Following the festivities of the Biden-Harris inauguration on Jan. 20, “Better Days” — a duet by Justin Timberlake and Ant Clemons, which was released to streaming services featuring Kirk Franklin — has topped the record for most-Shazamed song in a single day in the United States.
“Better Days” was performed by Timberlake and Clemons during the Celebrating America primetime inaugural special honoring President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris.
According to stats released by Shazam, the song was Shazamed more than 90,000 times within 24 hours of the performance, bringing it to No. 1 on the U.S. Shazam chart and breaking previous records held by “Have You Ever Seen the Rain” by Willie Nelson (heard on Big Little Lies) and “Jenny of Oldstones” by Florence + the Machine (heard on Game of Thrones).
As Billboard previously reported, on the sales front, “Better Days” also saw immediate gains after Wednesday’s inauguration programming. On Jan. 20, the song sold 13,000 downloads, a gain of 15,351% compared to its sales on Jan. 19.
Earlier in the week, Timberlake said he and Clemons had been “deeply honored to perform our new song” for the event “as a celebration of everything this administration represents… as well as a reminder to keep our eyes on the road ahead. We have a lot of work to do, but I’m feeling very hopeful for this country right now.”
