Miley Cyrus’ “Flowers” Debuts At #1
Miley Cyrus hyped the hell out of her new single “Flowers,” teasing it in tandem with her New Year’s Eve special and rolling out weeks of promo. Apparently it worked. “Flowers,” the lead single from Cyrus’ upcoming album Endless Summer Vacation, has debuted at #1 on Billboard’s Hot 100, becoming her second song to top the chart after 2013’s “Wrecking Ball.”
“Flowers” is Cyrus’ 11th top-10 hit overall. Although boasting healthy radio airplay, its success is largely driven by chart-topping digital sales and record-breaking streams; the song accumulated the largest one-week stream count for any song in Spotify history. Per Billboard, “Flowers” is the 65th song to debut at #1. It’s also the first new #1 of 2023, following one week of residual Mariah Carey “All I Want For Christmas Is You” domination and two weeks of long-tail Taylor Swift “Anti-Hero” success.
Although “Anti-Hero” falls to #3 this week, the arrival of “Flowers” blocks SZA from topping the chart with “Kill Bill,” which again sits at #2. (Her album SOS has been at #1 on the Billboard 200 for six weeks.) Metro Boomin, the Weeknd, and 21 Savage’s “Creepin'” rises to a new #4 peak, followed by Sam Smith and Kim Petras’ “Unholy” at #5 and David Guetta and Bebe Rexha’s “I’m Good (Blue)” at #6. Another Weeknd song, the TikTok-excavated Starboy deep cut “Die For You,” is in at #7, with Drake and 21 Savage’s “Rich Flex” at #8.
Bizarrap and Shakira’s freestyled Gerard Pique diss track “Bzrp Music Sessions, Vol. 53,” which has become a viral sensation in the early weeks of this year, makes a big-splash #9 debut. It’s Bizarrap’s first top-10 hit and Shakira’s fifth but first since the 2007 Beyoncé duet “Beautiful Liar.” Somehow still in the top 10 at #10 is Harry Styles’ deathless “As It Was.”