In our weekly feature “THE WEEKLY,” music critic Seo Seongdeok takes stock of the biggest developments in the music industry each week. Catch up on the latest stories in music, from major artist moves to notable new releases, “Billboard” chart highlights, and more.
Jhené Aiko scores her first No. 1 album 13 years after first charting
Jhené Aiko’s fourth studio album, “Westside Whimsy,” debuted at No. 1 on the “Billboard” 200 chart for the week of September 26. “Whimsy” earned 74,000 units in its first week, 70,000 of them from 71.3 million streams, making it No. 1 in streaming as well. The album sold 3,500 units, putting it at No. 25 on the Top Album Sales chart. All of those came from digital sales, with the physical release set for next January. The album was a surprise drop, arriving three days after Aiko first talked about it on September 8.
Born in 1988, Jhené Aiko put together a debut album in her early teens but stepped away from music for a while to focus on school. When she returned to the music world in 2011, she did so with her debut mixtape, “Sailing Soul(s).” Her breakthrough arguably came in 2013, with guest spots on Big Sean’s “Beware” and Drake’s “From Time.” That same year, her EP “Sail Out” landed on the “Billboard” 200, a first for the artist. On the Hot 100, she followed her earlier hit “The Worst” with “Sativa,” “Triggered (freestyle),” “B.S.” (feat. H.E.R.) and more. Those whispery vocals and that dreamy haze are a signature vibe attached to her name.
But getting to the top took a while. Looking at her studio albums, 2014’s “Souled Out” peaked at No. 3 and 2017’s “Trip” at No. 5. “Chilombo” debuted at No. 2 in 2020 and even earned a Grammy nomination for Album of the Year, but now, with her first album in six years, she took No. 1 on the back of streaming alone, no physical album required. That’s 13 years after she first appeared on the chart in 2013. This is also part of a pattern observed in the recent achievements of female R&B artists. According to Luminate’s 2026 Midyear Report, R&B/hip hop is still the most-streamed genre in the US, but its share of the “Billboard” 200 fell from 41% in the first half of 2023 to just 30% during the same period of 2026. The genre seems to have stalled in the bigger picture, but women in R&B, meanwhile, have secured a steady stream of demand.
Last November, Summer Walker’s album “Finally Over It” debuted at No. 2 on the “Billboard” 200 with 77,000 units, the biggest debut for a female R&B singer that year and practically the same figure as “Westside Whimsy.” This year, Kehlani landed her first Hot 100 Top 10 and a No. 1 on the Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs chart with “Folded.” It’s widely seen as a decade of groundwork paying off all at once. “SOS,” SZA’s album from December 2022, hit No. 1 for a 13th time in May 2025, proof that R&B albums have real staying power. Hits don’t exist in a bubble—they’re the end result of people listening to the music day in and day out. These latest figures prove that, while the demand may not be explosive, it’s not going to flicker out.
Ella Langley breaks the Hot 100 record for most weeks at No. 1
Ella Langley’s song “Choosin’ Texas” spent a 23rd week at No. 1 on the Hot 100 chart dated September 26, setting a new record. Three weeks ago, it broke the 19-week mark held by Shaboozey’s “A Bar Song (Tipsy)” and Lil Nas X’s “Old Town Road,” and now it’s passed the 22 weeks Mariah Carey’s “All I Want for Christmas Is You” has racked up one holiday season at a time. The question now is how long the record will last and whether Carey can win it back. “Choosin’ Texas” isn’t struggling to grind out extra weeks like other long-running hits—it’s still a dominant force.
“Texas” pulled in 21.8 million streams this week, making it top of the Streaming Songs chart for a 23rd week. Streams fell 9% from the week before, but it’s still the only song above 20 million and sits millions ahead of No. 2 in streaming, KAROL G’s “BbY WOW.” It also holds a wide gap over Stella Lefty’s song “Boston,” No. 2 on the Hot 100, in all areas.
For the past several years, 20 million weekly streams has been roughly what it takes to top the Streaming Songs chart. “Texas” hasn’t dipped below that mark since February, and the only songs to beat it for No. 1 in streaming over that stretch were major new releases from Bruno Mars, Bad Bunny, Harry Styles, Olivia Rodrigo, Drake, Taylor Swift, and Morgan Wallen. That makes the biggest wild card the new songs off Taylor Swift’s “The Life of a Showgirl: The Encore,” which will show up on the chart dated October 10.
So when will “All I Want for Christmas Is You” be back? Looking at 2024/2025, the song adds four weeks at No. 1 each season, from the second week of December through the first week of January. If the same pattern holds this year, there’s 10 weeks left before the holiday hit storm lands. If “Choosin’ Texas” is No. 1 for at least four of them, Langley will still hold the record come spring.
The prediction markets are factoring in all of the above. Before Swift’s new songs were unveiled, the average forecast was 30 weeks at No. 1, but it slipped to 27 right after. For now, the consensus seems to be that “All I Want for Christmas Is You” won’t be able to take the record back. This is the first time in ages that the race to the top of the holiday charts is worth watching.
Has radio opened its doors to K-pop?
JENNIE and Tame Impala’s song “Dracula” hit No. 1 on the “Billboard” Radio Songs chart dated September 26. It’s the first No. 1 on that chart for both artists and, following “Golden” from “KPop Demon Hunters,” the first for a K-pop artist. “Dracula” also returned to its peak of No. 5 on the Hot 100 while also hitting No. 34 on the Streaming Songs chart and No. 17 on Digital Song Sales. That same week, the KATSEYE single “Animal” hit new highs at No. 36 on Radio Songs and No. 15 on the Pop Airplay chart. On the Hot 100, “Animal” sits at No. 28, closing back in on the No. 24 peak from its debut week, and it’s No. 46 on the Streaming Songs chart. All in all, airplay is what’s driving both songs up the Hot 100 right now.
Radio is what you’d call a slow medium. It takes weeks, even months, of steady airplay to make a song stick with radio listeners. It’s hard to get a song on, but on the flip side, it takes longer for popularity to wane. “Dracula” took 24 weeks to reach No. 1 after first entering the Radio Songs chart. “Animal” entered at No. 50 four weeks ago and has been inching up ever since. Unlike with streaming, where a song can blow up the same day it drops, success on the airwaves has to be built up slowly over time.
That’s put “Dracula” in its 51st week on the Hot 100, with the one-year mark right around the corner. The remix featuring JENNIE came out February 6 and jumped from No. 88 to No. 40, and the song hasn’t left the Top 10 in the 12 weeks since July. “Animal” has held on in the 30s for eight weeks since its release.
For a long time, lack of airtime was seen as a weak spot for K-pop on US charts. Some even argue that being shut out of mainstream media actually helped the genre build its own social media ecosystem. In the past year or two, though, a few songs have started to clear that hurdle. ROSÉ and Bruno Mars’ duet “APT.” reached No. 4 on Radio Songs and No. 1 on Pop Airplay. “Golden” from “KPop Demon Hunters” took the top spot on Radio Songs, a first for K-pop. When a “Billboard” interview about “APT.” raised the question of whether K-pop had become more widely embraced or the song was simply special, the answer was both.
But it’s hard to read that as a shift in K-pop’s overall status. The songs that have found success on radio share a common thread—they’re all in English, and are either a collab with a big Western name or were part of something mainstream like a movie. You still don’t really see mainly Korean-language K-pop songs near the top of the radio charts. In the end, it’s a more familiar genre now, but the criteria for what gets played on the radio hasn’t changed. Radio still demands English lyrics and something familiar-sounding enough for the general public, but K-pop artists have proven that if they fulfill those conditions, they too can reach the very top. And if KATSEYE, shaped from day one for the US market, can repeat their radio success with their next song, today’s exception could turn into the accepted path.