The cardigans have come off, and we’re back on the beach. Harry Styles surged to No. 1 on this week’s Hot 100 with “Watermelon Sugar,” a slow-burning hit that has become his first No. 1 song during its 20th week on the chart. Off Styles’s December album Fine Line, “Watermelon Sugar” jumped from No. 7 to No. 1 thanks, in part, to a July 31 behind-the-scenes video from the filming of the music video and an August 3 “lost tour visual” of the song. The release of the visual lined up perfectly with National Watermelon Day on August 3, leading to a sales boost for the song. Not only is the song Styles’s first solo No. 1, it’s also the first No. 1 song off his career. One Direction previously topping out at No. 2 with “Best Song Ever” in 2013. Styles joins fellow former 1D boy Zayn Malik, who scored a No. 1 hit for his solo debut “Pillowtalk” in 2016.
The rest of the top is more of the same. “Rockstar,” “Whats Poppin,” and “Blinding Lights” are beginning to look like permanent fixtures as the weeks go by. “Blinding Lights” especially has remained at the top of the charts thanks to radio play; this week it tied with none other than the 1998 Goo Goo Dolls hit “Iris” for most weeks at the top of Radio Songs, logging its 18th straight week at No. 1. Billie Eilish got her highest-ever debut with new song “My Future” at No. 6. And Taylor Swift had a big fall this week, with “cardigan” plummeting from No. 1 to No. 8. It is now her only song in the top ten. Next week, expect one horny summer anthem to make way for another, with an all-but-guaranteed No. 1 debut for Cardi B and Megan Thee Stallion’s “WAP.”
