Ariana Grande has been booked and busy, but making clear that music is still a priority.

The superstar assured fans of such on Instagram Wednesday (July 16), writing: “very silly of you all to assume that just because i have my hands full with many things that i plan to abandon singing & music … !!! it is and has always been my lifeline. there will need to be room made for all of it. 🧚🏼‍♂️”

“It may not look exactly like it did before but i much prefer how it looks in my head,” she continued to write in the caption of a video from her performing “Into You” at the 2024 Met Gala. “I am having fun. i feel grateful and excited and inspired. 🙂 finding a balance, between many projects and endeavors i love, and doing it my own way… so i’m working on a plan to sing for you all next year. even if it’s just for a little.
i love you.”

Grande has indeed been working on many projects, including a starring role in Wicked and Wicked: For Good, the latter of which is out this November. And on Tuesday (July 15), she posted a photo alongside Josh Gad holding up what appears to be scripts for a forthcoming animated film based on Dr. Seuss’ final book, Oh, the Places You’ll Go! Jon M. Chu (Wicked) will direct the musical, with Jill Culton and J.J. Abrams producing.

In March 2024, Grande released her seventh album, Eternal Sunshine. The album debuted atop the Billboard 200, while singles “Yes, And?” and “We Can’t Be Friends (Wait For Your Love)” both topped the Billboard Hot 100. Just over a year later, in March, she released the album’s deluxe edition, Brighter Days Ahead.

Grande last toured in 2019 as part of her Sweetener World Tour, which celebrated both Sweetener and its follow-up album, Thank U, Next. While it’s unclear what her “plan to sing” for fans next year might entail, it seems that “brighter days” are indeed ahead with this to look forward to.

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: Justin Bieber’s collaborators see major bumps from their contributions to his surprise new album, a new superhero blockbuster leads to big gains for a couple ’00s alt-pop favorites, and Lena Dunham’s new show looks like a valuable synch source.

‘Superman’ Songs Leaping Tall Streaming Totals in a Single Bounce

The James Gunn-directed Superman reboot debuted in theaters this weekend (July 11-13) to the third-biggest box-office bow of 2025, well on its way to major blockbuster status. As with Gunn’s previous Guardians of the Galaxy franchise, part of the film’s success comes due to some inspired choices with its soundtrack — but rather than dip all the way back to the ’70s like he did with the Guardians movies, Gunn is finding the most Superman synch success with a couple ’00s alt-pop favorites, which are now seeing huge gains as a result.

“Punkrocker,” the 2006 underground hit from Swedish electro-pop group Teddybears (featuring punk legend Iggy Pop on vocals), plays in the film’s closing sequence and over its end credits, calling back to an earlier exchange in the movie where Louis (played by Rachel Brosnahan) refers to herself as being more “punk rock” than her boyfriend and co-worker Clark Kent (David Corenswet). The song rocketed to the top of the Shazam charts for its use in the movie, and has soared in streams over the week, pulling nearly 1.2 million official on-demand U.S. streams from July 10-14, according to early data provided by Luminate — an eye-popping gain of 18,468% from the same stretch the week before.

Meanwhile, folk-pop outfit Noah and the Whale’s 2007 cult favorite “5 Years Time” also saw huge gains for its part in Superman, soundtracking an action sequence featuring Mr. Terrific (Edi Gathegi) taking out an army of Lex Luthor (Nicholas Hoult) henchmen as Lois watches in astonishment. The song racked up 507,000 streams over that same four-day period, a 2088% gain. And even a new fictional song from within the film’s universe — “The Mighty Crabjoys Theme,” by the titular Mighty Crabjoys, beloved by the un-punk Kent — is taking off on DSPs, with 92,000 streams total across those four days. And each of the songs is still growing daily, as Superman continues to take flight as the summer’s box office savior. — ANDREW UNTERBERGER

---

Flocking to You: Bieber Writers and Producers All See Big Gains Following ‘Swag’ Credits

It was one of the most unexpected pop stories of 2025 so far: On Thursday, news broke that pop superstar Justin Bieber, after nearly four years without a new release as a lead artist, would be releasing a new album at midnight — the 21-track collection Swag. What’s more, the album was a left turn from his usual pop sound, and even from his R&B-inflected work, with a more alternative-based, organic-sounding sonic palette largely owing to his new choices of collaborators, including the acclaimed artists Eddie Benjamin, Mk.gee and Dijon.

As word spread about Bieber’s new album and sound, so did the names of those collaborators — leading to big gains for each of their own catalogs this week. Over the first four days of this tracking week (July 11-14), Eddie Benjamin’s discography pulled a combined 45,000 official on-demand U.S. streams, according to early data provided by Luminate, a bump of 32% from the same period the prior week. Meanwhile, Mk.gee’s gains were even bigger, with his catalog growing 37% to just over a million streams over the same period, and Dijon’s were biggest of all, with a 50% gain to also just over a million streams.

And of course, Swag has seen massive streaming totals of its own over that period — with the album set for a major debut on the Billboard 200 next week. – AU

---

‘Too Much’ to Stream: Lena Dunham’s New Netflix Series Boosts Fergie, Kesha & More

Eight years after her breakthrough HBO show Girls concluded, Lena Dunham has returned with another TV series that blends R-rated romance, cringe comedy and millennial culture: Too Much follows Jessica (Megan Stalter) as she leaves a breakup behind in New York and tries to start fresh in London, developing a relationship with a musician named Felix (Will Sharpe). Too Much has been a hit since bowing on Netflix last Friday (July 11), and in the same way that Girls was stuffed with memorable music drops — who could forget the club scene featuring Icona Pop’s “I Love It”? — Dunham’s new project is full of ear-grabbing moments across a wide spectrum of popular music.

Fergie’s “London Bridge” is featured in the first episode of the new series, and earned 520,000 official on-demand U.S. streams during the first four days that Too Much was on Netflix (July 11-14) — a 36% bump compared to the same four-day period during the previous week (July 4-7), according to preliminary data provided by Luminate. Kesha’s “Praying” similarly rose 28% in streams after being featured in the sixth episode, while indie singer-songwriter Cate Le Bon’s 2013 song “Are You With Me Now?,” which gets prime placement at the end of episode 2, shot up 285% to 29,000 streams from July 11-14, after earning less than 8,000 streams from July 4-7.

Because the full 10-episode season has been out for less than a week, songs from later episodes might receive an uptick as more viewers finish their binge — after all, the final episode features an underrated Taylor Swift track (no spoilers as to which one, though). – JASON LIPSHUTZ

In the words of SZA on SOS track “Ghost in the Machine,” let’s talk about AI.

The R&B hitmaker spoke out Wednesday (July 16) about being “deeply concerned” regarding the dangers of using artificial intelligence, which — through models such as ChatGPT and Elon Musk’s Grok — has been seeing a drastic increase in popularity in recent years. What many of its users may not realize, however, is that AI comes with a steep environmental cost, one that has been found to disproportionately affect Black and brown communities — which is exactly what SZA is hoping to get across.

“Please google how much energy and pollution it takes to run Ai,” the musician wrote in a comment on Instagram, a screenshot of which she shared on her Story. “Please google the beautiful black cities like Memphis that are SUFFERING because of twitters new Ai system.”

“PLEASE JUST GOOGLE ENVIRONMENTAL RACISM,” she continued. “AI doesn’t give a f–k if you live or die I promise. THERE IS A PRICE FOR CONVENIENCE AND BLACK AND BROWN [people] WILL PAY THE BRUNT OF IT EVERY-TIME.”

Billboard has reached out to X for comment.

SZA also slammed the use of AI the day prior, according to Complex, writing at the time on her Story: “AI is killing and polluting Black and Brown cities. None of you care ‘cause [you’re] codependent on a machine. Have a great life.”

Artificial intelligence has long been a tricky subject, especially within the music industry. Artists such as Rihanna and Paul McCartney have spoken up about the technology’s capacity to create potentially harmful deepfakes and infringe on other musicians’ creative rights, while others have used it as a tool to aid in the creation or restoration of music.

But while the possible benefits and drawbacks of AI are still being discovered, what can’t be ignored are the environmental risks it poses. According to MIT, artificial intelligence data centers frequently demand high amounts of water and “a staggering amount of electricity, which leads to increased carbon dioxide emissions and pressures on the electric grid.”

As far as SZA is concerned, she arguably couldn’t have picked a better time to speak out about what she believes in. The star has had even more eyes on her than usual this week following her spat on X with Nicki Minaj, who called SZA “ugly” and a “liar” on Tuesday (July 15) and wrote, “B—h looking & sounding like she got stung by a f–king bee.”

SZA fired back at the time, “I don’t give a f–k bout none of that weird s–t you popping.”

Nicki Minaj and SZA continued their X feud on Tuesday evening (July 15) as the pair of music titans exchanged shots. What initially began as Minaj attacking Top Dawg Entertainment president Terrence “Punch” Henderson became a Nicki-SZA spat.

The Queens, N.Y., hitmaker blasted SZA’s ability as an artist and how “the music business wouldn’t even miss” her. Minaj went on to tout her accolades when compared to the success that the TDE singer has enjoyed in her career thus far.

“Wait. Does Sza think she’s more successful than me? Lol yall catch me up pls,” Nicki began. “Sza if every song you’ve ever done vanished right now the music business wouldn’t even miss you. I’ve been to countries that never heard of you. I know you’re not THAT stupid are you? Stadiums? Did you look at the venues I played on my OWN headlined FESTIVAL tour out of the country last year? B—h have you ever headlined to 80K ppl? Btch what have you ever done besides yodel with auto tune that needed retuning?”

Minaj continued, in part: “Boo im an icon. You’re not. The end. Pay that man for almost breaking his back. … You the type that would’ve been quiet in school trying to fit in. You still have no clue who you are!”

The rapper also went on to reference a series of resurfaced tweets that allegedly found SZA shading Beyoncé, Rihanna and Ciara in the early 2010s. “Btch used to be on twitter dissing Rihanna, Ci, etc.” she wrote. “Allegedly. Like b—h stop being jealous of women who you secretly would kill to be up their a— holes.”

The “Super Bass” rapper added: “Now wanna act like you a mthfkn tarot card, b—h quit. What an odd little weirdo.”

The ranting didn’t stop there, as Minaj took the feud to her Stationhead channel where she insulted SZA, whom she nicknamed MZA, some more and claimed to not “know one of [her] motherf—king songs.”

“Not one. Listen, MZA,” she said. “I said find you some motherf—king else body to play with, b—h. You already played with your own, hoe, and we see how that went, b—h.”

Billboard has reached out to reps for SZA for comment.

Minaj’s rants against SZA appeared to come to a close late Tuesday; the latter is currently in the midst of the European leg of her co-headlining Grand National Tour with Kendrick Lamar.

It’s unclear what the root of the issue is between Minaj and SZA. The Breakfast Club‘s Loren Lorosa allegedly spoke to Punch, who relayed that Nicki attempted to get SZA on a song in 2020, but the opportunity fell through after the singer declined.

Regardless, both Nicki and SZA have been widely successful in their respective careers. The singer’s SOS album remains in the top five of the Billboard 200 years after its 2022 release and has spent 135 weeks on the chart. Minaj holds the record for the most Billboard 200 No. 1 albums by a female rapper and boasts 149 Billboard Hot 100 hits to her name.