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: Neil Sedaka’s streams are up over 700% following the pop-rock great’s death, while a decade-old hip-hop hit finds renewed life and a deep cut from nearly half a century ago becomes a prog-pop artist’s posthumous breakthrough hit.

Trending Up Is Hard to Do: Neil Sedaka Streams Up 700% Following Legendary Pop Singer-Songwriter’s Death at 87

Neil Sedaka died at age 87 last Friday (Feb. 27), as announced by a family statement posted to Sedaka’s Instagram account. Sedaka was responsible for three Billboard Hot 100 No. 1 hits over his decades-spanning career — and co-wrote a fourth — and was responsible for dozens of additional hits from the late ‘50s to the early ‘80s, for both himself and other artists.

Following his death, fans of Sedaka — and ‘60s and ‘70s pop in general — swarmed streaming services to pay tribute to the late idol. His catalog totaled 2.4 million official on-demand U.S. streams in the first four days of this tracking week (Feb. 27-Mar. 2), according to early data provided by Luminate — up 708% from the same period the prior week. (It also posted nearly 8,000 digital song sales over that period, after a negligible amount the prior week.) 

The songs that led the way from his catalog over this period were three of his signature hits: “Laughter in the Rain” (up 505% in streams to 514,000), “Breaking Up Is Hard to Do” (up 453% to 307,000) and “Calendar Girl” (up 519% to 212,000). In addition, The Captain and Tennille’s Sedaka-co-penned “Love Will Keep Us Together” got a more modest 15% bump to 137,000 streams, while Sedaka’s original “Love” was up a whopping 1,811% to 55,000 streams. 

Sedaka was laid to rest earlier this week. His family announcement referred to the late great as “a true rock n’ roll legend, an inspiration to millions, but most importantly, at least to those of us who were lucky enough to know him, an incredible human being who will be deeply missed.” – ANDREW UNTERBERGER

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Multi-Generational Rap Samples Led by XXXTENTACION and Toppoppgen Revive Yuna’s “Someone Out of Town”

Malaysian singer-songwriter Yuna has been giving the world gorgeous R&B music for over a decade now, and thanks to nifty flips in hip-hop tracks from rising star Toppoppgen and the late XXXTENTATCION, a new generation of fans is discovering it. 

An ascendant rapper from North Carolina, Toppoppgen (born Genesis Kaliel Roland) shared his second full-length release, Kalon, last October after signing to Columbia via Signal Records in spring 2025. “Numb,” the set’s breakout track, flips XXXTentacion’s “Let’s Pretend We’re Numb,” a 2015 standalone single from the deceased Florida MC — which, in turn, samples Yuna’s “Someone Out of Town,” a track from her 2011 Decorate EP. Initial interest in the track was a part of Toppoppgen’s general buzz as one of the internet’s favorite current underground artists, but the emotional weight of his lyrics (which trade on the same sentiments as Yuna’s “original”) quickly won over fans on a much larger scale. The official “Numb” TikTok sound currently plays in 32,000 posts. According to Luminate, “Numb” has leapt 71% in official on-demand U.S. streams over the past three months, going from 643,000 official streams (Nov. 21-27) to 1.1 million official streams (Feb. 20-26). 

Given that Toppoppgen is a direct musical and aesthetic descendant of XXXTentacion, fans naturally brought the latter’s “Let’s Pretend” back into rotation as “Numb” dominated their For You feeds. “Let’s Pretend” jumped 23% in official on-demand U.S. streams over the past three months, going from 316,000 official streams (Nov. 21-27) to 389,000 official streams (Feb. 20-26). The official corresponding TikTok sound can also be heard in over 51,000 videos. 

Of course, this all goes back to Yuna’s “Someone Out of Town,” which has exploded 3,820% in official U.S. streaming activity over the past three months, flying from 65,000 official weekly streams (Nov. 21-27) to a whopping 2.57 million (Feb. 20-26). On TikTok, the official “Someone” sound plays in over 635,000 videos, most tied to the song’s second verse. 

15 years later, Yuna’s poignant songwriting and lush voice are still cutting through the noise. – KYLE DENIS 

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A TikTok Rainbow Connection: Deep Cut From ‘70s Prog-Pop Rocker Goes Viral

This week’s evidence that you truly never know where hit songs are going to come from in the mid-2020s comes from Chris Rainbow, a Scottish purveyor of proggy pop-rock likely best known in the U.S. for his long association with ‘70s and ‘80s hitmakers The Alan Parsons Project. Despite never having a hit of any real size on his own in the U.S., he makes his solo bow on Billboard’s Hot Rock Songs chart this week, thanks to the TikTok revival of his 1979 gem “Be Like a Woman.” 

The song has taken off on the viral platform for its near-proto-chillwave sound, which has allowed it to become a soundtrack to a wide variety of videos — including one following a trend of users posting photos of a large number of used glasses or candles, with phrases of things they enthusiastically consume posted over each of them. Consequently, “Woman” has also crossed over to streaming services, rising from just over 18,000 weekly official on-demand streams back in November to 66,000 in the final full chart week of 2025, according to Luminate — and then exploding over early 2026 to just over 2.5 million for the week ending Feb. 26, a gain of 13,538% from three months earlier. 

That most recent streaming week was enough to send the song onto Hot Rock Songs and Hot Rock & Alternative Songs, where it debuted at No. 18 and No. 22 (respectively) for the charts dated Feb. 28 — the first appearances on a Billboard chart for Rainbow, who died at age 68 in 2015. – AU

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As 2016 Returns to the Spotlight, Janelle Monáe & Jidenna’s 2015 Collab Also Gets Some Shine 

Where there’s a new trending TikTok sound, a Zeddy Will video won’t be too far behind. “Yoga,” a 2015 collaboration between Jidenna and Janelle Monáe, is surging across socials, thanks to an infectious clip the content creator and rapper shared to his TikTok page on Feb. 23. Featuring his trademark animated dance moves and a snippet of what seems to be a forthcoming proper remix, the post quickly went viral, garnering over 22 million views and 4.3 million likes. 

Even before Zeddy’s post, TikTok users @/jmuppie._ and @/cmupp1e_ shared a dance trend on Feb. 8 (set to a mashup of “Yoga” and “Cotton Eye Joe”), which has since collected nearly 10 million views and over 775,000 likes. Between a whole new generation of listeners encountering the song for the first time — as well as the dance trend and general nostalgia for 2016-era media — “Yoga” has completely taken over TikTok. Zeddy Will’s unofficial sound plays in nearly 30,000 posts, while the official “Yoga” sound can be heard in over 173,000 clips. 

Over the past three weeks, “Yoga” jumped over 583% in streaming activity, according to Luminate. During the period of Feb. 13-19, the first full week after the dance hit the timeline, “Yoga” earned over 235,000 official on-demand U.S. streams, up 67% from the week before. During the period of Feb. 27-March 2, the first weekend-ish period following Zeddy Will’s clip, “Yoga” pulled in over 587,000 official streams, up over 141% from the period of Feb. 20-23. 

Originally a No. 79 Hot 100 hit, “Yoga” could very well be on its way to a full-scale resurgence this year. – K.D. 

There might be some very public drama among the Beckham family at the moment, but that didn’t stop Victoria and David Beckham from wishing their estranged son Brooklyn a happy birthday on Wednesday (March 4).

Each of the Beckham parents took to Instagram to share two Stories apiece for Brooklyn Beckham’s 27th birthday. The Spice Girls alum and fashion designer shared a throwback photo of the couple in a pool with baby Brooklyn alongside the message “Happy birthday Brooklyn, we love you so much,” as well as a pic of her as a young mom with her baby boy and the message “Happy 27th birthday Brooklyn, I love you so much.” Both posts included red heart emojis.

The soccer superstar, meanwhile, shared the same pool photo with the message “27 today” alongside a holding-back-tears emoji. “Happy Birthday Bust,” the message continued with a white heart. “We love you x.” His second photo was David as a younger dad with an elementary-school-age Brooklyn and a similar message: “Happy Birthday Bust,” he wrote with a pink heart. “Love you x.”

For years, there were rumors floating that Brooklyn Beckham and his wife, Nicola Peltz, were feuding with Brooklyn’s famous parents. Brooklyn’s side of those rumors was confirmed in January, when he shared a series of explosive Instagram Stories detailing his issues with his mom and dad.

“I have been silent for years and made every effort to keep these matters private,” Brooklyn wrote at the time. “Unfortunately, my parents and their team have continued to go to the press, leaving me with no choice but to speak for myself and tell the truth about only some of the lies that have been printed. I do not want to reconcile with my family. I’m not being controlled, I’m standing up for myself for the first time in my life.”

Much of Brooklyn and Nicola’s issues with the Beckhams appeared to stem from their April 2022 wedding, and when the younger couple renewed their vows in August 2025, neither of the elder Beckhams attended. Brooklyn also skipped David’s 50th birthday party last year, while the other three of the Beckhams’ children — Romeo, Cruz and Harper — were all present.

You can find a full timeline of the Beckham family feud here.

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Apple’s latest and greatest flagship smartphone line received a fresh batch of hardware updates this year, bringing with it an innovative front selfie camera, a powerful A19 and A19 Pro chip, and a new fleet of phone options to shop. If you’ve been eyeing the iPhone 17, you can now upgrade to Apple’s powerhouse smartphone for free online.

Over at T-Mobile, customers can now take advantage of the carrier’s “iPhone 17 on Us” deal, which gives customers a discount of up to $1,100 off when you trade in your old phone and sign up for a new plan. In addition, T-Mobile will now pay off your old phone up to $800 per line as well. T-Mobile says its plans could save you up to 20% compared to similar packages from other providers.

According to the criteria, the biggest discount is eligible with a trade of an iPhone 13 Pro or newer, but older devices can still get up to $820 off here. For those looking to switch over to T-Mobile, the company will give you an iPhone 17 “on us” when switching and adding a line on their Experience plan. T-Mobile is offering an impressive $1,000 rebate when you port your number over from a rival carrier. The switching deal can cover the entire cost of the iPhone Air, whereas the maximum trade-in rebate will cover an iPhone 17 Pro.

If you get a plan with T-Mobile, you’ll also gain access to their T-Satellite service, which gives customers access to free text messaging, location sharing and 911 emergency text services even in the most remote areas that typically struggle with traditional cellular service. T-Satellite is included for free on their best plans: Go5G Next and Experience Beyond. You can also add it for $10 a month per line on any qualifying plan—that’s $5 off for a limited time.

The iPhone 17, 17 Pro and the iPhone Air are available starting with 256GB of storage — double the entry storage from the previous generation — and a 512GB option. The base iPhone 17 comes in five beautiful colors: black, lavender, mist blue, sage, and white, while the Pro phones will feature a silver, deep blue and cosmic orange color. The new iPhone 17, 17 Pro and Air are available now at T-Mobile.

Sony Music Publishing completed a 2025 four-quarter sweep, coming in as the No. 1-ranked publisher in both Radio Airplay and on the Hot 100 in the year’s final quarter.     

After landing the No. 1 spot in both rankings in the first three quarters, Sony cemented its year-long No. 1 placement in Q4 by spinning a commanding lead as the top publisher in the Radio Airplay rankings with a 30.3% showing, nearly eight percentage points better than the No. 2-ranked publisher, Warner Chappell Music. On the Hot 100 ranking, it landed a 21.57% tally — barely beating out a surging Kobalt, which garnered 21.43% of the chart in the fourth quarter — to complete the sweep on both lists.    

Sony is also the publisher for the fourth quarter’s top Radio Airplay songwriter, Shane “sombr” Boose, the sole writer of the two songs he placed on that chart, “Back to Friends” (No. 9) and “Undressed” (No. 78). On the Radio Airplay chart, there was a tie for the No. 1 songwriter among the collaborators on Taylor Swift’s The Life Of A Showgirl album, with 11 of its 12 songs written solely by Swift, Max Martin and Shellback (they had a co-writer on the twelfth song). All 12 tracks landed on Q4’s Hot 100 chart, with 11 of them in the top half, including the quarter’s No. 1 song “The Fate Of Ophelia.” (Swift is represented by Universal Music Publishing Group; Martin and Shellback are represented by Kobalt.)

Sony had a share in 75 songs on the Radio Airplay chart, the same amount as the prior quarter, but its market share was slightly down from Q3’s 30.76%. Its top song placement came from having a stake in the quarter’s No. 1 song, Leon Thomas’ “Mutt.” On the Hot 100, Sony’s song representation fell from 69 songs in Q3 to 49 songs in Q4 — and a corresponding market share drop of eight percentage points from Q3’s 30.10%. Sony’s top song was Alex Warren’s “Ordinary,” the No. 3 tune on that chart.    

In scoring the No. 2 spot in the Radio Airplay rankings, Warner Chappell tallied a 22.13% tally, with 57 song placements on that chart, including a stake in its No. 2 song, “Ordinary.” Even though its song count and share were down from 64 placements and a 23.67% share in Q3, its Q4 showing represented the ninth consecutive quarter that Warner Chappell came in second place on that chart. On the Hot 100 rankings, however, Warner Chappell fell from No. 2 to No. 3 as its market share declined from 22.32% to 16.92%, and its song count dropped from 52 to 36 in the prior quarter.

Universal Music Publishing Group scored the No. 3 ranking on the Radio Airplay chart with a 13.92% mark, down from the prior quarter’s 14.79% showing. Yet despite a higher Q4 share on the Hot 100 chart, at 16.69%, it only managed the No. 4 spot there. Its top Q4 song on the Radio Airplay chart was Justin Bieber’s “Daisies,” the No. 3 song on that chart and one of UMPG’s 44 placements; on the Hot 100, it snared 47 song placements, including the Swift tracks, with “Ophelia” its top song.     

Kobalt may have been No. 4 on the Radio Airplay chart, with a 11.59% tally (40 song placements, including “Mutt”), but it came in at No. 2 on the Hot 100 chart, with a 21.43% share and 43 song placements. The last time Kobalt attained that lofty ranking was in the first quarter of 2013 on the Radio Airplay chart. (Billboard began tracking the Hot 100 publishers ranking in 2019.) What’s more, that Hot 100 tally marks the first time Kobalt has surged past the 20% market share milestone since Billboard began tracking the Radio Airplay rankings for publishers in 2006.

BMG notched a No. 5 publisher ranking on both charts, with a 6.23% score from 14 songs on the top Radio Airplay chart and an 8.15% tally from the same amount of songs on the Hot 100. Its top-placing song on both charts was “Golden” from the KPop Demon Hunters soundtrack, which was No. 4 and No. 2 on the tallies, respectively.    

The second half of the Radio Airplay rankings saw Concord (No. 6), Spirit (No. 7), Position Music (No. 8) and Big Machine (No. 10) holding over from Q3, though Concord was the only one that showed market share improvement, with its 2.36% share up from the prior quarter’s 1.40% — lifting it from Q3’s No. 8 ranking. Meanwhile, Reservoir returned to the top 10 at No. 9 with a 1.19% tally, after missing out in the prior two quarters.

On the Hot 100 rankings, the only holdover was Concord at No. 7, with a 2.05% share, the same ranking as last quarter despite nearly doubling its Q3 share of 1.07%. The new additions were St. Nicholas Music (No. 6), making its traditional 4th quarter appearance thanks to its representation of legendary Christmas music songwriter Johnny Marks. Ranked Nos. 8-10 were peermusic, Round Hill Music and a debut from Tamir Music, thanks to its stake in Eartha Kitt’s “Santa Baby” with Henri Rene and His Orchestra.

**Methodology: For the Top 10 Publishers Top Radio Airplay chart, percentage calculations were based upon the overall top 100 detected songs from 3,122 U.S. radio stations electronically monitored by Mediabase 24 hours a day, seven days a week during the period of Oct. 1 to Dec. 31, 2025. For Top 10 Publishers Hot 100 Songs, percentage calculations were based upon the top 100 songs ranked by Billboard Hot 100 points calculated from digital sales, streaming and Mediabase-tracked radio airplay detections during the period of Sept. 25 to Dec. 25, 2025, reflecting the chart dates of Oct. 11, 2025, to Jan. 3, 2026. Publisher information for musical works on both charts has been identified by the Harry Fox Agency. A “publisher” is defined as an administrator, copyright owner and/or controlling party.**

Andra Day is set to receive the Harry Chapin Humanitarian Award at WhyHunger’s Chapin Awards Gala on May 6 at Cipriani 25 in New York City. WhyHunger is a global nonprofit dedicated to ending hunger and advancing the right to nutritious food.

Day is best known for her hit “Rise Up,” which brought her a Grammy nomination for best R&B performance in 2016, and for her Oscar-nominated performance as jazz legend Billie Holiday in The United States vs. Billie Holiday. She won a Grammy for that film’s soundtrack album in 2022.

“‘Rise Up’ began as a personal reminder to keep going when the world feels heavy, and I never imagined it would become an anthem for resilience and justice,” Day shared in a statement. “To me, justice isn’t abstract — it means no one goes hungry, every child has nourishment and every community has hope. If this song has helped even one person have more compassion or be healed, I’m grateful.”

The Chapin Awards Gala will include a cocktail reception, dinner and live music. Previous event honorees include Pat Benatar and Neil Giraldo, Barbra Streisand, Elvis Costello, Emmylou Harris, Grace Potter, Darryl “DMC” McDaniels, Harry Belafonte, Jackson Browne, Jason Mraz, John Mellencamp, Jon Batiste, Judy Collins, Pete Seeger and Tom Morello.

Day’s participation in the 2020 PlayOn televised benefit concert helped raise more than $7 million to support WhyHunger and the NAACP LDF. Beyond hunger, Day’s charitable work has championed social and racial justice, gender equality, girls’ and women’s rights, the Elton John AIDS Foundation, and juvenile justice system reform.

In 2025, WhyHunger celebrated 50 years of impact and raised $1.4 million from its 40th annual Hungerthon fundraiser involving Bruce Springsteen, Chef Marcus Samuelsson, SAINt JHN, Yola, Young the Giant and more. In the last five years, the nonprofit has connected 6.6 million people to food and invested $9.6 million in community-led solutions globally.