Week of June 26, 2021 - Olivia Rodrigo (4)

Just one announcement this week: the Weekend Countdown Olympics will be shortened to only 5 events, as I'll be away for the majority of July and I really just don't have the motivation to do 10. Anyways, this week's Countdown was pretty good. I have a lot of new songs to talk about, and I'd say that that makes up for the lack of movement on the actual chart. Here are our five exits for this week.

Songs We're Saying Goodbye To

Your Power - Billie Eilish (#29) [#16] {7 weeks}

By Your Side - Calvin Harris/Tom Grennan (#28) [#28] {2 weeks}

Mr. Perfectly Fine (Taylor's Version) - Taylor Swift (#25) [2 weeks at #1] {10 weeks}

We're Good - Dua Lipa (#15) [2 weeks at #1] {18 weeks}

forget me too - Machine Gun Kelly/Halsey (#14) [#3] {17 weeks} [x2]

Last Week's #1: good 4 u - Olivia Rodrigo (3)

#30: RAPSTAR - Polo G (DEBUT) [6 weeks in Hit-Bound] {1 week}

#29: la di die - Nessa Barrett/jxdn (RE-ENTRY) [#29] {2 weeks} *new peak*

#28: Jalebi Baby - Tesher/Jason Derulo (+2) [#28] {2 weeks} *new peak*

#27: Cloudy Day - Tones And I (DEBUT) [1 week in Hit-Bound] {1 week}

#26: Peaches - Justin Bieber/Daniel Caesar/Giveon (+1) [#16] {14 weeks}

#25: telepatía - Kali Uchis (+1) [#24] {4 weeks}

#24: A-O-K - Tai Verdes (-) [#24] {3 weeks}

#23: working - Tate McRae/Khalid (DEBUT) [0 weeks in Hit-Bound] {1 week}

#22: Lil Bit - Nelly/Florida Georgia Line (RE-ENTRY) [#22] {5 weeks} *new peak*

#21: Build a B**** - Bella Poarch (+1) [#21] {5 weeks} *new peak*

#20: 90s Kids - Jax (+1) [#20] {6 weeks} *new peak*

#19: Best Friend - Saweetie/Doja Cat (-1) [#14] {7 weeks}

#18: Wave of You - Surfaces (-2) [#16] {9 weeks}

#17: You - Regard/Troye Sivan/Tate McRae (+3) [#17] {10 weeks} *new peak*

#16: Shy Away - Twenty One Pilots (-4) [#12] {11 weeks}

#15: Butter - BTS (+8) [#15] {5 weeks} *new peak*

#14: Our Song - Anne-Marie/Niall Horan (-1) [#11] {4 weeks}

#13: Heat Waves - Glass Animals (-7) [#6] {22 weeks}

#12: Astronaut In The Ocean - Masked Wolf (-1) [#9] {16 weeks}

#11: Beautiful Mistakes - Maroon 5/Megan Thee Stallion (+8) [#11] {15 weeks}

#10: Leave The Door Open - Silk Sonic (-1) [#7] {16 weeks}

#9: Follow You - Imagine Dragons (+1) [#9] {9 weeks}

#8: Leave Before You Love Me - Marshmello/Jonas Brothers (+9) [#8] {5 weeks} *new peak*

#7: WITHOUT YOU - The Kid LAROI (-) [#7] {21 weeks}

#6: deja vu - Olivia Rodrigo (-2) [1 week at #1] {11 weeks}

#5: pov - Ariana Grande (-) [#4] {13 weeks}

#4: MONTERO (Call Me By Your Name) - Lil Nas X (-2) [#2] {12 weeks}

#3: Way Less Sad - AJR (+5) [#3] {18 weeks} *new peak*

#2: Kiss Me More - Doja Cat/SZA (+1) [#2] {11 weeks} *new peak*

#1: good 4 u - Olivia Rodrigo (-) [4th week at #1] {5 weeks}

Last Year's #1: Watermelon Sugar - Harry Styles [1/7 weeks at #1]

Countdown Extra: Fine Apple - Nic D

So, along with our three debuts this week, two songs return to the the Countdown: la di die at #29 and Lil Bit at #22. I'm decently happy to see la di die back, and I hope it can stick around for a bit longer this time, and I'm very disappointed that Lil Bit found its way back.

Surprisingly, just one week after returning to Hit-Bound, RAPSTAR by Polo G debuts at #30. I'm honestly quite glad that this is here and I'm unsure why it left Hit-Bound in the first place. Polo G has some pretty great flow here and I really like how his voice sounds throughout the song. The hook's pretty catchy, and while the guitar line gets repetitive pretty quickly, the rest of the production is pretty solid. This is a good rap song, and I'm glad it managed to cross over. I hope it sticks around for a bit.

For whatever reason, Tones And I's new song, Cloudy Day debuted after just one week in Hit-Bound at #27. It now makes it her third Countdown song, and I would place it second. Better than Fly Away, but nowhere near as good as Dance Monkey. Honestly, my main issue with this song is that it's not memorable whatsoever. The verses aren't ridiculously interesting, and while the chorus is kind of catchy, it's really not enough for the song to stick out among the hits right now.

I was originally going to review this last debut a couple weeks ago for the New Music Friday post, but that post never ended up coming out, so I'm reviewing it for the first time today. It's working by Tate McRae and Khalid. This is definitely Tate McRae's best song where she's the lead artist so far. Her and Khalid's voices mix quite well together and while the verses aren't very memorable at all, the chorus is quite good. The production is pretty good and the song stays upbeat enough for me to be interesting in it throughout the entire thing. Overall, this is a solid little song that I'd be fine with becoming a hit.

Best Debut: RAPSTAR - Polo G

Biggest Drop: Heat Waves - Glass Animals (-7): Okay, good. I'm starting to get a little tired of this song, so I'm happy that it's starting to drop.

Biggest Jump: Leave Before You Love - Marshmello/Jonas Brothers (+9): What? Why is this at #8? I don't mind the song, but it's definitely not that big of a hit and it doesn't need to be that high.

Countdown Ranking

0 - Awful:

#30: Peaches - Justin Bieber/Daniel Caesar/Giveon

#29: Build a B**** - Bella Poarch

1 - Bad:

#28: Lil Bit - Nelly/Florida Georgia Line

#27: A-O-K - Tai Verdes

2 - Mediocre:

#26: telepatía - Kali Uchis

#25: Best Friend - Saweetie/Doja Cat

#24: You - Regard/Troye Sivan/Tate McRae

#23: deja vu - Olivia Rodrigo

3 - Decent:

#22: Kiss Me More - Doja Cat/SZA

#21: Leave The Door Open - Silk Sonic

#20: Cloudy Day - Tones And I

#19: Jalebi Baby - Tesher/Jason Derulo

#18: Heat Waves - Glass Animals

#17: la di die - Nessa Barrett/jxdn

4 - Good:

#16: working - Tate McRae/Khalid

#15: 90s Kids - Jax

#14: Leave Before You Love Me - Marshmello/Jonas Brothers

#13: MONTERO (Call Me By Your Name) - Lil Nas X

5 - Great:

#12: WITHOUT YOU - The Kid LAROI

#11: Beautiful Mistakes - Maroon 5/Megan Thee Stallion

#10: Wave of You - Surfaces

#9: RAPSTAR - Polo G

#8: Butter - BTS

#7: Our Song - Anne-Marie/Niall Horan

#6: pov - Ariana Grande

#5: Astronaut In The Ocean - Masked Wolf

#4: Shy Away - Twenty One Pilots

#3: Way Less Sad - AJR

#2: Follow You - Imagine Dragons

#1: good 4 u - Olivia Rodrigo

Overall Score: 104/150 = 69%

5 Oldest Songs

#5: Beautiful Mistakes - Maroon 5/Megan Thee Stallion {15 weeks}
#4: Astronaut In The Ocean - Masked Wolf & Leave The Door Open - Silk Sonic {16 weeks}
#3: Way Less Sad - AJR {18 weeks}
#2: WITHOUT YOU - The Kid LAROI {21 weeks}
#1: Heat Waves - Glass Animals {22 weeks}

#1 Recommendation for Hits 1: IT'S OK - Nightbirde

My Favourite Song Last Year: ROCKSTAR - DaBaby/Roddy Ricch

My Least Favourite Song Last Year: death bed (coffee for your head) - Powfu/beabadoobee

Most Missed Countdown Song: Skyfall - Adele

Hit-Bound

Late At Night - Roddy Ricch [1]

t r a n s p a r e n t s o u l - WILLOW/Travis Barker [1]

I DID IT - DJ Khaled/Post Malone/DaBaby/Megan Thee Stallion/Lil Baby [6]

All My Favorite Songs - Weezer/AJR [1]

Friday (Re-Edit) - Riton/Nightcrawlers/Mufasa & Hypeman/Dopamine [2]

JUST LIKE YOU - NF [1]

Fine Apple - Nic D [1]

Good Without - Mimi Webb [12]

You Right - Doja Cat/The Weeknd [1]

Lost Cause - Billie Eilish [4]

Heartbreak Anniversary - Giveon [12]

Solar Power - Lorde [1]

Higher Power - Coldplay [6; 2nd time*]

Girl From Rio - Anitta [9]

Track Star - Mooski [7]

We got seven Hit-Bound debuts this week, with the first being Roddy Ricch's third song to grace the ears of Hits 1 listeners. His newest, Late At Night debuts on Hit-Bound this week. While I don't think this is as good as The Box or ROCKSTAR, it's definitely grown on me since I first reviewed it. I've always loved Roddy's voice, and that doesn't change in the slightest here. He sounds great, especially in the verses, and the beat compliments his voice well. The hook isn't his strongest, but I still like it. I hope this can manage to become a hit for him.

Up next is Willow Smith, who now just goes by WILLOW. She returns with Travis Barker on her new song, t r a n s p a r e n t s o u l (that's really hard to type out, and I'm sure it'll get annoying really quickly). Anyways, this is a pop-punk song, and while I've always liked pop-rock-sounding songs, this isn't doing it for me. I don't like WILLOW's voice, especially in the chorus, and the chorus as a whole is very annoying. The instrumentation and the verses aren't bad, but they're not nearly enough to save this song. I hope this doesn't become a hit.

Very surprisingly, Hits 1 actually listened to me and picked up my recommendation from the past couple of weeks, All My Favorite Songs by Weezer and AJR! Recently, I took a dive into AJR's discography, so I got a lot more familiar with this remix, and it grew on me a lot. Weezer and AJR have previously collaborated on Sober Up, which was one of my favourite songs from 2018 by the way, and I'm very glad that they collaborated again, because Rivers Cuomo and Jack Met's voices work really well together. I really enjoy the chorus with the AJR-ified production, and both verses are fantastic. I doubt this'll be a hit, but with AJR's recent rise in popularity, who knows? It could be.

NF gets his fourth song on Hits 1 this week with his newest single, JUST LIKE YOU. I've liked all of NF's singles so far, and this is no exception. Personally, I think that this is his weakest hook of the singles so far, but I really liked the verses mixed with the darker production. It's clear that this song wasn't predominantly geared to be a pop radio hit, but I'm honestly really happy that it is. He starts rapping quite fast in the second verse and it sounds really good, even if I haven't managed to decipher the lyrics yet. This song's also over four minutes long, which I really appreciate. I'm not too fond of the trend of every song being 2:30.

Apparently this next song is another TikTok song, Fine Apple by Nic D. I don't really like this song. It suffers from a lot of the same problems as A-O-K does. I don't like Nic D's voice and while the chorus is fun, it's slightly annoying. The production here also gets pretty repetitive and annoying. I'd rather not have this become a hit.

Doja Cat and The Weeknd's collaboration from Doja's new album, Planet Her, You Right, also debuts this week. This song's... fine. It's definitely better than Need To Know, which is good, but it's also kind of slow, and while both Doja and Abel sound great here, I'm just not interested in the song whatsoever. Again, the production's fine and all, and the chorus is decently catchy, but this song is just pretty boring.

Lorde scores her first song on Hits 1 since 2017's Green Light with her brand new single, Solar Power. I've already talked about this song, and my opinion really hasn't changed that much. I still find the first two minutes of the song pretty boring, but Lorde sounds good, and the melody's still interesting. Once the song picks up though, it gets a lot better, and kind of like it. But, the first chunk still exists, and it makes the song feel a lot longer than it actually is. Overall, this balances out to be a decent song, but I don't really see it becoming a hit.

For whatever reason, they switched back to the originals of both Girl From Rio and Track Star. Both versions are worse, so I'm not too thrilled about that.

We lost three Hit-Bound songs this week, Need To Know, u love u and THINK ABOUT ME. I didn't expect Need To Know to debut, and You Right is slightly better anyways, so I don't care that it's gone, and both u love u and THINK ABOUT ME left way too soon.

Best Hit-Bound Debut: All My Favorite Songs - Weezer/AJR

Hit-Bound Ranking

0 - Awful:

#15: Lost Cause - Billie Eilish

1 - Bad:

#14: Fine Apple - Nic D

2 - Mediocre:

#13: t r a n s p a r e n t s o u l - WILLOW/Travis Barker

#12: Heartbreak Anniversary - Giveon

3 - Decent:

#11: Solar Power - Lorde

#10: You Right - Doja Cat/The Weeknd

#9: Track Star - Mooski

#8: Girl From Rio - Anitta

4 - Good:

#7: Higher Power - Coldplay

#6: Late At Night - Roddy Ricch

5 - Great:

#5: JUST LIKE YOU - NF

#4: Good Without - Mimi Webb

#3: Friday (Re-Edit) - Riton/Nightcrawlers/Mufasa & Hypeman/Dopamine

#2: All My Favorite Songs - Weezer/AJR

#1: I DID IT - DJ Khaled/Post Malone/DaBaby/Megan Thee Stallion/Lil Baby

Overall Score: 50/75 = 67%

Find the Sun on a Blurb-y Day

We lost five Countdown songs this week, Your Power, By Your Side, Mr. Perfectly Fine, We're Good and forget me too. Your Power was really bad and I'm very glad that the general public realized that it wasn't a radio song. By Your Side was very forgettable, so I don't care whatsoever that it only lasted two weeks before leaving permanently. As for the other three, they were all good, and I'm satisfied with the amount of success that they got here.

Ugh, Peaches needs to go away. I get that it's still a big hit everywhere else, and it would make sense for it to stick around for a while, but when has Hits 1 ever made sense?

So, 90s Kids isn't the One to Watch anymore, but it's still here and gaining, which is always a good sign.

Um... why is You becoming a hit? I guess I'm not exactly complaining, because I don't dislike the song, but I think I'd still rather have it not become a hit.

Shy Away left the top 15, which makes me really sad. It deserved to be a bigger hit than Level of Concern.

Butter made a big eight-spot gain into the upper half of the Countdown this week, which is good. I'd like to see this become a hit here.

Hunh. Our Song is underperforming here for 1D standards. But, it's happened before that a song by 1D has had a slow start before hitting #1 for multiple weeks... *cough*our #1 from last year*cough*.

Beautiful Mistakes also made a big eight-spot gain to return to #11. Yeah, I guess I'm okay with this. I'd be fine if it stuck around for a bit.

When is Follow You gonna move past #9? I thought Hits 1 liked Imagine Dragons. *sighs*

Looks like MONTERO lost its shot at #1, as it drops to #4 this week. I'm kind of sad that it didn't end up hitting #1, because it would've been nice to have a black rapper at the top spot again (Flo Rida, Wiz Khalifa and Juice WRLD are the only ones to have been the lead artist, Future and DaBaby have had features at the top spot) but it's fine.

Oh! Hunh. I guess it was a good week for AJR. Way Less Sad jumped up to #3 this week! It now ties Bang!'s peak. I really hope that it can manage to hit #1 after good 4 u is done.

Kiss Me More is up to #2 this week. This song's starting to get kind of annoying, so I'd prefer if it didn't hit #1, but it'd be okay if it did.

How Hits 1 Songs Are Doing on the Hot 100

#1: Butter - BTS

#2: good 4 u - Olivia Rodrigo

#3: Levitating - Dua Lipa/DaBaby

#4: Kiss Me More - Doja Cat/SZA

#5: Peaches - Justin Bieber/Daniel Caesar/Giveon

#6: Leave The Door Open - Silk Sonic

#7: Save Your Tears (Remix) - The Weeknd/Ariana Grande

#8: Astronaut In The Ocean - Masked Wolf

#9: MONTERO (Call Me By Your Name) - Lil Nas X

#10: deja vu - Olivia Rodrigo

#11: RAPSTAR - Polo G

#13: WITHOUT YOU - The Kid LAROI

#14: Beautiful Mistakes - Maroon 5/Megan Thee Stallion

#17: Blinding Lights - The Weeknd

#19: drivers license - Olivia Rodrigo

#20: Best Friend - Saweetie/Doja Cat

#21: Heat Waves - Glass Animals

#22: Heartbreak Anniversary - Giveon

#29: Calling My Phone - Lil Tjay/6LACK

#30: telepatía - Kali Uchis

#31: Mood - 24kGoldn/iann dior

#33: pov - Ariana Grande

#35: Late At Night - Roddy Ricch

#36: my ex's best friend - Machine Gun Kelly/blackbear

#37: Lil Bit - Nelly/Florida Georgia Line

#38: Need To Know - Doja Cat

#41: What You Know Bout Love - Pop Smoke

#42: Up - Cardi B

#51: Track Star - Mooski

#58: Leave Before You Love Me - Marshmello/Jonas Brothers

#64: Solar Power - Lorde

#67: Build a B**** - Bella Poarch

#68: Way Less Sad - AJR

#74: Arcade - Duncan Laurence

#77: Lost Cause - Billie Eilish

#87: t r a n s p a r e n t s o u l - WILLOW/Travis Barker

#96: Follow You - Imagine Dragons

#100: You - Regard/Troye Sivan/Tate McRae

Top 10 on the Hunger Games Countdown

#10: Mr. Perfectly Fine (Taylor's Version) - Taylor Swift

#9: You - Regard/Troye Sivan/Tate McRae

#8: Kiss Me More - Doja Cat/SZA

#7: Bummerland - AJR

#6: Sacrifice - Bebe Rexha

#5: positions - Ariana Grande

#4: In The Morning - Jennifer Lopez

#3: telepatía - Kali Uchis

#2: MONTERO (Call Me By Your Name) - Lil Nas X

#1: Our Song - Anne-Marie/Niall Horan

Top 10 If the Countdown Made Sense

#10: Beautiful Mistakes - Maroon 5/Megan Thee Stallion

#9: Best Friend - Saweetie/Doja Cat

#8: deja vu - Olivia Rodrigo

#7: Leave The Door Open - Silk Sonic

#6: Astronaut In The Ocean - Masked Wolf

#5: good 4 u - Olivia Rodrigo

#4: WITHOUT YOU - The Kid LAROI

#3: MONTERO (Call Me By Your Name) - Lil Nas X

#2: pov - Ariana Grande

#1: Kiss Me More - Doja Cat/SZA

Kwaheri, everybody! See you all in the next one.