Holiday songs and albums have finally been mothballed for another year, leaving us with a fresh baseline to begin 2025. SZA's deluxe edition of SOS remains at No. 1 on Billboard's albums chart, while Bruno Mars and Lady Gaga's "Die With a Smile" has finally topped the Hot 100 singles chart. With the Grammys looming, it's another big week for the usual suspects — Kendrick Lamar! Sabrina Carpenter! Taylor Swift! Billie Eilish! — but a few fresh faces are gaining momentum.
Last week, SZA's two-year-old album SOS returned to the top of the Billboard 200 thanks to a deluxe edition — titled SOS Deluxe: LANA — that expanded the record from an already-whopping 23 songs to a super-whopping 38. SOS has never left the top 20 in its more than two years on the chart, so 15 new songs were more than enough to send the collection soaring past a glut of old-fashioned holiday chestnuts by the likes of Michael Bublé, Bing Crosby and Mariah Carey.
This week, we return to a largely holiday-free existence in which every Christmas record has been mercifully banished to deep storage (or at least the lower regions of the Billboard 200). So it's no surprise that SZA is holding steady at No. 1 — SOS's 12th very nonconsecutive week atop the albums chart, which is the longest run at No. 1 for a woman in R&B or hip-hop since Whitney Houston's self-titled debut held the top spot for 14 weeks in 1986. (The soundtrack to 1992's The Bodyguard was No. 1 for 20 weeks, but Houston only performed about half of its songs, so it's disqualified on a technicality.)
SZA is, of course, already having a massive 2025; in addition to her own chart-topper, she also features prominently on the album at No. 2 — Kendrick Lamar's GNX, which jumps from No. 5 — and has a movie (One of Them Days) coming out later this month. And, given that Lamar is headlining the Super Bowl Halftime Show on Feb. 9, and that the two are about to go on tour together… well, it's not a stretch to suggest that SZA has more high-profile performances in her immediate future.
Every record in the top 10 is on the rise, at least in terms of chart position, though that only tells part of the story; most of them declined in sales, airplay and/or streaming compared to a week ago, but zoom up the chart anyway thanks to the vacuum created by the holidays' end. They are, in order: Sabrina Carpenter's Short n' Sweet (No. 12 to No. 3), the Wicked soundtrack (No. 8 to No. 4), Billie Eilish's Hit Me Hard and Soft (No. 14 to No. 5), Taylor Swift's The Tortured Poets Department (No. 7 to No. 6), Chappell Roan's The Rise and Fall of a Midwest Princess (No. 16 to No. 7), Morgan Wallen's One Thing at a Time (No. 29 to No. 8), Gracie Abrams' The Secret of Us (No. 25 to No. 9) and Tyler, The Creator's CHROMAKOPIA (No. 27 to No. 10).
So the story remains more or less unchanged, minus the holidays: It's SZA and Kendrick Lamar's world, Carpenter and Swift and Roan and Eilish still dominate heading into the Grammys, Wicked is a true phenomenon, Wallen rules country music (commercially, at least) and Abrams' rise continues. Next week, look for more of the same, with one notable addition: Bad Bunny's new album, Debí Tirar Más Fotos, dropped Sunday and is certain to give SZA some major competition for the top spot.
There was bound to be massive turnover on the Hot 100 singles chart, as dozens of holiday staples — including last week's top 16 songs and 23 of the top 25 — all plummet into hard-earned oblivion. Billboard has an odd system wherein vintage/catalog songs can only hit the Hot 100 if they chart in the top 50, so that means we've lost 38 of last week's top 50 songs, plus four recently released holiday tracks from Laufey, Mark Ambor and Kesha, all of whom were charting between No. 56 and No. 89. That's a ton of turnover, especially near the top, and it's led to some colossal chart leaps.
Most prominent among them is Lady Gaga and Bruno Mars' "Die With a Smile," which finally tops the chart in its 20th week, as it climbs from No. 17 — the highest position enjoyed by a non-holiday song last week — to No. 1. That's the slowest climb to No. 1 since… well, last March, when Teddy Swims' "Lose Control" hit No. 1 in its 32nd week on the chart.
"Die With a Smile" spent four weeks at No. 2 in November, and the song that kept it out of the top spot — as part of a nonconsecutive 19-week run at No. 1 — now leaps from No. 24 to No. 2. That track, of course, is Shaboozey's unmurderable "A Bar Song (Tipsy)," which remains one week away from holding an all-time record outright. It's currently tied for the longest-ever run at No. 1; its 19-week stint at the top ties that of Lil Nas X's "Old Town Road (feat. Billy Ray Cyrus)" from 2019.
The biggest hits of 2024 just keep flooding back into the top 10: Billie Eilish's "Birds of a Feather" zooms from No. 28 to No. 3, while the aforementioned "Lose Control" takes an even more unusual leap. Because of that rule about old songs only hitting the Hot 100 if they're in the top 50, "Lose Control" — which, remember, is from all the way back in 2023 — actually got pushed off the chart entirely last week. Now that the holiday songs have cleared out, however, it re-enters the Hot 100 at… No. 4, which matches the spot it held at the end of November. (Five more songs re-enter the chart's top 20 under similar circumstances: Benson Boone's "Beautiful Things" at No. 12, Hozier's "Too Sweet" at No. 14, Chappell Roan's "Good Luck, Babe!" at No. 17, Myles Smith's "Stargazing" at No. 19 and Kendrick Lamar's "Not Like Us" at No. 20.)
Bruno Mars resides at both ends of the top five, as another duet — this one titled "APT.," with ROSÉ of the K-pop group BLACKPINK — leaps from No. 34 to No. 5. While most of the top 10 consists of songs rebounding to the neighborhoods they'd occupied before the holidays, "APT." actually hits a new chart peak this week: It debuted at No. 8 on the chart dated Nov. 2, then fell out of the top 10 until this week. The song had been showing signs of growth even as holiday songs crowded it out of the top 30, and now it's in the top five for what looks like an extended stay.
Speaking of rising stars, Gracie Abrams' "That's So True" climbs from No. 33 to No. 6. Kendrick Lamar's "Luther (feat. SZA)" rebounds into the top 10, soaring from No. 27 to No. 7, while Post Malone's venerable "I Had Some Help (feat. Morgan Wallen)" takes an even bigger leap, from No. 47 to No. 8. And Sabrina Carpenter rounds out the top 10 with "Espresso" (No. 46 to No. 9) and "Taste" (No. 41 to No. 10).
With the holidays behind us and Billboard mostly offering up a reminder of what life was like in November 2024, it's worth eyeing up a few weeks' worth of charts to see what might be breaking through in the new year. Because, for all the domination by the usual suspects, a few fresh faces are also exhibiting signs of growth.
ROSÉ: As noted above, the BLACKPINK member's Bruno Mars collaboration "APT." has gained significant momentum over the holiday season, rebounding into the top five for the first time. But it's not just the one hit: After debuting at No. 3 and slipping out of the top 10, ROSÉ's new album rosie leaps from No. 32 back up to No. 12 this week. Given how quickly most K-pop acts slide down the Billboard 200 after flashy debuts, rosie is experiencing a notable bit of staying power.
K-pop in general: Speaking of K-pop, recent years have seen a flood of acts debut at or near the top of the Billboard 200, only to fizzle out to make room for the next big thing. But right below ROSÉ on this week's Billboard 200, holding at No. 13, is Hop by the K-pop powerhouse Stray Kids; it's the sixth straight release by the group to debut at No. 1, all within the last three years. Holding steady amid the mass holiday exodus isn't a sign of growth, exactly, but we're still talking about three straight weeks in the top 15. Looking at Stray Kids' relative endurance and the rise of ROSÉ — not to mention Jimin's months-old song "Who," which returns to the Hot 100 at No. 24 this week — we're seeing more K-pop acts demonstrate staying power on the U.S. charts.
Lola Young: The English pop and R&B singer released her second studio album, This Wasn't Meant for You Anyway, back in June 2024. The album finally cracked the Billboard 200 a few weeks ago, entering the chart at No. 180, only to drop off the chart amid the holiday deluge. This week, however, it surges back to No. 105. More conspicuously, her single "Lucky" — which had been bouncing around the lower half of the Hot 100 for about a month — leaps from No. 61 to No. 25. If you think you might be looking at the next word-of-mouth pop star, Young has data to back that up. (Young actually has two songs in this week's top 40; she's a featured guest on Tyler, The Creator's "Like Him," which jumps from No. 66 to No. 37.)
Country music: It's not just that Morgan Wallen's One Thing at a Time surges back into the top 10, where it's lived for most of the last two years. (He's also got a new single called "Smile," which debuts on the Hot 100 at No. 27, as well as his usual assortment of long-running hits.) Loads of country songs are hitting new Hot 100 peaks this week: Tucker Wetmore's "Wind Up Missin' You," which has been on the chart for a whopping 40 weeks, climbs from No. 65 to No. 31, Zach Top's "I Never Lie" zips from No. 72 to No. 38 and Lainey Wilson's "4x4xU" zooms from No. 94 to No. 45, to list just three examples. Even Shaboozey, who'd struggled to get listeners to latch onto a song other than "A Bar Song (Tipsy)," is making a big move with "Good News," which leaps from No. 95 to No. 47.
Reason for hope, for those who've been hankering for fresh songs to soundtrack their new year.
