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’s most controversial album gets a bump in anticipation of an announcement that never materialized, Young Jeezy and Akon’s classic teamup gets an unlikely meme boost and an odd cover of a Sly Stone classic drives listeners back to the original.
Taylor Swift’s ‘Reputation’ for Surprises Precedes Her on Streaming
If you were watching the American Music Awards on Monday night (May 26), chances are pretty good you had your eyes peeled and ears open for a certain revelation from a certain pop superstar. Swifties had flooded the internet in recent weeks with predictions of a Taylor Swift Memorial Day Miracle – an appearance at the awards, most likely accompanied by an announcement of a new release, perhaps the long-awaited Reputation (Taylor’s Version) re-recording.
Unfortunately for the Swifties, the AMAs came and went without any appearances, announcements or drops from their fav. But hope clearly sprang eternal in the days leading up to the awards, at least on streaming: The 15 tracks on Reputation racked up a combined 11.3 million official on-demand U.S. streams across the first four days of this tracking week (May 23-26), ahead of the awards – a 14% gain from the equivalent period the prior, according to Luminate. And that bump was of course highest on Memorial Day, as the album racked up 2.4 million total streams on that day alone, a 29% gain from the prior Monday.
Jeezy and Akon’s 20-Year-Old Hit Scores Thanks to a ‘Holy Airball’
“Soul Survivor” was the breakout crossover hit 20 years ago for the rapper then known as Young Jeezy, as the Akon-assisted banger lifted to No. 4 on the Billboard Hot 100 and helped establish his Let’s Get It: Thug Motivation 101 as one of the year’s biggest rap albums. Two decades later, the street anthem is once again delighting music fans, though through a relatively unlikely conduit: a TikTok meme about dating gaffes.
Tiktoker Hadley (@localyerbafein) stroke viral paydirt last week (May 21) when she shared a video that captured the story of a guy – presumably one she was seeing, or at least considering seeing – responding to her interest in law with a question about her watching the TV show Suits. The video ends with footage of Hadley serving as a courtroom attorney, with the caption “holy fckin airball” – all, of course, set to “Soul Survivor.” The clip quickly spread through the app, racking up 10 million views and 1.8 million likes, and inspiring a number of other users to share their own he-shoots, he-doesn’t-score stories, with Akon and Jeezy again serving as the soundtrack.
Consequently, the track exploded on streaming towards the end of last week. For the tracking week ending May 22, “Soul Survivor” amassed over 3 million official on-demand U.S. streams, according to Luminate – fully doubling its stream count from the prior week – and it should be headed for an even bigger tally this week, as TikTok keeps putting up one “holy fckin airball” after another.
‘Everyday’ Memeable: Sly & the Family Stone Classic Lifted by Revival of Unlikely Cover
In 2017, two greats of popular music – pop icon Cher and rap legend Future – teamed up for an unlikely collab cover of Sly & The Family’s soul-pop classic “Everyday People.” Their rendition was featured in a Gap commercial that showcased the star pair meeting up on a staircase on an otherwise-blank set to discuss how Cher can’t get the 1969 Hot 100-topper out of her head, leading to her crooning the song over a trappy beat. Meanwhile, Future attempts to fill in with harmonies and ad libs – in a mixture that, unsurprisingly, feels slightly less than organic.
The awkward commercial has recently begun to recirculate around the internet, resulting in pairs of TikTokers recreating the visual in endearing clips gently poking at the stilted chemistry of the original. The Cher & Future “Everyday People” is not currently available in full on DSPs, but of course the Family Stone original is there for the streaming – and folks have been evidently charmed enough by the improbable cover to revisit (or check out) the original. According to Luminate, over the first four days of this tracking week (May 23-26), “Everyday People” is up to 309,000 official on-demand U.S. streams from 256,000 over the same period in the prior week, a gain of 21%.
Rhapsody in Blue Shirt: Sam Gellaitry Single Rises Thanks to Viral Dance Proxy
In this week’s example of never knowing where a breakout hit might come from in 2025, we have Scottish dance producer Sam Gellaitry. His song “Assumptions,” from the 2021 EP IV, has begun to percolate on streaming over the past month, thanks to the Russian dancer Руслан Айдаев, now known to the internet as Blue Shirt Guy – who has been a meme of some degree for years already for his full-bodied dance moves, shot from behind.
Recent viral videos have paired the clip with Gellaitry’s throbbing electro-pop instrumental, resulting in it going nuts on TikTok all over again – with many of the app’s finest donning their best blue shirts and filming themselves shaking it from behind. Consequently, the four-year-old “Assumpstions” has risen to the top of Gellaitry’s Spotify page, and is now racking up over 2.2 million official on-demand U.S. streams a week, up 142% from three weeks earlier, according to Luminate.
