Lola Young’s “Messy” makes a clean sweep across three Billboard airplay charts, tying a regal hit from more than a decade earlier for a rare achievement.
“Messy” rises two places to No. 1 on Billboard’s Adult Pop Airplay chart (dated May 24). The song tops a third individual-format radio ranking, after it led Pop Airplay a week earlier and Alternative Airplay for a week in April.
“Messy,” released on Day One/Island Records and promoted to radio by Republic, becomes just the second song by a solo woman in a lead role to have hit No. 1 on Pop Airplay, Adult Pop Airplay and Alternative Airplay over the nearly 30 years that the lists have coexisted. Lorde’s “Royals” (on Republic) commanded those charts for one, three and seven weeks, respectively, in 2013. The hits marked the debut entries on the surveys for each artist.
(The Adult Pop Airplay chart ranks songs by weekly plays on 80 mainstream top 40 radio stations monitored by Mediabase, with data provided to Billboard by Luminate.)
Meanwhile, both Young and Lorde are aiming to add to their radio chart résumés. Lorde’s latest single, “What Was That,” jumps 23-18 on Alternative Airplay and 31-27 on Adult Alternative Airplay. Young released “Messy” follow-up “One Thing” today (May 16).
“What I’m realizing about myself as an artist is that I’m not about the glitz and the glam — I don’t scream ‘Hollywood’,” Young told Billboard late last year. “For a long time, I wanted to represent this ideal of Westernized beauty — but then I realized I’m not that. I now choose to give realness and truth. I’ve got a bit of a belly out, I f–ing swear a bunch and I have fun. And that’s what people are resonating with.”
All charts dated May 24 will update on Billboard.com Tuesday, May 20.
