The Weeknd “Save Your Tears” hit #1 more than a year after it first charted

Save Your Tears The Weeknd with Ariana Grande

Writer(s): Abel Tesfaye, Ahmad Balshe, Jason Quenneville, Max Martin, Oscar Holter (see lyrics here) Released: August 9, 2020 First Charted: April 4, 2020 Peak: 12 US, 11 DG, 2 AC, 15 A40, 11 UK, 11 CN, 6 AU, 6 DF (Click for codes to charts.) Sales (in millions): 10.0 US, 2.4 UK, 17.63 world (includes US + UK) Airplay/Streaming (in millions): -- radio, 2569.88 video, 3786.89 streaming

Awards: Click on award for more details.

About the Song: Singer/songwriter Abel Makkonen Tesfaye, better known as The Weeknd, was born in 1990 in Canada. He released a trio of mixtapes in 2011 and his first studio album, Kiss Land, in 2013. He experienced his first top-40 success on the Billboard Hot 100 in 2014 with “Love Me Harder,” a top-10 hit with Ariana Grande. That year also some him hit the top 10 with “Earned It” from the Fifty Shades of Grey soundtrack. His next two studio albums, 2015’s Beauty Behind the Madness and 2016’s Starboy, both topped the album charts, fueled by the #1 songs “Can’t Feel My Face,” “The Hills,” and “Starboy.” This set up high expectations for his 2020 album After Hours and The Weeknd didn’t disappoint. “Heartless” and “Blinding Lights” both reached #1; the latter set the record for most weeks on the Billboard Hot 100 and a full six months atop the Billboard airplay chart. Third single “In Your Eyes” peaked at #13. “Save Your Tears” became the album’s official fourth single in August 2020, although it originally charted in April when the album was first released. The song originally peaked at #4 before a remix with Ariana Grande propelled the song to #1 more than a year after it first charted. It was the sixth chart-topper for each of them. “Save Your Tears” “addresses a past relationship” with the Weeknd expressing “regret for running away from the romance and breaking her heart.” SF It was speculated that he was referencing his relationship with Bella Hadid. SF Billboard magazine called “Save Your Tears” the best song on the album. WK Joyce Ng from Complex magazine said “its production billows into an array of bright synths and ominous melodies. Lyrically, the Weeknd appears self reflective as he atones for his past. Ultimately, 'Save Your Tears' feels like the narrative arc of what the Weeknd envisioned for his reclusive protagonist all along, now emerging from the darkness but failing to resist temptation.” WK Resources: SF Songfacts WK Wikipedia Related Links: First posted 1/12/2023; last updated 10/13/2024.

BTS “Dynamite” debuted at #1

Dynamite BTS

Writer(s): David Stewart, Jessica Agombar (see lyrics here) Released: August 21, 2020 First Charted: September 5, 2020 Peak: 13 BB, 118 DG, 16 AC, 10 A40, 3 UK, 2 CN, 2 AU (Click for codes to charts.) Sales (in millions): 5.0 US, 0.6 UK, 7.61 world (includes US + UK) Airplay/Streaming (in millions): -- radio, 2566.60 video, 1941.92 streaming

Awards: Click on award for more details.

About the Song: “Foreign language hits have generally been received as novelties in the United States” BR but the Internet “atomized American into smaller and more segmented audiences” BR which meant “radio programmers had a harder time determining what counted as pop and what didn’t, and sounds from outside the anglophone mainstream could charge their way up the Hot 100. That, more or less, is what happened with the South Korean genre known as K-pop.” BR K-pop is a “hypermodernized take on the old Motown charm-school model” BR “Young pop idols are trained with military precision…go[ing] through years of lessons in singing, dancing, speaking foreign languages, and interacting with the media.” BR The greatest benefactor of this approach was BTS (short for Bangtan Sonyeondan, which roughly translates to “Bulletproof Boy Scouts). The seven-member South Korean boy band formed in 2010 with Jin, Sugar, J-Hope, Rap Monster (later RM), Jimin, V, and Jung Kook. They released their first album, 2 Cool 4 Skool, in 2013 and landed their first #1 in South Korea in 2016 with “Blood, Sweat & Tears.” The next year, “DNA” became their first chart hit in the U.S., peaking at #67 on the Billboard Hot 100. Even after reaching the top 10 with “Fake Love” in 2018, the group wasn’t focused on recording in English. RM said, “We don’t want to change our identity or our genuineness to get the #1. Like, if we suddenly sing in full English…then that’s not BTS.” BR However, after another couple of top-ten hits and the band being forced to cancel touring plans because of the Covid-19 pandemic, they did exactly that. While they “were reluctant to record ‘Dynamite’…they felt it was a necessary move…to record in English to avoid losing its pandemic momentum.” BR As their first English-language single, “Dynamite” was “created specifically to dominate the American charts” BR and did exactly that – it debuted atop the Billboard Hot 100. The song was written by David Stewart and Jessica Agombar, “two British pop-industry professionals who’d previously worked with American stars like the Jonas Brothers and Hailee Steinfeld.” BR They focused on creating a song that was “uptempo, fun, [and would] not take itself too seriously.” BR It “needed to grab listeners’ attention immediately.” BR The result was “a bright, ingratiating piece of disco-pop…[that] was perfectly in tune with its moment on the American pop charts.” BR Resources: DMDB encyclopedia entry for BTS BR Tom Breihan (2022). The Number Ones. Hachete Books: New York, NY. Pages 293-311. WK Wikipedia First posted 3/24/2024; last updated 10/14/2024.

Tones and I “Dance Monkey” spends 24th week at #1 in Australia

Dance Monkey Tones and I

Writer(s): Toni Watson (see lyrics here) Released: May 10, 2019 First Charted: September 7, 2019 Peak: 4 US, 11 A40, 12 MR, 111 UK, 17 CN, 124 AU (Click for codes to charts.) Sales (in millions): 4.0 US, 3.6 UK, 14.66 world (includes US + UK) Airplay/Streaming (in millions): -- radio, 2811.24 video, 3042.09 streaming

Awards: Click on award for more details.

About the Song: Singer Toni Watson (stage name Tones and I) accomplished the astonishing feat in January 2020 of spending a 24th week atop the Australian chart with “Dance Monkey,” the second single from her debut EP The Kids Are Coming. It cemented it as the biggest chart-topper in the history of the country, surpassing Bing Crosby’s “White Christmas” which spent 22 weeks at the top in 1943. It also won the Australian Recording Industry Association (ARIA) Music Award for Best Pop Release and the Australian Performing Right Assocation (APRA) Music Award for Song of the Year. “Dance Monkey” was an international smash as well, reaching #1 in more than 30 countries. In the UK, its 11 weeks at #1 gave her the biggest chart-topper for a female artist in the history of the UK charts. It also racked up two billion airs on Spotify as well as YouTube. It was also declared the most Shazmed song of all time in November 2020. WK Watson explained that she wrote the song when busking at Byron Bay in New South Wales, Australia. She loved the freedom of performing on the streets, but was frustrated by drunks, idiots, and people with short attention spans. It made her feel like a trained monkey, inspiring her to write the song about the pressure she felt to entertain people. It specifically grew out of one night when one person stole her money and another tried to play her keyboard. SF Some of the lyrics grew directly out of comments from the crowd that night: “I’ve never seen anybody do the things you do,” “I see the way you shine,” “You stopped me dead when I was passing by,” and “You make me wanna cry.” SF Resources: DMDB encyclopedia entry for Tones and I SF Songfacts WK Wikipedia First posted 7/20/2023; last updated 5/3/2024.