It takes considerable confidence to refer to a single release as the “musical event of the year.”
Pop radio’s initial reception to Jessie J + Ariana Grande + Nicki Minaj’s “Bang Bang” will not make label Republic Records regret its bold choice of words.
According to Mediabase, “Bang Bang” exploded with a whopping 73 pop radio pickups to rank as the format’s most-added track this week. It earned that same distinction at rhythmic radio, where it scored 26 (25 monitored) adds.
Despite having a very impressive week in its own right, 5 Seconds of Summer’s runner-up “Amnesia” was distantly behind “Bang Bang” with 41 pop adds.
Meghan Trainor’s buzzworthy “All About That Bass,” which is now second only to “Bang Bang” on iTunes, followed with a healthy 34 adds. Influential Los Angeles pop station KIIS 102.7 was one of the 34 to officially add the empowerment track this week.
Ed Sheeran’s “Don’t” and Jeremih’s “Don’t Tell ’em (featuring YG)” followed in fourth and fifth place with 30 adds and 20 adds, respectively. The latter, which is crossing over from urban and rhythm radio, is able to include New York City’s powerhouse Z100 in that list of 20.
Enrique Iglesias’ surging “Bailando (featuring Descemer Bueno, Sean Paul and Gente de Zona)” landed at 19 more stations this week to tie Pitbull’s “Fireball (featuring John Ryan)” as sixth-most-added. Among the nineteen to support the latter, which is new to the format, were LA’s KIIS 102.7 and 97.1 AMP, New York’s 103.5 KTU and Chicago’s B96.
Ariana Grande’s “Break Free (featuring Zedd)” and The 1975’s “Girls” tied as eighth-most-added with 17 pickups each. Kiesza’s “Hideaway” landed in tenth with 12 adds.
While Shawn Mendes’ debut EP is performing decently, his single “Life of the Party” did not garner an electric reception at radio. The newly-impacting track scored only 8 adds this week.
Duke Dumont’s “I Got U (featuring Jax Jones)” also landed at 8 stations in conjunction with its official impact.
Since Mediabase only includes data from monitored reporters in its airplay chart, it is worth looking at how songs fared with those specific stations this week:
1) Jessie J, Ariana Grande, Nicki Minaj – Bang Bang – 72 monitored adds
2) 5 Seconds of Summer – Amnesia – 37 monitored adds
3) Meghan Trainor – All About That Bass – 32 monitored adds
4) Ed Sheeran – Don’t – 25 monitored adds
5) Jeremih – Don’t Tell ’em featuring YG – 19 monitored adds
6) Enrique Iglesias – Bailando featuring Descemer Bueno, Sean Paul and Gente de Zona – 17 monitored adds
7) Pitbull – Fireball featuring John Ryan – 16 monitored adds
7) The 1975 – Girls – 16 monitored adds
9) Ariana Grande – Break Free featuring Zedd – 13 monitored adds
10) Kiesza – Hideaway – 12 monitored adds