USA
Billboard Report (excerpt)
'Golden' and 'Ordinary' still on the top positions
Tuesday, September 30, 2025
by Keith Caulfield & Gary Trust, Los Angeles

Huntr/x's “Golden,” from Netflix’s smash film KPop Demon Hunters, tops the Billboard Hot 100 for a seventh week — becoming one of the 10 longest-leading No. 1s from a movie

over the chart’s 67-year history. Meanwhile, “Golden” ties TLC’s “Waterfalls,” from 1995, as the second-longest-leading Hot 100 hits ever by all-women groups. The only such song with more time at No. 1: Destiny’s Child’s “Independent Women Part I” dominated for 11 weeks in 2000-01. “Golden,” on Visva / Republic Records, tallied 33.8 million official streams (up 5% week-over-week), 33.9 million radio airplay audience impressions (up 11%) — new weekly highs for the song in each metric — and 8,000 sold (up 2%) in the United States Sept. 19-25. The track adds a 10th week at No. 1 on the Streaming Songs chart; jumps 16-9 on Radio Songs; and rebounds 3-2 after two weeks atop Digital Song Sales. Since Streaming Songs began in 2013, “Golden” is just the 20th of 170 total No. 1s to lead for double-digit weeks. Plus, it’s the first Radio Songs top 10 ever by an animated act, having outperformed cartoon tunes that hit the chart’s top 40 by Gorillaz in the

2000s and (hopefully he doesn’t have a cow if learning this) Bart Simpson in the ‘90s. Elsewhere in the Hot 100’s top 10, Alex Warren’s “Ordinary” holds at No. 2, after 10 nonconsecutive weeks at No. 1 beginning in June. It tacks on a 15th week at No. 1 on Radio Songs (75.6 million in audience, down 1%). Also from KPop Demon Hunters, Saja Boys’ “Soda Pop” buzzes 5-3 for a new Hot 100 high and their “Your Idol” rises 6-5, after reaching No. 4. (Both are sung by Andrew Choi, Neckwav, Danny Chung, Kevin Woo and samUIL Lee.) Thanks to “Golden” and those songs, three tracks from the film chart in the Hot 100’s top five simultaneously for a fourth week. (The only other soundtrack to generate three concurrent top five hits, Saturday Night Fever, did so for two weeks in 1978.) Morgan Wallen’s “What I Want,” featuring Tate McRae, is steady at No. 4 on the Hot 100, after it led in its first week in May. Sabrina Carpenter’s “Manchild,” which topped the Hot 100 in its debut week in June, drops 3-6. Teddy Swims’ “Lose Control,” which led the Hot 100 for a week in March 2024, and went on to become last year’s No. 1 song, rises 9-7. It logs a record-extending 110th week on the chart overall and a record-furthering 79th week in the top 10. Justin Bieber’s No. 2-peaking “Daisies” climbs 10-8 on the Hot 100; Ravyn Lenae’s “Love Me Not” descends 7-9, after hitting No. 5; and Lady Gaga and Bruno Mars’ “Die With a Smile” bumps 11-10, following five weeks at No. 1 beginning in January. Cardi B scores her second No. 1 on the Billboard 200 albums chart as Am I The Drama? debuts atop the tally (dated Oct. 4) with 200,000 equivalent album units earned in the United States in the week ending Sept. 25, according to Luminate. That marks 2025’s biggest week for an R&B/hip-hop album by a woman. Am I The Drama? is Cardi B’s second full-length studio project, and follows her chart-topping debut, Invasion of Privacy, in 2018. Of Am I The Drama?’s 200,000 first-week equivalent album units, SEA units comprise 110,000 (equaling 145.72 million on-demand official streams of the set’s songs during the tracking week — it also debuts at No. 1 on Top Streaming Albums), album sales comprise 88,000 (it debuts at No. 1 on Top Album Sales) and TEA units comprise 2,000. The chart-topping KPop Demon Hunters soundtrack holds at No. 2 with 104,000 equivalent album units earned (down 7%). The set also notches a 10th week inside the top two on the Billboard 200, marking the most weeks inside the top two for a soundtrack since the Frozen album logged 21 nonconsecutive frames in the top two (13 of them at No. 1) in 2014. KPop surpasses Encanto, which had nine weeks in the top two (all at No. 1) in 2022. Morgan Wallen’s former No. 1 I’m the Problem is steady at No. 3 (90,000 equivalent album units, down 7%) and Sabrina Carpenter’s chart-topping Man’s Best Friend is stationary at No. 4 (69,000, down 21%). Nine Inch Nails are back in the Billboard 200’s top 10 for the first time in over a decade, as the band’s soundtrack to the film Tron: Ares debuts at No. 5 (the highest debut of 2025 for a soundtrack) with 45,000 equivalent album units earned. Of that sum, album sales comprise 39,000 (it debuts at No. 2 on Top Album Sales), SEA units comprise 6,000 (equaling 8.37 million on-demand official streams of the set’s songs) and TEA units comprise a negligible sum. Nine Inch Nails have tallied seven top 10 albums on the Billboard 200: Tron: Ares, Hesitation Marks (No. 3 in 2013), Year Zero (No. 2, 2007), With Teeth (No. 1, 2005), The Fragile (No. 1, 1999), The Downward Spiral (No. 2, 1994) and Broken (No. 7, 1992). Rounding out the rest of the latest top 10 on the Billboard 200: Alex Warren’s You’ll Be Alright, Kid rises 7-6 (35,000 equivalent album units, down 3%); SZA’s chart-topping SOS climbs 8-7 (33,000, down 2%); Wallen’s former leader One Thing at a Time steps 9-8 (32,000, down 3%); Justin Bieber’s SWAG shifts 6-9 (just under 32,000, down 27%); and Bad Bunny’s former No. 1 DeBÍ TiRAR MáS FOToS climbs 13-10 (nearly 32,000, up 21%).

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 29, 2025
by Alan Jones, London
 
Seemingly vulnerable to challenges from Olivia Dean and Lewis Capaldi, Golden fights off both to continue its glittering career atop the singles chart for Huntr/X, Ejae, Audrey Nuna, Rei Ami & KPop Demon Hunters Cast. The track, from the Netflix movie K-pop Demon Hunters, is No.1 for the seventh

week in a row and eighth time in all, with its consumption improving 1.7% week-on-week to 67,855 units (24 CDs, 1,892 digital downloads, 65,939 sales-equivalent streams). The threat of falling into ACR next week is consequently banished. Golden has now gone platinum, with to-date consumption at 635,040 units, and moves into a tie with The Archies’ 1969 hit Sugar Sugar for most weeks at No.1 by an animated group. Its runner-up, for the fifth time in a row, is Man I Need by Olivia Dean, which sees its consumption increase 3.91% to a best-yet 67,151 units. It is the smallest gap between No.1 and No.2 – 704 sales (1.05%) - since Sabrina Carpenter’s Please Please Please trumped her own Espresso by 49 sales (0.08%), 64 weeks ago. Man I Need’s parent album, The Art Of Loving, dropped today, and should give it the boost it needs to finally progress to No.1 a week hence, although the album itself faces tough competition, with new

releases from Mariah Carey, Perrie and Doja Cat, to name but three. Golden and Man I Need were both far behind Lewis Capaldi’s new single, Something In The Heavens (No.3, 49,678 sales), in early sales flashes, not least because Capaldi’s song was front-loaded with physical sales. It is a tactic that worked well for Capaldi’s last single, Survive, which opened at No.1 12 weeks ago on consumption of 68,414 units, including 25,415 sales across three CDs. This time, there are only two CDs, and they generate slightly fewer sales (24,961), with a 7-inch chipping in with 1,126 sales for slightly higher overall physicals. The track is let down by its digital profile, with download sales of 2,944 units compared to Survive’s 7,849, and sales-equivalent streams of 20,647, 41.26% below Survive’s introductory 35,150. None of Raye’s chart entries to date has debuted inside the Top 10, but her 30th, Where Is My Husband!, does just that this week. The introductory single from her yet to be announced second album roars to No.4 (44,068 sales), becoming her sixth Top 10 entry in total but her first with sole billing. Her previous highest chart entry came in February, when her Born Again collaboration with Lisa & Doja Cat, opened at No.13, a position it didn’t subsequently manage to improve upon. Raye’s biggest hit – 2022 track Escapism (feat. 070 Shake) which reached No.1 in 2023, and No.13 in 2024 – is boosted by her higher profile this week, and exits ACR while enjoying a 38.11% increase in consumption, to re-enter the chart at No.37, with 9,998 sales in the week boosting its career cume to 2,124,755. Golden’s top tier K-Pop Demon Hunters companions both slip back. Credited to Saja Boys, Andrew Choi, Neckwav, Danny Chung, Kevin Woo, samUIL Lee & K-pop Demon Hunters Cast, Soda Pop drifts 3-5 (38,624 sales) while Your Idol falls 5-6 (32,116 sales). Soda Pop’s consumption falls for the first time but Your Idol’s climbs. The rest of the Top 10: 12 To 12 (7-7, 31,265 sales) by Sombr, Nice To Each Other (6-8, 31,091 sales) by Olivia Dean, Tears (4-9, 30,464 sales) and Manchild (8-10, 27,198 sales) by Sabrina Carpenter. Overall singles consumption is up 2.27% week-on-week to 30,517,213 units, their highest level for 10 weeks and 4.97% above same week 2024 consumption of 29,072,774 units. Paid-for sales are up 16.12% week-on-week at 297,472, 0.20% below same week 2024 sales of 298,070. Biffy Clyro’s first album in nearly four years, Futique, returns the Ayrshire rockers to No.1, debuting atop the chart on consumption of 32,043 units (18,191 CDs, 9,901 vinyl albums, 1,213 cassettes, 735 digital downloads and 2,003 sales-equivalent streams). Their 10th regular studio album, it is their fourth No.1, emulating 2013’s Opposites, 2016’s Ellipsis and 2020’s A Celebration Of Endings. Futique comprises 11 new songs penned by 46-year-old lead singer and guitarist Simon Neil, who has fronted the trio for 30 years since he founded it with his 45-year-old twin bandmates, bassist James Johnston and drummer Ben Johnston. Futique’s opening sales are 98.33% higher than the 16,156 copies its immediate predecessor, The Myth Of Happily Ever After, shifted when it debuted at No.4 in 2021, and the biggest weekly tally secured by the band since Ellipsis opened with 37,308 sales in 2016. Their biggest ever first week sale came in 2013, when their sixth album, Opposites racked up an impressive 71,584 opening. One of the biggest breakthrough acts of the last 12 months, Lola Young topped the singles chart for four weeks in January/February with Messy, its success then impacting her 2024 second album, This Wasn’t Meant For You Anyway which consequently reached No.16. Young’s third album, I’m Only F**king Myself easily eclipses that this week, dashing to a No.3 debut (16,508 sales). The first new material by The Divine Comedy for more than six years, Rainy Sunday Afternoon is another selection of quirky songs solely written and produced by the act’s only permanent member, 54-year-old Ulsterman Neil Hannon. Debuting at No.4 (10,914 sales), it is the act’s 13th studio album, 12th Top 75 entry and sixth Top 10 set. It has higher first week consumption than the last studio album, Office Politics, which opened at No.5 (8,526 sales) in 2019, and also subsequent live album, Charmed Life: The Best Of, which also debuted at No.5 (7,892 sales) in 2022. It becomes The Divine Comedy’s highest charting studio set yet, trailing only 1999 No.3 compilation, A Secret History: The Best Of. Famously recruited to Fleetwood Mac in 1975, Lindsey Buckingham and Stevie Nicks previously worked together in a band called Fritz, and subsequently released their only album as a duo – the eponymous Buckingham Nicks – in 1973. Although it was pivotal to drummer Mick Fleetwood asking them to join Fleetwood Mac, it was a commercial flop, and was soon deleted. Now available for the first time on CD, and simultaneously released in six vinyl variants, it makes its much-belated chart debut this week, opening at No.6 (8,874 sales). Former lovers Buckingham and Nicks have had a very stormy relationship over the years, much of it providing the inspiration for Fleetwood Mac material. The rest of the Top 10: Man’s Best Friend (2-2, 20,710 sales) by Sabrina Carpenter, Play (1-5, 9,369 sales) by Ed Sheeran, The Highlights (6-7, 8,081 sales) by The Weeknd, You’ll Be Alright Kid (10-8, 7,948 sales) by Alex Warren, +-=÷× Tour Collection (7-9, 7,932 sales) by Ed Sheeran and Time Flies 1994-2009 (8-10, 7,733 sales) by Oasis. Overall album sales are up 1.93% week-on-week to 2,537,548 units, their highest level for 19 weeks, and 6.46% above same week 2024 sales of 2,383,649. Physical product accounts for 317,417 sales, 12.51% of the total.