“Water” by South African artist Tyla hits No. 1 on Billboard’s U.S. African music Songs chart (dated October 21), marking a significant week in the young artist’s career. The song moves up from No. 2 and breaks the record 58-week dominance of “Calm Down” by Rema and Selena Gomez, which had been at the top of the chart every week since September 10, 2022.
Gains in streaming and sales—the two factors that go into determining U.S. Afrobeats Songs—lead “Water,” which was issued on FAX Music/Epic Records, to take the top spot. According to Luminate, “Water” experienced a 29% increase in official U.S. streams during the Oct. 6–12 tracking week, reaching 8.3 million streams overall.
Apart from its popularity in streaming and sales, “Water” is also gaining traction on American radio. The single is up 64% in plays for the tracking week and is ranks 39–26 on the most recent Mainstream R&B/Hip-Hop Airplay chart. Similar to that, it soars 47-29 among the R&B/Hip-Hop Air Play chart with 2.9 million viewers, a 91% increase from the previous week. “Water” debuts at No. 38 on Rhythmic Airplay after seeing a 127% increase in plays over the previous week. Additionally, the song is getting close to the 40-position Popular Airplay criterion.
“Water” does well on several multi-metric the United States Billboard charts, particularly the most-genre Billboard Hot 100, because of the increasing tide across all measures. There, even though 22 Drake songs from the popular artist’s most recent album had arrived
“Water” is one of just two songs (together with Noah Kahan’s “Stick Season”) that have improved in position on All the Dogs, leading to many other songs to fall on the list. It is currently climbing 67-63 in the second week of being on the chart.
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