BTS has reigned supreme ever since the chart started last October, until now.
For the first time since the chart debuted two months ago, a new name appears on the top of the Billboard Hot Trending Songs chart: P-Pop group SB19, who soared to the top of the rankings and dethroned K-Pop superstars BTS.
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SB19 leaped from #8 to the #1 spot with their hit song “Bazinga” during the chart’s 7th week after garnering over 1.5 million Twitter interactions across the tracking week from November 26 to December 2. This is the first time that SB19 clinched the top spot in any Billboard charts.
The latest buzz around “Bazinga” comes after the group’s performance of the song last November 29 at the Philippine Association of the Record Industry’s 34th Awit Awards. The band was nominated in four categories in the awards show and brought home the “People’s Voice Favorite Song” for their track “Hanggang sa Muli.”
Meanwhile, after what seemed like an iron-tight grip on the top spot during the chart’s first six weeks, BTS slid down to the second spot. In the first six iterations of the chart, they have secured the top spot with a couple of songs: first, they inaugurated the list with “Permission To Dance,” peaking at 1.1 Twitter interactions. It was then replaced by “Butter” come October and has stood at the top until this week.
On social media, SB19 thanked their fans who made the feat possible, quoting a line from the chart-topping song.
Released last October, “Bazinga” has since garnered over 2.6 million views on YouTube. It first entered the chart during the first week of November, debuting at the 15th spot.
Introduced last October, Billboard’s Hot Trending Songs charts track global music-related trends and conversations in real-time across Twitter, viewable over either the last 24 hours or the past seven days. The newest chart sets itself apart by ranking what songs people are talking about, not necessarily what they’re listening to.
Since its inception, the chart has been dominated almost entirely by Asian acts, as proven by its most recent iteration which also includes K-Pop group Stray Kids, Kazakh singer Dimash Kudaibergen, Thai idol Mew Suppasit, J-Pop seven-piece BE:FIRST, and Kai from the South Korean group Exo.
Art Daniella Sison
