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: Bad Bunny surges on streaming as he closes one triumph and begins on another, a hip-hop couple sees gains for tying the knot while a pop ex-couple draws big numbers for its breakup songs about one another, and more.

Bad Bunny’s Streams Up Following Residency Finale, Super Bowl Announcement

It’s been a year of massive wins for Bad Bunny, as his sneak-releaed January album Debí Tirar Más Fotos returned him to the center of global pop culture, and well-received supporting roles in the movies Happy Gilmore 2 and Caught Stealing have cemented him as a force in multiple mediums. Now, he’s closing out his 2025 by wrapping one of his biggest live endeavors yet and starting up an entirely new one — both of which have brought major gains to his catalog. 

Last week, Billboard’s latest cover star closed out his No Me Quiero Ir de Aquí concert residency at Puerto Rico’s José Miguel Agrelot Coliseum — a run which lasted for over two months and 30 shows — with a just-announced 31st concert on Sept. 20, one live-streamed worldwide through Amazon Prime and Twitch, commemorating the eighth anniversary of Hurricane Maria’s devastating impact on the island. The attention from the residency finale and record-breaking streaming event helped the global superstar pull over 93 million official on-demand U.S. streams across his catalog for the tracking week ending Sept. 25, a 13% bump over the previous week, according to Luminate. 

But Bad Bunny wasn’t done making headline news for September, of course. On Sunday (Sept. 28), it was announced that El Conejo Malo will be headlining the halftime show of Super Bowl LX at Levi’s Stadium in Santa Clara, Calif. The news of the singer-rapper landing the world’s most coveted televised gig sent his streams way up the day following the announcement — with his catalog racking up nearly 18 million streams that Monday (Sept. 29), up 31% from the Monday the prior week. 

Of course, these bumps will likely just be a prelude to the massive spikes he’s likely to see after the show itself — with Kendrick Lamar proving this year that even huge contemporary pop stars can still be taken to a whole new level by the exposure granted by the most-viewed 15-minute gig in America. – ANDREW UNTERBERGER

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Monaleo & Stunna 4 Vegas’ Pink Nuptials Lift Both Rappers’ Catalogs, Including Leo’s New ‘Sexy Soulaan’ Single 

On Sept. 19, Houston rapper Monaleo and North Carolina MC Stunna 4 Vegas tied the knot after four years of dating. The pink-themed wedding not only played out in front of nearly 200 in-person guests, but it also earned over 100,000 viewers on a TikTok livestream. In the days following, clips and videos of the nuptials have dominated social media — and resulted in streaming increases for both rappers’ catalogs. 

During the week before the wedding (Sept. 12-18), Monaleo’s catalog earned 2.82 million official on-demand U.S. streams, according to Luminate. By the week following the wedding (Sept. 19-25), that figure jumped 76% to over 4.97 million official streams. Moreover, Leo’s catalog clocked over 2.45 million streams during her wedding weekend (Sept. 19-22). That number ballooned by 92% to over 4.7 million official streams the following four-day period (Sept. 26-29), according to early data provided by Luminate. 

Stunna’s catalog earned just over 400,000 official streams that same week leading up to the wedding. In the week following, that number rose by 32% to over 532,000 official streams. During his wedding weekend, Stunna’s also catalog collected 298,000 official streams, with that number spiking by nearly 50% to over 445,000 official streams the following four-day period.

Building on her recent momentum, Monaleo dropped a pro-Black banger called “Sexy Soulaan” on Sept. 26. In its first four days of release, “Soulaan” has pulled over 968,000 official on-demand U.S. streams, playing a big part in her overall catalog bump. – KYLE DENIS

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Tate McRae’s ‘Tit For Tat’ Scores Hot Streaming Start — While The Kid LAROI’s Post-Breakup Track Also Rises

“Let’s go song for song, let’s go back to back/ Let’s go tit for tat, boy, you asked for that,” Tate McRae sings on “Tit for That,” challenging an ex who may just so happen to also be a musician. While the pop star’s latest single is rumored to be a shot at The Kid LAROI, and his own recent kiss-off “A Cold Play,” following their breakup, “Tit for Tat” also appears to be another major win for McRae, capping off a year that included a string of top 40 hits, an arena headlining tour and the first No. 1 album of her career.

“Tit for Tat” earned 11.4 million U.S. on-demand streams in its first four days on streaming services following its Sept. 26 release, according to early data provided by Luminate. That’s a strong enough start to put McRae in position for another lofty Hot 100 debut — and indeed, “Tit for Tat” also topped Spotify’s Daily Top Songs USA chart for the first time on Wednesday (Oct. 1), as its momentum continues to surge.

Meanwhile, the perceived response to “A Cold Play” has also led more listeners back to The Kid LAROI’s single, which was released three weeks before “Tit for Tat.” While “A Cold Play” earned 1.57 million streams from Sept. 19-22, that number jumped to 2.12 million in the first four days of “Tit for Tat” being out — a 35% jump from week to week. – JASON LIPSHUTZ

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Chicken Joe TikTok Trend Revives 17-Year-Old Kid Cudi Track 

“Day ‘n’ Nite” was the brooding breakout hit from Kid Cudi’s 2008 debut mixtape, A Kid Named Cudi, but, 17 years later, the tape’s much brighter “Maui Wowie” is enjoying its moment in the sun. 

Thanks to an Aug. 15 TikTok that paired the laidback cool of Chicken Joe, a beloved character from the 2007 animated film Surf’s Up, with the breezy vibes of “Maui Wowie,” the song has earned a new life on social media, which its recent streaming increases reflect. In more recent weeks, “Maui Wowie” has gained traction on TikTok due to the fart sound at the end of the track, as well as a trend featuring young men nonchalantly hanging from lampposts and lip-syncing the hook. The official “Maui Wowie” TikTok sound now boasts over 131,000 posts. 

Over the past four weeks, streaming activity for “Maui Wowie” has jumped a whopping 379%. During the week of Aug. 22-28, the first full week after the first Chicken Joe videos took off, the song pulled over 516,000 official on-demand U.S. streams — but streams just kept rising steadily over the next month, and by the week of Sept. 19-25, “Maui Wowie” was earning over 2.47 million official streams.  

In September, Cudi notched his 11th Billboard 200 entry with Free (No. 192). Now, the “Maui Wowie” revival proves he can still capture people’s ears with old and new music alike. – KD

Morgan Wallen gets bruised and battered in his latest music video, for his top five Billboard Country Airplay single “I Got Better.”

The Justin Clough-directed clip uses imagery of a car accident as a metaphor for a romantic relationship that’s careened and ended in wreckage, with Wallen emerging as a survivor. The video’s initial scenes show Wallen lying on the ground in the middle of the wreckage after the pickup truck he’s riding in has flipped and crashed.

Wallen then stumbles to his feet in the middle of the road, as rain pours down, with close-up images showing Wallen in tattered clothes and covered in scrapes and cuts. He begins walking away from the crash site and as he makes his way, the cuts and scrapes begin to disappear, a nod to the emotional healing in the song.

Wallen teased the video on last month with an image that showed the singer-songwriter in bloodied clothing. He captured the clip “Interesting bye week lol.”

“I’m finally back to being who I am,” he sings in the track, which is fueled by a sense of relief from the benefits that came with ending the relationship. Wallen co-wrote “I Got Better” with HARDY, Chase McGill, Blake Pendergrass, ERNEST and Ryan Vojtesak.

Beyond releasing his new video, Wallen recently wrapped his stadium-headlining I’m The Problem Tour, and has seen his I’m The Problem album spend 12 weeks reigning atop the all-genre Billboard 200 chart. The album has earned four No. 1 hits on the Country Airplay chart so far, with “Lies Lies Lies,” “I’m The Problem,” “Love Somebody” and “Just In Case.”

Watch the “I Got Better” video below:

“Jay-Z is a funny guy.”

That’s what someone on X said regarding another tweet saying that White Christian Nationalists are going to lose it over the news that Bad Bunny was picked to perform at the Super Bowl. And of course, they were right: jokes flew, memes were made. One Bad Bunny fan page posted a screenshot of one of his performances with the closed captions saying, “speaking non-english, singing in non-english.”

Then there was the other side of the spectrum where I saw someone replying to multiple tweets referring to the Puerto Rican superstar as “Speedy Gonzalez,” the type of old-school racism that you can’t help but chuckle at when you come across it. My group chats blew up when the news was official, because about an hour prior certain music news social media accounts did their best Woj impression and spoiled the announcement with some of us not yet ready to call it, even if betting markets had Bunny as the favorite.

Conspiracy theorists and laymen alike assumed it would be Taylor Swift because of her recent engagement with Kansas City Chiefs star Travis Kelce and because of fan theories based on hints she supposedly made during her recent appearance on Kelce’s New Heights podcast.Some said it was a no-brainer to have a safer, whiter pick, especially after this string of hip-hop leaning pop stars, and especially after Kendrick Lamar’s politically charged performance during last year’s Super Bowl performance.

It’s hard not to talk politics when it comes to this pick; my conversations Sunday night when the news broke immediately went there. Jay’s relationship with the NFL has been hot and cold depending on who you talk to: He’s been heavily criticized by some because they feel like he co-opted Colin Kaepernick’s kneeling protest, backlash that led to his unfortunate “I think we have moved past kneeling” comment during a press conference announcing the deal alongside NFL commissioner Roger Goodell where the legendary rapper defended the deal.

However, in Jay’s mind, he felt like a partnership with social justice initiatives at its core made the most sense. “I think it’s time for action,” he said. “We forget that Colin’s whole thing was to bring attention to social injustice. In that case, this is a success. This is the next phase.” The NFL’s Inspire Change initiative is supposed to help address issues like education, economic advancement, criminal justice reform and community-police relations — which is a perfect segue to the decision to tap Bad Bunny for Super Bowl LX this upcoming February.

The 60th iteration of the NFL’s championship game will be taking place at Levi’s Stadium in Santa Clara, California, home of the San Franciso 49ers, and an area with a considerable Latino population. In fact, according to the county’s website, Latinos make up a quarter of Santa Clara County’s overall population, and while most might not be able to afford Super Bowl tickets in the first place, they’ll be outside partying that weekend just like everybody else. And in Trump’s America, you can damn sure bet that ICE agents will be on the ground, being the haters that they are.

This is an environment Bad Bunny wanted to avoid when he was considering dates for a tour, so instead of touring Trump’s America, he decided to do a 31-date “No Me Quiero Ir de Aquí” residency in his home country and reluctant U.S. territory Puerto Rico instead. “Man, honestly, yes,” Bunny told i-D after being asked if the way the U.S. is handling immigration had anything to do with his choice. “There were many reasons why I didn’t show up in the US, and none of them were out of hate — I’ve performed there many times. All of [the shows] have been successful. All of them have been magnificent. I’ve enjoyed connecting with Latinos who have been living in the U.S…. But there was the issue of—like, f—king ICE could be outside [my concert]. And it’s something that we were talking about and very concerned about.”

Bunny, whose homeland hasn’t truly been free since 1493, has never really been shy about his politics. Back in 2019, he paused his European tour to join protests calling for the resignation of then Puerto Rican Governor Ricardo Rosselló after Telegram messages leaked of he and some of his current and former staff making racist, sexist and homophobic remarks about various individuals and political opponents. “My respects to everyone who has had the courage, valor and initiative to go out in the streets and fight for our country,” the singer and rapper said in a since-deleted Instagram post. “I’m in Ibiza in the middle of my European tour, but I’m going to stop everything to jump on a plane to Puerto Rico to be able to go out in the streets and be with my people — the people of Puerto Rico. I wish I was there now.”

The former governor, who was eventually forced to resign, was also for statehood while Bad Bunny stands for independence — a topic that has been a point of discussion on the island, but has been especially on top-of-mind since the signing of controversial bills like the Export Services Act and the Individual Investors Act. Those helped speed up gentrification by attracting wealthy mainland investors with tax incentives and the PROMESA Act by President Obama in 2016, as well as the lackadaisical response by President Trump’s government during and after Hurricane Maria in 2017.

Bad Bunny tackled gentrification on the song “LO QUE LE PASÓ A HAWAii,” where he sings, “They want to take away the river and also the beach, they want my neighborhood and grandma to leave. Don’t let go of the flag… I don’t want them to do with you what they did to Hawaii.” 

He also told Time that most rich American transplants only care about the tax situation and could less about island’s history or culture. “Politically and historically, they know nothing about Puerto Rico, nor are they interested in knowing,” he proclaimed. “They don’t even know that Puerto Ricans on the island don’t even vote for the president, but they do know that they can go to the island to legally evade taxes. That’s something that shocked me.” In 2024, he supported Kamala Harris for president, following comedian Tony Hinchcliffe’s infamous quote about Puerto Rico being a “floating piece of garbage” at a Trump rally earlier that year.

When the news became official that he would be the headliner of this upcoming Super Bowl, the bad hombre took to X to stunt a little bit. “I’ve been thinking about it these days, and after discussing it with my team, I think I’ll do just one date in the United States,” he tweeted. In a statement, Jay said he’s been inspired by Bunny’s love of his homeland. “What Benito has done and continues to do for Puerto Rico is truly inspiring,” he said. “We are honored to have him on the world’s biggest stage.” 

Jigga has taken a lot of heat for his relationship with the NFL — and while it’s true that political statements made at a venue as corporate and compromised as some would call the Super Bowl may come across as performative, I’m also sympathetic to the idea that saying or doing something of merit on that stage has the possibility of reaching a singularly massive audience. It could be an opportunity to create a truly timeless moment — particularly from an artist like Bad Bunny, who has talked the talk and walked the walk when it comes to social issues.

Naturally, some right-wingers were up in arms about the pick. Cuban American filmmaker Robby Starbucks (sounds like a porno director) wrote some silly tweet about the NFL wanting to make the Super Bowl political with the pick. “Most of his songs aren’t even in English,” he ranted. “This is not a pick designed to unite football fans or let people just enjoy the show. It was a pick designed to divide fans, and no doubt Bad Bunny will find some way to push a woke message.”

Sports pundit and frequent vomit-spewer Jason Whitlock added his two cents with some textbook fear-mongering and told TMZ that he’s going to use whatever little influence he has to get the NFL to back away from the decision — because he feels like the Puerto Rican singer-rapper, not only makes “demonic” rap music but also “grooms kids into sexual fluidity.” Then there’s certified weirdo Jack Posobiec who suggested on X that maybe former President Obama has some influence on who gets picked, saying that Obama and Jay are besties. There were also a bunch of tweets lamenting having to watch a performance for 15 minutes that’s entirely in Spanish.

Now, I know this doesn’t mean that Bad Bunny will necessarily be making a political statement at the Super Bowl, or that Jay-Z really prioritized all of this when asking one of the more popular acts to play the prestigious Super Bowl Halftime Show, or that Trump and his goons will even have the cojones to send ICE out to Santa Clara during Super Bowl weekend. But just being aware of how all three have moved in the past, I would be willing to bet on two or more of those things happening, especially if those things happened to be Super Bowl prop bets. I’m all for political messages on world stages, but if doesn’t happen and he decides to play it straight, I’m not going to hold it against him. Yes, these gestures are often times viewed as symbolic, however, if his mere presence gets racists mad, then it’s already been a job well done. You don’t have to be fluent in Puerto Rican Spanish to enjoy his music. I’ve seen him live about four or five times now and as an American-born Puerto Rican whose Spanish isn’t the greatest, he’s unequivocally one of the best performers I’ve ever seen. His music is undeniable and it’s the reason why he’s the baddest man on the planet.

So pull up Duolingo to start brushing up on that high school Spanish, stop crying, shut up and dance. 

Over the weekend, international vocal powerhouse and visionary artist Tia Ray unveiled her newest English single “PRESSURE” across global streaming platforms, paving the way for her eagerly awaited debut English album.

An internationally recognized R&B/soul artist, Ray’s forthcoming album — developed over three years — promises to showcase her complete artistic vision with richer diversity and innovative styles.

“PRESSURE” fuses the romantic freedom of R&B with the wild, untamed energy of Afrobeats, embodying Tia Ray’s signature vibrant spirit — a free and vigorous life force that flows through love and desire, raw and unrestrained. The track opens with a provocative guitar riff, setting the stage for a fierce jungle hunt rather than a dull cat-and-mouse game. The bold declarations in the lyrics express that those who want to love give it their all.

Co-written by Ray, the single continues her collaboration with top international producers, helmed by Grammy-winning producer Khris Riddick-Tynes, known for his work with Ariana Grande and SZA. Riddick-Tynes’ production highlights the delicate sensitivity of female artistry while amplifying Ray’s uniquely free-spirited vitality.

“PRESSURE” is now available on Tencent Music Entertainment’s QQ Music, Kugou Music and Kuwo Music, as well as Apple Music, Spotify, KKBOX and other major global platforms. The track has been winning over music critics, further amplifying anticipation for what industry insiders are calling “a sophisticated Chinese urban record elevated by pristine pop production.”