USA
Billboard Report (excerpt)
'Golden' and 'Ordinary' still on the top positions
Tuesday, September 16, 2025
by Keith Caulfield & Gary Trust, Los Angeles

Huntr/x, the heroic trio in Netflix’s smash film KPop Demon Hunters, claims a fifth week at No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 with “Golden”, which becomes the sole longest-leading hit

by an animated act in the chart’s 67-year history. Two previous cartoon tunes each reigned for four weeks: The Archies, with “Sugar, Sugar” in 1969, and the Chipmunks with David Seville, with “The Chipmunk Song” over the 1958 holiday season. KPop Demon Hunters has also become the first soundtrack to generate four simultaneous Hot 100 top 10s over the chart’s archives. The songs place in the bracket for a fourth week, with Saja Boys’ “Your Idol” and “Soda Pop” each up a spot to return to their respective Nos. 4 and 5 bests and HUNTR/X’s “How It’s Done” lifting one place to a new No. 8 high. “Golden,” on Visva / Republic Records, tallied 33.8 million official streams (down 2% week-over-week), 26.3 million radio airplay audience impressions (up 19%) and 8,000 sold (down 11%) in the United States Sept. 5-11. Notably, the song has cleared 30 million streams for six weeks running, the most for a title this year; Kendrick Lamar and SZA’s “Luther” logged five

such weeks. “Golden” adds an eighth week at No. 1 on the Streaming Songs chart; pushes 24-20 on Radio Songs; and dips to No. 3 after two weeks atop Digital Song Sales. Elsewhere in the Hot 100’s top 10, Alex Warren’s “Ordinary” keeps at No. 2, after 10 nonconsecutive weeks at No. 1 beginning in June. It adds a 13th frame at No. 1 on Radio Songs, up 3% to 75.1 million in audience; it’s the first song this year to reach 75 million in weekly reach, and the first since Shaboozey’s “A Bar Song (Tipsy)” last October. Warren performed “Ordinary” (in a medley with fellow ballad “Eternity”) Sept. 7 on the MTV Video Music Awards, broadcast on CBS; it also gained by 1% to 23.2 million streams in the tracking week. Two songs by Sabrina Carpenter sandwich Saja Boys’ Hot 100 top 10s: “Manchild,” which led in its debut week in June, rises 4-3 and “Tears,” which Carpenter performed on the VMAs, drops 3-6 in its second week on the chart. Morgan Wallen’s “What I Want,” featuring Tate McRae, holds at No. 7, after it reigned in its first week in May , becoming Wallen’s fourth No. 1 and McRae’s first. Ravyn Lenae’s “Love Me Not” falls 8-9 on the Hot 100, after hitting No. 5, and Justin Bieber’s No. 2-peaking “Daisies” returns to the top 10 (11-10). The soundtrack to Netflix’s animated film KPop Demon Hunters hits No. 1 on the Billboard 200 albums chart for the first time, rising 2-1 on the chart dated Sept. 20, after seven nonconsecutive weeks in the runner-up slot. The set earned 128,000 equivalent album units in the United States in the week ending Sept. 11 (up 7%), according to Luminate, marking the album’s best week yet. The surge to No. 1 follows the album’s deluxe reissue on Sept. 5 with additional tracks, plus the wide release of its CD that day. Notably, as KPop Demon Hunters climbs to No. 1 in its 12th week on the chart, it completes the longest wait to reach No. 1 since Toby Keith’s 2008 release 35 Biggest Hits re-entered the chart at No. 1 on the Feb. 17, 2024-dated list, following his death that Feb. 5. The last album with a longer continuous climb to No. 1 than KPop Demon Hunters was The Kid Laroi’s F*ck Love, which jumped 26-1 in its 53rd consecutive chart week, on the Aug. 7, 2021, list. The latter vaulted to No. 1 following two reissues during that tracking week. Meawhile, the last soundtrack to take a longer journey to No. 1 was O Brother, Where Art Thou?, which rose 2-1 in its 63rd continuous week on the chart, on the March 23, 2002-dated list. Its ascent to the top was aided by its Grammy Award win for album of the year at the 44th annual ceremony that Feb. 27. Of KPop Demon Hunters’ 128,000 equivalent album units earned in the latest tracking week, SEA units comprise 103,000 (up less than 1%, equaling 141.08 million on-demand official streams of the set’s tracks — it rises 2-1 on Top Streaming Albums for its first week on top), album sales comprise 23,000 (up 56%; it’s pushed down 3-4 on Top Album Sales) and TEA units comprise 2,000 (down 7%). Sabrina Carpenter's Man’s Best Friend falls to No. 2 with 119,000 equivalent album units earned (down 68%) after debuting at No. 1 a week ago. Morgan Wallen’s chart-topping I’m the Problem is a non-mover at No. 3 with 98,000 (down 6%). Justin Bieber’s Swag surges 17-4 with 80,000 equivalent album units (up 223%) after it was surprise reissued in a deluxe edition as a digital download and streaming album on Sept. 5 with 23 additional tracks. The deluxe edition is dubbed SWAG II and contains the original SWAG album’s 21 tracks, along with an additional 23 bonus tracks. The original SWAG album was also a surprise affair, arriving on July 11 with little notice; it debuted at its No. 2 best. All versions of SWAG are combined for tracking and charting purposes. Alex Warren’s You’ll Be Alright, Kid is a non-mover at No. 5 on the Billboard 200 with 38,000 equivalent album units earned (up less than 1%). SZA’s chart-topping SOS climbs 9-6 (just over 33,000, down 2%), Wallen’s former leader One Thing at a Time dips 6-7 (33,000, down 6%), Stray Kids’ chart-topping Karma falls 4-8 (32,000, down 49%), and Gunna’s The Last Wun falls 8-9 (31,000, down 10%). Closing out the top 10 is sombr’s debut studio album I Barely Know Her, which rises 12-10 in its third week on the chart — and its first week in the top 10. The set earned 29,000 equivalent album units in the latest tracking week (up 5%). The rise comes after sombr performed a medley of the album’s “Back to Friends” and “12 to 12” on the MTV Video Music Awards broadcast on CBS on Sept. 7. Prior to the album’s ascent to the top 10, its singles “Back to Friends” and “Undressed” both hit the top 30 of the Hot 100 and the top 20 of the all-genre Streaming Songs chart.

Record Of The Month
'Back To Friends' became the breakout hit of the 20-year-old American singer / songwriter
Shane Michael Boose, known professionally as Sombr. The song entered many charts
around the world after going viral on the video-sharing app Tik Tok.

United Kingdom
Music Week Report (excerpt)
Olivia Dean holds still the runner-up slot
Monday, September 15, 2025
by Alan Jones, London
 
Its consumption is down week-on-week for the first time, but Golden is No.1 for the fifth week in a row and sixth time in all for Huntr/X, Ejae, Audrey Nuna, Rei Ami & KPop Demon Hunters Cast. Achieving consumption of 68,222 units (2,207 digital downloads, 66,015 sales-equivalent streams),

it weakens 1.59%. Its 17.20% lead over nearest challenger Man I Need by Olivia Dean, shrinks to 10.41% as the latter track continues to strengthen, improving 4.46% to 61,789 units – the highest for a No.2 so far this year, as it secures its third straight week as runner-up. The last No.2 to have higher consumption was Mariah Carey’s All I Want For Christmas Is You, which racked up 94,170 units (187,566 without ACR) in the last week of 2024. The two other songs from the Netflix movie soundtrack in the Top 10 – credited to Saja Boys, Andrew Choi, Neckwav, Danny Chung, Kevin Woo, samUIL Lee & KPop Demon Hunters Cast – both climb a place but remain below earlier peaks with Soda Pop recovering 5-4 (38,247 sales) and Your Idol rallying 8-7 (31,812 sales). Like Golden, Your Idol suffers its first dip in consumption but Soda Pop grows for the 11th week in a row, albeit by a minuscule 0.62%. Three songs from Sabrina Carpenter’s new album, Man’s Best

Friend, are in the Top 10 again this week, with Tears (3-3, 40,638 sales) and Manchild (4-6, 32,328 sales) both present and correct but My Man On Willpower, which debuted at No.7 last week is now ‘starred-out’ (23,668 sales), losing out to When Did You Get Hot?, which completes Carpenter’s trio under primary artist rules, debuting at No.9 (28,520 sales) to become her 22nd hit in all, and 11th Top 10 entry. Sombr scores his third Top 10 hit, as 12 To 12 climbs 12-10 (26,756 sales). No Broke Boys (6-5, 35,306 sales) by Disco Lines & Tinashe and Nice To Each Other (9-8, 29,791 sales) by Olivia Dean both climb but are below their peak positions, and have declining consumption. Overall singles consumption is up 0.60% week-on-week to 29,861,948 units, 2.80% above same week 2024 consumption of 29,048,172 units. Paid-for sales are down 5.47% week-on-week at 268,097, 13.11% below same week 2024 sales of 308,549. Man’s Best Friend’s dogged resistance earns Sabrina Carpenter the accolade of consecutive weeks at No.1 for the first time in her career. Despite its consumption falling 61.79% week-on-week to 32,591 units (3,156 CDs, 2,197 vinyl albums, 421 cassettes, 178 digital downloads and 26,639 sales-equivalent streams), the album mounted a steadfast defence of pole position, leaving previous chart-toppers Suede, Tom Odell and Faithless’ new albums trailing in its wake. Its repeat performance ends a run of 38 consecutive weeks in which leadership of the chart has changed – the second longest run in chart history, behind the 41-week run assembled in 2020/2021. Although Carpenter’s 2024 blockbuster Short N’ Sweet has accumulated five weeks at No.1, it has done so only one week at a time. Carpenter’s overall tally of seven weeks at the summit puts her equal with Lewis Capaldi and behind only Taylor Swift (28 weeks) and Ed Sheeran (nine weeks) for most time spent at No.1 in the 2020s. Partly because Spotify data was unavailable for the first four of the week’s sales flashes, Suede – whose sales are largely physical – held a handsome lead in early snapshots, and might have fancied their chances of achieving their fourth No.1 album in all and their first since 1999 with their 10th studio album, Antidepressants. In the final rankings, it ends up well beaten – but its No.2 debut on consumption of 16,091 units is 14.62% greater than the opening frame of 14,038 that earned their last album, Autofiction, the same position in 2022, and secures the 10th Top 10 and 14th Top 75 entry for the veteran alt-rock quintet fronted, as always, by Brett Anderson. Antidepressants is, however, by far the biggest album physically this week, with 7,978 CD, 5,965 vinyl album and 265 cassette sales together contributing 88.29% of its tally. It is also the biggest seller digitally (1,113 sales), with only streaming (770 units) letting it down. It provides Suede’s best tally since 1999, when their fourth album, Head Music, debuted at No.1 on sales of 32,884. Eclectic indie sextet Red Rum Club have had a busy few months, headlining at Aintree Racecourse, touring as support for fellow scousers The Wombats, and gigging at multiple festivals, including Glastonbury, Reading and Leeds. It seems to have paid off as they maintain their record of charting higher with each successive release. Introductory album Matador reached No.158 in 2019, with follow-up The Hollow Of Humdrum peaking exactly 100 places higher the following year, while How To Steal The World reached No.34 in 2021 and Western Approaches reaching No.8 last year. The fifth album and second Top 10 entry for the Liverpool lads – vocalist Fran Doran (32), guitarists Tom Williams (30) and Michael McDermott (32), bassist Simon Hepworth (32), trumpeter Joe Corby (33) and drummer Neil Lawson (33) – Buck gallops to a No.7 debut (7,229 sales). Thirty-four years to the week since they released first album Foxbase Alpha, veteran chart campaigners Saint Etienne’s 12th and final studio album, International, debuts at No.8 (7,100 sales). Far surpassing their 11th studio set, The Night, which peaked at a lowly No.191 last December, International is an excellent swansong from the trio – Sarah Cracknell, Bob Stanley & Pete Wiggs – with guest vocalists and guest co-writers making it a perfect pop celebration, which duly earns them their 14th Top 75 entry, their third Top 10 album and their highest chart placing since 1994. No.4 on debut eight weeks ago, Justin Bieber’s latest studio album, Swag, rockets 87-10 (6,781 sales), after the original 21 track-set was expanded to 44 tracks as Swag II, which is subsumed into the original for chart purposes, hence its revival. The rest of the Top 10: Time Flies 1994-2009 (4-3, 8,315 sales) by Oasis, +-=÷× Tour Collection (9-4, 7,613 sales) by Ed Sheeran, 50 Years: Don’t Stop (7-5, 7,574 sales) by Fleetwood Mac, The Highlights (12-6, 7,308 sales) by The Weeknd and You’ll Be Alright, Kid (6-9, 7,052 sales) by Alex Warren. The Weeknd’s best chart placing for 14 weeks and The Highlights’ highest consumption for 30 weeks follow the announcement of his 2026 UK tour. Overall album sales are down 1.79% week-on-week to 2,432,779 units, 1.34% above same week 2024 sales of 2,400,521. Physical product accounts for 265,194 sales, 10.90% of the total.