USA
Billboard Report (excerpt)
'Luther' leads Hot 100 for a seventh week
Tuesday, April 8, 2025
by Keith Caulfield & Gary Trust, Los Angeles

Kendrick Lamar and SZA’s “Luther” tops the Billboard Hot 100 songs chart for a seventh total and consecutive week. The single, whose title shouts out R&B crooner Luther Vandross,

who is sampled on the track, became Lamar’s sixth No. 1 and SZA’s third. Lamar and SZA each extend their longest career Hot 100 reigns with the song. Meanwhile, “Luther” links the longest Hot 100 command for a rap hit in more than four years, since 24kGoldn’s “Mood,” featuring iann dior, led for eight weeks in 2020-21. “Luther” totaled 61 million radio airplay audience impressions (up 5% week-over-week), 24.4 million official streams (down 7%) and 2,000 sold (down 13%) in the U.S. March 28-April 3. The collaboration rises a spot to the top of the Radio Songs chart, marking Lamar’s third No. 1, and first in a lead role, and SZA’s second. Lamar previously led as featured on Taylor Swift’s “Bad Blood” (for five weeks beginning in July 2015) and Maroon 5’s “Don’t Wanna Know” (for eight weeks starting in December 2016). SZA’s “Snooze” spent three weeks at No. 1 in October 2023. “Luther” concurrently holds for a sixth week atop Streaming Songs and dips 15-21,

after reaching No. 4, on Digital Song Sales. “Luther” is the first hit to top Radio Songs and Streaming Songs simultaneously this year; Shaboozey last accomplished the feat with “A Bar Song (Tipsy)” last October (when it tripled up, also leading Digital Song Sales). Drake flips “Nokia” from No. 7 to a new No. 3 high on the Hot 100. It drew 21.5 million streams, up 11%, March 28-April 3, with its official video having premiered March 31. It’s also up 45% to 15.4 million in airplay audience and 54% to 6,000 sold. Elsewhere in the Hot 100’s top 10, Lady Gaga and Bruno Mars’ “Die With a Smile” holds at No. 2, following five nonconsecutive weeks at No. 1 beginning in January. Shaboozey’s “A Bar Song (Tipsy)” slips 3-4 on the Hot 100, following its record-tying 19 weeks at No. 1 beginning last July. Chappell Roan’s “Pink Pony Club” keeps at its No. 5 Hot 100 best. Teddy Swims’ “Lose Control,” which led the Hot 100 for a week in March 2024 – and became the year’s No. 1 song – repeats at No. 6. It notches an 85th week on the survey overall, the fourth-longest stay in the chart’s history, below only Glass Animals’ “Heat Waves” (91 weeks, in 2021-22); The Weeknd’s “Blinding Lights” (90 weeks, 2019-22); and Imagine Dragons’ “Radioactive” (87 weeks, 2012-14). Rosé and Bruno Mars’ “Apt.” ascends 10-7 on the Hot 100, after hitting No. 3. Morgan Wallen boasts two songs in the Hot 100’s top 10, back-to-back: “Just in Case” drops to No. 8 a week after it debuted at No. 4 and “I’m the Problem” lifts 11-9, after it launched at its No. 2 best in February. Rounding out the Hot 100’s top 10, Billie Eilish’s “Birds of a Feather” rises 12-10, after reaching No. 2. Ariana Grande’s 2024 album Eternal Sunshine returns to No. 1 on the Billboard 200 albums chart for its third total week atop the list, flying 87-1 on the April 12-dated chart, following the set’s deluxe reissue, dubbed Eternal Sunshine Deluxe: Brighter Days Ahead. Bolstered with six previously unreleased songs, the expanded effort — available at streamers, and to purchase as a download, CD and vinyl LP — earned 137,000 equivalent album units in the U.S. in the week ending April 3 (up 968%), according to Luminate. All versions of the album, old and new, are combined for tracking and charting purposes and continue to chart under the title Eternal Sunshine. Eternal Sunshine premiered atop the Billboard 200 dated March 23, 2024, and spent its first two weeks at No. 1. The set contains a pair of chart-toppers on the Billboard Hot 100 in the songs “Yes, And?” and “We Can’t Be Friends (Wait for Your Love).” The project also returns to the top 40 on the Billboard 200 for the first time since the Oct. 19, 2024-dated list, when it ranked at No. 34. Of Eternal Sunshine’s 137,000 equivalent album units earned in the week ending April 3, SEA units comprise 75,000 (up 541%, equaling 98.45 million on-demand official streams of the set’s songs; it reenters at No. 2 on Top Streaming Albums), traditional album sales comprise 61,000 (up 5,338%, it reenters at No. 1 on Top Album Sales for a second total week atop the list) and TEA units comprise 1,000 (up 4,115%). Playboi Carti’s MUSIC falls to No. 2 on the Billboard 200 chart after two weeks on top, with 91,000 equivalent album units earned (down 31%). It holds at No. 1 on the Top Streaming Albums chart for a third week. Lil Durk collects his seventh top 10-charting effort on the Billboard 200 as Deep Thoughts debuts at No. 3 with 64,000 equivalent album units earned. The set arrives largely from streaming activity, as it was only available to purchase as a standard widely available digital download album. Of its first-week units, SEA units comprise 63,000 (equaling 85.92 million on-demand official streams of the set’s songs; it debuts at No. 1 on Top Streaming Albums), album sales comprise 1,000 and TEA units comprise a negligible sum. The rest of the top 10 on the Billboard 200 comprises former No. 1s. Kendrick Lamar’s GNX falls 3-4 (58,000 units; down 10%); PartyNextDoor and Drake’s $ome $exy $ongs 4 U is down 4-5 (nearly 58,000; down 6%); SZA’s SOS slips 5-6 (56,000; down 7%); Sabrina Carpenter’s Short n’ Sweet dips 6-7 (51,000; down 7%); Bad Bunny’s Debí Tirar Más Fotos is a non-mover at No. 8 (45,000; down 8%); Lady Gaga’s Mayhem falls 7-9 (nearly 45,000; down 15%); and Morgan Wallen’s One Thing at a Time is stationary at No. 10 (almost 45,000; down 2%).

Record Of The Month
The song was originally self-released by American rapper and songwriter Doechii to YouTube
on November 10, 2019. It was re-recorded in 2025 following it gaining traction on social media
platforms, being released to streaming platforms on March 4, 2025. 'Anxiety' contains a prominent sample of the 2011 song 'Somebody That I Used To Know' by Gotye feat. Kimbra.

United Kingdom
Music Week Report (excerpt)
Alex Warren stays at number one
Monday, April 7, 2025
by Alan Jones, London
 
While its nearest challengers idle, Ordinary sprints to a third week at No.1 for Alex Warren, with consumption soaring a further 14.68% week-on-week to 71,522 units (2,100 digital downloads and 69,422 sales-equivalent streams) – highest for a No.1 song so far this year, and the highest by a contemporary

hit (ie: not a Christmas oldie) in 40 weeks. Warren can see Chappell Roan’s Pink Pony Club getting ever further away in second place, even as the latter ends three weeks of losses to achieve a 2.43% increase in consumption to 34,983 units, earning its third and her 10th week at No.2. Ordinary is 36,539 units (104.45%) ahead of Pink Pony Club this week – the biggest lead for a No.1 over a No.2 in both units and in percentage terms since The Beatles’ Now And Then finished with a 42,042 unit (116.38%) margin over Cassö, Raye & D-Block Europe’s Prada (78,168 vs. 36,126 units) in the chart for 10 November 2023, 73 weeks ago. Ordinary’s latest spurt propels its to-date consumption to 323,541 units, moving it up to second place in Warren’s canon, behind Carry You Home, which also has its best week yet, climbing 10-9 (22,229 sales) to increase its all-time cume to 501,426 units. His third concurrent hit, Burning Down, dips a notch (23-24) despite

increasing consumption for the fifth week in a row to a best-yet 15,081 units. The new, deluxe edition of Ariana Grande’s Eternal Sunshine album is home to the three highest new entries to the Top 75 this week, and a further three tracks that are ’starred-out’ under primary artist rules. Twilight Zone (No.5, 25,084 sales), Dandelion (No.19, 15,792 sales) and Intro (End Of The World) (No.26, 14,608 sales) are the new Grande hits, increasing her haul to 25 Top 10 hits, 42 Top 40 hits and 53 Top 75 hits. Elevating 12-10 (20,479 sales) on its seventh week in the Top 20, Nokia finally becomes the 47th of Drake’s incredible tally of 148 Top 75 hits to enter the Top 10 (his 17th without a collaborator). Surprisingly, it is the first Top 10 entry for the Canadian chart behemoth since 2023. The rest of the Top 10: Anxiety (3-3, 30,683 sales) by Doechii, Beautiful Things (4-4, 26,705 sales) by Benson Boone, Sports Car (6-6, 25,024 sales) by Tate McRae, Busy Woman (7-7, 23,227 sales) by Sabrina Carpenter and The Giver (5-8, 23,131 sales) by Chappell Roan. Overall singles consumption is up 2.48% week-on-week to 31,474,884 units, their highest level for 14 weeks and 12.84% above same week 2024 consumption of 27,893,116 units. Paid-for sales are down 0.84% week-on-week at 249,665, 9.64% below same week 2024 sales of 276,310. In a showdown between two stylistically dissimilar British bands who came to prominence in the 2000s, The Darkness’ dreams of securing their first No.1 album for 22 years are toast, but Mumford & Sons are back on top for the first time in a decade, with folk rock trumping hard/glam rock. Mumford & Sons’ fifth regular studio album in total, and their first since slimming down to a trio in 2021, Rushmere – named after a pond on Wimbledon Common where the band was formed – is their third No.1, following 2012’s Babel and 2015’s Wilder Mind, and debuts atop the chart on first week consumption of 35,655 units (18,124 CDs, 7,413 vinyl albums, 6,043 cassettes, 1,192 digital downloads and 2,883 sales-equivalent streams). It is their first album since Delta debuted and peaked at No.2 on consumption of 58,239 units in 2018, and has the lowest first week sale of any of their albums since their debut release Sigh No More opened at No.11 with 15,728 sales in 2009. Peaking 71 weeks later at No.2, Sigh No More is the band’s most-consumed title with a to-date tally of 1,877,520 units. Babel, which had the band’s highest first week sale (158,923) follows with 1,296,836 units, with Wilder Mind on 514,670 units and Delta on 226,957. Mumford & Sons also reached the Top 10 with the EP Johannesburg, a collaboration with Baaba Maal, which reached No.6 in 2016 and has to-date consumption of 46,917 units. The Darkness’ eighth studio album, ninth chart entry and fifth Top 10 set, Dreams On Toast was released in an abundance of variants – eight CD, six cassette and 13 vinyl – which help it to debut at No.2 (27,823 sales), equalling the band’s highest ever debut position, as achieved by their 2003 debut, Permission To Land. It achieves their highest first week sale since 2005, when their second album One Way Ticket To Hell…And Back, secured a debut/peak of only No.11 despite impressive consumption of 67,605 copies. When it landed at No.2, Permission To Land’s first week consumption was 40,469 sales. Seven weeks later, it started a four-week run at number one but its highest weekly sale – and the highest of any album by The Darkness in any week – came 23 weeks after its debut, when it sold 89,477 copies at No.10 in the Christmas chart for 2003. Permission To Land’s to-date consumption of 1,446,315 units is well over twice as many as the rest of their output together. Forever Is A Feeling is the fourth solo album by 29-year-old American indie singer/songwriter Lucy Dacus and the first to make the Top 75, debuting at No.5 (8,762 sales) to smash her previous personal best of No.85 set by her last release, Home Video, in 2021. Since then, of course, she topped the chart in 2023 with The Record, as part of occasional female indie ‘supergroup’ Boygenius, alongside Phoebe Bridgers and Julien Baker. With to-date sales of 89,010 copies, the Boygenius album has far outsold all of Dacus’ solo releases combined. Barely a year since his debut mixtape, Do Not Disturb, peaked at No.17, much-praised 21-year-old Mancunian rapper Nemzzz debuts at No.6 with follow-up, Rent’s Due, on consumption of 8,701 units, including 304 USB sticks. Do Not Disturb is likely only a month away from going silver, with to-date consumption of 56,973 units. A little over a year after it became her fifth No.1 album, Eternal Sunshine rebounds 102-3 (19,028 sales) for Ariana Grande. Absent from the Top 75 for 11 weeks and the Top 10 for 51 weeks, its return follows the release of a deluxe ‘Brighter Days Ahead’ edition, from which three new songs enter the Top 30 of the singles chart this week. Eternal Sunshine last month became the sixth album by Grande to surpass 200,000 units. Its tally now stands at 226,909 – behind all of her other No.1s, which are themselves behind her all-time most-consumed set, 2014 second album, My Everything, which peaked at No.3 and has a to-date tally of 638,720 units. With new hit Ordinary – which is not on the album – pulling even further away at the top of the singles chart, Alex Warren’s debut album, You’ll Be Alright, Kid (Volume 1) continues to prosper, reaching a new peak for the third week in a row as it hurtles 30-10 (6,409 sales). The rest of the Top 10: Short N’ Sweet (2-4, 15,271 sales) by Sabrina Carpenter, +-=÷× Tour Collection (6-7, 8,037 sales) by Ed Sheeran, Mayhem (5-8, 7,818 sales) by Lady Gaga and 50 Years: Don’t Stop (9-9, 7,096 sales) by Fleetwood Mac. Overall album sales are up 4.35% week-on-week at 2,657,597 units, their highest level for 14 weeks and 13.81% above same week 2024 sales of 2,335,197. Physical product accounts for 341,741 sales, 12.86% of the total.