The Week Begins With Controversy
Sexxy Red & Bruno Mars – “Fat Juicy & Wet”: What a diverse trio of songs from the world’s most-streamed artist. “Die With A Smile” with Lady Gaga and “APT.” with ROSÉ both went #1, while this R-rated “strip club anthem” (his description) has fueled lots of conversation among program directors about its lyrical content. iHeart supposedly refused to add the song at all until it got the radio edit censoring the word “Wet.” No parent wants to be embarrassed driving a bunch of 7- & 8-year-olds to school with sexually explicit raw material blasting on the car radio.
After five days of airplay, Sexxy Red & Bruno are #24 at Rhythmic, #26 at Hip-Hop radio, and #39 at Top 40. The song has iHeart support at Rhythmic and Hip-Hop. So far, most of iHeart’s CHRs are taking it slow, although it is receiving double-digit spins at KIIS Los Angeles and Wild 94.9 San Francisco. At CHR, the spin leaders are Audacy and Cumulus stations, but other stations are waiting to see with the rest of the ‘biz does with it, or firm on sitting this one out.
We saw this same situation three years ago when “Super Freaky Girl” by Nicki Minaj came out but eventually went #1 on Top 40 and Rhythmic. “Fat Juicy & Wet” debuted at #21 on Spotify, not high for a Bruno Mars song. It’s now #37. Either everyone is afraid of it or no one is really digging it. So far, Liveline hasn’t played or received any requests for it. Let’s revisit it next week.
Tate McRae – “Sports car”: So far, McRae has had two undeniable hits. “Greedy” is still her most played song at radio, sixteen months after its release, and 2020’s “you broke me first,” her debut #1 hit and still her most-streamed song on Spotify.
She’s had a lot of other generic feeling CHR chart songs that didn’t take hold—“She’s All I Wanna Be,” “Uh Oh,” “Exes” and more. The previous single, “It’s ok I’m ok” peaked at #8 on Top 40 and #20 on Billboard. It did make Liveline’s weekly Top 20 on several occasions but never got a consistent foothold there. It debuted well on Spotify but quickly disappeared from the top 200.
The third track from her upcoming third studio album “So Close to What”, due February 21st. “Sports car” came out January 24th and saw some good debut numbers on Spotify this week. As of this writing, also after five days, it’s #9 on Spotify in America and #24 Global. It’s #32 on Top 40 this week. So far, we’ve received two requests, similar to “It’s ok I’m ok” in its first day.
Buried Treasures of The Week
Miley Cyrus – “The Climb”: It rarely plays on the radio anymore, but I did happen to hear it last week on top rated Hot AC WWBX/Mix 104.1 Boston. It sounded GREAT and all I could picture is a car full of 20-30 year old girls singing along to it. It’s one of our most-requested Golds on Liveline, ever. Peaking at #4 on Billboard, #5 on Top 40, #5 on Hot AC and #1 on AC in 2009, this song continues to be the motivational anthem for anyone who grew up on Hannah Montana and that prime era of Disney Channel.
Zendaya – “Replay”: She’s now engaged to Tom Holland, with a wedding planned for this year. Aside from that, there’s really no explanation for this song’s ostensible comeback. In the past two weeks, we’ve had more than a dozen requests for it, which is a lot for any Gold, but especially one that never cracked the Top 20 when it was new 11 years ago. Her acting career has truly taken off, with productions like “Dune”, “Challengers” and “Euphoria”. It’s actually a pretty good song for her former Disney Channel audience now in the prime target of Top 40’s 25-34 demo.
This story first appeared on radioinsight.com