Trending on Billboard
Welcome to Billboard Pro’s Trending Up newsletter, where we take a closer look at the songs, artists, curiosities and trends that have caught the music industry’s attention. Some have come out of nowhere, others have taken months to catch on, and all of them could become ubiquitous in the blink of a TikTok clip.
This week: The world’s biggest pop star has the biggest wedding of the year, patriotic favorites dominate 4th of July weekend, and an acclaimed pop singer-songwriter may be on the verge of her first Hot 100 hit.
Perhaps you missed the news over the weekend — there may have been small item about it in your local newspaper — but pop titan Taylor Swift and NFL superstar Travis Kelce got married last Friday (July 3), with the ceremony and reception occurring at iconic New York arena Madison Square Garden. Comedy legend Adam Sandler officiated the wedding, which was reportedly attended by about a thousand people, many of whom were also household names. While conducted under heavy secrecy and NDA agreements, the wedding was seemingly confirmed by a sign lit up outside MSG that read: “JUST&T MARRIED.”
Given how unavoidable discussion of the wedding was in pop culture over the weekend, you might expect Swift’s catalog to have received an accordingly conspicuous bump in streaming numbers. However, whether most fans were too glued to their social media feeds to celebrate on DSPs or were just already at max Swift-streaming capacity, Swift’s wedding-day gains were relatively modest: Her body of work amassed just over 26 million official on-demand U.S. streams on July 3, a gain of 2.5% over the previous Friday, according to Luminate.
However, you know that when it comes to “Love Story” — Swift’s first truly massive pop crossover hit, and arguably the song most associated with her’s and Kelce’s romance over its first three years — Swifties found it much harder to resist. The 2009 Billboard Hot 100 top five hit racked up a combined 519,000 streams between its original and “Taylor’s Version” incarnations over July 3, a more sizable 33% gain from the previous Friday. — ANDREW UNTERBERGER
Every year, a crop of patriotic streaming perennials see massive totals over 4th of July weekend, as listeners rock playlists of their America-themed favorites at their barbecues and family gatherings. For a few years, Miley Cyrus “Party in the U.S.A.” looked like it might be on its way to becoming the country’s No. 1 Independence Day anthem — even re-charting on the Hot 100 in 2023. But since his death in 2024, country great Toby Keith has since taken over with his divisive post-9/11 hit, “Courtesy of the Red, White and Blue (The Angry American).”
The song confirmed its newfound 4th of July weekend supremacy in 2025 by also re-charting on the Hot 100, making it all the way to No. 31. This year, it once again rose to the top of the holiday pack on DSPs, even topping Spotify’s Daily Top Songs USA chart on both July 4 and July 5. All in all, it amassed nearly 12.6 million official on-demand U.S. streams over 4th of July weekend (July 3-5), according to Luminate — not just a 584% gain over the 1.8 million streams it totaled the previous weekend, but a 43% gain over the 8.8 million it earned over July 3-5, 2025. (The improved performance in 2026 is likely due in part to added excitement over the country’s 250th anniversary, as well as the July 3-5 period more neatly falling over the Friday-Sunday weekend, rather than Thursday-Saturday last year.)
Consequently, “Courtesy” could be due for an even bigger Hot 100 comeback on next week’s chart — perhaps even passing the song’s original No. 25 peak on the chart, achieved back in August 2002. If it maintains well enough throughout the week, it could even threaten the No. 15 peak of “Red Solo Cup,” notched in January 2012, for Keith’s highest-charting Hot 100 hit to date.
And while Keith’s “American” anthem will likely be the highest-returning hit on next week’s chart, it may not be the only one to make an appearance. Bruce Springsteen’s significantly more conflicted “Born in the U.S.A.” also made a massive impression on streaming over the weekend, notching 6.5 million streams — a 1,103% gain from the prior weekend, and up 50% from the same period the year before. And once again, Cyrus’ “Party” remained a standby, notching 5.8 million streams, up 214% from the prior weekend and 15% from the year before. — AU
For some pop fans, Audrey Hobert’s “Sue Me” was the song of the summer for 2025. For a host of new fans, that same song may end up being the definitive summer ‘26 anthem.
The NYC-born, LA-based singer-songwriter made a name for herself as a key co-writer on Gracie Abrams’ 2024 The Secret of Us LP, and broke out as an artist in her own right with 2025’s Who’s the Clown? Hobert originally shared “Sue Me” as the album’s lead single in May 2025, but her recent headlining tour, residual Off-Campus buzz, a high-profile co-sign and a recent joint performance with fellow pop breakthrough (and her brother) Malcolm Todd have given the excellently written track a second wind.
During the period of May 1-7, “Sue Me” earned 1.3 million official on-demand U.S. streams, according to Luminate. Four weeks later (May 29-June 4), after the viral debut of Prime Video’s Off-Campus, that figure leapt 137% to over 3.09 million official streams. In that same time frame, Hobert’s overall catalog jumped 218% to over 5.75 million official streams.
Hobert kicked off her headlining tour on May 29 at Detroit’s Masonic Jack White Theatre, which included a notable Governor’s Ball set in NYC (June 5) and a stop at L.A.’s The Wiltern, where she brought out Todd for a surprise joint performance of “Sue Me.” Todd, of course, is in the midst of his own breakthrough moment, with his Do That Again album debuting at No. 5 on the Billboard 200 last month. By June 29, Enola Holmes 3 actors Louis Partridge (who’s also Olivia Rodrigo’s ex) and Millie Bobby Brown name-dropped Hobert and “Sue Me” in a PopSugar interview, with Partridge calling the track his song of the summer… and last summer.
During the period of June 26-July 2, “Sue Me” logged 3.85 million official on-demand U.S. streams, up 24% from the numbers it pulled four weeks prior. Over the past eight weeks, Hobert’s catalog has exploded over 291% to 7.08 million official on-demand U.S. streams. As “Sue Me” continues its ascent, it’s already reached a new peak of No. 7 on the Bubbling Under Hot 100 and over 1.8 million TikTok creates. Sounds like it really might be a “Sue Me” Summer. — KYLE DENIS
