Bradley Cooper and Lady Gaga at the Oscars | Eric McCandless/ABC
Already well off its peak, Lady Gaga & Bradley Cooper’s “Shallow” endured a slight airplay decline at hot adult contemporary radio in the week leading up to Academy Awards. Following a massive decline in airplay, it had already been removed from the active Mediabase pop radio chart.
At the Academy Awards, Lady Gaga & Bradley Cooper delivered an acclaimed rendition of the single. “Shallow” subsequently won the Oscar for Best Original Song.
On the heels of that exposure, “Shallow” is posting airplay gains at both formats.
“Shallow” received 2,011 Hot AC spins during the first five days of the February 24-March 2 tracking period. The figure, which slots “Shallow” at #12 on the building/real-time Hot AC chart, reflects a mammoth 22.5% increase from the same time last week.
The song meanwhile received 430 pop spins during the aforementioned five-day window, yielding a #49 position on the building/real-time pop chart (it did receive some airplay last week, but a week-to-week comparison is not available because it was not part of the “current,” monitored chart).
Lady Gaga is no stranger to receiving increased radio support on the heels of a major TV performance. Her single “A Million Reasons” enjoyed accelerated Hot AC and pop airplay gains following her Super Bowl performance in 2017.
The difference in that case was that “A Million Reasons” was still technically rising at both formats — the exposure simply helped accelerate those gains. Here, “Shallow” actually appeared to be done at radio (and had already been removed from the pop chart) prior to the high-profile Oscars moments.
In addition to new radio support, “Shallow” enjoyed a dominant week at #1 on the US iTunes sales chart. It also posted big gains on streaming services, including Spotify.
There is no guarantee “Shallow” will be able to sustain these radio gains long enough to score new chart peaks (it was a Top 10 hit at Hot AC and a Top 20 hit at pop). There is, however, every reason to celebrate the support radio has offered this week.