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Rihanna conquers a new radio format with her long-awaited comeback single, “Lift Me Up.” The track, from the soundtrack to the film Black Panther: Wakanda Forever, crowns the Adult R&B Airplay list dated Dec. 24. It’s her first No. 1 — and top 10 — on the chart and her ninth charting song on the list to date.
“Lift” jumps from No. 3 after a 24% surge in plays that made it the most-played song on U.S. monitored adult R&B stations in the week ending Dec. 18, according to Luminate. Thanks to the double-digit improvement, the new champ captures the weekly Greatest Gainer honor for the biggest increase in plays among the chart’s 30 titles.
“Lift” seizes the throne from Jazmine Sullivan’s “Hurt Me So Good,” displacing the latter after two weeks in charge. “Hurt” is pushed 1-2, despite a 5% gain in plays at the format.
With “Lift,” Rihanna registers her first Adult R&B Airplay No. 1 upon her ninth appearance on the list. Before the new champ, her previous career peak was a No. 13 result from her and Bryson Tiller’s featured slots on DJ Khaled’s “Wild Thoughts” in 2018. As a lead act, her prior best was her maiden entry, “Take a Bow,” which reached No. 21 in 2008.
Elsewhere, “Lift” continues its run across several other formats. It repeats at No. 5 on the R&B/Hip-Hop Airplay chart, where it registered 17.1 million in weekly audience impressions, an 18% upswing from the prior week. With that boost, the single captures that chart’s Greatest Gainer honor, too. On Rhythmic Airplay, it holds at its No. 6 peak thus far, though it gained 3% in weekly plays in the latest tracking week. The single moves 9-8 on the Mainstream R&B/Hip-Hop Airplay chart to return to its peak, first reached two weeks ago, and added 5% more plays. And though it slides 14-17 on Adult Pop Airplay, “Lift” registered a 4% bump in weekly plays at that format.
One week after SZA’s first anniversary at No. 1 on Billboard’s Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs chart, the singer-songwriter returns to the summit for her second career chart-topper thanks to “Kill Bill.” The track debuts at No. 1 on the list dated Dec. 24 and is one of seven SZA titles in the top 10, all from her new album, SOS.
“Kill Bill” traces its chart-topping start largely to 36.9 million official U.S. streams in the week ending Dec. 15, according to Luminate, for a No. 1 opening on the R&B/Hip-Hop Streaming Songs chart. The track also sold 1,000 downloads in the same period and pulled 22,000 in radio audience impressions. The low radio audience is due to the song not being an actively promoted single to radio stations — “Shirt” is the current track at R&B/hip-hop stations, while “Nobody Gets Me” is targeted toward the pop and rhythmic sectors.
Before “Kill Bill,” SZA reigned on the Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs chart with “I Hate U,” which likewise earned its chart-topping rule by debuting in the top slot. The single arrived in the penthouse on the chart dated Dec. 18, 2021, and led for one week. As both “I Hate U” and “Kill Bill” appear on SOS, the album is the first to yield two Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs leaders since The Weeknd’s After Hours sparked No. 1s in “Heartless” and “Blinding Lights.”
SOS also arrives with chart-topping accolades. The set storms in at No. 1 on the all-genre Billboard 200, Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums and Top R&B Albums charts with 318,000 equivalent album units. Of that sum, 310,000 units derive from streaming — equal to 404.6 million official on-demand U.S. streams for the album’s songs, a new one-week record for any R&B album. On the former two charts, SOS grants SZA her first No. 1, while she picks up her second on the lattermost, after Ctrl reigned in 2017 upon its original release and again, earlier this year, following its deluxe edition’s premiere on the set’s fifth anniversary.
“Kill Bill” leads a parade of SZA cuts onto Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs, with seven tracks in the top 10 and 20 on the chart overall. Here’s a rundown of all her placements this week:
No. 1, “Kill Bill”
No. 2, “Nobody Gets Me”
No. 3, “Blind”
No. 6, “Low”
No. 7, “Shirt”
No. 8, “Love Language”
No. 9, “Seek & Destroy”
No. 11, “Snooze”
No. 12, “Used,” featuring Don Toliver
No. 13, “SOS”
No. 16, “Special”
No. 17, “Ghost in the Machine,” featuring Phoebe Bridgers
No. 19, “Gone Girl”
No. 20, “Notice Me”
No. 23, “Smoking on My Ex Pack”
No. 24, “Open Arms,” featuring Travis Scott
No. 27, “Conceited”
No. 29, “Far”
No. 30, “Too Late”
No. 35, “Forgiveless,” featuring Ol’ Dirty Bastard
Plus, in addition to “I Hate U,” another prior SOS single, “Good Days,” reached No. 3 in 2021.
The SZA takeover also extends to the Hot R&B Songs chart, where the hitmaker posts eight tracks in the top 10 and 18 songs on the 25-position list. “Bill” leads the pack and becomes her third No. 1 on the list, after “The Weekend” and “I Hate U” each ruled for one week in, respectively, 2018 and 2021.
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“Just like old times, only better.” Morris Chestnut, Taye Diggs, Nia Long, Regina Hall, Sanaa Lathan, Melissa De Sousa, Terrence Howard and Harold Perrineau reunite in The Best Man: The Final Chapters.
The limited series, based on the film franchise written and directed by Malcolm D. Lee, will premiere on Peacock on Thursday (Dec. 22).
Fans of The Best Man will get a chance to catch up with the lives of Harper (Diggs), Robyn (Lathan), Jordan (Long), Lance (Chestnut), Quentin (Howard), Shelby (De Sousa), Candace (Hall) and “Murch” (Perrineau) in the spinoff series developed, written and executive produced by Lee and Dyana Lynn North.
Although one familiar face will be missing from the show (Monica Calhoun’s character died from cancer in the 2013 sequel), the series will introduce new characters played by Yvonna Pearson, Sinorice Moss, Aaron Serotsky, Nicole Ari Parker, Terrence Terrell, Michael Genet, Tobias Truvillion, Eric Scott Ways, Ron Canada and Brandon Victor Dixon.
Lee, Charles Stone III, Robert Townsend and Stacey Muhammad directed episodes of The Best Man: The Final Chapters.
How to Watch The Best Man: The Final Chapters for Free
All eight episodes of The Best Man: The Final Chapters will drop on Peacock on Thursday. The show will stream at no extra cost to subscribers.
Not subscribed? Peacock starts at $4.99/month for the ad-supported plan and $9.99/month to stream without commercials. Peacock also provides free episodes and eligible Xfinity, Cox and Spectrum customers can get a free subscription to the platform.
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Stream Peacock Originals such as A Friend of the Family, Irreverent, Vampire Academy, Pitch Perfect: Bumper in Berlin, The Resort, LoveIsland USA, Bel-Air, Dr. Death, Saved by the Bell, Rutherford Falls and Days of Our Lives, plus old and new seasons of Bravo’s The Real Housewives franchise, previous seasons of Yellowstone, and current NBC and Telemundo shows the day after the air.
Watch the trailer for The Best Man: The Final Chapters below.
Lizzo, fresh off of her appearance as musical guest on SNL last weekend, has a fresh new look.
She took to TikTok on Tuesday (Dec. 20) to show off her new hairstyle, a wolf cut featuring shaggy, wavy layers and bangs.
“are we loving the wolf cut ???” she asked her followers on the post, which had reached 3.9 million views at press time.
In the video, Lizzo mouths a Blair Waldorf line from the original Gossip Girl series: “Some people are simply better than others.”
Her cute new hairstyle can also be seen in a second clip, in which the singer applied lipstick and showed off her outfit, a T-shirt dress with cut-outs. “I’m posting a lot today so beware,” she wrote.
“Obsessed w how cute I was yesterday,” she added in an Instagram glimpse at herself in the mirror.
See Lizzo’s new hairstyle below and on her TikTok.
Gone far too soon. Rory Kramer, Justin Bieber‘s longtime photographer and music video director, took to social media on Monday (Dec. 19) to share the news that his baby son had died after a premature birth.
“It’s with a broken heart that I share on December 1, 2022 at 9:41pm, my wife Amy went into a preterm labor and gave birth to our baby boy, Daniel Thomas Kramer after 21 weeks,” Kramer wrote alongside an Instagram photo of himself cradling the tiny baby, whose face was covered by a heart emoji. “A name after both our fathers. He weighed 14oz and was 11 inches long. He made Amy and I parents for 52 minutes before heading off to heaven.”
Kramer went on to recall his very first moments in the hospital with baby Daniel before writing, “It went from the most beautiful moment to the most eye opening, devastating moment I’ve ever experienced. Daniel taught me so much in those 52 minutes…he showed me patience, he taught me how fragile life is, to never to take life for granted, and that death affects so many.”
“We are so blessed and grateful for the time we had to stare at him, kiss him, and hold him in our arms. He was perfect. Tiny little hands. Big goofy feet. And Rory’s face. We wish you could have met him,” the photographer continued. “I share this, as a lot of you have been following my journey through many peaks and valleys, and as we find ourselves in the trenches, I know we must go on and live a life to honor our son. To anyone, that has experienced a loss or similar situation, my heart aches for you.”
Kramer’s directorial credits include the music videos for Justin Bieber and Ariana Grande’s pandemic hit “Stuck With U,” The Chainsmokers’ 2016 single “All We Know,” both “I’ll Show You” and “Company” off Bieber’s 2015 album Purpose and “Should’ve Been Us” by Tori Kelly.
Read Kramer’s heartbreaking tribute to baby Daniel below.
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