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: The legendary late Dolly Parton’s catalog experiences a truly jaw-dropping spike from a nation in mourning, while “Training Season” may be both ending and beginning for Dua Lipa and another rapper capitalizes on a perpetually viral Tove Lo hit.
Dolly Parton’s Streams Skyrocket by 2,056% on the Day of Her Death
It’s been two days, and the music world is still just beginning to process the death of country music and pop culture icon Dolly Parton, who passed away on Tuesday (Aug. 25) at the age of 80. Parton’s death inspired tributes and homages from all across the entertainment realm — and of course from both pop peers and followers too numerous to count — and inspired an explosion of appreciation of her songs, both in the words of those trying to capture her musical impact, and in the streams of those simply hoping to relive it (or experience it new).
Consequently, Parton’s catalog experienced an absolutely gigantic surge on Tuesday following the news of her passing. After drawing a little over 1.2 million official on-demand U.S. streams the previous Tuesday (Aug. 18), her streaming totals were all the way up to 26.3 million on the 25th, according to early data provided by Luminate — an eye-popping gain of 2,056%. Leading the way in her catalog were the classics “Jolene” (2.7 million streams), “9 to 5” (2.3 million) and the Kenny Rogers duet “Islands in the Stream” (1.8 million) — all three of which appeared on the Billboard staff’s list of the 100 Best Country Songs of All Time (with “Jolene” topping the entire ranking).
To put that 26.3 million number in perspective, that’s the second-highest daily official on-demand U.S. streaming count registered in Luminate of any artist for the date of Aug. 25 — higher even than modern-day streaming super-duperstars like Morgan Wallen (24.2 million), Taylor Swift (22.9 million) and Bad Bunny (14.5 million). The only artist to outpace Parton in streams on Tuesday was Drake, he of the three new albums from a couple months back, with 36.6 million. (Drake’s most-streamed song on the day, however — the former Billboard Hot 100 No. 1 “Janice STFU,” with 1.3 million — would have only ranked as Dolly’s fifth-most.)
And the really crazy thing: Those numbers were all with her news of Parton’s death spreading more than halfway into the tracking day — meaning those numbers could be much, much bigger for Wednesday with a full day’s impact, and that Parton may very likely posthumously become the most-listened-to artist in all of America. — ANDREW UNTERBERGER
Dua Lipa’s ‘Training Season’ Makes a Streaming Comeback Thanks to Marriage-Inspired Manifestation Trend
In online pop conversations, Dua Lipa’s 2024 Radical Optimism LP — which peaked at No. 2 on the Billboard 200 — is often derided for its lack of smashes on the level of the ones that made 2020’s Future Nostalgia a pandemic era-defining, Grammy-winning opus. Now, it looks like the pop star may be getting the last laugh.
According to Luminate, “Training Season,” a Radical Optimism single that stalled at No. 27 on the Billboard Hot 100 during its initial chart run, has risen nearly 50% in streams over the past two weeks. During the week-long period of Aug. 5-11, “Training” collected 1.87 million official on-demand U.S. streams, jumping 9.7% to over 2.05 million stream the following seven-day period (Aug. 12-18). By Aug. 19-25, “Training” streams jumped a further 35% to over 2.79 million official streams.
The recent resurgence is due to a larger manifestation trend that has taken over social media. Back in 2024 during an appearance on The Drew Barrymore Show, Lipa said: “Then we have ‘Training Season,’ which was almost like a manifestation because I believe that… I have to be careful [with] what I write, because sometimes I feel like they can come true, because they become a mantra, then I say them over and over.”
Adding fuel to the fire, “Training Season” dropped on Feb. 15, which happens to be the birthday of actor Callum Turner, who Lipa married earlier this year (May 31). The pair reportedly met around the time the song dropped, giving the manifestation trend even more legs. Edits soundtracked by Lipa’s Royal Albert Hall rendition of “Training Season” started popping up in June, collecting millions of views and hundreds of thousands of likes. By July 3, user @/zoevlachou shared a TikTok of herself posing with prayer hands captioned, “How you’ll find me every night cause Dua Lipa said she manifested Callum with this song.”
That clip now boasts over 6.9 million views and 1.3 million likes, giving way to a similar post from user @/mia.perezzzzzzz on July 27, which garnered over 7.7 million views and 1.7 million likes. On Aug. 16, Dua herself hopped on the trend with a post via her @/teamdua.hq account, which 430,000 views.
The official TikTok sound for the live version of “Training Season” currently plays in over 1.3 million posts, while the official TikTok sound for the studio version plays in over 766,000. Additionally, the live version can be heard in 123,000 Instagram Reels, while the studio version appears in a further 246,000.
Dua’s personal “Training Season” may be over, but it looks like the song’s second life is just beginning. — KYLE DENIS
Noodah05 Taps into Tove Lo’s ‘Talking Body’ Resurgence with Fast-Rising ‘Around Me’ Single
Two weeks ago, Billboard explained how a TikTok remix of Tove Lo’s 2015 hit “Talking Body” led to a streaming surge for both version of the pop banger. Now, a third track has entered the conversation: Noodah05’s “Around Me.”
Noodah raps “Around Me” over KJtheProducer’s “Talking Body” remix, just like 22Jay did with “Talking Bodiez.” Hailing from ATL, Noodah started teasing the song in late July (that particular clip has since been muted) and early August with clips that found him vibing to a snippet of what would eventually become “Around Me.” On July 28, user @/ocho_mixes paired Noodah’s snippet with a fancam of Seattle Seahawks wide receiver Jaxon Smith-Njigba, which earned over 1.4 million views and 88,000 likes. The accompanying TikTok sound also plays in over one million posts, with the official “Around Me” sound blaring in over 7.2 million. Last week (Aug. 17), Noodah05 performed the song for From the Block, and the YouTube video has already amassed over 58,000 views.
During the Friday-Monday period of Aug. 14-17, “Around Me” collected over 1.6 million official on-demand U.S. streams, according to Luminate. A week later (Aug. 21-25), that number leapt 42% to over 2.29 million official streams. With “Around Me,” already debuting at No. 32 on the Aug. 29-dated Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs chart, there’s a new member in the “Talking Body” family tree. – KD
