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: Keith Sweat’s “Nobody” gets a bump from an improbable cover source, a less-remembered Black Eyed Peas gets its moment in the TikTok sun and Playboi Carti may have a new Music breakout following his BET Awards performance.
‘Carnival Cruise Tyler’ Karaoke Performance Sets Off a Keith Sweat Revival
Who can do it like Carnival Cruise Tyler? Nobody, apparently – at least nobody outside of Keith Sweat himself. The 20-year-old Georgia native born Tyler Heyworth has been going viral on TikTok the past couple weeks for an unexpected performance he offered on vacation with his family on the Carnival Cruise line, where he sang Sweat’s 1996 top five Hot 100 smash “Nobody” (featuring Athena Cage of Kut Klose) — released when Tyler was approximately negative nine years old — to what could certainly be described as a receptive karaoke audience.
Tyler’s performance, delivered with strong vocals, engaging (but never quite inappropriate) stage moves and an understated confidence, resulted in multiple crowd freakouts, with different captured angles of his now-storied rendition each seemingly revealing new multitudes of enraptured listenership. Unsurprisingly, his viral fame has resulted in much internet celebrity: “I’ve had a bunch of, uh, interesting women in my comments and in my DMs,” he told TMZ. “It’s kinda too much at this point.”
The young man’s “Nobody” performance is not yet available on DSPs – but of course, Keith Sweat’s apparently well-enduring original certainly is, and fans new and old were motivated to spend time with the ‘90s R&B classic. The song’s daily official on-demand U.S. streams rose gradually throughout last week, hitting a high of 319,000 on Friday (June 13), up 91% from 167,000 the previous Friday (June 6), according to Luminate. Sweat himself even shared video of Tyler’s performance, with the caption, “If everybody don’t sing NOBODY it’s not done correctly.” – ANDREW UNTERBERGER
Black Eyed Peas’ ‘Rock’ Is Rolling With Viral Resurgence
In 2009, “Boom Boom Pow,” the lead single from the Black Eyed Peas’ album The E.N.D., spent 12 straight weeks at No. 1 on the Hot 100 — and was then replaced by the album’s second single, “I Gotta Feeling,” which proceeded to log 14 weeks in the top spot. The mind-boggling run of chart domination represented the apex of the quartet’s commercial appeal — the Peas would never return to the top of the Hot 100 afterwards, in fact — but now, another song from The E.N.D. has gone viral, and could crack the chart 16 years later if it keeps picking up steam.
“Rock Your Body” followed the same electro-pop-rap blueprint of the album’s biggest hits, with Will.i.am relying heavily on Auto-tune, Fergie’s voice pitched way up and a sample of Rob Base and DJ E-Z Rock’s “It Takes Two” heavily involved; the song’s hook, in which Will cedes the floor to Fergie, has slowly grown as a popular TikTok sound, with users creating different dance routines to the vocal hand-off. After earning 667,000 weekly official U.S. on-demand streams six weeks ago (Apr. 18-24), “Rock Your Body” scored 4.14 million streams last week (June 6-12) — an increase of 520%, according to Luminate. Is this a viral one-off, or can the nostalgia cycle fuel a full-on BEP revival? The E.N.D. is an acronym for The Energy Never Dies — maybe we’re about to experience proof of that claim. – JASON LIPSHUTZ
Playboi Carti Fans Like ‘Weezy’ Following BET Awards Performance
Sometimes, when you release an album with an enormous track list, some of the songs in the back half of that full-length require a special platform to reach a larger audience. Case in point: at the 2025 BET Awards last Monday night (June 9), Playboi Carti reached deep into his Music bag to perform “Like Weezy,” the springy 25th track on the 30-song track list, as well as The Weeknd collaboration “Rather Lie” while surrounded by luxury cars and smoke machines onstage at the awards ceremony.
“Like Weezy” has benefitted from the performance choice by Carti: in the four days following the BET Awards (June 10-13), the track earned 1.28 million U.S. on-demand streams, a 90% increase from the previous four days (670,000 streams from June 6-9), according to Luminate. Carti has also been performing “Like Weezy” in his nightly sets opening for The Weeknd’s ongoing stadium tour, which continues through early September — meaning that the song could enjoy a sustained boost instead of a one-week uptick due to an awards show performance. – J.L.
