Bruno Mars earns his first No. 1 on Billboard’s Hot R&B Songs chart (dated March 4) as “That’s What I Like” leaps 5-1 following a spirited performance of the track at the 59th Annual Grammy Awards, broadcast on CBS on Feb. 12.
Streaming of the track grew 59 percent to 12.4 million U. S. plays in the tracking week ending Feb. 16, according to Nielsen Music, while digital sales flew 308 percent (to 85,000 downloads). The track is also up by 22 percent to 43 million in radio airplay audience (with Mars’ hometown KDDB Honolulu, Hawaii, leading all nationwide monitored stations with 125 plays in the Feb. 13-19 tracking week).
As previously reported, Mars also takes over the Billboard Artist 100 chart, shooting from No. 4 to No. 1.
The retro-R&B single, from Mars’ latest album 24K Magic, is his first No. 1 on Hot R&B Songs (which blends streaming, sales and airplay data) and tops his prior best peak set when the LP’s title track hit No. 2 in December. The new album debuted at No. 1 on the R&B Albums chart (dated Dec. 10), his first full-length release to sonically qualify for the tally, subsequently making its tracks eligible for the nearly five-year-old Hot R&B Songs chart.
24K Magic also sees rises, due to increased sales and streams. The set hops 4-1 on Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums, returning to the summit for an eighth week since its chart-topping debut, with a 108 percent surge in album equivalent units (to 66,000). The album lifts 7-2 on the all-genre Billboard 200.
Elsewhere, “That’s What I Like” earns Mars his 14th top 10 on the Billboard Hot 100, vaulting 37-7 in the tune’s fifth charting frame. It flies 14-3 on the Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs chart, matching his career-high rank first set with “24K Magic” (among 11 total visits to the ranking).
Mars also performed Prince and the Revolution’s “Let’s Go Crazy” during a tribute to the late musician on the Grammys, spurring a 338 percent hike in sales of the original track (to 6,000), sending it back onto the R&B Digital Song Sales chart at No. 23 (following a four-week chart stay in May 2016, following Prince’s death).
The tribute coincided with Prince’s Warner Bros. Records catalog becoming widely available on streaming services for the first time. Weekly streams of “Let’s Go Crazy” topped 984,000, with 67 percent stemming from Spotify plays.
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