RIRI’S “LIFT,” SZA’S “SHIRT” UP THE ANTE

The marketplace has undoubtedly heated up recently thanks to Taylor Swift's boffo bow and the imminent drop of a Drake/21 Savage collab album. If you've felt a further disturbance in The Force of late, it might be attributable to the arrival of two exceptionally important singles—one from a superstar who’s been off the board for several years, Rihanna, and the other the biggest new track in some time from one of the decade’s true breakout artists, SZA.

Rihanna’s “Lift Me Up” (Westbury Road/Roc Nation/Def Jam/Hollywood) arrived with all due fanfare since it not only marked RiRi’s first musical offering since 2016’s ANTI but was also on the soundtrack to Disney/Marvel’s blockbuster Black Panther sequel. This pop-cultural synergy gave the RiRi moment a further “Lift”; it’s currently projected at 18-20m first-week on-demand U.S. streams, possibly challenging Taylor Swift’s “Anti-Hero” for most-streamed song of the week. As of this writing, the cut is Top 10 on Apple Music, Top 15 on Spotify global and Top 20 on the Spot U.S.

ANTI, of course, spawned a handful of giant songs, including “Work” (9.7m+ ATD U.S.), “Needed Me” (8.8m+), “Love on the Brain” (7.2m+) and “Sex With Me” (3m+). It’s done more than 5m in total U.S. activity.

SZA’s “Shirt” (TDE/RCA), meanwhile, has arrived with a bang, and now sits at #3 at Apple Music and Top 15 Spotify U.S. and Top 30 global. The first salvo from what many expect will be a new album appears on track to rack up north of 30m worldwide streams in its debut week; it notched 4m worldwide in its first 24 hours.

The R&B dynamo’s last and only album is 2017’s smash CTRL, which has done 3.8m in total U.S. activity and 5.1m ATD worldwide. It has racked up more than 7b streams.

How far will these barnstorming new cuts go? Stay tuned.