If Cardi B’s “Up” is up after the Grammys, then it’s up, then it’s up, then it’s stuck — at No. 1 on the Hot 100. The rapper’s current single finally reached the top spot of this week’s Billboard chart, riding the wave of her showstopping Grammys performance and subsequent online beef with Candace “Candy” Owens. “Up” debuted at No. 2, under Olivia Rodrigo’s runaway hit “drivers license,” and continued to come up short of No. 1 until its sixth week on the chart, when it rose from sixth place to first. It’s now Cardi’s fifth No. 1 song, and her first solo to do so since “Bodak Yellow” (recently certified diamond), which hit the top in October 2017. It extends Cardi’s reign as the woman rapper with the most No. 1 hits, and the first to log two solo No. 1’s. And while she told her fans to stream “Up” as she traded legal threats with Candy, who criticized her Grammys performance, the song actually hit No. 1 thanks to a nearly 100 percent rise in sales. Plus — a chart fact we never knew we needed — “Up” is the second-shortest title of a song to ever hit No. 1, after Britney Spears’s “3” (Cardi logged a three-letter No. 1 with “WAP” last year).
Cardi may have been the only Grammys artist to have a Twitter fight with a conservative commentator after her performance, but she’s not the only one to get a chart bump. Silk Sonic, the throwback-soul duo of Bruno Mars and Anderson .Paak, rose to No. 2 with their hit “Leave the Door Open” after debuting the song live during the Grammys. And Dua Lipa’s “Levitating” remix with DaBaby has returned to the top ten, jumping from No. 13 to No. 7 after the duo performed the song at the show. It comes on the heels of Lipa’s album Future Nostalgia, which won Best Pop Vocal Album at the awards, reaching a new high of No. 3 on yesterday’s Billboard 200. But, if you’re wondering, not everyone needed the Grammys — the Weeknd is sitting pretty at Nos. 5 and 6 on this week’s chart with “Save Your Tears” and record-setter “Blinding Lights,” respectively.
