Rihanna’s long-awaited return yields an immediate chart-topper as “Lift Me Up” debuts at No. 1 on Billboard’s Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs chart dated Nov. 12. The single, from the soundtrack to the Marvel Studios/Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures film Black Panther: Wakanda Forever, gives the superstar her eighth champ on the list.

“Lift” traces its arrival on the Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs chart, which combines streaming, sales and radio airplay, to 22.6 million official U.S. streams in the week ending Nov. 3, according to Luminate. The sum sparks a No. 1 start on R&B/Hip-Hop Streaming Songs to secure Rihanna’s fifth career leader there. In the same period, the track sold 23,000 downloads and opens at No. 2 on the R&B/Hip-Hop Digital Song Sales list. On the airplay front, “Lift” registered 42.6 million in radio audience across all formats. (All airplay, regardless of genre format, contributes to a song’s rank on the Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs chart.)

The new champ gives Rihanna her eighth No. 1 on Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs, and her first in more than five years. Here’s a recap of her collection:

Song Title, Artist (if other than Rihanna), Weeks at No. 1, Reached at No. 1
“Take a Bow,” one, Aug. 30, 2008
“Diamonds,” 14, Oct. 20, 2012
“The Monster,” Eminem featuring Rihanna, 13, Nov. 16, 2013
“FourFiveSeconds,” with Ye & Paul McCartney, seven, Feb. 21, 2015
“Work,” featuring Drake, 11, Feb. 13, 2016
“Needed Me,” two, Sept. 24, 2016
“Wild Thoughts,” DJ Khaled featuring Rihanna & Bryson Tiller, seven, July 29, 2017
“Lift Me Up,” one (to date), Nov. 12, 2022

Elsewhere, “Lift Me Up,” likewise debuts at No. 1 on the Hot R&B Songs chart, where the superstar lands her sixth champ. The achievement extends her record as the female artist with the most No. 1s on the list, which began in 2012. Overall, Rihanna ranks third in the count, behind The Weeknd (nine) and Drake (seven).

On the all-genre Billboard Hot 100, “Lift” enters at No. 2.

Echoing its strong out-of-the-gate streaming and sales placements, the song also remains a force on multiple radio genre formats after the first full tracking week, which runs Monday – Sunday, following the song’s Oct. 28 release. It ascends 27-16 on Rhythmic Airplay, 24-18 on Adult Pop Airplay, 25-20 on Pop Airplay and 26-22 on Mainstream R&B/Hip-Hop Airplay. Plus, it repeats at No. 17 on Adult Contemporary.

This week, Sia‘s “Unstoppable” tops yet another new Billboard chart — six years after it was released.

The anthemic hit, which was on Sia’s 2016 album This Is Acting alongside the Billboard Hot 100 No. 1 “Cheap Thrills,” has found new life over the past year, and this week, it rises 2-1 on the Adult Contemporary airplay chart. Last month, the song topped the Adult Pop Airplay chart too, and it’s so far peaked at No. 28 on the Hot 100.

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Just how high can this revived song climb? On the latest Billboard Pop Shop Podcast (listen below), Katie & Keith discuss its unlikely trajectory and what has driven its “Unstoppable” recent run on our charts.

Also on the show, we’ve got chart news on how both Rihanna’s “Lift Me Up” and SZA’s “Shirt” make high debuts on the Hot 100, how Taylor Swift’s Midnights logs a second — big! — week at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 albums chart, and how the latest expanded reissue of a classic Beatles album returns to the Billboard 200 top 10. We also discuss the Billboard chart legacy of Aaron Carter, the pop star, TV personality and brother of Backstreet Boys’ Nick Carter, who died over the weekend at age 34.

The Billboard Pop Shop Podcast is your one-stop shop for all things pop on Billboard‘s weekly charts. You can always count on a lively discussion about the latest pop news, fun chart stats and stories, new music, and guest interviews with music stars and folks from the world of pop. Casual pop fans and chart junkies can hear Billboard‘s executive digital director, West Coast, Katie Atkinson and Billboard‘s senior director of charts Keith Caulfield every week on the podcast, which can be streamed on Billboard.com or downloaded in Apple Podcasts or your favorite podcast provider. (Click here to listen to the previous edition of the show on Billboard.com.)

With 8 billion views, Luis Fonsi and Daddy Yankee‘s “Despacito” extends its reign as the most-viewed music video on YouTube — by a long shot.

The closest competitor to the nearly five-minute clip for the 2017 smash hit is Ed Sheeran‘s “Shape of You,” which has raked in 5.8 billion views.

“Who would of thought that a melody over my guitar that morning in my house would be listened to in so many places, by so many people,” Fonsi wrote on social media celebrating the song’s new milestone. “It’s been almost six years and I still can’t believe it. The words THANK YOU don’t cover it. 8 billion views, sounds so nice.”

Fonsi continued thanking those who made it all possible, including Daddy Yankee, Justin Bieber who jumped on the remix, his co-writer Erika Ender, producers Andrés Torres and Mauricio Rengifo and video director Carlos Pérez, to name a few, and his island of Puerto Rico, where they filmed the video, featuring former Miss Universe Zuleyka Rivera.

“Despacito,” released via Universal Music Latino in January 2017, is the gift that keeps on giving. Four months after the music video made its debut on YouTube, it hit the 1 billion mark back when it got a boost from a bilingual remix that featured Bieber.

Five years ago in May, the remix with Bieber reached No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 and made global history. Furthermore, “Despacito” topped the Hot Latin Songs chart for a record 56 (non-consecutive) weeks, spending the most weeks at No. 1 for any title since the chart’s inception in 1986.

On Tuesday (Nov. 8), Britney Spears put to rest any speculation of a biopic about her life and career coming anytime soon.

“Yeah I know I’ve posted too much this week on Instagram… kinda fun though !!! Now that I’m breathing … I have time … it’s different !!! I like it !!!” she posted alongside an artsy photo of a set of doors. “I hear about people wanting to do movies about my life … dude I’m not dead !!!”

Without naming names, the “Hold Me Closer” singer’s thoughts on a potential movie adaptation of her life came hours after Millie Bobby Brown claimed that playing Spears would be her dream role in an interview on The Drew Barrymore Show. “I think her story, first of all, resonates with me,” the 18-year-old Stranger Things actress said on the show. “Growing up in the public eye, watching her videos, watching interviews of her when she was young…And I don’t know her, but when I look at pictures of her, I feel like I could tell her story in the right way — and hers only.”

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However, after shooting down the possibility of a biopic, Spears immediately turned her ire on her parents, Jamie and Lynne Spears, over keeping her in the legal conservatorship that controlled her life for 13 years. “Although it’s pretty f—ing clear they preferred me dead,” she continued in her lengthy caption followed by a series of eye-rolling emojis. “I guess my family is going to lock their doors now.”

Meanwhile, if Spears isn’t down to work with her, Brown still has her secret collaborations with pal Mariah Carey to focus on, having hinted on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon recently that she’s already recorded music with the Elusive Chanteuse herself.

Read Britney’s latest Instagram post in full below.

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Late Monday (Nov. 7), Alanis Morissette responded to “mis-informed rumblings” about her absence from Saturday’s Rock and Roll Hall of Fame induction ceremony, saying at this point in her career, she has no need to “spend time in an environment that reduces women.”

In an early event rundown witnessed by Billboard, Morissette was listed as performing “You’re So Vain” with Olivia Rodrigo in tribute to Rock Hall inductee Carly Simon at the ceremony, but her name wasn’t on the final set list. According to a Page Six report, Morissette had rehearsed the duet with Rodrigo on Friday, but in the end, the 19-year-old pop star performed the track on her own.

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Morissette began her statement Monday by saying how much she adores Simon and Rodrigo and the other women performing on Saturday’s bill, but she added that she had “sucked it up on more occasions than I can count” and apparently wasn’t willing to do it this time.

“I have spent decades in an industry that is rife with an overarching anti-woman sentiment and have tolerated a lot of condescension and disrespectfulness, reduction, dismissiveness, contract-breaching, unsupportiveness, exploitation and psychological violence (and more) throughout my career,” Morissette shared on her Instagram Story. “I tolerated it because nothing would stop me from connecting with those whom I cared about and resonated with. I live to serve and connect with people and so over the years I sucked it up on more occasions than I can count in order to do so. It’s hard not to be affected in any industry around the world, but Hollywood has been notorious for its disrespect of the feminine in all of us.

“Thankfully, I am at a point in my life where there is no need for me to spend time in an environment that reduces women.”

Morissette’s involvement hadn’t been announced before the event, which will broadcast on HBO later this month. A spokesperson for the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame hadn’t responded to Billboard‘s request for comment at press time.

Simon was among the Rock Hall class of 2022, which also included Pat Benatar and Neil Giraldo, Duran Duran, Eminem, Eurythmics, Dolly Parton and Lionel Richie. Other inductees included Judas Priest and Jimmy Jam & Terry Lewis for musical excellence; Harry Belafonte and Elizabeth Cotten for early influence; and Allen Grubman, Jimmy Iovine and Sylvia Robinson for the Ahmet Ertegun Award.

Read Morissette’s full statement below:

There are some mis-informed rumblings about my not performing at The Rock & Roll Hall of Fame induction ceremony this past weekend. Firstly, I have to say how much I adore Carly Simon and Olivia Rodrigo and Dolly Parton and Janet Jackson and Pat [Benatar] and Sheryl Crow and Pink and Brandi Carlile and Sara Bareilles—and all the amazing people and artists who were there.

I have spent decades in an industry that is rife with an overarching anti-woman sentiment and have tolerated a lot of condescension and disrespectfulness, reduction, dismissiveness, contract-breaching, unsupportiveness, exploitation and psychological violence (and more) throughout my career. I tolerated it because nothing would stop me from connecting with those whom I cared about and resonated with. I live to serve and connect with people and so over the years I sucked it up on more occasions than I can count in order to do so. It’s hard not to be affected in any industry around the world, but Hollywood has been notorious for its disrespect of the feminine in all of us.

Thankfully, I am at a point in my life where there is no need for me to spend time in an environment that reduces women. I have had countless incredible experiences with production teams with all genders throughout my life. So many, and so fun. There is nothing better than a team of diverse people coming together with one mission. I’ll continue to show up in those environments with bells on.

Voting time! I love you,

alanis

Tame One, veteran New Jersey rapper and member of hip-hop groups Artifacts and The Weathermen, has died. He was 52.

His death was confirmed by Pitchfork and on Facebook by the late rapper’s mother, Darlene Brown Harris. “What’s on my mind….I cant express this any other way. My son, Rahem Brown, Tamer Dizzle Is Dead,” she wrote on Sunday. “The medical examiner says the six pharmaceutical drugs … prescribed to him last Friday, combined with the weed he smoked over this weekend … his heart simply gave out. He will know better after the autopsy. I will not be responding to all the posts for a bit, but the hardest words I will ever post or say is, my son, my heart, is dead.”

Tame One, born Rahem Brown, expressed himself as a teenager by way of music and graffiti. Tame One’s 1994 debut alongside Artifacts groupmate El Da Sensei, Between a Rock and a Hard Place, was an ode to the influential art form and broke the duo into the mainstream. The album appeared on both the Billboard 200 and R&B/Hip-Hop Albums charts. Despite their collective success, Artifacts only went on to release one more album together, That’s Them, in 1997 before moving on to solo careers.

After the group’s initial split, New York hip-hop group The Weathermen, founded by a handful of East Coast producers and rappers, was formed. Tame One rapped alongside a number of co-members, including Cage Kennylz, Masai Bey, Aesop Rock, Yak Ballz, El-P, Jakki Tha Motamouth, Vast Aire and Breeze Brewin. The group released one mixtape in 2003, titled Conspiracy.

After 25 years, El Da Sensei and Tame One came together with producer Buckwild for their third album as Artifacts, No Expiration Date, which released on Aug. 20. “[In 1979], we would walk miles with markers and cans, taggin’ up everywhere,” he said in his final interview before his death. “I was influenced by my surroundings, I’m a product of my environment, and I capitalized upon what I saw. It’s a blessing to transform that energy and give back.”