Ariana Grande and The Weeknd perform "Love Me Harder"
Playing a game of quantity at one format and quality at another, Ariana Grande and The Weeknd’s “Love Me Harder” had a very interesting week at radio.
Hot on the heels of its high-profile “Saturday Night Live” exposure, “Love Me Harder” ties Kid Ink’s “Body Language (featuring Usher and Tinashe)” as the week’s second-most-added track at rhythmic radio.
According to Mediabase, the two songs each garnered 23 monitored adds this week. Only Kendrick Lamar’s “i,” which is already up to #22 on the format’s rolling airplay chart, received more support this week. It launched at 24 new stations.
Other popular choices for rhythmic programmers were Fergie’s “LA LOVE (la la),” which commanded 19 adds, and Big Sean’s “I Don’t Fuck With You (featuring E40),” which scored 15.
“Love Me Harder” encountered a vastly different scenario at pop.
From a numerical standpoint, it was not even one of pop radio’s thirty most-added songs this week.
The two adds it did receive, however, are two of the most important a pop song can receive. Per Mediabase, “Love Me Harder” was added by New York’s powerhouse Z100 and Los Angeles’ influential 97.1 AMP.
On their own, the two stations will not be able to send “Love Me Harder” soaring up any spin-based airplay chart. They can, however, expose the song to a sizable audience.