A look at notable achievements from January through June.
It’s, of course, always a good time to celebrate chart achievements. But with today being July 1, it’s especially fitting to spotlight feats from the first six months of this year.
Here’s a look at 11 honors tallied on Billboard‘s charts over the first half of 2022 (with many more surely ahead with new music set for the year’s second half from Beyoncé, Lizzo and other stars).
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Mirabel’s powers, and those of the rest of the Family Madrigal and more, helped spark Encanto‘s breakout hit “We Don’t Talk About Bruno” to a five-week Billboard Hot 100 command, from the charts dated Feb. 5 through March 5. The song became the first Hot 100 No. 1 released on Walt Disney Records; the first for its sole writer, Lin-Manuel Miranda; and the third – and longest leading – from a Disney film, after Bryan Adams, Rod Stewart and Sting’s “All for Love,” from The Three Musketeers (three weeks at No. 1, 1994), and Peabo Bryson and Regina Belle’s “A Whole New World,” from Aladdin (one week, 1993).
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“Bruno” also boasts the most credited acts — seven — ever on a Hot 100 No. 1: Carolina Gaitán, Mauro Castillo, Adassa, Rhenzy Feliz, Diane Guerrero, Stephanie Beatriz, and the Encanto Cast (all singing as the characters that they voice in the movie).
“My job is to raise my hand and let [the] room of animators and incredibly creative people know what music can do,” Miranda marveled to Billboard upon the song’s chart success. “Your job as the musical dramatist is to sort of say, ‘Here’s where I think music can elevate and help tell our story.’ “
The group’s “Heat Waves” completed a record 59-week climb to No. 1 on the Hot 100 (dated March 12). It led the Alternative Airplay chart nearly a year earlier and drew subsequent buzz via interaction on TikTok. “And that’s the most incredible thing,” the band’s Dave Bayley told Billboard. “That’s, like, the highest praise, as someone who’s written something, that you can possibly ask for: for someone to create something back.”
Adele’s multi-format smash ballad “Easy on Me” topped the Radio Songs chart for 15 weeks (through the chart dated March 12) – her longest career reign among five No. 1s, besting the 11-week dominance of “Hello” in 2015-16.
“Cold Heart (Pnau Remix),” with Dua Lipa, a mashup of four John classics, returned the legend to the Hot 100’s top 10 in January and spent its most recent week in the tier on the chart dated March 12. That week, John expanded his span of top 10s to 51 years, one month and two weeks, dating to his first frame in the top 10 with “Your Song” in 1971 – the longest such span among all acts not involving holiday titles. The collab also became John’s record-extending 18th Adult Contemporary No. 1.
The singer-songwriter’s Dangerous: The Double Album spent its 51st week atop Billboard‘s Top Country Albums chart (dated April 2), a new high-water mark at No. 1 since the list began in 1964. (The release is up to 63 weeks at the summit and counting.) The set surpassed the twin 50-week reigns of Luke Combs’ This One’s for You (2017-19) and Shania Twain’s Come On Over (1997-2000).
The sibling trio’s “Soy El Unico” bounded onto the April 9 Hot 100 at its No. 20 peak, becoming the highest-charting regional Mexican song in the chart’s history.
The act comprises Yahritza Martinez (vocals, guitar) and her older brothers Armando (4-string acoustic bass) and Jairo (12-string guitar), with their older sister Adriana serving as their manager. When the band members began performing on camera as the song surged, “They did everything so naturally that I had no idea they had this in them,” Adriana mused to Billboard. “I was so emotional watching them … because that’s my little sister. I was blown away.”
“Stay”-ing power: The pair’s “Stay” spent its first 43 weeks on the Hot 100, including seven at No. 1, in the top 10 (through the chart dated May 14) – a record for the most time logged in the top 10 consecutively from a song’s debut.
With the launch of Un Verano Sin Ti atop the May 21-dated Billboard 200, Bad Bunny became the first artist with as many as two entirely non-English-language leaders on the list. His El Ultimo Tour Del Mundo ruled for a week in December 2020. (Only one other album fully in a language other than English has topped the chart: The Singing Nun’s self-titled set, for 10 weeks in 1963-64.)
Styles’ third LP, Harry’s House, opened with 521,000 equivalent album units earned, according to Luminate, on the Billboard 200 chart dated June 4 – his top career week and the biggest weekly total for an album this year. A week earlier, Kendrick Lamar set 2022’s top mark to that point, when Mr. Morale & The Big Steppers soared in with 295,000 units.
Meanwhile, Harry’s House lead single “As It Was” has crowned the Hot 100 for seven weeks and sparked Styles’ first appearance on Alternative Airplay.
Bush’s 1985 anthem “Running Up That Hill (A Deal With God)” blasted back onto the Hot 100 at No. 8 (June 11) and rose to its No. 4 high a week later, powered by its sync in the fourth season of Netflix’s Stranger Things. Having originally charted, reaching No. 30 in 1985, the song wrapped the longest run to the Hot 100’s top five in terms of time from a debut on the ranking to the top five – 36 years, nine months and two weeks – for a non-holiday hit in the list’s history.
Bush beamed, “‘Running Up That Hill’ is being given a whole new lease of life by the young fans who love the show — I love it, too!”
The South Korean superstars scored their sixth Billboard 200 No. 1 with the premiere of Proof on the June 25 chart. It launched with 314,000 equivalent album units – the biggest week for an album by a group this year.
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