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: A new production of Jesus Christ Superstar elevates past soundtrack albums on streaming, an Ozzy Osbourne disciple takes off following his powerful tribute performance, a new Lorde fan favorite goes viral and more.

Cynthia Erivo & Adam Lambert’s Powerhouse Hollywood Bowl Run Spur Massive Gains for Four Different ‘Jesus Christ Superstar’ Soundtracks 

From Aug. 1-3, Cynthia Erivo (as Jesus) and Adam Lambert (as Judas) enraptured the Hollywood Bowl with a three-night, Sergio Trujillo-helmed staging of Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice’s landmark 1970 rock opera, Jesus Christ Superstar. Thanks to Erivo’s show-stealing rendition of “Gethsemane” and Adam Lambert’s rousing turn as the most disloyal disciple, the Hollywood Bowl staging of Jesus Christ Superstar has resulted in eye-popping streaming gains for four different versions of the musical’s soundtrack. 

During the weekend of the Erivo-Lambert production (Aug. 1-4), the original 1970 cast album increased 288% in streaming activity from the weekend prior (July 25-28) to over 430,000 official on-demand U.S. streams. The 1996 London cast recording leapt 583% in streaming activity to over 235,000 official streams the weekend of the Hollywood Bowl production, and the 1973 motion picture soundtrack jumped 151% to over 155,000 official streams during the same period. Furthermore, the 2018 live recording of the album, which featured John Legend, Alice Cooper and Sara Bareilles, earned a 192% boost in streaming activity, garnering over 92,000 official streams during Aug. 1-4. Collectively, the four Jesus Christ Superstar soundtracks earned over 913,000 official on-demand U.S. streams — a whopping 283% increase from the 238,000 streams they pulled during the weekend of July 25-28. 

Three versions of Jesus Christ Superstar have hit the Billboard 200. The original 1970 concept album topped the all-genre ranking, the 1973 film soundtrack peaked at No. 21, and the 2018 live recording reached No. 46. Earlier this year, Erivo hit No. 165 on the Billboard 200 with I Forgive You, her sophomore studio album. – KYLE DENIS

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Sabbath, Bluddy Sabbath: Ozzy Protégé Yungblud Rises in Streams Following Tribute Performance to Rock Icon

U.K. alt-rock singer-songwriter Yungblud has operated at the fringes of pop and rock stardom for most of the 2020s in the U.S., since breaking through with the mgk and Travis Barker collab “I Think I’m OKAY” and the Halsey duet “15 Minutes” at the end of the prior decade. But he’s moving closer to the center of both in the past month, thanks in large part to his relationship with one of the most legendary figures in rock history. 

Yungblud has long been close with Ozzy Osbourne, with the metal godfather and Black Sabbath frontman becoming a sort of mentor to the rising artist after his appearance in the latter’s 2022 video for “The Funeral.” And at the Osbourne-led Back to the Beginning festival at Villa Park in Birmingham, England in early July — meant as a final farewell performance for both Ozzy and Sabbath — Yungblud appeared as part of the mid-day set from the Tom Morello All-Stars, taking the stage with an all-star backing band to perform the classic Sabbath ballad “Changes.” 

With a punched-up arrangement meant to better fill the stadium setting and a full-throated, full-bodied performance from Yungblud, the song was uniformly cited as one of the day’s highlights — so much so that an official version was released to DSPs and digital retailers as a charity single. The performance drew enough notice to scrape the UK Singles chart at No. 90, and has also reached No. 42 on Billboard’s Hot Rock and Alternative Songs chart. 

More importantly, the performance — which of course received increased attention following Osbourne’s death at age 76 just weeks later — has resulted in catalog gains for Yungblud across the board. After amassing 4.6 million official on-demand U.S. streams for the tracking week ending July 3, according to Luminate — just before the July 5 tribute concert — his streaming numbers have gradually increased nearly every week since, reaching 9.6 million for the most recent tracking week (ending July 31), a 109% total gain. And that’s not even including the numbers for the “Changes (Live From Villa Park)” performance, which drew an additional 1.8 million streams that week. 

The benefits for Yungblud have been catalog-wide, but have been particularly beneficial for his new album — June’s Idols — and its breakout single “Zombie” (not a Cranberries cover). The song has more than doubled in streams over that same period, racking up over 1.9 million in the most recent tracking week, enough to help push it to No. 38 on the Rock & Alternative Songs chart — his best showing on the listing since 2020. – ANDREW UNTERBERGER

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Quirky Train Trend Boosts Lorde’s Fan-Favorite ‘Virgin’ Album Closer 

The weekend Lorde’s fourth studio album, Virgin, in its entirety, TikTok user @anthonyhaynes9 shared a clip soundtracked by “David” that set into motion a trend that’s led to a significant boost in streams for the album closer. Captioned “what listening to ‘David’ feels like,” the June 29 clip finds Anthony standing on the platform in front of an arriving train as the devastating synths in the final “David” chorus swell to their peak. That clip earned over five million views and 958,000 likes, leading to a remake featuring Lorde herself. The remake, which hit TikTok on July 21, has earned over 3.1 million views and 519,000 likes. Notably, two days later on July 23, Lorde and Anthony recreated the video a second time to the sound of “Buzzcut Season,” which garnered 14.8 million views and three million likes. The official “David” TikTok sound currently boasts over 58,000 posts. 

According to Luminate, “David” has grown over 48% in streaming activity over the past two weeks. During the period of July 18-24, the song earned 2.03 million official on-demand U.S. streams, marking a 29% increase from the 1.57 million streams it collected the week prior (July 11-17). By the end of the week of July 25-31, “David” rose another 14% to over 2.32 million official streams. 

Currently lead single “What Was That” is still the only Virgin track to reach the Hot 100, but “David” could be next should its growth remain consistent. – KD

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Samia Swims Toward a Viral Hit With ‘Pool’

In April, Samia returned with her third studio album, Bloodless, which found the Minneapolis singer-songwriter pushing her indie-pop sound toward folk and alternative rock. The album earned Samia some of the best reviews of her career, but the song of hers that’s going viral right now pre-dates Bloodless by a half-decade: “Pool,” the opening track on her 2020 debut album The Baby, exploded on TikTok in late July, with users repurposing her NPR Tiny Desk Concert performance of the song from 2023 and focusing on the song’s climactic string of rhetorical questions: “How much longer ’til I’m taller?/ How much longer ’til it’s midnight?/ How much longer ’til the mornin’?/ Are my legs gonna last?/ Is it too much to ask?”

During the week ending July 17, “Pool” earned fewer than 10,000 official U.S. on-demand streams; two weeks later, however, that weekly total had skyrocketed to 487,000 streams, according to Luminate. In response to the viral uptick, Samia released a “stripped” version of the song to streaming services on Tuesday (Aug. 5), as well as a standalone clip of the Tiny Desk “Pool” performance to YouTube on July 24. For the latter, Samia wrote in the video description, “Thank you for the love on pool.” – JASON LIPSHUTZ

Jelly Roll, Jonas Brothers, CeCe Winans and Dan+Shay are among a group of artists who are helping in the fight against cancer, when they take part in Stand Up To Cancer’s ninth biennial televised fundraising special, which will air Friday, Aug. 15 at 8 p.m. ET, marking the first time the special will broadcast from Nashville.

The special will feature additional from Noah Cyrus, Gavin DeGraw, Marcus King, Brothers Osborne and Jon Pardi.

Aimed at raising essential funds for cancer research, the special will also include pre-taped segments from Kevin Bacon, Jamie Foxx, Tim McGraw, Zoe Saldaña, Keith Urban, and Reese Witherspoon. Sheryl Crow will serve as the evening’s host, while Stand Up To Cancer co-founder Katie Couric will also offer remarks. Dolly Parton also previously took part in a tune-in campaign to help raise awareness of the telecast. Meanwhile, the event will also highlight stories from cancer survivors as well as recent breakthroughs in early cancer detection and treatment.

The one-hour special will air on over 30 media platforms in the United States, including all four major U.S. broadcast networks, with broadcasters donating time slots to aid the special’s mission. The telecast will also be available to watch on several digital and streaming platforms.

The fundraising concert event will be held at Nashville venue The Pinnacle, and will be co-produced by Stand Up To Cancer and Done + Dusted. Executive producers for the event are Done + Dusted’s David Jammy and Liz Kelly, Stand Up To Cancer co-founders Pamela Oas Williams and Lisa Paulsen, Rod Essig of Creative Artists Agency (CAA), Kevin Yorn of Yorn Levine / BroadLight Capital, and Rick Yorn of LBI Entertainment / BroadLight Capital. James Merryman will be the show’s director, with two-time Academy of Country Music guitar player of the year winner Derek Wells serving as the musical director.

Leading up to the special, Stand Up To Cancer has launched the #StandUpToCancer campaign which runs through Aug. 31 and unites creators on platforms including Twitch, TikTok, Facebook and YouTube to support cancer research initiatives by hosting fundraising streams.

Nine Inch Nails join rarified air on Billboard’s Alternative Airplay chart thanks to the debut of “As Alive as You Need Me to Be” on the tally dated Aug. 9.

With the song’s No. 21 bow, the Trent Reznor-led band becomes one of just four acts with at least one Alternative Airplay appearance in each of the decades that the list has existed, dating to its September 1988 start.

In addition to the feat requiring substantial longevity — charting singles in the 1980s, ‘90s, 2000s, ‘10s and ‘20s — the pool of eligible acts is fairly miniscule because the chart existed for around just 15 months in the ‘80s.

Nine Inch Nails scored a photo finish at the start: The band debuted on Alternative Airplay in December 1989 with “Down In It,” which peaked at No. 16 in January 1990. Throughout the ‘90s, the act reached the ranking 10 additional times, paced by the No. 8-peaking “Hurt” in 1995.

One of those 11 ‘90s entries, “Into the Void” debuted on the ranking in 1999 but also counts as one of Nine Inch Nails’ eight 2000s appearances, having hit No. 11 in January 2000. The most prosperous decade of the band’s Alternative Airplay career, the 2000s brought Reznor and co. all four of its total No. 1s consecutively in 2005-07: “The Hand That Feeds,” “Only,” “Every Day Is Exactly the Same” and “Survivalism.”

In the 2010s, Nine Inch Nails appeared on Alternative Airplay twice, paced by the No. 7 hit “Came Back Haunted” in 2013. Prior to “As Alive as You Need Me to Be,” the band’s last entry was “Less Than” (No. 22, 2017).

The only other acts to string together the every-decade feat? Depeche Mode, Red Hot Chili Peppers and U2.

Depeche Mode notched two Alternative Airplay entries in 1989 (led by the No. 3-peaking “Personal Jesus”) and returned to the ranking in 2023 with the No. 9 hit “Ghosts Again.” Red Hot Chili Peppers, the chart’s all-time leaders for the most No. 1s (15), made the tally twice in 1989 (led by “Knock Me Down” at No. 6) and have four ‘20s appearances, including two No. 1s in “Black Summer” and “Tippa My Tongue.” As for U2, the Bono-led band logged seven entries in 1988-89, including the No. 1 “Desire.” In the ‘20s, the quartet has charted twice, paced by “Atomic City” (No. 14, 2023).

A few honorable mentions: In addition to the four acts whose longevity has benchmarks in all five decades, three have had entries in both the ‘80s and ‘20s — a different kind of endurance, albeit with gaps in one or more of the decades in between. The Cure, which returned with the No. 14-peaking “A Fragile Thing” last year, did not make Alternative Airplay in the 2010s (though frontman Robert Smith did so once that decade as a featured act on Crystal Castles’ “Not in Love”). Iggy Pop, who charted for a week at No. 40 in 2023 with “Frenzy,” also had a ‘10s outage. Kate Bush missed the entirety of the 2000s and 2010s before “Running Up That Hill (A Deal With God)” peaked at No. 2 in 2022, powered by its high-profile synch in Netflix’s Stranger Things. The song’s stamina even predates the chart, as it was released and originally became a hit in 1985.

Two more acts could join Nine Inch Nails, Depeche Mode, Red Hot Chili Peppers and U2 with appearances in all five decades so far if they’re able to snag at least one in the five years left in the ‘20s: Beastie Boys (unlikely, though, given the group’s 2012 disbandment following the death of Adam Yauch) and Jane’s Addiction (which dissolved earlier this year).

Back to Nine Inch Nails: “As Alive as You Need Me to Be” is the band’s highest charting song on Alternative Airplay in 12 years, with its No. 21 start surpassing the No. 22 peak of “Less Than”; “Came Back Haunted” hit its No. 7 best in July 2013.

The new single, released July 17, also debuts at No. 29 on Mainstream Rock Airplay. On the all-rock-format, audience-based Rock & Alternative Airplay chart, it opens at No. 22 with 2 million radio audience impressions in the week ending July 31, according to Luminate.

“As Alive as You Need Me to Be” is from the soundtrack for the upcoming movie Tron: Ares, premiering in theaters Oct. 10. The album, featuring all new Nine Inch Nails music, is due Sept. 19.

Yung Lan, a songwriter/producer who has worked with chart-topping artists including Morgan Wallen, Roddy Ricch and Youngboy Never Broke Again, has sold a portion of his publishing rights to GoldState Music in a mid-seven-figure agreement. So how did the young hitmaker (born Milan Modi) land such a rich deal so early in his trajectory?

“Despite his relatively young career, he has built up and managed a catalog of successful work across genres,” Yonas Aregai, chief of staff at GoldState, tells Billboard. “The appeal was the quality of music.”

GoldState, which was launched by Charles Goldstuck three years ago, and in April secured $500 million in financing to grow its music portfolio, says it acquired Lan’s publishing rights to songs including Wallen’s “Cowgirls,” a 2023 single with Ernest that hit No. 1 on Billboard’s Country Airplay chart; Fetty Wap’s “RGF Island”; and “Bacc Seat” by Roddy Ricch featuring Ty Dolla $ign, off Ricch’s Billboard 200 chart-topping debut album Please Excuse Me for Being Antisocial.

Outside of the Lan acquisition, GoldState owns rights to notable tracks including Kanye West’s “Flashing Lights,” Sheryl Crow’s “If It Makes You Happy” and Panic! At The Disco’s “I Write Sins Not Tragedies” — all included in catalogs it acquired from Catchpoint Partners and AMR Songs. But the firm also targets deals like the one with Lan that fit within “a sweet spot,” Aregai says: active music creators selling off a portion of their recent repertoire. He adds that creators who sell rights to their older songs during a fruitful career period can earn a something of a premium for their works because “when that artist has a new hit, we know from streaming behavior their back catalog benefits.”

There is evidence of that for “Cowgirls” and another Wallen track that Lan co-wrote, 2023’s “Good Girl Gone Missin,’” both of which experienced a pickup in streaming in March and April ahead of the release of Wallen’s fourth studio album, I’m the Problem, in May, according to data from Luminate.

For Lan, who emerged from humble roots as a teenage Kanye West fan in rural Virginia, it took observing professional friends and collaborators selling their publishing rights to do it himself.

“I just preferred to do that instead of the long wait,” Lan tells Billboard, referring to the publishing royalty payments that “fluctuate each year” and often take more than a year to receive. “I would rather hold on to my masters. I’m at the peak of my career, and I’m not slowing down anytime soon.”

Preparation for the deal began a year in advance and involved getting an independent valuation, says Ruchir Mohan of 1916 Enterprises, who helped broker the agreement alongside Ploegsma & Shulman lawyer Ben Cline.

Lan — an active investor in Atlanta real estate, private lending and French bulldogs who also has his own studio, Defiant Studios, and production group, Milan Production Group — had kept close track of his publishing rights and the dates when they would revert to him. When those dates approached, his team proactively contacted lawyers to reclaim those rights, Ruchir says.

“The kind of work he and his team did up front before going to the marketplace, that adds to a catalog’s price point,” says Aregai.

After an introduction was made by Goldstate’s lawyer at Fox Rothschild, Mohan, Lan and Goldstate were able to reach an agreement in six months, says Aregai, adding it is one of the “easiest deals” he’s ever done.

Lan is happy with the outcome and is looking to relocate his Defiant Studios — which is currently located in Richmond, Va. — to Atlanta or Nashville.

“At this point in my career, I’m interested in developing new talent, developing [Milan Production Group] and a lot more No. 1 records. That’s for sure,” Lan says.