For a fourth straight week, has the top album (The Life of a Showgirl) and single ("The Fate of Ophelia") in the country. But as Showgirl's streaming numbers slowly dwindle, another artist — in this case , with "Folded" — hits the singles chart's top 10 for the first time. And, speaking of first-timers in the top 10, R&B singer-songwriter debuts on the Billboard 200 albums chart at No. 4 with Son of Spergy.
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Two phenomena have radically reshaped the Hot 100 singles chart in recent weeks — one in the short term, one in the long term.
In the short term, the chart's upper region has been flooded with songs from two albums: Taylor Swift's The Life of a Showgirl and the soundtrack to KPop Demon Hunters. The former still has all of its songs scattered across the top 40, starting with "The Fate of Ophelia" at No. 1. But KPop Demon Hunters continues to dominate in its own right, with seven of the top 40 songs, led by HUNTR/X's "Golden" at No. 2.
The longer-term phenomenon comes from that's hastened the departure of many old songs from the Hot 100. Just two weeks ago, and in one fell swoop, the top 40 said goodbye to the musty likes of ' "Lose Control," 's "Beautiful Things" and and ' "Die With a Smile." That freed up spots for newer songs by fresh faces.
As the two biggest albums' blockbuster streaming numbers have started to wane, we're actually seeing those new faces break through. Last week, two artists ( and ) for the first time in their careers. This week, another joins them, while a fourth appears poised to make the same leap.
Thanks in part to a clever bit of chart manipulation, Kehlani's "Folded" leaps from No. 14 to No. 7 this week. The song's been climbing for months now, but it finally cracked the top 10 thanks, at least in part, to a gaggle of new remixes, each with its own guest artist. (Participating names include , and .) Kehlani has had 18 songs crack the Hot 100, dating back to 2016, but "Folded" is the artist's first to land in the top 25, let alone the top 10.
Another song by a first-timer looks likely to enter the top 10 in the next week or two, as 's "Back to Friends" jumps from No. 18 to No. 12. The singer performs on Saturday Night Live this weekend, so he seems especially well-positioned to climb further in the coming weeks.
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Three new arrivals liven up the top 10. R&B singer-songwriter Daniel Caesar lands at No. 4 with his new Son of Spergy; that's not only the highest-charting album of his career, but also his first to crack the top 10. Brandi Carlile has now been in the top 10 five times — twice this year, after her collaboration Who Believes in Angels? dropped in April — as Returning to Myself debuts at No. 7. And Demi Lovato's It's Not That Deep debuts at No. 9, which is the lowest chart peak for any album in Lovato's career, not counting her 2023 remix collection Revamped.
Elsewhere on the Billboard 200 albums chart, you can spot the effects of pre-Halloween streaming, as a few holiday-specific titles rise from the grave. The latest chart spans the timeframe from Oct. 24 through Oct. 30, so this is just general "spooky season" vibes; Halloween-night streaming, Halloween-weekend parties and commemorations of DÃa de los Muertos will all be reflected on next week's charts. And your two headliners this time around are 's Thriller — its title track re-enters the Hot 100 at No. 32 — and the soundtrack to Tim Burton's The Nightmare Before Christmas, which leaps from No. 153 to No. 47 on the Billboard 200. As for the other Halloween perennials (Ray Parker Jr.'s "Ghostbusters," Rockwell's "Somebody's Watching Me," et al), they're gonna have to wait until either next week or next year.
One other haunting record returns to the Billboard 200 this week, albeit not due to Halloween: Thanks to a deluxe reissue that includes an electric version, as well as a new biopic about its making (Springsteen: Deliver Me From Nowhere), 's Nebraska re-enters the chart at No. 26.
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Taylor Swift's "The Fate of Ophelia" has spent all four of its chart weeks firmly planted at No. 1. But she's no longer blowing away the competition on the sheer force of name recognition, especially with HUNTR/X's "Golden" nipping at her glittery heels. So she's started making moves to juice her stats a bit.
Last week, Swift released the "Alone in My Tower Acoustic Version" of "The Fate of Ophelia." Since alternate versions of the same song generally count toward the original's chart numbers, that gave the track a boost, especially on streaming. But Swift also set herself up for the future, opening a 24-hour preorder window on her webstore for fans wishing to purchase CD singles of each version of the song. Each is nearly four minutes long; couldn't possibly fit both on a single $2.99 disc!
How is that move setting Swift up for the future? Well, a preorder alone doesn't count as a sale for Billboard's purposes; the sales don't count until the physical copies ship. So Swift, who's nothing if not keenly attuned to the intricacies of keeping a song or album at the top of the Billboard charts, can ship those copies whenever it's starting to look like "Golden" — or a song like Olivia Dean's "Man I Need," which surges to No. 5 this week — is primed to overtake "The Fate of Ophelia." When it comes to staying on top, Swift has a bigger bag of tricks at her disposal than anyone else.
Finally, a quick postscript to last week's column, which noted the absence of hip-hop songs in the top 40 for the first time in 35 years: This week, 's new "Lover Girl" debuts at No. 38, ending the hip-hop drought at two weeks. It's still a fallow period for pop/hip-hop crossovers, and one that could theoretically stretch until whenever drops Iceman. But at least for the moment, our long (okay, two-week) national nightmare is finally over.
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