Sabrina Carpenter “Manchild” debuted at #1

Manchild Sabrina Carpenter

Writer(s): Sabrina Carpenter, Amy Allen, Jack Antonoff (see lyrics here) Released: June 5, 2025 First Charted: June 18, 2025 Peak: 11 BB, 11 ST, 11 RR, 13 AC, 3 A40, 12 UK, 2 CN, 2 AU (Click for codes to charts.) Sales (in millions): 1.0 US, 0.4 UK, 1.47 world (includes US + UK) Airplay/Streaming (in millions): -- radio, 174.93 video, 655.51 streaming

Awards: Click on award for more details.

About the Song: Singer/songwriter Sabrina Carpenter found success as a teenager on the Disney Channel series Girl Meets World before embarking on a music career. She hit the big time with her sixth album, Short n’ Sweet, in 2024. The album reached #1 in the U.S. and many other markets around the world and was certified four times platinum. The album was fueled by three top-five hits on the Billboard Hot 100, including the #1 “Please Please Please.” Her next album, 2025’s Man’s Best Friend, landed Carpenter her second chart-topper with “Manchild.” The “country-tingled” BB’25 song “feels like a sequel to 2024’s ‘Please Please Please’ – in which she’s begging her love interest not to embarrass her – but this time, Sabrina knows exactly what she’s dealing with and still can’t seem to stay away.” BB’25 The “cheeky single” NP is “upbeat and playful,” BB’25 “a glimpse inside the deeply hilarious and very sharp mind of Sabrina Carpenter.” RS’25 She had “built a reputation for her tongue-in-cheek songwriting, and she puts her winking chops to excellent use” BB’25 on what Rolling Stone called an “ABBA rodeo jam.” RS’25 She “writes with characteristic wit about…knowing a man is emotionally stunted but still caring enough to sing a whole song about him.” PF “Manchild” “cemented her position in the pop penthouse.” BB’25 It “proved the success of Short n’ Sweet wasn’t just a one-off, and that this five-foot-tall innuendo-loving pop star will be here for a while.” RS’25 The song received Grammy nominations for Song and Record of the Year. Resources: BB’25 Billboard (12/11/2025). “The 100 Best Songs of 2025: Staff Picks” NP New York Post (12/29/2025). “The 10 best songs of 2025…” by Connor Surmonte PF Pitchfork.com (12/1/2025). “The 100 Best Songs of 2025” RS’25 Rolling Stone (12/4/2025). “The 100 Best Songs of 2025” Related Links: First posted 1/19/2026.

Taylor Swift debuts at #1 with “Anti-Hero”

Anti-Hero Taylor Swift

Writer(s): Taylor Swift, Jack Antonoff (see lyrics here) Released: October 21, 2022 First Charted:October 29, 2022 Peak: 18 US, 15 BA, 15 DG, 12 ST, 5 AC, 17 A40, 16 UK, 15 CN, 16 AU, 12 DF (Click for codes to charts.) Sales (in millions): -- US, 1.8 UK, 4.77 world (includes US + UK) Airplay/Streaming (in millions): -- radio, 259.47 video, 1680.55 streaming

Awards: Click on award for more details.

About the Song: November 5, 2022 will go down as one of the most significant dates in the history of the Billboard Hot 100. Taylor Swift’s tenth album, Midnights, hit the charts and, in a trend that has become the norm for major artists during the streaming era, all of the album’s songs debuted on the Hot 100 that week. However, Swift accomplished a chart feat that had never been done before – she locked down the entire top 10. The chart domination was led by “Anti-Hero,” the album’s first official single, debuting at #1. It was her fifth time to debut atop the Billboard Hot 100. She previously accomplished the feat with “Shake It Off,” “Cardigan,” “Willow,” and “All Too Well (Taylor’s Version).” This was her ninth trip to the pinnacle overall. The songs on the Midnights album were inspired by Swift’s nightmares and insecurities. As she said, “one of the themes…is how you’re feeling in the middle of the night…You go through these very polarizing emotions…and your brain just spirals.” SF “Anti-Hero” specifically deals with her “issues with depersonalization and self-hatred” WK as she explores self-loathing, depression, and anxiety in the lyrics. As she said, the song is a “guided tour throughout all the things I tend to hate about myself.” WK The video reenacts a nightmare she had in which she is killed by her future daughter-in-law and the family fights over her will. The video won the People’s Choice Award for Music Video of 2022. Despite the downer of a topic, the snyth-pop song, co-written with Jack Antonoff from Fun. and the Bleachers, is driven by a “catchy rhythm.” WK Billboard magazine said it is the best song from the album. WK DIY magazine said it is arguably the best lead single of Swift’s career. WK Swift said it “is one of my favorite songs I’ve ever written.” SF It set the opening-day streaming record on Spotify and reached #1 in more than a dozen countries, including the United States and United Kingdom. Resources: DMDB encyclopedia entry for Taylor Swift SF Songfacts WK Wikipedia Related Links: First posted 1/11/2023; last updated 10/14/2024.

Taylor Swift wins third Grammy for Album of the Year with Folklore

Folklore Taylor Swift

Released: July 24, 2020 Peak: 18 US, 13 UK, 13 CN, 14 AU Sales (in millions): 1.04 US, 0.1 UK, 2.05 world (includes US and UK) Genre: pop

Tracks: Song Title (date of single release, chart peaks) Click for codes to singles charts. The 1 (10/9/20, 4 US, 4 AU, 7 CN, 10 UK) Cardigan (7/27/20, 1 US, 1 AU, 3 CN, 6 UK) The Last Great American Dynasty Exile (with Bon Iver) (8/3/20) (6 US, 3 AU, 6 CN, 8 UK, gold single) My Tears Ricochet Mirrorball Seven August This Is Me Trying Illicit Affairs Invisible String Mad Woman Epiphany Betty (8/17/20, 42 US, 22 AU, 32 CN) Peace Hoax Total Running Time: 63:29

Rating: 4.267 out of 5.00 (average of 27 ratings) Quotable: “The first chapter of Swift’s mature second act.” – Stephen Thomas Erlewine, All Music Guide Awards: (Click on award to learn more).

About the Album: Taylor Swift’s eighth studio album been called “the quintessential quarantine album” and the “first great work of art” from the pandemic. WK The surprise release “blindsided the pop music world,” saving listeners from “their tedious lockdown lives.” WK She announced it via social media 16 hours before its release. Supposedly even her record label wasn’t aware of the album until hours before its launch. WK Swift conceived Folklore as “a collection of songs and stories that flowed like a stream of consciousness” out of her imagination. WK She departed from her the usual autobiographical references of previous works to craft stories mostly from a third-person perspective, keying in on themes of “escapism, nostalgia, loneliness, and introspection.” WK Some of the narratives included “a ghost finding its murderer at its funeral, a seven-year-old girl with a traumatized friend, an old widow spurned by her town, recovering alcoholics, and a love triangle between three-fictitious characters.” WK As Taylor said, “these images in my head grew faces or names and became characters. I found myself…writing about or from the perspective of people I’ve never met, people I’ve known, or those I wish I hadn’t.” WK All Music Guide’s Stephen Thomas Erlewine said the songs “are recognizably her work, bearing telltale melodic phrases and a reliance on finely honed narratives that turn on exquisitely rendered lyrical details.” AMG He said that the album feels “not like a momentary diversion inspired by isolation but rather the first chapter of Swift’s mature second act.” AMG Folklore was a musical departure from previous more upbeat pop albums, traversing instead in indie-folk territory. Variety’s Chris Willman said the album was a reminder that Swift was one of the few pop stars willing to experiment with different styles. WK The Guardian’s Laura Snapes called it Swift’s most cohesive and experimental album. WK She worked with longtime collaborator Jack Antonoff, but also Aaron Dessner, guitarist of indie-rock band the National. She’d gone to one of their concerts in 2019 and he’d told her how the band members lived in different parts of the world, but sent instrumental tracks to their singer. During the quarantine in 2020, Swift decided to adopt the idea and she and Antonoff and Dessner sent digital files of instrumentals and vocals to each other to craft the album. WK Folklore came only 11 months after her 2019 Lover album, her fastest turnaround time between albums. It became her seventh album to top the Billboard charts in the United States. It set the Guinness World Record for the biggest opening day on Spotify for an album by a female artist, became the longest-running #1 since 2017, and became the biggest-selling album of 2020. WK The album’s first single, Cardigan, gave Swift the distinction of being the first act to debut atop the Billboard album chart and Hot 100 singles chart simultaneously. The song was also nominated for a Grammy for Song of the Year. Swift described the song as one that explored “lost romance and why young love is often fixed so permanently in our memories.” WK Another of the singles, Exile, hit the top 10 and was nominated for a Grammy for Best Pop Duo/Group Performance. The “sentimental, gospel-flavored, indie folk duet with Justin Vernon of Bon Iver” WK was “an unspoken, argumentative conversation between two former lovers.” WK Notes: The deluxe edition added the song “The Lakes.”

Resources and Related Links: DMDB encyclopedia entry for Taylor Swift AMG All Music Guide review by Stephen Thomas Erlewine WK Wikipedia Other Related DMDB Pages: First posted 1/12/2021; last updated 4/30/2022.

Lorde’s Melodrama debuted at #1

Melodrama Lorde

Released: June 16, 2017 Peak: 11 US, 5 UK, 11 CN, 11 AU Sales (in millions): 0.5 US, 0.1 UK, 1.0 world (includes US and UK) Genre: pop/alternative

Tracks: Song Title (date of single release, chart peaks) Click for codes to singles charts. Green Light (3/2/17, 19 US, 29 AC, 18 A40, 4 AA, 9 MR) Sober Homemade Dynamite (9/15/17, 92 US, 28 AA) The Louvre Liability (4/1/17, 78 US) Hard Feelings/Loveless Sober II (Melodrama) Writer in the Dark Supercut Liability (Reprise) Perfect Places (6/1/17, 16 MR) Total Running Time: 40:58

Rating: 4.373 out of 5.00 (average of 27 ratings) Awards: (Click on award to learn more).

About the Album: Lorde was 16 when the blockbuster hit ‘Royals’ earned her acclaim as the voice of a generation. As her second album showed, that wasn’t quite accurate — she’s more like the voice of smart, self-conscious, neurotic people of all generations.” RS’20 After the success of her Pure Heroine debut in 2013, “the preternaturally talented New Zealand singer/songwriter” AMG “retreated from the spotlight, and travelled between New Zealand and the United States to examine the world around her. Initially inspired by her disillusionment with fame, she wrote Melodrama to capture heartbreak and solitude” WK after breaking up with James Lowe, her boyfriend of three years. She described the album as “enlightment after love lost.” WK The album presents “Lorde as a young woman, not a sullen teenager. Tonally and thematically, it’s a considerable shift from Pure Heroine.” AMG She “knows how to execute not only songwriting and public narrative but also a melding of the two.” AMG Musically, “the sound is bigger-sounding and more club-friendly than the spare sound of her 2016 debut.” RS’20 This is “thanks in part to Lorde’s decision to collaborate with Jack Antonoff, the leader of Fun. and Bleachers who has been nearly omnipresent in 2010s pop/rock. Antonoff’s steely signatures – a reliance on retro synths, a sheen so glassy it glares – are all over the place on Melodrama but Lorde is unquestionably the auteur of the album, not just because the songs tease at autobiography but because of how it builds upon Pure Heroine.” AMG “Lorde retains her bookish brooding, but Melodrama isn’t monochromatic.” AMG “The final product is an electropop record incorporating piano-based melodies, pulsing synthesizers, and dense electronic beats.” WK She cited Kate Bush, Sinéad O'Connor, and Laurie Anderson as inspirations for her vocal delivery. WK Critic Carl Wilson of Slate compared the album to artists like Joni Mitchell and Leonard Cohen. WK The Guardian’s Alexis Petridis described the album as a “cocky challenge being issued to her musical contemporaries.” WK Drowned in Sound’s Joe Goggins said Lorde operates “at the highest artistic level yet [puts] it acrss as easy-access modern mainstream pop.” WK Slant’s Sal Cinquemani said it was “cathartic, dramatic, and everything else you could want an album titled Melodrama to be.” WK It was nominated for a Grammy for Album of the Year. “Green Light opens the proceedings with a genuine sense of exuberance and it's an emotion she returns to often, sometimes reveling in its joy, sometimes adding an undercurrent of melancholy.” AMG She called the song “a traditional break-up song.” WK The writing process for the song took 18 months. WK New Musical Express (NME) named it the single of the year. WK Sadness bubbles to the surface on occasion, as it does on the stark Liability, and so does Lorde’s penchant for blunt literalism – Writer in the Dark, where our narrator sings ‘bet you rue the day you kissed a writer in the dark,’ thereby suggesting all of her songs are some kind of autobiography.” AMG That song was, in fact, inspired by her “waking up in the middle of the night in a stranger’s bed, feeling naughy and empowered.” WK “Instead, Lorde is embracing all the possibilities the world has to offer but then retreating to the confines of home, so she can process everything she’s experienced. This balance between discovery and reflection gives Melodrama a tension, but the addition of genuine, giddy pleasure – evident on the neon pulse of Homemade Dynamite and Supercut.” AMG She wrote “Homemade Dynamite” with singer Tove Lo while other songs drew inspiration form other artists. “Supercut” was inspired by Paul Simon’s Graceland album. WK The Louvre was inspired by Frank Ocean’s Blond album and Hard Feelings/Loveless used a sample from Phil Collins’ “In the Air Tonight” from 1981. WK Perfect Places was inspired by the deaths of David Bowie and Prince, who Lord said were her two most influential artists while recording Melodrama. WK Lorde was inspired to write Sober after playing a show at Coachella. Sober II (Melodrama) was a continuation of “Sober” with the focus on “the emotions and sense of loneliness after a party is over.” WK Notes: In Japan, a remix of “Green Light” was added. Spotify added a remix of “Homemade Dynamite.”

Resources and Related Links: DMDB encyclopedia entry for Lorde AMG All Music Guide review by Stephen Thomas Erlewine RS’20 Rolling Stone (9/22/2020). “The 500 Greatest Albums of All Time” WK Wikipedia First posted 12/13/2020; last updated 4/27/2022.

Fun.’s “We Are Young” hit #1

We Are Young Fun. with Janelle Monáe

Writer(s): Nate Ruess, Andrew Dost, Jack Antonoff, Jeffrey Bhasker (see lyrics here) Released: September 20, 2011 First Charted: December 17, 2011 Peak: 16 US, 14 RR, 12 AC, 13 A40, 2 AA, 12 MR, 11 UK, 11 CN, 13 AU (Click for codes to charts.) Sales (in millions): 10.0 US, 1.8 UK, 14.16 world (includes US + UK) Airplay/Streaming (in millions): -- radio, 1237.81 video, 1081.28 streaming

Awards: Click on award for more details.

About the Song: While they won the Grammy for Best New Artist in 2013, Fun. had been around since 2008, releasing their debut in 2009 and the follow-up, Some Nights, which garnered them their Grammy, in 2012. The song that put them on the map was “We Are Young,” a mix of power pop and alternative rock with an indie spirit which “captures the moments of youthful exuberance that come with a memorable night out.” SF Lead singer Nate Ruess said the lyrics were inspired by “my worst drinking night of all time.” SF This song and Gotye’s “Somebody That I Used to Know” were hailed for returning rock to the pop charts. Rolling Stone’s Steve Knopper touted the song’s “sprightly pop-novelty feel” WK while his compatriot, Jody Rosen, described it as “rollickingly catchy” and “emo self-deprecation that leavens the bombast.” WK About.com’s Bill Lamb said the song “carries a hook in the chorus that is likely to stop many listeners dead in their tracks.” WK All Music Guide’s Tim Sendra notes Ruess “provides a very human core that grounds things even as the music builds to ornate crescendos.” AMG Interestingly, the song didn’t become a hit until after landing a Chevrolet ad in Super Bowl XLVI and getting covered for American TV show, Glee. PJ Bloom, the latter’s music supervisor, noted, “Glee doesn’t break bands, we celebrate existing pop success – that’s our core model.” WK He changed his mind after hearing the song once, later calling it one of the “pinnacle song moments of the entire series.” WK The song was propelled to the top of the pop charts, logging seven weeks of digital sales of more than 300,000 – the first to do so. WK It was the first song since Destiny’s Child’s “Survivor” to log seven weeks with 120 million radio impressions WK and was the most listened to song on Facebook in 2012. SF It was also featured in another ad in Super Bowl XLVII – this time a Spanish language version of the song for Taco Bell. Resources: DMDB Encyclopedia entry for Fun. DMDB Encyclopedia entry for Janelle Monáe AMG All Music Guide review by Tim Sendra SF Songfacts WK Wikipedia Last updated 2/24/2024.