“The Weeknd’s “Die for You” Reaches #1 on Radio Songs Chart After Six Years

Originally released on The Weeknd’s album in late 2016 starboyHis track “Die for You” finally climbs to #1 billboard‘s All Format Radio Songs chart as well as the Top 40 Mainstream Pop Airplay chart (both dated February 11).

The song, on XO/Republic Records, grew 5% in airplay audience impressions from January 27 to February 27 to 85.2 million. 2 tracking week, according to Luminate.

As previously reported, the song bounces back to number 6 on the multimetric Billboard Hot 100 for all genres.

The Weeknd adds its fifth No. 1 radio song, after “Earned It (Fifty Shades of Grey)” (for four weeks), “Can’t Feel My Face” (seven) and “The Hills” (five), all in 2015 and “Blinding Lights,” which dominated for a record-breaking 26 weeks from April to October 2020.

The Weeknd also lands its fifth leader on pop airplay, with “Die for You” following “Earned It” (one week), “Can’t Feel My Face” (four weeks), “Blinding Lights” (six) and “Rette your tears” (4, 2021).

“Die for You” completes the longest journey from a track’s release to its crowning glory on Radio Songs since it first charted in 1990. It topped the list over six years after its arrival starboysparked by a surge of interactions on TikTok over the past few months, prompting Republic to officially promote it on the radio.

Since starboywhich became The Weeknd’s second of four No. 1 albums on the Billboard 200 chart, where it reigned for five weeks beginning December 2016, he has made four more Top 10: EP my dear melancholy (#1 for a week in April 2018); After hours (#1, four weeks, April 2020); Best of collection The highlights (No. 2, February 2021) and Twilight FM (No. 2, January 2022).

The latter set spawned the singles “Take My Breath,” which reached #8 on Pop Airplay and #10 on Radio Songs, and “Sacrifice,” which followed, peaking at #13 and #24 on the charts respectively.

“I find Twilight FM is a great album, but I think the greater success of ‘Die for You’ as opposed to ‘Take My Breath’ or ‘Sacrifice’ comes down to timing,” says Matt Mony, program director of pop airplay reporter WYOY Jackson, Miss. “‘Blinding Lights’ was such a massive record that I think it overshadowed all of it Twilight FM. The Twilight FM Singles were no weaker than ‘Die For You’, they just came too soon. The audience wasn’t ready for more Weeknd in my opinion. Had the album come out this year, the singles probably would have charted higher.”

In the meantime and maybe also benefit from the freedom since publication Twilight FM, The Weeknd also climbs the radio charts with “Creepin’,” featuring Metro Boomin and 21 Savage. The collaboration that reinvents Mario Winans’ 2004 #2 Hot 100 hit “I Don’t Wanna Know” with Enya and P. Diddy scores 5-3 on Radio Songs (77.2 million, up 15%) and 6 -4 on Pop Airplay, while ranking #1 on Rhythmic Airplay (where he became The Weeknd’s 13th leader, 21 Savage’s fifth, and Metro Boomin’s first). It climbs the Hot 100 simultaneously at 4-3.

Mony also cites the recent spate of successful song revivals for the current Snugg Fit for “Die For You” on the radio. “The last year has been unique for pop music, with the resurgence of so many songs like ‘Die for You’, Kate Bush’s ‘Running Up That Hill’ and ‘Bloody Mary,’” he says, referencing Lady Gaga’s revitalized 2011 track, who ranked 19th on the pop airplay list with 31% more plays.

About Die for You, Mony muses, the addition of a 2016 song was “a bit strange to me at first, but certainly no stranger, no pun intended, than adding 1985’s Kate Bush. Like songs to hits.” is changing, and I think playing older songs while currents prove that anything can be a hit now. Current hit radio could be just a viral TikTok away from playing Cher’s ‘Believe’.”

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