmatic artist posted her first snippet of “Everglades” on March 5, garnering over 665,000 views. Comparisons to Topoppgen and Juice WRLD kept the snippet moving ahead of its wide release on March 12. By April 7, Aziedoesntexist delivered a magnetic live rendition of “Everglades” on (Mic) Stand On Business, leading to a massive surge of engagement on TikTok. The official TikTok clip has garnered over 2.4 million views, with its accompanying sound collecting nearly 30,000 posts. The full YouTube video boasts over 206,000 hits.
During the week of April 3-9, “Everglades” collected 29,000 official on-demand U.S. streams. The following week (April 10-16), the first full week after her (Mic) Stand on Business appearance, “Everglades” vaulted 1,516% to over 476,000 official streams. By the next week (April 17-23), streams jumped a further 212% to over 1.48 million official streams. Over the past two weeks, “Everglades” has exploded nearly 5,000% in official weekly streams. Emo-rap lives on! — KD
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