April 2nd, 2025, 01:26 PM
From Radio Insight:
This week, we punctuate the importance and success of Doechii’s*“Anxiety”, a massive streaming hit by Lil Tecca that radio should be reacting to right now, and the surprisingly underwhelming first-week performance of Ariana Grande’s six new tracks.
Doechii –*“Anxiety”:*This song made one of the fastest jumps to #1 most-requested on Liveline last week. It’s no surprise though: #1 Shazam worldwide, tons of pre-release hype, making it familiar and popular upon debut. It’s extremely broad appeal because of all the different elements that make it a hit; the lyrics, the coolness and sampling one of the biggest songs of this century. Radio has reacted well and picked up the spins. It’s not too extreme, weird or offensive as some consider her other current monster track*“DENIAL IS A RIVER”.*This does seem like a record that could burn fast, and some people are calling this a “novelty”. Equal recent comparisons include*“Beggin”*by Maneskin,*“Unholy”*by Sam Smith and*“abcdefu”*by GAYLE which all hit #1 but quickly faded into obscurity.
Lil Tecca –*“Dark Thoughts”:*A stunning Rhythmic track that could be a great crossover for Top 40. Much like*“MILLION DOLLAR BABY”*by Tommy Richman and*“The Box”*by Roddy Ricch, which both started out as Gen Z-favorite streaming hits and*then*became certified on radio airplay, this song is clearly outside the normal formula of a pop hit but maintains a melodic, female-friendly chorus and track that can get stuck in your head. Top 40 radio thrives with variety and equal representation of the biggest songs from all genres. His 2019 smash*“Ransom”*has 1.6 billion streams on Spotify and gets requests on Liveline, despite its peak at #28 on Top 40 airplay, though scoring #4 on Billboard and #1 on Rhythmic.*“Dark Thoughts”*is just a really cool song with lots of requests from people in their young teens to late 20s. Older men and women can love the song too, but they aren’t discovering hits as quickly or online like younger people. It’s currently #2 on Spotify in America where it’s maintained a top 10 position since its release March 14. It’s #30 on Rhythmic and #116 on Top 40 with only 19 spins, all of which were KMVQ/San Francisco, a frequent leader in trending new music that actually matters. In the underwhelming world of hit songs and popular new sounds, something showing early signs of massive popularity (and not a temporary or initial spike) should not be overlooked.
Ariana Grande –*“twilight zone”:*It’s been a year since*“eternal sunshine”*came out, which is why Ariana celebrated with a new deluxe edition called*“brighter days ahead”*adding six new tracks and an accompanying short film. It’s safe to assume that the brilliant Republic Records team is waiting a week or two to see which of the songs performs best before announcing the official single, which by that assumption will be*“twilight zone”, currently #4 on Spotify, where the other 5 tracks are all between #11-#60. It’s very similar to*“we can’t be friends”, in fact it’s the same BPM and key, also co-written and produced by legendary hitmaker Max Martin. It received very little radio airplay in its first week, currently #55 on Top 40, most of which were spins from the first two days and not actual adds.
Buried Treasure of the Week
Bruno Mars –*“Talking To The Moon”:*From left field, the 2011 single between*?The Lazy Song?*and*?Marry You?, all three of which are from Bruno?s massive debut album*?Doo-Wops & Hooligans?*starring two number-ones*?Just The Way You Are?*and*?Grenade?. In initial performance, the song topped Brazilian charts but failed to make it in any other country. The song resurged in popularity once COVID started, prompting Jnr Choi to release a sample called*“TO THE MOON!”*(2021) which became a massive TikTok song and which got to #1 on Rhythmic and #18 on Top 40.*“Talking To The Moon”*is now among Bruno’s top ten tracks on Spotify, with over 1.7 billion streams (more than*“Grenade”*and*“24k Magic”). We get requests for it all the time, though no major station in America plays it. It was never a radio hit, but listeners who stream their music don’t know that, creating potential for a possible fresh add by the world’s currently most-streamed artist!*Perhaps it will get added to the list of songs that failed to hit top ten airplay on initial release yet hit the top ten in streaming and later ultimately tested for radio.
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